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While waiting for psychological help from NHS, many commit suicide
A large number of individuals have endeavored suicide while on a NHS holding up rundown for mental treatment, as indicated by a complete new investigation of mental health administrations in England.
In the most recent confirmation of a shrouded mental health emergency, a coalition of heading foundations and medicinal experts report that one in 10 patients are holding up for a year just to be evaluated for treatment, and one in six made an endeavor on their life while on a holding up rundown.
GPs report a "colossal ascent" in the quantity of mental wellbeing conditions, which has agreed with slices to mental wellbeing administrations and psychotherapy posts in numerous parts of the nation.
The subsequent postpones in getting to treatment could be tragic for patients, the report from the We Need to Talk coalition cautions. In an overview of 2,000 patients, one in six said they had endeavored suicide while sitting tight for treatment, four in 10 said they had harmed toward oneself, and two thirds said their condition had crumbled before they had an opportunity to see a mental health proficient.
The report, which concentrates on referrals for treatment under Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) program, likewise uncovers stark varieties in the quantity of patients being alluded and treated on time in distinctive parts of England.
New Zealand News
- Tesla offering new discounts & perks in China amid negative press
- Electric Vehicle Council slams Victoria Government for proposed punitive mileage tax on electric cars
- Chinese EV brand Ora unveils VW Beetle-inspired electric car Punk Cat
- Swapping personal car for e-bicycle saved over $50,000 in just 7 years: San Francisco woman
- Hyundai Motor Corp to create ultra-fast EV charging network E-pit in Korea
- Tesla pockets roughly $101 million in profit from sale of some of its bitcoins
- Norway’s ICE car sales decline as buyers making shift to EVs
- Pursang launches Retro-inspired E-Track Motorcycle for Euro 14,449 in Netherlands
- ElectReon successfully tests dynamic wireless EV charging system on public road in Sweden


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We provide social media and marketing services that increase sales for businesses and organizations around Chester County, PA (business writing, press releases, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube). Here are two examples from one of our clients, TJW Home Services:
Congratulations to TJW Home Services for recently achieving elite status from HomeAdvisor and for winning the Best of Houzz award for outstanding service three years in a row. To find out how Mouse and Pen can grow your local business, email here or call 484-680-2431.
Today, CVS makes a landmark decision in the retail world: stop selling tobacco. And, they’re doing it with the help of the public and the hashtag “#OneGoodReason.” Using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, people are encouraged to submit their stop-smoking stories, including this moving video. More information is here: click here.
Courtesy: NBC News.
The Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Florida is turning out some shiny cars, thanks to its workforce of young adults who have autism. This incredible story, which includes two videos of NBC’s Harry Smith at the car wash, is making its away around social media. Rightly so. The owner says he’s even looking at the viability of opening more locations. Check out the story: click here.
In one of the coolest uses of social media sharing, Canada-based WestJet granted the Christmas wishes of its passengers and had personalized gifts waiting for them when they landed at their destination. They’ve got it all on YouTube, and it has over 16 million views as of this post: click here to see the video.
Canon has created a Facebook app to help promote one of its printers, and in the process lets kids – or adults for that matter – compose a letter to Santa that is then taken through the workshop by elves to Santa to be fulfilled. Read more here.

domain: news


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It is estimated that a third (around 350,000 tonnes) of all clothes bought in the UK end up in landfill, but if they were donated for reuse or recycling they could generate £140 million in revenue, a staggering amount of money and which the charity could put to very good use.
Extending the life of clothes by just three months of active use per item, would lead to a 5-10% reduction in each of the carbon, water and waste footprints, something we all need to take notice of.
Gerard Cousins, Director of Retail at the charity, said:
We’re really pleased to be partnering with John Lewis in this recycling initiative.It makes perfect sense to recycle unwanted clothes rather than throw them out. The clothes that are donated will be transferred to our stores across Scotland where they will sell or recycled to raise funds to transform the lives of the UK’s most disadvantaged children. And the figures speak for themselves in terms of the positive impact recycling has on the environment.
Of course that also means donors can then replenish their wardrobe with all the great new stock in John Lewis– it’s a win, win situation."
Barnardo’s would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donates and shops in our stores. Money raised in our shops helps fund services which support children and young people across the UK.
Visit Barnardo’s Scotland to find out how you can get involved and show you believe in children.


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WORCESTER — Gyms and fitness clubs are on a long list of sectors of the economy forced to scramble due to the state’s changing COVID-19 regulations and restrictions.
Starting Monday, a mandatory 9:30 p.m. closing time for most businesses will be lifted in the state, which means several local gyms that offer late hours will be able to stay open again.
Gov. Charlie Baker announced the change last week, along with the lifting of an overnight stay-at-home advisory. The governor’s order restricting gathering capacity to 25% remains in effect for at least another two weeks.
The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a Boston-based trade group representing more than 200,000 gyms and fitness clubs globally, recently estimated that 15% of fitness clubs and studios have closed permanently as of Sept. 30, and that up to 25% of health clubs could close by the end of 2020.
IHRSA cited a study showing U.S. fitness centers still in business are projected a 37% decline in revenue in 2020 over 2019; the industry has lost more than $15 billion due to the pandemic.
Gary Riello, owner of Anytime Fitness on Shrewsbury Street, said the business model for his four-year-old franchise was fully dependent on being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
He said the 9:30 p.m. mandatory closing time not only hurt his business — it also made it more of a risk to go work out. Having the gym’s availability compressed meant trying to fit more people in while it could be open.
“We were made less safe by having a curfew,” Riello said.
Being able to stretch his hours back out to 24/7 will allow customers to go when they want to go. He said after normal business hours, customers can work out any time of day or night by using a key fob they receive when they sign up.
Riello said he has a lot of police officers, firefighters, nurses and other front-line workers who need the after-hours availability a gym like his offers. He said he has worked hard to ensure his facility remains clean and safe during the pandemic, and he pointed to studies that have shown little increased risk of being infected with COVID-19 at gyms when compared to other businesses.
“At this point, 24-hour gyms are becoming essential,” he said.
The IHRSA trade group said it commissioned a study with the University of Oregon’s Consulting Group to examine the relationship between gym attendance and Colorado COVID-19 case data.
IHRSA said the study found “a non-statistically significant correlation between COVID-19 case rates and gym attendance.”
Riello said the 25% capacity restriction that remains in effect never really affected his business; he said for his facility, 25% equates to around 30 people. He said even in pre-pandemic conditions, he was lucky to have 10 to 15 people in there.
Riello said customers have been great about it, but the restrictions coming and going have hurt.
“You do what you have to do, and people, for the most part, understand what’s happening,” he said. “But I’ve owned the business for four years, and when this happens, it’s like starting over again.”


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Roth individual retirement accounts were created to help middle class earners set aside money for retirement that they wouldn’t have to pay taxes on at withdrawal. But PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has used his Roth IRA to amass a $5 billion nest egg.
In this article, we will be discussing the 10 best airline stocks to buy now. You can skip our detailed analysis of the airline industry, the status of the industry post-COVID-19, and the industry’s future outlook, and go directly to the 5 Best Airline Stocks to Buy Now. The coronavirus pandemic took a huge toll […]
In this article, we examined the 10 best defensive stocks to buy today according to billionaire Ken Fisher with a beta of less than 1. If you want to skip our detailed analysis of Fisher’s history and hedge fund performance, go directly to the 5 Best Defensive Stocks to Buy Today According to Billionaire Ken […]
Retirement preparation is so much more than attaining the amount of money you need to live the rest of your life. Based on the financial information you shared, it sounds like you could be very comfortable in retirement, with the amount you have saved and also coming in every month. Then triple check your budgets, portfolios and the other sources of retirement income you expect to receive.
Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. (the "Company" or "ReconAfrica") (TSXV: RECO) (OTCQX: RECAF) (Frankfurt: 0XD) provides an update on drilling and seismic operations in the Kavango Sedimentary basin as well as a response to Namibia's serious outbreak of coronavirus infections.
In this article, we will be looking at the 12 best EV stocks to invest in. To skip our detailed analysis on the EV industry, its history, current status, and future outlook, you can go ahead to the 5 Best EV Stocks to Invest In. In 2008, when Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) released its first […]
The drug maker Eli Lilly said the FDA designated its Alzheimer's drug candidate as a breakthrough therapy. It will file for approval later this year.
American Eagle Outfitters investors are basking in some gains thanks to star Brooke Shields and her daughters.
‘It turns out our financial adviser’s wife is friends with my dad’s wife — and probably friends with the tenants as well.'
Industrial stocks in the S&P 500 were up about 0.3% Thursday, trailing the broader market's gain of about 0.6%.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, approved on Thursday an ambitious effort to unionize employees at e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN), the union told Yahoo Finance.
Of all the controversial plays on Wall Street, penny stocks take the cake. The risk-tolerant flock to these names as the potential for share prices to grow from pocket change to more than a few dollars is too tempting to ignore. That said, these tickers aren’t without their pitfalls. Some investors avoid them entirely, arguing that the bargain price tags are too good to be true. Rather, the fact that shares are trading at such low levels could reflect problems lying beneath the surface, whether
Stocks are set to continue inching higher on Thursday, as markets relax about inflation risks and exact details of what’s coming from the Federal Reserve. But for bitcoin and other crypto assets, like ethereum and dogecoin, the easy breezes of summer are far away
The aircraft maker's two big problems are temporary and it will soon see a boost to sales and cash flow from its massive backlog of orders.
‘I believe he should get back $28,000 on his original capital investment --- but not the money he spent on refurbishments.’
In this article, we discuss the 10 best stocks to buy according to Chris James’ Engine No. 1. If you want to skip our detailed analysis of James’ history, and hedge fund performance, go directly to the 5 Best Stocks to Buy According to Chris James’ Engine No. 1. Activist investor Chris James is the […]
Worried about inflation? You should be — especially if you own the wrong assets and bet against S&P 500 and growth stocks.
In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think Sunrun Inc (NASDAQ:RUN) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips from […]
Sometimes, following a leader makes the best investment strategy. And corporate insiders have long been popular leaders to follow. Their combination of responsibility to their stockholders and access to ‘under the hood’ information on their companies gives their personal investment choices an air of authority. The most important thing about these insiders is that whatever else they do, they are expected to shepherd their companies to profitability. Shareholders want a return on investment, Board
(Reuters) -Microsoft Corp on Thursday showed Windows 11, its first major operating system revamp since 2015 with new changes that take direct aim at Apple Inc's lucrative App Store business model. Windows 11, which will hit the market by the end of this year, will include a new Windows Store that will let software developers use their own in-app payment systems and pay no commissions to Microsoft. The moves stand in contrast to Apple's "walled garden" approach, in which the iPhone maker only lets users download software from the App Store and imposes controls on software developers, including a requirement to use Apple's in-app payment systems and pay commissions of up to 30%.


