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Top designers for Abu Dhabi Fashion Week
Abu Dhabi, March 12, 2008
Many big names from the regional fashion industry will descend on Abu Dhabi for the inaugural 'Abu Dhabi Fashion Week' to be held at the Emirates Palace Hotel from March 15 to 18.
This event will reinforce Abu Dhabi’s fast-growing status as a ‘City of Fashion' – a status which will be endorsed by the presence of Missoni and Emilio Pucci alongside those of the top designers from across Arabia including Rabih Kayrouz (Lebanon), Aisha Desmal (UAE) and Amina Al Jassim (Saudi Arabia) during the event, said the organisers.
The inaugural Abu Dhabi Fashion Week will have the eyes of the global fashion industry firmly focused on it, with buyers and representatives of leading regional and international brands, retailers, fashion magazines and media expected to attend it.
Guests include: Vittorio Missoni, Albino D’Amato, Laudomia Pucci, Maria Luisa Trussardi, and Giuseppe Rossi (Calvin Klein). Regional and international buyers are also flying in, including those from Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue (US and KSA), along with key opinion makers from the fashion world such as the editors-in-chief of Vogue and of Elle magazines.
The Italian delegation will be led by president of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana Mario Boselli.
Top international runway models, hair and make-up technicians and fashion stylists are also being flown in to Abu Dhabi to this world-class festival of fashion.
Sponsored by Aldar, Mubadala, Etihad and Emirates Palace, the four-day event is the result of an alliance between Maven and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (the organisers of Milan Fashion Week) and is one of the initiatives being taken by Maven in Abu Dhabi to create a new value added hub for the fashion industry in the region.
It is a glamorous, business driven international event that is rapidly becoming a key focus point for the regional fashion industry.
“The work of Aldar is summed up by the phrase ‘Building the Nation’ and most of what we do is focused on creating world-class property developments such as Al Raha Beach and the Central Market,' said director of sales for Aldar, the foundation sponsor for the event, James Khazaei.
'But we also seek to support other initiatives, like the Abu Dhabi Fashion Week, that share our vision and ambition for the future of Abu Dhabi,” Khazaei added.- TradeArabia News Service
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A worsening smog cloud over Singapore and Indonesia caused by illegal forest fires has helped palm oil accelerate its outperformance relative to its main vegetable oil competition. Palm rallied 13% from 24 August to its mid-September peak, relative to a shallow decline in a US bean oil market still responding to a healthy domestic crush. Asian markets are fretting over the potential impact of the dense particulate haze in terms of reduced fruit sizes if photosynthetic growth stimulus is significantly impacted, with unhealthily high air particulate levels also likely to reduce plantation harvesting efforts.
Ironically, prices were already up substantially when India’s government announced a hike in domestic vegetable oil import taxes in response to a mounting outcry from domestic producers over lost market share to cheap overseas production. Indian taxes on crude palm and soybean oil imports have been raised from 7.5% to 12.5%, while imports on refined products made from the world’s two main sources of vegoil have gone up from 15% to 20%. The move will complicate Malaysia and Indonesia’s efforts to drain their palm oil stockpiles into their largest export market as Chinese buying continues to suffer from record soybean imports.
Indonesian palm oil exports remained strong till the end of August against a still struggling domestic demand pool hampered by Indonesia’s floundering biodiesel mandate, keeping overseas sales well above year-ago levels. The country’s exports of palm and kernel oils were essentially flat MoM in August at 2.1mn t, with exports to India down 17% MoM. Exports to India have declined MoM since peaking at 631,000t in April, with exports to China down every month since peaking in June at 429,000t. YtD Indonesia palm oil exports were still up 24% in the eight months to the end of August at 16.559mn t.

domain: news


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Just last week, Samsung took the wraps off its foldable phone at the Samsung Developer Conference. However apart from revealing the foldable display, not much else was known about the handset, such as launch date, pricing, specs, or the design, but a report out of Korea might have revealed some of those details.
According to a report from the Yonhap News Agency (via Android Police), it has been suggested that the phone could be launched in March 2019. For the most part this seems to corroborate what Samsung Mobile chief DJ Koh said at the event, which was that the phone could launch in the first half of 2019. It also corroborates an earlier report that indicated a Q2 2019 launch.
The handset is also expected to be part of a new lineup of phones dubbed the Galaxy F, and if the estimates are to be believed, it will cost close to $1,800, which once against “confirms” what we had previously heard. While it is pricey, we suppose it’s not that surprising either given that Samsung is said to only be producing about 1 million units.
We imagine that this is because Samsung is simply looking to test the waters, and also because of the new foldable screen technology, it has added to the overall price.
Filed in Samsung.. Read more about


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Help PMA grow | Petition forms | Site map | PMA main page
US Chile Free Trade Agreement deals blow to Brazil's Mercosur Vision
Bilateral trade negotiations between Chile and the United States have caused a foreign policy crisis in Brazil. Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso sees a bilateral free trade agreement between Chile and the United States as a threat to Mercosur, the South American customs union. Now that Chile is officially negotiating with Washington - and its neighbors are lobbying for similar accords - the Brazilian government has good reason to fear for the future of Mercosur.
This week's Mercosur summit, in the Brazilian city of Florianopolis, was supposed to be a triumphant occasion for the country's president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. After six months of negotiations between Mercosur and Chile, Cardoso and the presidents of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay were to officially approve Chile's application for full membership Dec.14-15.
However, last week's announcement that Chile and the United States officially have launched negotiations on a bilateral agreement dashed Brazil's expectations. Instead of celebrating Chile's entry into Mercosur, Cardoso will struggle this week to convince his colleagues the organization still has a future.
Created in 1991, Mercosur has a combined gross domestic product of nearly $1 trillion and a consumer market of 200 million people. It consists of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Chile and Bolivia have been associate members since 1996 and 1997, respectively.
To read the rest of this article, go to http://www.stratfor.com/home/giu/DAILY.asp#Since


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ININ Games has revealed that the upcoming Wonder Boy Collection is indeed launching on 3rd June. Containing four iconic Wonder Boy titles — Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy in Monster Land (both arcade), and two Mega Drive/Genesis titles Wonder in Monster World
Break out of obscurity
It's been a while since we've had any news on Breakers Collection, the compilation of three Neo Geo beat 'em ups that never saw light outside of Japan. The release has seen a fair few delays, but it did get an open beta last year. Now, Strictly Limited Games has announced that it will be releasing physical versions of...


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Services has raised debt finance of Rs 100 crore from a clutch of lecing of ` ading private sector banks to expand its fleet of trucks.
With this, the Gurugram-based startup has raised about Rs 400 crore from some of the country's largest private sector lenders, including Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, YES Bank and ICICI Bank, to finance the ramping up of its fleet.
Rivigo is also preparing to introduce new products, including a technology to automate its trucking operations.
“We have raised the debt to finance our assets. By the end of this month, we will have 2,100 trucks,“ chief executive Deepak Garg told ET. That would make Rivigo the largest buyer of trucks in the country .
“We have an ongoing credit line with the banks, and have also paid off a significant portion of the debt raised by us,“ Garg said.
The latest financing follows the $75 million the three-year-old company raised in equity funding from global private equity firm Warburg Pincus in November. It will use the proceeds from that, one of the largest sums raised by an Indian startup in 2016, to improve its technology and ramp up hiring, among other things.
Rivigo, founded by Garg and fellow McKinsey alumnus Gazal Kalra in 2014, has a fleet of 1,500 trucks. It is one of few startups that have been backed by the co untry's formal banking sector.
Unlike other startups that have emerged in recent years and are operating in the surface transport sector, such as BlackBuck, Rivigo does not have an asset-light model, given that it owns a fleet of trucks and has built an entire network of supply-chain and logistics infrastructure.
“Startups, typically , don't fall within the radar of banks when it comes to extending credit. However, we were asset-heavy right from the beginning. From their perspective, banks want to invest in new-age, technology-focussed companies. The Rivigo model is a bridge to that,“ Garg said.
The expansion in Rivigo's truck fleet comes at a time when sales of commercial vehicles in India are expected to recover.
“There has been a pickup in indust rial production, along with growth in infrastructure and construction, and we are seeing a positive growth in the commercial vehicles seg ment,“ said Darshini Kansara, rese arch analyst at CARE Ratings.
Rivigo is in the process of rolling out a number of new products, incluANDY WARHOL, Truck ding what Garg describes as a tech nology `engine' that will factor in ve hicle continuum data, driver data and sales forecasts to reduce ineffici encies by predicting quicker turna round times.
“We're calling it Apollo, which will automate our entire trucking opera tions. There will be no manual inter vention at all. Apollo will be able to maximise our asset utilisation,“ Garg said.
The company has also developed a technology to automate clients' con signment notes, which are waybills of goods transported across the co untry . It is also integrating its tech nology with its clients' enterprise re source planning software.
“Logistics in India is antiquated.
We have made it altogether live, in the form of a web portal right now, but which will be in the form of an app very soon,“ Garg said.


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The proof of a good toy is how soon a toddler begins sucking on it. But is that safe? A lab study by Centre for Science and Environment finds the softer the plastic toy the more harmful it is for the child
Three years ago we found pesticide residues in soft drinks exceed reasonable limits. Our case went to parliament which ruled standards must be set. We have conducted a nationwide study for pesticide content in soft drinks, and have found that soft drinks are still unsafe.


