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Pawn Express employee calls it ‘traumatic’ to be crime victim after driver rams truck into store
Plaza by the Green meets levels of quality, guest satisfaction and dedication to the brand standards
Workers at an Albertsons in Marysville urge shoppers to sign a petition blocking the $25 billion deal.
Kent becomes sixth location of firm that started in 2013
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Welcome to the voting round of the Best of Kent 2022! Vote today at vote.kentreporter.com. Voting will close on Sept. 25. Categories include food, health/fitness,… Continue reading
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Decision made in honor of 90th anniversary of brand; company has Kent manufacturing facility
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Matt Williams, who left Amazon.com to claim the CEO chair at Digg at the end of August, introduced himself in a post on the Digg Blog, in which he revealed that the bury button will soon be unburied.
Williams succeeded former Digg CEO Jay Adelson, and Kevin Rose assumed the title of chief architect.
From Williams’ post:
It’s certainly been an eventful first month on the job. As many of you know, the launch of Digg v4 didn’t go smoothly, and we’re deeply sorry that we disappointed our Digg community in the process. Thank you for your patience and your extremely candid feedback — we hear you loud and clear.
Recently, we’ve been reinstating a number of the features that many of you loved about Digg. In the past two weeks, we’ve brought back the “Upcoming” section, started restoring user profiles from the previous version of Digg, and made small but important tweaks to the site, including better pagination. In the next few weeks, we’ll bring back the bury button, restore all user profiles (including comment and submission history), add filters and navigation for videos and images, provide a tool for users to report comment violations, and update the Top News algorithm and overall site design based upon your feedback. The result will hopefully be a much better Web site experience.
I’d also like to share some insight beyond what you may have seen or heard in the press. Despite the changes to our platform at the end of August, there were still 23 million unique visitors worldwide using Digg last month. Digg today is a much faster Web site, operating on an open-source platform. And with the launch of My News, you now have more personalized control on Digg by filtering news with the help of friends and others you choose to follow.

domain: news


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The latest news and features revolving around evolving customs regulations, global trade, and the services that help global shippers expedite freight through the global supply chain
Posted 03/23 · 08:15 AM · MMH Editorial
Supply chain consulting and integration firm TranSystems (Booth 4279) and a driver for an Indy Racing League (IRL) team it sponsors see similarities between lean supply chains and successful IRL teams.
Posted 03/22 · 11:28 AM · LM Editorial
The GPA announced that it experienced 16.3 percent container volume growth in February 2011 with additional impressive gains in automobiles, machinery and wood pulp
Posted 03/22 · 06:11 AM · SCMR Editorial
As President Obama completes his trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador, U.S. manufacturers are urging his administration to move forward on the pending free trade agreement with Colombia.
Posted 03/21 · 12:57 PM · SCMR Editorial
California’s exporters began 2011 by posting their highest export totals ever for the month of January, according to an analysis by Beacon Economics.
Posted 03/21 · 12:44 PM · MMH Editorial
Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security, welcomed attendees to ProMat 2011 with his keynote speech.
Posted 03/21 · 10:42 AM · SCMR Editorial
As a natural extension of its Third-Party Logistics market research work, Armstrong & Associates, Inc. has launched 3PLAdvisor.com
Posted 03/21 · 08:02 AM · LM Editorial
No major disruptions to inbound and outbound calls are anticipated, but carriers remain on guard
Posted 03/19 · 07:48 AM · SCMR Editorial
Inventory optimization—the process of scientifically determining the right inventory levels across the supply chain—has never been easy. But advanced tools now available are enabling companies to do the job faster, more accurately, and with greater business impact. In fact, industry leaders are finding that IO can drive greater profitability through lower inventories, better fill rates, and ultimately a more satisfied customer.
Posted 03/18 · 08:27 AM · LM Editorial
Japan’s supply chain continues to be disrupted by the ongoing consequences of last week’s earthquake
Posted 03/17 · 11:43 AM · LM Editorial
Following last Friday’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami, nearly all Japanese automakers have idled production, owing to either physical damage or rolling blackouts.


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Japanese carmaker's unit Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) will begin export of India-made car 'Baleno' to Japan for the first time from January, 2016.
"Baleno is a global product. For the first time ever we will begin export this global hatchback in Japan beside other 100 global markets from January 2016," MSIL CGM marketing Sanjeev Handa said today at the global launch of premium hatchback Baleno.
Export to Japan would be like testing water on the matured market for made-in-India cars.
Handa did not specify the quantum of export to Japan but said that as per rough estimates total Baleno exports across markets could be around 30,000 units annually.
However, he said, company was focused about this new hatchback for the domestic market and was confident in gaining leadership position in this segment.
Baleno after S-Cross is the second car that would be sold through Nexa dealership.
Handa said Nexa dealers will have full range of cars but did not divulge any details of rollout.
Asked about compact SUV, he said it will be by this fiscal but not said whether the same will be sold through Nexa or Maruti dealers.
In Kolkata Baleno petrol variants ranged between Rs5.23 lakh and 7.05 lakh, While diesel variants price band is 6.44-8.44 lakhs.
Photo Credit: AP


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The Korean antitrust authority has carried out a dawn raid on Apple offices in the city of Gangnam-gu. The raid was part of an investigation into claims that Apple effectively charges some developers even more than the 30% cut which has itself come under fire.
The same issue also sees small developers subjected to an effective commission of 16.5%, instead of Apple’s claimed 15% small business rate …
The issue arises because of the way Apple handles the local sales tax, known as VAT (value added tax), reports Foss Patents.
The mobile game developers who brought the complaint that gave rise to this dawn raid argue that Apple charges even more than 30% to developers with respect to the revenues they generate in South Korea.Apple charges 30% of the price paid by end users, which includes value added tax (VAT) and, therefore, is 10% higher than the ex-VAT amount on which Google bases its 30% commission. As a result, Korea’s Mobile Game Association is spot-on when it alleges that Apple actually collects 33% (30% of 110%), not the headline 30% rate.
The above example presumes that a developer doesn’t benefit from the 15% rate that applies to small businesses or to subscriptions after the first year. However, the vast majority of App Store revenues are still subject to the 30% (or, in Korea, 33%) tax, which is why it makes sense to focus on the 30%/33% scenario–and even where the reduced 15% rate would apply, it’s effectively 16.5% in South Korea because of Apple collecting a commission on the gross price (inclusive of VAT).
As the site notes, Korea is not the only country where Apple takes this approach. It points to the VAT-inclusive calculation meaning that the effective commission charged to large developers ranges from 31.2% in France to 35.25% in Turkey. The site encourages developers in all countries where VAT is charged to levy similar complaints with local antitrust regulators.
The Korean antitrust authority notes that Google’s app store, the Play Store, does not do the same. It first accounts for VAT (which is a tax paid by consumers and then handed over to tax authorities) and then deducts its commission from the net price of the app.
Separate Korean antitrust investigation still in play
This latest action is in addition to a separate antitrust investigation against Apple in Korea. The earlier one relates to Apple’s compliance with a law requiring Apple and Google to permit developers to use third-party payment systems.
Both companies say they complied with the law, but the regulator is unhappy with this reducing Apple’s headline commission from 30% to just 27%. Additionally, it is alleged that Apple did not meet the compliance deadline.
On the known facts so far, it would appear that the regulator is correct.
VAT is a tax which is levied on consumers, but not businesses. The way it works for consumer purchases is like this (taking the example of the UK):
- A Brit buys an iPhone 14 for £849
- This price comprises £707.50 to Apple, and £141.50 in VAT
- Apple keeps the £707.50, and pays the £141.50 to the government
This is one of two reasons why Apple’s prices seem higher than they really are in many countries.
But things work different for businesses, as they can reclaim any VAT they pay. This is to prevent VAT being added at multiple stages by the time consumers buy a product. Here’s the same example for a business:
- Apple buys an office chair for £849
- This price comprises £707.50 for the chair, and £141.50 in VAT
- Apple reclaims the £141.50 from the government, so really pays £707.50
When companies pay VAT on a purchase, they are able to reclaim that cost from the government. Because the VAT is in this case levied by Apple, developers have no way to reclaim it.