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Hulu has just announced that starting this summer, users will be able to view several TV Shows for free on their mobile phones previously this was only available on desktop. Currently in order to enjoy all of Hulu’s content a $7.99 monthly subscription is required, but now even non subscribed users will be able to watch tv show episodes via their mobile browser. (Shows can only be watched from the browser and not the Hulu app, this will still require the monthly subscription)
It is yet unknown what or how many TV shows will become available for free. This announcement also comes with the company revealing a new way of advertisement, currently all Hulu users (subscribed or not) are forced to watch ads before enjoying a movie or tv show, the users that want to enjoy content for free will see even more ads and ones that are very different to how we are used to. The new form of advertising is called “in-stream purchase units” which are ads that users can interact with “without being pulled away from the content”. Pizza Hut has been announced as the launch partner (expect a lot of pizza ads!)
With our effective targeting capabilities, this new innovation allows advertisers to target the right demographic, at the right time – all while allowing viewers to immediately pick up where they left off once their order is placed.


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Despite reports of large scale layoffs to cut costs, domestic startups have raised more than $12 billion during the first four months of calendar year 2022, according to a recent report. Indian startups have raised $12.1 billion through 672 venture capital (VC) funding deals announced during January-April 2022, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
As per the report, this was the second-highest VC funding amount raised by any Asia-Pacific (APAC) country after China during the period under review. Chinese startups garnered $20.6 billion funding via 1,265 VC during January-April 2022.
India is a key global market for VC funding and ranks among the top five. The surge in VC funding was reported at a time when most of the key global markets such as the U.S., China, and the U.K. witnessed subdued VC funding activity in April compared to the previous month, says the report.
“India was a notable exception to witness a growth of 28.6% in funding value despite a decline in deals volume,” it adds.
Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in India during April include $805 million funding raised by Verse Innovation (Josh), $200 million by Tech4Billion Media (Chingari), $180 million by Roppen Transportation Services (Rapido), $135 million by crypto exchange platform CoinDCX, and $130 million by luxury home developer Isprava.
Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, says, “The growth becomes even more significant with news related to layoffs by several Indian startups doing the rounds with the likelihood of raising concerns for investors on success of startups. However, the trend suggests that investors continue to remain bullish on promising startups with good ideas as some of these were successful in raising sizeable capital.”
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2022, a total of 505 VC funding deals worth $9.2 billion were announced in India. The major funding deals include $700 million raised by Bundl Technologies (Swiggy), $450 million by Polygon Technology, $300 million by NTex Transportation Services (ElasticRun), $300 million by Busybees Logistics Solutions (Xpressbees), and around $250 million by Mogli Labs (Moglix, Moglilabs).
While the VC funding is going up, several Indian startups have announced large scale layoffs to cut their costs amid uncertainty about future business prospects in light of slower economic growth. Edtech unicorn Vedantu has laid off 424 employees, around 7% of its total workforce, on expectations of slower growth in the coming quarters. Used car marketplace CARS24, which is backed by global funds like SoftBank and Alpha Wave Global, has fired over 600 employees. The ed-tech startup Unacademy laid off 600 employees, including on-roll staff, contractual staff and educators in March-April. Among others, furniture startup Furlenco and e-commerce platform Meesho have also seen layoffs in recent weeks.


