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YouTube Kids introduces more parental controls
James R | On 24, Nov 2016
YouTube Kids is introducing more controls to give parents a better handle on what their children are watching.
Now almost two years old, the app designed for younger viewers has not had the smoothest infancy, with criticism over sponsored content and adverts in the platform’s early days. Today, millions of people have downloaded the app and it ranks among the top five apps in the App Store on iOS and has a 4+ ranking on Google Play.
That’s partly due to YouTube’s committment to improving the service, with the latest update a prime example. The new features introduced this month give parents more control over what their kids stream. Parents can now block videos in the app by tapping the three-dot menu next to any video, or an entire channel, so that any attempts to watch the video will prompt a parental consent email to be sent to your address.
By using a Google account, parents can block a video once and it will apple to all of their devices with YouTube Kids installed at once. Likewise, they can unblock all restricted videos a channels at once.
The only bad news is that parents in the UK will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the new features: the update is currently available in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malaysia, Philippines, India, and Singapore.
It joins a host of other parental control features, including the ability to change how broadly their child experiences the app, with the option to allow or prevent any searches. Timers can also limit kids’ screen time, while age-based custoimsation can filter content on the home screen for preschool ages, school ages or all kids .
YouTube to launch kids app next week
21st February 2015
YouTube is getting down with the kids with a new child-friendly app, which will be released on Monday 23rd February.
The app, which will feature content and an interface targeted specifically at young viewers, is a natural step for the video giant. Children use YouTube an increasing amount, whether it’s to watch their favourite vloggers or people playing Minecraft. With videos on YouTube ranging from new episodes of Morph to more adult content, though, it is hard not to get anxious when your littlun is looking around the site unsupervised.
Netflix already has its own kid-friendly interface to tackle exactly that problem, but this can be done relatively easily for a subscription service, which relies upon user accounts and profiles. For an ad-supported free-to-all site, the challenge is slightly tougher.
YouTube’s engineers, though, could tell it was needed: while viewing time has grown 50 per cent year-on-year on the site overall, family entertainment channels have seen viewing times grow 200 per cent, according to Shimrit Ben-Yair, the project’s group product manager. Indeed, both Amazon and Netflix have begun investing heavily in family content in the past year, while Viacom is also planning its own direct-to-viewer VOD service.
“Unshackled by kids’ lack of preconceptions as to how they ‘should’ get their entertainment, kids’ services are now at the forefront of a surge of innovation connecting digital, media and technology,” Nick Walters, founder of kids’ SVOD service Hopster told TBI Vision.
With children increasingly using the Internet to consume media – 1 in 3 children between the ages of 5 and 15 now have a tablet, according to Ofcom – YouTube’s dedicated kids service was only a matter of time.
“Parents were constantly asking us, can you make YouTube a better place for our kids,” Ben-Yair told USA Today.
YouTube consulted with third-party testers, such as Common Sense Media (a site we highly recommend), as well as the parents within its own engineering teams, to come up with the answer: YouTube Kids.
How does it differ from the (separate) YouTube app, already familiar to adults?
As well as hiding adult content, the app will scale down its home page to eight large tiles linking to popular kids’ shows, accompanied by a simplified menu: a TV icon (for programmes), a radio icon (for music), a light bulb (for education content) and binoculars (for searching).
The image-drive design will remove other, more distracting features, such as user comments – which will also help to avoid offensive or abusive content posted by other users. The search function will also filter out inappropriate results, with words such as “sex” returning a “Try something else” error.
“The images are big as are the tap targets for small fingers, and since most younger children can’t type they can search with voice,” added Ben-Yair.
Parents concerned about the amount of time their kids spend on YouTube, regardless of what they’re watching, will be able to limit viewing time by setting an automatic password lock after a customisable period.
The other major difference between YouTube Kids and YouTube (adults)? It will initially only be available for Android deices.


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Google announced plans today to roll out its version of a scan-and-match feature for the company's music service in Europe in two weeks and then in the United States soon after.
The company was to announce the feature today, as well as other updates to Google Play entertainment media during a press event in New York that was supposed to mark the debut of the latest version of its, according to multiple music industry sources. The search company due to Hurricane Sandy.
Last month, CNET reported thatthe licenses it needed to launch the service. Google said in a blog post that it will launch scan-and-match in Europe on November 13 and the United States soon after.
Scan-and-match is the term used to describe a process whereby a user's music can be stored on the computer servers of a host service. The service can then stream songs over the Internet to the user's choice of Web-connected music players. The one deciding benefit of scan-and-match is that it saves the user from the time-consuming process of uploading each individual track to the host's servers.
There's anin online music to offer consumers cheaper music and more conveniences. Scan-and-match was one of the areas where Apple, Amazon, and Google were trying to one-up each other. Google certainly appears to have bested its competition in the area of price. The company said in the announcement that it would offer the scan-and-match feature free of charge to consumers.
Last month, CNET reported that Google planned to offer the feature free. Apple and Amazon require a $25 annual fee for their versions of the feature. In addition to the news about scan-and-match, Google also said it was launching Google Play in Europe, and the company is offering customers the-- rather than just rent -- in Canada, the U.K., France, Spain and Australia.
In addition, the company has ended a year-long stalemate with Warner Music Group, one of the top three record companies. In October, when Google Music went live, it did so without that label's music.
Updated at 9:30 a.m. PT to include Google's announcement on scan-and-match.

domain: news


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Built on the .CA D-Zone Anycast DNS, new service adds speed and resiliency to DNS and website requests
MONTREAL, Dec. 21, 2015 /CNW/ - Web Hosting Canada has selected the .CA D-Zone Anycast DNS from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) to deliver a Canadian-first DNS service for small businesses.
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- Web Hosting Canada is delivering their Canadian customers enhanced protection from DDoS attack against their DNS. With a global network of servers and an expansive Canadian footprint, the .CA solution also helps to reduce latency for websites and improves the performance of web applications for Canadian users.
- Although the Internet is a global market, according to research from the Strategic Council published in the 2015 .CA Factbook, 77% of Canadian Internet users support Canadian business whenever possible. Creating a compelling and Canadian web presence can help give companies an advantage and with .CA domains, Canadian-based servers, and made-in-Canada DNS, Web Hosting Canada can help small businesses ensure that their Internet footprint is firmly rooted in Canada.
"As Canadian entrepreneurs ourselves, the Web Hosting Canada team is keenly aware of the unique needs that many Canadian businesses have. We have designed hosting, cloud and DNS solutions that are not only based in Canada, but designed to help Canadian businesses succeed online."
- Emil Falcon, CEO at Web Hosting Canada
"Many global DNS and hosting providers ignore the Canadian market. As part of our role in encouraging a better Canadian Internet, CIRA has been a long-time champion of infrastructure options built for Canada first. We are pleased that Web Hosting Canada sees the value in investing in Canada and is helping small businesses choose technology solutions that are closer to home."
- Dave Chiswell, vice president of product development at CIRA
About CIRA and .CA
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) manages the .CA top-level domain on behalf of all Canadians. A Member-driven organization, CIRA also develops and implements policies that support Canada's Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.
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The creator of Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyen, has practically gone off the grid since he suddenly pulled his viral hit from the App Store last month. The 28-year-old Vietnamese developer said his game had become “too addictive,” and Flappy Bird was no more.
At the height of Flappy Bird’s popularity, the game was making Nguyen $50,000 per day in ads. Now about a third of all games submitted to the App Store are Flappy Bird knockoffs.
In his first interview since pulling Flappy Bird, Nguyen told Rolling Stone that he is considering bringing it back. The interview also touches on why Nguyen made Flappy Bird to begin with, what it was like for him when the game got successful, and what his plans are for the future. It’s a great read.
Source: Rolling Stone


