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August 8, 2014
Researchers have noted that in kindergarten, boys and girls are equally interested in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions. But, by the time they graduate from high school, male students are twenty times more likely than female students to have retained their interest in these fields!
Some researchers have suggested that, among other factors, gendered children’s toys may play a role.
When it comes to toys, female dolls and other characters are almost always babies, brides, or princesses, and are usually presented in “ultra-feminine” clothes and colors (thanks, Career Barbie collection). Fortunately, the Danish company, LEGO, is finally taking a step in a new direction by offering a collection featuring female characters in various STEM professions.
Today’s Link offers a visual snapshot of gender-themed toys— where they have been and how they might continue to evolve. While we might have to take extra time to seek them out, there are positive and realistic options for our youngsters. Barbie doesn’t get to dominate our girls’ playtime anymore.
posted by Corbin Lambeth


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This year may be remembered as the year electric vehicles entered the mainstream. EVs and AFVs have consistently seen the largest percentage increases in registrations through H1 of 2019 and there were an overwhelming number of EVs and AFVs on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Given that the motor retail sector has been selling internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles for over a century – Motor Trader itself has been published since 1905 – the introduction of an entirely new engine type presents an array of challenges and questions for dealers, revolving around training for salespeople and technicians, health and safety, additional costs and dealership standards.
Steve Nash, CEO of the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), said: “We’ve seen 100 years of evolution in the same technology. While the ICE is unrecognisable to what we had 50 years ago, it is still the same technology. A full EV is completely different.”
Nash and his colleagues at IMI have been working, for some time, with government, to implement standards for dealers retailing EVs. These largely cover training, with the IMI looking to ensure that technicians are prepared and indeed appropriately qualified to work on EVs, which represent a significant risk due to their high voltage innards. This training is applicable to the whole industry.
The result of this work is TechSafe. Nash stresses that this means technology safe, not technician safe, as it has a broader range. TechSafe aims to educate anyone who would come into contact with an EV in any way, be that a technician, a dealer or even the general public.
Nash said: “We really can’t have a situation going forward where complex technologies such as EVs are put in the hands of people that don’t have the right skills, simply because, in some cases, there are direct health and safety issues. In others there are direct public safety issues.
“We need to be able to not only allow employers to prove that they’ve invested in the training of their staff that will come into contact with EVs, but that those people have maintained their skills. It is also important for the public to know they have been trained correctly.”
Training for dealership staff is split into levels. “In essence,” said Nash, “It basically means that depending on the level of work you’re likely to be doing, you need to demonstrate your skills either at level two, three or four.
“Level two covers how to make the car safe and be able to work around it. Level three would be how to make a high voltage electric safe and carry out diagnostic work. And then level four is for those who will be working with a live system. That’s master technician level. People can evidence these qualifications and will go on to our professional register.”
The training, however, does not stop there. Given the rate of development in the technology, Nash pointed out that those working with EVs will need to show continuous development in their knowledge to prove they are maintaining their skills.
“Unless they do their CPD, the qualification will be out of date. This is not actually a million miles away from what a commercial electrician would have to do under the same regulations.”
On the topic of electricians, the IMI has been able to establish that electricity at work regulations do apply to EVs. Despite being written well before the vehicles hit the market, they were written in such a way that they can accommodate advancing technology.
“We spoke to the health and safety executive, which is a body that enforces the regulations and it agreed that they apply. The problem was, the executive didn’t really know how to enforce them, because it didn’t know what to look for. If someone went into a garage to investigate an injury, they might not know how or where to start if the injury was EV related. They need to know whether this is just somebody making a mistake, which happens, or has an untrained person been asked to do a job they’re not qualified or properly equipped for. In that case, the employer is liable.”
Despite their continued growth, EVs only make up 1.1% of cars registered in the UK. Therefore, dealers could be forgiven for sweeping the need for EV trained technicians under the rug and resolving to deal with it later. At present, the number of qualified technicians is low.
Nash said: “There are about 180,000 technicians who are on a daily basis working on servicing and repairing cars in the UK, and those are the ones that we and other bodies know about. There are probably around 20,000 that work under the radar. But, of the ones we know about, 4% of them have some kind of recognisable qualification to work on high voltage vehicles, and they are largely in the franchise sector.”
But the IMI does not expect dealers to make the change overnight. Those that do not come into contact with EVs, such as those who do not stock them or operate in areas where demand is thin on the ground, have no need for such qualified staff. However, Nash highlighted that in the goodness of time the majority of maintenance and repair work will be on EVs.
“There are around 31 million ICE cars on the road today. So they’re not going to dry up overnight. But, it’s estimated that somewhere around 2025 we will be selling more EVs than non-electrified vehicles. It won’t be that long before the work from them is quite significant.”
Another factor to consider, given time, is that older EVs will begin to roll onto the radar of independent garages. Nash said: “In the short term, they will probably turn that work away because there is nobody qualified. But when it becomes a bigger proportion of potential customers it will be difficult to turn it away. And the temptation to say, ‘well, how difficult can it be? Let’s give it a go’ might prevail. And theyWhen it comes to those dealers that don’t want to opt-in to the EV revolution, Nash has some sympathy. “I’ve spoken to some people, even some of our members, who’ve said actually I’m just not going to engage in that, I’ll probably retire first. And that’s fair enough. So we’re just here to say that the industry needs standards, you need standards, because you need to know that you’re protecting your people and liabilities.”
In the meantime carmakers have been pushing ahead with their own schemes. The Frankfurt Motor Show this year showed the scale of their ambitions. And it is not just the major players. MG Motor, which has a UK market share of 0.5%, recently announced its EV standards in the build up to the release of the MG ZS EV. These require MG dealers to have at least two trained EV technicians in the workshop, as well as having showroom staff take a brief course to introduce them to EVs in general. Dealerships are also required to install a 7kW wall-mounted charging point in the workshop, as well as a 22kW charge point outside the showroom entrance so that customers can experience and learn more about different charging solutions and their capabilities. These standards are not optional. All MG dealers must adhere to them or they will not receive the new vehicles.
Harvey France, head of aftersales & parts at MG said: “Dealers cannot, for example, join our franchise unless they have two technicians complete the introduction training. MG is really committed to a good split between ICE and EV, and this is how it will handle the change.”
The training is a nationally recognised Electric Vehicle Awareness training course provided to dealership staff and technicians, which gives an introduction to safe working practices, as well as detailing the dangers of working with electric vehicles.
Mark Hallam, network development manager at MG Motor UK, said: “When compiling these standards, we assessed customer expectations to determine exactly what information and training was required for our staff to best suit their needs. MG is looking at the total ownership experience and these new set of standards will give our customers total piece of mind that they will be fully supported by their local MG franchise dealer every step of the way.
“EVs often receive a lot of criticism due to a perceived lack of an adequate charging infrastructure, therefore the available information on charging points within our showrooms is particularly useful to debunk this myth and highlight their benefits. Our forward-thinking dealers are even welcoming drivers of EVs from other brands to charge on site to support the wider uptake of these environmentally friendly vehicles.”
It is not just dealer based technicians that need to familiarise themselves with the maintenance and repair of EVs. There are now a range of courses provided, including those for roadside assistance technicians. Allianz Partners UK recently confirmed the return of its EV training programme, following on from the success of its inaugural 2018 course, launched in partnership with the Institute of Vehicle Recovery (IVR). The course comes with full IVR accreditation for graduates, plus drivers receive a Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) card after completing seven hours of driver training.
Mark Debenham, UK network manager for procurement and network at Allianz Partners UK, said: “A greater number of manufacturers are offering viable EV options to their customers, and, as the SMMT figures confirm, take up by consumers is increasing. Whether it is a hybrid vehicle or full EV that consumers are opting for, it’s important that the industry has the skill sets to support this changing landscape.
“We are thrilled to announce that course attendees will gain IVR accreditation this year, as we continue to build on the value provided by our EV training programme. We have also added the Drivers Certificate of Professional Competence card to this year’s programme, bringing together a range of vital EV, hybrid and PHEV training tools for course attendees to benefit from.”
As some prepare for the impact of EVs, others are less convinced. In a recent Motor Trader webinar, The steps to sale: making your forecourt work for the business bottom line, in association with Close Brothers Motor Finance, panellists were asked about their thoughts on the growth of EVs/AFVS.
Paul Richards of Crompton Way Motors said: “I don’t think there is a revolution for AFVs yet. People are still confused about it in my opinion and there aren’t enough charging points. Over the next five to 10 years it will continue to build. It’s coming, but it’s not here yet.”
Matt Stott of the Professional Car Agent agreed, adding: “People are confused about the ins-and-out of owning an EV. The manufacturers are pushing it, with long warranties on batteries and great finance options. There isn’t going to be a great demand for the older technology that is being traded in, so it will take a while for the new technology to reach the used car market.”
Nash also mentioned the pressure put on dealers by manufacturers. “I think that the pressure on manufacturers to meet CO2 targets is a massive. That was always going to be very tough to do with ICE. There’s actually some peer pressure among the manufacturers to be seen to be adopting EVs and being early to market.” This pressure has led manufacturers to invest large amounts of money in EV development, and even enter into collaborations to aid their EV programmes. This pressure, therefore, is bound to trickle down to the dealers on the ground, as the manufacturers want to see some return on the money they have driven into EVs.
However, Jason Cranswick, Jardine Motors commercial director and chairman of the NFDA EV Division, feels that it is a dealer’s responsibility to be on the “front edge of technology and innovation”.
“It is our expectation, as well as that of our manufacturing partners, that we recruit and train our staff at the forefront of technical skills. In the Nordic countries EVs have already taken a big slice of the market and, I think that there is opportunity to grow healthy business on the back of EVs in the UK.”
Cranswick also spoke on the role of the dealer in helping to inform the public about the reality of living with an EV. “[Dealerships] are an educational base. We have a role to play in helping educate the public about EVs. We will need to talk about the operating costs, how the buyer is going to charge their vehicle and what it will cost in comparison to ICE cars.”
Cranswick highlighted that investment into customer service is important, especially given the changes in customer habits and the increased knowledge of the average buyer.
“It’s not just about EV, but about customer handling and how we manage systems, processes and data. All of these are essential parts of a successful business in the future. I think that it is a very exciting for the motor industry.”
Despite expectations imposed on dealers regarding the uptake of EV, one thing remains constant – a lack of funding. Dealers must invest in their future rather than being pulled into it by manufacturers. France makes clear that MG is happy to help dealers reach standards by giving them time to have their staff trained. But, they must reach that standard under their own power and funds.
For franchised dealers EVs are already here with new expectations from brands and a new educational role to take on for the public. For independents and those in the used market, there is more time as EVs are only beginning to permeate the market. But, inevitably, they will enter the fray as electrically evolved businesses.