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|By Business Wire||
|July 30, 2014 04:03 PM EDT||
Qumu Corporation (NASDAQ:QUMU) today reported software revenue of $8.4 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2014. The revenue set a quarterly record for the Company’s software product line, was up 74% as compared to the second quarter of 2013, and up 114% over the first quarter of 2014. Software contracted commitments for the quarter were up 117% over the second quarter of last year to $7.4 million and the software contracted commitment backlog ended the quarter at $26.0 million.
“We achieved several milestones during the second quarter,” said Sherman L. Black, president and CEO. “Qumu generated higher software revenues than in any other quarter in our history and contracted software commitment growth was very strong. We also completed the successful sale of our Rimage disc publishing business. This quarter’s strong performance begins to demonstrate the top line potential of our software business. The market for enterprise video continues to grow and we believe the total annual market opportunity can exceed one billion dollars. With our demonstrated success in closing Global 1000 accounts as well as our unique hybrid cloud offering, Qumu continues to be the clear market leader in this emerging segment. Our entire organization is energized and more focused than ever on executing the plan to capitalize on the enterprise video opportunity to generate higher returns to shareholders.”
Qumu Software Second Quarter Highlights
- Software revenues were $8.4 million, up 74% from $4.8 million in the second quarter of 2013. During the quarter, the Company recognized the first revenue from the $9.5 million Video-as-a-Service contract announced in March 2014. Investments in product localization and global capabilities started to yield results as the first revenue in Japan was recognized during the quarter. In addition Qumu won several new customers in the second quarter, including a major financial services organization. For the first half of 2014, software revenues were $12.3 million.
- Contracted commitments for the second quarter of 2014 were $7.4 million, an increase of $4.0 million, or 117% from the second quarter of 2013. For the first six months of 2014, contracted commitments were $21.6 million, up 177% from the first half 2013 level of $7.8 million.
- Backlog at June 30, 2014 was $26.0 million, slightly below the previous record of $27 million set on March 31, 2014. Backlog at June 30, 2013 stood at $11.1 million.
- Software gross margins were 50% during the second quarter, up from 35% during the first quarter of 2014. The primary driver for the sequential improvement was the higher revenue reported in the quarter and an improved sales mix of higher margin perpetual revenue. Second quarter software gross margins were down from last year’s second quarter gross margin of 70% due to less perpetual revenue in our sales mix and a higher proportion of lower margin hardware revenue as part of our deal mix, as well as, increased service costs to support the Company’s growth.
- Software operating expenses were $9.8 million in the second quarter, an increase of $2.4 million from the second quarter of 2013. The primary driver of the increase compared to last year was an increase in sales and marketing costs resulting from additional headcount and increased spending on marketing programs.
- Operating expenses for all comparable periods now include all of the G&A costs for the ongoing software business, costs that were previously partially absorbed by the disc publishing business, which is now reported as a discontinued operation. The additional cost being absorbed by the ongoing software business was approximately $0.6 million in the second quarter of 2014.
- The second quarter 2014 operating loss for the software business was $5.7 million. For the first half of 2014, the software operating loss was $13.0 million.
- The cash and marketable securities balance at June 30, 2014 was $40.0 million, down $6.5 million from the end of Q1 2014. The primary drivers of this decline were the second quarter loss reported which included $1.0 million of disc publishing transaction expenses, and an increase in working capital investment due to the rapid growth of the Company’s software business.
Discontinued Operations and Consolidated Second Quarter Financial Results
On July 1, 2014 Qumu closed an all-cash transaction selling the Rimage disc publishing business to Redwood Acquisition, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Equus Holdings, Inc. As a result of this transaction, the disc publishing results have been classified as discontinued operations for second quarter and full year 2014 in accordance with GAAP. In addition, prior year financial results have been restated to show disc publishing as a discontinued operation. The total revenues and operating income reported reflect the financial results from the Company’s ongoing software business. The disc publishing financial results are reflected in one line item as net income from discontinued operations reported below net loss from continuing operations on the Company’s condensed consolidated statement of operations. For the second quarter, the net income from discontinued operations was $2.2 million. For the first half of 2014, the net income from discontinued operations was $5.6 million. Included in the second quarter and first half discontinued operations results were $1.0 million and $1.2 million of disc publishing sale transaction expenses, respectively. On a consolidated basis, including both continuing and discontinued operations, the second quarter 2014 net loss was $3.4 million or ($0.39) per share. Through June 30, 2014, the net loss, on a consolidated basis, was $7.4 million or ($0.85) per share.
For 2014, the Company has raised its guidance for annual software contracted commitments from a range of 40% to 50% growth to greater than 50% growth compared to 2013. Management continues to believe that software revenues will increase over the next few quarters on a year over year basis. However, as previously disclosed, software revenue will vary quarter to quarter based on the type of contract Qumu enters into with each customer. Perpetual contracts generally result in revenue recognized closer to contract commitment date while term–based contracts result in most of the revenue being recognized over the period of the contract. Acknowledging the potential for quarterly variation, the Company continues to anticipate growth in its software revenues of at least 30% over 2013 revenues. The sale of the disc publishing business closed on July 1, 2014 so the financial impact of the sale will be reported in the third quarter results. The Company expects to end the third quarter of 2014 with a cash and marketable securities balance of between $50 million and $53 million.
The Company defines contracted commitments as the dollar value of signed customer purchase commitments.
The Company has scheduled a conference call and webcast to review its second quarter results today, July 30, 2014 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The dial-in number for the conference call is 888-430-8709 for domestic participants and 719-457-2645 for international participants. Investors can also access a webcast of the live conference call by linking through the investor relations section of the Qumu website, www.qumu.com. Webcasts will be archived on Qumu’s website.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” or “estimate” or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, for example, statements about: the Company’s future revenue and operating performance, future product mix or the timing of recognition of revenue, the demand for the Company’s products or software, the effect of changes in technology, the development and marketing of new products, risks related to Qumu’s ability to operate its retained software business following the sale of the disc publishing business on July 1, 2014; and the challenges associated with transitioning the software business and disc publishing business to separate, stand alone operations following the sale. The statements made by the Company are based upon management’s current expectations and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 and other factors set forth in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Qumu Corporation (NASDAQ: QUMU) provides the tools businesses need to create, manage, secure, distribute and measure the success of their videos. Qumu's innovative solutions release the power in video to engage and empower employees, partners and clients. Qumu helps thousands of organizations around the world realize the greatest possible value from video and other rich content they create and publish. Whatever the audience size, viewer device or network configuration, Qumu solutions are how business does video. Additional information can be found at www.qumu.com.
|Selected Consolidated Financial Information|
|(unaudited - in thousands, except per share data)|
|Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations Information:|
|Three months ended||Six months ended|
|June 30,||June 30,|
|Cost of revenues||4,242||1,455||6,781||3,222|
|Research and development||2,264||2,241||4,288||4,551|
|Selling, general and administrative||7,421||5,013||13,938||10,583|
|Amortization of purchased intangibles||156||156||313||313|
|Total operating expenses||9,841||7,410||18,539||15,447|
|Other expense, net||4||(8||)||(11||)||11|
|Loss before income taxes||(5,675||)||(4,044||)||(12,998||)||(9,480||)|
|Income tax expense||6||17||17||19|
|Net loss from continuing operations||(5,681||)||(4,061||)||(13,015||)||(9,499||)|
|Net income from discontinued operations||2,233||2,110||5,638||3,571|
|Net loss from continuing operations per basic and diluted share||$||(0.65||)||$||(0.47||)||$||(1.49||)||$||(1.09||)|
|Net income from discontinued operations per basic and diluted share||$||0.26||$||0.24||$||0.65||$||0.41|
|Net loss per basic and diluted share||$||(0.39||)||$||(0.22||)||$||(0.85||)||$||(0.68||)|
|Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding||8,748||8,687||8,724||8,685|
|Non-Cash Charges Included in Continuing Operations:|
|Three months ended||Six months ended|
|June 30,||June 30,|
|Amortization of intangibles|
|Cost of revenues||140||140||280||280|
|Amortization of purchased intangibles||156||156||313||313|
|Cost of revenues||11||5||18||11|
|Research and development||59||106||117||239|
|Selling, general and administrative||365||242||649||550|
|Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet Information:|
|Balance as of|
|June 30,||December 31,|
|Cash and marketable securities||$||40,022||$||50,958|
|Current assets from discontinued operations||15,082||14,066|
|Total current assets||67,540||71,774|
|Property and equipment, net||1,452||1,369|
|Non-current assets from discontinued operations||4,006||4,430|
|Current liabilities from continuing operations||10,902||11,260|
|Current liabilities from discontinued operations||12,611||11,793|
|Non-current liabilities from continuing operations||2,221||900|
|Non-current liabilities from discontinued operations||2,172||2,637|
|Qumu stockholders’ equity||56,101||62,581|
17th Cloud Expo, taking place Nov 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Meanwhile, 94% of enterprises are using some form of XaaS – software, platform, and infrastructure as a service.
May. 28, 2015 11:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,795
The recent trends like cloud computing, social, mobile and Internet of Things are forcing enterprises to modernize in order to compete in the competitive globalized markets. However, enterprises are approaching newer technologies with a more silo-ed way, gaining only sub optimal benefits. The Modern Enterprise model is presented as a newer way to think of enterprise IT, which takes a more holistic approach to embracing modern technologies.
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The true value of the Internet of Things (IoT) lies not just in the data, but through the services that protect the data, perform the analysis and present findings in a usable way. With many IoT elements rooted in traditional IT components, Big Data and IoT isn’t just a play for enterprise. In fact, the IoT presents SMBs with the prospect of launching entirely new activities and exploring innovative areas. CompTIA research identifies several areas where IoT is expected to have the greatest impact.
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There's no doubt that the Internet of Things is driving the next wave of innovation. Google has spent billions over the past few months vacuuming up companies that specialize in smart appliances and machine learning. Already, Philips light bulbs, Audi automobiles, and Samsung washers and dryers can communicate with and be controlled from mobile devices. To take advantage of the opportunities the Internet of Things brings to your business, you'll want to start preparing now.
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P2P RTC will impact the landscape of communications, shifting from traditional telephony style communications models to OTT (Over-The-Top) cloud assisted & PaaS (Platform as a Service) communication services. The P2P shift will impact many areas of our lives, from mobile communication, human interactive web services, RTC and telephony infrastructure, user federation, security and privacy implications, business costs, and scalability. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Robin Raymond, Chief Architect at Hookflash, will walk through the shifting landscape of traditional telephone and voice services ...
May. 28, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 4,730
Explosive growth in connected devices. Enormous amounts of data for collection and analysis. Critical use of data for split-second decision making and actionable information. All three are factors in making the Internet of Things a reality. Yet, any one factor would have an IT organization pondering its infrastructure strategy. How should your organization enhance its IT framework to enable an Internet of Things implementation? In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, James Kirkland, Chief Architect for the Internet of Things and Intelligent Systems at Red Hat, described how to revolutioniz...
May. 28, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 5,303
The world is at a tipping point where the technology, the device and global adoption are converging to such a point that we will see an explosion of a world where smartphone devices not only allow us to talk to each other, but allow for communication between everything – serving as a central hub from which we control our world – MediaTek is at the heart of both driving this and allowing the markets to drive this reality forward themselves. The next wave of consumer gadgets is here – smart, connected, and small. If your ambitions are big, so are ours. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jack Hu, D...
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The security devil is always in the details of the attack: the ones you've endured, the ones you prepare yourself to fend off, and the ones that, you fear, will catch you completely unaware and defenseless. The Internet of Things (IoT) is nothing if not an endless proliferation of details. It's the vision of a world in which continuous Internet connectivity and addressability is embedded into a growing range of human artifacts, into the natural world, and even into our smartphones, appliances, and physical persons. In the IoT vision, every new "thing" - sensor, actuator, data source, data con...
May. 28, 2015 01:00 PM EDT Reads: 6,664
All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades. With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo, June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be
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SYS-CON Events announced today that MetraTech, now part of Ericsson, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society- a world leader in communications infrastructure, software and services. Some 40% of the world’s mobile traffic runs through networks Ericsson has supplied, serving more than 2.5 billion subscribers.
May. 28, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,374
The 4th International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 17th International Cloud Expo - to be held November 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA - announces that its Call for Papers is open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
May. 28, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,566
SYS-CON Events announced today that O'Reilly Media has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participa...
May. 28, 2015 11:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,167
We’re entering a new era of computing technology that many are calling the Internet of Things (IoT). Machine to machine, machine to infrastructure, machine to environment, the Internet of Everything, the Internet of Intelligent Things, intelligent systems – call it what you want, but it’s happening, and its potential is huge. IoT is comprised of smart machines interacting and communicating with other machines, objects, environments and infrastructures. As a result, huge volumes of data are being generated, and that data is being processed into useful actions that can “command and control” thi...
May. 28, 2015 11:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,040
There will be 150 billion connected devices by 2020. New digital businesses have already disrupted value chains across every industry. APIs are at the center of the digital business. You need to understand what assets you have that can be exposed digitally, what their digital value chain is, and how to create an effective business model around that value chain to compete in this economy. No enterprise can be complacent and not engage in the digital economy. Learn how to be the disruptor and not the disruptee.
May. 28, 2015 11:08 AM EDT Reads: 844
There's Big Data, then there's really Big Data from the Internet of Things. IoT is evolving to include many data possibilities like new types of event, log and network data. The volumes are enormous, generating tens of billions of logs per day, which raise data challenges. Early IoT deployments are relying heavily on both the cloud and managed service providers to navigate these challenges. In her session at Big Data Expo®, Hannah Smalltree, Director at Treasure Data, discussed how IoT, Big Data and deployments are processing massive data volumes from wearables, utilities and other machines...
May. 28, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 4,613
Buzzword alert: Microservices and IoT at a DevOps conference? What could possibly go wrong? In this Power Panel at DevOps Summit, moderated by Jason Bloomberg, the leading expert on architecting agility for the enterprise and president of Intellyx, panelists will peel away the buzz and discuss the important architectural principles behind implementing IoT solutions for the enterprise. As remote IoT devices and sensors become increasingly intelligent, they become part of our distributed cloud environment, and we must architect and code accordingly. At the very least, you'll have no problem fil...
May. 28, 2015 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,353
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo in Silicon Valley. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place Nov 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with 17th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the most profound change in personal an...
May. 28, 2015 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,204
The worldwide cellular network will be the backbone of the future IoT, and the telecom industry is clamoring to get on board as more than just a data pipe. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Evan McGee, CTO of Ring Plus, Inc., discussed what service operators can offer that would benefit IoT entrepreneurs, inventors, and consumers. Evan McGee is the CTO of RingPlus, a leading innovative U.S. MVNO and wireless enabler. His focus is on combining web technologies with traditional telecom to create a new breed of unified communication that is easily accessible to the general consumer. With over a de...
May. 28, 2015 06:00 AM EDT Reads: 5,074
Disruptive macro trends in technology are impacting and dramatically changing the "art of the possible" relative to supply chain management practices through the innovative use of IoT, cloud, machine learning and Big Data to enable connected ecosystems of engagement. Enterprise informatics can now move beyond point solutions that merely monitor the past and implement integrated enterprise fabrics that enable end-to-end supply chain visibility to improve customer service delivery and optimize supplier management. Learn about enterprise architecture strategies for designing connected systems tha...
May. 28, 2015 05:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,294
From telemedicine to smart cars, digital homes and industrial monitoring, the explosive growth of IoT has created exciting new business opportunities for real time calls and messaging. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ivelin Ivanov, CEO and Co-Founder of Telestax, shared some of the new revenue sources that IoT created for Restcomm – the open source telephony platform from Telestax. Ivelin Ivanov is a technology entrepreneur who founded Mobicents, an Open Source VoIP Platform, to help create, deploy, and manage applications integrating voice, video and data. He is the co-founder of TeleStax, a...
May. 28, 2015 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 6,770