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NEW YORK, N.Y.–Merger and acquisition (M&A)activity in the transportation and logistics industry continued to improve in the first half of 2015, exceeding the 10 percent growth rate recorded in the first half of 2014, according to Intersections, a quarterly analysis of global deal activity in the transportation and logistics industry by PwCUS. Robust deal activity in the first half of this year drove gains of 15 percent in volume and 55 percent in value, compared to the same period last year, said the analysis.
In the second quarter of 2015, there were 61 announced transactions (worth $50 million or more) for a total value of $34.4 billion, compared to 59 deals worth $29.6 billion in the previous quarter and 56 deals totaling $23 billion in the same period last year. The first half of 2015 recorded 116 deals with a total value of $64 billion, easily exceeding the 101 transactions worth $40.8 billion in the first half of 2014.
“The first half of the year proved to be strong year for M&A activity in the transportation and logistics industry and deal value in the second quarter was the highest it has been in seven years,” said Jonathan Kletzel, U.S. transportation and logistics leader for PwC.
“Cross-border and service line expansion were key themes that drove the rationale for deals in the second quarter, particularly in advanced economies. We expect cross-border activity to continue through the end of the year as businesses look to gain access in new markets and the strong dollar gives investors opportunities for outbound deals.”
According to PwC, the increase in cross-border deals was primarily driven by corporate dealmakers seeking to gain a foothold in strategic markets to improve geographic reach and long-term growth. Strategic investors accounted for 56 percent of all deal activity in the quarter and 71 percent of cross-border transactions.
Megadeal activity (transactions worth more than $1 billion) was responsible for the substantial increase in deal value in the second quarter – with nine transactions totaling $23.6 billion or 69 percent of all deal value.
Trucking and logistics industries led second quarter deal activity, combining for more than half of the quarter’s deal volume (trucking – 28 percent, logistics – 23 percent). As predicted in PwC’s previous analysis, trucking deals remained of interest as larger companies continue to acquire smaller ones in order to increase market share while gaining capacity and talent. Of the nine megadeals in the quarter, the largest was a logistics transaction worth $4.8 billion and the trucking mode was also represented with three megadeals totaling $7.6 billion, said PwC.


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Qualcomm’s strong earnings report late Wednesday boosted the company’s shares nearly 4.5 percent Thursday in a down day for markets, with the San Diego company’s results driven in part by its technology lead in advanced smartphone chips.
The wireless technology company not only beat Wall Street’s analysts’ estimates for the quarter but also forecast significant growth in 2013. Revenue is expected to surge more than 20 percent to $23.5 billion. Earnings per share are forecast to grow roughly 13 percent to $4.22 – a surprise given fears about the global economy.
As Qualcomm’s shares rose Thursday, Bloomberg News reported that the company’s value exceeded chip giant Intel’s for the first time based on market capitalization.
By the time markets closed, however, Intel held a slight lead with a $103.6 billion market cap versus Qualcomm’s $103.3 billion.
The continued popularity of smartphones worldwide obviously is creating strong tailwinds for Qualcomm, while Intel has been hurt by softening demand for computers using its chips.
But analysts say Qualcomm’s growth also is being fueled by a technology advantage it has over other smart phone chip makers with its multi-mode 3G/4G modems used in popular handsets such as the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 and others.
“With many of Qualcomm’s competitors struggling to launch first generation (4G modem chips,) we believe Qualcomm has at least an 18 month lead on its competitors in terms of integrated 3G/4G solutions,” said Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, in a research note.
Early versions of 4G smartphones contained separate 3G and 4G modem chips. That way the phones could switch to 3G networks when a 4G network wasn’t available.
But this resulted in poor battery performance as the phones continually searched for the correct network. Qualcomm has made a chip with a combined 3G/4G modem, vastly improving battery life.
“We believe Qualcomm is the only supplier in the industry that has an optimized 3G+4G single-chip solution …. that can deliver 8-9 hours of battery life on a smartphone,” said Sterne Agee Analyst Vijay Rakesh in a research note.
Moreover, Qualcomm’s integrated modem chips support many different 3G/4G wireless technology flavors and frequency bands. So phone makers can manufacturer one device that works on diverse wireless operator networks.
“Qualcomm has clear technology leadership in 4G LTE,” wrote Craig Berger of FBR Capital Markets in a research note. “The firm has an excellent opportunity to benefit from the transition to 4G as more phones use 3G and 4G multi-mode radios.”
Berger added that the number of rivals making 3G/4G wireless radio chips is stagnant, with ST Ericsson, Intel, Broadcom and Marvell “as real competitors at this point.”
Qualcomm’s shares ended Thursday up $2.55 at $60.67 on the Nasdaq exchange.


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With the world's 10th-largest population, Japan would appear to be a fruitful place for retailers to find ready and able consumers. However, with a shrinking middle class and a slow-growing economy, competition between businesses has increased, leaving some retailers outside the corporate loop. As The Wall Street Journal reported today, Wendy's/Arby's Group
Says the Journal:
With 60 regular employees and 1,900 part-time workers, Wendy's Japan racked up sales of 6.2 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March. Despite posting a profit in the previous fiscal year, Zensho has decided to focus its resources on other businesses such as its Sukiya beef bowl chain.
This seems like good news for rival international food chains such as Yum! Brands
What do Fools think -- is Japan ripe for more American-style fast food, or will it favor a greater focus on regional cuisine? Would you invest in a Japanese retailer considering the country's economic problems and aging population? If you've got an opinion on any of these stocks, or Japan in general, drop a comment in the box below, or come join us on CAPS, absolutely free, to learn more about these and countless other interesting stock ideas.


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Western European cities were left trailing after the pure profit made on an average hotel room in the Russian capital rose to a dizzying 5,225 roubles (£101) in the first six months of 2007.
Moscow has transformed itself over the last 15 years from a drab Soviet Gotham to a glittering metropolis with huge skyscrapers, casinos and luxury apartment blocks. Shopping malls such as the Barvikha Luxury Village on the western outskirts of Moscow are dotted with elitny shops and boutiques.
In a sign of the times, Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president who tried to prop up Communism with his Perestroika reforms, announced last month that he would be starring in a new advertising campaign for Louis Vuitton.
Demand for luxury hotel rooms has rocketed while supply has slumped, largely due to the destruction of some old hotels such as the Rossiya, a 3,200-room riverside behemoth. The average price for a room in a five-star hotel has doubled to £360 in the last year. The average room rate went up by a third.
In its survey, TRI Hospitality Consulting found that London and Paris were well behind Moscow with £75 and £58 profit made on each room respectively. Berlin hotels brought in only a third of the Russian capital's profit, at £35.
Analysts said the profit margin reflected a squeeze on supply, high demand and the grotesque disparity between rich and poor. Russia has 53 billionaires while the average monthly salary is 13,800 roubles.
The survey found that hotels in Moscow spent about 20% of total revenue on salaries, compared with 38% in Paris.
Vitaly Kozlov, chief executive of the Russian Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers, said: "It's true that by world standards hotel staff in our country have very low wages."


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Email this article from PlasticsNews.com
Plastic Omnium to expand auto operations in India
MUMBAI, INDIA (Nov. 7, 2:30 p.m. ET) — Cie. Plastic Omnium SA of Levallois, France, plans to expand extensively in India. The company is planning an engineering center, a just-in-time assembly and sequencing plant, and an auto exteriors plant to cater to expanding auto hubs in various parts of the country.


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EMERYVILLE Calif. As part of a previously announced strategy to develop licensed products, Jamba Juice said Thursday it is lending its name to a line of frozen novelties, as well as a toy blender and ice pop maker aimed at kids. The smoothie chain’s parent, Jamba Inc., on Thursday announced the two new alliances with licensees in what the company described as the first of several planned licensing initiatives underway.The first, with Oregon Ice Cream, a Eugene, Ore.-based manufacturer ...
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Farmers' market prices being surveyed by University of Illinois Extension Service
URBANA - Prices at farmers' markets around the state are now being surveyed regularly by the University of Illinois Extension Service.
Eleven farmers' markets around Illinois will be surveyed as part of a three-state effort that includes Tennessee and Kentucky. The University of Kentucky Center of Crop Diversification will post the weekly price surveys on their website.
The surveys allow produce farmers to have information on what prices look like across the region. Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant, an Extension educator, said the price data should help farmers set prices at competitive levels.


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Microsoft is coming good on the promise of affordable Windows tablets. Since the company dropped the licensing fees for tablets with screen sizes under 9 inches, more and more models are popping up.
We already have information that Emdoor is gearing up to release a $100 tablet, and while the world is waiting for it to launch, a relatively unknown company has announced another such device.
KingSing has, up until now, only released a bunch of low end Android devices.
But the company is apparently ready to attract customers by launching a Windows tablet that will retail for an even more magic figure of $99.
Sure, it offers the bare minimum in terms of hardware specifications, but at the very least users will be able to access most of their apps like Word and Excel, and use them with a mouse and keyboard. And sometimes that is all that is necessary.
Anyway, the upcoming KingSing W8 comes with a 1.8GHz quad-core Intel Bay Trail processor that is paired with 1GB of RAM, which is pretty okay, all things considered.
You also get a 1200 by 800 pixels resolution on an 8-inch screen, with two cameras (a 5 megapixel back option and 2 megapixel front), along with the usual connectivity in the form of a microSD card, USB, a HDMI port and, obviously, WiFi.
Launch is expected in the coming weeks, in line with what Microsoft promised very recently.