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An Aberdeen vintage shop has relocated to a new premises.
Peapod, which was based on Rosemount Place, has now opened in a new location at 251 Holburn Street, offering a bigger and better space for customers to browse its collections.
Located as its former venue for seven years, the firm offers a range of vintage products including furniture, clothing accessories, records, suitcases, kitchenware and more.
It boasts items for all budgets,
For more information on the store, click here.


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At the same time, the conditions for product support are changing – especially from the point of view of business customers.
Microsoft has recently announced several key innovations regarding its products, as well as their long-term support.
New LTSC for both Windows and Office
Among other things, he said he would launch further releases of the Office suite and Windows 10 this year, which will be supported in the long term within the offering known as the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC).
New versions of both Office and Windows 10 are usually released as the ‘Semi-Annual Channel (SAC)’, so updates (new versions) come every six months. In contrast, LTSC versions come only once every few years – and are supported for much longer.
In the case of the operating system, it should be Windows 10 with a major update of 21H2, as the LTSC version will come in the second half of this year. 21H2 should bring several major news, including a major adjustment to the look and feel of the Start menu, Action Center, or the bottom taskbar. New settings options also need to be added, and original launches of apps originally written for Android may also be available.
This older Windows 10 is completely user-ready, Microsoft has confirmed
As for the office suite, Microsoft has officially confirmed that it will release “Office 2021” this year. This will be a sequel to Office 2019. This is another classic version of the package, so to speak, as Office 2021 will not be offered as a subscription, but will be available for licensing once – Office 2021 remains permanent after purchase, while Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) allows us to use the product only for the duration of the subscription.
Information about the features and capabilities of Office 2021 is tentatively rigorous. Microsoft mentions the tuning of the overall functioning (performance) of Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint applications or the possibility of widespread use of the original Dark Mode.
The new version or generation of the office suite will also no longer be delivered with the Skype for Business communication solution. Instead, teams will be in the package. OneNote will also be present.
Office 2021 can be downloaded through the Microsoft Download Center. There will be 32 and 64-bit versions of the package, from the point of view of operating systems, Windows and MacOS from Apple are supported.
The new office will be designed for both consumers and commercial customers. According to Microsoft, we should expect a commercial preview of the new generation of the package in April.
Change in the length of the support
At the same time, however, the life cycle conditions in the LTSC are also changing. Windows customers (10) can now count on support for five years, so far it has doubled.
However, support for 10 years will remain with the release of Windows 10 IoT Enterprise (LTSC). At the same time, the change does not apply to previous LTSC products – ie Windows 10 1507, 1607 and 1809 releases.
Office 2021 will also be supported for 5 years.


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Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.
Good morning, Marketers, “What was that one taco place we ordered from last summer?”
Search isn’t just conducted on the world wide web — it occurs in inboxes, order histories, the DMs and more. Search engines are focused on helping us find the new information we’re looking for and, although some degree of personalization impacts the results, it’s very difficult to remember which listing you clicked on if it wasn’t in the top positions or a brand you recognize (which speaks to the importance of branding).
Back to my greeting at the top: My partner wanted to order from that same place again and it took us 30 minutes — both searching our inboxes, order histories and various food delivery platforms — to finally find the restaurant. “That is sad,” my colleague Barry Schwartz said when I told him about it. It is sad that platforms haven’t prioritized their internal search features to more quickly and accurately surface our historical interactions — if you’ve ever had to search by date in Gmail, you probably know what I’m talking about. This could have been lost business for that restaurant and, in a more general sense, diminishes our marketing efforts because it’s not very useful to be top-of-mind if the inability to locate a piece of crucial information prevents prospective customers from converting.
Business reopenings have flattened while new leisure and hospitality openings drove growth, according to Yelp
Eighty-five percent of temporarily closed businesses in the U.S. since the onset of the pandemic have reopened as of September 30, 2021, according to Yelp. In Q3 2021, new hotels (up 32% YoY), nightlife (up 30% YoY) and beauty (up 7% YoY) businesses drove openings, although total new business openings nationwide have flattened (increasing just 1% YoY). Consumer interest in the nightlife, fitness and entertainment sectors has also risen substantially — interest in dance clubs is up 67%, yoga is up 41% and indoor play centers are up 204%, for example.
Why we care. These statistics give us a general idea of how local businesses are operating and what’s top-of-mind for consumers. Business reopenings have decreased, which may mean that temporarily closed businesses are becoming less common and that local economies are adapting. While leisure and hospitality drove new business openings, these businesses may still be navigating a labor shortage, which can severely impact the ability to serve customers and undermine marketing efforts. The restaurant and food industry is facing a similar labor shortage, along with rising food prices, which may explain the diminished growth nationwide. In the nightlife, fitness and entertainment industries, consumer interest has exceeded 2019 levels across the board — save for movie theaters — which may indicate less hesitancy among consumers to engage in activities where social distancing is difficult or impossible.
These statistics can be interpreted as generally positive, but it’s important to remember that it’s historical data. The pandemic is still here and so are its side effects: Inflation is at its fastest rate in 13 years, there is a labor shortage in certain sectors, mask mandates remain in effect in some states, certain cities have vaccine requirements for indoor businesses and supply chain difficulties are trickling down to customers. In addition, we are approaching the holiday season, which saw a substantial spike in COVID cases last year — business owners and marketers should have a plan in place should history repeat itself.
Holiday sales are predicted to break a new record even though Cyber Week growth is slowing
U.S. online holiday sales will reach a new record, $207 billion, from November 1 to December 31, according to Adobe’s Holiday Shopping Forecast. That’s up 10% YoY, a strong growth rate after a year in which the pandemic drove customers towards e-commerce. However, major shopping holidays seem to be losing steam (see the chart above): While Cyber Week (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) is expected to drive $36 billion in online spending (17% of the entire holiday season), growth has slowed, coming in at just 5% YoY — half the rate of the season’s overall growth. Nevertheless, Adobe expects Cyber Monday to remain the biggest shopping day of the year, although the three major shopping days (Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving) are growing less than the season overall.
Here are some more quick stats from the report:
- U.S. consumers will pay 9% more on average during Cyber Week this year, compared to the last holiday season.
- Out-of-stock messages are up 172% vs. pre-pandemic period (Jan 2020); and up 360% vs. Jan 2019.
- Online revenue from Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) this year has been 10% higher than 2020 and 45% higher than 2019. Shoppers are also using BNPL for less expensive orders, with the minimum order value dropping to $225 (a 12% decrease YoY).
Why we care. “We are entering a second holiday season where the pandemic will dictate the terms,” said Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights at Adobe, “Limited product availability, higher prices, and concerns about shipping delays will drive another surge towards e-commerce, as it provides more flexibility in how and when consumers choose to shop.”
Additionally, Cyber Week’s diminished growth is something we’re also seeing for other major shopping holidays — Memorial Day, Labor Day and President’s Day grew on average 16 percentage points slower in two-year growth than the seven days leading up to them, according to the report. This may indicate that retailers are spreading out their sales over more days and/or a shift in when consumers are shopping.
After 13 years, Frédéric Dubut, principal product manager, core search & AI, departs Microsoft
After thirteen years, Frédéric Dubut, principal PM manager, core search & AI at Microsoft, announced his departure on Monday. Dubut has been an avid contributor to the search community, lending his insights into the inner workings of Bing for our Bing SEO guide as well as speaking at SMX on webspam and penalties, Bing’s “quest for intelligent search” and more.
Why we care. In addition to being an industry, search marketing is also a community of professionals that do our best to share what we know so that our colleagues and the brands they work for can succeed. In his role at Microsoft, Frédéric Dubut exemplified these qualities and greatly contributed to the industry’s understanding of how Bing crawls, indexes and ranks. Dubut has not disclosed where he’s headed next, nevertheless, we hope the best for him and are optimistic that whoever steps into his now-former role will also be a steward and advocate for SEOs.
Rethinking ROAS, the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines and creative briefs
The ROAS pathology: How revenue-based optimization is selling you short. “As ad channels like Google Shopping become increasingly hands-off in nature, the true competitive advantage will not be in bidding itself,” wrote Mike Ryan, head of retail insights at Smarter Ecommerce, “But rather in being able to determine the actual ROI more realistically than your competitors.” Ryan’s article highlights the potential dangers of ROAS as a KPI and how advertisers can stay ahead of the competition by ditching this metric.
Dive deep into the refreshed Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. On Tuesday, Google announced an update of its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines — the first update in over a year. Jennifer Slegg, founder of The SEM Post and SMX speaker, has published her very detailed guide to all the latest changes, even the ones not mentioned in the change log.
Types of creative briefs. This week’s Marketoonist pokes fun at the many approaches marketers and their agency counterparts take in coming up with a creative game plan. “Because most marketers give insufficient attention to the creative brief, this gives an advantage to the few that do,” said Marketoonist creator Tom Fishburne, “Inspired briefs attract inspired teams and lead to inspired work.”
We’ve curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader
- 5 principles of an ideal SEO team structure – Kevin Indig
- Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai calls for federal tech regulation, investments in cybersecurity – TechCrunch
- Google Centerpiece Annotation – Primary Content Of Page & Site – Search Engine Roundtable
- How to identify ranking gaps in Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) SERP feature using Semrush [Tutorial] – GSQI
- Yoast SEO 17.4: Performance, web stories and News SEO – Yoast


