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A disgruntled Taiwanese manufacturer has taken distributor Z-Tek to court seeking over $1 million in outstanding debts and asking for the controversial Melbourne-based white box assembler to be disbanded.
ARN has learnt Z-Tek owes Lite-on Technology US$504,249 in outstanding payments. The monitor manufacturer has since taken Z-Tek to the Victorian Supreme Court in order to receive payment or to have Z-Tek's operation wound up.
In session on Wednesday, Lite-on's barrister put forward a proposal to Z-Tek reportedly outlining a repayment scheme. Court adjourned until next Wednesday 8, where by that time Z-Tek has to decide whether it will accept the proposal or face further legal action which could see the company cease operations.
Should Z-Tek accept the proposal, the two parties will appear before court two weeks later to close the case.
Z-Tek has a colourful history in the Australian channel, with three of its directors going to jail last September for defrauding the Commonwealth out of $650,000 in sales tax.
George Guo Hong Zhou and Nelson Wei Zhou were sentenced by Judge Morrow of the Melbourne County Court to 12 months jail, with six months to serve immediately. They also faced a $1,000, three-year good behaviour bond upon release.
A third party in the Z-Tek tax evasion scheme, Sam Jin, was also sentenced after a guilty verdict, receiving the same penalty as the Zhous. In addition, Jin was ordered to pay reparations to the Commonwealth of $631,000.
Back in July 1997, the company had found itself in trouble. It faced the wrath of industry watch dog, the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The ACCC alleged Z-Tek contravened sections 52, 53(e) and 53C of the Trade Practices Act by advertising the cost of various products without including the sales tax - thus failing to advertise the total cost.
This was followed by a $150,000 out of court settlement with Microsoft in 1998, when the vendor was tipped off regarding several purchases of counterfeit products.
When ARN contacted the accounts department of Z-Tek a woman, who refused to give her name, stated the company was "in good shape" and declined to comment further.
Lite-on was unavailable for comment at the time of press.


text: Police in Annapolis say they have arrested a man they believe was involved in theft of laptops and a television from a local Boys And Girls Club. Police arrested 18 year old Akeem Howard on Wednesday. Police say thousands of dollars worth of electronics was taken from the Boys & Girls Club on 417 Captains Circle on Feb. 19. The Stolen items included 14 laptops, a flat screen television and an Xbox Kinect game console. Read More Here.

domain: news


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2022 Ford F-150 Lightning
DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor is increasing hiring to extend manufacturing capability for its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup because it begins constructing prototypes of the electrical pickup.
The Detroit automaker mentioned Thursday that it plans to speculate a further $250 million and add 450 jobs throughout three Michigan services, together with the Rouge Electrical Automobile Heart that is constructing the truck, to extend annual manufacturing capability for the car to 80,000 items.
Ford has now invested about $950 million in manufacturing of a hybrid model of the truck and the electrical F-150, which is scheduled to go on sale subsequent spring beginning at about $40,000.
Greater than 150,000 reservations have been made for the car since its debut in Might, up from 120,000 on the finish of July, in response to Ford.
Manufacturing and reservations for the F-150 Lightning are being intently watched by traders and business analysts as a barometer for client acceptance of electrical autos, particularly pickups, which dominate gross sales within the U.S.
“We knew the F-150 Lightning was particular, however the curiosity from the general public has surpassed our highest expectations and adjusted the dialog round electrical autos. So we’re doubling down, including jobs and funding to extend manufacturing,” Ford Chair Invoice Ford mentioned in a launch.
Ford Chairman Invoice Ford speaks Might 19, 2021 throughout the unveiling of the electrical F-150 Lightning pickup truck outdoors the automaker’s world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.
A handful of automakers are anticipated to supply electrical pickups within the coming years. Amazon- and Ford-backed start-up Rivian earlier this week turned the primary automaker to enter what’s anticipated to be a hotly contested phase.
Normal Motors is predicted to get its EV pickup to market subsequent with the GMC Hummer EV rolling off meeting strains this fall. EV start-up Lordstown Motors and Ford are anticipated to observe subsequent 12 months together with Tesla, which lately pushed again deliveries of its Cybertruck from this 12 months to late 2022.
Pre-production, or prototypes, are utilized by corporations for testing and validation forward of assembling autos which can be used for certification earlier than precise manufacturing for shoppers.
Inside Ford’s Rouge Electrical Automobile Heart, the corporate is simply starting to construct pre-production fashions. A restricted quantity of the pickups have really been produced on the plant in Dearborn, Mich., however officers mentioned meeting will ramp-up over time.
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning


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Amazon.com said on Friday it would make an”appropriate” executive available to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee to testify about allegations related to the Way the Firm uses third-party Vendors’ data.
The panel had called on chief executive Jeff Bezos to testify. Amazon’s website late on Friday did not commit to a specific individual or consideration for who could eventually testify.
“We’ve been working with the Committee in good faith for almost a year to provide answers and information, and we remain prepared to create the appropriate Amazon executive available to the Committee to deal with these problems,” Amazon stated from the blog post.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the online retailer used data from its third-party sellers to make competing products.
In a letter to Bezos this month signed by Democratic and Republican members of this panel, U.S. lawmakers called the April 23 WSJ report, saying,”When the reporting in the Wall Street Journal article is accurate, then statements Amazon made to the committee about the company’s business practices appear to be misleading, and potentially criminally false or perjurious.”
At issue were statements by Amazon’s associate general counsel, Nate Sutton, that refused under oath last July that Amazon utilized sensitive company information from independent sellers on its platform to produce products for Amazon to sell.
The business has previously said any such practices would violate its own policies.
Amazon sent a letter to the panel on Friday in response to the committee May 1 letter and reiterated that any allegations that there was this kind of policy violation would be researched.


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DETROIT (WXYZ) - General Motors says it has a solution to the Chevrolet Volt battery crash problem.
GM says it will make enhancements to the car structure and battery coolant system to protect the battery from the possibility of an electrical fire after a crash. The NHTSA opened an investigation into the problem back in November of 2011 after a severe impact test crash resulted in the car catching fire six days later.
The modifications will include strengthening an existing portion of the Volt's safety structure that will protect the battery from severe side collisions, adding a sensor in the reservoir of the battery coolant system to monitor coolant levels and add a tamper resistant bracket to the top of the battery coolant reservoir to help prevent potential coolant overfill.
"The Volt has always been safe to drive. Now, we will go the extra mile to ensure our customers' peace of mind in the days and weeks following a severe crash," said Mary Barra, GM senior vice president of Global Product Development.
General Motors conducted four successful crash tests between December 9th and 21st with the new structural enhancements and there were no problems.
"These enhancements and modifications will address the concerns raised by the severe crash tests," Barra said. "There are no changes to the Volt battery pack or cell chemistry as a result of these actions. We have tested the Volt's battery system for more than 285,000 hours, or 25 years, of operation. We're as confident as ever that the cell design is among the safest on the market."
Volt owners will be notified when the modifications are available for their vehicles. Also that the new fix is being put into place for new Volts that will be produced next month.
"We're focused on one thing right now: doing what's right by our customers," said GM North America President Mark Reuss. "We'll live up to our commitment to make sure our customers are delighted with their purchase."


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Dutch battery and energy storage start-up, Tryst Energy, has developed a product to power internet-connected devices through solar energy.
The product is known as Light Energy. It aims to harvest the energy power of solar to replace the growing use of, and waste associated with, the millions of batteries that currently power IoT devices – soon to be 20 billion according to some estimates.
Instead, Tryst Energy claims to have produced a model that will enable IoT devices to be powered for 75 to 100 years, at the very least, through solar energy.
Batteries killing off IoT businesses
In conversation with The Next Web, Nick Kiran, the man in charge of everything from marketing to business development at Tryst Energy, said the idea was born out of the company’s frustration at the sheer number of batteries it wasted when developing IoT hardware.
“More than a few businesses in IoT get killed because of batteries that need to be replaced every three to five years. Sending someone to replace them, buying new batteries or even completely replacing entire IoT-products leads to tremendous amount of waste,” Kiran said.
Light Energy, so Tryst claims, is a way around this. The small module it uses does not require direct sunlight. Instead, it is fitted with efficient light receptors that mean it can power IoT-devices even in places with little light.
“Light Energy is like solar power but on steroids,” Kiran said. “It’s ridiculously efficient and works from only 200 lux, or in other words: from under your desk where there is almost no light. And it provides enough power to keep your IoT-products going, including radio frequency like Bluetooth LE or LoRaWAN.”
Kickstarting its campaign
The Light Energy module is made up of a custom-made energy harvesting circuit and a solar panel 35mm by 20mm in size. Supposedly, as Kiran said, it needs just four hours of 200 lux light to operate for 24 hours, and can generate a maximum power of 25mA. Finally, it can store energy in what’s called a supercap, which has the capacity to store 10 to 100 times more energy per unit volume than batteries.
Tryst is relying on funding through Kickstarter to get its campaign going, and is about one third of the way to its target of €30,000. The company is also working on its software development kits for developers and start-ups who are willing to join the campaign.
Should it achieve its funding goal, Kiran says Tryst plans to delve even further into Light Energy’s possibilities.
“After our Kickstarter, we are going to produce Light Energy harvesters as OEM-modules as well, so every product developer, start-up and enthusiast out there can start building a brighter world for tomorrow, without having to use batteries ever again,” he said.