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Commerce Department imposes tariffs on Chinese solar panels
Ideal Taxes Association
The solar industry is suffering from huge over-production glut worldwide due to the subsidies of the American solar panel industry by the US government and the subsidies of the Chinese solar panel industry by the Chinese government.
US Slaps High Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels
Solar Panels Trade Case Mocks Washington's Ways
US Solar Tariffs on Chinese Cells May Boost Prices


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HeavyConnect HeavyConnect was announced as a winner in the FDA's Traceability Challenge for their easy-to- adopt food safety management system. Company Founder & CEO Patrick Zelaya shared their enthusiasm for being a part of the FDA’s New Era of Food Safety Blueprint and working with producers of all sizes to simplify regulatory compliance.
Hummingbird Technologies is hiring. Get in touch with email@example.com to find out more. Hummingbird is an artificial intelligence business that provides advanced crop analysis to its customers by using proprietary machine learning algorithms applied to remote sensing captured imagery. Hummingbird generates variable rate fertilizer applications to increase the uniformity of plant sizes across the field before peak nitrogen uptake. These applications are delivered through side-dressers and allow growers to reduce nitrogen usage by up to 70 percent while increasing yield by up to 10 percent. Hummingbird has been working with selected partners in California and Mexico over the past year and is expanding its trials network for 2022. iFoodDS continues to enhance its comprehensive food supply chain platform for food safety, traceability and quality management. iFoodDS announces the coming release of a new Shelf Life Monitoring solution. Available as a standalone solution or bundled with iFoodDS’ Quality Insights solution, Shelf Life will help identify, manage, monitor and measure fresh food degradation and variability to improve freshness and reduce waste. The iFoodDS solution helps you ensure the consistency of the freshness and shelf-life of the produce you sell, leading to increased sales and customer satisfaction. Q4 has been very busy! Four hundred iTrade customers are currently participating in the Beta Program for its next-generation trading platform to be released in early 2022, and iTrade has added 60 new buying organizations to the platform for growers and suppliers to trade with. Also, OrderMaestro— a new procurement solution for foodservice operators—was released, as well as new capabilities for label-less traceability, incident alerts, food safety event impact analysis and recall management, which help suppliers instantly assess their exposure during an event as well as visually confirm the locations of their products across the supply chain via a set of insights dashboards and maps. Naïo Technologies is a winner of the 2022 World Ag Expo Top-10 New Product with its New Smart Autonomous Robot, which will be unveiled in Tulare, Calif. in February 2022. The robot offers a sustainable, serviceable and smart farming solution combining high-edge technology in robotics and AI. Naïo engineered a light electric and autonomous ag robot for sustainable reasons: no carbon emission, no chemical use. The autonomous high precision robot is dedicated to large-scale vegetable crops and is a sustainable alternative to the use of herbicides that respects soils, improves working conditions and collects data for smart farming. It can also carry any implement that growers are using at the back of the robot thanks to its three-point attachment. It’s Plug & Play! Rantizo’s turnkey system for in-field drone applications has now received a significant boost in productivity due to the use of a larger drone (the T-30). For reference, the tank size on the newest offering is triple the size of what was being using previously. Larger tanks mean more productive and cost-effective options for crop protection applications. As the first company approved to operate the T-30 in the U.S., this means Rantizo’s nationwide network of contractors now have the option to add larger drones to their fleet to service growers. Rantizo lists its value proposition as little-to-no crop damage when compared to conventional sprayers; major cost savings on inputs with spot-spraying capability; improved soil health due to no machinery-caused soil compaction; more versatility in application, less reliance on weather due to precise application; and an additional method of cover crop broadcast seeding. In September, FDA announced the 12 winners of its New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge, which was launched as part of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. There were 90 submissions. HeavyConnect’s External Link Disclaimer provides cloud-based digital traceability and compliance documentation solutions, including an intuitive mobile app that allows producers to capture traceability data in the field and seamlessly share it across the supply chain.
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2022
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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Apple has updated its professional video editing app Final Cut Pro X to version 10.4.6. The update brings full 64-bit support, a new feature that helps convert older formats and much more.
Mar 25, 2019 at 22:02
Tonight's episode of NBC's Tonight Show, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, was filmed entirely on Samsung's flagship smartphone the Galaxy S10+.
Mar 25, 2019 at 19:00
Camera Bits has released the long-awaited update to its photo ingestion software in the form of Photo Mechanic 6.
videoMar 25, 2019 at 16:23
SmugMug Films has shared its latest film, Streets in Mind, which takes a look at the life and work of London-based street photographer Alan Schaller.
Mar 25, 2019 at 13:00
We were in Japan earlier this month for the annual CP+ show in Yokohama, where we sat down with senior executives from several camera and lens manufacturers, among them Nikon.
camera newsMar 25, 2019 at 11:00
Sony has released firmware version 5.0 for its flagship mirrorless camera, the a9. The update brings AI-driven autofocus modes, an improved menu structure and other updates.
mobileMar 24, 2019 at 13:00
Night Sight, Portrait Mode and (surprisingly) wide-angle selfie mode are features that we're currently loving about the Pixel 3's camera.
Mar 23, 2019 at 21:12
The Auschwitz Museum has asked visitors to be more respectful after an upsurge of pictures posted on social media showing people posing on the train tracks that lead to the main gate.
Mar 22, 2019 at 18:54
Harvard is facing a lawsuit over profiting from 19th century daguerreotypes that captured the portrait of a slave and his daughter on a South Carolina plantation.
Mar 22, 2019 at 17:46
From the detailed textures in rural landscapes to the incredible lighting inside futuristic buildings, the photorealism of Unreal Engine 4 is blurring the lines between fiction and reality...you know...aside from the spaceship.
Mar 22, 2019 at 14:46
Facebook has sent out emails to affected users requesting they change their passwords following a discovery that over 20K Facebook employees had access to 600 million passwords.
videoMar 21, 2019 at 22:05
YouTube channel Photoshop Cafe has shared a video detailing ten tips and tricks you can do to both fix and speed up Photoshop when it's running slow and sluggish.
videoMar 21, 2019 at 18:06
It's not going to be the banger of the year, but it'll get a few laughs.
Mar 21, 2019 at 17:08
DJI has confirmed its drones won't be affected by the GPS 2019 week rollover.
Mar 21, 2019 at 16:07
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery has teamed up with Kodak to release a beer that's capable of doubling as a film developer.
Mar 20, 2019 at 20:51
Residents of a Paris street plagued by Instagrammers, selfie takers and music video crews are asking the city government for a weekend and evening ban to give them some peace.
Mar 20, 2019 at 17:59
The adapter plugs into the Osmo Pocket's USB Type-C port and features a 3.5mm TRS jack to plug in various external microphones.
mobileMar 20, 2019 at 14:25
Checkout allows Instagram users to select products for purchase and make payments directly in the app.
Mar 20, 2019 at 13:51
GauGAN as it's known, can create photorealistic images from basic drawings using the power of artificial intelligence.
Mar 19, 2019 at 22:11
Montana judge Dana L. Christensen has ruled the Republican National Committee did not infringe upon the copyright of photographer Erika Peterman after they took a photo from a Democratic candidate's Facebook page without permission and altered it to use in a derogatory promotional mailer.
Mar 19, 2019 at 18:20
Nikon has launched updates for three of its programs to address various bugs and glitches that could cause crashes and unwanted results.
Mar 19, 2019 at 15:40
LEE Filters has launched the LEE100, its next-generation filter holder that improves the design and looks in all the right places.
Mar 18, 2019 at 19:03
Importing, culling and tagging photos is about to get a whole lot faster and look a whole lot better with the impending arrival of Photo Mechanic 6.
Mar 18, 2019 at 18:38
On its own, the FTZ adapter retails for $250 and when bundled it dropped the cost to just $150. Now, Nikon is offering it for free with all Z6, Z7 purchases in the United States.
Mar 18, 2019 at 17:28
Profoto said it spoke with Godox back at Photokina 2018 and continues to contact Godox in an effort to stop it from marketing its V1 light.
mobileMar 18, 2019 at 16:13
Product renders in Italian publication Notebook Italia show an unusual design that conceals all cameras with the help of a slider mechanism.
Mar 18, 2019 at 15:15
Canon says its new EF 400mm F2.8L IS III and EF 600mm F4L IS III lenses can suffer from an intermittent flickering when shooting video in M or Av modes with certain cameras.
Leica recently announced the Q2, a digital rangefinder with a fixed 28mm F1.7 lens. It's a heck of a lot of fun to shoot with, but is it right for you? Based on our time with the camera, and its specifications, we've examined how well-suited it is for common photography use-cases.
Now that our Panasonic Lumix S1R has final firmware, we couldn't wait to get out shooting with it - and we also tried the high-res mode, which combines files to get 187 megapixel images. Because sometimes, 47 megapixels just isn't enough.
Mar 17, 2019 at 13:00
In this article, travel and landscape photographer Mitch Green encourages us to spend more time in the the field.
lens newsMar 16, 2019 at 16:37
the lens lacks any electronics whatsoever and is constructed entirely of glass and metal. Of course, that comes at the expense of weight — this thing weighs in at 1.1kg / 2.43lbs.
Mar 16, 2019 at 11:25
Hasselblad has released a new cable release and USB double battery charger for its X1D medium format camera .
Mar 16, 2019 at 00:22
After a report published by NBC News, Flickr has taken heat for allegedly letting IBM 'scrape' photos for use in its facial recognition datasets. But the problem isn't what it seems on the surface.
lens newsMar 15, 2019 at 20:51
Samyang has announced the impending arrival of the AF 85mm F1.4 FE lens for full-frame Sony cameras.
videoMar 15, 2019 at 19:27
Some Photoshop shortcuts are simple and obvious. Others, not so much. Here are 15 shortcuts that are actually useful.
mobileMar 15, 2019 at 16:50
Twitter has redesigned its in-app camera for easier access from the timeline screen.
lens newsMar 15, 2019 at 13:40
Independent cinema lens manufacturer SLR Magic has announced it will offer all of its existing MicroPrime range in the Fujifilm X mount and has even created a Fuji-specific 12mm lens.
Mar 15, 2019 at 12:00
We've updated our buying guides with three more cameras: the Canon EOS RP, Nikon Z6 and Olympus E-M1X.
Mar 14, 2019 at 19:56
CFexpress 2.0 cards will come in three different form factors, each of which will offer different maximum speeds.
lens newsMar 14, 2019 at 16:46
Lensbaby has added a third tilt lens to its Optic Swap system, this time a 35mm lens, adding to the existing 50mm and 80mm options.
lens newsMar 14, 2019 at 15:41
Sigma has released firmware updates for a number of its lenses as well as its EF-E adapter to address various errors and features with Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras.
Mar 14, 2019 at 13:00
We've added the Fujifilm X-T30 and Sony a6400 to our 'Best Cameras under $1000' buying guide. These two mirrorless models pack in a lot of features for just $900 body only.
Mar 13, 2019 at 20:27
Instagram, Facebook and other Facebook-owned services are down for users around the world.
Mar 13, 2019 at 18:49
Think Tank Photo has unveiled its new Vision series of shoulder bags, including the Vision 10, Vision 13 and Vision 15.
In other news
A fresh crop of ready-for-anything compacts has been added to our buying guide – just in time for Spring Break.
Mar 13, 201940
Firmware version 2.00 brings two new shooting modes and one new setting to its X-T100 and X-A5 camera systems.
Feb 14, 201917
Fujifilm has announced its upcoming rugged point-and-shoot, the FinePix XP140.
Feb 14, 201946
In addition to a new flashgun, Olympus has introduced new weather-resistant, wireless flash commander and receiver units.
Jan 24, 201929
Bloomberg shares the story of Meghan Young, an Instagram star, who makes a living traveling around capturing photos for agencies and companies from all over the world. And while it might seem like the dream career, Young says “My job is to make it look effortless, to look like it’s the most fun ever and it’s never a job [...] But it is a job.”
Nikon's IPTC Preset Manager, a tool for creating predetermined sets of metadata, has received an update. Version 1.1.0 no longer uses Microsoft Silverlight, sheds the network connection requirement, adds extended language support, updates support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, and ends support for Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Quitting Instagram: She’s one of the millions disillusioned with social media. But she also helped create it.
Bailey Richardson, one of the original 13 employees at Instagram, has deleted the app, saying it's lost its identity.
Tokina has listed an announcement on its website detailing an issue wherein the Canon Ef-mount version of the Opera 50mm F1/4 FF lens doesn't properly expose the image on Canon 1D X Mark II cameras.
Photographer Thomas Hawk explains why he believes Flickr's move to limit users to 1,000 on free accounts is the right move.
YouTuber Sean Tucker takes a detailed look at how Capture One renders Canon 5D III and Sony a7 III skin tones, and how to correct them when they look a little off.
A New York-based photographer known as Peter H. explains how he managed to have his $4,500 camera kit stolen after lending it out through the peer-to-peer photography gear lending service KitSplit.
Andrew from the YouTube channel Denae & Andrew dives into whether or not shallow depth-of-field is something photographers should always be striving for.
Trent Siggard rigged up his drone with an Instax camera to capture instant photos from the sky
Wedding photographer Steven Rooney explains how immersing yourself in the environment and putting yourself in the shoes of those you're shooting will yield powerful images that will be cherished for a lifetime.
TechCrunch writer Devin Coldewey dives into computational photography and what it means for the photographers and the camera industry going forward.
Nikon says firmware version 1.03 "Fixes an issue that in rare circumstances would delay the shutter release or the start of the autofocus operation."
Kodak Alaris is now shipping its new Ektachrome film products to global stock house dealers and distributors, the company announced on Tuesday.
Sep 27, 2018166
The new iPhones' wide-angle image sensor comes with more autofocus points than previous versions.
Phase One’s Capture One image editing and archiving software package will finally support Raw files created by Fujifilm cameras, including the GFX bodies, via a free bundled deal with the cameras.
Sep 27, 201894
Accessory manufacturer Manfrotto has launched a pair of carbon fiber tripods for videographers that it claims are 50% more rigid than their aluminum counterparts.
Sep 26, 201810
The Nicole Elliot by Blackrapid uses a wide pad to hug the shoulder and take pressure away from the neck, distributing weight more evenly.
Sep 26, 201863
Fujifilm released a firmware upgrade for its X-T3 mirrorless camera that addresses issues with distortion compensation and the mechanical lock on SD cards.
Sep 20, 201884
The app's algorithms have been trained using using 200 million cropping data points from real photographers.
Buried among the EOS R and new lenses, Canon also introduced its Speedlite EL-100, a lightweight flash which has a powerful range of 26m and the ability to serve as an optical transmitter or slave. It can also tilt and rotate, and weighs just 190 grams.
Sep 6, 201871
Despite the associated higher cost, by end of the year 60% of all smartphones sold are expected to feature a multi-camera module.
Amid its full-frame mirrorless announcements, Canon has also made room for some L-series lens updates, with new 400mm F2.8L and 600mm F4L super-tele primes.
Olloclip's Multi-Device Clip is designed to work with the company's Connect X line of interchangeable lenses and works with most smartphones.
Combined with AI-powered image identification, all media in OneDrive will be fully searchable by text.
Aug 29, 201822
Nikon will offer an FTZ adapter, allowing full compatibility with over 90 AF-S lenses and functionality with many more Nikkor F lenses. The adapter will sell for $250 starting September 27th; when purchased with a Z7 or Z6 before the end of the year, Nikon will offer $100 discount.
Aug 23, 2018126
The previously-announced 500mm F5.6E uses a Phase Fresnel design for a lighter and smaller body, and will arrive in September for $3600.
Tips or suggestions? Contact us!
Most popular cameras