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Both the PS4 and Xbox 360 versions of FIFA 15 outsold the Xbox One SKU in the UK, according to numbers reported online.
Metro claims that the PS4 release outsold the Xbox One version by 100,000 in the UK across Friday and Saturday, winning a 32 per cent share of the game’s overall sales.
It also claims that Xbox 360 accounted for 30 per cent with Xbox One trailing on 22 per cent and PS3 with 15 per cent.
It’s worth remembering too that FIFA 15 was heavily promoted on Xbox One, with Microsoft’s co-marketing tie-up focusing on the console’s exclusive Ultimate Team Legends mode.
The official UKIE GfK Chart-Track data only revealed that the combined market share of the next-gen consoles was 54 per cent, with 45 per cent claimed by PS3 and Xbox 360.
It added that the game accounted for 87 per cent of the UK’s total weekly market revenue and 80 per cent of all units.
UPDATE: As pointed out on Twitter, Xbox One owners also have access to the EA Access subscriber program, which offers a discount on the game’s digital download. As the chart data references only physical copies, this could have had at least a partial impact.


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There is simply slightly time left to launch the iPhone 12 Pro. In such a state of affairs, all of the leaks related to this iPhone are popping out. We have come to know some specs of the upcoming iPhone however it isn’t confirmed whether or not these options will probably be within the cellphone or not. According to the leaked report, the iPhone 12 Pro may even be launched with the iPhone 12 Pro, which could have a 64 megapixel digicam, 4400mAh battery. Earlier within the leaked report, it was revealed that the brand new iPhone could have further help of 5G with subsequent era A14 chipset. Although Apple has not formally confirmed this but.
Now YouTuber "EverythingApplePro" has quoted Tipster Max Weinbach as saying that benchmarks just like the Galaxy 20 sequence might be seen within the iPhone 12 Pro. <! –
In this video, YouTube has stated that Apple could have a 64-megapixel Sony sensor and could have a triple rear digicam setup. However, there isn’t any affirmation as as to whether the corporate will retain the 2 12-megapixel setup in the remainder of the setup.
With zoom help, YouTuber believes that the corporate will prolong the evening mode in it in addition to telephoto digicam. Apart from this, the corporate also can enhance the aperture in extremely huge angle digicam. At the identical time, a brand new time of flight 3D sensor can be seen within the new iPhone. Its AR expertise will probably be higher than earlier than.


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Axis Long Term Equity Direct Plan-Growth
Axis Focused 25 Direct Plan-Growth
SBI Small Cap Fund Direct-Growth
Axis Bluechip Fund Direct Plan-Growth
Mirae Asset Tax Saver Fund Direct-Growth
The restrictions were imposed on all products under chapter 72 (iron and steel), chapter 73 (articles of iron and steel) and chapter 86 (railway Or tramway locomotives, rolling-stock and parts; railway or tramway track fixtures and fittings; mechanical traffic signalling equipment of all kinds).
According to the council, 28 of 33 product categories showed a year-on-year fall in exports. On a cumulative basis, the decline in engineering exports was 18.73 per cent during the April-August period of the 2020-21 fiscal.
Some mills faced difficulty in exporting during the current COVID-19 pandemic as they could not move their stock due to movement restrictions in some places, said Joint Secretary, Food Ministry.
India has entered into free trade agreements (FTA) with various countries - bilateral trade agreements with Japan, Singapore, etc. and multilateral trade agreements with ASEAN countries, SAARC countries, etc.
With regard to outflow from India, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said, it was USD 20.63 million in calendar year 2020 as against USD 27.57 million in the corresponding period last year. To curb opportunistic takeovers or acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the government issued Press Note 3 earlier this year, he said.
The cap was introduced as the government found MEIS to have failed to deliver the desired result of boosting exports, which have hovered around $300 billion in the last five years despite its liberal application across sectors.
"Board has decided to roll out the Faceless Assessment at an all India level in all ports of import and for all imported goods by October 31, 2020," the CBIC said in a circular.
Manufacturing exports from the units were Rs 41,699 crore till June compared to Rs 75,346 crore in the same period last year. Software and services exports rose to Rs 1.11 lakh crore till June 2020 from Rs 1.05 lakh crore last year.
Goyal said the trade deficit is reducing drastically and India’s share in the global trade is improving, and that the government is trying to generate more reliable and better trade data for improved planning and policy making.
When German leisure wear brand Marc O’Polo called its Indian vendor Warsaw International to place an order for supply of some jerseys, proprietor Raja Shanmugam knew this order was different. The same product was supplied by his competitor in China to Marc O’Polo all these years.
The rise in the use of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence in several industries, necessitated by the pandemic has come as a game-changer. The move has accelerated the adoption of disruptive business models and innovative solutions, thus rendering traditional business models and manufacturing processes obsolete sooner than expected.
The 5,000-crore plan will see benefits under MEIS capped at 2 crore per exporter on exports made between September and December.
The issue was discussed during the 17th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers Consultations meet held virtually on August 29, an official statement said on Sunday.
The new norms have been framed with a view to checking inbound shipments of low quality products and dumping of goods by a third country routed through an FTA partner country. The Department of Revenue has notified the 'Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020' which would "come into force on September 21, 2020".
India’s exports have shown a massive improvement sequentially, as the yearly contraction narrowed to -10.2% in July from a severe -60.2% in April, it said.
View: Nothing wrong with reviewing the economic rationale and fallout of India’s varied trade agreements
Can one unambiguously conclude that all RTAs lead to trade-investment creation? No. The answer is empiricaland depends on specifics of the agreement: how substantial is the agreement? How deep is its coverage? Arelarge chunks of the trade basket left out because of negative lists?
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text: According to reports on November 21, Chang Chung-mou ，ounder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), said that the company planned to produce advanced 3-nanometer technology chips in a new factory in Arizona, USA, but the plan has not yet been fully finalized. TSMC, a major Apple supplier and the world’s largest foundry chipmaker, is building a $12 billion factory in Arizona. Chang Chung-mou said that both the 5nm and the 3nm plants will be set up at the same location in Arizona, with the former being the first stage and the latter being the second stage. TSMC will hold the arrival ceremony of its first batch of manufacturing equipment on December 6 in Arizona. Chang will be joined by TSMC customers and suppliers, as well as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Taiwan’s dominance as a manufacturing center for chips used in smartphones, automobiles and fighter jet technology has raised concerns about the world’s over-reliance on it, especially amid CCP’s growing military pressure and saber-rattling. The U.S. and Europe have passed bills and provide billions of dollars in incentives for semiconductor manufacturers to produce chips closer to home. In the long run, TSMC’s investment in the U.S. is Washington’s necessary move to ensure the security of the supply chain.


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Panasonic recently announced that the company is set to invest US$4 billion for its second EV (Electric Vehicle) battery factory in Kansas for Tesla, according to Nikkei Asia on August 16. Combined with favorable tax policies, the new factory is projected to boost production capacity of EV batteries for Tesla by about 10% by 2024. The company has already run its first EV battery factory in the United States with Tesla in Nevada since 2014. Sales of the Tesla EVs have been growing steadily, with about 936,000 EVs sold in 2021 alone. Following its Gigafactory Shanghai reaching one-millionth EV, Tesla recently opened its second factory in Texas, which is close to Panasonic's new battery factory. To tap the rising demand for EVs, Panasonic strives to boost its EV battery capacity by three- or four-folds by 2028, up from the current 50 gigawatt-hours per year. According to the plan, it will set up two production lines for 80 billion Yen (US$580 million) to produce EV batteries in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, in 2023.
According to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), sales of global EVs are forecasted to increase significantly from 11 million units in 2020 to between 145 million and 230 million units in 2030 and grow at 30% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) in 2020-2030. Established in 1987, MIC is a division of III (Institute for Information Industry), a major government think tank, and one of the leading IT research institutes in Taiwan.


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Alamosa welcomes Birdie's Boutique
ALAMOSA — Birdie’s Boutique, a resale shop offering women’s clothing, accessories and more, has joined the Alamosa business community.
Owned by Roberta “Birdie” Rivera, the shop is located at 507 Bell Avenue, next to Main Copy and across from Trinidad State Junior College, just off Main Street (Highway 160) in Alamosa. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The San Luis Valley’s newest women’s clothing boutique carries new and like new women’s clothing including business attire, active wear, special occasion gowns, junior and plus sizes, modest clothing, bridal and tuxedos and maternity clothes.
Brand new Victoria’s Secret merchandise will be coming soon.
In addition to clothing, Birdie’s Boutique offers purses, shoes, jewelry, shabby chic furniture and home décor.
The boutique is now accepting consignment. See Facebook for terms, www.facebook.com/birdiesboutiqueonbellavenue
For more information call 719-992-2000.
Caption: Joined by her husband and son Steve Rivera and Nico, left, and mother Janice McMahan, right, Roberta “Birdie” Rivera, center, cuts the ribbon on her new shop Birdie’s Boutique in Alamosa. Members of the Alamosa Chamber of Commerce and friends joined in the ribbon cutting celebration. Courtesy photo by Robin Cranson, Cranson Photography.