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CODA has great news for those of you still shy about electric cars and the costs associated with them.
Honda has unveiled a platform prototype they're called the Micro Commuter Prototype.
In 2010 the US Census was taken and some states were found to have gained population, and some lost residents. It is easy to guess why this might happen.
The Chrysler Group has designed the 2013 Jeep Patriot Freedom Edition as a tribute to the men and women of the United States armed forces.
In the United States it is hard to find an affordable (inexpensive) 7 passenger vehicle that is great on gas. The Mazda 5 leaps to mind, but that vehicle is only a 6 passenger.
Last month, Honda informed dealerships that they were to do their best to liquidate their inventory of 2012 Honda Civic models because the 2013 model year would bring about an “emergency refresh” t
When Lamborghini introduced the new Aventador LP700-4 Coupe in Geneva 2011, it created quite a stir in the automotive world.
In fact, in the rapidly emerging automotive market of India they have risen to number 2, second only to Maruti Suzuki.
Although some car commercials opt for lush scenery and impressive stunt driving, others rely on memorable music.
BMW has won another coveted award for the new 2012 3 Series that has been in showrooms since February.
Inspired by the high-performance SLS AMG GT3 racecar, the fifth Black Series model utilizes the "AMG Lightweight Performance" to breed a compelling mix of striking design, superb performance and li
Are you in the market for a super hero-themed car?


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Stroud’s Five Valleys shopping centre has welcomed Jack Simpson to head up the team, driving the centre forward at an important stage of its redevelopments.
Jack, who has a strong shopping centre management background spanning eight years, will be supporting the centre through its final phases of redevelopment and supporting the raft of new businesses that have recently opened, as well as playing a key role in driving the success of the popular Indoor Market.
The Five Valleys centre has undergone a major transformation over the last two years creating new retail, office and residential space as well as delivering a new health care and library hub, which will be completed this year with the library opening in the Spring.
Jack has managed and run operations on a shopping centre in nearby Gloucester and along with living in Cheltenham with his family, has the perfect understanding of what shoppers and visitors are looking for when they shop, eat and spend time in the area.
Jack has enjoyed taking up his new challenge so far and has already formed close relationships with the centre’s businesses and market traders.
He said: “I am really thrilled to be part of the Five Valleys team, it’s a really exciting time for the centre at the moment with lots of plans afoot to ensure a great experience when shoppers make a visit to us.
“I’m delighted to start working with all the great businesses and traders here and my first priority is to start building close relationships with organisations to ensure the shopping centre runs as smoothly as possible.”
The centre has welcomed a number of new businesses in the past 12 months becoming almost fully let when The Tanning Room and a further new fashion boutique opens next month.
Operations Manager for Dransfield Properties, Lottie Thompson, said: “We are really pleased to have welcomed Jack to the team, we have an exciting year ahead with the opening of the library and further new stores joining the centre giving shoppers even more reason to visit Five Valleys.”
Five Valleys is owned and managed by Dransfield Properties Ltd. To keep up to date with news and events at Five Valleys visit www.fivevalleysstroud.co.uk.


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As recent reports highlight the vulnerability of some wireless medical devices to hacking, some have moved to introduce protections like a firewall for pacemakers with the perception that some criminal element might want to hack these devices. But as far as at least one industry expert is concerned, people should be more concerned about the growing issue of the interference caused by mobile electronic devices.
Jim Keller of the ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania told MedCity News that hacking of medical devices and the firewalls being developed to guard against the problem made for a good theoretical discussion, but isnâ€™t really as big a concern as interference between an implanted device and the monitor to which it is transmitting a signal, that can be caused by mobile devices like cell phones and digital media devices.
â€œThere are a growing number of implanted wireless devices and a growing number of interference sources â€” itâ€™s definitely something the industry is aware of and is working on,â€ said Keller.
The growing proliferation of wireless signals interfering with transmissions between a wireless medical device to a reader may be a bit mundane compared to the intriguing idea of a criminal element that would target patients, one at a time, with their hacking talents to create criminal mischief or worse, but they do pose a real risk and itâ€™s something the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the government have been looking at.
â€œI have not seen that [wireless medical devices] is a high-profile target for the hacking community,â€ said Keller. â€œOne of the perspectives I have is the general proliferation of wireless signals is more of a concern than hacking, with interference from a variety of electronic devices.â€
Verizonâ€™s website cautions people with pacemakers and other implantable medical devices to keep their wireless hand-held mobile more than six inches from their device and shouldnâ€™t carry the phone in their breast pocket.
â€œSecurity with medical devices, including implantable devices, is an ongoing concern and something the manufacturing community needs to pay more attention to as wireless signals proliferate,â€ said Keller. â€œI would say the bigger concerns for security and medical device industries is interference affecting transmission of a signal from a pacemaker to a reader or vice versa.â€


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A law school at an Indiana university has just released a mobile app specifically to help its students get through the arduous steps of earning their degrees and planning their careers.
Virtual classroom provider WizIQ has released a new Android app for students, which includes a subset of features available in desktop application.
School technologists have a new option for managing devices running iOS6.
AAEEBL's President and CEO Trent Batson examines trends in the ePortfolio marketplace. Through a series of recent interviews with 14 companies that provide the technology, Batson identified key areas to watch as this fledgling market blends with other important technologies and begins to find some real maturity.
A team of students from Drexel University has successfully created a collaborative app for conference and classroom use that works across mobile operating systems.
Belkin has come out with two tablet stands specifically intended for education use.
As tablets enter the educational mainstream, universities move to evaluate their impact on teaching and learning.
Across all mobile platforms, nearly 90 percent of all downloads from app stores will be free apps in 2012. And, according to a new report from Gartner, 90 percent of the apps for which users are willing to pay will cost less than $3. Total downloads this year are projected to be nearly last year's figure.
An e-textbook pilot run at five institutions after being tested out at Indiana University will be growing this fall. Twenty-one additional colleges and universities of multiple sizes and formats will be introducing the use of digital content in classes in a series of pilot efforts being conducted by Educause and Internet2, while one of the original five pilot campuses opted to drop out owing to concerns over accessibility.
Shipments of traditional computers will fare worse in 2012 than previously expected, according to a newly revised forecast issued by market research firm IDC. A "challenging" back to school season in the United States is just one of the factors that will drive an overall decline in both desktop and portable systems domestically for the second year running.


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The Sonet debuted less than two weeks ago in the domestic market and it finished just outside the top ten in September 2020 with 9,266 units
In the month of September 2020, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) had seven vehicles in the top 10 sales charts. It registered 1,60,442 units last month with a Year-on-Year growth of 30.8 per cent. Domestically, the Indo-Japanese manufacturer recorded 1,50,040 units while 2,568 units were supplied to TKM.
The Swift headed the sales table with a total of 22,643 units as the compact SUV continues to post good numbers. The Baleno B2 segment hatchback also continued its stronghold in its segment ahead of Hyundai Elite i20 and Tata Altroz as 19,433 units were recorded last month. The Alto entry-level hatch garnered 18,246 units in September 2020 to sit third.
The Wagon R has certainly been impressive in posting volume sales as 17,581 units were sold last month for fourth position. The Dzire compact sedan headed its segment with 13,988 units ahead of Hyundai Creta whose sales tally have steadily increased since the debut of the new generation model back in March 2020.
|Top 10 Sellings Cars In September 2020||No. Of Units Sold|
|1. Maruti Swift||22,643|
|2. Maruti Baleno||19,433|
|3. Maruti Alto||18,246|
|4. Maruti Wagon R||17,581|
|5. Maruti Dzire||13,988|
|6. Hyundai Creta||12,325|
|7. Maruti Suzuki Eeco||11,220|
|8. Hyundai Grand i10 Nios||10,373|
|9. Maruti Ertiga||9,982|
|10. Hyundai Elite i20||9,852|
The mid-size SUV is offered in three engine options and it comes in a wide range to appeal for a wide range of customers. The Grand i10 Nios, rivalling directly against the Maruti Suzuki Swift, registered 10,373 units as it has been making steady recovery in recent months while the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga ended up in ninth position.
The Elite i20 premium hatch is getting a brand new generation in the coming months with a host of exterior and interior changes along with new set of powertrain choices. It finished tenth in the top ten sales charts in September 2020. The Sonet has certainly been a headliner as it ended up just outside the top ten in its very first month with 9,266 units.
Launched last month, the compact SUV gets a slew of segment-first features including a six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission in diesel and a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system with UVO Connect enabling 57 in-car connectivity based features. Its bookings have soared since day one!