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SEATTLE — Washington's Lake Union Sea Ray has added Bayliner, Trophy and Meridian brands to its existing Sea Ray and Boston Whaler lineup in addition to adding service and sales locations, the dealership reported in a release this week.
"We are now able to offer our customers an amazing selection of the most distinguished brands in boating along with first-class customer service. We have something for everyone, whatever your boating needs might be,” said Kevin Roggenbuck, owner of Lake Union Sea Ray.
Lake Union Sea Ray moved its on-the-water flagship store across Lake Union into a new facility and the dealership's Seattle service department has added a new service location in Everett. To accommodate their customers in the north, Lake Union Sea Ray also opened an on-the-water sales and service location in Bellingham.
Lake Union Sea Ray now has 5 service facilities and 4 sales locations in Washington state.
- For more of the latest news, click here.


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You Can Now Buy Two Arte Surfside Condos for 560 Bitcoin
Bitcoin has become one of the ultimate currencies in Miami. Now more than ever, consumers are able to utilize crypto for food purchases, nightclubs, and real estate. Arte Surfside completely revolutionized the real estate market by being one of the first developments in Miami to begin accepting Bitcoin for their luxury condos.
The developers for Arte Surfside currently have two luxury units for sale for a combined price of $31 million or 560 bitcoin. According to the developers, Alex Sapir and Giovanni Fasciano have stated that offers can be made in either bitcoin or ethereum.
According to Sapir, “We were overwhelmed by the amount of calls we received from qualified buyers just after announcing our ability to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions for the condominiums at Arte. Real-world crypto transactions haven’t made their way fully into the mainstream yet, so it’s clear that top holders around the world pay attention when new opportunities to transact open up.”
One of the crypto units at Arte is listed at $18.95 million and features 6,982 square feet of living space. The second unit is listed at $11.9 million and is around 3,500 square feet. These incredible units boast oceanfront views, wraparound terraces, large walk-in closets, and high-tech entry access.
Building amenities include an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, full-size tennis court, state-of-the-art gym, yoga studio, sauna, catering kitchen, and white-glove butlers.
Arte Surfside Amenities:
- A 75-foot indoor swimming pool
- An outdoor swimming pool, sundeck, and poolside cabanas
- Rooftop tennis court
- State-of-the-art fitness center and yoga studio
- Sauna and steam room
- Tranquil meditation pond
- Children's playroom
- Residents' lounge with billiards and catering kitchen
- Temperature-controlled parking spaces
Arte Residence Features:
- Expansive terraces clad in travertine with ipe decking
- Gracious kitchens featuring Poliform cabinetry, Italian marble countertops, and Gaggenau appliances
- Sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean
In June, a penthouse in Arte sold for a record-breaking $22.5 million in crypto. The type of cryptocurrency for this sale was not released. With more developers jumping on the crypto train, we can expect in the future that digital currency will eventually play a larger role in the real estate market and potentially affect how we make offers for our buyers and negotiate for our sellers.


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In a live poll conducted by Africa.com on May 13 as part of its webinar series, Crisis Management for African Business Leaders, 47% of webinar participants do not think that African governments are taking women’s issues into consideration as they develop policies to address COVID-19. 28% think that African governments are taking women’s issues into consideration as they develop policies to address COVID-19. 25% had no opinion on the matter.
A second question asked respondents if they agreed with the statement, “Compared to Western countries, do professional women have community resources and support to remain resilient to the challenges posed by COVID-19?” 70% disagreed with this statement, 18% agreed, and 12% neither agreed nor disagreed.
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A third question showed optimism. Respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement, “I expect that one of the major shifts occurring as a result of the pandemic is that African women will gain ground in business and society.” The majority agreed with this statement. 44% agreed, 33% disagreed, and 23% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Approximately 1,500 business leaders participated in the poll. Participants came from 46 countries across the African continent, with the largest representation coming from Nigeria, followed by South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia. 60% of the participants have one of the following titles: CEO, managing director, president, principal, partner, CFO, chair, chief, director, executive director, group head, general manager, or manager. Of the remaining 40%, the leading titles are professor, analyst and consultant.
The largest sectors represented are financial services and professional services, followed by energy and manufacturing. A smaller tier consisted of real estate, health care, agriculture, health care, and media, arts & entertainment.
The live poll was conducted as part of a webinar series, Crisis Management for African Business Leaders, organized by Africa.com. The session at which the poll was conducted is titled “Women Have Proven to Be Effective Leaders During COVID-19. Is This the Path to Power?” The panel discussion featured the Prime Minister of Namibia, Her Excellency Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila; Her Excellency, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General
of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women; Oby Ezekwesili, Senior Economic Advisor, Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative; Ann Juuko, Chief Executive, Stanbic Bank, Uganda; Suzan Kereere, Global Head Merchant Sales and Acquiring, Visa Inc.; and Natasha Wang, Women Deliver Young Leader.
Africa.com Chair and CEO Teresa Clarke commented: “The poll results are supported by the qualitative data we collected from the 17,000 registrants for the webinar series. We asked registrants what their greatest concern is with respect to COVID-19. Many respondents referenced the disproportionate burden that lockdowns place on women, and the economic vulnerability of market women.”
The panel discussion is part of a series on crisis management developed by Africa.com and faculty from Harvard Business School. The next webinar discussion will take place on Wednesday, May 20, “What’s the Real Story Behind Africa’s COVID-19 Figures?” featuring WHO Africa region head, Dr Rebecca Natalie Moeti; Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
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All divisions significantly increased EBIT in first quarter 2021; Group EBIT tripled to around EUR 1.9 billion
Free cash flow development continued positive trajectory and improved by more than EUR 1.4 billion to around EUR 1.0 billion
CEO Frank Appel: "The start into the new financial year was more dynamic than ever"
SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 12 April 2021 -Deutsche Post DHL Group has today released preliminary results for the first quarter of 2021 and has raised the outlook for the current financial year. Preliminary operating profit (EBIT) for the first three months improved to around EUR 1.9 billion (Q1 2020: EUR 592 million). The positive development of the group's businesses seen in the fourth quarter 2020 has continued well through the first quarter 2021. In the first three months of the year the B2C shipment volumes remained high in all networks while the recovery in the B2B business continued.
"The start to the new financial year was more dynamic than ever. It proves that we have successfully geared our business to the right growth drivers. One year into the pandemic we experienced in the first quarter 2021 a sustained momentum in e-commerce and a significant stabilization in global trade with increasing air- and sea-freight volumes. Consequently all divisions reported a significant jump in earnings above market expectations. Global trade continues to recover and vaccine distribution is in full swing which makes me very optimistic for the rest of 2021 and beyond," said Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group.
All divisions optimally positioned for continuing e-commerce boom and growth in global trade
Express: The division reached an EBIT of around EUR 955 million in the first quarter 2021 compared to EUR 393 million in Q1 2020.
Global Forwarding, Freight: EBIT in Global Forwarding, Freight stood at around EUR 215 million in Q1 2021, clearly above previous year's Q1 of EUR 73 million.
Supply Chain: EBIT at Supply Chain came in at around EUR 165 million in the first quarter 2021 compared to EUR 105 million in Q1 2020.
eCommerce Solutions: eCommerce Solutions recorded a first quarter 2021 EBIT of around EUR 115 million, clearly above last year's Q1 result of EUR 6 million.
Post & Parcel Germany: EBIT in Post & Parcel Germany in Q1 2021 was around EUR 555 million (Q1 2020: EUR 334 million).
Earnings momentum mirrored in positive cash flow development and improved outlook
The continued positive business development is underpinned by a strong cash flow development; free cash flow amounted to around EUR 1.0 billion in the first quarter 2021. In Q1 2020 this figure was still negative at EUR -409 million.
In light of the strong earnings momentum, guidance for 2021 is adjusted as follows:
Group EBIT for 2021 is now expected to be significantly above EUR 5.6 billion (previous forecast: more than EUR 5.6 billion). Equally, the result for the DHL divisions is now seen significantly above EUR 4.5 billion (previous forecast: more than EUR 4.5 billion). EBIT for the Post & Parcel Germany division is no longer expected at around EUR 1.6 billion but above EUR 1.6 billion. The expectation of a Group Functions EBIT of around EUR -0.4 billion remains unchanged. Full year 2021 Free Cash Flow is now expected to be significantly above EUR 2.3 billion (previous forecast: around EUR 2.3 billion).
The Group will introduce a revised detailed guidance with the comprehensive disclosure for Q1 2021 which will be published as planned on May 5, 2021.
Deutsche Post DHL Group
Deutsche Post DHL Group is the world's leading logistic company. The Group connects people and markets and is an enabler of global trade. It aspires to be the first choice for customers, employees and investors worldwide. To this end, Deutsche Post DHL Group is focusing on growth in its profitable core logistics businesses and accelerating the digital transformation in all business divisions. The Group contributes to the world through sustainable business practices, corporate citizenship and environmental activities. By the year 2050, Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to achieve zero emissions logistics.
Deutsche Post DHL Group is home to two strong brands: DHL offers a comprehensive range of parcel and international express service, freight transport, and supply chain management services, as well as e-commerce logistics solutions. Deutsche Post is Europe's leading postal and parcel service provider. Deutsche Post DHL Group employs approximately 570,000 people in over 220 countries and territories worldwide. The Group generated revenues of more than 66 billion Euros in 2020.
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This article is more than 1 year old
Wisepay 'outage' is actually the school meal payments biz trying to stop an intruder from stealing customer card details
We pulled entire website to halt attack, says spokesman
UK cashless school payments firm Wisepay has pulled its website offline after spotting a miscreant trying to spoof its card payment page.
The Hampshire-based company, which bills itself as "allowing parents and guardians to make cashless payments to their [children's] school or college", said its website was "down for maintenance".
Reg reader Jon told us: "Their website has been down since Sunday, replaced with a 'down for maintenance' notice since Monday morning, meaning that pupil accounts cannot be topped up for lunches, or items that the school sells cannot be purchased."
Another reader added that parents were concerned about the downtime, saying it was a "bit worrying considering this is the way most parents pay for school meals/trips etc."
In reality the "outage" was a preemptive move to stop the unidentified attacker from continuing with a "URL manipulation" attempt, as a Wisepay spokesman explained it. He went on to say that the miscreant was "spoofing the Sagepay page to capture card details", saying that Wisepay itself merely provides a "gateway for parents" and doesn't hold card information itself.
The company said it has informed the UK Information Commissioner's Office and is working with a "cyber forensic agency" to investigate further. It promised the website would be back online "between 4 and 5pm" today.
Wisepay customer Monk's Walk School, a secondary in Hertfordshire, told parents in a Facebook post earlier today: "As a precautionary measure we suggest that if you tried to use Wisepay between the 2nd and 5th of October, you should take sensible precautions such as checking your online banking for suspicious activity."
The school added, somewhat acidly: "On a practical level we are investigating alternative payment methods so that you can continue to make payments for your son or daughter."
The cashless payments service is used by schools and colleges across the UK, and was acquired in 2017 by Community Brands UK Holdings Ltd, which has other educational tech brands in its stable, including "classroom behaviour management system" BehaviourWatch, Teachers2Parents communications software, and educational software Edusoft.
While cyber attacks targeting schools are not unheard of (the National Cyber Security Centre warned institutions to sort out their security earlier this year), it seems that the age-old tactic of targeting supply chains has spread to the educational sector too. ®


