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The year ahead: seven predictions for commercial property in 2020
Published by Knight Frank Newcastle
on 3rd January 2020
1. Global office markets: FOMO drives pre-letting and partnership
30% of the 75 global office markets Knight Frank monitor will be Landlord favourable in 2020, as acute shortages of high-quality office space continue to condition occupier behaviour.
In markets such as Bangalore, Dublin, London, Mumbai, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai and Sydney occupiers will increasingly activate searches more than five years ahead of lease events for fear of missing out (FOMO). Accordingly, pre-letting activity will continue to rise as those occupiers seek best in class space that supports wider strategic ambitions. This pre-letting activity will quicken the transition from an adversarial to partnership relationship between Landlords and occupiers (AKA customers).
This partnership will be in growing evidence as both parties work jointly to create solutions in response to the growing challenge of sustainability or the on-going task of aligning business-planning horizons with real estate. The latter will bring a further suite of flexible office products to global markets, delivered either directly by Landlords or in partnership with operators.
Dr Lee Elliott, Global Head of Occupier Research
Contact Lee Elliott
2. UK to remain a dominant global destination for commercial real estate investment in 2020
“Despite a slowdown in investment over 2019 due to lack of stock and Brexit, the UK remained a top three destination globally for commercial real estate investment*. Regardless of election outcome, in 2020 we forecast the UK to remain one of the largest and most liquid markets, underpinned by robust fundamentals which could support a modest pick-up in volumes compared to the prior year. In the event of a strong conservative majority, we could see a drive of activity in the first quarter, followed by moderated growth in activity over the rest of the year as investors respond to strengthened sterling and the realisation that there will be several months at least of Brexit / trade deal negotiation to be worked through. We forecast a continued increase in overseas ‘safe haven’ investors looking at London as well as also low beta regional cities. We expect demand for the Specialist sectors and Logistics to persist over the coming year, as they can take advantage of continued structural and demographic changes.”
Antonia Haralambous, Capital Markets Research
Contact Antonia Haralambous
3. Demand for global commercial real estate investment to strengthen over 2020
“2019 saw central banks around the world lowering interest rates to support global growth in an arena of heightened geopolitical uncertainty. We expect this lower for longer, extra time environment to extend into 2020. Continued low and negative yielding bonds could encourage income dependent investors such as pension and insurance funds to further increase their allocations into commercial real estate.
In this late cycle environment, we also expect investors to focus on lower beta geographies over the coming year, where structural growth factors, such as education and innovation are combining to drive commercial real estate momentum. We anticipate demand for long income assets to continue, as well as assets which can benefit from demographic and other structural changes, such as in the specialist sectors.
Overlaying geographic and sector focus, we expect sustainability and ESG (environment, social, governance) investing to become pervasive across commercial real estate in 2020. A combination of regulatory, risk and return factors will drive investors to increasingly target real estate with strong ESG potential.”
Victoria Ormond, Partner, Capital Markets Research
Contact Victoria Ormond
4. London Offices: five years of rental growth to come
"Despite the ongoing Brexit talks, we are still seeing many businesses pressing ahead with expansion or relocation plans. This is against a backdrop of a severe lack of options and an office development pipeline that continues to be raided, which is why we are forecasting continued rent rises over the next five years. Prime headline rents in the West End should reach £125 per sq ft by the end of 2023, while Soho, Fitzrovia and Marylebone are all expected to join the £100 per sq ft rent club by 2023.
“These projections pose clear cost challenges for businesses, but with environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues taking centre stage in boardrooms, issues such as workplace wellbeing, a building’s environmental credentials and the amount of flexible space on offer in a building are rising in importance rapidly and landlords and developers need to be conscious of occupiers’ changing expectations”.
Faisal Durrani, Head of London Research
Contact Faisal Durrani
5. The retail landscape in 2020 (and beyond) will be defined by 6 “Ps” – Perspective, Purpose, People, Place, Profitability and Pricing
Perspective: the UK retail market is not going to a stage a Lazarus-style recovery, nor is it a case of waiting for the storm to pass. At the same time, the high street most definitely has a long-term, sustainable future and it is short-sighted to write off the whole retail sector as many are doing.
Purpose: forget the rather flowery buzzword “experiential”, the keys to retail locations’ sustainability are relevance and a sense of purpose. Without these two things, retail will struggle. In many cases, this purpose must be redefined and will invariably mean different things in different locations.
People: the lifeblood of any successful retail location. Where there are bodies, there is spend potential and related retail/F&B need. Transport hubs and office-based locations in particular provide a substantial consumer demand base upon which to build a prospering retail proposition.
Place: if a town or location doesn’t benefit from a captive audience or high passing trade, it must work that much harder to become a retail destination. It must create a sense of place that makes shoppers want to visit, through a combination of aesthetics, public realm and an imaginative mix of retail/F&B/A3.
Profitability: retailers have undertaken their own “bonfire of the vanities” and are much more selective in their location planning requirements. There is a far greater pre-occupation in understanding the profitability in each and every site, coupled with that store’s role in a wider multi-channel offensive.
Pricing: capital values have rebased dramatically across all retail property market segments. Such drastic price revision will make retail increasingly good value versus other property investment classes. But effective stock selection (and understanding the other “P’s”) is a pre-requisite now more than ever.
Stephen Springham, Head of Retail Research
Contact Stephen Springham
6. Industrial and Logistics: Strong growth forecasts spur development activity
Strong returns have spurred a hive of development activity and we have witnessed a significant amount of new stock added to the market in 2019. Returns for logistics are forecast to continue to outperform other sectors and we expect a similar amount of new stock to come through the pipeline in 2020.
Uncertainty around Brexit has led to delayed business decisions. As the nature and timing of Brexit becomes more clear we expect this pent up occupier demand to be released into the market. With new quality stock available and coming through the pipeline, the market is well positioned to satisfy this demand and we expect to see an increase in take-up in 2020.
Vacancy rates have moved out in 2019 and with new stock coming through the pipeline, we expect overall rental growth to be more muted this year. There are bright spots however, and strong rental growth will continue in some markets, particularly where development opportunities are limited.
Structural changes in the retail market; the shift towards e-retailing and the rising consumer demand for rapid fulfilment of orders will continue to fuel strong demand for urban fulfilment centres. Small-scale logistics sites within close proximity to consumers will remain highly desirable, as part of the “last-mile” element of the delivery chain.
Claire Williams, Industrial Research
Contact Claire Williams
7. Healthcare property: strong long-term outlook to drive investor appeal
In the short-term, political uncertainty and recent newspaper headlines carry the potential to influence investor sentiment, but the long-term outlook for healthcare property remains strong. As an indication of investor appetite, Q3 2019 saw a record low yield at the prime end of the care home market .
Uncertainty in other domestic and global markets will keep investors keen on the long-dated income provided by healthcare assets, and the demand-supply fundamentals are very strong with new development struggling to keep pace with an ageing population.
The healthcare sector is a multi-faceted sector, extending beyond residential care into primary care, supported living, hospitals, childcare and more. The diverse range of assets could support the performance of the sector as a whole in 2020 as a range of investor types take a closer look at alternative property.
Joe Brame, Healthcare Property Research
Contact Joe Brame


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Entrepreneur magazine subscribers are no longer required to pay a monthly fee for the subscription.
Entrepreneur has been offering this free monthly subscription for the last four years.
Entrepreneurship magazine subscribers will receive a subscription of $8.99, which is free.
The magazine has not said when the subscription will end.
Entreprenereur has partnered with Amazon.com to launch the subscription service in January.
Entrepreneur has become one of the top-rated online magazines for female entrepreneurs.
According to a study by the Mercer Research Group, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has grown from 3.5 million in 2012 to 8.3 million in 2016.
The number of female entrepreneurs has more than doubled from 8 percent in 2012, according to the study, to 29 percent in 2016, to 31 percent in 2020 and 34 percent in 2025.

domain: news


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With time to spare until the New Year festivities get underway, up to 6.5million of us are expected to book holiday between now and December 31st, and if you intend to be one of them, you could save yourself a fortune on your 2017 break!
What with the weakened British Pound, hotel costs in Europe and the US have increased significantly in the past few months, and as airlines purchase their fuel in US dollars, flight tickets will inevitably become more expensive for British Travellers too.
The uncertainty surrounding ‘Brexit’ isn’t helping, and with four in five UK Travel Companies expecting price hikes in 2017, travellers are advised to book early and choose destinations further afield such as South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam, where their money will go further than it will in Europe and the United States.
Long-haul travel has never been more affordable, even with the flagging GBP, and if you dream of taking a South African Safari, an exotic Beach Break in Bali, or a Southeast Asian Adventure, grab your credit card, head online, and book your 2017 holiday before you crack open the Bubbly on New Year’s Eve!
You’ll save yourself a fortune, you’ll have something to look forward too once the festivities have passed, and you could wake up to this every morning… for a week or two, at least….!


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Sweden’s Ikea wants to triple the number of jobs created in vulnerable communities by 2025 by scaling up its social entrepreneurship business.
Having collaborated with social entrepreneurs since 2012, the furniture giant has provided work for about 30,000 people, impacting almost 150,000 family members. It now wants to reach 95,000 jobs by working with existing and new partners, according to a statement.
The initiative supports marginalized groups and women in vulnerable communities, helping them make products such as hand-woven cushion covers, baskets and carpets. Ikea supplies them with affordable materials including cotton and banana fiber, and provides expertise ranging from design and production to improving working conditions. The aim is to promote financial independence and potentially life-changing opportunities.
The handcrafted products, which also include plant pots and tool bags, are then sold in Ikea warehouses and online. Its partners include social entrepreneur Rangsutra in India and the Jordan River Foundation, which employs female refugees. Both make cushion covers.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished, but I know that we can do much more,” said Vaishali Misra, who runs the Ikea Social Entrepreneurs Initiative. “By doing this on a high scale, we could also inspire other retailers to do the same.”