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January 29, 2018 09:45
The Centre for study of insurance operations (CSIO) has seen its solution of electronic proof of auto insurance (eSlips) approved by the Office of the superintendent of insurance of Nova Scotia. It is the first regulatory body in Canada to allow it.
The CSIO called the announcement » a significant milestone for the insurance industry in view of the achievement of its goal to meet the expectations of consumers in respect of digital communications «. The organization adds that in order to approve the eSlips, the provincial bodies have to publish a newsletter.
An imminent launch
The CSIO also states that the launch of its solution eDelivery is planned for mid-February to the scale of the industry, which will allow members to send to consumers of insurance documents, including the eSlips, in the areas of insurance to individuals and businesses.
«There is among consumers a general desire to obtain eSlips. The most recent newsletter of the Nova Scotia thus meets the expectations of many brokers and insurers, » says Catherine Smola, president and ceo of CSIO. We hope to see similar ads in other provincial regulations, and we are eager to provide the full value of our solution eDelivery to consumers across Canada. «


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YouTube Red's next originals include a 'Step Up' spinoff
'Scare PewDiePie' and 'Foursome' have both been renewed.
Amazon Japan adds 12 new original series to Prime Video
The newly announced slate is tailor-made for the Japanese market.
Edit all you want, because Google Photos will keep your originals
Well, on the Android app.
Netflix is bringing 'House of Cards' back for S5 in 2017
However, it will be without series creator Beau Willimon.
'Simpsons' creator Matt Groening is in talks with Netflix
The rumor mill says Netflix is close to a two season deal for a new animated series.
Netflix: New season of 'OITNB' spurred a record amount of streaming
Netflix is flying high enough to need a 7-for-1 stock split, but now it's competing in a world whe...
Netflix pushes 'OITNB' release six hours early during primetime
We were expecting season three of Orange is the New Black to become available for streaming at abo...
Netflix's early-2015 premieres include 'Daredevil' on April 10th
Netflix watchers, check this post and update your calendars accordingly -- the streaming service j...
YouTube offering bonuses to keep talent away from rivals, says WSJ
Google is throwing money at its YouTube stars to keep them away from a site that hasn't even launc...


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British cryptocurrency fans can now buy and sell Bitcoin more easily, thanks to a deal between Barclays and Coinbase.
The cryptocurrency trading site has signed an agreement with the UK banking giant allowing it to open a bank account in the country, meaning Bitcoin trading can now be done directly in the UK.
Reuters says that Coinbase's UK subsidiary is the first to receive an e-money license from the national financial watchdog, and comes as the company revealed the UK is its largest market, growing at twice the rate of any other nation.
Prior to today's agreement, UK citizens looking to buy or trade Bitcoin had to use a more indirect approach that involved converting pounds to euros
Buyers would then have to complete their purchases through an Estonian bank -all steps that will be removed now, allowing a smoother experience all round.
“Having domestic GBP payments with Barclays reduces the cost, improves the customer experience…and makes the transaction faster,” said Zeeshan Feroz, Coinbase UK CEO.
“It’s a completely brand new industry. There’s a lot of understanding and risk management that’s needed.”


text: b'APRIL 2021WELCOME TO H-TOWNNEWS!As Town Centre Manager I amThis newspaper is an opportunity for us to highlight thesafe campaigns, PPE, the Eat Alfresco Initiative to support our outstanding work undertaken by the town centre businesses,eateries and the Christmas Market to support the retailers are just responsible for the Hitchin Businesslocal organisations and the Hitchin BID team over the past some of the projects we have delivered to help traders. Improvement District (BID) which12 months. We are keen to share the positive stories of resilience Although the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for most delivers a wide range of projects andas well as our recovery plans and what to look forward to in townof us, this situation has certainly highlighted the importance of initiatives to keep Hitchin town centre over the next 12 months.our town centre community and the businesses within it.On behalf of the Hitchin businesses, I would like to thank you, To recognise the outstanding achievements made by our business a vibrant, clean, safe, and well promotedthe residents of Hitchin, for your ongoing support of the towncommunity, we are launching the new H-town Business Awards environment for the public to enjoy andcentre. The Government grants have gone some way to helping(see page 12). Under set categories, local residents will havebusinesses to prosper.our businesses but without the overwhelming support from thethe opportunity to vote for businesses they feel deservepublic to shop local, many of our much-loved tradersextra recognition. would not have made it through the past year. Although it is now time to look forward to a brighter better we have sadly lost several businessesyearaheadWearesoexcitedtorelaytoyouour due to the pandemic, we have also gained many more andplanstobreathenewlifebackinourtowncentre maintained a vacancy rate of 6% whichand help businesses recover from the pandemicis half the national average. Hitchin isa remarkable town and prides itself on having strongWe are delivering a comprehensive reopening plan, promoting our community connections, business engagement and shop safe measures, and running a series of town centre events a real sense that everyone is collectively working to attract footfall and support our businesses. hard towards making it an exciting and innovativeWith your help by supporting the shops, eateries, and services place to enjoy.this year we will come out of this, together, a stronger and more The past 12 months we have all had to adapt quicklyresilient town centre.and come to terms with measures that have been imposed on a scale never seen before. The town centre businesses have been busy behind the scenesTom Hardycoming up with creative and innovative ways to survive. The Hitchin BID team and I have focused on supporting businesses in any way we can. Regular business communication on guidance and grants, shop'


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“Can’t afford it” has been the reaction to most of the people who come across Apple products since they are priced so high that not all can own one. The company has just upped the ante, surely in its prices category, when it released its new Macbook Pro earlier this week, a laptop that starts at nearly Rs 2 lakh.
But it is the other Apple product that has become a subject of ridicule for netizens: a special polishing cloth for its products that Apple is selling at $20 (Rs 1900). As per Apple, the cloth can be used to clean any Apple display “including nano-texture glass” safely and effectively.
The ridiculously high price however has triggered a lot of reactions on social media.
Many users commented how the price was “a joke” while many came up with funny memes regarding the product.
The users even laughed about Apple putting up a list of compatible devices for the cloth. Adding insult to injury, you can buy the cloth on EMI too.
Someone even created a parody Twitter account for and under the name of Apple Polishing Cloth.
Here are some more funny reactions regarding the product.


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Japan’s department store sales fell 3.5 percent in June from a year earlier on a same-store basis, falling for the fourth straight month, reflecting a drop in sales to foreign visitors, an industry body said Wednesday.
Sales at 236 stores run by 81 companies totaled 469.9 billion yen ($4.4 billion) in June, according to the Japan Department Stores Association.
Sales to foreign visitors declined 20.4 percent to around 13 billion yen, falling for the third straight month, as their shopping focus shifted from expensive shoes and bags to cheaper daily-use items such as cosmetics and foods.
While the number of foreign customers rose 14 percent, up for the 41st consecutive month, the amount spent per foreign customer fell by 30.2 percent.
Sales of clothing, accounting for around 30 percent of total department store sales, declined 5.7 percent to 137.7 billion yen.


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TapInfluence raises $5 million for blog marketing
TapInfluence, a technology company helping marketers connect with blog audiences, raised $5 million from investors Tuesday and added a new local backer in the process.
The Boulder-based company, formerly called BlogFrog, got the Series B funding from existing investor Grotech Ventures — a Maryland-based VC that has a focus on Colorado and managing director Joe Zell based in Denver — and from new investor Access Venture Partners, a Westminster company.
TapInfluence started as a blog networking technology company helping mommy bloggers raise their profile and attract online advertising. It changed its name earlier this year after amassing more than 100,000 bloggers and developing a way for brand marketers to have influential bloggers give exposure to their products.
TapInfluence and its investors are betting that consumer product marketers will use TapInfluence to help find online “influencers” to work with and create a virtual word-of-mouth buzz.
“While consumers appreciate product information from brands, what influences their purchase decisions the most are opinions from other consumers,” said Kirk Holland, managing director with Access Venture Partners.
Greg Avery covers tech, telecom, aerospace, bioscience and media for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "TechFlash" blog. Phone: 303-803-9222.
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No MLB 2K14 this year.
Visual Concepts’ MLB 2K series isn’t what you’d call the worst sports series out there – an honour which currently belongs to NBA Live 14 – but 2K Sports has announced that it will not be renewing the series for 2014. This comes after the publisher removed all references to the series on its website.
In a statement to Polygon, 2K Sport stated that, “We have decided not to renew our MLB 2K series for 2014. We are very proud of the achievements made by the MLB 2K team and look forward to their contributions to our future titles, including NBA 2K — our industry’s #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise.”
Regardless of what you think, there’s no denying that the MLB series hasn’t seen the greatest commercial success. But what are your thoughts on the decision to not renew it for this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, along with whether you believe 2K Sports will change it’s mind at some point.


