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Sabre report explores tech trends driving travel industry
Sabre’s 2017 Radar Report highlighted nine emerging technologies that could have a dramatic impact on travel in the near future
Global travel technology provider Sabre Corporation has just released the latest version of its technology forecast Sabre Labs' 2017 Radar report, which explores nine emerging technologies that could have a dramatic impact on global travel.
These comprise of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, autonomous delivery, Blockchain, neural interfaces, space tourism, quantum computing, seamless processes, and Hybrid VR.
Mark McSpadden, vice president of emerging products and technologies for Sabre Corporation, commented: "We are in the midst of increasingly rapid and dramatic technological change, poised to revolutionise how and where we travel.
"Technologies like artificial intelligence, neural interfaces and quantum computing each have the potential to produce change as dramatic as the growth of the Internet."
In particular, the reported noted the impact of Blockchain, neural interfaces and space tourism. The advent of Blockchain is seen as a new transformative technology that is impacting a number of sectors, which include governments, commerce and culture.
Neural interfaces deals with the extraction and transference of information from the mind using technology in a manner that is either invasive or non-invasive.
Finally, space tourism will not only comprise of traveling into the stratosphere and orbiting the earth, but also see the rise of orbiting hotels and long-distance trips to other planets.
"The next generation will see a radical transformation of how we live, work and play," added McSpadden.
"We see tremendous opportunities for businesses to start experimenting with and implementing technologies like Blockchain, augmented reality and trusted presence to help shape a more seamless, safe and personalised future for travel."
The report was produced by Sabre Labs, a travel and technology team under Sabre that is dedicated to exploring the impact of technology on travel over the next decade.


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It’s been about one year since Apple first released its smartwatch to the world. At first, the watch was met with some controversy but since then, the Apple Watch is slowly making its way into the everyday lives of millions. Despite these improvements, one self-proclaimed genius thought Windows 95 just wasn’t getting the respect it deserves anymore.
APPLE WATCH: YEAR IN REVIEW
When the Apple Watch first dawned the wrists of the few and wealthy, not many people had high hopes for the continuation of such a device. A year later, they couldn’t be any more wrong. The watch has become yet another fine device by Apple and now that new apps are being developed, the thought of owning one seems more realistic. Essentially, Apple Watch is developing into a tiny iPhone for your wrist. Users can have iMessage notifications pop up and even use Siri on the watch to respond to certain messages. Most similar wearables put fitness first in their marketing campaign. Apple’s watch doesn’t do that, but the Activity feature happens to be one of its strongest. Unlike other wearables, Apple Watch is evolving into a jack-of-all-trades, master of all. As it continues to develop, its relevance will only become more apparent.
WATCHING THE FUTURE
Rumors are already spreading regards to Apple newest watch in September. Expect it to be cheaper, have cosmetic updates and even a tweaked interface. Apple is hoping to make their watch from a neat accessory to something life changing we can’t imagine living without. One man, however, has his own plans. Apparently Apple’s OS doesn’t cut it, so like any genius would he installed Windows 95 on it.
WINDOWS 95 BACK FROM THE DEAD
Don’t you miss Windows 95? No? One can’t blame you. Although at the time, it was truly an amazing OS, let’s just say not many would choose to revert back to its archaic ways. Yet still, one “genius” has. A user on YouTube has released and instructional video on how to install Windows 95 on his Apple Watch. He had his reasons, albeit it’s not sure if they are of sound logic. One can suppose that like opinions, operating systems are subjective. If one crazy man prefers Windows 95 over Apple’s OS, then so be it.

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NAGA Group projects 2020 Revenue of €22-24 million
Social trading focused Retail FX brokerage firm NAGA Group AG has issued updated guidance for the rest of 2020, after posting an up and down first half of the year.
FNG had exclusively reported a couple weeks back that NAGA Group had seen a 27% decline in Revenue from Q1 to Q2 2020, although overall NAGA had completed an amazing turnaround from 2019 when the company posted a net loss of €13.4 million on Revenue of just €3.9 million for the full year.
After first half Revenue totaled €12.1 million, NAGA issued a statement that the Management Board anticipates Revenues of between €22 million and €24 million in the course of the 2020 financial year. That would mean the company expects that Revenues will actually decline slightly from the first half of the year, but more in line with what the company saw in Q2 after a blowout Q1, driven by March’s Covid-19 crisis breakout.
Management expects EBITDA for 2020 to come in between of €5.5 million and €6 million. Again, a marked improvement over a loss-making 2019.
NAGA Group CEO Benjamin Bilski commented:
“As mentioned in previous press releases, we are focusing strongly on further growth. Our goal is to quadruple sales in 2020 compared to 2019. We not only want to underline the turnaround, but also to show investors that NAGA offers an innovative product, one has a clear technological lead over the competition and therefore has strong growth potential. The planned growth is primarily linked to increased investments in Marketing & Sales. We have therefore collected fresh capital. This has a stronger impact on EBITDA in some quarters however, as was the case in Q2, it is essential to gain more market share and build momentum. With business and spending increasing,Despite all of this, we are aiming for an EBITDA margin of around 25% and are fully focusing on 2021 in order to grow even more.”
To help support its growth, NAGA Group recently raised about €5 million of additional capital. Chinese investor FOSUN owns a majority stake in NAGA.


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Motherboard makers to see shipments plummet in 1Q19
Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES
Motherboard makers are likely to see their shipments fall dramatically in the first quarter of 2019, due to seasonal factors coupled with lingering sluggish demand from the crypto mining sector, according to industry sources.
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There’s something to be said about a family-owned business that prides itself on providing American-made products; a business that offers quality customer service and values its customers. Finding a business that follows these values is a diamond in the rough these days. But when you do find that hidden gem, you stay with them for the long haul. That’s what you’ll find when you walk through the doors of Adam’s Furniture.
Not only has Adam’s Furniture been family-owned and operated since its beginning, but it’s also been in the same building since 1938. “We’re not a come and go type of store. We’ve been here and we’re going to continue to be here,” Adam’s Furniture owner Jim Smith said.
But don’t let the store’s long life span fool you, there’s nothing dated about Adam’s Furniture. Along with 85 percent of the store’s inventory being American-made, every single item that they sell is completely on-trend. “It’s what sets us apart,” Jim said. “We are American-focused. We sell American-made furniture which employs American citizens. The thing about American-made furniture is that the craftsmanship is superior to imported furniture.” This means that when you shop at Adam’s Furniture, you know that you’ll be receiving the highest quality furniture that you can buy.
But not only is their furniture top quality, their customer service is also unmatched. When you’re a customer at Adam’s Furniture, you’re going to get flashbacks to a time when customer service was the most important part of any business. “Quality customer service has gone to the wayside in the last ten years or so,” Jim added. “At Adam’s Furniture, we treat people right.”
While Jim Smith isn’t legally an Adam, he’s still as close to family as you can get. Jim began working at Adam’s Furniture when he was a freshman in high school. When he began college at the University of North Texas he continued to work at the store part-time. “I worked there for 10 years. I was the longest employee that they had,” Jim said.
Upon graduation, the Adam family approached Jim about considering taking over the business to which Jim agreed. “We negotiated a price and I took ownership in 1982. It will be 40 years in September,” Jim mentioned.
It didn’t take too long into his ownership for Jim to make the decision to start offering American-made products. He was in North Carolina to attend one of the largest Furniture Markets in America. Jim was watching the news in his hotel room and watched the news anchor interview civilians attending the Furniture Market. “At the time, a number of companies were leaving and going to China,” Jim recalled. “The news anchors were asking people if they would rather buy an American-made product or save $200 and buy an imported product from China. And almost all of them said that they would rather save the $200.”
Hearing those words was a hard pill for Jim to swallow. “People didn’t realize what that meant. North Carolina was at 30% unemployment at the time. Factory workers were losing their jobs. Yes, you’ll save $200, but your friend or your neighbor would be out of a job,” Jim said.
On top of the local support that buying American-made furniture provides, there’s also no comparison to the quality of the products. “They don’t build things in China like Americans do,” Jim commented.
But the fact that they sell American products isn’t the only thing that keeps customers coming back to Adam’s Furniture. Jim and his team truly go above and beyond to provide the best possible experience. “We’re a full-service store. We offer a full delivery service. We will deliver your product, carry it inside and place it where you want it to be. You don’t have to touch it until you’re ready to use it,” Jim said.
Jim and his team are committed to providing a wholesome and enjoyable experience to every customer that walks in their doors. When it comes to a quality experience, you won’t find better from start to finish than Adam’s Furniture in Justin.