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SEATTLE – QuoteWizard, an online insurance comparison marketplace, on Oct. 13 introduced QuoteWizard Marketing, a new company division dedicated exclusively to serving QuoteWizard’s 8,000 insurance agents in all 50 states. QuoteWizard Marketing was established to help agents, carriers, and industry professionals reach new, high-intent consumers who are actively searching for insurance online.
The new division is part of QuoteWizard’s diversification from a company with one main product (leads) serving the auto and home insurance industries to three products (leads, clicks, calls) and four industries (auto, home, life, health). The original QuoteWizard brand and Website will remain focused on providing a free, high-quality insurance comparison service for millions of consumers who visit QuoteWizard.com each month.
As the first QuoteWizard Marketing product, the company also announced the launch of WizardCalls, a technology platform designed to bring highly qualified consumer telephone calls directly to its network of insurance agents nationwide.
WizardCalls technology collects, verifies, and delivers interested consumers across the US who are searching online for insurance and want to be contacted by phone in real time. The technology is backed by a call center which continuously monitors the quality of each lead transfer to ensure agents connect with the highest-intent insurance shoppers. As part of the process:
- Insurance agents select criteria to narrow their incoming calls, such as insurance products, risk types, availability, geographic filters, and other advanced targeting options;
- QuoteWizard collects high-intent insurance applications from consumers actively searching for insurance rate quotes who indicate specifically that they want to be connected to an agent by phone;
- QuoteWizard verifies each new lead’s intent to ensure each contact matches agents’ filter requirements before transferring to the agents;
- Agents choose to accept or decline any live caller that is transferred to them through an automated message option before connecting with leads at their highest point of interest;
- Agents can measure success by tracking call and customer details, review previous call recordings, all from within the QuoteWizard Agent Administration system.
“QuoteWizard has evolved to where we believe it will be more efficient to dedicate individual divisions to our core consumer and agent customers, respectively,” said Kuba Poraj-Kuczewski, QuoteWizard VP of Product and Marketing. “We are pleased to launch WizardCalls technology to help our agents connect to consumers at their highest point of interest. At the most basic level, this powerful new offering enables our agents to be in contact with consumers who have expressed interest in speaking directly to them over the phone. As part of QuoteWizard Marketing, we expect more changes and product introductions in the future.”
About QuoteWizard: QuoteWizard is an insurance comparison marketplace for consumers looking to save on insurance. QuoteWizard provides consumers with direct access to thousands of qualified agents in all 50 states, as well as major carriers, who offer personalized quotes and the opportunity to save up to 40% on auto, home, health, and life insurance. Agents and carriers, in turn, benefit from millions of highly qualified leads, calls and traffic to their site. Based in Seattle, QuoteWizard was founded in 2006.


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Samsung will take the wraps of Google TV-equipped televisions next year, almost certainly at January's Consumer Electronics Shows (CES). So says the head of the South Korean giant's TV business, so who are we to argue? That said, we'd question Yoon Boo Keun's claim that the details have yet to be decided - the launch is only a …
TV-equipped televisions! What an age we live in.
- Does Apple's iOS 7 make you physically SICK? Try swallowing version 7.1
- Pics Indestructible Death Stars blow up planets with glowing KILL RAY
- Hands on Satisfy my scroll: El Reg gets claws on Windows 8.1 spring update
- Video Snowden: You can't trust SPOOKS with your DATA
- 166 days later: Space Station astronauts return to Earth


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Since 1982, Volkswagen enthusiasts have gathered at the picturesque Lake Wörthersee in Austria, for the annual GTI-Treffen (GTI meeting). Back when it originally started, there were fewer than 100 people attending, which made it a quiet event for appreciating cool Volkswagens. However, according to CarBuzz, the event crowds have grown to over 100,000 people in recent years, which has caused town of Maria Wörth to shut it down after 40 years, mostly due to its environmental impact.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, the Wörthersee event simply began attracting too many people for the small, otherwise sleepy lakeside towns to handle. While local businesses surely appreciated the yearly tourism boom, it recently got out of hand. Many of the attendees would respectfully show up to appreciate cars but too many burnouts, street races, and parties were starting to overwhelm local police. However, more than that, the locals became more and more concerned with the climate impact on local ecosystems. So the mayor of Maria Wörth, Markus Perdacher, decided to shut it down for 2023 but not without leaving the door open for some sort of smaller event in the future.
"We are happy to continue to examine proposals and ideas for events in our community in the future, but will weigh up to what extent they comply with our ideas of social and ecological compatibility and meet high sustainability standards." said Perdacher.
The Wörthersee event began after the CEO of VW in 1982 gifted the town of Reifnitz a granite MkII Golf GTI. The granite GTI became a tourist attraction, where likeminded VW owners would gather. It eventually became so popular that in 2006 Volkswagen began officially sponsoring the event and would even choose students to build factory-backed cars to be shown at Lake Wörthersee each year. The most famous of such builds was a Mk6 GTI with a rear-mounted Bentley W12 that was driven by Jeremy Clarkson in an old Top Gear episode.
Volkswagen released a statement about the event ending. "We regret that the legendary GTI meeting on Lake Wörthersee will no longer take place in this form. The loyal GTI fans have been an integral part of our brand identity for decades and make VW a real love brand. We are currently investigating how we can support the GTI fan community in the future. Community care is very important to us, because we come into direct exchange with our most loyal customers."
The organizers of the Wörthersee event will be holding a new VW meet in the nearby town of Klagenfurt on May 20, 2023. However, it will be interesting to see how many people show up and if enthusiasts still unofficially gather by Lake Wörthersee.
There was a similarly large VW event held in the U.S. in Ocean City, Maryland, called H2Oi. After years of growing crowds and increasingly rowdy parties, the police and locals also became overwhelmed and decided to shut it down. The event then moved to Wildwood, New Jersey in 2022 but much of H2Oi crowd never fully migrated over. Instead, many of the diehard H2Oi loyalists would still go to Ocean City. It's possible something similar happens to the GTI-Treffen at Lake Wörthersee.
It's understandable that the small towns near Lake Wörthersee would want the massive event to end, or at least reduce in size, but it's still a sad moment for so many VW enthusiasts, for whom the GTI-Treffen was so important.
Got tips? Send 'em to [email protected]


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Fuel to Mitsui
In January Statoil delivered its first batch of fuel to Japan’s largest commercial firm, Mitsui, in Singapore.
1,600 tonnes of heavy oil with a value of NOK 1.6 million were delivered. The fuel will supply Mitsui’s and other Japanese shipping companies’ fleets in Singapore harbour.
“Mitsui is important for us because this may open up the Japanese market, which is known for its quality awareness and requirements, similar to the Scandinavian market,” says Peter Rasmussen, manager for aviation, marine and special products in Statoil's Nordic energy unit.
The department has been marketing heavy oil for ships in Singapore for around six months. It buys heavy oil from Statoil Asia Pacific, who handle and store cargo at Singapore harbour.
Almost all shipping fuel is traded on the spot market as individual loads. Annual sales in Singapore are estimated at around 500,000 tonnes of heavy oil.
Other major clients include Denmark's A P Møller, Norway's Bergesen and Sweden's Stena.


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by Steve Beasant on 29 July, 2011
Responding to Centrica’s interim results announced today Audrey Gallacher, Director of Energy at Consumer Focus, said:
‘Centrica seem to win whether wholesale costs are high or low. Retail profits margins may have been reduced by recent increases in wholesale prices – but as they are also major gas and electricity wholesalers, they can still make healthy profits at the other end.
‘Consumers will be more worried by their increasing bills than which part of an energy company makes the most money. Given Centrica profits remain strong, consumers are bound to question whether recent large price hikes were necessary.
‘The most important issue is not whether Centrica’s profits go up or down. What matters is whether the energy market works for consumers and if it does not, what can be done to make it work.
‘Consumers should be able to be confident that the energy market is fit for purpose and deserves their trust. That won’t preclude companies making profits, which will be needed to invest in essential infrastructure changes. But it should mean that they do so in a market that is fair, open and competitive.’
Consumer Focus is highlighting that with six companies, who are both suppliers and wholesalers, dominating the market it is hard to see where the competitive spark that will provide a better deal for consumers will come from. At the very least the consumer watchdog thinks we need greater transparency on whether retail prices are fair. British Gas is more transparent than other suppliers but it is still impossible to tell if the scale of price rises are warranted.
Consumer Focus believes a number of measures are necessary to reform the energy market including:


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A woman from Albuquerque went on eBay and, for an opening bid of $2000 is offering to sell her what?
for the answer – click here
A. her soul
The woman, calling herself Lori N., set a starting bid of $2,000. So far, no one has taken her up on the offer. Lori says she decided to sell her soul after a run of bad luck, including a serious car accident caused by a drunken driver in 2007.


