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Can't resist the newest version of the iPhone? What will you do with your old one (which may not even be all that old)? Here's one possibility: You could send it to Brooklyn-based startup ExchangeMyPhone, which will erase all your data from it, then either recycle it or refurbish it for donation to your choice of 765,000 U.S. charities.
At first glance, launching a business that revolves around phones seems an odd choice for co-founders Katherine Preston and Jeremy Cohen. Both are lifelong stutterers who "grew up with a dread of talking on the phone," Ms. Preston said. "It was useless having a winning smile or a look of deep understanding, since on the phone all communication rests on our voices, which often failed us."
In fact, when the two met in 2008, Mr. Cohen was teaching a speech-therapy method for overcoming stuttering, and Ms. Preston, a former journalist, was writing a book on the subject. In a recent conversation, Ms. Preston talked about how ExchangeMyPhone got started and described how the company turns old phones into "vehicles for good."
It's interesting that you and Jeremy have turned a disability into an idea for a business. How did that come about?
It was partly that we wanted to change the way we saw the dreaded phone, but beyond that, everyone we knew had a drawer full of old or broken phones that they didn't know what to do with. We wanted to create a solution that would address both, and also keep old phones from ending up in landfills.
What's the connection to nonprofits?
When we launched this in May 2011, we donated a book to a local literacy project for each phone someone sent us. But we wanted to do more and give our customers more options. So we partnered with FirstGiving, a Boston-based organization that has raised more than $1 billion in online donations for a wide variety of causes. By teaming up with them, we gave our customers a choice of donating their old phones, or the proceeds from recycling those phones, to any of the 765,000 registered nonprofits in the United States.
How does it work?
Anyone with an old phone they don't want can go to our website, type in a description of it and get a price quote. A very old or irreparably broken phone might be worth nothing, but if that's the case, we recycle it — and the customer gets a postage-paid shipping label so they can send it to us free of charge. The average price quote is about $50, but some phones are worth much more. For instance, a used iPhone 4S 64GB in pristine condition currently has a price quote of $300 on our site.
Then we refurbish the phones, after first stripping all the old data out of them, and either donate them to nonprofits or, if the customer hasn't designated a charity, sell them at very low prices to people who can't afford a brand-new phone, or to bulk distributors who resell them at bargain prices.
We also work with businesses to offer a solution to the problem of what to do with old cellphones when their employees upgrade. This program is really popular because it provides companies with a new revenue stream and gives them an easy way to donate to charity. It also fits well with so many businesses that have a "green" mission to minimize what ends up in landfills.
How many phones have you recycled, or found new homes for, since you started this? How's the business doing financially?
In the past year, we've recycled or resold more than 10,000 phones. We have six employees now, revenues are up more than 100% since last year, and we are profitable. We have no outside investors — we've bootstrapped all the way. The great thing is that, once people hear about us, they tell their friends. We do some online advertising, especially through social media, but at least half of our business comes from word of mouth.
Neither you nor Jeremy ever started a company before this. What has surprised you about the process of launching a business?
It's really amazed us how supportive other entrepreneurs have been. So many wonderful people have shared their time, expertise and connections. For instance, Jeff Hittner [co-founder of New York-based corporate sustainability consulting firm Ethikus] has gone above and beyond in his support of what we're doing. He's helped us understand the environmental challenges facing large companies, so that we can zero in on exactly what those customers need from us and how we can help them achieve their goals of getting "e-waste" — that is, the fate of outdated, unwanted electronic stuff — under control.
Correction: Brooklyn-based startup ExchangeMyPhone has purchased and then recycled, resold or donated more than 10,000 used cell phones since May of 2011. That fact was misstated in an earlier version of the Executive Inbox column "Turning old phones into charitable donations," published Sept. 14, 2012.


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Eight US states have just released a Multi-State Action Plan to guide efforts to put 3.3 million zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) on their roads by 2025.
Last October, governors from eight states – California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont – announced their “ground-breaking” initiative to put over three million zero-emission vehicles on the roads in their states within a dozen years.
The governors joined forces in a bid to “to revolutionize the automobile market by promoting zero-emission vehicles”. Now they have put forward their action plan.
“Use of these clean vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality and public health, enhance energy diversity, save consumers money, and promote economic growth,” their statement said.
Zero-emission vehicles include battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicles. These technologies can be used in passenger cars, trucks and transit buses, the governors add.
This multi-state effort is intended to expand consumer awareness and demand for zero-emission vehicles. As a first step in this plan, the governors have identified specific actions they will promote within their states and joint cooperative actions the states will take to help build “a robust national market” for electric and hydrogen-powered cars.
They agreed to pursue the following efforts:
- Harmonize building codes to make it easier to construct new electric car charging stations
- Lead by example by including zero emission vehicles in their public fleets
- Evaluate and establish, where appropriate, financial and other incentives to promote zero emission vehicles
- Consider establishing favourable electricity rates for home charging systems; and
- Develop common standards for roadway signs and charging networks.
The eight states are among a group of states which have adopted rules requiring about 15 per cent of new vehicles sold to be zero-emission vehicles by 2025.
Collectively, the eight signatory states represent more than 23 percent of the US car market.
Market demand created by these state programmes can help lower zero-emission vehicle costs through economies of scale and expand the range of product lines available to consumers, it has been stated.
US electric car sales in 2013 totalled about 96,000 vehicles, not quite double the 2012 total of about 52,000, itself up from 17,000 in 2011.
It is expected that ZEVs in California alone will rise from 60,000 in 2018 to 230,000 in 2025.
There are currently 16 zero-emission vehicle models available from eight automotive manufacturers; nine run completely on batteries, two on hydrogen fuel cells and five are plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that can run on gasoline as well as battery power. The number of models is expected to increase for model year 2014 and beyond. Several electric vehicle models have won awards for safety, performance and customer satisfaction over the past couple of years, the eight governors noted.
There are over 6,700 charging stations open to the public in the signatory states. By 2015 nearly every major automaker will have zero emission vehicles available for sale or lease, and more than 200,000 zero-emission vehicles are expected to be on the road across the U.S.
Such clean vehicles will provide “a major foothold” in the battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their consequences, which include sea level rise, increases in extreme weather, and wildfire intensity, it has been stated.
There are economic advantages as well, according to the governors of the eight US states.
Electricity is the most widely available source of power and, according their statement, typically costs about two-thirds less than gasoline on a per-mile basis. By 2025, the average zero-emission vehicle driver will save nearly US$6,000 in fuelling costs over the life of the car.
The drive for more plug-in electric vehicles however pushes the responsibility for emissions control to the source of the power, namely the power stations.
And hydrogen fuel cell vehicles ideally require a fuel supply infrastructure if owners of such vehicles wish to make extensive journeys without the risk of being stranded; and there additional implications in terms of educating drivers as to handling new types of fuel.
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LOS ANGELES – Meat District has launched a new initiative, Feeding the Frontlines, in partnership with iHeartMedia's Ryan Seacrest. The nationwide initiative will donate over $2 million in food to supply chain workers and their families during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Participating grocers include Hy-Vee, Winn-Dixie, Smart & Final, Ralphs and Stater Bros. Meat District is kicking off the initiative with a $150,000-worth donation of its butcher-crafted premium meats to participating grocers’ charitable foundations.
"Feeding the Frontlines would not be possible without the support of our retail partners distributing donations to charities and families in need in our local communities," said Erik Litmanovich, chief executive officer of Meat District. "With extraordinary teamwork between Meat District and our retailers, we are able to help feed thousands of families across the country."
Ryan Seacrest will officially launch Feeding the Frontlines on his nationally syndicated radio show, “On Air with Ryan Seacrest.” Listeners will be encouraged to nominate a local favorite supermarket hero for a chance to win a month of free groceries.
The initiative will run through June 7, and each week during Seacrest’s program a winner of a $1,000 gift card will be announced.


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Samsung YP-MB2 rumors have been making the rounds for a few weeks. This device looks an awful lot like an Android powered smartphone — but without the phone. It’s basically a portable media player with the ability to run Android apps — sort of like an Android powered iPod touch. While Samsung hasn’t officially announced the product yet, it’s been spotted in the wild as you can see in the blurrycam video below.
While rumors surrounding the possible iPod touch competitor have swirled for weeks, all we knew for sure was that it was a GPS and WiFi-capable Android 2.1 MID with a four-inch Super AMOLED screen. Now, it looks like it could be everything we wanted in a PMP and capable of decoding DivX, XviD, OGG and FLAC with that 1GHz Hummingbird processor.
You can check out the video below. The folks at Engadget also spotted a product listing for the Samsung YP-MB2 at a Korean shopping site, although there’s no price or release date yet… just a “coming soon” message.


