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Rethinking business in an era of convergence.
British business enters a new era. KPMG is here to work with you.
Our Enlightened Virtual Assistant and the future face of the Invisible Bank.
The auto industry is lost in translation between evolutionary, revolutionary and disruptive key trends.
Value of UK fraud breaks £1 billion barrier.
Keep up to date with the latest issues in taxation.
Highlights from KPMG's participation in the 2017 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
ICGN Kuala Lumpur Conference, 12 July 2017
Brexit will affect all aspects of your organisation, from your people to your financial structure. We look at how to prepare for the UK's exit.
While Brexit continues to dominate conversations, UK companies cannot forget about imminent EU data protection changes
The impact on foreign companies.
The UK’s EU exit presents chief information officers with opportunities … if they can take them
As the UK prepares for Brexit, what steps should employers, trustees and scheme members now be taking?
For more detail on how to devise your Brexit planing strategies, visit the auditorium section of the EU Referendum Forum
For more on how Brexit is changing the risk managment landscape, visit the auditorium section of our EU Referendum Forum
For more in-depth analysis of how Brexit will affect your business visit KPMG's dedicated EU Referendum Forum.
KPMG’s new-look website


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BioShock Infinite – one of the most anticipated game of 2013 – finally launches tomorrow.. To make sure that you don’t forget, Irrational Games have thrown together one final trailer for the title:
There’s not much new in the trailer as we’ve already seen pretty much everything that doesn’t fall within spoiler territory. The game still looks incredibly fun though, and the reviews so far are confirming it as the first must-have game of the year.
BioShock Infinite will be available tomorrow, March 26, for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Those who have preordered the game on Steam will be able to start playing it tonight when it unlocks. GameStop is also holding a number of midnight release events across the country for those who can’t wait to start exploring Columbia.

domain: news


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After years in development and planning, and almost a year of construction, the opening of Denison’s Hilton Garden Inn and Texoma Event Center appears to be just around the corner. On Wednesday, representatives for the hotel chain announced that the hotel and convention center will open its doors to the public on Nov. 19.
“We are really excited about (the opening),” said Hotel General Manager Norman Marks. “I think the community will be pleased to see what we have to offer.”
The facility will host 130 hotel rooms a restaurant and bar, said Marks. However, the true star of the show will be the adjoining Texoma Event Center, which will have over 20,000-square-feet in conference and meeting space. Included in that space will be the 10,000 square foot ballroom, which can seat about 810 for dinner, or about 1,000 in conference seating, Marks said.
The hotel and conference center, when open, will create about 55 full-time jobs, with another 15 part-time jobs possible. The staffing for the conference center will be based on events and functions, said Marks, but he expects for the entire facility to be busy with events.
While the hotel expects to start booking hotel rooms within a month, it is currently booking events for the event center. On Wednesday, the center was booked for its first event — a company Christmas party. Marks said while this is the first event that has been booked, there has been strong interest in booking events for the holiday season.
Construction began on the facility last October, but the initial idea for a conference center in Denison came out of a Denison Development Alliance planning retreat nearly a decade ago.
“The No. 1 priority of that (meeting) was the recruitment of an event center,” said DDA President Tony Kaai. “The region desperately needed a modern event center on Highway 75.”
Initial planning and development of the project spanned from 2006 until 2008, when the Hilton Garden Inn and Texoma Event Center was announced. The project “went dark” and was stalled with the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, said Kaai. The project was restarted in 2011 with the help of a new developer.
Outside of the development itself, the project is expected to spur economic growth throughout the region. Kaai said the hotel and conference center will have impact on the Denison’s hotel occupancy tax, local retail and restaurant sales as visitors stay and spend money in the area. A possibly bigger impact will come as the hotel and event center take the place as the first major “anchor” in this section of the Gateway Village development, along the intersection of Highway 75 and FM 691.
“It is a catalyst for that northwest corner,” said Denison Mayor Jared Johnson, referring to the intersection. “Its proximity to Sherman and Denison both makes it an ideal location.”
Johnson said, with the development of the hotel, other businesses are expected to develop around it. As of now, Johnson said there was “not a lot of announcements, but a lot of interest” in development around the facility.
Kaai said the development will be a boon to the city due to the sales due to the taxes that it will help generate. However, it will be five years until the city will start taking in the hotel occupancy tax generated at the hotel.
An incentive was approved to assist in the development of the facility, in which the city will not start taking occupancy taxes for the first five years, Denison Chamber of Commerce President Anna McKinney said. However, McKinney said, as larger events take place at the event center, Denison could see occupancy tax from overflow in other hotels. After the first five years, McKinney estimates that the city could see about $200,000 annually from the occupancy tax.
Outside of the occupancy tax and other direct incomes created from the development, McKinney said the traffic generated could create a “new customer base” and generate interest in the city.
“This will put Denison on the map for many large conventions and groups,” she said.


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Bisphenol A (BPA) is associated with a myriad of negative connotations thanks to a perpetual campaign against the compound. For years, a relatively small group of activists and scientists have sought to ban the use of BPA in a variety of products – including food containers. So, the question on the minds of many consumers is whether BPA is safe at the levels used. The answer is clear: Yes!
BPA is used in epoxy coatings for a vast range of uses from can liners to paper receipts. Epoxy coatings in food cans play a crucial role in protecting the food from the metal can itself and help safeguard the contents from environmental elements which may contaminate it.
In 2010, the FDA, National Toxicology Program (NTP), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) collaborated on studying the potential health effects from exposure to BPA. The resulting $30 million CLARITY-BPA study was incredibly comprehensive and studied the impact of BPA on rats from exposure in the womb to death. The study also looked at traditional absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) toxicological endpoints including any impact on a variety of systems (e.g. immune, reproductive, etc.).
In short, the CLARITY-BPA study concluded that BPA exposure to consumers is low, it is rapidly eliminated from the body, and there is no health risk from average exposure levels.
Still, naysayers claim there are impacts at low levels. In addition, countries throughout the world have banned its use in a variety of food applications despite the weight of evidence that has concluded that BPA does not pose a risk at current use levels. While BPA has been removed from many applications in the food industry (including bottled water) due to external and perceptual pressures, it remains a vital and safe compound for use by the food industry.
To learn more about BPA, view the TAG Talks video: BPA Gets a Bad Rap. Is it deserved? with TAG Food Safety Director and Toxicologist Brent Kobielush.


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Published on November 22nd, 2019 | by University Communications0
Shop, save more during online campus store sale
The Saint Leo University Campus store is having an online sale, from Wednesday, November 27, to Wednesday, December 4, at https://www.bkstr.com/saintleostore. Select one item to get 20 percent off, two items to get 25 percent off, or three items to get 30 percent off of any apparel, clothing and accessories, gifts, and collectibles categories only. Exclusions apply.
There will be additional surprise sales announced on Thursday, December 5, and Friday, December 6.
FedEx ground shipping is free on all Saint Leo orders.
For more information, contact Maureen Tarpey, bookstore manager, at (352) 588-8344 or email@example.com.


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Reliance Jio is gearing up for its full commercial launch of its services across the country and is all set to rattle India’s data market by offering 4G data at lowest rates in the world. “Mission of Reliance Jio is to take India from data shortage to data abundance. Jio makes India the highest quality, lowest…
The Cabinet has fixed the starting price for 3G spectrum auctions at Rs 3,705 crore per MHz, which could net the government a minimum of Rs 17,555 crore. But operators warned that the high starting level could drive up voice and data tariffs.
Winners of the auction, which is slated to start March 4, will have to make an upfront payment of 33% of the final bid amount to the government within 10 days of the close of the bandwidth sale. Rest can be paid after a moratorium of two years in 10 equal instalments.
“The government earned eight times the reserve price it had set for 3G spectrum in 2010,” telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press briefing, indicating the potential from sale of the airwaves typically suited to the surging data demand in the country. Original post at ET Telecom


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Homebuyers face another tough shopping season as Zillow revealed his latest monthly report showing record inventories and unprecedented price growth. The Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) rose 1.5% from December to January to $325,677, up 19.9% from a year ago. The annual growth rate represents an all-time high in the past 20 years, and the monthly pace has continued to accelerate after hitting a low of 1.2% in November.
It is expected that if monthly price growth continues at the January rate, annual growth in 2022 would be around 19%. Home values have increased by 30.9% since January 2020, totaling nearly $77,000.
“Homebuyers today are making offers and closing deals despite some of the toughest conditions ever: record numbers of homes for sale to choose from, prices at double-digit gains over the last year, financed at sharply rising mortgage rates,” said Jeff Tucker. , senior economist at Zillow. “It remains to be seen how long buyers can weather this storm and how long homeowners will see values rise before they decide to list. Neither have blinked yet. yourselves to another sizzling hot spring shopping season.”
Growing market heat is affecting consumers nationwide, while monthly home value growth accelerated from December to January in 38 of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. Of these, the fastest monthly growth was recorded in Nashville, San Diego and Las Vegas, all at 2.5%. The slowest growth was recorded in Milwaukee, New York and Washington, DC, all at 0.7%.
Inventory plunged to record lows as listings fell below 900,000. Home hunters hoping for a range of options and relief from increased competition after December’s inventory drought saw the steepest decline in at least three years. Active inventories fell 13%, the second straight double-digit monthly decline. Although inventory declines seasonally in winter, active inventory is now 22% lower than a year ago and 42.4% lower than January 2020. A strong constraint on news market listings was the main driver, with rates down 19% from December. . January’s flow of new listings was lower than any month since at least the start of 2019.
“If supply chains can unravel, builders should be able to finish and sell more homes this year than they did last,” Tucker said.
Existing home sales in January are expected to be slightly lower than December and January 2021. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate, sales start the year around the level of 2021, which was the best year for existing sales since 2006 Sales of new homes paused after rising late last year as builders scrambled to top up the backlog they had reserved in 2020 when they sold the more new houses in 14 years.
Monthly rent growth also slowed dramatically, from 0.9% in November and December to an almost flat rate of 0.1% in January, the lowest rate seen since October 2020. Rent growth in year-on-year was 15.9%, slightly below a record high. 16% in December, for an average rent of $1,856 per month.
To read the full report, including charts and methodology, Click here.


