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Weight reduction in cars and other applications is driving use of innovative technologies such as glass microspheres in plastic compounds. Noble Polymers, a compounding business of Cascade Engineering, has developed a low-density polyolefin formulation using 3M glass bubbles that reduces the weight of TPO plastic parts up to 20 percent. A part on display at the 3M booth at this week’s National Plastics Exposition in Chicago incorporates glass bubbles (10 percent loading) to reduce weight of a seat frame from 2.25 pounds to 2.05 pounds. The glass bubbles replaced talc, and weight reduction wasn’t the only benefit. “We increased the flow of the compound by using specialty additives with the glass microspheres,” says Tim Patterson, business unit manager of Noble Polymers, Grand Rapids. MI. As a result, the mold cavity filled better for the complex design. The glass bubbles improve dimensional stability, reduce density and cut back on warpage, according to Louis J. Lundberg, business manager for transportation markets for the 3M Energy and Advanced Materials Division, St. Paul, MN. 3M announced a new line that has isostatic crush strength of 30,000 psi, expanding applications in several engineering plastics. These microspheres are 40 percent stronger than 3M’s previous leading high-strength glass microspheres and, at 17 microns, are approximately half their size. 3M Performance Additive iM30K has a density of 0.6 g/cc.
Major changes are happening in the world of 3D printing and additive manufacturing materials, machines, and software. If the industry -- and the design engineers and OEMs it serves -- are to grow, all three areas must become much more tightly integrated.
The FDA has just released draft guidelines for using 3D printing in the design, development, and manufacture of regulated medical products. Although the recommendations are non-binding, they do set some much-needed parameters.
HP's industry-changing 3D printing announcement for commercial-scale end-production wasn't the only news of note at RAPID 2016 this week. Here are six more game-changing software and hardware news items, plus some videos explaining HP's technology.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.


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Freight forwarding — the process of organising how and where product will be shipped around the world, and furthermore specifically the technology of the fact that underpins that work — continues to be a huge area of the logistics marketplace, not least because of the larger boom in e-commerce in the last year, and because of the Covid-19-mandated really should try to simply be more efficient in the manner in which things are being moved all around. Today, one of the bigger pros in that space is saying more funding to benefit on the opportunity.
Sennder , actually freight forwarder that concerns moving cargo around European continent (and specifically focusing on pickups and “full truck load”, FTL, freight forwarding), provides raised $80 million back in funding, at a valuation that company confirms is now far more $1 billion.
Some of the Berlin-based startup has been available on something of a funding rip this year. In January, this can announced a $160 million very big round, and this $80 million is in fact closing out its Collections D. Baillie Gifford leads this latest Series And extension, with Hedosophia, Accel, Lakestar, HV Capital, Venture A and Scania the whole participating in the previous part of the Collection of D.
The funding assists Sennder, which has now increased some $350 million, a well-funded of the freight forwarders, but it’s a hot marketplace at the moment. Another player beyond Europe, Zencargo, picked up $42 thousand thousand just this last year. Other competitors include the enjoys of Flexport in the US.
Sennder is growing without chemicals, but it’s also to make some acquisitions to scale up — a grade not just of the activity in the industry but also the fragmentation. In May, it acquired Cars& Cargo to present it a stronger position in France and Benelux. Other companies that it has been given have included Uber Difficulty Europe and Everoad in the 2020, and it also operates a new JV with Poste Italiane, Italy’s postal service. Too it now has eight hubs in Europe.
The plan will be to make significantly more acquisitions of this kind, the issuer said, to expand a definite network that now covers 14, 500 trucks that it tells how works with ten German DAX 30 and eleven Dinar Stoxx 50 shippers it’s expected to move more than 9 million truckloads in 2021.
“We end up being delighted to have carried our momentum from 2020 directly 2021, having already achieved one acquisition and signed several strategic partnerships, ” said David Nothacker, BOSS and Co-Founder of sennder, in a statement. “We appeal to expand our European footprint, bringing more carriers and then shippers onto the sennder platform, while expanding all of my digital offering – regarding SaaS. Acquisitions and level partnerships are part of this investment strategy – the additional funds give to us the flexibility to capitalize for your right opportunities. Baillie Gifford has backed a tidal wave of revolutionary tech brands; their commitment to sennder is a vote of belief in our team, technology, and thus business model. ”
Stephen Paice, Co-manager, Baillie Gifford European Growth Feel in PLC, added: “We should be delighted to join the sennder team on its travel and leisure to disrupt Europe’s logistics industry. We strongly take into account its technology has the probability of create tremendous value when considering stakeholders and society great need of industry plagued with issues and needless CO2 exhausts. What’s particularly impressive, more so than the progress shown so far, is the purpose-driven and pioneeringup-and-coming mind-set instilled within the insurance company}. This will no doubt be once you for long-term success. ”

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The labels are still kicking themselves for having let MTV build a business around their promotional videos. Once they’d realized their error, it was too late: MTV was too powerful and was making too valuable a contribution towards their business for them to simply turn off the tap. Some label execs stated they weren’t going to let Apple "do an MTV." Whether they like it or not, they did.
Apple’s dominance of the download market is a huge deal. I’d argue that EMI and WMG are actually downplaying the importance. It’s not in their interest to scare investors with the news that a company they often don’t get on with too well effectively controls the destiny of one of the only parts of their business which is still growing and which they expect to be their future.
Apple’s dominance is such that would-be new entrants have to think as a priority about what their "Apple strategy" should be. Should they be MP3 or build an iPhone app? Should they integrate themselves into the iTunes ecosystem or co-exist? Anyone who intends to be a key player in the digital music space is inherently competing with Apple. (See my colleague Ian Fogg’s fantastic report ‘Competing With Apple’ for more on this topic.)
In guidance for their latest earnings results, troubled major label EMI cited the dominance of Apple’s iTunes as a major concern for the digital music market. The exact words were:
"The substantial dependence on a limited number of online music stores, in particular the iTunes Store, for the online sale of music recordings, and the resultant significant influence that they can exert over the pricing structure for online music stores."
I have three things to say to EMI (and indeed the other three majors also):
I told you so.
It’s your fault.
Let me explain in a little more detail:
I told you so. We’ve been warning the labels about the overdependence on Apple for years. Not just because of the pricing and competitive concerns a dominant player brings but because of Apple’s motives. Apple is in the business of selling hardware. Music has been a useful tool to help them do that. But they’ll change tack as soon as it suits them. Heck, these are the guys who started out their music strategy with ‘Rip. Mix. Burn.’ Yet the more cantankerous the labels get (e.g., giving everyone else MP3 licenses before Apple), the more Apple will look elsewhere. cf the iPad, a device which should have had music embedded in its DNA to drive a new generation of music products but instead becomes a Holy Grail for book and magazine publishers.
In a prior post, I told you that 83% of companies use social media, but fewer than half of those have product teams that are currently using social media to influence product design, creation, or strategy. In that report, I also divulge that 72% of consumer product strategy (CPS) professionals claim that social media will enhance their existing capabilities of using customer input to shape product strategy. I've also posted about how social co-creation is an important opportunity for consumer product strategy (CPS) professionals -- and it's something that some, but not all, of those companies who are active with social media use. For those CPS pros who are not actively engaging in social co-creation, a common question is, "Do consumers want to co-create? And will they want to co-create with me?"
Cloud functionality is becoming increasingly important to music product strategy as illustrated by another product launch today: digital radio manufacturer PURE announced the launch of cloud-based music service ‘FlowSongs’, powered by the UK’s 7digital (now 50% owned by HMV). To be precise the service isn’t a pure cloud service but instead leverages the cloud to deliver a music download store. The service is integrated into PURE’s Web-connected digital radio devices. For an annual £2.99 subscription fee, users get to identify an unlimited number of songs (using Shazam’s music recognition technology) and can then buy tracks for £0.79 each. Tracks are downloaded to a supported PC but are streamed to the radio.
Integrating Shazam is a smart move. Shazam is a feature not a product, but along with volume, it’s one of the key features that every audio device should have. The service will certainly drive discovery-based purchases (Forrester's Technographics® data shows that 57% of consumers discover new music via radio, making it the No. 1 discovery channel). But those benefits aside, I’m not convinced this is a killer service, yet at least. There was an opportunity to make this a frictionless access-based subscription service whereby customers could instantaneously replay the songs on a device that they identify without having to invest in a download. The future is in access-based models, not the dead-end street of the download store.
I’ve just got back from 2 weeks of holiday during which time quite a lot happened in the digital music space. One thing that really caught my eye was UK dance act Faithless’ partnership with Italian car company Fiat for their single ‘Feelin’ Good’. Brands (Converse, Bacardi, etc.) commissioning artists to record tracks for ad campaigns is a growing trend, but what Faithless have done here is different. No money actually changed hands, and no Fiat slogans or messaging appear on the video. So how does it work? Fiat paid for the video and in return had a Fiat Punto featured in the video. The car actually gets pretty prominent positioning (including extended dashboard footage), but Fiat’s creative agency have worked hard to ensure that it has been done in a creative and non-intrusive manner. (Well, maybe not quite that non-intrusive, but the intent is there and it’s leagues above much other product placement.)
The three-minute video will air across an entire ad break during the reality TV show ‘Big Brother’ to an audience of c 1.5m.