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New FSA Chief Rules Out 'Excessive' Regulation of Japan's Crypto Exchanges
The new commissioner of Japan's top financial regulator has spoken of the need for balance when regulating the country's cryptocurrency industry.
The newly appointed chief of Japan's top financial regulator has stated his belief that there is no need for "excessive" regulation of the country's cryptocurrency industry.
Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Toshihide Endo, commissioner of the Financial Services Agency (FSA), said his agency is trying to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges in a way that protects consumers and yet doesn't stifle innovation.
He told the news source:
Endo's comments echo statements previously made by representatives of the FSA. In September of last year, an unnamed executive of the regulator was quoted by The Japan Times as saying, "We pursue both market fostering and regulation enforcement. ... We aim for sound market development."
That comment came even as the FSA moved to more closely scrutinize exchanges to ensure they adhered to a revised payment services law, passed in April 2017. The new rules defined operational standards for exchanges and set up a licensing scheme for exchanges, as well as, in a world first, recognizing bitcoin as a form of legal tender.
In January of this year, a $530 million hack of the country's Coincheck exchange prompted the FSA to launch inspections and issue "business improvement orders" for exchanges that were deemed to have inadequate systems in place.
Endo was appointed commissioner of the FSA in July, having previously been director-general of the agency's supervisory bureau.
Japanese yen image via Shutterstock
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Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.


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Food and drink entrepreneurs in Newcastle and Gateshead have been urged to enter a new competition that could see them win a six-week space at their local intu shopping centre intu Metrocentre.
The winner of intu and Virgin StartUp’s Foodpreneur 2017 which closes this Wednesday (17th May) will get the chance to run their business from one of intu’s 14 shopping centres nationwide as well as online at intu.co.uk, reaching millions of customers and benefitting from advice and support from intu and Virgin StartUp.
Finalists of the competition will pitch their businesses to four top food and drink experts including Dragons’ Den star Levi Roots and award-winning entrepreneur and founder of Ella’s Kitchen Paul Lindley to compete for the six-week space in one of the country’s most popular shopping and leisure destinations.
The judging panel is completed by Instagram star and bestselling food author Alice Liveing, aka Clean Eating Alice and Jim Cregan, founder of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee.
The competition from Virgin StartUp and intu, owner of some of the UK’s most popular shopping centres such as intu Metrocentre, invites entries from aspiring food entrepreneurs from across the country. From the entries received, eight semi-finalists will be awarded the opportunity to showcase their business in a customised pop up at an intu centre and online at intu.co.uk for one week.
Four finalists will then be selected to pitch and present their businesses to the Foodpreneur judging panel in September in order to win six weeks of space.
Levi Roots said: “I jumped at the chance to join the judging panel for intu and Virgin’s Foodpreneur as I share their passion for supporting new businesses and innovation. This is such a great opportunity to reach millions of new customers within a busy shopping centre environment so I’d encourage any budding food and drink entrepreneurs to find out how they could be part of this year’s competition.”
David Fischel, intu chief executive, said: “Our expert panel of judges’ outstanding credentials across the food and drink industry will play an important part in the competition’s aim of finding and supporting the most creative and innovative new businesses. This includes the opportunity for them to reach millions of intu customers in our centres and online. We are delighted to be working with Virgin StartUp to provide such an opportunity and I’m personally looking forward to seeing the caliber of new ideas that this competition is bringing forward.”
Mei Shui, Managing Director Virgin StartUp said: “We’re into our third year of this fabulous competition and following the success of our previous winners I’m excited to see what’s on the horizon for this year’s entrants. A competition like this wouldn’t be what it is without a distinguished and experienced panel of judges; I’m pleased to welcome Alice, Levi, Paul and Jim to this year’s competition. I know they’re going to have a huge positive impact on the whole process.”
Alongside their role in determining the overall winner, each of the judges will draw on their personal expertise during the judging process as they offer advice and tips to the entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas.
Entrants to Foodpreneur 2017 must be aged 18 years and over with the right to work in the UK and can find out more about how to enter and the full terms and conditions here: (www.foodpreneur.virginstartup.org)
Foodpreneur 2017 judges:
Levi Roots shot to fame on BBC2’s Dragons’ Den in 2007 as a charismatic sauce-man and entrepreneur who charmed dragons Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh into investing in his tangy homemade Reggae Reggae Sauce.
Paul Lindley is an award winning British entrepreneur. He is the bestselling author of Little Wins and he’s also the founder and chairman of Ella’s Kitchen, an innovative brand of organic baby food built on a core social mission. It’s now the UK’s largest and has sales of over $100M from across 40 countries.
Jimmy Cregan started his hugely successful Jimmy’s Iced Coffee brand six years ago. Jimmy shot to fame with a series of rap videos charting his story as a Foodpreneur and knows first-hand what this year’s contestants will be going through, including what they’ll need to do to stand out.
Clean Eating Alice is a pint sized fitness expert & influencer with a passion for health and fitness. Having spent the majority of her formative years developing unhealthy habits through trying every diet there was, and gaining weight as a result, she decided to take matters into her own hands and track her complete lifestyle change through her now hugely successful Instagram blog titled ‘Clean Eating Alice’. She now boasts over 505k followers on her Instagram & 74k on her Facebook with a very engaged fan base.


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It's hot here and I am going to hit the nearby lake in about 30 minutes. If you are close to a 7-Eleven (who isn't?) you can get a free cool down as well today. 7-Eleven celebrates the store chain's 84th birthday today with a free 7.11oz Slurpee drink. Participating 7-Eleven stores across the U.S. and Canada will serve up 5 million free 7.11-ounce Slurpee frozen carbonated beverages this day while supplies last.
“7-Eleven Day and giving away free Slurpee beverages is our way of thanking customers for their patronage throughout the year and showing appreciation for their support,” said Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, 7-Eleven’s senior vice president of merchandising, marketing and logistics.
7-Eleven started the first convenience store back 84 years ago in Dallas, Texas. 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses now more than 8,600 7-Eleven® stores in North America.
Luigi Lugmayr Luigi Lugmayr (Google) is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years
experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting
world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into
vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at email@example.com.
Breaking Bad Stars are in Emmys Promo Video
Two of the stars on the television show Breaking Bad are acting in an Emmys promo video. 'Barely Legal Pawn' is quite a funny video and made many an individual laugh his head off.
About the Geek Mind
The “geek mind” is concerned with more than just the latest iPhone rumors, or which company will win the gaming console wars. I4U is concerned with more than just the latest photo shoot or other celebrity gossip.
The “geek mind” is concerned with life, in all its different forms and facets. The geek mind wants to know about societal and financial issues, both abroad and at home. If a Fortune 500 decides to raise their minimum wage, or any high priority news, the geek mind wants to know. The geek mind wants to know the top teams in the National Football League, or who’s likely to win the NBA Finals this coming year. The geek mind wants to know who the hottest new models are, or whether the newest blockbuster movie is worth seeing. The geek mind wants to know. The geek mind wants—needs—knowledge.


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NEW YORK, 17 October 2023: CALSTART, a dedicated industry nonprofit organization, has embarked on an ambitious mission to transform the Eastern Seaboard’s freight transportation. This groundbreaking project, the East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor, aims to create a comprehensive zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles along the heavily traveled I-95 route.
Funded by a USD 1.2m grant from the Department of Energy (DOE), this two-year initiative will shape the future of freight transportation, revolutionizing the way goods are moved and paving the way for a cleaner, healthier environment.
The Vision for a Clean Future
The East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor project is a forward-thinking endeavor that will integrate input from various stakeholders, including fleet operators, charging and fueling industry experts, utilities, and local communities. The project’s goal is to create a cutting-edge, zero-emission corridor spanning from New Jersey to Georgia, along I-95. This corridor will set a new standard for the efficiency and sustainability of medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs.
Driving Change with DOE Funding
Fueled by a USD 1.2m grant from the DOE, CALSTART’s initiative will accelerate the transition from heavily polluting trucks to clean ZEVs. The project’s success will result in significant improvements to the well-being of drivers and surrounding communities, all while driving growth and innovation in the industries that produce ZEVs and their supporting infrastructure.
While some oppose the electrification of freight transportation, citing cost and time as barriers, CALSTART has a solution. Their recently released report outlines an efficient, cost-effective approach to building the essential charging infrastructure. By working in phases and taking advantage of the growing availability of versatile ZEVs, this phased-in approach will ensure the seamless transition to clean, quiet commercial trucking operations along the Atlantic seaboard.
CALSTART’s East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor project represents a significant leap towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future for freight transportation. With DOE funding and a comprehensive approach to zero-emission infrastructure, this initiative will lead the way in reducing emissions, improving air quality, and driving economic growth. The project’s success will serve as a beacon of hope, demonstrating that clean, efficient, and economically viable transportation is not only possible but also beneficial for all.
As CALSTART partners with various organizations and state coalitions, the East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor project is set to make a lasting impact on the Eastern Seaboard. This is not just a project; it’s a revolution in the way we transport goods, and it paves the way for a brighter, greener future.