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Sept. 2, 2015
Leeco Steel to Locate S.D. Facility in Brandon
Leeco Steel, Lisle, Ill., has finalized plans for its new distribution center in Brandon, S.D. The 58,000-square-foot facility will be located 13 miles east of Sioux Falls. Construction has begun on the building, which is on track to open in October.
The new fully enclosed, climate-controlled facility will house two 25-ton cranes and a 20-foot by 64-foot oxy fuel table, with the space to store 20,000 tons of steel plate. It has the capability to receive and ship via rail, and has easy access to major highways.
Leeco Steel’s decision to add a north central U.S. location was driven by customers and the markets, say company executives. They determined that establishing a distribution center would be the best way to serve the growing manufacturing sector in the region with more cost-effective supply-chain solutions, quicker delivery and overall customer service.
“Leeco Steel has been servicing this market through our Oshkosh, Wis., and Chicagoland locations for more than 20 years,” says Denton Nordhues, president and CEO of Leeco, a subsidiary of O’Neal Industries, Birmingham, Ala. “This facility in eastern South Dakota places our steel closer to where it needs to be and, therefore, eases the pressure on freight and allows us to get product to the end-user faster. We continually look for ways to best serve our customers, and establishing a stronger Midwest presence was the obvious decision to fulfill that mission.”


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Despite evidence that VW misrepresented emissions data to Indian authorities, the automaker need look no farther than a similar case involving General Motors India to see its actions might not carry a severe penalty....More
Now in its second year, the Alcantara-sponsored International Symposium on Sustainability in Venice, Italy, is focusing on ways to make the automotive industry carbon-neutral. Alcantara CEO Andrea Boragno says his company could be a model....More
An upgraded engine is claimed to propel the new Performance models 0-62 mph in 3.7 seconds, 0.2 seconds faster than for the standard RS6 Avant and RS7 Sportback that have been on sale since 2013....More
Audi Russia’s sales for the first eight months of 2015 totaled 16,359 cars, down 29.4% year-on-year, WardsAuto data shows. Deliveries by rival luxury automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz fell 21.1% and 8.6%, respectively, in the period....More
Ministry of Environment officials have told Korean media that if the tests prove Audi and VW have sold vehicles that do not meet their stated emissions, it may ban the sale of all of those vehicles....More
Some analysts speculate China’s refusal to certify the LG Chem and Samsung SDI battery packs is a response to South Korea’s decision to deploy the U.S.-built Terminal High-Altitude Aerial Defense missile system to guard the country against attacks by China....More
Drawing heritage cues from the first civilian Dodge off-roader introduced in 1946, the '17 Ram Power Wagon picks up design cues from the Ram 1500 Rebel and strength from a heavy-duty chassis and 6.4L V-8 hitched to a Borg Warner transfer case and beefy solid axles front and rear.
We call out vehicles with problematic fit-and-finish, materials, ergonomics or unfortunate design choices. Each of these items resulted in points deducted as WardsAuto editors selected the 2016 Wards 10 Best Interiors.


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Sonic the Hedgehog fan’s Lego set will get official release
Sonic the Hedgehog is getting his own Lego set, thanks to a dedicated Sonic fan and support from the Lego community. The Lego Group and Sega have given the green light to produce an official Sonic Lego set — officially known as the Sonic Mania Green Hill Zone Lego Ideas design — conceived by 24-year-old fan Viv Grannell.
The above image shows Grannell’s idea, which was submitted to the Lego Ideas website. Lego Ideas is a testing ground where brick enthusiasts can propose new sets, which are then voted on by the community, and can eventually become official Lego releases. Grannell’s Lego Ideas submission received widespread community support.
“I’ve been invested in the world of Sonic for almost my entire life, and it’s such a perfect fit for the Lego system that I spent about a year rallying support for it to happen,” Grannell said in a news release. “Having 10,000 people back my design was overwhelming enough, even with friends and family behind me, but having it be selected for further development was the most exciting secret I have ever had to keep!”
A finalized version of Sonic Mania Green Hill Zone is in development. Price and release date were not announced.
Sonic the Hedgehog got the Lego treatment back in 2016, when he appeared in Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Lego Dimensions. That toys-to-life game gave fans a Sonic minifig, Sonic Speedster, and Tornado biplane, all in Lego form.


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VMware Inc. (NYSE:VMW) is purchasing Carbon Black Inc. (NASDAQ:CBLK) at $2.1 billion and Pivotal Software Inc. (NYSE:PVTL) at $2.7 billion. The company plans to complete the deals by the end of January next year.
Acquisitions to enhance VMware’s position to compete
This is the largest acquisition of VMware with the deals building on the company’s strength of helping other companies run their software in their data centers. Once the deals are finalized, they will put VMware in a better position to compete in the security market as well as in modern cloud infrastructure activities.
VMware has not yet talked about the cost of synergies the two companies will bring. However, CEO, Pat Gelsinger, states that as from next year, the companies will be running under VMware. He says that the acquisition addresses two priorities, which are the development of enterprise-grade applications as well as protection of enterprise workload and clients. He added that the move means that the company accelerates its subscription and SaaS offering as well as the expansion of the company’s ability to enhance the digital transformation of customers.
Despite the companies being different, they both focus on modern workloads. Carbon Black offers vital security features in securing of modern applications and infrastructures. On the other hand, Pivotal focuses on the development of modern applications, which is attributed to the company’s Cloud Foundry heritage as well as the recently included support for Kubernetes.
Q2 revenue results and Q3 projections
On Thursday the company announced its Q2 2020 earnings and it reported revenue of $2.44 billion and earnings per share of $1.60. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had projected revenue of $2.43 billion and earnings per share of $1.55.
For the third quarter, the company has forecast revenue of around $2.4 billion, excluding certain items and earnings per share of $1.42. Analysts have estimated revenue to be around $2.45 billion and with earnings expected to be around $1.57 per share.


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Tiffany posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit Monday as increased sales overseas and at new stores helped offset the effects of a weak U.S. economy that has put a strain on consumer spending.
Shares of the jewelry company rose more than 11 percent in premarket trade after it also said it expected robust growth in markets other than the United States and Japan.
Tiffany, like mid-tier rivals Zale Corp and Finlay Enterprises Inc, saw sales at established stores drop in the key November-December holiday period as shoppers held on to their spare dollars or spent them on day-to-day items like food and fuel.
Net income fell 16 percent to $118.3 million, or 89 cents a share, in the fourth quarter ended on Jan. 31 from $140.5 million, or $1.02 a share, a year earlier.
But excluding special items, earnings were $1.27 a share, 6 cents higher than the analysts' average forecast compiled by Reuters Estimates.
Items included charges for discontinuing some watch models after a tie-up with Swatch and loans made to Tahera Diamond.
Sales rose 10 percent, or 7 percent on a constant-currency basis, to $1.05 billion.
For the current fiscal year, the New York-based jeweler said it expected net earnings per share to rise by 11 percent to 15 percent to a range of $2.75 to $2.85.
Tiffany expects overall sales growth of about 10 percent for the year. It reported net sales of $2.94 billion for the previous 12 months.
The company forecast low-single-digit growth in U.S. same-store sales and mid-single-digit growth internationally.
Tiffany shares rose to $43 in trading before the market opened from Thursday's close of $38.60.


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Binance US is asking it’s customers to beta test the upcoming Binance US iOS app.
The crypto trading platform for United States based users,Binance US is asking it’s customers to beta test the upcoming Binance US iOS app.
On 18th December , Binance. US took to its twitter account to announce that the iOS app is now in a beta testing phase,thereby giving importance of the beta testing to a successful app launch, the company is reaching out to its active community to help in testing the app.
The testing will enable Binance.US the opportunity to address possible flaws and also resolve before making the app open for more wider audience. The beta testers will make use of the app over a specific period of time, making a report back in case of bugs or issues and also give feedback about the app which will be of help to Binance.US to decide whether or the app Is ready for full release.
For those who are willing and interested to partake I’m the beta testing of the app should apply at the Binance.US twitter account. It’s not been announced when the beta testing will be made available for Android mobile phone users.
A blog contacted Binance.US about specifics relating to the iOS app but did not receive a response as of press time.
You can buy crypt with debit cards on Binance.US
Binance.US proclaimed in November, that the exchange gives its customers the ability to purchase cryptocurrencies with a debit card, connecting the existing U.S dollar on ramp and off ramp including the automated clearing house (ACH) and bank wire,in September 24th.


