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US regulators have finally given the nod to the massive US$1.75 billion buyout of IBM’s PC business by Chinese giant Lenovo.
The companies said today that the US Committee on Foreign Investment had reviewed the deal and found it satisfactory, clearing the way for the sale’s completion.
The deal will make Lenovo the world’s third largest PC business.
Steve Ward, current general manager at IBM’s Personal Computing Division (PCD), said Lenovo would have worked well with the American committee.
“The new Lenovo will be an innovative, international company delivering the best PCs in the industry,” he said. “IBM and Lenovo are moving quickly to integrate the companies and expect to finalise the transaction in the second quarter [of 2005] as planned.”
Ward said customers would keep getting the same good service from IBM and Lenovo while the sale was completed.
As part of the deal, IBM has promised to give sales support and demand generation services for Lenovo product through IBM’s existing enterprise sales force of 30,000 around the globe and via IBM.com.
Lenovo products would also be sold through IBM PC specialists who would join Lenovo. IBM Global Financing and IBM Global Services would be preferred providers of leasing, financing, warranty and maintenance services for the new Lenovo, the companies said.
As previously reported in iTnews, Lenovo has been seeking opportunities to go global. The Chinese vendor is expected to inherit IBM PCD’s Australian channel relationships, including up to 180 local staff.
Global Lenovo headquarters are expected to be in New York, but the main operations would be based in Beijing and the US state of North Carolina. The deal gives Lenovo a global distribution and sales network across 160 countries and global brand recognition, the companies said.


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August 15, 2006
5 Min Read
"Can you pay me now?" OK, that's not quite the slogan for Verizon Wireless, but having tapped into a Web-based payment network, the mobile phone giant now lets many of its biggest and most active suppliers answer that question in self-service fashion. What's more, Verizon has gained a much better handle on outstanding payments due, and it's taking better advantage of early payment terms.
Companies can save as much as 60 percent on the cost of accounts payable (AP) transactions by using electronic alternatives to paper-invoice processing, according to research firm The Aberdeen Group. In addition, alternatives such as e-invoicing, purchasing cards and ACH (automated clearing house) settlement can help companies gain substantial discounts.
Verizon's hefty volume of 30,000 to 50,000 invoices per month trickled in through an extensive and highly distributed purchasing network, and its AP department often had little idea of what to expect in terms of incoming invoice volumes or totals. Late last year, the company signed on with on-demand, order-to-pay software provider Xign with hopes of improving payment efficiency and visibility. Xign has more than 25,000 suppliers in its payment network, and it's particularly strong in the mobile telco industry, where it also counts Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile as customers.
"Many of our largest suppliers are part of the Xign network," says Joe Selewicz, staff vice president and assistant controller at Verizon Wireless. "The key metric we looked at is that the network represented 50 percent of our purchasing spend, and at least one vendor was clamoring for us to use the service because it felt it would speed our ability to pay them."
Verizon Wireless developed integrations from its PeopleSoft ERP system and pilot-tested the payment network with five major vendors in mid-January. The company then identified 450 major suppliers in the Xign network and another 450 outside the network that it planned to bring onboard.
As of August, more than 650 vendors had signed on. Those suppliers now submit both purchase order (PO) and non-PO invoices to Verizon Wireless electronically through Xign. At the end of the process, the telco also pays those invoices electronically through the Xign network, and it can do so on the most favorable terms because rules on the discount structure of each supplier are applied by the software.
"There will certainly be labor savings for every couple of thousand invoices that are automated," says Selewicz, pointing to the data-entry labor tied to paper-based invoice processing. "More important, we'll be able to manage our cash flow much better because we'll know what's in the system before it's processed, and we'll pay earlier only if induced to do so through discounts. From a treasury standpoint, we can do much more accurate cash forecasting. We know, through vendor terms, when we're going to pay down to the date."
Xign's on-demand software can consolidate all invoicing and settlement transaction information regardless of origin, bringing together ERP, imaging, Web-entry and purchasing card transactions, and creating a single compliance report for accounts payable. Selewicz says it's too soon to gauge the extent of labor and time savings, but he says Xign's approach will also cut down on vendor and internal queries to AP because users can sign into the hosted, Web-based software and see what's pending and what's paid.
Even if Verizon Wireless brings on every supplier in the Xign network, it will still receive plenty of paper invoices from among its total of more than 40,000 suppliers. The company currently relies on an imaging system to capture and share invoices electronically, but it relies on data-entry operators keying from images, rather than automated optical character recognition (OCR) technologies.
Imaging capture vendors such as Abbyy, Kofax Image Products and EMC's Captiva division have come a long way in developing systems that can extract and validate data from variable documents, but the best way around the cost and delays of paper-based processes is to eliminate the paperwork altogether. There's little wonder that Xign and competitors, including Prime Revenue and Ariba, are gaining support from suppliers and customers that have to process tens or even hundreds of thousands of invoices per month.
Driving Force: Self-Service Options Sell Online System
With more than 50 million voice and data customers and revenues of $32.3 billion in 2005, a company the size of Verizon Wireless certainly has clout with its suppliers, but the move to an online invoicing and payment approach still required a bit of diplomacy. To woo suppliers to give up paper invoicing and enroll in the Xign order-to-pay network, Joe Selewicz, staff vice president and assistant controller, says the company is using the carrot rather than the stick.
"Our vendors can use the network to accelerate payments," he explains, adding that "it's not uncommon for vendors to call us near the end of a quarter or fiscal year and make us offers to accelerate payments. There's also a self-service aspect in that if vendors use the network, they can go into the system and check the status of payments."
Vendors weren't the only ones that had to be sold on the move as success also depended on internal adoption. "We had to put on our marketing hat and go out and sell it to the departments and the procurement organizations that would have to deal with the vendors and contracts," Selewicz says. Here again, the accounts payable group sold the benefit of letting internal users go into the system and check the status of payments at will, which has meant faster answers as well as a lot fewer phone calls to accounts payable.
Sensitivity about auditing and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance also helped convince internal customers to adopt a more automated approach, Selewicz says. "In the past, these invoices were going directly to the field and there was no visibility until they were processed," he says. "Now when an invoice comes over, we know it's in the system, we can quantify what has been received and we can make our auditors much happier about the accuracy of our accruals."
About the Author(s)
Executive Editor, Enterprise Apps
Doug Henschen is Executive Editor of InformationWeek, where he covers the intersection of enterprise applications with information management, business intelligence, big data and analytics. He previously served as editor in chief of Intelligent Enterprise, editor in chief of Transform Magazine, and Executive Editor at DM News. He has covered IT and data-driven marketing for more than 15 years.
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If you're in the market for a new Toyota, listen up, because the automaker has just announced pricing for 2014 models of two popular sedans: the Avalon and the Prius.
On the whole, prices for the Avalon will remain flat, with two significant exceptions.
- The base model XLE will edge up $350, bringing the MSRP to $31,340.
- The touring version of the XLE, will be reduced by $500, resulting in an MSRP of $33,000 even.
Prices for other Avalon trim levels won't change for 2014:
- Avalon XLE Premium -- $33,195
- Avalon Limited -- $39,650
- Avalon Hybrid XLE Premium -- $35,555
- Avalon Hybrid Limited -- $41,400
Prius shoppers can also breathe a sigh of relief, because all five variants of the popular Prius liftback -- the car that gave birth to the Prius c, Prius v, and Prius Plug-In Hybrid -- will remain the same for model-year 2014:
- Prius One -- $23,215
- Prius Two -- $24,200
- Prius Three -- $26,765
- Prius Four -- $28,435
- Prius Five -- $30,005
If you're looking for a bargain on the Prius, though, you might check out the Plug-In, since Toyota will cut prices on that model by $2,000 to $4,600 in 2014.
Don't expect these flatline prices to last: the current generation of the Prius is getting a bit long in the tooth, and it's due for a significant upgrade in the not-too-distant future. Rumors about the next-gen Prius have been swirling for months, and in August, a Toyota rep said that it could roll out as early as the 2015 model year. Stay tuned.


