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Every industry, or even every individual, can tell you something different about why they love 3D printing. For many industries, though, easy customization is at the top of the list. The medical industry is using it to create patient-specific treatments that were never possible before, and the automotive industry is finding it easy to replace antiquated parts that haven’t been in production for years. Chicago-based startup 3Discovered was founded for the purpose of facilitating the production, buying and selling of bespoke or hard-to-find industrial parts and products by connecting clients with 3D printing service bureaus, and the many partnerships they’ve formed in their three years of existence show that what they’re doing is working.
3Discovered’s latest partnership has been formed with GPI Prototype and Manufacturing Services, Inc., an Illinois service bureau specializing in metal 3D printing. GPI was one of the first metal additive manufacturing service providers in the country, having begun offering direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) services back in 2008. As metal 3D printing has only begun to really pick up steam recently, GPI was way ahead of their time with their adoption of the technology eight years ago. Companies as large and prolific as 3D Systems have turned to them to expand their own metal additive manufacturing capabilities in recent months, so they should be a valuable asset to 3Discovered.
“GPI is a great addition to our network of service bureaus and we are excited to be able to offer their sophisticated metal 3d printing capabilities on our distributed manufacturing and sourcing platform,” said Peer Munck, CEO of 3Discovered. “This is going to be good for our clients, and good for the industry as a whole.”
GPI is a small company of 25 employees, but their production capabilities are high, with ten DMLS (also known as DMLM, or direct metal laser melting) printers in operation. Their printers are capable of printing with aluminum, tool steel, cobalt chrome, titanium, and three different types of stainless steel – a versatility that will serve customers well, as these metals are “ideally suited for fabricating parts with complex geometries that are impossible to produce with traditional machining.”
“We are enthusiastic about joining 3Discovered’s network of 3D printing fabricators with our production experience,” said Adam Galloway, President of GPI. “We believe their platform greatly simplifies the process for 3D printed parts, which have already been validated for production requirements. This platform will help the growth of additive manufacturing across all industries.”
Discuss your thoughts on this new partnership in the 3Discovered & GPI 3D Metal Printing Partnership forum over at 3DPB.com.
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Unilever reported total turnover of €19.9 billion for the first half, down 6.8 per cent, with personal care sales (including brands such as Dove and Lux) accounting for around a quarter of this at €5.4 billion, up just 1 per cent as the company was forced to cut its prices by around 3 per cent to maintain its market position.
"In competitive markets we are taking the actions necessary to protect our market position," the company said in a statement. "Market conditions weakened further in the quarter with price declines in both home and personal care. Conditions in Germany, France and the Netherlands have been particularly difficult. Lower sales in home and personal care reflect an increased level of consumer related price promotions, with price down by 2.3 per cent."
But while sales fell, there was some good news on the profit front. "We continue to generate savings from our procurement and restructuring programmes and there was another healthy improvement in mix," the company said.
These efforts helped the group rally somewhat in the second quarter after a poor first three months, with personal care operating profits increasing 22 per cent in the second quarter compared to just 3 per cent for the first, leaving operating profit for the half dome 2.9 per cent higher.
But the personal care division proved to be the exception to the rule, with total group operating profits sliding 7.8 per cent to €2.4 billion during the half, despite a recovery in the second quarter.
But despite its ongoing difficulties - compounded by the broad range of products which Unilever makes, many of which have their own specific problems to deal with - the company remained upbeat.
"It has been a tough quarter both in terms of the trading environment in some of our key markets and because of the specific portfolio issues we are dealing with. We have responded flexibly based on the specific needs of individual markets.
"Importantly our business continues to demonstrate its resilience and ability to finance the necessary investment in our brands through cost savings in every area," said financial director Rudy Markham.

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If you thought Amazon.com's (NAS: AMZN) play on flash sales was limited to its sizable investments in LivingSocial, think again. The leading online retailer quietly launched AmazonLocal in Boise, Idaho, back in June, offering Groupon-style discounts for local restaurant, spa, and touristy outings. It rolled into Groupon's homestead of Chicago a few weeks later.
Amazon is leaning on LivingSocial to carry out these deals, but a spokeswoman told The Chicago Tribune last week that Amazon's plan is to ultimately source these deals with its own sales team. And why not? Groupon is set to go public at a mind-boggling valuation, Amazon already reaches a huge audience, and one can argue that it was here before "being here" was even cool. It acquired daily deal pioneer Woot.com last summer, just as sites offering short-lived bargains were starting to take off.
Amazon is also in the unique position that it can begin promoting AmazonLocal deals through Kindles that support marketing promotions. Oh, and there's also the plastic pitch. Amazon offers a reward-based credit card through JPMorgan Chase (NYS: JPM) , and it plans to offer bonus points when its branded credit card is used on AmazonLocal purchases.
In other words, Amazon has the infrastructure in place to go where Groupon and LivingSocial cannot.
The same can be said about Google (Nasaq: GOOG). The search giant began offering prepaid vouchers in Portland, Ore., in June, and it has gone on to roll out Google Offers in New York City and San Francisco. Google is the global leader in generating online leads. Why wouldn't it be all over this niche?
Even AOL (NYS: AOL) got its feet wet by repositioning its Wow.com domain as a Groupon clone. It recently shut down, but AOL has even more ambitious plans to launch hyperlocal deals through its newsy Patch.com site.
The big boys aren't just waiting to let their organic efforts bear fruit. Google just acquired The Dealmap, and local-lead generator Local.com (NAS: LOCM) announced last month that it will buy the company behind Screamin' Daily Deals.
Is this market getting so crowded that a shakeout is about to happen, or is there room for several titans? The next few months will tell us, but Groupon may be paying the price for its lucrative yet easy-to-emulate model.
Will you be a buyer of Groupon and LivingSocial after they go public? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.
At the time thisarticle was published The Motley Fool owns shares of Google and JPMorgan Chase. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Amazon.com and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz routinely checks the deal sites, but he doesn't own shares in any of the stocks in this story. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Bell Farms Homestead is rooted in family and good food plus other local business news
CHILLICOTHE — At 59 E. Water Street, there's a feeling of nostalgia that hits the moment you walk through the doors. Between the hardwood floors and rustic details, primitive antiques, and historic wall hangings, it's like you've been transported to grandma's house.
And that's the exact ambiance that owner Shawna Bell hoped to create with her husband Mike.
At Bell Farms Homestead in downtown Chillicothe, food and family are the foundation of the business, and the couple looks forward to sharing their passion with the community.
"We like to say, put the phones down and pick the forks up," Shawna said. Mike added, "There are no TVs, no modern technology. We're old school, the way it should be."
After the couple wed in 1995, Shawna went on to partner with her brother-in-law, Chef William Bell, to help run Occasions of Distinction — the catering company he founded four years earlier. She worked in the culinary industry for five years before taking a step back in 2000 to start a family and become a stay-at-home mother.
Ten years later, she went back to work at Adena Health System before joining the Paint Valley ADAMH Board as an IT Manager in 2013.
But despite earning a Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Shawna began to realize she was never truly happy working behind a desk.
When the couple became empty-nesters as their son attended Ohio State University in 2018, the Bells decided to purchase a food truck and entered the catering industry again, part-time. While the previous company provided high-end food, they aspired to do things a bit differently the second time so they took inspiration from their early years.
Soon after they were married, the couple were visiting friends in North Carolina when they were invited to participate in a barbecue. It was their first time at such an event and the couple became involved in the process of smoking and rubbing the meat.
That was in 1997 and every year after, the barbecue continued to grow and the Bells became more serious about their recipe and rubs. Over time, they nailed down the perfect mix and began selling items like smoked brisket, pork and chicken to the community at different events.
The demand was high and the couple was often told that they should open their own food establishment but the time wasn't right until 2020.
When the pandemic hit, the Bells transitioned from catering to delivery services and opened to the public for the first time which rapidly expanded their customer base. Just two months after opening their food truck for delivery, the couple learned of a vacant building on East Water Street and decided to transform it into a restaurant, which they now call Bell Farms Homestead.
"We call it a homestead because you're part of our family while you're here," Mike said.
It took nearly nine months of work but in January 2021, Bell Farms opened for carryout only. Despite the limited services, they said the community response and support continued to astound them.
Their cuisine focused on the barbecue recipes they developed featuring meat smoked for 18 to 24 hours, as well as appetizers, salads, and sandwiches. But it didn't feel right until the couple found the perfect dessert for their menu.
When Shawna committed to opening the restaurant, she began searching in her mom's recipe box for the perfect sweet treat when her great grandmother Elsie's cheesecake recipe fell out. She made it that same day and knew they had to offer it at their homestead.
Six months later, on their 26th wedding anniversary, they had an official ribbon cutting and the next day, they opened for indoor dining.
In the first two weeks, they had an overwhelming response from local customers and visitors from Chicago, Florida, Montana, West Virginia and Michigan. Patrons told the Bells that they were drawn to the establishment because of its local, family-owned atmosphere and the quality of their food.
More recently, the business was given the opportunity to run The Grange at the Ross County Fair. The couple said they felt honored to uphold the tradition and looked forward to keeping it going.
Bell Farms Homestead is open Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, please call 740-637-9195 or visit https://bellfarmschillicothe.com/
In other business news
Permits have been filed for electrical work show for new business, Pap's Hilltop Distillery. According to their Facebook page, the business is in its early stages but will eventually open at 117 East Main Street in Bainbridge.
Another new local business, Singer Sweets, also received occupancy permits. They're now open at 10240 Route 159 in Kingston.
Curtis Claytor, who owns Nostalgia Gathering Place, filed permits for construction and repair work at 14 N. Main St. in Frankfort for a project called the Old Frankfort Laundry Mat.
R Kitchen's Danyelle Tucker hopes to open Grounded An Educational Plant Bar next to the restaurant at 64 N. Paint Street by the end of August or early September. The business will offer planting classes, house plants for purchase, coffee and snacks.
Basil Family Medicine, a new private medical practice will be opening this September at 153 S. Paint St. in Chillicothe. They'll be offering a "free day" at the Mighty Children's Museum on Aug. 21 where they'll cover the cost of admission and meet with prospective families.
The Men's Shop will move from its 104 N. Paint Street location to 66 East Water Street.
HOME2 Suites, owned by Hilton, filed a permit to build a $6 million structure at 444 North Shawnee Lanes, according to the Ross County Planning and Building Department. The hotel initially filed permits to build a $5 million, 93-room hotel that was marketed as a "hip extended stay hotel experience that offers great deals and affordable rates for guests," back in 2019 but never broke ground.
Ohio Thrift Store recently announced it would be opening a new location in Chillicothe and Ross County Planning and Building Department permits show it will be located in the former Goodwill at 134 Consumer Center Dr. No word yet on when the business will open.
Buff City Soap, a plant-based soap that's handmade daily at each of the business' local Soap Makeries, according to their website, filed permits to build a retail store at 1290 N. Bridge Street in the Chipotle plaza. No opening date has been announced.
Have a story tip or comment? Contact Toria at email@example.com or 740-349-1106. Follow her on Twitter @ToriaBarnhart or at facebook.com/ToriaBarnhartNews.


