text:
Facebook has unveiled a series of product updates to provide creators with new ways to make money on the platform and incentivise consumers to support their businesses.
With live experiences limited over the past year, artists, creators and cultural institutions around the world have transformed the way they engage with their audiences. Social media has played a major supporting role and Facebook has helped creators pivot to digital-first productions as a way to generate an income.
The video platform Facebook Watch alone receives 1.25 billion visitors each month and creators are able to directly make money from their content via sponsored content and In-stream ads.
From 2019 to 2020, Facebook saw In-stream ad payouts grow over 55%, with the number of content creators earning the equivalent of $10,000 USD per month growing 90% and creators earning $1,000 per month growing 100% — with video partners of all sizes earning meaningful revenue.
The updates announced include:
- Facebook’s online events tool will expand to several new EMEA countries, including Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Ireland, Morocco, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and United Arab Emirates;
- Widening the criteria for In Stream Ads, meaning more creators can now use in-stream ads to monetise their video content;
- Opening up In Stream Ads in Live videos to creators with 120,000 ‘is Live’ or ‘was Live’ minutes viewed in the last 60 days;
- Facebook continues to experiment with ad formats and is working with creators to try out Sticker ads in Stories.
In a blog post, Yoav Arnstein, Director of Facebook App Monetization, wrote: “Content creators — digipubs, video creators, gaming creators, media companies, cultural institutions, businesses of all sizes and more — build vibrant communities on Facebook. We want them to have the tools and support they need to earn money and thrive, whether creating and sharing content is a primary business, one of many revenue streams, or a lifeline that’s kept their business afloat during the pandemic.
“Content creators can earn money from ads via our in-stream ads program, from the support of their fans via fan subscriptions and paid online events, through our Stars feature and with paid partnerships via branded content and brand collabs manager. This means that all types of content creators can choose the mix of products that best matches the community they’ve built and the content they share.”
To learn more about Facebook’s latest offerings and for tips, best practices and to check eligibility for all products, visit Creator Studio.


text:
California’s small businesses waded through COVID to a rebound in consumer spending, only to face rising costs for supplies and wages.
With the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. working to come back from months of controversy, its newly hired chief diversity officer is optimistic about the group’s future.
Personal Finance and Guides
More Business News

domain: news


text:
Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali al-Moselhy stated Monday that Egypt currently had 14 logistic zones.
Those are direct and indirect jobs.
Those would create 250,000 direct and indirect jobs, and hopefully, improve the flow of supply chains in Egypt.
The Prime Minister announced that the government has allocated EGP 1.1 billion to the Supply Commodities Authority and the Agricultural Bank of Egypt for purchasing the local wheat from the farmers.
The minister said his ministry has adopted a number of measures to secure wheat reserves and worked on diversifying its import origins.
The total amount provided reached more than USD 1.5 billion, issued to health, education, housing, industry, agriculture, infrastructure projects, roads, and buildings.
That includes the sectors of retail, wholesale, transportation and storage.
Egypt is expected to achieve self-sufficiency of sugar by 100 percent in 2022.
The sector has begun recovery paving the way for figuring out demand levels, and hence, estimating supply and investments in the sector.
That was in the closing ceremonial activities of the staff capacity building program at the Ministry of Supply and the General Authority for Supply Commodities in cooperation with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation.
Production is double the market need.
The Egyptian company GRG and the Italian Sopria Holding Company – owner of Crai Retail Modeling – signed an MoU Sunday.
Minister of Industry and Trade Nevine Gamea issued Tuesday a decree suspending white sugar imports for another three months.
The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade will replicate a charity initiative that took place on April 23-May 11.
They are made available at reduced prices.
Egypt's Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade affirmed, Wednesday, the availability of all food commodities at markets, affirming that there is no need to panic regarding goods amid the crises of Coronavirus (Covid-19).
The third phase of Gameaty outlets project consists of 1,800 outlets.
A number of trucks will be designed to sell frozen food.
The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade started to electronically link the outlets selling subsidized goods with warehouses to inhibit embezzlement and random supply.
As per the subsidy system, the government should produce more than 11.4 billion loaves of bread monthly for about 76.4 million people who are eligible for the bread subsidy.


text:
Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
Uber is letting go of 3,700 full-time employees, 14 percent of its staff, and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is waiving his salary for the rest of the year, the rideshare and delivery company disclosed Wednesday.
Khosrowshahi's salary was $1 million in 2019.
Uber and competitor Lyft's rideshare businesses have taken a significant hit due to COVID-19 as people abide by local stay-at-home policies and avoid public transit and rideshare apps.
"With people taking fewer trips, the unfortunate reality is that there isn’t enough work for many of our front-line customer support employees," an Uber spokesperson told FOX Business.
"Since we don't know how long a recovery will take, we are taking steps to bring our costs in line with the size of our business today," the spokesperson said. "This was a tough decision, but it is the right one to help protect the company's long-term health and ensure we come out of this crisis stronger."
Uber has reduced its business partner operations workforce by more than half and its BPO-spend by millions of dollars, it said.
|UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Since the company is not hiring new workers, talent acquisition employees have also been laid off. About 40 percent of Uber's global "Greenlight Hubs," or offices where drivers can seek in-person help, will be closed, according to the company.
Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green have pledged to donate their salaries until June. The company's executives will also have a 30 percent salary reduction, vice presidents will have a 20 percent salary reduction and the rest of Lyft’s salaried employees will have a 10 percent salary reduction.
Uber reduced rideshare costs at the outset of the virus to meet customer needs and stopped its Uber Pool service in which a driver picks up multiple people along one route to save time and money.
One bright spot: Uber has seen an increased demand for food delivery due to the coronavirus. In order to keep up, Uber announced in April that it would expand its delivery services and offer 10 million free rides and delivers to people in need. The company has teamed up with companies like Tim Horton's and Stop & Shop to help deliver food to seniors and others forced to shelter in place.
FOX Business' Lucas Manfredi contributed to this report.


text:
Sustainability - Chicago
Chicago’s Lincoln Park Wins LEED Gold
The development includes more than 390,000 square feet of retail and commercial space across three buildings, as well as a 19-story, 199-unit luxury apartment tower.
IKEA’s Joliet Distribution Center to be Equipped with Solar Rooftop
The facility, combined with arrays atop the Chicago-area IKEA stores in Bolingbrook and Schaumburg, makes the retailer owner of three of the state’s largest solar rooftop installations.
Office 18 January 2016 16:30
Office 09 January 2013 16:18


text:
Released: January 11, 2018
States push back after net neutrality repeal
Source: Cecilia Kang, N.Y.Times (Paid Registration)
Lawmakers in at least six states, including California and New York, have introduced bills in recent weeks that would forbid internet providers to block or slow down sites or online services. Legislators in several other states, including North Carolina and Illinois, are weighing similar action.
By passing their own law, the state lawmakers say, they would ensure that consumers would find the content of the choice, maintain a diversity of voices online and protect businesses from having to pay fees to reach users.
Read Full Article: States push back after net neutrality repeal


text:
According to the BBC’s Today programme this week Nike has agreed to pay a million dollars to workers in unpaid overtime going back two years.
The only problem with this, is that it is not true or accurate.
That didn’t stop the UK’s Daily Telegraph reporting the same.
The real story is that a supplier factory in Indonesia has settled a dispute with workers on wages to the tune of the sum reported.
Many of the media headlines show the outlets concerned aren’t able, or willing, to differentiate between the company and one of its suppliers.
It looks to me like an inaccurate wire service story has been circulated and used by media outlets without fact checking. Or editors decided to sex up the story. (Wire services don’t purport, unlike the traditional media, to report the truth, only what they have been told)
So millions of people, in the UK and elsewhere, have now got a completely inaccurate picture of Nike’s business practices.
At least the Guardian has has the decency to correct their story.
I imagine there are all sorts of anti-Nike comments on social media as a result.
My bet is that Nike has spent a long time encouraging the factory to sort out this unpaid wages problem. I’m sure also that Nike is not their only customer.
I’m not saying that Nike might not have done more to persuade the factory to settle this matter earlier, or not underpay workers at all, but that’s very different from owning it and being responsible for the problem.
What does this unfair and inaccurate reporting have to teach us?
Firstly that 15 years of ever more responsible business practices doesn’t help you in a case like this. Your brand is too big a hook for media editors desperate for readers and listeners.
Secondly, and more importantly, that your suppliers are often acting in your name, or will be seen to be in the media, and therefore by customers.
Understanding how major suppliers work is going to be vital in securing your good name in the coming years.
Audits and questionnaires won’t cut it. Engagement in the business case for better working practices in supplier operations is the only way. Nike leads the way here, but gets little credit.
Meanwhile I imagine Nike’s media team is having a busy day.
Genuine supplier engagement on better business practices is where sustainable brands will need to focus in going beyond the current compliance agenda.


text:
In a notification sent to customers, the startup said there have been issues since just before 10 am on Sunday morning due to one of its suppliers running "an unexpected large migration" with no estimate of when services will return.
The issue is also affecting Revolut, another fintech startup which issues cards to customers.
Both firms are advising customers to use another card and apologised for any inconvenience.
UPDATE: Due to our card processor server issue we advise you to keep another card with you for the rest of the day. We’ll keep you posted.— Revolut (@RevolutApp) March 5, 2017
"Your money is safe and this is only a temporary issue," Monzo assured customers.
"We will be conducting a full review of how and why this happened and what can be done, both us and the supplier, to ensure this does not happen again."
Many users on Twitter aired their annoyance with the disruption. However, one user even gave Monzo a thumbs up for its communication.
"Thanks for the info, you're the first bank I've used that give a push notification when stuff isn't working. Thumbs up".
Update: A third startup in the fintech space, Loot, has also been affected.
⚠We’re experiencing an issue relating to payments & transactions. We're working to have this fixed within the next few hours! ⚠— Loot (@LootApp) March 5, 2017
Update: A fourth firm, Curve, has also been affected
Update: In its most recent update to customers, Monzo said card payments had started working again but topups, payments to other users and monzo.me were still not functioning.
Update: Full service has been returned to Monzo early on Monday morning, with the majority of services also returned to other firms affected.