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Above: By always using the latest security technology, Restaurant Choice is trusted to issue vouchers by the likes of Jamie’s Italian
Couponing can be a cost-effective way for brands to reward loyalty, drive purchase and encourage brand trial, and according to figures from the Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM), consumers used them to save more than £2bn off their shopping last year. However, there is a growing risk of these types of incentives being manipulated through high-level scams, with industry sources suggesting the value of fraudulant vouchers or coupons could be in the many millions of pounds or higher.
With the tills at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, Waitrose and countless high street retail brands ringing with redemption, everybody wins until a well-regarded marketing mechanic falls prey to the fraudsters. Carling, for example, last year discovered a fake voucher claiming to offer £6 off a multi-pack which went into widespread circulation. Wholesalers moved to quash the success of the professional-looking scam, which included details of the brand owner Molson Coors and technology provider Valassis in the small print, by warning its retail customers not to accept the fakes.
“High value coupons, insufficiently strong terms and conditions, and coupons that can easily be reproduced are key factors contributing to coupon mis-redemption,” says Kim Robinson, European marketing services manager at Heinz and member of the Coupon Council at the IPM.
“We take measures to counter these issues,” she says, adding that retailers should only accept money-off coupons as payment at the checkout if the terms and conditions are met. For consumers, they should be wary if the information on the coupon is unprofessional and unclear, if it lacks contact details or if there’s no returns policy.
In response to growing concern from brands across sectors, eBay created new guidelines last year restricting the sale of vouchers on its website: “We do allow the sale of up to £100 or 25 vouchers by consumers but do not allow bulk sale,” comments a spokesman. Meanwhile Twitter covers voucher and coupon fraud within its counterfeit goods policy, warning that violations will result in account suspension of the user. Tweets by advertisers that violate this policy will be rejected and result in the removal of the advertiser from the Twitter Ads platform.
We go to great lengths to make it difficult to reproduce vouchers because you are effectively printing money
“Any increase in fakes is a danger to coupons, so we have been taking robust action to tackle abuses, in particular the sale of coupons that have been scanned or copied and then printed off in large numbers on online sites such as eBay,” adds IPM chairman Becky Munday.
Other seemingly more benign but nevertheless very real challenges for brands in this sphere involve consumers sharing an online voucher code with friends and their wider social network, copying vouchers and using vouchers more than once. To protect its business model for offering stock at an average of up to 70 per cent off, online retailer BrandAlley uses vouchers very carefully.
It uses vouchers to encourage different types of customer behaviour such as an incentive for first purchase or as a loyalty reward. “In order to avoid scams, we put the vouchers bespoke into the member’s account,” explains marketing and PR director Melissa Littler. “Where things get most tricky is if you put a more generic voucher out there that can do the rounds on social forums – a voucher might be valid for a certain period of time but if it is still available online a month down the line, consumers are querying why it is not valid.”
BrandAlley tackles this by only partnering with online forums such as Moneysavingexpert.com. “We would never put a code out that is generic because with social media it can be too damaging,” adds Littler. “We would expect Moneysavingexpert to remove the code from its site once the voucher offer is over so that we don’t get the tail and all the issues associated with it.”
O2 head of consumer loyalty and rewards James Reddington says not being able to control vouchers going viral is what worries most brands.
“One of the reasons why we are seeing an increase in fraud is the lack of development in the area around digital fulfilment of vouchers. Without this ability it makes it difficult for brands to control the distribution and validity of their vouchers.
“Brands are concerned that they don’t have the technical capability to manage and control the digital distribution of vouchers, and this scares them away in case the promotion goes viral.”
He suggests using technology to track and manage the vouchers’ fulfilment to protect the customers’ experience as well as the brand itself.
A still more worrying aspect of voucher crime in the social space is scammers who continue to create fake deals on social media sites such as Facebook with the hope of tricking people who ‘Like’ them into giving personal information, clicking onto links or downloading files. Fashion brand Asos was one company whose online brand profile was recently marred with such a scam, which led potential victims to a site where they were asked to complete a survey or download various applications. Argos and Amazon are other high street names that have been similarly targeted.
“These scams show the risks involved with utilising redeemable vouchers. There’s always a danger people will game the system or blatantly attempt fraud,” says Tom Valentine, managing director of online travel agency Secret Escapes. “Thankfully, so far, we’ve been isolated from any gaming attempts of this sort of scale, and we’re very good at spotting irregularities in our friend referral and affiliate programmes.”
In the fight against coupon and voucher scams, brands need to understand that when they print coupons they are effectively printing money and retailers need to be alert to fraudulent coupons, which are far easier to forge than bank notes.
“Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their ability to replicate gift vouchers,” acknowledges Andrew Johnson, director-general of the UK Gift Card and Voucher Association. “But the industry has responded by upgrading and updating the safety measures available and introducing new levels of security.”
Restaurant brands such as Nando’s, Jamie’s Italian and Zizzi work with B2B voucher brand The Restaurant Choice, which mitigates the risk of fraud by keeping up to date with the latest security measures available from manufacturers, and training restaurant staff regularly on recognising tell-tale signs of frauds.
Fundamental security measures include: using security printers that are alarm and CCTV monitored around the clock; keeping gift vouchers in vaults and moved by Securicor and using thermocratic ink that facilitates hologram security.
“From the paper to the hologram, we have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure it is very difficult to reproduce the gift vouchers because we are effectively printing money,” says Jenny Cuthbert, director of The Restaurant Choice.
As well as securing paper voucher manufacturing, sophisticated technology can help tighten the digital redemption. Football club Leeds United puts store in the Talent software it uses to ticket its members and offer online promotions.
“Gone are the days when you need to dispatch paper discount vouchers because it can all be done securely online,” says Katie Holmes, head of ticketing at Leeds United. “Obviously there is a concern among brand owners about introducing a promotional code and it appearing on social media sites, resulting in the promotion being abused. But with our system, you can control your promotions by issuing unique promotional codes.” These can only be used once, thereby eliminating redemption issues, and gives clubs full control of their ticket promotions.
Over the past year, McDonald’s too has offered consumers an engaging digital experience – around its new products Fruit Smoothies, Iced Frappés and Mocha drinks with the reward of a free product. For the first six weeks of the Iced Fruit Smoothies campaign, users of the McDonald’s app had the chance to try a smoothie for free. In the app, users had to ‘break the ice’ on their screen, to find a hidden digital voucher that could be redeemed in store.
The app has had more than 1.9 million downloads since it launched. “With the increasing use of mobile technology and digital vouchering, it is important to build in security measures to protect both our customers and restaurants and to ensure the maximum number of customers can enjoy a reward,” says UK retail marketing director Nathalie Pomroy. “As part of the digital vouchering mechanism of our app, we have included features such as a date and time stamp as well as a device identification feature, which means that only one product can be redeemed per device.”
It is in the interests of manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike that coupons and vouchers be used responsibly. To keep apace of the inevitable pitfalls, the process of couponing and voucher marketing needs to continue to evolve so that brands can play an active part in reducing misuse and fraud.
The Big Three Challenges for Marketers
Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their ability to replicate vouchers and coupons and both consumers and retailers are falling prey to their tactics. Wholesaler Palmer & Harvey recently warned retailers about vouchers from brands including Lindt and Carling being fraudulently created and circulated through various channels including eBay. The frauds contained branded barcodes but had fake designs.
2. Redemption fraud
Coupons and vouchers aren’t usually meant to be transferable, and most brands make that clear in the terms and conditions printed on them. Cases of fraud often involve multiple redemption of vouchers and coupons, including when shoppers deliberately ignore the terms and conditions. To avoid over-redemption online, brands often use single-use voucher codes and trusted partners to promote them.
3. Social media scams
Keeping personal information safe from malicious websites and malware is paramount. With the popularity of vouchers riding high, consumers are at major risk of being lured by the fake promise of a free voucher for popular high street brands in exchange for ‘liking’ and sharing offers on social media.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You can’t buy a pair of Louboutins for £30 no matter how good the deal is,” says Christine Fitzgerald, interim managing director of social shopping engine ShopStyle.
Marketing manager – loyalty, The Co-operative Food
Marketing Week (MW): What are the benefits of working with vouchers and coupons?
Chris Liddle (CL): We can provide relevant offers to both reward and stretch customer spend. It helps secure their shop with us and encourages these shoppers to buy into categories and products they may not have otherwise considered.
MW: What sort of results do you get from your campaigns?
CL: We’ve recently trialled a number of coupons involving the customer having to spend a certain amount to trigger the coupon and these proved very successful.
MW: Are you aware of the issues brands face over fraud and scams around vouchers?
CL: Very much so. All our coupons contain the member’s ID number, so we can match coupons back to the card they were issued against and this helps us to keep track of any misuse or fraud. Coupons targeting non-members contain a threshold that customers must spend, and this helps to manage the risk of misuse or fraud. We have a dedicated team monitoring campaigns to identify signs of any inappropriate use.
MW: Are you concerned about fraud and scams getting more sophisticated?
CL: We believe fraud will become less of an issue as offers become more targeted and the channels to redeem more personal.
MW: What would you say is the best practice for avoiding problems around fake vouchers?
CL: We work closely with our teams in stores and let them know what to look out for to help them stop any potential misuse or fraud. Personalising and differentiating the coupon itself, such as including, the membership number, discourages and inhibits abuse.


