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Kylie Jenner is rich — that’s beyond any doubt. Anyone who’s seen her on reality TV knows she enjoys an incredibly luxurious lifestyle. But how rich is she, really? Since March 2019, the business analysis magazine Forbes had listed her as a billionaire. But just over a year later, they revoked that — and made some pretty shocking allegations.
In May 2020, Forbes released an article which shocked many people, not to mention Kylie herself. It was headlined, “Inside Kylie Jenner’s Web of Lies — And Why She’s No Longer a Billionaire.” It began, provocatively, “More than a decade into their fame, the Kardashian-Jenners tend to induce eye rolls and sighs among jaded media consumers.”
The article went on, “But when it comes to their wealth, even critics of reality TV’s first family are intrigued; the Kardashian-Jenner machine — and the cash it generates — has been the subject of articles, podcasts, even books. But no one cares more about the topic than the family itself, which has spent years fighting Forbes for higher spots on our annual wealth and celebrity earnings lists.”
Indeed, the Kardashian-Jenners are very, very good at accumulating wealth. Kim Kardashian, Kylie’s famous half-sister, is worth around $72 million, according to Forbes. The family reality TV show Keeping Up with the Kardashians netted her enough money to be set for life, as did her make-up line KKW Beauty.
Indeed, Keeping Up with the Kardashians made the whole family incredibly rich. Kylie’s other family members — Khloé, Kourtney, Kris, Caitlyn, Kendall, Rob — all command fortunes of over $10 million, in some cases much more. And Kylie’s ex, Travis Scott, the father of her child, has $58 million in assets from his career as a music artist.
But how did Kylie, the youngest member of her generation, become so rich? Back in 2018, before the falling out, the then 20-year-old reality TV star explained it all to Forbes. At that point, her fortune stood at $900 million, incredibly impressive for somebody barely out of their teenage years.
Much of the money came from her brand Kylie Cosmetics. Reportedly, it had rung up over $630 million of sales. Forbes stated, “Even using a conservative multiple, and applying our standard 20 percent discount, Forbes values her company, which has since added other cosmetics like eye shadow and concealer, at nearly $800 million. Jenner owns 100 percent of it.”
The magazine also noted that Kylie knew how to use social media for marketing. Forbes wrote, “Basically, all Jenner does to make all that money is leverage her social media following. Almost hourly, she takes to Instagram and Snapchat, pouting for selfies with captions about which Kylie Cosmetics shades she’s wearing, takes videos of forthcoming products and announces new launches.”
Kylie’s social media won her lots of fans — and some of them were willing to go to quite astounding lengths for her. After Forbes published their piece about Kylie being worth $900 million, a bizarre social media campaign suddenly sprung up devoted to making Kylie a fully-fledged billionaire.
At first it seemed to be a joke. Internet personality Josh Ostrovsky started a GoFundMe for her, the description read: “I don’t want to live in a world where Kylie Jenner doesn’t have a billion dollars. We must raise 100 million dollars to help her get to a billion, please spread the word, this is extremely important.”
Amazingly, people actually donated. Gradually the total of the GoFundMe money rose to over a thousand dollars. Most donators, however, appeared to be using the campaign simply to promote their own products and get their names out there on a page people would be looking at. And Kylie herself, perhaps wisely, offered no comment on it.
Then, in March 2019, Kylie appeared to finally achieve billionaire status. Forbes magazine declared that she was “the youngest self-made billionaire ever.” Kylie Cosmetics had teamed up with beauty retailer Ulta so as to get its products into more stores. The result had been more money for Kylie, enough to get her on the list.
Kylie herself spoke to Forbes for the article. “I didn’t expect anything,” she said. “I did not foresee the future. But [the recognition] feels really good. That’s a nice pat on the back.” She added, “It’s the power of social media. I had such a strong reach before I was able to start anything.”
However, there was some debate about Kylie being labelled a “self-made” billionaire. Forbes described the concept as “someone who built a company or established a fortune on her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it.” Yet, many people pointed out, Kylie had inherited the publicity and fame of the Kardashian-Jenner family.
Business experts weighed in. Author Bybreen Samuels told the BBC News website, “[Kylie] gained leverage by using her family name, fame and wealth. Consequently, she had direct access to the whole range of privileges, connections and resources that flow from these factors. Her ascendancy into global wealth and brand recognition was already guaranteed before she even started.”
However, not everyone agreed with Samuels. Beauty journalist Jessica Morgan told the BBC, “If Jenner hadn’t come from a famous family, perhaps she wouldn’t have been named the world’s youngest billionaire so quickly. But that’s not to say she wouldn’t have achieved such an accolade in her lifetime.”
Morgan went on, “On average, it takes a millionaire 14 years to reach billionaire status while the average age to hit this status is 37. It took Microsoft’s Bill Gates five years to reach billionaire status, while Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was crowned a billionaire after two years. I’m really happy for Kylie and I’m excited to see what else she has in store for us.”
Kylie spoke about her new status to Interview magazine in March 2019. She said, “I never thought that this could happen. I believed in Kylie Cosmetics but I didn’t even know what I was getting myself into. It feels amazing, it’s wild, and being the youngest ever to do it is a blessing. I now want to focus on giving back to people and doing things that I’m passionate about.”
When the interviewer said there had been contention over the description “self-made,” Kylie said, “There’s really no other word to use other than self-made because that is the truth. That is the category that I fall under. Although, I am a special case because before I started Kylie Cosmetics, I had a huge platform and lots of fans.”
The reality TV star continued, “I did not get money from my parents past the age of 15. I used 100 percent of my own money to start the company, not a dime in my bank account is inherited… and I am very proud of that.” At the interview’s end she said, “I hope people will remember that I pushed boundaries, inspired them, worked incredibly hard, set trends, and made history with my business — all at a young age.”
But Kylie’s official Forbes billionaire status didn’t last much longer. In November 2019, Kylie Cosmetics partnered up with the company Coty. The press release declared that it would be a “strategic partnership in order to jointly build and further develop Kylie’s existing beauty business into a global powerhouse brand.”
The deal went through in January 2020. Kylie traded 51 percent of Kylie Cosmetic for $1.2 billion. But, Forbes claimed in their May article, “In the deal’s fine print, a less flattering truth emerged. Filings released by publicly traded Coty over the past six months lay bare one of the family’s best-kept secrets: Kylie’s business is significantly smaller, and less profitable, than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe.”
Forbes pulled no punches with their allegations. The magazine wrote, “The unusual lengths to which the Jenners have been willing to go — including inviting Forbes into their mansions and CPA’s [Certified Public Accountants] offices, and even creating tax returns that were likely forged — reveals just how desperate some of the ultra-rich are to look even richer.”
According to the magazine, the Kardashian-Jenners had been working to “get a Forbes cover for Kylie” ever since Kim had landed one. Kylie’s cosmetic business had made $400 million in its first 18 months, the family had claimed, with Kylie herself taking home $250 million from that.
Forbes continued, “Pressed for proof, they opened up their books. During meetings at Kris Jenner’s palatial Hidden Hills, California, estate and the family accountant’s office nearby, Forbes was shown tax returns detailing $307 million in 2016 revenues and personal income of more than $110 million for Kylie that year.”
And then Forbes alleged, “The documents, despite looking authentic and bearing Kylie Jenner’s signature, weren’t exactly convincing since the story they told, of e-commerce brand Kylie Cosmetics growing from nothing to $300 million in sales in a single year, was hard to believe.” Other “analysts and industry experts” had also found the claims “implausible.”
Following on from that, Forbes said, “A story appeared in WWD, a trade publication known as ‘the bible of fashion,’ using the exact numbers the Jenners first tried to give Forbes.” WWD had said that Kylie Cosmetics had made $420 million from retail sales in its first 18 months, and that the family had proved it with documents.
The magazine went on, “That sky-high revenue number — repeated everywhere from People to CNBC and Fortune — took hold. By the summer of 2018, when Forbes set out to calculate Kylie’s net worth for our list of the richest self-made women, the industry’s opinion of Kylie’s business had shifted. Those huge revenues were “totally possible,” said one analyst, adding that she had heard similar numbers herself.
According to Forbes, everything had unraveled with the Coty deal. They alleged, “Revenues over a 12-month period preceding the deal: $177 million, according to the Coty presentation — far lower than the published estimates at the time. More problematic, Coty said that sales were up 40 percent from 2018, meaning the business only generated about $125 million that year, nowhere near the $360 million the Jenners had led Forbes to believe.”
And there was yet more alleged misinformation. Forbes claimed, “Kylie’s skin care line, which launched in May 2019, did $100 million in revenues in its first month and a half, Kylie’s reps told us. The filings show the line was actually ‘on track’ to finish the year with just $25 million in sales.”
Forbes went on to say, “There’s virtually no way the numbers the Jenners were peddling in earlier years could be true either. If Kylie Cosmetics did $125 million in sales in 2018, how could it have done $307 million in 2016 (as the company’s supposed tax returns state) or $330 million in 2017?”
The magazine then came straight out and made an accusation. “More likely: The business was never that big to begin with, and the Jenners have lied about it every year since 2016 —including having their accountant draft tax returns with false numbers —to help juice Forbes’ estimates of Kylie’s earnings and net worth. While we can’t prove that those documents were fake (though it’s likely), it’s clear that Kylie’s camp has been lying.”
Kylie herself reacted with anger to the article. After it was posted she turned to social media and wrote, “What am I even waking up to. I thought this was a reputable site… all I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER.”
Jenner continued, “‘Even creating tax returns that were likely forged’ that’s your proof? So you just THOUGHT they were forged? Like actually what am I reading.” Later, however, she appeared to be more relaxed about it and wrote, “I am blessed beyond my years, I have a beautiful daughter, and a successful business and I’m doing perfectly fine. I can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money I have.”
But then the Coty company began to see the fallout as well. On May 29 Time magazine noted, “Shares of Coty, which acquired a majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics last year, dropped 13 percent to close at $3.63, extending its 2020 decline to 68 percent.” Representatives of the company could not be reached for comment.
Matthew Hutchison, the spokesperson for Forbes, sent an email to Time defending the article. It read, “Today’s extensively-reported investigation was triggered by newly filed documents that revealed glaring discrepancies between information privately supplied to journalists and information publicly supplied to shareholders. Our reporters spotted the inaccuracies and spent months uncovering the facts.”
Come June 1 Forbes added a note to their Kylie piece. Representatives of the Jenner family had gotten in touch. Their letter to the magazine read, “The accusations that the Jenners, and/or their accountants, falsified tax returns and then lied about their 2016 revenues for the last four years, are absolutely false.”
Meanwhile, there was some talk in the media about the legality of what Kylie had allegedly done. Attorney Michael Sachs told newspaper The Sun that if she really had falsified tax returns, it would be a “very serious offense.” He added, “It’s very hard to believe someone at her level would risk major tax fraud.”
Sachs went on, “It’s all about vanity for her as it is for a lot of people who reach for the title of ‘billionaire.’ It’s absolutely possible someone said to her, ‘Let’s massage a little here and massage a little there’ when speaking to Forbes. But it’s very hard to believe she forged tax documents to the IRS.”
There’s probably a way to go yet before the story of Kylie vs Forbes is fully resolved — if ever. But ironically, Kylie herself may not even want the disputed billions of dollars in play. In 2018 she said in a Vogue magazine piece, “I have my dream house and the car I want, and I just realized early that those aren’t the things that make me happy.”


