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Grass-fed cows and free-range chickens have a sense of naturalness by virtue of name alone. Livestock grazing in fields or poultry scratching to forage may seem like the natural order of things, but we accept the fact that these animals are domesticated. There is no expectation of wildness when it comes to buying ground beef or chicken thighs at the grocery store. Not so with salmon.
Though Pacific species “ are in precarious decline ” and Atlantic populations are listed as “endangered,” many Canadians prefer wild salmon, according to a new report from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL).
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The report found that roughly half (49 per cent) of Canadians favour wild salmon, primarily because they like the idea of eating something from its natural habitat (62 per cent).
“One of the questions I asked in this study was, ‘Do you think of farmed salmon in the same way as you would chicken or beef?’ Some people said, no, they think it’s different,” says Dr. Stefanie Colombo, lead researcher for the project and Canada Research Chair in Aquaculture Nutrition at Dalhousie University.
Fish may be the only remaining wild food Canadians eat with any regularity, and she suspects they’re attracted to its closeness to nature. “It’s still one of the things that people want to hang on to, even though that’s not necessarily the way forward.”
When it comes to public perception, aquaculture (seafood farming) is at a disadvantage, says Kirk Havercroft, CEO of Nova Scotia’s Sustainable Blue , who wasn’t involved in the AAL report. People are accustomed to eating farmed animals without wild counterparts; seafood is unique in that you can farm and wild harvest it.
“I think the consumer is very, very much aware that they have the choice,” he says. “Of course, wild just sounds better — it does. And so what we need to connect the consumer with is the fact that wild is running out.”
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Today, half of the world’s seafood is produced through aquaculture, Colombo underscores. In order to feed an estimated 9.9 billion people by 2050 , adopting sustainable methods will only become more vital.
The world will likely eat twice as much fish and other aquatic foods — salt and freshwater, wild and farmed (so-called “blue foods”) — by 2050, according to a recent Blue Food Assessment . In North America alone, salmon consumption is expected to almost double by 2030, reaching nearly 1 million metric tons, says Havercroft, citing Kontali research.
Rich in omega-3s , fatty fish such as salmon are important for heart and brain health. “Both around the world and in Canada, we are going to need aquaculture just because we will not be able to source all of the protein and omega-3 (fatty acids) that we need … from the ocean anymore,” says Colombo. “We’ll always need to define what our sustainable catch is. It’s just that we don’t want to over-exploit (wild) fisheries.”
In a survey of 10,008 Canadians in June 2021, the AAL report found that most respondents enjoy eating salmon (79 per cent) and prefer Atlantic (38 per cent) over Pacific species (33 per cent). Though there were generational differences, all groups supported ocean farms (39 per cent) more than land-based (21 per cent), yet the findings suggest that half of Canadians misunderstand the terms.
Ocean (a.k.a. open-net pen) farms — the most common method of aquaculture — consist of netted cages suspended in offshore coastal areas. Salmon are hatched on land, then moved to ocean pens. At land-based (a.k.a. recirculating aquaculture system/RAS) farms — such as B.C.’s Kuterra and Sustainable Blue — salmon are hatched and raised in tanks in a building; not the ocean.
Advocacy groups have pushed for a full move to land-based systems, citing issues including disease outbreaks , sea lice infestations and high mortality rates on some aquatic farms. The federal government has committed to developing a plan to transition from open-net pen farms to “sustainable technology” in B.C. by 2025 .
Colombo suggests a balance between the methods in order to ensure equitable access. “There are definitely huge benefits of raising salmon in land-based systems because there is no exchange,” she says. “There’s no interaction with the ocean environment at all. It keeps it very much contained so there’s zero possibility for any escape. There’s zero possibility for any waste into the ocean.”
Open-net pen farms, on the other hand, produce the vast majority of Canada’s farmed salmon at lower cost, Colombo adds. Ocean farms have made improvements over the past decade and she expects this progress to continue: “Give it another 10 years (and) a lot of those issues are really going to be nonexistent.”
Honestly, how many wild Atlantic salmon would ever eat chicken?
In Nova Scotia, even a small land-based farm like Sustainable Blue “has a big impact,” says Havercroft. He expects awareness of the method elsewhere to grow over the next five years with the development of significant projects in the U.S., such as Atlantic Sapphire in Miami, the world’s largest land-based salmon farm . “Everybody in Canada and the U.S. will be aware that it’s viable to grow salmon on land.”
Development for Sustainable Blue’s close-loop technology began in the U.K. in 1995, and Havercroft has been involved since the beginning. As aquatic farming expanded year by year, he and the founders saw the potential problems and took a different approach, finding a way to convert fish effluent into electricity and reuse all water in a land-based facility.
People aren’t only confused by the differences between methods, Havercroft highlights, but are largely unaware of the fundamentals of aquaculture, such as what fish are fed. Salmon feed can contain chicken fat , for example, which tends to shock people. (Sustainable Blue feeds its salmon sustainably-sourced marine proteins and oils.)
“(The reaction) surprises me every time because it’s a fact that’s certainly well-known within the industry: that in intensive commodity net-pen farming, salmon are fed, very, very typically a diet that contains chicken,” he adds. “Honestly, how many wild Atlantic salmon would ever eat chicken? And, of course, the answer is zero.”
More than half (55 per cent) of Canadians would be more likely to buy farmed salmon if it were fed an “environmentally sustainable and nutritious” diet, the AAL report found.
Salmon diets need to contain 20 per cent fat, explains Colombo, who studies ways to make feed more sustainable and nutritious — for the fish and the people who eat them. This fat can come from ingredients such as canola, chicken and fish oil, she says, but the industry is moving towards other sustainably produced marine nutrients such as algae oil.
There’s a “strong correlation” between cost and consumption, the report suggests; 11 per cent of Canadians don’t eat salmon because of price. Given that it’s part of Canada’s food guide , “affordability should be a priority,” says Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, director of the AAL.
Land-based salmon costs more than ocean-farmed: Sustainable Blue’s fillets sell for $18–$20 per pound compared to roughly $13 for ocean-farmed. This is due to their small-scale rather than cost of production; Havercroft expects this price differential to narrow as land-based farms like theirs scale up production.
For Colombo, this points to a need for sustainable wild harvesting, ocean and land-based farms to coexist. “I want to make sure that consuming salmon is not a privilege in Canada,” she says. “I want to make sure that’s the norm for everyone, so that we have access to healthy protein sources and healthy sources of omega-3s. If we don’t have that accessible to us for something that we produce in this country, that, to me, would be a missed opportunity.”


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I don’t pay much attention to NFL game predictions. And I don’t make them myself. But when Madden NFL speaks, I listen. According to the official Electronic Arts (aka EA Sports) simulation run by Madden NFL 10 on Xbox 360, the New Orleans Saints will beat the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, 35-31. Think it doesn’t matter? Think again.
Utilizing each team’s current roster and the latest player statistics, Madden NFL 10 was able to accurately predict the outcome of both the NFC and AFC Championship games within a margin of three points for each game two weeks ago. EA Sports utilized this same simulation formula to predict the outcome of Super Bowl XLIII (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals) with unprecedented accuracy last year, down to the final score and individual player statistics. EA Sports has correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner for five out of the last six years, since the official Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation began in 2004. Scary!
Source and images courtesy EA Sports

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G-20 to Press U.S. to End Aid for Biofuels Industry : Trading Partners Take Issue With Washington's Use of Policy to Promote Industry; EU Wants Tax Credit Scrapped
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By John W. Miller
BRUSSELS—The U.S. will face new pressure from fellow Group of 20 nations to end government aid for the biofuels industry at a meeting of farm ministers in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday, said trade diplomats and analysts.
The biofuels industry turns corn, wheat, rapeseed, sugar cane and other crops into fuel. Last week, the U.S. Senate voted 72-37 to eliminate a 45-cents-per-gallon tax credit for blended biofuel and regular fuel and a 54-cents-per-gallon import tariff on imported ethanol.
The issue for trading partners isn't the government mandate that this year is forcing U.S. gasoline companies and drivers to use at least 12.6 billion gallons of ethanol—many countries have similar mandates—but that the U.S. is alone in actively using trade policy to promote its own industry.
European Union officials said they will continue to lobby the U.S. to eliminate the credit during the G-20 meeting, which is focused mainly on managing global food stocks.
However, the EU will continue to back domestic subsidies used by its 27 member states to achieve its goal of making 20% of its fuels renewable by 2020.
"We still think you can have an affordable food supply and biofuels at the same time," says Roger Waite, a spokesman for the European Commission.
The White House and Congress have said they continue to support the tax credit, which costs $6 billion a year and helps drive exports to the EU by keeping biofuels inexpensive.
Earlier this month, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and other organizations teamed up on a report recommending that governments cut measures that "subsidize or mandate biofuels production or consumption."
The biofuels industry faces pressure whenever food and commodity prices spike. That happened three years ago, and it is happening again, notably helping to trigger revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East.
In the West, where people eat more processed foods, final prices aren't tied too much to commodity values. But in the developing world, the correlation is more direct.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has forecast that cereals prices, when adjusted for inflation, could grow 20% over the next decade compared with the previous decade, meaning the focus on biofuels is unlikely to relent.
The biofuels industry is fighting back.
"It may be vogue to blame biofuels for global hunger issues as though they didn't exist before biofuel production, but that doesn't mean eliminating biofuels policies will somehow put more food on the plates in developing nations," said Geoff Cooper of the Renewable Fuels Association, a Washington-based lobby group. "We encourage G-20 leaders to reject its findings."
He added that "bioenergy production can provide the catalyst many nations need to invest in agricultural technology, thus improving productivity, food security and their own energy stability."
Meanwhile, a new study by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, an independent think tank in Geneva, concludes that food prices haven't so far been affected as much as feared by biofuels policies. For example, the biggest effect so far has been in 2007, when maize prices would have been 30 cents per bushel, or 7.1% lower without policies encouraging ethanol production. There are secondary effects on other foodstuffs, but these aren't hugely consequential, either. The biggest impact on egg prices, for example, was 5% in 2009.
However, the study finds that food prices are greatly affected when commodity supplies are tight, for example, during high oil prices and poor weather. In 2011, maize prices are expected to be 17% higher because of biofuels policies.
The solution, says Bruce Babcock, the author, is to eliminate the tax credit since it has no real effect on production, and to tie the mandate to commodity prices—increasing it when prices are low, and reducing it when prices are high. When supplies are tight, let companies and consumers go back to using more gasoline, and when they are plentiful, force more biofuel use.
There is "no rationale for the blender tax credit," he said. "It does little to help the biofuel industry as long as mandates are in place except in years when high gasoline prices have already stimulated demand beyond mandated levels."
That will require more cars able to run on either fuel, as are used in Brazil, said experts.
The biofuels industry "has spent far too much time lobbying for government handouts and far too little time showing people its benefits," said Kevin McGeeney, director of Starsupply Commodity Brokers, a Geneva-based trader in biofuels. "If the biofuels industry collapsed, it would only have itself to blame."