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Cybersales stay strong
WORLD WIDE WEB--Sales in traditional retail outlets may be in a downward spiral, but online providers are proving the old adage that health care is recession-proof.
“People are going online to find better prices in this economy and there are plenty of people who are uninsured and underinsured,” said Valerie Paxton, co-owner and executive vice president of Allegro Medical. “Paying a cash price for medical supplies is more economical.”
Online providers enjoy some insulation from economic downturns in ways that brick-and-mortar providers do not. They have a national customer base that’s not subject to shifts in regional, state or local economies.
Even though people are still spending money online, that doesn’t mean they’re not watching their dollars. On the contrary, they are taking longer to make purchasing decisions, asking more questions and comparing prices.
“People used to call and throw down their credit card number and easily buy a $3,000 or $4,000 scooter,” said Lisa Stein, CEO of Spinlife.com. “They’re still buying, but they want the less expensive product.”
Basic day-to-day items like walkers, bath safety equipment and medical supplies, are still sure bets, online providers agree.
“Bottom line, they still need those items in order to function,” said Meir Tsinman, president of themedicalsupplydepot.com. “Those people will still go ahead and purchase items.”
Additionally, technology has enabled online providers to supply better content - faster - on the front end, and automate back-room processes like billing and shipping.
“The more we automate, the more our costs are reduced,” said Paxton. “With brick-and-mortar DMEs, you still have those buildings and rent - those fixed costs go up. We don’t have inventory.”
When you get right down to it, the Web is not the novelty it once was, as people have become accustomed to using it in their everyday lives.
“We talk to those 92-year-old users everyday,” said Stein. “We still get the occasional person who will say ‘I don’t want to use my credit card online,’ but it’s generally a non-issue. If they had that concern, they would not have gotten that far with us.”


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Most U.S. consumers recognize Rosetta Stone by the bright yellow boxes of software at shopping mall kiosks that help you master such languages as Arabic, Italian and Tagalog — for a hefty price.
That reputation once helped propel the Arlington-based firm. Now it may be eroding its business.
The company finds itself in the midst of a bumpy transition as shoppers cut back on expensive purchases in a sluggish economy and opt for software that’s delivered online rather than by disk.
The upheaval has contributed to a string of leadership changes at the company, including the news on Thursday that chief executive Tom Adams will step down after nine years at the helm. When Adams’s successor is named, he’ll become non-executive chairman.
“It felt like, at this time, if we bring on a very strong executive, that executive can take ownership over this next phase of life with the company,” Adams said in an interview.
But analysts worry about what that next phase holds. Many said in interviews or written notes to investors that the caliber of the products remains high. But a price that can range from $179 to $399 per box might scare off cost-conscious customers.
“Demand for Rosetta’s language software has lagged in recent quarters with sharp declines in U.S. consumer unit volumes due to mounting consumer resistance to the company’s premium price points,” Piper Jaffray analyst Peter Appert wrote Thursday.
The company’s second-quarter earnings, released in August, showed that U.S. consumer bookings slipped 5 percent. Total revenue was up 10 percent for the quarter compared with a year ago. However, the company reported a loss of nearly $4.6 million (22 cents per share) after posting a profit of $3.7 million (17 cents) for the period a year earlier.
International sales have been more upbeat as the company puts greater emphasis on overseas markets. Adams said the next chief executive will need to understand sales in areas such as Asia and South America.
Robert Mahowald, vice president for cloud services at research firm IDC, said companies like Rosetta Stone that are transitioning from boxed software to online services face accounting hurdles that may complicate quarter-to-quarter comparisons. When a company sells its software outright, the customer pays the entire cost upfront. When the software is sold online as a service, customers become subscribers who usually pay in installments.
“You start to look at a totally different set of metrics,” he said.
And that’s the way more customers choose to buy software, analysts say. Adams said the company has expanded its products in recent years to include online, mobile and social tools.
“The problem is one of communication. People really associate us with the physical box and so what we’re working on now is how to shift . . . toward a future that will be in line with what users are doing,” Adams said. “We actually have what people want to use today, they just have to understand it.”


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Renesas Electronics, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has announced its plan to establish the R-IN Consortium, aimed at providing global support for the development of industrial equipment incorporating industrial Internet communication functionality, including manufacturing equipment, security cameras, and robots. R-IN is a development platform based on multi-protocol communication chips incorporating the R-IN engine, which combines high-speed, real-time performance and low power consumption, and interfaces supporting a variety of industrial Ethernet communication standards, such as EtherCAT, CC-Link IE, EtherNet/IP, and PROFINET. The R-IN platform also includes protocol stacks and evaluation kits.
Starting today, the new consortium is seeking corporate partners willing to supply software, OSes, development environments, system integration services, etc., and plans to commence official activities in April 2015.
The new R-IN consortium will provide members with the latest information about Renesas, encourage members to share information on trends in the industrial market among themselves, and make available examples of industrial solutions on the R-IN Consortium website, to be launched soon by Renesas. By engaging actively in information dissemination on a global scale, the consortium will serve as a venue for generating collaboration between Renesas and its partners.
System designers will be able to utilise the website as a one-stop source of essential information and consulting support, and this will help them to reduce the time required to develop industrial equipment.
Industrial Ethernet communication technology refers to networking technology intended to make smart factories more efficient. Many different communication protocols have become standardised in the industrial Internet market, and system designers of industrial equipment wishing to implement the various protocols demanded by the market, or wishing to implement multiple protocols in the same piece of equipment, are faced with the problem of increased development time and man-hours.
To address these issues, Renesas introduced the R-IN32M3 industrial network controller ICs in April 2013, supporting multiple protocols on a single chip. In addition, starting in June 2014, Renesas has been introducing a variety of Internet communication protocol stacks to expand the development platform.
The decision to establish the R-IN Consortium was prompted by recognition of the importance of the “fourth industrial revolution,” exemplified by worldwide technology trends such as the Internet of Things (IOT) and Machine to Machine (M2M), and shows Renesas’ intention to be an active participant in this area.