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Last week, Apple attempted to put the final nail in the coffin of cash and plastic cards with the launch of its contactless payment service, Apple Pay. But does the US tech titan, or any other contender, have the clout to create a seismic shift from plastic to digital?
Visa Europe predicts that daily usage of mobile payments will triple and the amount spent will increase to more than £1.2bn a week by 2020. However, whether this latest payment innovation will bear fruit in store is a hot topic among retailers.
Drapers spoke to five of the high street names offering the technology two weeks after its launch to find out their views.
Christian Drehkopf, head of mobile apps at Zalando
“With Apple Pay, customers don’t need to type in their credit or debit card details any more when shopping mobile. All data needed to make a purchase is saved on their iPhone or iPad and transferred via fingerprint identification. Therefore, we are excited to see how it develops and if the service will set the standard for future mobile payment. The convenience brought by Apple Pay can not only improve but even revolutionise the online shopping user experience. That’s why we were striving to launch Apple Pay on our site as soon as it would be available in the European Region.
“Although a number of different Zalando teams (from ordering to fulfilment centre and fashion store apps) had to be involved in implementation, it took us a record time of only three weeks to launch the new payment option. This is a proof point for the convenience that Apple Pay offers to us as a service provider. Our customers in the UK are already using Apple Pay in the Zalando app.”
Jake Sorkin, owner of independent menswear store Percival in Soho, London
“We’re offering Apple Pay through iZettle, which has been our payment provider of chip-and-pin for the last 18 months. When the opportunity came up to have Apple Pay through them, we thought anything that allows a small company like us to have an advantage over other similar stores and compete with the big guys offering it is good. Before this, we didn’t have contactless readers so it’s a big leap. In terms of the image it offers an independent, it makes us look quite cutting-edge because Apple is a cool brand that fits with our demographic. The fact that we’re offering it from the launch gives our consumers confidence that we’re keeping up with the market.”
Paul Airey, head of technology for retail and digital stores at Marks & Spencer
“M&S was one of the first retailers to introduce contactless payment to stores and customers have embraced this technology. We now process around 100,000 contactless transactions every day. The integration of Apple Pay is a natural next step, ensuring that we’re well set up for developments in wearable tech and mobile payment. Over the last two years, we have built the relevant in-house specialist development teams to ensure that we are ready to respond to emerging trends and innovations – with the capabilities and skills to test them efficiently and effectively – so we can offer our customers a quicker, easier and more convenient shopping experience.
“We’ve been monitoring feedback, both on our internal social network Yammer and external social networks, and have seen very positive reviews of the user experience from both employees and customers.”
Lynn Beattie, IT director at Dune: “Apple Pay is much more convenient and secure than card transactions. We already have most of the IT infrastructure in place for Apple Pay and our staff in stores are very enthusiastic about adopting the new technology, but it has not yet been set live as at the moment the £20 limit is a bit of a barrier as our average transaction value is a lot higher. Once high value contactless is introduced [in September], we will set it live and we expect the number of customers using digital wallets in our stores to grow quickly.”
Simon Pritchard, group digital director at Arcadia (using Apple Pay via its apps)
“Removing the hassle of filling out forms and payment details is a particular priority for us on mobile. Apple Pay goes a long way towards our goal of creating a frictionless checkout for our apps, and we’re delighted to have had the support of [retail technology firm] Red Ant in bringing this innovation to market so quickly.”
Jonathan Samols, IT director at Liberty
“We are accepting Apple Pay in store for the standard contactless value of up to £20 and we want to extend this to higher-value transactions later in the year. Apple Pay fits in well with our wider payment strategy of wanting to provide secure and convenient payment options for our customers. We already know a large proportion of our customers use iOS devices and many of them will have the latest models. Apple is great at making its applications intuitive; it has a wide range of retailers signed up to use Apple Pay and we believe the Liberty customer will be keen to use it.”
Drapers verdict: Apple Pay alternative, bPay
Barclaycard has been trying to pip Apple to the payable post for some time and, thanks to Apple Pay’s delays with some of the UK’s biggest banks, it has largely succeeded.
Last year, it began trialling a pair of gloves embedded with a chip allowing wearers to complete transactions by swiping their hands over card machines.
Now it has come up with three new alternatives under its bBay by Barclaycard umbrella: a wristband, a fob and a sticker. Each device uses contactless payment technology and a secure digital wallet, to which funds can be added online via an app or set to auto top-up.
The three products went on sale online from July 1 and are available to any shopper with a UK-registered Visa or MasterCard debit or credit card.
· The bPay wristband (£24.99) is fairly chunky and unattractive but could prove useful on a mammoth shopping trip to avoid a shopper having to get their wallet or purse out at every till.
· The bPay fob (£19.99) can be attached to a key ring but it’s hard to see how getting keys out of a bag is any easier than using a contactless card.
· The bPay sticker (£14.99) appeared the most promising because it has the ability to turn anything, including a non-Apple phone, into a contactless way to pay. However, because it uses a strong adhesive, few will want to stick the device to an expensive smartphone.
Other rivals, including Google’s Android Pay and Samsung Pay, are also under development and are expected to be launched in the US later this year.


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Apple opens App Store to game streaming services
The likes of Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now will no longer be restricted to web apps. Apple is opening up its App Store to allow game streaming apps and services. This means that services like Xbox Cloud Streaming and GeForce Now, which previously were only accessible on iOS via a web browser, will be able to offer full-featured apps. “Developers can now submit a single app with the capability to stream all of the games offered in their catalog,” Apple wrote in a blog post. These changes apply “worldwide,” according to the company.