text:
Guernsey retailers keen 'to embrace change'
There is an "enthusiasm for change" within Guernsey's shopping sector, according to one store.
A strategy aimed at revitalising the industry across the island, but centred on St Peter Port, has been unveiled by the Commerce and Employment Department.
It includes making some areas pedestrian, relaxing Sunday trading laws and adapting planning laws to help shops.
Tony Creasey, MD of Creasey's, said there were hopes to make things better.
He said: "Clearly it's not going to happen overnight, it'll be a phased thing, some of the policies hopefully will be adopted and will become policy that the planners and other departments of the States of Guernsey take on board."
Official figures show the retail industry employs about 4,000 people, making it the island's third-biggest economic sector, and about £350m is spent annually in shops.
The retail strategy group found compared with other high streets, Guernsey's was faring reasonably well.
The proposals it has put forward include making areas such as Church Square pedestrian only, making the Pollet more pedestrian friendly, appointing a town centre manager and helping local shops sell their products online.
Tony Rowbotham, the group's chairman, said: "We still have a reasonably robust and vibrant retail sector.
"How do you keep that and how do you improve on it in the future? That's really the key because we're all aware of the threats... whether it's the internet or overseas shopping."
Mr Creasey said his business would not support a move to deregulating the Sunday trading laws, under which only certain shops are currently allowed to open.
Mr Creasey said: "As a business we've never been keen. There isn't a huge pool of unemployment over here at the present time and actually staffing the shops on a Sunday at the level one would require to give good service may not be that easy."


text:
Home sales in China are seizing up as curbs on lending and worries about developers’ financial health deter house buyers, casting a pall over an industry that is central to the Chinese economy.
In recent days, numerous big developers have reported lower sales figures for September, with many showing year-over-year declines of more than 20% or 30%. That is a stark drop-off for a month that leads up to China’s Oct. 1 National Day holiday, whose promotions usually make this one of the strongest selling periods of the year.
If sustained, the sharp downturn could have serious economic consequences. Real estate has played an outsize role in China’s economy in recent years, compared with its importance in many other countries, and Chinese families have much of their wealth tied up in homes and in investment properties. Slower sales could spill over into investment and construction, potentially hurting growth, employment and local government finances. Discounting to spur sales could hurt home prices and hit household wealth.
Developers such as
China Evergrande Group
are very publicly struggling to adapt to a series of changes, including rules dubbed the “three red lines” that were introduced last year to curb debt growth at financially weaker companies, as well as caps on banks’ property lending. Some have missed interest payments, and stock and bond prices have dropped sharply across the industry. The news has alarmed home buyers, especially as developers sell many apartments before they are built.
The sales slowdown was partly a result of tighter government policy on mortgages and waning confidence among home buyers, said
Cheng Wee Tan,
a senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Customers are worried that developers won’t be able to complete their projects, and media reports about unfinished Evergrande constructions have added to those fears, he said.
Tian Guo, who lives in the eastern city of Wenzhou, had been actively looking for an apartment. She said she was now hesitating, after news about Evergrande made her worried about developers’ finances.
She said she now wouldn’t consider buying properties that were still being built. “I’m afraid they will be left unattended before construction is finished,” said Ms. Tian, who is 25 years old. “If we really had bad luck—throwing in our lifetime savings to buy an unfinished apartment—then we would be doomed,” she added.
Longfor Group Holdings Ltd.
China Resources Land Ltd.
became the latest major real-estate companies to release weak data. In a filing, Longfor said September’s contracted sales totaled the equivalent of $3.1 billion. That was down nearly 33% from a year earlier. China Resources Land reported a drop of nearly 24%.
Contracted sales are a widely watched industry measure. They reflect new contracts signed with home buyers and are a more forward-looking measure than revenue, which is typically recorded when companies hand completed units over to purchasers.
Stronger players haven’t been spared, with contracted sales falling 34% at
China Vanke Co.
, the country’s largest developer by market value. Unlike many of its peers, Vanke also enjoys investment-grade credit ratings, indicating its debt is seen as comparatively safe.
Evergrande hasn’t reported figures to Hong Kong’s exchange yet but warned on Sept. 14 that “ongoing negative media reports” had deterred home buyers, which would likely mean significantly lower sales in September. The other developers didn’t give explanations for their reduced sales.
The official corporate figures broadly tally with earlier data from CRIC, a Chinese data provider, which previously said total contracted sales among China’s 100 largest developers fell 36% year-over-year in September.
Huang Jun, a 25-year-old real-estate agent in Foshan, a city in the southern province of Guangdong, said he’s seen prices for new homes downtown drop about 20% from a recent peak in March, to the equivalent of about $346 a square foot on average.
“Virtually all developers have offered discounts over the past two months,” said Mr. Huang, who’s worked as a local property agent for four years. “Just like Evergrande, they must be under pressure to sell more flats” to repay borrowings, he said.
He said the discounts had attracted prospective buyers during the recent weeklong national holiday, but few sealed the deal. “Most of them want to wait and see if the prices would go down further,” he said, “In China, most people prefer to buy apartments when prices are rising, not falling.”
Falling sales could create stress at more developers, potentially preventing some from completing existing projects or forcing them to scale back future plans, said Logan Wright, director of China market research at Rhodium Group.
“If that continues, then the broader concern is whether some of the tightening measures come at the expense of the health of the entire sector,” Mr. Wright said. “You are going to see weaker financial conditions and weaker construction activities spilling out into the broader economy.”
Fitch Ratings last month cut its forecasts for Chinese economic expansion this year and next, saying slower housing activity would “take a toll on domestic demand.” It cut its forecast for GDP growth this year to 8.1% from 8.4%, and its forecast for next year to 5.2% from 5.5%.
From building sites to showrooms, the industry is an important source of both blue and white collar jobs in China. About 18% of China’s 285 million migrant workers earned income from construction-related jobs in 2020, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, while many college graduates work as real-estate agents. Local governments, meanwhile, rely on land sales to developers for about a third of their income.
All in, China’s residential real-estate market, including construction activity and services, accounted for about 23% of gross domestic product in 2018, according to
The bank’s economists have estimated that a 15% drop in land sales and a 5% decline in property sales and home prices would knock 1.4% off China’s GDP next year. In a worst-case scenario, they said a 30% decline in land sales and a 10% drop in property sales from this year to next could depress GDP by as much as 4.1%, with the biggest impact coming from tighter financial conditions.
For now, the drops in contracted sales reflect shrinking sales volumes more than declining prices, suggesting that while transactions are drying up, prices haven’t yet been as badly affected.
Sunac China Holdings Ltd.
, for example, the average selling price fell just 1.4% to the equivalent of slightly under $200 a square foot. But its contracted sales area shrank 31% to about 832 acres.
Still, there are signs that Chinese consumers think prices could fall. In the third quarter, the share of urban bank depositors in China expecting rising housing prices declined to 19.9%, according to a survey released by China’s central bank. That proportion is down from 25.1% a year ago and at its lowest since the first quarter of 2016.
Lower sales could also prompt more developers—desperate to recoup cash to repay debt obligations—to offer bigger discounts, which could put downward pressure on housing prices.
During the past month, officials from at least eight cities barred developers from making cuts to home prices that are deemed too sharp and in some cases instituted minimum prices, according to Chinese state media.
Write to Stella Yifan Xie at [email protected] and Elaine Yu at [email protected]
Copyright ©2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8


text:
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Wednesday that it will investigate a data breach disclosed by T-Mobile US, affecting more than 47 million current, former and potential customers.
The third-largest wireless operator in the United States said that personal data, including social security numbers and driver’s license information, from more than 40 million former and potential customers was stolen along with data from 7.8 million wireless customers. from existing T-Mobile.
Birthdates, first and last names were also stolen, the telecom operator said, adding that there was no indication that its financial data had been compromised.
“Telecommunications companies have a duty to protect their customers’ information. The FCC is aware of reports of data breaches affecting T-Mobile customers and we are investigating,” an FCC spokesman told Reuters.
The company, which had 104.8 million customers in June, acknowledged the data breach on Sunday after US digital media Vice reported that a seller posted on a clandestine forum offering private data, including social security numbers. of a violation on T-Mobile Servers.
T-Mobile also said that approximately 850,000 prepaid customer names, phone numbers and active T-Mobile account PINs were also exposed.
In 2015, AT&T agreed to pay a fine of $25 million (approximately Rs. 185 crores) to resolve an FCC investigation into consumer privacy violations in AT&T’s call centers.
Vice said the seller claimed that 100 million people had their data compromised in the breach. The seller was offering data on 30 million people for 6 Bitcoins, or about $270,000 (about Rs. 2 crores).
Later reports suggested that the asking price had fallen and all the data was selling for just $200 (about Rs. 14,860).
Reuters was unable to verify the veracity of the forum post.
T-Mobile’s data breach is the latest high-profile cyber attack as digital thieves take advantage of security weakened by work-at-home policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, the Poly Network cryptocurrency platform lost $610 million (about Rs. 4,530 crores) in a hack and later offered the hacker or hackers a “bug reward” of $500,000 (about Rs. 3.7 crores).
© Thomson Reuters 2021


text:
The brand, which is owned by Treasury Wine Estates, part of Foster's Group, is contacting agencies directly to invite them to compete for the business.
Rosemount Wines previously worked with Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R after the agency picked up the business two years ago. However, its last work for the brand broke in July 2009 and repositioned it as a "creator" of wine.
The TV work was backed by online and print activity that featured a series of images of women dressed to symbolise different wine varieties.
Rosemount is looking for an agency to create work to run across key markets including the UK, Australia and the US.
The ad review follows recent reports that Foster's Group is still considering plans to sell or spin off its wine business after turning down an offer from an unnamed private equity group.