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Dixons Retail Plc, the European multi-channel specialist electrical retailer and owner of Currys & PC World, is currently working with the Herbert Group for a trial of new generation Pricer SmartTAG Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) at their store in Aylesbury.
Retail Digital Signage
Retail Digital signage is the remote-controlled distribution and playback of digital content on displays ranging from digital billboards to much smaller screens, either at a single location or across multiple sites. Digital information displays can be used throughout the store for branding, merchandising, promoting products and entertaining customers.
Nov 14, 2013 Comments (0)
LED screen specialist ADI is targeting growth within the retail sector with the launch of new high resolution products aimed specifically at the market, along with the expansion of its sales team.
Oct 17, 2013 Comments (0)
Visix, Inc. will cxhibit in booth 1643 at the 2013 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Anaheim, October 16 and 17. The company will demonstrate the latest version of its AxisTV digital signage software, award-winning interactive wayfinding designs, meeting room signs, and a host of other new products.
Jul 31, 2013 Comments (0)
BrightSign, LLC has announced that Vertu, provider of luxury mobile phones, has opted to use its players in its global network of boutiques and concessions.
Jun 13, 2013 Comments (0)
PricerLab, the electronic shelf labelling solutions provider to retailers, provides products designed to make stores smarter.
Mar 26, 2013 Comments (0)
By Derek Buchanan, CEO, Episys.
Reducing operating costs is a vital element for most businesses at the moment, especially retailers, many of whom are seeing very little light at the end of the tunnel. Here, Derek Buchanan, CEO of Episys, discusses the pro-active measures retailers can take to run businesses more efficiently and effectively.
Mar 26, 2013 Comments (0)
Touch display solutions provider Tiny Green PC has recently launched an easy to use plug-and-play system, designed for assignments where several small screens are required in a number of locations.
Feb 26, 2013 Comments (0)
Supermarket Tesco is to use virtual reality technology to plan how its category ranges appear on shelves. Tesco is reportedly the first UK retailer to integrate the technology of virtual reality company Red Dot Square into its existing systems and ways of working.
Feb 19, 2013 Comments (0)
Supermarket Tesco is to use virtual reality technology to plan how their category ranges appear on shelves. Tesco is reportedly the first UK retailer to integrate the technology of virtual reality company Red Dot Square into their existing systems and ways of working.
John Lewis Exeter trials Pierhouse's NetTickIT software and ZBD's epaper system to strengthen omni-channel strategy
Feb 13, 2013 Comments (0)
Pierhouse, the integrated signage management company, and ZBD, provider of fully graphic epaper display systems for retailers globally, have announced that John Lewis, one of the UK's leading department store retailers, has a live trial of its epaper solution within its new flexible format Exeter shop.
Digital displays offer the correct software in order for you to change information immediately and advertising screens allow advertisers to buy screen time for their product, driving more sales at the point-of-decision. Digital signage can complement current marketing and merchandising strategies to further enhance the shopping experience and they can raise awareness about current job vacancies or provide staff training, improving employee competence and job satisfaction.

domain: news


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Samsung Elec fourth quarter guidance underscores tech sector headwinds
By Se Young Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday its fourth-quarter operating profit likely rose 15 percent from a year earlier, missing expectations and fuelling concerns the tech industry may be in for a tough year of slack gadget sales.
Slowing economic growth in China and weaker emerging market currencies are undercutting sales of consumer electronics and gadget components, spelling trouble not only for smartphone market leaders Samsung and Apple Inc but for their suppliers and the broader industry.
Samsung said in a regulatory filing its October-December operating profit would likely be 6.1 trillion won ($5.10 billion), compared with a 6.6 trillion won Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate derived from a survey of 30 analysts. Revenue likely rose 0.5 percent to 53 trillion won, the firm said, without elaborating.
"Semiconductor earnings were weak and the smartphone industry entered a phase of low growth," KTB Investment analyst Jin Sung-hye said.
Even so, Samsung shares were up 1.8 percent as of 0124 GMT (2024 EDT), outperforming a 0.1 percent rise for the broader market.
"I think Samsung did well considering the weaker tech demand," Jin said.
Shares of the world's No.1 maker of memory chips and smartphones touched a three-month low on Thursday as investors braced for downside risks, with some brokerages having tipped profit to have fallen as low as 6 trillion won.
The guidance was not a major surprise as Samsung Chief Executive Kwon Oh-hyun had warned on Monday that the maker of Galaxy smartphones faced a challenging time ahead due to weak global economic growth. Continued...


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What do you mean, you’ve never read 2000AD? Here’s another great chance to start, thrill seekers!
This week’s 2000AD is great for older readers – but what about the new “Regened” audience?
Rebellion signals ban on plastic free gifts on all its titles, hint of further “2000AD Regened” brand expansion?
Plastic free gifts will not be part of any marketing strategy from the publisher of 200AD in future
A quick fire round up of web craziness, great comics and books out now, and more…
Thrill Central! New 2000AD offers Thought Bubble talent search winners “Terror Tale”, new Megazine – and the Stainless Steel Rat is out, too!
Great thrills this week, more treats next, as 2000AD Regened returns!
This new Special sows the seeds for things to come in 2000AD for some time to come… perhaps even literally…
Thrill-power overload ahead throughout 2021
Enjoying strong sales this year, 2000AD Regened returns in 2021
2000AD Regened roars back into newsagents and comic shops next Wednesday… along with the return of Abelard Snazz!
What’s not to love about an angry dinosaur on the cover of 2000AD?
Peter Duncan offers his views on this week’s 2000AD, Prog 2170, a follow-up to last year’s Regened Prog, all-ages issue, and the first of four planned for 2020


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Monocle Explores the Length and Breadth of NZ
From the gently bustling streets of Auckland to the highest and most isolated peaks of the South Island, in this month’s Monocle regional survey, the magazine has explored the length and breadth of New Zealand to discover everything that this extraordinary country has to offer.
“New Zealand is undergoing something of a transformation,” the publication begins. “With Auckland’s population set to reach 2 million in the next 15 years, the country now possesses a genuinely international city. On the business side, digital connectivity has brought about a shift in mentality: whereas before New Zealand’s relative isolation was a constraint, now entrepreneurs can launch anywhere in the world. At the same time, a move in the market towards local and authentic – whether that means the food you eat or the clothes you buy – has galvanised neighbourhood businesses.
“We take a look at the fastest growing and fastest-changing city in New Zealand: Auckland. The city has long been the country’s commercial capital but in recent years it’s drawn in professionals from all across the globe, all looking for innovative ideas, an urban buzz and a high standard of living.”
Continuing across the regions and beginning with business and industry, Monocle says: “New Zealand’s entrepreneurs are using the nation’s can-do frontier spirit as a launch pad for creative ideas.” It includes profiles on Wellington’s Six Barrel Soda, Auckland foreign exchange service KlickEx, Dunedin’s McKinlay’s Footwear and one of the country’s current most successful businesses, Auckland-based software company Xero.
“New Zealand is known around the world for being clean, green and eco-friendly. Not only does this encourage tourists hungry for the great outdoors, it is also a boon to the export industry because foreigners know to trust Kiwi products.” In the sustainability and conservation section, Monocle includes Auckland’s Sustainable Coastlines, Raglan eco-retreat Solscape and interviews leading New Zealand environmentalist, Rob Fenwick.
“New Zealand’s talent has hit new heights by innovating in the face of adversity and honouring country’s heritage. It sometimes seems that in New Zealand if you’re not a chef or a barista, chances are you’re a designer or an architect. There is such an enormous pool of incredibly talented and creative people working in this field that they are putting New Zealand on the map as a world design destination.” Monocle covers Auckland’s Herbst Architects and practice Stevens Lawson, acclaimed Hawkes Bay designer David Trubridge, Wellington’s ceramic cup manufacturers Acme & Co and Tauranga-based design studio YS Collective.
Original article by Monocle, October 2014.