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|By Business Wire||
|February 5, 2013 07:11 AM EST||
Livebookings has enjoyed a record-breaking year, with the highest number of diners seated at restaurants across Europe and a boost in business of a third (33%) compared to the previous year. The European leader in online reservations and marketing services for restaurants helped customers defy the downturn and attract new online and mobile bookings, seating over 15m diners during 2012; an increase of over 4 million diners. To each restaurant customer, Livebookings delivered an average of more than 640 seated diners in Q4 2012 – up by over 80% from Q4 2011.
The bookings boom has been driven by an increase in merchant sign-ups to the Livebookings service, a number of strategic partnerships building links between restaurants and new customer bases, and record amounts of traffic to the consumer-facing arm of Livebookings, Bookatable.com. Much of the growth can be attributed to the rapid adoption of mobile browsing and booking solutions offered to restaurants and consumers.
Hospitality giants Fuller’s and Whitbread were among the customers who adopted products and services from Livebookings specifically designed to capitalise on the increased traffic from smartphone and tablet devices. In turn, adding these nationwide businesses has significantly increased the number of major city centre and local destinations bookable via Livebookings’ properties, improving the options available to the last-minute, mobile diner.
Bookatable.com, saw a jump in the proportion of bookings made from a mobile device, from 11% at the end of 2011 to 34% at the end of 2012. Total visitor numbers to the website have increased 57% year over year, consumer database opt-in is up 90% and the success of Star Deals helped cement a 60% increase in revenue.
Livebookings’ chief executive Colin Tenwick said: “The figures for 2012 show Livebookings is delivering more to restaurants and Bookatable is attracting more consumers, despite a tough economic climate. Our market leading products allow customers to capitalise on the growth of online bookings from smartphone and tablet devices. Over the next 12 months, we will continue to improve on the monthly average of seated diners that we deliver to each restaurant customer, and we will continue to break booking records by meeting consumer demand for great value and memorable dining experiences.”
Livebookings makes restaurants and diners click. We operate a global, web-based restaurant reservations and marketing service, delivering up to one and half million diners every month to over 9,000 restaurants including OXO Tower, The Ritz, Murano and the leading restaurant and hotel chains in Europe.
@DevOpsSummit at Cloud taking place June 6-8, 2017, at Javits Center, New York City, is co-located with the 20th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. The widespread success of cloud computing is driving the DevOps revolution in enterprise IT. Now as never before, development teams must communicate and collaborate in a dynamic, 24/7/365 environment. There is no time to wait for long developm...
Apr. 28, 2017 11:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,344
Cloud Expo, Inc. has announced today that Aruna Ravichandran, vice president of DevOps Product and Solutions Marketing at CA Technologies, has been named co-conference chair of DevOps at Cloud Expo 2017. The @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley will take place Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Apr. 28, 2017 11:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,723
Translating agile methodology into real-world best practices within the modern software factory has driven widespread DevOps adoption, yet much work remains to expand workflows and tooling across the enterprise. As models evolve from pockets of experimentation into wholescale organizational reinvention, practitioners find themselves challenged to incorporate the culture and architecture necessary to support DevOps at scale. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 20th Cloud Expo, Anand Akela, Senior...
Apr. 28, 2017 10:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,925
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo 2016 in New York. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, is co-located with 20th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry p...
Apr. 28, 2017 10:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,428
In his keynote at @ThingsExpo, Chris Matthieu, Director of IoT Engineering at Citrix and co-founder and CTO of Octoblu, focused on building an IoT platform and company. He provided a behind-the-scenes look at Octoblu’s platform, business, and pivots along the way (including the Citrix acquisition of Octoblu).
Apr. 28, 2017 10:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,598
Grape Up is a software company, specialized in cloud native application development and professional services related to Cloud Foundry PaaS. With five expert teams that operate in various sectors of the market across the USA and Europe, we work with a variety of customers from emerging startups to Fortune 1000 companies.
Apr. 28, 2017 10:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,489
Join IBM November 2 at 19th Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, and learn how to go beyond multi-speed it to bring agility to traditional enterprise applications. Technology innovation is the driving force behind modern business and enterprises must respond by increasing the speed and efficiency of software delivery. The challenge is that existing enterprise applications are expensive to develop and difficult to modernize. This often results in what Gartner calls ...
Apr. 28, 2017 10:30 PM EDT Reads: 3,311
Financial Technology has become a topic of intense interest throughout the cloud developer and enterprise IT communities. Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 20th Cloud Expo at the Javits Center in New York, June 6-8, 2017, will find fresh new content in a new track called FinTech.
Apr. 28, 2017 10:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,512
SYS-CON Events announced today that CollabNet, a global leader in enterprise software development, release automation and DevOps solutions, will be a Bronze Sponsor of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, taking place from June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. CollabNet offers a broad range of solutions with the mission of helping modern organizations deliver quality software at speed. The company’s latest innovation, the DevOps Lifecycle Manager (DLM), supports Value S...
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SYS-CON Events announced today that Interoute, owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Interoute is the owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform which encompasses 12 data centers, 14 virtual data centers and 31 colocation centers, with connections to 195 add...
Apr. 28, 2017 09:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,165
Multiple data types are pouring into IoT deployments. Data is coming in small packages as well as enormous files and data streams of many sizes. Widespread use of mobile devices adds to the total. In this power panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists will look at the tools and environments that are being put to use in IoT deployments, as well as the team skills a modern enterprise IT shop needs to keep things running, get a handle on all this data, and deli...
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Automation is enabling enterprises to design, deploy, and manage more complex, hybrid cloud environments. Yet the people who manage these environments must be trained in and understanding these environments better than ever before. A new era of analytics and cognitive computing is adding intelligence, but also more complexity, to these cloud environments. How smart is your cloud? How smart should it be? In this power panel at 20th Cloud Expo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, pane...
Apr. 28, 2017 08:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,416
The Internet of Things is clearly many things: data collection and analytics, wearables, Smart Grids and Smart Cities, the Industrial Internet, and more. Cool platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Intel's Galileo and Edison, and a diverse world of sensors are making the IoT a great toy box for developers in all these areas. In this Power Panel at @ThingsExpo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists discussed what things are the most important, which will have the most profound e...
Apr. 28, 2017 08:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,396
The age of Digital Disruption is evolving into the next era – Digital Cohesion, an age in which applications securely self-assemble and deliver predictive services that continuously adapt to user behavior. Information from devices, sensors and applications around us will drive services seamlessly across mobile and fixed devices/infrastructure. This evolution is happening now in software defined services and secure networking. Four key drivers – Performance, Economics, Interoperability and Trust ...
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@ThingsExpo has been named the Most Influential ‘Smart Cities - IIoT' Account and @BigDataExpo has been named fourteenth by Right Relevance (RR), which provides curated information and intelligence on approximately 50,000 topics. In addition, Right Relevance provides an Insights offering that combines the above Topics and Influencers information with real time conversations to provide actionable intelligence with visualizations to enable decision making. The Insights service is applicable to eve...
Apr. 28, 2017 07:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,939


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Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 15 (ANI): Kolkata's renowned idol-making hub, Kumartuli, has been badly hit due to the lockdown, affecting thousands of idol makers.
Idol-making has come to a halt and those involved in the business are staring at huge losses this year.
"The lockdown has impacted our business adversely. Labourers have gone to their villages. Usually at this time, we used to be busy making idols, but now we are not being able to get even raw material. The work has stopped completely," Subol pal, a sculpture artist told ANI.
"Nobody is helping us. There are no guidelines regarding our business. Our families are dependent on this, we do not have any other means of livelihood. I request the government to help us," he added.
Joydeep Mukherjee, a businessman who is involved in creating awareness about Durga puja globally since several years, said that idol-making business is crawling under financial losses.
"We are the worst hit due to the lockdown. We are involved in the business of sending idols abroad for Durga Puja. We had got the order confirmation from abroad, but due to the lockdown, it has come to a halt. We were supposed to ship idols for the US, UK, UAE, Australia, Germany and other foreign countries by this time, but there is no time left for idol shipment now, as the shipment usually takes three months to reach the destination. So the orders have been put on hold," said Mukherjee.
"There are over 500 puja organisations abroad and around 20 per cent of them intent to change their Goddess Durga idol in a span two to three years, but this year it has come to a halt. They will be worshipping the same idols they kept earlier," he added. (ANI)


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Join global marketing leaders at Brandweek Europe, 9–10 Nov. as they share insights into purpose-driven marketing, Web3 and more. Get your pass at 20% off now.
It’s not exactly headline news, but Americans do happen to like avocados. According to the USDA, Americans’ consumption of the enormous green berry has tripled over the past 20 years, and now every citizen of the land will eat over 8 pounds of avocado this year. This past weekend, amid the preparation for Labor Day cookouts and picnics, Americans bought $54 million worth of avocados—a 6% increase over last year, pandemic be damned.