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Ever since a drunk intelligence officer crashed a drone on the White House lawn, questions have been raised about their safety and how such "accidents" can be avoided in the future. Drone makers have already introduced measures to restrict drone flights in certain areas, but over in Europe, the House of Lords EU Committee has laid out a new set of guidelines that, if implemented, could make drone use safer for all involved.
One suggestion is for drone pilots to be added to an online database or app. Initially, it would cover business or professional use, but would extend to all owners in time. "Public understanding of how to use drones safely may not keep pace with people's appetite to fly them," says Committee chairman Baroness O'Cathain says. "It would just take one disastrous accident to destroy public confidence and set the whole industry back." The creation of a database would also help authorities manage the number of drones in European airspace, while ensuring those who pilot them are easily identifiable.
The Committee calls for a new manufacturing standard or "kite mark" that would provide a way for consumers to know if a drone has been deemed safe to fly. Like in the US, it also called for more geo-fencing controls, so that aircraft can't be flown in private or dangerous areas, and the creation of new guidelines for the police, so they are able to better enforce public and private drone flights.
In the UK, drones are currently regulated by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It already has a set of rules in place for drone use, including weight restrictions on vehicles, restrictions on where they can be flown and what should be done if they're used for filming. Right now, the number of drone owners is still pretty small, but as prices come down and more features are added, there will be a need for tighter controls to save us from anarchy in the skies.


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Today President Obama is speaking at a factory in Holland, Michigan that makes lithium batteries for advanced hybrid electric cars. We have heard a lot of bad news about the economy lately, but when the President stands in the Johnson Controls’ plant, we will hear a different truth: clean cars have powered Detroit’s turnaround and put Americans back to work.
This isn’t a projection about the future. It is happening today. Clean car manufacturers have already created more than 151,000 jobs in America.
There are more than 300 companies in the clean car sector with facilities in 43 states, according to a report released earlier this week by NRDC, the United Auto Workers, and the National Wildlife Federation. The White House blogged about the report today in advance of President Obama's trip.
Michigan and Ohio are home to the most clean car workers, but thousands more are employed in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, and North Carolina.
These Americans are performing jobs that hardly existed 10 years ago: they manufacture components and supply parts for advanced gasoline and diesel vehicles, hybrids, plug-in electric vehicles, and the infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.
There is one driving force behind this explosive growth: smart fuel economy standards.
I first started working on fuel standards back in the late 1980s, when passenger cars in the United States averaged 21.1 miles per gallon. By 2008, the average had crept up to a measly 22.6 miles per gallon. Then President Obama came into office and created a clean car standard that required cars and light trucks to reach 35.5 miles per gallons for model years 2012 through 2016.
This standard sparked innovation. According to our new report, U.S. patents for hybrid and electric vehicle technologies reached an all time high in 2010, climbing 60 percent from the year before. GM, Toyota, and Ford led the field with the most new patents, while Michigan had the most U.S. clean energy patents granted of all 50 states.
As a result of all this ingenuity, tens of thousands of Americans are helping design and manufacture cars that will save drivers money at the pump and reduce dangerous air pollution.
As significant as 151,000 jobs are, this is only the beginning. At the end of July, I went to Washington to hear President Obama announce the second phase of his clean car standards. By 2025, new cars and light trucks will reach 54.5 miles per gallon. This means that on average cars in America will go twice as far on a gallon of gas as they do today. This will save Americans $80 billion a year at the gas pump and reduce our oil use by 3.1 million barrels per day by 2030.
And it will create more jobs. Ten years ago, electric vehicles were unavailable and hybrid cars hard to find. Today, 31 different hybrid and electric models have hit the road, and over 100 more will likely follow within four years. More clean cars and more clean-car jobs will follow.
When I attended President Obama’s announcement of the new standards a few weeks ago, I was struck by the fact that he was joined by the heads of eleven major car companies. Though the auto industry first baulked at the idea of a rigorous standard, it has since come on board.
After all, the 151,000 Americans who are already building cleaner cars have proven that the U.S. can lead the automotive market once again. We know we can build the cars of the future, because we are already doing it today.


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For the past nine months, John and Florence Refolo have had to plan their trips to the supermarket.
The days of hopping in their car and making a quick trip to the Acme on Long Beach Boulevard were gone. The pair, both in their 80s, had to drive off Long Beach Island to Stafford Township to do their shopping.
But that all changed last week, when Acme reopened its Long Beach Boulevard location after extensive renovations. The store was closed while it was being rebuilt.
“We couldn’t be happier that its back,’’ Florence Refolo, 86, of the Holgate section of Long Beach Township, said last week after finishing her shopping.
Two new Ocean County food stores, including a super Wal-Mart in Little Egg Harbor Township, are bucking a South Jersey trend in recent years. Genuardi’s, Pathmark and SuperFresh have closed in Atlantic and Cape May counties during the past 10 years. In southern Ocean County, Barnegat and Stafford townships are facing a world with fewer grocery stores.
The loss of supermarkets puts some communities at risk of turning into what’s known as “food deserts.”
Food deserts are a technical designation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture — areas where at least 20 percent of families are at or below the federal poverty line or make 20 percent less than the median families in surrounding areas, and one-third of the families are 1 mile away from a large grocery store in urban areas or 10 miles away in rural areas.
“There is something to be said when a community doesn’t have a supermarket,” said John Refolo, 87, of Holgate. “It’s hard heading over to the mainland every time you need something.”
Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini said that without a supermarket open, the community seemed to be lacking something.
“It’s more than a supermarket. It’s a place that people go to visit friends,’’ Mancini said. “This is an area that is dominated by seniors, and they didn’t want to run over the mainland every time they needed a loaf of bread.’’
Little Egg Harbor is set to break ground on a 161,000-square-foot Super Wal-Mart that will feature a supermarket. The facility is expected to be complete by April, said Little Egg Harbor Township Mayor Art Midgley.
A formal groundbreaking of the project, which will be located on Route 9, will be held at 11 a.m. June 11
“This will provide convenience to our population, which is about 60 percent senior citizens,” Midgley said. “The addition of Wal-Mart will also make other places drop their prices. It’s simple business.”
Meanwhile, other Atlantic and Cape May counties have lost food shopping destinations. SuperFresh closed stores in Hammonton, Cape May Court House and Egg Harbor Township. Genuardi’s and Pathmark both pulled out of Egg Harbor Township.
However, the loss of supermarkets is not something that concerns Egg Harbor Township Mayor James “Sonny” McCullough.
A majority of the township’s residents do their shopping at the ShopRite at English Creek Avenue and the Black Horse Pike, while those living near the township border with Somers Point do their food shopping there, McCullough said.
“I feel that we have an adequate number of supermarkets,’’ McCullough said. “I have not heard anyone complain about a lack of options.’’
The redeveloped Acme on Long Beach Island will offer shoppers 82 percent more space than it did before. The redesigned store features a fresh salad bar, grilled and rotisserie chicken and hot side dishes, and an on-premises bakery with store-made cakes, pies and pastries.
On Long Beach Island, the return of the Acme to Long Beach Township was needed especially after DeFiglio Great Value and the Ocean Bay Market in Surf City both closed in 2014. Murphy’s Market in Beach Haven is the only other market open on Long Beach Island.
“It’s something that you look for when you come to an area,’’ said vacationing Dalian Palumbo, 65, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. “It makes it feel like home.’’
@ACPressHuba on Twitter


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A major leak earlier revealed the OnePlus 6T will be launched in October this year. However, now the upcoming smartphone has been certified by the Eurasian Economic Commission. The EEC has certified the upcoming variant carrying the model number A6013.
OnePlus 6T to come with Android Pie
Unfortunately, the EEC listing does not include any other information regarding the specs of OnePlus 6T. However, the rumors claim that OnePlus 6T will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor clocked at 2.8 GHz with an Adreno 630 GPU. Moreover, OnePlus 6T will be identical to OnePlus 6 in terms of memory. That means it will be available in three configurations – 6GB RAM + 64GB storage, 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage.
Also, the OnePlus 6T will feature a 6.4-inch Full HD+ resolution AMOLED display. Moreover, the upcoming device will offer an in-display fingerprint sensor as well. Rumors suggest the upcoming OnePlus flagship smartphone will boast a triple-camera setup at the rear. It will also come with a 20MP secondary camera and a TOF 3D camera module. The upcoming phone may also have a 16MP selfie camera module as the OnePlus 5T from last year.
OnePlus 6T will launch with Android 9 Pie OS out of the box. Connectivity-wise, the OnePlus 6T is likely to be identical to the OnePlus 6 with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band, Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy, NFC, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, USB Type-C port, and 4G VoLTE.
All these are rumors. Let’s see what OnePlus will offer at the time of launch.