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10 digital transformation benefits for business
Businesses cite efficiency, resiliency, productivity, ROI and competitive advantage as critical reasons to digitally transform their operations in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions.
The events of 2020 showed the criticality of digital transformation.
Organizations that had fully embraced digital transformation benefits in preceding years were in position to make rapid adjustments, relying on their cloud architecture, modern security protocols, an agile company culture and their full range of business-enabling technologies to support vast new work-from-home environments, as well as newly virtualized business transactions and interactions. But companies, nonprofits and governmental entities lagging in their digital initiatives struggled to adjust to the year's rapidly changing economic and social environment.
"It woke up a lot of C-suite officers, alerting them to stop dragging their feet on their digital transformation efforts, because they saw that the companies that were more mature in their digital transformation suffered much less disruption and much less costly disruption in that environment," said Rick Pastore, senior research director and IT advisor at the consultancy The Hackett Group.
According to a mid-2020 Gartner survey, more than two-thirds of boards of directors accelerated their digital business initiatives in the wake of the COVID-19 disruption and about half foresee changing their organizations' business model as a result of the pandemic.
What is digital transformation and why is it important?
Digital transformation requires the infusion of internet-based tools and technologies into a company's processes, so that the organization can meet and actually anticipate the wants and needs of its stakeholders. "This is business transformation that's enabled by technology," said Sanjay Srivastava, chief digital officer at business transformation services firm Genpact.
This article is part of
Ultimate guide to digital transformation for enterprise leaders
Companies can work faster and in new ways to better compete in the marketplace. Cloud computing and mobile technologies supported by modern security software and best practices, for example, allow secure, reliable access to business applications anytime from anywhere. In addition, automation speeds up processes and reduces errors. It also shifts human workers' attention away from mundane repeatable tasks to higher-value actions that machines can't do, thereby helping to create a better workplace environment and improved employee and customer experiences. Artificial intelligence further transforms an organization by analyzing data sets to pinpoint problems such as fraudulent behavior and learning from that analysis to identify new opportunities that can increase revenue.
Nearly half of all organizations are already into their transformations, according to the October 2020 "Voice of the Enterprise: Digital Pulse, Coronavirus Flash Survey" by 451 Research. The report revealed that 49% of enterprise leaders are in the execution phase of digital transformation, 15% at the evaluation and development phase, and 36% who said they don't as yet have a strategy, which placed them in the "laggard" category.
The survey also confirmed digital transformation benefits, as 93% of respondents already engaged in transformation said that the digital technology investments they had made prior to the pandemic have provided them with the agility to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Just 65% of the laggards agreed with that assessment.
What are the benefits of digital transformation?
Organizations undergoing transformations often measure the success of their digital initiatives against various business metrics, just as they would measure the return on investment (ROI) for more conventional projects.
Although the expected ROI for digital transformation programs varies from one program to another and from one enterprise to another, experts said that there are a number of overarching digital transformation benefits -- all interrelated and interdependent.
1. Increased efficiency and productivity
Digital technologies deliver gains in efficiency and productivity by speeding up processes and streamlining operations. Robotic process automation, for example, can outperform humans by multifold factors. IBM showcased bots that completed tasks 20 times faster than humans, and they generally don't make errors like people do. Business intelligence software and data analytics tools can collect and analyze data at a speed and accuracy unmatched by humans. Workers then use that analysis to help them make decisions faster than they could without advanced technologies.
2. Better resource management
As companies transform, they're replacing legacy systems serving individual business units with modern IT architectures designed to consolidate processes and seamlessly enable the flow of data across all departments. Experts said this end-to-end digital technology approach has helped CIOs and other executives eliminate duplicate and superfluous technologies, as well as associated costs. Furthermore, on-demand computing resources and as-a-service platforms have helped organizations optimize their technology spending by providing as much computing capacity as needed in the moment versus paying for excess capacity just to handle rare peaks in usage.
3. More resiliency
Organizations that embrace digital technologies and build a digital culture that celebrates change are better able to quickly adapt to shifting market forces, even dramatic social and economic upheavals like those caused by COVID-19. Companies, nonprofits and other organizations can better weather normal business ups and downs, as well as larger and once-in-a-lifetime disruptions. Additionally, the pervasive use of digital technologies, particularly cloud computing, further supports organizational resiliency by delivering built-in redundancies and elasticity. While most executives recognized that digital transformation benefits helped them build a more resilient enterprise, many now place a higher value on these technologies after 2020, The Hackett Group's Pastore said. "Resiliency wasn't such a big deal before," he noted, "but now it is the biggest."
Want to learn more about digital transformation?
These articles provide timely information about online learning resources for IT and business professionals, as well as the field's best books.
7 online digital transformation courses and certifications
4. Greater agility
Digitally savvy enterprises "have the ability to not just react to change but to capitalize on it," Pastore said. Because of their greater reliance using cloud computing, for instance, digitally mature organizations can rapidly scale up or down based on changing needs. Meanwhile, modern software development methodologies, such as DevOps and Agile, tout better collaboration among teams and allow them to rapidly create and roll out new features and functions to satisfy market needs as quickly as they evolve. According to the Workday survey "Organizational Agility at Scale: The Key to Driving Digital Growth," twice as many executives at digitally mature organizations were significantly more confident in their ability to quickly reallocate resources to meet shifting needs than those whose companies are lagging in digital transformation.
5. Improved customer engagements
"Transformation shifts entirely what you know about your customers," said Andrew Binns, managing principal at Change Logic LLC. "And it shifts what kind of relationship you can form with customers. You can make them more intimate." Digital technologies allow businesses to collect, store and analyze customer data so they can learn more about each of their customers. Companies can use data analysis and AI to gain greater insights, allowing them to create and offer products and services tailored to each customer's unique preferences and needs.
6. Increased responsiveness
Since digitally transformed organizations have better customer engagement initiatives, they're better able to anticipate evolving customer requirements and changing marketplace dynamics.
7. Greater innovation
Digitalization creates new opportunities for companies across all industries to develop products and services that they couldn't create previously. Tool companies now offer online services to match contractors with customers. Personal gym equipment now delivers virtual on-demand exercise instruction. Retailers offer customized curated fashions for rent. "Digital allows companies to better innovate and create new niches," Binns explained. "And it's not just Amazon and Google doing this, even though they get all the attention. Even legacy firms are creating new businesses that are beyond their core."
8. Faster time to market
One of the biggest digital transformation benefits is shortened product lifecycles, experts said. That's particularly important in industries where development costs are particularly high. Consider, for example, that it could cost "$1 million to 'tape out' a new semiconductor," Binns said. "That is a very high bar for products to pass before going into production. It also delays development of the products that use those components. If you can do all this in virtual, then the time to market will be cut to a fraction of what it is today. The economics of entire industries could get reshaped by this in the next 10 years."
9. Increased revenue
A report by the SAP Center for Business Insight and Oxford Economics found that 80% of executives at organizations with mature digital transformations said their efforts have resulted in increased profitability, and 85% said they've experienced increased market share. "Transformation," Genpact's Srivastava noted, "provides this new digital backbone to deliver this new business functionality that allows you to grow your business, your revenue going forward."
10. Continued relevancy
"Digital transformation," Srivastava added, "gives you the agility needed to adapt to changes in the environment to deliver value even in the long run and to stay relevant for the industry you're in."


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Bitcoin took another hit yesterday after the price plunged from $11,926 to $10,925 in just a few hours during the evening.
Bitcoin and blockchain expert Simon Taylor said: "I think it’s evidence of a government trying to get its hand around a subject which was seen as ungovernable.
Bitcoin price: Simon Taylor said Seoul is banning trade to crack down on crime
"Historically we thought this thing was decentralised, there was no way to control it but what you have here is centralised exchanges. This is the same as a bank. This is something that holds the bitcoin or the digital currency on your behalf."
Mr Taylor added that the South Korean Government's decision to ban cryptocurrency trading had been taken to crack down on all possible criminal activities the anonymity of bitcoin trading could have facilitated.
The ban is expected to deliver a harsh blow to the cryptocurrency market as Seoul and the rest of Asia handled a large portion of global crypto trading activities.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Taylor continued: "I’ve seen various estimates that between 20 and 30 percent bitcoin trading has been through South Korea at some point. Same for Ripple and some of the other key currencies.
I’ve seen various estimates that between 20 and 30 percent bitcoin trading has been through Seoul
"They were holding currency on behalf of anonymous actors. What South Korea has now said is ‘we think there could be fraud, we think there could be money laundering.’ All kinds of bad activity could be happening.
"If we prevent anonymous people from being on these exchanges then maybe we can reign in some of that."
New regulatory noise emerging from New York will concern wallet holders with Fortune reporting that Federal judges in Brooklyn, New York, are about to rule on the question of what exactly bitcoin is and whether it can be regulated.
It comes after bitcoin wallet and exchange service reported a cryptocurrency robbery of nearly £380 million in Bitcoin rival NEM prompting Japan’s financial watchdog to launch an investigation on all exchanges to better prevent future thefts.
According to Coindesk, bitcoin was trading for $10,097.58 at 6.44am GMT – with Ripple selling for $1.13 and ethereum for $1,084.6
CEO of Principal Global Investors Jim McCaughan said that bitcoin's volatility would never cease because the cryptocurrency had no fundamental value.
Mr McCaughan said that bitcoin will ultimately lose because the current leading cryptocurrency does not have a real coin to back it up.
He added that it is too late now for bitcoin to develop a medium of exchange, due to the financial instruments and investments made into it.
Experts have warned that bitcoin’s price could drop by as much as 80 percent if the cryptocurrency tether is revealed to have been artificially increasing its value resulting in a “bloodbath” for investors.
Tether is owned by a trading company named Bitfinex which has recently come under scrutiny by a blogger identifying themselves as Bitfinex’d.
The user has detailed in posts, tweets and YouTube videos that tether has been plucked from thin air to boost the value of bitcoin.
Nicholas Weaver, a professor at UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute, declared that a “bloodbath” would ensue if tether fails to hold its value and reassure investors.
He tweeted: “At current prices, net new bitcoin requires $18million of net new dollars flowing in to maintain the price.


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JON FAVREAU’S STAR WARS TV SERIES IS COMING TO THE DISNEY STREAMING SERVICE
Jon Favreau has signed on to write/executive produce a new Star Wars series for Disney’s planned streaming platform.
“If you told me at 11 years old that I would be getting to tell stories in the Star Wars universe, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Favreau said. “I can’t wait to embark upon this exciting adventure.”
“I couldn’t be more excited about Jon coming on board to produce and write for the new direct-to-consumer platform,” said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. “Jon brings the perfect mix of producing and writing talent, combined with a fluency in the Star Wars universe. This series will allow Jon the chance to work with a diverse group of writers and directors and give Lucasfilm the opportunity to build a robust talent base.”
Disney is expected to launch their streaming service in late 2019.https://www.firstcomicsnews.com/jon-favreaus-star-wars-tv-series-is-coming-to-the-disney-streaming-service/https://www.firstcomicsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Star-Wars-Logo-600x257.pnghttps://www.firstcomicsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Star-Wars-Logo-150x64.pngMovie & TV NewsNews


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30 Jan Apple is getting closer and closer to spelling out its TV strategy [Recode]
By Peter Kafka
January 29, 2019| One terrible way to find out what Apple is planning on doing is to ask an Apple executive about Apple’s plans in public, before Apple is ready to make an Official Apple Announcement. People keep trying anyway. Today it was analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research, asking Apple CEO Tim Cook about Apple’s TV plans.
Spoiler: He didn’t tell her what Apple plans to do.
But! It is worth noting what Cook did say, because his words, coupled with what we know about Apple’s actions to date, do give you a pretty good sense of Apple’s TV plans.
Read more on Recode.