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Last Friday, Buy avalide on internet, English PEN announced that Hassan Blasim’s forthcoming book of short stories, The Iraqi Christ (trans. Jonathan Wright), cheap avalide from uk, had won a “Writers in Translation”award. The prize helps publishers “market, Avalide purchase, promote, champion and celebrate literature in translation.”
The award, for Blasim’s second short-story collection, avalide in australia, was another feather for the Iraqi writer’s cap. Cheap price avalide, Feathers in translation have been several for Blasim. In Arabic, fewer, low cost avalide.
Then on Tuesday, news came that the Arabic edition of Blasim’s first, strong collection — Madman of Freedom Square – had been banned in Jordan, a country that was supposed to have scrapped censorship back in 2007, avalide online without prescription. Blasim stated on Facebook:
A message from the Arabic publisher in Lebanon:We were informed by the Jordanian Department of Press and Publications (http://www.dpp.gov.jo/) that The Madman of the Freedom Square book is “prohibited from trading” in Jordan
رسالة من ناشري في لبنان :تم ابلاغنا من قبل دائرة المطبوعات والنشر بأن كتاب مجنون ساحة الحريةممنوع من التداول في الأردن
This was echoed on Twitter by Madman’s English-language publisher, Cheap avalide without prescription, Comma Press.
Madman (trans. Wright) was released in English in 2010 to some acclaim; it was longlisted for theIndependent Foreign Fiction Prize and Robin Yassin-Kassab was so impressed that he called Blasim, compare avalide prices online, in The Guardian, Avalide no online prescription, “perhaps the best writer of Arabic fiction alive.”
Back in 2010, Blasim’s original (Arabic) stories were available online for free, but they hadn’t been collected into a book, free avalide. He said at the time, Buy avalide from india, “of course I want to publish my books in the Arab world. Avalide online without prescription, I have tried a lot before. But I do not agree to pay money to them [publishers] and also what I said about corruption.”
Short-story collections are also a harder sell than novels.
Finally, buy generic avalide online, Blasim settled on a Lebanese publisher (المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر) after, Buy avalide in canada, according to his Facebook page, toning the stories down a bit. The Arabic edition came out in March of this year. But even this toned-down version — of a vivid if sometimes uneven book — is not to be traded in Jordan. Although government censors have been abolished in Jordan, Discount avalide overnight delivery, apparently the “Department of Press and Publications” can still do the job.
Blasim added, on Facebook, avalide bangkok, that he looks forward to being able to distribute Madman as an e-book.
Is There or Ain’t There Book Censorship in Jordan?
This comes on the heels of two similar cases: Susan Abulhawa said last month that the Arabic edition of her Mornings in Jenin had been banned in the Hashemite Kingdom, although Ramsey George reports that the book is selling, avalide online without prescription. Where to order avalide, The publisher, Bloomsbury Qatar, said, avalide uk, “Our sales team were told by buyers at University Book Shop and Jordan Book Centre that the Arabic edition had been banned.”
In a more sophisticated sort of book-blocking, Buy discount avalide online, Jordanian book distributors have refused to take on Alexander McNabb’s Olives (which is not officially banned). InMcNabb’s words, “The booksellers have blocked it out of fear that someone from a big family will take umbrage from a work of fiction using the family’s name.”
Meanwhile, avalide buy online, Ra Page of Comma Press said they of yet have not heard of any other country banning Blasim’s Madman. He added that The Iraqi Christ should be available in November of this year.
More from 7iber:
The opposing view:
Get Blassim’s stories in Arabic:
Get Blassim’s stories in English:
You should be able to buy Madman of Freedom Square off Amazon or other services.
You can also listen to Blasim’s stories read by Raad Rawi, via Spoken Ink.
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Retail behemoth Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is a member of the elite club of Dividend Aristocrats -- companies that have increased dividends for 25 consecutive years or more. With competition increasing in its primary U.S. market, Wal-Mart has struggled to increase sales and earnings in the past few years, but it never stopped raising its dividend.
Wal-Mart has continuously raised dividend for the past 41 years, which makes it a favorite among investors seeking a tidy dividend income. The stock currently pays a dividend of $1.92 per share per year, for a yield of 2.1%. How did the retailer manage to keep raising its dividend, especially in the current situation, and can it maintain its track record over the coming periods? Let's take a look.
Wal-Mart's dividend: A perspective
In the past 10 fiscal years (Wal-Mart's fiscal year ends in January), the company has increased its dividend at a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 12.3%. Its last announcement was in February last year, when it raised its annual dividend by 2%, to $1.92 per share. The modest increase was bit of a disappointment for investors who are used to bigger increases, but whenever Wal-Mart has offered a single-digit increase in the past 10 years, it's generally followed it up with a generous rise in the next year:
Wal-Mart has a low payout ratio, which leaves plenty of room for future dividend increases. Wal-Mart's payout ratio was roughly 39% in the 12 months ending in October 2014, up from about 31% two years prior, according to S&P Capital IQ data. With a payout ratio in the range of 40%, the company can sustain dividends even if there's some earnings volatility.
Cash flow generation is strong
In the latest third quarter, Wal-Mart's net operating cash flow increased 72.54% to $3.5 billion over the same period the previous year. The Street reported that this is higher than the industry average cash flow growth rate of 54%. The company generated free cash flow of $7.2 billion in the first three quarters of the year, compared with $3.8 billion in the same period in fiscal year 2014. During this period, it paid $4.6 billion to shareholders through dividends and $1 billion through stock buybacks.
Wal-Mart's strong commitment to return cash to its shareholders stems from its stable cash flow from operations and free cash flow-generating abilities. The company has one of the shortest cash conversion cycles in the industry. The cash conversion cycle is the time a retailer takes to buy goods to put into inventory, sell them, collect payments from customers, and pay off suppliers. And Wal-Mart does all this in less than 18 days. A shorter cycle means cash doesn't remain hung up in working capital and is freed more quickly.
Additionally, Wal-Mart has projected its total capital expenses to be in the range of $11.6 billion to $12.9 billion in fiscal 2016, down from the $12.5 billion to $13 billion projected for fiscal 2015, primarily because of lower investments in brick-and-mortar locations. This definitely is an encouraging sign, as it could leave the company with some extra cash that can be deployed to rewarding investors.
Wal-Mart's compelling possibilities
Now, let's look at Wal-Mart's future earnings prospects, because that's what will drive future cash flows and the dividends that the company will pay out of it. The retailer has two areas of focus where it's putting effort -- smaller-format stores to compete with dollar stores such as Dollar General and Dollar Tree, and online sales.
Both strategies have been successful so far. Wal-Mart's U.S. comps increased 0.5% in the third quarter, aided by a 5.5% comps increase at Neighborhood Market stores, Wal-Mart's small-format outlets. Online sales grew 21% year over year, helped by solid results in key markets such as the U.S., China, Brazil, and Mexico.
During the third-quarter earnings call, Greg Foran, Wal-Mart's U.S. president and CEO, said, "In Q4, we will shift to a heavier mix of small formats, opening over 100 traditional Neighborhood Markets and 70 smaller ones." Wal-Mart's capital expenditure on e-commerce and digital initiatives is expected to be in the range of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion during fiscal 2016, up from an estimated $1 billion to be spent during fiscal 2015.
Apart from this, Wal-Mart has been aggressively looking to gain traction in the organic food segment, which carries higher margins. The company renewed its partnership with Wild Oats, a leading provider of organic food items, last April.
Even in troubled times, Wal-Mart has rewarded shareholders with tidy dividends and share buybacks. The company's operating discipline and solid cash flow-generating abilities make this possible. As Wal-Mart continues to look for new growth avenues and invest in them, the behemoth remains committed toward investors who bank on it.


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Venezuela’s ever-increasing inflation continues to make it difficult for citizens and businesses to purchase even the basics needed to survive, and it looks like the end is nowhere in sight.
A report by the International Monetary Fund released this week outlines the rapidly rising inflation the country is experiencing, and does not have a sunny outlook for the remainder of the year.
A recent report from Bloomberg states that inflation in Venezuela has skyrocketed about 340,000 in just the previous six months of the year. Bloomberg uses the cost of a cup of coffee at a local bakery in Caracas to track inflation and make the numbers more relatable for readers.
Venezuela’s inflation is expected to reach 1.37 million percent by the end of 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund. This is even higher than the 1 million percent that the IMF had initially predicted in July, and 100 times higher than its estimate of 13,000 percent from January.
Information is not as available as it once was; the central bank in Venezuela ceased publishing economic information in 2015. Since then, reporters and economic followers need to rely on other resources to uncover just how bad the inflation has become. Indexes like the ‘cup of coffee” used by Bloomberg are used to track details of just how rapidly inflation is rising and to track details of how the country is changing.
Hoping to resolve the currency issues and inflation, Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro decided to change up the way the currency was calculated to look like the situation is better than it truly is. Removing zeroes from the currency did not change the inflation problem – 5,000,000 bolivars simply became 50 bolivars overnight – the purchasing power did not change.
The recent report from the IMF reveals that measures to correct inflation are not working. In addition to removing the zeroes from the currency, they also tried to launch the Petro — a cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency initiatives have not helped; very few investors have come forward to spend money on the country’s failing economy.
The initial inflation problem was caused by several things; both the decline in oil prices and the socialist themed policies of President Maduro’s government have both contributed to the decline of the bolivar. According to Maduro:
“The production models we’ve tried so far have failed and the responsibility is ours, mine and yours,” he told his United Socialist Party. “No more whining. I want solutions comrades!”
The dramatic increase in inflation, coupled by the government’s persistence in pursuing policies that do not work and seeking out solutions that have not been effective mean that there is no relief in site for the average Venezuelan. The IMF will review the inflation in the country again in a few months, and outlets like Bloomberg continue to use creative methods to track inflation in the beleaguered nation.
~ Patriotic Freedom Fighter