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Microsoft will lay off a total of 10,000 employees by the end of March, the American technology giant announced. The reason is said to be “a response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities”.
Redundancies were announced at Microsoft last year, but the numbers were much lower. In October, they were talking about less than a thousand employees. The first man of the tech giant Satya Nadella also announced in a recent letter to employees that regardless of developments in “key sectors” they will continue to hire.
The total cost of the layoffs will reach $1.2 billion (€1.11 billion), according to Microsoft.
According to AFP, such layoffs would mean that Microsoft would be without nearly five percent of its employees. According to analysts, the increase in the labor force is also the result of large-scale hiring during the covid-19 pandemic, when the massive transition to working from home increased the demand for hardware and software.
According to analysts, some other companies could also be laying off due to the decrease in revenues as a result of the company’s austerity while costs are rising. In the past weeks, this has already been announced by Twitter, the online retailer Amazon, the software development company Salesforce and Google’s parent company Alphabet, among others.


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BRUSSELS - Every three weeks, a FedEx flight departs Zaventem Airport on the edge of Brussels carrying Michel Boey's products to the United States. Call it the chocolate bomber.
Mr. Boey is part of a new crop of Belgian chocolate makers that has sprung up after many of the big names were swallowed decades ago by multinational food giants. One of the last to go was Godiva, which caused Belgians to shudder when it was acquired in 1974 by the Campbell Soup Company.
Mr. Boey, 49, a former banker, took over Mary Chocolaterie, a family-run chocolate maker, in 1998. Since then, sales have grown so vigorously that he is shipping his chocolates to the United States and Japan from his shop along Rue Royale, which looks like a grandmother's parlor with its mix of period furnishings and comfortable armchairs.
"It is exactly as in wine," he said, receiving a visitor amid heavy aromas of dark chocolate. "Once, wine was wine. Now we appreciate smaller quantities, but the quality is better."
For the Belgians, who know their ganache from their gianduja, and relish the difference, names like Mr. Boey's have become household words. And now they are stretching their palates to create new chocolate recipes, and looking abroad, above all in the United States, to find connoisseurs for them.Continue reading the main story
Five years ago, the Belgian chocolate maker Jean Galler collaborated in opening a restaurant in southern Namur where the main courses are flavored with chocolate. "For example, you might have a foie gras with a touch of chocolate in a sauce," he said, "or a salmon salad with a vinaigrette with white chocolate."
The restaurant was a huge success, and last year Mr. Galler, who trained in Switzerland and has 30 stores, 13 of them in Belgium, opened a chocolate shop in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and plans to open other outlets in the United States.
"The Mayas and the Aztecs used chocolate as a spice," he said, over hot chocolate in his shop in the upscale Uccle neighborhood of Brussels. And indeed, a package of three of his chocolates contains varieties spiced with curry, ginger and angelica. "Mexico is our roots," he said.
Then, recalling his early Swiss training, he added, "Switzerland is our fortress."
Now, at 50, Mr. Galler has surrendered the reins of his company to his financial director to return to his real passion, the creation of new chocolates.
In the heart of Brussels, in a neighborhood otherwise given to art and antique galleries, Pierre Marcolini's store, with its lean furnishings and black-glass-topped cabinets, more closely resembles a Tiffany jewelry store than a chocolate shop. His chocolates, with their tiny gold lettering or gold filament decorations, evoke microchips more than Mars bars.
Mr. Marcolini, the grandson of Italian immigrants, worked in his 20's for Hermès, the Paris fashion house, and also for the food emporium Fauchon. Eleven years ago, he returned to his native Brussels and opened his first chocolate shop. He now has 17 stores, including eight in Brussels and one in New York on Park Avenue. His dream is a big store in New York, fashioned like his flagship in Brussels.
"The idea is to bring nobility to chocolate," he said. "It's our homage to chocolate."
Today's philosophy of food, he says, is best captured by the 1987 film "Babette's Feast," in which an exiled Parisian chef prepares a banquet as if she's possessed. "Food is not only nourishment," he said. "It is also pleasure."
For all these chocolate makers, the temptation to expand to the United States is rooted in the belief that the tastes of the world's most lucrative market have gone beyond Hershey's and are appreciative of a more sophisticated product. And they are cashing in on the Internet. Mr. Boey estimates that about 15 percent of his sales go to Americans, either those who visit his store in Brussels or those who order over the Internet.
But none of the new wave of Belgian chocolatiers say they will alter their recipes to suit American tastes. "It would be a grave error to go to the United States to change my taste," said Mr. Marcolini. "It's like Château Margaux," he said, referring to the famed Bordeaux wine. "You want to preserve its origins, its personality."
Indeed, the comparison with a premium Bordeaux is apt, for while fine Belgian chocolate can be found in shops that are sprinkled throughout the narrow lanes of Brussels's old city, in places like New York it is as rare and expensive as vintage wine.
At the Neuhaus chocolate shop on Broadway near 76th street, a pound of its Belgian-made chocolate sells for $48. But Tim Quinn, the store manager, says customers are willing to pay for the real thing. Godiva, the Campbell subsidiary, he points out, now makes most of its chocolate for the American market in Virginia.
The new wave has shaken some of the older brands, including Neuhaus. Founded in 1857 by a Swiss pharmacist and amateur chocolate maker who migrated to Brussels, Neuhaus fell on hard times in the early part of this decade, posting losses in three consecutive years. So the company hired a turnaround specialist, replaced a Japanese distributor, closed unprofitable stores and refurbished old ones, like the one in Grand Central Terminal in New York. By last year, Neuhaus was profitable once more.
"The quality was there, and has been there since 1857," said Jos Linkens, the chief executive, leading a visitor through the intensely aromatic Neuhaus chocolate factory on the edge of Brussels. "It was time to rejuvenate the look."
"It's luxury and chocolate," said Mr. Linkens, who stopped at a basket for rejected chocolate eggs, scooped one out and gleefully swallowed it. "When I enter the store, it should feel chocolate, look chocolate. Chocolate is not only a gift, it is a self-indulgent item."
Mr. Linkens stopped to watch David Deyaert, 35, a nine-year veteran chocolate maker, deftly massage a mass of chocolate as big as a small person with two spatulas on a marble-topped table.
"This is what makes the chocolate crack when you bite into it," Mr. Deyaert said, scooping the chocolate into a large pan.
He gazed at the quivering chocolate, then added, "It's a living thing."Continue reading the main story


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The pumpkin spice latte better watch its back.
For the first time in four years, Starbucks has launched a new fall drink: a toasted graham latte that officially hit stores today.
The latest addition to the growing Starbucks menu starts with graham cracker–steeped milk that's reminiscent of the cereal milk served at "Masterchef" judge Christina Tosi's Milk Bar. Baristas steam up the cookie-infused milk and add it to a shot of espresso with a sprinkle of cinnamon graham crumbles on top. The resulting brew is warm and screams autumn without the cloying sweetness of the pumpkin spice latte, so the flavor of the coffee still shines through.
The latte isn't the only new item that Starbucks will debut today — to celebrate the start of fall, cups with colorful illustrations of leaves and pinecones are also rolling out nationwide.
Java junkies can find the new sipper at a nearby shop, or use the just-launched "Mobile Pay & Order" feature in the Starbucks app to skip the lines and order the drink for pick-up.


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Microsoft revamps Skype in a bid to do battle with iMessage
Microsoft is rolling out a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of Skype in an effort to do battle with the likes of iMessage and Snapchat.
Its revamped service combines familiar Skype features like instant messaging and international calling with third-party service integration, improved group chat, and photo sharing with the ability to add annotations and emoji stickers.
Skype is a popular platform — that’s why Microsoft splashed out $8.5 billion six years ago — but it doesn’t have quite the same appeal as services like Snapchat. It’s the primary choice for voice and video calling for many of us, but we don’t use it for much else.
Microsoft is hoping to change that with a fancy overhaul that adds new features inspired by more popular platforms. It incorporates everything you’ve come to expect from Skype, alongside Snapchat Stories-style “Highlights” and greatly improved photo sharing.
You can now draw on photos and apply stickers before sending them or adding them to your Highlights feed. And thanks to third-party services integration, you can enjoy YouTube videos and other content within your instant message conversations.
Microsoft has also added chat bots like Scoop, which bring breaking news headlines and more to your conversations much like Facebook Messenger.
Bloomberg reports that Microsoft will be rolling out its new version of Skype gradually, starting on Android. The iPhone version will be available “in about a month,” while Windows, Mac, and tablet updates will come later.