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April 19, 2006
Namco Announces Ridge Racer 7 For PlayStation 3
Namco this week revealed the development of Ridge Racer 7 for the Sony Playstation 3 in overseas game magazine Famitsu.
The latest sequel, which will include car customization and online multiplayer for up to 14 players, will debut next month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Namco released Ridge Racer 6 to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console late last year as a launch title. The game saw slow sales in the U.S., however, it held decent sales at launch in Japan.
The Ridge Racer series has become synonymous on Playstation consoles to serve as a launch game for the last two systems and on the PSP handheld.
The exclusive release of Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360 was seen as a coup to Microsoft, however, slow sales will likely dampen the possibility of another exclusive Ridge Racer release for the console.
A trial version of Ridge Racer 6 is currently available for download at no cost on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Credit: Punch Jump


text: Merger denial: Shares of H.J. Heinz Co. and Bestfoods Inc. shot higher in morning trading even as Bestfoods denied a report that the companies were discussing a merger that would create the nation's second-biggest food company with annual sales of $17 billion. Heinz is the maker of Heinz ketchup and has a product lineup that includes StarKist tuna and Ore-Ida french fries. Bestfoods is the maker of Hellman's mayonnaise, Entenmann's baked goods, Skippy peanut butter and Knorr soups and sauces. Heinz rose $1.56 to $44.75 and Bestfoods advanced $3.56 to $52.50.


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Sony’s world’s first 4K HDR OLED screen as the mobile World Congress 2019 event introduced by the Xperia 1, the continuation model Sony Xperia 2, we have shared the first details that emerged in recent months.
The long-standing silence has finally broken down and the Xperia 2 has come back. Sony’s new flagship is expected to become official at the IFA 2019 – Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin next week.
Sony Xperia 2 design appeared
Apart from the camera moved to the upper left corner, we can say that the Xperia 2 doesn’t offer much difference in terms of design. Two different claims have been put forward so far. According to some sources, such as Xperia 1 4K screen will be included.
Some sources claim that the device will host a screen with a resolution of 5040 x 2160 pixels, 5K. Sony’s IFA 2019 event will take place on September 5th. The three rear cameras were protected and the phone would come with the Snapdragon 855.
However, when these claims were made, Snapdragon 855 Plus was not introduced. So we need to see if Sony is going to surprise users. The screen size of the phone with 6 GB RAM will be 6.2 inches.


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ZTE has revealed it now on the website of Weibo that it is all set to introduce the 5G device. The handset is named as ZTE Axon 10s Pro. It is to be expected that the new flagship can be coupled with the Snapdragon X55 modem that can facilitate the device in better bandwidth and higher theoretical download speeds both over 5G and LTE.
The images that are revealed on the website show that there are two major shooters, accompanied by a third one and a flash.We can see the logo of the company and the brand. In the images, we can only see phone in the Black color, however, ZTE has confirmed to the audience a new paint job known as “Qiang”, which is a rough translation for “rust”. It will be in a unique orange-red-brown shade.
ZTE Axon 10s Pro to Arrive in 2020 with a Snapdragon 865
It ha also been confirmed by some reliable resources that the Axon 10s Pro is the successor to the Axon 10 Pro this year. However, unlike the Axon 10 Pro which comes with a separate 5G version, the Axon 10s Pro will only be available in one version with 5G connectivity.
The phones powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor coupled with the Snapdragon X55 5G modem.
The upcoming phone will be able to switch smoothly and intelligently between 4G / 5G networks and dual band WiFi.
Recommended Reading: Zong 4G Collaborates for Network Expansion with ZTE


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At the start of lockdown, the UK went into panic mode. Faced with the risk of not being able to get to the shops, or food running out, many just stockpiled. Loo roll, pasta and rice were rarer than gold. Bare shelves looked like the apocalypse had arrived…
It’s a dilemma many benefit claimants face every week: “What if our income dried up and all we could feed our families on was what’s in the cupboards?”
Now, as millions of people have been tipped onto welfare during lockdown, it’s a question everyone might be starting to ask themselves.
The Trussell Trust reported that almost 100,000 people used a food bank for the first time in 2020. In just the first month of lockdown, food banks in the UK reported that demand had tripled. The charity grimly estimated that an extra 670,000 people would be classed as “destitute” by the end of 2020.
When Universal Credit was just starting and people waited weeks for their first payment, Quids in! got to thinking. What if we all built our own Food bank? Now we’re revisiting the question for the rest of us.
Years back, our grandparents would have had a pantry full of food ‘just in case.’ Sometimes tins were so old the price tags were still in pounds, shillings and pence. These days most of us buy-as-we-go.
If we’ve learnt anything over the last months, it’s that a little forward planning can go a long way. Taking our grandparents’ approach means we wouldn’t need to panic-buy.
For some of us, lockdown meant more time to cook at home. We were forced to use up leftovers, reduce waste and be more resourceful when it came to preparing meals. With a bit more time to spare, we could think more about how to manage meals.
It Could Be You
Even for non-claimants, the benefits of avoiding grocery shopping for a month could be huge. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average household spends £247 a month on food and non- alcoholic drinks.
Even if we’re not skint, it’s worth thinking about what we could do if we shaved a bit off that big lump of money. Supermarkets and the government alike are now alert to the fact they cannot always guarantee to replenish the shelves. Anything can stop the flow of goods from field to shop floor, especially if that field is overseas.
Drought could prevent the usual suppliers producing flour. A terror attack, or a trade deal going wrong, could delay cargoes of food reaching the UK. Or, most likely of all, people could panic buy and clear everything out.
As Quids in! would always say: Don’t fear the worst, just prepare for it. That’s why we call our personal little food bank, our Doomsday Cupboard! Read our Tips on Stockpiling.
By spending just a few pounds a week to build up a stockpile of dried, packet and tinned goods, we might not even notice the cost. If we stick to a plan, following the principles below, it won’t be long before we have a food bank of our own.
In our free download, we teamed up with the food kit people at Foodini Club to create a cheap and easy plan to build our own ‘Doomsday Cupboard’. So whether we aim to save a month’s food costs, need to migrate to Universal Credit, or have to sit out an alien invasion, we’ll keep the family fed.


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When Apple announced iOS 17 and the rest of its software updates during its WWDC 2023 opening keynote on June 5 it shared a number of new features that iPhone users can look forward to taking advantage of. One of those features was support for AirPlay on televisions that are used in hotel rooms, and now one company has already announced that it is ready to support exactly that.
In a press release published yesterday, LG announced that it would be the first to bring Apple AirPlay to hotel room TVs.
According to that press release LG and Apple have worked together to make it quick and easy for people to use AirPlay while in a hotel room. The press release says that people will be able to connect an iPhone or an iPad securely by simply scanning a QR code. There will be no logins or passwords required and users won't have to download any extra apps to get up and running. Once connected via AirPlay they'll be able to watch content and listen to music as usual, while screen mirroring is surely also supported although not specifically called out.
Apple's AirPlay technology has long been a great way for people to send video and audio from one device to another, usually smart speakers or Apple TV devices. In this case, people will be able to watch the content they already enjoy even when in a hotel room, rather than having to watch whatever channels and apps are available preinstalled on the hotel's televisions of choice.
LG says that hotel operators will be able to start offering AirPlay support on LG smart hotel TVs starting later this year.


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About 44% of existing Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet. A report from Twopcharts, a website that monitors Twitter account activity, states that about 44% of the 974 million existing Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet. And only 13% have sent more than 100 tweets. Source: Wall Street Journal.
This will affect Twitter’s advertising revenue and it will be interesting to see what strategies they come up with to encourage users to engage more.
How would you answer “Why Does Most Marketing Stink?” Source: B2B Marketing Insider.
A great post on the content vs advertising debate.


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Tesla stock fell 0.7 % in Tuesday's premarket after CEO Elon Musk sold more shares of the company, according to a report filed late Monday.
The stock was also under pressure due to a $162 million lawsuit filed by JPMorgan Chase against the electric vehicle producer.
The Wall Street behemoth sued Tesla on Monday in the Southern District of New York, citing breach of contract over stock warrants that were set to expire this year. Tesla was required to produce shares or cash, according to the bank, if its stock price was above the strike price of the warrants at the time the contract between the businesses ended, which it was.
Over the course of the episode, JP Morgan repriced the options twice, claiming that its attempts to change warrant prices were permitted by the contract. Tesla's lawyers claim that the bank took advantage of the business's stock price volatility after Musk's infamous "funding secured" tweet in 2018, in which he fraudulently claimed to have obtained financial backing to take the company private again.
According to new filings, Musk sold 934,000 shares on Monday, bringing the total number of shares sold to 7.3 million and a total value of $7.8 billion, still short of the $10 billion tax penalty Musk is expected to incur, according to reports. As a result, he may need to sell additional stock to pay his obligations.
Musk received options as compensation, which resulted in a hefty tax bill. He has previously stated that he may sell up to $20 billion in stock, or around one-tenth of his total holdings.