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Shares of Macy's (NYSE:M) have been taken to the woodshed over the year. Its stock is off more than 50% in the twelve months and down near its 52-week low. However, the slide comes for good reason, and despite having one of the great activist investors involved, may remain dead money for awhile.
Much of the conventional brick-and-mortar retail industry is really feeling the full pressure of Amazon.com's (NASDAQ:AMZN) quest to take over the retail industry. And it's not just Macy's, the likes of The Gap (NYSE:GPS), Target (NYSE:TGT), Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) and the bankrupt Sports Authority have all felt the pressure. But what's different for Macy's is that it has an activist investor involved. Starboard Value voiced its concern for Macy's last year, and has been trying to get the company to spin off its real estate or form a joint-venture to unlock the hidden value tied up in the land.
Starboard, the same activist that broke up Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI), first got involved when shares were trading closer to $75 a share, noting that the true value of the company was upwards of $125 a share. From here, Macy's would be a four-bagger if we could get close to $125. That doesn't look to be happening anytime soon, especially with the current state of the retail industry.
As I noted last year, Macy's locking itself into long-term rental contracts, which is what would happen if it spins off its real estate, would be a foolish move as we head deeper into a brick-and-mortar retail slowdown.
Bigger issues than just real estate spin offs
And as I mentioned in mid-2015, Macy's has been an enticing hedge fund target for some time, since it owns over half its stores. Recall that Carl Icahn took aim at Macy's nearly a decade ago, back in 2007 when it was Federated Department Stores. Icahn lost his battle, but at the time, Icahn said that Macy's was the "perfect candidate for private equity … and there is a great undervaluing in the real estate."
But the prospect of this hidden value, which is Macy's real estate, is arguably no longer hidden. Activists have been pushing the company to unlock that value since 2015 and they've laid out the process and theoretical values for its major properties. However, the market just doesn't appear to care; rather, it knows that a spin-off will not fix Macy's core issues.
About those core issues
The shift from brick-and-mortar to mobile and digital ordering won't be solved via spinning off real estate. Again, a real estate spin-off locks Macy's into a rental payment. Where, if it sells the real estate it'll get some cash, but then have to make lease payments on the property it just sold. But there's the fact that Macy's just isn't relevant anymore. A recent Cowen & Co. report notes that Amazon will overtake Macy's as the number one clothing retailer in the United States by 2017.
Still, Macy's, with shares down so much so fast over the last year, is in a rush to please investors and activist investors. Of late, they've hired two real estate executives with backgrounds in REITs. This alludes itself to the fact that Macy's is more serious about monetizing real estate. Of note Bill Lenehan, former CEO of Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT) - the REIT spin-off of Darden - joined Macy's board recently.
However, despite this progress, there's no clear answer to turning around the retail operations. There is a need to slim down its square footage to help meet the new retail and e-commerce trend. It's really going to depend on the strategy that Macy's pursues to unlock its real estate value - in part, selling off stores all together, or selling/leasing certain floors of its buildings could be viable. We need to see a more defined strategy on the real estate for Macy's, which it's been tight lipped about.
Since Starboard Value showed up, David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has also gotten involved. Einhorn has had a tough time of late, being invested in the now bankrupt SunEdison and taking large losses on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU). However, he's still one of the greats, and Starboard Value is one of the top activist investors around.
Still, the issue remains that a real estate spin-off does little to fix Macy's retail business. The traffic to stores and malls is down. What does it take to regenerate in interest? Spinning off real estate will unlock some value in the near-term, but what's the fix for the longer-term and more aggressive encroachment of Amazon and other cut-throat retailers on its market share? It appears to be a race to the bottom from here, so don't let the 4%+ dividend yield at Macy's lure you into a false sense of security.
Now, Macy's 1Q quarterly results weren't all that bad, with sales for the quarter down 5.6%, but earnings per share beating expectations. However, full year management guidance for EPS was lowered by 15% (at the midpoint). Macy's doesn't think consumers will be spending more, blaming the current economic environment. There's just no end in sight for the time being.
And as much as I want to buy into the deeply undervalued retailer with a hefty dividend story, it's just not happening. Retailers, like many industries, are cyclical and I'm not sure we've seen the trough for this cycle. Then there's the fact that Macy's has its own issues, as some retailers are doing okay - case in point, the success of Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Home Depot (NYSE:HD) of late. Note, the last time we saw Macy's dividend yield above 4%, it was trading at less than 6 times earnings - it currently trades at 10 times.
Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


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The Northside Tavern is really doing its part to make sure you shop locally and crafty this year. A few weeks ago they held The Crafty Supermarket and Saturday they’re hosting the Northside Holiday Exchange with The Hiders. A bunch of local vendors will be on hand selling vintage, handmade and other unique gifts. Able Projects will be hawking their printed T-shirts, Amanda Hogan Carlisle will be selling handmade cards, and Red Polly will be selling vintage furniture and home accessories, just to name a few. After the 7:30-10:30 p.m. sale, The Hiders take the stage at 11 p.m. with maybe a surprise guest or two.
Get venue details and find nearby bars and restaurants here.


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As celebrations to ring in the new decade were winding down, more than 175,000 tech-minded travelers made their way to Las Vegas for the 53rd Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The forum that has launched gadgets ranging from floppy disks, portable camcorders, and Blu-ray players, has become an annual showcase for all things consumer-oriented technology.
This year was no exception to the spectacle of years past—attendees were wowed by foldable tablets, massive OLED TVs, smart litter boxes, self-rocking bassinets, flying taxis, impossible pork, and, strangely enough, a Bluetooth-enabled robot that delivers toilet paper.
But beyond the cutting-edge (and occasionally quirky) displays that fill CES’s 3 million square feet of space, what do shows like this say about the future of consumer technology? What trends and technology are likely to stick around, and what sets the truly groundbreaking innovations apart from those that burn brightly but fade quickly?
Penn Today spoke with David Hsu, a management professor who studies entrepreneurial innovation and technology commercialization, to learn more about what CES says about the consumer technology landscape, and what types of innovations will become prevalent in the future.


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||What Stations Are Doing: After Vendor Goes Under, Denver's KBCO Helps Charities
Clear Channel adult alternative KBCO, Denver (97.3), has been making money for charities over the past two decades with the sale of its "Studio C" albums each holiday season. This past Christmas was no different. But when the store chain that sold the CDs recently filed for bankruptcy, the station took it upon itself to help.
KBCO wrote checks for $80,000 to the Boulder County AIDS Project and $20,000 to the Food Bank of the Rockies. "We felt that our commitment to the charities had to be met," program director Scott Arbough told the Boulder Daily Camera.
Court filings show Ultimate Electronics owed KBCO $360,000 for the CDs sold. Boulder County AIDS Project director of development Dan Hanley told the paper, "That they would pay us even though they didn't get the money from Ultimate Electronics just does not surprise me. They are just so committed to our community."
KBCO's "Studio C" CDs typically sell out within one day, with demand so strong buyers are limited to two apiece. Volume 22 featured songs recorded live on the air from performers including Jack Johnson, The Doobie Brothers and Natalie Merchant.
(Source: Inside Radio, 02/14/11)


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Contactless payments refer to the cashless transactions that do not require cards to be swiped at Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals.
According to Worldline India, while 25% of all transactions at supermarkets were contactless in January 2020, these transactions rose to 31% by January 2022.
The user footprint across India also stepped up with metro cities.
In 2020 and 2021, Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Telangana had the highest proportion of contactless transactions and penetration, across both debit and credit cards.
While cards contribute to 26% of all digital transactions, they generate 53% of the value of all digital commerce.
The airlines sector has seen a spike in contactless debit card penetration in 2021, which could be attributed to the revision in the contactless payment limit.
Additionally, the adoption of EMV chip cards has been pivotal for the growth of contactless payments, aided by supportive regulations that increased the contactless limit in India to Rs 5,000 in 2021. The cohesive experience of contactless payments, with their inherent convenience, speed, and enhanced security features are a major reason for rapid adoption by consumers, merchants, issuers, and payment processors, the report noted.
"Through the pandemic, contactless payments recovered faster than other forms of face-to-face payment due to greater consumer ease and safety," noted the report.
transactions and will help greatly in reaching the goal of a less-cash society," said Sunil Rongala, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Innovation and Analytics, Worldline India.
The report noted that in India T is a higher adoption rate for contactless and card-on-delivery options among affluent cardholders with digital-focused personas, such as ecommerce and electronic shoppers, luxury
travellers and avid wallet users, for whom convenience and time are important.
The report noted that globally, there may already be more than 2 billion contactless debit and credit cards issued, and the global contactless payment market size is expected to reach $6.25 trillion by 2028.