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The tax collector, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) has justified the newly introduced tax measures, including the advance Income Tax (AIT) which compels all businesspersons in the country to be paying 3 percent Value for Duty Purposes (VDP) in advance on any importation of commercial goods and commodities.
Speaking during a three day media training aimed at orienting members of the media in the country on the new tax measures in Mangochi over the weekend, Commissioner General for the revenue body John Bizwick said apart from ensuring tax compliance among the country’s citizenry, the tax measures are also meant to widen the tax base as they seek to ensure that all citizens in the country take part in revenue contribution.
Biziwick added that the tax measures are also in line with the country’s vision 2063 as well as the revenue body’s Cooperate Strategic plan which stresses on the need for the country to generate enough resources locally for continued social economic development.
Among others, the Minister of finance introduced an advance Income Tax (AIT) which compels all business persons in the country to be paying 3 percent Value for Duty Purposes (VDP) in advance on any importation of commercial goods and commodities they make, a development critics say is prohibitive to Small and Medium Entrepreneurs.
But speaking during the media workshop, Bizwick said the advance Income Tax seeks to ensure that government collects part of income tax from all imported commercial goods in the event that an SMEs evades.
The MRA shall also introduce the Block Management System where Small and Medium entrepreneurs shall be categorised into sizeable and manageable blocks within their localities for easy tax administration.
The revenue body also intends to extend use of Tax Stamps on products which are frequently smuggled into the country such as alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages unlike in the past when only cigarettes were being stamped.
During the media training, the MRA Commissioner General therefore called on the media in the country to enhance awareness on the newly introduced tax measures.
“As you are aware the Minister of Finance announced some new tax measures when he presented the 2021-2022 budget. We believe that not all Malawians are aware of these new tax measures.
“It is on this note that we found it necessary for us to organise this particular training for the media in the country. We believe that when the media fully understand these tax measures, they will be able to raise awareness on them to the to general public informatively,” said Bizwick.
On his part, Gregory Gondwe who is the Secretary General for the Association of Business Journalist hailed the MRA for organising the training saying it has enhanced the media practitioner’s understanding on the new tax measures hence they will be able to report on them accurately to the General public.
In this year’s financial plan which shall run from July to March 2022, government has given the MRA a K1.03 trillion target which the MRA Commissioner General is optimistic is going to be attained after the revenue body also managed to beat its K1.079 trillion target in the just ended 2020-2021 financial year.


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We're focusing on making sure we get meaningful performance upgrade on an annual cadence and to some degree, the process technology that lives underneath that is going to be less conspicuous. There will be a much more of a seamless transition from node to node. We can translate that into a more predictable cadence of product which delivers meaningful performance to stimulate PC upgrades.
IDG News Service: Will Cannonlake be 8th generation or is it a different lineup?
Renduchintala: I don't know yet. I think we're going to be more focused on generation by the amount of performance increment it will give us. I don't think that generations will be tagged just to node transitions. It will be tagged towards the fact that it needs to have meaningful performance [gains]. Whatever we launch in September of 2018 has to have at least as much improvement year over year as what happened between Kaby Lake and the 8th Generation. If Cannonlake comes out at the end of the year, it could be interesting what we actually market it as we haven't actually decided yet.
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03 20, 2013
SAN JOSE, Ca., March 20, 2013 — FreeFlow, the award-winning provider of inventory asset management technology and services, has reached the highest level of recognition awarded in Deloitte Ireland’s Best Managed Company competition, having won the accolade for four consecutive years.
03 15, 2013
President and partner of FreeFlow, John Kenny, has been recognised by the Wisconsin School of Business (WSB) for his services as Chair of the Granger Center Executive Advisory Board, and become a recipient of the School’s 2012 Shape the Future Volunteer Award.
06 5, 2012
Schiphol (Amsterdam), the Netherlands 5 June 2012 – Each year billions of dollars in excess inventory creates a massive bottleneck in the global supply chain, with the electronic and wireless segments contributing significantly to the problem. The ripple effect of this excess inventory is staggering. Consequently, Teleplan has developed a solution to this multi-billion dollar issue.
04 30, 2012
San Jose, CA April 30, 2012 -- FreeFlow, the world’s leading provider of private marketplace solutions for surplus consumer electronics, has named former Kodak and Nokia executive Robert Pignataro as executive vice president of sales, responsible for business development and account acquisition worldwide, broadening the company’s portfolio of OEM-branded online auction platforms as well as www.FreeFlowAuctions.com, the company’s flagship non-branded platform for new and smaller sellers.
04 23, 2012
San Jose, California, April 23, 2012 – FreeFlow, the world’s leading provider of market solutions for surplus consumer electronics, along with IBM, Tesco and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Ireland, earlier this month hosted a one-week global learning exchange in Dublin and Tralee, Ireland, for students at the Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, School of Business. The objective of the April program was to provide learning and insight about global business and economic development and was attended by twenty graduate/MBA students, all with 4-5 years of professional work experience. In addition to the industry and government workshops the students collaborated with supply chain students and faculty at the University College, Dublin in a research seminar.