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National Economic Outlook
By Ingo WInzer
Newly available data from the fourth quarter of 2023 don’t make the home price situation any clearer. On average, home prices increased about 5 percent in the past year, pretty much as they had in the previous two quarters. This means that the surge of the last few years is over but provides little guidance about when and what kind of price readjustment will follow.
Typically after a home price boom, there’s either a long period of flat prices or an actual decrease until they eventually realign with local incomes. And in the last 50 years such a realignment process has always happened. In almost all local markets home prices are now 20 to 30 percent higher than the corresponding incomes, so it’s difficult to imagine that this won’t happen again.
The real estate market is closely intertwined with the health of the economy in general, on the upside and the downside. A strong economy boosts home buying and home prices; but falling home prices cause consumers to spend less money, which can nudge a weak economy into a recession.
It’s not clear how strong the economy is right now. Jobs are growing at a 2 percent annual rate, but a lot of the new jobs are just due to restocking for jobs that were lost during the recession. Once that process is complete the actual growth of jobs may be no more than 1 percent, which isn’t very much.
In February, overall job growth was 1.8 percent, including 2.8 percent in construction, 0.2 percent in manufacturing, 0.4 percent in retail, 0.9 percent in finance, 0.7 percent in business services, 4.3 percent in healthcare, 1.8 percent at restaurants and 2.8 percent in government.
Do you have questions that you would like to have answered in the next NEO presentation? Please submit questions here.


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Pro Optik, the German eyewear chain, has hired Gerd Kaufmann. He previously held a similar position with bielomatik, a German plastic welding firm.
Micha Siebenhandl, Pro Optik’s chief executive, who was appointed in March 2020, has been reinforcing the company’s management team over the past weeks.
The company previously announced the hiring of Holger Schumann, who was head of financial planning and analysis at Apollo-Optik, as head of controlling.
Recent appointments also include Thorsten Lücke, who is in charge of purchasing and of the subsidiary Seleste. While Evelio Sousa, who was previously head of purchasing and of Seleste, is taking on the central function of director in charge of enterprise resource planning and will oversee of the introduction of new software programs over the coming years.
Silke Liebermann became head of marketing and the hearing aids business. She was previously head of product management and marketing at the hearing aid manufacturer Sonova.


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Rumour: BioWare's Anthem delayed into 2019
While BioWare's new sci-fi persistent open-world multiplayer shooter doodad Anthem is officially due to launch this autumn, several secret sources tell Kotaku that the game is now likely delayed into early 2019. Speaking anonymously (the industry is not remotely fond of leakers, after all), they say that BioWare are shifting almost everyone to focus on Anthem, and... there are more whispers about the game's progress, but they get vaguer. Let's simply say: it seems quite possible we won't get to rocket around an alien planet in BioWare's Iron Man armour this year.
So! According to several of Kotaku's sources, Anthem won't be ready for autumn and is instead due in early 2019. Kotaku speculate that it'd be by the end of March 2019. One source told the site that they believed autumn was never really a realistic goal. EA are pushing many people from other BioWare projects, like the mysterious next Dragon Age game, to help finish up, sources say. Shifting people between projects is fairly common with big companies, especially when their other big game hasn't even been properly announced yet.
Beyond that, Kotaku report that several of their sources expressed concern about the state of the game, worries about whether their own persistent open-world live-content-o-rama will face similar growing pains and backlash to Activision's Destiny 2 (I can answer that: on the hell we know as the Internet, yes, sorry, absolutely), and other undelighted thoughts. I'll point you to Kotaku if you want to know more and not get too much into it myself because ah, a lot of that is fairly common for big video games.
Even some fantastic games have seemed doomed to people working on them. Amy Hennig, the director of the first three Uncharted games, only the other week talked about how most of Naughty Dog's games "looked like they weren't going to come together until maybe two or three months before we finished them." Devs fretting about the state of a game potentially a year before launch doesn't necessarily mean it's doomed. I mean, it doesn't mean it's not. But it's not as straightforward as it might seem.
This is all unofficial and off the record, of course. But given how much EA tend to market their games in advance, and their relative silence on Anthem, I would not be at all surprised to hear of a delay. Anyway, here's the trailer from E3 in June 2017 again:


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Nvidia’s RTX 3080 Ti specs are rumoured for quite a while now, and we have just seen what is promised to be the last hardware configuration with this particular GPU that is allegedly going to property.
Since Tom’s Hardware accounts, a resident of all Twitter (Matthew Smith) seen a GPU-Z validation within at Tech Powerup, which lists the (supposed ) full replicas of this RTX 3080 Ti, and it falls right in line with that which we have already heard in the rumour mill.
Notably, the 3080 Ti may possess 10,240 CUDA cores (in comparison to 10,496 for its RTX 3090), together with 320 Tensor cores along with 80 RT (ray tracing) cores. Furthermore, it will operate with 12GB of all GDDR6X VRAM, using a 384-bit memory suspension that provides a bandwidth of 912.4GB/s (that is not far off at all in the RTX 3090 that strikes 936GB/s).
By the information, the foundation clock will operate at 1,365MHz with an increase of around 1,665MHz. There is no word on electricity consumption yet. However, the grapevine anticipates this to weigh in at a hefty 350W (unsurprisingly exactly the like the RTX 3090).
Since Tom’s observes, we’re theoretically considering a graphics card that achieves single-precision functionality of around 34.1TFlops, in comparison to 35.58TFlops for its RTX 3090.
Thus this is just another sign. Together with the leaked Geekbench CUDA benchmark that was only just shattered, the RTX 3080 Ti may come really near the operation level of this RTX 3090.
That is potentially fantastic news for players who need a badly pepped up RTX 3080 — however, the flip side might hint at stressing things on the purchase cost front (before scalpers put in on the action, also push the asking price from the suggested amount ).
The RTX 3080 Ti might be shown by Nvidia on May 31, in only a couple of days in Computex, along with its sibling RTX 3070 Ti card that has also found strong rumours recently. All these GPUs are expected to go on the market shortly after that, together with all the 3080 Ti allegedly set to emerge June 3, followed closely by the 3070 Ti around June 10 (or about).


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In the midst of writing a completely different column about rather dull figures and charts and what they might mean for the future of the media industry, a tweet caught my eye containing Alan Rusbridger’s farewell to readers after 20 years of editing the Guardian. At the risk of being lambasted as a toady, I would urge others to read it, as it gives a tremendous sense of what all media companies have grappled with over the past 20 years; namely preserving cultural value and institutional strength while changing at the lightning speed required by the adoption of new technology.
For those of us who, like Rusbridger, might be looking forward to putting our feet up and watching the latest series from Amazon or Netflix, the next 20 years look no less frenetic but really quite different. We are going from a building phase to a buying phase of media growth.
Twenty years ago was perhaps one of the most significant phases in modern communications as consumer access to the internet was in its infancy. Microsoft was just launching its first web browser, Internet Explorer, the global penetration rate of mobile phone ownership was 1%, and the world’s largest internet company was Netscape valued at more than a whopping $5bn. Amazon was starting life as a bookseller in Jeff Bezos’s garage, and Larry Page had just enrolled in the Stanford PhD programme where he would bump into fellow student Sergey Brin and write a thesis paper which became Google.
The story of the past two decades for almost all media companies has been dictated by scale. Those who could achieve it, the Amazons and Googles (and in a different sphere even the Guardian) and those that couldn’t, or that lost it, in a new global market for information. Google’s market capitalisation now of $373bn makes it just about half the size of Apple, another beneficiary of the internet age, but so much larger than anyone would have thought possible only two decades ago.
Last week, the annual presentation by influential Silicon Valley venture capital investor Mary Meeker on Internet Trends outlined this huge growth trajectory, but suggested that the rocketing growth of the first 20 years is now slowing, as we run out of digital worlds to conquer. Of course less than 40% of the world’s population have an internet connection, but 5 billion have mobile phones.
The pace of change is taking a new direction, powered by the mobility of information and data, but the achievement of scale is beginning to shake out what was once a very fragmented media world into a more consolidated set of businesses, as low interest rates and a sense of nervousness about future revenues is pushing a significant wave of mergers and acquisitions.
Media headlines have been devoted over last week to the relatively smaller potatoes of tech journalism start-up Re/Code being acquired by another new media company Vox Media, which in turn might, if rumours are correct, be swallowed by the decidedly larger potato, Comcast.
Media owners and pundits shook their heads rather dourly at the figures which revealed that Re/code has a staff of 44 and “only” 1.5 million unique visitors a month on the web. One might think 1.5 million people reading nerdy stories about technology businesses on a monthly basis is quite large, but on the web, where advertising is a fraction of the value of print and on mobile where advertising is a fraction of the value of the web, it isn’t adequate.
Although Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg’s well-respected site found the majority of its revenues in conferences, the conclusion most reached was that these web numbers were simply not big enough. Next on the block we might see Huffington Post and other media assets caught up in the Verizon $4.4bn purchase of AOL.
The plankton-to-whale acquisition trail is likely to see any smaller media companies in the digital realm seek either scale through partnership, merger or acquisition, and the upstream distributors, like phone companies and cable networks in turn swallowing these media or “content” companies in order to own the whole pipeline of services to consumers.
Charter Communications we learnt last week is paying $57bn for Time Warner Cable, after Comcast was thwarted on competition grounds by the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, from pursuing a similar deal.
Twenty years ago we had no idea really where the internet would take us, many thought a utopia of a thousand flowers blooming, others, perhaps more accurately saw its progress towards becoming a giant shop. The next 20 years are similarly unknowable, but one thing is becoming clear; whatever it is, is going to have to be big.


