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Bloomberg reported that IBM supplies server equipment to the Pentagon and that national security concerns have been raised.
The inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) is set to investigate whether Chinese technology company Lenovo is a safe buyer for a company that builds products to process so much potentially sensitive data.
Application for the $2.3bn purchase, which was announced on 23 January, has been made to the CFIUS, however investigations might take up to 75 days.
Concerns might be alleviated by the decision to keep the IBM server business as a separate subsidiary for five years, with a possible extension. In the past, this was not the case as IBM’s personal computer division was rebranded by Lenovo soon after its acquisition in 2005.
US officials will also have to consider the future safety of US utilities, weapons systems and other critical infrastructure to ensure that there is no potential risk of malware or hijacking.
This is not the first time that CFIUS has intervened in Chinese acquisitions in the computing sector, with Huawei and ZTE both having been subjected to mutterings about “deep concerns” when they began accelerated trading in the US in 2012.
The IBM deal is just one part of Lenovo’s recent spending spree after it bought Motorola from Google at a cost of $3bn to gain a stronger foothold in western markets.
The latest development was spotted by security vendor Symantec, which has periodically warned about a type of malicious software it calls “Ploutus” that first appeared in Mexico.
The malware is engineered to plunder a certain type of standalone ATM, which Symantec has not identified. The company obtained one of the ATMs to carry out a test of how Ploutus works, but it doesn’t show a brand name.
Ploutus isn’t the easiest piece of malware to install, as cybercriminals need to have access to the machine. That’s probably why cybercriminals are targeting standalone ATMs, as it is easy to get access to all parts of the machine.
Early versions of Ploutus allowed it to be controlled via the numerical interface on an ATM or by an attached keyboard. But the latest version shows a remarkable new development: It is now controllable remotely via text message.
In this variation, the attackers manage to open up an ATM and attach a mobile phone, which acts as a controller, to a USB port inside the machine. The ATM also has to be infected with Ploutus.
“When the phone detects a new message under the required format, the mobile device will convert the message into a network packet and will forward it to the ATM through the USB cable,” wrote Daniel Regalado, a Symantec malware analyst, in a blog post on Monday.
Ploutus has a network packet monitor that watches all traffic coming into the ATM, he wrote. When it detects a valid TCP or UDP packet from the phone, the module searches “for the number “5449610000583686 at a specific offset within the packet in order to process the whole package of data,” he wrote.
It then reads the next 16 digits and uses that to generate a command line to control Ploutus.
So, why do this? Regalado wrote that it is more discrete and works nearly instantly. The past version of Ploutus required someone to either use a keyboard or enter a sequences of digits into the ATM keypad to fire up Ploutus. Both of those methods increase the amount of time someone spends in front of the machine, increasing the risk of detection.
Now, the ATM can be remotely triggered to dispense cash, allowing a “money mule,” or someone hired to do the risky job of stopping by to pick up the cash, to swiftly grab their gains. It also deprives the money mule of information that could allow them to skim some cash off the top, Regalado wrote.
“The master criminal knows exactly how much the money mule will be getting,” he wrote.
Symantec warned that about 95% of ATMs are still running Windows XP, Microsoft’s 13-year-old OS. Microsoft is ending regular support for Windows XP on April 8, but is offering extended support for Windows XP embedded systems, used for point-of-sale devices and ATMs, through January 2016.
Still, Symantec warned that “the banking industry is facing a serious risk of cyberattacks aimed at their ATM fleet.”
The company, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and launched in January, is targeting people using major email providers who want stronger privacy controls for more secure communication.
The service is designed to be easy to use for end users who may not have the technical gumption to set up PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a standard for signing and encrypting content.
Virtru is compatible with most major webmail providers, including Google’s Gmail, Yahoo’s Mail and Microsoft’s Outlook webmail, which replaced Hotmail.
Emails sent using Virtru through those services would look like gibberish, providing a greater degree of privacy. Law enforcement or other entities would not be able to read the content unless they could obtain the key.
Virtru uses a browser extension to encrypt email on a person’s computer or mobile device. The content is decrypted after recipients receive a key, which is distributed by Virtru’s centralized key management server.
Although Virtru handles key management, the company is working on a product that would allow that task to be managed on-site for users, as some administrators would be uncomfortable with another entity managing their keys.
Virtru has said it put aside funds to contest government orders such as a National Security Letter or law enforcement request that are not based on a standard of probable cause.