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Tag: online security
Posted by Matthew on March 14, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Group Action Hacking News Scammers Security Social Networking and tagged with cyber attack | cyber crime | cyber snooping | cybersecurity | data breach | online security | personal data
The dangers of the Quora data breach cannot be understated, especially when the incident reportedly affected up to 100m users!
Just yesterday we wrote about the issue of reusing passwords and user credentials across multiple sites. Doing so can put you at far greater risks than you may even realise. One of the key things it means is that your credentials breached in an attack could be used to break into other platforms you use. Facebook is a prime example with billions of users and a feature that lets you log into other platforms using your Facebook credentials.
On that basis, the dangers of an incident like this Quora one simply cannot be understated.
Posted by Matthew on March 13, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Data Info Scammers Security Social Networking and tagged with cyber attack | cyber crime | cybersecurity | data breach | online security | personal data
Thousands of people have contacted us for help with data breach claims. Victims can be entitled to make a claim for compensation. The risks of reusing passwords is one of the first things people may need to consider.
The advice is to never reuse the same passwords and user credentials across different platforms. Despite this, people still do it. It means that being the victim of one simple breach could lead to several accounts being accessed. In fact, it could even mean those credentials are used to hack into a business you are employed with.
There’s a great deal that many people may not consider when it comes to reusing passwords and usernames. The mindset needs to change!
Posted by Matthew on March 07, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Data Hacking News Latest Social Networking and tagged with cyber attack | cyber crime | cybersecurity | database security | online security | personal data
The Coffee Meets Bagel data breach was unfortunately revealed on Valentine’s Day. I.e. a dating app revealed a breach on the day of love and romance…
With the data breach reportedly having happened on 11th February 2019, I suppose its just a case of bad timing that notifications ended up being on Valentine’s Day. Either way, the American-based dating service that is used in the UK has suffered a breach.
This isn’t the first dating website that has been targeted for a data breach. We doubt it will be the last as well.
Posted by Matthew on March 04, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Hacking News Latest Security Social Networking and tagged with cyber attack | cyber crime | cybersecurity | database security | online security | personal data
There’s been another huge security incident announced. This time it’s the 500px data breach that may have affected all 15 million of its worldwide users.
The Canada-based online photography networking platform (that also has an app) is understood to have identified security issue last year. However, it’s taken some six months for the organisation to discover that they’ve been breached.
The length of time that’s passed is particularly worrying. It means that victims of the 500px data breach may have already been targeted by criminals. Victims may have had no idea that their data had been exposed given that news of the breach has only just hit the headlines.
Posted by Matthew on February 28, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Hacking News Mobile Data Scammers Security and tagged with apps | cyber crime | cybersecurity | online security | personal data
The typical answer as to the popular question “is your phone recording you?” is often “no”, according to many. However, you may not be aware that some things can be recorded, and you may not be aware of it.
According to a recent investigation by TechCrunch and The App Analyst, some popular apps may be recording user data without proper – or more explicit – permission or understanding. The investigation reportedly looked at a range of apps and found ways in which the companies or the developers could record and store data they may not have permission for.
That’s worrying; especially in the era of continual breaches linked to apps, and ongoing concerns as to how much the likes of Siri or Alexa are taking in when they’re waiting for our commands…
Posted by Matthew on February 21, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Data GDPR Hacking News ICO Latest Security Technology and tagged with apps | cyber attack | cyber crime | cybersecurity | online security | personal data
A Deliveroo data breach “incident” is said to have been reported to the ICO who have confirmed that they’re making inquiries.
Back in 2016, the food delivery company faced scrutiny after customers complained of fraudulent transactions on their accounts. In some cases, it appeared the issues were down to people’s credentials being stolen in hacks completely separate to Deliveroo. Criminals had used stolen credentials to access accounts in cases where credentials were reused.
Deliveroo were subsequently criticised over what some customers felt was a failure to spot and stop fraudulent transactions. In this latest incident, it appears that history may be repeating itself.
Posted by Matthew on February 19, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Data Hacking News Scammers Security Social Networking and tagged with apps | cyber crime | cybersecurity | online security | personal data
News of an OkCupid data breach has been denied by the company, although a “bug” has reportedly been found by a security firm anyway.
Some users reportedly complained of their accounts being hacked and taken over. As a result of a lack of additional security, like two-factor authentication – a lack of security apparently common in the dating site industry – some users were successfully targeted by criminals.
However, OkCupid denies that a security breach has taken place. That being said, a “bug” was reportedly identified by security researchers and has apparently been fixed.
Posted by Matthew on February 18, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Data GDPR Latest Security Social Networking Technology and tagged with cybersecurity | data controllers | data leak | facebook | online security | personal data | social media data breaches
Greater Facebook regulation is looking imminent after a year-long inquiry that included issues over the misuse of personal data.
The inquiry, launched in-part after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, comes after a spate of recent data breach incidents involving the social medial platform. The recommendations made by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee include an independent regulator to oversee tech firms like Facebook.
It’s not been an easy process judging from the remarks of MPs and others involved with the inquiry. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, didn’t even come to the UK to answer questions himself, which has reportedly caused a stir.
Posted by Matthew on February 11, 2019 in the following categories: Claims Security Technology and tagged with compensation | cybersecurity | data controllers | database security | online security | personal data
The Mumsnet data breach hit the news last week, with dozens of accounts reportedly affected after a software upgrade caused a leak incident.
The parenting site is said to have reported themselves to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) already. The UK’s data watchdog will now have to decide whether the incident is serious enough to warrant any form of financial punishment for the incident. The Mumsnet data breach resulted in personal information for the affected users being exposed.
Any victim of a data breach can be entitled to claim data breach compensation for any distress and financial loss caused. We see these kinds of breaches all the time, and news of new breaches doesn’t come as a surprise to us anymore.
Posted by Matthew on February 07, 2019 in the following categories: Cybersecurity Data Hacking News Info Latest Security Technology and tagged with cyber crime | cybersecurity | data breach | online security | personal data | ransomware
Are we in the midst of a rise in gaming data breach incidents? As more and more games are now full of consumables, we know hackers are targeting the gaming industry.
We recently wrote about the Fortnite hackers who have been reportedly making a mint off the back of stealing other people’s accounts and selling them on. Teenagers are being recruited to get involved in mass hacking jobs that appear relatively easy to carry out.
When you consider that the gaming industry is now an even more lucrative market as a result of consumables like loot boxes and other in-game purchases, digital property can be an attractive and profitable target.


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BringIt, a company that offers gamers the opportunity to challenge friends and earn prize money, announced Friday that it has launched its open beta to users across the world, allowing them to wager cash on BringIt and challenge others to head-to-head gaming on a selection of console titles.
"Gamers have shown great interest and support for competitive gaming, so we are pleased to offer BringIt as a player-driven service that quickly connects gamers, allowing them to play legally for cash while getting a more intense competitive rush," said BringIt CEO and founder Woody Levin in a statement.
BringIt works with any video game platform with online capabilities supporting head-to-head competition. Once users register for the service, they're required to add some money to their BringIt account through PayPal or a major credit card. Once the funds have been received, they can find other players across the globe and challenge them to a game.
So far, BringIt allows players to challenge each other in Madden NFL 2009, Gears of War 2, FIFA 2009, Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, Rock Band 2, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Mario Kart, among others. Once users pick a game, they mutually decide how much of their own cash they want to wager and face off against each other online. Scores are then reported back to BringIt, which then sends the funds to the winning party, while keeping a portion of the payout for itself.
BringIt claims that its service is legal because video games are games of skill and its service does not violate any anti-gambling laws across the world. That said, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, and others take issue with BringIt profiting off their IP.
BringIt is currently in open beta and is scheduled for a full-fledged launch at some point in the next four months.