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Transcend to Showcase its Wireless SD Card at CP+
Use coupon code "PHOTOBLOG" to save another $10 on Luminar.
Transcend will showcase their range of advanced SD/microSD cards and wireless LAN memory card in booth number G-09. "The innovative Wi-Fi SD card instantly adds wireless capability to a digital camera and lets users stream photos and videos to portable devices without the hassle of using cables, card readers or a computer," the company says.
Transcend Press Release
Transcend to Showcase Its UHS-I and Wireless LAN SD Solutions at SD Association booth in CP+ 2014 Japan
February 6, 2014
Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend ), one of the world's leading manufacturers of storage and multimedia products, announced it will be attending CP+ 2014, which will be held at Pacific Yokohama Exhibition Hall in Japan over a four-day period from Thursday February 13. Transcend will showcase their wide-range of advanced SD/microSD cards and wireless LAN memory card in the SD Association booth (booth number G-09).
Participating at CP+ again this year, Transcend is proud to display an extensive SD & microSD product portfolio, including the latest 128GB SDXC Class 10 Ultra-High Speed Class 1 (UHS-I) 600x card and microSDHC/SDXC cards.
Aside from its extensive UHS-I product range, Transcend will present the 8GB to 32GB Wi-Fi SD card. The innovative Wi-Fi SD card instantly adds wireless capability to a digital camera and lets users stream photos and videos to portable devices without the hassle of using cables, card readers or a computer.
In addition to displaying a comprehensive memory card lineup in the SD Association booth, Transcend will also deliver a presentation (2/13 11:40a.m & 2/14 11:40a.m) to exhibition visitors highlighting the features and benefits of next-generation UHS-I memory cards.
CP+, an international, comprehensive camera and photo imaging show targeting both business users and consumers, presents the latest products and technologies to help further develop the photo industry and photographic culture. This year, CP+ is expected to attract more than 70,000 visitors. For more information about CP+ 2014, please visit http://www.cpplus.jp/


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Burger King Pulled an Ad Showing People Eating Its Vietnamese Burger With Oversized Chopsticks After It Was Called Racist Many social-media users argued that the ad used chopsticks as a comedy vehicle and was culturally insensitive.
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
Burger King has come under fire for a recent advertisement that it briefly ran in New Zealand.
The brand rolled out a commercial for its new "Vietnamese Sweet Chilli Tendercrisp burger" depicting Burger King customers attempting to eat the new menu item with giant red chopsticks.
"Take your tastebuds all the way to Ho Chi Minh City with our Vietnamese Sweet Chilli Tendercrisp, part of our Tastes of the World range. Available for a limited time only," the initial caption for the ad read on the brand's now-deleted Instagram post.
Although Burger King has since removed the ad from its social media platforms, some Twitter users, including Maria Mo, captured a video of the controversial commercial.
Mo, or @mariahmocarey on Twitter, posted a clip after she came across the ad on her Instagram feed.
So this is the new Burger King ad for a "Vietnamese" burger ok coolcoolcoolcoolcool CHOPSTICKS R HILARIOUS right omg etc pic.twitter.com/zVD8CN04Wc— 마리아. Maria. (@mariahmocarey) April 4, 2019
"I couldn't believe such blatantly ignorant ads are still happening in 2019, it honestly took me a second to work out what the heck I was looking at," Mo told HuffPost. "I was watching it thinking there must be some kind of layered twist -- only to realize, no, there was no twist, it really was that base level."
Many users on social media expressed their discontent with the ad, which they claimed used chopsticks as a comedy vehicle and was culturally insensitive.
LOL chopsticks amirite??????— Catherine Shu (@CatherineShu) April 5, 2019
Who the hell came up with this? There are a lot of Asian people in NZ, though they probably aren't getting their Vietnamese food from Burger King https://t.co/XSGYX7IVBR
We're not asking for much. Sometimes just decide to DO LESS.— Jenny Yang (@jennyyangtv) April 5, 2019
Looked up this burger on Burger King's site and there's nothing in it that will "take your taste buds all the way to Ho Chi Minh City."— Eric Vo (@eric__vo) April 5, 2019
Adding sweet chili to a chicken sandwich DOES NOT make it "Vietnamese"
Using chopsticks as a gag does not make your ad more "authentic"
According to The New Zealand Herald, the same Burger King advertisement was barred from distribution on television in March after New Zealand's Advertising Standards Authority claimed that it was "enticing people to overeat" because it concluded with the words, "Just need another three."
Some compared Burger King's ad to the Dolce & Gabbana commercial that showed a model eating Italian food with chopsticks
In November 2018, the fashion house launched an ad campaign featuring a Chinese model eating traditional Italian food with chopsticks. Like Burger King, the brand removed its own controversial ad after it sparked backlash on social media.
Later, Dolce & Gabbana co-founder Stefano Gabbana allegedly responded to a critic of the ad with racist language via Instagram direct message, and brand leadership subsequently announced that a show in Shanghai was "rescheduled due to reasons" that were unspecified.
lol first it was Dolce & Gabbana and now i guess Burger King's cancelled too smfh https://t.co/OiFsltgD06— red streak (@abholamarie) April 7, 2019
.@BurgerKing New Zealand holding @dolcegabbana's beer pic.twitter.com/BHee9w04qv— Kara Chin (@Kara_Chin) April 6, 2019
Representatives for Burger King did not immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.


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Platoon adds a line of rowers to its lineup as the company restructures to expand its customer base and return to profit.
The fitness equipment maker announced Tuesday that it’s launching Peloton Row, which starts at $3,195 and is now available for pre-order on its website. Deliveries are expected to begin in December.
The rower, which also requires a $44 per month subscription to Peloton classes and exercise programs, joins the lineup of Peloton Bike, Peloton Bike+, Peloton Guide and Peloton Tread.
Platoon Row, wwhich would have been under construction for some timee, comes as the company has gone through a restructuring in recent months.
Last month, the company reported increasing losses and lower sales for its fourth fiscal quarter, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of losses. Peloton had said it was aiming to break even in cash flow on a quarterly basis in the second half of fiscal 2023.
The company had also announced that it had partnered with Amazon at start selling their products on the e-commerce giant, a move that could help Peloton expand its customer base. The partnership is Peloton’s first foray outside of its core direct-to-consumer business.
Peloton has also shaken up its leadership. A week ago, the company announced co-founder and former CEO John Foley, co-founder and chief legal officer Hisao Kushi, and director
Commercial Officer Kevin Cornils would leave the company as part of its transformation.
Foley had been CEO of Peloton for about 10 years before resigned in February.


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Seasonal flower shipments provide a second peak-season for Air France-KLM
Despite cuts to scheduled main-deck capacity between Nairobi and Amsterdam, Air France-KLM-Martinair said it maintained its dominant position in the transport of fresh-cut flowers out of popular gateways like Nairobi, Quito and Bogota. For the past five weeks, weekly average volumes have hovered around 1,000 tonnes, down only slightly from an average of 1,150 tonnes per week in 2016.
Like clockwork, fresh flower shipments soar during the two-month period between February and March of each year, as heavy consumer demand in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day and International Woman’s Day requires airlift support. Carriers often up-guage or add additional freighter capacity to support demand, and Air France-KLM was no exception. Marcel de Nooijer, executive vice president of Air France KLM Martinair Cargo, said the group added an additional full-charter freight flight into Nairobi, and had up-guaged the airframe used on passenger routes to support the flower trade.
Amsterdam has long been a popular destination and trans-shipment center for fresh flowers, as the home to the world’s top fresh-cut flower auction house, Aalsmeer, which is just 10 kilometers from Amsterdam Schiphol. Last year, stakeholders in the flower business at Schiphol, including AF-KLM Cargo, launched the Holland Flower Alliance to strengthen and reinforce the “preferred flower hub” position.
AF-KLM cargo currently offers twice-weekly scheduled freighter flights between the following destinations: BOG-AMS, UIO-AMS, NBO-AMS and NBO-CDG. Additionally, belly capacity is available on 17 weekly widebody passenger flights to the three destinations.
Flower production remains highly concentrated, with only a few countries producing meaningful numbers of flowers for export. Ecuador’s Pichincha region and Kenya’s Lake Naivasha region are widely known as the top flower-producing regions, with flower exports from Ecuador and Kenya totaling US$360 million and US$600 million, respectively, in 2016.


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PepsiCo eliminating plastic rings on beverage multipacks
Canadian PlasticsCanadian Plastics Materials Packaging
The company will begin using paper packaging in the U.S. starting later this year, following a similar transition already under way in Canada.
Beverage and snack food maker PepsiCo Inc. will begin using paper packaging to replace plastic beverage rings on multipacks in the U.S. starting later this year, following a similar transition already under way in Canada.
In an Aug. 24 news release, the Purchase, N.Y.-based company said that paperboard designs will be introduced in a “phased, regional approach”.
PepsiCo will use paperboard wraps and paperboard clips for its multipacks in place of traditional plastic rings for brands like Pepsi, Pepsi Zero, MTN DEW, Starry, Gatorade, and others. It will also include 7Up in Canada. “The new packaging is easy to implement on shelf for customers, has consumer-friendly branded-design, is made from recycled materials and is recyclable,” the company said.
The move is part of PepsiCo’s goal of reducing its use of virgin plastic from nonrenewable sources per serving across its global beverage and convenient foods portfolio by 50 per cent by 2030, using the company’s 2020 consumption level as a baseline to measure the its decrease in virgin plastics use per serving. PepsiCo says it will eliminate “millions of pounds of plastics” from its packaging in North America over the coming years “while continuing to enable packaging circularity.”