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SCRANTON, Pa. — Geisinger Community Medical Center (GCMC) will kick off a new summer grilling menu starting on Monday, June 11. The menu will include a fresh-grilled selection of healthy burgers, sandwiches and street-inspired food items, grilled and served outdoors, for employees, patients and visitors to purchase throughout the summer months.
A rotating selection of street food-inspired but healthy items will be offered, including:
- Korean street tacos
- Elote chicken or tempeh bowl
- Portobella pups
The cookout will take place every Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (weather permitting) on the side patio of GCMC’s Professional Office Building, 315 Colfax Ave., Scranton. To kick off the grilling menu on June 11, Geisinger executive chef Matt Cervay will be on site to man the grill and offer healthy, summer grilling tips.
“We’re providing menu items that are both healthy and tasty, inspired by the summer season,” said Chef Cervay. “Our grilling menu focuses on lean proteins, whole grains, veggies, fruits, fresh ingredients –good-for-you food with a gourmet twist.”
Each meal ticket costs $6 which includes a sandwich or street-inspired item, a side of fresh watermelon or chopped side salad, and a bottle of water. Meal tickets can be purchased at the grill site (cash only), or inside GCMC’s cafeteria or coffee kiosk in the main lobby (cash or credit card).
For more information, call 570-703-8079.


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Power companies have denied gouging pre-pay customers despite figures showing some users paying up to 60 per cent more than those paying a regular power bill.
Consumer NZ figures showed families in Northland paid up to 42 per cent more on pre-pay contracts, while those in Dunedin paid 58.7 per cent more, and in Invercargill it was 60.8 per cent more.
In some cases customers on the cheapest pre-pay plan were paying over $1500 a year more than those on the cheapest standard plan.
But power companies claim pre-pay billing systems were expensive and those customers were not subject to late payment fees or fixed daily rates, unlike those who were billed for they electricity use.
James Munro, retail general manager at Mighty River Power, said the company's pre-paid pricing was based on its billable rates. Pre-pay premiums of 40 or 60 per cent, as cited by Labour energy spokesman David Shearer, were "nothing to do with us" and were "insupportable", Munro said.
Mighty River, which supplies about 17,000 homes on a pre-paid basis through its Glo-Bug subsidiary, is New Zealand's largest pre-pay electricity supplier.
However, the pre-paid market was relatively small, accounting for just 4 per cent of Mighty River's residential customers and only 2 per cent of the entire residential electricity market, Munro said.
According to the Powerswitch website the cost of supplying 11,000 kilowatts of electricity to a customer in Dunedin ranged from $2714 to $3505 a year, whereas Glo-Bug would charge $2829, he said.
"We are not the cheapest plan, there is a charge for the technology, but it's not 40 per cent or 60 per cent," Munro said.
"Our experience is that when customers switch from post-pay to pre-pay they save $300 a year on average."
Customers who had switched to pre-pay did not receive early-payment discounts and probably also paid a disconnection fee, he said.
Low-income families who struggled to pay electricity bills on a monthly basis found it easier to top up a pre-pay account every few days in much the same way as they topped up mobile phones, Munro said.
Contact Energy spokesman Shaun Jones said that unlike power that was billed, pre-pay customers were not exposed to late payment fees.
"There are no fixed daily rates for Contact's pre-pay power, unlike post-pay," Jones said.
"This means that fixed costs are built into the variable charge which will tend to benefit smaller users."
Genesis Energy spokesman Richard Gordon said the company had been gradually withdrawing its InCharge pre-pay service which was still used by about 4000 customers. Instead Genesis was offering new online services to help customers manage their energy use.
The complex and expensive pre-pay billing system also meant customers could be paying more than those who received a bill, Gordon said.


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According to Zacks, “SITO Mobile Limited is a technology based mobile solutions provider. The Company provides wireless application development, publishing and distribution. It offers mobile location-based advertising and mobile messaging platforms that enable brands, agencies, and retailers to transform digital marketing by delivering targeted mobile advertising campaigns based on geo-location, in-store traffic, and customer response. SITO Mobile Limited, formerly known as Single Touch Systems, Inc., is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. “
A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on SITO. Lake Street Capital reduced their price objective on CUI Global from $6.00 to $2.30 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Craig Hallum set a $3.00 target price on Sito Mobile and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Sito Mobile currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $6.00.
Sito Mobile (NASDAQ:SITO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 15th. The Wireless communications provider reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of ($0.12) by ($0.08). Sito Mobile had a negative return on equity of 129.76% and a negative net margin of 45.55%. The firm had revenue of $8.43 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sito Mobile will post -0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Sito Mobile stock. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its stake in Sito Mobile Ltd (NASDAQ:SITO) by 265.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 73,673 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,488 shares during the quarter. Jane Street Group LLC owned about 0.29% of Sito Mobile worth $66,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors own 12.05% of the company’s stock.
About Sito Mobile
SITO Mobile, Ltd. provides advertisement delivery, measurement and attribution, and consumer insights using its proprietary location-based marketing intelligence platform in the United States and Canada. It offers Ad Placement, which delivers advertisements on behalf of its customers to audiences of existing and prospective consumers in a privacy compliant manner; and advertisements across television, desktop, social media, and digital out of home platforms.
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Consenting to adware on new computers
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US says it cannot stop computer makers from selling computers that inject ads into webpages to US consumers, notes Ars Technica.
“The statement covers Lenovo’s practice of having sold computers pre-installed with the so-called VisualDiscovery adware developed by a company called Superfish. This adware, which was installed on computers without consumers’ knowledge, hijacked encrypted web sessions that made users vulnerable to HTTPS man-in-the-middle attacks and shared user browsing data with third parties.”
In a court settlement with Lenovo, the FTC said the Chinese hardware maker, or any computer company for that matter, was free to sell computers with the adware – as long as consumers consented before it was downloaded on the machine. “As part of the settlement with the FTC, Lenovo is prohibited from misrepresenting any features of software preloaded on laptops that will inject advertising into consumers’ internet browsing sessions or transmit sensitive consumer information to third parties. The company must also get consumers’ affirmative consent before pre-installing this type of software,” the FTC announced. http://bit.ly/2wYtEfc
- Tuesday, 19 September 2017


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The handsome Cuisinart Burr Grind and Brew DGB-900 Thermal coffeemaker grinds its own beans courtesy of a fancy built-in burr grinder.
The team with the best record in baseball right now, the Oakland A's, has gotten there in part by using a high-tech tool to interpret the game's myriad stats. CNET's Kara Tsuboi explains more.
Cornell researchers studying "cereal box psychology" say the tempting gazes of all those sugar-hawking characters are carefully angled right at your tykes.
Dashlane's new Password Changer feature does the password-changing legwork for you, letting you change all or a selection of your passwords with a couple of clicks.
Lytro has opened up its light-field technology platform for companies to develop custom cameras. NASA and the Department of Defense are among the first to jump on board.
As demand for bandwidth increase, carriers in Myanmar are looking toward third-party solutions such as Opera to help relieve traffic congestion.
New York's attorney general releases a report detailing the impact of short-term rentals on New York City. Airbnb says the conclusions "rely on incomplete and outdated information."
Apple, which partnered with GT Advanced on sapphire goods, says it will continue to work with state and local officials as it considers its next steps.
Most cities would die for the problems San Francisco is having. But with so many techies flooding the city, the cost of renting or buying a place to live is soaring.
Under the guise of "sharing," companies like Airbnb and Uber are cashing in. While they're providing services beloved by many, their impact is also causing reverberations on the ground


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The expense to replace a portion of the homes obliterated or harmed by last week's Colorado rapidly spreading fire in suburbia of Denver and Boulder could turn out to be more than insurance agencies will pay out by countless dollars.
As per the Wall Street Journal, the Marshall Fire caused more than $1 billion in damage while obliterating almost 1,000 homes. Government authorities alongside insurance and construction industry specialists say plans could miss the mark by many thousands because of inflation and supply chain burdens, concerning giving sufficient cash to rebuild.
Homeowners are expected to review and update their policies to ensure the cost of a home replacement will be covered, even in case of rising costs, as most carriers have quit offering certifications to pay the full expense of rebuilding. All things considered, when a deficit happens, companies pay a decent level of the home's insured value. Numerous insurances offer some type of inflation protection; however, they demand their customers to update them polices to consider expansion or redesigning.