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Free audio stream, including stories that are padlocked on our site. Listen on any device, anywhere. Updated twice daily. The audio stream takes several seconds to start on Android devices.Launch Radio player
Fonterra director John Monaghan says he is in disbelief after winning a BMW 320i xDrive Touring just for having a member’s subscription to the National Business Review. The prize is valued at $83,800.
Mr Monaghan, who picked up his new wheels this week, says he thought it was a mate ringing to wind him up when NBR publisher Todd Scott called to tell him he’d won.
He told Mr Scott he was absolutely flabbergasted and says he has never won a prize of this scale before.
“We feel very privileged to have won anything, let alone a BMW.”
Mr Monaghan says he is very excited to be getting a BMW in time for Christmas. He says he may even give it to his wife, Sarah.
ABOVE - WINNER'S PHONE CALL: Listen to John Monaghan learning he's won.
He reads it most days online and finds it easy to access on his iPad when travelling.
While Fonterra has a corporate IP subscription, having a personal account on top of that enables Mr Monaghan access to breaking news wherever he is.
Mr Monaghan, who is from Eketahuna, says although he may be one of few to own a BMW there, the way farming is going there might be more European cars hitting the provinces.
NBR has awarded a subscriber prize since 2009 and the prize pool now totals over $650,000. Prizes have included a trip for two to a Cambodian resort, a Peugeot 508 and a 28-night luxury European escape.
Previous winners include BDO partner Stephen Tubbs, Crombie Lockwood chief executive Carl O’Shea, Horton Media chief executive Matthew Horton and Financial Markets Authority chairman Simon Allen.
This article is tagged with the following keywords. Find out more about MyNBR Tags
- NZ should double refugee quota — Devoy
- All countries including NZ have a 'collective responsibility' to respond to refugee crisis - Red Cross
- Why we are global warming criminals
- Hot market for cool store properties while CBD retail heart lacks lustre
- Political Roundup: NZ is part of the refugee problem


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Think about this: Ten years ago, a group of technology experts sat down and envisioned the future of the internet. They imagined the ubiquity of e-mail, that the web would be home to a giant auction house, and that phones would be able to access tiny versions of the online world.
Actually, nobody ever predicted what the internet has become today. We were all too busy learning basic HTML tags and trying to remember how to check our e-mail. But that won't stop us from looking ahead now to the future of the web and what role entrepreneurs will have in it. An exciting world is developing, and growing businesses will be riding the waves as both users and innovators.
Who's in Charge?
Sometimes the best way to understand the big picture is to take a look at the smaller brush strokes that make it what it is. Here's a big trend: decentralization of control. It's a move toward web users having more power to control their own online experiences. Here are some of the brush strokes: wikis, blogs, podcasts, RSS and mash-ups. You've probably heard of most of those, and if you haven't, you'll probably hear of them soon.
Joe Kraus, co-founder with Graham Spencer of wiki startup JotSpot, has a strong sense of web history. He was one of the original founders of early search engine Excite and is an active angel investor involved with tech companies. His passion these days is wikis-collaborative websites that can be edited by multiple users. "Wikis felt like a useful tool [back in 1993], but for a limited crowd. They were trapped in the land of the nerd. [They're] more powerful because [they] tap everybody's knowledge instead of restricting it to a single individual," says Kraus, 34. Palo Alto, California-based JotSpot, jumping on the larger trend toward decentralized control, has set out to bring wikis into the mainstream.
That trend, in fact, has entrepreneurs blogging to their customers, sending out podcasts and gathering news through RSS feeds. These are all relatively new trends that will magnify as the web moves forward. Says Kraus, "I'm a huge believer that the most powerful revolutions in computing are do-it-yourself revolutions."
Web: The Next Generation
Trying to guess where Google is heading is like listening to the sounds of a circus setting up from outside the big-top tent: You know something exciting is going to happen; you just don't know what. Blogs are burning with speculation, many connecting the dots to the concept of the web as a computing platform. All that guesswork underlines another fundamental shift in the web: the move away from static web pages to a more interactive, real-time environment. It's the next generation. It's the Web 2.0. And it's already underway.
Steven Minton, 47, co-founder of web intelligence and search company Fetch Technologies in El Segundo, California, is an entrepreneur working in the thick of the Web 2.0 evolution. "The web is not made for computers; it's made for people," says Minton. "The vision of Fetch Technologies is [to make] the web a more productive place for computers to collect information." That's also a strong underpinning of the Semantic Web--an intriguing project from web creator Tim Berners-Lee that is aligned with many of the concepts of Web 2.0.
What this all means for entrepreneurs is that the way you use the web is shifting. Search engines will be one noticeable area of improvement. Minton looks ahead to what we can expect to see over the next five years: "[You'll] be able to do a better job of searching because you'll tell them the type of thing you're interested in. There will be more automated assistants to help you shop, travel and so forth, and more sophisticated decision-making aids."
Says Minton, "One of the most interesting things happening right now is that the leaders--Google, Yahoo! and a few others--are really breaking new ground in a hurry. It's one of those rare times in history where some of the biggest companies are making the biggest inroads."


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eKwipper delivers a valuable service to consumers and food retailers, enabling both to take advantage of the latest advances in Web and location-based technology to drive better decision making at the point of sale
Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) April 15, 2010
StrataScale, Inc., makers of the world’s first fully automated Hybrid Cloud hosting solution, today announced that eKwipper, Inc., a provider of point-of-decision advertising solutions to the food retailing industry, has selected StrataScale’s flagship Automated Managed Hosting service because of its unmatched ability to deliver secure, reliable and fully supported enterprise-grade computing resources at a moment’s notice. These capabilities have dramatically reduced eKwipper’s lead times to market, helped contain costs and delivered the highest levels of security and reliability to its customers.
“As a young software company, focus is incredibly important,” said Tim Dougherty, operation manager at eKwipper. “For us that means focusing on where we add value, namely software development. We needed to find a partner that could reliably deliver the infrastructure our software relies on, and one that could also keep pace with the speed of our business. StrataScale’s platform was so easy to deploy and manage that we adopted it for our development and testing environments as well. And the platform has really helped increase the efficiency of our distributed development team. StrataScale made me a real believer in the cloud.”
StrataScale’s solution provides a fully automated managed hosting service that integrates the best qualities of cloud solutions with non-shared Enterprise class physical servers. With StrataScale’s automation, customers can build, manage, and scale fully managed and dedicated physical server environments in minutes from a secure web portal. Advanced features such as snapshot, clone, failover, instant provisioning and real time disk expansion are available in near real-time from a secure portal. The solution also provides enterprise-grade SAN storage in a 220,000 square foot world-class data center with 99.999% availability and N+2 redundancy, eliminating fears about reliability and security.
“eKwipper delivers a valuable service to consumers and food retailers, enabling both to take advantage of the latest advances in Web and location-based technology to drive better decision making at the point of sale,” said Yatish Mishra, founder, president and chief technology officer of StrataScale. “We are delighted that eKwipper chose StrataScale to play such a crucial role in the development and deployment of its solution, and that it is able to leverage all the benefits of our enterprise class hosting platform and cloud-like automation to drive tangible and real business results.”
To learn more about eKwipper’s experience with StrataScale’s Automated Managed Hosting solution, please visit http://www.stratascale.com.
StrataScale creates next-generation, best-in-class hosting solutions that offer customers the efficiencies of cloud computing on enterprise grade infrastructure. StrataScale’s suite of cloud offerings include the Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Automated Managed Hosting, and Hybrid Hosting, which enables organizations to mix and match different cloud offerings on the same secure network. This suite of cloud solutions can be deployed in minutes from a secure Web portal using patent-pending technologies. Its unique interface gives customers direct, anytime, anywhere control over their hosted infrastructure and a single point of administration to make changes, manage applications, and add to their server environment on demand. StrataScale is a wholly owned subsidiary of RagingWire Enterprise Solutions, Inc., a world-class colocation and managed services provider. For more information, please visit http://www.StrataScale.com.
eKwipper develops software that saves people money and helps food retailers reach a broader audience at the point and time of sale. Through the innovative use of Web and location based technology, eKwipper helps consumers find the brands and products they’re looking for and helps retailers deliver relevant and timely advertising messages that build brand loyalty and drive sales. For more information, please visit http://www.eKwipper.com.
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Toyota has begun production of the Auris at its factory in Burnastone, Derbyshire, after reporting strong financial results.
The company described its new hatchback as a "strategically important" model for its European business, despite falling demand across the region.
It follows investment of around £185m by the Japanese car maker in its UK manufacturing and supply chain, resulting in 800 new jobs.
The president and chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe, Didier Leroy, said the company was committed to the UK.
"The new Auris is at the heart of our European strategy and we expect it to strengthen our sales performance in the family car market,” he said.
"Our Toyota Motor UK members at Burnaston and at the Deeside engine plant continue to demonstrate they can deliver the superior quality and efficiency that are vital for building our presence in a highly competitive marketplace."
While Business Secretary Vince Cable described the start of production as a "significant milestone" in Toyota's 20-year history in the UK.
It comes after the company reported a net profit of 257.9bn yen (£2bn) for the three months to the end of September.
But it revised down the total number of vehicles it expected to sell this financial year to 8.75 million vehicles.
This is 50,000 fewer than it predicted in August because of "uncertainties in the Chinese and European market environments".
Official figures last month showed new car sales across Europe had fall at their fastest pace in 12 months as Government cuts hit consumer spending.
Toyota has also been caught up in an ongoing territorial dispute between Japan and China which has led to a boycott of Japanese cars in recent months.
As such, its sales in China dropped to around half of last year's levels in September to 44,100 vehicles.
More From Sky News