Pandora Media Inc will raise fees for its ad-free service by $1 a month to almost $5 a month in May, a move to cover the increasing cost of licensing tunes that may annoy some longtime fans of the popular music-streaming service.
The company, which streams music from virtual radio stations to mobile devices such as Apple Inc’s iPhone or Google Android smartphones, said in an earlier blog post that royalties paid to artists had risen 53 percent over the past five years and will rise another 9 percent in 2015.
The increase of $1 to $4.99 a month takes effect for new subscribers in May. Existing monthly subscribers will not be forced to accept the higher charges for now, it said without elaborating.
Annual subscriptions will be discontinued however. Yearly subscribers paying $36 a year currently will move to a monthly, “loyalty” $3.99 plan once their memberships expire.
Pandora said the fee hikes should affect an estimated 3.3 million listeners, out of 250 million registered users, the bulk of whom tune in to the free, ad-supported service.
“The costs of delivering this service have grown considerably,” Pandora said in a blog post on Tuesday. “We hope that you understand why we have taken these steps. Our goal is to continue to be your go-to internet radio destination.”
Pandora is already one of the world’s most popular streaming music services though it has plenty of competitors, including Spotify and Apple Inc’s iTunes Radio. It’s also aggressively investing in local sales forces to sell ad spots and on expanding its four-year-old service.
The company said that active listeners in January fell to 73.4 million from 76.2 million in December, due to normal seasonality.
However, year-over-year active users were up 12 percent.
Using mobile devices for one-off printing tasks on office printers may not be a big deal, but Hewlett-Packard is trying to minimize any security risk through direct wireless printing features it is bringing to enterprise printers.
HP is adding NFC (near-field communication) and Wi-Fi Direct to its new color LaserJet printers so mobile devices can establish a wireless connection directly to a printer without being logged into an office network. The printer establishes a peer-to-peer connection to tablets or smartphones, and users can send a print command direct to a printer within proximity.
The goal is to provide everyone in an office easy access to a printer, and keep rogue smartphones and tablets from a corporate network, said Todd Gregory, director at HP’s Personal and Printing Systems group.
Increasingly, office printers are being used to print personal documents, but rogue devices can be a security hazard in bring-your-own-device environments, Gregory said. The new peer-to-peer printing features can make BYOD environments easier to manage while ensuring document security on corporate networks.
“There is this balance between how do we protect the environment and how we enable access for temp employees, contractors, or even our own employees that have certain types of work that I don’t want floating around,” Gregory said.
Many printers are usually connected behind a firewall to the document workflow system, with security measures in place to print and access documents. A direct connection to printers through NFC or Wi-Fi Direct is independent of the firewall, and also spares system administrators from putting permissions in place in mobile-device-management software.
The new color laser printers introduced by HP on Monday have an independent module with Wi-Fi Direct and NFC that physically attaches to the printer and can be easily snapped out. Once snapped out, the peer-to-peer printing features cannot be used.
One of the new printers is the Color LaserJet Enterprise MFP M680. The printer can render 45 pages per minute, and costs $0.01 per grayscale page and $0.07 for each color page. New algorithms and technologies help squeeze more pages per cartridge, HP said. It has a keyboard and an 8-inch color touch panel. The printer will ship next month and be priced between $3,649 and $5,899. The MFP can also scan, copy and fax.
NFC features are also in the Color LaserJet Enterprise M651, which is only for printing. It will be available next month starting at $1,349.
HP is also offering software to secure printing. HP announced the ePrint Enterprise 3.2 app for mobile devices, which adds security layers before users are allowed to print either through a peer-to-peer connection or over a Wi-Fi network.
In addition, the new printers also support Mopria, a plug-in designed to make wireless printing via Android 4.4 easier.
It is starting to look like chip makers are having cold feet about moving to the next technology for chipmaking. Fabricating chips on larger silicon wafers is the latest cycle in a transition, but according to the Wall Street Journal chipmakers are mothballing their plans.
Companies have to make massive upfront outlays for plants and equipment and they are refusing, because the latest change could boost the cost of a single high-volume factory to as much as $10 billion from around $4 billion. Some companies have been reining in their investments, raising fears the equipment needed to produce the new chips might be delayed for a year or more.
ASML, a maker of key machines used to define features on chips, recently said it had “paused” development of gear designed to work with the larger wafers. Intel said it has slowed some payments to the Netherlands-based company under a deal to help develop the technology.