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Don’t forget, Apple gets $3 for every copy that Nintendo sells.
Bringing Nintendo’s Mario to the iPhone may seem like a slam dunk, but Apple isn’t leaving the success of Super Mario Run to chance.
Apple featured the game prominently at its September media event, bringing out Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto to demo the program.
In recent weeks, the company has devoted some of its most prime real estate — the top banner of the App Store — to promoting the game ahead of its actual arrival on Wednesday.
This weekend it added a 40-minute interview with Miyamoto as a video and audio podcast on iTunes.
Apple has good reason to want Nintendo to succeed. First off, the game sells for $10 a pop and three of those dollars go to Apple.
More importantly, the holidays are a big season for selling iPhones and it helps to have a genuine hit — all the more so if it is a title that only runs on iOS devices.
In case you have somehow missed all of Apple’s marketing efforts, here is where the game can be found.
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Author: Ina Fried
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Port Washington-based Systemax has reached a deal to sell its German operations to Cancon SE for an undisclosed sum.
The firm said it signed a definitive agreement to sell Misco Germany in a transaction slated to close in August. The financial terms weren’t disclosed.
“We have found a terrific home for all of our German employees and customers,” Systemx CEO Larry Reinhold said.
He said Germany had been the firm’s “most challenged market for a number of years,” but expects that “this transaction will have a positive impact on the future overall financial performance” of those operations.


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Mobile payment start-up Square has introduced a new system allowing US businesses to accept payment from customers using their names.
“Cash registers and credit card terminals are relics of an expensive, complicated and impersonal commercial transaction system,” said Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, who also co-founded Twitter.
“With Register and Card Case, we’re transforming everyday transactions between buyers and sellers into something special. We revolutionised the payment industry with the Square card reader, which makes it possible for anyone to accept credit cards on their phone.
Now, with Square Register, we’re reinventing point of sale with a beautiful, intuitive iPad app. Card Case goes beyond point of sale to transform the entire buyer-seller relationship,” said Dorsey.
The Square Register app adds new features for its iPad point-of-sale solution, aiming to get rid of traditional cash registers.
The app lets businesses streamline the checkouts, manage their stocks, check daily transactions, update pricing, generate digital receipts and communicate to customers’ mobile phones more easily.
It also lets businesses maintain a virtual storefront with its location-based directory feature, allowing customers to explore nearby shops through their phones.
The Square Register app also has a menus feature, letting shops and restaurants advertise their current prices, products and special offers. Updates are pushed instantly to let customers get the most current information.
Square’s Card Case app for iPhone and Android is aimed at customers, letting them access the directory of stores and menus along with opening tabs for their favourite merchants.
A customer can open a tab on their phone and confirm their identity at the point of sale, allowing the store to verify this with a stored profile and photo on the Square Register. The store can then approve his or her purchase with one touch, meaning the customer does not need to bring a physical wallet to the store.
Currently, the system is only available in a small number of US states, but if this is successful it could spread worldwide, impacting mobile payments hugely in the future.


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Even as Chevrolet celebrated its 100th anniversary recently, different concerns were mounting from some media outlets and green car curmudgeons. They weren't concerned about the candles on the cake, but flames from the Volt. Give any kind of alarmists Internet access, and sensationalism tends to ensue. First was the report of a Volt's mere presence in a Barkhamsted, Connecticut owner's garage fire, though the fire marshal later ruled the car wasn't the cause. Same goes for a similar recent incident in Mooresville, North Carolina: a Volt happened to be in a garage that caught fire. Here, too, the local fire marshal clarified that the fire had started outside the car; again, not the Volt's fault. In the latter case, Duke Energy was nevertheless concerned enough to contact electric car-owning customers about their home charging stations, saying "they may not want to use them out of an abundance of caution." All the while, Duke admitted it wasn't inclined to blame either the charging station or the car for the fire. Meanwhile, it happened to the government too. Three weeks after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administered a side-impact crash test on a Volt, it ignited while in outdoor storage. This time, the battery pack head leaked coolant and ignited after being damaged in testing. Chevrolet and NHTSA independently tried replicating the results to produce another fire. Neither could make it happen. NHTSA awarded Volt a five-star safety rating, in fact. Yet with all this inferred inferno danger, are owners and would-be owners burned on the idea of ownership? Not at all, reports Automotive News. It cites a number of GM dealers whose customers are either not raising the alleged issue or at least aren't deterred from owning a Volt. Given GM's roughly 300,000 hours of testing the car and its charging station, we tend to believe any wrinkles were ironed out long before it reached consumers.
This story originally appeared at Green Car Reports
Read more posts on Green Car Reports »


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General view of a business district during sunset in JakartaMore
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia may have swung back to a trade deficit in April as both exports and imports contracted amid restrictions imposed across the globe to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
Fifteen analysts in the poll gave a wide range of predictions for April trade balance, from a $1.4 billion deficit to a surplus of $1.2 billion, but the median forecast was for a $200 million deficit.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy booked a $740 million surplus in March.
Exports in April were seen dropping 2.70% from a year earlier due to a slump in demand from countries affected by the pandemic.
Shipments of some of Indonesia’s important commodities like


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Back in August, Kendrick Lamar announced he was leaving Reebok to start a partnership with Nike. This week the rapper unveiled the first shoe he’s been working on with the brand.
“I ain’t rockin’ no more designer shit, white T’s and Nike Cortez…“, Kendrick famously rapped back in 2013 on the track “Control”. Four years later, this line now sounds like a prophecy. Indeed the rapper just revealed his first collaboration with Nike and you guessed it he chose to put his own spin to the classic retro Cortez silhouette.
“DON’T TRIP. CORTEZ KENNY,” he wrote under the photo of his exclusive Nike Cortez sneakers. The pair features a red, white and black colorway with “DON’T TRIP” inscribed on a laceholder. As a shout out to his alter ego Kung Fu Kenny and a reminder of his love with Asian culture, Chinese lettering has been added to the side of the sneaker.


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This Spring market has arrived in January and had most of us awaiting just what that would mean… unfortunately most of us are still asking ourselves the same question as, this has been slightly unusual as compared to years passed.
In Burlington, we’ve seen an increase in listings, average sale price as well as a reduced number of days on market. The curve ball here is the number of units actually sold throughout the month is actually fewer than December with 105 in January and 116 total units sold in December 2017. We’e also seen a small decline in the sale to list price ratio, likely to small to read too much into but I think will speak to the overall feeling out there amongst Buyers and Sellers. With a few weeks now under our belt, all have been just a little different among the different areas and price points. For example, those few of you selling in Alton Village are smiling with very few days on market, under two weeks on average! While, Millcroft has seen a burst of listings (52 last month alone!) and, longer days on market with Buyers carefully weighing their options.
Turning to Hamilton… we’ve seen an opposite affect. With a better December than normal January seems to have levelled off with the average sale price dropping slightly due to an influx of listings jumping from 266 in December to 334 in January. Sellers did however, get close to asking with a 99% price to list ratio. Hamilton Centre has had fewer units sold than the month previous but, has seen a good return with an average sale to list at 101%. West end and into the east have also had a nice bump in the average sale price, about $30k more than late last year, now that we are in a new market.
Although hard to really speak to too much trend as we are just touching the surface of the busiest time of year, February may help us to make more heads or tails and really project what will come as we round out the Spring.


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Winter Park is welcoming authentic Puerto Rican coffee and fare. Café Don Juan will serve all day breakfast and lunch options, along with pastries and coffee.
There are seven other Café Don Juan locations, all in Puerto Rico, and co-owner Axel Otero expects to expand throughout central Florida. They will offer catering services and a mobile coffee bar for events.
Information released on their Facebook page announced their United States expansion.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Otero spoke about the tradition Café Don Juan has established in Puerto Rico: “We like to serve specialty coffee… foods, sandwiches, salads, pastries, empanadas, cookies… this is what we are going to do here in Winter Park.”
Photos of their handcrafted coffees and food are available on their Instagram page.
Projected to open in February at 1100 South Orlando Avenue, it will be in City Place, a trendy marketplace recently renovated by Gerber Communities. The café will occupy one of four retail spaces, and an outdoor gathering area will be available to guests.
Café Don Juan had their ninth anniversary of business in November of 2021. They began as a single location and have since grown tremendously. Clothing, coffee and other merchandise are available on their website.


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Dubai: Nol cards holders can now use their cards to pay for purchases at all Carrefour retail outlets across Dubai, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) officials said on Wednesday.
Using Nol cards to buy goods from Carrefour has been enabled through a payment scheme by Mercury, a leading firm in this field, in order to provide more flexible and faster payment methods in Dubai.
“This service is now available at Carrefour retail outlets in Dubai. Cardholders can use them to pay for light and quick purchases at these outlets, which are compatible with the Points of Sale of the payment platform, over and above their use in mobility purposes,” said Khaled Al Awadi, Director of Automated Fare Collection Systems at RTA’s Corporate Technology Support Services Sector.
Whenever cardholders use their cards to pay for purchases at Carrefour and other available nol card payment-enabled outlets in the UAE, they will earn loyalty points under the nol Plus Programme recently launched by RTA, during Gitex 2018.
“This initiative is an important step towards realising RTA’s objective of bringing happiness to nol card holders by offering them diversified use of their cards. The initiative is compatible with the Smart City initiative to enable people to benefit from the diverse package of services they use on a daily basis,” Al Awadi added.
Meanwhile, Miguel Bovidano, CEO of Operations and Director of Excellence at Majid Al Futtaim Retail Group, praised the initiative, saying it will attract new consumer segments.
“This shopping initiative will attract new segments of consumers by capitalising on innovative and smart means that make their shopping an enjoyable experience,” Bovidano said.