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San Francisco: Google-owned Fitbit is likely to feature capacitive touch areas on the sides at a price tag of $179, media reports said.
According to MacRumors, the Fitbit Charge 5 will be $50 more expensive than the current Charge 4, but there are some obvious hardware changes on the way that have more in common with the Fitbit luxe.
The Charge 5 is said to have built-in GPS and ECG sensors, as well as an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor that claims to track stress levels.
The EDA sensor plays into the company's Daily Readiness Score, which is a subscriber-only Fitbit Premium feature ($10 per month or $80 per year), the report said.
The score is based on your exercise history, sleep, and heart rate and is used to recommend what exercise routine you should undertake each day, it added.
The Fitbit Charge will be available in at least three colours, and there's no word on the specific release date for the fitness tracker-cum-smartwatch, but Google is likely to place it strategically around the launch of the Apple Watch Series 7, the report said.
Fitbit Charge 4 was launched in India for Rs 14,999 in black, rosewood and storm blue/black, last year.
"Right now is the investment phase. Monetization will come from our side...To me, right now, we have to create a base and right now we are only focused on the rollout of the 5G network. And do keep in mind that there's already offload happening from the 4G network to 5G, which will also improve the 4G quality," said Mittal.


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As competition from rivals Spotify and Apple Music increases, the Jay Z-backed streaming service Tidal is said to be facing money problems, according to Norway’s Dagens Naeringsliv.
Tidal, which has its headquarters in Oslo, appears to have only six months left of working capital. The company reportedly lost 368 million NOK before tax in 2016, that translates to about $44 million U.S. dollars.
Jay-Z and other owners are said to have lost more than half a billion dollars since they bought Tidal. The rapper bought the streaming service about three years ago.
In January, Sprint bought a 33 percent stake in Tidal. The music streaming service was start producing content available exclusively to Sprint customers after the deal.
“This investment, along with other sources of funding, gives the group sufficient working capital for the next 12-18 months,” the company wrote in a report signed Juan Perez, according to Dagens Naeringsliv.
Perez is sports director of Roc Nation and Jay Z’s long time partner. The company reportedly said it expects to go to zero and then gain profitability midway through 2018.
“We have experienced negative stories about Tidal since its inception and we have done nothing but grow the business each year,” a Tidal spokesperson said in a statement to International Business Times in response to the recent report.
Tidal, like Apple Music and Spotify, costs $9.99 a month. The company said last year it had 3 million subscribers, but others have disputed that number. Dagens Naeringsliv revealed earlier this year Tidal’s internal reports said it had 1.2 million users. Back in 2015, Jay Z tweeted that Tidal had reached 1 million subscribers, but the news Pandora earrings outlet claimed internal payments to record labels showed the number was about 350,000. Last year, Jay Z said the company he bought the streaming service from had also inflated the number of users.
Tidal Vs. Spotify, Apple Music
While Tidal user numbers are sketchy, the amount of subscribers is still much lower than its rivals. Spotify had more than 60 million subscribers as of July and more than 140 million active users as of June. Apple Music has more than 30 million subscribers. Apple CEO Tim Cook said last month Apple Music saw a 75 percent year-over-year increase in subscriptions.
Although Tidal has many famous stakeholders, including Beyonce, Kanye West and Rihanna, the service has lagged behind Apple Music and Spotify. Tidal also faces competition from other music streaming services like YouTube Red, Pandora and Amazon Prime Music, which is automatically available to Prime members.


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Lenovo LePhone's 100,000 units sold in China
Lenovo recently confirmed that sale of 100,000 Units of its first Android smartphone in China, where it was launched in mid-may. This data is till June end only, company might have sold many more units till now. Lenovo hopes to sell one million LePhones within a year.
The company also wants to first “win” in China before it begins selling the Android smartphone in other markets, reports PC World.


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Posted by: David Kiley on July 23, 2009
A poll of chief marketing officers shows a plurality of them believe that the U.S. consumer has been permanently changed by the Recession in terms of buying habits and brand psyche. But a surprising number believe that the so-called “new frugality” is fleeting, and that consumers will be back to their old habits after 2010.
The BusinessWeek Brand New Day/CMO Club weekly poll asked the club’s membership: “Do you think that the US Consumer is really resetting his or her consuming habits for good, or will current cutbacks evaporate when the economy gets going again?
90 CMOs responded:
34.4% No – Back to old behavior after 2010
22.2% No – Back to old behavior in 2010
2.2% No – Back to old behavior in 2009
A few Quotes from CMOs in the club who responded:
“All our research supports new consumer approaches to spending to remain for at least the next 4-6 years. They will not jump back into big debt.”
“Jobs drive spending. When the jobs come back, consumer income comes back,then their spending comes back.”
“We have moved from messaging and company wide consumer delivery on quality regardless of cost to value for money and its working”.


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PUNE, India — The global transcritical CO2 refrigeration market was valued at $4.9 billion in 2014, and is forecast to reach $30.7 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.2 percent from 2015 to 2020, according to a report published by MarketsandMarkets.
Globally, Europe is the dominant market for transcritical CO2 systems. It is expected to reach $26 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 42.1 percent during the forecast period of 2015 to 2020. This substantial growth is due to the phasing down of HCFC and HFC refrigerants to bring down the global warming and ozone-depletion potential of these refrigerants. The installations in this region are mainly contributed by Denmark, where the highest number of transcritical CO2 systems has been installed. Denmark has a market share of 33.5 percent in 2015 and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 33.9 percent from 2015 to 2020. The growing HFC phaseout initiatives in the region have attracted many industries, especially supermarkets and retail stores, which are looking to switch to transcritical CO2 owing to its properties of being environmentally friendly and highly efficient under low ambient temperatures.
According to the report, industry experts believe that the global refrigerant market is going through a revolution and carbon dioxide has a lot of potential to become the future refrigerant for commercial and industrial purposes.
Globally, the domestic heat pumps segment has been the largest end-user of transcritical CO2 systems, with more than 4 million units of ECOcute-based heat pumps installed across the globe. However, the commercial use of transcritical CO2 heat pumps is still in the growing phase. The biggest commercial application for transcritical CO2 systems is the supermarkets segment with 72.4 percent of market share in 2015.
The North America region is the fastest-growing market and has the potential to become the largest market for transcritical CO2 systems in the near future. Denmark, Germany, Canada, Japan, and the U.K. are at the forefront in transcritical CO2 system use. As end-users, China and the U.S. are expected to be the key regions in the near future.
Supermarkets are projected to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period from 2015 to 2020, by application; it is followed by the ice skating rinks segment. Leading players, such as Carnot Refrigeration Inc. (Canada), Carrier Commercial Refrigeration (U.S.), Green & Cool World Refrigeration AB (Sweden), and Hill Phoenix Inc. (U.S.), have been working on improving the efficiency of these systems. Suppliers are also working on making these systems more viable in hot ambient temperatures to increase their marketability in regions such as the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The installation cost of these systems has dropped in recent years and experts believe that the payback period for a transcritical CO2 system is estimated to be less than three years. The report stated that, apart from the affordable installation cost, other properties of transcritical CO2 systems, such as better cooling capacity and improved heat rejection process, give an edge to these systems over other natural refrigerants.
More information is available here.
Publication date: 9/21/2015


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Washington (dpa) - The tech giant Apple on Friday chalked up a win
on a trade issue against Samsung but took a loss on a ruling that its
book publishing undercut the competition.
The US International Trade Commission slapped an import ban on several Samsung products but delayed its implementation pending a review by the Obama administration.
The ruling was the latest development in a more than two-year-old patent battle between Samsung and Apple.
In a separate development, a US judge rebuffed Apple's request to suspend an earlier ruling that found Apple in violation of antitrust laws in signing restrictive contracts with five major US publishers.
On the Samsung issue, the trade commission ruled that the import ban should encompass several older model Samsung phones which violate two Apple patents. But it cleared the Korean electronics giant of violating four other patents held by the iPhone maker.
Nevertheless Apple said that the ruling vindicated its arguments in the bitter legal tussle with its biggest smartphone competitor.
"The ITC has joined courts around the world in Japan, Korea, Germany, Netherlands and California by standing up for innovation and rejecting Samsung's blatant copying of Apple's products," said company spokeswoman Kristin Huguet in an emailed statement.
The ruling came a week after the Obama administration vetoed an ITC ban on older iPhone models which it had found to have violated Samsung patents.
The two companies also clashed in a separate hearing in a US Court of Appeals over whether Samsung should be allowed to continue to sell older products that a jury last year found to have violated Apple patents.
Samsung has argued that the patents in question are minor features on its phones and that Apple has not been able to show that they affected sales of iPhones negatively. Apple is pressing for the import ban to be imposed, in a strategy that could allow it to request a ban on Samsung's best-selling Galaxy S4 smartphone.
On the publishing front, Judge Denise Cote's decision exposes Apple to potentially onerous restrictions on its agreements with the book publishers and other media companies that provide content through the Apple's online stores, website Cnet.com reported.
Judge Denise Cote had found the company guilty last month of colluding with the five largest publishers to fix the prices of books sold through iTunes in a bid to challenge the low prices set by industry leader Amazon.com.
Apple had been hoping that a suspension of the verdict would allow it time to appeal before the imposition of penalties in the case.
The Department of Justice is pressing the court to order Apple to terminate the existing contracts with the publishing houses and to bar any similar deals for five years.
The proposal would also cover Apple's contracts with providers of video, movies, television and music "that are likely to increase the prices at which Apple's competitors may sell that content."
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I mentioned this story a while back, it seems that Google is trying its best to fight fraudulent ad clicking on its adsense program. As time goes on no doubt the clickers and the search engines will become much more sophisticated.
Google declined an interview for this report, citing the mandatory “quiet period” before its initial public offering, which is expected to raise $2.7 billion. But the company said in a statement that it has been “the target of individuals and entities using some of the most advanced spam techniques for years. We have applied what we have learned with search to the click fraud problem and employ a dedicated team and proprietary technology to analyse clicks.”
One thought on “Google's fraud squad battles phantom clicks”
Just discovered a complete list of all marked down products at Amazon, sorted by category
and % off, ranging from 50% off to 90% off (thanks Sonja for the effort).
Actually I never thought Amazon would have articles with 90% off, but only in the category
Electronics there are more than 3000 of them – look for yourself, the list is on
or on http://digg.com/gadgets/Actually_I_never_thought_Amazon_would_have_articles_with_90
(which is a blog of a woman who specializes in finding good deals at Amazon, like Britain’s “Jeanie”).
Comments are closed.