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A Twitter account highlighting the myriad teething problems that have plagued the Winter Olympics has attracted 324,000 followers—120,000 more than the official Sochi account.
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UK nail polish brand Models Own has been sold to Saudi-based retail conglomerate
UK nail polish brand Models Own has beeen sold to Saudi-based retail conglomerate Fawaz Alhokair & Co.
Fawaz Alhokair is one of the largest retailers in the Middle East, with over 12 million sqft of retail space. It controls over 2000 stores in 18 countries across the Middle East and central Asia, including the Marks & Spencer franchise in Saudi Arabia.
Following the sale, which closed on 29 October, Models Own plans to open approximately 100 stores in the UK creating approximately 1000 jobs. Models Own was founded in 2008 by the former Ministry of Sound CEO Mark Rodol and his brother Steven. The company currently generates a turnover of approximately £8m. Mark Rodol will continue in his role as CEO of Models Own and the day-to-day running of the company.
He said: “The recent performance of our Bottleshops has been outstanding and this sale to Fawaz Alhokair & Co will enable us to focus on greater domestic and international expansion. In addition to the Middle East and Central Asia, Fawaz Alhokair & Co holds the US and Eastern European rights to Philip Green’s Arcadia brand. It opens, on average, a new store every 18 hours somewhere in the word and is a great partner for us.”
Models Own was advised by corporate finance boutique Bluebox Corporate Finance and law firm Howard Kennedy with regard to the sale. The terms of the sale have not been disclosed, although The Sunday Times reports the deal cost Fawaz Alhokair about £20m.


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BREAKING NEWS: Australian Dairy Farmers and Woolworths have announced that from Tuesday, 19 February 2019, Woolworths will stop selling $1-litre milk as part of its effort to support sustainability in Australia's dairy sector.
The $1-milk price was introduced in 2011.
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iOS 8 Beta 3 Brings Significant Improvements To Health App, Here’s What Is New
Apple rolled out iOS 8 beta 3 only yesterday, and although we got the usual spate of bug fixes and performance enhancements, the Cupertino giant also took the opportunity to introduce a couple of noteworthy new features. As we reported some time ago, the latest beta of Apple’s upcoming firmware includes a neat feature allowing T-Mobile U.S. users to make and receive calls over Wi-Fi, and now, some tweaks to the Health app have also been spotted.
Of all the features that Apple eventually showcased at WWDC last month, we knew long in advance that a health-focused app would be a major part of the deal, and although we’re still waiting on the iWatch part of the new HealthKit infrastructure, we’re nevertheless impressed by what we’ve seen so far.
iOS 8 beta 3, which is a developer-only build for those tethered to Apple’s $99 / year program, is scarcely a day old, but as ever, folks have downloaded and installed it in their thousands, dissecting every feature for signs of any changes. After all, Apple seldom notes down every single alteration made in the change log, and with the Health app being brand new and all, we’re not surprised that some new features have appeared therein.
As noted by 9to5Mac, the app takes full advantage of the M7 motion coprocessor that Apple first introduced alongside the iPhone 5s last year. It can be used, for instance, to natively record the number of steps you’ve taken through any given day, and with the hardware able to record data accurately, you feel as though it’s going to be integral to Apple’s push in the market of health and fitness.
In addition the M7’s step-tracking functionality, the latest update also throws in caffeine monitoring, which allows you to keep track of how much you’re putting into your body.
Although these two features are only small in the grand scheme of iOS 8, you can immediately recall several apps that may be nullified by iOS 8’s Health endeavors, and while some third-party apps will be able to utilize said Health data for the benefit of the user experience, others may become redundant thanks to the feature-rich nature of what Apple is adding at stock level.


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URC Offering New Remote, Compatibility
URC, ahead of the ISE show in Europe, has announced some new offerings, including new options for whole-house control. These include Z-Wave compatibility, the new TRC-1080 wand-style handheld remote and new two-way third-party IP camera integration.
URC also offers compatibility with the LILIN IP Video Camera.
“Our new TRF-ZW1 literally opens the door to hundreds of new control options by providing a gateway to allow control of Z-Wave-enabled products,” said Cat Toomey, URC director of marketing. “Our dealers and their customers may now enjoy the convenience of Z-Wave door locks, lighting and more from any Total Control interface including remotes, keypads, touchscreens and smart phones or tablets.”


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Couple Wanted In Florida Lottery Scratch Off Ticket Scam
Authorities in Florida are looking for a couple who spent Thursday traveling to different Kangaroo convenience stores and robbing scratch off lottery tickets. The couple hit at least five stores on Thursday.
The couple would go into the convenience stores and ask to purchase several scratch off lottery tickets. Once they were given the tickets, they tried to pay for them with credit cards.
In all instances, the credit card did not go through and the couple would tell the clerk that they were going to their car to get cash to pay for the tickets. Once outside, the hopped in their car and left with the stolen tickets.
At one of the stores the scam did not work. The clerk grabbed the tickets from the couple when the credit card was denied. They were told by the clerk that if they could not pay for them, they couldn't have them.
The escape vehicle in all of these cases was a blue pick up truck. The couple got away from four of the five targeted stores with the stolen tickets.
Even if the couple did find the tickets to be winners, there is no chance of either of them cashing the winning tickets. The Florida Lottery has already voided all of the tickets that were stolen, preventing any winners from being cashed.
July 14, 2008
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
Previous Gambling Law News Articles
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Gambling Ruling Could Cripple Budget In Cash Starved Florida
Jefferson County Police Continue Raids On Illegal Gambling Rooms
Assistant Principle Busted In Gambling Ring Bust In Texas


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Jan. 28, 2014 (Wisconsin Dells, Wis.) — At National Farmers Convention 2014 in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., Monday, agriculture technology came on the scene in three major ways.
Cattle marketers from Nexus Marketing introduced a new smart phone app featuring a reverse break-even production cost calculator that easily helps producers identify what they can pay for feeders. The smartphone and tablet application also features fed cattle cost of gain and compound interest calculators, as well as futures prices and weather.
The role of cloud and mobile computing in agriculture was featured in the opening session of the organization’s annual ag business meeting. Presenters from Farmeron spoke about how cloud computing will become the new alternative to personal computers and on-premise software for farmers. Dave Saunders, Farmeron, vice president for business development, talked about the changing role of technology on ag operations.
He said farmer cloud computing will become the norm for producers, because of the benefits of continual software updates, automatic backups of files, data sharing and analytics. “Smartphones and tablets have overtaken laptops and desktops in popularity, therefore applications are supplanting PC software as the go-to solution for producers,” said Saunders. Ag apps are growing fast and that means massive implications for workflow and processes Saunders said.
Sharing data derived from herd management software, soil sensors and other sensing devices can deliver real-time information directly to producers’ smartphones and tablets. And that right in the field and barn, right now approach will become the norm in the industry.
BouMatic’s Kelsey Fink focused on overall industry trends toward automation and robotics in dairying. She outlined issues today’s dairy producers face, including animal management, markets and labor management, along with social media and consumer issues.
National Farmers annual convention and business meeting is in Wisconsin Dells, National Farmers runs through Wednesday. National Farmers is a group marketing and price negotiation organization for the nation’s farmers and ranchers.
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Clothing brand Coast collapses into administration, putting 300 jobs at risk
PUBLISHED: 08:42 12 October 2018 | UPDATED: 11:10 12 October 2018
ARCHANT NORFOLK PHOTOGRAPHIC © 2005
Womenswear chain Coast is the latest brand to collapse into administration, amid Britain’s high street crisis.
The chain has three concessions in Norwich’s Debenhams, House of Fraser, and John Lewis.
It also has concessions in Debenhams stores in Ipswich and Colchester.
There are 300 jobs at risk as a result of the news.
The firm’s staff were being informed on Thursday evening that PwC has been drafted in to carry out the process, with all 24 standalone sites to close.
According to the Press Association, rival Karen Millen has bought the group’s brand and website, taking on 600 staff but a remaining 300 are still at risk.
Coast has been hit hard by the collapse of House of Fraser, which went into administration earlier this year owing millions to retailers with concessions within the department store.
Coast is owned by Aurora Fashions, which also owns retailers Oasis and Warehouse.
Aurora itself is owned by Icelandic bank Kaupthing, which in turn owns Karen Millen.
The news comes just a day after Patisserie Valerie, a cafe chain, announced that it had found a “black hole” in its finances, and would cease trading without an “immediate” cash injection.
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LUSK – Lusk Liquors is under new ownership after Rob Carpenter purchased the store from the previous owners in February.
Carpenter moved to Niobrara county 15 years ago from Casper after purchasing a ranch just North of Lusk. He ended up purchasing the store after he sold his ranch.
“I sold the ranch, the cows and the horses after getting divorced,” Carpenter said. “I needed to find something to reinvest the money in after my divorce.”
The store currently sells beer, wine, liquor and other spirits. Carpenter also sells sodas, mixers, lottery tickets and various tobacco products. There is also a small bar on the inside and a smoking area in the back of the building that Carpenter plans to renovate.
“Have you seen all the bamboo in the back? Yeah, that’s all going to go away,” Carpenter said. “I’m going to build a whole new smoking area outback. There’s a heater out there to help keep warm during the wintertime.”
Other than renovating the back smoking area, Carpenter said he recently put in two video gambling machines in the bar area of the building.