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C-stores Stand Tall Among Largest Private Companies
JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Industry insiders know it to be true, and now so does everyone else: convenience stores are big business.
Seven convenience store companies landed on this year's America's Largest Private Companies list published by Forbes magazine annually. Two of those companies, Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores and Pilot Flying J, cracked the Top 20 with Love's landing at No. 7.
The 2011 list of America's Largest Private Companies features 212 companies, down from 223 in 2010. Despite the drop, combined revenues this year are $1.33 trillion vs. $1.35 trillion a year ago, according to the magazine.
Oklahoma City-based Love's made a huge leap this year, from No. 18 in 2010 into the top 10 companies alongside other heavyweights such as Cargill (No. 1), Mars (No. 3), Publix Supermarkets (No. 6) and U.S. Foods (No. 10). The family-owned and -operated retailer registered $24.4 billion in revenue for 2011 and employs 8,000 people. Founded in 1964 by Tom Love, the company's 275 sites in 39 states feature gas stations, convenience stores, quick-service restaurants, shower rooms, trucking supplies and Internet.
Pilot Flying J just missed the Top 10, coming in at the No. 11 spot on the list. The Knoxville, Tenn.-based company moved up one spot from its No. 12 ranking last year. Pilot Flying J rang up $17.77 billion in revenue in 2011 and employs 19,000 people. The notable ranking comes a year and half after Pilot Travel Centers merged with Flying J. The combined company has more than 550 sites catering to everyday motorists and professional drivers.
Also taking spots on the magazine's list are QuikTrip (No. 33) with $8.77 billion in revenue and 11,973 employees; Cumberland Farms (No. 37) with an estimated $8.02 billion in revenue and 6,500 employees; Wawa (No. 47) with $6.99 billion in revenue and 18,000 employees; RaceTrac Petroleum (No. 54) with $5.75 billion in revenue and 5,100 employees; and Sheetz (No. 58) with an estimated $5.23 billion in revenue and 13,600 employees.
Five of these c-store chains also appeared on last year's Forbes list: QuikTrip was No. 37; Cumberland Farms, No. 44); Wawa, No. 50; RaceTrac, No. 63; and Sheetz, No. 79.


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White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes is kicking off its first in a series of educational webinars in an effort to help consumers learn more about how electronic cigarettes work, the ingredients that go into e-liquid, and how the upcoming FDA regulations will affect the industry.
The first webinar in the series will be focused on the FDA deeming regulations and how the proposed regulations will affect consumers and the industry as a whole. The webinar will feature several keynote speakers, including: Jeff Stier, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research; Timothy Donahue, Assistant Editor/Reporter for Tobacco Reporter; Rob Burton, the Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes; and avid blogger, social media icon, and the Executive Director of the Tennessee Smoke Free Association, Dimitris Agrafiotis, aka the Vaping Greek.
Live streaming for the webinar is scheduled for Thursday, August 6th, 2015 at 2:00 PM ET. The public is invited to join this free webinar by registering athttp://webinar.whitecloudelectroniccigarettes.com/regulations/


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IBM and Xilinx have signed an agreement that could help custom chip designers save dramatically on the cost of creating future chips. Under the agreement, IBM has licensed FPGA (field programmable gate array) technology from Xilinx for integration into IBM's new Cu-08 ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) product offering. Cu-08 is said to support circuits as small as 90 nanometres.
According to the companies, engineers working on complex chip designs have been clamouring for ways to achieve high levels of integration yet still have the ability to change 'on the fly' late in the design cycle. Combining FPGA circuits that can be configured by the customer to perform a wide variety of digital electronic circuit functions, with a standard ASIC, gives these designers the flexibility of the FPGA with the density, performance and overall cost advantages of an ASIC, all on one chip.
"Savings here could be dramatic," said Michel Mayer, general manager, IBM Microelectronics. "When an ASIC takes on more function, you can reduce cost by eliminating one, two or even more separate chips. With this technology, customers would be able to tweak designs and integrate new changes immediately, eliminating the need to restart a whole new design cycle and bringing tremendous time-to-market advantages."
Mayer said changes that force an additional chip prototype can easily cost hundreds of thousands of extra dollars and can stretch design cycles out for several additional months.
"This approach is expected to change the landscape entirely," he said. "Cu-08, with as many as eight layers of copper wiring separated by an advanced low-k insulation, will support up to 72 million wireable 'gates', or basic logic circuits, for high-complexity IC solutions. With this announcement, a certain portion of these gates, generally between 20 000 and 100 000, although they can be as high as 400 000, could be dedicated to one or more of the FPGA cores on the ASIC."
"We have improved upon our delivery of programmable hardware by allowing reconfiguration using the same chip. Flexibility is the beauty of combining ASIC and FPGA technology," said Wim Roelandts, president and CEO at Xilinx.
Xilinx says that even after the custom chip is in an OEM's product, the manufacturer of that product can add to its function, doing so simply and effectively either using on-chip resources or a traditional programming approach. A good example would be in the communication industry, where various protocol and interface specifications are constantly evolving.


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Will Make Lithium-Ion Batteries for the Chevy Volt
Advanced lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the coming wave of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, and so there's nothing more important for their success than a good supply of high-quality batteries. So car makers are scrambling to partner up with battery makers (Toyota with Sanyo and Panasonic, for example) and new battery plant projects are announced left and right. The most recent big one is from LG Chem, General Motors's partner for the Chevy Volt.
Photo: LG Chem
From Edmunds: "South Korean battery make LG Chem says it will spend more than $300 million over the next three years to build a manufacturing plant in Michigan for advanced technology batteries."
The plant won't be ready for the launch of the Volt, so the first batteries used will come from South-Korea. But as the number of Volts goes up over the years, the new supply from the US should help meet that demand.
Thanks to generous tax incentives, at least three other battery makers (from Germany, South Korea and the U.S.) have expressed interest in locating plants in Michigan. It seems like the U.S. is moving from being a country where almost no advanced automotive li-ion battery cells are made to one where a substantial amount will be make in the coming years (at least if the projects announced come to term).
Via MLive, Edmunds
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1. On October 21, Ann wore one of her favorite dresses, this red zip-front sheath by her favorite designer Alfred Fiandaca.
The Romneys attend church in Boca Raton, FL ahead of the final debate Monday night.
2. She previously wore it on October 6.
At a campaign rally in Apopka, FL. Repeating outfits is not only a practiced condoned by the fashion press worldwide, but most importantly, serial outfit repeater Anna Wintour, who once said, “I think it’s always fun to have something new, but it doesn’t mean that everything you already have in your closet has to be thrown out, you know? Recycle.”
3. And September 18.
To speak at a fundraiser in Dallas.
4. She also has it in blue!
Here she is on September 12 boarding the campaign plane in Florida. This really is the perfect thing for a northerner to wear in the sunny state of Florida.
5. She also wore the blue dress on September 1.
To a campaign rally in Cincinnati.
6. Ann repeats other looks, too, like this printed long-sleeved number.
She wore it to lay a wreath at the WWII Westerplatte Memorial in Poland on July 30.
7. The dress made an encore appearance on September 22.
At a fundraiser in Beverly Hills.
8. And this dress? Is ten years old.
She last wore it when Mitt was governor of Massachusetts. Rather than buy something new for the annual Alfred E. Smith dinner, she dove into her closet and “shopped” for this vintage gown by critically acclaimed designer Shawn Ray Fons, whose label has been dissolved.
So Ann may own Oscar de la Renta dresses but she also has a frugal side.
- Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit: no single market, parliamentary vote on the final deal, and a warning to the EU not to punish the UK.
- The suspect wanted for killing 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day has confessed to the shooting, Istanbul's governor said
- At least 40 Democratic lawmakers are boycotting Donald Trump's inauguration after the president-elect criticized civil rights leader John Lewis.
- The police report featuring Kim Kardashian West's first-hand account of the Paris robbery has been released.


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The journalist who ticked off Tinder's CEO writes an open letter inviting him to duke it out
Clodagh Kilcoyne/Getty Images
In an open letter on Vanity Fair's website, writer Nancy Jo Sales has invited Tinder CEO Sean Rad to settle their issues."I'd be happy for you to join me in a public forum to talk about the important issues surrounding this little kerfuffle between you and me - freedom of the press; female journalists and freedom of the press," Sales said in her letter.
Rad said he was "defensive" of a Vanity Fair article earlier this year that called Tinder the "dawn of the dating apocalypse" and discussed the app's effect on hook-up culture. (Tinder, in response, went on a more than 30-part tweetstorm lambasting the magazine for the feature story.)Rad told the Evening Standard that he'd done "background research" on Sales, who has written for Vanity Fair for 15 years, "and there's some stuff about her as an individual that will make you think differently."
Later on CNBC's Squawk Box, Match Group chairman Greg Blatt attempted to clear up Rad's remarks, saying that what Rad had meant was that he'd "Googled actual articles" written by Sales.In her letter, Sales asks why female journalists get threatened by the companies they report on, citing comments made last year by Uber executive Emil Michael directed towards Pando editor Sarah Lacy, a vocal critic of Uber. At an off-the-record dinner, Michael suggested that he could hire opposition researchers to dig up dirt on journalists like Lacy. Later, Michael contacted Lacy to apologize for his comments."I think people are concerned about the pressure that companies seem to feel they can put on journalists as a way of managing their bottom lines," Sales said, closing out her letter to Rad. "I know that we could sit down and, together, really hash this out."
- Apple says one billion iPhones are now active around the world
- Delhi hit with a low intensity earthquake of 2.8 magnitude
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- Apple to open retail stores in India, after the success of its online store, says CEO Tim Cook