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Rivals Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo Unite On gaming Safety
By The News Voice
The three big game console makers, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have teamed together to commit to making gaming safer for everyone.
The three are setting aside their usual rivalries to improve online gaming. The companies have outlined a set of common principles for safer gaming, specially for younger players.
The companies highlighted in the statement that "all players deserve to have fantastic social gaming experiences in environments where respect and security are mutual".
The companies promise to offer prevention tools like customization, easy-to-use safety tools, codes of conduct and systems that prevent abuse before it happens and also promise to with with government, law enforcement etc.
The statement that was released by the three companies simultaneously, highlights three key principles. These are prevention, Partnership and responsibility
Prevention - giving players and parents the tools and options to help avoid harassment and toxicity before it can happen on gaming platforms.
Partnership - working with industry trade organizations, industry members, regulators, law enforcement, and experts to make online gaming experiences safer experience for the younger generation.
Responsibility - all companies hold themselves accountable for creating safe gaming experiences.
In closing the joint statement, they extended an invitation for other influential companies in the gaming industry to take part in the initiative to ensure safe gaming environments, no matter the platform.


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The Kitayama Brothers Farms Gerbera Festival celebrated another successful Gerbera-N-Go event this year! The flower sale fundraiser sold out again!
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Gerbera-N-Go Festival! We hope to see you again next year!
Learn how to care for your Gerbera daisies.
Sign up for our Newsletter!
All proceeds from the Gerbera Festival benefit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.
This is the 12th year Kitayama Brothers Farms will celebrate the Gerbera Festival. The event began in 2010 as part of the Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House, a daylong event that featured guided tours of five Monterey Bay greenhouses. The event was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Gerbera daisies are bright, colorful flowers with large blooms and strong stems. Kitayama Brothers Farms cultivates nearly 20 varieties in shades of red, pink, orange, yellow and white, with centers that are green, cream or dark brown.


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By Karen Hanna
When it comes to conserving resin, StackTeck is cleaning up with its proprietary TRIM injection mold technologies, which it has continued to improve for the production of thin, yet strong 5-gallon buckets.
The Canadian company recently released the latest results of compression and drop testing, comparing conventional HDPE buckets with those made using its specialized molds for Thin Recess Injection Molding (TRIM). As part of a webinar offered in December to prospective customers, it also touted its KoolTrack suite of mold-cooling alloys and technologies, as well as automation offerings.
Company engineering director Jeff Ngai told participants the company’s TRIM molds can produce pails with wall sections that are just 0.059 inch thick, alternating with sections that measure 0.09 inch — the thickness of pails made with conventional molds.
“We selectively thinned out portions of the side wall to reduce the weight while trying to keep structural integrity. So, we were able to get the part down to 817 grams,” Ngai said. For comparison, the company’s conventional buckets with uniform, smooth walls weighed 930 grams.
Using its proprietary KoolTrack steel alloy as part of molds for both the TRIM pails and conventional pails, StackTeck significantly reduced cooling times, allowing its presses to produce the parts in 13-second cycle times. Typically, conventional pails require 16- to 18-second cycles, Ngai said.
To release the TRIM pails after molding, Jordan Robertson, VP of business development and marketing of StackTeck, explained that StackTeck has incorporated collets at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions on the mold along the rim of the pail.
Both TRIM and non-TRIM bucket styles passed drop and compression tests, Ngai said. The TRIM version survived an angled drop from an industry-standard height of about 5.9 feet, while the conventional pail handled about 6.9 feet. In compression testing, the TRIM pail withstood 820 pounds, and the standard pail tolerated more than 1,100 pounds. The industry standard is 352 pounds, he said.
“Both of them were significantly stronger than the minimum requirement,” he said.
Robertson said the company must weigh possible savings from material against the potential loss of part strength when it builds TRIM molds. He acknowledged that, whether it’s a case of appearance or performance, sometimes, lightweighting can go beyond the pail.
“We have experience where we’ve used extreme ultra-lightweight technologies in the past where we’ve taken out a huge amount of weight … and then made sample yogurt cups that were hardly as strong as a really thin paper cup, and we could see we really had gone too far,” Robertson said. “Our customers would handle these cups and squeeze them and say, ‘That’s interesting, but it’s kind of a different thing than what I do with my business.’ “
The trick is balancing cost savings with customers’ expectations for how much abuse a product should be able to take.
“There are samples where we’ve lightweighted as much as 40 percent by weight, but we’ve learned, through having applied the technology to a significant number of projects now, we’ve learned that there’s kind of a sweet spot that’s somewhere between 10 and 20 percent,” Robertson said.
According to Ngai, the company offers a variety of pail-mold options, including adjustable wedge locks, adjustable square collets and interchangeable bail lugs. Customers also can opt to use copper alloys in the molds.
“We wanted to show that we can do the higher-end options,” he said.
Increasing automation options
The company also continues to expand its robot offerings, Robertson said.
For the first time, it is offering a robot for in-mold labeling (IML) of pails. Configured for both a single-cavity 5-gallon pail and a two-cavity mold for 5-liter pails, the robot has typical intrusion times ranging from 1.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds, depending on the size of the part.
The new robot is designed so that swapping out mandrels and magazines, from a one-cavity setup to a two-cavity setup, takes just an hour.
Robertson said the company hopes to eventually offer the system through FastTrack, a program it created in spring 2019. IML robots offered through FastTrack can be shipped within 12 weeks, but currently only smaller units, such as those for food packaging and lids, are available.
“These robots are built with a modular approach where you can take a frame … the frame is common for machines in the size range from 300 tons to 600 tons,” Robertson said.
The company, which has custom-designed robots for larger machines, also is developing a unit for presses ranging from 200 tons to 400 tons. It can provide IML and takeout robots for its own molds, as well as for new and existing molds provided by other companies.
In addition, the company can make robots for machines of other sizes on a custom basis.
“We’re all about whatever the customer wants,” Robertson said.
StackTeck Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, 416-749-1698, https://stackteck.com


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Remember when marketers used the image of the funnel to represent the customer buying journey? Well, it’s not that simple any more. As the search, shop and buy process grows increasingly complex, multiple devices and channels give consumers — and especially travelers — more choices, leading marketers to expand their focus to every phase of the buying cycle.
Join Phocuswright’s director, consumer research, Marcello Gasdia, and Marketing Land’s paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin, on Thursday, October 29, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. ET, as they explore the customer buyer journey, focusing on the new digital funnel and how successful marketers are adapting to this new behavior.
Register now for “Travel’s New Digital Funnel — How Consumer Buying Continues to Evolve,” produced by Third Door Media in partnership with Phocuswright.
The post Travel’s New Digital Funnel — How Consumer Buying Continues to Evolve appeared first on Search Engine Land.


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Salah satu orang terkaya di China dan founder Alibab, Jack Ma mengatakan dalam annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting kemarin, bahwa kita tidak perlu khawatir mengenai pelemahan ekonomi China. Jack Ma mengatakan bahwa setiap kali dunia menganggap bahwa ekonomi China dalam masalah, China selalu bangkit dan menjadi lebih baik.
Jack Ma juga menambahkan kekhawatiran akan terus turunnya konsumsi masyarakat China tidaklah beralasan, karena berbeda dengan orang Amerika yang menghabiskan seluruh uangnya untuk belanja, bahkan berhutang, penduduk China selalu mengutamakan untuk menabung, jadi meskipun ekonomi China melambat, penduduk China masih memiliki cukup uang saat ini.
Berita lengkapnya anda dapat baca di bawah :
Sumber : cnbc.com
The founder and executive chairman of Alibaba said Tuesday that his country’s savings rate and impending transition to a consumer-led economy mean China can weather a global slowdown. He suggested that China watchers usually get their prognostications wrong.
“You American people worry too much about the China economy,” Ma said at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting. “Every time you think China is a problem, we get better, but when you have a high expectation for China, China is always a problem.”
Despite a much-discussed domestic slowdown, China has a quality that America doesn’t, which could take its economy through tough times, the tech leader said.
“People say ‘Well you know the economy’s bad, so China consumption will be low.’ No, totally different,” Ma said. “You Americans love to spend tomorrow’s money, and other people’s money maybe. … We Chinese love to save money.”
Ma said Chinese consumers are among the world’s biggest savers. In fact, the World Bank ranks China fourth among measured areas in terms of gross savings as a percent of GDP — with 50 percent in 2013, it sat behind Kuwait, Bermuda and China’s own special administrative region of Macao.
The United States, meanwhile, only had 2013 gross savings of about 18 percent of GDP — just less than Colombia, and just more than Namibia.
“We’ve been poor for so many years: When we made money we put it in the banks because someday we know that disaster is coming so we can spend the money,” Ma said. “When the economy is bad, we still have the money to spend — you guys probably don’t, you worry.”
China’s government has helped bolster the economy in recent years, but the driving force in a consumer economy will likely come from entrepreneurs, Ma said.
“China’s government is so strong on investment, so strong on exporting, but they’re too weak on domestic consumption,” he said, adding that it’s now the private sector’s time to shine. “In the past 20 years, government is so strong, now they’re getting weak: It’s our opportunity, it’s our showtime to see … how we can develop real consumption here.”
Some market watchers have voiced concerns about Beijing’s ability to navigate this economic transition, and if the fall of Chinese exports can be a soft landing for the nation.
For his part, Ma said he sees more of an upside to this economic transformation.
“When we export we have a terrible sky, we have terrible water, we have a terrible environment — when we start to import we’re going to be better. So that’s all a great opportunity, guys, be happy about that.”
Creative Trading System | Creative Idea in Stock Market