text:
Key Facts about Egypt's Electronic Invoicing System
Electronic invoicing in Egypt will become mandatory beginning on 15 November 2020. The measure was announced in March by the Ministry of Finance through decree Nº.188. It aims to encourage digital transformation, improve fiscal control, and reduce fraud and tax evasion.
The project is currently in its pilot phase. During this testing stage, participant companies are discussing first impressions and experiences with the government to optimize the billing system before it is launched to the rest of the taxpayers.
Once the testing period ends in November, the Egyptian government will begin largescale rollout whereby 134 companies will implement the system. This measure was announced by the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) in decree No. 386. The remaining taxpayers will join gradually, according to annual turnover. EDICOM is one of the companies participating in the initial phase as an electronic invoicing technology provider.
Objectives of Electronic Invoicing in Egypt
Promote digital transformation in government and businesses.
Eliminate the underground economy.
Fight tax evasion.
Improve tax control.
Offer equal opportunities to Egyptian companies.
Features of the Egyptian Invoicing System
The Egyptian tax authority has opted for a clearance model. Companies must first send electronic invoices to the tax administration for their validation. Once validated, they can be delivered to recipients. Electronic invoices must also be electronically signed to ensure the security of the information exchanged. In Latin America, the most advanced region in terms of electronic invoicing in the world, this type of system is widespread and allows for greater tax control.
Which companies will be affected?
All companies operating in Egypt selling taxable goods or services will be affected. The first phase will incorporate 134 companies. All other taxpayers will be added in a staggered manner according to their annual turnover.
When does the requirement come into effect?
The use of electronic invoicing in the B2B sector will become mandatory on 15 November.
e-Invoicing Requirements in Egypt
Issuers must be registered in the Egyptian invoicing system.
Invoices must be electronically signed before delivery to the tax authority.
The invoice format is JSON or XML.
All invoices must include a unique UUID (Unique ID) code.
The products must be coded according to the GPC classification of the GS1 standard.
Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS): Egypt Vision 2030
The government’s new invoicing system aligns with the strategies of its sustainable development plan, Egypt Vision 2030. The plan is a set of initiatives which would have Egypt ranked among the top 30 countries in terms of GDP, quality of life, human development, competitiveness, and anti-corruption by 2030.
The implementation of electronic invoicing is a step toward the digital transformation that the country is pursuing.
EDICOM – Your e-Invoicing Partner in Egypt
EDICOM is one of the first companies to offer electronic invoicing services in Egypt that comply with the tax authority’s technical and legal requirements.
With the fully integrated Global e-Invoicing Platform, you can send and receive electronic invoices automatically. The platform transforms any invoice format into the Egyptian standard, signing the document electronically and sending it to the government for prior validation. In the event of cancellation or rejection by the Egyptian government, the EDICOM platform will send you a notification, allowing for constant traceability of your invoices. The validated invoices are sent to the recipient according to the format agreed upon between the parties.


text:
'Wheels are coming off economy'
GORDON Brown's miracle economy will start to come apart during the second half of this year, says a leading independent forecaster.
The Item group has used the Treasury's own computer model to predict mounting deficits and rising unemployment.
'The wheels are coming off the wagon,' said Item economist Professor Peter Spencer of York University. 'Brown is in big trouble.'
Item says the weakness has stopped Brown from imposing the post-election tax rises needed to balance his books. 'With the economy looking wobbly, he is likely to postpone any corrective action beyond the 2006 Budget,' it states.
Last week, Brown delayed the next three-year spending review - due next year - until 2007 and altered the starting point of the current economic cycle, a move thought to have given an extra £12bn to meet his own rules on spending and borrowing. But Item says this will make matters worse.
Most watched Money videos
- Taking a look at the Jaguar XJ220 from all angles on a test drive
- Advert for Sainsbury's flagship store Habitat as it is relaunched
- Taking a look at the E10 fuel hoping to help the UK go net zero
- Britain's best used car this year: The French-made Peugeot 5008
- Rolls-Royce begin testing on their first fully electric car model
- Scaled-down electric Aston Martin DB5 marks release of new Bond film
- Britain's Garage of the Year 2021 nominee's incredible construction
- Taking a look at the electric converted Lunaz Aston Martin classic
- The classic Moke is reborn as an electric vehicle
- Dacia unveil the Jogger: the UK's least expensive seven-seat car
- Tesla Model Y: Electric compact SUV goes on sale in UK
- Take a glimpse of the Bugatti supercar set to be auctioned for £2.1m


text:
Fiat India is launching the new Fiat Grande Punto in the Indian auto market today, (3rd, January, 2012). About the launch of the new Fiat Grande Punto the company has already made announcement. The company will launch this re-freshed version of all the variants of the popular Fiat small car. The company is launching this new avatar of the popular Fiat hatchback during New Delhi Auto Expo 2012, to attract customers. On the other hand, this new version of Fiat Grande has recently been spotted and the new Fiat Grande Punto pictures available on the Internet.
The new Fiat Grande Punto has very minor changes at exterior and interior which make it more attractive than current outgoing model. The new Fiat Grande Punto review indicates that it will a price hike a minor level or 1 per cent to 2 per cent. The company would increase the new Fiat Grande Punto price due to including of some of new features and specifications. The new version of the popular beast is expected to give stiff competition to Ford Figo, Hyundai i20, Maruti Swift, Honda Jazz and Skoda Fabia.
The company is launching this new avatar for all the engine version of Skoda Grande Punto like 1.2 liter and 1.4 liter petrol variant; 1.3 liter Multijet diesel engine which comes in two trims as from power wise like 75 Bhp and 90 Bhp. The new Fiat Grande Punto mileage will also be increased at minor level to impressive the Fiat small car lovers. The new Fiat Grande Punto features which have specially added in it are black and grey coloured interior, new pattern's seat covers, a new blue color scheme, Powerful AC and so forth.
There no more changes is expected to seen in the New Fiat Grande Punto specifications but mileage will be increased. Overall, the new version of the popular Fiat small car is more similar to current model leave the some of new interior tweaks and new blue colour scheme. For further details stay tuned with us...
On the other hand, Some of launched popular car models in India in 2011 are New Honda City, new Tata Nano, Skoda Rapid, Hyundai Eon, Nissan Sunny, new Tata Indica Vista, Force One, New Maruti Swift, New Volkswagen Jetta, New Honda Jazz, Honda Brio, Toyota Etios Liva, Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Beat diesel, Audi A6, Tata Aria 4x2, new Tata Indica Xeta, Mahindra XUV 500 etc.


text: A plethora of empty space already outfitted with kitchen appliances and a chance to take advantage of historically low rents is driving restaurateurs to sign fresh leases across New York City. Food and beverage tenants were the most active in signing retail deals across Manhattan during the second quarter ended June 30, according to commercial real estate services firm CBRE. Some, like Flex Mussels, are staging a comeback after last year’s indoor dining restrictions decimated the industry. The seafood establishment is moving one block over from its pre-pandemic home on the Upper East Side to take over a roughly 4,500-square-foot, two-story space that was vacated by a Turkish restaurant in 2020. Read more at CNBC.


text:
Dell has announced and demonstrated Concept Luna, a radical rethinking of how laptops are designed, with an emphasis on bolstering repairability and sustainability.
Companies like Dell have ambitious goals to go carbon neutral, and they’re well aware that recycling old tech won’t ever be enough to reach those goals. Concept Luna goes far beyond recycling, injecting sustainability into how laptops are designed to make them far more reusable in the future.
Concept Luna laptops don’t look all that different from a standard Dell laptop, but inside, they couldn’t be more different. These laptops put the majority of the device’s guts behind the screen rather than under the keyboard. The battery remains, but the motherboard and other components have all been moved to behind the screen and would be cooled passively. These laptops would be built more like a tablet in that regard.
Dell says this would dramatically increase both the long-term repairability of the laptops and the ability to reuse components. According to Dell, the goal is to get up to three complete life cycles from the motherboard, which would be harvested from laptops that are traded in.
For example, someone might buy a high-end XPS laptop one year, and then decide to trade it in for another just a year or two later. Hypothetically, Dell could then harvest the motherboard and reuse it in a cheaper product in the Inspiron line.
That also means all of the internal components are easily accessible and user replaceable, which greatly extends the life span of the device.
These would need to be marked down, of course, and Dell was aware that some discounts might be needed to entice consumers.
Dell claims this new design would reduces its carbon footprint by 50%, primarily due to the internals and motherboard.
None of this is set in stone, of course. Concept Luna is still just an idea, though Dell already had a working model of these laptops to show off.
As right to repair increasingly becomes a pressing issue for tech companies, we should expect to see more attempts to make meaningful improvements to repairability. The Framework Laptop is built entirely around this idea, and even the new MacBook Pro made some positive changes that impact repairability.
- Pico 4 VR headset is here to take on the Meta Quest 2
- Microsoft confirms Surface event for October 12, Surface Pro 9 expected
- TikTok is banning campaign fundraising on its app
- The Framework Laptop Chromebook costs $1,000, but it might be worth it
- What is ray tracing, and how will it change games?