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Some American companies say they could lose as much as half their annual revenue from China if the coronavirus epidemic extends through the summer, as businesses struggle to get boots back on the ground amid travel restrictions and shortages of basic protective gear.
Nearly half of U.S. companies in China said they expect revenue to decrease this year if business can’t return to normal by the end of April, according to a survey conducted Feb. 17 to 20 by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, or AmCham, to which 169 member companies responded. One fifth of respondents said 2020 revenue from China would decline more than 50% if the epidemic continues through Aug. 30.
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The high energy, foul-mouthed chef worked with Glu to put unique touches on the iOS and Android title, which has gameplay that resembles the Diner Dash series that Glu also publishes. It’s part of a bid by Ramsay and Glu to reproduce the magic of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and create another celebrity hit in the $34 billion mobile-game market. The title was two years in the making at Glu’s San Francisco headquarters.
In the game, players can cook dishes, battle it out with star chefs, earn ‘Wichelin’ stars, and build their culinary empires under the watchful eye of Gordon Ramsay. It’s a time-management experience where you create your own chef avatar and start out small. You can build your restaurants around the world and trade ingredients with other players in the Farm Market.
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“We’re delighted to be working with the most-recognized man in the world when it comes to this,” De Masi said in an interview with GamesBeat in March.
Ramsay has more than 10 million followers across all his social-media accounts, and he is also regularly on television with his Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and MasterChef shows. When he’s seeking out a subject for a project, De Masi tries to pitch the popular celebrities who can share or tweet things about the games to get players re-engaged in the content. Glu has lined up celebrities like Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, and Nicki Minaj — with a total following of more than a billion followers on social media. That adds up to a lot of free advertising for Glu’s games, a very important element in a world where user acquisition costs are skyrocketing.
“This is a partnership that will break new ground because we have never done something this deep in a genre like this with someone like Mr. Ramsay,” De Masi said in the March interview. “We have built a game that we believe will persist for many years to come. This is a unique, living, breathing partnership.”
Becky Ann Hughes, GM at PlayFirst, said in March that the game is built on top of the Cooking Dash 2016 engine, but it is not a reskin. It’s an all new game with all new assets that Ramsay himself has scrutinized. Tom Hall, one of the original creators of Doom, is part of the team putting together the game.
“We’re adding social to a Dash game, like chef duels and a farmers market,” Hughes said. “We [are] also adding a mechanic that Gordon himself came up with: an inspector mechanic with ‘Wishelin’ stars.”
Ramsay said that the Wishelin inspectors will keep you on your toes to make sure that your restaurant is in great shape. He said that he wanted to “keep it real,” and to get your “adrenaline pumping” as you cook things under pressure. You can also design your own chef’s outfit.
“The chef’s role, what you look like, even before you turn on that gas, is insane,” he said. “I want fans to feel that. It’s an ever-continuing excitement.”
De Masi said the game has an authenticity about what it’s like to feel the emotions of someone running their own restaurant.
“It feels personal,” Ramsay said. “Chefs are competitive. The duels. That’s where it is a bit of a chef off. It feels like I am building a restaurant.”
Ramsay’s plentiful insults and curses add to the authenticity. He said he isn’t proud of them, but he often says things like “fucking doughnuts” and “idiots.” He once put two pieces of bread on a chef contestant’s ears and asked her what she was. She replied, “An idiot sandwich.”
Ramsay noted that part of the fun is starting out as a poor and young chef, as he did in Paris in a neighborhood bistro in 1994. The china plates are lackluster, and the restaurant is drab. Over time, you have to upgrade everything about the place, train the staff, and oversee the production of the ingredients.
“This is a first, and I’m putting myself out there,” Ramsay said. “You start with humble gravitas and build your reputation. When I started, it wasn’t about becoming famous. It was about becoming the best local restaurant. Today, it’s a glamorous environment. It’s international.”
Asked what he liked to play, Ramsay said his kids drew his attention to the Kardashian title.
Asked why he did a game in the first place, Ramsay said, “I don’t think there has been a chef-tailored game out on the market yet. I started to cook for love, not for money. I’d like to see this game start exactly the same and lead to building an empire.”
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Coming together of tech leaders to fight Coronavirus is commendable: RS Prasad
The Action Covid Team (ACT) Grants, which is possibly a first-of-its-kind initiative globally, has already received about 40% of its target corpus, with some of the country’s top entrepreneurs also coming on board to not only provide capital, but also identify ventures that may be still at an ideation stage.
VCs and startup CEOs join hands to launch Covid-19-focussed Grant
The Action Covid Team Grants, which is possibly a first-of-its-kind initiat...
Covid-19 impact: Restaurants also want share of the relief pie
“We aren’t trying to profiteer at the expense of landlords. As longstanding bu...
Nirbhaya convicts' last wishes: Mukesh seeks to donate organs, Vinay gives his paintings to jail super
Minutes before they were hanged in the Nirbhaya case, Mukesh Singh said he would like to donate his organs while Vinay Sharma wanted his paintings to be given to the jail superintendent and his 'Hanuman Chalisa' to his family, an official said on Friday.
Startup narrative will change from funding and GMV to profit: Mukesh Bansal
If you are in business, the issue of profitability is going to catch up with you eventually. All businesses exist for generating profits. All valuation models are eventually built on profit, earning multiples.
Good companies can easily raise money in tough times: Curefit cofounder Mukesh Bansal
In an interview with ET, Mukesh Bansal - a serial entrepreneur and cofounder of health and wellness startup Cure.Fit - talks about some of the habits he has cultivated, Cure.Fit's revenue growth and profitability, Eat.Fit, his current venture and his outlook on the startup ecosystem.
EY to confer Adi Godrej with Lifetime Achievement Award
Together, the 17 finalists have combined revenues of Rs 100,000 crore and are providing employment to more than 115,000 people in India and globally. The Finalists have also reported significantly stronger financial performance in times when global and domestic economic growth rates have been tepid.
Binny Bansal to set up $400 million VC fund
The fund will primarily be focused on startups in India, but will also look at backing entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia.
HCL's Shiv Nadar tops givers list, Mukesh Ambani comes third
Azim Premji, who created headlines by announcing a USD 21 billion commitment to charity, is second in the Edelgive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2019.
BookYourGame takes Curefit to court, gets an injunction against product
Refuting the allegations, Curefit told ET that the transaction never progressed to definitive closure or to a formal on-boarding of BYG employees.
Mukesh Bansal's CureFit eyes 500 CultFit fitness centres by 2020
CureFit is also looking at rolling out its AI-based product by end of current year and launch its first health fitness device sometime early next year.
Cure.fit settles out of court with Book Your Game
The company has settled the case by paying close to the deal value, says one of the sources.
Cure.fit's Mukesh Bansal & Ankit Nagori open wellness cafe inspired by UK-based sandwich shop Pret A Manger
Curated by celebrity chef Ranveer Brar, the menu will serve bowl-style meals.
What’s in a name? How Sequoia, Myntra, Unacademy named their conference rooms
How employees refer to their conference room can say a lot about their internal culture and working style.
Softbank set to infuse capital in Piramal Enterprises; Sachin Bansal invests in its debt
The scrip traded 4.12 per cent up at Rs 2,025.90 on BSE.
Copyright © 2020 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service


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Pharmacist charged in theft
DELAWARE, Ohio — Investigators say Fadi Rada Smiley, a pharmacist at a Delaware Walgreens, admitted to an addiction to oxycodone that led him to steal more than 5,000 tablets of the drug from the pharmacy.
Smiley, 34, has been a licensed pharmacist in Ohio since 2006, according to Ohio Board of Pharmacy records. He was arrested Monday after leaving the pharmacy and charged with the theft of drugs.
The board and the Delaware County Drug Task Force began investigating Smiley after getting a tip that the Walgreens where he worked, at 19 London Rd. in Delaware, was missing large amounts of oxycodone pills. The board suspended Smiley’s pharmacy license yesterday.
Smiley told investigators that he took more than 5,000 tablets of oxycodone from the pharmacy between April 20 and Aug. 27. Investigators later searched his home in Dublin and found a stash of pills, said Jesse Wimberly, a spokesman for the board.
A Delaware County grand jury will determine whether Smiley should face additional charges; the next grand jury meets Wednesday.
Wimberly said people working within pharmacies steal drugs “unfortunately often.” Both pharmacists and technicians have access to drug stocks, he said.
The board investigates about 130 drug-theft cases, each year, he said.
Licensed pharmacies or places that store drugs are required by law to report missing drugs; the pharmacy board is responsible for investigating those thefts.
Walgreens reported the missing drugs to the board on April 16.


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Bernie Sanders wants Jeff Bezos to step up to the plate to give a better deal to Amazon workers amid the coronavirus crisis.
The Democratic presidential candidate wants the world’s richest man to “guarantee paid sick leave, hazard pay and safe conditions to all of his workers.”
“The majority of Amazon’s 800,000 workers are working in warehouses and are worried about their safety,” Sanders wrote on Twitter.
The call by Sanders comes as Amazon is hiring up to 100,000 workers to cope with skyrocketing demand. Many bricks-and-mortar retail stores are being forced to close or limit hours amid calls for social distancing.
The rumpled lefty says a majority of Amazon’s 800,000 workers toil in difficult and potentially unsafe conditions in sprawling warehouses.
A handful of Amazon warehouse workers have already tested positive for coronavirus, raising the possibility that the huge company could face serious difficulties meeting demand from consumers who are staying at home to avoid spreading the virus.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Sanders’ criticism and its Twitter feed was filled with feel-good responses to satisfied customers.
“I know we’re in a pandemic but delivery groceries is so awesome,” one customer wrote.
“Orange you sweet! Thanks a bunch for sharing the love!” Amazon responded on Twitter.
Latest coronavirus updates: Click here for our roundup of the most important developments from NYC and around the world.