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Winners and losers in the global app economy
Hint: Where you live matters
This post discusses a few of the findings from a recent research project I’ve done at Caribou Digital.
The buying and selling of apps is becoming a big business, with Apple and Google paying out a combined $17 billion to developers in 2014. But aside from a few public announcements by a handful of app developers, we really don’t know much about where all that money is flowing. The ubiquity of mobile technology and networks means there are now app developers and app consumers just about everywhere in the world. But what this research shows is that the vast majority of successful developers — and almost all the app store revenue — is located in the largest economies, leading to a very skewed global landscape of participation and value capture.
The app store model is interesting because it has some inherent contradictions. On the one hand, it is a meritocratic system that enables anyone to be successful — the digital nature of app production coupled with the global reach of telecommunications networks allows developers located anywhere to easily sell to consumers around the world (Exhibit A: Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen). The app stores disintermediate previous value chains, allowing producers (developers) to connect directly to consumers and avoid hiring publishers or regional distributors. And all producers pay the same margin (30%); there are no backroom deals or favorable terms for the biggest producers or someone’s cousin. As Julien Codorniou, director of global platform partnerships at Facebook put it, “[I]t’s a flat world where everybody competes with everybody — everybody is treated equally in the app stores of the world.”
Yet at the same time, the app store model leads to an uneven playing field. That disintermediation has the effect of shifting all risk to the producer, who is essentially selling on consignment, and has no protection if a product doesn’t sell after investing in its production (either way, the platform doesn’t lose). And some argue that a progressive margin would actually be more fair, since it would allow the smallest producers to keep more of their earnings when they are most critical for keeping the lights on. But most importantly, the model has led to winner-take-all markets, where a handful of apps rake in tremendous profits (Japan’s Mixi earned $4.2 million per day with Monster Strike) while the long tail of less-popular apps and developers struggle to support themselves.
I was able to explore these tensions in a 6-month research effort on the global app economy, with the goal of answering basic questions such as: Who is making apps? and Who is making money? As a geographer, I’m especially curious about how these dynamics are configured across space, so the research is anchored by a country-level analysis of 37 different national markets. For each market, the team recorded the 500 top-ranked apps in both the “Top Grossing” and “Top Downloads” categories, for both the iOS and Android platforms, and then performed a manual online search to identify the city and country location for the developer. To be clear, the sample represents only the tip of the iceberg in terms of developer population — there are hundreds of thousands of developers, and we captured only the ~8,000 that were ranked in the top 500 in the app stores. The resulting data reveal not only see which countries are successfully developing apps, but also where those apps are being “exported” into other national markets worldwide, painting a picture of the global flow of app commerce. I then used a simplified power law curve to estimate value capture across all developers in our sample, showing the often stark difference between app production and app revenues.
Where are the developers?
The research shows pretty clearly that developer participation in the app economy is heavily skewed toward the largest and richest economies, with the United States, Japan, and China dominant. The winner-take-all nature of the market means that the top-ranked apps in the most-lucrative markets earn multiple orders of magnitude more revenue than low-ranked apps in markets of the Global South. The result is that 95% of the estimated industry value is being captured by just the top 10 producing countries.
For lower-income countries, the outlook is relatively bleak: Most have very few developers, and even those who had significant numbers of developers — for example, India — earned very little revenue; as a group, the 19 lower-income countries in our sample earned an estimated 1% of global app economy revenues.
In fact, a small handful of firms earn so much that they outperform most of the countries; we estimate that Finland’s Supercell earns more than 28 of the countries in our sample, combined.
How markets shape participation and trade
While the data can’t reveal all of the causes of the skewed distribution, there was evidence of both market-based factors and platform-based factors. In the former category, it is clear from the analysis that home field advantage plays a role. That is, consumers in every market showed a preference for apps developed by local producers; the degree varied, but was most pronounced in the East Asian countries, with Japan, South Korea, and China all dominated by local producers (Japan was the highest, with about 70% of the market controlled by Japanese developers).
This isn’t very surprising, as it’s always easier to design products and services for people like yourself rather than others, and in some places — such as East Asia — the linguistic and other cultural differences can be very strong. But one knock-on effect of home field advantage is that the most lucrative national markets, usually considered to be the U.S., Japan, China, South Korea, and U.K., are harder to penetrate by foreign firms. Put another way, Indian developers do very well in the Indian market. But there’s no money, relatively speaking, to be made there. And few Indian developers are able to enter the U.S. or other lucrative markets.
In fact, when we look at lower-income countries vs. higher-income countries in our sample, we see a sharp distinction in the ability of developers to enter foreign markets: in higher-income countries, about 29% of developers were unable to export and limited to their home market, while in lower-income countries, that figure rose to 69% of developers. When your home market has limited revenue, that constraint hurts.
The figure below illustrates some of these dynamics, showing the regional trade (and market insularity) of East Asia. The left column is the origin country of the app developer, with the width of the flows representing the number of apps that were “exported” to the national markets shown in the middle column. The width of the flows on the right side represent estimated financial value being captured by each country, based on the rank of the app and rank of the national market.
In this chart you can see how dominant local producers are in Japan, China, and South Korea, whereas Hong Kong is much more international. What is most surprising is the very low levels of intra-regional trade among the big three economies — despite their close spatial proximity, both Japan and South Korea export very little in the region. This is especially notable given the strong role of mobile gaming apps, and Japan’s history of exporting gaming technology and culture worldwide.
Why the platform matters
Not all of these effects are market-based — some are due to platform design and structure. I’ll describe three here. First, Google only allows developers in certain countries to monetize their products through the Google Play app store: Developers who want to earn revenue from Android apps on the Google Play app store are required to set up a merchant account, which is what links their bank account to Google so that they can receive funds from the app store. However, Google merchant accounts are not available in 74 countries, with half of sub-Saharan Africa and much of Latin America excluded. While not every developer is trying to directly commercialize her apps, the inability to monetize one’s app directly through the app store is a deterrent for participation, and the data show very few developers from excluded countries.
The second factor is the structuring of the app stores into discrete national stores. This allows the platform to adhere to different tax laws, content regulations, and copyright licensing for music and other media. For example, Australia and Belgium have shown indications of wanting to ban gambling apps, and Apple banned apps related to the Dalai Lama in China. But a secondary effect is that each app store maintains its own top rankings, reflecting that country’s preferences for apps and content. Given the home field advantage trend discussed above, this results in higher visibility (and thus downloads/revenue) to domestically popular apps and content. Our analysis shows that if the national store structure were abolished in favor of a single, global market, we would see a sharp decrease of 20%-36% in developer diversity — that is, the Supercells and Tencents of the world would overshadow smaller, less popular producers. If the EU’s efforts toward establishing a Digital Single Market  result in consolidating all the national stores, it could have the unintended consequence of hurting smaller EU developers in favor of the largest global brands.
And finally, the app stores, like all digital markets, are constrained by the human-computer interface. On the human side there are cognitive limitations: while digitization has allowed product catalogs to grow to millions of items, our ability to process information and choices hasn’t scaled accordingly. Miller’s Law — named after the famous experiments by psychologist George Miller that identified 7 (plus/minus 2) as the number of objects a typical person can hold in short-term working memory — applies just as much today as it did in the 1950s. On the computer side, even the largest screens have limited real estate, effectively constraining the number of choices or product options that a user can reasonably view. Whether faced with 1,000 or 1,000,000 choices, there is a limit to the cognitive load that users are willing or able to process, and they tend to employ behavioral heuristics, such as top ranking lists or user reviews, to aid in the decision-making. In the context of the app stores, these interface dynamics mean that those apps that occupy prime virtual real estate, typically because they are popular and thus highly ranked in categories or search results, are the mostly likely to be seen and selected for download or purchase, creating a virtuous cycle that reinforces the popularity of the top apps and winner-take-all effects.
The global app economy is effectively controlled by the two largest platforms, belonging to what are at present the two most valuable companies in the world, located 9 miles apart in the most important technology cluster that exists today. Apple and Google have very different revenue models and core competencies, but their smartphone platform strategies have converged over time and are essentially similar, and represent a tremendous concentration of power.
The app economy has the potential to offer new economic opportunities to a wide range of independent digital producers, but its current state is skewed toward the largest firms and most lucrative markets. Proclamations that “everyone is treated equally in the app stores of the world” fail to acknowledge the very real institutional constraints, both market-based and platform-based, faced by independent developers — especially those in emerging economies. As more and more commercial activity is mediated by digital markets, it becomes increasingly important to identify and address these structural factors that shape outcomes. Because even when they are presented as open and meritocratic, technological systems are never neutral.
 Google paid out $7 billion, and Apple $10 billion, in 2014; this accounts for paid downloads and in-app purchases, but not advertising revenue from 3rd-party networks.
 Kushner, David. “The Flight of the Birdman: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out.” Rolling Stone, March 11, 2014
 Lauren Davidson, “How Facebook Is Fuelling the Growth of the Super Start-Up,” The Telegraph, August 9, 2015
 Craig Chapple, “Japanese Mobile Game Monster Strike Making $4.2m a Day,” Develop, August 19, 2015.
Vision Mobile (“Developer Megatrends: H1 2015”) estimates 60% of developers make $500 or less per month.
 See the full report for the complete methodology and its limitations
 Google website. https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/table/3539140?hl=en
 “Digital Single Market — European Commission,” http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/digital-single-market/index_en.htm
 George A. Miller, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information,” Psychological Review (1956).
 For a developer perspective, see Alex Austin, “Mobile App Developers Are Suffering,” https://medium.com/swlh/mobile-app-developers-are-suffering-a5636c57d576#.wv6ecgk7i


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The Buick Regal TourX is begging for a Roadmaster version, but there are other dormant nameplates out there, as well.
Autoweek Asks: What station wagon model needs to make a comeback?
TourX has us thinking Roadmaster, but there are plenty of longroofs ripe for return
February 19, 2018
Earlier this year two remarkable things happened, things that the automotive world could not have predicted a scant five years ago. First, Buick fielded a station wagon for the first time since the departure of the Roadmaster from the lineup in 1996. And second, Buick, uncomfortable with calling it a station wagon for marketing purposes (inviting images of faux wood-sided galleons from the 1980s, Eggo waffle commercials and wood-paneled Betamax VCRs), decided to brand the TourX as a crossover.
"Regal TourX is a crossover in the truest sense of the word, with the drive dynamics of a car and the versatility of an SUV," Duncan Aldred, vice president, global Buick and GMC said in a statement accompanying the TourX's debut.
OK, if that's Buick's story -- that's fine. It doesn't change the fact that it's a station wagon.
Station wagons are making a comeback. Old-school wagons were abandoned in America back in the late 1980s like rotary telephones, video arcades and waterbeds. The reason? Minivans, followed by SUVs. ...
Domestic automakers had long ceded the station wagon market to Subaru, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, among less notable, sporadic entries from marques like Acura. The reason, of course, was that everyone and their dog bought a Ford Explorer or a Jeep Grand Cherokee in the 1990s. Within a span of that blessed decade, SUVs absolutely obliterated wagons.
Wagons are now sort of coming back, and Buick's decision to dip its toes into the previously unfathomable segment by bringing an Opel Insignia Country Tourer (which sounds more honest and wholesome than TourX) is an important step in that direction, even if just evidences Buick's desire to get a slice of the Volvo Cross Country pie.
This brings us to the question: What station wagon model from the recent past would you like an automaker to resurrect?
Let us know in the comments below.
The decade that blessed us with the soothing, soulful ballads of Limp Bizkit and captured our imaginations with the mysteries of "Baywatch Nights" and the philosophical meditations of ...


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A single page of artwork from a 1984 Spider-Man comic book sold at auction Thursday for a record $3.36 million.
Mike Zeck’s artwork for page 25 from Marvel Comics’ “Secret Wars No. 8” brings the first appearance of Spidey’s black suit. The symbiote suit would eventually lead to the emergence of the character Venom.
The record bidding, which started at $330,000 and soared past $3 million, came on the first day of Heritage Auctions’ four-day comic event in Dallas.
The previous record for an interior page of a US comic book was $657,250 for art from a 1974 issue of “The Incredible Hulk” that featured a tease for the first appearance of Wolverine.
Also Thursday, one of the few surviving copies of Superman’s debut, Action Comics No. 1, sold for $3.18 million, putting it among the priciest books ever auctioned.
None of the sellers or buyers were identified.
Melania Trump to auction off hat, NFT from Macron’s state visit to WashingtonFormer first lady Melania Trump announced on Tuesday she will auction off a famed ... Lifestyle
South Africa condemns auction of key to Mandela prison cellSouth Africa on Friday condemned the planned auction of the key to the prison cell ... World News
Split no more, Spider-Man gets another swing with MarvelSpider-Man will not be leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon. After a ... Entertainment


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American consumer confidence has hit an 18-year high, with people’s perception of their personal finances and their spending both at nearly record levels.
Americans’ expectations about the economy also rose, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, which rose by nine-tenths of a point, to 64.7, for the week ended July 14.
Such optimism was shared across a wide range of groups, with sentiment hitting its highest levels since 2000 and 2001 among women, black Americans and people in the 18–34 and 45–54 age groups, as well as among singles, the divorced or widowed, the unemployed, and people who identify politically as Democrats or independents, according to Bloomberg.
The report comes at a time when unemployment is at a 50-year low, the S&P 500 index is at an all-time high, and retail sales and factory output are strong.
By Edmund Mander