text:
India has introduced several initiatives to attain gender parity and help in building women-led businesses.
Recently Indian Science, Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM) launched an initiative to strengthen the efforts of scientifically inclined women. It also launched a platform on September 6, called WEST (Women in Engineering, Science and Technology). This platform can invite women researchers to register at the I-STEM, Asianlite International reported.
According to Asian Lite International, through the WEST initiatives, women will get more opportunities, which can help make them entrepreneurs.
In addition, a digital consortium “Connect Quickly” for an online discussion and immediate support has also been established through the I-STEM WhatsApp and Telegram platforms. A dedicated team of women will ensure the successful implementation of the WEST initiative.
The new WEST initiative strengthens the idea of “Equal Opportunities to All”. It is believed that women remained aloof from the technology sector and the gap was critical to the bridge. But now with a targeted appeal, it would invite more engagement to scientifically inclined women, reported Asianlite international.
In this new development, technology giant Google launched a new initiative where it announced the first cohort of 20 women-founded/co-founded startups, selected from close to 400 applications under its ‘Google for Startups Accelerator India Women Founders’ programmeIt further stated that its women-focused accelerator program would help these startups in areas such as — access to capital, resolving problems in hiring talent, mentorship and other allied challenges faced by women entrepreneurs.
The project, to be implemented in 170 villages/towns across Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, will train over 8,500 women. It will focus on creating sustainable, long-term skills for entrepreneurship among participants and provide women entrepreneurs with financial services relevant to their enterprises and communities, according to Asianlite international.
Google India’s accelerator program will also host workshops and support startups in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud, UX, Android, web, product strategy and growth. It will further connect them with a global community of women entrepreneurs.
Another company, Visa has pledged USD 1 million to United Way Mumbai (UWM) to empower women-owned and women-focused businesses over the next three years.
This is another development in bridging the gap and making women entrepreneurs.
This project will be implemented in 170 villages/towns across Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, and Karnataka and will train over 8,500 women. It will focus on creating sustainable, long-term skills for entrepreneurship among participants and provide women entrepreneurs with financial services relevant to their enterprises and communities, reported Asianlite international.


text:
Why did video cards become so expensive and when will GPUs fall in price?
One of the most talked about topics among gamers is the insane cost of video cards. Without any visible changes by the developers, they increase in price and this trend has been going on for quite a long time. We tried to figure out when this excitement will subside and what gamers should expect to buy a video card at a good, or at least an adequate price.
What is the reason why video cards have soared in price?
Gamers from all over the world are wondering why they can’t buy a top-end graphics card at the right price. If earlier, during a conversation about video cards, we were talking about amounts up to $ 1,000, today the price is over $ 2,500-3,000. This makes video cards inaccessible to gamers, their entire assembly could be cheaper than a single video card. Moreover, even gaming laptops have started to rise significantly in price. It would seem that gamers began to buy less video cards because of their cost, manufacturers should have reduced the price, but this is not happening.
This is to blame for the cryptocurrency, which is produced by video cards. From a gamer’s point of view, the market for video cards should have exceeded demand, but in reality this is not the case. No matter how actively manufacturers work, miners quickly buy up everything, thereby creating a deficit. Even if you have the required amount to buy a video card, it will not be possible to purchase it immediately, you will need to wait for new deliveries. For the miner, video cards have also risen in price, but bitcoin has also surpassed the $ 50,000 mark per unit. Mining cryptocurrency, the miner will return all his money and earn, and the gamer will remain in a big minus.
How much did video cards rise in price?
We can safely say that even simple video cards have risen in price by 100% of their original price. If earlier it was possible to take $ 1000 and buy a good gaming video card, today you will have to pay 2-3 times more. All video cards that enter the domestic market are immediately sold out by miners, no matter what price the store or retail network sets. Due to the constant scarcity, such a rapid rise in prices occurs. Nvidia announced that the average prices for video cards in recent years have increased by up to 70%, but in reality the growth is greater. Even if a card appears on the market with a minimal mark-up, it is almost impossible to buy it.
Everything can be seen in comparison with previous years. If in 2015 you wanted to buy a flagship graphics card, and it was a GTX 980 Ti, then you had to give $ 650. This is the actual price you would give away at an electronics store near your home. In 2021, the flagship GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card is officially sold for $ 1,500, but you can’t buy it for this money, you will have to pay twice as much.
When will this insane demand stop and what should gamers expect?
To understand when it will be possible to purchase video cards at more affordable prices and the sharp surges will stop, it is necessary to study history. At the end of 2017, there was a similar situation, bitcoin added almost 200% to the price, breaking world records. Miners began to actively purchase video cards, there was a shortage of them and the prices soared. In 2018, there was a drop in the price of bitcoin and video cards began to return to store shelves and began to be sold at more optimal prices. Therefore, we can safely say that there are several options for the development of events that will lead to a reduction in the cost of gaming equipment.
Option 1: hardware mining protection will work
It should be remembered that video card manufacturers do not benefit from such a strong demand for video cards from miners. The point is that if gamers cannot purchase video cards, then game developers will not have the motivation to create new projects, and this will lead to the collapse of the entire industry. Bitcoin may fall in price, it is not the most stable currency, and the developers will not come back, because they have to work on projects for years and everything may be in vain. New GPUs from Nvidia, which will have built-in hardware protection against mining, can help in solving this problem.
In the software part, protection is already there, the device driver does not allow mining cryptocurrency on top video cards, but software protection can be bypassed and everyone uses it. The hardware protection will be hardcoded into the GPU and cannot be bypassed. Today we are talking about the fact that such protection will receive video cards GeForce RTX 3060, 3060 Ti, 3070 and 3080 Ti. This is bad news for cryptocurrency miners, but great news for game content developers and gamers.
Option 2: the cryptocurrency will start to fall in price
If the cryptocurrency starts to fall in price, then the cost of video cards will also rapidly creep down. The miner will not spend a lot of money on a video card that does not pay off or does not bring him earnings. Gradually, video cards will begin to return to store shelves, the price for them will be lowered to the nominal. However, there are serious concerns that Bitcoin will not soon decline to the point where buying a video card for several thousand dollars will be unprofitable. And yet, the cryptocurrency market is not the most stable, which means that one can hope for a rapid drop in the price of bitcoin, which will pull everyone else along with it.
Option 3: mining profitability will decrease
In order for video cards to be purchased by miners, certain conditions must be made for them. A miner does not buy a video card because he likes it, he only buys it to make money. A decrease in the profitability of mining will lead to the fact that a huge number of miners will be forced to stop their activities, and this will already lead to a decrease in the price of video cards.
For example, if the price of electricity rises significantly, then the income of miners will significantly decrease. Electricity is the main source of losses for mining, more than 70% of income has to be spent on it. The increase in the price of electricity and the stability of the bitcoin rate will lead to the fact that it will no longer be so profitable to mine the cryptocurrency.
Do not forget that every year it becomes more and more difficult to mine cryptocurrency. Mining directly depends on how many miners take part in it and what equipment each of them uses. If we are talking about bitcoin, then getting it even with top-end video cards is becoming more and more difficult, because there are those who use expensive asics devices and simply take most of the coins for themselves. If everyone switches to asics, then video cards will simply not be needed, which means that they will begin to fall in price.
What should gamers do now?
Of course, a reduction in the price of video cards is possible, but you want to play right now. The industry continues to work so far, new gaming projects appear, which are very interesting and are designed for a new generation of video cards. If a video card at an adequate price is needed today, then there really is a way out. You can turn to stores from the USA and Europe, where prices remain more than optimal. There is also mining there, but electricity is so expensive that it is not profitable to mine cryptocurrency using standard methods. If you can buy a top-end video card today for 3000 dollars, then in the USA you can quite count on a price below 1500. Even taking into account the cost of delivery, this will be a more profitable option.
Here is the same RTX 3090 video card, which we have costs 350 thousand rubles, in the US market will cost $ 1500.
Another way out of this situation is to buy a used video card. These are on the market and there are quite a few of them, the prices are optimal. But here you need to be careful, you need to understand that a video card can be sold by the same cryptocurrency miner, which means that it worked in harsh conditions. Often times, mining farms are not properly maintained, resulting in severe overheating of the graphics chip. It is imperative to check and test used video cards before buying to make sure they work.


text:
Burglars used a crowbar to break into a convenience store in a pedestrian area of Leicester in the early hours of this morning (December 4).
The suspects broke into the Riddhi convenience store, in King Street, through the New Walk entrance at around 5.40am today.
They took bottles of alcohol from the shelves before leaving after tripping the alarm.
A member of staff who asked not to be named said: "We got a notification on our phone this morning about the alarm.
"I checked the CCTV and saw two people in the shop.
"They used a crowbar to get in and they went straight for the alcohol and then went straight back out."
The member of staff added: "Police were here this morning and they said they found the crowbar."
A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Police said: "We received a report this morning (Thurs) of a burglary at a premises in King Street, Leicester.
"It is believed the break in happened at around 5.40am.
"A window was broken at the store to gain entry and bottles of alcohol were stolen."
The front of the shop remained damaged for most of today, with the front window almost completely caved in.
Workmen were seen repairing the window this evening.
Another member of staff said the window would cost an estimated £1,000 to replace.
This is not the first time the shop has been targeted, as burglars broke into the shop in the early hours of November 22.
That time the suspects took cigarettes and cash from the till.
The police spokeswoman added: "It is believed the store was broken into during the early hours of that morning.
"No-one else was reported to be at the store at the time of the break ins and no injuries were reported.
"Investigations are ongoing into the reports."
Anyone with information should contact Leicestershire Police on 101.