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I’m obviously not the only one to notice eating out is getting really expensive, lavish, costly, pricey. Choose your own word.
So, I wasn’t too stunned to find an analysis done by USA Today found Colorado to be first in the nation for “restaurant inflation.” Yeah, us. The price of getting a meal here is going up faster than anywhere else in the country.
That cringe you feel when someone says, “Hey you wanna go grab a bite?” — it now has some research to back it up.
Though not filling us with the same sense of pride of being first in car thefts, we shouldn’t be flabbergasted.
Just as inflation is cooling on the national level, with the latest Consumer Price Index coming in at 3.2%, USA Today reports Colorado’s restaurant inflation clocking in at a mind-blowing 24%.
In case you don’t realize it immediately, that also means the tax and tip on top of your meal out is going up at 24% as well.
I’m rarely looking for a fancy place to eat. I’m a single father, tight on time who, like everyone else, doesn’t wanna cook or clean up and misses having a friendly neighborhood eatery. Sometimes we just want a place like the diner in the TV show “Seinfeld.” But they’re basically outlawed in Colorado.
Why are things so much more expensive in Colorado? It’s not because of high altitude or 360 days a year of sunshine or our fresh mountain streams. It’s because of policy. Elections have consequences, and we have voted to raise the price of eating out by 24% a year.
There’s no rocket science here. And some of those consequences mean not only can’t we afford to go out as often but a lot of those restaurants, particularly mom-and-pop owned ones, are going out of business well before their time.
And unemployed restaurant workers certainly can’t afford to go out to eat either.
Gov. Jared Polis, under the guise of local control, signed a bill ending the state minimum wage and allowing cities to raise, but not lower, it. So, calling it local control is a fib. It’s only a local one-way ratchet.
Many cities ratcheted up the wage, which sure felt good until it put places out of business. Restaurants are especially sensitive to changes in minimum wage.
Denver’s minimum wage will soon be $18.29 an hour, near the very highest in the country.
Voters passed the family leave initiative, which hits small businesses coming and going. First it puts a nearly 1% payroll tax on employees. Yes, that’s split between employer and employee, but that’s just a marketing ploy.
We, the customers pay for all of it at the end of the meal.
And the program hasn’t even gone into effect paying people not to work when they’re out on leave. It is so luxurious people can take every Friday off every week of the year to care for a nonfamily member and get paid for it — permanent three-day weekends!
The transition costs to train new employees and find part-time temporary employees to fill those vacant spots will be remarkably expensive. And we the dining customers haven’t even begun to pay for that yet. But we will.
And of course, there’s the war on energy jacking up the costs for creating supplies, delivering them and employees to work, not to mention the costs of preparing the food.
You think the cost of running your home appliances are high? Think about a professional kitchen with industrial stoves, refrigerators, mixing equipment and the like under Colorado’s “new energy” pricing.
Sure, prices for food, a prime factor for restaurants, is high. The national average inflation rate for food is around 6%. According to Bureau of Labor statistics, inflation for food is around 7.6% in Colorado, that certainly doesn’t count for 24% restaurant inflation now does it?
But that does make Colorado’s food prices 26% higher than the national average.
There’s been the incredible legislative and regulatory assault on agriculture and ranchers during the Polis years (well beyond Meat Out Day). And it is why food prices are so much higher in Colorado compared to our neighbors. Restaurants must buy that food before they prepare it and serve it to us.
We voted for this proud No. 1 ranking.
So, bon appétit.
Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
Our unofficial motto at Complete Colorado is “Always free, never fake, ” but annoyingly enough, our reporters, columnists and staff all want to be paid in actual US dollars rather than our preferred currency of pats on the back and a muttered kind word. Fact is that there’s an entire staff working every day to bring you the most timely and relevant political news (updated twice daily) from around the state on Complete’s main page aggregator, as well as top-notch original reporting and commentary on Page Two.
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A number of Call of Duty: Warzone leaks have taken place, with Twitch uploading a number of advertisements for the battle royale early to the streaming site, while YouTuber Chaos accidentally released an 11-minute video breaking down the mode.
Ever since Modern Warfare was first announced, leaks have circulated about the prospect of a battle royale appearing in the game, following the success of Treyarch’s mode Blackout when it released alongside Black Ops 4 in 2018.
For weeks, fans have been eagerly anticipating the release of the battle royale, with multiple data miners and leakers dropping clues and hints about what is to come – while the start of Modern Warfare’s Season 2 introduced a strange “Classified” section specifically for Warzone, as a further number of hints and teasers appeared in-game as well, pointing towards potential release dates and locations featured in the mode.
While there is no official word from Infinity Ward on the release of Warzone or potential dates for announcements to be made, YouTuber Chaos seems to have jumped the gun, and uploaded an 11-minute video about the battle royale mode, much to the surprise of those who managed to watch the video.
The video originally went live late on Sunday, March 8, but was quickly unlisted, with it appearing that Chaos scheduled the upload for the wrong date and YouTube publishing the video to his audience. While the video was made private, over 10,000 people were able to watch it before it was removed from the site entirely, with those who managed to catch it able to watch 11 minutes of gameplay recorded by the YouTuber when he attended Infinity Ward’s studio to test the game.
In it, the YouTuber expanded on rumors that the game will be free-to-play, talked about the return of legendary maps as locations, and gave a first-look at gameplay from Warzone. Chaos also stated that the mode is “available now,” but Warzone is not expected to release on Monday, March 9.
Elsewhere, Twitch also apparently jumped the gun, uploading a number of advertisements to the streaming platform mention Warzone, with the images encouraging players to “join now,” perhaps confirming that the mode’s official release is taking place in the very near future.
Infinity Ward and Activision have yet to respond to the leaks by Twitch or Chaos, but the video has been completely removed from the YouTuber’s channel, with those who had the link no longer able to access it.
Data miners such as TheGamingRevolution have dropped a number of leaks about what players can expect when the mode finally goes live, such as potential progression systems, details about the map, and challenges that will be released when Warzone is made available.


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Sep 30, 2020
Amazon announced some major hardware upgrades, but what’s going on with underlying technology? The push toward more efficient AI and the Amazon Sidewalk network has us debating where the future is headed. Are you ready for everything under one umbrella?
Sep 22, 2020
With the ever changing stance on TikTok and WeChat, we’ll take a look at what has been happening, but more importantly, what it means for going forward. What will it mean for 100 million users in the US alone, if a major social media site gets banned? Should it be banned? We’ll give our analysis.
Sep 15, 2020
Can tech prevent Forest Fires? Wildfires are the worst they’ve ever been in the Western US. On this episode we take a look at how tech has changed the way we fight them, and how the tech on the horizon could prevent this kind of devastation in the future.
Sep 1, 2020
Would you still attend a regular convention? This would normally be the time for IFA which is one of the world’s largest tech conventions. But that’s not really happening and neither is anything else. Do we need conventions? How can we gather when we can’t actually gather? We’ll talk about tech that could make...


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Sony has spent years struggling to adjust to the digital age but its chief Howard Stringer Thursday sought to make the case that it has found its footing.
The Xbox 360 is set to get a home entertainment revamp next week that will help it compete with Sony's PlayStation 3.
On Tuesday, Intel will start selling a nifty new e-reader that can snap pictures of books and newspapers and then read them back to people who have a hard time reading the printed page.
A Canadian university professor believes there is a campaign in the U.S. to make Canada out to be a haven for content piracy in order to push stricter copyright law, when in fact Canada's copyright legislation is compliant with its international obli...
China plans to hold a robot Olympics next June with events including combat, dancing and track and field, state-run media said late Wednesday.
In an interview with the UK's Financial Times (registration required to read) newspaper Nintendo president Satoru Iwata states that the company is interested in exploring an "Amazon Kindle" like service for the future of the Nintendo DS. "I'm interes...
Cisco Systems will buy a Chinese set-top box maker as the country works to digitize all cable television by 2015, creating market opportunities for Cisco, the company said late Monday.
Yesterday PC World attended the eGames Expo 2009 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. Although it was a slightly quieter affair compared to previous years, there were still plenty of games, gadgets and exhibits vying for punters' attention,...
File-sharing site The Pirate Bay should be closed, and if it isn't, two of the founders will each have to pay a fine of 500,000 Swedish kronor (US$71,500), according to a verdict in the Stockholm District Court on Wednesday.
Google is changing the way it resolves music-related search queries through a variety of partnerships designed to help it provide more relevant and useful results.
Netflix will begin streaming movies and TV shows to PlayStation 3 consoles in the U.S. from November, it said on Monday.
France's Constitutional Council has validated the so-called "three strikes" law, clearing the way for an accelerated judicial process that will cut off the access of Internet users accused three times of downloading copyright content without authoriz...
Panasonic has announced a choice of free "high-definition" products for purchasers of Full HD Viera plasma televisions. Buyers can choose from a digital camera, a Blu-ray home theatre system, or a digital television recorder.
Sony on Thursday unveiled an impressive 3D display that can be viewed from any direction. The screen, development of which was announced earlier this week, is on show until Sunday at the DC Expo in Tokyo.
Facebook plans to let users buy music and other virtual products on its Web site, the company said Wednesday, expanding its sources of revenue as the company seeks to turn its huge popularity into fiscal profit.
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Helsinki, Finland, 2014-11-28 — /EPR Retail News/ — Kesko continues the preparation of a real estate arrangement. The intention is to sell some of the store sites it owns to a joint venture to be set up instead of a real estate investment trust planned earlier. The arrangement is expected to be implemented during the first part of 2015.
Kesko’s objective is to set up a limited liability company (joint venture) to own and manage mainly Kesko-owned store sites and shopping centres with Kesko as one of its significant investors. If the joint venture is set up, Kesko Group would continue operating on the store sites under long-term leases signed in connection with their sale.
The fair value of store sites planned to be sold to the joint venture from Finland and Sweden has been specified at a maximum of around €670 million. Previously, a portfolio of store sites in Finland, Sweden and also Russia with a maximum total fair value of around €750-950 million was examined.
Investors and finance providers have shown interest in the joint venture. Launching the joint venture depends, in addition to investor interest, on whether it is possible for Kesko to achieve such terms and conditions in the arrangement that are economically justifiable for it, taking the Group’s strong financial position into account.
The arrangement is expected to be implemented during the first part of 2015, while it was earlier expected to be launched in the course of 2014.
If implemented, the sale of store sites is estimated to generate a significant non-recurring profit, the amount of which will be specified as the examination progresses.
The preparations to set up a real estate investment trust were announced in a stock exchange release on 29 November 2013.
Further information is available from Arja Talma, Senior Vice President, Store Sites and Investments, tel. +358 105 322 205 and Jarkko Karjalainen, Investment Director, tel.+358 105 322 694.
Vice President, Group Communications
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd
Main news media