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Menet Aero, a producer of tethered drone techniques, is shifting its headquarters again to southeastern Wisconsin with a brand new Oak Creek location.
The corporate introduced this week it’s establishing its new headquarters in Oak Creek at 440 W. Bell Courtroom and that it’s going to lease 38 acres of land in Mount Nice for drone subject testing and coaching. The testing web site is positioned on the finish of West Street, north of Washington Avenue. The corporate’s Oak Creek headquarters might be 8,000 sq. ft.
Menet Aero has 13 staff and plans to double its workforce by 2025. The corporate was based in Milwaukee in 2015 however moved its headquarters and operations to Ringwood, Illinois in 2021 after buying NTPWind Energy, Inc.
“We’re excited to name Wisconsin our new house,” stated Peter Menet, president and founding father of Menet Aero. “The worldwide marketplace for unmanned plane is experiencing vital progress. Wisconsin is well-known as an advantageous location for manufacturing precision merchandise like ours. The Oak Creek and Mount Nice operations will function a platform for not solely drone manufacturing, but in addition for analysis and testing associated to future merchandise and developments.”
Menet Aero manufactures tethered drone techniques utilized by clients in a wide range of market segments, together with army, safety and catastrophe restoration. These “fly by wire” techniques are able to fast deployment in high-stress conditions, similar to army fight zones and pure catastrophe areas, and assist a wide range of payloads for a spread of functions, together with telecommunications, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and reside broadcast video feed.
The Milwaukee 7, Wisconsin Financial Growth Corp. and Wisconsin Aerospace Companions all labored to draw Menet Aero to Wisconsin.
“Peter Menet and his group are constructing exactly the kind of high-growth firm we would like and may effectively assist in southeastern Wisconsin,” stated Jim Paetsch, M7 govt director. “Our area continues to be a hub for imagining and producing subtle merchandise in a variety of verticals.”


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Apple's anticipated iPhone 13 launch is rumored to take place at an upcoming product event this fall, but don't expect it to be a return to in-person events.
As noted in Bloomberg's Power On newsletter (via iMore), Mark Gurman believes the tech giant's next event will be "another promotional video" for fans to view on Apple's official website and on YouTube much like the preview WWDC 2021 event.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple switched to virtual events after its last in-person product launch in 2019. While many were expecting the tech giant to go back to the norm since Apple employees were set to be back in the office in September, this requirement has now been delayed.
Gurman states it would be "plausible" for Apple to ditch virtual events and return to in-person product launch events, but only if cases of infections were low. While the iPhone 13 announcement is now expected to be delivered the same way the iPhone 12 was revealed, this could be the last time we see a virtual Apple event.
What to expect at the next Apple event
Apple's next event is expected to take place this September, with reports indicating it will happen in the third week of the month. This suggests a September 21 showcase.
While the iPhone 13 is in the cards, many other Apple products could be announced. Another likely contender is the next-generation AirPods 3, which are reportedly going into mass production this August. The next Apple Watch 7 is also in the mix.
That's not all, as the highly anticipated 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are also rumored to hit the shelves this year. As usual, Apple is tight-lipped on any of its big product releases, so we won't know for sure until the big event.
Stay in the know with Laptop Mag
Get our in-depth reviews, helpful tips, great deals, and the biggest news stories delivered to your inbox.
Darragh Murphy is fascinated by all things bizarre, which usually leads to assorted coverage varying from washing machines designed for AirPods to the mischievous world of cyberattacks. Whether it's connecting Scar from The Lion King to two-factor authentication or turning his love for gadgets into a fabricated rap battle from 8 Mile, he believes there’s always a quirky spin to be made. With a Master’s degree in Magazine Journalism from The University of Sheffield, along with short stints at Kerrang! and Exposed Magazine, Darragh started his career writing about the tech industry at Time Out Dubai and ShortList Dubai, covering everything from the latest iPhone models and Huawei laptops to massive Esports events in the Middle East. Now, he can be found proudly diving into gaming, gadgets, and letting readers know the joys of docking stations for Laptop Mag.


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- Tether Operations Limited (“Tether”) has launched a Mexican Peso-pegged stablecoin called Tether MXNt (MXNT)
- The new fiat-pegged crypto joins Tether’s existing offering of Euro, US Dollar, and Chinese Yuan-pegged stablecoins
- The company has said that the launch of MXNT comes as a response to a growing rate of cryptocurrency users in Latin America
Tether MXN joins Euro, US dollar, and Chinese Yuan-pegged stablecoins
On Thursday, Tether Operations Limited, the company behind the leading stablecoin Tether (USDT), announced the launch of Tether MXNt (MXNT). According to the company’s press release, the new fiat-pegged stable digital currency was launched in response to a growing cryptocurrency usage across Latin America.
The new stablecoin joins Tether’s existing offering of fiat-pegged digital currencies, including the U.S. dollar-pegged USDT, the Euro-pegged EURT, and the offshore Chinese Yuan-pegged CNHT. It is worth noting that USDT sports by far the largest market cap out of the stablecoin trio – more than $80 billion at press time. EURT and CNHT collectively have a market cap of roughly $45 million.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino had this to say about the launch of the new stablecoin:
“Introducing a Peso-pegged stablecoin will provide a store of value for those in the emerging markets and in particular Mexico. MXN₮ can minimize volatility for those looking to convert their assets and investments from fiat to digital currencies.”
Ardoino added that the move to launch a Peso-based stable currency has been made apparent over the last year, due to a “rise in cryptocurrency usage” in the region. Countries like Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela are home to some of the largest populations of crypto owners according to the per capita numbers curated by Triple-A.