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Record-breaking Veeam surpasses 100,000th customer milestone
Veeam Software has won its 100,000th customer and posted record revenue results for the first quarter of 2014.
The provider of solutions that deliver Availability for the Modern Data Center closed Q1’14 with 48 percent year-over-year growth of new license bookings.
In addition, total bookings revenue growth for Q1 2014 was 56 percent for the same period, marking Veeam’s 25th consecutive quarter in which quarterly total bookings revenue has grown by more than 50 percent over the same period during the previous year.
“Veeam continues to bridge the gap between the requirements of the Always-On Business and IT’s ability to effectively deliver business continuity and IT resilience to the majority of businesses,” says Ratmir Timashev, CEO, Veeam.
“Businesses are facing challenges such as data loss, long recovery times, unreliable data protection and a lack of visibility into their IT environments.
"Advanced data protection from Veeam, combined with virtualisation, the cloud and other enabling technologies, completes the modern data center and ensures that the critical applications of our more than 100,000 customers remain always on from any place, at any time, on any device.
"Our recent partnershipwith NetApp as a part of Veeam Backup & Replication v8 is a testament to our ongoing mission to enable the Always-On Business by providing advanced data protection to the modern data center.”
Additional highlights of Q1’14 include:
· Customer Growth:
More than 9,400 new customers were added in Q1, surpassing the milestone of 100,000 paid Veeam customers with the company acquiring new customers at a rate of 3,000 each month.
· New Partner Margins and Growth:
As a 100 percent channel-based organisation, Veeam increased incentives and support to its worldwide partner base of 25,000 ProPartners.
Veeam also launched its Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE) certification, enabling partners to build professional services and solutions around Veeam within their own virtualisation practices.


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BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen is facing a time-consuming overhaul as the carmaker adopts a new company structure and adjusts the strategy of its brands in the wake of an emissions scandal, German magazine Wirtschaftswoche quoted Chief Executive Matthias Mueller as saying.
“The repositioning of the group will certainly take between two and three years and is no child’s play,” Mueller told the weekly publication in an interview published on Wednesday.
Mueller said he wants VW to try to overtake rivals in profitability rather than keep pushing volume, which under his predecessor Martin Winterkorn doubled to more than 10 million cars sold last year.
“This peering at unit sales and new sales records makes little sense from my point of view,” the CEO said.
Mueller, who will travel to the United States this week for the first time since VW’s emissions scandal broke nearly four months ago, said he will try to continue the diesel offensive in the world’s second largest auto market, despite the headwinds.
Reporting by Andreas Cremer
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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The Nike streaker, clad only in scarf and shoes with the swoosh, starts across the soccer field when -- surprise -- out of nowhere comes a brawny football player with a red Reebok jersey who tackles the streaker and knocks him to the ground.
This ad -- featuring Reebok's own ''Terry Tate, Office Linebacker'' character in a parody of Nike's successful streaker commercial -- rates as a ''gotcha'' for Reebok, the onetime sneaker king, which spent the 1990's watching Nike's dust.
Now Reebok International says it is roaring back, led by Paul Fireman, the 58-year-old chief executive who transformed the company from an obscure English custom shoe business to the biggest athletic shoe company in America by 1987, about the same time he was kicked upstairs and succeeded by C. Joseph LaBonte, a Harvard Business School graduate and former head of the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.
''There is a certain wish for vindication,'' Mr. Fireman, who never graduated from college, conceded in a recent interview.
Reebok, along with the other athletic shoe companies, still trail Nike. Sporting Goods Intelligence, a trade newsletter, estimated that at the end of 2002, Nike had 39.1 percent of the nation's athletic shoe business; Reebok had 12; New Balance had 11.6; and Adidas had 9.6 percent.
But analysts say Reebok has a good chance to at least double its share in the next few years. Since Mr. Fireman regained day-to-day control in November 1999, the company, based in Canton, Mass., has increased sales, increased cash and increased exposure. In the fourth quarter of 2002, Reebok's total sales increased a better-than-expected 14.8 percent, to $763 million. Clothing sales in the United States grew 48.1 percent, to $145 million. According to a Lehman Brothers report on Feb. 5, Reebok has had 11 consecutive quarters of sales increases.
''We are the No. 2 company in America,'' Mr. Fireman said this week. But ranking, he said, is not his priority.
''Right now, I'm not sure I want to surpass Nike's volume -- we did that once,'' Mr. Fireman said. ''As much as I want to be the No. 1 aspirational brand, we're on a good path now and if this escalates into a competition between Nike and ourselves and Adidas, then I'm happy with that, too.''
Right now, Reebok is rushing to fill the empty shelves in the country's more than 2,500 Foot Lockers after Nike and Foot Locker, the world's largest athletic footwear chain, had a falling-out.
In February 2002, Foot Locker told Nike the store wanted to reduce the number of Nike's marquee shoes -- the Air Jordans, Shox and Air Force Ones going for more than $100 -- because it believed that consumers were turning more to midprice shoes. According to a person close to the deal, Foot Locker told Nike it wanted to reduce its marquee shoes from 12 percent of the chain's business to 6 percent, and canceled $150 million in Nike orders.
Nike struck back. Nike denied that it had pulled back on existing orders or punished Foot Locker with late shipments, as had been reported. ''But Foot Locker will no longer be a primary distribution for marquee and launch products,'' said Charles Denson, the president of Nike Brand, in a December call with analysts.
On Feb. 15, Nike's Hall of Hoops displays in Foot Locker stores were replaced by Reebok's Above the Rim, featuring RBK shoes and jerseys and hats endorsed by Allen Iverson, the Philadelphia 76ers star. Reebok has also filled the vacuum with more of its Classic line, part of the retro look that has been successful for such sneaker also-rans as Converse and Puma.


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I usually pay close attention to grocery store flyers as I am always looking for a bargain, but after seeing the flyer for Mac’s Cashsaver stores in Arkansas, I will look more closely. Mac’s is a family-owned chain, and they are deeply religious. They have stirred up quite a controversy with the latest ad. The message is timely as it deals with the unending stream of illegal aliens to our borders. It reads, “Heaven has a wall, a gate and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders. Let that sink in.” It is easy to see why liberals hated it.
— BrightStart News (@BRIGHTstrt) February 11, 2019
CAMDEN, Ark. (KARK) – A family-owned Christian grocery store with several locations in Southeast Arkansas is dealing with backlash as customers argue a weekly ad mailer included a controversial political message.
The ad book was sent to four Mac’s Cashsaver stores in Arkansas. According to the store, the mailer typically includes a religious or political message. The current mailer includes a message that references the U.S./Mexico border wall controversy. It reads, ‘Heaven has a wall, a gate and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders. Let that sink in.’
Those words aren’t sitting well with some customers.
We should supply buses at the borders and every time a liberal judge orders the release of illegal immigrants, we drop them off at Nancy Pelosi’s house.
My book is here! And I personally handed a copy to our President at the White House!!! I hope you enjoy it
Follow David on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Patreon and YouTube @DavidJHarrisJr


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Drug advertisers face scrutiny after potentially breaking FDA rulesBMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7375.1262/a (Published 30 November 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:1262
- Deborah Josefson
A pair of television advertisements for Merck's anti-inflammatory drug rofecoxib (Vioxx) are being examined by the Food and Drug Administration to determine whether they violate current guidelines for direct to consumer drug advertising.
In 1985 the FDA reversed its long standing policy of prohibiting direct to consumer drug advertising, and in August 1997 it liberalised its policy on such advertising considerably. Drug companies are now allowed to advertise their products directly to consumers, as long as they state the indications for using the drug and disclose the major health risks and side effects associated with it.
The ruling allows drug companies to refer consumers to further information that is made available on websites, on free of charge telephone numbers, or …


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For a vehicle that isn't for sale, Ford's sure getting a lot of mileage out of the HySeries Edge. As we mentioned last week, the car is spending some time up in Canada, and the Canadian press is enjoying a bit of face time with the hydrogen-loving prototype. Mujeeb Ijaz, Ford's manager of fuel-cell vehicle engineering, is giving interviews where he says that consumers will eventually flock to hydrogen vehicles because they give the same performance as today's vehicles, but until hydrogen is a re
Following the unveiling of the Airstream concept at the just concluded Detroit Auto Show, a Ford spokesman informed me that the drive-train of the concept had already been tested in an Edge, and promised me a drive. Unfortunately, the first opportunity popped up last week just before they shipped the vehicle to Washington for the DC Auto Show, and I couldn't fit it into my schedule. However, once they unloaded it in DC, George Achorn spotted it giving rides to some Washington luminaries ahead of
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The city of Fresno is losing millions of dollars in projected tax revenue because marijuana retail stores have yet to open.
When the city council approved last year’s budget, it anticipated $4.3 million in taxes from cannabis. That number is estimated at $8.7 million annually for future years, including Fiscal Year 2023.
So far, no marijuana retailers have opened in the city. That means Fresno has not collected any tax revenue. However, city spokeswoman Sontaya Rose said that higher-than-expected general sales tax revenue “will offset the absence of cannabis revenue.”
The 20 licensees are in various stages of readiness to open. One necessity is a city-issued conditional use permit — specific rules of what will be and won’t be allowed at a business.
Only one retailer, The Artist Tree at 7835 N. Palm Ave., Suite 102, received its CUP. But it has yet to open because of supply chain issues — specifically millwork to complete the space. The store hopes to open later this month.
Others are just waiting things out. Only eight have had public hearings — all at the lower-level citizens’ review committee.
Four retailers have not even submitted their CUP as of last week. The city would not share the names. All retailers have until July to file a completed CUP application.
CUP Approval Time ‘Could Be a Lot Worse’
“Even though it’s taking a long time, it hasn’t taken as long compared to some of my other projects. … It could be a lot worse.” — Christopher Hester, Infinity Assets Fresno
Christopher Hester is part-owner of Infinity Assets Fresno, which is slated to move into the Valley First Credit Union at 618 E. Shaw Ave.
Infinity Assets received its license last fall. It eyes an August opening while awaiting CUP approval.
“Even though it’s taking a long time, it hasn’t taken as long compared to some of my other projects,” Hester said without naming the other cities. “It could be a lot worse.”
Hester says that when it comes to the necessary real estate permits, both the cannabis industry and city are green.
“The experience level is getting a lot better. But you got to remember, California is already extremely difficult to do real estate development,” Hester said. “When you’re going into cannabis and trying to do these deals, you have to know that these things are going to take two years. If you don’t, you’re making a critical error in (the) timing of your project.”
Fresno Farms Faces Objections
In southeast Fresno, a fenced-off dirt area sits between an appliance store and another empty lot occupied by homeless people.
Fresno Farms wants to build at 3849 E. Ventura Ave., but has problems beyond waiting for a CUP. Under the best-case scenario, it would be in business for just a year.
Across the street, Fresno Unified School District is building the Farber Education Center. The distance is less than 500 feet, closer than the 1,000 feet mandated by city law. Fresno Farms estimates a one-year build; the educational center plans to open by 2024.
The retailer plans to move as soon as it can, believing it can transfer its license to a new location.
“Once we can get that transfer achieved, we will immediately move. And so there will be no time, obviously, that we’re open there when there’s a school there,” co-owner Jessica Reuven said. Reuven said they would move now if allowed.
The proximity was one reason why the District 5 Project Review Committee voted 3-1 at its April 11 meeting not to recommend a CUP for Fresno Farms. Its location near liquor stores was another reason for the opposition.
The committee’s vote is only advisory to the city’s planning director, who issues the CUP. At the same meeting, the committee voted 2-1 to recommend another retailer, Culture Cannabis Club.
The Future of Fresno Marijuana
There are supposed to be three retail locations in each of the seven city council districts, but redistricting created an imbalance. District 4 now has four licenses, while District 7 has one.
The Fresno City Council recently passed a bill to restore the balance when new licenses are awarded. That means the next license would go to District 7.
Also, if the city expands beyond 21 licenses, the next license would go to District 7 as well. In theory, of the next seven licenses awarded after that, District 4 would be last in line.


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Banks play an important role in the economic development of the financial sector of India. They are running a business that involves all the transactions done by every person. As banks are running a business, sometimes they earn and sometimes they lose. The very common cause of banks losing money is the inability to collect the money-back which was distributed as and if they have a concentration of loans in a particular business segment that falls in hard times, those losses are even more severe.
In 2018, Punjab National Bank, one of India’s largest public-sector banks experienced a fraud of INR 11,400 crores at its Brady House branch located in Mumbai. The accused person was Mr Nirav Modi, a well-renowned diamond maker of India. Here's the complete story of how the PNB scam was unfolded.
Who is Nirav Modi?
Nirav Modi is an Indian fugitive businessman; he is the founder of Firestar Diamond International and his uncle Mehul Choksi is the chairman of Gitanjali Group. These two companies were involved in the Diamond business and had a retail chain of 4000+ stores in India.
Nirav was brought up in Belgium and did his early schooling at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He came back to Mumbai and started with his family business of jewellery manufacturing.
Nirav Modi's Business of Luxury Diamond
In 1999, he founded Firestar. After working for years and getting experience in the business Nirav in 2008 launched a diamond store bearing his name in New Delhi. Seeing and attracting a huge crowd he thought of opening more stores and started the 2nd store in Mumbai followed by 17 more stores. Nirav launched his stores globally with stores in New York and Hong Kong city.
According to news, his company had a presence in 12 countries with 30 boutiques in 2018. Firestar is the only diamond manufacturing company in India to source the coveted Argyle pink diamonds, found only in Western Australia.
At this time Nirav was also looking to expand its product line with more affordable pieces. He became a lot popular after designing his "Golconda Lotus Necklace" with an old, 12-carat, pear-shaped diamond as a centerpiece in the year 2010. The diamond had previously been sold in the 1960s and had to be repolished.
Stores were running very well and were recognized as a theme of pure luxury, many Indian celebrities were doing the advertisement for Nirav Modi’s jewellery. Nirav Modi was also featured in the Forbes list of Indian Billionaires in 2013. To run such a vast and huge business globally he was always in the need of funds which he took from small public sector banks.
How did Nirav Modi Avail Loans from Banks?
At first, he started with a small number of loans which he was able to repay the bank within the time limit. The first fraud started in 2010 when Nirav took the loan with the help of a fake letter of undertaking issued by PNB bank at its Brady House branch. Letter of Undertaking is said to be a sort of guarantee that is issued by a banking entity to the concerned party for attaining short-term credit from the overseas branch of an Indian bank.
How Nirav Modi Operated the PNB Scam?
Nirav thought of this as an easy way to obtain short-term credit. He then started giving fake Lou's to the bank and used to obtain a lump sum amount of money. Nirav managed to get 1,212 more such guarantees in the next 6-7 years.
The Letters of Understanding were signed in favour of Indian bank branches for the one-year import of pearls, with the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines allowing for a total of 90 days from the date of shipping. The guideline mentioned in the letters were ignored by overseas branches of Indian banks. They disregarded providing any documents or information with PNB that had been made accessible to them by the companies when they applied for loans.
When PNB approached banks to provide a 100% cash margin, the bank argued they had availed this facility in the past as well. The transactions were never registered in the bank's main system, leaving PNB management in the dark for years. This suspected there could be a fraud that led to them digging further into the transaction history.
Later it was found out that PNB employees were also involved in this process of providing fraud loans. They got the commission from Nirav and used to do the job for him. PNB employees used the SWIFT network to send messages to Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank regarding financial requirements.
At that time they found that these letters were on a fraud basis and the money was transferred to Dummy accounts of firms that were inactive in business and were acting according to the command of Nirav Modi. A total of INR 6,400 crore acquired through PNB Lou's was transferred abroad to buy real estate and personal property through "dummy corporations."
All these methods were used by him to transfer the money received by these banks for business purposes and were spent on his personal use and luxury. He escaped India in January 2018 after which a warrant was issued by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to arrest him.
The PNB scam is said to be one of the biggest fraud cases in India’s banking history to date. Till now the Government authorities of India have sealed and auctioned several thousand crores worth of properties and assets of Modi. Yet the government has not been able to get money recovered in full.
There is a need for improvement in our Indian Banking Sector and mainly a focus on providing the loans and credit facilities to the people who need them the most and who can repay without making defaults.
How did Nirav Modi get loans?
Nirav took the loan with the help of a fake letter of understanding issued by PNB bank.
How much money did Nirav Modi borrow from the bank?
Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi defrauded the bank of over Rs 14,000 crore.
In which year did Nirav Modi take the loan?
Nirav Modi took the first loan from PNB on March 10, 2011, and later managed to get 1,212 more such guarantees over the next 74 months.


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The big news of Google I/O for many people was the direct call out to Australians on the expansion of Google Home to Australia. The physical home for Google Assistant is finally coming to Australia and while we’re still waiting for Google to spill the beans on how much and exactly when, we did sit down with Gummi Hafsteinsson – Product Lead Google Assistant and Suveer Kothari – VP Google Home at I/O for some insight into the launch.
The Google Assistant is of course going to be everywhere, it’s already on your watch and it’s coming to Android Auto and Android TV. It’s supposed to also be on your phone if you’re running Marshmallow on your device, but we got some clarification on what is happening there. According to Mr Hafsteinsson, the Assistant has so far only been released for devices using English (US) and are in the US. So if you don’t have Assistant in Australia – you’re not actually supposed to…yet. Mr Hafsteinsson went on to say that this particular pain point will be resolved later this year when Assistant rolls out to Marshmallow devices using other languages.
So, we’re getting Assistant on our watches, and soon our TVs and in our cars, and in the coming months, we’re getting Google Home. So what will we get when Home launches? Well, the answer is that they’re still working on localisations, and that includes launching with English (AUS) support, and that’s not just importing the language pack, it’s also things like using Aussie terms for things like sports scores. Google wants to launch with our vernacular, for instance when talking sports scores, they want to have Google read a score as 1 – Nil, not 1 to 0.
Google is currently working in Australia to bring in integrations for local content for the Google Home launch. Things like bringing in local podcasts to include in the list to choose from at the end of the ‘My Day’ feature, as well as working with local businesses on Google Actions to provide more utility for Google Home.
Google is working on rolling out a global experience, but for the time being expect some features to remain a US-only exclusive at launch. This is due to things like voice functions, and no we’re not getting multi-user support on Google Home for a while.
Wi-Fi Calling and notifications
Features like Wi-Fi Calling, which was announced during the keynote will also remain a US/Canada exclusive for a while – but they’re looking into bringing it to other countries, but there’s literally no time-frame for doing so and may remain a ‘missing’ feature for some time.
The Wi-Fi Calling feature is not going to be from Google Home to Google Home either, it’s going to be to a landline or mobile #. They’re cognisant that Home is a shared device, and that’s a pretty common theme for a lot of the integrations that Google Home performs, they don’t want to interrupt your workflow.
This is obvious in the proactive assistance alerts that Google announced during the keynote. They will only show on Google Home as a white notification light you can tap if you see it – but if you don’t Google is looking at getting that notification to another device in case you missed it.
Google is working on improving Home. In the six months since it launched they’ve brought a bunch of new features to Home including Multi-User support (see above, it’s not coming for a while), the ability to have Home teach you how to cook and lots more. They’ve integrated over 70 smart home device manufacturers products into Google Home and they’re still adding more.
More features like setting reminders and adding calendar entries from Google Home are also now going to be live!! This is great.
They’re also interested in how to make the conversation with Google Home easier. It’s a pain point when interacting with Google Home that you have to address it with the key word ‘Ok Google’ each time, they want a more conversational tone, but are also wary of leaving the microphone on to wait for a follow-up query. But it’s going to get better, lots better if Google has their way.
As we said, Google isn’t yet ready to talk pricing or exactly when we’ll see Google Home beyond ‘this Summer’. In the US you’ll pay $129 + sales tax (about $140USD) to get yourself a Google Home, so you’re going to be looking at around $190 + a little more once warranty and such are factored into the price.
We’re excited for Google Home to come to Australia, and we’ll be bringing you any news on the launch as soon as we can.