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TikTok has become the single most important platform for generating new pop-music hits. But can it help mint stars, or just one-hit wonders?
President Trump said Saturday that he has approved in concept a deal that would have Oracle manage TikTok's U.S. operations.
The D'Amelio family, including popular TikTok stars Charli and Dixie, have joined L.A.-based rival app Triller, as TikTok's future in the U.S. remains uncertain.
Microsoft said its offer to buy TikTok's U.S. operations was rejected, a week before the Trump administration plans to ban the social video app owned by China-based ByteDance. Oracle is still in the running.
Several foreign-born engineers accepted jobs at TikTok in July, but their visa transfers have yet to be approved by the U.S. government, putting their status in limbo.
The biracial rapper has gained an enormous social following, and a deal with Columbia, with her jubilantly raunchy lesbian sex anthems.
The move comes as TikTok is trying to sell its U.S. assets to an American company amid the president's looming ban.
Microsoft is working with retail giant Walmart on a deal for TikTok as Trump's ban looms.
The dispute between TikTok and Trump intensifies as the popular social video app fights for its survival.
The ads, featuring TikTok creators, will air ESPN and ABC, the radio, Hulu, Spotify and TikTok in the U.S.


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Facebook quietly released an update Monday to its iOS app for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches to include Instagram-like filters.
Facebook launched Facebook Camera in May, just months after it announced plans to purchase the popular mobile photo-sharing app Instagram.
Facebook Camera is similar to Instagram, in that it includes photo filters and a picture-based news feed. The latest features included in the social network's iOS app are exactly like those on Facebook Camera.
Tech Crunch first reported that the update Facebook released did not mention adding photo filters. But the social network did note it added the ability to share multiple photos quickly -- a feature that was already included in Facebook Camera.
Coincidentally, InstagramMonday the launch of online profiles that look similar to Facebook Timeline. Some could argue that it's all in the family. Facebook finalized its purchase of Instagram for $715 million in October.
At the time of the initial announcement in April, Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg addressed skepticism by reassuring Instagram users that the app would not be changed after the acquisition.
"We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure," Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page.
Similarly, in a blog post announcing the Facebook acquisition, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote: "It's important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We'll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We'll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience."


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Author(s): George Jijiashvili
Google has agreed to pay $40 million for intellectual property "related to a smartwatch technology currently under development" by Fossil. It will also assume control of "a portion" of the research and development team working on this technology.
In a statement to Wareable, Greg McKelvey, Fossil's executive vice president, commented: "We've built and advanced a technology that has the potential to improve upon our existing platform of smartwatches. Together with Google, our innovation partner, we'll continue to unlock growth in wearables".
Mr McKelvey revealed that this new product line is based on technology that Fossil has developed on the back of its acquisition of Misfit in 2015, a deal that saw Fossil pay a reported $260 million for the company. We note that the original Misfit Vapor smartwatch (pictured below) unveiled at CES 2017 featured a proprietary operating system that may have included some unique developments. However, just before its release, Fossil ditched Vapor OS in favour of Google's Wear OS.
Misfit Vapor smartwatch
In our analysis of CES 2017, we noted that the Vapor platform offered features that weren't available on Wear OS at the time, such as an interesting touch-bezel interface for navigating the menus and on-board GPS, which was only introduced on Wear OS in summer 2017. Vapor OS lacked an app ecosystem, and we think this is ultimately why Fossil opted for Wear OS. It's also possible that Fossil came under pressure from Google to focus all its efforts on Wear OS given its importance as a partner.
It's now clear that Fossil has continued to develop the technology pioneered by Misfit behind the scenes. We speculate that some of the key features it's been working on could include an improved user interface, wellness features and longer battery life. As Fossil has also released smart analogue watches under the Misfit brand, it's feasible that its R&D team has also focussed on creating innovative hybrid smartwatch technology combining full-touch and analogue watch movements, and possibly some innovative hybrid screen technology, perhaps similar to a solution showcased by Kairos in March 2015 at Mobile World Congress.
The deal further emphasizes Google's renewed commitment to its Wear OS platform. Since the second half of 2018 the giant has stepped up its focus on wearables by releasing significant software updates and re-engaging with the Wear OS community. This announcement also heightens speculation of the much-rumoured "Pixel Watch".
For Fossil, this development underlines its position as the leading provider of Wear OS devices. Although the agreement with Google gives the broader Wear OS ecosystem access to the new technology, Fossil will be able to launch it first, which gives it a time-to-market advantage.
Ultimately, Google's move benefits all existing smartwatch players using Wear OS. As it tries to compete with the highly successful Apple Watch, Google will be hoping that this deal will make its platform more attractive not only to current and potential licensees, but mostly importantly to end users.


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Google Glass has proven to be a polarizing technology development, but you can count Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse on the fan side of the spectrum.
"One of my favorite devices is Glass. I have one, though my son always steals it," Hesse said at the IFA electronics show in Berlin.
Of course, as leader of company that sells wireless networking services, he has a vested interest in such developments. "The way we look at it, the more devices the better," he said in a question-and-answer session with Larry Magid, who writes for CBS News and … Read more


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FamilyMart Thailand accepts payment by Rabbit Card
FamilyMart Thailand customers can now use their Rabbit Card transit ticket to pay for purchases.
The payment option has been officially launched by Central FamilyMart executive VP Akarin Phureesitr and VP Ruedee Euachongprasit along with Bangkok Smartcard System deputy-MD Wisit Mulsup and business development director Phanaumpha Wongsrichai.
The Rabbit Card can be used for payment at 60 branches of the convenience store, the partners say. A points promotion is running until the end of July.


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The number of people that attend events each year at the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC) impacts not only the MCC, but also the local hospitality industry as a whole.
Each year, the MCC sustains over 8,000 hospitality jobs in Minneapolis, which over 30 years … well let’s just say that’s a lot of jobs! This isn’t a solo mission, however. We depend on the entire hospitality industry working together to create an overall lasting impression on attendees – and the Minneapolis industry doesn’t disappoint. In 2019 alone, the MCC saw over 863,000 people attend events, using a total of 295,010 hotel room nights, and all experiencing some aspect of the city’s hospitality.
Fun fact: The 2019 total attendance was 2.87% higher than 2018, which is a pretty big deal considering 2018 included one seriously SUPER event...(Super Bowl LII)!
And while we celebrate 30 years in 2020, we're not the only ones! Three other major businesses in Minneapolis have been on hospitality journey with us since 1990.