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Hot on the heels of Blockbuster UK re-entering administration, the US branch of the company has announced the ending of its long term love affair with physical retail, closing up 300 stores and ending the employment of over 2,800 people.
The announcement was made by parent company Dish Network, suggesting that by January next year, every Blockbuster retail store would close and the rental by mail system would also be shuttered, leaving only the streaming part of the company alive.
“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” said Dish CEO Joseph P. Clayton. “Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we
continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings.”
Initially purchased by Dish back in 2010 to the tune of $320 million, the parent company has done little to innovate the service, instead opting to gradually whittle down locations that proved unprofitable, which at this point in the company's life is almost all of them. Despite having over 4,000 outlets when it was purchased, Blockbuster now has only 300 stores left, with those now facing the last two months of their lives.
A similar situation has been happening in the UK, though ironically the buyout here was hoped to give the new owners a chance to create a digital platform for the UK, but it was repeatedly roadblocked by the people at Dish, in what was either deliberately damaging or at best, a selfish move to not dilute the US Blockbuster @Home and Blockbuster On Demand services.
KitGuru Says: This has been on the cards for years. It's hard to think of the last time I rented anything from a physical store. Six or seven years at least and at least five since I had a DVD through the post.[Thanks GamesIndustry]


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Yorkshire candle business, Supplies for Candles, has employed 35 new staff during the pandemic, doubling head count at its Mexborough headquarters as sales surged during lockdown and have continued to do so since.
Established in 2016, Supplies for Candles is an online supplier of candle and soap making ingredients to a
"It's an exciting time for the business,"
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Erria has contracted an agreement on taking nine new chemical tankers into commercial management.
In a time with every shipping company trying to reduce their fleets as much as possible, the Danish shipping company Erria moves in the opposite direction. The shipping company has contracted an agreement on taking nine new chemical tankers into commercial management. The new chemical tankers will become part of the fleet of the shipping company as they are delivered from shipyards in Turkey. Thus, the tanker branch of Erria will by the end of 2010 reach 31 ships in commercial management. Since autumn 2008 the shipping company has made contract on taking 17 ships into commercial management.
The announcement of the new ships comes only a few days after the shipping company succeeded in cancelling an agreement on a contracted chemical tanker in a Turkish shipyard. However, the shipping company will continue to receive two other chemical tankers from the same shipyard.
The expansion continues, now with a fleet marked by increasingly greater weight on ships in commercial management, which will limit the risks of the shipping company.
Erria's speciality is chemical tankers that constitute 75 percent of the fleet. The last fourth is feeder ships.
Erria, which was stock registered in 2007, expects a surplus close to 13 million DKK in 2008.


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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Experian, one of the big three credit bureaus, for misrepresenting its Plus scores as the same ones used by credit grantors in making lending decisions. Here’s the story.
In Florida, you can’t call skim milk “skim milk” on the label unless it contains added vitamin A. One dairy wanted to sell natural skim milk, without the vitamin additive, but the state would not let them
The personal information of tens of thousands of customers of Saks Fifth Avenue has been publicly available in plain text online, according to a story in Buzzfeed. Until recently, unencrypted, publicly accessible web pages on the site


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The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) has welcomed the implementation of the freeze on beer duty from today, which was announced by the Chancellor Phillip Hammond in the autumn Budget.
During a visit to a brewery in Liverpool today, the Chancellor praised the contributions made by the British beer and pub sector to the economy and communities.
An increase in beer duty would have come into effect today had the Chancellor not chosen to freeze it for another year. The BBPA calculates the decision will save pubs and pub-goers £110 million, helping to secure upwards of 3,000 jobs that would have otherwise been lost.
Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the BBPA, said: “Clearly, the Chancellor listened to the 116,000 people who signed the petition to cut beer tax in his last Budget. Pubs are so important to their local communities, and 82% of the beer we drink here is brewed in the UK, so it is great to see the Chancellor supporting a great British industry.
“Freezing beer duty is a big helping hand for pubs across the UK that are struggling. I hope we can build on this in the future, and we will continue to celebrate the vital role that local pubs play in communities, and highlight the ongoing pressures they face by supporting the Long Live the Local campaign.
“The Chancellor’s decision to review small breweries’ relief is also most welcome and now under way.”


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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp will plead guilty and pay $1.19 billion ($892 million in the Iran case) to settle allegations it violated U.S. laws that restrict the sale of American-made technology to Iran and North Korea, the company and U.S. government agencies said on Tuesday. ZTE entered into an agreement to plead guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, obstruction of justice and making a material false statement, the U.S. Justice Department said. The Commerce Department investigation followed reports by Reuters in 2012 that ZTE had signed contracts to ship millions of dollars worth of hardware and software from some of the best-known U.S. technology companies to Iran’s largest telecoms carrier. Between January 2010 and January 2016, ZTE directly or indirectly shipped approximately $32 million of U.S.-origin items to Iran without obtaining the proper export licenses from the U.S. government. ZTE then lied to federal investigators during the investigation when it insisted that the shipments had stopped, Justice said. It also took actions involving 283 shipments of controlled items to North Korea, authorities said. Shipped items included routers, microprocessors and servers controlled under export regulations for security, encryption and anti-terrorism reasons.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.


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Along with eight states, the US Department of Justice is suing Google for cracking down on the company’s advertising business. In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Virginia, the agency accused Google of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising market. “Google’s anti-competitive behavior has raised barriers to entry artificially high, forced key competitors out of the market for ad technology tools, discouraged potential competitors from entering the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged,” it said. Ministry of Justice.
“Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive ad tech sector,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. “It largely duplicates a baseless case by the Texas attorney general, much of which was recently thrown out by a federal court. [The] The Justice Department is fighting a flawed argument that will slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and hinder the growth of thousands of small businesses and publishers.”
Like Bloomberg notes that the case represents the first significant attempt by the Biden administration to challenge the power of one of the nation’s largest technology firms. The agency previously sued Google in 2020. At the time, the Justice Department, under Attorney General William Barr, said the company had a monopoly on search and search-related advertising. It also took issue with the terms surrounding Android, which the Justice Department said unfairly favored Google by forcing manufacturers to preload their devices with the company’s apps and search engine.
Google has faced intense regulatory scrutiny over its influence in the digital advertising market. In 2020, Texas filed a multi-state lawsuit accusing the company of using its “monopoly power to control” ad pricing. A year later, the European Commission launched an investigation into the company’s advertising business, a move that appears to have forced Google to rethink how it handles ads on YouTube. Last year, the Senate also introduced legislation designed to prevent companies like Google from participating in more than one part of the digital advertising ecosystem.
“Having intervened in all aspects of the digital advertising market, Google used anticompetitive, exclusionary and illegal means to eliminate or seriously diminish any threat to its dominance of digital advertising technology,” the Justice Department said in its latest complaint. It accuses Google of using acquisitions to eliminate both “actual and potential” competitors, in addition to abusing its market dominance to prevent publishers and advertisers from effectively using competing products. “Whenever Google’s customers and competitors responded with innovations that threatened Google’s hold over any of these ad technology tools, Google’s anticompetitive response was swift and effective,” the Justice Department said.
In a blog post published after the Justice Department’s lawsuit was announced, Google accused the agency of “trying to rewrite history at the expense of publishers, advertisers and Internet users.” Specifically, Google says it is contesting the Justice Department’s request that the company spin off AdMeld and DoubleCheck, two ad technology firms that Google acquired more than a decade ago. “These transactions were reviewed by regulators, including by [the] DOJ and allowed to proceed,” Google says.
Google also claims that competition in the ad tech sector has increased significantly in recent years. For example, the company points to Microsoft’s recent purchase of AT&T’s former ad-tech wing Xandr and notes that the acquisition enabled Microsoft’s “landmark” ad deal with Netflix. “The government did not challenge this acquisition,” Google states.
Google also accuses the Justice Department of misrepresenting how its ad products work. The company says its suite of products work with competing technologies, making it “easy” for publishers and advertisers to choose the services they want to use. “No one is forced to use our ad technologies — they choose to use them because they’re effective,” Google claims.
One estimate suggests that Google controls as much as 26.5 percent of the US digital ad market. The company’s ad unit is expected to generate about $73.8 billion in U.S. ad revenue next year, with much of that money coming from search ads.
Update at 4:04 PM ET: Added more context from Google.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at time of publication.