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E-cigarettes are about to become a regulated product. The Food and Drug Administration is set to propose a regulatory plan Thursday that will also put some restrictions on the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes to minors.
Though the FDA stopped short of banning advertising, it does propose to prohibit sales to minors, halt the distribution of free samples and require health warnings and ingredients labels.
Following a 75-day comment period, the FDA will finalize the rules. The e-cigarette companies would have to comply with the marketing and sales restrictions almost immediately, but would have two years to submit their products for the FDA’s review and approval.
"This is an important moment for consumer protection and a significant proposal that if finalized as written would bring FDA oversight to many new tobacco products," said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D.
The fast-growing e-cigarette business has mushroomed into a $2 billion industry, generating plenty of controversy and calls from lawmakers that the industry's marketing tactics should be regulated.
"It's like the wild, wild west," Hamburg said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "The products are evolving with no regulatory oversight and are being marketed in ways that are very worrisome," she said.
Depending on your point of view, e-cigarettes are either a panacea for smokers or a gateway drug. The Centers for Disease Control put out a study last year that e-cigarette use among teens has surged; more recently the agency released data showing an increase in reported poison incidents among children under 6.
Reactions from the e-cigarette industry to the FDA's 241 pages of proposed regulations were mixed, but generally, the industry had no quibble with the age restrictions or even the marketing restrictions.
There was some concern that the proposal would regulate e-cigarette marketplace the same way the FDA currently handles tobacco by imposing a costly and time-consuming application and review process that some estimate can take 5,000 hours just to file.
"As a new category of technology product, vaporizing deserve a new and distinct set of regulations," said the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association.
"It's a burden that can only be borne by large tobacco companies," said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association. "The GAO [Government Accountability Office] has already reported that the FDA has thousands of tobacco applications backlogged," he added.
But Jason Healy, founder of blu ecigs, counters that regulation of the nascent business was inevitable. "Did you think this was going to be easy? We're in the tobacco space, and we have a responsibility. There has to be some governance and some pain. It'll be painful and sticky."


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Yahoo! Inc.'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) never-ending troubles may renew Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG) appetite for the once-mighty Internet giant.
Google Stock Price History
After all, it wouldn't be the first time Google considered the deal.
In October, Google talked to at least two private-equity firms about helping them finance a deal to buy Yahoo Inc.'s core business, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
But the latest bout of attrition at the senior management level and a flurry of strategic blunders may rekindle Google's desire to acquire the struggling firm.
Why Buy Yahoo?
Even so, many investors are questioning why anyone would want to buy Yahoo.
Indeed, Yahoo has been shooting itself in the foot for quite a few years and seems to lack a clearly defined strategy to get back on track.
As the Internet ad market continues to grow by more than 20% annually, Yahoo has been unable to increase revenues as it continues to suffer market-share losses to Facebook Inc., and Google.
Its share price has also remained stubbornly stagnant, hovering in the mid-teens for nearly three years.
To make matters worse, the company rejected a $44 billion purchase offer from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) in January 2008 that valued it at $31 per share.
Somehow, Yahoo was convinced it was worth more. Not long after, the financial crisis hit and Microsoft pulled out.
In addition, recent chaos in the boardroom is sending mixed signals to investors.
In January, Yahoo's board surprised analysts by appointing Scott Thompson, the President of Ebay Inc.'s (Nasdaq: EBAY) PayPal unit, to be the company's fourth CEO in five years.
Two weeks later, Jerry Yang, Yahoo's founder, sprang another surprise by resigning, adding fuel to speculation about a major restructuring.
Now, a key shareholder, Third Point LLC, plans to nominate its own slate of directors to the board, contending the recent overhaul wasn't enough to resolve doubts about Yahoo's future.
"The recently announced changes do not put the issuer on the right track towards maximizing shareholder value," Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund, said in a filing obtained by Bloomberg News.
A Good Fit For Google
That said, Yahoo may be struggling, but it is still a force to be reckoned with.
Yahoo Stock Price History
Between e-mail, finance, and news, Yahoo has established a valuable brand that comes with the power of hundreds of millions of daily visitors.
The Internet site gets over 178 million unique visitors monthly and has 700 million users worldwide. Its e-mail service is used by 70 million people around the planet.
Plus, it has $2 billion in cash, no debt, and it generates another $1.3 billion a year in cash flow.
While Google has long been the No. 1 player in Web search, adding Yahoo to its stable would catapult it over its rivals in the display-ad market.
Yahoo will bring in $1.6 billion in net revenue from display ads this year, behind Facebook's more than $2 billion. Google is expected to generate $1.1 billion according to The Journal.
Google would also like to expand its affiliations with Yahoo's premium content partners like ABC News, which feed video and other material to Yahoo sites that sell ads, people familiar with the matter told The Journal.
A deal could also expand Google+, the company's social-networking service to millions of Yahoo users.
A Google/Yahoo Stumbling Block?
More recently, Yahoo has been exploring a possible sale of its holdings in Asia.
The company owns a 40% stake in Alibaba Group, China's No. 1 auction site, as well as 35% of Yahoo Japan, Japan's biggest Internet site. Altogether, the Asian assets could yield roughly $19 billion.
The deal would allow Yahoo to focus on its core assets and perhaps attract more potential suitors.
But last week's talks reportedly broke down over the valuation of Alibaba's assets.
Trading in Alibaba's shares was suspended at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange earlier this month, adding to speculation about the terms of a deal.
A failure to reach an agreement would not go down well with shareholders, who are still stinging from the Microsoft debacle.
"Quite a few Yahoo shareholders are attracted by the fact that there is going to be a deal for the Asian assets," Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA, a Beijing-based investment firm told BBC News.
If the deal stalls, share prices could deteriorate further, setting the stage for Google to swoop in with an even cheaper bid.
If the deal goes through, however, Yahoo would probably be worth around $25 billion, meaning only someone with very deep pockets could pull it off.
In that case, a bidding war could erupt between Google, Microsoft, Facebook or perhaps even Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL).
News & Related Story Links:
- Money Morning:
Android@Home, Project X, and Other Secrets of Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG)
- Wall Street Journal:
Google, Private-Equity Firms Mull Bid For Yahoo
- CNET News:
Microsoft went public Friday with a $44.6 billion cash-and-stock bid to acquire Yahoo.
Yahoo-Alibaba Talks Falter as Third Point Steps Up Pressure
- BBC News:
Alibaba and Yahoo deal 'delayed by price disagreement'
Or to contact Money Morning Customer Service, click here.


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Kbang Tourism Festival 2019 will be held from July 26 to 28, in Kbang district, Gia Lai province to promote tourism in the Central Highlands region.
|Kon Lok Waterfall, one of the most beautiful tourist spots in Kbang District, the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai (Photo: dulichpleiku.gialai.gov.vn) |
The festival includes a series of cultural and artistic events featuring the local Bahnar ethnic minority people and other ethnic groups that live in the area.
The event will be a chance for local enterprises and people to display their agricultural, cultural and tourism products.
About 80 booths will feature thousands of products including agricultural and forest specialties such as fruits, organic vegetables, traditional food, handicraft furniture and other consumer goods.
Highlights of this year's Kbang Tourism Festival are a promotion campaign for two-day tours with the theme Kbang-Diem den du lịch (Kbang — A Tourism Destination).
The tours promise to lead visitors to historical relic sites such as Sto village, home to the memorial house of Nup, a hero in the anti-French movement, and Tan Lap village, a famous place from the resistance wars against the French and Americans.
Visitors will also be able to book two-day tours to places with beautiful natural landscapes such as Dak Bok, Kon Lok, Kon Bong and Hang En waterfalls.
A report from the K’bang district People's Committee revealed preparations for this event were in progress and would soon be completed ahead of the opening ceremony on July 26. The district has upgraded the local transportation network, particularly at tourist sites.
The report said that through the festival, the district hopes to boost cooperation in tourism development.
Kbang district, about 100km from Pleiku city, is regarded as a cradle of the traditional culture of the Central Highlands region. It also played an important role in the resistance wars against foreign invaders.
The district is also home to many majestic landscapes, dense green forests and pristine waterfalls.
With such vast potential for tourism, Gia Lai province has introduced plans to turn the district into one of its more important tourism hubs.
Dinh Dinh Chi, head of the district’s Culture Division, said the district has not yet met its full potential in tourism.
“The strength of Kbang lies is its eco-tourism and historical culture, which can include hundreds of spots and nearly 60 beautiful waterfalls," Chi said. "The district is also famous for practicing the gong culture – a typical feature of the Central Highlands region.
"However, for a long time, the district has been unable to convince tourists to extend their stays. They often come and go in one day."
Chi added, the district had set up a plan to promote tourism by introducing specific local products and gradually improving the tourism environment.
The cultural official revealed the district was focusing on marketing local products such as ruou can (wine stored in a big jar and drunk with long bamboo straws), brocade items, herbal medicines and honey.
“In the long term, Kbang district is calling for large enterprises, to invest in developing its tourism potential," Chi said.