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Last year at SXSW, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley joined Frank Eliason (previously @comcastcares), Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang and me on stage to discuss the shifting landscape of social engagement. While I focused on the sociology of engagement and the impact it is having on culture and society, I also sought to balance the conversation by demonstrating the impact of digital actions and interaction between people and businesses.
Whether intentional or not, Crowley and team unlocked the elusive gates that separated the last mile of engagement between local businesses and their customers and prospective patrons. The rising generation of social consumers embraced geo-location services to share physical experiences, connect with their social graph in the real world and also earn rewards for their check-ins, which is rapidly becoming a powerful form of peer-to-peer endorsements and recommendations. Crowley, quite literally gamed the system that was once solely controlled by giants such as the Yellow Pages, Google and Yelp. The Foursquare team bridged the gap between people and places both online and offline.
Later in the year, we caught up again for a cover story I wrote for Entrepreneur magazine.
We discussed how Foursquare redefined the role of the patron and the relationship between businesses and customers.
“The network started to take on a life of its own,” Crowley said in the interview for Entrepreneur. “Foursquare gave everyday people, venues and local merchants a voice. It opened the doors for businesses to see a whole new way of seeing their customer.”
In the Game of Foursquare, What’s the Score?
Foursquare’s rapid rise from New York startup to media darling is quite remarkable. If you judge the service by its badge, or shall we say badges, you might miss the bigger picture. The essence of Foursquare is powered by its community. In this mobile Utopia, people earn positions of prominence by exploring and improving the experiences of other explorers. It’s a form of social hierarchy that’s alluring and rewarding. For a more recent example, it’s not unlike the fledgling blog darling Quora. The ties that bind its users are woven through social ties and recognition that’s earned through participation and contribution.
Foursquare continues to evolve and the team recently released an infographic that visualized collective achievements and user behavior. To make it easier to consume and also appreciate its progress, let’s review some key milestones.
In 2010, Foursquare experienced 3,400-percent growth over 2009, reaching 6,000,000 users to date.
This year, Foursquare received over 380 million check-ins.
The largest swarm to date is the Rally to Restore Sanity, which saw over 35,000 check-ins on October 30th, 2010.
A Day in the Life
The team also revealed a “day in the life” of the typical Foursquare user.
Most people check-in to eateries, gaining momentum at 8 a.m. every day and thinning out just after midnight.
Check-ins to work or the office also follow a similar pattern. Work days typically seem to see the greatest volume of check-ins between 7 – 8 a.m. continuing to midnight.


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The jury wasn’t there when I entered the courtroom — but Google and Spotify lawyers were, and they’re asking Judge Donato to seal a document that would reveal the terms of Google’s “User Choice Billing” deal with Spotify which lets the music app bypass Google’s billing system in exchange for a still-substantial share of revenue.
This surprised Judge Donato: “Right now, Google is allowing users to post its own billing system?”
It also surprised me: Google doesn’t have a standard rate for User Choice Billing? It’s making special deals for certain companies? “Disclosure of the Spotify deal would be very very detrimental for the negotiation we’d be having with these other parties,” argues Google attorney Glenn Pomerantz.
Fujifilm announces the X100VI, its follow-up to a TikTok sensation
Nintendo will announce part of its 2024 Switch lineup later this week
Walmart to acquire Vizio in $2.3 billion deal
Constellation adds a dark and creepy tone to Apple’s growing sci-fi lineup
Apple fans are starting to return their Vision Pros


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With mobile devices quickly winning new converts across India, mobile advertising is likely to take off quickly, even displacing TV in some instances, says Shubhradeep Guha, global capability lead and country manager for SapientNitro (India). "For a sizeable section of young population mobile will become the first screen. Mobile anyway has become the first piece of individual technology ownership. This means TV content companies would have to change the way they produce content," he says.
Published in Brief:


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Amazon.com took a significant step into the word of mobile applications this week with the launch of its Amazon Appstore for Android, now available for free to select users of Google Android devices.
NetSuite hopes to entice U.K. VARs (value-added resellers) that may now be aligned with rivals like Microsoft into selling its cloud-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, announcing Monday that it has expanded its SP100 sales program to ...
Within the past couple weeks, we have had two major Web browser releases. Microsoft unleashed Internet Explorer 9, and Mozilla officially launched Firefox 4. Each browser had millions of downloads on its inaugural launch day. Firefox appears to have ...
A startup founded by a former Citrix executive is aiming to help customers move Microsoft Exchange mailboxes to either Google Apps or Microsoft's own cloud.
Google on Thursday patched six vulnerabilities in Chrome, and as usual, silently updated users' copies of the browser.
Mozilla today said that it regretted staying silent when it found out last week that hackers had stolen digital certificates for some of the Web's biggest sites, including Google, Skype, Microsoft, Yahoo and its own add-on site.
Mozilla set an unofficial record for software downloads on the second day of Firefox 4's launch, the company said Friday.
A New York startup company spun off from Citigroup is about to launch a service that can offer consumers recommendations for restaurants and other retail outlets, based on an analysis of billions of credit card transactions.
Middleware giant Software AG conducted an elaborate corporate espionage scheme replete with "sex, lies and an audiotape," according to allegations in a lawsuit filed by RFID (radio frequency identification) vendor GlobeRanger.
The European Commission and Microsoft have shrugged off claims by Maxthon International that its browser should be more prominently represented on Windows' browser choice screen.
Sony Ericsson is planning to upgrade the Xperia X10 to Android 2.3 at the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter, the company said in a blog post on Friday.
"I hear his name bandied about a lot, but I don't know him. I don't know who Henson is. He seems to have his hand in a lot of things around here, but I don't particularly know what that means."
Apps are all about choice. And nowhere is choice more appealing than in the world of Web browsing. In the early days of smartphones, users had no choice but to use the browser that came installed with the operating system, but now we have multiple ch...
It's been a long wait for Firefox 4; it was nearly two years ago that Firefox 3.5 was released. A lot has changed in the browser world since then. But though the wait has been a long one, it has paid off for those with patience: Firefox 4 is a winner...
In a novel use of the software, National Public Radio is using the Splunk log search engine to analyze Web traffic for its audio streams and downloads.
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Billabong shocked the market yesterday when it announced former Target chief Launa Inman will take over from Derek O’Neill as chief executive – promptly sending the company’s shares down another 1.5%.
Shares have fallen a further 2.62% this morning to $2.35.
But while Inman has the qualifications to take the role, there are questions about whether the company can succeed. It faces profit downgrades, store closures, a falling Australian dollar and a European environment where financial turmoil is the order of the day.
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With falling share prices and a company losing profit, Inman has a big task ahead of her. Here are five key challenges she’s likely to face:
1. No surfing background
While many executives might say “retail is retail”, there is definitely a certain type of culture that permeates the surfing industry, and Launa Inman might have a little trouble fitting in.
For one thing, Inman has already said she doesn’t surf, and while that may not seem like a big deal, for a company keen on surfing and water sports it may be a bit of a clash.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, however Inman’s recent admission that she doesn’t have any plans to attend an upcoming Billabong surf championship may give the wrong message to some.
2. Specialist retailer
Inman’s background comes from working the top job at both Target and Officeworks, but these chains differ quite a bit from Billabong, a specialist type of retailer. Both her previous roles dealt in very general retail categories, across a variety of industries. Surfwear is a much more dedicated market with its own challenges.
Inman obviously has excellent retail experience – but it’s a shift to a very different type of market.
3. Choosing between retail and wholesale
Is Billabong a retail or wholesale business? It’s hard to know, given wholesaling takes up more than half the company’s revenue – perhaps the time has come for Inman to point the company in one direction or another.
4. She’s a woman in a male-dominated environment
Like most female chief executives in Australia, Inman is a woman in a male dominated environment. In particular the surfing culture is quite masculine, despite the large number of professional female surfers. Coupled with the fact Inman doesn’t have much of a surfing background, it could be a hard task getting settled into a leading role at the company.
The fact the chairman has enthusiastically welcomed her into the role is a good start.
5. Bad weather and poor sales
Billabong is suffering under a number of key challenges the chief executive can’t control – bad weather and a poor economic environment in Europe. How Inman attempts to deal with both those issues will either make her a success or total failure.
Any chief executive who takes the top job at Billabong can make choices about store closures and job cuts, but there are elements here no one can control – how Inman deals with those factors will determine her level of success.