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On a typical day, one can find chef Max Wertheim behind the counter of the Alphabetical Comfort Kitchen & Food Truck at Budd Dairy Co. Food Hall, a Cameron Mitchell Restaurants chef-driven incubator with eight unique kitchens and revolving pop-ups, in Columbus.
The stall, which opened April 2021 with the food hall, has been in operation for about six years. Wertheim, who lives near Columbus’ South Side, has been involved for “four or five years,” and works as executive chef and general manager alongside owner Jordan Lamatrice.
“I wear a lot of hats because we’re a smaller operation,” Wertheim, 33, said. “I handle all of the day-to-day activity in the restaurant. I make all of the recipes, food ordering and all of the cleaning.”
Now a year into their residency at Budd Dairy Co. Food Hall, Wertheim categorized the experience as “crazy” for multiple reasons – the biggest of which was opening a brick-and-mortar location for the food truck amid a global pandemic.
“I expected growing from a food truck into a closer version of a brick and mortar with regular service hours,” he said. “I knew it was going to be crazy the first few months to a year but you can never truly be prepared for opening a restaurant.”
Wertheim, who has been cooking since he was 13 years old, first professionally got involved in food service at a local pool near his childhood home in University Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. He also spent time at an ice cream shop and a Chipotle, but found himself cooking a lot at home since his parents worked full time.
“As soon as I was old enough to use the stove and knives, I cooked,” he recalled. “My parents would leave instructions because they wouldn’t come home until 6 pm, so if I wanted to eat on time, I cooked for myself. Slowly, I asked for fewer and fewer instructions.”
Following graduation from Cleveland Heights High School, Wertheim spent a year in Israel and started school at The Ohio State University in Columbus in 2008. After moving for school, he never left Columbus.
“I tried my hand at a few different majors, including hospitality management,” he said. “It just wasn’t a perfect fit for me and I just wasn’t interested in the school work. I was more interested in being in the kitchen, so I transferred to Columbus State University’s culinary program.”
While at Ohio State, he worked at the campus Hillel within its kosher cafe and catering service.
“We arranged all types of events, from Reform to way more religious,” he said. “We catered Chabad events, stuff at Congregation Torat Emet (in Bexley), Congregation Ahavas Sholom (in Bexley) and other synagogues in Columbus. That was really where I did most of my learning. I worked there for a long time. I then got the chance to run a small cafe, so we did bagels and breakfast in the morning, burgers, chicken tenders, falafel at night and a catering company, in addition to feeding most of the Jewish kids on campus every Friday night for Shabbat .”
All of those experiences add up to a chef who loves what he does – making delicious food and serving people, Wertheim said.
“My favorite part sounds sily because I am a chef, but the cooking is my favorite part,” he said. “As you move deeper in the cooking world and advance yourself, you find yourself spending less and less time in the kitchen. But, the creativity that comes with cooking, creating recipes – and feeding a ton of people. There is something about it that if I can feed 200 people a day, I know they had something good to eat.”


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Following updated guidance from the Scottish Government that garden centres may open, the UK’s leading garden centre retailer, Dobbies Garden Centres, will reopen its Ayr store on Monday 5 April.
The safety of team members and customers remains Dobbies’ number one priority and social distancing measures are already in place to allow the store to operate safely. The restaurant will remain temporarily closed.
Graeme Jenkins, CEO of Dobbies, said: “We welcome this updated guidance from the Scottish Government, enabling us to reopen our stores, including the Ayr store. The safety of our team members and customers remains Dobbies’ number one priority.
“Spring is the time when people want to get back out into their gardens, and with proven health and wellbeing benefits, reopening in Scotland is a positive development.”
As the Ayr store reopens, Foxglove is predicted to be popular with local customers, with Dahlias the most popular plant in store in 2020. With houseplants, Succulents are predicted to be popular this season.
The store will be open 09:00 to 18:00, Monday to Sunday.
For the full list of Dobbies stores visit dobbies.com


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Tokyo(CNN Business) A robot that can discover the clothing regardless of whether you’ve moved it could give Japan’s startup scene a truly necessary jolt.
Favored Networks fellow benefactor Daisuke Okanohara says his organization’s man-made reasoning programming empowers the Human Support Robot to respond to changes in its condition in extraordinary ways. It wasn’t generally along these lines. The third greatest economy all around was previously a pioneer when it came to problematic, imaginative technology. All things considered, this was the nation that gave the world pocket adding machines, the Sony Walkman, and LED lights. In any case, Japan has since fallen a long way behind in the development race.
The technology is a wellspring of pride for the Tokyo-based firm, which is worth generally $2 billion, as indicated by CB Insights. That sort of valuation is uncommon for a Japanese startup. While the United States and China have seen the ascent of many unicorns — private tech organizations worth in any event $1 billion — Japan has only three.
Japan is a country of innovators. However, it hasn’t recently given us robots, workstations, and dependable vehicles – it likewise has a colossal impact on mainstream society. Here are only a portion of the Japanese innovations that have changed the manner in which we live.
The Oxford Dictionaries named “selfie” as an expression of the year in 2013, yet the selfie stick has, in truth, been around any longer. The date and spot of the first selfie stick is an argumentative issue. However, the primarily protected selfie stick initially called the “extender stick,” was made in Japan by Hiroshi Ueda and Yujiro Mima during the 1980s.


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Online retail gets sales bump
NEW YORK --- Like their counterparts at the malls, online merchants finally got some relief with the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, spurred by deals and free shipping offers. But the stronger-than-expected bump in online sales Monday couldn't cancel out a lackluster November.
Internet research company comScore Inc. said Wednesday that online sales spiked 15 percent to $846 million on "Cyber Monday," which was named by the National Retail Federation in 2005 to describe the surge in online spending when customers returned to work after Thanksgiving and shopped from their desks.
Nielsen Online, a service of the Nielsen Co., reported a 10 percent increase in traffic to online shopping sites Monday, fueled by beauty items, toys and video games.
According to comScore, the four-day period from Friday through Monday saw e-commerce spending jump 13 percent as both weekend days and Monday all posted double-digit gains.
From Nov. 1 through Dec. 1, however, online spending fell 2 percent. Still, comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni described the big boost as "extremely encouraging." ComScore forecasts that online spending for the holidays will be unchanged from last year, when sales rose 19 percent from 2006.


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As the U.K. decides this week whether to extend the Brexit deadline to April 12 or May 22, as conditionally permitted by the EU, the implications of its exit on data privacy should become clearer.
Prime Minister Theresa May was offered a delay to Brexit until May 22 if members of Parliament pass her withdrawal agreement in a third vote in the House of Commons. However, if MPs vote down the agreement again, the EU has said Britain has until April 12 to set out its next steps or face leaving without a deal. Without a change in the law, the U.K. is still set to leave the bloc at 11 p.m. local time March 29.
Standards for the protection of consumer data have been harmonized across Europe by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.
The European Data Protection Board has previously issued guidance on which rules would govern the transfer of data to the U.K. in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Advice from the French data privacy regulator CNIL followed.
The EDPB suggested a five-step plan for organizations transferring data to the U.K. to prepare for a no-deal scenario, including deciding which transfer instrument will be used and updating their privacy notice to inform individuals. One such instrument is including "standard and ad hoc data protection clauses" in contracts.
Even if a deal is reached, it could be some time before businesses get complete clarity on data protection rules. Europe's data protection supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, told the Financial Times (London) in February that it could be "years" before the U.K reaches an agreement with the EU on the issue.
Separately, a decision on the timing of Brexit should allow the U.K's Competition and Markets Authority to progress its investigation into Facebook Inc. U.K. parliamentary committees have asked the CMA to probe the company's use of personal data in advertising. CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said it was looking at how it can work with the EU on any investigation before proceeding, according to a Reuters report.
Meanwhile, TV networks have been preparing themselves for a no-deal by applying for licenses in European countries that are not the U.K. AMC Networks International, for example, looked at acquiring a license in Madrid, Spain, to ensure that it could continue distributing its channels across Europe, Broadband TV News reported.
|March 26|| |
The European Parliament will debate and vote on a provisional agreement on copyright rules for the internet. It is part of the EU's wider efforts to modernize copyright law so it is "fit for the digital age."
|March 26||The EP will vote on rules for the online sale of goods. The new legislation is aimed at better protecting consumers who download music, apps, games or purchase cloud services.|
|March 29||The U.K. is due to exit the European Union on Friday. However, this could be pushed back to April 12 or May 22.|
|March 27|| |
The European Economic and Social Committee will host European Consumer Day 2019 in Brussels. The event will focus on the role of technology, particularly that of social media, in driving consumption patterns.
|March 28|| |
The European Venture Debt Summit in Luxembourg will bring together investment portfolio companies, financial advisers, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank. The bank's venture debt financing product is aimed at early-stage, highly innovative European companies.
Stories of note:
Brexit: What to expect as UK hurtles toward deadline
After a record 2018, questions ahead for big tech on big stock buybacks
Broadcom seeking strategic acquisitions to diversify revenue sources
Analysis: Disney to pursue Netflix-like usability with new streaming service


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A U.K. retailer may have outed the possible specs and pricing of Microsoft's expected Surface Pro LTE devices.
Engineers from the University of Glasgow have uncovered a new form of high-resolution image printing that could be used for data storage and digital imaging, in particular for anti-counterfeiting measures in banknotes.
The chief trust officer of Unisys explains what business leaders and technologists need to know about next-generation network security practices. Read carefully to protect your organization.
Microsoft is rolling out new secure enclave technology for protecting data in use.
As Windows 10 enters its third year, Microsoft has slowed its pace for delivering feature updates. That's a big change from its first two years, and Windows users are seeing the payoff.
You can have your augmented reality and a more human sounding Siri. The killer app in iOS 11 is its Files app, the iOS equivalent to the macOS Finder.
HPE is partnering with PWC to trial new smart city solutions in India. Nigel Upton, GM of HPE's IOT platform, explains the advantages of working in an emerging market.