text:
Nearly six months after President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, the long-term effects have yet to become clear, but uncertainty in the short-term has led to market fluctuations that ripple across the economy.
“The uncertainty really seems to be the key piece,” said Tucson Metro Chamber President and CEO Amber Smith. “That uncertainty alone will drive up the costs and halt projects, which has a whole other consequence.”
Though most businesses that don’t deal directly with industrial metals haven’t seen much change, Smith said development projects have become more difficult as the timeline for project bids has decreased because no one knows how prices will settle in the future.
As prices increase for imported steel and aluminum due to the tariffs, domestic metal mills have increased their prices for industrial metals, said Roger Cundick, general manager for the Tucson and Phoenix stores of Industrial Metal Supply based in California.
Cundick said metal mills have raised their prices somewhere in the ballpark of 10 to 20 percent, but the market has been the best he’s seen it in more than 20 years of selling metal.
“People have not been very happy—not been receptive to it,” he said. “But business is still good. Everybody’s pretty busy right now.”
Some of Industrial Metal Supply’s biggest customers are defense contractors, such as Raytheon and Boeing.
Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy told CNBC News that the tariffs don’t really affect them, as most of their steel and aluminum comes from domestic producers anyway. If business does take a turn for the worst, Kennedy is confident that foreign markets will sustain them.
Despite increased costs, Cundick said metal distributors have shifted their purchases from imports to domestic products.
“The import stuff kind of kept everyone in line,” he said.
But without the competition of cheaper metals abroad, domestic mills have less incentive to keep prices low.
Cundick said his customers with businesses that have to plan ahead, such as machine shops or fabricators that release yearly or quarterly catalogues at set prices, stand to get the worst of the deal.
He said if those companies don’t raise their prices to adjust to the new prices for raw materials, they may have to make labor cuts, but won’t necessarily shut down.
For his part, Cundick said he hopes the tariffs have the effect the President intends them to have.
Carlos Ruiz, owner and operator of HT Metals in Tucson, has had a different experience. HT Metals sells mostly to small-to-mid-sized machine shops, a smaller market than Industrial Metal Supply.
Ruiz said many of his customer stocked up immediately following the tariff announcements in anticipation of increased costs, and now the market has slowed down.
“I think there’s a month here where things are kind of being digested,” he said. “I think it’ll get better, it’s just this weird five months.”
One problem Ruiz has run into is a shortage of specialty aluminum cuts. A combination of long production periods and the rush to buy metal at a cheaper price have led to a lag in some supply chains.
“It’s not like bread where you can say ‘Oh we’ll just make bread the next day,’ It doesn’t replenish that quickly,” he said.
Demand for those products hasn’t changed, though, Ruiz said. Though his business has grown over the last several years, and Ruiz is dealing with new scales of business, he said he’s never seen a period in which the market has hit this kind of shortage.
The other end of President Trump’s trade maneuvering reveals itself in the form of retaliatory tariffs.
In July, China imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. imports in response to the President’s tariffs. Some of those tariffs target agricultural products produced in the U.S.
Dick Walden owns and manages Green Valley Pecan Company. He said China raised its duty on U.S. Pecans from 7 percent to 47 percent in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Walden said China buys between 15 and 18 percent of the U.S. production of pecans, used for cereals and snacks. Green Valley Pecan Company makes up about 8 to 10 percent of the national production.
“Agriculture is not recognized for the economic engine that it is in our total nationwide economy,” he said.
Like many other sectors, Walden said the total effects of the tariffs have yet to be seen, but he said pecan prices will probably be 15 to 18 percent cheaper than last year due to the decrease in demand.
“We just have to wait and see what happens,” he said. “There’s just a lot of moving parts and a lot of unknowns brought out by the antics of this administration.”
Walden’s major concerns focus on the global market. He worries that the tariffs may have such a negative effect on China that the rest of the world experiences a downturn as well.
“Pecans, as all tree nuts, is a world market,” he said. “If there’s a change in demand someplace, it effects the entire pricing structure for the whole world.”
Walden has raised his concerns of low prices with the National Pecan Sellers Association and National Pecan Federation responsible for lobbying at the federal level.
Smith said the Tucson Metro Chamber lobbies at the federal level, but hasn’t taken a stance on the tariffs. She said none of their members have raised concerns, but they’ll act if prompted.
“We will react whenever our members reach out to us,” she said.
She said most of the information they’ve received about the effects is secondhand, and that they haven’t heard directly from members.
While many businesses may be riding the economic boon of the last couple years, uncertainty and anticipation has some taking a wait-and-see strategy to future decisions.
“It’s nice that the accelerator was going with tax cuts and deregulation,” Ruiz said. “I’m just not a fan of how the whole tariff thing went down.”
Nick Meyers is a Tucson Local Media freelance reporter.


text:
Young Icelandic designer Gudbjörg Reykjalín recently opened Moegtoej, a new clothing store in the heart of Copenhagen.
“Moegtoej is something special,” Reykjalín told icelandreview.com. “It is not just a clothing store; it is also our work shop. Every piece of clothing is produced in the shop and is really unique as it is only available in few copies,” she adds.
Reykjalín grew up in Akureyri, Iceland, but has lived in Copenhagen since the beginning of her teens, and that is where she chose to study. After graduating, she and her classmates decided to open Moegtoej together, where they would all produce and sell clothing under their own label. Their work shop and clothing store opened on 27th April this year.
“The reaction has been great,” says Reykjalín. “We have received a lot of compliments for our designs and that gives us the motivation to keep designing.”
Reykjalín sells clothing for women under the label greykjalin, which is characterized by lively and colorful designs and puts emphasis on the female body. Reykjalín’s latest collection was inspired by life in the circus.
She is now working on a winter collection inspired by her home country. “The colors in the Icelandic nature are truly unique,” Reykjalín says.
“I find the grey color of the lava stones and the clay volcanoes particularly beautiful and the yellow and purple of the flowers in summer,” she explains.
Iceland has inspired Reykjalín’s design before. Her final project was redesigning the Icelandic national costume, which she modernized and simplified. She hopes to introduce it to the Icelandic market soon.


text:
Approximately 3.1 million residents of the eight-state Mountain Region will travel 50 miles or more during the July Fourth holiday, a 4.8 percent increase over 2011, according to AAA New Mexico.
The holiday week runs from Tuesday, July 3, through Sunday, July 8, AAA said. Because the holiday falls on a Wednesday, many people intend to take off work before and after July 4, AAA said.
“The increase in travel on this 4th of July is a result of Mountain Region travelers’ desire for travel, a mid-week holiday where many travelers may choose to extend their vacation and lower gas prices,” said AAA New Mexico Regional Manager Ana Gonzalez. “This is the second holiday this year where travelers indicated a determination to travel while economizing by actively seeking value-added travel options and activities.”
Of those 3.1 million travelers, 2.4 million intend to get to their destinations by car or truck, AAA added.
AAA says the Mountain Region includes eight states: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.


text:
Sony just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to their online security. Last month their PlayStation network was hacked and well over 100 million online accounts were compromised. Now, on a much smaller scale, it seems the Sony Ericsson Canada eShop was also hacked. 2,000 Canadian customer email addresses and passwords were taken and Sony says no credit card information was swiped.
The Sony Ericcson Canada eShop has been shut down while they are fixing the security issue. If one would take the time to visit the site it reads “D’oh!. The page you’re looking for has gone walkabout. Sorry. Don’t worry though. We’ll help you get where you want to be.”


text:
In September 2007, consumers' online spending was 73.2% higher than September 2006. The figures, from the industry body for global online retailing, IMRG, and Capgemini, also show September was the third consecutive month where year-on-year growth was below 20%.
The figures will be a concern to online publishers, with recent IAB figures showing online ad spend growth is slowing too. IMRG and Capgemini said UK online shoppers spent 23.6% more on clothing in September, compared with the previous month. September also saw shoppers stocking up for Christmas, spending more online on electrical items, gifts and alcohol.


text:
Archive for September, 2016
Long Island 2017 Fit | New York Honda Dealer
Looking for a compact car that truly raises the bar? Take a look at the Honda Fit. “With the Fit, Honda has raised the bar in a segment that has some pretty tough competition… It’s no longer a question of settling for less, but rather settling for the best,” reports Kelley Blue Book. On sale now, the 2017 Honda Fit is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the United States as the third generation of Honda’s versatile 5-door subcompact hatchback. The award-winning Honda Fit has it all – affordability, refinement, and just plain fun.
Bronx Cruise Control Savings | Queens Honda Dealer
According to a study, more than one-third of drivers almost always use cruise control when it is safe to do so. This data shows that cruise control is a driver’s favorite car feature. Cruise control has many positives. For example, drivers can rest their feet while maintaining a constant speed on a long trip. Also, they need not worry about driving too fast or too slow. However many drivers do not know that cruise control not just saves from the hassles of driving, but also saves them on gas and speeding ticket expenditures. Bay Ridge Honda elaborates on how cruise control helps save you money below.