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British Prime Minister David Cameron started his four-day-long trade and diplomatic mission to southeast Asia on early Monday by arriving at the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Thirty-one businessmen and trade ministers participated in the southeast Asia tour along with Cameron expecting to sign trade agreements worth more that 1.2 billion dollars.
Before his tour, Cameron said that his visits will be trade centered. He also added that he plans to talk about climate change and to seek collaboration for countering ISIS.
Mentioning the importance of going beyond European borders, Cameron said that "over the next 20 years, 90 percent of global growth is expected to come from outside Europe, and Britain must be poised to take advantage.”
"That's why I'm delighted to be taking British businesses to this vast and dynamic market, securing deals worth over £750 million and creating opportunities for hard-working people back at home,” Cameron added.
Cameron stressed the importance of making trade agreements with growing economies by saying, “We can also open up more markets for British businesses by leveraging the power of the EU's single market with 500 million consumers to secure bold, ambitious trade deals with these fastest, growing economies."
Another reason for Cameron’s tour is to convince the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to make a free trade deal with the European Union, which can provide an income of 3 billion pounds for Britain annually.
Citing a second reason for his southeast Asia visit, Cameron also mentioned that he will discuss the ISIS threat with the leaders and said that “[ISIS] is one of the biggest threats our world has faced. I think Britain can offer expertise on practical counter-terrorism work, dealing with the threat from foreign fighters and investigating potential terrorist plots.”
Cameron’s first tour outside Europe is to include Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.
Cameron is to meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak. Prime Minister Cameron will be headed to Singapore on Tuesday, after visiting Indonesia.
The British government set an economic goal to double the country’s exports to 1 trillion pounds by 2020. In order to achieve this goal, Cameron has worked to boost British economy by signing new trade agreements with developing countries.


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Future sports technology & next generation business insights
Investment is the lifeblood of any business and in sport, the movement of money has reflected profound shifts in everything from geographical power bases to consumer behaviour. The way big and small funds work in sport has changed, too, settling into the rhythms and demands of the industry.
by Eoin Connolly
Where the sports industry goes next
English soccer giants top list created by Sports Innovation Lab.
by Tom Bassam
Disney-owned sports streaming platform ups featured hole live events to 23.
Berlin-based soccer platform raises US$61m to finance acquisition.
5G-powered racing drones to be developed during 2021 season.
by Ed Dixon
Star+ platform to draw from ESPN’s regional rights portfolio.
IOC confirms events programme will also include skateboarding, climbing and surfing.
Business insights & future intelligence delivered to your inbox


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“Kansas City has become the Midwestern mecca for automotive software, so there’s a lot of talent here,” ProMax CEO Mike Dullea said. “There’s a lot of people here that understand what we do, from programming to sales to operations. It’s just a great market if you’re in automotive software.”
ProMax, which serves thousands of dealerships, opened a 30,000 square foot Kansas City office in late December, and employs 30 people locally. ProMax plans to reach 150 local employees in tech, marketing and sales roles this year.
Dullea was previously the CEO of AutoAlert and remains a partner in the Kansas City-based company. Although both AutoAlert and ProMax provide software for dealerships, their core offerings focus on different things. AutoAlert specializes in data mining, and ProMax is changing its core offering from customer relationship management to a customer experience management platform.
Moving forward, ProMax wants to be the market leader in customer experience management in the automotive industry, Dullea said. And Kansas City is the perfect place to achieve that goal.
“Several of the biggest companies in automotive software are in Kansas City right now. It’s kind of a hidden secret, unless you’re in automotive,” he said. “Three of the top five automotive software companies are in Kansas City now, and we’re going to make it four when we get going.”


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Should we shut down the Canton Farmers’ Market because it theoretically poses some competition for Fishers Foods? What’s next, a smackdown on downtown church fish fries and Swiss steak dinners?
I believe in Canton’s restaurants. It’s a tough, tough business to be in, which is why I would rather support Thatsa Wrapp, Samantha’s or the Desert Inn than the hippest chain eateries at Belden Village, which aren’t all that hip.
Ten bucks for a burger beneath a fake palm tree? It’s small wonder that places such as Cheeseburger in Paradise on Dressler Road NW now sleep with the fishes.
That said, the effort to push food-cart vendors out of downtown Canton’s Special Improvement District smells of protectionism. An initial proposal in City Council to charge cart vendors $250 a day to operate makes that clear.
Are we really that parochial?
Should we shut down the Canton Farmers’ Market because it theoretically poses some competition for Fishers Foods?
What’s next, a smackdown on downtown church fish fries and Swiss steak dinners?
NO REAL ADVANTAGE
Some on City Council contend that many of the cart vendors are outsiders who swoop like
vultures without adequate recompense to the city, and that they have an unfair advantage because they have not made a bricks-and-mortar investment.
But some of the owners are Stark Countians who are endeavoring to launch a small business, which is the chief source of job growth, however modest.
No one is arguing that cart vendors shouldn’t have to ante up for the privilege of doing business on public streets, as is the case in other cities, but they hardly have a lopsided advantage. The carts don’t operate at night or on weekends, and not everyone is ginned up to purchase their gyro from a gas-station parking lot.
People who regularly dine at Bender’s won’t stop doing so, simply for the thrill of eating while standing up.
More than a dozen downtown restaurants have closed in recent years, but it isn’t because of cart vendors. This city still has a blue-collar soul. An administrative assistant isn’t going to pay $18 for a lunchtime entree she can’t even pronounce.
No one can dispute that part of council’s role is to go to bat for local businesses. It is not council’s job, however, to limit free-market competition and choice. Also, there are at least two members of council who have direct ties to the restaurant industry and who need to recuse themselves from the issue.
And lest we forget, it was the current mayor who reversed course on granting restaurant patrons an hour’s worth of free parking at the meters during lunchtime, and council did nothing to stop him.
The biggest challenge to downtown’s restaurants is not a falafel cart. It’s the economy, stupid.


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Dozens of brands spent close to $4 million each to run 30-second spots in the Super Bowl. But did they get their money’s worth?
Subway was the top brand in the U.S. for a third year in a row, while two huge tech companies, Google and Apple, which battled privacy issues and product defects, fell down the popularity list.
Anti-virus giant McAfee is catching some blowback from the very strange and very public legal entanglements of its founder John McAfee—even though he hasn't worked at the company for almost two decades.
Retailers apparently aren’t taking any chances on getting holiday shoppers into stores. Sears got the biggest lift in consumer sentiment in October for being early in offering a layaway plan and loyalty program in early October, per YouGov’s BrandIndex.
With back-to-school season in full swing, big-box retailers got a boost with shoppers in August, according to the YouGov BrandIndex, which takes the pulse of consumer perception for more than 1,100 brands and assigns a score ranging from 100 to -100.
In a summer heat wave, it’s hard to go wrong selling cool drinks, which helps explain why brands like A&W, Miller and Diet Pepsi dominated YouGov BrandIndex’s monthly Top 10 list of improvers in consumer perception for July. Coming in at No.


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Discover more from Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 023: Claude: The Sequel
July 14, 2023
Claude: The Sequel
I like to say that today's LLMs are "the worst they'll ever be." And we saw plenty of evidence of that this week, with multiple models getting significant upgrades.
What to watch:
Anthropic released Claude 2, with improved performance on language and programming tasks.
Google updated Bard with 43 more languages and new customization and productivity features.
While not yet official, Meta reportedly plans to release a commercial version of LLaMa for companies to fine-tune.
And a look at Google's Med-PaLM 2, a modified version of PaLM 2 designed to answer medical questions.
While I tend not to cover news coming out of China (there’s only so much I can pay attention to), a tremendous amount of AI progress is happening overseas. This week, the Chinese government published the first version of its generative AI guidelines.
Why it matters:
The guidelines are looser than the draft rules published in April, signaling a more flexible stance from regulators. They go into effect on August 15.
Generative AI tools must register with the government and conduct security reviews. But there are no longer harsh financial penalties for companies that break the rules.
Overseas companies that target Chinese users are expected to comply, making the future of ChatGPT in China unclear.
Elsewhere in Chinese AI:
Alibaba unveils Tongxi Wanxiang, an AI-based image generator to compete with Midjourney and DALL-E.
Huawei releases Pangu Model 3.0, a new cloud-computing model for operations and product R&D.
JD.com launches ChatRhino, an LLM for enterprise users that's being tested internally and will be rolled out early next year.
Deal or no deal
OpenAI inked two deals this week to license content for model training - the AP signed a two-year deal for access to its text archive, and Shutterstock announced a six-year deal for access to its video, image, and music libraries.
Between the lines:
Today's text and image generation models have been trained on publicly available internet data, but that approach faces new challenges.
Multiple lawsuits, including new ones from Sarah Silverman and a class-action firm in California, allege OpenAI and others scraped data without user content and trained on copyright-infringing material.
And sites like Reddit and StackOverflow are beginning to require AI companies to license their content to train future models.
Elsewhere in no deal:
Hollywood actors go on strike and are aghast at a proposal for studios to own actors’ likenesses for future AI-generated content.
A Stability AI co-founder sues the startup after being “duped” into selling his 15% stake for $100 to the CEO.
The FTC sends OpenAI a demand for records about risks tied to its models and a March security incident regarding payment information.
Elon Musk forms xAI to "understand the true nature of the universe." NotebookLM, an AI notebook. "Modern day Robert Oppenheimers" - Anthropic's obsession with AI safety. The last "Attention is all you need" co-author leaves Google. PoisonGPT, an "AI supply chain" attack. A playbook for creating and hosting your own AI companions. AI junk is starting to pollute the internet. CEO roasted after laying off 90% of support staff for AI chatbot. A look at the often overpaid and underworked contractors auditing Bard's answers. Meta unveils CM3leon, a 5x leaner image-generation model.
Catch the latest in AI news by subscribing for free today!