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NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Friday that it's back to delivering its packages on time after bad weather and a rush of orders caused some delays earlier in the week.
Bankrupt air bag maker Takata is recalling about 1.4 million driver's side inflators in the U.S. because they could explode.
LONDON (AP) — Facebook started testing a tool on Monday that lets users move their images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from regulators to loosen its grip on data.
Good news, shopping fans and retailers, Black Friday is still a thing.
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- Montana FWP reporting low numbers for 2019 big game season; local wild game processing company says business is up
- Peloton responds to holiday ad criticism, saying it was 'misinterpreted'
- BREAKING: Bigfork High School cleared after morning evacuation


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They’ve certainly got the cash and the platforms, so it should come as no surprise that rumours the tech giants are eyeing the rights to the AFL are picking-up a head of steam.
According to reports in today’s The Australian Media section, AFL boss Gil McLachlan has privately told the code’s top club bosses that he had been approached by (as yet unnamed) global internet and streaming giants that were keen to fork out big bucks to secure the game’s rights.
However, with the current deal in place, any new deal wouldn’t happen until the 2023 season.
Presently, Channel Seven, Foxtel and Telstra have the rights after the trio forked out a whopping $2.5 billion in 2015 for them from 2017 up until the end of the 2022 season.
The likes of Amazon Prime and Facebook have spent billions to secure other sports rights around the globe and it’s assumed they’d be the two most likely to make a play.
Other suitors could be ESPN or CBS, who owns Channel 10.
That’s not to say the current holders wouldn’t give-up without a fight either, with Seven, in particular, arguably having the most to lose if it were to relinquish its flagship property.
The problem facing Seven, Foxtel and Telstra is they either shell-out big bikkies now to retain the rights beyond the current deal or wait for the overseas tech giants to play their hands.
Another option would be for 10, desperate for some live sport, to enter into some sort of share deal with Seven and Foxtel.
As one AFL source told The Oz: “The networks know the streaming services are going to be a player in the next deal – so should the local TV players lock it in before the global giants come along?”
Allied Global Marketing (Allied), a full-service integrated marketing agency working with entertainment, consumer and lifestyle brands, has announced the appointment of seasoned executive Nicola Gold as business director APAC, brand experience, effective immediately. Gold assumes a pivotal role in building the Brand Experience offering as part of Allied’s strategy to develop a truly integrated full-service […]
Patrick Radden Keefe (pictured), author of global bestseller, Empire of Pain, talked to B&T‘s Nancy Hromin at the Samsung Jaipur Literary Festival about reputation laundering, aggressive marketing strategies and the privilege of still being able to practice pure journalism and be paid for it. Keefe’s in-depth reporting in publications such as The New Yorker and […]


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Amazon has sold out of its Kindle Fire
tablet, the web retailer announced Thursday, just days before it is
expected to announce a new version of the popular mobile gadget.
Amazon has not released official sales figures for the device, but says that the 7-inch screen tablet has captured some 22 per cent of the US tablet market since its launch 11 months ago.
Analysts estimate that up to 10 million units have been sold, but that it has been struggling of late to compete with newer models like Google's Nexus 7, which offer better specifications at the same price.
"We're grateful to the millions of customers who have made Kindle Fire the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and chief executive.
Amazon has scheduled a big press event in Santa Monica, California, next Thursday, where it is expected to announce new tablet models, including perhaps a larger one or even a smartphone.
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[Note: This item comes from friend David Rosenthal. DLH]
Amazon’s New Customer
By Ben Thompson
Jun 19 2017
Back in 2006, when the iPhone was a mere rumor, Palm CEO Ed Colligan was asked if he was worried:
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” What if Steve Jobs’ company did bring an iPod phone to market? Well, it would probably use WiFi technology and could be distributed through the Apple stores and not the carriers like Verizon or Cingular, Colligan theorized.
I was reminded of this quote after Amazon announced an agreement to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion; after all, it was only two years ago that Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey predicted that groceries would be Amazon’s Waterloo. And while Colligan’s prediction was far worse — Apple simply left Palm in the dust, unable to compete — it is Mackey who has to call Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the Napoleon of this little morality play, boss.
The similarities go deeper, though: both Colligan and Mackey made the same analytical mistakes: they mis-understood their opponents goals, strategies, and tactics. This is particularly easy to grok in the case of Colligan and the iPhone: Apple’s goal was not to build a phone but to build an even more personal computer; their strategy was not to add on functionality to a phone but to reduce the phone to an app; and their tactics were not to duplicate the carriers but to leverage their connection with customers to gain concessions from them.
Mackey’s misunderstanding was more subtle, and more profound: while the iPhone may be the most successful product of all time, Amazon and Jeff Bezos have their sights on being the most dominant company of all time. Start there, and this purchase makes all kinds of sense.
If you don’t understand a company’s goals, how can you know what the strategies and tactics will be? Unfortunately, many companies, particularly the most ambitious, aren’t as explicit as you might like. In the case of Amazon, the company stated in its 1997 S-1:
Amazon.com’s objective is to be the leading online retailer of information-based products and services, with an initial focus on books.
Even if you picked up on the fact that books were only step one (which most people at the time did not), it was hard to imagine just how all-encompassing Amazon.com would soon become; within a few years Amazon’s updated mission statement reflected the reality of the company’s e-commerce ambitions:
Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
“Anything they might want to buy online” was pretty broad; the advent of Amazon Web Services a few years later showed it wasn’t broad enough, and a few years ago Amazon reduced its stated goal to just that first clause: We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. There are no more bounds, and I don’t think that is an accident. As I put it on a podcast a few months ago, Amazon’s goal is to take a cut of all economic activity.
This, then, is the mistake Mackey made: while he rightly understood that Amazon was going to do everything possible to win in groceries — the category accounts for about 20% of consumer spending — he presumed that the effort would be limited to e-commerce. E-commerce, though, is a tactic; indeed, when it comes to Amazon’s current approach, it doesn’t even rise to strategy.


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Ript is shopping into hyper apparel retailer Hyper and the deal would make it one of the largest apparel retailers in the world, according to people familiar with the matter.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter.
The deal would also allow Ript to expand its portfolio of high-quality products and provide Hyper with an additional source of revenue, said one of those people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private transaction.
Hyper, which has operations in a variety of countries, has been struggling to compete with Amazon and other online retailers in a world that is becoming increasingly digitized.
The company reported net income of $1.8 million in the fiscal second quarter and expects to post a profit of $4 million in its next fiscal year.
The purchase of Hyper would allow Rips to take on more of the retailer’s inventory and expand its selection of high quality apparel and accessories.
The retailer has been battling to maintain profitability after it announced a $5.7 billion bankruptcy in March and has struggled to gain traction with its consumers.
The retail giant has struggled as it has tried to grow online shopping.
It has had to contend with an increasing number of customers switching to Amazon’s shopping platform as a result of increased competition from other retailers.
Amazon, which is owned by Amazon.com Inc., has long struggled with the challenge of creating a viable e-commerce business.
The e-tailer recently announced it would buy rival Snap Inc. for $1 billion.
Ript had revenue of $547 million in fiscal 2016.
The group, which includes companies including the online apparel retailer and fashion retailer, is also developing a new clothing line.
Hyper has seen an increase in customers and revenue.
The online apparel company has seen sales increase more than 30 percent to $3.9 billion in fiscal 2017, according on its latest earnings call with analysts.
In the first half of this year, sales rose 26 percent to more than $1 trillion, with more than half of that growth coming from online purchases.
Hyper saw sales increase by 12 percent in the same period.
Rips has struggled since Amazon announced a bankruptcy last month, citing “unprecedented” cost pressures that the retailer faces.
The bankruptcy has forced it to slash about 3,200 jobs and has forced its suppliers to close stores, according Ript Chief Executive Officer Mike Zalewski.
Rippes has seen strong online growth and has been looking for a way to get back into the online retail space.
It was also one of Amazon’s largest customers, accounting for about 13 percent of its total e-shop revenue in fiscal 2018.
The companies have not yet agreed to terms of the deal, which could close as early as Tuesday.
Hyper is also looking to increase its online presence.
The Hyper online store has about 2 million active customers, Zalewski said in the call.
“I can assure you we will continue to build the Hyper brand and we look forward to a very fruitful future together,” Zalewski said.
Ripped has about 4 million active subscribers on the website, and Zalwiski said that the group has a “pretty strong digital presence” as well.
“It’s going to be a very exciting time for the company,” Zilwisky said.
The new purchase is expected close to the end of the quarter, one of these people said.
Hyper recently reported net loss of $0.8 billion, or $0 and $0 per share, in the second quarter.
Its stock fell 6 percent to a price of $30.30 on Wednesday.