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New SBA lending program to start Feb. 28 with heavy restrictions
The Small Business Administration has finally come out with the rules for a heavily anticipated new lending program. The program is supposed to offer help to businesses facing foreclosure of their buildings. The restrictions on the loans, however, are cutting out most businesses that could benefit.
New SBA lending program
In January of this year, businesses and business loan advisers started looking to the Small Business Administration for lending program rules. The program was passed by Congress in 2010, and the SBA has been working on implementing the rules since then. On Thursday, Feb. 24, the rules were officially announced. The program will offer new loans for businesses with mortgages coming due within the next 24 months and will cover underwater mortgages. However, the owner of the business will be required to put 10 percent of the loan amount on the line in cash or equity of another property.
Concerns about limitations of SBA program
The SBA lending program is intended to help businesses on the brink of foreclosure. Business watchers, however, are concerned that the limitations of the lending program could cut out so many businesses that it will be practically ineffective. The rules cut out businesses that already have short-term SBA mortgage loans, businesses that do not have enough equity or cash for the down payment and businesses that cannot pay the additional 1 percent fee. The SBA claims that these restrictions are to ensure that businesses that are truly on the edge of shutting down, but viable, get the most help first.
Opening up small business loans
Getting small businesses the help they need to stay open is a tricky challenge, especially because payday loans are generally too small to help businesses. Some businesses are going to fail, bad economy or not. Sorting out which businesses in Irving, Texas or Anywhere, USA, have a chance of succeeding is the first challenge. Ensuring that the government doesn’t loan $15 billion to businesses that can’t pay it back is also tough. The hope is, though, that the SBA is able to offer help without cutting legitimate businesses in need.


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New-Home Sales Increase 2.3 Percent in April
May 28, 2013
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 units in April, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The gain builds on a strong upward revision to sales numbers reported for the previous month.
“Builders are reporting an active spring buying season as consumers become more confident about going forward with a new-home purchase along with steadily firming prices in local markets,” said Rick Judson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. “While the cost of constructing homes is rising due to tightened supplies of materials, lots and labor, to some extent, this may be creating greater urgency among potential buyers.”
On a regional basis, new-home sales rose 3.0 percent in the South and 10.8 percent in the West, but fell 4.8 percent in the Midwest and 16.7 percent in the Northeast in April.
The inventory of new homes for sale edged up to 156,000 units in April, a 4.1-month supply at the current sales pace.
In Category: Headlines
Related: National Association Of Home Builders, New-home Sales, U.s. Department Of Housing And Urban Development


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A recent study conducted by the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) surveyed consumers during a week of stock market volatility to understand investment behaviors and the potential role of financial advisors.
Results show that many respondents would make adjustments to their investment portfolios based on various indicators during a week of market volatility. In addition, 48 percent of consumers who use financial advisors would consult their advisors before making portfolio adjustments to prepare for future volatility.
Seventy-four percent of consumers with advisors indicated that their advisors shared best practices for responding to market volatility with them. As a result, more than half of respondents with financial advisors said that the relationship increased their understanding of appropriate actions to take when the market is volatile. Additionally, consumers who use advisors were more likely to follow news of volatility than those who do not. Fifty-one percent, compared to 31 percent, respectively, indicated they very or somewhat closely followed the news.
“As many experts anticipate sustained periods of market volatility, it is important that advisors continue to educate clients to deter them from emotionally-based decisions regarding their portfolios,” said James D. Pittman, CLU, CFP, MDRT President. “Savvy advisors are providing clients with solutions that help their portfolios withstand market volatility while delivering peace of mind during turbulent market conditions.”
Responding to volatility
More than half of respondents, 60 percent, indicated they do not typically adjust their portfolios during periods of market volatility. However, when asked what would prompt potential portfolio adjustments during market volatility, survey respondents indicated that their decisions could be influenced by their portfolio’s near-term performance.
Forty-six percent said they would make an adjustment if they thought the market was going to continue to drop, while 27 percent would take action if they lost a certain percentage of money.
The survey was conducted by G&S Business Communications on behalf of MDRT. G&S conducted an online snap poll of 500 consumers in the United States ages 18+. The survey was conducted from June 1-2, 2018 following a period in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average fluctuated between losses ($391.64 and $251.94), and gains ($306.33 and $397.85).[i] The market was closed one day that week for Memorial Day.
For more information, visit mdrt.org.


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Blonde-haired beauty Claire Danes rocks killer style in the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar Russia. The “Homeland” actress wows on the cover wearing Prada and a modern pompadour.
In the accompanying editorial, Danes dons veiled accessories in addition to see-through coats, Mongolian furs and revealing tops. The photo shoot is a different step from the sweet look Danes is typically styled in. Photographer Mark Abrahams captured the pictorial, while stylist Natalia Alaverdian, hairstylist Renato Campora and makeup artist Martin combined creative forces to create her look.
Check out more of Claire Danes’ photo shoot for Harper’s Bazaar Russia below. Which is your favorite image?


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Aggreko has boosted its construction division with the appointment of moisture control specialist, Ryan Stanley.
Products from Delta Membranes were recently chosen to create a waterproofing solution for a large new build, single storey structure with a basement.
The ASSA ABLOY Door Hardware & Access Control Group has launched a new door closer, offering user flexibility and fire safety.
The Glass and Glazing Federation has announced that it will be the headline sponsor of this year’s Glazing Summit, which is due to take place on 12th September.
While conservation officers are keen to ensure the use of traditional lime-based plasters and renders on listed and heritage buildings; Safeguard Europe are suggesting better options.
Contour offers vertical LST radiators that are designed to suit whatever space you have available and to maintain high standards for your heating solutions.
Exposure to natural light has a direct impact on productivity, mental and physical wellbeing, as well as the overall aesthetics of a property, as Quickslide have explained…
Nigel Buckley-Ryan, UK Sales Director, Merchants, Södra Wood, discusses why it’s so important to know your timber supplier well.
Controlsoft has announced the full integration of its latest Identity Access platform with ASSA ABLOY’s Aperio® wireless locking technology.
When buying an LST radiator, you will likely be wondering whether it will rust. Contour discusses what it is doing to prevent its LST radiators from rusting.


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At Indiaplast 2019, Kabra ExtrusionTechnik displayed its 3-layer blown film line. Representatives of Kabra were extremely happy with the show. The footfalls turned out to be better than anticipated for the company. A number of visitors showed interest in the company’s non-barrier blown film line that was running live at the show. Kabra mainly targetted domestic customers at the show as many international customers and most customers within India, from down South, refused to attend the show because of the ongoing cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan. Many existing customers from the company dropped out at the last minute due to the same political reason.
The 3-layer blown film line at the Kabra stand runs at a speed of 600 kg an hour. The machine is PE based and is capable of making non-barrier films. The main applications of the machine are lamination films, shrinkable films, strechable films, liners, liquor film and dairy and oil films.
Apart from the 3-layer blown film line, the company also makes 1, 5, 7, 9 and 11-layer blown film lines. “Since the packaging industry is growing rapidly, we’re getting a lot of demand from the market. The awareness in the market has also increased in the last few years. The barrier line in 7, 9 and 11-layer has just picked up in the market. Ultimately, in times to come, these will be the highest in demand. People today are increasingly focussing on the shelf-life of products. This will help the barrier line segment grow in the coming days,” says SS Thakur, general manager of Kabra ExtrusionTechnik.
The company has not yet sold any of its 7-layer blown film lines in India. Nevertheless, it has exported three 7-layer machines, one each in South Korea, Russia and the US. As far as 5-layer is concerned, the company has supplied many of these machines in India. The company managed to generate business worth Rs. 15 crores at the show.
The impact, resilience, and growth of responsible packaging in a wide region are daily chronicled by Packaging South Asia.
A multi-channel B2B publication and digital platform such as Packaging South Asia is always aware of the prospect of new beginnings and renewal. Its 16-year-old print monthly, based in New Delhi, India has
demonstrated its commitment to progress and growth. The Indian and Asian packaging industries have shown resilience in the face of ongoing challenges over the past three years.
As we present our publishing plan for 2023, India’s real GDP growth for the financial year ending 31 March 2023 will reach 6.3%. Packaging industry growth has exceeded GDP growth even when allowing for inflation in the past three years.
The capacity for flexible film manufacturing in India increased by 33% over the past three years. With orders in place, we expect another 33% capacity addition from 2023 to 2025. Capacities in monocartons, corrugation, aseptic liquid packaging, and labels have grown similarly. The numbers are positive for most of the economies in the region – our platform increasingly reaches and influences these.
Even given the disruptions of supply chains, raw material prices, and the challenge of responsible and sustainable packaging, packaging in all its creative forms and purposes has significant headroom to grow in India and Asia. Our context and coverage engulf the entire packaging supply chain – from concept to shelf and further – to waste collection and recycling. We target brand owners, product managers, raw material suppliers, packaging designers and converters, and recyclers.
In an admittedly fragmented and textured terrain, this is the right time to plan your participation and marketing support communication – in our impactful and highly targeted business platform. Tell us what
you need. Speak and write to our editorial and advertising teams!
For advertisement firstname.lastname@example.org , for editorial email@example.com and for subscriptions firstname.lastname@example.org