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China has implemented strict new regulations that only allow minors in the country to play video games for one hour a day on the weekends and holidays.
The new restrictions, announced by China's National Press and Publication Administration, will ban minors from playing videos games at all between Monday and Thursday. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, minors will only be allowed to play video games between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., Bloomberg has reported.
China's National Press and Publication Administration announced the regulations on Monday, claiming that they will curb what Beijing describes as youth video game addiction, which authorities say cause a range of societal ills on video game addiction.
Although the regulations don't name a specific age range, past rules placed on minors have targeted those under the age of 18.
It isn't clear how Chinese authorities will enforce the new regulations. However, China has made previous moves to limit gaming — back in 2019, it banned users younger than 18 from playing games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. To enforce those rules, companies like Tencent Holdings have used real name registration and facial recognition technology to limit game playing.
Tencent President Martin Lau cautioned investors in an earnings call earlier in August that Beijing would implement fresh restrictions on video game playing. However, the company also said that minors only represent about 2.6% of its gaming revenue in China.
China represents one of the world's largest video game markets, and has an estimated 110 million mobile game players under the age of 16, according to game analyst Daniel Ahmad.
Gaming is a critical source of revenue and engagement for Apple's App Store. Documents revealed during the Epic Games v. Apple trial indicate that Apple makes up about 23% to 38% of the total gaming transaction market.
Throughout 2020, video games were the biggest sellers on the App Store, representing $47.6 billion of revenue. For reference, Apple took in an estimated $72.3 in the calendar year.


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It has come to the notice of The Ghana Union of Traders Association(GUTA) that government intend removing the Benchmark Value Reduction of 50% that was introduced on some selected items.
We want to appeal to government that the 50% Reduction on the Benchmark Values is the last straw of hope that businesses are holding on in the wake of the outbreak of the covid 19 pandemic.
As you may be aware, world commodity prices have gone up astronomically as well as freight charges, prolonged shipment of goods and other related problems.
This has rendered businesses into near collapse and also led to the unbearable prices of goods in the market for the consuming public who are already suffering from the effects.
With regards to the selected items which include rice, edible oil, biscuits, frozen chicken and other food and essential commodities, we do not have self sufficiency and sustainability in the local production.
For us to surcharge and punish the final consumer who barely have sufficient and affordable alternative will not be fair and disastrous.
We admit that government need to increase her Revenue Mobilisation but this form will not succeed,
as it will rather induce smuggling and other unorthodox ways of clearing goods which has always impeded government from achieving her revenue targets.
We suggest that government should look at the abuse in the system of Warehousing, Goods in Transit, the Tax Exemption Policy and find innovative ways to monitor and control these areas which will definitely stop or minimise drastically the over excessive leakages in the system.
We will also encourage government to only shortlist these selected items to products that borders on Health and Security.
The time is not ripe for the reversal of this good and strategic policy when consumers are suffering due to the high level of prices of goods. Already prices have reached unbearable limits.
We hope government will listen to our plea and help to mitigate the plight of the Business Community as well as the Consuming public.
Dr Joseph Obeng
President of GUTA


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Real (price adjusted) new orders in manufacturing increased by 0.8 per cent on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis in October 2022 compared with September 2022. Excluding large-scale orders, there was a decrease of 1.2 per cent. Compared with October 2021, new orders fell by a calendar adjusted 3.2 per cent in October 2022.
Germany’s real turnover in manufacturing (seasonally and calendar adjusted) declined by 0.2 per cent in October 2022 compared with September 2022, according to provisional figures of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with October 2021, the country’s manufacturing turnover in October 2022 was a calendar adjusted 5.5 per cent higher.
After revision of the provisional results, new orders decreased by 2.9 per cent in September 2022 on August 2022 (provisional figure: minus 4 per cent), as per the report by Destatis.
While domestic orders decreased by 1.9 per cent, foreign orders went up by 2.5 per cent in October 2022 on the previous month. New orders from the euro area increased by 2.6 per cent, and new orders from other countries rose by 2.5 per cent compared with September 2022
The producers of capital goods recorded an increase of 3.2 per cent in October 2022 on the month before. On the other hand, producers of intermediate goods saw a fall in new orders of 1.4 per cent. Regarding consumer goods, orders went down particularly sharply by 6.3 per cent.
Enterprises still have difficulties completing their orders as supply chains are interrupted because of the war in Ukraine and distortions persist due to the COVID-19 crisis. More than half of the industrial enterprises that have been surveyed complained about bottlenecks and problems in procuring intermediate products and raw materials in October 2022, according to the Ifo Institute for Economic Research.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)


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Extra purchase thanks to Scandinavian
Earlier this year Ahold sold 60% of its
participation in Scandinavian sector colleague ICA to co-owner Hakon Invest for
2.5 billion euro. The sales had been taken
into account: in 2012 Ahold had already decided to leave ICA when it could not
get complete control of the chain.
A number of analysts already expected Ahold to use
that money to buy its own shares. A drop of the number of shares in circulation
causes future profits to be divided among less titles, causing the other shares
to rise in value. At the same time however chances for a major takeover diminish significantly. Some analysts believed Ahold was planning on taking over American retailer Harris Teeter, but that has become unlikely now.
Most analysts expected Ahold to reserve 1 to 1.8
billion euro for the purchase. In February of this year Ahold already announced
a buyback of its own shares for about 500 million euro spread across about 12
months. In the end the number is even higher: before the end of 2014 Ahold will buy back two billion euro of its own shares. This would mean that the company would be buying about a sixth of its own value.


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Their existing marketing and advertising campaigns were becoming less and less effective, with the outcome being declining revenues and a lot of stress...
Scottsdale, AZ (PRWEB) March 05, 2013
The owners of a medium-sized mobile home and RV park in Farmington, New Mexico, knew that 2012 was going to be a tough year.
Their local economy was being hit hard by the recession and new environmental regulations were starting to affect major employers in their area. By the end of 2011, revenues had already started to dip.
Despite their best attempts to advertise vacancies and attract new RV business, business was still trending down.
That's when the owners decided to sit down with the owner of marketing company that specialized in working with small to medium-sized businesses and marketing mobile home and RV parks in particular.
"During our marketing strategy session, we discovered that their existing marketing and advertising campaigns were becoming less and less effective, with the outcome being declining revenues and a lot of stress for the owners." said Jason Ayers, co-founder of SendMoreLeads.com and creator of MobileHomeParkClassroom.com
"Their audience was moving online - finding spaces and mobile homes for rent using their smartphones and computers instead of their phonebooks or newspaper classifieds. This is a common scenario with small businesses where the owners wear a lot of hats and don't have someone dedicated to marketing and advertising. After really understanding the challenges and consequences they were facing, we designed a custom solution for them." said Ayers.
After agreeing on the customized solution, Ayers and his team started implementing.
The owners were shocked by the results. In less than a year, their park went from declining revenues to record-breaking revenues and a waiting list full of RV tenants.
In cooperation with the owners, SendMoreLeads.com has released a case study outlining the details of how this small-town mobile home and RV park was able to achieve the results it did.
Those interested in reading the case study can click here or go to http://sendmoreleads.com/marketing-case-studies/rv-park-marketing-online
SendMoreLeads.com specializes in helping small to medium-sized businesses (who understand the value of advertising and marketing) to generate more leads, increase their sales and automate as much of their marketing and sales processes as possible.


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USA Today is an early adopter among big site publishers of the viewable impressions metric.
Gannett Co., Inc. and comScore announced today that the publisher will implement viewable impression measurement across ad campaigns appearing on USATODAY.com. The new USA TODAY offering uses comScore's validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) and Digital Analytix Monetization tools to optimize inventory and validate that digital ad impressions are actually seen by an advertiser's desired target audience. The site attracts advertisers including Sheraton and Best Buy.
A revamped USAToday.com went live on September 15, featuring a de-cluttered layout designed, aiming to provide a better environment for advertisers.
The combo of vCE and Digital Analytix Monetization is comScore's response to the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative, according to Anthony Psacharopoulos, senior vice president, comScore. "We completely reformulated the existing delivery we had. This lets the buyer, whether agency or advertiser, know with confidence that an ad was served in a brand-safe environment, and that it was actually viewed," he noted.
In 2011, the Association of National Advertisers, Interactive Advertising Bureau, and American Association of Advertising Agencies first released a set of principles for digital measurement, dubbed the "Making Measurement Make Sense" initiative. In January 2012, comScore released a report that found 31 percent of online ads purchased by 12 major brands were not viewable by the end user. Its vCE Charter Study found that ad viewability varied widely by site and by format.
The IAB hopes to replace the impressions-served metric with the viewable impressions metric by the first quarter of 2013.
On Monday, comScore announced validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) for Video, a product that measures GRPs, demographics and behavioral profiles of audiences reached by video campaigns, as well as whether video ads were viewable - and viewed - by live humans. The vCE Video client list includes AOL, Casale Media, DataXu and PointRoll.
Forbes Media was the first to implement viewable impression measurement across all display ad campaigns appearing on Forbes.com, as part of its validated Brand Increase Guarantee program, in March.
In early August, VivaKi announced a partnership that will provide vCE metrics for ads placed through the VivaKi Nerve Center's Audience on Demand.
In addition to USA Today and Forbes, Psacharopoulos said that comScore is in trials with approximately 90 out of the top 100 publishers in the United States.
Publishers can use comScore's tools to reduce ad inventory by eliminating ads with low viewability, as well as charge more for ad placements with unexpectedly good viewability, according to Psacharopoulos. Agencies, he said, can get real-time information about whether ad placements are viewable.
"We're seeing viewability in many IOs right now," he said. "We're trying to avoid that make-good discussion at the end of the campaign."
Want to learn more?
Attend ClickZ Live New York March 30 - April 1. With over 15 years' experience delivering industry-leading events, ClickZ Live brings together over 60 expert speakers to offer an action-packed, educationally-focused agenda covering all aspects of digital marketing. Register today!
Susan Kuchinskas has covered interactive advertising since its invention. The former staff writer for Adweek, Business 2.0, and M-Business covers technology, business and culture from Berkeley, CA.
Singapore, 5-6 March
Bangkok, 17-18 March
Hong Kong, April 2015
A Buyer's Guide to Affiliate Management Software
Manage your performance marketing with the right solution. Choose a platform that will mutually empower advertisers and media partners!
Google My Business Listings Demystified
To help brands control how they appear online, Google has developed a new offering: Google My Business Locations. This whitepaper helps marketers understand how to use this powerful new tool.
March 3, 2015
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT