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JD Sports shares plummet as largest shareholder sells holdings worth 177m pounds
By Don-Alvin Adegeest
Dec 12, 2019
Shares in JD Sports plunged over 10 percent percent on Wednesday after majority shareholder Pentland reduced its stake in the fashion retailer worth 177 million pounds.
Pentland, which also owns sportswear brands such as Speedo and Berghaus, said it sold 24 million shares in JD Sports at 740p each.
“Pentland is committed to remaining a long-term majority shareholder in JD at the same time as growing our portfolio of sports, outdoor and fashion brands through organic investment and acquisitions,” Pentland chairman Stephen Rubin said in a statement.
Steve Miley, senior market analyst at asktraders.com told FashionUnited: “The market’s reaction has been acute to Pentaland’s offloading of 24 million shares, when the majority shareholder reduces their stake other shareholders sit up and listen.”
“However, you can’t ignore the fact that JD Sport has made impressive gains this year. Despite today’s sell off the stock is still up well over 100 percent across the year with a whopping 47 percent increase in H1 revenue. That is an impressive feat in normal terms but when you factor in that the challenges of the UK high street the gains made by JD Sport are even more commendable. This is a serious amount of profit taking but nothing more sinister. JD Sports still has its finger on the pulse.”
Images courtesy of JD Sports/Silverburn


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Toyota has announced details and pricing for two different versions of its popular green car the Prius, saying the company will make both a hybrid as well as a plug-in hybrid model of the new 2012 vehicle. According to data we recently covered, the Prius has been rolling out into the market fairly well, shipping over 9,000 units in August alone, and one million units total, making it one of the best-selling eco-friendly cars on the road.
Propelled by two electric motors, one 60 kilowatt unit to power the transaxle and another for battery regeneration, and coupled with a four cylinder, 1.8 liter enginge, the Prius Plug-In Hybrid, (seen below), has a total output of 134 horsepower. Equipped with a 4.4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery system, the car has an all-electric range of 15 miles when traveling at speeds under 62 miles per hour, and has an estimated fuel economy equivalent of 87 miles-per-gallon.
According to Toyota, the vehicle can be charged in under three hours using a standard outlet, and in under two hours using a 240 volt charging station, which the company has partnered with Leviton, who also works with Ford, to give Prius buyers the option for home installation at the time of purchase.
The automaker says online ordering will begin in October, with units delivered in the spring of 2012. We noted earlier this year that priority registration had opened for Oregon customers, but the plug-in Prius will also be available in select states, like California, as well before being released on the national level in 2013 with a base price of $32,000 and just under $40,000 for the premium edition.
The automobile manufacturer also announced that the standard version of the 2012 Prius (interior seen above), which has a combined fuel economy of 50 mpg and essentially the same powertrain as the plug-in hybrid model, will come in a variety of options, including one that features a solar panel roof and one that includes the racing style upgrade we reported about earlier this year.
Finally, Toyota has announced that the Prius v, a sporty model of the car with 58% more cargo room than the original, will begin to arrive in dealerships late in October with a base price of $26,400, and just under $30,000 for the premium edition. All of the vehicles announced are expected to quality for a federal tax credit estimated to be $2,500.


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An anonymous reader writes “Microsoft has announced that its Kinect motion-control system will be available for PCs in early 2012, and that they’re planning to take it into the business world as well. ‘Microsoft plans to launch a commercial program for the peripheral early next year, giving businesses the tools to develop customized applications for their companies and industries. The pilot program already includes such familiar names as Toyota, book publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and design firm Razorfish. All totaled, over 200 “marquis brand” companies in 25 countries have signed up for the program… And while the majority of those companies have opted to keep their names hidden for now for competitive reasons, Microsoft is working with them to get the applications up and running, so they can debut as soon as possible. Just don’t expect the Redmond-based company to do any first party apps for this program.'”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.


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The inability of many online services to keep their users' passwords secure from cybercriminals, combined with the inherent weaknesses of passwords as a means of authentication, are forcing governments and the IT industry to establish a viable, long-term replacement. The U.S. Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity hopes to see "no major breaches by 2021 in which identity -- especially the use of passwords -- is the primary vector of attack." This is an ambitious goal as 63% of all successful data breaches can be tracked back to inadequate passwords according to Verizon's 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, and it will require the development and broad adoption of identity authentication technologies. Until recently, the IT industry has struggled to bring about such technologies, but new developments such as the FIDO authentication standard have started to change that.
Usability and deployability are the reasons passwords have lasted so long, but requiring users to remember longer, more complex passwords isn't practical given that the average Briton in 2012 had over 25 online accounts, with 25-34-year olds having over 40, according to research done by Experian plc, the U.K. credit reference agency. Although strong authentication products have been around for years, concerns over cost, lack of interoperability, vendor lock-in, and inconvenience to users have prevented them from becoming widely deployed. Ideas such as using image recognition -- where users recognize pictures rather than enter passwords -- only offer minor security benefits over passwords, while those offering significant security benefits like iris recognition have usually been too costly to deploy or problematical to use.
To address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication technologies, leading companies such as PayPal, Lenovo and Nok Nok Labs formed the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance in July 2012 with the aim of defining a set of open standards and specifications for how multifactor authentication should work that balance security with usability, privacy and interoperability. Work done by Google, Yubico and NXP on an open standard for a strong second-factor device was incorporated into the FIDO Alliance in 2013 and version 1.0 of the FIDO standard was published at the end of 2014. So what is FIDO, how does it work, and can it remove our reliance on passwords?
FIDO is a device-centric model but is not designed for any specific type of authentication technology. It separates the authentication server from the specific authentication model. This means the authentication method or provider can be changed without impacting the application. It provides two ways to authenticate users: Passwordless UX, which uses the Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) protocol and Second Factor UX, which uses the Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) protocol (UX stands for "user experience"). In future versions, FIDO expects the two standards to further evolve and harmonize.
With Passwordless UX, users register their device with an online service by selecting a local authentication mechanism. This can be a biometric such as swiping a finger, taking a selfie or speaking into a microphone. Once registered, users repeat the process whenever they need to authenticate to the service, so no password is necessary. A service can also require multiple authentication mechanisms such as a biometric (for example, a fingerprint or voice scan) and knowledge (for example, a password or PIN). The presence of high quality cameras, microphones, and fingerprint readers in many of today's devices means it's now easier than ever to implement biometric authentication that establishes trust between two parties.
Second Factor UX involves using a password or PIN in conjunction with a FIDO-compliant hardware device to support two-factor authentication: knowledge of the PIN or password being the first factor, and ownership of the device being the second factor. The user is prompted to insert and touch their personal U2F device during login. The user's FIDO-enabled device creates a new key pair, and the public key is shared with the online service and associated with the user's account. The service can then authenticate the user by requesting that the registered device sign a challenge with the private key. Removable USB tokens are proving popular but other options include Trusted Platform Modules, embedded Secure Elements, smart cards, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Near Field Communication (NFC) chips. A hacker would need to steal both a user's credentials and their U2F device to compromise an account or application log-in.
FIDO UAF authentication credentials are never shared with an online service provider, only the public keys paired to the user's device. This removes the threat of a breach of a user's accounts or personal data if a service provider is compromised. Likewise, biometric measurements used in FIDO authentication never leave the user's device. There is also no information emitted by the device that can be used by different online services to collaborate and track a user across the Internet, even though the same device can be used to log in to any number of services.
FIDO is fast becoming the global de facto standard for authentication. The FIDO Alliance now has more than 250 members from across the world, including technology companies, device manufacturers, major banks and health firms, all major payment card networks, several governments and dozens of security and biometrics vendors. President Barack Obama's Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity report specifically noted the role the FIDO Alliance will play in achieving its goal. The U.K. government's new National Cyber Security Strategy also intends to invest in FIDO authentication.
Google Chrome was the first Web browser to implement support for Second Factor UX, but by early 2017 all the major browsers will provide support. For users, this means instead of typing in a six-digit passcode received via SMS to login to an online service, users can simply insert a FIDO-compliant USB key into their computer and tap it when asked to do so by the browser. Google analyzed its two-year deployment of U2F Security Keys and reported support costs had dropped. The keys replaced one-time passwords (OTP) as a means of authenticating its employees, which Google estimated has saved thousands of hours per year. There were also zero authentication failures, compared to a 3% failure rate for OTP-based authentications.
FIDO brings substantial gains to users and businesses, which explains its rapid adoption where other initiatives have failed to displace the password. As more users discover the advantages of being free from passwords and the added security FIDO authentication provides, online services left relying on passwords may well begin to lose out. If FIDO reduces the number of abandoned online and mobile shopping carts due to account login difficulties, retailers will easily recoup any costs involved in updating their sites to be FIDO compliant. PayPal, Alibaba, and Alipay all offer secure payments based on FIDO authentication and major cloud services such as Dropbox, GitHub, Dashlane, and Salesforce.com all now support U2F.
The forthcoming FIDO 2.0 features native platform support as well as device-to-device authentication using FIDO's public key cryptography, which should benefit many IoT devices. The Client-to-Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) should also be released in 2017. This will enable browsers and operating systems to talk to external authenticators like USB key fobs, NFC- and Bluetooth-enabled devices and remove the requirement for users to re-register on every device they use. There is also work on a standard for mobile wallet providers and payment application developers to support Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Methods (CDCVM) so on-device FIDO Certified authenticators such as fingerprint or selfie biometrics can be used to verify a user's presence when making an in-store or in-app mobile payment.
Over the years, cybercriminals have made huge profits due to the ineffectiveness of password-based authentication, but FIDO authentication makes credential theft far more difficult and expensive, without compromising convenience for security. Hopefully it will help end the role of the password as the primary authentication factor.
Find out more about multifactor authentication products
Learn the details behind the FIDO authentication framework
Read about how FIDO may mitigate password fatigue