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Finding a place to park is one of the most frustrating challenges of the Automobile Age. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are more than 128 million commuters in the United States, three-quarters of whom drive alone; add in the car-poolers, and that's almost certainly over 100 million drivers looking for someplace to leave their cars every weekday. Add the people using their cars to go shopping, run errands, attend events, go out to dinner, and so on, and you have a lot of cars needing a place to stay on any given day, and a lot of urban infrastructure devoted to meeting that demand.
Technology, in the form of smartphone apps, offers ways to make the task of finding a place to park your car easier. One approach—apps that let drivers locate, reserve, and pay for parking—is practically old hat at this point. Two years ago, Communications reported on nine such apps that let drivers pay for street or lot parking, which made up the "first wave" of technological parking solutions, says Nate Breindel, CMO of LockaSpot, maker of the parking app Lock-A-Spot. "They're focused on the relatively finite, regional, and national commercial lot plays."
A second wave has been using smartphone apps to reserve event parking, which some of the first-wave apps, such as ParkWhiz and SpotHero, have grown to include. Again, says Breindel, it's a known marketplace; everyone knows when the events are going to happen, and the parking operators are able to use apps to provide a better user experience.
The market for these sorts of solutions is mature enough that it's starting to see consolidation and shakeout. Jerry Skillett, CEO of parking garage and lot operator Citizens Parking, which manages 320,000 parking spaces across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, names ParkWhiz and SpotHero as two market leaders. "ParkWhiz a year ago bought a company called Best Parking, and then SpotHero recently bought a company called Parking Panda. We don't know which one is winning. It's kind of like the travel business, where you had Orbitz and Travelocity and a few other resellers and aggregators; there's been consolidation in that industry even as they've kept multiple brands going."
Whether relying on daily users or event attendees, those first waves of parking apps still rely on commercial locations with established, predictable use patterns—the "lowest-hanging fruit," in Breindel's words. "All the major providers are playing along that general continuum."
A new crop of apps, on the other hand—including Lock-a-Spot—is addressing individual parking spaces.
In the downtown urban environment, parking supply and demand are fairly closely balanced, says Breindel. "It's just that much of the demand doesn't know where the supply is. Imagine the efficiency if you knew what spaces were about to be available. That's the ecosystem we're trying to create."
The way Lock-a-Spot works is that when a driver parks and exits their car, they tap a button on the app to mark the location. When they're ready to return and move their car, they tap their phone again, which lists the space as available inventory. Another driver can then use the app to claim the space. "You both see photos of your cars," explains Breindel. "As you see them roll up, you pull out, they pull in."
The driver can choose to make the space available free of charge or for a modest fee, and the app handles any payments—no cash changes hands. "At first, we expect the majority of our actions to be not paid for," says Breindel.
Letting drivers transfer their on-street parking places is not a new idea: a few years back, a couple of San Francisco startups tried to let people sell the metered parking spaces they had occupied, but the city objected. In 2014, startup MonkeyParking got hit with a cease-and-desist letter from a city attorney pointing out that it's illegal to auction off public property. The company now focuses on helping hotels fill their vacant parking spaces.
Parking apps Sweetch and ParkModo, which also addressed on-street parking, have also transformed or disappeared.
When asked if he expects Lock-a-Spot to get a warmer reception from Chicago, Breindel suggests it should, since the app helps the city make money by improving the efficiency of putting cars in metered parking spots.
Breindel's company is also working on letting driveway owners rent out their spaces when they are unoccupied. "We talk about street parking because it's omnipresent," he says, "but when it comes to people's driveways, this is still an evolving story—individual owners of available inventory. That would be the next most obvious circle for our business."
Providing access to such private, individually owned spaces is the approach taken by Rover Parking in Toronto, Canada. "The idea came from living in areas of Toronto where you could literally see a bunch of driveways sitting empty very close to areas where either there was a huge difficulty finding parking or it was really expensive," says Rover co-founder Grant Brigden.
Using the Rover app, a homeowner can list their driveway or garage as available for parking, specifying hours and rate (usually about $2-$3 per hour), and another user of the app can claim the space. The app uses online payment service provider Stripe to transfer the appropriate amount from the driver's account to that of the driveway owner. "It's like coming home every day and finding 10 bucks in your mailbox," says Brigden.
The Toronto city government didn't immediately embrace the Rover solution, Brigden recalls. "When we launched (in 2016), one of the city councilors didn't understand what we were doing and said it wasn't legal. But we've worked very well with the city since then, and we're talking about running specific pilots around supplying parking near transit systems," he continues.
Rover is available for download from the iOS App Store or Google Play anywhere in North America, but the company is focusing only on Toronto for now, in order to learn what it takes to create a functioning marketplace and gain a critical mass of users. So far, says Brigden, more than 60,000 people have downloaded the app, which allows them to access several thousand parking spaces in the city, and 25% to 30% of the spots are used on a daily basis.
"People on both the private and public side are starting to see that it makes so much sense from a usability and an economic point of view," Brigden says.
Citizen Parking's Skillett sees such sharing approaches as ultimately limited. "I don't see it as a widespread application, primarily because it's such a specialized situation where it would work. And the money that's being generated is so small that it wouldn't attract a lot of investment."
Is There a Future for Parking?
Technology can make it easier to find and pay for parking, but is technology about to eliminate, or at least drastically reduce, the need for parking altogether? What will be the effect of the popularity of ride-sharing services and the potential for autonomous, self-driving cars?
"These apps are going to be incredibly useful when you want to park now, and useful for probably the next couple of years," says Michel Morvan, cofounder and executive chairman of Lyon, France-based Cosmo Tech, which specializes in the modeling and simulation of complex systems. "But what we are looking at today is the fact that if you have autonomous cars, you're not only going to have less parking, you will have less cars." A typical private car is only used 3% of the time, says Morvan, while shared autonomous cars will be in use 50% to 70% of the time.
"Autonomous cars won't need parking. They don't need to park at your house or where you're going. The need for parking will be close to zero, is my guess."
Morvan predicts most autonomous cars, at least in urban areas (which is where the parking pressure is), won't be privately owned. "I don't see any reason to own an autonomous vehicle," he says. "If it's a five-minute wait when you call for one and you can go anywhere you want, the difference in the price compared to owning a car will be too great."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Skillett disagrees. "This whole concept that the car is going to drop you off and then go sit somewhere outside the city until you're ready to use it again is a futuristic thought. They don't really understand why people drive in the first place: they want control of their schedule. We've found in our statistics that that means is they want to leave their office and within seven minutes be at their vehicle and driving."
However, Morvan and Skillett do share a sense of when a tipping point might come. Skillett says he thinks predictions of a lowered demand for private cars are off base for another 20 years. On that, Morvan agrees: "If the cost of owning a care that is not used 90% of the time is very high compared to the cost of using on-demand autonomous vehicles, it's wont make any sense to own one. I would bet that in 20 years, most people won't own cars and parking won't be an issue in San Francisco."
Jake Widman is a San Francisco, CA-based freelance writer focusing on connected devices and other Smart Home and Smart City technologies.
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Pallotti High School Business Expo: Students Showcase Products Despite Rain
For the fourth-form business students at Pallotti High School, the annual business expo is one of the biggest events on the calendar, so today’s rains would not stop them from showcasing the products they’ve worked so hard to develop. There were six student-led businesses at the expo selling fruity drinks, sweet treats, and savory tacos among other things. Ana Garcia, a business teacher at Pallotti Highschool explained that the business students begin preparing for the expo when they enter third form.
The students also shared the inspiration for their businesses and how their classes helped them prepare for the event.
Following the expo, the students will have to prepare a financial report that will then be audited by the teachers of the business department.


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MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Many retailers and businesses in Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties are allowed to partially open as part of California's Phase 2 plan to reopen amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Much of the North Bay is already in Phase two. Alameda and Contra Costa Counties say they'll begin to move on to the next phase soon. On Monday morning, Santa Clara County announced it was joining the rest of the region.
"We're going to do everything we possibly can to make it right and put our best foot forward," says Tom Malvino who owns Louis Thomas Fine Men's Apparel and Formal Wear in Marin County.
Malvino will be back at work Monday as Phase 2 allows retail stores to open with curbside pickup.
"I think people are going to come if they come by and walk by the store and we can do something for them through the door, through the window that would be great," he adds.
Many Marin County parks will also ease parking restrictions Monday and with all of these changes comes the question. Are we ready?
"I understand the safety concerns but this can't go on forever. People have to go back to work," says Joseph Peck who works at a restaurant in Sausalito.
Marin County resident Jan Rostov is excited about more parking being available at some park locations.
"We'll finally be able to leave our yards and go somewhere and park," Rostov says.
Some parts of the country have already opened and some people we talked with don't like what they see when it comes to COVID-19 cases in those locations.
"These other states that are opening up and allowing people to go to bars and restaurants, it's so irresponsible it's just nuts," says Daniel Feder of Marin County.
Malvino admits that it will be a challenge without customers allowed inside the store but he's hopeful.
"We're doing everything we possibly can to hang in there and make it right," Malvino added.
There has been a bit of confusion during this reopening process and that's because not all stores are choosing to open. While some retail stores are, others may choose not to. All stores must be required to have a safety plan in place and in the window for their customers. If you're interested in going to a certain store, it's best if you call or check online to see if they are back open.
If you have a question or comment about the coronavirus pandemic, submit yours via the form below or here.
Get the latest news, information and videos about the novel coronavirus pandemic here
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Parrot Uses Alexa To Run Her Owner's House
ORLANDO, FL (CBS Local) - A very chatty parrot has found a new toy that's allowing her to run an entire house. Using Amazon's Alexa, Petra the parrot is becoming an Internet sensation after learning to give the voice-activated device commands.
"First, you're like half awake and ... like, 'Was that a dream? Did that just happen?'" her owner told WKMG. "All day, every day, it's all lights on, all lights off."
The tech-savvy African Grey Congo parrot is only four-years-old and reportedly knows more than 300 words, making her conversations with the virtual home assistant an instant social media hit.
Petra's owner has created a YouTube channel for the clever bird. Over 13,000 people have already subscribed to see Petra's adventures in her Florida home; many of them featuring her new digital sidekick. She's even been filmed video chatting with another chatty bird, Einstein the Talking Texan Parrot, during a recent Facebook post.
"We've been told she's the smartest bird in the world!" her owner wrote on Petra's official Facebook page. The four-year-old is already working on a new trick to entertain her followers. According to Petra's owner, she's now learning how to talk to Google Home.
for more features.