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Inside Business staff report
Effective immediately, The Port of Virginia will not be accepting any inbound Hanjin cargo – freight for export – at any of the port's marine or intermodal terminals.
The decision follows South Korea-based Hanjin's announcement that it has filed for bankruptcy protection. Hanjin, South Korea's largest shipping firm, has filed for receivership and requested that Seoul Central District Court freeze its assets.
In a Wednesday afternoon news release, the port said it will still accept empty Hanjin containers at the Pinners Point Container Yard in Portsmouth and that it is developing plans for how to handle Hanjin cargo that is already on-terminal.
"Those plans will be communicated to all port customers, users and stakeholders as soon as they have been finalized," the port's statement said.
The Seoul court is expected to grant Hanjin's bankruptcy protection request, according to the Port of Virginia's news release.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Hanjin is the ninth-largest container shipping company, by capacity, in the world.


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A combination of powerful forces – both technological and macro trends – are altering where and how goods
are made and shifting labour demand. Jobs will be displaced by automation across global production value
chains, but there will also be pockets of job creation within the wider manufacturing ecosystem.
However, widespread mismatches are likely between where new jobs are and where there are workers with
the required skills, which creates a new employment challenge that could be particularly difficult for
Production industries play a significant role in economies around the world. They are engines of growth and large
employers. They contribute far more to research and development (R&D) than other industries. For these reasons,
the performance of production industries is often regarded as an important indicator of an economy’s strength. In
recent decades, jobs in production industries have brought millions of workers in developing economies out of poverty and helped citizens in advanced economies move up to the middle class.
The geography of production remains high on the agenda of policymakers, who continue to view production industries as an enabler of social progress as well as an essential component of economic growth.
Today, production industries are undergoing massive change, which could potentially slow or even stop the progress made in recent decades. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is altering global production value chains. Value chains are becoming simpler. Sources of value are shifting, both across the value chain and geographies.
Companies are increasingly generating value outside the core manufacturing and distribution segments, for example in preproduction phases such as R&D, product development and after-sale services.
In addition, macro trends, such as concentration of demand and rising protectionism, are influencing where products are designed and built. These trends are leading to a shift in the geographical distribution of production jobs. In this research, a model was built on macroeconomic data to create a set of scenarios for the purpose of identifying which regions and types of workers within the production ecosystem are most vulnerable to job disruption and displacement. Through this modelling, it is possible identify the places where workers are most in need of retraining to fit production industry demand. The findings reflect the impact of shifts in global value chains for five production industries – automotive, textile and apparel, chemicals, consumer electronics and industrial equipment.


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Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss issued a warning to the US regarding a future post-Brexit trade deal with the UK. During a meeting with the International Trade Committee, Ms Truss argued the UK would be tough with the US and not accept a trade deal unless key issues are addressed. The Cabinet minister said trade restrictions, including a “buy American” procurement policy and “onerous testing regimes”, meant British companies could not access two-thirds of the US market.
She added: “Let me be clear, I am not going to strike a trade deal with the US unless all these points are dealt with.
“We want to upgrade our trade relationship to match the closeness of our security partnership.
“There is no doubt to me that when these barriers are removed it will be a big boost for British industry.”
Ms Truss also explained her negotiating strategy with the US to ensure the UK gets the best possible deal.
DON’T MISS: Brexit TRIUMPH: Leavers are determined to stay out of EU clutches
She said: “Throughout the negotiations, this Government will fight for Britain’s best interests.
“To coin a once familiar phrase, no deal is better than a bad deal.
“We are not going to rush into a deal and there is no deadline.
“We will be tough in pressing our interests.”
Ms Truss also addressed the issues the UK Government has with the current agreement between Britain and the US.
She said: “The US talks a good game about free trade and low tariffs.
“But the reality is that many UK products are being kept unfairly out of their market.
“UK steel has been hit by 25 percent tariffs due to claims of security issues and our cars have all been threatened.
“This is despite the fact we are a close security ally.”
More to follow…
Source: Read Full Article


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U.S. retailer reveals no details about card policy
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwanese branch of U.S. supermarket chain Costco expelled a member
for returning 86 percent of his purchases to the store, reports said Saturday.
Costco Wholesale Corporation runs 12 stores across Taiwan which customers can visit if they hold a valid membership card.
One cardholder reportedly complained online that he had been expelled from the program and his card rendered invalid because he had returned 86 percent of his purchases.
Costco management replied Saturday that the person in the case was not the first customer to lose the right to use his card. Every cardholder had signed an agreement which included the provision that the company could either refuse or accept him, management said.
However, no specific threshold had been established for the return policy, Costco said. Each case was being evaluated on its own merits, according to the company. [FULL STORY]


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Kellwood investing in Michael Boris
Kellwood CEO Michael Kramer told Women’s Wear Daily last month that his company would invest in the clothing line to help the designer open stores and may eventually acquire the label. A Kellwood spokeswoman declined to disclose the dollar amount of the investment. Kellwood had estimated revenue of $820 million last year.
Boris, who has dressed Uma Thurman, Patti LaBelle and Brooke Shields, regularly holds trunk shows, including one planned for Thursday and Friday at Neiman Marcus at Plaza Frontenac, Kellwood said. His retail prices range from $500 to $20,000.
Kellwood said Boris now serves as creative director for the brand.
This partnership is the latest in Kellwood’s ongoing expansion of its portfolio. This summer, Kellwood bought Zobha, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based yoga and fitness apparel and accessories company, as well as Amsterdam-based fashion brand Scotch & Soda.
In January, Kellwood acquired the Rebecca Taylor label, which has estimated annual sales of $45 million. Last summer, Kellwood bought Adam, a New York-based contemporary sportswear collection created by designer Adam Lippes. In January 2010, Kellwood acquired ISIS, a women’s outdoor apparel company based in Burlington, Vt.
Kellwood’s brands also include Vince, BLK DNM, Baby Phat, Phat Farm, Briggs NY and Jolt. Kellwood is an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners Inc., a private investment firm.
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text: Intel revamped its Xeon processor line for server systems, which promises twice the performance of the company's previous generation dual-core products. The six new Quad-Core Xeon 7300 series processors offer twice the cores of the Xeon 5300 line, and four times the memory capacity of Intel's previous MP platforms. "Intel Xeon-based multi-processor servers are the backbone of the enterprise," Tom Kilroy, vice president and co-general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group at Intel, said in a statement. "With the Xeon 7300 series, Intel is delivering new levels of performance and performance per watt, and driving the Intel Core microarchitecture into such innovative systems as four-socket, 16-core blades that use less energy than our older models." The overhaul comes just days before an important product launch for rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Its quad-core version of its Opteron line, code-named Barcelona, is expected to be announced on Monday.


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In 2020, millions of people were introduced to the concept of “collab houses,” where multiple influencers resided in multi-million-dollar homes dedicated to content creation. But before the Hype House and “Braddison” (the ship name of TikTokers Bryce Hall and Addison Rae) came Team 10, spearheaded by YouTubers and former couple Jake Paul and Erika Costell, aka “Jerika,” in 2017.
That house gained notoriety for broadcasting oftentimes dangerous and controversial stunts along with everyday vlogs on its collaborative YouTube channel. Four years later, the OG influencer incubator disbanded after disputes among its members. An eviction notice came in 2017, followed by an FBI raid of the Los Angeles mansion in 2020.
“My whole life that year  was to wake up [and] film,” said Costell. “We weren’t living in reality in those days.”
But despite its controversies, the house served as a blueprint for the TikTok collab houses of 2021. Since then, its members have found themselves in various places, from the fashion industry where Costell landed, to the boxing ring. Costell has inconspicuously found her place with Akire Sport, the activewear brand launched in March 2021.
Despite having 10 million followers across social media platforms, Costell, who came out as the founder of the brand on Tuesday, deliberately chose not to attach her name to Akire Sport initially. Her inside perspective as a veteran influencer allowed her to tap into influencer marketing differently, by catering the brand toward the “girl on the go,” a consumer audience that encompasses both herself and her followers. The line is sold on akiresport.com and pieces range from $19-$98.
“Unless you’re a fashion influencer or a makeup influencer doing makeup, it’s hard to be taken seriously in a lane other than what you’re putting online,” said Costell, who studied business and marketing before moving to L.A. to pursue a career in modeling and joining Team 10 in 2017. “I wanted everyone else to see how good [Akire Sport] is, without me having to push it in their face or do a swipe-up link or pay people to market it.”
The “off-duty model” athleisure brand, which Costell describes as “elevated, oversized street style,” consists of sweatsuits, biker shorts and tank tops in an array of colors, all of which are manufactured in LA. And while the brand has been worn by Hailey Bieber, Addison Rae, Bella Poarch, Claudia Sulewski, Anastasia Karanikolaou and Alissa Violet, Costell’s steered Akire away from being labeled an influencer-founded brand.
“I don’t think being pretty is a character trait. I don’t think being a YouTuber is a character trait,” she said. Costell hoped to expand Akire’s reach — and her credibility as a brand founder — by her decision to launch it anonymously.
Akire isn’t the first byproduct of Costell’s business savvy. Her decision to pursue social media wasn’t to become a YouTube star, but to tap into a missing market within YouTube for “everyday female vloggers,” to further her modeling career, she said.
Now 28, Costell was 24 years old when her YouTube career took off. “It was a very toxic way to live, to try to outdo yourself every single day,” she said. Eventually, she took a year-long hiatus from content creation in 2020 and continued to work on Akire, which she began working on in 2018. “I no longer do anything I’m not passionate about. If I’m not 100% in it, and it’s not true to me, I won’t touch it,” she said.
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While paid influencer marketing is still hugely popular, some brands have begun to shift away from the strategy to appear more “authentic.” As the pandemic highlighted the divide between influencers’ bubble of privilege and the general public, brands have turned away from “influencer campaigns that are too product-centric”, instead utilizing micro-influencers, and unpaid influencer and celebrity endorsements, to increase their credibility.
In terms of Akire, Costell relied on her friends and the network that she had accumulated over the past five years, ranging from “the girls who do my extensions” to influencers like Charli and Dixie D’amelio, Addison Rae, and Loren Gray, she said.
As for her decision to now attach her name to the brand five months later, Costell is confident that “I’m no longer that traditional influencer, and my brand now is very much what I love,” she said. “It’s the perfect timing for [attaching my name to Akire], considering I just basically came back to full-time influencer mode.”