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Allseated announces $15 million in new funding from Trinity Capital, Vestech Partners, NYFF, Magma Venture Partners, and WGG to further scale its metaverse platform, to expand beyond events, into corporate use. The new funding will boost Allseated’s revenue growth and product development.
The metaverse, expected to be a $1 trillion market opportunity, brings new ways to connect people in immersive experiences. It gives users a sense of presence in virtual environments and enables new ways to communicate, explore and engage.
“The ways in which we work and play have changed forever, and the metaverse will significantly disrupt how people and brands interact and engage. Almost every CMO and HR leader we talk to is looking for ways to harness the power of the metaverse, and to drive new engagement paradigms with their customers, employees and partners. New use cases and opportunities are rapidly forming and the possibilities are endless,” Yaron Lipshitz, Allseated CEO, said.
Allseated’s Metaverse Solution
“Our platform has the unique ability to create metaverse environments to bring employees together, power lead generation, and support sales acceleration. Our visionary team has brought a new experience to a market craving innovation beyond the 2D screen,” Daniel Anisman, Allseated Co-Founder/CTO, said.
The rapid growth of Web 3.0 presents Allseated, a recognized market leader in the event visualization and execution space with thousands of paying customers, exciting new opportunities to transform the ways in which corporations engage in the metaverse. Very different than the B2C providers, Allseated’s B2B metaverse offering is helping companies to power internal and external engagements while supporting their brand identity.
The funding will supercharge Allseated’s 120% 2021 revenue growth into 2022 with the team recently expanding from 40 employees to 120 worldwide.
San Francisco based Nfluence Partners served as financial advisor and Fenwick and West as Legal counsel.


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The parents of Lancashire's family-of-24 have revealed how they prepare for Christmas with so many children.
Noel and Sue Radford, who have 22 children and six grandchildren following the birth of their newest granddaughter Ophelia, back in September - are Britain's biggest family.
The Radfords, who live in Morecambe, famously rely on Noel's bakery business Radford's Pie Company which he acquired more than 20 years ago.
But the famiy have to think ahead when it comes to Christmas - and one of the main parts of this is budgeting.
Sue has previously said they don't 'believe in' credit cards and so puts money aside throughout the year for the festive period.
The mum also uses supermarket saving stamps for the food shop.
They set a budget for how much they will spend on each child.
Previously the Radfords set they spend between £100 and £250 on presents for each of their kids, the Sun reports.
"We save for it over the year, putting money away in an account. I do supermarket savings stamps for the food shop too," mum Sue said.
She added: "I buy presents through the year, and wrap them as they come in.
"One of our biggest headaches at Christmas is where to hide all the gifts. We have them everywhere — even in the boiler cupboard. The trick is remembering where."
Sue has called herself a 'demon wrapper' and claims she can wrap 20 presents in 15 minutes.
On Christmas Eve they all help out.
After Christmas they also have to do a trip to the tip to get rid of all the wrapping paper.
Sue has also told how the kids help out with the food preparation on Christmas Eve and how she gives everyone tasks.
She also bulk buys batteries for any toys that need them.
Sue and Noel are parents to Chris, 31, Sophie, 26, Chloe, 25, Jack, 23, Daniel, 21, Luke, 20, Millie, 19, Katie, 17, James, 16, Ellie, 15, Aimee, 14, Josh, 13, Max, 11, Tillie, ten, Oscar, eight, Casper, eight, Hallie, five, Phoebe, four, Archie, three, Bonnie, one and Heidie, six months.
The parents' 17th child Alfie was stillborn on July 6, 2014.
Their daughter Millie recently gave birth to her first child who she named Ophelia
This year, the Radfords have been getting into the festive spirit in more ways than one, sharing videos of them carving pumpkins for Halloween on Saturday.
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Sue Radford led the activity with 17-year-old daughter Katie on hand to help the little ones get stuck in.
She cut the top off the seasonal squashes, before giving them to the younger children to hollow out with their hands.
The kids looked engrossed in the activity – and Sue seemed to enjoy it too as she captioned the image "pumpkin carving fun".


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In the intricate dance of global trade, logistics companies emerge as the choreographers, orchestrating a symphony of services essential to the seamless flow of goods across the four corners. From order processing to warehousing and shipping, these companies are the unsung heroes of supply chain efficiency.
But just like in any competition, the best dancer is the one who comes up with new, enticing moves that leave the audience itching for more and more. In the world of logistics companies, Amitruck has carved out a niche that has enabled them to rise above the stiff competition. Serving customers is the priority of any business, but unlike most, Amitruck contributes significantly to the well-being of drivers and fleet owners – the cogs in the logistics opera.
On the other hand, Sote has created an innovative tech-enabled customs clearing and forwarding service. Recognizing the need for speed in a world filled with insatiable and often angrier customers, Sote grants manufacturers, retailers, and distributors visibility on shipment status saving them time and money.
Both startups have been successful in fundraising at least $4 million during their seed extension round, bringing their totals to $5 million for Amitruck and $8.4 million for Sote. The latter plans to join the ever-expanding fintech sector by adding a full-service working capital loan solution for Africa’s end-to-end supply chain.
Meanwhile, Amitruck plans to expand its services across the East African region, connecting shippers with transporters operating trucks, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, pickups, and vans, allowing them to negotiate haulage rates and customize the type of service they require.
Amitruck has also added a new feature to their modern digital system that is tailored to meet the needs of their most important resource – the drivers. Through partnering with other companies such as Pezesha, ImaliPay, and Power, they have incrementally raised income and working capital for their drivers and fleet owners. Experts agree that one of the factors that contributes to the demise of startups is neglect of human resources, and companies that make their staff feel valued are more likely to reap the rewards over time.
While the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the health and tourism sector, it was a game changer for the logistics industry due to the rise of e-commerce and the slow reduction in the use of mass public transport systems. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has also provided a shot in the arm to businesses that seek to take advantage of regional and continental supply chains. For logistical startups such as Sote and Amitruck, intra-African trade is a magic wand that they strongly believe will reap numerous benefits.
While the logistics industry holds promise and optimism, there are lingering challenges that could potentially impede the growth of startups in this sector. First is the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has led to the rise in nationalism in the European Union. The second-largest economic bloc (and the world’s richest) has begun an aggressive push to relocate some critical supply chains to their countries to reduce reliance on traditional hubs in China and Russia. The cost of fuel has climbed sharply in Africa since hostilities began in February 2022, making transportation over long distances costly.
Additionally, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict risks dividing the world further into blocs antagonistic with each other, thereby killing the free market gains acquired over the last two decades.
Sote and Amitruck are steadfast in their belief in emerging technologies and express confidence in their projections for the logistics industry in sub-Saharan Africa. Anticipating a gradual growth rate, both companies foresee advancements in ground and air freight shipping, underlining their commitment to shaping the future of the region’s logistics landscape.
However, as always, only time will tell how successful that projection will be.


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This week, as the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C went on sale, Bloomberg Businessweek published a rare interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook. The interview covered a wide range of subjects, including Cook's argument that Nokia forgot how to innovate, and his declaration that Apple doesn't want to chase the low-end gadget market. Now, Businessweek has published its Cook interview in full. Cook once again reiterated his belief that the tablet market will surpass the PC market — but the Apple chief took things a step further this time, putting a timeline on this progression. "We're 24 months away from that," he forecasted of this eventual eclipse. Cook also said a substantial amount of growth in the tablet market is coming from PC makers who are building low-cost Android devices as a defensive maneuver.
While on the subject of tablets versus PCs, the CEO took the opportunity to bash Android slates — something he's done plenty of times at Apple keynotes before. "I think if I bought [an Android tablet] and used it, and I thought that was a tablet experience, I’m not sure I would ever buy another tablet," he said. "The responsiveness isn't there. The basic touch is really off. The app experience is a stretched-out smartphone kind of experience. It's not an optimized experience." Cook's comments come as a part of a company executive PR blitz timed with the release of the new iPhones. Along with the media tour, Cook also joined Twitter and made appearances at Apple stores with Marketing head Phil Schiller, and software and services VP Eddy Cue.


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LAKELAND, Fla. – Publix is expanding its open hours and will do away with senior hours in the morning.
Starting Saturday, Publix stores will open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the company’s website, and the pharmacy will return to regular operating hours.
Stores had been open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to allow for more sanitation during the coronavirus pandemic, and for nearly two months the chain opened from 7-8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for customers over 65.
“Thank you for your patience over the past several weeks while we’ve operated under reduced hours,” Publix says on its website. “With our newly expanded hours, we will suspend reserved shopping hours. We do understand some customers prefer to shop when the stores are less crowded. We encourage you to shop during the first hour of the day, when we can better accommodate that need.”
OPEN FOR BUSINESS: See our list of local businesses that are open and serving the community


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Kendall Jenner made a quick pit stop at a grocery store as she ran errands in Los Angeles Saturday.
According to the photos shared by Daily Mail, the 26-year-old supermodel appeared to be makeup- as she stocked up on a few necessary items at the market.
The Keeping Up with the Kardashians alum has been busy promoting her liquor launch which is set to launch a new reserve next month in September.
The gorgeous star looked stunning in a dark green tank top and cream-colored skirt while carrying a tan tote bag which she slung over her shoulder instead of holding a purse or handbag
Kendall’s complexion looked flawless as she rocked a makeup-free look and had long locks to fall down straight past her shoulders.
The Vogue model’s low-key outing comes after she hosted a star-studded party earlier this week on Thursday evening, and guests included Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, and his wife, Hailey Bieber.