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Shopping overseas is costing the environment, too
Buying from overseas retailers is costing us around half a million tonnes of CO2 a year.
For Australians, shopping at overseas retailers is more than an economic issue. Given that the vast majority of online stores are in places like the United Kingdom and the USA, there is a significant amount of air and road travel involved in getting purchased items to your front door.
As a result, every item purchased from overseas comes with a vastly larger carbon footprint than items bought locally within Australia.
Assuming each parcel is on average a kilo and if we pick New York City as the location, the carbon footprint of Australian international shopping comes at the price of 400 thousand tonnes of CO2 per year.
Jenni Downes, research consultant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, explains that the environmental impact of online shopping is actually a very complex issue. It is interesting to know that in fact much current research supports the idea that online shopping is actually better for the environment.
“There’s a study by the Green Design Institute says that shopping online had approximately 30% less energy use and carbon dioxide emissions compared with the traditional retail shopping model.”
As a general rule, online products have fewer miles attached to them due to bulk shipping.
She says:”delivery mechanisms are generally a lot more efficient for online shopping. Delivery trucks can take lots of items from a single storage warehouse to customers along one route, while for in-store purchases, items are driven home by individual shoppers generally, in less fuel-efficient vehicles.”
However, the current research comes from countries where online purchasing is generally from the same continent if not the same country. In Australia, this is not the case.
“Many Australian online purchases are from overseas, and this is quite likely to involve air freight because it’s faster compared to traditional shipping and the extra cost is only minimal,” Downes says.
Since Australia is a long distance from shopping hubs like New York and London, air travel and air freight involved in sending products to Australia has a huge impact. According to WWF, the impact of air travel and jet fuel on the environment is so significant that if every Australian took a local holiday this year instead of flying, we’d use 1 million fewer global hectares - an area that could cover 784 football fields.
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It is important for consumers to recognise that products bought overseas and shipped to Australia will always have bigger carbon footprint that products that are bought and made locally. Downes recommends that consumers always try to look for local alternatives - it’s a significantly more sustainable way to shop.
“Consumers should ask themselves whether they could buy the same item from a local shop instead. Try to choose items that are both manufactured and sold from the closest location possible,” she says.
Mostly, Downes suggests that the impact of Australia overseas online shopping can be helped by reducing consumption.
“The most important thing for Australians to do when shopping is to ask, do you really need to buy that?”
Tips for sustainable shopping
Here are a few key tips for sustainable shopping in Australia as provided by the Institute for Sustainable Futures.
- Ask yourself whether you could buy the item from a local shop instead.
- Choose items that are both manufactured and sold from the closest location possible.
- Avoid air freight, and wait that extra time.
- Consolidate your orders and buy as many items from the same supplier as possible.
- Don’t buy online items that have high return rates or that you really need to try on to decide e.g. shoes.
- Avoid missed deliveries by agreeing times in advance or specifying that it can be left on the doorstep or with a neighbour if you’re not at home.
- Identify and use stores and delivery services that utilise minimal and recyclable packaging.
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Bayes academics react to Twitter’s rebrand
Bayes Business School academics react to the news that Twitter is rebranding to “X”
Elon Musk announced on Sunday night that Twitter is revamping its logo and replacing the iconic blue bird with a simple “X”. In response to the news, marketing experts from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) have commented on the significance of the move.
Will Musk change radical rebranding as we know it?
Dr Manto Gotsi, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Bayes Business School, said:
“Radical rebranding is often the first signal of business transformation. It’s the first step of 'becoming': reaching new markets, expanding services, breaking away from a past... But it's also very hard. It's risky, it's costly, it needs time and lots of effort, and it takes away attention from 'running the show'. Twitter's rebranding into X - whether temporary or not - is likely to surface known and less-known questions:
“1) Why? Clarity over a solid rationale is important, and needs to address the needs and concerns of different stakeholders. Musk has discussed in the not-too-distant past his vision for an 'everything app'. But the link to X, or whatever the Twitter brand will become, or any other explanation for the rebranding, is still open to interpretation.
“2) How? Musk seems to be carving new rebranding territory: there's clearly a playful attitude when it comes to (re)branding Twitter: an element of surprise, an unexpected openness. It was only a few months ago that an image of a Shiba Inu replaced Twitter's iconic blue bird, and Musk has noted that X 'probably changes later, certainly will be refined'. This is not a typical rebranding process. It seems to be ongoing, abrupt and experimental - not the usual approach discussed in branding textbooks.
“3) What will happen? Extant knowledge inside the lecture theatres and outside in the business world suggests that radical rebranding is too hard, and often fails. Twitter's radical rebranding approach opens a new chapter. Are brands with celebrity founders/CEOs more equipped to see it through? Do companies with core competencies around innovation, controversy or change stand better chances at riding the wave of radical rebranding?”
Cancelling a cultural icon
Professor Zachary Estes, Professor of Marketing at Bayes Business School, said:
“By killing Twitter, Musk has cancelled a cultural icon. Twitter carefully crafted its brand image over many years, with great success. Twitter’s branding had even infiltrated our vocabulary: On other social media we merely ‘post’ or ‘share’ content, but on Twitter we ‘tweet’ and ‘retweet’. To many people, the Twitter bird was a friendly source that we could trust.
“Musk’s goal of developing an ‘everything app’, which he calls ‘X’, may sound exciting. And the choice of ‘X’ is wise in that Musk and colleagues can instantly own everything about that letter, and consumers will instantly know that X means Musk. On the other hand, the logo is more ominous than exciting. With its sharp and aggressive font against a black background, the new ‘X’ logo looks far more likely than the friendly Twitter bird to steal your data and sell it for malicious purposes. Consumers care about brands, but this abrupt rebranding seems careless.”
More than a name and logo change
Professor Caroline Wiertz, Deputy Dean and Professor of Marketing, said:
"Radical rebrands are always costly, effortful, and time-consuming. And they will always cause upset among invested stakeholders. My general branding advice is to avoid them if possible and rather try to evolve your existing brand. If they are unavoidable, they should be executed with great preparation and great care.
"Twitter’s rebrand to 'X' is one of the most radical rebrands I have seen in a while. It is very different from recent rebranding exercises of other digital media companies, such as Facebook’s rebrand to Meta or Google’s rebrand to Alphabet. In these cases, only the parent company rebranded, but the actual products did not. Facebook and Google are still around. Twitter, however, will cease to exist. It is clear that we are talking about more than a name and logo change: The intention is to create a different product and to implement a completely new business strategy.
"How successful this will be remains to be seen. On first sight, the company has made a few big errors that suggest the opposite of preparation and care. For example, it will be difficult or even impossible to trademark 'X' across international territories and even the relevant social media handles do not seem to be available anymore. I also worry about timing: Threads has only recently launched as a credible alternative to Twitter. Killing off the beloved little blue bird might be the final straw for many remaining Twitter users and motivate them to switch."


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Alchip Technologies 2021 Annual Income Sets Record for Four Consecutive Years
New highs also for, Operating Income, Net Income and EPS
Taipei, Taiwan March 18, 2022 – Alchip Technologies’ 2021 financial performance set records for revenue, net profits, and earnings per share. The company also reported fourth quarter results that topped Year-on-Year figures.
Fiscal year 2021 operating revenue, ending December 31, reached a record $372 million, a 55.4%, an increase over 2020 revenue of $239.6 million. Net profits for 2021 achieved a record $53 million, an increase of 88.2% over 2020 net profits of $28.3 million, while 2021 gross margins reached 34.1%, with an operating margin of 17.53%. Earnings per share for the year 2021 reached achieved a record NTD21.34.
At the same time, the company reported its fourth quarter 2021 results with revenue of $89.2 million, a 34.3% year-on-year increase over 2020 fourth quarter revenue of $66.4 million.
Despite a negative global economy brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Alchip has benefited from the seismic shift in work habits and consumer behavior that is driving strong demand from the high-performance computing and artificial intelligence market segments.
Overall, Alchip strengthened its position as a leading high-performance computing ASIC company. Approximately 96% of revenue came from advanced (28nm and smaller process technology) designs and the mass production of highly complex packages such as CoWoS and MCM. The Company also partnered with tier-one systems companies on challenging 7nm and 5nm SoC designs targeting high-end, complex artificial intelligence, networking, and high-performance computing applications.
President and CEO Johnny Shen stated that Alchip expects strong demand in 2022 to come from artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and Internet of Things applications, as Alchip has completed a significant number of leading-edge design projects. He also pointed out that a select number of large production-quantity artificial intelligent devices, the majority of which target the 7nm process technology node, entered mass production in 2021, accounting in a large part, for the company’s record performance.
Also in 2021, Alchip taped-out a significant number of 16nm, 12nm and 7nm designs. Several of the 7nm designs involved advanced packaging technology. A number of the 5nm designs will tape out in 2022 and a 3nm test chip is under development, with expected tape out in late 2022.
Alchip is traded on the Taiwan stock exchange and its Global Repository Receipts are traded on the Luxembourg Exchange. The company is extremely well respected in Japan, Israel, and Asia for its high-performance ASIC design methodology, flexible business model, best-in-class IP portfolio and advanced packaging technology expertise.
Alchip Technologies Ltd., headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, is a leading global provider of silicon design and production services for system companies developing complex and high-volume ASICs and SoCs. The company was founded by semiconductor veterans from Silicon Valley and Japan in 2003 and provides faster time-to-market and cost-effective solutions for SoC design at mainstream and advanced, including 7nm processes. Customers include global leaders in AI, HPC/supercomputer, mobile phones, entertainment device, networking equipment and other electronic product categories. Alchip is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE: 3661) and is a TSMC-certified Value Chain Aggregator.
For more information, please visit our website: http://www.alchip.com
News Release Contacts
Corporate Marketing, Alchip Technologies
TEL: +1 (408) 310-9244