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RIM CEO Thorsten Heins introduced the system and claimed that the platform represented "a new day in the history of Blackberry."
The company's new ticker symbol will be BBRY.
"We have transformed ourselves inside and out," Heins said. "That's why I am happy to announce we are now Blackberry."
RIM has a lot riding on the success of the platform. The company is basically starting over with its new operating system and has stiff competition from Apple, Google's Android platform and now Microsoft's Window Phone.
RIM is going to release two variations of the Blackberry 10 at first. The Blackberry Z10 will be a touch-screen model and the Q10 will feature a keyboard and laso have touch-screen capabilities.
One of the key new features, though, doesn't necessarily lie in the hardware, but in the software.
RIM is aiming to lure the the enterprise market back with its business centered software called Blackberry Balance that enables work data and apps to be segregated on the smartphone from the users' personal saved data.
The company also showed off its Blackberry Hub feature, which essentially enables easier messaging and easier access to multiple apps.
Another new feature demoed was of Blackberry Remember which helps users set alerts,


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Whereas the current TV fad, 3D, demands its audience wear moronic glasses that degrade image quality, 4K looks promising because the only thing viewers have to do is stare at an enhanced picture. I’ve seen the technology in action and it’s breathtaking.
It works by cramming four times the number of Full HD pixels into a frame, so the TV resolution becomes 3,840 by 2,160.
According to Sony’s Business Development Manager, Michael Bromley, there are roughly seventy-five 4K films available to the public. Understanding how redundant buying a 4K TV would be if there was no supporting content, Sony has put to work proprietary software that upscales any high definition source. This converts existing televised content, DVDs and online HD content into footage compatible with the leviathan set. .
The company has given 3D the same treatment to deliver a “3D viewing experience that exceeds Full HD resolution.” The interesting thing to note is Sony has abandoned its Active Shutter 3D technology for the Passive alternative to deliver this improved 3D experience. Passive glasses are currently advocated by LG, don’t require batteries for operation and as a result, are lighter.
Mounted alongside the TV by what resembles heavy duty scaffolding are 10 speakers that produce 50 watts combined. This two way system can deliver virtual 5.1 surround sound and, in the event you want to hook up a surround sound system, can be removed.
Equipping the XBR-84X900 with WiFi has given it easy access to Sony’s Entertainment Networkâ€”their video on demand and music serviceâ€”while also helping it communicate with other WiFi devices. For instance, by downloading Sony’s Media Remote app, owners of a smartphone and/or tablet will be able to control their entire Sony entertainment system.
According to the Australian, Sony will be announcing local pricing next week and the XBR-84X900 will be available in December.


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tv Ali Velshi on Target Al Jazeera December 6, 2015 2:30pm-3:01pm EST
eden. john hendon, al jazeera, the triangle republic of the congo. well, there is more on everything we are covering right here, comment, analysis, video on demand including the latest on all of our top stories aljazeera.com. government. u of the s food and drug administration has sparked a new debate about genetically modified food. in particular frankenfish that salmon produced by a company is just as safe for humans to eat as regular
salmon. they grow to full size in as little time as normal salmon. i'm going to have more on what this all means for traditional fisherman in a moment. you should know that some of the nations biggest and best known food retailers are already saying no thanks to genetically salmon. they include groger and target whole foods and cosko and that's one sign that gmos have as much to do with money and fear as it does scientific evidence. most major scientific groups say gmos are safe. but most americans don't buy that. a food research survey say the major thought g much o foods are unsafe.
you wonder how many, of the 80% of the food contains contains genetically modified ingredients. most consumers want to know if the food they're buying contains gmo. the labels now contain that they do not have them. that's a voluntary martin o'malley made by companies trying to inform consumers and/or cash in on anti gmo sentiment. on the other side companies that products include gmos do not have an obligation to disclose that. that's because fda says such products are not different from their non-engineered counterparts. that brings me back to frankenfish and consumers who fear there is something fishy about it. the companies won't have to disclose that its genes have been engineered. that is one issue raised by the first genetically
altered animal heading our way. >> reporter: these fish are as fresh and wild as you will find in any shop. king salmon caught off the coast of a larks ska. there could be competition in the future. i think in the pacific north-west where ground zero salmon company, we would have a hard time selling such fish to the public. >> reporter: aqua bowdy technologies has been working on this concept for 20 years, using the fish farms. the company claims its man made sterile modified salmon grow to maturity twice as fast as normal maybe in the coscos, the big box retail organizations there may be a place for that. you have to address feeding everybody that has a price point >> reporter: this center for
veterinry medicines, analysis has been made of aqua advantaged salmon and determined they have met the requirements for approval. including that food from the fish is safe to eat. genetically modified products have been parliament of our food chain for years, mostly in the form of grains and vegetableables. this salmon is the first product approved by the fda but there's no regulation for this salmon to be labelled as genetically modified. if they're planning to compete with these, they're set to be up against gmo. it could be a battle too. i think it's bad news. i think it's just another way to cheat mother nature for higher profit, big money i'm not an organic guy, but i don't like gmos.
i'm not sure. i probably, if i was offered some, i would try it. >> reporter: the company expects it will be several years before their fish with a tweaked dna will make it to market now correspondent allon from seattle. how do you explain the response from retailers? are they bowing to consumer fear or maintain the profit margins that they have on the higher priced non-gmo sam monday? >> reporter: i think it's a combination of both. you will notice that some of those retailers are saying we're making this decision nor now. they might not rule it out in the future, but there's a certain amount of pressure from the public and environmental groups to put a stop to gmos on the market and to demand labelling et cetera. we've seen labelling requirement initiatives go gown to oregan and washington. reat a tailers are saying they're not going to do this and
they will all reexamine their position later if they can make a few bucks as retailers always do. is there any evidence that farmed fish bring down salmon. it is an expensive fish. do we have any sense that prices are coming down as a result of this? >> reporter: i have no idea about the impact on the price, but i can tell you that if all the atlantic asalmon eaten in this country, 95% of them are farm raised and imported from the big markets, chile scotland, finland. people have been eating farm raised atlantic salmon in large numbers for a long time. we will see. a fish that can grow in 18 months instead of three years can be brought to market cheaper and faster, you would assume that that's going to have a price print that's going to be attractive to people selling the
fish and buying them. lunching towards a-- lurching to the future, we might not have the choice of having line caught or farm raised or nonraised salmon. we might end up being thank for the fish we think the fish come from the supermarket. you probably have a better tie to nature. the gmo debate out there, or across this country where people say just tell me, let me know whether these are gmo or not. what's the push back against that?
but necessity have been defeated. people are concerned. there may be a growing concern, but so far there hasn't been an absolute demand that these things be labelled. in the case of the so-called franken fish the company is not required to label them, but they are sending out guidelines saying it can be done voluntarily if the company wants to do it or they franchise out the process to others and they're the ones who are bringing them to market. they could voluntarily eau label them as such and there are guidelines that are being released for that. there will be a public comment taken by the fda and a lot of anti gmo folks will get in touch with them thank you for that. coming up commercial fishermen in california say franken fish could escape their tank and
and talking about frankenfish. it is as safe or as safe as regular salmon. the fda saying the company producing the salmon can only raise the animals in land based tanks in canada and panama. they say they won't be able to bretey in the unlikely even that they escape-- breed. among the groups not satisfied with the fda assurances is the california based golden gate salmon association. it is a coalition of companies that rely on wild salmon. the group says genetically engineered salmon poses a threat to wild salmon and 91.4 billion dollar salmon engineer. john mcmanus joins me. thank you so much for being with us. it took 20 years of looking at
switched to shall permanent lip on. they gobble everything in sight and what they want to gobble would be the same food that would be needed by local wild salmon. just for starters explain that to me. you're talking about what kind of food? you're arguing that it's less efficient to feed these salmon than the way normal salmon grow?
with all farmed salmon it takes a whole lot of forage fish to produce the food whereas wild salmon are more efficient. if you want to feed the masses, let's talk about going out and sustainably harvesting our saal man and herron stocks and use that as human food. it's far more efficient than taking vast volumes of forged fish out of the ocean, reducing it to fish farm food and distribute willing to the salmon one of the things you pointed out is that you're faking exception-- taking exception with farmed salmon. this is one bring too far for you. you represent an organization that of people who fish wild salmon on the pacific. none of this works for you. this is more bad than normal farmed salmon. it is, and it's also basically starting down a slippery slope of genetically
modified animals. in saal man happens to be the first that has now been approved for human consumption. i wouldn't want to eat the thing, and we're out fishing off california and other coasts, we're producing lots of wild salmon that are great food and we feel like the consumer probably would prefer to have that if they're given the choice they're never not going to be given the choice. they can always choose wild salmon over farmed salmon over genetically modified salmon, assuming they get to know. i can tell farm salmon from wild salmon and i can't tell except for the price. you know wild salmon is a premium product and people buy it as they like it. necessity like it for a reason. it tastes better too. i would say-- they like it for a reason. some of
our salmon stocks, you can bring them to market very close to the price of some of the farmed finish. so there's a lot of good product available and, again, if this stuff is labelled, which we think it should be. the consumer can make their own choice, but i don't want to understate the fact that we see the ge saal man monday as a potential threat-- salmon. if they get into the wild, it would be bad news for wild salmon. these things are many times larger. it's like going - the wild salmon going up against giants that are competing in the same part of the eco system these are going to be farmed in canada and panama. by the time they get here they're dead. i think that what we know right now is they've been approved for production in canada and in panama. we don't know where they're going to go after that.
my understanding is that in the data and documents that the company has presented to the federal government, they have considered a fish that is 100 grams about 6 inches long. this is not the fish going to market they're growing somewhere. you're saying they will come to the u.s. and potentially growing them here?
their net pens are out in the waters. they have failed in every country i hear your scenario. it is a better movie than it is a news report. the fact is they're saying there's are going to be sterile salmon. i you say the process is not universal but you would have to have an escapee finish to get out there to cause damage to wild stocks. that's fair. it's not our studies that say 5%. up to 5% would remain able to reproduce. that's data submitted to the federal government thanks very much for sharing the discussion with me. it is an important one. we will get a chance to talk about why consumers don't get to know how their food is made and the labelling issue. the executive director of golden gate. that's coming up.
for years the blood of babies born in california has been collected and scened for genetic disorders. they can be sold to companies to use for research. that has some critics concerned about privacy. science and technology jake ward has the story. >> reporter: has any parpt-- as any parent can tell you the birth of a child is terrible pain and anxiety and lots of medical forms. when my kids were born, we were asked to sign a form that will allow the state to do genetic screening using a blood sample. it made a lot of sense when we looked at it. the form allows the state of california to take a pin prick of blood, au blot it and use it to screen for more than 30 potential afflictions. it's also become possible in the last decade to use that blood to sequence a baby's dna revealing
all the genetic information for a doctor or scientist to see. that is stored here in richard - richmond. your database offers the information of maybe a few thousand people at most. this place has the information of pretty much everyone born in california since 1983. that is millions of people's information. those samples are available to more than parents and state health on workers. every state has a screening program like this. they make these available to private companies whi. the department of public health did not respond for a request. they are deidentified and passed along to kilometres as anonymous data. it is so unique that it is possible to use online
information to crass-reference them and identify individuals. the resale practice is so alarming to some that a state assembly man introduced a bill requiring written consent from parents for indefinite tore age. it failed to pass. it is an incredible resource. >> reporter: dr michael sc hrngs neider has used the california database to investigate childhood disease. all of us have diseases that run in our family and by sequencing people's dna we hope to predict that. you need data from a lot of people to understand that. >> reporter: he says my kids stand to benefit more from being part of the database than being otherwise these people when they of diseases, the parents don't care about privacy. they want to solve their child, find out what's wrong with them and possibly it will lead to a treatment >> reporter: the program allows
me as a parent to have my kids' data destroyed, but researchers are hoping i won't do that because the code of our bodies can help bring more healthy children into the world now, jake. are privacy advocates going too far? clearly this is being put to some good. is there a really chance it's going to be connected to a person? >> reporter: we're sort of living in a time where we have not seen anyone do anything nefariousdna information. you could reverse identify d.n.a. and link it to individuals just by using on line information. they took five anonymous donors of dna. they came you were 45 names connected to those samples. there are ways to reverse identify people. what purpose would somebody put that to? would there be a
practice to discriminate or would would your dating life go out the window. there has been done a project in which was genetic samples taken from a database and experiment entirely on the genes of twins, which is valuable. not just a couple of them. ten thousand or more twins. the balance here is really not clear yet it does seem surprising that california is selling this data to do what the scientist did. it's one thing to be allowed for research. does the selling of the data make it another matter?
research, research that is accelerated very, very quickly by access to genetic information and reselling that to private companies. it's a very grey area. it may have scientific value, but maybe not thanks for that. that is our show for today. i'm vim. thank you for joining-- alley very well i'm ali velshi. >> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. >> what, as if there were no cameras here, would be the best solution? >> this goes to the heart of the argument. >> to tell you the stories that others won't cover. how big do you see this getting? getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> we're here to provide the analysis... the context... and the reporting that allows you to make sense of your world. >> ali velshi on target.
>> the end result of de-ba'athification was the ba'athists decided to meet up with the salafists. >> a minority community has lost the political power and they've resorted to violence. >> 18 of the 27 senior isis leaders were all veterans of camp bucca. >> the united states government deserves a lot of blame for what happened in iraq, but frankly,