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The fastest growing company in Silicon Valley over the last few years was not Facebook, VMWare, or all-mighty Google. According to Deloitte, the professional services firm, it was a company whose name you probably won’t recognize but whose product you will: Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the popular Flip video camera.
In a study released last month, Deloitte said that revenue at Pure Digital, a 90-employee company based in San Francisco, grew 44,667 percent, the highest rate in Silicon Valley over the last five years. Pure Digital says it has sold over 1.5 million devices since it first unveiled its Flip product line in 2007.
This week, Pure Digital is showing how it achieved that distinction and carved out the leading share of the camcorder market: the company is unveiling the Flip Mino HD, a 3.3 oz camcorder that captures video in crisp high-definition and allows owners to easily play clips on their televisions and upload them to video sharing sites like YouTube and MySpace.
The device costs $230 or about $50 more than the standard-definition Flip Mino and $90 more than the original Flip Ultra.
Jonathan Kaplan, Pure Digital’s chief executive, said that the Flip HD aims at a more sophisticated consumer who resists recording their child’s first steps in standard, VGA-resolution video. “This is our first product that is starting to scratch a little bit at the traditional camcorder buyer,” he said.
The story of Pure Digital Technology is a remarkable one we have told before: a company outmaneuvering the consumer electronics giants with a simple product that captures what consumers want. It designed an easy way to record, preserve and share memories instead of a device with a lot of confusing buttons that ends up sitting unused on a shelf.
The new Flip Mino HD performed well in my tests, but there is one nagging problem, not of its own making. It is actually difficult to share the great-looking video the camera records, since Web sites like YouTube and MySpace do not yet display user-uploaded clips in high definition.
Until they get there, the Mino’s HD video clips are best shared over e-mail – or among people in the same room clustered around the computer or television.
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Nov 13, 2019 | By Alice Gividen
Big data meets consumer insights. Experience WGSN.
Aug 28, 2015
By WGSN Insider
Put September 14 in your diary if you’re an avid J Crew watcher. That’s the day new collections arrive in-store – with heritage the new key focus – to (hopefully) turn around those losses and weaker sales reported Thursday.
“I am not going to say it’s the be-all, end-all, but I think you will be really pleased with what you see,” CEO Millard Drexler told analysts on a conference call yesterday.
New product will include Jackie cardigans, Regent blazers, washed shirts, denim, cashmere and ballet flats.
Judging by Q2’s results, the changes can’t come fast enough. J Crew posted a $13.6m loss, versus a year-ago profit of $10.8m. Adjusted ebitda was $41m compared to $67.6m a year ago.
Overall, revenues fell 5% to $593.6m and com-store sales fell 11%, compared with an increase of 4% a year ago.
J Crew brand sales fell 10% to $506.5m with comp sales falling 13%. In stark contrast, the Madewell brand bounce continued with sales jumping 22% to $67.9m and comps growing 8%.
Gross margin fell to 34.3% compared to 37.6% a year ago.
Drexler said the results were in line with expectations but the company has “taken a hard look at the business and made changes to drive greater efficiency and profitability”.
He also said there will be less emphasis on its higher-priced J Crew Collection products.
“Entering fall, we feel good about the assortments in stores and online, which reflect more emphasis on the key product categories that our customers love J Crew for. At the same time, our team has taken a hard look at the business and made changes to drive greater efficiency and profitability. We’re focused on our performance in the second half of the year and positioning the business for sustained growth.”
On the later conference call, he said the retailer was focused on product, marketing and customer service, stressing how J Crew is changing “calibration of product, not… direction”.
Drexler said marketing efforts will centre on driving key categories and heritage items through social media, style guides, traditional print and outdoor advertising.
For the fiscal year, J Crew Group is opening 52 stores, including 11 J Crew units, 21 factory outlets, and 20 Madewell stores taking the latter’s total to 105 units.
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Chevrolet on Monday released a new teaser video for the redesigned 2014 Chevrolet Corvette -- the third of four videos -- and the newest installment puts a brief spotlight on the new sports car's interior.
The video shows glimpses of a headrest, rolls of material, a large piece of leather being tossed onto a table, marking and sewing operations.
Interior design manager Ryan Vaughan has his say: "The exterior excites you. It draws you in. But the interior is actually where you experience the car from."
Improving the comfort and quality of the Corvette's interior ranks high on the wish list of fans and critics for the 2014 model.
The final video in the teaser series is set for release on Jan. 10, three days before the 2014 Corvette makes its debut for the Detroit auto show. Chevrolet is posting the videos at its reveal website, www.one13thirteen.com.


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Zen Rooms, the budget hotel network startup founded by Rocket Internet, had faced the deadpool earlier this year after a prospective funding deal collapsed, but now the business appears to have found a home. Korea’s Yanolja, a popular motel brand that has branched out into app-based hotel bookings, has made a strategic investment that could see it fully acquire the business.
Ten-year-old Yanolja is initially paying $15 million for an undisclosed “strategic non-controlling stake,” but it will retain the rights to buy 100 percent of the Zen Rooms business. Zen Rooms clarified that the acquisition is an option and not based on performance or financial metrics.
Founded by a former hotel worker, Lee Su-jin, Yanolja is best known for its lovel hotels although it is trying to clean up the general image of short-stay hotels by promoting them as destinations for business travelers, tourists and families, as noted by a Bloomberg profile story. The company has also grown its own app-based booking service which among the most used in its homeland with 20,000 rooms.
The company is reportedly planning an IPO, so expansion is on its mind.
For those reasons, Zen Rooms fits that new focus. The company borrowed the budget hotel model, first pioneered by SoftBank-backed Oyo in India, and brought it to Southeast Asia when it launched three years ago. The concept is simple, Zen Rooms guarantees minimum standards at all hotels including free WiFi, fresh towels and bedding, hot showers, etc all of which is controlled via a mobile app. Those standards are normal to most hotel stayers, but when traveling in the East, standards can vary wildly especially at budget hotels, which Zen Rooms is focused on.
For hotels, Zen Rooms manages the brand — and sometimes more — and it allows helps them tap the internet to find customers and bookings.
Today, Zen Rooms is active in six cities in Southeast Asia — it had previously also run operations in Brazil, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka — across which it claims to operate 1,000 hotel franchisees with an inventory of more than 7,000 rooms. Its rivals in Southeast Asia include Red Doorz, which raised $11 million earlier this year.
The startup has raised $8 million from investors to date, including a $4.1 million Series A last April that was led by Korea’s Redbadge Pacific and SBI Investment Korea with participation Asia Pacific Internet Group (APACIG), the joint venture fund in Asia between Rocket Internet and Qatari operator Ooredoo.
However, TechCrunch understands that a major funding deal of over $10 million fell apart in Q1 2018 which left the company with a rapidly depleting runway. As a result and as TechCrunch reported in March, the company was aggressively shopped to potential buyers, investors and rival companies in order to keep the business afloat.
Yanolja has come to the rescue but a full buy-out looks like it will be dependent on the company’s future performance, such is often the arrangement with strategic deals made with a view to full ownership. Rocket Internet, which remains a major investor in Zen Rooms, will hope that the deal goes as smoothly as Lazada, its e-commerce service that is now owned by Alibaba.
Lazada ran out of capital in similar circumstances in early 2016 and Alibaba, the Chinese internet giant, came to its aid with a $1 billion investment. Although that was a majority investment it wasn’t a full-on buyout. Alibaba later increased its holdings until it fully owned the business, and today it is a key part of the firm’s overseas expansion strategy.
Already, TechCrunch understands from one source that Zen Rooms has gone on a hiring spree in recent weeks after it closed the deal. It had earlier been forced to make cutbacks to its team as a result of cost-cutting following the collapse of the funding deal earlier in the year.
“We now have the capital to invest,” ZenRooms co-founder Kiren Tanna told TechCrunch. “The deal has been in discussion since earlier this year…. we are treating like an acquisition but this is step one.”
Tanna added that the company plans to focus on five markets in Southeast Asia, and an expansion to Vietnam may be in the pipeline soon.


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During the CES 2018 event earlier this year, Samsung displayed its 5G modem for smartphones, but as to when it will be made available in the market, that information was not disclosed. Today, however, they finally announced the finished product and they called it the “Exynos Modem 5100” which happens to be the world’s first 5G modem fully compliant with 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standards.
The Exynos 5100 modem is built on the 10nm process technology and supports legacy radio access technologies. With the 5G modem, users will be getting connections to both sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrums compliant with 3GPP standards, as well as legacy networks like 2G GSM/CDMA, 3G WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, and 4G LTE.
Customer who has been anticipating the technology will be very excited as Samsung mentioned that the modem is capable of delivering a maximum downlink speed of up to 2Gbps in 5G’s sub-6GHz settings and 6Gbps in mmWave settings, which are about 1.7 and five times the data transfer speeds of its predecessor respectively.
With all the 5G network finally coming to a reality, users cannot wait to get their hands on it. The good news is, you will no have to wait for long as Samsung announced that the Exynos 5100 modem will be available to customers by the end of 2018.
When it finally arrives, we can enjoy other technologies connected to it like IoT (Internet of Things), holograms, ultra-high resolution videos, real-time AI and autonomous driving technologies.
The announcement from Samsung today is to increase anticipation for the 5G modem and also to speed up development and commercialization of 5G mobile devices.


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The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain.
With most whole goods and components coming from China, the U.S. hospitality industry began to scramble in January to keep the supplies coming.
Manufacturing has resumed in China as the crisis has reportedly eased there, but the outbreak has yet to reach its peak in the U.S.
As COVID-19 continues its rampage across the country, factories are closing or retooling to make medical supplies.
It’s a fluid situation that changes day by day and hospitality procurement specialists have been working to stay ahead of the COVID-19 wave and find manufacturers and suppliers that can deliver goods to hotels throughout the country.
In this episode, which is part of Lodging Leaders’ special report on the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the U.S. hospitality industry, we interviewed Alan Benjamin, a procurement specialist with Benjamin West, and Darlene Henke, a shipping and logistics expert with Audit Logistics.
We also feature sound bites of Anu Saxena of Hilton Supply Management who participated this week in an AAHOA webcast.
Resources and Links
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.


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Honda has unveiled its Vezel new Urban SUV production model on the first day of the Tokyo Motor Show.
The new model will carry the Vezel name for the Japanese market; Honda did not confirm what names this model will carry on other markets, but did say the new Urban SUV will be launched in Europe during 2015, with the name of the European model being confirmed nearer to launch.
Honda stated the exterior design of the new model is close to a SUV, with coupe-like styling in its upper body; the sharp character lines create an inspiring and emotional exterior design. The interior is designed to create a high-quality space for the driver and front passenger, and comfort and functionality for those in the rear.
In Japan, Honda said it will launch both a hybrid and gasoline model of the Vezel.
The hybrid model will be equipped with Honda’s Sport Hybrid i-DCD that combines a 1.5 liter direct injection engine with a high-output electric motor; the gasoline model will be equipped with a 1.5 liter direct injection engine.
Honda declared that by adopting new-generation powertrain technologies, the Vezel delivers both a dynamic driving character and excellent fuel economy for both models.
The Japanese model will be launched officially in Japan on December 20, 2013 and more details will be revealed in the next few weeks.