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Tag: Alibaba Group
fortiap-s vulnerabilities and exploits
A Year of Careful, Prosaic BUIDLing
While other governments, such as Dubai and Holland, had launched blockchain initiatives, Xi’s declaration has now made this a matter of national competitiveness. This is a huge boost to the blockchain industry in China, everyone from Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba / Ant Financial and Huawei to a long list of startups. It also raised the concern that the China blockchain industry and technologies may diverge from those outside, whether because of US sanctions or China’s Great Firewall. Fortunately, we have not yet seen barriers emerge at Hyperledger; companies and developers in our community who hail from China are active, first-class participants in the community.
Is there a list of the cloud sync executables I need to add to “Application Monitoring” for these Chinese Cloud providers?
I want to have visibility into these specific personal cloud sync executables, if they exist for each service. I have found some for baidu and wechat, but having lots of trouble with many of these others.
Meituan Open Services
For instance, when I got to download it on Alibaba’s website, I have to get a free trial, and in the end I an ineligible for their cloud storage services. I really just need the names of the executables, right? Is there a list of any of these anywhere? Google searching has not been very helpful.
Alipay parent Ant Financial partners with Bayer for agricultural blockchain
Alipay operator Ant Financial has partnered with Bayer to sign a Letter of Intent to bring DLT traceability to food safety and agricultural supply chains.
Ant Financial also revealed that it is extending its partnership with Hyperledger, and the two will work on interoperability, standards, and blockchain applications. Ant’s blockchain as a service (BaaS) offering supports both its own Ant Blockchain and Hyperledger Fabric. The technology will now be brought to agriculture with German firm Bayer. Bayer is best known as a pharmaceutical company, but is also a big name in crops. It acquired US seeds and agrochemicals firm Monsanto in a $63 billion deal last year.
The company’s Crop Science division has a strong presence in China. It provides services to Chinese growers including advanced crop solutions, pesticides, environmental and safety training, digital farming technologies, and crop protection equipment.
Agribusiness is now one of over 40 applications of Ant’s blockchain technology. It has initiatives in supply chain finance, remittance, and rice traceability. Through Alipay, the company provides multiple blockchain services, mainly in health for online prescriptions and insurance.
Ant Financial Partners with Monsanto Owner on Agricultural Blockchain
Alipay operator Ant Financial has partnered with pharmaceutical giant Bayer Crop Science, Monsanto’s owner, to develop a blockchain solution for the food and crop industry.
Letter of intent
Enterprise blockchain news outlet Ledger Insights reported on the partnership on Sept. 26, also noting that the two firms signed a letter of intent to develop their solution to increase traceability and transparency. Per the report, the initiative was announced at this week’s Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, China.
Ant Financial also reportedly informed the public that it intends to extend its partnership with Hyperledger to work on interoperability, standards and blockchain applications. According to the report’s author, the firm’s Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) offering supports both its own platform and Hyperledger’s Fabric.
Monsanto to use blockchain?
Bayer, while being best known as a pharmaceutical giant, also acquired United States-based agrochemical company Monsanto for $63 million last year. An Ant Financial representative better illustrated the scope of the initiative:
“[The aim of the partnership is to] create comprehensive, blockchain-based solutions designed to bring greater transparency to improve food safety and the efficiency of agricultural supply chains.”
According to the report, agriculture “is now one of over 40 applications of Ant’s blockchain technology” and the firm also has initiatives in supply chain finance and rice traceability among others.
As Cointelegraph recently reported, Ant Financial is also launching a blockchain-enabled backend-as-a-service platform.
Ant Financial deepens partnership with blockchain project Hyperledger
1 min read
Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial is expanding its collaboration with open-source blockchain project Hyperledger to develop cross-blockchain technologies, it said Thursday at the Alibaba Cloud’s Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.
Why it matters: The Alibaba fintech affiliate sees blockchain as an important technology supporting its future product and services. The company has been plotting its way to commercializing blockchain technology in recent years.
“Today, with the advancement of technology, blockchain is capable of helping us build a brand new trust mechanism based on cryptographic algorithms. So, going from a platform based on trust to a trust system based on big data to cryptography-based trust is the reason why we see blockchain as a core technology for Ant Financial in the future.”
—Li Jieli, senior director of innovative tech department at Ant Financial
Details: Ant Financial announced today an extension of its partnership with Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger to develop cross-blockchain technologies.
- Ant Financial said it will continue to work with Hyperledger to explore how to connect and integrate different blockchain technologies and ecosystems. Specifically, the two will collaborate with other blockchain companies to develop processes and rules for cross-blockchain technologies.
- On Wednesday, Ant Financial signed a Letter of Intent with the agrochemical division of Bayer AG. The two companies will collaborate to create blockchain-based solutions designed to bring greater transparency to improve food safety and the efficiency of agricultural supply chains.
- Geoff Jiang, vice president and general manager of Ant Financial’s Intelligent Technology Group, said at the conference that the company’s blockchain platform has achieved the capacity to support 1 billion accounts and a daily transaction volume of 1 billion.
Context: The fintech giant launched in February its blockchain subsidiary Ant Blockchain, which focuses on software development, big data, infotech, and technical consulting. The company also has another blockchain subsidiary focusing on fintech research and development and supply chain management.
- In 2018, Alibaba and Ant Financial jointly held the top in a global blockchain patent ranking with 90 patent applications.
ZEE5 Partners with Minute.ly; Alibaba & WPP Among Leading Companies in GlobalData Internet …
In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia Pacific region – in this edition: ZEE5 partners with leading AI Video enhancement startup Minute.ly to boost watching experience for tens of millions of users in India and around the world; Alibaba and WPP among the leading companies in GlobalData’s internet advertising theme for the advertising sector; and Mindtree joins Hyperledger to accelerate blockchain development.
ZEE5 partners with leading AI Video enhancement startup Minute.ly to boost watching experience for tens of millions of users in India and around the world
Minute.ly, a leading AI-driven video enhancement company, has announced a strategic partnership with ZEE5, the first ever OTT platform to offer customisable Indian content, to personalise their front-end user experience. With 76.4m monthly active users globally, ZEE5 offers Indian and international movies, TV shows, live broadcasts and original content to an international community of viewers. The video giant has integrated Minute.ly’s AI tool to enrich its platforms’ video content – maximising user engagement, improving overall video views and site traffic, and expanding ZEE5’s reach.
With Minute.ly’s AI tool, ZEE5 can predict user engagement using artificial intelligence which will ultimately affect their video revenue. The company’s patented video optimisation algorithm automatically identifies peak moments from any video on site by analysing the visual content and its performance. It also provides invaluable insights regarding user interests – empowering publishers to know exactly what viewers want to see and what content they connect with most. By replacing static thumbnails with automated dynamic video preview thumbnails (APVs) using one of Minute.ly’s AI tools, ZEE5 has increased its overall click-through-rate (CTR) by 37% and extended its reach as users browse for more content on the premium publisher’s site.
Speaking about the association, Rajneel Kumar, Business Head Expansion Projects & Head of Products, ZEE5 India said, “India is a unique market in terms of the audience demography and the preferences that run through the length and breadth of the country. At ZEE5, our core focus is to get the best of technology, data and content to culminate into an enriching personal viewing experience for a consumer. With Minute.ly’s AI tool, we will only better our understanding of a consumer’s video consumption pattern and serve them with the best of content anytime, anywhere.”
Alibaba and WPP among the leading companies in GlobalData’s Internet advertising theme for the advertising sector
Alibaba, WPP and Comscore are among the leading companies in the Internet advertising theme, according to the latest Thematic Scorecard for the advertising sector from GlobalData.
All three companies gained the highest Thematic score (5 out of 5) for the Internet advertising theme in GlobalData’s Thematic Scorecard for the advertising sector. A Thematic score of 5 out of 5 indicates that the company’s competitive position in this theme will significantly improve its future performance.
Also identified as dominant players in this theme are Yahoo Japan, Channel Advisor, Criteo, and the Rubicon Project.
On their tail, with scores of 4 out of 5, are Adobe, Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic, Baidu, Alliance Data Systems, Angie’s List and Marchex.
GlobalData’s Thematic Scorecard ranks companies within a sector on the basis of overall leadership in the ten themes that matter most to their industry, generating a leading indicator of future performance.
Mindtree joins Hyperledger to accelerate blockchain development
Mindtree, a global technology services and digital transformation company, has announced that it has joined Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. Joining as a general member enables Mindtree to accelerate the development of its capabilities around Hyperledger and offer industry-specific blockchain solutions to prospective clients.
Hosted by the Linux Foundation, Hyperledger is a multi-project, multi-stakeholder effort that includes 14 business blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. Hyperledger enables organisations to build industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support business transactions by creating enterprise-grade, open source distributed ledger frameworks and code bases.
“Enterprises are seeing strategic value and want to adopt Blockchain to reimagine some of the current process areas and implement futuristic solutions. With this membership, we will be able to assist our customers in realising their vision in implementing these solutions,” said Madhusudhan KM, chief technology officer, Mindtree. He added, “Joining the Hyperledger community is a further extension of Mindtree’s effort to build a strong domain expertise around enterprise Blockchain-based solutions that deliver enhanced transparency, security and traceability for our clients across many industries including retail, manufacturing, banking, insurance, airlines & hospitality.”
Taptica International Rebrand Reflects Video Advertising Leadership; Bidstack Reveals Results of Independent Study by Lumen Research
Brand Expectations for China Are High According to New Research; Dentsu Signs Partnership with Imprint
Near Raises USD$100m (£80.1m); Majority of Marketers Want to Spend More on Programmatic Audio
Blockchain As A Service By Alibaba Goes Global
This service was only available to China since its launch in October 2017. It is now available to use in Europe, US and Asia counterparts.
Blockchain As A Service
According to Alibaba, their service offers “an enterprise-level platform service based on leading blockchain technologies. This help customers build a secure and stable environment for blockchain implementations.”
Yi Li, Senior Staff Engineer and lead of Alibaba Cloud Blockchain Service says, They aim to, “become a technology partner that enables companies that wish to use blockchain to accelerate their digital transformation.”
Agreeing with Li, Executive Director of Hyperledger Brian Behlendorf says that “2018 is set to be another blockbuster year for the industry”. As the rollout of the platform will bring more innovation to the global blockchain community.
The Blockchain service offer includes “automatic deployment, software development kit applications”. While delivering a range of “monitoring, operating, and maintenance functions.”
The platform, since its launch, has found various applications, especially in Chinese logistics and medical industries. However, now it’s available globally in 19 regions around the world via a network of 52 Alibaba data centers.
Alibaba cloud came into existence in 2009. Currently, has become a potential top-tier supplier of cloud services in China and the third largest cloud service in the world.
The e-commerce giant has been investing in blockchain technology since 2017 and it reportedly held 10 percent of all the blockchain patent in the world. In 2017, a staggering 406 blockchain patents reportedly came from China including the patents from Alibaba.
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Alibaba launches global Enterprise BaaS. How big is the demand?
This week Alibaba Cloud released its Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) offering around the globe, including South East Asia, the US and Europe. The company is offering two solutions, one for Hyperledger Fabric and the other is the proprietary Ant Blockchain from affiliated company Ant Financial. But one question is: how big is the demand for enterprise BaaS?
Some might mistakenly dismiss Alibaba Cloud as primarily a Chinese vendor where it’s the leader for enterprise. In Gartner’s 2018 magic quadrant for worldwide cloud infrastructure (not just BaaS), just six companies qualified and Alibaba was one of them. Only Amazon AWS, Microsoft and Google made it into the leader quadrant, and even Google barely squeaked in. The other three Alibaba, Oracle and IBM appeared (in that order for “ability to execute”) in the niche player segment.
“Our customers in China have already experienced the benefits from our BaaS platform and we are excited to extend this service to other enterprise customers all over the world,” said Yi Li lead of Alibaba Cloud Blockchain Service.
The new Alibaba BaaS service offers Hyperledger Fabric 1.1 whereas the latest release is 1.3. However, many other cloud providers also don’t offer the most recent version.
Neither Azure nor AWS provides version information for Hyperledger Fabric when you browse for solutions. AWS launched its BaaS offering in April. For AWS during the creation process for a Hyperledger Fabric stack, you aren’t provided clear version options. It states that it’s the latest but elsewhere the license says April which means it’s version 1.1 at best.
How popular are enterprise BaaS services? The AWS blockchain templates are only available in three US datacenters. Given six months has passed since the launch, if there had been significant demand, you would expect more regional options. Plus looking at the AWS forums there were only 19 discussion threads, of which 18 related to Ethereum.
Many enterprise networks fall into two camps. One group involves a single centralized party setting up the network for everyone. In which case they have a skilled team and don’t necessarily need a BaaS solution. The other group is the early stage consortium without a specialist technology provider where BaaS should the easiest route, in theory.
And the vast majority of projects are still in the development phase where the code is sitting on a developer’s laptop.