Gary Dickerson, chief executive of Applied Materials said that the move to larger wafers “has definitely been pushed out from a timing standpoint”
It seems that Intel has elbowed its way under the bonnet of the high profile Nexus 8 tablet. Word on the street is that the Moorefield chip which is said to make a top speed of around 2.33 GHz, when the wind is behind it, has kicked Qualcomm’s tried and tested Snapdragon chip out of the Nexus range.
The move would give the Nexus 8, some good GPU power thanks to the PowerVR G6430 graphic engine. Google may unveil the actual tablet during the Google I/O event as well as the next big upgrade to the Android software dubbed lollipop. Still it is starting to look like Intel may really become a force to be reckoned with in mobile after all.
However, we should point out that Nexus 8 CPU rumors are nothing new. There was talk of Intel, Qualcomm and even Nvidia over the past couple of months – but we are still not entirely certain what’s under the bonnet.
The radio service, announced last Friday, is available for free, with no ads, and users don’t need a log in to use the service, said Daren Tsui, vice president of music at Samsung Media Solutions.
The Milk application is available through the Google Play store, and will initially work with Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets. The company is, however, thinking about expanding its use to competing mobile devices, Tsui said.
The service will initially be available in the U.S., and will be expanded worldwide at a later date. It has 200 radio stations and 13 million songs, and in addition to functioning as a jukebox, allows users to create customized stations based on artist or genres.
Milk is targeted at competing music service like Apple’s iTunes Radio service, which is available for free with ads and ad-free for $24.99 via the iTunes Match service. Samsung is not yet providing an option to buy music, but Tsui said that idea is being researched. Meanwhile, the service could be one way to sell more tablets and smartphones. The app works with the AllShare feature, which allows streaming of music to TV sets and other Samsung devices.
Samsung worked with popular radio service Slacker — which is ad-based and has a database of 10 million songs — to develop the service. Samsung will also compete with other ad-supported free music streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify.
Milk covers a range of genres and songs, and has an interface designed to make it easy to find songs, Tsui said.
The Milk interface is centered around a dial — which looks much like the software version of dials found on Apple’s iPod Classic and Shuffle — which can be customized to include favorite genres. The dial can’t fit all 17 genres provided in the app, so users can select up to nine genres to fit on the wheel. The dial can be turned around to switch on a music stream from a specific genre such as dance, electronica or indie.
Users can also customize radio stations by searching for songs or artists. Samsung has music licensing deals directly with labels, Tsui said.
The move to LTE has killed Intel’s pretense of interest in the baseband market. According to the Motley Fool, ever since the handset market began its shift to LTE, Intel has handed its part of the industry to Qualcomm and Mediatek.
Intel was once the Number two player in baseband, albeit with roughly 12 per cent share against Qualcomm’s commanding 60 per cent share. However, Intel’s smartphone apps processors were greeted by a yawn by the industry and as its LTE rollout was delayed. As a result, its baseband share has plummeted over the last few years from a reasonable about to sod all.
Intel must be gutted. The global cellular baseband market in 2012 was worth $17.8 billion, according to Strategy Analytics.
MediaTek and Qualcomm’s have knocked Intel down to a dismal 8 per cent of the market. This poor performance was driven largely by a declining 3G market, of LTE multi-mode, coupled with a hostile pricing environment within 3G. Intel hopes that as 2014 rolls along, its LTE products will begin undoing the damage to its revenue caused by the 3G decline. If this is the case we will not see an improvement for Intel until 2015.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty took to the Mobile World Congress stage and announced a global competition to spur developers to create mobile consumer and business apps powered by its Watson supercomputer platform.
Watson is the heart of the company’s cognitive computing technology. IBM is pulling out all the stops to make Watson a success. Last month, the company set up a new division, the Watson Business Group, to create and run cloud-based cognitive applications and services for enterprise users.
“By 2016, a quarter of the apps in the world will be in the cloud,” Rometty said. These apps are generating massive amounts of data, she said.
“You can’t program enough to make sense of all the data in the world,” Rometty said, adding that the vast amount of data generated every day is leading to a new era of computing.
“The new era is cognitive, of teach and learn,” Rometty said.
“I want to make an offer to you,” Rometty said. “We’re gonna offer the Watson Mobile Developer Challenge.”
The competition is taking place under the newly formed IBM Watson Group. It aims to encourage development of cognitive computing apps.
Watson cognitive computing comprises services, software and apps that analyze and improve by learning. The idea is to answer complex questions derived from massive amounts of disparate data, Rometty said.