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102 Insights Available
The Impact of Uncle Sam: Tax Season Insights Report
Tax season is a mix of opportunities and challenges for retailers. On one hand, many consumers will get a refund – creating a bump in their discretionary spending. However, consumers who owe will likely adjust spending to account for a payment to Uncle Sam. Using our purchase intelligence gleaned from partnerships with 1500+ financial institutions, […]
Does Your Gym Choice Really Matter?
Treadmill running or CrossFit? Barre classes or spinning? Low carb or juice cleanse? There are countless ways to get fit, but which are consumers more likely to stick with? Using our data and the power of purchase intelligence, we looked at how consumers are working out and how their spending habits differ by gym choice.
Clicks Don’t Matter
There is no correlation between a click and actual in-store or online spend. That is not a typo, it is a truth that we continue to see across all categories with few exceptions. Unfortunately, while as an industry we have become experts at driving efficient means to drive clicks, these clicks can’t be used to […]
Benefits of Card-Linked Marketing For Financial Institutions
This white paper examines the impact of interchange fee limits on customer engagement programs, and quantifies how the Cardlytics Card-Linked Marketing program in place at Bank of America, PNC Bank, Regions Bank—and hundreds of others—has stayed attrition and increased debit and credit card use and spending.
In the News
AdWeek April 13, 2021
Cardlytics to Buy Data Platform Bridg in $350 Million Deal
Its second purchase in recent months brings its spending on mergers and acquisitions to $625 million
YourMoney.com April 13, 2021
New cashback scheme launched for credit card shoppers
MBNA has launched a reward programme, offering credit card holders the chance to earn cashback on their spending.
Fast Casual April 5, 2021
5 dining trends left behind by COVID-19
Matt Drewes, SVP/ group head of Restaurant at Cardlytics, predicts how the dining habits adopted by consumers during COVID-19 will change post-pandemic.
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December 13, 2012, 4:44 PM — Microsoft says Windows Phone app reviewers will be working into the holidays to deal with a flood of new app submissions to the Windows Phone Store, but at least one major company isn't buying into the Windows Phone hype. Since the launch of Windows Phone 8 in late October, we are experiencing a sustained 40% increase in Windows Phone app submissions, the company said in a blog post. Microsoft says it will close on December 24 and 25, and January 1 but remain open the rest of the holiday season to keep its approval turnaround time to five days for app submissions.
While Microsoft's announcement was directed at app developers, it suggests Windows Phone users can expect to see more apps hitting the Windows Phone Store in the coming weeks. That does not appear to be same story for the Windows Store, Microsoft's tablet and PC app store built into Windows 8. The software maker said in a separate blog post that the Windows Store team would have a reduced staff between December 22 and January 1. Windows 8 does not appear to be experiencing the same flood of apps as the Windows Phone Store supposedly is. The Windows Store app count surpassed 20,000 in late November.
It's not clear if the Windows Phone Store is experiencing a higher volume of app submissions because of an effort by Microsoft to reach out to developers or if more developers are willing to bet on Windows Phone than the fledgling tablet interface on Windows 8.
Whatever the reason for the Windows Phone app uptick, we'll have to see if the apps will be high-quality popular apps from services like Facebook and Dropbox or just more drek such as fart sounds, wallpaper catalogs and other novelty apps.
Google says no
Even though the Windows Phone Store is experiencing a rise in developer interest, Google says it has no plans for making business apps such as Gmail or Google Drive for Windows 8 or Window Phone, according to a report by V3.


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Super Mario- the most popular game for the gamers of the nineties. To reminisce those old memories again, Nintendo, the Japan-based video game creating company, comes with its premium game “Super Mario Run“ on iOS platform. Last Wednesday evening, 7th Sep, 2016, at Apple’s Gala Event in San Francisco, the game was introduced by the father of “Mario“, Shigeru Miyamoto, the chief game designer of Nintendo.
“Mario” was created by Shigeru Miyamoto for “Donkey Kong“ that released on July 9, 1981, by the developer and publisher “Nintendo“. As company’s mascot and Mario series’s protagonist, since creation, Mario, the Italian-American plumber, has appeared in over two hundred video games. “Super Mario”, a series platform video game, was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and it was the first side-scrolling 2D platform game to feature Mario. There was a”Mushroom Kingdom“, where Mario and his younger brother “Luigi” lived and rescue “Princess Peach Toadstool“ from “Bowser“. “Mario Bros.“; “Super Mario Bros.“; “Super Mario Bros. 2“; “Super Mario World” etc. sequels come with additions like weather, new movements of the character, complex levels, moreover, with much higher difficulties.
“Mario series”, the world’s best-loved game’s new entry as “Super Mario Run“ -the endless runner jumps into a new adventure in Smartphone world with one-handed tapping control. Though “Super Mario Run” will be free to start, the game will be a premium title. “Super Mario Run” will not be free to play, and Nintendo will be announcing “a set price” later. But the iOS users will be able to download the game and enjoy a portion of “Super Mario Run” as a free trial version, but unlocking some of the essential features are premium. This is different from the mostly beneficial “freemium” model that allow users to download the game free but need money to purchase the virtual items that enhance the game. Undoubtedly, this will set a positive tone in the overall strategy of Nintendo’s mobile game.
For starters, the small difference between “free-to-start” and “premium” is debatable. But
this game won’t be sharing the same model used by any of the App Store’s top grossing games. It can become a high profile ambassador for premium games. Here is the impact of Super Mario Run on premium games. It is a big thing because, for the first time, the company is going to launch a whole new hardware gadget “Wii U“, an under-powered white box like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. It’s a bold move to motivate gamer to play Super Mario Run on Wii U; maybe that’s a reason that the game is free-to-start, not truly free-to-play.A question arises that will people spend money on “Super Mario Run” who never did it before on mobile games? Here’s the faith Nintendo has on the strength of Mario brand and company’s fanbase! If people were ready to leave the house for Pokemon, then why not spend some dollars for Mario?! On smartphones, the exposition of Super Mario is huge. Nintendo’s best-ever-selling console, the Nintendo DS, around 150 million units were sold only. But in point of fact, everyone has a smartphone now. That’s why mobile games have been stirring out revenue at a faster rate.
Nintendo clarified that they would launch “Super Mario Run“ on iOS first in December 2016, would be available in 100 countries in 9 languages and then the game will come on Android within a few weeks. After launching the game, Nintendo has plans to deliver its previously announced mobile device titles in the Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing series before the end of March 2017. Apple is trying out a new “Notify” system with Super Mario Run, where the App Store will let you know that the game is available to download.


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GOOGLE HAS expanded the reach of Google Assistant still further with a string of announcements at IFA.
Front and centre of the list, you can now use Whatsapp to make video and audio calls, the first video calling service to be added that wasn't ruddy Google ruddy Duo.
Also new, you can now turn selected phone and tablet handsets into a Google Home type device by docking it - much as Amazon has done with its Fire tablet range.
It's referred to as "Google Assistant Ambient Mode" and gives compatible devices functionality first glimpsed with the Google Pixel Stand, but augmented with much of the same information that appears on your Google Home screen. The new mode will debut on the new Lenovo Smart Tab range and the latest Nokia phones.
A glut of new speakers and soundbars have been added to the release schedule from brands including JBL, Philips, Konka, Seiki, and Braun Audio. More Android TVs are scheduled from Hisense, Sony, TCL, Philips, Changhong, Haier, Skyworth, Metz, Vestel, Sharp, JVC, XGIMI, RCA and SmartTech.
If you don't fancy the recently released Google Nest Home Hub Max or the original Google (Nest) Home Hub, Lenovo has announced a 7-inch version of its popular smart display range, along with improved functionality and availability for its bedside Smart Clock, which we were rather taken by when we reviewed it.
Google Assistant will also be coming to headphones from JBL, Harman Kardon, Bose, Cleer, Halo, Philips and Sony and the Home Connect consortium are adding compatibility with their range of kitchen products from Bosch, Siemens, Neff, Thermador and Gaggenau. Plus there's a new oven from Electrolux and Liebherr. Oh and a new door lock from Nuki.
After it was revealed recently that Google had slipped into third place in the smart speaker war, it seems the company has come out fighting, and we could well see that situation reversed soon, especially if the Black Friday offers that come in look as tasty as we all hope. μ
But it might never see the light of a PC bay
It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's still the best iPhone yet
Firm gives scanner flaw the finger
Ermine is the same but stoat-ally different


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Apple’s Made In India iPhones To Be Cheaper! Here’s Why
Apple’s top-end iPhones, assembled in India by Foxconn’s local unit, are likely to hit Indian stores in August, Reuters reported.
The move will potentially help the tech giant to drop prices in India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market.
Expanding local assembly will help Apple save on high taxes levied on the import of fully-built devices, as well as meet local sourcing norms for opening its own retail stores in India.
“Local production will give Apple the leeway to play with the margins of their distributors and indirectly price their phones lower,” Reuters quoted Rushabh Doshi, a research director at tech consultancy Canalys, as saying.
Some approvals are pending, but the India-made iPhone XR and XS devices are expected to hit the market by August, a company insider told the news agency on condition of anonymity as the matter was not yet public.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Foxconn, the local unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, said it does not comment on customers or their products.
Apple’s devices are coveted by millions of Indians, but its premium pricing has limited its market share to a meagre 1 per cent to the gain of rivals such as China’s OnePlus.
It was earlier reported that Foxconn would begin assembling iPhone X family devices at a facility in Tamil Nadu this year. Apple also assembles the lower-cost SE, 6S and 7 models in India through Wistron Corp’s local unit in Bengaluru.
The Narendra Modi-led government has tried to position India as a hub for smartphone manufacturing, wooing global players with access to a market with over a billion wireless connections and cheap labour.