text:
Ten years and a new owner
URBAN Eat has marked its tenth birthday with a change in ownership for the sandwich brand.
Chilled and ambient food manufacturer Samworth Brothers has purchased the brand, which will now form part of the firm’s Food For Now Company offer.
The current Urban Eat range available through Fresh Food For Now includes the brand’s most popular sandwiches and wraps as well as its meat-free ‘Roots’ range.
Samworth Brothers has also reinstated Urban Eats’ hot range, which includes paninis and toasties.
The brand will also offer gluten free and light choices.
A spokesperson for Fresh Food For Now Company said: “We are delighted to have acquired such a well-respected brand which has been a staple of the food-to-go sector for an impressive ten years.
“With the addition of Urban Eat to our portfolio, Fresh Food For Now Company is now the one-stop-shop for every food-to-go outlet in the UK, especially as the sector gets back on its feet.
“Bringing Urban Eat on board is just the beginning. We’re busy making exciting plans for the future of the brand, so watch this space.”


text:
TechTarget recently published a report on the philosophies and priorities of European IT senior management and its findings are very much in tune with the way in which we approach our PR and marketing campaigns here at Aspectus. Among the many useful insights, the report states that ‘European CIOs increasingly come from business backgrounds, or have spent time working in the business’.
Certainly, the role of the CIO is going through huge change at the moment, not least because of the slew of new technology trends – BYOD (bring your own device), Big Data, and cloud computing (utility pricing and ‘as a service’ delivery models) to name but a few – but also because these trends are driving a change in the way IT is perceived. Users are becoming increasingly adept at managing multiple devices such as smartphones and tablets, while business leaders see IT as more of a commoditised service.
This is an important finding because it reinforces the view that PR and marketing campaigns need to focus on business benefits rather than technical features and capabilities. The latter two are of course important factors when it comes to specifying a solution or piece of kit, but senior management are more interested in what a technology can do for their business and the impact it can have on the bottom line.
The best way to pique their interest is therefore to focus on practical examples of how they can harness new technology developments and trends to increase agility, efficiency and productivity and ultimately, transform their organisation into a more profitable and competitive business.


text:
Kings Avenue Mall shops demand the government relax COVID measures for Paphos arguing the district’s epidemiological data is better than the rest of the island.
Shopkeepers urge authorities to allow malls and catering establishments to stay open, citing Paphos’ improved epidemiological data since a local lockdown from 13 to 29 November.
As businesses have already suffered two lockdowns, they feel they are being punished a third time by new government restrictions where shopping and hospitality venues must close until the new year.
The head of the local federation of catering establishments Phytos Thrasyvoulou told the Cyprus News Agency that food and beverage businesses will not to be able to reopen once the crisis over.
“The situation for the sector in Paphos is particularly dire, given the lockdown measures that had been implemented here and in Limassol last month,” said Thrasyvoulou.
President of the Aphrodite tourist shops Akis Hadjikyriakos told CNA that Paphos was again being victimised.
New measures, in force from Friday, include the closure of malls and all hospitality venues across Cyprus. They were introduced to stop cases spiralling out of control.
Data presented by authorities on Wednesday showed an increase in the country’s 14-day cumulative notification rate reaching 388.1 while Larnaca and Nicosia are of high concern.
The 14-day cumulative notification rate for Famagusta has risen to 613.5 per 100,000 inhabitants from 452.3 in the previous study released a week ago.
Cases in Nicosia are also rising dangerously as the capital now has a 14-day cumulative notification rate of 475.1 per 100,000 up from 335.1.
Larnaca data has increased to 412.1 from 376, while Limassol is second with a 14-day cumulative notification rate of 273.5 per 100,000 down from 428.7.
Paphos businesses base their objections to the new measures on the fact that Paphos is last with 140.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 123 a week earlier.
Except for Paphos, all districts are far above the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s benchmark 150 per 100,000.
Claiming that they have been unfairly penalised, Paphos mall shopkeepers had planned a protest on Thursday morning which they called off citing respect for the protocols issued by the Health Ministry.
Thursday saw long queues form at Paphos’ Kings Avenue Mall as shoppers rushed to do their Christmas shopping on the last day before the decree came into effect.


text:
Topgolf Executive Chair Erik Anderson was the featured interview at the Octagon Sports Marketing Symposium Tuesday and said the company hopes to be in 50 markets by year’s end with aggressive plans to expand stand-alone and other off-shoot versions of Topgolf.
Eric Fisher from SportsBusinessDaily reports and includes this:
Roughly half of Topgolf clientele were not initially active golfers, though play at their facilities has translated to some increases in play at traditional courses. Roughly half are aged 18-34, a highly coveted demo by every other sports property. “The big idea for us was take out a lot of the barriers of golf, such as around time, cost and skill, and make it about fun and community,” Anderson said.
And this on a possible looming IPO is of note:
Anderson said Topgolf is considering an IPO for the company, but did not provide specifics around the likelihood of that or a potential timetable for a decision. “We are a candidate to go public for sure. It would be silly to say otherwise. ... We’re probably an interesting public company, like Starbucks was given how people connect with us.”
SBD posted a couple of snippets of Anderson’s conversation.
Of course there was a “subscription” and a Netflix mention, but you’re not a good CEO if you aren’t tossing the millennials and those who want to pick their pockets the preferred candies of the day.
Here is Anderson on golf needing more shortened pay-as-many-as-you-play options (“mini subscriptions”):
On the companies Topgolf says you should be on the look out for. No big surprises here…


text:
Virat Anushka Wedding: Ad Gurus Differ on How This Will Affect the Couple’s Brand
Virushka's wedding news had ad-makers take different opinions on how this would affect the couple's individual brand images
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma at the Indian Sports Honours on Saturday. (Yogen Shah)
Speaking to News18, renowned adman Prahlad Kakkar said that brand Virushka will get a huge boost with Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma tying the knot. He went on to say that the marriage of the two stars augurs well for the advertisement industry.
“It is great news for everyone because as a brand Virushka gets stronger. The idea now will be to get a package deal and get both of them to endorse the same product. “Both of them are superstars and by coming together they will be able to command a higher value,” said Kakkar.
He further added that Virat and Anushka’s wedding comes close to the union of Tiger Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore but not bigger than them, noting, “Sharmila was a huge star when she decided to marry Tiger Pataudi. And Mansoor Ali Khan apart from his royalty was also a major style icon. Nothing can beat that.” Kakkar also said that Virushka’s marriage is as big as Abhishek Bachchan tying the knot with Aishwarya Rai as both of them were superstars when they got married.
On the other hand, brand value analyst Harish Bijoor had another take on the subject, saying, “I have contrary views on this, while it is great that the couple got married but their brand value will go down. Individually each of them have great brand presence but just like Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan they will eventually become just another couple. I wish them all the best for their life.”
Shailendra Singh, former joint managing director of Percept Group and a renowned brand specialist, compared Virushka’s marriage to that of Former England Football captain David Beckham and Spice Girls star Victoria Beckham. “I think this is as big as Beckham marrying Victoria. Virat sells as a youth icon and also as a family ambassador and his marriage to Anushka will throw open the market for them. I think they will be able to command a lot more value together than they did individually,” he said, adding, “Both of them are a symbol and example for young India, the fact that you can have a life on the field and off it as well and that you don’t need to hide anything.”
Recommended For You
- David Dhawan Slaps Son Varun in this Fun Father's Day Video
- ICC World Cup 2019 | Yuvraj Singh Expects Either India or England to Lift World Cup
- Last Hurrah: Mahindra Thar Signature Edition to Commemorate its First Generation
- Karthik, Chahal and Shankar Visit Manchester United
- #FactCheck: Did Super Mario Creator Really Tweet Picture of Mario and Luigi Kissing?
- 01 d
- 12 h
- 38 m
- 09 s