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The word’s most comprehensive report into the effectiveness and safety of Homeopathy has just been released by the Swiss Government.
This landmark study of 300 pages by such a neutral and reputable country as Switzerland finally gives Homeopathy the recognition it deserves.
A very good article by leading Homeopath Dana Ullman published in the Huffington Post, points out that:
“The Swiss government’s inquiry into homeopathy and complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments resulted from the high demand and widespread use of alternatives to conventional medicine in Switzerland, not only from consumers but from physicians as well. Approximately half of the Swiss population have used CAM treatments and value them. Further, about half of Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective. Perhaps most significantly, 85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be a part of their country’s health insurance program.”
To celebrate this news, I am keeping my free course on fever available for newsletter subscribers.
Having been a registered Homoeopath for 10 years, I have seen the effectiveness of Homoeopathy every day. More and more scientific studies are released to provide increased confidence for consumers of this traditional healing art.
No doubt there will be more to talk about and I will be discussing many of the reports findings in coming articles.
For now the words of one of Switzerland’s most famous citizens:
“I love the Swiss because by and large, they are more humane than the other people among whom I have lived“


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Toyota, Panasonic Affirm Advanced Car Battery Venture
Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation have formalized its joint venture deal on the development and manufacture of automotive prismatic batteries. In the joint venture company, which will be established by end of 2020, Toyota will have 51 percent stake while Panasonic will get the remaining 49 percent.
The two companies agreed the new joint venture's business operations will cover research, development, production engineering, manufacturing, procurement, order receipt, and management of automotive prismatic lithium-ion batteries, solid state batteries, and other next-generation batteries.
Toyota will transfer equipment and personnel to the joint venture in the areas of development and production engineering related to battery cells while Panasonic will transfer equipment, other assets, liabilities, personnel, and other items to the joint venture in the areas of development, production engineering, manufacturing in plants in Japan and China, among others, related to the automotive prismatic battery business. Products produced by the joint venture will be sold to various car original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) through Panasonic.
Toyota and Panasonic first announced the plan for a joint automotive prismatic batter in December 2017.


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Rhonda Mikel felt panic rising inside her.
Five days after buying $100 worth of jewelry from Jewelry.com, she stared at a message posted on the site's front door saying that the Web luxury-goods store had gone bust.
"I tried to email the company and it bounced back saying 'undeliverable,'" said Mikel, who classifies herself as an avid online shopper. "You know that's not good when that happens...I thought, 'Now what do I do?'"
Although many consumers do feel helpless when they discover their online order has disappeared, people can protect themselves.
Because of the nature of the business--most online retailers are seeking another round of funding or trying to build their businesses up--the companies generally operate at full speed right up until they pull the plug. Once that happens, the company usually posts a "We're closed" message on its Web site, emails are bounced back or go off into the ether, and phone numbers ring endlessly--if they are even still connected.
Some companies are turned over to lawyers and bankruptcy officials, and former employees are barred from answering even simple questions.
That can leave customers frustrated.
"I felt I'd been cheated," Mikel said.
Some customers are getting caught in the gap between a company that's open one day and closed the next: They have ordered goods and paid for them, but the goods have not been delivered.
And while that can be shocking, it should not cost the customer anything. Since most online purchases are made with credit cards, the customer is usually protected against financial loss by the credit card companies.
The safety net
Most credit card companies guarantee that their cardholders get what they paid for or the charge is removed from their account, Visa USA spokesman Sean Healy said.
Visa "stands for guaranteed payment and guaranteed products and services," he said.
Internet transactions make up only a small percentage of Visa's overall business--about 2 percent of the company's $760 billion annual total, Healy said. So far, the Foster City, Calif., company said it has not noticed any spikes in the number of dot-com customers asking for their money back. But Visa said it expects Internet transactions to increase up to 10 percent within two years.
But Mikel said it took a while before she thought to contact her credit card company.
First, she said, she called Jewelry.com. After being on hold for an hour, she gave up when no one picked up the phone. Sending emails had failed. She finally was able to track down a former executive from Miadora, Jewelry.com's parent company, in the phone book and called him.
What you can do if you have bought items from a Web store that is unable to
deliver the goods:
• Try to contact the company by email or phone to find out what its
• If it is indeed closed and unable to reimburse customers, contact the
bank that issued the credit card used for the purchase and explain the
situation. The bank will probably mail a form for providing detailed
information about the situation.
• The bank can take anywhere from one to two months to examine the case.
• In the meantime, the bank should place a hold on the disputed charge and
prevent it from building interest on your account. If the bank finds that
the company is unable to reimburse you, it will remove the charge permanently.
She said the executive told her there was little chance of her receiving the merchandise and gave her some phone numbers of other former Miadora executives. None of them returned her calls, she said.
"He was very gracious, but he couldn't help me," Mikel said.
Barry Gilbert, chief executive of Miadora, declined to comment.
Throwing her hands up, the Indianapolis woman decided to call her credit card company. That's where she got some answers.
Visa told her to contact the bank that issued the credit card and file a "purchase dispute" form. She did, and the bank temporarily pulled the charge from her account so she would not be responsible for any interest. Once the bank verifies Mikel's story, the charge should be pulled for good, Healy said.
Mikel's bank will not be out of the money, either. It will pass the charges to the bank that handles Miadora's credit card transactions. More than likely, Healy said, it will be that bank that must stand in line with the rest of Miadora's creditors to collect its payment.
Retailers must follow one important federal law, the Federal Trade Commission says: Merchants must cease taking customer orders once it becomes clear that they are going to close their doors, said Heather Hippsley, assistant director of enforcement at the FTC.
"For instance, a company that hasn't paid its vendors, knows the vendor won't ship, but continues taking orders is going to have a problem," Hippsley said. "We take issue with that."
Among the scores of online retailers that have shut down their e-commerce operations are Disney-backed Toysmart.com, Value America, Boo.com, and most
recently, health store Gazoontite.com.
As for Mikel, she said that she feels even better about shopping online now that she knows she is protected. But she said she won't forgot what has happened to her.
"This is my first disappointment buying online," she said. "I've shopped extensively online. I usually stick with names that I know. It's safe to say that I won't be checking out companies that I'm not familiar with."


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US crypto investment company Arca launched a new NFT fund on Wednesday, for which it plans to raise about $30 million. The firm has already raised $11.4 million for the new fund, as reported by Coindesk.
According to the documents submitted to the SEC, the new fund “Arca NFT Fund” began raising funds from November 15, and only the existing Arca Limited Partners are eligible to subscribe to the NFT Fund. Arca has since raised over $11 million from 68 investors in just nine days.
Sasha Fleyshman and Jeff Dorman will lead the new fund as the portfolio manager and CIO, respectively.
In October, Arca announced the launch of the “Arca Endeavor Fund”, a closed-venture fund that targets investments in NFT, blockchain games, equity, and tokens of Web3.0 related companies. The Endeavor fund raising an oversubscribed amount above its $30 million cap within a week. However, the new NFT will directly invest in equities and tokens of companies that support NFT growth.