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cryptocoinsnews.com / JUSTIN OCONNELL / 20/08/2015
New code advertised by Bitcoin developers Michael Hearn and Gavin Andresen has proven controversial within the Bitcoin community. Bitcoiners are now distressed over what appears to be a privacy backdoor – or bug – in a new proposed fork. Andresen and Hearn have called the new fork “Bitcoin XT,” and designed it to take the place of the existing Bitcoin protocol.
The Bitcoin XT project apparently bans Tor nodes. Pseudonymity has been a favorite feature of Bitcoin since its introduction to the world by the unknown programmer, Satoshi Nakamoto. Whether or not Tor nodes being block is a backdoor or a bug is unclear. As a post at the Linux Foundation states:


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Investor sentiment in April was supported by the continued economic recovery. While estimates of 2021 GDP growth continue to rise, the US Central Bank maintains that it is in no hurry to withdraw monetary stimulus. Consequently, many major equity indices have climbed to all-time highs and even safe-haven assets such as treasuries and gold have stabilised after the steep declines of Q1.
Most companies that have reported on the first quarter in the US and Europe have announced earnings per share (EPS) far above estimates – a performance attributed to both better-than- expected business performance and last year’s low base as a result of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the US companies reporting by the third week of April, 84% beat EPS estimates. The average upside surprise was 24% – significantly above the five year average of 7%. The majority of European companies have also reported earnings above expectations and better sales growth than consensus estimates.
After three successive quarters of companies outperforming estimates, the surprise element and consequent positive impact on share prices has diminished. In many cases, companies reporting earnings in line with expectations are now being penalised by the market. Earnings surprises were delivered across various industries, with financials, consumer discretionary, materials and healthcare reporting the highest earnings growth. Meanwhile, the industrial and energy sectors were the only ones to report year-on-year earnings declines.
S&P 500 Earnings Growth: Q1 2021
Companies will need to continue along their current upward trajectories for increasingly optimistic analyst expectations to be met. Concerns about overvaluations and stock markets moving into bubble territory have raised the risks of an adverse event having an outsized impact on investor sentiment and global stock markets. Management of volatility in investment portfolios remains as important as ever.
India’s economy begins to buckle under COVID- 19 strain
As part of the diversified strategy, the New Horizon fund provides exposure to an array of emerging markets including India where a young, skilled population, a technology and innovation bias, and favourable government/central bank policy bode well for long term growth.
Economic growth estimates for 2021 had increased to over 12% but are under review in light of spiralling COVID-19 cases. Several states are in lockdown and many civilians are opting to stay at home. The Nomura India Business Resumption Index, which combines several high-frequency data sources, has been declining since mid-March, falling in mid-April to 90.4 compared to 99.3 in the first week of February. Unemployment has also begun to rise. After falling to 6.9% in February the rate increased to 8.4% in March.
GDP estimates for Q2 are declining and much depends on the vaccine rollout, but the economy recovered quickly after the first wave of infection last year and analysts still predict double-digit growth for the year as a whole.
Brazil faces a stagflation-lite economic scenario
In Brazil, the pandemic has never really been brought under control and Latin America’s largest economy is suffering from slowing growth, rising inflation and increasing unemployment.
The government has been reluctant to impose lockdowns to stem the tide of infections because of the economic consequences for the country. In late March, some 1,500 economists and business owners wrote an open letter to the government asking it to impose measures to restrict the mobility of citizens. They view short term restrictive measures as necessary for the long term good of the economy.
A core concern is the extent of the fiscal stimulus that has been extended by the government to alleviate the devastation wrought by the virus. The government is resistant to imposing a ceiling on its spending ahead of the elections next year, but economists worry that current budgetary conditions could have dire consequences for the economy, particularly concerning global investor sentiment. Fiscal stimulus has spurred inflation, forecasted to reach 7.5% in the second quarter.
Brazil’s inflation rate
Source: Tradingeconomics.com | Instituto Brasileiro De Geografia Estatistica (IBGE)
Although Brazil’s GDP is expected to grow 3% for the year, this is unimpressive coming off last year’s low base. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights “slowing growth” and notes that it is the only major economy experiencing a slowdown. A period characterised as stagflation-lite, with high inflation and low growth seems likely.
In contrast to the overweight position in India, New Horizon fund exposure to Brazilian equities has been reduced and is now largely confined to fast-growing online retail giant MercadoLibre.


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Africa Moyo Business Reporter
Government is working on providing foreign currency for the acquisition of 50 000 new point of sale machines in the next 100 days as part of broadening the use of plastic money. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has set 100-day deliverables for line ministries, as he seeks to inculcate a new work ethic aimed at turning around the economy.
Currently, over 75 percent of retail transactions are being conducted electronically as the nation seeks to circumvent the absence of physical cash in the economy. Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning Terrence Mukupe, has indicated that they intend to increase the number of point of sale machines to about 100 000 to enable wider use of plastic money.
“On the issue of financial inclusion, there is an issue that as Government we have said we should increase the use of plastic money. But if you go to the banks right now, you can’t access swipe machines; there is a huge backlog. I can tell you that as part of our 100-day plan, we are going to have an extra 50 000 machines. What that means is that we will have to provide foreign currency so that there is more machines to enable people to swipe from any part of the country,” said Deputy Minister Mukupe.
In the 2018 National Budget statement, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, said the use of plastic and electronic money has generally been successful. POS machines are owned by banks and their prices range from US$100 to US$300. There has been an 189 percent increase in the number of POS machines deployed across the country from 16 363 in 2015 to 47 362 by end of July 2017.
Similarly, there has been a corresponding jump in POS transactions from 398 986 in 2009 to 181 251 082 in the last quarter of 2017. The sharpest rise in POS transactions was witnessed from 2016 when they rose from 53 407 464 to 181 251 082 by about September last year.
But beyond increasing availability of POS machines, Government also wants plastic and electronic transaction costs to come down markedly. Customers still complain that it remains expensive to transact on plastic and electronic money platforms despite efforts by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to have charges reduced.
The RBZ has asked retailers to charge 10c for transactions of between US$1 and US$10. However, there is a feeling by consumers that the cost skyrockets when one purchases smaller items such as bread and milk more than once per day. Deputy Minister Mukupe said Government is alive to the need to reduce transaction costs and is considering coming up with incentives to firms that slash such costs.
“We have to make sure that the cost of transacting comes down. We will come up with incentives around that. The other thing that I want to point out to you is that Minister Chinamasa, in his budget, has said he does not want to come up with punitive measures, but incentive measures (for companies that play ball),” he said.
Mobile money transaction costs have recently been pushed up by corrupt dealers who sell cash at 20 percent. EcoCash, which controls over 90 percent of mobile money transactions, has challenged customers to report unscrupulous dealers so that corrective action is taken.
Even wholesalers and retailers are putting a premium of up to 30 percent when consumers are purchasing using electronic forms of payment, with products being considerably cheaper when using physical cash. Despite several warnings from both the Ministry of Industry and RBZ to abandon multi-tier pricing, sellers remain defiant.
Traders mark high prices for goods when consumers are making electronic payments to encourage them to use cash, which will in turn be used for arbitrage. Government’s financial inclusion initiatives also target broadening access and provision of vulnerable groups with financial services, critical for sustainable economic growth and development.
The vulnerable groups include youths, women and micro, small and medium enterprises. This has seen the RBZ licence the Zimbabwe Women’s Micro-Finance Bank Limited on September 14 last year, and has also initiated licensing of the Youth Empower Bank Limited.


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A year ago, firms didn't have much incentive to update their video-conferencing technology.
Small businesses with small budgets would opt for a Web cam instead of the low-quality conferencing setup their budgets would allow.
With the advent of high-definition TV over the past year, however, companies selling video-conferencing solutions are penetrating smaller markets for the first time.
"High-definition video communications over IP networks will be the most important growth area in communications technology over the next decade," says Craig Malloy, CEO of Austin-based LifeSize Communications, a manufacturer of high-definition video products.
500 and 1000 companies like
, all LifeSize clients, have been upgrading five-year-old low-resolution systems since high-definition became the norm, says Malloy.
Malloy feels this is an untapped market opportunity. LifeSize and the major industry players like
, with its VSX product line, and
will no doubt be reaping the benefits of this rapidly expanding market.
Video for Everyone
Like color television, high-definition television and DVD players have done in the past, video-conferencing technology is extending its reach beyond the business elite. Small and midrange businesses have up until now had less than 1% market penetration, says Malloy. But "the technology is going downstream," he adds. "There's been a big shift with high definition ... Smaller companies can afford it and larger companies are updating."
In response to this rapidly expanding industry, LifeSize today announces its high-definition LifeSize Express. At 30 frames per second and $6,000, "it's perfect for small and medium businesses and any other company that'd like to put its toe in HD water without making a big commitment to the technology," says Malloy.
Fully standards-compliant, Express can interoperate with nearly any videoconferencing system built within the last seven years. It offers the same quality audio and video as telepresence solutions like
Halo, but without Halo's initial cost of about $550,000 and monthly service fees of about $18,000.
"That's why we've spent five years developing a technology to fit into a package at this cost point," says Malloy.
Salud Family Health Centers, a nonprofit health center with 14 clinics across Colorado, implemented 11 of LifeSize's flagship Room systems around $12,000 each, which allow video calls with multiple participants, about a year ago.
"It used to take two hours to
drive to the farthest clinic," says Eric Perlinger of Salud's IT department. But with the health center's new video-conferencing capability, they recently trained a new employee remotely and Perlinger estimates they use the rooms at least every other week for meetings.
Salud was looking for a crisp image with excellent audio and simplicity of use, says Bob Dinegar of RJ Macklin Associates, a LifeSize channel partner. "LifeSize was the only high definition offering on the market," he says.
"Everyone should get one," he tells me. "It's not only for clinics. I want to work from home like this."
Perlinger says they've had to replace a camera and microphone on one unit, but issues with the system never went beyond what he calls, "typical IT issues." He sees a filtering down of video technology to more businesses.
In fact, 30% of LifeSize's clients this year were new to the video conferencing community. If lower cost and higher quality offerings from LifeSize are any indication, video conferencing could soon be a standard instead of a luxury.