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Chow Tai Fook is launching its own diamond certificates based on artificial intelligence, using a new grading scale featuring numbers instead of letters.
The Chow Tai Fook AI Diamond Grading Certificate will be available for stones weighing 0.30 carats or less through T Mark, the retailer’s diamond brand focused on traceability, the company said Monday [November 2]. The reports — which it developed together with Goldway Technology — will be available initially in the jeweler’s Hong Kong stores, and will later move into mainland China.
Grades will appear as a set of numeric values, enabling customers to “understand clearly” the diamond’s quality, Chow Tai Fook added. It will provide more details on the reports at a later stage, a spokesperson said.
The new documents will not apply to T Mark diamonds above 0.30 carats, for which Chow Tai Fook will continue to offer reports from the Gemological Institute of America. Until now, the company has not offered grading certificates for 0.30-carat diamonds and below.
Photos © T Mark, Chow Tai Fook.


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- DDR Music Composer Naoki Maeda
has announced today that DanceDanceRevolution is coming to PS3 complete with PlayStation Move support, and those who wish to check out a demo can do so today in LA.
To quote: My name is Naoki Maeda, and I'm the Music Composer and one of the creators of DanceDanceRevolution! If you're not familiar with DanceDanceRevolution
, it's the cult favorite arcade game and pioneering dance game that started it all!
If you followed the franchise, you know that we've been a part of the PlayStation family for years now. In fact, we recently teamed with the SCEA and the state of West Virginia to bring DanceDanceRevolution with the PlayStation 2, to all of the public schools in the state of West Virginia.
This program, designed to combat childhood obesity, was a big hit – with Governor Joe Manchin praising it
and Michelle Obama
even stating President Obama
With each year and each iteration of DanceDanceRevolution
, we work to bring new and fun challenges to players – which leads us to today, where I'm happy to announce DanceDanceRevolution...


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Veridium, a biometric identity startup, has closed its Series B funding round on $16.5m.
The financing round was led by UK entrepreneur and philanthropist, Michael Spencer, with participation from Citrix Systems and financial services executive and investor Michael Powell.
Based in Quincy, Massachusetts, Veridium said it will use the capital to accelerate the product development for its authentication platform using a suite of biometrics including face, fingerprint, and behavioral. To meet customer demand, the company also plans to scale its sales and marketing infrastructure across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
As part of the deal, Spencer, who is the group CEO of NEX Group, which is, will be joining Veridium’s board of directors along with Michael Powell and Citrix.
“In today’s digital age, global organizations are challenged to secure their most critical assets against advanced threats in a way that’s both convenient and secure,” said Spencer. “Veridium is unique in the industry because it provides organizations an enterprise-ready authentication solution to address those problems with the adoption of biometrics – while increasing security and convenience.”
Veridium’s mission is to transform authentication within identity access management through a complete software-only biometrics platform. Its technology enables users to replace passwords, tokens, OTPs or swipe cards with multiple biometrics from their smart phone, including: native device sensors such as face and fingerprint, and Veridium’s 4 Fingers TouchlessID.
For enhanced security, the platform uses visual cryptography to store biometric data between the mobile device and server.
With customers across the globe spanning multiple industries, Veridium recently added several of the world’s largest financial services organisations to its client roster. In May, the company announced that a multinational Swiss bank had selected Veridium to replace passwords, tokens and swipe cards, validating the need for stronger more user-friendly authentication processes.
“We are delighted to have the support of Michael Spencer, Michael Powell and Citrix to continue our journey to build best-in-class biometric authentication solutions,” said James Stickland, CEO, Veridium. “With the financing, we’re committed to continue driving innovation of our biometric authentication solutions while driving global scalability to meet customer needs.”
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst


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- ForbesMar 23 6:05 AM
A Series of Forbes Insights Profiles of Thought Leaders Changing the Business Landscape: Charlene Li, founder and CEO, Altimeter Group.
- Knowledge at WhartonMar 30 11:20 AM
In bestselling author Charlene Li’s new book, she challenges leaders to use social technologies to connect with their customers and employees.
- TechRepublic via Yahoo! NewsApr 13 4:30 AM
The world's largest professional social network bought an established purveyor of job training videos for $1.5 billion. Here's why the tech crowd should pay attention.
- CBS NewsApr 08 17:40 PM
The former social media giant is seeing explosive growth; now its two biggest hurdles are Facebook and its own reputation
- PRWebMar 24 6:12 AM
Bibliomotion, Inc. is thrilled to annouce the release of 'Marketing Above the Noise' by Linda J. Popky. (PRWeb March 24, 2015) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/03/prweb12602368.htm
- related to "charlene li"


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It’s 10 years since the Electronics Innovation and Growth Team published its report on the future of the UK’s electronics sector, concluding the industry was fragmented, lacking in confidence and essentially invisible.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and the world is a much different place. We have seen the establishment of the Electronics Leadership Council and its demise, the establishment of the UK Electronics Alliance and, more recently, its replacement by the Electronics Systems Community, or ESCO.
ESCO was launched with a flourish two years ago, with a report – ‘A Blueprint for Economic Growth’ – based on extensive research into a number of areas. The report pointed out the value of electronics to the UK’s economy; not just in numbers, but also in terms of its pervasiveness.
To read more, click here here
To see Ian Phillip’s video presentation of the latest ESCO analysis, click here
To see the full analysis, go to ESCO Economic Calculations 14 vs 12 6 july 2015


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SEOUL—South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday that it filed a patent-infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Japanese electronics maker Sony last week, asking the U.S. trade watchdog to block Sony from selling some high-margin televisions and game consoles.
The South Korean electronics maker also filed another two lawsuits with a U.S. court in southern California against its Japanese rival for violating its patent rights over electronics devices, including TVs, personal computers and cameras, LG Electronics spokeswoman Im Seye said.
Walmart 4th of July Rollbacks - Best deals on top picks
- Best Buy:
Save 15% or more on the Best Buy deal of the Day
- The Home Depot:
4th of July Sale: 43% off marble double trough sink vanity
Wayfair 4th of July Sale: Best deals of the season
Nike Independence Day Savings: Up to 60% off hot summer gear
- Dick's Sporting Goods:
10% off sitewide - Dick's Sporting Goods coupons


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LATEST versions of Ford's legendary Mustang have only been available for a matter of weeks, but the company has already announced a range of upgrades which the company says will enhance both performance and the driving experience.
The new active valve performance exhaust technology - previously announced for Mustang 5.0-litre V8 models - will now also be fitted on the 2.3-litre EcoBoost model enabling drivers to adjust the intensity of their vehicle's exhaust note to suit their mood and the driving scenario.
The system allows drivers to select so-called Quiet Mode to automatically limit the exhaust's noise output at pre-programmed times of the day to avoid disturbing neighbours.
The V8 model, meanwhile, gets quad-tailpipes and the rev-matching technology which was first unveiled for the exclusive Bullitt special edition. The technology helps deliver smoother downshifts on versions fitted with six-speed manual transmission, accompanied by a sporty "blip" of the 450PS engine.
Available as an option is a new B&O PLAY premium audio system which has been customized around the new Mustang's interior environment.
The system delivers a massive 1000 watts of power through 12 high performance speakers, including a subwoofer. No quiet mode there then.


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Huge X-ray laser paves way for faster data storage March 7, 2014 at 3:57 pm
A new study uses specialized materials and the world’s most powerful X-ray laser to record magnetic switch-times up to a thousand times faster than modern storage.
The 5 top tech cars of the 2014 Geneva Motor Show March 7, 2014 at 11:58 am
Volvo Concept Estate is the next XC-90 SUV. Mercedes’ S-Class coupe banks into turns (but you have to turn to a bank).
Turbo trouble: AMD’s Dual Graphics is bugged, introduces game-breaking frame stutter March 7, 2014 at 9:40 am
AMD’s new Kaveri has a performance issue that can hurt the chip’s gaming results in certain configurations — and the cause is less than clear.
How to download and install Windows 8.1 Update 1 for free (right now) March 7, 2014 at 8:18 am
If you want to download Windows 8.1 Update 1 for free, ahead of its official launch on April 8, you’re in luck! Just follow these simple instructions…
Magnetic materials could make future computers 1,000 times more efficient March 7, 2014 at 6:23 am
A new technology being developed at UCLA could cool off your toasty processor. Don’t throw away that heatsink just yet, though. This is a completely new approach to integrated circuit design.
Bitcoin founder unmasked (Updated: Nakamoto denies being involved with Bitcoin in any way) March 6, 2014 at 8:04 pm
An enterprising, determined reporter has tracked down the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mastermind and original developer of Bitcoin — but did we really need to know, and should he have been outed?
ET deals: Dell XPS 8700 desktop with GeForce GT 635 for $615 March 6, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Desktops have always delivered better bang-for-your-buck than laptops, but they’ve always offered the best value in higher powered multimedia and gaming rigs. With much more space for cooling it’s just easier to plug in faster chips and GPUs, plus given the odds that you want to own a larger high quality display there’s no reason…
How Big Business builds license plate databases that track your every move March 6, 2014 at 1:48 pm
A new report today highlights the degree to which data collection companies are tracking the movements of Americans through ubiquitous deployment of license plate scanners.
60,000 miles up: Space elevator could be built by 2035, says new study March 6, 2014 at 12:15 pm
A new international report lays out the challenges to building Earth’s next great mega-project — and they’re more surmountable than you think.
Nvidia’s mobile Maxwell GPU is a monster, beating all current AMD and NV graphics cards by a huge margin March 6, 2014 at 10:45 am
Details on Nvidia’s GTX 860M have leaked ahead of its launch and performance looks amazing. The long-term implications for handheld and laptop gaming are significant.
- Is this a search company?
- Sony claims PS4 is 43 times more powerful than the PS2
- 1TB per disc: Sony and Panasonic team up on next-gen Blu-ray
- MH370: How can we track a smartphone anywhere on Earth, but a giant plane can go missing?
- NASA is being forced by the US government to fly a mission to Europa


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Bank accounts associated with a suspended KZN National Lottery Commission (NLC) official, Sibonelo Vilakazi, his wife Nosipho Zanele Zuma, and their company, 05 ZZET Enterprises (Pty) Ltd, have been frozen due to suspicious payments exceeding R32-million. These payments were made by over 400 grassroots organisations, such as daycare centres and football clubs, receiving lottery grant money.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been actively investigating these transactions after receiving an alert from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). The Special Tribunal has granted a preservation order against 05 ZZET Enterprises (Pty) Ltd prohibiting any dealings with the funds in the frozen accounts.
Investigations have revealed that these non-profit organisations, after obtaining funding from the NLC, would transfer large sums into ZZET’s bank account and other accounts linked to Zuma and Vilakazi. The transferred sums in some cases amounted to as much as 90% of the grants received from the NLC. The transactions were marked for items such as sports equipment or apparel and were executed by EFT, cash deposits, or internet transfers.
The SIU stated that the funds were intended to improve the conditions of ordinary South Africans but instead were diverted into personal bank accounts for self-enrichment. Currently, around R2.4-million is in the frozen accounts, and it remains unclear where the remaining R30-million has gone.
In August, the accounts were briefly unfrozen due to lack of a court order authorising the freezing but were later re-frozen after the SIU appealed. The SIU has approached the Special Tribunal to vary its order so that it is not contingent on any other court process.