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Wilkes-Barre detectives are investigating the armed robbery of a convenience store Monday night.
The owner of the Hazle Mart at 532 Hazle St. said he was in the store around 8:30 p.m. making coffee when a man came in wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans, white gloves and black boots and mask, according to police.
The man pointed a black handgun at the store owner and told him to go behind the counter and open the register, police said. The man then followed the owner behind the counter, removed the cash and took an undisclosed amount of money from the register, police said.
Before leaving the store, the man also took a carton of Kool cigarettes, according to police.
Sgt. Christopher Mortensen said the suspect is about 6 feet 2 inches tall and around 200 pounds.
Wilkes-Barre police handled the case Monday night, but Mortensen said the investigation has since been handed over to the detective division. Detectives did not return messages seeking comment.


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Host Hotels & Resorts homed in on two of its top strategies during the third quarter: reducing its exposure in New York City as well as its European footprint.
BETHESDA, Maryland—Host Hotels & Resorts made significant headway in the third quarter on its standing strategy to reduce both its New York City footprint and its international exposure.
In a quarterly earnings call with analysts, Host executives also detailed the company’s operating performance and a new agreement in place with Marriott International to undertake a four-year reinvestment and renovation strategy on some of the company’s highest-profile Marriott assets.
“We were very active in capital recycling,” Host President and CEO James Risoleo said on the call, adding that the strategic activity allows the company to focus its attention back on the U.S., “where we have the greatest scale and compset advantage.”
In the U.S., the company completed its previously announced sale of the W New York – Union Square for $171 million, and placed the Westin New York Grand Central hotel under contract for $300 million. Host also sold the retail space at the New York Marriott Marquis for $442 million during the third quarter.
“Including the W New York, which was sold earlier in the year, by early 2019 we will have sold three (hotels) in New York City for a combined (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) multiple of 29 times, significantly limiting our exposure,” Risoleo said.
On why the real estate investment trust is keen to exit New York City, Risoleo said he believes it’s “a market that continues to face headwinds due to significant supply and expense inflation.”
Internationally, the company sold the JW Marriott Hotel Mexico City during the third quarter for $183 million, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings release. Host also reached an agreement during the quarter to sell its approximate 33% interest in its European joint venture to its partners for proceeds of approximately €435 million ($505 million).
“While we have been successful with our platform in Europe and very grateful to our partners … we believe it is the right time for the company to focus its efforts where it can have the most impact for shareholders,” Risoleo said.
The company still owns five assets outside of the U.S.—two hotels in Canada and three in Brazil—but now Risoleo said less than 2% of the company’s EBITDA will come from outside the country.
Risoleo said that so far this year, the company has spent $320 million on capital expenditures, including approximately $119 million in the third quarter. For the full year, he said the company likely will spend $475 million to $520 million total on return on investment capital expenditures, and renewal and replacement projects.
This reinvestment falls into what Risoleo called the three areas that make the most sense for the company’s capital recycling activity—buying assets “to further upgrade quality, growth and free cash flow generation of our portfolio;” investing back into the portfolio, “where we can drive meaningful returns by reinventing properties;” and buying back stock, he said.
On the reinvestment front, he announced an agreement Host recently reached with Marriott to complete a number of “transformational brand reinvestment capital projects” over a four-year period.
Beginning this year with the San Francisco Marriott Marquis and including, over the next four years, the New York Marriott Marquis, the Boston Marriott Copley Place, the Orlando World Center Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island in Georgia, Host will undertake major renovations “to compete better and enhance long-term success,” Risoleo said.
“Marriott will provide us with priority returns on the agreed-upon investment, and additionally they will provide operating profit guarantees” to offset expected business disruptions, he said.
The goal is “to really make these hotels fit with what people are looking for today and make them No. 1 in their set,” Risoleo said, adding that he’s “hopeful other owners of other Marriott hotels will follow down the same path.”
A 1.5% average daily rate increase in Q3 compared to the same period last year drove Host’s revenue-per-available-room growth of 1.6% in the quarter. Comparable occupancy in the quarter grew 10 basis points to 81.4%, “the highest since the third quarter of 2000,” Risoleo said.
He acknowledged that while the company’s top-line performance was in line with expectations and bottom-line performance was better than expected, the company’s hotels did feel the impact of moving Fourth of July and Jewish holidays, as well as business disruption due to Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Lane.
Risoleo said he anticipates the fourth quarter will be the strongest of 2018 in terms of group booking pace. “With 90% of group revenues on the books for 2019, we continue to see the booking window extend,” he said. “While we are early in the 2019 budgeting process, the global economy continues to exhibit strength and appears supportive of industry growth.”
Host EVP and CFO Michael Bluhm said groups RevPAR was up 2.3% in the quarter, led by association business, and transient business was bolstered by strong business transient and corporate travelers.
“We continue to see improvements in business transient,” Bluhm said. “We (think) business travel will remain strong over the course of the remainder of the year.”
Host revised its full-year 2018 RevPAR expectations guidance, from its previous guidance range of 1.75% to 2.5% growth, to a range of 1.9% to 2.1% growth. That midpoint shift, Risoleo said, is “due entirely to the impact of Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Lane in Q3.”
At press time, Host Hotels & Resorts’ stock was trading at $18.69, down 5.8% year to date. The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index is down 8.1% for the same period.


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Many retailers, reacting to the fast-growing (though still statistically small) percentage of on-line sales, are discovering that competing in this uncharted arena could change the nature of their traditional type of "physical" retailing as well.
Even as brick-and-mortar retailers vie with cyberspace-only companies for customers, for example, they can use Internet technologies to dramatically lower the cost of their business-to-business communications. Indeed, the Uniform Code Council, Dayton, Ohio, is planning to test UCCnet, designed as a supermarket industry extranet, later this year.
In addition, wholesalers including Fleming Cos., Oklahoma City, and Supervalu, Minneapolis, provide Web templates for their retailer customers to help them establish an on-line presence that can range from simply providing company information and advertising weekly specials to serving as the basis for a home-shopping program.
"We definitely see the Internet as expanding and growing, but perhaps a more accurate term would be maturing," said Shane Boyd, manager of communications at Fleming. Retailers comprising more than 2,000 supermarkets have taken advantage of Fleming's Web services to take at least a few steps into cyberspace, he noted.
Wholesaler White Rose Foods, Carteret, N.J., provides a Web site for its retailer members in the New York City area that allows their customers to access home-shopping services.
"We want to try to recreate the supermarket atmosphere on-line," said George Conklin, vice president of White Rose Foods.
Even with a growing level of Internet usage among supermarkets, the acceleration of on-line sales has taken many distributors by surprise. The Internet's place in an increasing number of households has helped "e-tailing" balloon in the past 18 months. For example, Greatfood.com, Seattle, an on-line retailer that sells specialty food items, reported a 600% sales increase in 1998 compared with 1997.
Such dramatic increases, however, mask the fact that e-tailing made up less than 1% of total sales in 1998, and that few on-line retailers of any kind are actually profitable. However, Allen MacCannell, chief operating officer of the on-line grocery home-delivery service YourGrocer, Port Chester, N.Y., believes the sales retailers are witnessing on the Internet are just the tip of the iceberg.
"Many people are just now getting used to the idea of purchasing on the Internet," MacCannell said. "The real sales boom [on the Internet] is yet to come. This is just a precursor of what will be."
In addition, the speed of change in cyberspace makes competition there more fast-paced than in the physical world. "Real estate on the Internet is different than real estate in the real world," MacCannell said. In the real world, a retailer typically has several months' notice before a competitor may emerge. On the Internet, a competitor can appear overnight.
On-line retailers can also take advantage of greater opportunities to understand not only what their customers buy, but why, when and for what reasons. Retailers can use technology that allows them to track customers' browsing patterns while they shop. They can also determine which Web site a customer visited just prior to theirs and which one the customer visits next, via tracking of links between pages and sites.
It's still not known, however, what role consumers' desire for privacy will play in allowing the use of this type of tracking technology.
While e-tailing may affect traditional retailing, the reverse is already taking place: on-line retailers are changing to deal with the demands of offering groceries efficiently and cost-effectively. Peapod, the Skokie, Ill., home-shopping company, is moving from a fulfillment model where its employees pick product from retailer partners' store shelves to one where the company operates dedicated warehouse fulfillment centers. Peapod has opened three such warehouses since December, in New Hyde Park, N.Y., Chicago and San Francisco.
Streamline, Westwood, Mass., uses a different home-shopping model than Peapod, but also uses a wholesaler as its source for grocery products. The company places three-temperature-zone units in customers' homes, allowing it to deliver a wide range of products, including perishables, without requiring customers to be at home. Other services include video rental, film processing and dry cleaning.
As companies like these develop their own brand recognition with consumers and begin to act more like traditional retailers, sourcing products from wholesalers and manufacturers and operating distribution centers, they could rely less on partnerships with traditional retailers to reach consumers. While the Internet is already having an effect on the way retailers interact with customers, its biggest effect may come in changing the way companies communicate with each other. Many see the Internet as a means to allow virtually all trading partners to use electronic data interchange with relative ease and at a low cost.
Fleming recently put its VisioNet services on the Internet. VisioNet enables vendors and Fleming to post bulletins for promotions and marketing events for retailers, described by Boyd as "a kind of electronic merchandising workbench." Before its launch onto the Internet, VisioNet was only available to retailers and vendors via a private network.
Internet technologies also drove the supermarket industry to develop UCCnet. A pilot program seeks to establish a common standard for an industry extranet.
"[UCCnet] will do two things: It will take advantage of EDI and what it's done, and it will use the Internet technology to allow the smaller companies to have access to UCCnet as well," said Greg Zwanziger, director of electronic commerce for Supervalu, one of six companies currently piloting the program.
The other companies are Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y.; Kroger Co., Cincinnati; Ralston Purina Co., St. Louis; Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati; and Frito-Lay, Plano, Texas.
"The plan is to complete the [UCCnet] pilot over the summer," Zwanziger told SN, adding that implementation of UCCnet will not be made available industrywide until the industry finishes dealing with year-2000 issues.
Earlier concerns about the security of sending proprietary documents over the Internet have been addressed, according to Zwanziger. "I would say there has been security software developed to alleviate most concerns [about sending secure documents over the Internet]," he said.
"While it was an issue a couple of years ago," encryption technologies have become so advanced that sending files through the Internet to a trading partner can be one of the safest ways of sending information, he added. Encrypted files are virtually undecipherable by anyone who could potentially intercept the file. "[Using an encrypted file today] is more secure than using a private line that is not encrypted," he said.


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Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has reported a second consecutive quarter of falling sales.
Its results in the 12 weeks to 7 June reveal like-for-like sales excluding fuel are 1.1% lower compared with last year, having reported in March this year its first fall in sales for nine years.
However, own-label Taste the Difference performed well in the quarter, with sales up almost 10%, while the first Sainsbury’s Easter eggs launched this year and more than doubled the company’s own-brand market share to 40%.
Sales from convenience and online have almost doubled over the past five years to 15% of total sales. Convenience sales grew by more than 18% year-on-year while groceries online grew by more than 10% in the same period, following improved web and mobile platforms launched in April.
Total retail sales for the first quarter were up 1% excluding fuel and down 0.3% including fuel.
Justin King, chief executive, said: “Throughout the quarter we have continued to invest in reducing prices and improving quality, increasing the value of our offer. Lower food price inflation and reduced fuel prices are a welcome respite to customers’ finances, but they continue to spend cautiously, leading to industry growth in the quarter being the slowest in a decade.
“Brand Match continues to reassure our customers that we remain competitive on price for their branded shop. Once again, more than 50% of the vouchers issued confirm to our customers that their branded shop was the same price or cheaper. Recent changes from £20 spend to 10 items makes it even easier for our customers to take advantage of Brand Match.
“We expect customer spending to remain cautious and we will continue to invest to keep our offer competitive to help customers balance their household budgets.”


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updated 09:35 pm EST, Mon November 10, 2008
iPhone France price rumor
Orange France is rumored to be reducing its iPhone 3G prices to 100€ (~$125 USD) for the 8GB model and 130€ (~$165 USD) for the 16GB variant, according to a post on the French Mac enthusiast site MacBidouille. The change is claimed to happen on November 13th, and would make the devices significantly cheaper than the US market offerings. Presumably the prices represent the two-year contract prices, dropping from the current 150€ and 200€ tags for the 8GB and 16GB phones, respectively.
If the rumor is true, it is unclear whether the change comes as the result of Apple lowering equipment cost, Orange restructuring its subsidies, or a combination of both. Charlie Wolf, an analyst from Needham Research recently considered the possibility of a $100 iPhone in the US. Apple would need to drop its gross margin on each sale from an estimated 50 percent to 42 percent, although the strategy could result in a multiplication of current sales numbers.
The US market has seen the sales of certain devices fluctuate and compete for the top-selling positions as companies drop phone prices and carriers adjust subsidies. The timing of the Orange France change would coincide with holiday promotions. Hitting low price-points could be a key strategy for many companies that battle for sales in the sluggish economy.


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A failed 2011 merger with AT&T is paying off in a big way for T-Mobile US.
The frequencies were part of a $4bn breakup package AT&T offered T-Mobile US when they agreed to the $39bn merger. When it became clear that the takeover would not get approval from regulators, AT&T withdrew its offer and paid out $3bn in cash and $1bn in mid-band spectrum rights.
Though a minor part of the original package, the spectrum has exploded in value thanks to the FCC mid-band auction.
Based on the prices paid at the auction, New Street Research estimates that the $1bn package is now worth $4.7bn, lifting the value of the total compensation to $7.7bn.
The auction credited for bringing the $3.7bn boost to T-Mobile US was also trashed by CEO John Legere, who argued that lax bidding rules allowed AT&T, Dish and Verizon to snatch up a disproportionate amount of the offered spectrum. Legere did have a point: the top three winners in the auction got 94 per cent of the offered spectrum rights.
Perhaps the few billion dollars of value his company picked up in the process will help subdue the anger. ®


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The opioid crisis in America was already a problem, and it got worse during the pandemic.
Some people suggest that cannabis could help with the addiction, and a few research studies have addressed this possibility.
This study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, says that CBD has the potential to help with opioid addiction — at least enough to warrant more studies.
There’s also some indication that states with legal cannabis have less opioid abuse than prohibited states.
Other studies show results that are more skeptical.
This systematic review looked at nine different studies and concluded that more research is necessary.
So the research is limited and mixed, and the landscape is changing.
While cannabis proponents may argue that it’s helpful in decreasing opioid abuse, cannabis opponents may argue that it’s not helpful. One day there may be enough data for researchers to reach a consensus and communicate clearly with the public about how cannabis can or cannot help with our country’s opioid problem.
If you prefer to shop online, you can choose free shipping or free delivery in Rowan County. If you’d like to order by phone, call (980) 330-3073. If you order online, use the discount code chill for 15% off.
If you’re getting this email, you’re a member of the Chllax Club and get 15% off any purchase.
PhenomWell is open 11-6:30, Monday through Friday — and 11-5 on Saturday.


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Latest News on Apple New Product
Showing of 0 - 10 from 2 results
Apple New Product - Total results - 2
Oct 24, 2013
MacBook Pro with Retina display: 2013 vs 2012Apple has now added a new MacBook Pro to its line-up. We took a closer look to see what new features the company has integrated...
Apr 24, 2013
Apple to introduce new product categories in fall 2013 or early 2014Apple seems to have a new trick up its sleeve. After the company's second quarter report, Apple CEO Tim Cook has told investors that the company will be


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The Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Tablet will save the newspaper industry, put Amazon’s Kindle out of business and change the way students read textbooks. It’s what technology CEOs write poems about, and it’s what Doonesbury considers fodder for a comic strip.
All of the fun ends tomorrow as reality sets in when Apple lets us all in on their precise plans. At 10 a.m. (1 p.m. Eastern) Apple will unveil what it is calling its “latest creation.” I’ll be on the ground in San Francisco to cover the event live, so check back here for updates.
If there were any doubters left in the crowd as to whether Apple was indeed launching some sort of tablet, e-reader, or mini-PC, it’s becoming increasing clear. As the final hour drew closer today, Terry McGraw of McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), couldn’t help but spill the beans on CNBC: “We have worked with Apple for quite awhile,” he said, “and their… the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it’ll be transferable… So now, with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet… the tablet is going to be just really terrific.”
The big question is: Can Apple live up to the hype? It’s not just about managing expectations for tomorrow. Apple has a long road ahead. To be truly successful, the device (an iPad, iSlate or tablet or whatever) must create a new category that falls somewhere between a phone and a laptop — and not just for Apple, but also for the broader media industry. Charles Golvin, an analyst from Forrester, eloquently made that argument today on our site.
It must also get the volume needed to move the needle for the big media companies reportedly involved, like McGraw-Hill. You could even argue the iPhone hasn’t accomplished that yet. With roughly 43 million sold worldwide, it’s still relatively small. However, if you look at Apple’s growing family of devices, including the iPod Touch and now the Tablet, which will reportedly also run the same OS, we may just start seeing a big audience.


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Amazon Holds Up As Nasdaq Dips; United Airlines Soars On Earnings
Tech stocks were under mild selling pressure near midday Wednesday, but shares of Amazon.com (AMZN) held up after the Nasdaq 100 giant called its recent Prime Day the most successful ever.
Leaderboard name Amazon lost 0.7% early but recovered off lows after Tuesday’s positive reversal that resulted in a new closing high. Amazon has been a pillar of strength after gapping out of a cup-with-handle base in late April on strong earnings. Earnings from Amazon are due July 26 after the close.
Among FANG stocks, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) held up the best. Alphabet was unfazed by news of a $ 5 billion fine from the European Union related to the dominance of Google’s Android mobile operating system.
The Nasdaq composite was mostly flat, while the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 rose a bit. Volume on the NYSE and Nasdaq was tracking slightly higher than Tuesday’s pace.
The Dow was led by UnitedHealth Group (UNH). Shares rose more than 2% after the stock paid a visit to its 50-day moving average Tuesday. The health insurer is back in buy range from a conventional entry of 250.89.
Wednesday’s session yielded three bullish gaps up in price, all on strong earnings.
In stock market results today, railroad CSX (CSX) jumped more than 5% to 67.96 as it tries to clear a flat base with a 67.79 buy point. CSX reported its third straight quarter of accelerating earnings growth and second quarter in a row of accelerating sales.
Shares of chip-equipment firm ASML (ASML) gapped up powerfully. Shares were up 6% as it tried to clear a recent high of 216.90. An earnings beat and news of a 33% increase in sales to $ 3.2 billion fueled positive sentiment. Sales growth at the Netherlands-based company has ranged from 33% to 53% over the past four quarters.
In the airline group, United Airlines (UAL) gapped up past a 75.63 entry, rising 8.5% to 78.82. Earnings and sales beat estimates and the company also raised its full-year earnings guidance.
Inside the IBD 50, China-based TAL Education (TAL) gapped above its 50-day moving average, rising 5%. Earnings are due July 26 before the open.
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Desay SV Presents Its Latest Intelligent Driving Solutions at CES Asia 2019
SHANGHAI China, June 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Desay SV Automotive ("Desay SV" or "the Company"), leading automotive electronics provider in China, showcases its latest intelligent driving solutions based on Level 3 autonomous driving scenarios at CES Asia 2019 held from June 11 to 13.
To give visitors a great understanding of the technology, Desay SV’s booth at CES 2019 demonstrated its latest smart cabin system and Internet of Vehicle (IoV) embedded with multifaceted technologies designed. The booth guests had the chance to experience the integration of humans and vehicle across multiple scenarios.
“We are delighted to bring our third-generation Smart Cabin to CES Asia 2019”, said Mr. Tan Choon Lim, the Chairman of Desay SV, “We believe that the future Smart Cabin will be based on in-vehicle electronics integrated with original hardware configurations and open architecture software. Capitalizing on the unprecedented opportunity granted by the automotive and Internet technology boom, we aim to push our exploration forward and constantly rethink the real-life application of IoV technologies.”
By simulating five typical novice driver scenarios to exemplify its versatile functionality, Desay SV highlighted the third-generation Smart Cabin and system’s ability to create more likely interconnected connected in-vehicle contexts alongside deeper and richer interactions with external driver situations.
Alongside the Smart Cabin the IoV business segment has been presented, which provided an insight into the information security and sustainability of Desay SV’s back-end service via the integration of IoV technologies, Smart Cabin and Smart Driving. As one of the three strategic business segments of the company, the application of IoV on scene shows the intuitive interaction between V2P, V2V and the future of smart travel with care, security and IoT.
Desay SV demonstrated a variety of solutions under automatic driving scenarios by means of digital sand table, including high-speed and low-speed autonomous driving scheme based on technologies such as automatic driving domain control unit, automatic parking system scheme integrating ultrasonic radar and visual algorithm, Valet Parking Program, V2X Program, Driver Monitoring System and Millimeter Wave Radar.
“CES Asia 2019 has given us a tremendous opportunity to exhibit our latest services and products to the world and communicate with clients and industry leaders”, said Mr. Tan and added: “To respond to the future demand for autonomous driving services of our clients and customers, we will continue to explore the potential of IoV and provide better driving experiences”.


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Former Apple Marketer Launces Spin Studio
2:19 PM | Tuncer Deniz
Mac industry veteran Ed Prasek today launched Spin Studio, a company specializing in providing world-class marketing, merchandising, channel, and business strategy and consultation services exclusively to developers and companies in the Macintosh industry.
"The Mac industry is famously unique. Its customers, the way the channel works, everything, is very different from the standard PC industry," says Spin Studio founder and Mac industry veteran, Ed Prasek. "And it takes real Mac industry know-how in order to provide effective, well received marketing programs and initiatives. And now with Spin Studio, developers and companies in the Mac industry can take advantage of just that: marketing and business services designed especially for them."Spin Studio's services for developers and companies in the Mac industry include strategic, guerilla, blend, and viral marketing; business strategy consulting; relationship building and networking; merchandising and channel penetration; product planning; website layout and presentation; go to market initiatives; and more.
Spin Studio welcomes inquiries from Mac industry developers and companies, and invites them to learn more about Spin Studio by visiting its corporate website, www.spin-studio.com/mac.
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Caleres Inc. (CAL) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume
Shares of Caleres Inc. (NYSE:CAL) saw strong trading volume on Thursday . 401,219 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 1% from the previous session’s volume of 405,394 shares.The stock last traded at $25.38 and had previously closed at $25.94.
Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Investment Research raised Caleres from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 8th. BB&T Corp. raised Caleres from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, May 27th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Caleres from $36.00 to $33.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 16th. Sterne Agee CRT reissued a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Caleres in a report on Friday, May 27th. Finally, Jefferies Group lowered their price target on Caleres from $30.00 to $24.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.80.
The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion and a P/E ratio of 13.60. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $25.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.65.
Caleres (NYSE:CAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 30th. The company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $622.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $638.71 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Caleres Inc. will post $2.04 earnings per share for the current year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 19th will be issued a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 15th.
Caleres, Inc, formerly Brown Shoe Company, Inc, is a global footwear retailer and wholesaler. The Company is engaged in the operation of retail shoe stores and e-commerce Websites, as well as the design, sourcing and marketing of footwear for women and men. It operates through two segments: Famous Footwear, which includes its Famous Footwear stores and Famous.com, and Brand Portfolio, which offers retailers and consumers a portfolio of brands from its Healthy Living and Contemporary Fashion platforms.
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In the realm of electric vehicle technology, a significant breakthrough has emerged. The experts at Ideanomics’ WAVE division have introduced a game-changing 500kW wireless charging system that promises to keep electric trucks operational even in the most bitter cold conditions. This development is not just a leap forward in EV charging technology; it’s a transformative approach for the entire transportation industry, particularly in regions grappling with harsh winter climates.
The Mechanics Behind the Technology
Innovative Charging Method
WAVE’s cutting-edge technology employs a unique charging mechanism, involving a “plate” embedded beneath the road’s surface. This plate collaborates with a counterpart on the vehicle’s underside, enabling the transfer of electric current to the vehicle’s battery through induction. This approach is not only efficient but also eliminates the need for physical cable connections, a significant advantage in icy and snowy conditions.
Impact on Emissions and Sustainability
Emission Reduction at Major Ports: A number of these inductive charging plates are already operational at strategic locations, including the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. These ports, known for their considerable contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, have embraced this technology as part of their strategy to reduce their environmental footprint.
Cold Weather Performance and Department of Energy Grant
Testing in Extreme Conditions
Despite the success in temperate climates, questions remained about the system’s performance in extreme winter conditions. These concerns are being addressed head-on with a new installation at a Venture Logistics facility in the Midwest. Backed by an $8.4 million grant from the US Department of Energy, this project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the 500kW WAVE wireless charger under challenging, low-negative temperatures.
“Our demonstration project with Venture Logistics will show that for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that demand perpetual operations and require charging infrastructure, wireless charging is the most effective solution at scale,” – Robin Mackie, COO of Ideanomics.
Benefits for Electric Semi Trucks
Upon completion, the WAVE 500kW charging system will power two of Venture’s Class 8 electric semi-trucks, showcasing the system’s capability to enhance zero-emission operations in cold climates. The technology is designed to specifically address the challenges posed by ice and snow, promoting safer and more efficient operations.
Addressing Union Challenges and Labor Efficiency
Wireless Charging as a Solution to Union Restrictions
A particularly intriguing aspect of this technology is its potential to resolve certain union-related issues. For example, union contracts at ports may prevent workers from manually plugging in electric trucks. The wireless charging pads, which can be embedded in parking spots or used while trucks queue, offer a seamless solution to this problem.
Future Prospects and Innovations
Looking ahead, the integration of wireless charging technology in commercial EV fleets, especially in cold weather conditions, opens up a realm of possibilities for efficiency and environmental sustainability. As this technology evolves, it stands to significantly impact how the transportation and logistics industries operate, particularly in terms of reducing downtime and enhancing operational efficiency.
A Step Towards a Greener Future
The deployment of 500kW wireless charging systems by Ideanomics’ WAVE division is more than just an advancement in electric vehicle technology; it’s a pivotal step towards a more sustainable and efficient future in logistics and transportation. As we continue to witness the impact of this technology, particularly in challenging climates, it reinforces the potential of innovative solutions in driving environmental change and operational efficiency.
References and Facts
- The WAVE 500kW charging system, supported by an $8.4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, is being deployed to provide power to Venture’s Class 8 electric semi trucks. The system is a pioneering example of high-power wireless charging enhancing zero-emission capabilities in cold climates, aiming to address challenges posed by ice and snow123.
- This first-of-its-kind high-power, ultra-fast wireless charging system fully charged a class 8 electric truck in less than 15 minutes3.
- WiTricity-enabled wireless charging is also being offered on the KG Mobility Torres EVX Pickup, marking the first wirelessly charged electric pickup truck4.


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Amid lawsuits and ongoing recalls, KV Pharmaceutical is recalling most of its <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/defective_drugs">drugs, said the St. Louis Business Journal.Â Yesterdayâ€”with the exception of some of the products it distributes, but does not manufactureâ€”KV suspended manufacturing and shipping of all of its products.Â KV is also conducting a voluntary recall of most of its products, said the St. Louis Business Journal.
KV said it is likely these moves will have a significant and an adverse effect on its financial profile, which might place it an out-of-compliance status with a number of aspects of its credit agreements, said the St. Louis Journal.Â The moves will also â€œwipe outâ€ most of KVâ€™s market value, Reuters said.Â KVâ€™s line of credit totaled around $30 million at year-end, 2008, said the St. Louis Business Journal.
KV is in discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)â€”which has been inspecting the drug makerâ€™s operations and inventories since December 2008â€”to determine the impact of the recall, said the St. Louis Business Journal.Â KV is also working with Lachman Consultant Services, Inc., an outside consultant, to and review KVâ€™s manufacturing and packaging processes, reported the St. Louis Business Journal.
Reuters said KV has faced a number of production issues that resulted in oversized tablets, is in the midst of a number of class-action lawsuits that allege KV officers falsified information and exaggerated stock prices, and is also in the midst of an informal enquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).Â According to a regulatory filing yesterday, KV fired its senior vice president and general counsel, Gregory Bentley, said Reuters; its board of directors also fired KV chief executive, Marc Hermelin, in early December for cause and amid a probe alleging mismanagement, said the St. Louis Business Journal, which said David Van Vliet has been named interim chief executive.
In December, KV, suspended shipments of all its tablet medications and recalled one lot of Hydromorphone HCl 2 mg tablets because the painkillerâ€™s tablets were oversized, said the St. Louis Business Journal.Â The medication is a narcotic painkiller used in the treatment of moderate to severe pain.Â An overdose, which could occur when too much medication is received from an oversized tablet, could result in respiratory problems, coma, bradycardia, hypotension, apnea, circulatory collapse, cardiac arrest, and even death, to name some.
In response to the mounting problems, KV has convened a committeeâ€”which has retained its own legal councilâ€”to handle the shareholder lawsuits, which allege federal securities law violations; the SEC enquiry; and requests from both the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri and FDA representatives working with that office, said the St. Louis Business Journal.
Meanwhile, KVâ€™s emerging drug, Gestiva, a medication prescribed to prevent preterm birth in women with a history of such deliveries, will not receive FDA approval until certain criteria are met, said Reuters.Â The drug was expected to receive approval by late last year; KV had made plans to purchase U.S. and international rights to the drug from Hologic, Inc. for $82 million in cash upon FDA approval, said Reuters, which noted that KVâ€™s stock has been plummeting to historic lows since yesterday.


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Starbucks cuts price on packaged coffees by $1, Yahoo! News reports. The strategy of the popular coffeehouse chain is to stay competitive in the grocery store sector. This will, however, not have an impact on the price we’ll find in the Starbuck’s cafes.
On April 14, Starbucks announced that it will lower the prices on their packaged coffees found in grocery stores. The Seattle-based company is applying a new sales politics, according to Kyle Stock at Bloomberg. “The theory is: major retail growth has been, and will continue to be, at the low and the high ends of the socioeconomic scale”, says Stock, adding that “Starbucks already has plenty of $6 barista-brewed drinks to capture the top of that market” so a $10 coffee bag, which is “very much in the middle”, needs to lower its price tag.
A representative of Starbucks explained that the lowered prices will allow the company to attract new customers and offer the existing ones the possibility of buying more of their favorite product for less, thus increasing the frequency of the purchases.
In support of the new strategy, Starbucks announced last month that it will expand its loyalty program to products bought at grocery stores, thus allowing the customers to sum up points from items purchased outside the chain’s coffeehouses.


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- The new provision on California’s bottle bill, which adds wine and distilled spirits to the program, is expected to increase the state’s glass recycling rate and add funding to recycling programs. The efforts will come with a steep price tag, the Container Recycling Institute said during a financial wrap-up webinar last week.
- Many provisions in SB 1013 will add nearly $900 million to recycling program expenses over a six-year period, CRI said. An additional $379 million in recycling spending, passed in a separate budget bill AB 179will provide CalRecycle with funding for beverage container recycling and waste reduction efforts.
- The state’s beverage container fund balance was last reported at $635 million, CRI calculates, and CRI President Susan Collins said the nearly $1.3 billion further spending over the next six years could significantly deplete this fund and prevent the bottle billing program from strengthening effectively. savings for rainy days. “There’s not enough money for everyone,” she said during the webinar.
Overview of the dive:
The bill is one of the most significant changes to the state’s container drop systems in recent years, and supporters say the state has long needed to invest more funds in the program.
The bill adds wine and distilled spirits to the state’s container deposit system beginning Jan. 1, 2024. It will establish a 10-cent redemption value on most bottles, as well as a 25-cent refund. cents on “difficult to recycle” wine. packaging, including boxes, bladders, sachets and similar plastic containers.
Proponents of SB 1013 also claim that the inclusion of wine and liquor bottles will increase the state’s beverage glass recycling rate from about 30% to about 59% while bringing cleaner glass to the recycling. CRI estimates that approximately 500 million additional containers will be recycled each year. CRI also believes collection and collection programs could receive $46 million turnover from wine and spirits bottles.
The bill has received broad support from major carriers like Recology, Republic Services and WM. Environmental groups, glass bottlers like Anheuser-Busch and recycled glass processor Strategic Materials have also backed the bill. Still, groups like Consumer Watchdog said the bill should have dedicated funds to improving access to reimbursement. CRI, originally a major supporter, changed its position to neutralsaying the bill includes too many charges.
Other provisions of the bill include millions of dollars in market development initiatives, grants for the collection, transportation and reuse of recycled glass, and funding for local programs to collect more containers.
Among these provisions, one of the major spending items in the bill is a market development payment, which directs CalRecycle will provide a total of $60 million per year through the end of 2027 to manufacturers who purchase recycled glass collected in California for use in new beverage containers.
The law also directs CalRecycle to form three glass processing incentive grants totaling $9 million per year. One provides up to $4 million a year to encourage the use of cullet in new bottles; the second provides $4 million per year for regional pilot program grants providing glass collection bins in restaurants and other retail outlets. The third, an annual grant of $1 million, aims to encourage the use of rail transportation to move empty glass containers to processing facilities. Collins said the three grant programs will take effect Jan. 1, 2023, a year before CRI expects to see higher volumes of glass containers entering the recycling stream.
CalRecycle will also spend $15 million annually on curbside and neighborhood collection programs. Further funding would bolster statewide recycling education and other community recycling initiatives and waste reduction programs.
In addition to the container deposit system and related efforts receiving funding in SB 1013, the California budget bill provides more than $233 million in funding for CalRecycle to be used in 2023 for container recycling. beverages and waste reduction efforts. Over a three-year period, the recycling provisions in the budget bill will total nearly $380 million, CRI estimates.
The 2023 prize pool includes $73.3 million for start-up costs for recycling programs, recycling centers, mobile recycling, reverse vending machines and bag depots, dealer co-ops and equipment. It is also asking for $30 million for start-up loans for processors and recyclers.
An additional $25 million next year would fund deposit system plans that incorporate reusable containers, which Collins says is a significant investment in reusable packaging infrastructure.
“I’m really excited to see what California can do to build new renewable energy infrastructure. We have never seen [support] like that all over the country,” she said.
The budget bill also provides funding for workforce development and plastics market development programs — projects on which CRI is neutral — but Collins said the organization believes that additional funding combined $90 million for quality premiums “is not an effective use of funds.”


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Imagine if £300 was the difference between you getting your hands on £25,000 or not. Now imagine you're running a business in Wales that's been forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sadly, right now, many business owners don't need to imagine - it's their reality.
That money could be a lifeline for them
But they can't get their hands on a penny of it, because their rateable values are just over the cut-off point for help.
One of those business people is Iffy Harris who runs a number of nightclubs in Newport. The venues, including Cotton Club and The Courtyard, haven't been able to make any money in that time.
And while other businesses around him are able to claim the £25,000 grants to help tide them over, it's not the case for Mr Harris.
The grant, which is being given to venues with a rateable value of £51,000 or lower, is available for those in the retail, leisure and hospitality industry.
Rateable value is the value assigned to non-domestic premises and is based on a property’s annual market rent, its size and usage.
However the rateable value of The Cotton Club is £51,300. That extra £300 means he's not entitled to the financial help for that venue.
He's paying out £12,000 a month, without any income, and is even considering selling one venue, just to see him through the next year.
"The situation is looking really bad for us," said the 51-year-old businessman.
And he's not the only business in that situation.
Now, a campaign has been launched across the UK, calling for the upper rateable value limit for qualification for the £25,000 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant (RHLG) to be raised.
Because of the RHLG guidance which means only those in the retail, hospitality, leisure and assembly sectors with a business rates value of up to £51,000 can access the vital grant, tens of thousands of businesses have been left stranded.
The #RaiseTheBar campaign, launched at the end of April, is calling on the government to raise the arbitrary £51,000 business rates threshold cap to £150,000, allowing more than 100,000 businesses in these sectors the chance to survive.
A number of letters have also been sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, calling for this change.
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Manager of Newport's Business Improvement District (BID), Kevin Ward, said: "In Newport city centre, around 50 businesses do not qualify for the grant due to the £51,000 ceiling.
"These include some of our most popular shops, pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.
"It is important they have the same support as others to give them a fighting chance of surviving this crisis and being able to re-open when lockdown restrictions are lifted."
Mr Harris also explained that this year was a bad one to begin with, due to the "worst possible" weather that hit Wales. Flooding and storms had already had an impact on nightlife, which was in its quietest period of the year anyway.
"The shutdown was on a Friday evening. We were fully stocked for a Wales v Scotland game, so we had extra stock in. We were getting ready for the bank holidays, so we had started building up our stock.
"Those bank holidays get you through the bad period after Christmas. "
He's still got money going out - expenses are coming in the form of beer companies which won't take back stock looking for payment plans, utilities and other overheads, along with staff wages that still have to be paid and furloughed staff members' holiday allowance.
At the time lockdown was announced, Mr Harris had 85 staff on the books. They've mostly all been furloughed now, apart from a few who have been kept on to maintain the venues.
"When you're a small business with one or two staff, it's very easy to manage. But when you are a much bigger operation that has up to 85 staff it's difficult."
"Cotton Club is £300 over the [rateable value] limit. It isn't fair at all."
He added: "A club and a bar business now, is not a case of we're rolling in it and making massive profit. We're fighting closure. It's never been run for profit, it's run for what I enjoy doing.
"We were already in a difficult situation."
"Two of my biggest premises had nothing - Cotton Club; Courtyard - nothing in support."
"Most places will fall into the £100,000 bracket. There's plenty of those premises in the city centre - they're in that category. They'll be the biggest employers, it doesn't make them the most profitable businesses, but they'll be the biggest employers.
Without increasing the threshold for the grants, Mr Harris said it didn't look good for his clubs.
"It's looking more and more that we'll have to close down altogether, and lose the staff altogether and wait for something to happen in the future and recruit then if we're to open up again.
"The situation is looking really bad for us."
Raising the rateable value threshold would also help around 150 hard-hit firms within the Swansea BID area to stay afloat.
Russell Greenslade, chief executive of Swansea BID, said: “We cannot underestimate the importance of our retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, for the value they bring to our economy here in Swansea, and for the jobs they supply.
"Swansea City Centre is, along with other town and city centres across Wales, being badly bruised by the coronavirus crisis.
"Everything that can be done must be done to help our businesses come out the other side of this intact, and ready to pick up the threads.
"We believe the threshold of £51,000 is far too low to provide adequate support to these businesses in their time of need.
"That is why Business Improvement Districts across the UK are supporting the #RaiseTheBar Campaign in asking Government to increase the retail, hospitality and leisure rateable value threshold from £51k to £150k.
“The retail, hospitality and leisure sector is vital to the UK economy.
"The retail industry alone generated £394 billion worth of sales in 2019 with 306,655 units across the UK. In 2019, the UK leisure sector reached over £111 billion in sales.
"The UK hospitality sector employs over 3.2 million people, that is 11% of UK jobs, making it the third largest sector in the UK, accounting for £130 billion in revenue, 6% of all businesses and 5% GDP."
Bruno Nunes runs six venues in Swansea, including The Three Lamps, Brewstone, Peppermint and Bambu. Only two of his venues qualify for the grant.
However, his businesses currently employ more than 230 people directly.
He said: The industry is being beaten to a pulp alongside, tourism and retail.
"It's been really difficult to an extent. The short term measures have helped a little, not as much as one may have liked. But we've managed to keep everyone in work[due to furlough], everyone's getting paid, at least all our people are being taken care of.
"Our biggest challenge is the long term solution, and to see how this terrible situation will negate and surpass, and when consumer confidence will come back.
"It's not just about being allowed to open it's about being allowed to open and people feeling like they're visiting our businesses, not Chernobyl a month after the disaster."
"For an industry that runs on very low operational profit, it's going to be a challenge to get past this."
The 39-year-old business owner, who's venues' rateable values vary between £73-£120,000, added that the hospitality industry was the "anti christ or oxymoron" of social distancing, so it may take a while for people to come around after the lockdown is over.
He added that he was worried about the economy as the industry pumped a massive amount into it.
Mr Nunes is also in the process of launching three new businesses, that were due to open, and two of those don't qualify for the grants either.
"Of the 11 businesses, only three have received some sort of grant support - RaiseTheBar is essential," he said.
"It's incredibly difficult."


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Today's announcement that Centro is taking over the Real Cities Network isn't really an exclamation point. It's more like a period, marking movement between eras. Centro has brought local news websites significantly more revenue over the past several years. Real Cities, on the other hand, was a vestige of Knight Ridder (KR Digital, specifically, in this case) and one of spare parts that McClatchy acquired when it bought the KR papers.
In essence, Centro -- which has become an even more important revenue source as it brings online-only national advertising to local sites -- eliminates some of the noise of the local marketplace in taking over Real Cities. Real Cities repped about 1800 websites in its network. Most of them are also working with Centro, which targets local sites of all kinds -- daily newspaper, broadcast, alt weeklies + -- in delivering local and regional audiences to advertisers. Centro does gain relationships with advertisers, maybe more than 100 new ones, considering that many of them were duplicated.
"It's a scale play," says Centro CEO Shawn Riegsecker.
There is still noise to be sure -- lots of networks and exchanges out there, and the Tribune-Gannett-Hearst-led QuadrantOne still trying to find its footing. But today's announcement sets up 2009 as an intriguing year, focusing acutely on online-only advertising. On the one hand, we've got the newspaper consortium focusing on the adoption of the Yahoo ad platform (starting in September and rolling into at least 1Q next year). On another, we have a new combined Centro/Real Cities. Shawn Riegsecker says his company is growing at a 45% YOY level, even with major declines in General Motors and ATT spending, caused by economic and structural shifts.
Online-only growth is what newspaper companies need.
Tribune reported quarterly earnings yesterday, and said digital revenues had dropped 4% YOY. That's because of classified upsells of course. They produced now-seen-to-be-illusory 25-35% annual growth rates in good times, and now they are dragging online revenue -- the old bright spot in newspaper revenue reports -- down into negative territory. Tribune was the fourth company, after Lee, Belo and Scripps to go negative in the second quarter in digital revenue, with those above the line gasping for positive air.
McClatchy proudly announced in its earning call that it was approaching 50% in the level of online revenue that was online-only -- not upsells. Gary Pruitt's gang isn't alone. 2008 has seen a profound mindshift, accompanied by much hiring and staff re-training, all aimed at making this transition. Unfortunately, it's another case in which the newspaper industry is reacting late, after things have turned, well, officially negative. But it's the right move.
We can all see that McClatchy's move is another in a series of the Pruitt Strategy, enunciated clearly as emerging (!) out of the current mess as a "smaller, more efficient company". He pulled off the sale of the Star Tribune at what turned out to be a good time, got out of Shop Local (long a non-performer), is busy having other companies print his papers (Boise, Bellingham) and now is getting out of the Real Cities Network game.
Here, we can see a survival strategy getting into place. Focus on what you are good at: local content production and local sales. And....importantly use other people's technology. That's the other clear message from the Centro takeover of Real Cities: ad technology is key.


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The Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino welcomed attendees and exhibitors to Dell Technologies World this week as the resort celebrates the completion of its North Convention Center.
Reflecting the evolving needs and preferences of planners and attendees, the Mandalay Bay Convention Center remodel includes significant technology upgrades, dynamic digital signage and a fresh, new design complementing the resort’s tropical ambiance.
“This remodel exemplifies our commitment to evolve alongside the meetings industry by enhancing the experience from start to finish,” said Ernest Stovall, VP of Hotel Sales for Mandalay Bay. “When attendees walk away, we hope they’re already looking forward to returning next year for a memorable and productive session.”
The debut of the North Convention Center marks the completion of Phase One in the $100M remodel of the 2.1 million-square-foot Mandalay Bay Convention Center which is expected to be fully complete by mid-2024.
The Convention Center remodel is part of a new wave of enhancements and experiences coming to Mandalay Bay including the redesign of Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas’ 424 rooms and suites; the recent addition of Retro by Voltaggio; the debut of Flanker Kitchen + Sports Bar in June; and the fall opening of the immersive Play Playground steps away at Luxor.
For more information on Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, visit https://mandalaybay.mgmresorts.com.


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Christiansted and Charlotte Amalie have recently introduced new food tours for cruise passengers in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“They are really unique. They offer a combination of culinary and history as you meander through town,” said Commissioner of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty.
A new tariff system in St. Thomas has led to long-term agreements with multiple cruise lines across two facilities, which will help build traffic back up again.
“It’s now a single-tariff destination. We definitely want to improve our numbers and re-gain our position in St. Thomas,” Nicholson-Doty said, in an interview with Cruise Industry News. “We have seen some slippage. We want to make sure we build St. Thomas up as the number one port in the region.”
Growth can also come in St. Croix.
“There is significant room to grow there,” she said. That will combine the Frederiksted Pier and Gallows Bay, where plans are on the table to dredge the harbor, opening it up to small cruise ships.
St. John, a tender destination, fits well with the niche lines. Combining the destinations, SeaDream, for example, offers round-trip sailings from St. Thomas, with calls in St. John, Tortola and other ports in the area.