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Apple issued the Golden Master Seed version of its iPhone OS 3.2 SDK March 29, ahead of the April 3 release of its iPad tablet PC. The release allows anyone registered with company's iPhone Developer Program to build mobile applications for the iPad with more finalized tools.
Members of the iPhone Developer Program pay for presumably just this sort of access, to the tune of $99 per year.
Resources for the iPhone OS 3.2 GM Seed seem to have remained largely unchanged from beta versions of the platform, including an iPhone Reference Library, Sample Code, iPad Programming Guide and Human Interface Guidelines. Blogs such as Engadget are already parsing the build to see if any radical alterations exist from those previous versions.
Apple claims that some 150,000 apps will be available for the iPad's launch, with outside analysts suggesting that Apple's App Store could contain as many as 300,000 apps for the iPad, the iPhone and the iPod Touch by the end of 2010.
Analytics firm Flurry has reported a 185 percent uptick in the number of new application starts for the iPhone OS over the past few weeks. "We continue to attribute this growth to excitement generated by the impending launch of the iPad," Peter Farago, vice president of marketing for Flurry, wrote in a March 15 posting on the company's official blog. "A large portion of the applications we are seeing are custom versions of existing applications tailored for the iPad."
The iPad has the potential to become a huge hit, with Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty estimating between 8 million and 10 million units shipped in 2010. In a recent research note, Huberty also noted that the iPad could target the $800-and-under notebook market, a sentiment that if taken at face value could give competitors for that segment a bit of pause.
"Near-term, we believe the iPad will target the sizable sub-$800 consumer notebook market, which equates to 30 million units in the U.S. and 120 million units globally," Huberty wrote. The addition of TV shows, ebooks and other content especially tailored for the device could further increase its consumer appeal.
The 16GB version of the iPad sells for $499 with WiFi and $629 with WiFi and 3G. The 32GB version costs $599 with WiFi and $729 with WiFi and 3G, and the 64GB version costs $699 with WiFi and $829 with WiFi and 3G.
Meanwhile, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak apparently sees the iPad as a device ideal for very specific market segments.
"The iPad could lower the cost of acquiring computers for students. I think it's going to be huge in the education market," Wozniak told Newsweek's Daniel Lyons-who also blogs as Fake Steve Jobs-on March 26. "Think about students going off to college. They want an Apple product, but their parents don't want to spend that much. Now they have the ideal thing. They can go to college and someone may have a whacked-out $6,000 laptop, but the guy with the iPad will get all the attention."
Other target audiences for the device, according to Wozniak, include those who want simple computing-and he plans to buy three: "I've ordered one for a friend. Then I ordered two for myself. One with WiFi and one with the 3G."
Given Wozniak's history with Apple, the much-publicized "two iPads per customer" rule will hopefully be waived.


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The lights are on
After tweeting last month about abandoned work on an Alien film, the District 9 director says he's back on the project.
Watch the funny reactions kids have as they play through this challenging platformer.
Sony is giving us a look at the making of its upcoming live action comic book show, Powers. In this peek behind the curtain, we meet the cast and the characters and learn about the world in which the show takes place.
Bikers can now show off their passion for the Halo franchise while on the go.
An astrophysicist uses math to learn more about Super Mario World and gains insight into the nature of Mario's universe and Mario himself.
A Doom modder going by the name Linguica has implemented arguably the
only thing Doom fans have felt was missing from the game – Instagram
filters and a selfie stick.
The artist behind the recent impressive Rayman as DLC in Smash Bros. hoax details exactly how he put the whole project together.
Pokémon artist RJ Palmer latest piece imagines Kyurem, Raikou,
Piloswine, Abomasnow, Delibird, Sawsbuck, Mr. Mime, Chingling, and
Froslass in the real world.
The latest episode of Did You Know Gaming enlists the help of Super Smash Bros. announcer Xander Mobus to share some facts about Nintendo's fighting series.
Konami, Naughty Dog and more express their gamer love with Valentine's Day greeting cards.
Lego announces 32 new Star Wars sets for the first half of 2015.
Collectible manufacturer Multiverse Studio announced a partnership with Koei Tecmo to produce a series of collectibles based on the Ninja Gaiden series.


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Federal Excise Tax - The War is Over!!!
How many of you pay attention to your wireless bill each month? Did you ever wonder or show concern for that section that says "Taxes, Fees and Surcharges"?
The Federal Excise Tax or FET was first instituted in 1898 to finance the Spanish-American War. Each month there is a 3% tax added to the bill of every wireless user in America. I'm sorry... do they not know that the war is over? An article posted last year from USA Today mentions that the general excise tax has so far cost consumers about $300 billion. The entire Spanish-American War cost only about $6 billion, adjusted for inflation.
“Today’s wireless user is buried under a heap of taxes and fees. The average wireless subscriber in America pays more than 17% of his or her monthly bill in taxes and fees. That’s nothing short of outrageous. The fact that government is punishing citizens who choose to make their lives more productive, efficient and enjoyable through innovative wireless technology makes no sense at all.” CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent
According to MyWireless.org wireless consumers may currently seek a refund for up to 36 months of past taxes. However, one refund claim form is required for each calendar quarter (up to 3 months) of bills. Man its a good thing I have all of my bills from day one.