IBM is setting up the Watson Mobile Developer Challenge specifically to seed efforts to develop cognitive apps that can change the way consumers and businesses interact with data on their mobile devices, Rometty said.
Over the next three months, the global challenge will invite mobile developers and entrepreneurs to share their best ideas to build and develop mobile apps into prototypes.
IBM will invite three winners to join the Watson Ecosystem Program, in which the company is assembling content providers and independent software vendors to collaborate on the development and release of “Powered by IBM Watson” applications.
“We’ve already got thousands of applicants,” to be part of the ecosystem, Rometty said.
The winners of the challenge will work with IBM’s recently launched global consulting practice, IBM Interactive Experience, to receive design consulting and support from IBM experts to develop a commercial app, IBM detailed in a statement accompanying Rometty’s talk.
IBM is serious about encouraging the development of applications that run in the cloud. For IBM, more applications mean more data generated, and more of a need for the analytics software and services that it sells.
“We have a big-data analysis business of $16 billion,” Rometty said.
On Monday, IBM announced it will spend $1 billion on its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) strategy, separate from the money it is investing in Watson, to encourage software makers to build cloud apps.
As part of that announcement, made at its Pulse event in Las Vegas, IBM will become a major contributor to the Cloud Foundry, an open source PaaS that is run under the aegis of Pivotal, a spinout from VMware and EMC.
IBM first developed Watson as a research project to compete against humans on the game show “Jeopardy.” Watson can come up with answers to questions using a range of sources in various formats. It was able to hone its answers by learning how to formulate the best responses in an iterative, trial and error process.
Because this approach to problem solving emulates how humans think, it is known as cognitive computing.
After Watson beat human contestants in “Jeopardy” in 2011, IBM has worked to commercialize Watson technologies.
China’s anti-monopoly regulator on Wednesday said Qualcomm Inc. is under suspicion for overcharging and abusing its market position, allegations which could see the U.S. chip giant slapped with record fines of more than $1 billion.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) also said it was in talks with another U.S. technology firm, InterDigital Inc, about a possible settlement to a separate anti-monopoly probe as the regulator focuses on the rapidly evolving information technology market.
Foreign firms from drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline to Apple Inc are facing tougher scrutiny in the world’s second-biggest economy as China targets key industries to protect consumers from bloated prices and second-rate products.
In its first public statements about the Qualcomm investigation, the watchdog said it began making inquiries after receiving complaints that the San Diego-based company was charging higher prices in China than it does in other countries.
“We received reports from relevant associations and companies that Qualcomm abuses its dominant position in the market and charges discriminatory fees,” Xu Kunlin, who heads the NDRC’s anti-monopoly and price supervision bureau, told a press conference in Beijing.
The NDRC dual investigations are part of a focus on information technology providers, especially companies that license patent technology for mobile devices and networks.
Industry experts say the NDRC, which is also the government’s main economic planning body, is trying to lower domestic costs as China rolls out its faster 4G mobile networks this year.
Earlier this month, the China Mobile Communications Industry Association said it had filed a complaint against Qualcomm for overcharging for use of its patents.
Under the anti-monopoly law, the NDRC can impose fines of between 1 and 10 percent of a company’s revenues for the previous year. Qualcomm earned $12.3 billion in China for its fiscal year ended September 29, or nearly half of its global sales.
LinkedIn launched Intro last October, as part of a larger push into becoming a “mobile first” company. The service was made for the iPhone, and was designed to grab LinkedIn profile information and insert it into emails received on phones. The service displayed that information to the recipient from the email’s sender if the sender was also on LinkedIn.
Intro was meant to add more professional context to email and draw more users to LinkedIn.
But it quickly sparked questions from security experts, who were concerned about the way the service routed emails through LinkedIn’s servers. The security consulting firm Bishop Fox said that the service essentially amounted to a “man-in-the-middle attack,” and that it was only a matter of time before someone used it to launch a phishing attack.
LinkedIn, in its announcement Friday of Intro’s closure, did not say anything about security. The decision was about “focus,” LinkedIn said. “We are making large, long-term investments on a few big bets, and in order to ensure their success, we need to concentrate on fewer things,” wrote Deep Nishar, senior VP of products and user experience.