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South African insuretech firm, Click2Sure, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from US-based tech venture fund, SixThirty. This makes it the first African company to receive investment from the fund.
Click2Sure, (founded in 2016 by Daniel Guasco and Jacques Van Niekerk), will channel the funds toward developing its product. It will also be used to onboard businesses onto its insurance digitization platform which promises to slash admin costs, receive real-time data, and offer further insights.
The firm’s co-founder, Daniel Guasco, said the investment would enable the startup to expand into new markets internationally.
Guasco said, “Another reason we are thrilled to have SixThirty onboard blue-chipGo-To-Market Summer programme, where we were introduced to key individuals, Executives and other Founders well placed in the US market within blue chip companies, to help us get a foot in the door, and mentor us on what the US market and stakeholders expect to see from a startup and technology partner.”
The US-based venture fund, SixThirty invests globally in early-stage Fintech, Insuretech, and cybersecurity tech-based companies. SixThirty was prompted to invest in Click2Sure due to the rapid movement towards digitisation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Click2Sure explains in a statement, “SixThirty’s investment in Click2Sure was motivated by a recognition of the surprisingly low penetration of digital distribution in the insurance industry. Along with the forced digitalisation ushered in by COVID-19, SixThirty found Click2Sure’s exclusive focus as an enabler of digital distribution a key differentiator that can help it scale into new sectors and markets.”
Guasco explains, “Click2Sure doesn’t sell insurance. We provide our clients who sell insurance with a comprehensive cloud-based, a digital platform for the distribution, management, and purchasing of insurance at the point of sale.”
The platform helps users save time spent on filing or undertaking insurance or policy applications. Click2Sure also enables insurers to speed up the process of marketing new products developed and increase their revenue streams.
Platform users are able to purchase insurance via their preferred digital channel, some of which include; WhatsApp, SMS, eCommerce, and QR Codes. Customers of insurers can then access immediate insurance cover on their purchased goods or asset via an easy-to-use mobile app.
Guasco adds, “Digitisation has many benefits for consumers; being able to use digital channels increases accessibility for the under- and uninsured, enables customisation of insurance cover, and assists customers in getting the most affordable insurance cover.”


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New Delhi: Retail inflation increased to a three-month high of 4.81% in June, primarily on account of increasing rates of veggies and pulses, information launched by the federal government on Wednesday, July 12 revealed.
In March, the Consumer Price Index-based inflation was tape-recorded at 5.66%.
According to the information launched by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the inflation in the food basket was at 4.49% in June, greater than 2.96% in May. The food basket represent almost half of the CPI.
According to CNBCTV-18, rural inflation increased to 4.72%, up from 4.17% in May, while city inflation increased to 4.96% from 4.27% in the exact same duration.
Aditi Nayar, primary financial expert and head– research study and outreach, ICRA, informed PTI that the spike in veggie costs is set to press the CPI inflation to an uneasy 5.3-5.5% in July.
“We anticipate the veggie cost shock to lead to the Q2 FY2024 CPI inflation going beyond the (RBI's) Monetary Policy Committee's last projection of 5.2%,” she informed the news firm.
“Accordingly, we prepare for that the [RBI] committee will maintain its hawkish tone in August 2023, keep the repo rate the same and signal that a pivot to rate cuts stays remote,” she stated.
Suvodeep Rakshit, senior financial expert at Kotak Institutional Equities, informed CNBCTV-18 that the June CPI inflation of 4.8% surpassed expectations somewhat due to a rise in veggie costs, accompanied by a modest boost in pulses rates.
“This pattern in veggie costs continued in July too. Core inflation was broadly the same at 5.1% however will likely moderate over the next couple of months. In general, we see upside dangers to CPI inflation over the next couple of months as monsoon-related dangers on food rates play out,” he stated.
Narinder Wadhwa, nationwide president of Commodity Participants Association of India, informed the news firm: “It [the rise in food prices] might be affected by numerous elements such as modifications in demand-supply characteristics, variations in international product costs, federal government policies, or other financial elements. The increase in inflation is greater than street's expectations.”


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The European Union’s data protection tzar has committed to staying on the job for until October 2014 ending uncertainty after no suitable replacement could be found.
Google, through its plan to link Gmail addresses to its Google+ social network, is violating a privacy agreement the company made with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a long-time critic of the company's privacy practices said in a complaint to the...
An international think tank launched at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday with the goal of influencing the future governance of the Internet.
Twelve U.S. companies, including Internet service provider Level 3 Communications and BitTorrent, the company behind the popular peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol, have agreed to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that they falsely claimed...
The way to get Google to comply with data privacy laws is to hit the company where it hurts: its bank balance, the European Union's Justice Commissioner said Monday.
A six-month deadline extension could be enough to keep Germany's electronics payment system running, new German Central Bank figures on SEPA payment adoption showed Monday.
Like a nearby cellphone user with an annoying way of saying, "Helllloooo!" recently confirmed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has already hit a nerve.
Apple will pay at least US$32.5 million to customers in a settlement over a U.S. Federal Trade Commission complaint that the company allowed children to run up huge in-app purchases on the company's devices.
Google has lodged an appeal against the €150,000 (US$205,000) fine imposed by the French privacy watchdog, a company spokesman said Tuesday.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges have said the creation of a privacy advocate in the secret court could be counterproductive and hamper its work.
A U.S. appeals court has struck down the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules.
European Internet users could risk being charged extra money for accessing online services like Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Skype and Whatsapp if a European draft regulation on net neutrality isn't amended before March, European civil rights groups...
The former Director General of the World Trade Organization is to head up a new group looking at the future use of TV broadcast spectrum across the European Union.
Many electronic payments will fail in Europe next month, unless the deadline for switching to the new SEPA payment system is extended, the European Commission warned Thursday.
Keeping the Internet open is a high priority for the FCC -- so high that the agency will closely monitor the sponsored content program that AT&T announced this week for its mobile data network.
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text: A Slice Of History June 29, 2018 | News | 2 Mins Fleischmann’s Yeast sponsors Sliced Bread Day in Missouri Festivities in Chillicothe, Missouri, celebrate the invention of sliced bread.AB Mauri North America, a leader in yeast and bakery ingredient solutions and the owner of the iconic Fleischmann’s Yeast brand, is sponsoring Sliced Bread Day in Chillicothe, Missouri, taking place on Saturday, July 7, 2018.Ninety years earlier, on July 6, 1928, The Chillicothe Baking Company was the first commercial bakery in the United States to offer machine-sliced bread for sale, marking a milestone in the baking industry. The machine used to cut the bread was the Rohwedder Bread Slicer, named after its inventor, Otto Rohwedder. At the time, many bakers believed slicing loaves prior to sale would cause them to lose freshness.“We take sliced bread for granted but this was a huge leap forward for bakers in the early 20th century. Any way you slice it, this is a part of American and baking history, and we’re proud to lend our support.”Rick Oleshak, vice president of marketing, AB Mauri North AmericaA full day of activities is planned to mark the 90th anniversary starting with a French toast breakfast, followed by a 5K run. In addition to a parade through the city center, a bread-baking contest, historic preservation display and live music performances are planned. The celebration culminates with a firework display in Simpson Park. A full list of activities can be found at www.visitchillicothe.com.“It is exciting to celebrate the 90th anniversary of sliced bread in our local Chillicothe community, and this year’s lineup of activities is better than ever,” said Amy Supple, director, Visit Chillicothe. “We’re especially thrilled to add such a recognizable and relevant brand like Fleischmann’s Yeast to the mix since we both have strong roots here in Missouri.”The Fleischmann’s Yeast brand is the oldest baker’s yeast company and the first standardized commercial yeast in the U.S. Introduced in 1868 by enterprising Austrian brewer, Charles Fleischmann, and his brother, Maximilian. Fleischmann’s Yeast is now part of AB Mauri’s portfolio of products, and 2018 mark’s the brand’s 150th anniversary.


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Stockmann to close outlets, dump mail order firm in major reshuffle -
2014-10-02 10:44:52 GMT
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"The Finnish retailer Stockmann has announced restructuring plans that will see the closure of 16 retail outlets in Russia by next year and the sale of its mail order firm Hobby Hall. The retailer has been battered by the protracted economic slump, particularly in Russia."
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Adobe cooperates with Apple and other companies tech to say goodbye to Flash Player by 2020
Despite a long list of disadvantages and the advent of technologies certainly better, Adobe Flash Player continues to resist. But be careful, the situation is bound to change, as Adobe today announced that it will put the word “end” in the plug-in by the end of 2020.
Adobe has said that she has started a cooperation with the companies, Apple and Google included, to prepare the ground for the imminent goodbye of Flash: "given the progress, and in collaboration with several of our partner tech – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla – Adobe has scheduled the end of Flash. Precisely, we will stop to update and deploy the Flash Player by the end of 2020 and invoglieremo content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to new formats".
As part of the announcement, Apple has shared this press release with this blog, WebKit: "Apple is working with Adobe, industry partners and developers to complete this transition. Apple users browse the web without Flash for quite some time. iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have ever supported Flash. For the Mac, the transition from Flash began in 2010, when Flash was not pre-installed. Today, if the users could install the Flash, the Flash would be turned off by default. Safari requires permits precise on each and every web site before you run the Flash plug-in".
As noted by Apple, the goodbye to Flash Player will have no consequence on the iOS devices, since the plug-in has never been supported. In this regard, it is interesting to recall the words of Steve Jobs: "The huge amount of multimedia content providers to offer for Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or for any other type of web content. And the 250,000 apps on Apple's App Store prove that Flash is not necessary for many developers to create applications that are graphically rich, games included. New open standards created in the era of the mobile, such as HTML5, will dominate on mobile devices (and also PC). Also Adobe should focus more on creating great tools HTLM5 for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for having left the past behind".
Via | 9to5Mac
The article Adobe cooperates with Apple and other companies tech to say goodbye to Flash Player by 2020 comes from iSpazio.