text:
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has agreed to rethink a three-judge panel’s decision axing $38 million worth of punitive damages awarded to the families of two workers gunned down by a disgruntled colleague at a Kraft Foods Inc. plant in Philadelphia.
A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday reversed a decision that let the federal government off the hook for cleanup costs at a San Diego site where a defense contractor produced equipment for the military for several decades, saying the lower court sharply deviated from the appellate court’s prior case law.
A priest suing Renco Group Inc. on behalf of children who allegedly suffered lead poisoning from a Peruvian affiliate's metallurgical complex in the Andean highlands told a Missouri federal court on Monday that it has jurisdiction because the New York company and its owner had ultimate say over the complex through Missouri companies they controlled.
Gilead Sciences Inc. on Tuesday said it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a major Ninth Circuit ruling on False Claims Act liability, arguing that it created a circuit split on the Supreme Court's landmark Escobar decision.
A Wisconsin federal judge on Tuesday entered a $1.9 million judgment against importer Spectrum Brands Inc. for taking years to report a defect in a Black & Decker-branded coffee maker that caused the handles of full carafes to suddenly break, leading to dozens of reported burns.
A company that makes an asbestos-free product can be held liable for asbestos-related injuries under maritime law if the manufacturer could’ve reasonably known that a part containing asbestos would be added, the Third Circuit said Tuesday, reviving claims brought by now-deceased U.S. Navy veterans against General Electric and others.
Attorneys for a man who had a heart attack while using AbbVie Inc.’s testosterone replacement therapy drug AndroGel told an Illinois federal jury Tuesday the company’s efforts to expand the drug’s market without studying its risks were part of an “insidious” plan to up its profits.
The special master overseeing the handling of a nearly $1 billion restitution fund in the criminal lawsuit over Takata’s potentially deadly air bag inflators made his first report to a Michigan federal court on Tuesday, saying that he’s hit several delays carrying out his duties so far.
The heirs of four people killed in a 2015 plane crash in Indonesia sued Honeywell International Inc. in Illinois state court Monday, claiming the accident was caused by defects in the terrain warning system and autopilot feature made by the company.
General Motors Co. argued Tuesday it should get to participate in an upcoming trial over whether a vehicle defect settlement with car purchasers and accident victims that was never signed by a GM bankruptcy trust is enforceable, as the deal could require the manufacturer to hand over $1 billion in company equity.
Residents and business owners in Flint, Michigan, have launched a consolidated proposed class action in Michigan federal court against the state's governor, other public officials and private contractors over the city’s water crisis, saying that they weren’t treated the same as white residents in a neighboring county.
A granola maker’s labeling improperly described “love” as an ingredient, a South Korean drugmaker didn’t test for the presence of lethal contaminants implicated in past tragedies, and several Indian drugmakers failed inspections, according to newly released U.S. Food and Drug Administration documents.
Philip Morris argued Tuesday for reversal of a Florida jury's verdict awarding a cigarette smoker's widow $350,000, saying some of her claims were time-barred, while she sought retrial for other claims, alleging faulty jury instructions and improper closing arguments.
A Pennsylvania appeals court was urged on Monday to affirm a decision that federal law preempted claims that off-label marketing by Cephalon Inc. of its opioid painkiller “lollipop” Actiq to treat migraines had led to the death of a Philadelphia family’s adult son.
U.S. Air Force veterans who participated in the cleanup of a Vietnam War-era nuclear accident in Spain asked a Connecticut federal judge Monday to compel the Department of Defense to release to them the results of urinalysis it conducted at the time of the cleanup, saying they have been improperly denied disability benefits related to radiation exposure.
Country singer Zac Brown has reached an undisclosed settlement with a blind woman who claimed she was injured when fans rushed the disabled section of a concert in an effort to shake the celebrity’s hand, a Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday.
Agrana Fruit US Inc. on Monday asked an Ohio federal court to issue sanctions against AmCane Sugar LLC for evidence spoliation in its lawsuit accusing AmCane of selling it evaporated cane juice littered with stones, arguing that the company intentionally destroyed evidence, including screens used in the production process and 200 to 300 testing stones.
Johnson & Johnson Services Inc. and its subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. urged the First Circuit Monday to delay implementing its decision to keep alive a False Claims Act suit over allegedly faulty hip replacement devices while the companies appeal to the Supreme Court.
The European Union and Canada have put an end to a 21-year World Trade Organization battle over Brussels’ restrictions on hormone-treated beef, according to a WTO document circulated on Tuesday that cited provisions of the two governments’ new bilateral trade deal.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon’s bid to overturn a Fourth Circuit decision upholding a $3.27 million jury verdict in a bellwether trial over the company's allegedly harmful pelvic mesh, declining to review the ruling.
Experts are accorded wide latitude in terms of the materials they can rely upon in forming their opinions, but they must independently investigate those materials. Federal courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania recently excluded expert testimony because the materials being relied upon had not been fully vetted, says Jeffrey Klenk of Berkeley Research Group LLC.
The growth of third-party litigation funding has added a distinct variable to the world of civil litigation. Such funding has and will continue to change the calculus for many corporations and their defense counsel as to the tipping point between settling or pursuing a case to a court decision, says David Silver of Silver Public Relations.
As consumers begin to sit in the driver’s seat of automated and autonomous vehicles, manufacturers and sellers have a golden opportunity to educate consumers on the benefits and risks of those vehicles and to shape their expectations, says Charles Moellenberg Jr. of Jones Day.
As judges become better educated about the complexities of collecting electronically stored information, in particular the inefficacy of keyword searching, they are increasingly skeptical of self-collection. And yet, for many good reasons (and a few bad ones), custodian self-collection is still prevalent in cases of all sizes and in all jurisdictions, says Alex Khoury of Balch & Bingham LLP.
The voluntary initiative by grocery manufacturers and retailers to distill date labels to just two standard phrases should go a long way toward stemming consumer confusion. But if states continue to jump into the fray, a patchwork of differing standards could trigger federal rulemaking, says Brian Sylvester of Keller and Heckman LLP.
It’s safe to say that while demand ebbs and flows for legal services, there will never be a shortage of opinions about lateral partner hiring, which is positive for the industry, as anything with such vital importance to careers should attract significant attention. However, there is a unique mythology that travels with the discussions, says Dan Hatch of Major Lindsey & Africa.
In the final installment of this three-part series, attorney Robert W. Ludwig concludes his deep dive into the controversial history of Second Amendment jurisprudence.
With more than a third of lawyers showing signs of problem drinking, and untold others abusing prescription drugs and other substances, it is time for law firms to be more proactive in addressing this issue, says Link Christin, executive director of the Legal Professionals Program at Caron Treatment Centers.
Sales of nondairy milk alternatives are flourishing, but the dairy industry charges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with failing to enforce its own labeling regulations regarding the definition of "milk." The longer terms like soy milk, almond milk and coconut milk remain in use, the stronger the argument for their continued use to describe these products, say attorneys with Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.
Unlike victims of many crimes, human trafficking survivors often have complicated legal problems related to the experience of being trafficked — everything from criminal records to custody disputes to immigration obstacles. Many law firms already provide assistance in these areas and can easily transition resources and expertise, says Sarah Dohoney Byrne of Moore & Van Allen PLLC.


text:
With the Jubilee weekend edging nearer, many are already prepping for the celebrations, whether that be putting up decorations, stocking their freezer up with party food or getting their best themed outfits steamed and ready.
Luckily, Aldi shoppers have spotted a new addition online that’ll really get the party started – and it looks great too.
The £12.99 Pineapple Glass Drink Dispenser will make a stunning addition to your table, and it’s still available to buy online now – but we have a feeling it’ll sell out in no time.
Adding: “It’ll look fancy even if it’s full of squash (and keep the flies out too!)”.
The post has since racked up thousands of likes and comments with shoppers expressing their love for the dispenser.
One shopper said: “I think we need this for the Jubilee party”. While another suggested it was “BBQ worthy”. A third, tagging in a friend, said: “I feel like you need this in your life. “
The glass pineapple-shaped drinks dispenser has a capacity of 7 litres, a glass body and a lid with a silicone ring to keep your drink safe.
The retailer says: “All you have to do is fill this dispenser with a delightful drink and then enjoy it with your friends and family.”
If you’re not in too much of a rush, you can opt for standard delivery which takes 3-5 working days for £2.95, or get next-day or named day delivery for £3.95.


text:
Life during a global pandemic is weird, to put it lightly. With fewer opportunities to see our friends and family due to safety restrictions surrounding travel and limiting the number of people who can attend in-person gatherings, the connection provided by social media is more crucial than ever. In addition to strengthening social ties, social media affords brands an invaluable way in which they can interact with fans and other customers while potentially growing their market share.
As the hard seltzer options on the market have grown exponentially in recent months, social media is an avenue through which brands can differentiate themselves and stand out from the crowd. Social media engagements also offer invaluable insight into consumer tastes and preferences – a way to keep one’s finger on the pulse of popular culture, if you will.
With a whopping 60 percent of the hard seltzer market share, it perhaps comes as no surprise that Mark Anthony Brand’s OG spiked seltzer, White Claw, leads social media mentions (it’s not even a contest at 77,000 mentions during a 30 day period). The Boston Beer Company’s Truly once again comes in behind White Claw (14,500 mentions during the same time frame), with AB InBev claiming the third and fourth spots with Bud Light Seltzer and Bon & Viv (the popularity gaps start to close in here at 5,400 and 4,200 mentions respectively). Number five? Westminster, Massachusetts’ own Nauti Seltzer, a regional darling with a dedicated fan base.
Looking at the numbers by social media engagement yields similar results; White Claw still blows away any competition at 400,000 unique engagements. Spiked Seltzer snuck into second place at 67,000 (that’s right – none of the other brands came close to breaching 100k, let alone 400k) with Bud Light Seltzer, Truly, and Bon & Viv rounding out the top five, in that order.
Launched this January, Bud Light Hard Seltzer is one of the younger brands on the list. While it does share a label with the country’s best selling beer, perhaps some of its strong social media showing is due to its search for a Chief Meme Officer. Fans are invited to apply for the three month position where, in exchange for creating at least 10 Bud Light Seltzer memes per week, the CMO will be paid in both hard seltzer and $5,000 per month.
Bud Light Seltzer has been a strong seller for AB InBev since its debut in January. While its Chief Meme Officer contest is a great example of earned media – and will be a really sweet gig for some lucky memer – with the resources of Anheuser-Busch behind it, Bud Light Seltzer doesn’t need social media in order to survive as a brand; it is able to afford DJ Khaled as the celebrity hype man for their new flavor Remix release, after all.
For smaller brands that lack such a monolithic marketing budget, social media offers a lifeline. It’s a way to cleverly engage potential new customers with little to no overhead cost involved (beyond perhaps hiring someone to handle your social media accounts, which can be easily outsourced).
Lone River Beverage Company, which launched its Ranch Water Hard Seltzer in May – at the height of locally enforced stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders – social media provided a vital alternative when their initial plans fell victim to the pandemic.
Initially, the company planned to introduce their unique product to consumers via in-store events with samples provided. “What we heard early on was that the best way to drive sales for a new brand is through trial and [sic] a robust plan of in-store samplings — that was immediately taken off the table when we launched,” Founder and CEO Katie Beal Brown told Hard Seltzer News.
Once the free in-store sample plan was derailed, Brown took to social media to generate buzz around her Texas-crafted hard seltzer and create an organic consumer demand. “We’ve really leveraged our strategy in social media to drive the level of awareness that we needed in order to get our new brand in front of people — just knowing that they also weren’t necessarily spending a lot of time in the store either [because of the pandemic] — so they may or may not have seen us on the shelf,” said the CEO.
Ranch Water Hard Seltzer has quickly become a favorite among the Nashville circuit, and was recently featured in country singer Parker McCollum’s video for his song “Young Man’s Blues.” “A number of other musicians in Nashville — that honestly we didn’t even know had purchased our product — we just randomly saw posting on their pages,” Brown said. “I think it speaks to the brand itself and kind of what it represents and something that that audience maybe wants to be associated with.”
Social media is a wonderful tool with which to create trends, as in Ranch Water’s case, but it also gives us a peek at where the market is heading. And gauging by engagements, Molson Coors-owned Vizzy Hard Seltzer is quickly bubbling up in popularity.
Billed as the only hard seltzer containing Vitamin C, Vizzy also contains 100 calories, one gram of sugar, two carbs, and five percent ABV. It’s sold in a variety 12 pack which includes Black Cherry Lime, Blueberry Pomegranate, Pineapple Mango, and Strawberry Kiwi. We are still in the middle of a pandemic – who couldn’t use a little extra Vitamin C?
According to data from Untappd, many people are happy to get some extra vitamins and antioxidants in their hard seltzer, as online engagements are up 11.7 percent over the last four weeks.
While it may lead in engagements – for now – White Claw is not the only seltzer taking social media by storm. While Bud Light Seltzer makes news while seeking its first Chief Meme Officer, smaller brands like Nauti and Ranch Water Hard Seltzer are able to gain invaluable exposure through engaging fans on social media, which provides a lifeline during this most unprecedented time.