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The online arm of leading toy and video game retailer Toys R Us said it sold out its first pre-order of the new Nintendo GameCube video game console in four minutes on Monday. ...
Elephone Vowney: Phones need more than high specs
Cumulative update available for Release Preview Ring
windows 10 update
Build 14332 out for PC & Mobile
Project Fi: Google's phone service on a Nexus 5X, iPhone 6s Plus, and Windows phones
google project fi
Aliens vs. Pinball Pack: Three Alien-themed tables for Pinball FX2
Japanese game maker Nintendo said on Tuesday about 300,000 of its new GameCube consoles were sold in the first weekend after launch, disappointing some analysts who had expected the shipment to sell out. ...


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As the biometric revolution has continued to accelerate in recent years, the business sector has proven to be one of the most mature areas of adoption. Companies and other organizations have always had particular security needs, and solutions such as office keys and security guards have been found in the past. But just as in other sectors such as government, financial services and medical care, the business world has been so affected by the wave of digitalization that the 21st century has generated, and this has brought new risks. As a result, these days, business managers are less concerned about losing keys to their offices or locked cabinets than about the password and username combinations that fall into the wrong hands, and digital security threats are Now a fundamental concern.
Passwords enter retirement
This context was the basis of our primer for Business Biometrics Month, "Passwords enter retirement", Which explains how biometric technologies are used to deal with these new digital threats. By citing survey data from Spiceworks and Javelin Research, the feature illustrated the growing trend of enterprise IT managers adopting biometric and multifactor authentication solutions, and looked at biometric leaders such as IDEMIA and BioConnect to see how they were addressing this growing market.
The feature also highlighted some of the prominent factors driving the business biometrics market, including the increasingly obvious threat of data breaches, the emergence of new regulations such as the PSD2 of the European Union, the emergence of the Bring Your culture Own Device in many workplaces and the increase of employees demand convenient authentication solutions.
So, how exactly does all this look in practice? To illustrate, our next feature for the month of business biometrics, "New frontiers in business security"Analyzed some of the latest state-of-the-art biometric solutions aimed at the business market, a new Ipsidy application, for example, takes advantage of the excitement of Apple's Face ID system by allowing self-authentication based on face recognition, while IriSafe offers a business authentication solution based on iris recognition and blockchain technology, and a Veridium solution combines behavioral biometrics with facial or fingerprint recognition.
These are relatively unique solutions that reflect the cutting edge of business biometrics, but in general terms illustrate the unique advantages offered by biometric approaches. They allow employees to confirm their identities in a convenient way, while guaranteeing a level of security that can far exceed that offered by passwords, the key proposal that drives the demand of the business sector of biometric technologies.
A & # 39; Great Convergence & # 39; in Enterprise Access
Having illustrated that general trend quite clearly, for our latest feature of Business Biometrics Month, we delve into the next big trend in the field of business biometrics: "The great convergenceThis brings us to the discussion of our first chapter on the security of the digital company and the growing role of biometrics in it, and at the same time, considers another case of prominent use in the business sector: access control biometrically Traditionally, these fields have been different, as cybersecurity specialists offer adapted biometric solutions for business IT, and access control experts incorporate more and more biometric data into their own offerings, but the big trend that is taking shape now it is the combination of these approaches, with the objective of establishing uniform biometric credentials throughout the company, from the passage through the main door to the access to the back-end IT environment.
The trend was particularly clear in this year's ISC West event, with our feature based on interviews with industry experts to help demonstrate that this is the new great paradigm shift to pay attention to. And once again, we saw how leaders such as BioConnect and IDEMIA were already at the forefront of this frontier, with the convergence of digital and physical access prepared to revitalize business security.
The expert chat shop
Finally, the Enterprise Biometrics Month has just closed with the last entry in the renowned series of webinars of FindBiometrics, "Enterprise Biometrics in the era of data breach". The panel discussion featured BioConnect CEO Rob Douglas, IDEMIA Vice President Gary Jones, and ISC West organizer Will Wise, and discussed several hot topics in business biometrics. A complete recording of the webinar is embedded above, which offers a privileged look at the growing business biometric market. It is an appropriate summary of much of what we have covered in the course of Business Biometrics Month, and a vivid illustration of the dynamism in the current market.
April 25, 2019 – by Alex Perala


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Australian lawyers are seeking app developers to join a class action against Google and Apple over what they claim is an abuse of market power by charging 30% commission on in-app spend while preventing competing payment alternatives.
The class action mirrors similar legal action initiated in 2020 by Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, against the two tech titans. The case against Apple will be tried in March 2024. An attempt by Google to request a stay of the proceedings was rejected rejected by the Federal Court last year.
Authorities around the world have been scrutinizing Apple and Google over their app store charges. Apple settled a class action in the US in 2021 and allowed app developers to use alternative payment systems.
The local competition regulator, the ACCC, has also addressed the issue as part of its investigation into digital platform services, and in 2021 the US introduced legislation to address anti-competitive behavior in mobile app marketplaces.
The current class action, jointly conducted by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and Phi Finney McDonald, alleges that Google and Apple have violated Australian consumer law and imposed prices by not allowing competitors to offer alternative, lower-cost payment systems.
Phi Finney McDonald Principal Joel Phibbs said the app store vendors “are rightly more scrutinized by regulators.
“And now this groundbreaking case gives consumers and app developers the chance to take on these global technology giants and seek compensation,” he said.
The class action is against Google, alleging that the company has “a substantial degree of leverage in the markets for the purchase of Android apps from the Australian Google Play Store” and limited access to alternative payment methods as well as commissions charged on app sales and in-app purchases well above levels in a competitive market.
The process seeks compensation from Google to eligible users for the additional price charged to those users.
Last month, the federal court allowed the class action to be extended to local app designers/founders who may have suffered loss or damage from the conduct of Apple and Google.
Maurice also participates in the Epic action where the issues are the same, then runs a separate trial where they aren’t, claiming damages on behalf of both app developers and customers.
Maurice Blackburn Class Action Principal Kimi Nishimura said Apple dominates the Australian market, accounting for 55% of smartphone sales, with the rest running on Google’s Android system.
“This case is about a blatant abuse of market power by both Apple and Google, which should result in app developers and consumers being paid significant compensation,” she said.
Customers are already covered by the class action, but app developers interested should contact Phi Finney McDonald on 03 9134 7100 or email [email protected] for more information.


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Cats across the country band together in revolt, standing up to their owners and fighting for their right to poo in peace, via a global Facebook campaign launched by Dutch born kitty litter company, Poopy Cat.
Starting with a global Facebook competition whereby fans can enter their kitty to be crowned Australia’s ultimate ‘poopy face’, the campaign aims to raise awareness of the cat-ass-trophy that is being witnessed while doing your business, and give Australian cats their class and dignity back.
Poopy Cat founder, Thomas Vles said it was seeing the countless disgraced faces of constipated kitties across Europe that prompted him to facilitate this online petition on the Poopy Cat Facebook page followed by thousands of cats worldwide.
“For centuries cats in Australia have been enduring the constant scrutiny over their poopy faces with no option than having to get on with their business in full view of their human counterparts. They have had enough. They are demanding their rights and we wanted to give them a platform to share their anguish and make a bid for pooping in peace”.
“The competition will be an expose of the thousands of humiliated poopy faces endured by cats every day,” Vles said.
The feline uprise follows the launch this month of Poopy Cats’ disposable pop up litter box in Australia that will allow cats to poo in private. Made from 100 per cent recycled materials, the litter box is fully biodegradable helping cat owners to reduce their footprint on earth and in their house. Despite its eco-friendly nature however, the high performance materials are built to withstand even the most turbulent of toilet troubles.
“All cats should be allowed a private moment to release physically,” said Vles. “We wanted to create something that was sustainable but also convenient and fun. They pop up in just a few seconds and allow cats some peace and quiet to get down to business,” he said.
Poopy Cat is said to have been the cat-alyst for change all over Europe, instigating the uprise from Australian cats to bring the litter boxes Down Under.
To help raise awareness and spread a paw-sitive message among the Australian cat community, Poopy Cat has donated $1 to the RSPCA for every Australian entry into the competition.
Poopy Cat Litter Boxes 4-packs can be purchased online from www.poopycat.com, also outside of Australia!
To join the revolution, visit www.poopycat.com/poopyface or connect with Poopy Cat on Facebook: www.facebook.com/poopycat
For more information, interviews or images, please contact Kelly Marcus +31 20 2610 936 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
All rights owned by Poopy Pets.


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HTC has announced today that the HTC Vive is set to be bundled with the upcoming Fallout 4 VR, set to launch December 12th of this year. This follows after a $200 price cut for the Vive back in August, reducing the cost from $800 to $600 for the headset.
Fallout 4 VR will retail for $60, and those who purchase the HTC Vive bundle will receive a redemption code to download the game for free when it becomes available.
According to a press release, "Joel Breton, general manager of Vive Studios, said that the VR version of the title will have the same near-endless content as its non-VR console and PC counterparts, with hundreds of locations, characters, and quests fully playable in VR."
Those who already posses a Vive and also purchase Fallout 4 VR will able to sign up for a bonus three-month Viveport subscription hat will be made available before the game launches.
Gamasutra, VRDC, and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.