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Sun Microsystems on Tuesday offered a processor bump for its Sun Fire V480 server family. The company is now shipping its new 1.2GHz UltraSparc III processor in the high end four-way V480 model, Sun said.
The V480 comes in three configurations: a two-processor machine with 4G bytes of memory, a four-processor system with 8G bytes of memory, and a four-processor system with 16G bytes of memory. The faster processor will be available only in the 16G-byte system, said Kathy Pries, Sun's group marketing manager for volume system products. Pricing for that system remains unchanged at US$26,000.
The company has no current plans to upgrade its two other V480s, which will continue to ship with 1.05GHz processors, Pries said.
"At some point we'll probably start migrating to the 1.2 (GHz processor) in the other configurations, but at this point we think it's most advantageous to customers who need that large memory configuration," she said.


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Geely is primed to add to recent sales gains in the Chinese market by adding the Haoyue, an SUV around the same size as the Hyundai Santa Fe, to its line-up. Exports are planned.
There are both five and seven-seat layouts for the 4,835 mm long Haoyue while engine choice is between turbocharged 130 kW and 255 Nm 1.5-litre three-cylinder and 135 kW and 300 Nm 1.8-litre four-cylinder units. A seven-speed dual clutch transmission features.
No plant has been named, and just-auto.com has contacted the company seeking the identity of this as well as the architecture. That could be Volvo Cars’ SPA or CMA.
Q2 sales surge, and for Geely in particular?
China Passenger Car Association claimed recently that retail sales had improved markedly from the second week of April. Official data is awaited but ten days ago CPCA said deliveries were down by only 12 per cent year-on-year during the first 12 days of this month.
If the brand has been able to maintain the momentum it built up before sales took a dive, Geely may emerge as one of the big winners of the post-COVID period in China. Certainly dealers are well placed for new models and several production plants were restarted earlier than those of some rivals.
The company also has much goodwill behind it, some of that stemming from An Conghui’s 30 March statement that no employee would be fired or suffer a pay cut. Geely’s CEO made the claim as he reported Group financials for 2019 via an online presentation.
Also as at one month ago, Geely Automobile Holdings’ chief executive said he sees combined sales for CY2020 rising by 3.5 per cent to 1.41 million vehicles.
As at the end of March, retail sales for Geely passenger vehicles in China tallied 188,546 giving it third place ahead of Nissan (166,585) with only Toyota (217,024) and of course Volkswagen (398,316) ahead. The brand also ended last month in the same position, with Nissan close behind (Geely: 58,946, -25% versus Nissan: 58,686, -31%). In Q1 2019, Geely had been down in fifth behind Nissan and Honda.
Other Geely models due to arrive this year include the Emgrand GL PHEV as well as a C segment fastback sedan based on the Preface concept from April 2019’s AutoShanghai. The Icon is also newly launched and should perform well over the remainder of 2020. Production of this 4,350 mm long crossover commenced in February and was being ramped up during March and April.


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Strolling between the tables at a local farmers’ market, you may notice that those big, beautiful organic tomatoes—not the heirloom varieties that are fluted like hoopskirts or sport exciting stripes, but basic tomatoes—cost as much as or more than the organic tomatoes at Stop and Shop, even in midsummer. Organic kale and big bunches of tasty organic collards may be going for about the same price as the organic kale and collards at the mainstream supermarket, maybe a little less, maybe a little more.
And there are dandelion greens, a cook’s dream if your family likes the gamey but adaptable leaves. These are five times larger and no doubt more robust than the ones that pop up uninvited in your lawn, to be sure—but do the greens from a weed that’s unstoppable even growing wild really have to cost $2.59 a bunch?
You know you’re at the farmers’ market because buying local produce, especially locally grown organic produce, is a cause you believe in. It keeps you healthier. It keeps soil healthier. It keeps pollutants out of the groundwater. It makes the area less dependent on food that has to be trucked from far away; after all, a lot of that organic fruit and veg at the supermarkets has to travel from California, some even from foreign countries.
But why isn’t proximity giving you a price break?
Why aren’t the savings on expensive chemical fertilizers that aren’t used by organic farmers, and that aren’t used much even by non-organic-certified local farmers, giving you a price break?
Why isn’t the lack of an elaborate retail structure like the ones the mainstream supermarkets have to maintain—the removal of the entrepreneurial hand reaching into the farm basket for its share of the profits—giving you a price break?
Then you notice the busker who’s playing to add atmosphere to the market as people wearing uncharacteristic straw hats and faux country outfits circle between the tables buying artisanal pastries and other novelty items, and a skeptical thought takes root.
Is there such a thing as organic gourmet chic?
And am I paying for it?
To help answer these questions, the Advocate spoke with Margaret Christie, special projects director and past executive director of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, an organization whose mission is to build connections between farmers and the community.
“This is a complicated question,” said Christie, who was not offended when we raised the issue. “It gets us into a lot of bigger questions about what our food system looks like and how much of our income we expect to spend on food.
“First, I think it is not always the case that it’s more expensive at the farmers’ market. Prices vary from market to market. They vary from point to point in the season. Tomatoes—at the height of tomato season, when everybody has a lot of great tomatoes, the price is going to be lower. When the winter squash is all rotting in the field and only a few people have it, possibly the price will be a little bit higher.
“It can feel like you’re comparing tomato with tomato, but the products [in the supermarket] may have come a long way,” she pointed out. “The variety may have been chosen to ship well rather than because it tastes great.
“I just got [the price question] in reverse,” she added. “A student came in and said, ‘How come the broccoli at the Greenfield Farmers’ Market is so much less than the broccoli at Big Y?'”
Christie acknowledged that people trying to buy organic and local on a modest income may have to develop special purchasing strategies. “When we talk to people about how to buy local or local and organic on a budget, we say, pay attention to the time, to the season, talk to [the vendor] about buying in bulk if that would work for you,” she explained.
It’s well known that organic farms are labor-intensive, and consumers expect to pay for that. But conventional farmers complain that chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and the special seeds that can survive doses of pesticides are expensive as well. Organic farms don’t use those inputs, so what happens to the savings that should result, the Advocate asked Christie. She noted that labor is, after all, “the biggest input in terms of cost.” (That includes, she explained, the price of labor to promote and sell produce: “It’s certainly true that it costs money to stand at the farmers’ markets and sell your products.”)
And it’s an oversimplification to think that organic farmers use no other inputs, she pointed out. “Though they may not buy [chemical] fertilizer, they’re often buying compost, and they may be buying organic fertilizer,” she said, adding that they’re buying it without the economics of scale: “Smaller, more diversified local farms don’t see some of the advantage in input costs of larger farms out west.”
Perhaps the most complicated issue we brought up had to do with why produce trucked from Amherst, South Deerfield, Hampden County and other points seldom more than 30 miles from the market weren’t noticeably cheaper than fruits and vegetables from Florida, California and even farther away. Said Christie, “Transportation and the cost of moving items around the globe is so out of whack that the true cost of moving an item thousands of miles is not reflected in the price. I don’t think there is a direct correlation between how far something travels and how much it costs.”
She’s right, according to Lars Perner, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California, and other experts who have dealt with the question of when fuel costs start to affect the prices consumers pay for transported products. Perner points to the economics of scale, which are powerful in the shipping business. And the costs of shipping have many variables: when fuel prices rise, the shippers, growers and retailers may accept a certain margin of loss to prevent the market at the consumer end from shrinking due to high prices; shippers are always developing lighter packaging and new fuel economies; and in short, while there have been food price fluctuations due to increased fuel costs, the catastrophic fuel-related rises in food costs predicted by many advocates of regional food self-sufficiency aren’t upon us yet, though there’s good reason to believe they will come.
And delivering relatively small amounts of produce within an area like the Valley—not just to farmers’ markets, but to restaurants, stores and coops—isn’t without costs to farms that aren’t making profits on the scale of the big southern and western growers, including the large organic growers.
“Several years ago, when the price of gas was high,” Christie recalled, “I had a farmer tell me a story of delivering produce to a restaurant. As he was leaving, the person who was receiving said, ‘Aren’t you going to add a freight charge?’ The grower said to me, ‘I had never heard of that, but maybe if the price of gas stays high, we will be able to see some cost differential because of our proximity to our buyers.'”
Economies of scale and the competition between very large growers—as well as competition between large shippers, and between retailers—can create a situation that skews the real price of food, because any or all of those parties may take losses on one commodity that they make up on another. The supermarket chain, for example, may take a few cents off the price of an organic vegetable and make it up on some other product, even a nonfood product: dishwashing detergent, paper towels. The local farmer, selling nothing but a relatively few varieties of fruits and vegetables, can’t juggle the prices of thousands of items in order to offer targeted reductions.
Christie put it this way: “Often the real costs of producing food are more directly reflected in the food we buy from local growers than in the food we buy from large growers far away.”
Then, too, as most purchasers of local produce realize, you’re paying for intangibles when you buy directly from growers. “You’re not only buying good food for your family,” said Christie, “but you’re supporting local agriculture, you’re supporting rural life in open spaces, you’re preserving our vistas.”
And you may be paying for extra nutrition at a food bank or school. “Our farmers donate a lot of food,” said Christie, “and farmers’ market growers are a very important example. If in the last hour you have two carrots left in a bin, people don’t want to buy the last two carrots. People bring more than they’re going to sell, and very often they donate it to food pantries and other organizations.”
Christie was good-humored in her response to the question of whether a certain chic has attached itself to farmers’ markets and is stealing pennies—or dollars—from customers’ pockets.
“It largely comes down to your choice,” she said. “Are you buying the strawberry-rhubarb popsicle, or are you sticking to the basics?”
Christie pointed out that some local growers and farmers’ market organizers donate time for the accounting work required to sell produce to people who use food stamps. To help the cause of making locally grown produce available to people with financial constraints, she suggested that consumers can make sure their local farmers’ market takes food stamps, and even volunteer to help with the administrative tasks that entails.
“The big questions are, if we want our food to be grown in a different way, maybe we have to expect to pay a higher percentage of our income on food,” Christie said. “But it’s one thing for a person with a good job to shift how much they pay. If you don’t have enough money to begin with, you can’t pay more for food.”
Vegetables Get HIP
This fall, a pilot program called the Healthy Incentives Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will give 7,500 randomly selected households in the Springfield area that use food stamps a chance to get a big discount—and provide the government with information about whether having easier access to fresh fruits and vegetables makes a difference in people’s eating habits.
For every dollar those participating spend on fresh fruits and vegetables, including what they spend at farmers’ markets that can process EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards, 30 cents will be added to the participants’ benefit balances on the card; that adds up to a discount of almost a third of the price of the produce.
CISA special projects director Margaret Christie is enthusiastic about the program. “The idea is that if this helps change how people eat,” said Christie, “they might change the national food stamp program. They might incorporate something like this.” It’s refreshing, she added, to have a federal program that favors healthy food and smaller growing operations: “Since many of our food programs are encouraging corn syrup, let them encourage vegetables!”