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Apple's Tim Cook grilled by judge overseeing Epic's Fortnite trial
Apple says its control over the App Store promises security and reliability for users. Epic says it stifles competition.
Updated May 21, 2021 4:58 p.m. PT
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Reviews ethics statement
Ian SherrFormer Editor at Large / News
Ian Sherr (he/him/his) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he's always had a connection to the tech world. At CNET, he wrote about Apple, Microsoft, VR, video games and internet troubles. Aside from writing, he tinkers with tech at home, is a longtime fencer -- the kind with swords -- and began woodworking during the pandemic.
For the past three weeks, a mix of
executives and experts have defended the company's policies that tightly control how apps work on the billion active
around the world.
maker Epic Games sued Apple in August, saying its behavior stifles competition within the iPhone's world. On Friday, Apple CEO
found himself answering pointed questions about competition from the person who'll be deciding the case, US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
Over a period of about 14 minutes at the tail end of Cook's four hours of testifying in court, Rogers challenged Apple's business model in the name of the very competition Epic is arguing for.
"You would agree with the basic proposition that competition is good?" she asked the Apple chief.
Cook responded, "I think competition is very good. We have fierce competition."
But, Rogers said, Apple doesn't have competition in ways that could matter. Epic had argued that one Apple policy was monopolistic: requiring app developers to use its payment processing service on the iPhone and pay up to a 30% commission to the tech giant. It appeared as though Rogers might agree. "You don't have competition for those in-app purchases," she said.
Watch this: Epic v. Apple trial recap, what's next
The somewhat surprise grilling was unusual in Silicon Valley, where executives typically give few interviews, and typically to a friendlier audience. Rogers, who's overseeing one of the biggest tech antitrust trials in decades, kept at the idea of competition throughout her questions to Cook. She suggested concern over how little pressure Apple has from developers or other companies to change its policies or commission rates.
For Cook, this courtroom visit is the latest in a string of appearances where he's faced questions from a potentially hostile audience. In the past couple of years, he's found himself increasingly questioned by lawmakers and the press about his company's substantial power.
Epic says some of Apple's success was won through forcing developers to use its App Store, the only place users have ever been allowed to download apps for iPhones and
Below are some key details from Cook's testimony, which we reported live as they developed:
Judge questions competition
[12:55 p.m. PT]
Once Epic's and Apple's lawyers were done with their direct examination, cross-examination, redirect and so on, Rogers took the opportunity to ask Cook a series of questions herself.
Rogers noted that despite Apple saying competition is good, "You don't have competition for those in-app purchases." Cook responded that the competition is with other platforms like the
PlayStation or Nintendo Switch.
She then brought up Apple's small-business program, which lowered App Store commissions to 15% for developers making less than $1 million per year. "At least from what I've seen thus far, that really wasn't the result of competition," she said. "That's the result of pressure you're feeling from investigations and lawsuits, not competition."
Cook responded, "It was the result of feeling like we should do something from a COVID point of view, and then electing instead of doing something temporary to do something permanent."
Rogers pressed further. "It wasn't competition," she said.
"It was competition in that after we dropped to 15,
dropped to 15," Cook said.
Rogers interrupted as he continued, "I understand perhaps that Google changed its price, but your action wasn't the result of competition."
Cook said it was the result of wanting to do something for small developers.
Gamers subsidize banks
[12:24 p.m. PT]
Rogers noted that "a significant portion of in-app purchases come from gamers," and Cook agreed.
"So what is the problem with allowing users to have choice, especially in a
context, to have a cheaper option for content?" she asked.
Cook responded that they do have choice today, "They have choice between many different
models of a smartphone, or an iPhone that has a certain set of principles behind it including safety and
After Rogers pressed further, Cook added that in-app purchases are how Apple gets a return on its intellectual property, an argument his lawyers and executives raised earlier.
"But you could also monetize a different way, couldn't you?" Rogers asked. She added that the gaming industry is generating "a disproportionate amount of money" and effectively subsidizing everyone else.
Cook said the free apps, which make up most of the apps in the store, do get a kind of subsidy, but he said they also attract people into the store, which benefits the companies by giving them more of an audience to sell to. "We need a return on our IP," he said, adding that there are 150,000 APIs Apple maintains, along with customer service, transactions and other things.
Rogers then noted that her Wells Fargo banking app is free, which means a massive company is getting a free ride on Apple's App Store after paying the $99 developer fee.
"But you're charging gamers to subsidize Wells Fargo," she said. "It's just a choice of a model."
Cook agreed that Apple "made a choice. There are clearly other ways to monetize and we chose this one because we think this is the best way," he said.
"Well, it's quite lucrative," Rogers said.
More on China
[12:06 p.m. PT]
After Epic's lawyers finished their cross-examination, Apple's lawyers helped Cook refute some issues during redirect examination. Among them, Cook noted that aside from Chinese users' iCloud data being stored in the country, Apple offers essentially the same experience.
Epic's lawyer suggested that allowing third-party app stores would take pressure off Apple, reducing the danger of Apple being generally barred from China for what happens on an app. Epic, for example, refused to work in Vietnam over privacy fears, he said.
Cook pushed back, saying Apple follows the laws in places it operates. "I strongly believe it's in the best interests of the people there that we do operate," he added.
In cross examination, Epic's lawyer pushed Cook on the possibility of having alternative app stores available on the iPhone. The lawyer asserted that even if there were alternative stores, Apple could still run its own and it could use its marketing might to convince people to use its store.
"It seems like a decision they shouldn't have to make," Cook said. "When they buy an iPhone today, they just buy something that works."
The two did agree, though, that they wouldn't know whether Apple would succeed in this hypothetical situation, because it hasn't been done.
[10:27 a.m. PT]
Apple and Google have a famously odd relationship. Google's former CEO, Eric Schmidt, sat on Apple's board when the iPhone was launched. The two companies worked together on a version of Google Maps for the iPhone for years before Apple Maps launched.
But as Google's Android grew, Schmidt left the board and the two companies took a more competitive stance. They still work together, though. For instance, Apple has an agreement with Google to make the tech giant's search the default for Safari searches on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Epic's lawyer pushed, noting public reporting that suggested Google paid as much as $10 billion for that deal. Why pay so much? Cook said it was a question better put to Google.
Epic's lawyer pushed again. Cook eventually answered, "I believe they paid for search results, which they get from being the default search engine."
Who are your competitors?
[9:44 a.m. PT]
During the trial, experts from Epic and Apple debated one of the odder contentious issues of the lawsuit: Who does Apple compete with on
? Some argued Apple has no competitor, others said it competes with Google.
When one of Epic's lawyers asked Cook to settle the debate, and say who he believes Apple's competitors are, Cook said Apple competes against the devices Google's software enables. So he sees Samsung and others as competitors. "So your testimony is that you do not compete against Google in operating systems?" Epic's lawyer asked. Epic then played a video of Cook speaking at a meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 2019, in which he gives his boiler plate speech about how Apple competes against Microsoft and Google "on the operating system side" and against Samsung, Huawei and other phone makers "in the hardware space."
The lawyer then asked Cook if that video showed him saying those words. "Well, that certainly looked like me," Cook said. "And it sounded like me too."
[9:10 a.m. PT]
Epic's lawyers at one point have raised the argument that iMessage is one of the features Apple uses to lock users into iOS. The service offers encrypted chat by default and makes it easier to share video and photos. Additionally, when you use iMessage, the chat bubbles are blue. When you use SMS, like when texting with an Android user, the chat bubbles are green.
Some people argue that the status of having a blue bubble keeps people on iPhones, especially since iMessage isn't available for Android. Cook disagreed. He noted that it's easy to turn off iMessage if people want.
Generally, Cook said he believes it's easy to switch from Apple to Android. He noted that photos in particular are easy to move between Google, Facebook and Apple. And, he added, the popularity of streaming music and movies means you just need to redownload the app and sign in on your new device.
[8:51 a.m. PT]
Epic and Apple spent much of the past three weeks arguing over one sticking point: that Apple doesn't even allow app developers to have a notice in their app saying customers can go to their site to pay a lower price to buy something or sign up or whatever else.
Cook sees allowing developers to point users to their website for discounts as akin to putting up a sign outside Best Buy saying they'd get a better deal on an iPhone at the Apple Store. "It's the same kind of thing."
[8:46 a.m. PT]
Cook talked about the impact of the App Store. "I think it's been an economic miracle," he said. Apple started with 500 apps, and now has 1.8 million. He noted that almost 2 million people are estimated to have had jobs created through the app store. He said commerce, according to one study, is half a trillion. "It's likely been one of the most important job segments out there in a growth point of view over the last decade," he added.
One of the most important issues
[8:26 a.m. PT]
Cook began his testimony by bolstering Apple's argument before the court that its control is about its commitment to privacy and security. "Privacy, from our point of view, is one of the most important issues of the century. And safety and security are the foundation that privacy is built upon." He also equated these issues with civil liberties and freedom of expression.
Judge gives indications
[8:12 a.m. PT]
Rogers, who'll be ruling on this case instead of a jury, has tipped her hand a couple of times during the trial. She's expressed doubt about some of both companies' arguments -- in Epic's case, the game company's argument that Apple is a bad marketing partner. And in Apple's case, its acknowledgement that it hasn't studied whether other app stores or app moderation companies could do a better job than Apple's App Store review team.
As court was starting Friday, Rogers asked lawyers to include in their final filings some discussion of "remedies," or how to solve this problem. She said she's still debating the question of whether Apple has an illegal monopoly over its own products. And she said the lack of competition for 30% commissions worries her.
Cook is in court
[7:53 a.m. PT]
A group of reporters were waiting for Cook outside the courtroom Friday, but rumor was that he entered through the garage. So, no iconic photos of him walking up.


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Where Is Payforit Today?
The future of mobile payments initiative, Payforit, is set to be discussed at an AIME Knowledge and Networking seminar sponsored by Dialogue Communications, later this week. The seminar, taking place at the Grange Fitzrovia Hotel, London, on Thursday at 6.30pm, will be hosted by AIME's Andrew Darling and see speakers from O2, Three, AEI Mobile and Dialogue discuss the evolution and growth of Payforit over the last two years.
Since its inception in 2006, there have been a number of new developments including Web Payforit and Single Click, and a growth in the scope of purchases made through the mobile internet for both mobile content and also services like mobile tickets and donations as well as online for vouchers and credits. This has allowed Payforit's position in the WAP billing landscape to grow in importance. The seminar will address this progression along with the impact that it will have for operators, API's and content/service providers, as well as looking at potential factors, which may have hindered Payforit's growth, and what can be done to remedy this.
Guiom Peersman, managing director at Dialogue said: "Dialogue has been an important force in the development of Payforit since 2006, and was the first to go live with a Payforit customer, as well as the first API to implement and lead the way with both Web Payforit and Single Click, opening up opportunities for new markets.
"However there is still plenty more we can do to increase the success of Payforit, as well as build on brand awareness. That is why this seminar is important, as it will allow us to look at how it works today, address the needs of Payforit and look at ways to perfect the buying experience for consumers further."
write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Exhibition News :: home page


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Epic Games is closing out 2018 with the release of their very own online store meant to rival the likes of Steam.
The store was officially announced in an online press release on December 4. Epic directly compares the Steam store to their own by contrasting the revenue that game companies will receive from products sold between the two stores. The announcement stated that developers would earn 18-25% more revenue on the Epic store than on Steam. Epic Games claims the store’s objective is to further the cause of game developers.
“As developers ourselves, we wanted two things: a store with fair economics, and a direct relationship with players. And we’ve heard that many of you want this too,” Epic Games said.
Epic is hoping to achieve these goals by asking for only 12% of game sales and having customers who purchase a specific game automatically subscribe to that developer’s news feed. Developers are also encouraged to use Epic Games’ “Support-A-Creator” program, which works to connect game developers with YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and bloggers to help promote their products.
Epic has been at the forefront of game development long before the massive success of Fortnite. The company developed the Unreal Tournament series, one of the earlier competitive FPS series, and is the proprietor of the Unreal Engine, which is one of the core development engines in the gaming industry.
The concept of the Epic Games store is similar to Valve’s Steam store. Both companies are game developers and publishers who used their accomplishments and experience as developers to create digital marketplaces. Whether or not Epic will see the same success as Valve remains a question.
The Epic Games store went live December 6 and currently has a brief catalogue of games including Epic’s most popular titles.