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Duluth Holdings today announced the grand reopening of its first store in Mt. Horeb, Wisc. To take place on August 26. The store is located at 100 West Main Street, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572.
“In 2010 we opened our first Duluth Trading retail store in Mt. Horeb and its tremendous success gave us the confidence to pursue our retail store expansion. Now 23 stores later, we are excited to reopen our newly renovated store in the same town where our product, marketing and merchandising offices are now located,” said Stephanie Pugliese, Chief Executive Officer of Duluth Trading. “With approximately 2,000 additional square feet of selling space, we have expanded our men’s, women’s and hardgoods lines and enhanced the unique retail experience of the Duluth Trading brand. Mt. Horeb has been very good to us and we are proud to present our town with a newly renovated store and later with a new Duluth Trading headquarters building just a few blocks away.”
The store will host several events to celebrate the grand reopening on Saturday, August 26. There will be an official ribbon cutting ceremony at 9:00 a.m. Central Time with local dignitaries on hand to do the honors. At 10:30 a.m. and noon Central Time, there will be a Lumberjack Show to welcome our customers.


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Consumer protection agencies reported a spike in mortgage-related complaints in 2008. And the way things are going, mortgage and foreclosure-rescue scams could be an even bigger problem next year.
The Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit advocacy group, surveyed 34 agencies nationwide and compiled a report ranking consumer complaints.
Officials told the Sentinel?s Diane Lade that mortgage and foreclosure-rescue complaints could well top next year?s list. One executive said the complexity of the cases and the vulnerability of those affected made the cases particularly galling.


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Grupo Antolin, the Spanish interiors supplier, has promoted its finance chief, Cristina Blanco, to CEO. Blanco, a 22-year veteran of the company, succeeds Ramon Sotomayor Jauregui.
She will be charged with carrying out Grupo Antolin’s transformation plan, unveiled this spring, which she helped to create, company Chairman Ernesto Antolin said Wednesday in a news release.
The plan seeks to increase margins, in part by expanding business in North America, China and Asia, as well as focusing on higher-value products and systems.
Blanco, a native of Bilbao, Spain, has degrees in economics and business administration from UNED in Spain. She joined Antolin in 2001 in the financial department, holding a number of management positions. She was named CFO in 2016, and in that post took part in the financing for Antolin’s acquisition of Magna Interiors, the company’s largest M&A transaction in its history.
Outgoing CEO Sotomayor was named ti the position in May 2022, with responsibility to upgrade the company’s strategic plan. He is a member of Antolin’s advisory board.
Grupo Antolin, based in Burgos, Spain, makes headliners, cockpits, door panels, interior lighting and electronics. It ranked No. 55 on Automotive News Europe’s list of top 100 global suppliers, with original equipment sales to automakers of $4.6 billion in 2022.


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More Android Oreo news today. HMD has revealed their plans for the Oreo update. According to the confirmation of the company, all Nokia Android smartphones (Nokia 3,5,6 and 8) will get the Android 8.0 the upcoming months. The confirmation came in a tweet of HMD’s Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas:
All of our smartphones will upgrade to Oreo, Nokia 3 included. No comments yet on timing so that I don't get into trouble 😊.
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) September 2, 2017
Unfortunately dates of the update have not been shared, but we expect that it will be by the end of the year.


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Keep your pets away from: Chocolate, Raisins, Xylitol
With Halloween being tomorrow, pet owners are reminded to keep their pets away from chocolate and candy that can be severely harmful to them.
“Chocolate contains a naturally occurring stimulant called theobromine, which is similar to caffeine,” said Dr. Sarah Nold, staff veterinarian at Trupanion. “If enough theobromine is ingested, it can be toxic to dogs and cats.”
Signs of chocolate toxicity can include vomiting, diarrhea, elevated heart rate and seizures. Darker chocolate is more dangerous, because it contains higher concentrations of theobromine. Also, chocolate is more dangerous for a smaller dog because they don’t have to ingest as much as a larger dog to cause toxicity.
Pet owners should also keep treats containing the sugar substitute xylitol away from their pets. Xylitol causes a very low blood sugar that can result in weakness, collapse and seizures.


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We're culinary rebels with a cause. Seafood without sacrifice. Coming in 2018.
No products have been entered for this brand.
Gathered Foods, maker of plant-based seafood brand Good Catch, announced yesterday it has raised $26.35 million in a funding round which the company will use to fuel new product innovation and continue its international expansion.
After spending almost a quarter of a century at General Mills, Pete Speranza wants to “change the food system.” The former business development principal at 301 Inc, General Mills’ venture arm, left the company on August 14 and will join venture firm Unovis as an operating partner.
Gathered Foods, makers of Good Catch plant-based seafood products, has announced Jan Tharp, President and CEO of The Bumble Bee Seafood Company, as the newest member of its Board of Directors.
If you aren’t answering consumers’ call for plant-based options, you’re going to miss out. That’s the reason Gathered Foods CEO Chris Kerr says seafood distributor and producer Bumble Bee Foods is partnering with his brand in a new joint venture.
Gathered Foods, the makers of Good Catch vegan seafood, announced yesterday that the alternative protein play had raised a series B round of $32.3 million, $10M of which was closed last year as a convertible note. The capital will be used to bring a new production facility online, which, in turn, will allow for international expansion of the Good Catch brand, food service opportunities and the opening of co-packing and R&D facilities for other food brands.
Although it’s only had product in a limited set of stores since February, Gathered Foods, producers of Good Catch plant-based seafood products, is hoping to avoid the operational bottlenecks that have plagued (and slowed the growth of) other plant-based food companies. The brand announced last week the close of a $10 million convertible note in order to continue building out a factory for its line of high-moisture extruded seafood substitutes.
No retailers or e-commerce options have been specified for this brand