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by Ken Colby
People dressed in military fatigues hooked up with guns and ammunition carried out missions at the Fairplex last weekend.
Fortunately, the guns were actually markers, the ammunition consisted of paint balls and the mission was capturing a flag within a given time limit.
In addition to the war games, many companies displayed their products at the third annual Paintball Expo.
Hundreds of people gathered to buy low cost supplies, see what the new items are and meet some of their favorite players.
The Paintball Expo was designed to give people an opportunity to not only buy and sell paintball supplies, but also to expose the up and coming sport to more people.
Starting as a few people shooting balls full of paint at each other, paintball has been around for more than 20 years and attracts an estimated seven million players nationwide.
“Paintball used to be a weekend recreational sport,” said Rick Vaughn, a player for team Savex.
Vaughn said that when the players became better, they attracted sponsors and formed leagues.
“I started playing a few years ago, when paintball was tiny,” said Eric Peterson of Tropical Illuzion.
“It has blown up and has no signs of slowing down anytime soon,” he added.
“Paintball is a multibillion dollar business, not until recently have companies began to buy into the sport. In fact, just a few months ago Dick Clark purchased the National X-Ball League, planning to bring it to national television,” said Darryl Trent, sales representative for Smart Parts inc.
More than 50 companies displayed booths selling anything from low cost paint balls ($30 a box), to a $3,000 paintball gun.
They filled their booths with colorful displays, of any paintball equipment, hoping to get their product out and known.
This summer paintball will shoot at the mainstream for the first time as the X-Games, the Olympic equivalent of extreme sports, have added it to the line-up.
“The X-Games make small sports huge. Look at snowboarding, look at surfing, paintball is next,” said Jules Foote, a player for team Ironmen.
Games will be played in X-ball format.
X-ball is played on a field about the size of a basketball court, with several inflatable bunkers. It is timed just like college basketball with two twenty minute halves.
The goal is to capture and hang the flag of the opposing team in your own team’s base.
After a “Flag Hang” (a score), a two-minute time-out for a strategic team huddle is given before the action resumes.
The Expo was the first contact to the paintball sport for many of the visitors.
Some of them tested the equipment on two set up courses, others jumped in just for fun, hoping to mark someone.
“My son has never played, and he has been begging me for a year or more now, so I thought the Expo would be the perfect place for him to get a feeling for the sport before he jumped head first into something he wasn’t going to like,” said Joshua Brown, father of 8-year-old Tyler.
“They shot at me, and I shot back,” Tyler said. “It was cool.” “Once you play,” Foote said, “You’re hooked for life.”


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Alex Goldman will now be the president of Quality Importers Trading Co., a promotion from his current role of chief operating officer, a title he will keep going forward.
As part of this new role, Goldman will be taking over “all day-to-day operations of the company as well as spearhead the implementation of the company’s longer-term initiatives,” according to the company. Michael Giordano will remain the company’s ceo and chairman.
Quality Importers Trading Co. is the parent company of a long list of cigar accessories brands including XIKAR, Cigar Caddy, DiPro, Humidor Supreme, Hyrda, Palió, Stinky and others. It also has a division called The Swag Bunker which customizes products for customers.
“This industry is all about relationships, and I look forward to growing relationships I have formed over the past 25+ years as well as building new ones as the President and COO of QI,” said Goldman in a press release. “Having sat in the chair that most of our customers currently occupy, I believe I bring a level of experience and understanding of the challenges our customers face on a daily basis, and look forward to helping them succeed in all of their planned endeavors.”
Goldman is a longtime industry veteran who worked at his family’s companies—House of Oxford and Mom’s Cigars—as well as Swisher International and Drew Estate. He joined Quality Importers last August.


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A few weeks after the first self-driving fatality, in a Tesla Model S, Mobileye decided to sever ties with the electric car company.
Tesla quickly piled on the story to make sure it had the narrative, the company said Mobileye couldn’t keep pace with updates and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, said “parting ways was inevitable.”
Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua doesn’t refute this, but in a new report from Reuters, he tries to give his company’s side of the story.
“[AutoPilot] is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner,” said Shashua. “No matter how you spin it, it is not designed for that. It is a driver assistance system and not a driverless system.”
Shashua took issue with Tesla’s marketing of the AutoPilot system, and the way Musk and other executives would tout the system’s sophistication while also warning drivers not to take their hands off the wheel.
“Long term this is going to hurt the interests of [Mobileye] and hurt the interests of an entire industry, if a company of our reputation will continue to be associated with this type of pushing the envelope in terms of safety,” Shashua said.
Tesla adding more warnings to get your attention
Tesla has started to add more safety warnings to the AutoPilot system, to avoid drivers taking hands off for extended periods of time. The latest update, AutoPilot 8.0, also adds far more data points through a new radar system and syncs all Tesla Model S and Model X cars to understand the roads better and avoid another fatal accident.
Elon Musk and Tesla spokespeople have adamantly defended AutoPilot, stating that the system managed 130 million miles of driving before a crash, far higher than the average 60 million miles per crash caused by human drivers. That data might be a little misleading, considering another crash from January 2016 has been revealed in China earlier this week.
It might need to prepare more defenses as the National Highway Traffic & Safety Administration looks into the Tesla crash and launches new regulations on self-driving cars.


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Rolex to become official Formula One timekeeper
December 6 , 2012
Rolex is set to become Formula One's official timekeeper and timepiece from next season after agreeing a global partnership, the Swiss luxury watch brand announced on Wednesday.
"This partnership is something that many people interested in Formula One will have been waiting for and should rightly be excited about," F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said in a statement.
As part of the deal, the Rolex logo will be placed around grand prix circuits and at certain corners during races.
South Korean electronics group LG, who signed a five-year deal in 2008, have had their branding on timekeeping systems in recent seasons.


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Jimmy Choo goes to Labelux for £500 million
It was earlier being speculated that Bernard Arnault’s LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate on an acquisition trail, was considering a bid for British luxury footwear firm Jimmy Choo. Now, the big news coming from the industry is that the luxury goods group Labelux from TowerBrook Capital Partners LP has bought the fashionistas’ favorite shoemaker. The terms of the deal haven’t been revealed, but two familiar sources said it was worth about £500 million (over $809 million).
Vienna-based Labelux, owner of the Bally bag and the Derek Lam fashion label, said that Jimmy Choo’s cofounder and Chief Creative Officer Tamara Mellon and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman would have the same roles. Since it was founded in 1996, Jimmy Choo has been sold four times.
TowerBrook Capital Partners had earlier bought the shoemaker in 2007 for £185 million and has made it become a global brand known for its high-end luxury shoes. Labelux was founded in 2007 by the German billionaire Reimann family.


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The CEO of Delta Cafés will lead the European non-profit's focuses on empowering youth within coffee growing regions, improving farmer profitability and building climate resilience
Rui Miguel Nabeiro (left), CEO of Delta Cafés, and Kathrine Löfberg (right), Chair of Löfbergs
Rui Miguel Nabeiro, CEO of Portuguese coffee roaster and distributor Delta Cafés, has been appointed as the new chair of the European non-profit International Coffee Partners (ICP).
Formed in 2001, the ICP is an eight-strong coalition of Europe’s largest family-owned coffee companies and seeks to address the challenges facing smallholder coffee farming communities and help them become more sustainable and competitive.
The coalition partners include Portugal’s Delta Cafès, Sweden’s Löfbergs, Croatia’s Franck, Norway’s Joh. Johannson, Italy’s Lavazza, Finland’s Paulig and Germany’s Neumann Gruppe and Tchibo.
Under Nabeiro’s leadership the ICP said it will further develop its activities with a specific focus on youth and climate change, which Nabeiro cited as ‘megatrends in sustainability’.
The non-profit organisation added that it will empower youth within their rural communities, improving prospects for them within the coffee industry and the wider agricultural sector.
“I am happy to support the progress of our joint work. Youth and climate change are very relevant megatrends in sustainability. We aim to enable youth to explore agriculture and coffee as pillars of their livelihood,” said Nabeiro.
Nabeiro succeeds Kathrine Löfberg, Chair of Swedish coffee group Löfbergs, who had chaired the ICP since 2016.
The ICP also plans to further strengthen its initiative for coffee&climate (c&c). Founded by the ICP in 2010 and currently chaired by Löfberg, c&c is working to create a ‘climate-smart future’ for farmers and the wider coffee industry.


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Tesla Chief Elon Musk sold more shares in Tesla worth $6.9 billion which was the biggest sale of shares made by the billionaire. The sale represented the businessman’s need for cash to end his deal with Twitter, Fortune magazine reported on Wednesday.
Musk tweeted: “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.”
Musk’s statements came as respond to one of his followers asking him about finalizing selling Tesla shares for ending his Twitter deal, and he said: “yes.”
Tesla’s Chief sold shares estimated by $7.92 billion early this month, although Musk stated before that he had no plans for selling any shares of Tesla four months ago.
Tesla Chief Elon Musk said that the Twitter deal can go on original terms in case the leading social media company submitted all data related to spam pots and wrong information, ABC News reported on Sunday.
Musk tweeted: “If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms.”
“However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”
Mr Musk, who has more than 100 million Twitter followers, went on to challenge Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a “public debate about the Twitter bot percentage.”
It is worthy to mention that Twitter refuted, on Thursday, the billionaire’s claims about being “hoodwinked” into his deal to buy the company.
The company said: “According to Musk, he – the billionaire founder of multiple companies, advised by Wall Street bankers and lawyers – was hoodwinked by Twitter into signing a $44 billion merger agreement.”
“That story is as implausible and contrary to fact as it sounds.”
Last week, the billionaire filed a countersuit to defend himself against Twitter’s accusations of Musk who stepped back from the company’s takeover bid.
The company responded: “The counterclaims are a made-for-litigation tale that is contradicted by the evidence and common sense.”
Leading social media platform Twitter previously announced that the company will hold a meeting with the shareholders on September 13 for voting on the takeover bid by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The plan of the company was somehow on hold due to the legal dispute between the company and Musk who terminated the offer.
During the meeting, the shareholders will vote on a proposal to approve the offer of Musk to have the company.