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Chateau Gazin in Pomerol has taken the unusual step of releasing its price during the official en primeur week, as Bordeaux gears up for an early campaign for the 2013 vintage.
Chateau Gazin (pictured) released its 2013 price this morning (3 April) at €38 ex-Bordeaux, which is a drop of 3% on last year.
Although the volume of Gazin is down by 25%, with yields at around 25 hectolitres per hectare, the general reaction seems to be that this price will not be enough to get the market excited.
‘Chateaux need to stop talking about how far their yields have come down,’ Simon Staples of Berry Bros told Decanter.com. ‘Nobody cares, and if they think that is sweetening us up for prices to stay at the same levels as last year, they are wrong’.
Last week, Pontet Canet released its 2013 wines at the same price as 2012, at €60 ex-Bordeaux. ‘We are taking our allocation and will sell though,’ said Axel Vallet, of Ballande et Meneret négociant. ‘But they are really an exception, and other chateaux will not find the same reaction.’
Jean-Christophe Mau, of Yvon Mau négociants, expects Margaux and Haut-Brion to come out next week, with other sources suggesting Lafite-Rothschild is also preparing to release quickly.
Most merchants attending en primeur week in Bordeaux agree that these leading wines need to send a strong message.
One buyer told Decanter.com last weekend that it would be sensible for chateaux to make a ‘goodwill gesture’ on price, even if prices do not come down significantly from 2012.
‘The magic number for the first growths to come out at would be just below €200,’ said Kenneth Ren, of Vintasia in Hong Kong. ‘That would allow us to communicate to our clients that the wines are worth buying. Otherwise I just can’t see any interest being generated.’
Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux


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At least in the US, the Apple iPad mini (2021) is still available at $500 for the base 64GB model and $650 for the 256GB model. However, when the Apple Store was closed in anticipation of the new iPad 10th generation and iPad Pro 2022, prices in Europe and other places rose.
We investigated a few local shops and contrasted the current costs with those from earlier this month. Only the US and Canada’s pricing remained constant among the regions we looked at; everywhere else, there was a slight to moderate price increase.
Increases of between €100 and €160 were found to be very typical in mainland Europe. Since those were the ones most negatively impacted by the new iPhone prices, we also looked at the nations that don’t use the Euro. Once more, nations like Poland face price increases of more than 20%.
The most recent Mini is now significantly more expensive than the recently released new iPad 10th generation device as a result of these pricing increases. For those seeking for something compact, the iPad mini (2021) does boast a quicker CPU (Apple A15 vs. A14), a sharper display (327ppi vs. 264ppi), and is smaller too. But that convenience will cost you more.


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The Lowcountry will get its first taste of Tha CommUNITY Beer on Friday, October 1st. The craft beer will be released as part of a multi-brew initiative led by The Traveling Hoptista & The Dropping Pin in partnership with Holy City Brewing in North Charleston.
“We created this initiative to bring more people of color into the taproom,” said April Dove, of Goose Creek, also known as the “The Traveling Hoptista.” As a graduate of the American Brewers Guild and a homebrewer, Dove wanted to create a beer that was packed with both “flavor and inclusivity.” The end results would become an American Lager crafted and brewed locally by a black woman.
“Tha CommUNITY offers a crisp and clean taste of local ingredients with a nostalgia feel,” Dove said. “It’s a bold tasting beer that will become the catalyst to a more diverse and colorful customer experience throughout the local taprooms.”
To ensure this, David White Jr., of The Dropping Pin, has joined the initiative as a Brewery & Community Liaison.
“It’s an honor to be a part of a movement,” said White. “The brewery scene here has grown tremendously in the last few years, and we’d like everyone to know that ‘we’ too enjoy craft beer.”
As the faces of Tha CommUNITY, he and Dove hope to encourage more breweries to join the initiative alongside Holy City Brewing. The support of the North Charleston brewery has allowed for their craft beer to be brewed, canned, distributed, and sold in-house.
“Holy City Brewing has always strived to be a part of our local community,” said Chris Brown, Owner and Production Manager. “When April approached us about Tha Community Beer we were excited to be involved in a project that would reach out to our community and hopefully bring more inclusivity to our tap room. We’re looking forward to drinking a few pints with our neighbors.”
To celebrate, a release party will be held on October 1st from 7 pm to 10 pm. This will be a free event for attendees 21 and older. Tha CommUNITY Beer will be available on tap, in 16-oz. cans, or 4-packs (available to-go only).
For more if information email: thacommunitybrew@gmail.
Holy City Brewing is located at 1021 Aragon Avenue in North Charleston.
Latina Bazaar Market Announces Several Upcoming Events
Roxana Massie, owner of Roxy Latin Jewels & Fashion, will host several events at Tradesman Brewing Co. in downtown Charleston....


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South Florida hotels were jampacked in February with guests filling almost 90 percent of the available rooms in Broward and Palm Beach counties and paying an average of $5 per night more than last year, according to figures released Thursday by the accounting firm of Laventhal & Horwath.
In Palm Beach County, occupancy rates pushed up to 89.8 percent, a slight increase over last February's rate of 88.6 percent. The increase was corroborated by another survey conducted by the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council, which reported an 87.2 percent occupancy rate representing a sampling of 5,000 hotel rooms.
In Broward County, hoteliers reported 88.3 percent of their rooms were occupied, a 3 percent increase over rates for the same month last year.
"You just can't get any higher than a 90 percent occupancy, because it's almost impossible to check everybody in and out faster than that," noted Chase Burritt, manager of leisure time industries for Laventhal & Horwath. "Every single market is substantially improved. We knew it was coming and we're going to see March and April as very solid months as well."
Burritt pointed to "pretty good economics," beautiful weather and more attractive accommodations as key factors pulling in the visitors.
South Florida hotels on the average filled 84 percent of their rooms, a 10 percent increase above the rates last February.
"I think that's excellent news," said George Trodella, president of the Broward County Hotel and Motel Association. "We had anticipated a good season. While they were here in good number last year, they were reluctant to spend the extra money. This season, people are spending more in our gift shops and extra money in the food and beverage area."
Tourists are also spending more on their rooms throughout South Florida.
Rates went up $9.20 in Palm Beach County for an average room rate of $162.51 in February. Hotels in Broward County reported charging $80.30 per night, an increase of $3.70 over last February.
Dade County reported the most dramatic turnaround in hotel occupancy, with hotels on Miami Beach and near the airport area posting 83.7 percent and 80.1 percent rates respectively, a jump of 14 percent and 20 percent over the same period last year. Hotels in downtown Miami shared in the swell of visitors with an 81 percent occupancy rate, a gain of 8 percent from the same month last year.
"This town was really alive in February," said Carol Lee, president of the 185-member Greater Miami Hotel and Motel Association. "There were several excellent events and we have to continue to present a positive, uplifting image of Dade County. We're more than just beaches and a good stopover."
Lee also said the county is beginning to absorb some of the overbuilding in the hotel and motel sector that has diluted the market.
"We felt confident that the softness in tourism was temporary," added Seth Gordon, of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. "We thought that the business and recreational travelers would be coming back and that has finally come to pass."


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Cahoot launches 8% flexible loan
INTERNET bank Cahoot has launched a flexible loan with an average interest rate of 8%, regardless of how much you want to borrow.
Unlike most traditional loans, Cahoot's rates are determined by the borrower's credit rating rather than the amount of the loan. Rates vary between 7% and 11%. The rate borrowers pay is decided after their credit check by Cahoot.
Cahoot, the net banking arm of Abbey National, says most customers would be likely to end up paying 7% or 8%. This makes it the cheapest offering for a personal loan below £20,000 in the UK.
And for those on the lowest rates there are other benefits, such as no early settlement penalties and no charges for withdrawing money from the loan to pay into another account.
Also interest is only paid on the funds used - so borrowers do not have to pay interest on the full amount of the loan until they spend it. This works in the same way as credit card borrowing, or the Marks & Spencer's personal reserve account.
The loan and its rates are available to anyone who can pass the credit checks. You do not have to have a Cahoot account or open one to be eligible.
To find out more click here. Remember you can compare hundreds of personal loans online at www.moneysupermarket.com.
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The trade group said today it now anticipates total spot TV ad revenue to fall 7% to 11% in 2009, down from a previous forecast of a 2% to 5% drop. Local spot revenue will fall between 4% and 8%, the TVB said, compared with its previous forecast of up 2% to down 1%. Meanwhile, national spot advertising is set to decline between 11.5% and 15.5% in 2009, the group said, down from a previous forecast of 7% to 10%.
The group also said it expects total 2008 spot revenue to fall 7.1% from last year, rather than coming in flat, as was forecast in September.
The figures illustrate the perilous situation in which local TV outlets find themselves. Flush with a presidential election and Olympics telecasts, 2008 was expected to be a decent year for advertising. But the ongoing downward tilt of the economy has caused some prominent TV advertisers, most notably automotive marketers and car dealerships, to pull back significantly in recent months. Add that to the steady erosion of viewers who can now watch their favorite programs in many new ways, and the situation is dire.
The TVB rarely revises its forecasts. This marks only the second time the group has done so. The first time came after its 2002 forecast was rendered meaningless by Sept. 11, another event that forced advertisers to pull back on spending.