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On July 1, the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing launched a welcome campaign to its northern neighbors. The communications campaign is intended as a heartfelt reminder to Canadians that Vermont greatly values their friendship, tourism and trade.
The initiative launch coincided with Canada Day, and began with 15- and 30-second video spots that ran throughout Quebec in both English and French on social media, featuring Gov. Phil Scott inviting Canadians to visit.
“The feedback we have already received through both email and social media has been incredibly positive,” said Steven Cook, deputy commissioner at Tourism and Marketing. “On Canada Day, we ran a one-day media blitz, and in that one day we received over 300,000 views. That was the official start of the campaign, and we continue to receive a great amount of enthusiasm around this effort.”
Videos were also shared with the Office of the Consulate General of Canada in Boston on July 1.
“There are a few aspects to the campaign. There is the paid advertising that we launched on July 1, which we may expand into Toronto; there’s a structured press launch that is going to be taking place in Montreal; there are filmed Canada Day videos, as well as other media aspects that will run through this month and August. And there’s the letter from the governor that welcomes Canadians to the Green Mountain State in the official Vermont vacation guides,” said Wendy Knight, Tourism and Marketing’s commissioner.
The campaign is slated to run through July and August, which are the busiest months for Canadian travel into Vermont, said Philip Tortora, the department’s communications director. With continued positive feedback, the welcome letter from the governor may run within the Vermont vacation guides through fall for further outreach.
Tourism and Marketing will invest $45,000 in the campaign, Tortora said.
“We saw the anniversary as an opportune time to launch the campaign. We’re heading into our busy summer season, and in the last decade we’ve seen a little bit of a steady decline in personal vehicle travel into the U.S.,” Knight said. “This visitation decline is in due part of the strong U.S. dollar, but also because of some current federal policies. We wanted to send a really strong welcome message as a reminder and reassurance of our friendship.”
Since 2013, the value of the Canadian dollar — the “loonie” — has hit a low of about 80 U.S. cents, or a 20 percent decline in purchasing power in the U.S., reportedly the lowest it has been since 2009. This fall may be causing a low yet steady decline in tourism into the U.S., specifically into Vermont from the Montreal and Quebec City region of Quebec.
“Our data shows that in 2015 Vermont welcomed 2.4 million Canadian visitors; in 2016 — 2.3 million. Our data also shows that between January (and) March of 2016, in comparison to January (and) March of this year, there has been a 2.3 percent decline in personal vehicle passengers who crossed into Vermont from Quebec, equating to 9,000 visitors into Vermont,” Knight said.
Roughly 375,000 Canadians have visited Vermont from Canada during the first quarter of 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation statistics, Tortora said.
Knight credits the diminished purchasing power for Canadians as the most significant factor at play, but said rhetoric from President Donald Trump and his administration about increasing security at both northern and southern borders needed to be addressed.
“Part of our Canada Welcome campaign was in response to the concerns from the tourism/hospitality companies in Vermont that the perception of border challenges might dissuade Canadians from coming (to) Vermont,” she wrote in an email. “It is this perception that our campaign, in part, was designed to counter. The other reasons were the busy summer travel season, the comparative tourism and marketing budgets of New York State vis-à-vis Vermont, and the decade-long trending decline in Canadian visitors.”
Some tourists who enter the U.S. through Vermont border crossings from Quebec are traveling to other U.S. destinations. However, Canadians contributed roughly $120 million to the Vermont economy in 2015. This figure has declined from $144 million in 2013, according to StatCan (Statistics Canada), the country’s government data agency.
Organizers characterize the campaign as an initiative to maintain unity and a friendly reminder the border is not a division. In his video, Gov. Phil Scott says, “I’d like to extend an invitation to visit Vermont, where we welcome friends and neighbors to come and celebrate life together.”
“We look forward to receiving more positive feedback and we hope this ‘Welcome’ campaign conveys how much we appreciate the time Canadians spend in our state,” Knight said.


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A two-sentence joint press release from Bell's and Winery Exchange said "The parties have reached a confidential settlement of their dispute. Winery Exchange will rename its COPPER BELL beer product to be launched later this year."
Bell's president Larry Bell would not comment further and a message left for the Winery Exchange Inc. was not immediately returned.
The cans featured the word "Bell" in prominent letters, the lawsuit said, with "Copper" above it in a much smaller size. The lawsuit also said the packaging "features three kettles with bell shaped caps." Bell's products "feature three bells."
You can read more about the initial lawsuit in this AnnArbor.com story.


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Grand Theft Auto III’s Release Date on PlayStation Network
It’s right around the corner.
By Colin Moriarty
Posted: 27 Jul 2012 3:27 am
Back in January, we reported the good news that both Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City were PlayStation Network-bound. And now we know, thanks to the Official PlayStation Blogcast, that Grand Theft Auto III will be coming to the PSN in North America this Tuesday, July 31st.Grand Theft Auto III will be released in its PS2 Classic form, indicating that it will cost $9.99 and exist as a straight port without any upgrades or Trophies. While its release date of Tuesday, July 31st is confirmed for North America, its release date in other territories is still unknown.Grand Theft Auto III was first released on PlayStation 2 in 2001 and is considered a seminal release of immense importance in the gaming industry. It’s the fifth best-selling PS2 game of all-time, and was re-released on a variety of platforms, most recently on iOS.
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.


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Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX: ACB) (OTCQB: ACBFF) and CTT Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc. (OTC: CTTH) announced this morning that Aurora will be acquiring a 9.14% ownership position in CTT Pharma by a non-brokered private placement worth US$1 million 5% convertible debenture. The agreement includes the issuance of warrants enabling to Aurora to increase its ownership into the company to 42.5%.
Announced last month, Aurora Cannabis had gained the rights to six patents held by CTT Pharmaceutical Holdings that are related to cannabinoid delivery for pain management that will use sublingual wafers to deliver the benefits of medicinal cannabinoids to patients. The “Orally Dissolvable Thin Film” wafers are a patented delivery mechanism that allows cannabinoids to be delivered directly into the blood stream by dissolving into the capillaries underneath your tongue.
This investment by Aurora Cannabis will expand upon the terms of their originally decided agreement by allowing the company the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and distribute these products globally. The company currently owns Berlin-based Pedanious GmbH which is a leading wholesale importer, exporter, and distributor of medical grade cannabis across the European Union.
Aurora Cannabis has made headlines this year with its multi-billion dollars deal to acquire CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. and the company has a current market cap of $4.68 billion dollars.
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Ever wonder why your favorite entree is no longer on the menu at the restaurant down the street? Could be that you were among only a handful who ordered it.
You might think the chef is in charge of the food that comes out of the kitchen, but there's a science to the menu mix, and Natalie Levine, director of marketing and public relations at Mercadito Hospitality, is chief scientist at Mercadito restaurant. She gave us an inside look behind what went into its most recent menu change.
Ms. Levine uses spreadsheets and bar graphs to chart every menu item's performance to determine what stays and what goes.
"We changed the preparation of the chicken taco in May, and the sales are going up," she said, pointing to a spreadsheet showing 30 percent growth.
The calamari taco, however, got just 233 takers in May, which means it gets the boot as part of the dozen items Mercadito is replacing on its menu this week.Ten items came off and 10 were added
"Our whole team thought it was delicious, but it's not selling," she said. "One reason it might not be selling is because there are 11 different tacos on the menu."
The restaurant changes its menu about three times a year and strives to keep dinner check averages to $42 a person, including drinks. (An order of four tacos is $15.50 while cocktails average $11.)
"Over $50 is when you wake up the next day and think, 'I overspent,' " Ms. Levine said.
Dishes get test trials as monthly specials with top sellers graduating to the menu. Not everything makes it out of the test kitchen, though. A watermelon guacamole got high flavor marks from a tasting panel, but it wasn't visually appealing due to the fruit's high water content. And, some items, such as Mercadito's steak taco, can never change. The restaurant once deviated from the current version served with potatoes and avocado and didn't get takers.
"That means our steak taco is untouchable," she said.