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Chevrolet Sales Increase 11.4% in August Due to the Growing Popularity of Large Vehicles
Chevrolet's sales performance benefited from a number of rather unexpected sources during the month of August
As is the case for many automotive brands, Chevrolet has had a pretty rough past couple of months in terms of sales. Still, it seems that Chevy’s luck is changing, thanks to some expected and rather unexpected sources.
For August, Chevrolet’s sales were up 11.4%.
Get a View of What’s New: What’s New for the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox?
Chevrolet sold a total of 196,007 vehicles last month. This accounts for the brand’s overall 11.4% sales increase for the month of August.
Of course, a large portion of those sales can be accredited to both commercial and fleet sales. Even without these specialized sales, retail sales for Chevy were still up 5.9%.
Many of the vehicles that one might expect to do well in today’s automotive climate helped push Chevy toward its sales success. The brand-new Chevy Equinox was a resounding success for the brand.
Chevy sold 28,245 Equinox vehicles in August. Compared to a year ago, this accounts for a massive 84.9% sales increase.
Year-to-date, Chevy has sold 185,223 Equinox models. With 158,475 vehicles sold in the first eight months of 2016, Equinox sales are up 16.9%.
Reasons Why the Equinox Rocks: 10 Reasons to Drive a Chevrolet Equinox
Meanwhile, the most surprising sales success for Chevrolet last month came in the form of its large sedan lineup. Sales were up for both the Chevrolet Impala and the Malibu.
The Chevy Malibu sold 22,725 units in August, leading to a 35.9% sales increase. The Impala’s sales results were even more impressive, with a 66.3% sales increase.
Some of the success achieved by these models can be accredited to Chevrolet’s fleet sales last month. Still, if the trend keeps up, we may be witnessing the return of the large sedan segment’s popularity.
Smaller sedans, meanwhile, found no such popularity in August. Chevy Sonic sales were down by 47.1%, while Spark sales were down by 36.9%.
As for Chevrolet’s year-to-date results, overall sales are still down 3.3%. Nevertheless, with sales reaching 1,316,391 units so far in 2017, Chevy can still count the first two-thirds of the year as a strong outing.
You can see how all of Chevy’s vehicle models did last month in the chart below:


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Advanced Micro Narrows Gap in Race for New Chip@ 2004/08/20
John Markoff The New York Times, 08.18.04, 4:15 PM ET
Hoping to catch up with Intel and IBM in an advanced chip-making technology, the semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices was due to announce Tuesday that it has begun to ship chips based on an advanced manufacturing process that is being used to build the next generation of processors.
AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, is trailing those two rivals in making the shift to the new 90-nanometer manufacturing process, which makes it possible to put more transistors on a single chip or shrink the size of existing chips, effectively increasing performance while lowering prices. But industry analysts gave AMD high marks for its recent manufacturing and design advances.
Both Intel and International Business Machines have stumbled during the transition to the 90-nanometer process, struggling with performance, heat and manufacturing problems. On Monday, Intel said it would delay a projection television chip that was to have been based on the new technology.
Although AMD is about nine months behind Intel in making the switch, the company has not lost significant ground, according to several industry analysts. Moreover, AMD surprised Intel with the success of its move to 64-bit chips, forcing Intel, the market leader, to alter its strategy.
Intel had been betting that it could break the chip market into two incompatible segments, one for 32-bit designs and one for 64- bit designs. The company's Itanium microprocessor, which is a 64- bit design, has not been widely adopted, and the company recently announced a new 64-bit microprocessor that is compatible with its existing X86 designs and that largely copies AMD's 64-bit chip.
Making the shift to 90-nanometer manufacturing has been a significant struggle for semiconductor makers. It effectively doubles the manufacturing capacity of the industry but entails enormous technical challenges because some components of the new chips are no more than five to seven molecules thick.
Typically, each generation of chips is defined by the size of the smallest feature that can be fabricated on the chips, which now have as many as a half billion transistors.
Industry analysts said that AMD would first use the new technology to cut costs by effectively doubling the number of chips that can be made from a silicon wafer.
They warned, however, that the shift to the new manufacturing process, which can reduce costs while increasing performance and reducing heat, had to be smooth if AMD was to stay in the processor race.
"AMD has had a mixed manufacturing record," said Ashok Kumar, a semiconductor analyst at Raymond James & Associates, a financial services company. "It's imperative that they have a seamless transition." The company said that the first chip being manufactured using its 90-nanometer process was a version of its Mobile Athlon 64 processor for portable computers. Currently those machines are the fastest-growing segment of the personal computer market, and the high volume makes the components potentially the most profitable.
Hector Ruiz, AMD's chief executive, said that despite Intel's significant edge in manufacturing capacity in the new technology, AMD still held important design advantages that would help it in the marketplace.
At the same time, Ruiz acknowledged that the company could have done a better job of marketing some of its existing advanced hardware design features.
AMD has been including in its chips an antivirus and worm feature called Enhanced Virus Protection that is activated by the recently introduced Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2. Intel has announced a similar feature, but it is not yet available in Intel chips.


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“Gone Home,” the debut video game from independent, Portland-based developer Fullbright, caused a stir when it arrived in late 2013. Few indie titles before or since have been quite as divisive — the New York Times called it “the greatest video game love story ever told,” but it was simultan…
Nintendo excels at creating games that offer a high skill ceiling while remaining accessible. Their greatest productions are simple enough for a kid to play comfortably, yet complex enough to hold the attention of dedicated fans for years after the initial release. Such a multi-layered, enco…
Before the Oregon-Stanford football game on Saturday, Duck fans received a sneak preview of the upcoming “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” for the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo partnered with the Wendy’s College Tailgate Tour in order to bring a demo version of the much-anticipated fighting game to A…
Game Pub in downtown Eugene will once again be hosting Nerd Art Night this Friday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Bethesda’s Creation Club launches with purchasable content for “Fallout 4” and “Skyrim.”
Blizzard releases new animated shorts for several of its games including “Hearthstone” and “Overwatch” at Gamescom 2017.
Blizzard ditches the Blizzard App name and returns to its classic Battle.net.
The latest “Hearthstone” expansion, “Knights of the Frozen Throne,” is live.
Studio Wildcard pushes “Ark: Survival Evolved” full release to Aug. 29 and unveils more details on how a retail launch will affect the game.
The “Minecraft” Pokemon mod, Pixelmon, has been shut down by the Pokemon Company.
Jump is an indie video game streaming service that will debut later this year with a current catalog of over 60 games.
Blizzard unveils the new Offense hero Doomfist as the latest addition to the “Overwatch” roster.
If guiding a party of disease-ridden neurotic adventurers on a hopeless quest isn’t enough, imagine managing their vampiric addictions, keeping them from flogging themselves to death and dodging zealous hammer-wielding madmen along the way. Red Hook Studios found a way to make its turn-based…
The Steam Summer Sale is in full swing and will remain up until July 5.
Nintendo announces “Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon,” “Pokken Tournament DX” and re-releases of the classic “Pokemon Gold and Silver” games for later this year
Whether you’re exploring the endless expanse of an open world or facing down a fire-breathing dragon, musical cues can shape your gaming experience, even if you don’t realize it. On this episode of the Emerald Podcast Network, join Mat and Dana as they discuss the subtle role that music play…
Ubisoft has delivered its first big information drop for “Far Cry 5,” which will take place in Montana
Blizzard is celebrating one year of ‘Overwatch’ with a special anniversary event featuring new maps, skins, emotes and more


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The Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has admitted it will be “very, very, very expensive” to launch a new motoring show with Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear co-stars after signing up the controversial trio in a multimillion-pound deal following their departure from the BBC.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur said viewers were enjoying a golden era of television and that the new Clarkson series would be a global success.
“We have a lot of things in the pipeline which I think viewers in the UK and around the world are going to love. And I think Clarkson’s new show is going to be one of those,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.
Bezos, who is worth an estimated $50bn , told the newspaper he was very excited about Clarkson’s move, but did not confirm if he had met him or his fellow presenters or how much they were being paid.
“They’re worth a lot, and they know it,” he said. The Financial Times has put the total cost to Amazon at $250m (£160m).
The company announced in July that it had signed up Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond for a new show to be broadcast via its on-demand TV service.
The team, along with Top Gear’s former executive producer Andy Wilman, have signed a three-series deal, with the first broadcast due at some point in 2016.
Bezos said it was one of a number of new shows commissioned for viewers of Prime, who pay £79 a year in the UK to access programmes and get next-day delivery on orders.
“I think we’re in a golden age of television, so if you go back in time even just five years, you couldn’t get A-list talent to do TV serials, or if you could, it was a rare thing,” Bezos said. “But that’s flipped completely.”
Top Gear was a global hit for the BBC, generating an estimated £50m a year, and Amazon will be hoping that its new show will replicate that success.
In the same interview, Bezos hinted that UK shoppers could be among the first to receive their Amazon deliveries by drone. One of the research centres working on the Prime Air project is in Cambridge, and he said the UK’s regulatory conditions were promising.
“In the scheme of things the UK regulatory agencies have been very advanced,” he said. “The FAA [the US aviation regulator] is catching up a little here in the US, but the UK has been, I’d say, a very encouraging example of good regulation. I think we like what we see there.”
He refused, however, to be drawn on when the first parcels may be dropped off to consumers, saying “months sounds way too aggressive to me”.
The Guardian revealed in March that the company was testing its new delivery service at a secret site in Canada, after failing to persuade US regulators to allow it to launch drones in its home state of Washington. It is also rumoured to be launching a grocery delivery service in the UK as soon as next month, and has leased a warehouse in Surrey previously used by Tesco.
A New York Times article published on Saturday described Amazon as having a “singular way of working”, saying that employees were “held to standards that the company boasts are ‘unreasonably high’.”
A former employee told the newspaper: “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”