text:
Internet worm targeting Microsoft systems spreads worldwide.
A new computer worm targeting Microsoft operating systems is spreading rapidly through the Internet and has affected about 125,000 computers worldwide, Symantec Corp. said Tuesday.
The worm dubbed ''Blaster'' or ''Lovsan'' had struck computers in the United States, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and Germany as of Tuesday evening, according to the maker of the popular Norton AntiVirus program.
The worm's spread is being reported nearly one month after Microsoft Corp. posted a free patch on its Web site designed to prevent attacks from new types of worms that target flaws in its operating systems.
But many users have not taken advantage of the patch, giving the worm room to cause widespread infection, computer industry officials said.
Probes into the attack have reportedly found a message aimed at Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates that says, ''Billy Gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!''
|Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback|
|Publication:||Japan Computer Industry Scan|
|Article Type:||Brief Article|
|Date:||Aug 18, 2003|
|Previous Article:||Sega posts 1.89 bil. yen net profit in 1st qtr.|
|Next Article:||'Blaster' worm hits police computers 10,000 times in 24 hours.|


text:
Your Survival Guy is seeing rising prices on stuff we actually use. You need not be confused by some useless and outdated government measurement. You can see it for yourself. Jaewon Kang reports in The Wall Street Journal:
Americans accustomed to years of low inflation are beginning to pay sharply higher prices for goods and services as the economy strains to rev back up and the pandemic wanes.
Price tags on consumer goods from processed meat to dishwashing products have risen by double-digit percentages from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ. Whirlpool Corp. WHR +1.02% freezers and dishwashers and Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. SMG -1.18% lawn and garden products are also getting costlier, the companies say. Some consumers are feeling stretched.
Kaitlyn Vinson, a program manager in Denver, said her recent $275 bill at a Costco Wholesale Corp. COST -0.01% store, which included razors and cotton pads on top of her typical grocery list, was more expensive than usual. Ms. Vinson said she switched from buying fresh to frozen fruit and vegetables because they are less expensive and last longer.
“We’re sacrificing the food that I really like to cook just to be cheaper,” she said.
Costs are rising at every step in the production of many goods. Prices for oil, crops and other commodities have shot up this year. Trucking companies are paying scarce drivers more to take those materials to factories and construction sites. As a result, companies are charging more for foods and consumer products including foil wraps and disposable cups.
Kellogg Co. , maker of Frosted Flakes, Cheez-Its and Pringles, said Thursday that higher costs for ingredients, labor and shipping are pushing it and other food makers to raise prices. “We haven’t seen this type of inflation in many, many years,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Cahillane said.
Investors and economists are watching whether the higher prices drive up broader measures of inflation, which have been muted for years.
Consumer prices jumped 2.6% in the year ended in March, according to the Labor Department, the biggest 12-month increase since August 2018.
As higher costs ripple through supply chains, more companies are concluding that their customers will accept higher prices. “They’ve seen price increases throughout the entire store,” Whirlpool CEO Marc Bitzer said. “I don’t think anybody is surprised right now.”
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said during the conglomerate’s annual meeting May 1 that the economy is experiencing a substantial run-up in prices. “We’re raising prices, people are raising prices to us, and it’s being accepted,” Mr. Buffett said. “It’s an economy really that’s red hot, and we weren’t expecting it.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on April 28 that inflationary pressures resulting from supply-chain problems would likely be temporary and wouldn’t prompt the central bank to change policies aimed to keep borrowing costs down.
Action Line: Save ‘til it hurts and work as long as you possibly can.
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)
- America’s Pastime isn’t Baseball, It’s This - February 21, 2024
- DIVIDEND: Because You Will Need One to Survive - February 20, 2024
- Wall Street Abandons the Climate Extortion Racket - February 20, 2024
- Are You Looking for Investment Counsel? 2 Questions - February 20, 2024
- Is Your Money with the #1 Online Broker? - February 20, 2024


text:
What Is the Government’s Strategy to Attract 143 Investors?
The government plans to attract 143 investors wanting to move their factories away from China. Coordinating Economic Minister, Airlangga Hartarto, revealed that they were from the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and China. “They plan to relocate their investments to Indonesia, capable of employing more than 300 thousand workers,” he revealed.
Airlangga explained that the massive investor relocation was a surprising yet encouraging outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. It showed that the centralization of the supply chain of goods would be unwise. “Many multinational companies are recently trying to relocate their business from China to other Asian countries,” he said. Meanwhile, the head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Bahlil Lahadalia, stated that out of 143 foreign companies relocating their business to Indonesia, some would go to new industrial zones.


text:
UK companies are slow in adopting digital transformation initiatives, and it’s hurting their business. Those are the results of a global study by CA Technologies.
According to the study called “Exploiting the Software Advantage: Lessons from Digital Disrupters (opens in new tab)”, 56 per cent of UK organisations are executing some digital transformation initiatives as a coordinated strategic program, with most popular ongoing projects in workforce efficiency (cited by 48 per cent of respondents), product and service development (43 per cent) and operations and delivery (43 per cent).
On the other hand, 18 per cent of UK organisations still undertake digital initiatives via separate, not always coordinated routes, and 16 per cent use digital more to enhance rather than transform their business.
Now here’s the fun part: When asked about technologies critical to customer engagement and market development, only 33 per cent believed that web-based applications and services are essential, 27 per cent saw mobile technology as critical and just 14 per cent thought the same of wearable technology.
In addition, 9 per cent of UK companies do not believe the Internet of Things will be applicable to their customer engagement.
Companies that do achieve high digital transformation levels have seen an increase in revenue: 86 per cent of UK respondents have seen or anticipate seeing growth in revenue, 85 per cent have seen or are expecting to see increased customer retention, while 69 per cent are now able to act more quickly on business opportunities.
The study also created the Digital Effectiveness Index (DEI), a measurement tool developed from responses relating to market competitiveness and business scorecard metrics.
Using this measure, an elite group of ‘Digital Disrupters’ has emerged: companies achieving high returns from digital investments and driving market and organisational disruption. In the UK, they represent the top 14 per cent of respondents, more than in Germany (13 per cent of respondents), France (8 per cent) and Italy (4 per cent), but significantly fewer than in the U.S. (26 per cent) and India (25 per cent).
Revenue growth among these Digital Disrupters, the study shows, is twice as high as among mainstream organisations (those who are only making an average investment in digital transformation) and profit growth is 2.5 times higher.
The study also highlights the central role that software plays in digital transformation. 53 per cent of Digital Disrupters globally strongly agree that in addition to their core business they are now also a software company – compared to 20 per cent of all UK respondents. And 60 per cent of Digital Disrupters globally strongly agree that they still need to become more of an app-centric, software driven business, compared to only 30 per cent of all UK companies.
Digital Disrupters worldwide currently allocate 36 per cent of their IT budget to digital investments, growing to 48 per cent within three years. By contrast, the UK companies surveyed now devote a relatively low 20 per cent of their IT budget to digital, increasing to 32 per cent in the next three years.


text:
Big news for British TV fans! Hulu has announced a new partnership with BBC Worldwide, giving them access to 144 British TV shows and over 2,000 episodes of content.
The new content will be available starting this month.
The multi-year partnership with BBC Worldwide North America will add shows such as “Doctor Who,” “Torchwood,” “Sherlock,” “MI-5,” and “Luther” to the online service.
The agreement isn’t exclusive – the BBC has similar relationships with Netflix and Amazon, which also have large libraries of British TV. Also, they’re only licensing the BBC Archive, so they won’t be putting up new episodes of shows right after they air.
Hulu already has a great selection of British TV including the British Soap Coronation Street and hit drama Downton Abbey.
You can browse many of the shows available here: Hulu British TV.
Hulu Plus costs $7.99 a month and while some shows will be available for free without a membership, most will require a subscription to Hulu Plus.
Combine this with AcornTV and you’ll never run out of great British Telly to watch!