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Amazon offers right now hit TV Shows for Fox and ABC for 99c per Episode. The same low price Apple is touting for rental, but Amazon actually lets you keep the show.
Amazon just launched a 99c TV Episodes at amazon video on demand. You can download TV Show episodes and own them for 99 cents from ABC and Fox. Apple announced yesterday also a 99 cent TV Show offering on iTunes, but that price only is for rental. PaidContent reports that Amazon is selling these shows at a loss. Amazon does not have the deals in place yet with studios that would make this a viable business offering. Nobody knows how long Amazon will offer these bargain TV Show downloads. Better be quick.
Amazon offers hit show for download including Glee, Futurama, Lost, Bones and many more. Shop these bargain digital downloads now on Amazon.
Luigi Lugmayr Luigi Lugmayr (Google) is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years
experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting
world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into
vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at email@example.com.
The “geek mind” is concerned with more than just the latest iPhone rumors, or which company will win the gaming console wars. I4U is concerned with more than just the latest photo shoot or other celebrity gossip.
The “geek mind” is concerned with life, in all its different forms and facets. The geek mind wants to know about societal and financial issues, both abroad and at home. If a Fortune 500 decides to raise their minimum wage, or any high priority news, the geek mind wants to know. The geek mind wants to know the top teams in the National Football League, or who’s likely to win the NBA Finals this coming year. The geek mind wants to know who the hottest new models are, or whether the newest blockbuster movie is worth seeing. The geek mind wants to know. The geek mind wants—needs—knowledge.


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Keiji Inafune of Dead Rising fame and Akihiro Hino of Professor Layton fame have established a new company called Level-5 Comcept. This subsidiary is completely owned by Level-5.
According to the official release, Level-5 Comcept was established this month, and it will be based in Osaka. Akihiro Hino is the CEO, while Inafune is the CCO. The studio will made games and apps, and its first title is called Dragon & Colonies for Android and iOS.
The free-to-play app is slated for a 2018 release in Japan.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


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Santa might knock back a cold one or two while making his way around Canada this Christmas Eve — and not everyone up north is happy about it.
New advertisements for Labatt's Blue de-alcoholized beer have appeared in convenience stores across Canada with the slogan, "Leave one out for Santa. He's driving," The Toronto Sun reports.
Some consumers told the newspaper it sends the wrong message.
"Children see that and they think we'd better leave beer for Santa instead of cookies and milk," 65-year-old Kathleen Clifford told The Toronto Sun.
But Mothers Against Drinking and Driving say it has no problem with the ad because it's alcohol-free beer.
"This is not drinking and driving. It's a Labatt issue, and whatever their philosophy is behind the ad is certainly up to them," MADD Canada president Margaret Miller told The Toronto Sun.
The ads made their debut in November and will run until the end of the month.


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Windows 04 Feb Lumia 550, Lumia 650, Lumia 950 XL, and more are back in stock in the Microsoft Store US.
notify you when this product
will be available.
Microsoft Lumia 640NewsNews
Windows 28 Feb You can get the Microsoft Lumia 640 for only $30 on Walmart and Best Buy.
Windows 14 Jan After a long wait, Europe has finally started getting Microsoft Lumia 640 Windows 10 update.
Windows 07 Dec Microsoft while launching Windows Phone 10 had promised an update to existing devices of its Lumia family....
Windows 27 Oct The Microsoft Lumia 640 is one of the 10 phones announced by Microsoft to get the Windows 10 update as and...


text: Lauren Conrad is making her New York Fashion Week debut next month with a limited-edition LC Lauren Conrad Runway capsule collection for Kohl's. Lauren, who attended FIDM, said the collection is an elevated version of the LC Lauren Conrad line currently sold at Kohl's. "It will be a little more fashion forward," she said in an interview. "We were able to take risks that we wouldn’t normally take. It’s basically a runway version of the line, a lot more special occasion pieces—pieces that we wouldn’t typically put in the line." The runway line was inspired by a few different elements, according to Lauren. "There’s a folk-inspired portion with lots of embroidery, lots of white, then it goes into a little more luxe and romantic, where there’s almost a whimsy woodland feel to it. It winds down with more of a vintage glitzy vibe." Don't worry if you can't make it to the Big Apple next month to see the runway show yourself--you can catch the live stream online. And unlike other designers, whose collections won't be available for purchase until months later, the LC Lauren Conrad Runway collection will be sold in Kohl's stores immediately.


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Fuel prices have increased more than 30 per cent in the past 12 months, the strongest annual rise since 1990, and comes as Australia records its biggest rise in inflation since 2014 on Tuesday.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic fuel makers put the brakes on supplies and now the price is revving up again as things get back to normal.
KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne confirmed Australia’s petrol prices were likely to remain high for some time as rises in international oil prices took at least a fortnight to flow back onto the consumer.
‘When you get an increase in the price of oil, it gets passed through to every business and every consumer – that’s why price increases in oil act like an increase in taxes,’ he said.
Motorists across Australia should brace themselves for the price of fuel rising (pictured, a service station in Melbourne)
Fuel prices have increased more than 30 per cent in the past 12 months, the strongest annual rise since 1990 (pictured, a petrol bowser in Sydney)
The longer the price spike is maintained, Dr Rynne added, the ‘more entrenched the feeling of inflation becomes at the consumer level and business level’, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Nationwide, the average price of unleaded petrol has climbed 15 per cent since July to $1.70 a litre, and in Sydney, some petrol stations were charging as much as $1.75 at the bowser on Australia Day.
However, NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury was quick to dismiss speculation that bowser prices could eventually increase to as much as $3 a litre.
‘It would take a catastrophic turn of events for that to happen,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘However, you never say never and oil is a volatile market. We have seen as much as $2 in some parts, especially in Sydney last year and in recent weeks, but $3 per litre… let’s hope not.’
In Sydney, some petrol stations were charging as much as $1.75 at the bowser on Australia Day.
And recent monitoring by the NRMA showed nearly 40 per cent of Sydney petrol stations had pump prices above $1.80 a litre pre January 26.
Hobart’s average price has hit a staggering $1.81, while in Brisbane it costs $1.76 and Melbourne $1.62.
‘We have been paying record prices across the country,’ Khoury said.
Petrol prices in Australian capital cities are determined by the size of the market, location and the degree of competition.
Across the Tasman, many residents are already preparing for the expected price spike of up to $3 a litre when filling up their cars.
The average price of unleaded 91 across the ditch is $2.54 and that has seen demand for hybrid and electric vehicles (EV) surge.
‘An EV in terms of electricity usage, is the equivalent of about 30 or 35 cents a litre. So if you’re talking petrol being about two $2.82 or $2.90, maybe even $3, you’re talking a difference of about $3.30 so one-tenth of the cost that’s hitting your back pocket,’ explained Drive Electric director Dean Sheed.
Petrol prices in Australian capital cities are determined by the size of the market, location and the degree of competition (pictured, a Caltex service station in Melbourne)
Demand for hybrid model vehicles has skyrocketed in recent years in New Zealand as people seek an alternative to paying astronomical prices for petrol


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Pune, India, October, 2018, MRFR Press Release/- Market Research Future published a half-cooked research report on AI in Social Media market.
The ever-increasing number of social media users and their active online behavior is a major driving force behind the use of AI in social media platforms. Integration of AI is taking the social experience to new heights. Maximizing user data is prime objective of any company in the AI in social media market and artificial intelligence opens up new market opportunities for the same. Artificial intelligence is able to collect and analyze data more efficiently in order to maximize user experience and increase revenue opportunities. Leaders in the social media market are using AI for predictive measures in terms of forecasting user behaviors, as well as solving the issues as quickly as possible. AI-enabled systems have great processing power and analytical capabilities. For this very reason, the social networks are seeking more evolved and intelligent systems that will facilitate the processing of larger volumes of data. Key players in the market are focusing on research and developments in this field. Google and Facebook are both major investors in AI research. DeepMind is one of Google’s start-ups which is specialized in building algorithms for e-commerce, health, and various other applications.
Some prominent players in the AI Social Media market are Google (US), Facebook (US), AWS (US), IBM (US), Adobe Systems (US), Baidu (China), Salesforce (US), Twitter (US) and Snap (US).
Other emerging players in the AI Social Media market are Clarabridge (US), Converseon (US), Sprinklr (US), Unmetric (US), ISentium (US), Cluep (US), Netbase (US), Spredfast (US), Synthesio (US), Crimson Heaxagon (US), Hootsuite (CANADA), Sprout Social (US), Vidora (US), Meltwater (US), and Talkwalker (Luxembourg).
The global market for AI in Social Media is estimated to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period from 2018 to 2023. The geographical analysis of AI in social media market is covered for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the rest of the world.
North America dominates the global AI market in terms of revenue, owing to the availability of high government funding, the presence of leading players in the region, and strong technical adoption base. Furthermore, the outburst of cloud-based services in countries, such as the US and Canada, is significantly contributing to the regional market growth.
Asia-Pacific is projected to witness the fastest growth in the AI in social media market, over the forecast period. This robust growth can be attributed to the healthy expansion of social media user base and increase in smartphone penetration. Further, APAC is experiencing an increase in demand for the cloud-driven solutions for AI in social media, thereby resulting in the increased investments and advancements in retail & eCommerce and media & advertising sectors.