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LAS VEGAS, NV — At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Car manufacturer Hyundai revealed that mobility technology can go beyond automobiles with this robotic Exoskeleton. It was developed to aid paraplegics to walk again.
French company Novin developed this Smartcane, which has built-in GPS and SIM card. The Smartcane will alert the caregiver on the whereabouts of the user. But the cane is much smarter than just being an alert system.
“It can learn and understand the habits of each user… for example, at which time you wake up the morning, how many steps you do by day, etc.,” said Novin’s Amandine Fayet.
Tired and strained eyes from staring at computer screens all day is a problem one company strives to relieve with these heat massaging goggles.
“It’s based on Chinese medicine acupuncture theory, so it can help massage each different point — like Accupoint around the eyes, so it can help you relax. [It also can] help the blind to release more oil like fluid to lubricate your eye,” said Acumed Source, Inc.’s Jojo Song.
Tired spouses staying awake from noisy partners who snore loud in their sleep is a problem another company hopes to solve with its snoring solution, Nora.
It detects early sounds of snoring and activates a silent pump under your pillow, which elevates your head to relax throat muscles — therefore, opening the airway.
Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease are the target for Chinese company Gyenno. They designed a spoon to reduce the hand shaking for those affected with Parkinson’s. The spoon has a two-motor control system that reduces the handshaking motion horizontally and vertically.


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The electric vehicle industry in South Africa refuses to be a laggard and moves ahead as top brands plan roll-out.
South Africa’s ‘Auto Green Paper On The Advancement Of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs)’ was meant to be finalized in October 2021. Despite being more than half- way into 2023 with no updates from government and frustrations from the automotive sector, the industry seems to be moving ahead.
The body that represents the industry, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), is holding events every quarter in 2023 to address concerns and offer solutions.
In a statement to FORBES AFRICA, Naamsa CEO Mikel Mabasa says the global transition towards NEVs is a critical step to secure the future of the automotive industry in South Africa, and our rapid adoption to newer technologies is critical for the domestic automotive industry’s long-term success and growth.
“The South African automotive industry cannot be running on one development technology track whilst the rest of the world is way ahead on the same track. If we want to remain globally competitive, we have no option but to play with the big global players who are leading the NEV charge,” says Mabasa.
Ravin Sanjith, Auto Sector Leader at Deloitte Africa, corroborates to FORBES AFRICA that the objectives outlined in the Auto Green Paper will, at best, be delayed or worse, never materialize.
“The global market is not standing still, and laggards will be burdened with having to accept, rather than shape their future. We are currently in a ‘no-incentives’ situation for manufacturers and buyers. From a buyer perspective, the price of the electric vehicles (EV) is still extremely high in comparison to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and consumer affordability,” says Sanjith.
“The impact to South Africa in the long term is that the overall cost of mobility will be higher than it would have been had incentives been introduced,” adds Sanjith.
“The full manufacture of EVs will require substantial investment in completely new tooling for at least the drive- train, and various changes to components such as braking and electrical harnesses, not to mention the uber-cool mobile-tech being released with NEVs,” he says.
With South Africa not building EVs and ICE manufacturing dying out – due to the United Kingdom and European Union switching to EVs by 2030 and 2035 respectively – it could result in us becoming an import-only market, adds Sanjith. “An even darker future is if South Africa becomes a destination for used vehicles, like those 10+ year old ones being supplied into the pan-African region; and in future, NEVs that have exceeded their optimal economic life. This will also create a disposal and recycling issue for South Africa,” says Sanjith.
“WE ARE CURRENTLY IN A ‘NO- INCENTIVES’ SITUATION FOR MANUFACTURERS AND BUYERS. FROM A BUYER PERSPECTIVE, THE PRICE OF THE ELECTRIC VEHICLES IS STILL EXTREMELY HIGH IN COMPARISON TO INTER- NAL COMBUSTION ENGINE (ICE) VEHICLES…”
Despite a bleak outlook, there is some hope in the journey
towards building EVs in South Africa. Late in June, BMW South Africa announced a R4.2 billion ($222.7 million) investment to electrify its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria, the country’s capital.
Now 50 years old, the Rosslyn plant was BMW’s first one outside of Germany. Chairman of the board of management for BMW Group South Africa, Dr Milan Nedeljković, says in the global press release: “From 2024, we will produce the BMW X3 in South Africa as a plug-in hybrid and export it to the world.”
Hailey Philander, spokesperson at BMW South Africa, tells FORBES AFRICA that the investment is important to future-proof the plant and its business in South Africa.
“The plant will need to be retooled for production of the fourth generation of the X3; hybrid production requires adjustments to body shop and assembly halls, new workstations, and upgrades to our logistics processes,” says Philander.
A plant-wide training program will follow with over 300 associates undergoing specialized plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) model training, she says.
“Suppliers, dealers, and other key stakeholders will need to be upskilled and equipped for the BMW X3 PHEV as an important step towards battery electric car production,” says Philander.
Time will tell what these locally-built PHEVs will cost, but almost every other imported EV in South Africa comes in upwards of R1 million ($53,000), save for the electric Mini at around R750,000 ($40,000).
There’s been a slight shift in the landscape with some newer EV models coming in at under R800,000 ($42,400) despite no reductions on import duties. Volvo’s EX30, revealed globally in June, included South Africa in its launch markets for delivery in Q1 2024, it has pre-orders starting at R775,900 ($41,200).
There will be two other Chinese EV brands available in South Africa in 2023: Great Wall Motors (GWM) who operate under HAVAL Motors South Africa, and Build Your Dreams (BYD), the country’s first EV-only brand.
GWM revealed pricing for the Ora, its hatchback EV that will start at R716,900 ($38,000), which is set to be South Africa’s cheapest EV; and new entrant BYD will sell its Atto 3 SUV starting at R768,000 ($41,000).
Conrad Groenewald, Chief Operations Officer of HAVAL Motors South Africa, tells FORBES AFRICA: “With load- shedding being so topical resulting in consumer confidence being such an issue, we deliberately delayed the launch of the Ora otherwise it would have been a dismal failure.”
Groenewald says it will launch Ora with charging solutions for customers from SVOLT, a GWM-backed battery production company that is being tested in South Africa.
“We are already talking to the banks about financing it; there will be a vehicle finance component with charging the vehicle, and another on your bond. We want to offer SVOLT together with the car as a packaged solution.”
Another advantage to the delay, says Groenewald, is: “If we see the battery cost of vehicles coming down, we can come into the market at a suitable price to really challenge the market.”


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Your WIRED.co.uk daily briefing. Today, endangered animals are being openly trafficked on Facebook, Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt is to lead an advisory board for the US Department of Defense, Google is testing a mobile payment system that works without taking your phone out of your pocket and more.
Get WIRED Awake sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning by 8am. Click here to sign up to the WIRED Awake newsletter.
Wildlife monitoring group Traffic has found hundreds of endangered wild animals from Malaysia being illegally offered for sale on Facebook over the past five months (BBC). Animals being sold included sun bears, gibbons, and binturongs. Traffic's Sarah Stoner said that "the demand for these animals has always existed in Malaysia but it's never really had an outlet to flourish whereas the internet and Facebook seems to be providing that platform to enable the trade to happen in this manner." Facebook has said that it "does not allow the sale and trade of endangered animals" and that "we are committed to working with Traffic to help tackle the illegal online trade of wildlife in Malaysia."
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has revealed that Alphabet executive chairmen Eric Schmidt will soon be leading an advisory board for the US military (WIRED). The former Google CEO, who also serves as a technology advisor to President Obama, will be advising the Department of Defense (DoD) on subjects including rapid prototyping, iterative product development, business analytics, mobile apps and the cloud. However, the DoD says that Schmidt's board will not be involved in discussing military operations and strategy.
Google has begun limited trials of its experimental Hands Free payments app, which lets users pay for items in shops without taking their phone out of their pocket (The Verge). A companion to Google's Android Pay service, which is itself rumoured to be coming to the UK at the end of this month, Hands Free uses Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi to detect whether you're near a participating store. When you come to pay, the idea is that you tell the cashier that "I'll pay with Google" and they'll check your identity using a photo on their screen. The service is currently being tested by retailers in San Francisco's Bay Area.