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Following through on a commitment made at VidCon over the summer, Facebook on Thursday, November 16, released a new app for video creators to help them build and manage their communities.
So if you use the platform way beyond simply posting what you get up to on the weekend, and are steadily building an audience via video content, the new Creator app will be of interest.
Facebook’s two-pronged initiative offers an app to assist creators in managing their presence on the platform, and a central destination on the web where they can get the resources they require to enhance their offering and expand their audience.
The social networking giant describes its new Creator app as “a one-stop shop for creators of all kinds, to help take their passions to the next level.” It also looks like an effort to attract more YouTube creators to its platform.
“With the app, creators can easily create original video, go live with exclusive features, and connect with their community on Facebook — all from their pocket.”
Confident you have dazzling content that can entertain or inform? Then the new tools promise to “make it easy to create live broadcasts with a personalized and fun feel,” according to Facebook.
You can use the app to easily add sequences to open and close your live broadcasts, and offer custom live stickers that the audience can use to interact. Graphic frames can also be utilized to help you create a consistent brand.
The community tab lets you connect with fans and collaborators, and comes with a unified inbox that brings together any comments from Facebook and and Facebook-owned Instagram, as well as messages from
You can also make use of “fun” camera effects to jazz up your videos, and crossposting content to other platforms is made simple.
Of course, putting in all that effort, you’ll want to know how it’s all going down with your followers. That’s where Insights comes in, which gives you quick and easy access to data about your Page, videos, and fans.
The company has also built a new website for creators. This offers a bunch of useful resources and ideas on how to make compelling video content and sell it to your audience. This is the place to go for tips and inspiration, Facebook said.
Its latest effort targeting creators aims to enhance and expand the company’s ongoing video-focused efforts. Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that over the next three years, “the biggest trend in our products will be the growth of video.” The Zuck added that “when done well, video brings us closer together … We want the time people spend on
Facebook said on Thursday that it’s “just getting started,” with this latest initiative, and promises “to work collaboratively with creators to make their experience on Facebook even better.”
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We’ve already seen the BMW M5 testing and taking a pit stop at a rest area, but ow we have actual footage of the M5 as it whips around the track at the Nurburgring. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if the sports sedan wasn’t rumored to be the most memorable M5 to date. Yeah, supposedly, it’s that good.
The first "M5 Concept" version will be showcased at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show and will be a near production identical version of the car set to make its world debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. Deliveries in Europe will begin in November 2011, while US customers will get it in the spring of 2012.
The car will put out 25% less C02 than the current model and will feature a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 that will put out around 555 HP which will make it more powerful than the old version. The chassis will likely be aluminum and there should be loads of carbon fiber parts. The new M5 will also get an electronically controlled limited slip differential and Dynamic Performance Control.


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Changes to Bundle Contents
August 11, 2021
Wizards of the Coast released detailed product line information for Magic: The Gathering- Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.
Nine New 'Secret Lair' Sets
August 25, 2021
Wizards of the Coast has launched the Magic: The Gathering Out of Time Superdrop, which includes four foil and five non-foil sets.
By Sculpted by XM Studios; Also, Queen of Mercia Mox-Inspired Jewelry
September 21, 2021
Gen Con 2021 News: Gatherers' Tavern unveiled Magic: The Gathering statues and mox-inspired jewelry for release into retail in Q4.
Created for Collectability, Will They Impact Gameplay, With Risks for the Brand?
December 9, 2021
Increasing the number of variant styles per individual card may have the potential to cause gameplay issues down the road, with risks for the brand.
On TCGplayer's Top 25 Sealed TCG Products Chart for December 2021
January 6, 2022
TCGplayer unveiled their December sales data for sealed TCG products and its price changes. This new data wraps up 2021 as well as reiterates some of the continuing trends happening in the TCG market into the new year.
One of the Four Decks Includes Three Banned Cards
February 9, 2022
Wizards of the Coast revealed the decklists for Magic: The Gathering Challenger Decks 2022, pre-constructed competitive Standard decks.
Wizards of the Coast Updates 'Magic: The Gathering - Streets of New Capenna' Release and Event Timelines
Prerelease Dates, Commander Nights, Store Championships, and More!
March 1, 2022
Wizards of the Coast updated the release and event timelines for Magic: The Gathering - Streets of New Capenna.
On the TCGplayer Top 25 Sealed TCG Products Chart for March 2022
April 7, 2022
TCGplayer released its March 2022 data for sealed TCG products sold on their site as well as the price shifts for these products. This newly released data may have indicated a few trends forming in the TCG market.
Pack Contents, Rarity Info, and More
May 25, 2022
Wizards of the Coast unveiled more product line details for Double Masters 2022, a new Magic: The Gathering premium set.
New Booster Set Showcases the Battles Between Mishra and Urza
August 26, 2022
Wizards of the Coast revealed product line details for The Brothers War, a new Magic: The Gathering Standard set.


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HTC expand Android and Windows Phone 7 handset offerings
UK release dates for the HTC 7 Pro and the HTC Gratia have officially been revealed with both devices to be made available to the British public next month.
Although precise arrival dates for the two upcoming handsets are currently unknown, HTC has announced that the Windows Phone 7 powered HTC 7 Pro and the Android 2.2 run HTC Gratia will finally land in the UK this February.
Previously scheduled for a pre-Christmas 2010 arrival the HTC 7 Pro is the third Windows Phone 7 handset to touch down from the Taiwanese manufacturer following the OS launch day arrival of the HTC HD7 and the HTC Mozart 7. Featuring 16GB of in-built storage, a 5-megapixel snapper with 720p HD video recording capabilities and the Phone 7 required 1GHz processor, the HTC 7 Pro will be the first device sporting the latest Microsoft mobile OS to host a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Also a long known about device the HTC Gratia was originally unveiled back in October as the company’s European remake of the Stateside specific HTC Aria. Sporting a 3.2-inch touchscreen and a HTC 7 Pro reminiscent 5-megapixel camera, the Gratia will come equipped with HTC’s popular Android specific Sense UI.
Confirmed network carriers and standalone SIM-free pricing for both devices has yet to be announced. Stay tuned to T3.com and the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds for all the latest on the upcoming HTC releases.