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Walmart starting holiday layaway earlier
- Staff Pacific Business News
Walmart has moved the start of its layaway program back one month to give shoppers more time to pay for holiday gifts following observations by the U.S. retailing giant that more of its customers are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Reuters reports that Walmart (NYSE: WMT) will start this year's layaway service on Sept. 16, and that the retailer will charge a $15 fee to layaway customers, who will receive a $15 Walmart gift card if they complete their payments by Dec. 14. Reuters reports that millions of customers used the service last year and that Walmart, which declined to release specific figures, said a majority made the full payments.
Walmart has nine stores in Hawaii.
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Electric vehicle (EV) startup Fisker says it will start series production of its Ocean electric SUV on November 17, 2022.
Austrian contract manufacturer Magna Steyr, Fisker’s production partner, has produced 95 prototype versions of the Ocean to date at its carbon-neutral factory in Graz.
Fisker said these “early-run vehicles” will be used for testing, marketing, service, and manufacturing training purposes.
“It’s fantastic to see the quality of the Fisker Oceans currently being manufactured, and to also see them incrementally improving on every visit,” said Fisker CEO and chairman Henrik Fisker after a visit to the Austrian production plant.
“It’s rewarding to observe the continuous improvements to manufacturing speed on the assembly line.”
“Our marketing and service teams are thrilled to get their hands on cars before the official production starts so they can thoroughly prepare for deliveries and promote the Fisker Ocean in our launch markets.
“This phase of assembly marks the onset of improvement and refinement for start of production and through ramp-up.”
We reached out to Fisker to confirm if there are any plans for an Australian launch of its upcoming EVs. We’ll update this story if we hear back.
As previously detailed, the Ocean range opens with the Sport, priced from $US37,499 ($A57,689) before federal and state credits in the US.
It features a CATL-supplied lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that’s good for a claimed range of up to 434km according to WLTP testing.
Powering the Ocean Sport is a single electric motor on the front axle that produces 205kW of power. Fisker claims it can do the 0-60mph (0-96km/h) sprint in 6.9 seconds.
The mid-spec Ocean Ultra is priced at US$49,999 ($A76,919) and features a CATL-supplied ‘Hyper Range’ battery pack with a nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cell chemistry. Claimed electric range is 609km on the WLTP test cycle.
The Ultra features a dual-motor all-wheel drive system with a total system output of 402kW, good for a 0-60mph time of 3.9 seconds.
The top-of-the-range Ocean Extreme is priced at US$68,999 ($A106,149) and also features a CATL-supplied NMC battery that’s been reworked to provide a claimed WLTP range of 629km.
Ocean Extreme models also have a dual-motor all-wheel drive system thats been fettled to produce 410kW. Fisker claims this model can do the 0-60mph sprint in 3.6 seconds.
The first 5000 Ocean SUVs that’ll be produced will be a special launch edition version called the Ocean One.
These models will be priced at US$68,999 ($A76,919), the same price as the Ocean Extreme, but will feature more standard equipment, including 22-inch ‘F3 SlipStream’ wheels.
Ocean One models have the same NMC battery pack and dual-electric motors as the Ocean Extreme.
Looking beyond the upcoming Ocean SUV, Fisker has been been teasing its Pear entry-level “sporty crossover”.
Set to be priced from $US29,990 ($A46,137), the Fisker Pear will be fully revealed in the second half of 2023 and enter production at Foxconn’s newly acquired plant in Ohio in 2024.
Fisker has also been teasing its upcoming Project Ronin four-door convertible.
Mr Fisker recently confirmed it’ll feature a tri-motor all-wheel drive powertrain, with a targeted electric range of 600 miles (965km).
Development of the Project Ronin concept began last year, and Fisker says it expects to reveal it in August 2023 with production starting in the second half of 2024.


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Updated 10:00 pm, Wednesday, June 18, 2003
2nd House panel plans Freddie Mac inquiryFreddie Mac, the government-chartered mortgage giant that abruptly replaced its top management last week, faces a new inquiry on Capitol Hill. Cliff Stearns , a Florida Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee , announced yesterday that it would hold a hearing in July to examine the company's accounting practices. A separate hearing by the House Financial Services Committee was announced last week.
Starbucks signs deal for store in Lima, PeruStarbucks Corp. plans to open its first store in Peru later this year after signing a licensing agreement with Lasino S.A. The first store is scheduled to open in the capital, Lima, and Starbucks plans to open more throughout the country, the Seattle-based company said. Starbucks announced in May that it planned to enter Chile later this year, its first foray into South America, and is looking into opportunities in other Latin American countries.
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Vessels due at the Port of Seattle today, according to the Marine Exchange of Puget Sound, include Golden Bear, from Mexico, at Terminal 25; Hanjin Pretoria, from Portland, at 46; Millennium Falcon, from Vancouver, B.C., at 18; and President Adams, from Hong Kong, at 5. Due tomorrow is MOL Initiative, from Los Angeles, at 5.


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More than 2.5 million Canadian households will have multiple TV subscriptions, paying for TV through a traditional distributor and at least one other OTT (over-the-top) TV service, up over 150% from 2012 levels. By the end of 2014, the number of households that will pay for a second basket of TV content will be more than 100 times greater than the number of households that have cut the cord in 2013, and cancelled their subscription TV, according to Deloitte’s 2014 Technology Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions report.
Deloitte’s TMT Predictions are based on global research including in-depth interviews with clients, industry analysts, global industry leaders and more than 8,000 Deloitte member-firm TMT practitioners.
“As more and more content owners, aggregators and platforms such as cable, telecom and satellite providers make their content available online through subscription, the number of Canadian households with multiple subscriptions will rise,” says Duncan Stewart, Deloitte’s Director of Research for TMT. “So far, at least, the cord-stackers are running far ahead of the cord-cutters. Households will want the best quality and an abundance of content which will have an impact on bandwidth and put upward pressure on monthly download allowances.”
Organizations that offer apps, content and services will have a greater opportunity to win a share of the consumer’s wallet as Canadians double up, or even triple up, on TV subscriptions. With global combined sales of PCs, smartphones, tablets, TVs and computer gaming equipment plateauing in 2014, technology spending may shift from hardware to the software, content and services categories.


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Why buy a new iPhone when you can fix your old one?
Your phone, your tablet, or you don’t hesitate to pull out a big chunk of your downward change and buy a laptop. But if you have expensive hardware for a while, you know how they start to slow down a bit. Instead of focusing on fixing old products, tech giants are busy making new products, and the life cycle is the same.
Now, a global grassroots researcher wants to rethink the technology economy from the devices we already have. In short, they want to repair old equipment, not always buy new equipment.
As the “circular economy” has gained momentum around the world, maintenance enthusiasts and consumer advocates hope to reverse the one-off economy through a new repair culture. The core idea is to empower consumers as producers and provide them with tools and technical skills to solve problems. Even just recycling electronic waste – the most just transfer the waste from landfills out – this type of “recycling” completely avoid the waste, encourage the transparency of the supply chain, and have the product liberated from copyright and patent laws as the user’s political value recycling their control of the machine.
However, the virtuous cycle of recovery through maintenance runs counter to Big Tech’s profit flows, which are triggered by the planned abandonment of the monopoly. Since the dominant smartphone and other products are basically designed to be disposed of, the product line turns over every few months, and why? Not to mention the barriers to other, more sustainable gadgets, such as guaranteed limits. Many products also include embedded software, because too strict licensing agreement may block the way you want them to consumers use their hardware, in a fixed time to repair it, or let others to operate it – this will not only affect the preprogrammed electronic equipment such as mobile phones, and affect the now made daily household electrical appliances, digital functions like a thermostat, smoke alarm, and even toys.
The maintenance association, a network of maintenance activists from small service providers to enthusiasts, is using the “right to repair” policy to publicize the technology. The fair repair bill proposed in several states would require manufacturers to provide buyers with the same “diagnostic and maintenance information” as their own proprietary services. This principle can be applied to other forms of technology, such as cars and farm tools, medical equipment, or novel “Internet of things” devices. To repair the advocates also seeks to reform the federal patents and copyright restrictions, in order to prevent the digital economy is intellectual property restrictions colonization, such as a ban unlock smartphone “at the end of the license agreement”.
As the industry believes, such a move would not hamper future product innovation. On the contrary, self – fixation stimulates creativity. If technology giants like apple want to live up to their hype “social responsibility” brand, they will not be able to rely on with maximum limit waste and resource development to realize the profit maximization of business model.
In recent years, some manufacturers have formed their own image by providing proprietary electronic waste recycling, including collecting old products and reprocessing them into raw materials. But the industry’s “green” certification standards often overlook the issue of fixing or reusing, which advocates say is the greenest, even zero-waste option. If the valuable minerals or metals cannot be out of the China’s bin microprocessors are cost effective extraction, then deal with electronic waste may be recovered from the waste hardware very little.
“Excessive focus on recycling is a goal of self-interest,” said Gay Gordon Byrne, co-founder of the maintenance association, via E-mail. “The recovery of raw materials is the durability of the admission of failure… . Consumers have not been given the opportunity to extend their use, nor have they sold or donated products to downstream users. ”
According to circular economy production analysis of the MacArthur foundation, through the cycle production chain prolongs the service life of smart phones will lead to environmental and economic benefits: recycling and refurbishing 95% of the total production will lead to atmospheric emissions of 3 million tons of carbon emissions. And since Europe’s smartphone market is dependent on non-eu manufacturing, the reabsorption of materials would offset an international trade deficit of $2 billion to replace new imports.
Maintenance association according to analysis of the industry standard, according to a recent analysis of environmental sustainability industry certification system, now even the most environmentally friendly in the electronics industry has also often ignore the maintenance, to reduce the excessive consumption and waste.
Most of the new designs include strong adhesives, unchangeable batteries, non-upgrade components, proprietary screws and hard-to-open shells. In addition, owners, recyclers and refurbishers are unable to obtain the manufacturer’s manual for repair and disassembly of these equipment, reducing the economic viability of the reuse.
Technology companies often cite “trade secrets” or warn that making technology too transparent can lead to hacking risks. But the main purpose of the industry is to extract the maximum profit after the point of sale, the maintenance association said.
According to Gordon Byrne, “manufacturers have a commercial interest in preventing maintenance, because without repair, they will have any failure to sell new products. In addition, the company “has a vested interest in reducing production costs,” which has spurred the use of minimum acceptable specifications and minimal labor use for parts. Glue is cheaper than screws. ”
Maintenance association believes that any meaningful industry within the scope of the recycling code must be included in the repair themselves, rather than just another expensive industrial recovery process (in many cases, the burden of its own pollution and energy), and provide a higher rating products, built continue beyond the next autumn.
Building reusability may involve simple design features, such as allowing the replacement of a battery, or simply a free DIY repair statement as an alternative to a formal service plan.
The rights of the Supreme Court recently reiterated WeiXiuZhe in landmark lawsuit, demolition of lexmark ink hegemony, one-time, on the basis of its irreplaceable carbon powder compact mode of production chain, effectively prevent users from filling the cartridge (although provides an elaborate waste toner cartridge recycling program as the scheme of environmental responsibility) under the threat of a patent infringement. Court ruled that the narrow is beyond the scope of patent law lexmark, because once the product sales to consumers, it is no longer a monopoly, but to become a private personal property of the buyer, the ownership of the rights and interests as “.
The electronic frontier foundation said the verdict is to examine the enterprise knowledge monopoly, declared that “should not be allowed to have a patent or copyright owner control and destroy any threat to its profits of the business of hunting license”.
Some progressive producers are also dealing with disposable patterns. For example, Fairphone is another smart phone brand designed specifically for recycling, with environmentally friendly features such as easy-to-repair machinery and recyclable materials that can reduce overall carbon consumption.
By separating users from the profit chain, the rights movement provides another way to recover production data. For some people, the maintenance of value-added may bring skilled job opportunities. The process of restoring repair can even be adjusted by encouraging the training of open innovation services, not just neoliberal monopolies. Eventually, the restoration culture revolves around local ingenuity: when we do more with less, people are richer.