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Apple Announces Q214 Profit of $10.2 Billion, Revenue of $45.6 Billion
- April 23rd, 2014
- Apple Financials
- Alex Brooks
Apple today announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2014 which ran from January 1, 2014 until March 29. Apple posted revenue of $45.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.2 billion, or $11.62 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $43.6 billion and net profit of $9.54 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Gross margin was 39.3 percent compared to 37.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple reported the following number of shipments for its products during the quarter:
- 43.7 million iPhones compared to 37.4 million in the year-ago-quarter
- 16.35 million iPads compared to 19.5 million in the year-ago-quarter
- 4.1 million Macs compared to 3.95 million in the year-ago quarter
- 2.76 million iPods compared to 5.63 million in the year-ago quarter.
“We’re very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market.”
“We generated $13.5 billion in cash flow from operations and returned almost $21 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the March quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “That brings cumulative payments under our capital return program to $66 billion.”
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 third quarter:
- revenue between $36 billion and $38 billion
- gross margin between 37 percent and 38 percent
- operating expenses between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion
- other income/(expense) of $200 million
- tax rate of 26.1%


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INTERPORC is developing an ambitious internationalization plan
The international success of the Spanish pig sector is based "on a highly professionalized production model committed to all consumer demands, among which three main aspects stand out: food safety, sustainability and well-being of animals."
Thus, Alberto Herranz, director of the Interprofessional INTERPORC, has exposed it during his speech at the Welcome Days for the Second Round of Porcinnova Projects.
Herranz has stressed that the Spanish white pig sector works under the European production model, a benchmark in matters such as animal welfare or care for the environment, and has stated that it is necessary to "continue advancing in these areas to comply with the increasingly high demands from consumers around the world and consolidate our international success."
Spain is the third largest pork exporter in the world and the forecasts, as he has advanced, "are very positive, despite the global crisis we are experiencing." In fact, "they point out that exports, by the end of the year will have increased by more than 16% in 2020."
In the international arena, he added, "our mission is to help our companies sell meat and pork products in those markets that, due to their volume, their added value or their future potential, represent a business opportunity for the Spanish sector."
At the national level, he stressed that "it is necessary to communicate and strengthen our image before public opinion, so that they know what we do and what we contribute to society." For the director of INTERPORC is very important the fact that, "we have to be able to transfer to society all the work we do and anticipate consumer demands."
In this sense, from INTERPORC "we work on the positioning, reputation and visibility of the pig sector throughout the entire chain." On the one hand, “in the dissemination of the nutritional qualities of pig products” and, on the other, in "the dissemination of the work of the sector, which follows a sustainable production model and attentive to animal welfare that is an international benchmark."
The US meat industry is slowly getting over the coronavirus effects but for a full recovery is go...


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Ziox Astra Young 4G with 5-inch display, VoLTE launched for Rs. 4795
Ziox Mobiles has launched its latest 4G phone Ziox Astra Young 4G in Indian market. It will be sold for Rs. 4795. Considering the price, the phone has very low specifications and I see nothing that can attract consumers.
Ziox Astra Young 4G comes with 5-inch FWVGA with Dragon trail Tough glass. It has 1.3GHz quad-core processor with just 512GB RAM. The company didn’t confirm the chipset as well.
It runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It also has just 8GB of storage. Even if the company didn’t confirm, the storage should be expandable. The phone has 2 megapixels rear camera with LED flash and VGA front camera.
The phone comes with support to VoLTE and ViLTE for enhanced voice calls and video calls. ViLTE is the only notable feature. The phone is packed with 2200 mAh battery.
It will be available in Gold color with a textured back finish. The phone also supports 21 Indian Languages.
At this price, now companies are offering 13 MP camera, 2GB RAM and more than 3000 mAh battery. Phones like Zopo Color F1, Panasonic P66 Mega and Micromax Canvas Fire 5 offers much better specifications for the same of less price. I am not sure why this phone was priced this much.


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Image-Line has officially announced that it is working on a native version of FL Studio for OS X.
The company had previously tested the waters with a ‘wrapped’ version of OS X – basically the Windows version running in a crossover wrapper that allows it to run on Mac. Now they are moving forward with building a native version.
Here’s what they have to say about FL Studio for OS X: Continue reading
Five12 today announced the fourth major release of Numerology, its modular step-sequencing environment for Mac OS X.
Numerology is a music sequencing and audio plugin environment which uses an approach based on modular step sequencing.
In addition to numerous modernization and usability improvements, Numerology 4.0 adds several new features that expand it’s capabilities in two areas central to its workflow: hardware control & modulation. Continue reading
Data/Debt has released a new Ableton Live/Max For Live device called the APC Mono Sequencer.
It adds Akai APC 40 hardware control to the Live 9 Mono Sequencer. According to the developer, ‘It makes sequencing bass lines an absolute joy’. Continue reading
Here’s the third and final video in developer Michael Tyson‘s development preview of Loopy: Masterpiece Edition.
Tyson, developer of Loopy and AudioBus, is starting development of a new ‘Masterpiece Edition’ of his Loopy software looper for iOS. It will incorporate DAW-like features, including a linear timeline view, track automation and more. Continue reading
Sugar Bytes has released Egoist for iPad – an iOS version of its groove instrument application.
According to the company, you can load any audio file and ‘squeeze the groove out of it’, using sample slicing, effect sequencing, a built-in beat box and more.
Here’s the official intro video for Egoist for iPad: Continue reading
Developer Michael Tyson, creator of A Tasty Pixel’s Loopy and one of the guys behind AudioBus, has announced plans for a new ‘amazing’ version of Loopy. Continue reading
Developer Amedeo Farello has released MidiPatterns 2 – a major update to the multitrack, pattern-oriented, MIDI step sequencer for OS X.
You can use MidiPatterns as a simple drum machine, or to handle complex multi-timbral, polyphonic scores, controlling multiple hardware and software synthesizers at once. Continue reading
Cycling ’74 has released Max 7, the latest version of their visual programming system for audio and video.
Cycling ’74 calls Max 7 a ‘visual programming language for media.’ It works on Mac (OS 10.7+) and Windows (7+), and supports a wide variety of hardware.
Here are the details: Continue reading