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Nintendo has revealed what their next mobile game will be, and it is called Super Mario Run. So this would be the first mobile game using a true Nintendo franchise. The best part is, it actually looks like something you would find, level design and look wise, in the Super Mario franchise.
Telltale Games has announced the release date and additional details about the final episode of Minecraft: Story Mode, which is "Episode 8: A Journey's End?". Interesting that the title of this episode has a question mark in it, almost like it is hinting at a possible second season and that this is the finale for the extended first season.
4:33 Creative Labs, who's previous games include Blade: Redemption and Seven Guardians, have released their newest title for Android today called Monster Super League. As you may be able to guess from the game's name, this is a monster collecting style of game, falling into the genre where games like Pokemon reside.
Appearing out of thin air, Badland 2 was released for iOS last week. Badland was a gargantuan hit by game developer Frogmind, when it was released a few years ago. Now, the sequel is set to shatter records once again, as you return to one of the most organic and creative worlds ever visited by gamers.
Peter Molyneux’s game development studio called 22Cans, which is currently dealing with the whole Godus issue, has apparently soft launched (or are testing) a new game for mobile called The Trail (published by Kongregate). As it stands right now, it appears that this game is only available in the Philippines right now, which is why we are not sure if it is a soft launch or a beta testing phase, since that regions is used for both usually. That or 22Cans accidentally released it.
Released by Eduard Mirica, Adrenaline Racing is a new racing game with a top down perspective. In each race, players are looking to stay ahead of the timer by hitting checkpoints before time expires. Players will have access to a variety of power ups, such as speed boosts and shields. The latter being important as collisions with other cars on the road cause your vehicle to slow down.
Released by R2 Games, PolitiCats is a new clicking game for Android. In this game, players will be looking to run a political campaign, comprised of cats. Players will begin by seeking election as Class President, and will parlay that into other subsequent elections, with the hopes of eventually being elected as Supreme Earth Cat.
If you're into Sci-Fi themed adventure games, there is a new one heading to mobile devices (and PC) soon called Space Rangers: Quest. This particular game actually falls more into the text-based style of adventure games that were pretty popular back in the day, but it also comes with RPG elements as well to bring it a little into the more modern times.
Humble Bundle has launched the latest mobile game themed bundle today, officially titled the Humble Mobile Bundle 20. Hard to believe there's been twenty of them already as these types of bundles have only been happening for a bit now. In this bundle there are 8 games to start it off, with more heading to the bundle next week.
During Telltale Games' panel at PAX West the company revealed a new series that would be coming to pretty much all platforms, except VR, called The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. This actually is a new season for the ongoing The Walking Dead series that Telltale Games has been doing.


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Global Entrepreneurship Week DMV 2018, which brings together entrepreneurs and showcases local innovation, will be held at the Greater Washington D.C. Region between November 12 and 18.
#GEW2018 is designed by entrepreneurs and is for entrepreneurs. Throughout the week, the entrepreneurs will be educated on best practices, and access will also be provided to resources and investment opportunities in the DC-Maryland-Virginia ecosystem.
Many interactive sessions with experts will be held which will provide information to participating entrepreneurs on potential opportunities in D.C. and beyond. Several panels and workshops will provide an insight from industry leaders and influencers.
According to Steven A. Rodriguez, Global Entrepreneurship Week DMV organiser, this year Global Entrepreneurship Week is celebrating four distinct themes – Women, Youth, Inclusion and Ecosystem Connect. “During GEW, we will highlight powerful voices, ambassadors and partner organisations that promote, encourage and support the development of entrepreneurs within each of the four spaces,” wrote Rodriguez.
“GEW is where connections happen and teams come together to get inspired, prepare for the next challenge and celebrate the Greater Washington, D.C. Region’s entrepreneurship community,” according to Innovate Coalition.
Participants can meet entrepreneurs, developers and investors at the venues, and also get to share ideas and learn from entrepreneurs and experienced mentors.


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The U.S. is expected to retain its position as a leading technology goods exporter for the next two decades, according to trade research conducted by international bank HSBC.
Technology-intensive goods are expected to account for 17% of the total growth in U.S. export goods for the rest of this decade, HSBC stated. U.S. exports will be driven primarily by industrial machinery, followed by transport equipment and scientific apparatus.
Optimism about trade generally among U.S. business leaders is at its highest level since the bank began conducting its semiannual trade survey. The U.S. HSBC Trade Confidence Index rose to 115 from 114 six months ago and was higher than the global average of 113. The index surveys small and middle-market businesses, including 250 in the U.S.
HSBC forecasts that U.S. trade will grow 6% annually from 2014 to 2016. The bank expects global trade to grow 8% annually to 2030.
U.S. exports set a record in 2013, reaching $2.3 trillion. In 2013, the United States had a trade surplus in services of $229 billion and a goods deficit of $703.9 billion for a total trade deficit of $474.9 billion. That was nearly at $59.8 billion improvement from 2012.
U.S. manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers were the most optimistic about trade, HSBC found, with more than 70% expecting stronger trade outflows. Of the business leaders surveyed, 50% cited increased global demand and improved economic conditions in key industries, including manufacturing, as primary drivers for the increased business.
But while trade optimism is high, HSBC warned that the U.S. will have to increase its research and development investment to maintain its position in an increasingly competitive global economy.
“As an owner of the intellectual property of high value goods, the U.S. and other developed economies currently dominate the global technology export market, but under-investment in R&D over the long term can pose a competitive threat,” said Prabhat Vira, regional head of Global Trade and Receivables Finance in North America for HSBC. “The world economy is becoming more knowledge-intensive and for the U.S. to retain its lead, it’s crucial that businesses continue to invest in research and innovation.”
Canada, Mexico and China are expected to continue to rank as the top destination for U.S. exports over the next two decades, HSBC stated, followed by Korea and Brazil.
U.S. business leaders view Asia as the most promising export region (33%), followed by Latin America (28%). Within Asia, Vietnam and Korea are the fastest growing export destinations for the U.S. but China is seen as the market with the greatest long-term potential.


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CLOT X NikeLab Air Max 97 HAVEN SP Official Release
After the successful Pop-Up celebrating the launch of the collaboration of the CLOT x NikeLab Air Max 97 Haven SP in Hong Kong, the highly-coveted sneakers will be released officially this week on the 18th April in Shanghai (11AM), Taipei (2PM), Taichung (2PM), The Box Taiwan (12PM) Beijing (11AM) and Chengdu (11AM). It will also be released online at JUICESTORE.com in limited quantities at 12PM HKT. If you didn't get a chance to cop one at the Hong Kong pop-up, here's your chance.
Stay tuned for release information for JUICE locations in Hong Kong as well as Los Angeles.
The CLOT x NikeLab Air Max 97 Haven SP is a combination of Nike's discontinued Zoom Haven model with the sole of the Air Max 97, this collaboration comes in three colorways; Volt/Dark Gray-Pure Platinum, White/Sail-Deep Royal Blue and White/Off-White Sail.
Volt/Dark Gray-Pure Platinum
White/Sail-Deep Royal Blue


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President Trump’s proposed tariffs threaten to raise the cost of a new imported vehicle by thousands of dollars. Since even American-made cars include parts imported from foreign suppliers, these tariffs will wreak havoc on the North American and global vehicle supply chains, with America’s closest allies bearing the brunt of this action.
On 25 May, the Trump administration launched a Section 232 investigation to determine whether imports of vehicles and car parts are a threat to US national security. The president is proposing a tariff of 25% on those imports in the future and whilst this is a significant hike from the current 2.5% tariff on imports, it is similar to the existing 25% import tariff that the US has levied on pick-up trucks since 1964.
US vehicle tariffs are a Demolition Derby with no winners
The US relies heavily on imports to meet vehicle demand and imports far exceed exports.
Download CRU’s report here CRU report 20180816


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BANGKOK, Thailand - The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) will organize the PATA Youth Forum, with the theme, “Search, Connect, Experience – The Future of Tourism.” Hosted by the College of Innovation at Thammasat University, the Forum will … March 26, 2013
VIENTIANE, Lao PDR – The ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2013 will welcome some 2,000 delegates, comprising 400 heads of National Tourist Organizations (NTOs) and tourism ministers, and close to 1,600 TRAVEX delegates from around the world. TRAVEX delegates … January 21, 2013
BANGKOK, Thailand - The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), in collaboration with the Marketing & International Cooperation Department of China National Tourism Administration and the ASEAN-China Centre, will organize the 2nd China Responsible Tourism … November 6, 2012
The theme of this historic event is “Shaping the Future of Tourism in COMESA,” and it is being organized with the support of the COMESA Business Council in partnership with the Kenya Investment Authority and the Kenya Tourism Board.
The forum has … August 13, 2012
MANADO, Indonesia – ATF 2012 TRAVEX boasts 20% more registrations from exhibitors, buyers, and media as compared to the same time last year. The 2012 leisure travel trade event, showcasing the largest contingent of ASEAN destination products and services, … April 8, 2011


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Written by Canarian Weekly Business
THE personal records and information of a staggering 500 million guests, linked with Marriott International, have been involved in a data breach.
The hotel chain, with multiple accommodations in Spain and the UK, has announced that the guest-reservation database of its Starwood division has been accessed by an unauthorised party.
An internal investigation revealed that the hacker gained access to the Starwood records, going all the way back to 2014. Customers affected will be notified, according to Marriott International.
Starwood brands include W Hotels, Sheraton, Le Méridien and Four Points by Sheraton.
The details, believed to have been accessible to the hackers, are said to include each customers’ name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, date of birth, gender, arrival-and-departure information, reservation date and communication preferences.
It is not known whether the hackers had access to the payment details of all 500 million guests
A Marriott spokesperson said the company was alerted by an internal security tool, that an unauthorised party was trying to gain access to the Starwood database.