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- FAFSA opens this week: What students, parents should know
- Saving you time and money: Here's how to avoid high internet bills each month
- The British pound has taken a tumble. What's the impact?
- Amazon will have a second Prime Day-like event this year
- Stocks fall sharply worldwide as recession fears cloud world markets
- 'Plein Air in the Smokies' event aims to raise money for GSMNP
- Walmart, Target begin holiday early to ease inflation sting
- Student loan pandemic payments: Who's eligible for refunds and how do you apply?
- Fed announces another big interest rate hike
- How steep Fed rate hikes affect your finances
- Looking for work? Walmart hiring 40,000 seasonal workers
- The $1.337B Mega Millions winners are staying anonymous; they have good reasons
- US stocks fall broadly ahead of key Fed decision on rates
- Throwing a game day watch party? Here are some tips to save you money


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The new Honda Civic 2019 is scheduled to be launched in March 2019.
The long-awaited Honda Civic 2019 will finally go on sale in the Indian market in March 2019. It is one of the three models Honda had announced to launch in 2018-19 fiscal year out of which, new Amaze and the new CR-V were introduced in 2018. Instead of the model showcased at the 2018 Delhi Auto Expo, Honda will introduce the facelifted version of the Civic sedan that debuted in global markets in August 2018. The new Honda Civic will face challenge from the likes of Hyundai Elantra, Skoda Octavia and the Toyota Corolla Altis.
Compared to the model unveiled at Auto Expo 2018, the new Honda Civic 2019 looks more aggressive. It comes with subtle changes to exterior and interior as well. The majority of the changes are offered on the front fascia, which now gets more prominent grille finished in piano black finish and more angular front bumper. Inside the cabin, the sedan gets new 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The new Honda Civic is built on the brand’s new lighter and stiffer chassis, which aids to the overall performance and driving dynamics of the car.
For the first time, the new Civic sedan will be offered with a diesel option in India. It will be powered by a new 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder, i-DTEC turbocharged diesel engine, which also powers the new CR-V. This engine produces 118bhp of power and is paired to a six-speed manual gearbox. The diesel Civic will miss out on automatic option to reduce pricing. Petrol version will get the same tried & tested 1.8-litre i-VTEC engine paired to a CVT or a 6-speed manual gearbox. In terms of product strategy, Honda is planning to launch the global HR-V SUV in India in 2019. Moreover, the company is also contemplating a sub-4 meter SUV on the new Amaze’s platform. Adding to it, the next-gen Honda City sedan is also under development and will be launched in 2020.
Honda Civic 2019 Launch Date
In order to strengthen market share, Honda has shifted its focus on premium segment. After launching new CR-V, the company will introduce the new Civic and the HR-V in the Indian market. Honda had showcased the new Civic at the 2018 Delhi Auto Expo, which is scheduled to be launched in March 2019. Though the exact launch date is yet to be revealed, media reports claim that the sedan could be launched on March 8, 2019. Also See – New Honda Jazz Facelift – All Details
New Honda Civic 2019 Price In India
|Base Model||Rs 17 lakh|
|Top Model||Rs 22 lakh|
The 10th gen Civic sedan will receive locally assembled diesel engine and several locally manufactured components. It will be brought to India as a CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kit, which be assembled at the Honda’s Greater Noida facility in UP. With improved localisation levels, the new Civic is expected to carry a competitive pricing. We believe that the Honda Civic 2019 will be priced in the range of Rs 17 lakh – Rs 22 lakh. If launched at this price, the popular sedan will give a tough fight to Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra and Skoda Octavia.
New Honda Civic 2019 Specifications
|Diesel Engine||1.6-litre, four-cylinder i-DTEC|
|Max Power||118bhp @ 4,000rpm|
|Max Torque||300Nm @ 2,000rpm|
|Acceleration (0-100kmph)||10.5 seconds|
|Petrol Engine||1.8-litre i-VTEC|
|Max Power||139bhp @ 6,500rpm|
|Max Torque||174Nm @ 4,300rpm|
|Transmission||6-speed MT & CVT with paddle shifters|
|Fuel Tank Capacity||47-litres|
|Seating Capacity||5 Passengers (2+3 layout)|
For the first time in India, the Honda Civic will come with a diesel option. It will be powered by a new 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel engine that also powers the new-gen Honda CR-V 7-seater SUV. Featuring Idle Stop-Start system, the new turbocharged oil burner is capable of producing 118.3bhp of maximum power at 4,000rpm and 300Nm of torque at 2,000rpm. Honda has already started producing the diesel engine at its Tapukara, Rajasthan plant. For transmission duties, the diesel Civic will have a 6-speed manual gearbox. The global model is also available with a 9-speed automatic gearbox; however, this transmission unit will be expensive for the price sensitive Indian market. Also See – Upcoming Honda Cars In India
On the flip side, the gasoline unit will get the tried and tested 1.8-litre i-VTEC petrol engine. This engine churns out 139bhp of power at 6,500rpm and 174Nm of torque at 4,300rpm. Transmission options will include a 6-speed MT and a CVT unit with paddle shifters.
New Honda Civic 2019 Mileage
The new-gen Civic sedan is claimed to be the most fuel efficient in its category. The diesel Civic is claimed to return an ARAI certified fuel economy of 26.8kmpl, while the petrol model delivers 16.5kmpl. Not just the competition, the Civic sedan offers more fuel efficiency than the smaller sedans like Honda City, Hyundai Verna, Ford Aspire and others. This will be Honda’s second most fuel efficient model, very close to Honda Amaze’s 27.4kmpl.
New Honda Civic 2019 Exterior
The new Civic sedan is built on a lighter and stiffer modular chassis, which also underpins the new Accord and the 5th gen CR-V. The sedan shares most of the design cues from the bigger sibling. The 2019 Civic sedan comes with a new front grille, which is finished in Piano black. The model showcased at the Auto Expo 2018 was equipped with a chrome bar as the front grille. It also gets a more angular front bumper with chrome treatment around fog lamp housings. The grille is flanked by sharp and sweptback LED headlamps, while the aggressive bumper gets integrated air-intakes that add to its new look.
Unlike the previous model, the 2019 Honda Civic gets a notchback-like styling with a high boot lid and a sloping roofline. It rides on newly developed 18-inch alloy wheels. At the back, the sedan gets revised boomerang-shaped LED tail-lights, twin exhausts and strong creases and curves.
Thanks to the new modular chassis, the new Civic is longer and wider than the previous model. The sedan is 4,656mm, 1,799mm and 1,433mm in length, width and height respectively. Though, the wheelbase remains unchanged at 2,700mm. The saloon is likely to have a ground clearance of around 165-170mm. It comes with a boot space of 430-litres, while the fuel tank capacity stands at 47-litres. While the petrol Civic weighs 1,300-litres, the Kerb weight for diesel Civic stands at 1,353-litres. The sedan has a turning diameter of 11.7m. It rides on 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped with 215/50 R17 tyres.
Honda Civic 2019 Interior
While the wheelbase of the sedan is similar to the previous sedan, the length and the width of the car has been increased to offer better shoulder and legroom space for all 5 passengers. The global sedan has all-black cabin, while the India-spec model comes with a dual-tone dashboard and door panels. The sedan features ivory leather upholstery, while the chrome embellishment is offered on the leather-wrapped steering wheel. It comes with a clutter-free dashboard with minimal buttons. The 2019 Civic gets an advanced 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system, which is compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
The Honda Civic 2019 sedan is equipped with several high-end features, which is on part with its rivals. The sedan gets dual-zone climate control, an electronically operated sunroof, an eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat and a smart key (to turn the engine on and off, operate the sunroof, power windows and boot), push-button start, automatic wipers and a fully-digital 7.0-inch MID. The MID instrument cluster displays vital information about connected smartphone’s phone book, call history and music along with average fuel economy and the distance to empty meter. This instrument cluster also displays the seat-belt reminder and a door opening alert.
Honda Civic 2019 Safety
The 2019 Civic sedan is equipped with several high-end safety and security features. It comes equipped with a segment-first lane-keeping assist. As standard, the sedan gets six airbags, ABS with EBD, stability control and agile handling assist (Improves cornering), hill-start assist, electric parking brake with an auto-hold function, a reverse camera, a walk-away auto-lock feature and ISOFIX child-seat mounts on the rear seats. The new Civic, which will be launched in India, has secured a five-star rating in ASEAN NCAP’s crash tests.
Honda Civic 2019 Competition
The Civic sedan will finally make its re-entry in the Indian market. The D-segment sedan will face challenge from the already established players like Toyota Corolla Altis, Skoda Octavia and Hyundai Elantra.
New Honda Civic First Look Review
Honda Civic 2019
Based on a new lightweight modular platform, the new Honda Civic 2019 comes with aggressive looks and premium cabin. It will get a newly developed and highly efficient 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel engine paired to a 9-speed automatic gearbox.


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Canadian inflation warms up to 1.3% in July
Food prices increase 3.2 per cent while gasoline prices continue their decline
The cost of living in Canada increased at an annual rate of 1.3 per cent in July, slightly higher than the previous month as food prices got more expensive, even as energy kept getting cheaper.
Statistics Canada's consumer price index had risen at an annual rate of just one per cent in June.
The showing was slightly lower than the 1.4 per cent that economists had been expecting..
Still, 1.3 per cent inflation represents the highest reading this year, and that prompted some analysts to point out what may be driving it.
"There are many signs that the weaker [Canadian dollar] is pumping core inflation," BMO chief economist Doug Porter said in a note. "For example, furniture and appliance prices are up 4.1 per cent year over year, the fastest increase since the GST went into effect in 1991."
Food prices increased 3.2 per cent, led by meat prices, which rose 6.1 per cent in the previous year.
On the flip side, the transportation index — which includes gas prices — continued to trend lower, declining by 1.7 per cent.
Nine provinces have seen consumer prices rise over the past 12 months. The highest inflation rate was in Saskatchewan, at 1.9 per ecnt.
The only province that didn't see a positive inflation rate, P.E.I. Its annual inflation rate came in at –0.1 per cent in July, making it the only province to record deflation over the past year.
Core rate nudges higher
Nationally, the core rate of inflation, which excludes such volatile components as gasoline, fruit and vegetables, and cigarettes, ticked up slightly to 2.4 per cent annually.
While that figure is above the Bank of Canada's mid-range target of two per cent inflation, some economists believe the central bank's next interest rate move will depend more on economic growth.
"Our expectation is that as exports start to respond more strongly to a rebounding U.S. economy and weakening Canadian dollar, positive growth will resume in the third quarter," said RBC assistant chief economist Paul Ferley.
He said if that's the case, the Bank of Canada would likely keep current rates into 2016.


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Americans are so addicted to their social networks that they’d rather have a root canal than surrender their social media profile, a new survey found. The reason? FOMO – fear of missing out.
Of adults who are a member of more than one social networking site, well more than half – 62 percent – keep an eye on their social networks because they don’t want to miss something such as news or an important event or status update, according to a survey of more than 2,000 consumers sponsored by MyLife, which provides social media dashboards that enable consumers to manage multiple social networks and email accounts in one place.
“Consumers are bombarded with so much information online—from status updates and photos to tweets and check-ins—that our anxiety around ‘missing out’ has shifted to our digital lives,” said Jeff Tinsley, CEO of MyLife. “The fact that many people would rather run a marathon or spend a night in jail than give up their Facebook or Twitter account is proof positive.”


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Don’t worry! In fact, congratulations, you are popular! Pretty much everyone has received a version of this bogus email threatening to expose risqué webcam footage of their mark to contacts. Be assured it is fake, even if it contains one of your online passwords!
The first report of a Central Intelligence Agency officer sending ransom emails demanding bitcoin in exchange for concealing evidence of child porn was received March 16. Since then dozens of similar reports have come in, each demanding $10K USD payment to a different multi-sig address. As of this posting none of the reported addresses have received ransom payments.
The number of bitcoin ever to be mined may be capped at 21 million but the total supply will always be less. How much less is a critical valuation metric for bitcoin economists. There are a variety of ways and reasons bitcoin can be taken out of circulation. The purpose of this post is to examine one reason: “burn addresses”.
There will be winners and losers in the race to become the best bitcoin extortionist emailer. The latest bitcoin scam email campaign looks like it will be one of the losers.
Starting this morning, from U.S. sources, BitcoinWhosWho.com began receiving reports of a fake bomb threat demanding $20k in bitcoin or a “mercenary” would blow up their building. So far no one has paid any of the 15 bitcoin addresses that have been identified. But, it would only take a few people falling for this to make it worthwhile for the scammer.
The email typically states the bomb or explosive device is made of “lead azide”, “Tetryl” or “Hexogen” but also “tronitrotoluene” has been reported.
Notably, the author really wants to be clear that everything is proceeding “according to my guide”. Oh, and BTW, the bomb will go off by the end of the day if you don’t pay.
The addition of two Iranian SamSam ransomware bitcoin addresses to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list ushered in a new era in Know Your Customer, Counter Terrorist Financing and Anti-Money Laundering (KYC/CTF/AML) regulation compliance for bitcoin transactions. From now on, no one is allowed to transact with these two bitcoin addresses:
It’s a significant first. For responsible crypto exchanges and bitcoin ATMs operating in this wild west legal environment there are very few FREE KYC/CTF/AML compliance tools available. BitcoinWhosWho.com provides open-source data necessary to adhere to burgeoning global KYC/CTF/AML procedures involving bitcoin transactions.
Monitor OFAC List
Prevent scam addresses from registering at an exchange.
Bitcoin Transaction Profiling
Warn customers before they send bitcoin to an accused scammer.
Wallet Risk Assessment
Mark wallets which have transacted with “scam” wallets to a higher degree of risk.
Not all bitcoin sextortion attempts are occurring over email right now. Reports of a highly customized blackmail letter received in the mail and claiming to have “evidence” of a “secret you are keeping from your wife” and demanding payment in bitcoin in order not to tell, started coming in late 2017 and continue today. Krebs on Security blogged about this scam in January. Back then the amount demanded was around $2,500. In May typical reports had risen to around $8,500. Today the letters are demanding as much as $15,500. Continue reading Bitcoin Blackmail Letter Scam Raising Prices→
Don’t pay it! No matter how convincing inclusion of that old password you used to use makes it seem, they don’t have video of you doing that. Don’t be embarrassed, if you considered paying the ransom email you’re not alone. So far 101 victims have sent 22.67 BTC to 37 of the 176 bitcoin addresses so far reported to be related to the new sextortion with/password scam email variation that first appeared July 10. Reports of previous versions of the same sextortion tactic without the password portion have been reaching us since October 2017. Inclusion of a password is unique over the last three weeks. Continue reading Sextortion With Password Email Scam Variant Makes 22.67BTC Over First 3 Weeks→
A new twist on an old trick emerged this week. The porn ransom email claiming to have incriminating video of the recipient which will be released to contacts if not paid in bitcoin, has now included an old compromised password of the recipients in an attempt to add credibility to the scam. Gotta appreciate that dark web creativity. Where did they get all those passwords? The first report of this new variant was received July 10. Since then dozens more reports have come in relating to just over 2 dozen bitcoin addresses as of Friday. This address has been reported 9 times and also has the most total received at 2.83 BTC:


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Less than 12 months after opening an office in Barcelona, cargo-partner has now opened a second Spanish office near Madrid Barajas Airport.
The logistics provider states that Spain is an excellent hub for air and sea freight, allowing it to expedite shipments from Europe to the Americas.
Oriol Asturgo, managing director of cargo-partner in Spain, said: “As the capital city of Spain and a major economic centre in Europe, Madrid attracts a diverse range of industries and multinational corporations.
“Its well-developed infrastructure and excellent connectivity made it an ideal choice for our ongoing expansion in Western Europe. The new office provides a modern environment for our employees, a welcoming atmosphere for our customers, and the perfect location for us to continue to deliver personalised solutions to our clients and partners.”
Asturgo added: “We have chosen a location close to Madrid Barajas Airport, which is second in Europe in terms of capacity and fifth in terms of traffic. In combination with its good relations with Latin America, it is the main gateway for air export from Madrid to the Latin American countries.”
As of June 2023, cargo-partner’s subsidy in Spain has obtained IATA membership, another important milestone for the company’s presence in the country.
Currently, the team consists of 23 employees, and cargo-partner states that it plans to grow both in Madrid and Barcelona. The local branch has special expertise in pharmaceutical products, fashion and retail as well as automotive.


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Microsoft Gets Europe Privacy Endorsement for Some of Its Cloud Services
The European Union's Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) have endorsed some of Microsoft's cloud-based services as meeting EU privacy law standards.
The 28 DPAs issued a joint letter on April 2 (PDF) signifying approval, according to an announcement issued on Thursday by Microsoft. The DPAs represent local authorities within the EU that oversee privacy protections for data services.
Products such as "Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Windows Intune" have met privacy standards for transferring data outside the EU, according to a blog post by Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel and executive vice president of Legal and Corporate Affairs. Microsoft plans to ensure compliance by issuing standard agreements with its EU enterprise customers, starting on July 1.
Smith didn't mention some of Microsoft's consumer services, such as Office.com. Microsoft's biannually released Law Enforcement Requests reports typically show consumer services as being the most subject to government legal investigatory processes.
The endorsement of some of Microsoft's commercial cloud-based services by the DPAs no doubt puts some wind into Microsoft's sails with regard to its European cloud computing markets. As a U.S.-based company, Microsoft has to comply with U.S. laws, which include nontransparent processes such as the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act and the secret nonpublic proceedings of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Microsoft has also faced unsettling allegations that it participated in covert U.S. National Security Agency spying programs, such as the PRISM program, in the wake of public disclosures by former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Smith claimed that Microsoft would next work to ensure EU privacy protections for all of Microsoft's enterprise customers.
"Building on this approval, we will now take proactive steps to expand these legal protections to benefit all of our enterprise customers."
He no doubt meant all EU enterprise customers, since the United States offers few privacy protections with regard to commercial data services.
In March, members of the European Parliament suggested suspending a "Safe Harbor Agreement" with the United States, which allows data to be legally transferred to the United States, in reaction to reports of widespread NSA spying. Smith suggested that Microsoft's enterprise customers would not have to worry that their services would be interrupted should that agreement get suspended.
Microsoft, which has invested billions in its cloud-computing infrastructure around the globe, has been looking to assure its customers abroad. Smith previously suggested that Microsoft would allow its customers choice on where their data were located, but that's also been a past requirement in EU countries. Smith has also promised that Microsoft would add encryption to its datacenters sometime this year.
Data privacy laws in EU countries specifically limit what service providers can do with customer data. The lack of U.S. legal protections is quite striking in contrast.
For instance, per the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, the business controlling the user's data has the burden to prove that users of the service consented to the processing of their personal data. Service providers can't process data to pull out information on race, sex, ethnicity, political opinions or suspected offenses. Users of services also have the power to erase their data.
Service providers that violate these EU regulations get a warning on the first instance. However, afterward, the service provider would be subject to periodic audits, a €1 million fine or a 5-percent annual income penalty.
Smith noted that "this is an important week for the protection of our customers' privacy." However, early on in the process, Microsoft was opposed to many of the specific protections that got included in the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. For instance, in 2012, Microsoft argued against letting users opt out from information sharing. It also opposed the "right to be forgotten," where users can ask that their information be wiped from the service, among other such requests.
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.


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Responding to the industry downturn, the Master Pools Guild focused its annual meeting on generating new business.
The event was held Oct. 15-18 at the Queen Elizabeth Fairmont in Montreal.
“The market’s going to turn around, and those companies that are still moving forward [will] be first in line for the upswing,” said Dick Covert, executive director of the Richmond, Va.-based builder group. “You have to be positive and look at how to keep your company moving in the right direction.”
To help their own firms do this, MPG introduced a variety of new programs.
In a move designed to gain visibility for members, Master Pools expanded its partnership with Frontgate catalogs. The large, high-end retailer will continue to highlight Master Pools projects in its catalogs and Web site, and include members’ contact information.
“Every time we’re in there, we get exposure to 13 million prospective customers,” Covert said.
In addition, Master Pools members now can sell products from Frontgate catalogs and receive commissions. “It would be just like retail, except you don’t have to handle the product. [Members will] sell it out of a catalog,” Covert said.
The guild also has entered into a contract with a printing company that will help expand the choice of marketing materials for members. Under the new agreement, if one MPG member likes a brochure or pamphlet used by another, the printer can swap out the company name and photos. The Master Pools logo will be included on most pieces.
“This way, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time,” Covert said. “And the guild doesn’t have to inventory anything.”
On the research front, Catch Your Limit Consulting, a marketing firm based in Tallahassee, Fla., unveiled the results of a survey commissioned by Master Pools. The study looked at the effectiveness of MPG members’ marketing strategies and use of the guild’s brand.
“They found out that we have recognition, but within our own membership, we still need to work to get them to use [the Master Pools brand] in their marketing,” Covert said.
Master Pools Guild’s spring meeting is slated for March 11-14 in Nashville, Tenn. Its 2009 annual meeting will be held Oct. 14-17 in Denver.


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A city committee wants a review of rules that force most Toronto retailers to close on nine statutory holidays.
Councillors who oversee licensing voted Tuesday in favour of public consultation on potential changes to rules that have been successfully challenged in court by Longo’s grocery chain.
The bylaw states retailers must remain closed on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day and Family Day, but with exceptions.
Stores allowed to open on those days include: those in five designated tourist zones that include the Eaton Centre; small pharmacies and corner stores; and those that make and serve meals.
Longo’s won in court, and on appeal, arguing its prepared meal offerings make it exempt from the bylaw just like restaurants and fast-food eateries.
The licensing committee voted to consult the public on expanding that exemption beyond restaurants, to also look at the other loopholes, and to have staff develop an application process for retailers seeking an exemption.
The recommendation goes to city council for debate later this month.
As in past reviews of Toronto’s patchwork holiday shopping rules, some mall operators and retailers spoke in favour of relaxing or eliminating them while unions said statutory holidays are valuable for workers.
Yorkdale Mall general manager Claire Santamaria told councillors that opening six of the days — while remaining closed Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas — could bump up her mall’s $1.3 billion annual sales by $20 million.
Relaxing the rules would help Yorkdale tenants compete against always-open online retailers, she said, and put extra money in the pockets of store staff. Most of them would still be eligible for a pay premium on those days and can opt out of working statutory holidays.
Pam Frache of the Workers’ Action Centre said many employers already shirk legal duties related to holiday pay and have ways to force staff to work. Erasing predictability of down-time promotes a “cycle of precarity”, part of a trend that has people increasingly living at the whim of their employers, she said.
Councillor Janet Davis said most people want stat holidays with mandatory store closures rather than “24-hour-a-day, wide-open shopping in the city of Toronto.”
Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker disagreed. “What we have is people voting with their feet. I don't think we're going to stop it,” he said of holiday shopping, citing figures showing crowds of people in the Eaton Centre.
In 2012 a different committee rejected a recommendation from the city’s top economic development official to let all Toronto retailers open between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day and Thanksgiving.


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New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests the problem with formaldehyde-laced flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators is more dangerous than previously thought.
Free air test available
On Monday, the CDC revealed that formaldehyde levels in select versions of Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring could cause six to 30 cases of cancer per 100,000 people. That figure was upgraded from earlier findings. Just two weeks ago, the CDC reported that figure was believed to be two to nine cases per 100,000 people.
In addition to the increased cancer risk, other problems stemming from the flooring could include increased risks of respiratory issues like asthma and eye, nose and throat irritation.
Lumber Liquidators is offering free air tests to customers who got laminate flooring from roughly 2011 to 2015. The testing, which will be administered by an independent, accredited lab, should help determine the level of formaldehyde present in your home.
What should you do if you have the bad stuff in your home? In the words of the CDC, ‘Our recommendations will likely remain the same – we strongly stress taking steps to reduce exposures, which should alleviate respiratory and eye, nose and throat irritation. These steps should also reduce the cancer risk.’
Flooring expose on ’60 Minutes’ rocked the company in 2015
Back in March 2015, Lumber Liquidators was taken to task on 60 Minutes for buying laminate flooring from several Chinese factories that contained close to 20 times the amount of formaldehyde allowable by law. A known carcinogen, formaldehyde is present in glues used in the manufacturing of flooring.
The 60 Minutes piece featured hidden video of three Chinese factory managers fessing up to the unacceptable levels of formaldehyde in laminate flooring made for Lumber Liquidators. One manager also admitted to falsely labeling the flooring as CARB (California Air Resources Board) Phase 2 Compliant — meaning it follows strict standards for formaldehyde emissions in wood flooring, even though it didn’t!
The company took a hit on reputation in the wake of the scandal, and CEO Robert Lynch abruptly resigned after the expose aired.
Now Lumber Liquidators is reforming its practices and has become the first major retailer to take proactive measures to limit dangerous toxins in your flooring. In conjunction with the the ‘Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families’ coalition, the company has agreed to the following:
- No more reprocessed vinyl plastic in vinyl flooring
- Lead content of less than 100 parts per million (PPM) in flooring
- Suppliers must eliminate the use of ortho-phthalates in all vinyl flooring sold to the company
‘Lumber Liquidators is committed to setting the highest standards for the sourcing of flooring products,’ said Jill Witter, Chief Compliance and Legal Officer of Lumber Liquidators. ‘We are pleased to work with ‘Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families’ on this initiative, as part of our ongoing efforts to lead the industry forward with responsible sourcing practices.’
Lumber Liquidators has also agreed to be monitored by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to make sure they’re honoring their commitment.
Read more: Is it time to sweep your chimney?
What should you do next?
This stuff could be installed in hundreds of thousands of homes around the country. As this story develops, I’ll let you know how to tell if your flooring poses a health hazard to you and what you should do about it.
In the meantime, there is a class action lawsuit against Lumber Liquidators over this issue. If you have any questions, call 1-800-538-1467 or get in touch by email at [email protected]. (Note: This lawsuit is for California residents only at this time.)
Lozeau Drury LLP — the environmental law firm behind the class action suit — says that if you’ve purchased laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators in the past four years, you may have been exposed to high levels of formaldehyde.
I’ll keep you up to date on this page with any further next steps you need to take as this story develops.


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A report by South Korean news site Yonhap News claims that Samsung is planning to make changes to the Galaxy Fold so that it can be released again.
According to the report, Samsung plans to reduce the size of the hinge so that it better suits the frame of the smartphone. This should reduce the risk of this hinge breaking.
Another issue experienced by reviewers of the original Galaxy Fold was that the display included what appeared to be a screen protector which was actually part of the display. When users peeled this film off, they damaged the phone.
The report states that this plastic cover will be made larger – to a point where it can be tucked into the frame of the smartphone, ensuring that users don’t mistakenly peel it off.
The updated Galaxy Fold could be launched as soon as next month.


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Released on August 23rd, 2017, Garena Free Fire is a battle royale game available on Android and iOS. Since its launch, Free Fire has been a huge hit, specifically in Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America, becoming the most downloaded mobile game worldwide in both 2019 and 2020.
Free Fire’s popularity outside of Asia and Latin America isn’t quite as high, but it’s steadily gaining interest, having recently surpassed 1 billion downloads on Google Play Store. The game also beat PUBG Mobile in revenue for the first quarter in 2021 in the US.
While PUBG Mobile and Fortnite (before it was banned) were perhaps the two most popular battle royales on mobile, Free Fire has truly taken the crown in the last couple of years, boasting more active players and registered accounts than both games combined.
So, just how many people play Garena Free Fire in 2021? Let’s (sky) dive into that very question.
Free Fire Active Player Figures
As Free Fire is only available on iOS and Android, there’s no official data on active players like Steam Charts. However, Sea Limited, who own Garena, has put out various statements about the game’s success and popularity.
While Free Fire has been pretty successful since the get-go, it’s just sort of exploded in the last couple of years. Since 2020, the game has managed to almost double its daily active players, an impressive accomplishment for what some people initially thought was a clone of PUBG.
While both Free Fire and PUBG were equally as popular back in 2019, Free Fire has raced on ahead in the last two years given the stark difference in downloads.
Free Fire On Twitch
Despite being a mobile game, Free Fire has a decent following on Twitch. However, it seems to be more popular on YouTube, having reached over 100 billion lifetime views on the platform since its launch.
According to Twitch Tracker, Free Fire has an average of roughly 12,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch. This figure has risen significantly since 2018, at which point the game was only accumulating an average of fewer than 100 viewers.
In 2019, Free Fire climbed from about 100 concurrent viewers on Twitch at the beginning of the year to around 1,600 by the end. Similarly, in early 2020, Free Fire had between 1,400 to 2,000 but grew to well over 10,000 concurrent viewers by late 2020.
Free Fire’s highest number of concurrent viewers on Twitch was 518,590 on February 12th, 2021. In comparison, PUBG Mobile’s peak concurrent viewers were just 72,024 on August 23rd, 2021.
This is only the second time Free Fire has earned more than PUBG Mobile in a quarter in the game’s history.
Sea Limited revealed that Free Fire was the highest-grossing mobile game in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Singapore for the second quarter of 2021, a title it has maintained for the past eight quarters for Latin America and Southeast Asia, and the last three quarters for India.
In the same report, Sea Limited confirmed that Free Fire was the highest-grossing battle royale mobile game in the United States for two consecutive quarters, as well as the highest-grossing mobile game on Google Play Store for the second quarter.
The Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore, which took place in May 2021, also gained a lot of attraction, peaking at 5.4 million concurrent online viewers.
While Free Fire managed to beat PUBG Mobile’s revenue in the first quarter, PUBG Mobile tripled Free Fire’s quarterly revenue in just a single month. As mentioned earlier, PUBG Mobile also frequently earns more than Free Fire per quarter.
As PUBG Mobile almost always sees a larger revenue each quarter than Free Fire, it’s pretty likely the game earns more money. Strangely, even with more active players and viewers on Twitch, Free Fire, while extremely profitable, doesn’t quite match PUBG’s level of revenue.
The Future of Free Fire
With over 1 billion downloads on the Google Play Store, 150 million daily active players, and strong quarterly revenue year after year, the future of Free Fire is looking pretty good.
The game has been widely popular since 2019, but has grown its player base significantly over the last couple of years – it doesn’t look like its bubble is about to burst either.
Since Fortnite was booted off both the App Store and Google Play Store in August 2020 due to Epic breaching both platforms’ terms of service, there has been a gap in the mobile battle royale game market.
Free Fire, which was already the most downloaded mobile game worldwide in 2019 and 2020, took full advantage of that empty spot and has reaped in all the rewards.
Although PUBG Mobile continues to be more profitable than Free Fire overall, the game still has a much more active player base and viewership on Twitch.
Furthermore, Free Fire has a huge esports scene with some pretty hefty prize pools. The India-based Free Fire City Open 2021 had a prize pool of 60 lakhs IRS (around $81,000), while the Free Fire World Series 2021 had a prize pool of $2 million, as well as peak online viewership.
FFWS 2019 consisted of just 9 regions spanning Latin America, Europe, and Asia, but the game’s esports scene has been so successful that the FFWS 2021 included 13 regions.
Free Fire also receives frequent updates that bring new weapons, characters, cosmetics items, etc, to keep players engaged, as well as events that include various tasks for players to complete for rewards.
An enhanced version of the game called Free Fire Max adding improved graphics, effects, and other features became available for global pre-registrations on Google Play Store on August 29th, 2021 too.
Some people have complained about Free Fire’s graphics, particularly when compared to PUBG Mobile, so the enhanced version should eliminate those concerns and help it stand the test of time visually even longer.
Free Fire Max will boost existing players’ experiences and, hopefully, bring in new players, especially those with higher device specs or who were put off by the game’s simple and cartoonish appearance.
Additionally, as mentioned earlier, Free Fire is the first mobile battle royale game to surpass over 1 billion downloads on the Google Play Store.
PUBG Mobile has over 1 billion downloads combined on the App Store and Google Play Store, so more users are playing Free Fire overall.
If its recent boom in popularity is anything to go by, Free Fire could end up being as profitable as PUBG Mobile with a brighter future – maybe even more so.
Garena Free Fire is a free-to-play battle royale game available on iOS and Android.
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Rockstar Games sent out a press release today officially announcing the release date of Grand Theft Auto V, the studio’s return to the open-world crime franchise. Unfortunately, fans excited to start firing rocket launchers at circling military helicopters will need to wait awhile longer than expected: The game has been moved back from its initial Spring 2013 berth, and will now hit stores on Sept. 17.
Tag: Grand Theft Auto (1-2 of 2)
One year after the first teaser for Grand Theft Auto V offered an impressionistic, semi-inscrutable look at the game’s faux-SoCal setting, Rockstar Games has released a new trailer for the new entry in its beloved open-world crime series. Set to a pumping electric soundtrack, the trailer introduces you to the game’s three protagonists. Michael, a middle-aged ex-criminal, is living the Ray Winstone Sexy Beast life, sitting by the pool and happily living out his retirement. That won’t last. Then there’s Franklin, a young black man just beginning a life of crime, and also Trevor, who is insane.
As IGN revealed this week, GTAV will let you switch between the three characters — a radical shift for a series that has always been about single-character epics. If that all sounds too conceptual, the trailer also features a Molotov cocktail, a train crash, and a scene where you drive a car out of a plane mid-flight. READ FULL STORY »
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Google Play's Bubble Zoom Feature May Change Digital Comics
The past decade in comics has been a constant process of innovation as publishers and tech companies try to figure out how digital comics might work in the future. Motion comics were big for a while before fading away, and in recent years the "Guided View" format of panel to panel transitions has become the preferred method. Google and the team behind the Android operating system have been exploring several alternatives to Guided View, including last year's introduction of a "Vertical Scrolling" featuring. However, a new innovation has just been announced at San Diego Comic Con that may change the game forever, and it's called Bubble Zoom.


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BANGKOK — Thais are among 59 nationalities who soon won’t need visas to travel to China’s Hainan Island.
Starting next month, the visa requirement will be waived for Thai nationals visiting the southern semi-tropical island known for its beach resorts and and forests for up to 30 days.
The new regulation is effective May 1, according to Xinhua News.
Other countries also benefiting from the easing of travel regulations include the United States, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN member states such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
The move is part of an attempt for the Chinese government to promote Hainan as an international tourist and duty-free shopping destination as well as a trade hub.


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3. The Transformation of the Payments Eco-System in the UAE
The deep transformation of the payments landscape in the UAE, and initiatives to eliminate cash and trial a digital currency, are not surprising. The region counts among the wealthiest and most advanced countries in the world, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE ranked in the Global Competitiveness Index as world leaders in terms of macro-economic stability, while the UAE ranks second in the world for ICT adoption, behind only South Korea, and 15th in terms of the quality of its institutions, ahead of Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United States, reflective of its unmatched infrastructure and the great strides it has made in e-government services. In early 2017, the UAE central bank launched new electronic payment regulations, permitting peer-to-peer and retail players to participate in the country’s payments eco-system alongside banks. The following year, the central bank announced a national payments strategy, which in addition to strengthening the security and efficiency of payments, and bringing down transaction costs, set the objective of gradually transitioning to a cashless economy. The e-dirham—a reloadable prepaid card required to pay for government services—initially launched in 2001 with moderate success, is also subject to a major revamp in collaboration with 22 of the country’s banks. In parallel with the UAE, the Saudi central bank announced the objective of achieving 70 percent cashless payments across the kingdom over the next decade, as part of the financial sector reform plans integrated within Saudi Vision 2030. These policies crystallized cashless economy objectives that have been under discussion since at least 2012.
In the UAE, the new regulations encouraged the entry into the country’s payments eco-system of a new class of payment gateways and processors, with a somewhat baffling mix of international players setting up shop alongside home-grown initiatives, the fruit of local start-up and FinTech hubs. For e-commerce—here taken to mean payments transacted on the internet via mobile, smartphone, or tablet—there are at least 15 players. This includes major international groups like Amazon’s Payfort, Telr, jointly launched in the UAE and Singapore, India’s CCAvenue, as well as local entities like PayBy, Foloosi, and Bahrain’s PayTabs. Some local players had moved beyond online payments and were rolling out point-of-sale devices for in-store payments, competing in an area traditionally controlled by banks. Noon, one of the region’s largest online retailers, launched its own payment gateway in 2020, arming itself with a captive business. With 1.4 million Chinese tourists visiting the region in 2018, China’s QFPay also entered the market through a local joint venture, enabling Chinese visitors to transact QR-code based payments with Alipay and WeChat Pay at shops and restaurants (Visele 2019
). On the eWallet side, Beam, an early mover that first launched in the UAE in 2012, with an attractive points and rewards scheme, soon found itself in competition with “the Pays”—Apple, Samsung, and Google Pay. Not to be outdone, 16 UAE banks joined forces to launch the Emirates Digital Wallet KLIP, which sets out specifically to eliminate cash from the economy, while in Dubai the reloadable NOL transport card used for the metro was expanded to enable payments in taxis and at corner shops. It is in fact hard to keep up with eWallet and prepaid card schemes in the UAE—particularly stand-alone initiatives set up by telcos, retailers, or individual banks—with many failing to gain any traction despite otherwise high-profile launches.
UAE payment industry and FinTech players frequently take South Korea and Sweden as models to replicate in terms of achieving a cashless future. Yet in a world where few countries have succeeded in reducing cash in favor of digital payments, it is interesting to consider what specific attributes these countries share that have made them amenable to a cashless eco-system and whether they can serve as appropriate benchmarks for the GCC states. Notable attributes of these countries are high levels of literacy, moderate levels of income inequality, and almost universal access to smartphones and mobile data. Additionally, close to one hundred percent of the adult population in South Korea and Sweden are banked. This is very different from the situation in the GCC, where a substantial part of the population consists of migrant laborers and blue-collar workers, excluded from the formal banking system.
In the UAE, 32 percent of the working population, 1.7 million individuals, is unbanked, earning less than USD 679 per month, as set out in Table 1
. The additional 19 percent of workers between the USD 680 to USD 1359 band are partially unbanked, as the minimum usually required for opening a bank account is USD 1360. This means that at reasonable estimates, 35 percent of the working population, some 1.9 million individuals, are unbanked, out of a total active labor force of 5.5 million in 2018. These are reliant on money exchanges, and formal and informal networks to receive their wages and remit home savings. Additionally, while some of the unbanked may be able to afford smartphones, it is uncertain whether this segment could easily pay for a monthly mobile data plan to transact mobile payments, once rent, food, transport, and remittances are factored in. With UAE nationals comprising 11 percent of the total population of 9.6 million and concentrated in the upper income tiers with strong social safety nets, the unbanked segment is also overwhelmingly comprised of foreign workers. These socio-economic inequalities are also captured in the Human Development Index, where the percentage of unskilled labor is 41 and 47 percent for Saudi Arabia and the UAE, respectively, placing them closer to developing and emerging economies for this indicator than the high-income group to which they belong.
Despite the large unbanked population, the banking sector and payments industry has maintained a positive outlook with regards to the future of digital payments in the region. In 2018, Mastercard attributed the unprecedented growth of mobile payments in the UAE to the country’s large youth demographic and a mobile penetration rate of 173 percent, described as the “highest in the world” (Mastercard 2018
). In reality, the figure is misleading as while mobile ownership is certainly high, smartphone adoption probably does not exceed 73 percent (Finastra 2018
), an indicator difficult to measure given the UAE’s wealthy frequently own multiple smartphones. Boston Consulting Group, for its part, estimated that achieving a cashless economy in the GCC would provide “at least a 1% boost to non-oil GDP, equating to nearly $
3 billion” and that it was important for monetary authorities to continue addressing barriers to cashless uptake, such as high transaction costs, and cybersecurity and infrastructure readiness (BCG 2019
; Khan et al. 2019
). In parallel, the consensus at the Success 2020 Arabian Business Forum held in Dubai in October 2019 was that the “UAE is moving ever closer to becoming a cashless society”, with Visa’s representative for the UAE explaining that it was important to encourage “smaller retailers and businesses on to the cashless economy” (Halligan 2019
). Equally, the region’s press is awash with reports of the “e-payments revolution”, the “cashless society”, and the “end of cash”.
In practice, one cannot blame banks or the payments industry for generating hype around digital payments. The payments business, whether online or in-person at points-of-sale, is lucrative. In the UAE, and mirrored around the world, merchant service fees per transaction, hidden to the buyer, range from around one percent for in-person transactions, to up to 3.0 percent for online payments. These commissions are shared between the acquiring bank, the card association (i.e., Mastercard, Visa), and the payment gateway. It is more of a volume than a value business, which is why the industry has long been more focused on the volume than on the value of transactions, as large payments are less frequent, and are as likely to be made by bank transfer or cheque. From this perspective, the two most promising regions for the growth of digital payments are the emerging markets of East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as set out in Figure 1
. In the latter, non-cash transactions are forecasted to grow by 23.1 percent between 2017 and 2022, to reach 139 billion transactions, which explains why the payments industry is so keen on the region, particularly when compared to more mature markets in North America and Europe. In the UAE, digital payment uptake has been strong across all sectors, including retail, transport, food delivery, and subscription services (i.e., music and video). Progress in peer-to-peer payments has been slower, partly because of the continued prominence of in-person paper-based know-your-customer (KYC) protocols to sign up for financial services, but regulations in this area are also catching up.
How to explain therefore, considering the phenomenal rise of digital payments in the UAE since the oil price downturn, the continued dominance of cash as a percentage of overall payments? A Mastercard report in 2013 described the UAE as one of the countries “most rapidly moving away from being a predominantly cash-based society” (Mastercard 2013
). At the time, cash transactions constituted 74 percent of customer payments by value at points-of-sale, as set out in Figure 2
. In 2019, this had come down to 67 percent—a modest shift, particularly given the changes in technology, payment channels, and connectivity that have taken place in between, while the figure for Saudi Arabia was 64 percent (SAMA 2019
). This is compared to 10 percent in Canada, 15 percent in Sweden, and 18 percent in South Korea; economies where one can confidently speak of an evolution away from cash payments (FIS 2020
). Of course, the transition in these economies took place gradually, but it is interesting to note that in 2001, both Canada and Sweden were already less cash-reliant than their GCC peers, with cash accounting for around 30 and 55 percent of payments, respectively (Engert et al. 2019
While infrastructure readiness and transaction costs, particularly for smaller businesses, certainly have something to do with the continued preference for cash, one angle that has been less explored is the relationship between cash transactions and the unbanked population. One only needs to visit UAE exchange houses on payday in any given month to witness the queues of workers waiting to remit money home, often in the form of cash, sometimes via payroll cards on which wages are disbursed, to understand why cash remains important in GCC economies. UAE-based foreign workers remitted USD 45 billion to their home countries, mainly in East and South Asia in 2019—the equivalent of 11 percent of the UAE’s GDP (UAE Central Bank 2019
). This was just through formal channels. The World Bank estimates that an additional 35 to 75 percent of the total value of global remittances are delivered through informal channels (Freund and Spatafora 2005
). In the Middle East, individuals send funds via the age-old hawala
system, a trust-based network where cash is handed to a local agent, either a corner shop or a designated community member, whose counterpart in the home country disburses the funds to the intended recipient, against a small commission. While hawala operates outside of formal channels, it is essential for sustaining remittance corridors to locations where recipients have no easy access to exchange houses or banks. In the absence of digital money transfer technologies accessible to both senders and recipients along these corridors, it is difficult to imagine how this segment of the population can forgo cash.
This leads to the interesting question of whether a link can be established more generally between socio-economic inequality and reliance on cash. In Figure 3
, the Gini coefficient for income inequality within countries is compared to the total value of payments transacted in cash for 37 emerging and advanced economies. What is apparent is that countries like Sweden and South Korea that have implemented solid digital payment eco-systems and substantially reduced cash are also among the least unequal societies in the world. In Saudi Arabia and South Africa, the latter one of the world’s most unequal societies, cash continues to dominate payments, despite otherwise advanced infrastructure, booming industrial sectors, and high levels of integration into the global economy. While no Gini coefficient was available for the UAE, Saudi Arabia’s position on the chart is a good approximation of the position of GCC states. What the chart suggests is that in countries with high levels of inequality, eliminating cash may be more challenging, especially where bank accounts and digital payments solutions are out-of-reach to poorer segments of society, or represent a high switching cost, as discussed by Bajaj and Damodaran
There is no doubt that in the UAE and the GCC more needs to be done to promote financial inclusion. A recent IMF report on the region found significant gaps in access to finance, particularly for women, youth, and small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs). The latter only received 4.5 percent of total bank loans, lower than the regional average for the Middle East and North Africa. The report also highlighted the continued importance of informal finance, echoing the findings related to remittances and the use of cash above, but this time in relation to loans, stating that “26 percent of adults in GCC reported having borrowed informally”, compared to 13 percent in advanced economies, and that “GCC households rely on informal financing channels, where peer financing … remains the dominant source of financing, with bank loans being the residual” (Ben Ltaifa et al. 2018
). The situation for SMEs, which in the UAE account for an estimated 60 percent of non-oil GDP, has been particularly challenging since the oil-price downtown of 2015. This set off a wave of SME loan defaults equivalent to USD 1.4 billion, hitting the banking sector and drying up new loans, particularly trade finance, the main lubricant in oil economies where the retail sector is entirely reliant on imports (Everington 2015
). This as the region registered its largest ever current account deficit of USD 127 billion, equivalent to 9.1 percent of combined GDP, putting immense pressure on the maintenance of the US dollar anchor (Iradian and Preston 2016
). In fact, much of the drive by monetary authorities to expand digital payments can be traced to the oil-price downturn of 2015 and the subsequent implementation of a value-added tax regime in all six GCC states, as governments cut spending and scrambled to make up for lost revenue. This from the perspective that digital payments leave a clearer accounting trail and result in better tax collection.
Another reason for the prevalence of cash payments is that in countries with high socio-economic inequality, financial literacy tends to be low. In both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, efforts are nonetheless being made to increase participation in the formal banking system. Saudi Arabia’s Financial Sector Development Program has sought to enhance financial planning skills for youth and women and increase access to digital financial services for the unbanked. These efforts seem to have yielded positive results, with 69 percent of adults having bank accounts in 2017, compared to 51 percent in 2011. In the UAE, financial literacy initiatives seem to be more focused on middle- and upper-income earners to improve individual financial planning, while one FinTech, NOW Money, has launched a mobile banking and remittance solution for low-income workers (Buller 2020
). On the SME front, the Emirates Development Bank in 2019 launched a USD 27 million credit guarantee to improve access to finance for small businesses.
4. The Relationship between Cash and Digital Payments in Emerging Economies
The broader point related to the cashless economy, both in the economics literature as well as in payment industry circles, is that the choice between cash and digital payments is often presented as a binary one. This supposes a linear evolution from cash to digital payments, where a rise in digital payments should result in a decline in the use of cash. It is a view that intuitively makes sense and is often repeated in GCC banking and payment industry circles. Reality, however, appears to be more nuanced, with empirical data showing that for most emerging and advanced economies, both digital payments and cash-in-circulation are on the rise. Figure 4
looks at currency-in-circulation as a percentage of GDP for nine major developed and emerging economies, showing declines only in Russia and Sweden since 2007. In the seven other markets, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, currency-in-circulation—that is, cash outside of banks and deposit-taking institutions—has increased. Some interesting work has been done to explain this counter-intuitive phenomenon, even if it is not yet fully understood.
Ashworth and Goodhart
), analyzing the Eurozone, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, demonstrate remarkably that cash-in-circulation has been consistently on the increase in these markets since the 1990s. Recent increases could be correlated to the low interest rates that have prevailed since the global financial crisis, as well as the rise of the shadow economy and informal work. A BIS study focused on 20 emerging and advanced economies for the period 2000 to 2016 found that cash-in-circulation had increased from 7 to 9 percent of GDP during the period (Bech et al. 2018
). The report reached similar conclusions with regard to low interest rates, as individuals had less incentive to hold money in savings accounts. The authors also found that currency holdings related particularly to higher denomination notes, leading them to speculate that money was likely being held more with a store-of-value purpose in mind than as a means of payment.
Less is known about the reasons underlying the increase in cash-in-circulation in emerging economies or those with large unbanked populations. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the adoption of mobile money and e-wallets as alternatives to bank accounts has resulted in an expansion of the cash-based economy. More than 60 percent of mobile money transactions globally are based on the cash-in-cash-out model, where individuals utilize licensed agents to either top-up or receive cash held in mobile wallets, enabling them to disburse salaries or transact peer-to-peer payments across large distances (Naghavi 2019
). Additionally, this is not just for within-country transfers. A significant proportion of remittances between France and major west African economies like Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Senegal are transacted via Orange Money, one of the most widely used mobile money applications in French-speaking Africa.
Similarly, in South Africa, the country’s leading economics advisory firm, Genesis Analytics, found in 2018 that a rise in non-performing micro-loans had resulted in a return to mobile money, prepaid cards and cash, and an avoidance of bank accounts, where positive balances can automatically be debited to settle outstanding debts. To match the services offered by mobile money, South African banks also enabled their customers to make instant cash transfers to anyone in the country with access to an ATM terminal, with no need for the recipient to hold an account at the bank (Ketley 2018
); another example of digital technologies expanding cash-in-circulation. What these trends reveal is that for many emerging markets, the relationship between cash and digital payments may not be a zero-sum game. Rather, the cash-based and the digital economy appear to reinforce each other, with digital technologies boosting cash-in-circulation, and cash-in-circulation in turn sustaining the digital payments eco-system. While further study is required to better understand these trends in emerging markets, what they suggest is that policies seeking to eliminate cash prematurely may result in more harm than good.


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Footwear retailer Barratts has snapped up 10 of Bay Trading's 75 footwear concessions from Dolcis.
Barratts will take over the concessions next month, with all 10, including stores in Blackpool, Bolton and Hounslow in west London, expected to be trading by the end of September. The concessions are an average of 400sq ft.
A source close to the deal said Barratts would be vying to take over the entire Bay Trading footwear concession arm from Dolcis. He added "Dolcis has a two-year contract, but it's healthy competition and it keeps everybody on their toes."
Meanwhile, new Dolcis owner John Kinnaird has embarked on a property review after acquiring the business from Alexon this year. The group has bought a redundant Ravel store in Peterborough and is about to sign an outlet in Silverburn shopping mall in Pollok, near Glasgow. Dolcis is also expected to exit its loss-making Manchester Arndale Centre store and move to a new site, either in the centre or the surrounding area.
The footwear chain is likely to open six new or relocated stores by Christmas with a revamped shopfit, which will lend itself to lower densities and better displayed product to push a quality message.


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Home improvement and mobile are as matched as a hammer and nail, and other takeaways from the just concluded Mobile Marketing Forum in New York:
On the heels of a presentation by Lowe’s at the last Mobile Marketing Association get-together in San Francisco in January, Home Depot detailed its own measureable progress in engaging shoppers and selling more stuff through mobile devices.
Among the learnings:
- Home Depot’s mobile-optimized site and apps provide access to the 400,000 different product types available online – as compared to the 35,000 in physical stores.
- About a third of Home Depot’s traffic last year came through mobile.
- Home Depot’s app has been downloaded 3.5 million times, with traffic up 60 percent because people responded to opt-in push messages.
- Home Depot recently ran a test on Twitter and saw mobile engagement outpace desktop by 40 percent.
“The biggest challenge today for marketers is to make it exciting for consumers,” said Trish Mueller, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Home Depot. “We’re passionate about customer service and mobile provides such an amazing way to connect with the customer.”
In January, Sean Bartlett, director of mobile strategy and platforms at Lowe’s, told us how mobile innovation has entered the 65-year-old retailer’s 1,700 plus stores with 42,000 iPhones in the hands of associates, and Wi-Fi in store to give shoppers what they desire – easy and free access to product reviews and social networks.
So, if you want to build a case for mobile, watch the home improvement efforts. …
Rules and regulations, arguably the driest of mobile topics, were discussed in committee meetings, the larger sessions, and in hallway conversations when campaigns run and contemplated were being discussed.
And with good reason. Coinciding with the MMA Forum was news of a lawsuit where a Web user sued Facebook for allegedly sending her an SMS message suggesting that she send “friend” requests to other users.
Illinois resident Darya Ivankina alleges in her potential class-action lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, that the social-networking service violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending her cell phone an unwanted ad.
That law prohibits companies from using an automated dialing service to send SMS messages to people without first obtaining their consent. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act provides for damages of up to $1,500 per text message.
Facebook didn't have an immediate response.
While technological advances like Google Glass made for interesting conversation in New York, some of the most successful campaigns featured use of permission-based databases that brought value to the mobile user and the brand. …
We again heard that mobile searches create large opportunities. According to Google’s Tim Reis, 73 percent of mobile searches trigger additional action and conversions. …
International mobile guru Tomi Ahonen reported that the average smartphone user looks at the device every five minutes – or 200 times a day. Further, he said that if one was counting full-length 160 character messages, a teenager sending 100 SMS per day would type the full text of “War & Peace” in under 7 months.
That’s a large amount of consumer interaction in any book.
(first appeared on imediaconnection.com - http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2013/05/13/takeaways-for-marketers-from-mobile-marketing-forum/)


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Smashed Windows Hurting Thunder Bay Business in Fort William Downtown
THUNDER BAY – CRIME BEAT – There have been a rash of break-ins to businesses in the Fort William downtown. This afternoon Unveiled Bridal Boutique on Victoria Avenue East had the door window smashed and a thief enter the premises.
Video from Unveiled Bridal
Video supplied by Unveiled Bridal Boutique
The break-in happened just after 3:00PM, perhaps demonstrating a growing boldness with the crime in the area.
Shop owner Shelby Ch’ng of Unveiled Bridal has posted a video of the break-in on her Facebook page.
The rash of window break-ins is very costly to merchants. The cost of broken windows adds up quickly. For a small business, having to spend several hundred dollars to repair the glass hurts the bottom line.
Further as the public sees the crimes, even though they are being done at times the businesses are closed, it does put a damper on shopping in the area.
There have been positive signs recently in the downtown Fort William neighbourhood. Business owners have been cleaning up the neighbourhood, with the help of volunteers from Evergreen Neighbourhood.
Rash of Break Ins
Earlier in the week, the door at Redd Boutique on May Street was broken into as well. This followed a break-in to the Guardian Angels office on May Street as well as an earlier break-in at the Silhoette Boutique on Victoria Avenue East.
There was also a break-in to a residence on May Street on May 7th at 12:44AM.
The week previous, Silhoette Boutique was the victim of another smash and grab break and enter.
Merchants in the downtown are not leaving cash on their premises at night.
If you know the suspect responsible for this crime or have any information on this or any other crime but wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers toll free at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip online at https://www.tipsubmit.com/WebTips.asp…. If your tip leads to an arrest, you are eligible to a cash reward. You will never be asked to identify yourself or testify in court.
Crime Map – Fort William
There have been almost sixty reported incidents in the downtown Fort William neighbourhood from April 24th to May 10th. Almost three per day.