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Seoul's fifth Apple Store opens on March 31 and will feature a limited-time Pop-Up Studio experience featuring K-pop band NewJeans.
The new store features a double-high facade with a gradient frit and mirrored coating treatment. That means the gradient will blur the shift from top to bottom and change appearance during different times of the day or season.
"At Apple, we're always innovating to provide the best experience for our customers, and we are so excited to open Apple Gangnam and share the best of Apple with even more people in Seoul," said Deirdre O'Brien, Apple's senior vice president of Retail. "Our incredible team members look forward to connecting with customers and helping them find new ways to unleash their creativity with our amazing products and services."
Nearly 150 Apple retail team members are employed at the location. Collectively, they speak more than a dozen languages.
As a part of the store opening, starting on April 1, customers can take part in a limited-time Pop-Up Studio session. It features an exclusive recording of "OMG (Apple Music Edition)" from K-pop band NewJeans. The sessions take place on Friday and Saturday evenings, on the hour every hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and take about 15 minutes.
Apple Gangnam opens its doors on March 31 at 5 p.m. local time, but the grand opening can only be attended by reservation only. Registration for attending the opening begins on March 29 at 8 a.m.


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Apple Inc., the maker of iPhone series smartphone and a tech giant from Silicon Valley, bought a Hyderabad-based start-up called Tuplejump that uses artificial intelligence to read and handle big data. It is Apple’s first purchase in the start-up domain in India. Terms of the deal have been kept confidential. Tuplejump was founded by Rohit Rai, Satyaprakash Buddhavarapu, and Deepak Alur.
Rumours have it that Apple is interested in the “FiloDB” – an open-source project that Tuplejump built to efficiently put on machine learning concepts and analytics to massive quantities of complex data right as it is poured in.
Apple is on an acquisition spree with Tuplejump being its third acquisition in the machine-learning realm this year. In August, Apple bought machine-learning start-up Turi for US$200 million. Earlier this year, in January, it bought Emotient for an undisclosed sum. Both of these start-ups are machine-learning based algorithms that incorporate big data to provide better customer-oriented services. Turi deals with Siri personal assistant and related technologies whereas Emotient revolves around artificial intelligence to examine facial expressions to calculate out the emotions. Such acquisitions fuse well with Apple’s purchase of Perceptio in 2015 – Perceptio makes it possible to run artificial intelligence image-classification programs on smartphones without needing too much customer data.
Apple is playing big and long on artificial intelligence usage to collate data from complex data sets to give an impetus to its revenues since iPhones sales are on a declivity. Such manner of inorganic growth is critical as the taste and preferences of clients are always evolving coupled with intense rivalry in the smartphone market for its flagship model – iPhones. Tuplejump happens to be India’s start-up industry’s contribution in this growth story.


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New Delhi: The Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship R.K. Singh stated yesterday in Parliament that key challenges for women entrepreneurs in India include access to funding, availability of market, family constraints, lack of confidence in business skills, gender bias etc. In order to address the problems in development of women entrepreneurship, different Ministries and Departments of the Government of India have been implementing a number of schemes viz Startup India by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program (PMEGP) including Udyam Sakhi Portal by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) etc.
Startup India program aims to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country under which 10% of the total corpus of Fund of Funds amounting to Rs 1,000 crore has been reserved for startups led by women.
MSME has launched the ‘Udhyam Sakhi’ portal to encourage women entrepreneurs and to aid, counsel, assist and protect their interests. The Udyam Sakhi network is a platform for emerging women entrepreneurs of India to get support, to understand the current scenario of industries, and to receive guidance in various aspects of entrepreneurship.
It helps Indian women to start, build and grow businesses and create business models revolving around low-cost products and services to resolve social inequities.
Similarly, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), is a major credit-linked subsidy scheme to promote and set up micro, small and medium enterprises and to generate employment in rural and urban areas of the country.
The maximum cost of the project under PMEGP scheme is Rs. 25 lakhs for manufacturing sector units and Rs. 10 lakhs for units under service sector.
Under this scheme, women entrepreneurs are provided 25% and 35% subsidies for the project set up in urban and rural areas respectively. For women beneficiaries, own contribution is only 5% of the project cost while for general category it is 10%.
All the entrepreneurs including women are eligible for 2 weeks Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) after the sanction of their projects from banks for financial assistance to setup their unit.
To encourage women entrepreneurship within the country, the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (SDE) is running a pilot project named ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Startups by Women’ in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Germany.
The project pilots incubation and acceleration programs for micro women entrepreneurs to start new businesses and scale up existing enterprises in Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana. The project has the target to pilot the incubation program with 250 women and the acceleration program with 100 women.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship R.K. Singh in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 6 December.
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Madison, Wis. (Dec 6, 2010) —American Family Insurance will help make the season bright for children in need by pledging up to $25,000 to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation as part of a holiday promotion on Facebook.
During the holiday season, for every Facebook user that "likes" American Family Insurance on Facebook, the company will donate $1 to the Toys for Tots organization, up to $25,000.
In 2009, Marines distributed 16.3 million toys to more than 7.4 million children.
"Toys for Tots delivers a message of hope to less fortunate children through the gift of a new toy at Christmas," said Major Bill Grein, USMC (Ret.), vice president of marketing and development for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, headquartered in Triangle,Va.
"Through their generous donations, companies like American Family Insurance make it possible for us to answer the needs of struggling families," he said. "Without this support, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to assist the many families who depend on us to help bring smiles to their children's faces on Christmas morning."
Bill Simon, digital marketing director for American Family, added, "We know many Facebook users 'like' us, and our goal is to connect with more of them while also reaching out to those who may not be familiar with us. We hope consumers will visit us on Facebook, 'like' what they see, and know at the same time they're supporting the worthwhile efforts of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation."
The company's corporate page can be found at www.facebook.com/amfam.
Based in Madison, Wis., American Family Insurance offers auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, health insurance, business and farm/ranch insurance in 19 states. American Family insurance is the nation's third-largest mutual property/casualty insurance company and ranks 344th on the Fortune 500 list. Web: www.amfam.com; Facebook: www.facebook.com/amfam; Twitter: www.twitter.com/amfam


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Last week, I spent several hours trying out Meta’s latest glasses, the Quest 3. They will be sent next month. The headset runs virtual reality games with a new twist: While shooting a blaster gun, snatching bats out of the air and controlling a robot, I could see the real world through built-in cameras.
That’s the meta – and its new rival, Apple’s recently unveiled $3,500 Vision Pro headset – call out “Mixed Reality” Or “Spatial Computing,” Interchangeable terms to describe computers that combine digital data with the physical world.
Companies say these immersive computers could eventually do just that They have become indispensable tools that change the way we live, For example, imagine reading a holographic recipe in the corner of your eye while cooking, or staring at furniture parts with digital assembly instructions.
But right now, the device is mainly used for playing games, and killer apps are yet to emerge.
Meta’s $500 Quest 3 headset will arrive in stores on October 10 (pre-orders begin Wednesday), featuring sharper graphics than its predecessor. quest 2, which costs $200 less. Its major new feature is a set of high-resolution, “pass-through” cameras to view the outside world in color. They’re a big improvement from the Quest 2’s weak camera system, which produced a muddy monochrome picture.
After a two-hour session of playing with the Quest 3, I removed the glasses and asked Meta employees the $10 billion question about mixed reality (this is the amount the company invests annually in VR technology): What does it mean? Is?
Meta’s answer on this is unclear. The ability to simultaneously interact with virtual and physical space will make it easier for people to feel connected to each other while wearing the glasses, the company said. This may ultimately be useful for collaborating on work tasks. what kind of work? A Meta spokesperson told me those apps are actively in development.
To market Quest 3, Meta highlighted mixed reality games. In First Encounters, a space game, I used a blaster gun to shoot at a virtual wall, removing pieces brick by brick to reveal the real world.
In Stranger Things VR, a game based on the popular Netflix series, I played the show’s antagonist with telepathic powers. I could see virtual cracks in the physical room around me; When I pointed to the cracks and extended my fingers out to open them, the bats flew out of the gap. I caught hold of them to crush them to death.
Bam! In, I could see other Quest 3 wearers in the room, while we controlled miniature robots that battled each other inside a virtual arena. Each player can see a virtual platform containing the field and adjust it to the level of the physical tabletop in front of them. The game was fun, but seeing others wearing geeky goggles move around with their motion controllers didn’t improve the game (although it certainly made me feel more self-conscious).
The experience of socializing with others while playing games reminded me of the LAN (local area network) parties of the 1990s, when gamers would take bulky computers to each other’s homes to play together. It was a type of social gathering that seems outdated now because the internet speed is so fast that we can play online games from the comfort of our homes.
Some mixed-reality app developers I later interviewed offered more clarity than Meta about the benefits of the technology. Nair is a start-up that is working on Mixed-reality app for office workers Brainstorming ideas on virtual white boards and sticky notes. Developers there said that being able to see the real world while tackling virtual tasks will make the experience of wearing a headset while working with colleagues in the office less jarring for professionals.
“When you’re completely turned off and someone taps your shoulder, it’s very uncomfortable,” said Sondre Kvam, founder of the Norway-based company. “But when you’re using mixed reality, you’re still a big part of the real world – you’re not surprised anymore.”
Peeking into the outside world can make VR gaming more comfortable. Tommy Palm, Chief Executive Officer resolution gameThat said, in mixed reality, gamers will likely feel more confident playing fast-paced games.
In their game Blaston, where players fire guns at each other in a virtual arena, people can crouch to avoid digital projectiles. Being able to see around you will help prevent collisions with objects like furniture in the room, he said.
Those examples of mixed reality seem solid. But after spending a few hours with the Quest 3, my impression is that external cameras won’t comfortably solve virtual reality’s most serious problems, which will keep it from becoming a mainstream hit.
Weighing almost a pound, the headset started to feel heavy on my head after about 15 minutes, causing neck strain. The graphics were bright and intense on the eyes. The bending, twisting and swinging of my arms eventually became tiring to me.
So the Quest 3 might be a fun toy to entertain house guests, but most gamers looking for a social experience will probably prefer the old-fashioned setup of sitting on their couch with a game controller.