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SK Innovation Drops Most in a Year on U.S. Ban of EV Batteries
(Bloomberg) -- SK Innovation Co. had the biggest decline in almost a year in Seoul trading after the International Trade Commission ruled its electric-vehicle batteries will be banned from the U.S. for 10 years, giving bigger rival LG Energy Solution Co. a win.
Shares of SK Innovation, which supplies Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, dropped as much as 9.6% in early trading, the biggest intraday decline since March 2020. The stock traded down 6.6% at 277,000 won as of 9:15 a.m. in Seoul. Shares of LG Chem Ltd., the parent of LG Energy, gained as much as 5.2%.
“SK Innovation will ultimately have to reach some sort of an agreement with LG Energy,” said Lee Dong-wook, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities Co. in Seoul. “It has to consider the fact that it has supply agreements with customers and either way it has to meet those obligations. The focus will be on how big the settlement will be.”
U.S. agency ITC on Wednesday ruled in favor of LG Chem in an intellectual property dispute. The South Korean company is able to import components for four years for domestic battery production for Ford’s EV F-150 launching next year, and for Volkswagen’s American MEB line for two years, to give the automakers time to transition to new domestic suppliers, it said.
LG Energy said Thursday it expects to meet with SK Innovation soon to talk about a settlement, adding that any agreement will depend on how authentic SK Innovation’s proposal is. Korean markets opened Monday after the Lunar New Year break.
Seoul-based SK Innovation has said its first U.S. factory, being constructed in Georgia, is scheduled to begin operations later this year, though some of components will come from overseas.
LG Energy has accused SK Innovation of stealing its battery-making secrets. The ITC affirmed a judge’s decision that the import ban was the appropriate punishment for SK Innovation destroying evidence LG Chem said it needed to prove its case.
SK Innovation and the automakers can petition President Joe Biden to veto the import ban on public policy grounds. If the president doesn’t take any action, the order will take effect in 60 days. SK Innovation, which called the decision “regrettable,” has argued that its EV battery efforts are key to Biden’s green-energy agenda.
SK Innovation may consider appealing the ITC ruling after a thorough review, according to a statement Thursday. It also said that it’s willing to negotiate so long as conditions are reasonable.
LG Energy was set up in December after LG Chem split its battery business into a new entity and is seeking an initial public offering. The company has a factory in Holland, Michigan. General Motors Co. and the South Korean company are also planning a battery factory in Ohio for use in GM vehicles.
The two South Korean companies are competing for a bigger share of what’s expected to be a fast-growing market for batteries that power electric vehicles, putting the automakers in the middle.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.


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Fashion designer of the year 2020. Check out which styles are making a comeback. The best fashion trends of 2020 are actually throwbacks from the 60s 70s and 80s. The redress design award is the worlds largest sustainable fashion design competition organised by redress an environmental ngo that aims to reduce waste in the fashion industry. Meet the generation next class of 2020.
It was further learnt that the victim ayomide died of the injury he sustained when egharepbe attacked him on monday. And stay tuned for whats next. But when it comes revolutionising the industry and inspiring a whole generation of designers these 12 legendary fashion designers in the world in 2020 would always be mentioned as long as we talk trends and style. For the lost season series cut fashion critic at large cathy horyn has held numerous conversations with 13 leading designers about the future of fashion including marc jacobs demna gvasalia raf simons rei kawakubo nicolas ghesquiere and more.
Get ready to don some ruffles polka dots and colorful leather ensembles in 2020. Over the years many fashion designers have grown in stature and brand value. But when it comes revolutionising the industry and inspiring a whole generation of designers these 12 legendary fashion designers in the world in 2020 would always be mentioned as long as we talk trends and style. Maxwell was awarded the 2019 cfda award for womenswear designer of the year 2019 fgi fashion star award 2019 texas medal of art for design the 2018 woolmark new york semifinal prize award 2016 fashion group international rising star award for womenswear the 2016 cfda swarovski award for womenswear and was named a finalist for the 2016 lvmh prize.
Prizes for this years competition included a chance to design a ten piece womenswear collection for the r collective for the best womenswear prize a spot on vfs timberland global apparel design team for. The designers from last years inaugural generation next class. Over the years many fashion designers have grown in stature and brand value. American fashion designers 2020.
Sternberg took home two council of fashion designers of america cfda awards the industrys equivalent of the oscars.


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In the light of rising food prices and grains security concerns, Chinese regulators are starting to shift their position on genetically modified crops.
While more than two-thirds of Chinese cotton fields are planted with genetically modified strains, the government has not approved GM rice for commercial cultivation despite expectations that it would have done so several years ago.
However, the soaring price of grains and food in 2007, coupled with the nation’s increasing difficulty in maintaining arable farmland, is causing a change in attitude among bureaucrats. Ensuring China is self-sufficient in grain production is a high priority for the government.
‘I feel that over the next few years, things will move more quickly than in the last few years,’ said Huang Jikun, director for the centre for Chinese agricultural policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
‘They have changed their ideas because they see the usefulness of technology for maintaining grain security, raising rural incomes and other policy goals,’ Huang said. ‘High food prices are influencing government considerations. Of course, they want technology that can help lower food prices.’
Chinese officials have not indicated when they may approve GM rice for commercial cultivation. National research is also being undertaken to develop strains of genetically modified corn, while research on soy and wheat is less advanced. Research has focused on ‘first generation’ varieties – that is, crops with only one modification for pest resistance or herbicide tolerance.
Environmental News Network


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DES MOINES, Iowa — More restaurants in downtown Des Moines are offering lunch hours again after the pandemic shut them down.
Jessica Dunker, the President and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said that there are many factors contributing to more restaurants offering lunch hours, for starts more people back at the office.
“There are more people who are going back to the office on a regular basis and finding they like to be there and also finding that they’re doing that reconnection with their coworkers so they are celebrating and going out to lunch more,” Dunker said.
Dunker also said that lunch has become a more affordable option due to the rising cost of groceries.
“For the first time in a long time people are looking at the cost of groceries and the cost of restaurant food and the cost of groceries has gone up quite a bit but there’s a threshold for what a restaurant will charge,” Dunker said. “So there are a lot of people that are finding that lunch is actually a really affordable meal in restaurants.”
Warm weather is another contributing factor to restaurants deciding to offer full or partial lunch hours.
“The weather is getting nice so not only are people choosing to go out for lunch but they’re also looking for a patio, and patio season for restaurants is an all-day thing and so it’s really nice to have your patio open up for lunch,” Dunker said.
As always, restaurants are still in a hiring crunch to find workers to fill shifts. However, according to Dunker more age groups are entering the workforce.
“As we have continued to build our workforce up post-pandemic we are having to look at alternative workforce and some of it is young people in the state of Iowa and one of the surprises we found is that we are back to people who are 55+ choosing to come back and work in our industry again,” Dunker said. “Lunch is a great time for that if you’re doing a part-time job and looking for hours that are good for you those older workers do really like to come and work the lunch shift.”
Some of the downtown Des Moines restaurants that are now open for lunch:
- Eatery A
- Noah’s Ark
- Lucky Lotus
- Tupelo Honey
- Court Avenue Restaurant & Brewing Company


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We all know that Australia is experiencing a national egg shortage. Prices are rising and supermarket stocks are patchy. Supermarket giant Coles has reverted to COVID-19 conditions with a two-carton limit.
We became used to grocery shortages throughout the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. These were due to changes in buying patterns, stockpiling and panic-buying. Eggs were temporarily part of this, along with flour, as people at home got baking. Food delivery, food boxes and home cooking exploded for a time.
But with lockdowns long past, what’s causing this egg shortage now? More fundamentally, our current shortage reflects a long-term trend in egg-buying preferences, with a shift to free-range eggs - and their production is more affected by the colder, shorter days of winter.
Australians consume about 17 million eggs every day. In the 2020-21 financial year, egg farmers produced about 6.3 billion eggs. Of those, 52% were free-range. This compares to about 38% a decade ago. This growth, however, has not been consistent. Between 2012 and 2017, free-range eggs’ share of the market grew about 10 percentage points, to about 48%. Growth in the past five years has been half that.
But with more rapid growth predicted, and the promise of higher profits, many egg farmers invested heavily in increasing free-range production. In New South Wales, for example, total flock size peaked in 2017-18. Like many agricultural industries where farmers respond to price signals and predictions, this led to overproduction, leading to lower prices and profits. This in turn led to a 10% drop in egg production the next year.
Compliance costs also increased when in 2018 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission introduced rules to police the marketing of eggs as “free-range”. (These rules mean hens need to have “meaningful and regular access” to an outdoor range during the daylight hours of their laying cycle - with a maximum density of 10,000 hens per hectare).
Producing free-range eggs is more expensive not just because it requires more land. Free-range hens are less consistent layers. Hens kept in cages or barns are more regular producers because conditions are optimised to stimulate laying. Temperatures are constant, and hens are exposed to 16 hours of light every day.
Free-range hens are affected by hot or cold temperatures, wind and rain, and length of daylight. In winter months they have less energy and produce (on average) 20% fewer eggs than a chicken confined indoors in controlled conditions.
The egg industry is flexible and adaptable – but the confluence of economic and environmental events in 2022 has made things difficult. Increasing a laying flock takes about four months. An egg takes about three weeks to hatch. Under ideal conditions, chicks need another 17 weeks before they are ready to begin laying.
Any farmer who has begun this process in the past month will be producing more eggs by January 2023. (But then it will be summer, when they won’t need 20% more hens to make up for their winter slump.)
Feed costs, which typically represent 60-70% of layer production costs, have been increasing along with transport, electricity and interest rates. Weather forecasts foreshadowed a wetter August to October, with “more than double the normal chance of unusually high rainfall”. That meant less daylight and more cold along with rain. Blame the negative Indian Ocean dipole, not the chickens.
Come spring, with longer days and milder temperatures, along with an agricultural visa program, things should return to “normal”. For winter, consumers need to be willing to pay more to ensure a constant supply in winter months, or our shift to free-range eggs carries a higher likelihood of winter shortages.
We must do what we have done through every disruption in recent times: endure, adapt and prepare for the next crisis.Flavio Macau, Associate Dean - School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.