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Retail sales eased in September, data showed on Tuesday, as the UK’s post-pandemic recovery continued to lose momentum.
In the five weeks to 2 October 2021, sales decreased 0.6% on a like-for-like basis against September 2020, when they had jumped 6.1%, according to the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.
On a total basis, sales increased by 0.6% compared to growth of 5.6% in September 2020. That remains below both the three-month average, for growth of 3.1%, and the 12-month average, for growth 9.8%.
Underlying retail sales were ahead 5.8%, however, when compared to September 2019.
In the three months to September, food sales rose 2.3% on a total basis and by 1.7% on an underlying basis. During the same period, non-food retail sales increased by 3.8% year-on-year, or by 1.6% on a like-for-like basis.
The UK economy surged earlier in the year, as the country emerged from lockdown and consumer spending and business activity jumped. But in recent months the recovery has been hampered by a number of factors, including supply chain difficulties, higher prices and staff shortages. Consumer confidence has also been hit by growing inflationary pressures.
After hitting a high of 51.1% growth in April, total retail sales growth has eased every month since, from 6.4% in July to 3.0% in August and 0.6% last month, and concerns are growing that the all-important Christmas season will struggle.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “September saw the slowest retail sales growth since January, when the UK was in lockdown. There are signs that consumer confidence is being hit as the fuel shortages, combined with wetter weather, had an impact in the second half of the month.
“An uncertain backdrop and slower growth means the fourth quarter looks challenging, as the economic recovery is dependent on strong retail sales during the festive season. Retailers, farmers and manufacturers are already making preparations to ensure enough food and festive gifts move through the supply chain in time for Christmas. Unfortunately the lack of drivers is hindering these preparations, and increasing costs, which will eventually be reflected in higher prices.”
Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said the slowdown had continued despite September traditionally being a strong month for retailers.
“The high street saw less than 1% growth, with sales falling back across every category other than apparel and beauty, while online sales fell by 2.2% compared to September 2020, although online penetration rates remained significantly above pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
“As we run into the crucial Christmas shopping period, retailers continue to face staffing pressures and supply chain issues, with challenges getting product into the UK and getting goods into customers’ hands.”


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Starbucks makes masks optional for vaccinated customers starting Monday, except where local mandates remain
Starbucks is making face coverings and masks optional for vaccinated customers starting Monday.
The coffee giant is the latest to update its mask policy after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new masking guidelines.
Masks will still be required at locations where local or state regulations mandate them.
"Facial coverings will be optional for vaccinated customers beginning Monday, May 17, unless local regulations require them by law," Starbucks said on its website. "As we continue to ensure the health and well-being of our partners and customers, our restrooms generally remain temporarily closed to the public in stores where the café or café seating is unavailable."
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Masks not required:Walmart, Costco, Trader Joe's, Publix no longer require masks for vaccinated customers. See the list.
The CDC said Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans, for the most part, no longer need to wear masks indoors and don’t have to wear masks outdoors, even in crowded spaces.
But privately-owned businesses can still require masks, which most of the nation's largest retailers started mandating last summer. There are other exceptions for when the CDC recommends masks such as in health care settings, transportation hubs such as airports and stations, planes and public transportation.
Trader Joe's, Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco and Publix were among the first to confirm updates to mask requirements Friday.
Mask compliance has sparked debates throughout the coronavirus pandemic after Americans received mixed messages from authorities early on over whether they should wear face coverings in public places.
Starbucks started requiring masks nationwide on July 15, weeks after an altercation at a California Starbucks went viral.
In June 2020, Amber Gilles, a yoga instructor, accused Starbucks barista Lenin Gutierrez of refusing her service for not wearing a mask. Gilles posted his photo on Facebook and a GoFundMe campaign "Tips for Lenin" was created that raised more than $100,000.
Gilles recently filed a lawsuit against Matt Cowan, the creator of the GoFundMe, and previously requested half of the money raised.
Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY
Many of us are allowed to take off our masks:Why some of us don't want to
Reviewed recommendations: Looking for a new mask? Here are the best masks
Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko


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Brazil’s Minister of Health, Humberto Costa, announced that medications to help people quit smoking will be available for free, in the coming months, at the 900 public addict support centers around the country.
Smokers will have access to antidepressants, nicotine gums, and skin patches. “Antidepressants are already available, we acquired one million pills. We will get 800 thousand more. The nicotine chewing gum and the skin patch depend on the conclusion of a reverse auction expected for soon,” affirmed the Minister.
The Minister’s declarations were made after a meeting with Senate’s President, Renan Calheiros, in which he defended the approval of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention for Tobacco Control.


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- Samsung’s 2018 flagship device the Galaxy S9 to be accompanied by a “new sensor”
- The “new sensor” could be a camera sensor for the smartphone
- The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus might carry QHD+ screens with a taller aspect ratio of 18.5:9
Last few days the news of Xiaomi, Gionee, Honor and OnePlus smartphones had captured the attention of users, now Samsung is back for all positive reasons. Surprisingly, Samsung is going to roll out Galaxy S9 next year with a “new sensor”. Also, the rumor revolving in the smartphone world is that the Seoul-based manufacturer is said to have started the mass production of Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus.
The “new sensor” news has permeated the LinkedIn profile of a Samsung Principal Engineer to the best corner of the world. Moreover, the engineer is working on different aspects of Samsung’s flagship devices planned to be launched in 2018. Not only this, the Linkedin profile has also given a vague idea that the company would have started working on some aspects related to the hardware of Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S11.
Although, nothing has been explicitly written about the “new sensor”, but one can expect that it would be something related to the camera since the person whose Linkedin profile has revealed this rumor works on the Samsung’s next-generation mobile devices’ image sensors and camera systems. Another thing that supports this expectation is the iris scanner present in the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy S8+, and the Galaxy Note 8 from Samsung, which is till now the most advanced sensor type to be added by the company to its smartphones.
Furthermore, there is also the buzz in the smartphone market that some latest IoT functionality to be introduced in Galaxy S9. Undoubtedly, whatever this “new sensor” would be it will something more than the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, which already have amazing smart features. Strikingly, it is also rumored that this time yet again Samsung is failing to integrate optical fingerprint scanner, which the company tried to implement last time with Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Codename Revealed!20 days ago
Amazingly, it is expected that the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus will be succeeding the 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch Infinity Display panels of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. It might be carrying QHD+ screens with a better and taller aspect ratio of 18.5:9. In addition to this buzz, it is also suggested that Samsung will be powering the Galaxy S9 series devices with a Qualcomm’s unannounced Snapdragon 845 SoC. Still, there is no official statement issued by the South Korean company and hence, leading to an inference would be wrong. Better wait and watch.