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Project Santa Cruz is a new standalone headset from Oculus, makers of the well-known Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset.
Alright, the headset isn’t actually new. Facebook first announced it was working on Project Santa Cruz, which doesn’t require a PC or phone to operate, during last year’s Oculus Connect developers conference.
At this year’s Connect conference, however, we were treated to a far more refined prototype. What’s more, we have a release time frame for developers of early 2018.
We got to try the latest Project Santa Cruz prototype for ourselves during this year’s Connect in San Jose, California. No photos or video were allowed, so we can’t show you what the headset in its current form looks like exactly, but we got 15 minutes to experience the VR offered by Santa Cruz. From our short time with the headset, it looks mighty promising.
Read full post here:


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Woolworths has rejected claims it has changed the name of Anzac biscuits following outrage on social media following a recent recipe appearing in one of its catalogues.
Several posts across Facebook and Twitter suggested the supermarket giant had ditched the word Anzac from its biscuits, with customers accusing Woolworths of succumbing to "cancel culture".
In a recent catalogue in the build up to Anzac Day, the supermarket featured a recipe for Golden Oat Biscuits, strikingly similar to Anzac biscuits.
"Woolworths in their woke wisdom has changed the name of Anzac biscuits calling them golden oats because it may insult some people," one person claimed.
Another shopper claimed not calling the biscuits Anzac biscuits was "disgusting and a slap in the face for our Anzacs". They vowed never to shop at the supermarket again.
Woolworths clarifies recipe's name
However a spokesperson for the supermarket told Yahoo News Australia the biscuits were not called Anzac Day biscuits to respect the strict guidelines issued by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
"The Department of Veterans' Affairs has strict regulations around the word Anzac and how it can be used on products or in marketing," they said.
“We didn’t have the relevant approvals to use the term for this particular recipe placement in the catalogue and wanted to ensure we respected the regulations."
Companies must seek approval from the department before using the word Anzac in products, a step Woolworths did not pursue in this particular incident.
The Golden Oat Biscuits recipe has featured in previous catalogues, Yahoo News Australia understands.
The spokesperson reiterated Anzac biscuits, which had been approved for sale, were still available to purchase in store, and sales helped raise funds for veterans and their families.
A Department of Veterans' Affairs spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia while it could not comment on whether recipes would or would not be approved, the department "takes seriously its role protecting this part of Australia’s history".
"Many variations to the recipe exist and DVA does not mandate an ‘official’ Anzac biscuit recipe, rather a generally accepted recipe," they said.
According to a recipe published by the department in 2014, its ingredients are the same as featured in the Woolworths recipe, however with varying measures.
"The use of the word ‘Anzac’ in the commercial production and sale of Anzac biscuits is usually approved, however the biscuits must not substantially deviate from the generally accepted recipe and shape, and must be referred to as 'Anzac Biscuits," department guidelines state.
The biscuits must not be called cookies and must avoid any additions such as chocolate chips.
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Five big changes coming to businesses near you
BIG changes are in the works for many of Warwick's small businesses, with easing coronavirus restrictions paving the way for new ideas, incentives, and even premises.
Below, we've rounded up five of the biggest changes in the pipeline for Warwick businesses and the wider community.
Food court's grand reopening
The forced closure of Rose City Shoppingworld's food court under coronavirus restrictions has finally come to an end, with customers able to dine in at the eateries from July 10.
The shopping centre's marketing manager Louise de Lissa said the reopening would prove a huge relief for patrons and businesses alike, though it will remain capped to 100 patrons at a time.
"It will be good because people can actually buy their food, then sit down and eat it, rather than having to go and sit elsewhere.
"I think the stores deserve a big pat on the back actually, because they've put up with quite a bit over the last few months but have really tackled it and stayed open throughout the COVID crisis."
Additional seating will be added at the other end of the centre to allow those eateries' customers to dine in as well.
Warwick's next coffee shop
Another cafe could be set to join the Warwick ranks, with a coffee shop space opening up in Rose City Shoppingworld.
While marketing manager Ms de Lissa was unable to confirm what kind of store would take up the lease due to legal obligations, she said all of the centre's eateries and their loyal customers will benefit from the centre's newest incentive.
"We're launching a loyalty dining card for the month of July, to promote the whole centre," she said.
"It's really easy - once you spend $10 at any of the centre's eateries you get a stamp on the card, and once you get six stamps you go into the draw totalling over $2,000."
Participating stores include Donut King, Subway, The Carvery, Red Rooster, Warwick Sushi, Honeydew cafe, Country Bourne Bakery, Pickle and Must Deli, and Go Vita.
The Dutch Touch expands
The Dutch Touch Bowen and Emmett Therapy has not only moved premises, but will also soon be providing a new range of beauty services for the Warwick community.
Owner Martine van der Linden said the move to 70 Palmerin St had been one of her business' busiest periods, but the benefits for clients made it worth the effort.
"Before I had a lot of clients who couldn't walk up the stairs to come and see me, so they obviously wouldn't come in," Ms van der Linden said.
"Now, I have a lot of people who have been able to just walk in and I can give them the help they need."
The physical therapist added that she planned to spend the next month becoming practiced and qualified in henna tattooing, eyelash extensions, and body sculpting.
"I wasn't expecting to get so many clients so soon after the move, but even then I'm going to use any time up my sleeve to practice," Ms van der Linden said.
"Just a few little things to do that will better service my clients."
Cafe's latest venture
Local mainstay Warwick's Gardens Galore is another business with a new venture in the pipeline.
The cafe and nursery has a new area under construction at the back of their premises, with their social media posts hinting at a potential gelato shop and new night-trading hours by the end of the year.
While the owners weren't available for further comment on the nature of the new extension, they asked the community to "stay tuned" for more news of their latest development.
Supercheap Auto's potential move
Supercheap Auto Warwick's lease expiry next January has led to strong speculation that the retailer will take up residence at the site currently under construction on the corner of Fitzroy and Albion St.
The new development was bought up by Brisbane investor John Kearney in 2016, though neither he nor the retail chain's representatives have been able to confirm the move.
Construction company Active Built has confirmed the 859 sqm site will be completed by the end of the year for a new retail tenant to set up shop.


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In a thread at the Capcom-Unity forum, one user asked about Wii U backwards compatibility for crossover Wii fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. Hopefully you already have a copy of the game or can nab one, because Capcom's reply revealed that their deal with Tatsunoko Productions has expired, and they can no longer sell physical or digital copies of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
Developed by Eighting, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was originally released exclusively for Wii in Japan in 2008 as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes before making its way to the west. The forum reply comes from Capcom Senior VP Christian Svensson, who unfortunately believes the possibility of Capcom striking a new deal with Tatsunoko is slim.
Anyone still have their copy of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom? Keep a tight grip on it!


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Shoppers Could ‘Save Hundreds Of Pounds’ By Haggling At Retailers Like Tesco And B&q
B&Q and Tesco have been revealed as the top high street shops for haggling.
But shoppers are finding it harder to barter a bargain on the high street, according to consumer website MoneySavingExpert.com.
The website, which was founded by Martin Lewis, warned that while it may now be harder for shoppers to nab a deal they shouldn’t let it put them off.
Steve Nowottny, news and features editor at MoneySavingExpert.com said: “Sadly it seems to be getting harder to haggle on the high street, with success rates down across the board since we last ran this poll in 2016.
“Yet don’t let that put you off trying – our poll also shows that at some stores as many as half of those who’ve tried end up walking out of the shop with a better deal.
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get – the worst the shop assistant can say is ‘no’.”
Shoppers also had better success with haggling in independent and charity shops.
In the past, bargain hunters who use haggling tips have save £427 a year on average.
MSE asked more than 1,500 shoppers which high street shops they’ve haggled with and whether they received a discount.
This year a number of new shops entered the hit list for bargain hunters including Asda, Primark and Waitrose.
In the past, shops such as Debenhams, M&S and TK Maxx have featured in the top 10.
We tried out haggling on the high street last year with success in shops like John Lewis, Carphone Warehouse and TK Maxx.
Source : https://www.thesun.co.uk


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Rumours have been circling within the cryptocurrency community that Uber is working on integrating the virtual currency into its payment system.
With bitcoin experiencing a sudden rise in value within some European countries, reports of the cryptocurrency expanding into new commercial territories have been the subject of speculation.
Recently virtual currency publication Bitcoinist reported that Uber had confirmed the integration of bitcoin as a payment option.
The report featured an Uber customer support email, in which an Uber employee stated ‘‘as of now Uber works with most standard credit cards. Your suggestion has already been noted and we are currently making Uber work with bitcoin as of now.’’
Within hours, Uber denied the confirmation, claiming that there is no truth to the rumours.
Although Uber insists on having no plans on integrating bitcoin into its payments platform, there is still some speculation that the taxi firm are looking into using some form of virtual currency.
In February, Uber’s senior vice president Emil Michael was part of a $2.25m investment involving NeuCoin, an alternative digital currency that hopes to one day rival bitcoin.The substitute cryptocurrency still has a long way to go though, given that bitcoin acquired over $300m in funding during 2014.
Using Ripple's enterprise blockchain solutions, Standard Chartered has completed its first real-time cross-border payment for businesses with another major correspondent bank.
Three years on from being acquired by PayPal, Braintree, a company which allows merchants to process a range of different payments, has revealed the number of its payment transactions has increased by 25 times.
Fresh from its $4.5bn IPO, Nordic payments processor Nets has picked Spire as its partner to help with the physical roll out of mobile payments for Dankort customers.
Square has introduced a new update to its contactless and chip readers that reduces transaction speed to 4.2 seconds.