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A new gun for hire: ex-DigitalView/Enqii sales monkey extraordinaire and esteemed blogger colleague Dave Haynes (seen here in an undated photo apparently during a stint as a used car salesman) is now ex-BroadSign too, as apparently the firm is shifting to an all-channel-sales model. While he muses that he's not sure what he'll do with himself next, I think the answer is obvious: team up with Lyle Bunn and Bill Collins, find a good tenor, and form the first-ever, all-Canadian digital signage consultants barbershop quartet.
You do want that big, fat discount on Strategy Institute's Content Strategies show, right? Today's March 31st, which means it's the last chance to qualify for the $500 early bird discount. And remember, Digital Signage News readers can get another 10% off by entering the code DSN10 at the time of registration.
Our new product for smaller digital signage networks, Digital Signage EasyStart, is off to the races, as I found out when I woke up this morning and checked out the Daily DOOH's webpage. Not sure how they beat me to this -- we haven't even posted a press release yet.
Paul Flanigan of BestBuy and Experiate fame appearently learned 5 Things at GlobalShop, including my favorite, "I did not know there were so many ways to hang stuff in a store."
In-store gaze tracking to figure out what people are looking at is already obsolete.... well, ok, not quite yet, but soon, if Martin Lindstron's "Buyology" program can solve a few technical hurdles (among the most noteworthy might be how to carry around brain-scanning equipment that doesn't look like a shower cap crossed with a medieval torture implement). After all, why track people's eyes in real time when you can track their brains, right?
Tags: digital signage, digital signage news
Looking for more digital signage info? Check out WireSpring's Kiosk and Digital Signage blog for in-depth industry analysis and even more news about the digital signage industry. While you're there, feel free to read up on our digital signage software and services


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Earlier this week we brought you news that Skyrim developers Bethesda were readying a new 1.4 update for the game, which was hoped to bring fixes to the lag issues being experienced by a number of PlayStation 3 gamers. Bethesda has now released more information about their up-and-coming Skyrim 1.4 update which is expected to arrive before the end of the month.
Bethesda have revealed that their new Creation Kit and Steam Workshop are also nearly ready to roll out before the months end, and both Bethesda and Valve developers have been working closely together to remove last-minute issues and carry out final testing before release.
The new Skyrim Creation Kit and Steam Workshop will enable gamers to modify and create their own plug-ins, and updates for the Skyrim game. But even before their release many modders have already created some fantastic additions to the Skyrim game. Many of which we have featured here on Geeky Gadgets.
The plan by Bethesda to roll out the new update as a beta version to PC gamers via Steam. Enabling gamers to opt-in or back-out through their Steam accounts. Bethesda explains:
“This is an extra safety check for everyone going forward and should expedite and improve our updating process for our PC users. We’ll have more info soon on how this will work.”
For more information on all the new features, including the bugs and issues that will be fixed within the new 1.4 update, visit the Bethesda Blog.
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A Tomahawk mill celebrating an anniversary is seeing an increase in demand leading to early planning stages for an expansion.
Louisiana Pacific plant manager John Smith, along with Tim Weber, discussed the potential for expansion while talking about the mill’s 20 year anniversary.
They say that they are currently in the process of submitting permit applications with the DNR. Smith says that could lead to an expansion which would create around 16 new jobs over a 3 year period.
This comes as the company comes off of recent lean times in the cyclical industry. Increased demand has the plant running 24/7, with a 24% growth year to date.
Coming up on Friday Louisiana Pacific will have an open house from 10-2 with food, product displays, prizes and tours.
John and Tim, along with Steve Graeber joined Jeff on the Wednesday morning forum to discuss the anniversary and expansion plans. That podcast will be available on our website.


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User information stolen in breach of 1 billion Yahoo accounts
The largest cyber breach in history was discovered by Yahoo who said on Wednesday that data from more than 1 billion user accounts were compromised in August 2013
15 December 2016, 8:11am
The number of affected accounts was double the number implicated in a 2014 breach that the internet company disclosed in September and blamed on hackers working on behalf of a government.
“An unauthorised party” broke into the accounts, Yahoo said in a statement posted on its website. The company believes the hacks are connected and that the breaches are “state-sponsored”.
The hackers used “forged ‘cookies’” – bits of code that stay in the user’s browser cache so that a website doesn’t require a login with every visit, wrote Yahoo’s chief information security officer, Bob Lord. The cookies “could allow an intruder to access users’ accounts without a password” by misidentifying anyone using them as the owner of an email account. The breach may be related to theft of Yahoo’s proprietary code, Lord said.
Yahoo said the stolen user account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
It noted that payment-card data and bank account information were not stored in the system the company believes was affected.
Yahoo said it discovered the breach while reviewing data provided to the company by law enforcement. FireEye Inc’s Mandiant unit and Aon Plc's Stroz Friedberg are assisting in the investigation.
The breach is the latest setback for Yahoo, an internet pioneer that has fallen on hard times in recent years after being eclipsed by younger, fast-growing rivals including Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc.
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11 EU Member States were urged by the European Commission on Thursday to speed up their implementation of the directive on single-use plastics. Nine of them, including Belgium, were warned that failing to do so could lead to proceedings in the European Court of Justice.
The directive, which came into force in 2019, aims to abolish single-use plastic products when sustainable alternatives are readily available and affordable.
This applies specifically to ten types of waste frequently found on European shores: cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws and swizzles, balloons and balloon stems, cups, food and drink containers, cigarette butts, plastic bags, sachets and packaging, wet wipes and sanitary items.
Together, these account for 70% of all marine litter in EU seas, with fishing paraphernalia accounting for most of the rest.
- European Commission proposes much tougher asbestos exposure standard
- EU vows ‘strongest response’ over suspected Nord Stream sabotage
Other key measures include introducing extended producer responsibility, collecting 90% of single-use plastic drinks bottles by 2029, and introducing labelling and collection requirements for marine waste.
However, some of these measures have not yet been fulfilled in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland.
As a result, they have been sent a 'reasoned opinions,' the last step before being referred European Court of Justice where they face a fine. Belgium now has two months to respond and implement the necessary measures.


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Unilever slammed over fat cat pay just days after being forced to ditch plan to axe UK base
Unilever faces a backlash over fat cat pay just days after it was forced to abandon plans to axe its British headquarters.
The consumer goods group, whose brands include Marmite, Domestos and PG Tips, handed £10million to chief executive Paul Polman (pictured) last year.
MPs on the business select committee have summoned executives to Parliament to explain its pay policy amid mounting concerns over boardroom excess.
Royal Mail has also been called to give evidence after 70 per cent of shareholders voted against pay at the postal service in one of the biggest investor rebellions in British corporate history.
Unilever chief executive Paul Polman earned £10m last year
The hearings will take place on Tuesday next week.
Committee chairman, Labour MP Rachel Reeves, said: 'Excessive executive pay undermines public trust in business.
'Chief executives being awarded stratospheric salaries while average worker pay continues to be squeezed is not good for business or society.
Recent revolts on pay awards, including at Unilever, show that shareholders are increasingly sharing the frustration at unjustifiable pay awards.'
She added: 'Executive pay must match performance.'
Polman faced humiliation last week after his plan to close Unilever's London headquarters and base the company solely in the Netherlands was abandoned following fierce opposition from major shareholders.
Investors have also rebelled against proposals that could hand the 62-year-old a pay packet of up to £12.65million.
Unilever, whose brands include Marmite, Domestos and PG Tips, saw more than a third of shareholders vote against rules for executive pay at the firm's AGM in May
At Unilever's annual general meeting in May, more than a third of shareholders voted against rules for executive pay that could see Polman handed £11.2million in bonuses and £1.45million in fixed pay.
One investor cited an article from 2015 where Polman was quoted as saying he was embarrassed by his salary and that he would work for free.
Unilever's executive vice-president for reward, Peter Newhouse, will be grilled by MPs next week about the pay deals.
Also appearing will be Orna Ni-Chionna, chairman of Royal Mail's remuneration committee, following the summer's pay revolt.
Investors objected to the golden goodbye worth up to £2.7million for departing boss Moya Greene and a golden hello worth up to £6million for her successor Rico Back.
Last week, Royal Mail shares plummeted after Back, who is leading the company while living in Zurich, warned profits would be up to £194million lower than last year – wiping more than £1billion off the company's stock market value.
Polman's judgment has been seriously called into question after Unilever had to backtrack last week on plans for a single head office in the Netherlands following a shareholder revolt.
It has raised questions about whether he should step down sooner than his intended departure date of next year.
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