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Microsoft has revealed a batch of new software titles for the Xbox 360 during its keynote session at the Tokyo Game Show today, naming the Halo project recently revealed by Bungie.
Halo 3 Recon is dated for autumn 2009, and sees the return of Microsoft's number one franchise to the Xbox 360 system with new single and multiplayer content.
The latest big name franchise to make the leap to Microsoft's console is Tekken 6 from Namco Bandai, also due next autumn.
Tekken follows Final Fantasy as a franchise previously associated with Sony's PlayStation brand and highlights the recent trend for Japanese developers to go multiformat with releases.
A sequel to the Q Entertainment title Ninety Nine Nights is also due for the system, along with a handful of new Xbox Live titles including Metal Slug 7 and King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match from SNK Playmore.


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Why BUY NOW, PAY LATER is the new playground for fraudsters
When you go shopping today, there is hardly an outlet that accepts cash payments. Digital disruptions, from credit cards to online banking and more recently the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and a younger generation of customers, the traditional modes of payment are declining. A popular mode that has emerged from this disruption is “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL); a short-term financing solution that has been a boon for shoppers and merchants across the retail and e-commerce industry. This facility gives consumers with financial difficulties the luxury to purchase products and make interest-free payments on a future date.
Why BNPL is winning over the consumers
So, what does BNPL essentially offer?
- Pay within 30 days,
- Pay in 3-6 Installments, or
- Split the cost for a longer duration but with low interest rates
This is slightly different from the other digital payment modes, such as credit cards, as it is easier to execute, affordable with no or lower additional cost due to reduced interest, offers instant approvals, and requires lesser checks such as credit score. Many popular brands have accepted this format of payment, including Adidas, Airbnb, Amazon, Expedia, Instacart, H&M, and GameStop.
Post the pandemic BNPL saw a meteoric rise as the preferred mode of payment, especially in the bracket of low-income consumers who may not be eligible for credit cards due to a poor credit score. As per a recent survey done by The Ascent, about 27% more customers in the US favoured BNPL in 2021 than in 2020. In fact, a study by Research and Markets suggests that BNPL is expected to reach $ 443 Bn by 2028 in the US. With BNPL, users believe that they are empowered to purchase products that they considered outside their stipulated budget.
It’s no secret that providers are capitalizing on the younger generation who prefer alternative payment methods, to the traditional modes. This could be the main driver of growth in the BNPL segment. The popularity of BNPL among younger shoppers can be attributed to the ease of use, adequate time to make full payment, along with the use of developing technology like AI and Machine Learning.
BNPL is on the rise and is anticipated to become a universal mode of payment in the coming years. Having said that, scaling up BNPL to this level comes with its own challenges, as is the case with any technology. A glaring loophole for fraudsters is BNPL’s facility to purchase a product without having to pay anything for a month, a factor that can be highly exploited.
The lurking threat of fraud in BNPL
With the easy access and availability of leaked personal credentials on the dark web, fraudsters can target multiple innocent profiles for their malicious use. Another major fraud is synthetic identity theft, wherein the imposter can steal real identities and combine them with falsified information to create hard-to-detect synthetic accounts. For example, a fraudster can take over an account with stolen credentials or create a synthetic profile. Using this disguise, they order various goods to be shipped to different locations and for which they obviously have no intention of paying. To cleverly maneuver payment, the fraudster can pick the BNPL option from the payment gateway. This can lead to multiple chargebacks and bad debts for the merchants.
Apart from this scenario, false chargebacks may also stem from fake merchants. The gap between the BNPL providers and the merchants’ systems is a serious area of concern. With little visibility and experience when it comes to BNPL fraud if merchants do not tackle this area seriously by drawing a well-defined fraud methodology, they are paving the way for bigger losses.
There has been an increase in triangulation fraud, refund abuse, and friendly fraud which are common in the BNPL space. Unfortunately, new account abuse, fraudulent chargebacks, transaction laundering, never-pays fraud, and trojan-horse fraud are a few of the other kinds of fraud that now plague the BNPL market. Furthermore, including BNPL, a massive estimated loss of $206 Bn is expected by 2025 due to online payment fraud.
Now, various companies deploy several measures to mitigate these fraudulent transactions. Companies across the BNPL ecosystem need to implement special defenses against such attacks. It is crucial that Data Science, Machine Learning, and other technical tools be used to fight and reduce such fraud. There are other measures as well that retail and e-commerce companies can adopt, such as anti-money laundering checks, identity validation, device and IP evaluations, consumer behavior analysis, link analysis, anomaly detection, and fraud screening by manual investigations.
We can only expect online payment fraud to get worse before it gets better in the coming years. With the growing demand for BNPL, there lies the possibility of the evolution of different kinds of fraud. Organisations, along with their risk management teams, should be armed with adequate tools and technologies, Fraud management solutionsand strategic plans of action to defend the business without sacrificing customer experience.


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On the money: Steady as she goes at Cloetta
Emerging economies offer potential rewards but Cloetta's strategy more focused on existing markets
The company behind brands like Chewits, Sportlife and Sperlari today (18 July) reported its second-quarter results and highlighted a fourth consecutive quarter of sales growth.
Baron said Cloetta, which has booked a slew of restructuring charges as it integrated Leaf, was seeing its profitability move "in the right direction".
The numbers appear, in the main, encouraging. Sales and operating profit were up in the quarter. Both were helped by factors like foreign exchange or the continued reduction in restructuring costs, but organic sales were up and underlying EBIT showed improvement.
Over the first six months of the year, Cloetta did file a net loss of SEK3m amid higher finance costs. However, Baron was positive about Cloetta's performance. "We are executing in line with the laid out strategy. The factory restructurings are virtually completed, organic sales are growing and we have been able to make complementary acquisitions to further boost the growth rate."
Those acquisitions have been vital. Cloetta's products are available in 40 countries but it generates the majority of its sales in markets in western and northern Europe - markets where growth is hard to come by.
In its second-quarter results statement, Cloetta again indicated the challenging conditions it was facing. "The market for confectionery has predominantly been flat-to-slightly negative in our markets, except Sweden, where the market was positive." Finland "continued to be weak". The Netherlands fell back after growing in the first quarter. Italy is still tough.
In short, Cloetta is a company doing business in markets where growth is weak at best and where it is a battle to retain market share. It has had to turn to M&A to bolster its top line.
Since the merger with Leaf, Cloetta has made three acquisitions: UK free-from candy maker Goody Good Stuff, snack nuts firm Nutisal; and, this May, Ireland's Aran Candy, the group behind The Jelly Bean Factory.
Speaking after the results were announced, Baron told just-food Cloetta was ready to make more acquisitions. "We're looking for interesting propositions that complement our portfolio, whether it's within existing segments like Goody Good Stuff or Jelly Bean Factory or whether its complementary like Nutisal was," he said.
Moving into areas like free-from could potentially be astute, with the growing demand for more natural confectionery. Acquiring Nutisal was a wise move given, as Danske Bank analyst Mikael Holm says, Cloetta was likely losing shelf space to the snack nuts segment. Jelly Bean gives Cloetta a stronger presence in the UK.
However, analysing the business, one is left wondering whether emerging markets are - and should be - on the radar. Baron says they are and insists Cloetta would look at the opportunites that arose but underlined the difficulty of building a presence in developing economies. M&A, he said, was more likely to come again in the company's existing, developed markets.
"It's not as easy getting into the emerging markets and I think a lot of our colleagues in the industry are finding that," Baron said.
Cloetta is, then, a business facing a long-term growth trajectory that looks pretty slow at best, unless it continues to make acquisitions in niche segments in local markets. One could say Cloetta needs to be more bold but Holm, while acknowledging there could be a "growth problem" for company, believes it is not the right time to go for major deals. Cloetta, he says, has other attributes for investors.
"They don't have the financial power in the next couple of years to make large acquisitions," he says. "If you look at emerging markets, you do have to buy something to really get a presence, otherwise you do need to rely on others selling your products and that's obviously a risk. There will be a growth problem but I don't think it's a good idea to expand at the wrong price. If you look at the sector, its valuation is at an all-time high."
He adds: "I think of Cloetta more as value creation through its stable annual cash flow."
As the dust settles after Cloetta's merger with Leaf, the company does face a battle eking out growth in its key markets. However, it has set its sights on small, bolt-on deals in niche categories, rather than pushing the boat out and setting sail for growth in emerging markets.
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Mexico's Walmex says July same-store sells drop 3.1 pct
MEXICO CITY Aug 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's biggest retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico said Monday that sales at its Mexican stores open at least a year fell 3.1 pct in July compared to the same month last year.
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- Analysis: Lost Brazil order raises threat to Boeing fighter jets


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Microsoft has just announced that trackpad gestures are getting a makeover in Windows 10. Sure, you’ve been able to tap and swipe with Windows before, but some of the more advanced gestures we’ve seen in Mac OS X are now making their way into Microsoft’s extremely popular operating system.
From the A6 SoC to multitouch displays to Siri, Apple has relied heavily on acquired technology to build the iPhone, iPad, and iOS. It’s important to remember that purchases like these help make Apple what it is, and even the best engineers in the world need some fresh ideas from time to time.
I know what you’re thinking: It’s what you’ve always wanted — a PC peripheral that’s shaped like a handheld massager or body hair removal tool. Questionable industrial design aside, what you’re actually looking at is the Asus VivoMouse, the “world’s first” mouse with built-in touchpad.
What if we could make a keyboard that actually pops out of the screen, and which can be depressed as we type? Strategic Polymers claims it will bring a product to market next year that can do just that, pop up keys that actually click when clicked, and that do so with a ground-breaking millisecond response time.
3D gesture sensing continues to get more powerful and less expensive. GestIC further cuts the cost and power requirements by eliminating the need for a camera. Now gestures can be built into almost any flat surface.
Windows 8 is an odd, discombobulated beast of an operating system that suffers from an identity crisis of the most severe degree. The good news, though — if you’re a tablet user, anyway — is that the touch/mouse-and-keyboard schism is much more evident on desktops. In fact, if it wasn’t for a few niggling issues that should’ve been sorted out by now, I would even say that Windows 8 is a fantastic tablet operating system.
Windows RT is a version of Windows 8 targeted at ARM-powered computers. It utilizes the WinRT APIs and can run apps from the Windows Store, sync data with your other Windows devices, and fills in the tablet gap to complete Microsoft’s one platform to rule them all offering (from Windows Phone 8 to servers). It is a massive leap forward in embracing touch controls, and is Microsoft’s best tablet OS so far.
Dozens of alternative input devices are announced every year, with most of them fading away into obscurity. The Leap promises to be the exception if the company can delivery on some of the most impressive demos we’ve seen this year.
It seems Minority Report-style computer interfaces might arrive a whole lot sooner than we expected: The Leap, creates an 8-cubic-feet bubble of “interaction space,” which detects your hand gestures down to an accuracy of 0.01 millimeters — about 200 times more accurate than Microsoft Kinect.
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Feb 17 Posted 4 years ago
The really interesting thing to see is what happens if Facebook makes tackling search a priority.
Google has a fraction of the social data that Facebook has.
It will be interesting to see if Facebook ever chooses to compete with Facebook head on just like Google chose to compete with Facebook head on.
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Kia Motors eyes Quoris rollout in U.S. next yr, may change name-exec
SEOUL, March 28
SEOUL, March 28 (Reuters) - South Korea's Kia Motors plans to sell its upscale Quoris sedan in the United States next year, a top executive told Reuters on Thursday, a critical test for the affiliate of Hyundai Motor to move beyond its image as a maker of value-for-money cars.
"We plan to launch Quoris in the United States in the first half of next year. We are considering whether or not to change the name because some people say it is difficult to pronounce the name," the executive said on the sidelines of the Seoul Motor Show that kicks off on Thursday.
Quoris, sold as the K9 in South Korea, is Kia's first rear-wheel drive luxury sedan, but the model, launched in South Korea and some overseas markets such as the Middle East last year, failed to meet its target - sales reached 7,700 last year, less than half the 18,200 target. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
- Atheists face death in 13 countries, global discrimination: study
- Missouri executes man for killing good Samaritan motorist in 1994
- Focus turns to Thai military, anti-government protesters tell them to pick sides
- Google executives' planes saved millions in costs due to error - NASA
- Apple scores legal victory over Samsung in South Korea


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With so many major releases this quarter, it’s hard to think that FromSoftware‘s Elden Ring will be released this week. However, spoilers and leaks about the open-world action RPG have been circulating for some time that Elden Ring developer warned. As a result, the developer warns players from harming the experience for others.
“With the release of Elden Ring promptly approaching, please be mindful of spoilers for those who wish to experience The Lands Between for the first time with unclouded eyes. Thank you for your kind cooperation,” it said in a fresh tweet. While this won’t necessarily stop the flood of spoilers, it will act as a warning to those waiting for the game’s release.
Elden Ring spoilers are all but guaranteed to circulate online, regardless of where you look. So, if you’re really keen to get into it without prior spoilers, we’d recommend either steering clear of social media or muting Elden Ring on Twitter.
Elden Ring will be available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC on February 25th. Xbox pre-loads are now accessible, while Steam and PlayStation pre-loads will be available 48 hours ahead of their respective regional times. Here‘s a link to a new gameplay trailer that was released recently. In the meantime, stay tuned for additional information.
Today, February 21, the official “Elden Ring” Twitter account issued a request that gamers refrain from disclosing spoilers that may detract from the enjoyment of others. This specific caution should not come as a surprise given that review copies are available. However, when leaked data and footage surfaced late last year, some fans pointed out that FromSoftware failed to issue a similar statement. However, it’s better to be late than never. The following text-heavy graphic contains the message in question:
— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) February 21, 2022


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Industry findings provide unique insights into how a category is performing now compared to a year ago. Explore what effects the pandemic has had on emotional connections and consumer behaviors and attitudes. Discover the archetypes that matter most; draw connections among frequency, usage, and economic equity; and learn how competitors within the same industry differ.
Fusing, the most intense stage of Brand Intimacy, has increased by 12 percent since our 2020 COVID study, indicating more consumers are able to connect deeply with their favorite brands.
Brands that embrace or enable consumers’ widespread use of smartphones are more intimate than those that don’t.
This Brand Intimacy measure has risen dramatically, up 68 percent in our follow-up study, highlighting that consumers have become increasingly attached to brands they connect with.


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Three major unions have quit the board of the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, claiming funding from Amazon.com Inc. has compromised the group’s progressive mission.
In separate letters last month, the presidents of the United Food & Commercial Workers, the Communications Workers of America and the United Auto Workers wrote that their groups were resigning immediately from their roles on the board of the National Consumers League, citing the Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s involvement with the group.
“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear over the last several months that NCL leadership now prioritizes donations from anti-worker companies like Amazon ahead of its historic pro-labor and pro-consumer mission,” the presidents of the CWA and UFCW wrote.
The auto workers’ president said in the union’s letter that the consumer group’s “decisions around partnering with Amazon and the subsequent board discussions” had left it with no other choice but to resign.
NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg declined to comment, saying in an email that it was “an internal board matter.”
Founded in 1899, NCL says on its website that the group’s official mission is “to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad.”
The board chair is a representative of the Service Employees International Union and one of the vice chairs comes from the AFL-CIO. Spokespeople for Amazon, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO didn’t immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.
Amazon’s rapid growth, its expansion into sectors like grocery stores and parcel delivery, and its aggressive and successful efforts to defeat unionization efforts among its workers have made it a primary target and antagonist of the U.S. labor movement and progressive politicians allied with it.
NCL’s donors last year included tech, finance, aviation, and pharmaceutical companies as well as unions and law firms, according to its 2020 annual report, which noted it had “supported union organizing and minimum wage increases in states across the country.”
In March, the nonprofit organization issued a measured statement regarding the unionization election then-under way among Amazon warehouse employees in Bessemer, Alabama.
NCL said at the time that it supported workers’ right to unionize, that employees were “seeking a stronger voice” on issues such as productivity expectations and that it hoped the company would honor the choice its workers made.
“We have partnered with Amazon on issues of great import to consumers, including fighting fraud and supporting financial literacy for teens and appreciate the company’s dedication to those concerns and its pledge to support a $15 an hour minimum wage nationally,” NCL said in the same statement.
Amazon employees voted against unionization, but a National Labor Relations Board hearing officer has said that result should be thrown out due to misconduct by the company. Amazon has denied wrongdoing.


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Shoe Store Hosts Teacher Appreciation Sale
A Tulsa shoe store is hosting a teacher appreciation sale.
DSW Shoes on 71st street is offering 20% off all shoes and 10% off clearance shoes.
Teachers in Tulsa County are eligible for the sale.
It runs December 10th from 3 p.m. - 9 p.m.


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'Ant-Man and The Wasp' will be the last Marvel movie to hit Netflix
Disney is gearing up for its streaming service, which launches next year.
Disney and Fox's $71.3 billion merger gets shareholder approval
They must still comply with the Justice Department's request to sell regional Fox stations.
CBS and Viacom are reportedly exploring a massive media merger
The talks are just preliminary, though.
Murdoch's Sky takeover blocked by UK competition watchdog
The CMA says the merger 'is not in the public interest.'
Redbox says Disney lawsuit is a baseless attempt to stamp out rivals
The rental company claims selling digital download codes is perfectly legal.
Disney could soon own Sky
Disney's buyout of 21st Century Fox has wider implications for the UK.
Disney buys Fox's studios and cable TV channels for $52 billion
Now the question is: will regulators will let the deal go through?
Comcast is also interested in buying most of Fox's assets
Hulu's streaming service is playing a role in negotiations.
Comcast, Verizon, and Sony are also after Fox's film and TV units
Disney may have some competition on its hands.


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FG approves payment for SPW participants
Assures of food sufficiency
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the release of funds for the payment of workers engaged under the Special Public Works (SPW) Programme. Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, confirmed the development in a statement on Saturday.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme. I have consequently directed the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to begin processing the payments, and participants will begin to receive payments soon.
“To eliminate fraud, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of their accounts, so we can have an audit trail of every single payment. Those who registered with different names shouldn’t expect payments,” he stated.
AMID high cost of foodstuff, the Federal Government has said it is working hard to ensure everyone has more than enough to eat and extra for export.
To achieve this, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, during a media parley at the weekend, stated that the ministry had commenced the implementation of agricultural mechanisation aimed at massive cultivation and output.
He added that the ministry was also deepening extension services to grow the agricultural sector and make farming an informed profession.
“The goal of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is to facilitate economic diversification from an oil-based economy to an agro-based economy,” he stated.
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Brain Corporation has developed a system that can individually identify all kinds of baked goods on a tray, in just one second. A trial has started at a Tokyo bakery store.
This technology was co-developed with the University of Hyogo. This is the world’s first trial of such a system in actual work at a cash register.
“Part-time staff sometimes can’t remember the names of baked goods. But with this system, the names of the goods appear on screen, so staff can work at the cash register on their first day. So we think it can improve efficiency overall, especially when there’s a long queue, because the balance can be tallied instantly.”
This system can be used for virtually all merchandise in the store. But with items like sandwiches, where different kinds may look the same from some angles, the merchandise needs to be facing the camera.
“Baked goods may vary in appearance, and because toppings are added by hand, they can vary, too. To identify items as being the same despite such individual variations, the system has to learn several patterns.”
A green outline confirms that items have been identified correctly, and if there’s any doubt, a yellow outline is shown. In that case, item names are chosen by hand from a list of candidates. Repeating this process makes the system even smarter.
“We’ve developed this system for bakeries, but it can identify the shape and color of other goods, too. So we’d like to use it for other items that can be distinguished by shape and color, such as vegetables and medicine.”
This trial will last until July 28 in Dominique Guelin, at the iTerrace mall near Ochiai Minami-Nagasaki station in Tokyo.


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PS5 will be region-free: Sony confirms that it has eliminated regional limits and that players will have access to many more titles, even exclusive to other countries
The news for PlayStation 5 comes from the FAQ in the official blog of Sony's next-gen console. Regional limits have been removed for PS5, which thus becomes region-free. This means that console owners will have access to a larger number of titles to play.
The first console to eliminate regional blocks was Nintendo Switch three years ago, then Sony followed the same path for PS3 and PS4 and now comes the confirmation that PlayStation 5 will be able to play exclusive titles without geographical area limits. From the FAQ published in the long post on the official blog also comes the confirmation that PS5 games will not be able to be transferred and played on a USB drive. This is bad news for gamers, as the next-gen console has a limited amount of internal memory. However, Sony has announced that it's working on a way to store games on USB drives, similar to the one already used by rival Xbox One X.
PS5 region-free: what's changing
Compatibility between games and consoles from different regions is a topic dear to gamers, especially those who are used to import titles that can't be played in other ways. For this reason Sony, following Nintendo's footsteps, had already removed the regional limit with PS3 and PS4, but until now there was no official confirmation that PS5 was also region-free and now it has arrived.
In this way, you can play any title in both physical and digital format without any kind of limit on a regional basis. This is an important news, since despite the fact that video games are often released simultaneously all over the world, there are some titles that are not released outside of certain geographical areas, such as exclusive editions. Those who want to import these games will be able to do so and enjoy them without any problems on the next-gen console.
PS5, no storage on USB drives
Those who buy a PS5 will not be able to transfer and play games on a USB drive. Given the limited amount of internal storage for the PlayStation 5, users will find themselves struggling to manage the titles in their library, which require excessive amounts of space and bandwidth for downloads. To solve the problem, Sony has announced that it is studying the possibility of at least storing PS5 games on a USB drive, such as you can already do with Microsoft's Xbox One X.
PS5, cloud gaming and backward compatibility
The FAQ published by Sony also resolve some doubts about backward compatibility of games and access to the cloud gaming service. In fact, the PS5 will support the PlayStation Now cloud gaming service, allowing you to play a wide selection of titles. In addition, you will be able to download and play many PS4, PS3 and even PS2 games. For those who are PlayStation Plus subscribers, there will be a chance to access some of PS4's greatest hits thanks to a new exclusive collection designed just for the next-gen console.


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- The appearance of the app icons has not been adjusted since iOS 7.
- Now two applications have received a new icon, could Apple renew all icons with iOS 15?
- The design of the user interface may change with iOS 15.
The US company has had iOS 7 Apple the icons of apps no longer adjusted. With iOS 15 this could change. The App Store Connect icon was adapted for developers back in October. Now comes the Apple Music app for artists. Could this be a hint of new icons for all applications Smartphones and Tablets be from Apple?
Both symbols are more straightforward and not as “playful” as the technology blog MacRumors reported.
With the new macOS Big Sur, Apple has adapted the icons of applications and the appearance of the user interface. The design of iOS 15 may now also change. The developer conference is scheduled for June 7, 2021 WWDC take place by Apple, presumably the new operating system for iPhones will be presented there.


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NORTH MYRTLE BEACH — When merchants at Barefoot Landing ask a question of their new landlord, Burroughs and Chapin, they now get an answer, said Rick Kligman.
With the previous owner, he said, “It was always, ‘We’ll get back to you’.”
B&C bought the North Myrtle Beach shopping, dining and entertainment complex for $43 million in April, and Kligman, owner of Klig’s Kites, is the merchant there who likely is most familiar with the management of one of the Grand Strand’s largest developers.
The original 1982 Klig’s Kites was in the Pavilion, which was owned by B&C, and now there is a Klig’s at Broadway at the Beach as well as at Barefoot.
“They’re good people,” Kligman said. “I like working with them.”
Kim Kelley, marketing director at Barefoot Landing, said B&C has installed an outdoor public address system, added some fountains and reinvigorated the landscaping.
She said tenants generally like the beautification and cleaning up at the complex as well as the music now broadcast over the loudspeaker system.
“They like that everything is moving in a positive direction,” Kelley said.
Several new stores and a new cafe have opened since the change of ownership, and Kelley said more changes will be coming in the future.
One of them might be extended winter hours, Kligman said. He said that proposal has drawn concerns from some of the business owners, he said, and no final decision has been made.
“I think they’re open to discussion,” he said of the new landlords.
Kligman said he thinks B&C is trying to establish consistency between Broadway and Barefoot, but he said as a merchant in both complexes, the two are significantly different and what works at Broadway may not work at Barefoot.
No one was available at B&C’s corporate office to comment Thursday.
Sam Sacco, manager at Bijuju, a women’s accessory store near Klig’s, said she’s noticed that B&C has been working on making Barefoot a more attractive place.
“It looks prettier,” she said, something that can’t help but make a visit more pleasant for customers. “There’s always people walking around sweeping.”
She’s hoping that B&C will beef up promotions to attract more visitors, and Kligman said he’s already noticed more people around the 64-acre complex.
Barefoot, which opened in 1988, gets about 7 million visitors a year. Broadway at the Beach, also owned by B&C, opened in 1995 and has about twice the visitor count as Barefoot.
Kligman said that B&C has put a fountain in a small pond near his store that has transformed it from a stagnant eyesore to a pleasant accompaniment.
Kligman said some B&C officials asked him why he had so many foot mats outside his store. He explained that it was because of the slickness of the board walkways from rainwater washing onto them from the complex’s roofs.
When he got to work the next day, he said, someone had sandblasted the boardwalk to make it friendlier to customers.
He said B&C is very conscious of correcting things that could be potential liabilities.
Merchants on Kligman’s end of Barefoot said customers complained about having to walk so far to get to a bathroom. This winter, he said, B&C will install one nearby.
“The consistency is here now,” Kligman said.
Contact STEVE JONES at 444-1765.


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BusinessGreen's latest breakfast briefing with DNV Two Tomorrows delivered an insight into the world's leading sustainability programmes
The value of corporate sustainability strategies is being increasingly recognised by customers and stakeholders, but for many organisations significant challenges remain as they attempt to deliver on the...
White House announces series of initiatives to boost the number of electric vehicle charging stations across the US
Paris deal now likely to take effect before end of 2017, as UN invites countries to special ratification event in September
Risk-averse financiers including Aviva, BlackRock and State Street are pursuing renewable energy projects and seeing steady returns
Partnership with Starwood Energy Group will see discount retailer use 100 per cent wind power in 60 of its stores