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ISLAMAAD: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will assist Pakistan in increasing the cultivation of date palm through innovative ideas.
The two countries have inked an agreement that would provide an opportunity to Pakistani farmers to increase the cultivation of date palm through innovative ideas.
Pakistan and the UAE signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, aimed at boosting agricultural innovation and research related to development and promotion of various aspects of date palm cultivation and related industry.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence of the UAE. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UAE Faisal Niaz Tirmizi and Dr Abdelouahhab Zaid, general secretary, Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective governments.
The MoU will help in promoting joint cooperation and sharing of expertise between the two sides. It will also provide an opportunity to Pakistani farmers to increase the cultivation of date palm through innovative ideas.
Being one of the pioneers, the UAE will provide technological support to Pakistan to increase date palm cultivation as Pakistan’s rich topography presents immense potential in this sector. Pursuant to this MoU, the First Pakistan International Date Palm Festival 2024 will also be organized.


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Heritage Cannabis Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:HERTF) has announced that its CannaCure Corp subsidiary has received an amended sales license from Health Canada. The amended license will allow Heritage Cannabis to sell dried cannabis, including pre-rolls and flower directly to territorial and provincial cannabis boards.
CannaCure receives amended sales license
Already Heritage cannabis provided extract and derivative products in Canada through Purefarma, Pura Vida, Feelgood. brands and Premium 5.With the amended license, the company will have an opportunity to address the largest category in the Canadian cannabis market. From May 2021, Heritage will have dried cannabis products available in the Canadian market and begin with the RAD brand introduction.
Clint Sharples, Heritage’s CEO, said that the CannaCure sales license amendment for the sale of dried cannabis in Canada is a massive milestone for the company, and it allows the company to enter a high volume cannabis category and bring newly developed SKUs to consumers across Canadian provinces. He said that the company continues to deliver sought-after and innovative products, and the development of premium quality products is at the heart of the company’s story.
Heritage expands relationship with Merida Capital Holdings
Recently, the company announced expanding its relationship with Merida Capital Holdings to use its strategic companies’ portfolio to expand Heritage’s product distribution strategy in the US. Following Premium 5’s acquisition in January 2021, Merida became a strategic Heritage shareholder since it was the largest non-insider Premium 5 investor.The agreement will enable the company to strategically partner and advance Heritage’s product distribution in the US. The collaboration will see the company introduce its products and brands into various states where recreational and medicinal marijuana is legal.
Heritage’s President David Schwede said that entry into the US market with a strong partner and clear path is a massive and transformational moment. He said that they have done considerable work in recent months integrating with Premium 5, doing away with restrictive lending covenants, and increasing working capital culminating in today’s announcement.


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The boost of interest in Antigua and Barbados is a result of a meeting carried out with British Airways in England, confirming the airline’s confidence in this travel sector.
The measure of adding an extra flight to these locations enables a 20% boost in capacity, thus making them more accessible for British tourists.
Asot Michael, Antigua and Barbuda’s tourism minister has made it clear that their strategy is oriented towards continuous development in the tourism sector.
Among the current and future developments for these exotic destinations is the near completion of the largest airport in East Caribbean which is bound to show positive effect in terms of air traffic flow as of this summer.
The minister also brought forward the fact that Antigua and Barbuda have made an agreement with Petrocaribe/Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas which translates into a 12% fuel cost reduction for British Airways.
Collaboration between governments and big franchise is especially important when discussing tourism. In the case of Antigua and Barbuda, the measurements taken by the tourism ministry are bound to show positive repercussions on the local economy as British tourists show a continuous increase for warm locations with quality services.


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Amazon.com (AMZN) - Get Report said Tuesday that this year’s holiday shopping season has been the biggest in its history, as the coronavirus pandemic drove consumers to its e-commerce platform in record numbers.
While Amazon didn’t disclose total sales figures for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it did say in a blog post that customers have been shopping early for gifts and seasonal items, making it “our biggest holiday season to date.”
Amazon did say how its third-party retailers are doing. In a word: Well.
Independent businesses selling on Amazon surpassed $4.8 billion in worldwide sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, Amazon said, noting that the figure was up 60% on last year.
Some 71,000 small and medium-sized businesses have seen sales above $100,000 so far this holiday shopping season, Amazon said.
That jived with figures compiled by the National Retail Federation, which in its annual survey released on Tuesday said that some 186.4 million consumers took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and shopped both online and in-store.


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Talk about a show pony.
The Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 landed the strip at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis during US Nationals this past weekend, with its front wheels in the air to demonstrate the potential of electric drive.
The drag car is powered by a pair of twin Cascadia Motion electric motors that Ford Performance delivers 1,502 wheel horsepower to the rear slicks through a 3-speed transmission.
JEEP WRANGLER 4XE plug-in HYBRID is a steel off-roader
Ford says it has achieved a quarter mile in 8.27 seconds at a trap speed of 168 mph in a private test, and has introduced a sportsman class super-powered 2018 to NHRA phoney car driver Bob Tassa III behind the wheel in Indianapolis. The Mustang Cobra is mounted on a jet powered by Tony Pedregan. Ford has never revealed the official power output for the V8 Cobra Jet, but is estimated to be in the 1,000 hp range.
Tassa had a slow reaction time and drew a high and long wheel stand in the green light, giving Pedgreen an early lead which he did not give up. The gas-powered Mustang beat its electric counterpart 8.797 seconds at 158.26 mph to 8.826 seconds at 156.81 mph.
The run gave the Ford battery-powered bragging rights to the Chevy, whose 700 hp eCOPO Camaro ran a quarter mile of 9.837 seconds at 134.07 mph last year.
Click here to get the Fox News app


text: Ralph_19 writes "Wired visited Seagate's R&D labs and learned we can expect 3.5-inch 300-terabit hard drives within a matter of years. Currently Seagate is using perpendicular recording but in the next decade we can expect heat-assisted magnetic recording (HARM), which will boost storage densities to as much as 50 terabits per square inch. The technology allows a smaller number of grains to be used for each bit of data, taking advantage of high-stability magnetic compounds such as iron platinum." In the meantime, Hitachi is shipping a 1 TB HDD sometime this year. It is expected to retail for $399.


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Like a lot of people, Pizza Hut is getting in on March Madness by offering customers a chance to win a $1 million prize, according to Pizza Market Place. The prize is not for eating delicious pizzas from the popular pizza chain. Instead, the $1 million prize will go to anyone who can shoot a basketball in a basket from half court. Pizza Hut realizes that any good basketball player could probably do this without much effort. Therefore, Pizza Hut has made the challenge even more challenging by requiring the person to shoot the ball into the basket by doing it backwards.
Jared Drinkwater, vice president of marketing for Pizza Hut, says those who want to be in the contest don’t have to be in Indianapolis to enter. Any interested person should register at Pizza Hut contest by Sunday, March 29. Three people who register will be randomly selected for a chance to win a trip to Indianapolis. Those who are selected will then go to Indianapolis to compete in the contest. Names will be announced on Tuesday, March 31, along with a fourth competitor.
The contest will take place during the live events hosted by college basketball analyst Jay Williams at the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Sunday, April 5, where competitors will attempt the backwards half-court shot for $1 million. The official contest will kick-off at 4 p.m. when each competitor will have one attempt at making the backwards half-court shot between the basketball semi-finals and finals. All of Pizza Hut’s new Stuffed Crust flavors will be available for everyone in attendance.
People all over the United States should root for the competitors because there is something in it for everyone; if any one of them make a half-court shot while shooting backward. Pizza Hut will offer half off on all Stuffed Crust Pizza ordered from any one of Pizza Hut’s almost 12,000 locations. The deep discount is only for any Stuffed Crust Pizza to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Stuffed Crust Pizza. The original price of the Stuffed Crust Pizza will be what it was 20 years ago.
It might interesting to know that in 1995, Pizza Hut encouraged the nation to eat their Stuffed Crust Pizza backwards. PR Newswire reported that Pizza Hut is challenging America again 20 years later by offering someone the chance to win a $1 million prize. Like eating Stuffed Crust Pizza backwards, a person has to land a basketball in the net by doing it backwards.
[Image via Getty Images]


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Germany says Tesla should not use 'Autopilot' in advertising
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The Tesla Model S version 7.0 software update containing Autopilot features is demonstrated during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California, U.S., October 14, 2015. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach/File Photo
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has asked Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) to stop advertising its electric vehicles as having an Autopilot function as this might suggest drivers' attention is not needed, his ministry said on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, confirming a report in the daily Bild am Sonntag (BamS), said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) had written to Tesla to make the request.
"It can be confirmed that a letter to Tesla exists with the request to no longer use the misleading term Autopilot for the driver assistance system of the car," she said in a written response to a Reuters' query.
A Tesla spokeswoman said the Autopilot term, describing a system operating in conjunction with a human driver, had been used in aerospace for decades, and that the company had always made it clear to customers that the assistance system required drivers to pay attention at all times.
"Just as in an airplane, when used properly, Autopilot reduces driver workload and provides an added layer of safety when compared to purely manual driving," she said.
On Friday the KBA - which reports to Dobrindt - wrote to owners of Tesla cars, warning them that their vehicles could not be operated without their constant attention and that under traffic regulations they must remain alert.
According to the BamS report, the KBA letter to Tesla said: "In order to prevent misunderstanding and incorrect customers' expectations, we demand that the misleading term Autopilot is no longer used in advertising the system."
Tesla's Autopilot has been the focus of intense scrutiny since a Tesla Model S driver was killed while using the technology in a May 7 collision with a truck in Florida.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Mark Potter, Greg Mahlich)
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