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Sunday trading laws will be suspended by the government on eight weekends from 22 July during the Olympics and Paralympics.
In his Budget, George Osborne proposed emergency legislation so large shops in England and Wales can trade for more than six hours.
"When millions of visitors come to Britain... we don't want to hang up a closed for business sign," he told MPs.
But campaign group Keep Sunday Special called the plan "profoundly worrying".
And shopworkers' union Usdaw warned its members "vehemently opposed" the idea.
General secretary John Hannett said: "The government's own consultation just last year showed there is no widespread support from either retailers or the general public for change.
"Deregulation would have a very detrimental impact on the lives of millions of shopworkers.
"Shopworkers are entitled for their views to be heard before any decisions of this importance are made."
Analysts, though, predict the move could lead shoppers to spend £200 million more, with shopping comparison website Kelkoo saying almost half of the extra money would be spent in London.
But ministers hope to see the proposal passed by Easter.
Speaking to BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Mr Osborne said: "We've got the whole world coming to London and the rest of the country for the Olympics.
"It would be a great shame - particularly when some of the big Olympic events are on Sunday - if the country had a closed for business sign on it."
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said there should be proper consultation and careful consideration before implementing change.
"George's people have told the newspapers this is an experiment to change it for the future, breaking up centuries of tradition," he said.
Church leaders acknowledged the Olympics would be a special time, but said they were likely to oppose the move.
Rev Sally Hitchiner, of St John's Church in Ealing, west London, told the BBC: "We're concerned it could become a precedent, we could lose some of the specialness of Sunday.
"Sunday should be a time for relationships, a time when we put some boundaries on consumerism, so you can go to the park and play football with the kids, and take your mum breakfast in bed."
The Sunday Trading Act 1994 states that shops over 280 square metres in England and Wales are restricted to any six hours of continuous trading between 10:00 and 18:00 on Sundays.
And they cannot open at all on Easter Sunday.
The law also includes measures to protect the rights of shop workers who wish not to work on Sunday.
By temporarily suspending these rules, the government hopes visitors heading to London for the Olympics will take advantage of longer opening hours, boosting flagging retail figures.
The Treasury is expected to closely monitor the suspension's effects and has not ruled out a permanent change.
Tory MP Nadine Dorries predicted that Mr Osborne would "face a barrage of criticism" as a result of the move.
She tweeted: "Arrogant to impose without debate and vote of whole house.
"Is the coalition government secretly implementing an anti-Christian agenda. And if so, who is driving it, Cameron and Osborne or the LDs?"
Last year, Conservative MP Therese Coffey warned a temporary change for the Games might become permanent.
On Sunday she said: "I wouldn't stand in the way of shops being open in the Olympic Park during this time.
"But I just remind people that small, independent stores are allowed to open all day and this is an opportunity to celebrate them rather than having big stores open as well."
But party colleague Mark Menzies said he was "absolutely delighted" the plan was being taken up, saying it would "send out a very powerful message that Britain is open for business".
The MP for Fylde, whose background is in retail, said he had "no desire at this stage" to see longer opening hours beyond August.
The director of the Confederation of British Industry, John Cridland, backed the plan, saying: "I think it's going to do a lot for the spirit of Britain and for the businesses for Britain."
ButKeep Sunday Special said the rumours were "profoundly worrying"and that it totally opposed the "unnecessary" move.
'Undermining the principle'
The Association of Convenience Stores warned the move could set an unwelcome precedent.
Chief executive James Lowman said on Sunday: "Any relaxation, even just for London during the Olympics, would erode our existing, popular, Sunday trading rules."
Mr Lowman added that the temporary concession could open the door for the big retail lobby to press for all sorts of exemptions for other events, "undermining the whole principle" of Sunday trading restrictions.
In Scotland, Sunday trading has long been deregulated with shops deciding their own hours.
In Northern Ireland, legislation introduced in 1997 allows large shops over 280 square metres to open between 13:00 and 18:00 on Sundays.


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29 Jun 2022 Cacao water – a multi-crowned super beverage?
It’s time to think beyond the chocolate bar to learn everything the cacao plant has to offer.
Through processing, the chocolate industry wastes up to 70 percent of the cacao plant? What if there was a way to use some of the other parts of the cacao plant and benefit both farmers and the environment?
What’s more, how about consuming this formerly discarded by-product that offers some serious health benefits.
Meet cacao water, the antioxidant-packed beverage that’s poised to become a wellness and sustainability trend – and for good reason.
US producer, Blue Stripes, founded by chocolatier master, Oded Brenner, is the first to market with this innovative product.
It recently unleashed a broad line of cacao-based products made from underutilised and wasted parts of the cacao fruit to Whole Foods stores nationwide and and is about to launch its star product – cacao water – which, Brenner says, has the potential to eclipse coconut water in popularity and with a stronger sustainability story.
Brenner launched Blue Stripes, a café in Union Square in New York City, selling cacao-based beverages and foods including cacao fruit leather and chocolate enhanced with cacao flour.
The idea was to build an all-day consumption image around cacao and eventually become the “Starbucks of cacao,” said Brenner.
But that vision was quickly diminished when the COVID-19 global pandemic hit and shut down much of the food service industry.
Brenner quickly pivoted to retail and put all his efforts into creating a full line of FMCG cacao products with 15 SKUs including cacao granola, trail mix, fruit smoothies, chocolate bars, and cacao water (launching in July 2022).
The line was picked up by small, independent, and specialty retailers in 2021, but this year is when the brand really ramped up distribution, said Brenner.
The brand found success with Whole Foods, which brought on eight SKUs for a nationwide launch in May 2022, and will be adding cacao water in July 2022 and the brand’s cacao bars in September 2022.
“Whole Foods with their visionary buying process said they were interested in this whole story of upcycling the cacao,” said Brenner, who added the the brand is also partnering with DTC retailer Thrive Market on a co-branding project in 2023.
The next coconut water?
Blue Stripes uses a cold pressure process that extracts the juice from the pulp of the cacao fruit to make its cacao water creating hazy water that is both refreshing and palatable, said Brenner.
“The unique thing with cacao and the cacao fruit, is that it’s not an acquired taste. It’s very easy for kids to drink as well as grownups,” said Brenner, who likens the flavour profile to the sweet and sour taste of lemonade with a hint of vanilla – providing a blank canvas for other flavours to shine through such as Blue Stripes’ chili lime and passion fruit flavour varieties.
And on top of the broad flavour appeal, cacao water packs a nutritional and hydration punch (electrolytes magnesium and potassium) and is rich in antioxidants, noted Brenner.
It’s an excellent replacement for sugary sports drinks after a hard workout or on a hot day.
According to the company, one 10.5 ounce bottle of cacao water has an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity – an invitro method used to measure the antioxidant capacity of foods) – of 11,830/100g (blueberries have an ORAC value of 4,669).
It’s also rich in theobromine and contains 4-5g of dietary fibre per serving.
Combining a palatable flavour profile, attractive nutritional properties, and that history shows consumers have embraced unknown superfoods before, Brenner believes that cacao water could one day be as big as coconut water, which has dominated the plant water category for years.
“Most of us never heard about açaí or kombucha before they became popular and cacao is an incredibly healthy, unbelievable superfood.
“I think two to three years from now, we’ll see way more companies doing cacao fruit beverages,” said Brenner, who said the biggest challenge is educating the market on cacao fruit and all of its benefits not only in the area of nutrition but from a sustainability standpoint.
Brenner explained that Blue Stripes has the potential to transform an industry which has been plagued with issues such as pollution from unused cacao waste and worker welfare. By buying the entire cacao fruit from farmers in Ecuador today, Blue Stripes can nearly triple their income.
“I’m just buying from the farmer what he is already growing anyway and that’s an inherently sustainable business model,” he added.


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The car, first registered to MG’s competitions department, is the star of an auction by BCA at Brooklands Museum where the racy two-seater first made history. It is expected to reach £80,000.
The auction on June 2 will feature Edwardian, vintage, thoroughbred and competition cars and memorabilia.
The P-Type was driven by MG works driver Jack Babstock at Brooklands as one of the P-Type Midgets in 1934.
The car also competed in the 1935 season as Cream Cracker II fitted with a supercharger, cycle wings and an aluminium bonnet which remain on the car today. For details on the auction call 01252 877317.
Cream Cracker II under the hammer
THE news about the future of one of Britain’s great sports car marques, MG, might not be very positive but a vintage diminutive 1934 P-Type is set to steal the headlines.


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ZTE is launching their latest gaming smartphone next month under their nubia gaming line, the REDMAGIC 7.
The company has announced today through Weibo that the gaming smartphone will be launched in February. Leaked specs for the smartphone include a 6.80-inch OLED panel, up to 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. The REDMAGIC 7 will come with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It will have a triple camera setup on the back headed by a 64MP main shooter.
The smartphone is expected to come with Android 12 right out of the box and will be powered by a 4,500mAh with a rumored 165W fast charging capability.
The exact date in February has not yet been revealed for the launch of the REDMAGIC 7 so stay tuned for updates.


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Mathematicians at the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) discovered a bug in Intel's Skylake architecture that freezes systems during complex workloads.
On either a Windows or a Linux operating system with varying motherboards and RAM modules, the GIMPS community was able to reproduce the issue via the Prime95 application, concluding that the problem was in fact caused by the sixth-generation processor. Using Fast Fourier Transformations, the software can perform multiplications of extremely huge numbers.
According to user Henk_NL on the Intel thread dedicated to the issue, testers can freeze their systems by clicking on the Advanced tab and heading over to Test on Prime95. Apparently, running the particular value of 14,942,209 in the "Exponent to test" box will cause the bug to appear in "minutes or hours."
On the same thread, Intel has confirmed the issue, and the company has a BIOS solution ready to roll out, reassuring users that the bug will be fixed soon enough.
"Intel has identified an issue that potentially affects the 6th Gen Intel Core family of products. This issue only occurs under certain complex workload conditions, like those that may be encountered when running applications like Prime95. In those cases, the processor may hang or cause unpredictable system behavior. Intel has identified and released a fix and is working with external business partners to get the fix deployed through BIOS," Intel says.
Initially, it was speculated that this could cause a recall similar to the case of the Pentium FDIV bug back in 1994, but it appears that a BIOS update is going to be enough to fix the problem.
To boil things down, it seems that Intel still has a couple of wrinkles to iron out on Skylake processors, and hopefully, the BIOS patch will do the trick. It's also worth mentioning that this proves that the Prime95 is definitely a reliable stability tester.
Meanwhile, other users focused on tapping the overclocking capabilities of Skylake chips, where some enthusiasts were able to improve the performance of the processors back in December 2015.
User Dhenzjen successfully increased the base clock (BLCK) of a Core i3 6320 from 100 MHz to 127 MHz, marking the first overclocked Skylake processor, whereas the user Elmor produced a Core i3-6300 at 152.6 MHz.
GIMPS founder George Woltman developed Prime95, and for 20 years, the community has identified every Mersenne prime since 1996, producing a list of 48 known primes.
To participate in GIMPS, users will only need a fairly up-to-date computer that can stay on most of the time, time and patience, an Internet connection and the necessary software.
In related news, Intel also introduced the new lineup of Compute Sticks with the Core M3-6Y30 and M5-6Y57 under their hoods at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, revealing how the sixth-generation chips considerably improved the performance of the candy-bar-sized computer.
"A tiny device about the size of a pack of gum, the Intel Compute Stick can transform any HDMI TV or display into a complete computer and improves upon the first generation in processing and graphics performance, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and additional USB ports," Intel says.