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The average salary of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot cover even the minimum living costs of a family of four. Basic foodstuffs, clothes, utilities, hygiene products, are just a part of the needs for which our citizens spend more and more money, while salaries and pensions do not grow minimally, Avaz news portal reports.
Cost of living
According to the latest data from the Agency for Statistics of BiH, the average salary in BiH is 947 BAM, and during 2019 it amounted to 925 BAM, which is about 130 BAM more than a few years ago. In May this year, the consumer basket amounted to almost 2,000 marks.
Thirteen years ago, for example, a consumer basket was about 700 BAM cheaper than it is today. Namely, it amounted to almost 1,290 BAM.
Marin Bago from the Consumers’ Association said that the problem is that average wages are growing only in statistics, because workers and their families continue to live the same or worse, because the cost of living is drastically increasing.
“For many years, the average salary is not able to cover the consumer basket, so not even two average salaries can cover the average basket. We must also take into account that the average salary in the public sector is higher, and in real terms it is even lower,” Bago pointed out, adding that the salary is increased by 20 BAM, and the consumer salary is immediately up to 200 BAM.
The trade union consumer basket calculated by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the month of May 2020 amounts to 1,996.53 BAM and is 8.81 BAM more expensive than the consumer basket for the previous month.
The average salary paid in the Federation of BiH for the month of March 2020 amounted to 947.00 BAM (the last data published by the Federal Bureau of Statistics) and is 13 BAM higher than the average salary paid in February 2020. The coverage of the Trade Union Consumer Basket wianthe average salary is 47.43 percent.
When making the Trade Union Consumer Basket, the average salary paid in the Federation of BiH was taken into account, as well as the minimum living costs of a family of four consisting of two adults and two children, one of whom one is in high school and the other in primary school.
The consumer basket itself consists of the following categories: Food (48.3 percent), housing and utilities (17.6 percent), hygiene and health maintenance (9.6 percent), education and culture (2.5 percent), clothing and footwear (10.0 percent), transportation (6.0 percent) and household maintenance (5.8 percent).
In the food category, prices from three shopping centers for 87 items were used. When it comes to hygiene and health maintenance, the costs for twelve items are included, and for housing and communal services the costs for six items.


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TUPELO — The liquidation of Hancock Fabrics is expected to be completed by July 31. That’s according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Great American Group of California is conducting the sale of merchandise — along with furniture, trade fixtures and equipment – at the company’s remaining 185 stores. Last Thursday, Great American’s bid for the rest of Hancock’s stores received approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware. The company was already liquidating another 70 stores identified as underperforming during Hancock’s Chapter 11 filing in February.
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports the SEC filing reveals that Hancock will receive a guaranteed amount of at least 121.4 percent of the aggregate cost value of the merchandise sold. The ACV, according to the report, is between $61 million to $68 million. On Monday, Hancock was expected to receive a lump sum payment worth 90 percent of the ACV.
Hancock is to use the money to pay for expenses, such as salaries and utilities at the stores.
The remaining 10 percent goes to Great American as a fee.
“All proceeds of the sale of merchandise in excess of the guaranteed amount, the sale expenses and the fee will be shared equally by the company and Great American,” the court said.
In addition, Great American will receive a fee of 20 percent of the proceeds generated from the sale of any furnishings, trade fixtures and equipment. Great American also gets a fee of 5 percent of the gross proceeds from the sale of any merchandise that it supplies to augment sales at the Hancock stores. Great American also pays $638,000 to Hancock as minimum guaranteed gross receipts from the additional inventory it brought for the liquidation sales.
After those payments are made to Hancock, Great American will receive the remaining proceeds from the liquidation. Any merchandise not sold will become the property of Great American.
And while the liquidation is expected to be complete by July 31, there is a possibility that the sales can be extended, pending court approval.
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The New Zealand Government is negotiating a free trade deal with the EU. As part of the agreement, New Zealand has been asked to recognise geographical indications protected in the EU. There is an opportunity for New Zealanders to comment on the EU’s list, and to nominate names for similar recognition in the EU.
What is a geographical indication?
A geographical indication (GI) is a name that identifies a product has originated from a particular geographical location that provides it with a certain quality, reputation, or other characteristic associated with that location. For example, a GI that many people are familiar with is ‘Champagne’, and people know the name can only be used on sparkling wine that has been produced in the Champagne region in France.
Currently, New Zealand law allows for the registration of local or international GIs relating to wines or spirits. For example, ‘Central Otago’ is registered as a GI for wine in New Zealand, and it can only be used on wine that has been produced in this region.
Opportunity to nominate names to be considered as New Zealand GIs
The EU recognises GIs for a much broader range of goods, and the list of GIs put forward for recognition in New Zealand covers wines, spirits, and food products. In response to the EU’s request for recognition of its GIs, the New Zealand Government is looking to put forward a list of New Zealand GIs and this list could go further than what is currently provided for under New Zealand law.
This is an opportunity to have names for New Zealand meat, dairy, seafood, fruit and vegetables recognised and afforded protection, if the name indicates a particular quality, reputation, or other characteristic that is associated with a location in New Zealand. We could see a name such as ‘Bluff Oysters’ being recognised as a GI for the first time.
Industry bodies are likely to lead the charge on proposing GIs, and this has the potential to benefit all primary producers.
Perhaps Māori iwi and hapū could look to nominate te reo names of seafood, plants, and taonga, that have a certain quality, reputation, or other characteristic associated with New Zealand for consideration as GIs. Abalone can be harvested in many countries, but should it be called ‘pāua’ if it is not from New Zealand?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is seeking nominations for the list of New Zealand GIs that will be put forward in negotiations. The deadline for making nominationsis 19 March 2019, and we encourage you to get in touch with MFAT before this date.
Invitation to comment on the EU’s list
MFAT is also encouraging New Zealand wine, spirits, agricultural, aquaculture, food producers, and any other interested parties, to make submissions if the protection of a name on the EU list of GIs may negatively impact them.
The EU’s GI list includes several varieties of cheese including Gruyere, Roquefort, and Gorgonzola. The list also includes names for ham, beer, olive oil, fruit, vegetables and even essential oils. You can follow these links to see the full list of EU GIs set out in three parts: Foodstuffs, Wines, and Spirits.
Some of the GIs the EU wants to have recognised will be currently used on the packaging of products made in New Zealand.
The EU is seeking to have its GIs protected against any use in New Zealand on products that do not originate from within the EU, and are not produced according to the relevant EU product specification. If the trade deal goes ahead and the New Zealand Government agrees to recognise the GIs the EU has proposed, then New Zealand producers may not be able to use these terms on their products.
If the protection of a name on the EU list of GIs may negatively impact you, then you should consider providing MFAT with a substantiated objection before the 19 March 2019 deadline.
In summary, the proposal to recognise GIs more widely could both benefit and hinder New Zealand producers. Although some producers may no longer be able to continue to use EU GI terms to describe their New Zealand made products of a similar style, those same producers could reap the benefits of obtaining protection for names uniquely associated with New Zealand.


text: We talked recently about the power level of incoming new heroes and their impact on the game. Many of Dota’s original heroes have evolved with the game and been rebalanced or reworked to fit into 2021 Dota. Icefrog and crew have used talents, the Aghanim’s items and the occasional skil rework to breathe new life into many classic heroes. However, many heroes have struggled to adapt to capitalize on new items and a more mobility focused playstyle. Here are a couple heroes that could potentially use a bit of that imaginative magic to revamp their role and expand their possibilities in Dota.


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Apple Sets New Record with 10M iPhone 6 Units Sold
Today, Apple announced that it had broken yet another record, moving over 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets over the device’s weekend launch. That figure comes only days after Apple broke previous pre-order records for the iPhone 6. Chances are you’re actually reading this on an iPhone 6 right now. Hell, I might even be writing this on an iPhone 6 (I’m not).
A post on TechCrunch reports that last year’s iPhone 5s and 5C sold 9 million during launch weekend, while the iPhone 5 launch in 2012 moved 5 million units. In short, this is a pretty big victory for Apple – and not really at all surprising.
Tim Cook had this to say on the occasion:
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier. We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.”
That’s not surprising, either. Only a few days ago, reports hit of manufacturing issues hitting Foxconn, not to mention the many rumors of similar problems plaguing Apple’s manufacturing partners in the run-up to the iPhone 6 announcement.
As Foxconn and Apple’s other supply chain partners work things out, expect the number of iPhone 6 handsets you see in the wild to go way up. Meanwhile, the widespread iPhone 6 adoption also means that the time may be truly right for the launch of the Apple Watch, coming in early 2015. While the Apple Watch would work with all model of iPhone 5 and up, the huge number of iPhone 6 buyers point to the huge demand there is for the latest and greatest Apple device. That means that all those people might not balk at shelling out a few hundred more bucks to get the coolest new device out there.
All this iPhonery and Apple Watchnanigans…it’s hard to stay true to my Android Love, you guys.
[Sources: Apple, TechCrunch]