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Post Holdings reported net earnings of $49.9 million in the year ended Sept. 30, compared with last fiscal year’s net loss of $424.3 million on charges related to its spinoff from Ralcorp Holdings.
Post took $566.5 million in charges for impairment of intangible assets in fiscal 2011.
The branded cereal company’s fiscal 2012 net sales decreased nearly 1 percent to $958.9 million compared with fiscal 2011. The decline was driven by 3 percent lower volumes, only partially offset by higher gross and net pricing. For the fiscal year, Honey Bunches of Oats and Pebbles volumes were down 2 percent and 6 percent, respectively, versus the prior year, but Great Grains experienced a year-over-year volume increase of 10 percent.
Post Holdings (NYSE: POST), led by CEO Bill Stiritz, was spun off from St. Louis-based private label food company Ralcorp Holdings (NYSE: RAH) in February. Read more on St.Louis Business Journal.
Related Article: Post Holdings Launches $1 Billion Debt Exchange


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The United Kingdom officially withdrew from the European Union on January 31, 2020. Since then, the 11-month implementation period has been running, during which time most of the obligations and benefits of the UK’s membership in the European Union – including legal provisions relating to intellectual property laws, data protection regulation, and decisions from the Court of Justice – have continued to apply. That is slated to change on January 1, leaving UK-based rights holders – fashion brands, included – in a new and potentially challenging position.
Among the noteworthy changes that will be in play when the transition period comes to a close at the end of the year? One that centers on unregistered designs. In accordance with this new development, which was revealed amid enduring exit negotiations between representatives for the EU and UK, designs that are first disclosed in the United Kingdom – as opposed in to a remaining EU state – will no longer be eligible for protection as unregistered designs in the EU.
At the heart of the impending change is the EU’s unregistered Community design right (“UCD”) regime, which provides automatic protection for the original elements of a design, including the “appearance, physical shape, configuration (or how different parts of a design are arranged together), and/or decoration.” Co-existing with a separate registered design right, which comes with a longer duration for protection but requires a formal filing, the UCD system provides creators with rights for their designs for a period of three years from the date that the a design was first made available – or “disclosed” – to the public.
For fashion industry entities, disclosure may come in the form of showing a design for the first time on the runway, presenting it in a lookbook, or alternatively, simply sending an otherwise unrevealed design straight to stores and/or advertising the design on its website.
Previously, that disclosure – whether it be a lookbook released online, for example, or a seasonal collection shown during fashion week – could take place in any of the EU member states, including the UK, and automatic protection against infringement would commence. Now, however, with the UK having left the 27-member union, the permissible disclosure territory changes. As a result, Osborne Clarke attorneys Arty Rajendra, Sophia Christou, and Robert Guthrie say that British brands seeking rights for their designs will have to “be creative in how they use other options to fill the gap after the end of the Brexit transition period.”
To be more specific, the impending change means that designers that plan to rely on unregistered design rights “will need to think carefully about where they first disclose their designs.” While designs that are first disclosed in an EU member state by a UK-based brand will continue to be protected by the UCD in the EU after December 31, that protection will not give rise to any causes of actions in the UK. At the same time, Rajendra, Christou, and Guthrie note that for a design that is first disclosed in the UK, protection will only exist for the design in the UK – by way of a “new ‘supplementary unregistered design’ regime providing similar protection to the EU unregistered design right will be introduced in the UK in January 2021” – and not in the broader EU.
Against that background, they say that UK designers and businesses “will need to weigh up which is more important: UK or EU unregistered protection? Or they will need to come up with innovative ways to try to achieve simultaneous UK and EU disclosure,” which could presumably be achieved by showing on the runway and via livestream in tandem (as many brands currently do), while “bearing in mind it will be up to the courts to decide what effect simultaneous disclosure could have under the new regime.”
Hardly an inconsequential change, they argue that the new UCD regime will deal “a serious blow to UK designers and businesses.” Why will fashion be particularly impacted? Because fashion and other fast-moving, seasonal industries tend to rely heavily on the UCD system, according to Bird & Bird LLP’s Tristan Sherliker, “since the high volume and turnover rate [of the industry] often makes registering designs impractical” in much the same way as design patent protection largely proves less than ideal for anything but non-staples items in the U.S.
“There are other rights that can fill the gap” that will be left by the shift in the UCD system, Rajendra, Christou, and Guthrie assert, pointing to “design registrations or copyright” as among some of the options are available to UK designers. Ultimately, with such impending changes in mind, they encourage brands to “use their creativity in considering how best to use those options to protect their valuable designs after Brexit.”


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LONDON--J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN), Asda and discount retailers Aldi and Lidl were the clear winners in the market share war during the 12 weeks ended June 10, which includes the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, as Britons spent an extra 213 million pounds ($334.0 million) at the tills in the week building up to the long celebratory weekend.
However, market shares fell for the former retail sector darling, Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN), and Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC (MRW.LN). In the 12 weeks ended June 10, Tesco's market share fell to 31%, from 31.4% in the 12 weeks ended June 12, 2011, while Morrison's share fell to 11.8%, from 12.2%.
J Sainsbury PLC's (SBRY.LN) market share rose to 16.6% in the 12 weeks, from 16.4%. Asda, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Upmarket retailer Waitrose also saw its market share rise to 4.6% in the 12 weeks ended June 10, from 4.4%, while discount retailers Aldi and Lidl's joint market share rose to 5.6%, from 4.9%. Separately, Aldi's share rose to 2.8% from 2.3% and Lidl's share rose to 2.8%, from 2.6%.
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, said the remarkable growth rate recorded over the Jubilee is a sign of what's to come during the Olympics when he expects grocery sales to soar.
"Competition is likely to be fierce with fortunes now considerably different among the big four," Mr. Garner added.
Sainsbury's and Asda's share rise was due to their successful price promotions--Asda with its Price Guarantee and Sainsbury's with its Brand Match, Mr. Garner said.
Earlier this year, Tesco issued its first profit warning in 20 years, citing the most difficult conditions for retailers in living memory. Since that time, however, the retailer has instigated a new round of price cuts and announced a GBP1 billion revamp of its stores.


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The new products will cover a variety of market segments and have power outputs between 5kW to 25kW.
After updating its iQube electric scooter line last year, TVS is gearing up to introduce new electric two-wheeler models. The company’s director and CEO, KN Radhakrishnan, recently told investors it would launch several new electric models across segments in 18 months. These models will range in power output from 5 to 25 kW.
This suggests that TVS Motor Company will enter the high-end electric two-wheeler market and may also introduce an electric motorcycle. The new versions will likely be positioned above the TVS iQube, which has a 4.4kW motor as its power source. Also, the motorbike form factor would not be unexpected, as the output could reach 25kW.
When questioned whether the model would have fixed or swappable battery packs, Radhakrishnan refrained from being specific, saying that the next addition would “make customers happy.” The swappable/removable battery concept wasn’t completely ignored, even if we can’t infer too much from it.
The iQube is already one of the best-selling high-speed EVs in the market, and TVS says it aims to maintain this success. The new launch will help TVS to keep its momentum. TVS is currently managing to double its electric vehicle sales every quarter. In addition, Radhakrishnan mentioned that a new ICE would be launched this quarter, though TVS provided a few details. This is likely a modification or upgrade to an existing model.


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With cloud, privacy issues loom
Cloud-based services have become indispensable to the success of Texas and U.S. businesses, especially small businesses and startup companies. The global cloud market is expected to reach a value of more than $240 billion by the next decade. American companies invented cloud computing, and we should dominate the global market. The worst thing that we could do to our competitiveness is to hold American companies back with outdated laws. But that’s what’s happening right now.
The government’s unrestricted authority to demand production of private information stored in the cloud “will kill cloud computing” by destroying confidence in U.S.-based services and driving businesses to other countries, which have stronger privacy protections. That’s what the CEO of Data Foundry, a Texas-based data services provider has warned. Unless we act now, we are approaching a time when other countries possess greater safeguards for personal privacy than those assured by the country founded on the ideals of universal liberty.Continue Reading
To avoid this prospect, we must modernize our laws to respect our rights when applied to the modern realities of the digital world. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and I have introduced bipartisan legislation, the Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act, to do just that by revising an outdated ECPA to protect Internet users from intrusive and unwarranted government surveillance.
H.R. 983 requires the government to show probable cause and obtain a search warrant to access electronic communications just as it would to tap someone’s telephone. The government would need a warrant to compel service providers to produce documents stored in the cloud and to intercept or demand disclosure of personal location information generated by our cellphone and other mobile devices over time.
Technology may change, but the Constitution does not. We’ve written the legislation to be technology neutral so our privacy safeguards can’t be weakened by future innovations. It will encourage the growth of cloud computing in Texas and across the U.S. — and improve our competitiveness in world markets. That would create and protect American jobs. Most important, it reaffirms that while the pace of change in our world is ever accelerating, our founding ideals and civil liberties will exist unabridged forever. And that’s just the way it is.
Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas)