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The fourth-quarter earnings season is in full swing with almost 55% of the total S&P 500 members already having reported their quarterly results. Per the Earnings Preview report, the quarter is on track to report the highest earnings growth in two years. Further, the fourth quarter is likely to be the second quarter in a row to report earnings growth after five consecutive quarters of earnings decline.
As per the report, out of the 275 S&P 500 companies that have come up with their quarterly numbers, approximately 68% posted positive earnings surprises, while 54.5% beat the top-line expectations. Total earnings for these index members were up 6.9% from the year-ago quarter, while revenues increased 4.2%.
At present, sectors including aerospace, technology, construction, finance and business services are expected to report double digit and high single digit earnings growth in the current quarter. However, the pace of growth is currently modest.
The Consumer Staples sector has always been a safe haven for investors. The sector is expected report 9.7% earnings growth and 4.1% revenue increase in the fourth quarter.
Particularly, the Tobacco industry which falls within the sector is of particular interest to the investors. Lower gas prices, an improving job scenario and increasing consumer spending power have provided a boost to the economy and did the trick for these stocks. Additionally, these companies will always benefit from the addictive nature of tobacco. However, of late increased competition in the vapor category, declining volumes, strict anti-smoking regulations by governments globally and currency headwinds are the main factors that are weighing upon the industry. The trend is expected to persist in the to-be-reported quarter as well.
While Altria beat earnings estimates due to higher operating income and lower shares, Philip Morris missed expectations by a penny. However, both the companies reported lower volume in the smokeable category, in line with the industry trends.
Let's take a look at what's in store for the two tobacco majors scheduled to release their fourth-quarter 2016 numbers this week.
Reynolds American Inc.RAI is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2016 results on Feb 9, before the opening bell. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 60 cents for the fourth quarter. Our proven model does not conclusively show that Reynolds is likely to beat on earnings this quarter. It has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they're reported with our Earnings ESP Filter .
Last quarter, the cigarette company missed the earnings estimate by 4.7%. In the trailing four quarters, it has missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three quarters and posted in-line results in the remaining one quarter, with an average negative earnings surprise of 3.4%.
Notably, Reynolds has been experiencing lower-than-expected top-line and bottom-line results in the past few quarters, primarily due to general shift of consumption away from tobacco products. The company is losing share in Moist Snuff segment and the performance of Camel brand remains under pressure. Additionally, the cigarette maker is facing margin pressure owing to pricing power of other major tobacco players and rising cost of sales. The situation is not expected to improve in the fourth quarter. (Read: Reynolds American Q4 Earnings: Stock to Disappoint? )
Reynolds American Inc Price and EPS Surprise
Another tobacco giant, Turning Point BrandTPB , is expected to report its fourth-quarter 2016 results around Feb 9. It has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here . The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is pegged at 32 cents.
Last quarter, Turnings Point reported a negative surprise of 12.8%. The company has an average surprise of negative 16.7% in the trailing four quarters.
Turning Point Brands, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
In the past one year, the shares of this tobacco giant have gained 19.3% outperforming the Zacks categorized Tobacco industry which has gained 8.4%.
Just Released - Driverless Cars: Your Roadmap to Mega-Profits Today
In this latest Special Report, Zacks' Aggressive Growth Strategist Brian Bolan explores a full-blown technological breakthrough in the making - autonomous cars. He also spotlights 8 stocks with tremendous gain potential to feed off this phenomenon. Click to see the stocks right now >>


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Avery Brewing Co. today announced plans to withdraw from eight states and seven other partial-state markets beginning this month.
Faced with skyrocketing demand — first quarter 2011 production growth for their home state of Colorado is 81 percent and overall production growth is 75 percent — the brewery has been forced to make the tough decision or lose the ability to support all markets with a steady supply of fresh beer.
Beginning in this month, beer shipments will be discontinued to Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Avery Brewing Co. hopes to re-enter these eight states at some point in the future once production capacity can catch up with demand.
The brewery is also leaving several partial state markets, including: Northern California (Bay Area and Sacramento), Eastern Arkansas, Upstate New York (outside of New York City), Central Florida (Orlando area) and Wisconsin.
Distribution of Avery beer in Alaska will not be affected.
“We all feel terrible about having to pull out of these markets. No matter how you cut it, it is disappointing that we’ll no longer be able to serve our loyal fans in these areas,” said Avery Brewing president and founder Adam Avery.
Avery Brewing Company is one of several craft breweries to announce such cuts in 2011, but these disappointing changes are actually the sign of a very positive trend in the industry.
Exponential sales growth for craft brewers indicated the craft beer movement continues to grow, attracting new beer connoisseurs and gaining “mindshare” with people of all demographics across the country.
“This is certainly unfortunate, but it was done with the best intentions,” said Ted Whitney, Avery national sales director. “It’s about getting fresher beer and better experiences for our customers.”

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A perfect storm of collapsing financial markets and manufacturing delays just put this bicycle fork manufacturer out of business.
Trust Performance, a manufacturer of innovative bicycle suspension forks, has gone out of business. It marks the first outdoor/bicycle industry casualty of the COVID-19 crisis. Sadly, we expect it won’t be the last.
Master suspension designer Dave Weagle and retail master Hap Seliga (co-founder of Competitive Cyclist) started Trust Performance in 2015. Its debut product, a pivoting suspension design, left some saying it could change the future of front suspension — not just for bicycles, but also vehicles. It didn’t merely change the way front suspension looked and felt, but in our test, it noticeably improved the ride.
Is This Pivoting Bike Fork the Future of Front Suspensions?
The Message is a revolutionary pivoting front fork that aims to give mountain bikers better cornering, easier setup, and improved performance on all terrain. Read more…
Then, coronavirus rocked the world. Trust’s Asian supply chain shut down on January 25 following Chinese New Year due to the virus. In February, demand for expensive bike forks slowed considerably as macro fears about the economy started to rise.
Finally, severe negativity in the investment markets shut down Trust’s ability to gain access to capital. The timing was terrible. The business lost funding at the moment it needed liquidity to carry it through a critical moment.
“It all added up to a perfect storm that slammed right into us,” Seliga admitted.
Trust Performance Goes Out of Business
Trust wasn’t a garage startup. From the start, Weagle and Seliga wanted to do it right, building the business with venture capital funding. When they shipped their first fork, it was made in their own factory in China using cutting-edge carbon fiber engineering and technology.
Trust announced its first fork, the Message (originally $2,700), in 2018 and started shipping it immediately. In 2019, Trust had a breakthrough year, selling more than 1,000 units and introducing a second enduro-focused fork, the Shout. Prices dropped to $1,975.
“We saw steep growth in dealer and distributor sales, and we saw four of our best-ever sales months at the end of the year,” Seliga said in a press release. “Based on key demand metrics, brand awareness, and community enthusiasm, we had great momentum.”
But today, Trust is shutting its doors and turning the lights off.
“It’s with incredible disappointment and a heavy heart that, effective immediately, Trust Performance is suspending operations until we address our capital needs,” Seliga said. “We are utterly and completely gutted. We have given every waking hour over the past few months to find a path forward but to no avail.”
If you own a Trust fork and need service going forward, the company says to reach out to Suspension Syndicate in Salt Lake City, a trained and certified Trust Performance-authorized service center.
“We’re grateful for the community of people who encouraged and supported our unique design and innovative technology,” said Seliga.
“While we step away, there’s one thing that will remain true for all of us at Trust Performance: It’s the love we have for time on the trail and making the most of those moments with the people we enjoy most. See you out there.”
The post Out of Business: Trust Performance Goes Under During Pandemic Shutdowns appeared first on GearJunkie.


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Rise of the Tomb Raider: Cold Darkness Awakened DLC due out next week
Rise of the Tomb Raider will receive its final piece of DLC next week, which will see Lara Croft visiting an abandoned Cold War research base.
Cold Darkness Awakened will be available on the Xbox One and Windows starting March 29, and can be picked up via Steam, Windows 10 Store and the Xbox Marketplace. Season pass holders will be able to download the content instantly — other players will have to pay a yet unannounced price.
The final DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider adds a new wave-based combat mode to the game where you must fight off hordes of afflicted, bloodthirsty enemies. The abandoned research base holds a “dark past that has been unleashed” into the Siberian wilderness.
As previously mentioned, the Cold Darkness Awakened DLC will release on March 29.


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KT Selects Amdocs’ New Cloud-native and Microservices-based Solution to Launch New 5G Services
Amdocs this week announced that KT Corporation, the largest quad-play service provider in South Korea, has started to upgrade and migrate their existing product catalog to Amdocs CatalogONE.
This solution enables operators to create, deploy, test and launch new services at a much faster pace and quickly take advantage of new 5G use cases and revenue opportunities.
Amdocs CatalogONE is one of the building blocks of CES20, Amdocs’ new cloud-native and microservices-based customer experience suite. It enables end customers to benefit from more frequent service innovation and updated plans and bundles, as well as more market-driven promotions, such as offerings around special events and new 5G features, tailored for specific customer segments and sales channels.
With a centralized view of all products and services and advanced user interface, collaboration platform and approvals and notification management capabilities, the simple-to-use Amdocs CatalogONE allows business and marketing users to manage the offering lifecycle and create frequent configuration updates. To be deployed on the cloud, it will enable KT and Amdocs teams to efficiently collaborate and handle multiple business requests in parallel.
Having previously deployed Amdocs’ real-time convergent charging solution, KT will be able to further accelerate its ability to introduce and monetize new 5G consumer and enterprise offerings.


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Australia’s TPG Telecom has published its financial results for the year ended 31 July 2016, revealing bumper growth in revenues on the back of its acquisition of rival broadband provider iiNet.
For the year under review, TPG Telecom generated a total turnover of AUD2.388 billion (approximately USD1.8 billion), up from AUD1.271 billion, with almost half of that attributed to iiNet, which saw revenues of AUD1.059 billion in FY 2016. Of the remainder, TPG’s consumer fixed broadband service revenue increased to AUD605 million from AUD544 million, though turnover from mobile and ‘other’ services offered to residential users declined by more than 17% year-on-year to AUD69.3 million. TPG/AAPT corporate revenues, by comparison, were relatively stable, rising by almost 2% to AUD655 million. Reported group EBITDA for FY 2016 totalled AUD849.4 million, which represented an annual increase of 75%, while net profit after tax (NPAT) was up by 69% year-on-year at AUD379.6 million.
In operational terms, at the end of July 2016 TPG had a total of 1.868 million broadband subscribers on its books, with more than half of those – 983,000 – signed up via iiNet, while the 885,000 attributed to TPG’s own-brand consumer broadband services represented a 7.8% year-on-year increase from 821,000 at mid-July 2016. Group mobile accesses were also up by dint of the iiNet acquisition, standing at 475,000 at 31 July 2016, with iiNet and TPG accounting for 171,000 and 304,000, respectively.


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Experian today launches the newest version of its fraud prevention platform to help businesses dealing with the rapid surge in demand for digital services and the growth of online accounts.
Due to the digital acceleration instigated by Covid-19, online retailers, businesses, and their customers are at risk of the growing threat from fraudsters exploiting outdated and unsophisticated fraud prevention systems.
The size of the problem is significant. Experian estimates that 10 billion identity authentication checks are currently being made each day globally. Up to £31 billion* is set to be lost via online payment fraud in 2024 if rates continue at their current speed.
Specifically, Account Takeover fraud (ATO) – where a fraudster gains unauthorised access to a legitimate customer account – has increased by 34%**. It is likely to become an even bigger issue as people access more services online.
To counter the threat and meet the demands of this new world, Experian has upgraded and enhanced its CrossCore platform. Incorporating the latest machine learning analytics capability, behavioural biometrics and device recognition technology, the single API solution gives businesses a multi-faceted approach to monitoring and reviewing suspicious activity.
Eduardo Castro, Head of Identity and Fraud, Experian UK&I, said: "The digital acceleration brought about by the pandemic means businesses have had to react to new challenges in ways that were previously unimaginable.
"With online businesses and retailers dealing with swathes of customers they've never interacted with face-to-face, it's critical they are confident in who they are dealing with and identify suspicious activity not only at the point of log-in.
"It's no longer enough to rely on simple checks, such as email and passwords. Our combination of leading technology brings together everything a business needs to prevent it and their customers from becoming a victim of fraud in this rapidly-evolving space."
Experian's CrossCore includes the following capabilities:
Device capability allows businesses to recognise every device across every channel, developing a profile of each customer, and can highlight fraud indicators including inconsistencies and multiple transactions from a single device. Known fraud checks uses fraud databases to match transactions against known fraud and anomalies to identify any previous fraud or high-risk flags associated with the profile. Behavioural biometrics allows clients to identify dubious log-in patterns by detecting factors such as screen pressure, typing speed and device movements. Suspicious or non-familiar behaviour is then flagged. Machine Learning analytics models can predict the likelihood that an interaction is – or isn't – being made by the genuine account holder, with an overall probability of fraud. Organisations can then use this to determine how they deal with the transaction, based on their models and risk appetite.
For more information about Experian Identity and Fraud services, including CrossCore and Account Takeover fraud, go to www.experian.co.uk/business/identity-fraud/fraud-management/account-takeover
Source: Experian UK


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In this special report, Commercial Fleet offers insight on how minimising vehicle off-road time can save a business money, improve customer loyalty and boost its reputation.
From aerodynamics to composite bodies to interior fittings: the right choice is essential
Effectively managing your VOR time can minimise disruption and save money
Increased demands from growing LCV fleets have forced manufacturers, leasing companies and independents to up their game on service, maintenance and repair
Tony Page’s private industry background has enabled him to initiate fresh ideas at the West Midlands Ambulance Service
Change reflects the need for companies to retain cash for investment and product improvement, allowing a focus on core business
The fleet recognition scheme is helping hundreds of companies to reduce their fuel bill and CO2 emissions through star rating and efficiency road mapping.
For many fleet operators, the subject of towing and the laws that govern it cause a great deal of confusion, despite the legislative restrictions being relatively straightforward.
Does it pay van fleet operators to use smart repair or do second-hand buyers expect vans, unlike cars, to exhibit signs of wear and tear? John Charles finds out
A growing number of fleets are assessing the potential to save thousands of pounds by downsizing their vans.


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PenguinT took home the championship at today’s Spark Global Accelerator Demo Day in Bangkok and will be heading to Israel to visit Google’s Launchpad Programme in the country.
The travel startup is based in Nonthaburi (a suburb of Bangkok) and it aims to leverage traditional offline travel agencies to undercut the prices of aggregator websites like Expedia.
The runner-up company was Event Banana, a marketplace for event venues to help companies shorten the process of calling everywhere to find the perfect location.
Finally, there was Talad Invoice, a marketplace that allows SMEs to sell invoices to investors for cash.
“If you take a look from the perspective of last year. We used the model, ‘Unite Rise’. But this year, the theme as been moved to scaling up. So this year it is called ‘scaleup asia’. Meaning we would like to internationalise the startups from Thailand,” said Dr. Pun-arj Chairatana, the Director of Thailand’s National Innovation Agency, to open up the event.
But, as always, the winners of pitching competitions are subjective. So let’s take a look at all 12 of the companies that graduated from the 2017 Spark Accelerator programme!
Convolab is an AI Chatbot solution or businesses. For clients, Convo Lab will design, build, and deploy an AI chatbot to fit their needs (think of the app development companies from a few years ago). So far, it has signed 18 deals and includes Google as a client.
It makes money through a licensing fee that charges on a per transaction basis. It also has a one-time installation fee.
This startup wants to be a one-stop-shop to find the perfect place to host events. According to the company, venues are almost always empty, and Event Banana wants to help generate more leads to fill that dead time.
Event Banana is experience 30 per cent month-on-month growth over 7 months since launch. It charges premium listing fee or 15 per cent commission for small-scale venues.
One interesting strategy the company is pursuing is to use its network to help foreigners host more events in Thailand.
JabJai is an online platform for internal management of Thai schools. While in places like the US and Singapore, much of schooling infrastructure has moved online, Thailand still relies heavily on paper — especially in rural areas.
The company has built the entire system and uses distributors to get their product around Thailand. So far they have five paying clients and an additional four in the demo phase.
While most real estate startups are trying to disrupt the traditional agencies, FindYourSpace wants to empower them. Real estate brokers in Thailand work offline and FindYourSpace offers them a website to manage their portal listings, social media sales and a CRM to manage content, leads and notifications.
The SaaS earns through a subscription fee, and the company thinks it can break-even by January 2018. The Japanese VC Re.A.Pra Ventures recently invested a seed round into FindYourSpace.
This O2O startup is a cloud-based supply chain management system for SMEs. It offers SMEs both a warehouse to store goods and a software system to manage the product. SMEs can track stock management, orders and sales. Everything we do to help SMEs to find the most efficient way to operate while achieving maximum growth.
Business owners need to make delivery orders online before 8am and the goods will go out that day. They also have Pick and Pack services. It is raising money to pursue regional cross-border e-commerce logistics.
PEAK is an online accounting startup. It has built a system that automates certain tasks (like data entry) while helping clients with tax forms. It can also help record transactions through and API and automatically brings the information into a useful SaaS system to help business owners keep track of their finances.
It is also targetting the online entrepreneur as more and more Thai companies embrace the internet.
A funny quirk of modern times is that while much of the world is embracing travel aggregation sites like Expedia, the traditional offline agents can often find a better deal. PenguinT wants to bring these offline agents online by connecting agencies and wholesalers to consumers across the world.
The site also scales internationally fairly easily as it just requires a few weeks to enter a country and configure the system. PenguinT also has a customer service app within the system should users run into problems. The startup is seeking a US$350,000 seed investment.
Waiting in a queue might be one of the rare universal pain-point of global life. Nobody enjoys it and yet it is a fairly common occurrence. QueQ wants to help people jump the queue in real-time. Instead of booking times in advance, QueQ wants to target people that show up to a place, see the queue, but then use the app to “save their space”. Then they can go enjoy an activity while waiting.
If this app takes off, it will have data implications as well, because it will be able to track where users go and why they wait in line.
System Stone Lab wants to help factories better manage their machinery. Often factories underutilise their equipment because of downtime and the reality that most internal quality assurance is maintained via excel. Stone lab wants to bring this into one app.
There are competitors (like SAP), but the startup claims to be six times cheaper than their rivals. The company received seed funding from the Thai incubator True Incube and is now seeking US$200,000 to scale within Thailand.
A chicken-egg problem for SMEs short on cash is they need money, but then need to convince investors to that they can repay this money. While the VC model does not follow this line of thinking, more traditional industries do. One way to convince retail investors to come on board is to sell them invoices, purchase orders, contracts etc. as guarantees.
Talad Invoice is a marketplace for investors and SMEs to buy/sell such documents.
ZeekDoc is an online healthcare discovery and booking platform. One of the interesting decisions made by the team is to do away with customer reviews. They have a large amount of metrics to get the best possible doctors, but find reviews create drama or unrealistically positive/negative reviews.
It has partnered with hospitals in Bangkok and Phuket and charges them a B2B referral fee. It also has a subscription fee for smaller clinics.
Zort is an e-commerce inventory management startup. The pain-point it wants to solve is that small business owners spend a disproportionate amount of time on administrative tasks. It is targeting distributors and retailers at the early stages of their business.
The company charges US$360 per year per business and wants to have 3,500 clients by January 2018. It is currently raising US$200,000 and wants to expand regionally.


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If your Android phone has been feeling a bit sluggish...
The Nokia G310 5G is priced from $186, and the Nokia C210 from $109.
New rules could mean you'll be able to replace your phone's battery. We talk with an expert about the promise and the challenges.
With so many choices, it's difficult to pick the best phone for your budget. We're here to help.
We're keeping our phones for longer, and we're keen to get more life out of them still. It's time for mobile makers to get with the program.
Meanwhile, the next generation of Nokia 5G devices is set to be manufactured in Europe.
The newest Nokia phone is a sequel to one that came out in 2007, addressing the same need for music on the go.
Qualcomm also announced a 5G modem with built-in AI and Snapdragon Connect certification during MWC in Barcelona.
Commentary: Amid the futurist dreams of robots, the metaverse and autonomous transportation at CES 2022, there are real products calling out to your shopping cart.
Go back 15 years and see what we had in our pockets when Apple wowed us with the first iPhone.
CES isn't known for mobile announcements, but there's this: 2022 will see a bigger portfolio of affordable Nokia phones available in the US.
Android 12 was released on Tuesday, but only to certain devices. Here's what to know.


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For Spring/Summer 2022, Nike Sportswear will be releasing a “Futura” edition of the Air Max 90 silhouette.
This offering of the Nike Air Max 90 comes with a layered aesthetic constructed in a mix of mesh and leather materials. Perfect for the warmer months, the shoe arrives in a “Triple White” color blocking.
Check out the official photos below, and look for the Nike Air Max 90 Futura “Triple White” to release on May 19th at select retailers and Nike.com.
Style Code: DM9922-101
Release Date: May 19, 2022
UPDATE 3/30: Nike reveals official photos of the “Triple White” Air Max 90 Futura, which was originally thought to be a “Scrap” edition of the Air Max 90. Expect more colorways to be revealed soon.


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Did you know that Hallmark has more than thirteen hundred different Valentine's Day cards, and 75 percent of Americans will exchange those cards on this holiday of hugs and kisses. With love in the air, local businesses are seeing a rise in sales.
Florists were cutting, arranging, and delivering from sunrise until sunset Friday. That was the scene over at Evolutions In Design in Wausau.
"For us in Wisconsin in the middle of winter, you get something really unique that you can't see growing outside right now, it's a breath of fresh air," says florist Lisa Macco, co-owner of Evolutions in Design.
Macco says their weekend profit will end up totaling six times their regular sales. That's the same scenario over at Janmar's Chocolate Emporium Inc. Their business sees a hike in sales after boxes upon boxes of chocolates are purchased. This year's hot item is chocolate strawberries.


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The number of internet users, who shop online has increased to 54 percent, compared to 50 percent in 2016, according to the “E-commerce in Poland 2017” report prepared by Gemius in cooperation with the Chamber of Electronic Commerce (IGE).
The biggest incentive for online shopping is their 24-hours availability, according to 82 percent of respondents, while 44 percent see it as comfortable and uncomplicated (41 percent). While last year, 43 percent of respondents considered online shopping as risky, this figure dropped to 38 percent this year.
“The number of online buyers is increasing, as is the value of the whole market, and not only in Poland but also in other countries in our region. The Polish e-commerce market is valued at PLN 36-40 billion and it will increase further. Many sellers realized that without mobile shops they have no future on the market. Just like offering fast delivery and customer-friendly return policy is also becoming a norm,” said Marek Molicki from Gemius.
Online shoppers are very well-versed in the online product offering, and their awareness of e-commerce websites and websites is very high – only 17 percent of respondents were unable to list any online stores. The most popular products bought online are: clothing, accessories, accessories and books, records, films. As many as 70 percent of the respondents already bought these products online.
The research also points out a strong ROPO (research online, purchase offline) effect in terms of durable and electronic products such as home appliances, cars, building materials or telephones and accessories. As well as pharmaceuticals that are often checked online and purchased in the traditional way (48 percent of buyers declare such behavior for this category).
Article originally published in WBJ.com


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It’s the final curtain call for Tillie’s of Brooklyn, but one area theater director is mounting a last-ditch community effort to save the iconic Fort Greene coffee house which will open for the last time on New Year’s Day.
Marc Eardley wants to turn Tillie’s into a café and comic book shop to prevent the Bohemian stomping ground from becoming a Starbucks — or worse.
“I hate the idea of losing [it],” said Eardley, a former retail manager who has helmed productions of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,”
Interest from neighborhood buyers could save the popular hangout, Eardley believes.
“The landlord would be hard pressed to say no to a group in the community that wants to run it,” he stated.
Landlord Danny Browne said he was all for a fair trade deal that wouldn’t compete with his other java-slinger in the building — Baguetteaboudit! — and denied rumors that he was looking to rent the DeKalb Avenue space to a Starbucks, bank or chain store.
“I am to open to anyone who can pay the rent and jazz up the building,” said the proprietor, who added that prospective tenants include restaurant and bar owners. “Ultimately I’m going to make a decision that’s best for me and best for everybody.”
Patrons suffered jolt to their system earlier this month when Tillie’s owners Patricia Mulcahy and Amos Yogev announced they were shuttering their 14-year-old shop because of a $2,000 rent increase. They put the coffee shop up for sale in October for $189,000, but Browne wasn’t on board with any of the potential buyers.
Tillie’s opened in 1997 when the neighborhood was far less trendy, and instantly became a neighborhood “living room” and performance space for students, artists and writers. Eardley wants to keep that spirit intact by revamping the interior, selling magazines or comic books, adding couches, and selling borough brews such as Park Slope’s own Gorilla Coffee.
“There’s a lot Tillie’s could do to make it more profitable,” he said. “It would not be hard to afford that rent increase in my mind — you’d just have to do some different things.”
Mulcahy said she didn’t know Eardley, but was touched by his attention towards her shop, whose future she left up to fate.
“Who knows if it could really stay open?” Mulcahy stated. “Life has many surprises.”
Tillie’s plans to go out with a bang. Its final day will include a sell-off sale of cheap pastries, tea boxes and coffee beans, and longtime staff plan to mourn it at an “Irish wake” on Jan. 6 at 8 pm.
Tillie’s [248 DeKalb Ave. at Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 783-6140]. For info, visit www.tilliesofbrooklyn.com. Community members who would like to invest in a new Tillie’s can contact Marc Eardley at (917) 628-0363 or [email protected].
Reach Kate Briquelet at [email protected] or by calling her at (718) 260-2511.


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4:51pm PT by Eriq Gardner
Oprah Winfrey Network Sued Over Chicken Wing Show
The title of a one-hour special on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) debuting Saturday night has got a producer working with a chicken wing entrepreneur steaming hot.
OWN's show is titled Wingmen and features two best friends from Columbia, South Carolina and their small-town food truck business selling stuffed chicken wings.
This has prompted a trademark lawsuit from Rags to Rick Productions, which is involved in an online reality TV show titled Wing-Men featuring the life of Rick Smiciklas, described "an entrepreneur with little to his name when he opened his first chicken wing restaurant in 1999, who now owns a chain of chicken wing restaurants with over 100 locations."
The pilot of Wing-Men premiered on Dec. 5, with supposedly more episodes to come.
But the bucket isn't big enough.
Rags to Rick says it owns trademarks in Canada for both "Wingmen" and "Wing-men" and has filed applications in the United States. The filings are in the entertainment category.
According to the complaint filed in Illinois federal court , "OWN's use of the title WINGMEN for the OWN Program, and use of the WINGMEN mark to promote same, is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception among members of the public given that both the OWN Program and the Productions Program Series are programs featuring the antics of entrepreneurs in the chicken wing business."
Although the complaint probably comes too late to stop the show, the plaintiff demands that the judge be a wing-man and issue an injunction. Read the complaint here.
A spokesperson for the network says it hasn't been served with the lawsuit yet.


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Blizzard has announced plans to give players over 65 free cards upon the release of next week’s expansion Whispers of the Old Gods.
All players will get three free packs for simply logging on following the expansion’s release. The developer has now revealed that a further five packs will be handed to players after they have completed two games in the new Standard mode.
Then, a further five packs will be dished out after ten Standard games are completed. Players will also get key card C’Tun for free, and two Beckoner of Evil cards.
These card packs will be handed out via the game’s Quest system and will automatically appear once quest slots have been cleared, with the second appearing once the first is completed.
In total the expansion will offer 134 cards, so that’s a pretty decent handout – although of course players can expect duplicates in their free card bundles.
Many seem to be interpreting this as an apology to those who were displeased with Blizzard’s decision to move to a new model that blocks access to many existing cards in what will now be regarded as the default mode.
It should be noted, however, that plenty are rapturously welcoming the changes.
Others have pointed to an anecdotal decline in recent player numbers that followed the announcement of the new modes. It’s certainly true to say that the Hearthstone ‘meta’ – which is best described as the current deck trends – has become pretty stale in anticipation of the upcoming changes. However, expect interest to surge once the big change arrives next week.
The Whispers of the Old Gods expansion, and the split into Standard and Wild modes, will arrive in Europe on April 27th. The changes will roll out in the US on April 26th.


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Cresa Connection: Tollway Corridor - February 2022
Please find February's edition of my monthly update on the North Dallas-Plano-Frisco office market detailing the latest office tenant and building news as well as lease transactions recently signed.
If you have an office decision to make, please contact me for help with your real estate needs.
A flood of foreign capital made DFW one of the top markets in the nation for offshore property investors in 2021. Foreign buyers snapped up more than $3 billion in DFW investment properties in 2021, which represents the fifth highest total in the nation. DFW ranked behind Boston, Atlanta, Manhattan and Phoenix as the metro areas with the most purchases by cross-border buyers. DFW foreign property investment more than doubled last year compared with 2020 totals. Acquisitions by cross-border investors totaled $70.8 billion for 2021, which was up 92% from the pace set in 2020. Cross-border investment closed out 2021 with an 8.5% share of the total market for commercial real estate investment in the U.S. The biggest share of foreign investment in U.S. properties last year came from Canadian and Asian investors. Singapore-based GIC was the largest individual cross-border investor in nation-wide property last year with more than $9 billion in purchases. GIC was a partner in the recent $822 million purchase of 27 hotels from DFW’s Newcrestimage. Offshore investors favored two U.S. property types – industrial and apartments. The industrial sector captured 34% while the apartment sector captured 30% of all cross-border investment for the year.
Dallas-based developer Cawley Partners is planning three, Class “AA” high-rise office towers at the Grandscape mixed-use development along State Highway 121 in The Colony. The office development is being called Work Grandscape. Grandscape, which is anchored by Nebraska Furniture Mart, is becoming one of the largest and most unique mixed-use developments in the nation with its retail (NFM, Scheels), entertainment (Andretti Indoor Karting, Puttery, Grandscape Wheel, Jurassic World exhibition, The Lawn and Stage at Grandscape) and restaurant (Lava Cantina, Rock & Brews, Hard Eight BBQ, P.F. Chang’s) venues. The addition of more office projects will transition the development into a true live-work-play environment. The three office towers are planned for 500,000 square feet each with 23 stories (Phase I), 18 stories (Phase II) and 18 stories (Phase III). The office buildings will feature 30,000 square foot floorplates, 4.0/1,000 SF structured parking, sky-level balconies, conference facilities, collaborative tenant lounges, fitness centers and coffee bars. Cawley is moving forward with full architectural design on the first of the three towers and needs between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet of pre-leasing before it will break ground on the development. Rental rates are expected to be in the mid-to-high $30.00/NNN range. Here is a virtual tour of the walkable retail experience at Grandscape for tenants to utilize adjacent to the office buildings.
Grandscape (Source: Cawley Partners)
Northwest Hardwoods, a hardwood lumber manufacturer, is relocating its headquarters from Tacoma, Washington, to Hall Park (2600 Network Boulevard) in Frisco. The move is focused on the manufacturer’s corporate and functional teams. The company has executed a 23,000 square foot lease at Hall Park and plans to take occupancy of their new space on the 6th floor this spring.
Dallas-based co-working firm Common Desk, which started in 2012 by offering desks for rent in Deep Ellum, has been sold to co-working giant WeWork. Both shared space providers have multiple locations in the Legacy and Frisco markets. WeWork has announced that Common Desk’s 23 locations in Texas and North Carolina will be rebranded as “Common Desk, a WeWork Company.” It marks WeWork’s first acquisition as a public company. The company went public in October 2019 after controversy erupted over former CEO and founder Adam Neumann, who left under pressure from the company’s board of directors amid public disclosures about his bad behavior and drug use. In its most recent financial disclosure, WeWork reported $164 million in gross desk sales for the 4th quarter of 2021. WeWork’s portfolio includes 756 locations and 590,000 physical memberships in 38 countries. Common Desk currently serves 4,000 customers in 13 cities. Common Desk’s most recent expansion was to Hall Park in Frisco where the company took over fellow co-working operator Serendipity Labs’ space on the first two floors at 3201 Dallas Parkway.
Common Desk (Source: Dallas Morning News)
Frisco’s Hall Park is well underway with construction on the next iteration of Hall Park, which will being with a $500 million mixed-use project along Warren Parkway as phase one of the redevelopment master plan. The Tower at Hall Park will consist of a 16-story, 386,000 square foot office tower with 28,000 square foot floorplates and will feature 4.0/1,000 SF parking, outdoor terraces on each floor, corporate lounge, fitness center, meeting spaces to accommodate up to 238 people, two outdoor rooftop amenity decks, ground-floor restaurants and retail overlooking a park and an adjacent 154-room hotel and 60 corporate extended-stay suites. The Tower at Hall Park is projected to deliver in Fall 2023 and is currently marketing space at $42.00-44.00/SF, NNN ($15.00/SF). Phase one of the redevelopment will also include a 10,000 SF food hall attached to a 214-unit residential high-rise building with units available for lease. The park, which will be situated between The Tower at Hall Park and the residential high-rise building, will feature technology pods and zones for outdoor work space, event lawn, performance pavilion, children’s play area, dog park, water features, pickleball courts and other programming. For more information on the development, see the property brochure.
The Tower at Hall Park (Source: CoStar)
Reata Pharmaceuticals, which signed a 327,000 square foot office lease in 2019 for a build-to-suit headquarters at the southern entrance of Legacy West, is now marketing their entire space for sublease without ever having occupied their space. Reata’s 21-story, Class “AA” build-to-suit headquarters tower at 6100 Legacy Drive delivered in shell condition in the 4th quarter of 2021. Reata is offering subtenants a full tenant improvement package due to the building’s shell condition and is willing to break up the space for as small as 100,000 square feet.
6100 Legacy Drive (Source: CoStar)
The Parkwood, a boutique, 240,000 square foot Class “A” two-building office campus being developed by Dallas-based Cawley Partners along the west side of Parkwood Boulevard and just south of Windhaven Parkway in west Plano, is nearing completion of its first building (Phase I). Phase I will be 100% leased at the time of delivery this summer.
The Parkwood - Phase I (Source: CoStar)
Phase II of The Parkwood, which currently has no executed leases and has not yet broken ground, is being marketed to include a courtyard with outdoor gathering space, pickleball courts, conference center, grab n’ go food service, rooftop lounge and access to the fitness center in building one. Cawley Partners is currently working with one prospective tenant who has a July 2024 lease commencement date. Cawley can deliver the 120,000 square foot building earlier than summer 2024, but will need 18 months timing from lease execution date in order to deliver the building and shell space. Cawley is currently marketing space at $35.00/SF, NNN ($12.00/SF).
The Parkwood - Phase II (Source: CoStar)
California-based Trellix, a new $1.7 billion cybersecurity firm created from the merger of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye Security Holdings, has leased the remaining 85,000 square feet of office space in Legacy West’s newest office delivery – “Block H” – which is located at the southwest corner of Windrose Drive and Headquarters Drive directly across from Legacy West’s Food Hall. Block H, which delivered in 2020, is a 6-story, 125,000 square foot Class “AA” office-over-retail product that includes 25,000 square feet of Legacy West’s most prominent ground floor retail tenants, including Gucci, Tory Burch and Louis Vuitton. Block H was marketing the remaining vacant space at $37.00/SF, NNN ($15.62/SF) at the time of lease-up to Trellix. Dallas-based law firm Haynes & Boone, LLP, is the only other office tenant in the building and occupies the entire 2nd floor. The new organization of Trellix will house the employees and assets of its combined existing operations in Plano. The overall presence in the area will remain what it was prior to the McAfee Enterprise-FireEye merger. Trellix expects to take occupancy of its new space later this summer. McAfee has had a long presence in the Legacy area and recently sold its Preston Road office building to Austin-based investor Capital Commercial. Symphony Technology Group acquired and merged FireEye and McAfee into the new Trellix brand last year.
Legacy West Block H (Source: CoStar)
Dallas-based Cawley Partners has completed a $4 million capital improvement project at 5501 Headquarters Drive in Legacy, which was purchased by Cawley in December 2019 for $43,200,000 or $255/SF. The capital improvements included renovations to the building lobby and restrooms and the installation of a new fitness center with locker rooms and a grab n’ go food lounge. Cawley is marketing vacant space at $27.00/SF, NNN ($12.98/SF) and the building is currently 58% leased with Rent-A-Center occupying 98,649 square feet. Rent-A-Center had previously owner-occupied the building and negotiated a sale-leaseback transaction with Cawley in 2019.
5501 Headquarters Drive (Source: CoStar)
Plano-based home goods retailer At Home, which produced sales of $2 billion in 2021 from its 240 stores in 40 states, has announced that the company will relocate their office headquarters from SH-121 in Plano to Billingsley’s Cypress Waters development in Irving along LBJ Freeway. At Home will maintain its Plano warehouse attached to its current office headquarters. The new campus will represent a two-building project and include a design center with a mock store and photo and video studios. The company is growing at a rate of 25 stores this year after it was sold in July 2021 for $2.8 billion to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The home furnishings sector is a $200 billion per year business that was growing at a 2% to 4% clip a year before the pandemic and has since jumped to 6% to 9% growth during the stay-at-home economy the last two years.
At Home (Source: CoStar)
CEO Lee Bird joined the company in 2012 to reinvent the 30-year-old Garden Ridge brand with 58 tired locations into something new. Bird believes the company can become a 600-store chain and that it can grow faster as a private company. In 2020, its last full year as a public company, At Home reported its best sales growth in its history, with $1.7 billion in revenue and $77 million in net profit. The sale of the company last year triggered the vesting of most restricted shares and stock options held by executives. Bird’s shares were worth more than $90 million. Bird turned around and reinvested $10 million in At Home as part of an agreement with Hellman & Friedman. At Home expects its corporate staff to grow from its current 400-person headcount to 1,000 employees at its headquarters over the next decade.
At Home CEO, Lee Bird (Source: Dallas Morning News)
Peloton, which currently leases 133,750 square feet of office space in Plano’s Legacy Central mixed-use development at U.S. Highway 75 and Legacy Drive, announced plans to cut 2,800 jobs from its corporate workforce, which includes its New York City headquarters along with offices in Plano and Atlanta. The struggling fitness company also canceled a new factory under construction in Ohio that was to have employed 2,000 workers. Plano was Peloton’s first support center outside New York City, providing member support, sales, field operations and other corporate functions. The company initially leased 30,000 square feet in 2018 and then added an additional 103,750 square feet in December 2020. Peloton had been a highflier during the pandemic when lockdowns sent customers scrambling to buy its stationary bikes and attend virtual classes. With restrictions easing and many fitness junkies returning to in-person gyms, the company has faced an investor backlash and had to retool its operations.
The new office headquarters for the PGA of America is expected to deliver by mid-April 2022 with 135 employees occupying the building. The new facility has been designed to blend into the development’s two, 18-hole golf courses behind the office building. Roughly 70 employees who will work at the headquarters are golf professionals. The headquarters is part of the 660-acre, $520 million mixed-use project that is scheduled to be completed by spring 2023 and will include a 500-room Omni PGA Frisco Resort, golf-themed restaurants and retail stores. The PGA has already committed to hosting 26 championship golf tournaments within its first 12 years.
The 9-story, 149,578 square foot Addison Tower (renamed The Charter), which is located along Addison Road and just north of Keller Springs Road, has undergone $2.2 million in capital improvements, including a new fitness center with locker rooms, golf simulator, conference center with seating for 60 persons, renovated building lobby, common area corridors and restrooms, outdoor courtyard with tenant lounge area and putting green, and new exterior paint. The property exchanged hands in April 2021 when Dallas-based Dogwood Commercial took ownership after paying $15,000,000 or $101/SF for the 63% leased building. Dogwood is currently marketing vacant space at $23.00/SF + Electric.
The Charter (Source: CoStar)
Lease Transaction Comps
1. Tenant: Dassault Systemes Americas
Building: 5700 Tennyson Parkway / Legacy Place East
Type: New Lease
Size: 5,242 SF
Term: 65 months
Free Rent: 5 months
Start Rate: $27.75/NNN
2. Tenant: Northwest Hardwoods
Building: 2600 Network Boulevard / Hall Park
Type: New Lease
Size: 23,000 SF
Term: 129 months
Free Rent: 9 months
Start Rate: $24.75/NNN
3. Tenant: PAM Cubed
Building: 5340 Legacy Drive / The Campus at Legacy
Type: New Lease
Size: 23,372 SF
Term: 70 months
Free Rent: 10 months
Start Rate: $22.50/NNN
4. Tenant: Biamp Systems
Building: 5830 Granite Parkway / Granite Park Five
Size: 8,975 SF
Term: 57 months
Free Rent: 0 months
Start Rate: $31.00/NNN
TI: As Is
I specialize in representing office tenants in the North Dallas/Plano/Frisco market. Please let me know if I can be of service with your real estate needs (relocation search, expansion, lease renewal negotiations, building/condo purchase, sublease, portfolio management).
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Dallas, TX 75244


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Dish has admitted that it’s ready to jump into the wireless arena. “Clayton told Reuters that Dish is serious about its ambitions to get into the wireless space, but said the company first needs to be awarded a wireless license by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. It would then have to wait for a final decision by the U.S. government on the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA before deciding its next move."The FCC and the government, if the merger goes through, is going to dictate and demand a new carrier so there's a minimum of four (carriers) and we believe we are going to be one of those and that's what our plan is," he said in an interview at Dish's sales office in New York” (Yinka Adegoke and Liana B. Baker, Reuters).
Dish has spent over $3 billion so far readying its wireless network. Clayton states that Dish requires a wireless company to partner with. The wireless company would handle the voice communications since that requires a wireless infrastructure. Dish has been steadily losing subscribers and hopes an expansion away from just television service will help turn the company’s profits around. This has already been evidenced by its Blockbuster acquisition which allows you to now stream videos.
“Dish could become a major wireless carrier once it finds a partner, or acquires a wireless company. As well T-Mobile USA, Clayton said Dish would be willing to consider working with any other wireless partner including Clearwire, Sprint, LightSquared, MetroPCS and Leap” (Yinka Adegoke and Liana B. Baker, Reuters). Will Dish succeed in the mobile marketplace?
Joseph Sugabo is a freelance writer and tech enthusiast.


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Bluepoint's remake launches alongside PS5 on November 12
Sony recently went up with a new gameplay trailer for Bluepoint Games' remake of FromSoftware's Demon's Souls, and now another video is here to focus on one of the best aspects of the game. The new version has a 75-piece orchestra, a 40-person choir, and more working together to perform and re-record the game's tremendous soundtrack, and the effort is in the spotlight in a new The Music of Demon's Souls video.
Sony also followed up with a 'check out my Soundcloud' link with the Flamelurker track:
Fans of the soundtrack will be able to purchase it digitally on November 26, followed by a CD release shortly after and pre-orders for the vinyl in early December.
Demon's Souls hits PS5 at launch on November 12.


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Asheville cops: Woman stole jewelry from Kohl’s
ASHEVILLE – A Weaverville woman is behind bars after police say she stole jewelry valued at more than $1,200 from Kohl’s in Asheville.
Janet Reed Guthrie, 51, of Heirloom Drive, was charged Sunday with felony larceny and larceny from a merchant, according to warrants at the Buncombe County magistrate’s office.
Guthrie is accused of stealing $1,257 in jewelry from the Kohl’s store on Bleachery Boulevard. Asheville police made the arrest.
Guthrie is being held at the Buncombe County Detention Facility under a $1,000 secured bond.


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Lil Wayne has surprised his fans by releasing a deluxe version of his latest album Funeral. The project comes with 8 bonus tracks and new features from Lil Uzi Vert, Tory Lanez, Doja Cat, Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine and Jessie Reyez.
Month: May 2020
In this new entry in our ‘Diamonds In The Rough’ category, we want to introduce you to upcoming artists Yearly Dimension, Kevin Kazi and BBG and their brand new single titled “Stainless”.
Here’s our weekly overview of Hip-Hop and R&B album sales in the US, including an update on where the albums land at the Billboard 200 chart.
This week’s overview includes the first week numbers of Gunna’s new album WUNNA, which debuts at #1.
In this new entry in our ‘Diamonds In The Rough’ category, we want to introduce you to upcoming artist Linae and her brand new single titled “Stereo Vibing”.
After dropping his new single “ATL Freestyle” earlier this week, 6LACK has now shared the official video for the song.
In this new entry in our ‘Diamonds In The Rough’ category, we want to introduce you to upcoming artist Focuz-Focuz and his brand new single titled “F*ck U Mean”.
Travis Barker and Wiz Khalifa have collaborated on a brand new song called “Drums Drums Drums”.
Trippie Redd has put out a song with his late friend Juice WRLD. The record is titled “Tell Me U Luv Me”.
R&B superstars Ne-Yo and Jermih have joined forces on a brand new single titled “U 2 Luv”.
SAINt JHN has enlisted Future for the official remix to his single “Roses”.


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The discovery of an unattended bag at a Vons supermarket in a Carlsbad strip mall prompted an evacuation of the store Thursday until authorities determined that the sack contained a few pairs of shoes.
A caller reported the presence of the possibly suspicious black plastic bag at the supermarket in the 6900 block of El Camino Real in Carlsbad shortly before 10 a.m., according to police.
The management of the store cleared everyone out while a bomb squad was en route, Lt. Greg Koran said.
The personnel investigated, determined that the bag contained nothing more than footwear of unknown origin and gave an all-clear shortly after 12:30 p.m., the lieutenant said.
— City News Service


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For most Chinese workers, the ongoing Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays have been a welcome opportunity to relax, but 43-year-old Chen Yonglun prefers to work over the holidays.
Chen works at a feedstuff factory in Guiyang, capital of southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Unlike previous holidays when workers could get a chance at overtime, the factory decided to suspend production during this year’s holidays spanning Sept. 30 to Oct. 7.
The break, however, did not please Chen.
“We want to earn money. That’s what we’re working for,” he said, not knowing where to go during the holidays.
Chen left his hometown in Sichuan Province a decade ago, and since then, he has always worked through holidays.
“I was happy that I could earn over 500 yuan as overtime salary in the past,” he said. (500 yuan is equal to 79 U.S. dollars.)
According to Chinese law, employers have to pay three times workers’ daily wages if they demand that employees work on national holidays, which, under the current unfavorable economic situation, is too heavy a burden for many enterprises.
Wei Jian, chairman of the feedstuff factory, said the factory had prepared enough inventory ahead of the holidays so it could save on doling out overtime salaries for the 100-plus workers it employs.
“The prices of grain and raw materials have kept going up and production costs have been increasing, making it difficult for the factory to survive,” said Wei.
He said pork prices have been down since the beginning of this year due to an oversupply from last year, resulting in farmers being unwilling to raise pigs and, thus, a decline in feedstuff orders.
Chen and his colleagues filed an application to the factory to allow them to continue working during the holidays. “Eight days is quite a long period, and we can’t just sit there, doing nothing,” said Chen.
Through negotiations, the factory finally agreed to let them work during the holidays.
“Overtime means 10,000 yuan or more in extra salaries. We probably cannot make a profit this year,” sighed Wei.
Mid-Autumn Day, which fell on Sept. 30 this year, is supposed to be a Chinese holiday for family reunions, but Chen was reluctant to return home, as travel costs and others expenses would have cost him more than one month’s salary.
“My son will enter college soon, and I have to save money for his tuition,” he said.
Despite the news that he could continue to work over the holidays, Chen did not feel relieved. “The problem was solved this year, but what about next year?”


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After the launch of Realme 9i, Realme 9 and Realme 9 Pro are expected to hit the Indian market soon. Realme Vice President Madhav Sheth has recently confirmed this. They have confirmed to 91Mobiles that the handsets will come with support for 5G connectivity and will cost over Rs 15,000 in India. Additionally, Sheth has also tweeted a tweet asking fans which smartphone they think will arrive in India first: Realme 9 or Realme 9 Pro. He further tweeted that both the smartphones will soon be launched in India “on public demand”.
In an interview with 91Mobiles, he revealed that the Realme 9 Pro and 9 Pro+ will come with “great bang for 5G connectivity, great performance, and an attractive design”. The entire Realme 9 series is confirmed to be priced above Rs 15,000 in India.
For those unaware, the Realme 9 and Realme 9 Pro were recently spotted on several certification sites such as the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
We will soon introduce both these smartphones in India on public demand! https://t.co/0ygXbvqoYZ
— madhav sheth (@madhavsheth1) 18 January 2022
As per previous reports, the Realme 9 Pro and Realme 9 Pro+ are expected to get MediaTek Dimensity 810 and or MediaTek Dimensity 920 silicon. The Pro+ model may feature a 6.5-inch FHD+ display. For photography, it may feature a quad-camera array that is assisted by a 50-megapixel primary sensor, a 13-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor and a 2-megapixel sensor. For selfies, a 16-megapixel shooter can be found in it.
As per the CQC listing, the phone could house a 5,000mAh battery and could have 65W fast charging support. Other reports have revealed that the Realme 9 Pro has appeared on several certification sites including the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Indonesian Tingkat Komponen Dalam Negeri (TKDN), and Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC). Will give ,
The specifications and features of Realme 9 are not yet known. However, more details are likely to be revealed as the launch nears.
Realme 9 Pro, Realme 9 Pro+ to debut in India soon: How much will they cost? Appeared first on BGR India.


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Technology company Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR) reported lower sales and net profit for the second quarter of 2023.
Second-quarter net income was $1.11 billion, or $1.49 per share, compared to $1.66 billion or $2.25 per share in the same period of last year. Adjusted earnings decreased 25% year-over-year to $2.05 per share.
The bottom line was hurt by an 8% fall in net sales to $7.16 billion, mainly due to lower sales in the Diagnostics and Biotechnology segments.
Looking for more insights on the earnings results? Click here to access the full transcripts of the latest earnings conference calls!
Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE: CCL) reported third quarter 2023 earnings results today. Revenues were $6.9 billion compared to $4.3 billion in the same period last year. On a GAAP basis,
Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) on Thursday reported results for the first three months of fiscal 2024, reporting a modest rise in revenues. The sneaker giant reported net income of $1.45
Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) were down 4% on Thursday after the company delivered mixed results for the fourth quarter of 2023 and provided full-year guidance that came below


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The number of times Bay of Plenty people swiped their cards last week was down by close to 50 per cent since the same time last year.
Paymark released its annual comparison reports today showing a grim week for the retail sector.
In the last seven days, there were 1.04 million transactions at a value of $62.3 million.
The number of transactions was down 44.6 per cent, while the value was down close to 30 percent compared to the same period last year.
Spending through Paymark nationwide dropped a huge 72 per cent below year-ago levels on Thursday, the first day of level 4 lockdown.
This spending remained down for the rest of the week.
A few retailers, such as electricity companies and consumer finance suppliers were still taking payments that were exceeding last year's levels.
However, supermarkets, fruit and vegetable shops, pharmacies, gas suppliers, among others still had significant volumes of spending.
Many merchants were barely transacting any payments now, these included travel companies, entertainment firms and parking services.
Some were even going into negatives as they had to pay money back to customers.
The spending splurge before lockdown came in was not enough to offset the losses.
Paymark is New Zealand's leading electronic payment company.


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Dubai: The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) recently launched an e-service to dispose of expired and unusable medical and pharmaceutical products, including controlled and uncontrolled medicines, in a proper way and as medical waste.
The service is accessible round the clock through smartphones, where the owners and employees of health and pharmaceutical institutions can submit the form, and with the possibility of saving all records and documents.
Dr. Hessa Ali Mubarak, Director of Health Empowerment and Compliance Department, said the service comes within the framework of the smart and E-transformation of regulatory and supervisory services on health facilities and pharmacies. "This would help bolster MoHAP’s strategy to provide fair, comprehensive, and innovative health care services as per international standards, through sophisticated and integrated health legislation that entrenches the development of distinctive services for the health sector.
This would help bolster MoHAP’s strategy to provide fair, comprehensive, and innovative health care services as per international standards.
“The service includes 5 categories, including uncontrolled medicines that are imported by a local agent, the controlled medicines of the second group listed in the Ministry’s resolution No. 888 of 2016, which are traded and imported by a local agent and distributed to licensed pharmacies and medical warehouses, medicines and drugs that are imported by MoHAP’s licensed warehouses according to a purchase order by public or private hospitals, all the pharmaceutical raw materials, drugs medicines and nutritional supplements that are prescribed by medical prescription,” Dr. Mubarak said.
The service comes as part of a host of e-services to enhance innovate smart solutions, as well as to commit to implement quality systems and contribute to developing programmes and plans tailored to boost the efficiency of the health system.


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Kiroro has added to its already impressive list of global partners.
Kiroro has just announced its newest global partner, Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Season pass holders are now entitled to three full days’ skiing at Sunlight (and vice versa). This is only Sunlight’s second international partnership. It previously secured a similar deal with Alp 2500 (Masella and La Molina) in Spain.
In a press release, Kiroro’s Scott Ennis said that he “liked the boldness” of Sunlight’s Sunny 700 promotion. For its 50th anniversay, Sunlight created the world’s most expensive lift ticket—a $700 one-day pass that included a pair of custom-made Meier skis.
Kiroro’s new deal is an extension of its already impressive global partnership program. The resort has worked hard in recent years to strengthen its international appeal, following in the footsteps of Niseko—one of Japan’s tourist hot spots.
Just twelve months ago, Kiroro joined the Powder Alliance, a network that includes some of the world’s most popular ski resorts. A season pass from any Powder Alliance resort gives skiers access to a combined 172 ski lifts, 1,175 trails and 30,633 acres of skiable terrain. Kiroro is the only Japanese resort on a list that features SilverStar (Canada), Crested Butte (USA) and La Parva (Chile).
Kiroro has also forged several domestic partnerships. The resort is a member of the Hokkaido Season Net, a program that looks to reward season pass holders from various Hokkaido-based resorts (including Niseko United, Tomamu and Furano among others).


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OpenSea, a leading NFT marketplace, has advised its users to exercise caution and avoid falling for phishing scams. The head of security said that an employee of a third-party vendor abused their access to customers’ data of OpenSea.
OpenSea Customers’ Emails Leaked
After discovering that email addresses had been shared with a third party, employees at collectibles platform OpenSea notified customers of a data breach.
In a blog post published on Wednesday, OpenSea’s head of security Cory Hardman revealed that a Customer.io employee had misused their access by downloading and sharing customer data outside of the company. He said:
“If you have shared your email with OpenSea in the past, you should assume you were impacted. We are working with Customer.io in their ongoing investigation, and we have reported this incident to law enforcement.”
Customers may be subject to phishing attacks, in which fraudsters seek to steal personal information by impersonating trustworthy organizations and using domain names similar to the official “opensea.io,” such as “opensea.org” or “opensae.io,” the NFT marketplace further cautioned.
OpenSea data breach. pic.twitter.com/FEtDKsoHje
— eric.eth (@econoar) June 30, 2022
Users of the platform have started tweeting that they have been inundated with spam calls, emails, and texts.
My info was breached thanks to OpenSea and Customer io ? Lord Jeebus help me. I was wondering why I had so many spammy texts, phone calls, and emails lately. ?
— Metzilmazatl (Moon Deer)??? (@TheAscendant3) June 30, 2022
Recently, email data breaches have been on the rise in crypto companies. As a result, cryptocurrency companies must exercise caution when using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
A data leak of another CRM system, Hubspot, earlier this year resulted in an email data breach affecting users of Circle, NYDIG, BlockFi, and Swan Bitcoin. Other user information supplied to a third party after the theft includes names and phone numbers in addition to emails.
The largest NFT marketplace provided its customers with several safety precautions. According to OpenSea, there won’t be any attachment requests made of its users. Additionally, users must make sure that any email hyperlink points to the domain “email.OpenSea.io.”
Customers must once again verify that the domain’s URL is correct. The correct URL for OpenSea is OpenSea.io. Other URLs are false. Additionally, it cautioned users that it will never email them to ask for their secret passwords or wallet phrases.
ETH/USD falls to $1k. Source: TradingView
Additionally, no email from the company will request that users sign a wallet transaction. A wallet transaction whose origin is not https://OpenSea.io should also not be acknowledged by a customer.
Thanks to a different incident that occurred before the data leak, OpenSea found itself in a sea of controversy. Nathaniel Chastain, the former head of product, was charged by the Department of Justice earlier this month with insider trading in relation to NFTs. He was accused of money laundering as well as one count of wire fraud.
Chastain left his position in September after it was discovered that he may have benefited from insider information and bought NFTs before they were made available to the public.
Customers have previously been the target of phishing attacks and threat actors posing as fake support personnel, which cost more than a dozen users hundreds of NFTs valued about $2 million.
The company promises to keep users informed about the situation and asks that any phishing efforts be reported to their support team.
Related Readings | OpenSea Acquires Gem In Effort To Increase “Pro” User Experience
Featured Image from Pixabay and Chart from tradingview.com


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There's no stopping Microsoft: Introducing Bing Image Creator to generate images with AIAdding to its ChatGPT-based Bing AI assistant, Microsoft has announced a new rollout of AI-based image creation to Bing preview users. The Image Creator feature will be...Microsoft Bing | Alternatives to Microsoft Bing
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Brand development in Pakistan without Facebook? Not a good idea anymore. Statistics reveal that there were over 6 million Pakistani users on Facebook back in 2012. Statistically 4.14 million of these users were men while 1.94 million were women.
In 2013 alone, Facebook users in Pakistan crossed a mammoth figure of over 11 million. Statistics show that 8.2 million users are men while 3.2 million women are Facebook users in Pakistan. Dominant factors that attract fewer women as compared to men are scarce availability of internet to women and as a matter of fact, women in Pakistan face the same social problems over Facebook as they usually do in real life. This basically is the reason women participation is quite low.
How this sudden increase in 2013 has been observed in Facebook usage in Pakistan? There are plenty of reasons but the two very obvious reasons are social media blast and mobiles. Off late, smartphones industry in Pakistan has grown and that resulted in telecom companies offering very cheap mobile internet packages to its users. Ufone has been leading the way with its free mobile internet after 1 MB. Anyone having a smartphone can easily access Facebook and keep updated. Secondly social media in Pakistan has observed a blast right after General Elections in May 2013. Politicians made full use of social media and social networking sites especially Facebook to run their campaigns. Some of the new generation politicians like Bilawal Bhutto Zardari prefers Twitter more than issuing press releases. Imran Khan’s PTI (Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf) has also been behind Facebook campaigns and their followers are increasing day by day.
Another reason is the introduction of Facebook pages of News channels that keep you updated on their Facebook page. Celebrities have not spared Facebook either and every prominent model or actress have at least one official page on Facebook that is been followed by hundreds of thousands of fans.
So coming back to the question and now trying to answer it. Yes Facebook is must for every company that wants to build a brand. Ufone Facebook page has crossed 2 million fans and it is the leading brand in Pakistan. Additionally it is the first one to have achieved this feat.
Additionally a company B Solutions has released an infographic that shows exactly how important Facebook is if anyone wants to build a brand in Pakistan as well as a complete outline of what devices people use to access Facebook and what timing is suitable for Facebook page holders to engage them.


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Our Grocery Store is now CLOSED. Thank you for supporting us over the past few months.
We served over 1300 customers and fulfilled over 2300 orders.
The INC82 Grocery store was setup during the COVID-19 lockdown, when we came up with a plan to feed the community, support our food vendor and hire back our staff. The store was open from Mar-28, 2020 to Jun-14, 2020 - just under 12 weeks.
Read about it here.
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Two analysts have raised the price target for Coach Inc. shares ahead of the company’s report of third-quarter results on Tuesday.
Cowen’s Oliver Chen raised the price target to $46 from $42, even though shares of Coach are already up 22 percent year-to-date. The analyst said the “brand transformation appears on track to achieve positive fourth-quarter comps.” Chen said that in his team’s checks in 23 states with 51 participants with Shaler Research indicate that Coach’s “brand momentum is accelerating.”
Chen said he believes that growth in the U.S. handbag category remains soft at flat to slightly up, but that’s also due to a challenged North American department store environment. Responses from those participating in the Shaler Research survey “revealed a broader assortment with new designs resonating well with customers and generating traffic, while other responses noted improved in-store presentation and sales techniques.”
Wolfe Research’s Adrienne Yih Tennant has a price target of $47. She said Friday that in a recent channel check, one of the Millennial shoppers said the Swagger bag is “ridiculously cute, gotta have it.” The Swagger bag — like the Hobo, Outlaw and Dinky — are part of the spring arrivals that have traditional bag styles in updated fabrics, colors and prints. It was the rainbow color blocks of Swagger that got the “cute” nod from the Millennial customer.
Tennant also noted that the handbag firm’s introduction of its “1941 Collection,” an upscale, fashion-forward ready-to-wear collection, has been “successfully elevating Coach’s brand image.”
While Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group didn’t raise her price target for Coach shares — currently at $44 — she said she expects the company to post earnings per share of 43 cents, 2 cents ahead of the consensus estimate of 41 cents and 7 cents ahead of the 36 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. She is also expecting a North American same-store sales decline of 1 percent, compared with consensus of -1.4 percent, representing the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential improvement. “While we continue to look for a negative comp in the third quarter, we do believe that the continued sequential improvement could lead to positive comps in the fourth quarter,” she said.
Shares of Coach on Friday rose 0.7 percent to close at $40.28 in Big Board trading.


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Jan 3 2023
(ENCORE) Southwest Airlines: Malice in Dallas
Southwest Airlines has been all over the news this week because of major issues with its operation. So, what better time to replay one of our fave episodes, all about one of the country's most beloved airlines?
When Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher was faced with a competitor slashing prices in the 1970s in an effort to put Southwest out of business, Herb got creative and pulled a PR stunt. Then, in the 1990s, he did it again when faced with a potential legal battle over a tagline....he responded with an insanely creative PR stunt. In fact, the reason Southwest is one of the top airlines in the industry today is because of these off-the-wall, creative stunts that Herb pulled off. The culture of the airline was truly born out of these stunts and we bet you feel pretty inspired after this one!
For source materials, please visit www.willitstickpodcast.com.


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By now 3D printers have hit the mainstream. They are becoming so popular that many organizations such as libraries and schools have invested in the technology to spur the creativity of students and help people realize their dreams. Now a new company is on the scene and they have improved the 3D printer so that it could be 100 times quicker.
The company, Carbon 3D, manufactures the M1-3D printer. In addition to being faster, this printer is more versatile. Up until now, most 3D printers were used to create prototypes. This has been a great invention for entrepreneurs and inventors, who can now create new products and get them to market much faster since they do not need to invest money and time in having prototypes manufactured.
However, consumers have been hoping for a 3D printer that can also make production-quality photographs or pictures using a variety of materials. To understand how the M1 works, you have to know how traditional 3D printers create their products. 3D printers make objects by depositing layers on top of each other. The layers are usually made of a kind of plastic. The M1 changes the process so that the object is created from a pool of liquid resin.
Found Joseph DeSimone’s printer uses advanced science to make this happen. To make a solid object from a melted liquid, Carbon 3D created a new technology that controls both the Ultraviolet light that reacts with the resin and oxygen levels that also react with the materials. The 3D printer from Carbon 3D is made from glass and specially calibrated software which allows the shapes to be refined quickly. They can even alter chemical properties.
Those who want to play with the M1 can lease the printer. It will cost them $40,000 annually. This subscription model comes with lots of hands-on assistance and technical support. The M1 printer is connected to the internet, which means that Carbon 3D can give its ownership and lessees unprecedented support, updates and ideas. Much like software companies or automakers such as Tesla, the company can continue to issue support and fix problems. This could make more companies willing to take the risk of using the 3D printer. Some businesses have been slow to adopt 3D technology because they fear investing in something that will quickly become outdated. Carbon 3D’s plan addresses most of these concerns.
M1 also developed seven new proprietary printing materials, mostly resin, which allow the printer to make consumer-quality goods. According to Carbon 3D, the things made by the M1 should be stronger than those manufactured by traditional 3D printers. The company says because the printer mixes different materials together right before the printing starts, they are stronger. After the UV light hits them, the materials bind together.
Carbon 3D is a Redwood, California company that came up with Continuous Liquid Interface Production Technology, known as CLIP. The CLIP technology is utilized in the M1 printer and has led to partnerships with Kodak, Johnson & Johnson, Ford Motor Company and others. DeSimone attracted attention by demonstrating his printer and CLIP technologies during a TED Talk. Audiences were so impressed by his presentation that the company quickly attracted funding. As of 2016, Carbon 3D has raised over $140 million in capital. One of the major investors is Google Ventures, which is pioneering innovative technology via its Alphabet division.
Originally posted 2016-07-22 16:26:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter


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Apple to borrow more money, debt at $53 billion
By borrowing Apple gets cash to pay dividends and buy back shares of stock without touching its billions stored overseas back to the U.S., which could trigger a tax event. The company is also taking advantage of a recent rally in bonds triggered by global uncertainty that results in lower interest rates.
Apple now has $53 billion in long-term debt. ■