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The Future is Here: Jaguar F-Type 75 Special Edition
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The reporter also questioned some of the sales claims Goldline associates made during phone consultations. Perrotta said Goldline told callers they should invest as much as 20 percent of their portfolio in gold. "Most financial advisors say five to ten percent of your portfolio in gold is a good inflation hedge," Perrota said. "Is it good advice? I don't think it's good advice."
The report examines Goldline's assertion that customers should consider buying collectable coins to protect themselves from having the government confiscate their gold. That pitch appears to be a central feature of the company's effort to persuade customers to buy coins, despite a mark-up that can run as high as 35 percent.
Company sales associates told the Consumer Reports caller that after the Great Depression, the U.S. government seized peoples' private stashes of gold, and warn that history could repeat itself. In fact, the report notes, the U.S. government paid market price, and took that unusual step to prevent people from hoarding bullion while American currency was on the gold standard, the Consumer Reports article says. An expert quoted in the report called confiscation today "a non issue."
"Are you worried about the government confiscating your coins? I'm not," Perrotta told ABC News.
Of course, Goldline isn't unique in this area. To anyone who believe they are, I suggest taking some time and watching a shopping channel when the numismatics show comes on.


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(Pocket-lint) - Ahead of IFA 2013 Samsung has let two announcements out of the bag a little early. Sammy has been busy cramming pixels into massive displays with commercial buyers in mind.
The first is a 98-inch Ultra High Definition (UHD) large format display (LFD) – yup there's an abbreviation for that too now, supporting the rumours there are more to come at IFA 2013. This beast manages to offer near 4K quality by squeezing out four times the resolution of a Full HD display. Sammy plans to line three up for a whopping 171-inch mega-display at IFA – we'll get you a snap once we're in the door.
The second announcement comes in the form of a 31.5-inch UHD monitor. This is the largest monitor Samsung has made so it's gone all out and made sure it's super sharp with 8.3 million pixels (compared to 2.07 million in a full HD display). For the pros multiple calibration options are available including a 25-section split for colour balancing and separate software for adjustments to the one billion colours which support 99 per cent of the Adobe RGB colour space.
We asked for pricing and release date but were told they're not being announced yet. We expect, since they're aimed at commercial buyers, they won't be cheap.


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Face coverings worsening acne for some people
DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) -
Employers, businesses and even mayors are requiring people to wear masks, but for some people they are causing skin issues like pimples, blackheads, and rashes.
Face masks are the new normal, but some people are experiencing dry, flaky skin and even acne from wearing them.
“We are seeing exaggeration or worsening of acne since everyone has been required to wear masks. we’re also seeing perioral dermatitis and contact dermatitis from the mask,” says Affiliated Dermatology PA-C Kelli Heer.
Those with acne pronged skin are the highest risk to develop the worst cases.
“The longer you wear the mask the more it occludes the pores and more worsen your acne,” says Heer.
It could be the fabric the mask is made of, the material of the strap or even what it is washed in that’s causing the problem.
Rachel Brooks, a certified physician assistant at Dermatology Specialists in Dothan, recommends washing your face a soon as you take your mask off to remove the oils.
She also suggests wearing tinted SPF instead of makeup and heavy cream when wearing a mask.
While cases are at an all-time high, mask-ne is not a new issue.
“We do see the same problem with athletes during football baseball softball season when they have to wear helmets and chin straps so it’s the same concept,” says Heer.
Dermatologists say products like retinoids that help prevent acne and remove dead skin cells and vitamin c that helps protect the skin and reduce inflammation can aid with “maskne”.
If over the counter medicines are not working and your condition is worsening you should call your doctor a call to be evaluated.
Copyright 2020 WTVY. All rights reserved.


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The Tasty Baking Co. prides itself on providing fresh products every day -- but struggled with outdated technology that stuck the 80-year-old Philadelphia company with stale data.
To improve operations and expand its business outside the northeastern U.S., the company's new management team wanted to update its technology.
"You can't have business as usual today, and be competitive," said Brendan O'Malley, director of enterprise applications. "We needed better information about what we were doing, what our customers wanted and we wanted to implement it quickly."
The nation's fourth largest bakery, the Tasty Baking Co. sells 4 million cookies, doughnuts and pies every day under the Tastykake brand name and earns $259 million per year.
Its previous system was outdated and unsupported, leaving Tastykake executives feeling as though their technology platform was burning out from under their feet.
Tastykake considered SAP AG and Oracle Corp., though they worried about receiving enough attention from two of the largest companies in the world.
"Were they really going to listen to us, did they really care about the midmarket?" O'Malley questioned.
Some thought the fix was in because O'Malley had spent the previous 10 years working as a systems integrator for Oracle. Instead, the overwhelmingly positive customer references SAP provided the company swung the business its way.
To accomplish the implementation quickly, Tastykake chose Deloitte as its integration partner because of the prepackaged SAP software it offers retail and other niche companies. Tastykake felt that was important because it wanted to avoid starting with a blank slate and get the project finished quickly. Ten months later the SAP software went live.
The greatest challenge Tastykake faced when implementing SAP was devoting sufficient internal resources to the project, O'Malley said.
Now, SAP software allows Tastykake to track its products from its raw materials, through the finished goods and to the final sale.
SAP's modular nature also fits well with the different requirements for dairy, meat, beverage and general food products.
Besides freshening up its IT needs, SAP also brought Tastykake into compliance with new levels of food tracking and traceability required by recent bioterrorism legislation as well as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The company's problems haven't changed since implementing SAP, O'Malley said, but the software provides more and better information in order to diagnose those problems.
For example, O'Malley said, in the past problems with stale cookies took several days to diagnose and solve. Now, real-time tracking can immediately identify where the problem occurred.
With implementation completed last November, O'Malley said he anticipates using SAP for even more analysis, like demand forecasting, supply chain management and executive reports.


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Caterpillar Tractor Co. said yesterday it earned a profit of $198 million in fiscal 1985, halting three straight years of deficits that totaled nearly $1 billion.
Hughes Tool Co. and Olin Corp. each posted decreased net income for the fourth quarter of 1985 compared with the same period in 1984, but Singer Co. said its net income rose in the period.
Caterpillar, the world's leading manufacturer of heavy construction equipment, said its profit ($2.02 per share) came on gross sales of $6.73 billion -- an increase of 2 percent, or $149 million, over 1984, when Caterpillar lost a record $428 million.
Caterpillar's previous annual losses were of $345 million in 1983 and $180 million in 1982 -- its second-ever red-ink year and first one since 1932.
In the fourth quarter, the Peoria, Ill.-based company said it earned $87 million in pre-tax profits, compared with a $251 million loss in the final quarter of a year earlier.
Caterpillar said fourth quarter's sales of $1.8 billion were 9 percent higher than 1984's fourth quarter.
*Hughes Tool Co. reported a drop in net income for the fourth quarter of 1985 compared with the 1984 period, but also reported an increase in sales for the entire year.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, sales were $313.6 million, down 7.2 percent from $337.8 million a year ago. The company had net income of $560,000 (1 cent a share) compared with $11.4 million (20 cents) for the fourth quarter of 1984.
For the year ended Dec. 31, Hughes reported sales of $1.26 billion, up 3.7 percent over sales of $1.22 billion in 1984. Net income for the 12 months was $4.1 million (7 cents) compared with a net loss of $133.8 million ($2.40) in 1984.
The 1984 loss included pre-tax write-offs of $174.3 million. The effective tax rate was 67.7 in 1985 and 29 percent in 1984.
*Olin Corp. reported a 31.1 percent drop in net income for the fourth quarter of 1985, compared with the same period in the previous year, and said a restructuring caused a $165.3 million loss for the year.
The Stamford, Conn.-based conglomerate said its fourth-quarter net income fell to $8.4 million (37 cents a share) from $12.2 million (54 cents) in the corresponding 1984 period.
The latest period's income, however, was up 6.3 percent from income on continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 1984, which was $7.9 million (35 cents a share). The company recorded $4.3 million of fourth-quarter 1984 income from its Ecusta paper business, which it sold in the third quarter of 1985.
Revenue for the fourth quarter was $390.6 million, down from $431.7 million in the same period in 1984.
The 1985 loss of $165.3 million is a deficit of $7.19 a share. In 1984, Olin had net income of $88.7 million ($3.81). Operating income from continuing operations was $39.7 million ($1.73), down 46 percent from 1984's $73.5 million ($3.15).
Revenue in 1985 was $1.75 billion, down from $1.8 billion in 1984.
*Singer Co. reported its net income rose 38 percent in the fourth quarter of 1985, compared with the same period in 1984.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company also reported a 26 percent increase in net income for all of 1985, compared with 1984. For the fourth quarter of 1985, the aerospace electronics and consumer products maker earned $27.9 million ($1.48 a share), compared with $20.2 million ($1.07) in the last quarter of 1984.
Fourth-quarter revenue was $659.4 million, down from $680.2 million in the previous period.
For 1985, Singer said it earned $82.3 million ($4.30), up from $65.1 million ($3.41) in 1984. Revenue for the year was $2.4 billion, down from $2.5 billion in 1984.