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UnionPay has reportedly collaborated with fintech solutions provider Mpay to issue the former’s contactless prepaid card in Cambodia.
The alliance will allow payments at Cambodian merchants with QR Codes, reported Khmer Times.
Mpay CEO Sun Lei said: “Our partnership with UnionPay is a new milestone because UnionPay is not only the world’s largest international payment brand in terms of number of cards issued, but also a global leader for innovative payment services such as QR codes and wallets for payment.
“We are confident that this partnership will help accelerate the kingdom’s transformation to a cashless society.”
The development comes after a recent statement encouraging digital transactions in the wake of Covid-19 by the community of banking and financial sector (BFIs).
The community was represented by the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC), Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) and Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology (CAFT).
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The number of active e-wallets in Cambodia surged 64% to 5.22 million in 2019, compared with 2018, as per estimates by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC).
However, Cambodia still relies largely on cash, said the report, adding that NBC has launched various initiatives to drive financial inclusion to serve the country’s unbanked population.
UnionPay International South East Asia Cambodia country manager Leang Chenda said: “We are pleased to collaborate with strategic and like-minded partners such as Mpay to expand UnionPay’s existing range of card products and payment services to offer our local customers more choices for convenient and safe payment methods.
“We hope that our partnership with Mpay will also improve financial inclusion by giving the unbanked access to UnionPay prepaid cards, helping them to get access to a whole plethora of banking and payment services.”
Last year, Cambodian lender Acleda Bank partnered with UnionPay to issue contactless debit cards.
In 2018, UnionPay tied up with Cambodia MekongBank to roll out QR code payment service for its cardholders in Cambodia.


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Let Me Hear You Stream: The war for our screens rages between Netflix, Disney & Amazon
December 29, 2019
2 min read
What's going on here?
With the launch of Disney+ and Apple TV+ the streaming subscription market has become saturated and more competitive than ever.
What does this mean?
Netflix has always been a revolutionary company; in 1997 having access to any DVD you wanted and getting it posted to your door killed companies such as Blockbusters. In 2007, the ability to watch a massive variety of content anytime you wanted forced production companies to licence their IP to Netflix to remain viable. However, now in 2019 the giant faces a serious contender to its own survival as Disney+ launched, not to mention the existing threat of Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. This suddenly saturated market has very little recourse but to lead to some form of streaming war as the various providers seek to acquire and retain subscribers.
What's the big picture effect?
The effect on law firms is obvious, the massive amounts of deals being made (such as the Netflix/Nickelodeon deal announced on the same day as the Disney+ launch) will need lawyers to facilitate them. Not to mention the amount of work involved in all the various IPs being used and developed, the contracts being made to acquire top producers/writers and studios and the more basic demands of large-scale properties needing to be acquired for these burgeoning companies to operate.
In a more general sense, this war could have massive effects on the market. Whilst it’s unlikely that a giant like Netflix, with 160 million worldwide subscribers, will ever collapse, the warning signs are there for a need to innovate once again. For the first time ever, Netflix has seen a drop in its overall US subscribers and are predicting they will close 2019 having added fewer overall subscribers than they did in 2018. The worry is that this “streaming bubble” could be set to burst. Netflix’s content chief admitted that the cost of new shows has gone up by around 30% because of competition. With the 800 new shows already scripted for Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Disney and set to launch in the next year, an average viewer would need roughly four years to watch just this new content, yet the cost of the arms race of content acquisition keeps steadily rising.
Ultimately, as Ampere analyst Richard Broughton says, it’s unlikely these companies will continue to exist in their current iterations after fighting each other in the coming years.
Report written by Hari Majumdar
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ATLANTA, Dec. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Oxford Industries, Inc. (NYSE: OXM) today announced the Company will be participating in the ICR Conference 2021 to be held virtually January 11 – 14, 2021.
Oxford Industries, Inc., a leader in the apparel industry, owns and markets the distinctive Tommy Bahama®, Lilly Pulitzer® and Southern Tide® lifestyle brands, as well as other owned brands. Oxford’s stock has traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1964 under the symbol OXM. For more information, please visit Oxford’s website at www.oxfordinc.com.
|Contact:||Anne M. Shoemaker|
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THE biggest risk any company faces is the loss of its good name, and you cannot insure against that. Most boards are now paying much more attention to “reputational risk”—anything that could harm the image of their firm, from accounting irregularities to product recalls. The corporate scandals of the past few years have brought calls for greater transparency, and more corporate dirty laundry is now being aired. Aon, an American insurance company, recently surveyed 2,000 public and private companies and found that they viewed reputational risk as their single biggest business hazard.
It is not hard to see why. If a company suffers a blow to its reputation, it can collapse with astonishing speed. Arthur Andersen's clients deserted it long before the accounting firm had its day in court. When Putnam Investments, a mutual-fund company, came under scrutiny by Eliot Spitzer, New York state's attorney-general, its clients began to pull their money out of its funds literally overnight. Even if a company survives damage to its reputation, the loss of business can be devastating. Leslie Gaines-Ross, of Burson-Marsteller, a public-relations firm, has been advising companies on building their reputations for 20 years, but only in the past few years have companies started showing much interest in reputational risk, she says: “The entire subject is radioactive.”
Eliot Spitzer is not the only reason. Companies have also become much more concerned about other reputation-makers and –breakers: the government, the public and the media, and increasingly the internet, which has greatly improved transparency. Corporate secrets are becoming ever harder to keep.
Businesses are now finding that, perhaps unfairly, they are being judged by the company they keep. As they rely more on outsourcing, they may be held responsible for the sins of their subcontractors. Wal-Mart, a giant American retailer, was recently sued by the government for illegally using foreign workers to clean its floors. They were working for a subcontractor without Wal-Mart's knowledge, but the company still got a bad press. More unfairly still, the misdeeds of one company can tarnish all its competitors as well.
Some of the most vigorous wreckers of reputations have been NGOs. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth now routinely picket and boycott firms of whose practices they disapprove, such as Nestlé, Esso and Shell. Companies that do business in poor countries (eg, Nike) are liable to find themselves charged with running sweatshops. But, says Ms Gaines-Ross, nothing compares with the damage a firm can inflict on itself. Ask Parmalat.
Not so long ago, the task of looking after a company's reputation was left mostly to its advertising and marketing departments, but the number and severity of threats (especially of the ethical and legal variety) has increased so much that now it often falls to the chief executive. To give him a hand, some firms—especially in industries with complex regulations—are also appointing chief legal officers.
Spending on public relations and crisis-management programmes may make some CEOs sleep easier, but much the most important thing is to avoid letting your reputation get sullied in the first place. As Jack Welch, GE's former boss, whose own halo got knocked by his lavish pay-off and perks, once observed, “Perception is reality.”
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "Easy to lose"
From the January 24th 2004 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition


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Summary List PlacementApple is releasing a limited edition Black Unity Collection for the Apple Watch to celebrate Black History Month.
The collection is made up of three parts: a limited edition Apple Watch Series 6, the Black Unity Sport Band, and a Unity watch face, which are “designed to celebrate and acknowledge Black history and Black culture” Apple said in a press release.
Read more: Apple TV+ may lag far behind its competition, but Apple is still winning at its own game
Apple also committed to supporting six organization that promote civil rights: Black Lives Matter Support Fund via the Tides Foundation; European Network Against Racism; International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights; Leadership Conference Education Fund; NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.; and Souls Grown Deep.
The Apple Watch Series 6 has “Black Unity” etched onto the back crystal.
The words “Truth. Power. Solidarity,” are laser engraved on the fastening pin of the sport band, which is red, white, and black in honor of the Pan-African flag.
“Red for the blood that unites people of the African Diaspora and was shed for their liberation, black for the people whose existence is affirmed by the flag, and green for the vibrant natural wealth of Africa, the Motherland,” Apple explained in a press release.
The Watch face coordinates with the sport band in the same colors. Both were designed by “members of the Black creative community and allies throughout Apple” as part of the ongoing fight for racial justice, Apple said. The face is dynamic and changes as the Apple Watch moves.
Apple Watch users can also participate in a February Unity Activity Challenge by closing the Move ring seven days in a row to earn a limited edition award.
The new watch and band will both be available beginning February 1, and the Unity watch face is part of watchOS 7.3.
This collection from Apple comes about two weeks after the tech company announced new projects as part of a $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. Apple says it plans to launch the Propel Center, a learning hub for students from HBCUs, an Apple Developer Academy in Detroit, and increased venture capital funding for Black and Brown entrepreneurs.”We are all accountable to the urgent work of building a more just, more equitable world — and these new projects send a clear signal of Apple’s enduring commitment,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said.
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