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Fast-food workers went on strike and protested outside McDonald’s, Burger King and other restaurants in 60 U.S. cities on Thursday,
in the largest protest of an almost year-long campaign to raise service sector wages.
By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
Rallies were held in cities from New York to Oakland and stretched into the South, historically difficult territory for organized labor.
The striking workers say they want to unionize without retaliation in order to collectively bargain for a “living wage.”


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Toyota extends North American production suspension into May
KITCHENER -- Toyota will be extending its North American plant shutdown into the beginning of May.
A spokesperson for the company says the auto manufacturer will keep its facilities closed through May 1 and will resume production on May 4.
The company says the suspension is due to a decline in demand amid the pandemic.
"Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and decline in vehicle demand, Toyota is further extending the length of its production suspension at all of its automobile and components plants in North America, including Canada, Mexico and the U.S.," the spokesperson said in an email.
Toyota has car manufacturing plants in Cambridge and Woodstock.
Service parts operations and logistics centres will reportedly stay open in the meantime to help customers.
Toyota first announced it would be suspending production in Cambridge and Woodstock temporarily back in mid-March, just after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 in Cambridge.
Then, the company extended the shutdown until April 6.
Toyota says that its permanent and contract employees have to use three paid time off days, but will otherwise have their full wages paid through the six-week production suspension.


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Please forgive GWAS' current obsession with Georgina Safe's fashion coverage for SMH, but I'm just fascinated by the spectacle of the GIANT double-page spread, and the commensurate fashion stories appearing earlier in the paper, each Thursday (which, I might add, I get on Fridays...such is rural life).
I was also more than a little smitten to see one of my favourite Sydney fashion designers smiling back from the latest edition (take a bow, Clare Press of Mrs Press) beside Natasha Silva-Jelly's byline. The boutique retail sector is suffering, says Silva-Jelly, "besieged by the new world of e-commerce", but there is hope for those who embrace the internet, mobile, social networking and VIP in-store events, while differentiating their in-store offering and services, just like Press and, at the mass end, Sportsgirl.
As with last week, fashion also got some front-of-book coverage with Georgina Safe's 'Online the new black, but malls still sparkle'. It's a story hooked on the launch of Westfield's online shopping portal, westfield.com.au, which notes half of all shoppers research online before going in-store (they are known as "pre-shoppers") and they spend 41% more in bricks-and-mortar stores (hence, online is not a threat to the Westfield real-estate). Imagine the end to the shopping mall!
Of course, the biggest bummer of all, as far as retailers are concerned, was presented on page one of Thursday's paper by Peter Martin and Philip Wen, accompanied by two young female shoppers and a side-bar showing us consumer confidence has fallen 9% over the past year: "Australians are richer than ever, paying off debt at an unprecedented rate – but still losing confidence in the economy," they write. "Total borrowing by individuals and corporations is down 11 per cent over the year, the biggest slide on record."
The sentiment is echoed in 'New labels struggle to soar': "I was finally getting to a point where I felt like I was getting somewhere after years of working seven days a week, then the GFC halved the business and took us back to square one," says Jayson Brundson, who adds: "Fashion in Australia is a luxury. It's not a culture here. What's more important is having the lifestyle, buying a surfboard, a car or a computer rather than buying a dress or appreciating fashion as part of your culture as you would do in Europe."
Fashion looks prettier than ever in print, but perhaps isn't so safe.
Girl With a Satchel
Girl With a Satchel


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Oh No Says ASA Not Oh Yes
Churchill Insurance, with the bulldog that says Oh Yes, has seen a complaint about their advertising upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
A viewer complained to the ASA as they felt the advertisement suggested a Churchill Insurance customer could make a claim without having to fill any forms in. Upon checking the situation the ASA found that around one in five customers do need to complete a form and this was deemed enough to see the complaint upheld.
Taking on board these findings Churchill Insurance have redone their television advertisements to avoid this misunderstanding happening again.


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Steel manufacturer Cleveland Cliffs (CLF) reported 4Q21 earnings before the open Friday. Despite a less than stellar report, it shows that commodity stocks are the best value in the market.
CLF sold 19% less tons of steel compared to 3Q21 resulting in 11% and 25% sequential declines in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, respectively. In addition, despite an average selling price of $1423/ton in the quarter, CLF forecast an average selling price of only $1225/ton in 2022. The stock is currently -2%.
However, unless you think steel prices are set to fall dramatically – which seems highly unlikely given burning hot inflation – CLF is ridiculously cheap. CLF reported adjusted EBITDA of $5.3 billion for full year 2021 with an average selling price of $1187/ton. Given CLF’s steel price forecast and the state of inflation, it’s hard to imagine adjusted EBITDA being lower in 2022. That means the forward price to adjusted EBITDA multiple is two at most.
While most investors want to pick a bottom in tech, the real value is in the commodity space.


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Seat has decided to cancel its mobility strategy in Spain. According to sources close to the workers, and confirmed by the Spanish brand of cars, to OKDIARIO, the car-sharing projects (‘carsharing’) that were to come to light in Barcelona are canceled, also the service of shared motorcycles that was being prepared in that same city, and where the Ada Colau city council made a regulation that made profitability extremely difficult.
But also, by canceling your shares with Respite, Seat also leaves the incipient businesses of scooters, electric cars in Madrid and many others. In the capital of Spain, Seat operated with its investee Respiro, which had been one of the big bets of the previous CEO of the Martorell brand, Luca de Meo, who will soon enter with full powers as the new CEO of Renault.
According to employees, the company announced that it was going to liquidate Respiro, and that this would be the first liquidation in Seat’s history. However, official Seat sources reject this point, assuring that they have not decided what to do with the company, which has 28 employees. Sources of the same assure that they were communicated verbatim that on July 15 they will be fired and that there is no possibility of relocation in their staff. The brand owned by the Volkswagen group denies that any decision is made.
“To lose money”
The decision is surprising, but not so surprising, considering that Luca de Meo, the company’s former president, already claimed in September 2018 that the profitability of the shared car was complicated. In February of that year, he acquired Respiro, a startup to enter the car-sharing business, but the Italian manager thought that it was actually a dilapidated business.
In a meeting with the Luca De Meo press at the Seat facilities in Martorell (Barcelona), the executive assured that most car rental companies are in deficit: «Look at the accounts of all of them, they lose money, because At the moment there are too many expenses and the demand is not enough. Users who use carsharing also have their own vehicle, so this system is not serving to remove vehicles from city streets. ” Therefore, “until the cars move on their own and are engineered, this business is not going to be profitable,” which can take more than a decade to occur.


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Coming to the 54th Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City from June
NEW YORK, June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- WORLDFOODS provides the perfect product for those with food allergies, are lactose intolerant, vegetarians, vegans, celiacs and health conscious foodies that don't want to lose out on great taste. WORLDFOODS offers an exciting variety of 59 types of sauces that include stir-fry sauces, dipping sauces, ready to pour sauces, noodles sauces, pastes, salad dressings, chutneys and marinades. WORLDFOODS will be at the 54th Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City from June 29-July 1st.
WORLDFOODS products are 100% natural and do not contain artificial colors, artificial flavoring, artificial preservatives, cholesterol, fish/shellfish, eggs, gluten, milk/lactose, MSG, sesame, soy, peanuts and genetically modified ingredients. "Each product is designed for convenience so consumers can have the great taste of Asian food without the hassle of putting together an endless list of Asian herbs and spices," said May Foong, Brand and Business Manager, WORLDFOODS. "It's a great tasting option for families who want to provide their children with healthy delicious food free from worry."
According to Packaged Facts, a New York research firm, the market for food-allergy and intolerance products is projected to reach $3.9 billion this year. And the market for gluten-free foods and drinks is expected to hit $1.3 billion by 2010, up from $700 million in 2006, according to research firm Mintel. An estimated 12 million people in the United States have food allergies, and another 2 million have celiac disease, a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks itself when exposed to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.
You can find WORLDFOODS products in Whole Foods, Nugget markets, Rainbow market, Cost Plus World Markets and specialty and natural outlets.
Based in Malaysia, WORLDFOODS was first established in 1998 with the vision of creating a new lifestyle through its ready-made sauces for the young, urban professionals and the modern families of the 21st century. WORLDFOODS' manufacturing facility is located in Thailand. Products are available globally in the United Kingdom (UK), United States, France, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Finland, South Africa, Netherlands, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and India. For more information, go to http://www.WORLDFOODS.com.my
Copyright©2008 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved


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Monday, June 14, 2010
Starbucks to break WSJ paywall—read free without registration
by Larry Geller
See: Starbucks to Offer Free Wi-Fi at All Stores Nationwide (Mashable, 6/14/2010).
Starting July 1, WiFi access at Starbucks locations is to be entirely free, and without registration. That means, of course, that along with a cup of your favorite brew, you can read the on-line editions of newspapers for free.
The article reports also that later this year the Wall Street Journal and other paid content will be accessible for free. The article indicates that as a promotion, the WSJ hopes you will subscribe at home. Meanwhile, if you visit Starbucks, you have access to the content previously blocked by their paywall, without the need to subscribe.
It’s a win-win idea for both Starbucks and the WSJ, but also for readers, of course.
There is no indication so far that free access is planned to end.... but ok, I could have chosen a different headline.