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Lost in the shuffle of Apple's record breaking earnings last quarter, and the hoopla over the potential for an Apple v. Palm courtroom showdown, is the fact that Apple's beloved hobby, the Apple TV, is still chugging along and ratcheting up impressive sales. Apple's earnings report shows that sales of Apple TV are up three-fold from the same quarter a year-ago, and Tim Cook's comments during the conference call indicate that not only has Apple not given up on this 'hobby', but that it plans to keep on investing in it.
"We still consider this a hobby, but it is clear that the movie rental business has really helped Apple TV, and there are more and more customers that want to try it. We will continue to invest there because wefundamentally believe there is something there for us in the future."
As more and more people use their computers to watch TV content, an updated Apple TV would make a huge splash if was better equipped to stream content from other content providers such as Hulu. At the same time, Apple wants users to download content via iTunes, not stream it for free from another company. That said, if customers are already flocking to sites like Hulu to catch up on episodes of LOST and Prison Break for free, wouldn't it make sense for Apple to allow customers to do that via the Apple TV? While content is still king, iTunes is a good example of how the conduit for delivering that content can be just as important.
Lastly, Cook noted that the "movie rental business really helped Apple TV", and with that in mind, Apple will hopefully beef up its severely thin library of movie titles in the iTunes Store sometime soon!
This story, "Apple TV Sales Triple" was originally published by Network World.


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Intel Costa Rica announced last week the closing of 40 jobs in its technical support and information call centre. But, it announced the opening of 50 positions in central engineering, human resources and information services.
For now the company is denying any plans to close shop. Intel’s Corporate Affairs Manager for Central America and the Caribbean, Karla Blanco, assures that the multinational is committed to Costa Rica and expects a positive future.
With the respect to the head office’s announcement last year of a global restructuring, Blanco denied the possibility of Intel leaving Costa Rica any time soon, insisting that it will keep its presence in the country.
According to Blanco, the 40 employees with job cuts are not being laid-off, they are being given the option to apply for the available positions. However, they must meet the requirements and follow the internal recruitment process.
CRHoy.com, posed the question of the possibility of an Intel closing to Costa Rica’s vice-president, Luis Liberman, who headed one of Costa Rica’s largest private banks before entering politics and who has been the Chinchilla government’s spokesman on economic issues, said he has no information about the Intel case and questions should be referred to the Ministerio de Comercio Exterior (COMEX) – Ministry of Foreign Trade.
At the COMEX, minister Anabel Gonzalez, is mum on the subject. Gonzalez did not answer media questions, the government agency preferring to reply through the press office that the question should be directed to the company (Intel).
At the Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo (CINDE) – Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives – the director, Gabriela Llobet, also deferred the questions be put to Intel.
Intel has been invested in Costa Rica since 1997 when it built a US$300 million semiconductor assembly and test plant as the country’s free-trade zone regime helped attract other multinational companies.
In January this year Intel announced plans to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5% this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales, shifts focus to faster-growing areas, according to Reuters.
The announcement, equivalent to over 5,000 positions, comes a day after Intel posted a fourth-quarter earnings report that did little to dispel concerns about a slowing PC industry. “This is part of aligning our human resources to meet business needs,” spokesman Chris Kraeuter said.
Also in January this year, Intel Corp told Reuters it expects to make a decision this year on the location of a new multi-billion dollar semiconductor plant using new 10 nanometer technology. Israel is one of a number of countries competing to host the new plant.
In October 2011, Michael Forrest, Intel Costa Rica’s general manager, told Bloomberg the world’s biggest chipmaker decided against a large investment in Costa Rica in 2010 due to “uncertain fiscal policies”.
“Intel makes future investments on a long-term horizon, and one of the things we consider very seriously is fiscal policy stability and consistency,” said Forrest, who participated in panel discussion of foreign business owners and managers in San José. “If there are fluctuations and instability of fiscal policies in certain countries, those countries are removed from investment consideration.”
Intel exports about US$2 billion dollars, representing about 20% of the total exports of goods in the country and the equivalent of 6% of the Gross Domestic Product.
According to COMEX, in 2013, the largest category of goods exported was processors and controllers for over US$2.37 billion dollars.
In January this year, the Promotora de Comercio Exterior (PROCOMER) – Foreign Trade Promoter – estimated that the export of electronic components for microprocessors will be US$2.388 billion dollars.
Currently, Intel employs 2.700 in Costa Rica, this after last November’s elimination of about 100 positions in the production department.
With notes from CRHoy.com, El Finaciero, Reuters, Bloomberg, CINDE, PROCOMER and COMEX


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As far as American supercars go, there has basically been two longest-running ones from mass market manufacturers are the Chevrolet Corvette and Dodge Viper. Most of the automotive world has already turned their attention to the much-awaited Chevrolet Corvette C7, due at next month’s North American International Auto Show.
The current Corvette C6 has been on the market since 2006 and is nearing the end of its life cycle. Motor Trend decided to think out of the box though, choosing to pit the all-new 2013 SRT Viper against the much-older Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Easy winner, right? Not so.
You’d think this test would highly favor the SRT Viper given that it is brand-new. It didn’t quite work out like that though, and SRT boss Ralph Gilles isn’t happy about it. MT decided to pit the two given that their specifications sheets are matched very closely. We’d never realized it, but the new Viper and older Corvette ZR1 are just 2 horsepower and 4 pound-feet of torque apart. The Viper comes in at 640 hp and 600 lb-ft while the ZR1 posts 638HP and 604 lb-ft. What’s more is that they have an identical power-to-weight ratio.
As part of the test, MT put race driver Randy Pobst behind the wheel of the two cars at Laguna Seca. At the track Pobst piloted the Viper to a 1:35.77 time. Impressive, right? Absolutely – it is better than exotics like the Ferrari 458 Italia. However, it is 2.1 seconds less than the 2013 ZR1’s time of 1:33.70. That time is good enough to set a new lap record at the track, besting the previous time of 1:33.99 set in a Dodge Viper ACR. After the test was completed, Gilles posted on Twitter his frustration. “We’ve tested both cars at several tracks and never seen a gap like that” he said. He also took aim at Probst and the MT crew:”Randy has always struggled with the Viper….raise your game and you’ll find the last 10 percent.” Nothing like some competition eh? This is far from the last word on the issue – we’re sure to hear more from the SRT camp in the near future.


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Today, 85% of venture capital funded start-ups are led exclusively by men
In a bid to give female entrepreneurs a leg-up into the ever-competitive beauty industry, LVMH-owned beauty retailer Sephora has announced the launch of a new programme, Sephora Accelerate.
The programme is calling for applications to be submitted for a chance to secure one of up to ten places on the year-long programme, with the first cohort due to be announced in March.
The programme will be run under the Sephora Stands initiative, the company’s social impact proposition centred on philanthropy and aligned social engagement, with the aim to inspire confidence in women. Sephora’s goal is to support more than 50 female-led beauty businesses in the US by 2020. Today, 85% of venture capital funded start-ups are led exclusively by men, according to a study called the Diana Report Women Entrepreneurs in 2014: Bridging the Gender Gap in Venture Capital.
Calvin McDonald, President and CEO of Sephora Americas, said: “Sephora is uniquely positioned to support and inspire women as they achieve their goals, and from the beginning, it's been among the top requests from both our clients and our employees. While past efforts have been effective on a local level, Sephora Stands is a holistic new strategy, spearheaded by our Head of Social Impact, Corrie Conrad, which allows us to better leverage the depth of our expertise and the incredible passion of our employees for a more focused result.”
Successful applicants to the Accelerate programme will be invited to take part in a ’bootcamp’ at Sephora’s headquarters in San Francisco, which will focus on how to build their businesses. They will also be offered mentorship from beauty industry leaders and will be eligible for potential funding through Sephora.
Sephora also plans to hold in-store Classes for Confidence in April this year. The complimentary classes aim to help inspire confidence in women going through or facing major life transitions.