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GRI has opened a world-class facility for the manufacture of specialty tires in Sri Lanka. The facility which was formally opened with a grand event on January 25 will be the first factory i... Read more
Trelleborg’s factory in Sri Lanka was honored by the Sri Lankan government for its export achievements. Trelleborg Wheel Systems received the Presidential Export Award from the government in... Read more
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Wargaming News Looks at World of Tanks Blitz and World of Warships
Wargaming is excited to share a behind-the-scenes look at the making of World of Tanks Blitz, the company’s upcoming mobile MMO action game for smartphones and tablets. Gamers and fans can get a first look at gameplay footage and developer interviews in the latest episode of Wargaming TV News Block. World of Tanks Blitz is currently in pre-alpha stage.
In addition, video game industry legend and newbie to the Wargaming family, Chris Taylor, shares his thoughts on current happenings over at Gas Powered Games and what the future holds for their recent acquisition by Wargaming; while the World of Warships development team wraps up with stories of their expedition to study legendary US naval ships.
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Featured image: Gero Breloer/Associated Press
Construction of Giga Berlin is progressing rapidly and Germany-made Model Y will soon begin rolling off the assembly line. The German Chancellor and local authorities are confident that Tesla will receive final construction approval.
Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the way the Brandenburg state government is working on the Tesla factory as a positive example. “I'm pleased to see Brandenburg show with the Tesla Gigafactory that even under German law, and with available funding opportunities, you can get things done in an incredibly short time,” the chancellor said in an interview with RND.
As of now, official environmental approval has not yet been received, so Tesla is building based on preliminary partial approvals. The state government of Brandenburg, led by Prime Minister Dietmar Voidke, announced that there should be no special treatment for Tesla. However, he expects the project to develop as planned.
“As of now, I know of no problem that would stand in the way of the construction permit,” Woidke told Bloomberg News. “My assumption is that legally sound permission is possible here.”
At the moment, hearings are underway, during which around 400 objections to the construction of Giga Berlin were discussed. However, Merkel said that this is exactly what democracy looks like. “Protest and objection are part of the essence of democracy,” she said.
Merkel is sympathetic to the people who live near the under-construction Tesla plant. She said it was time for the locals to seriously think about what exactly this means to them. “For anyone who thought the Berlin suburb was ideal for living because there would never be industry, it is naturally wondered what that meant to them.” Nevertheless, Merkel stressed: "This is part of the fact that there are protests and appeals are being considered."
Since what is happening now is part of the normal democratic process, Merkel sees no major obstacles and expects the company to receive approval: "Overall, however, I see great approval."
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
We appreciate your readership! Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
About the Author
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.


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Noah Falstein was worried.
A veteran of the video game industry for 30-plus years, he made the rounds at developers like 3DO and DreamWorks Interactive before landing his current position at Google. But before all that, back at the beginning of his career, he worked at a small startup within a film company. He wanted to get a group of people to talk about it, but he wasn't sure how to frame it.
During the 80s, Falstein worked at what began as a scrappy subdivision of Lucasfilm called Lucasfilm Games. Throughout the next decade, it transformed into LucasArts, a development studio that survives in many gamers' memories as the developer of genre-defining titles. There were adventure games like the Monkey Island series and Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle. There were flight simulators like X-Wing and TIE Fighter and action games like the SNES Super Star Wars series.
Then, starting roughly in the early 2000s, LucasArts got quiet. There were some rumors and some remakes and a bona fide announcement of a third-person shooter called Star Wars 1313, but for a long time, there really wasn't much.
Then, in October 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm, Ltd. in a massive $4.05 billion deal. That agreement included LucasArts, and Disney representatives told Polygon at the time that it was "business as usual," for now. But by April 2013, LucasArts' fate was sealed: Disney closed the game development subsidiary and switched to a licensing model that, we learned in May 2013, gave Electronic Arts exclusive rights to Star Wars games.
As a game developer, LucasArts was no more, but as a font of good gaming memories from developers and gamers alike, LucasArts survived. In the wake of the closing, groups of former LucasArts developers paid tribute to the once-great studio.
Which brings us back to Noah Falstein, a former LucasArts employee who wanted to talk about his time at the studio but was worried that it somehow wouldn't come out right. Planned talks are typically called "postmortems," which both implies that something went wrong and that those speaking knew what went wrong. That's not what he wanted.
"We wanted to keep a positive note," Falstein told Polygon in a recent interview. "We realized that one of the dangers of a postmortem, even in the name, is focusing on what went wrong. And in fact, when you talk about an individual game in a postmortem, that's often one of the topics. But we have a lot of respect for our colleagues that were at LucasArts after us, in the latter days, and I wasn't there. In the last few years. I consulted with them on a game called Empire at War in about 2004, so I've had some experience with the company more recently, but none of us felt qualified to pick apart what went wrong. And it seemed kind of unfair to those guys. So as a way of wrapping it up, it felt better to us to focus on what went right 30 years ago, and could that work again in the future."
So next March, at GDC 2014, Falstein and five other former LucasArts employees will assemble to give a talk called "Classic Studio Postmortem: Lucasfilm Games." He and Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Peter Langston, Steve Arnold and Chip Morningstar will look back to celebrate their time at the studio. But they'll look forward, too, trying to figure out how the developers of today might be able to replicate the success that LucasArts once enjoyed by attempting to answer two questions: "What mix of creative and business forces shaped this early success story?" and "Could this kind of company be duplicated today?"
The panel's beginning started with LucasArts' closing.
"Right around last GDC, [Disney] shut down most of the production at the Presidio offices," Falstein said. "I think I can generalize and say that almost everybody who worked there over the many years that it was around felt that it was the end of an era, that even though there would still be production through Disney, it was now part of Disney and not that separate company that had created so many popular characters and story lines. That really prompted a group of us who were there in the very beginning to get together and reminisce about it."
After that, some former LucasArts employees gave a talk at PayPal that lasted 2.5 hours, much of which took the form of a Q&A session from curious audience members. Then the idea of a formalized talk began to take shape, and Falstein assumed leadership responsibilities.
The GDC panel will afford each member opportunities to discuss their challenges and successes at LucasArts or Lucasfilm Games, like Falstein's first big win at the developer, which came after a major year delay.
Lucasfilm Games' first two games, Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus!, were slated to be released on Atari systems, but when ownership changed hands at Atari, the two companies had to renegotiate their contracts. That meant a lot of waiting and deferred gratification. It wasn't until those games and a couple more were released that Falstein realized Lucasfilm Games' burgeoning success.
Do you do something besides games?
"We did get those games out, and we got a couple more out in very quick order, so by 1985 or so, we had four games out on the market," he said. "I went to I believe it was a Consumer Electronics Show. Before E3 that was the main way games were publicized at the big conferences. I was talking to somebody who came to our booth and played our games and thought there were great. He asked us how big was our company. We thought about it (I was there with, I think, David Fox) and said, 'Oh, I think we've got about 400 people.' His jaw dropped open.
"He said, 'Four hundred people? But you guys have only done a couple of games. Do you do something besides games?'
"We realized that he hadn't put it together that Lucasfilm Games was the same company that was Lucasfilm and Star Wars. When we mentioned it, he laughed and was like, 'Oh, I don't know how I never made that connection.'"
"It was a real milestone for us because it was our first indicator that there were people who were falling in love with the games not because, oh this is George Lucas and Star Wars, but that they just loved the games for their own sake."
"We're very confident getting up in front of an audience and improvising."
That's the kind of thing they want to discuss at GDC.
Their time at GDC will be more limited, so the talk will be more structured than the PayPal free-for-all. Between now and GDC 2014, the group will assemble and practice to ensure that their multiple perspectives coalesce. The group of former LucasArts employees, now older and wiser, has a plan. But that doesn't mean there won't be room to go off-script.
"We have some rehearsals planned between now and March," he said. "We will be trying refine our stories, so that we can present it in a little bit more coherent fashion at GDC. And the fact is that everybody who's going to be on that panel is going to be on that panel has done on that panel has done a lot of speaking. It's interesting. We were all so young and new at everything in 1984 and that era. But now, most of us have had many years of experience and presentation in the industry and a lot more gray hair, or a lot less hair — or some of both — so we're very confident getting up in front of an audience and improvising if we have to. Stuff like that works pretty well for us."


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Reliance Industries, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co and automaker Mahindra & Mahindra are amongst corporations which have submitted bids below the nation’s $2.4 billion battery scheme, two sources informed Reuters.
India final yr finalised an incentive program to encourage corporations to spend money on the native manufacturing of batteries because it seems to ascertain a home provide chain for clear transport and construct storage for renewable power.
Friday is the final day to submit technical bids. Softbank Group-backed Ola Electrical, engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro and battery makers Amara Raja and Exide have additionally submitted bids, the sources mentioned.
Not one of the corporations named by the sources instantly responded to requests for remark. India desires to ascertain a complete of fifty gigawatt hours (Gwh) of battery storage capability over 5 years, which it expects will appeal to direct funding of about $6 billion.
To qualify for the incentives, corporations should arrange a minimum of 5 Gwh of storage capability and meet sure native content material situations, all of which might require a minimal funding of greater than $850 million.
Round 10 corporations have submitted bids totalling near 100 Gwh, the sources mentioned. India was additionally encouraging world corporations reminiscent of Tesla Inc, Samsung, LG Power, Northvolt and Panasonic to take a position.
Clear auto know-how is a key a part of India’s technique for slicing air pollution in main cities and decreasing oil dependence. However electrical autos (EVs) presently make up a fraction of whole gross sales within the nation primarily attributable to their excessive worth as batteries are imported.
The South Asian nation desires electrical automobiles to make up 30 per cent of personal automotive gross sales by 2030 and for electrical bikes and scooters to make up 40 per cent of such gross sales, driving demand for batteries which presently contribute about 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the overall car price.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)