Intro will be shut down as of March 7, LinkedIn said. The company did not say what it would be doing with Intro users’ email data that it might have stored on its servers. LinkedIn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Upon receiving word of LinkedIn’s announcement, Bishop Fox said that it was unlikely that LinkedIn shut down the service for security reasons alone. “Tech products come and go these days and many have short lifespans,” said Vincent Liu, a partner at the firm, via email.
“But this app exemplifies why it’s important to pay attention to privacy and security when installing features, whether short lived or not, on your mobile devices,” he said.
LinkedIn also said it would be shutting down some other services. Slidecast, which let people upload digital presentations with audio, is going away as of April 30. Support for the LinkedIn iPad app on iOS versions older than 6.0 will also be eliminated as of Feb. 18, the company said.
Mark Zuckerberg launched “Thefacebook” from his dorm room at Harvard University on Feb. 4, 2004. The site was conceived as a way to connect students, and let them build an online identity for themselves.
It has since expanded to cover a large swath of the planet, with more than 1.2 billion people — one-seventh of the world’s population — using its site on a monthly basis, according to the company’s own recent figures.
Zuckerberg reflected on the 10-year milestone at an industry conference in Silicon Valley this week. Not surprisingly, at the start he never envisioned Facebook becoming so large or influential. After launching the initial version, “it was awesome to have this utility and community at our school,” he said at the Open Compute Project Summit.
He figured at the time that someone, someday would build such a site for the world. “It didn’t even occur to me that it could be us,” he said.
Since then, Facebook’s site and its business, now a public company, have changed dramatically. There are now more than a trillion status updates, text posts and other pieces of content stored within its walls — the company is trying to index them as part of its Graph Search search engine.
The company was slow to react to the important mobile market, and when it went public in 2012 investors were skeptical it would be able to monetize its service on smaller screens. But this week it reported that more than half its ad revenue now comes from mobile devices.
All the while, Facebook is making its ad business smarter, using targeting tools to show ads it deems most relevant.
The company is also experimenting with new ways to present content. Next week it will release Paper, an iPhone app that provides a new way to share photos and published articles.
It’s part of a larger effort Facebook hinted at this week to release a variety of standalone apps for different tasks.
The company is also trying to bring the Internet to more people in the world, an effort that’s part philanthropy and part business sense as Facebook aims to reach its next billion users. Asked this week why he launched the project, called Internet.org, Zuckerberg suggested he feels a weight of responsibility.
“There aren’t that many companies in the world that have the resources and the reach that Facebook has at this point,” he said.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd has restarted discussions to purchase International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM) low-end server unit, a source familiar with the matter said, a purchase that would bolster its efforts to diversify beyond a shrinking PC market.
A deal for IBM’s x86 servers, which power corporate data centers, fits in with Lenovo’s attempts to remold itself as a growing force in mobile devices and data storage servers. It also helps IBM’s shift away from hardware towards software and services.
The two companies failed to reach an agreement last year after differing on pricing. Media reports then put IBM’s hopes at between $4 billion to $6 billion for the unit, while Lenovo was said to be only willing to offer $2.5 billion.
Analysts now estimate the sale of the IBM unit to Lenovo could be worth between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. That would make it the biggest ever deal in China’s IT sector, outpacing Badu Inc’s acquisition of 91 Wireless from NetDragon Websoft Inc for $1.85 billion last year.
“Everybody wins because even if IBM could double the profitability it’s still not good enough for IBM. On the other hand, Lenovo doubling the server business margins is a good deal for Lenovo,” said Alberto Moel, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
Lenovo, the world’s biggest PC maker, said on Tuesday it was in preliminary talks about an acquisition. It declined to name the seller but said it was making the statement in response to reports about its potential acquisition of a server business.
It added that it had not entered into any definitive agreement and that no material terms had been agreed to.
An IBM spokesman said on Monday the company wouldn’t comment on the matter.
Dell Inc, which went private in a $25 billion deal last year, has also been cited in media reports as a potential suitor for the business. A Beijing-based spokesman for Dell declined to comment.
Lenovo’s purchase of IBM’s Thinkpad PC business in 2005 for $1.75 billion became the springboard for its leap to the top of global PC maker rankings.
Moel, who estimates IBM’s low-end server business could be worth between $2.5 billion to $2.9 billion, said IBM was likely more eager now to do a deal than last year after several quarters of weak earnings.
But any deal would also likely invite scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) as servers were more directly related to data security than PCs and phones, he added.
Lenovo could finance the deal through a combination of cash, debt and converts, said Nicolas Baratte, a Hong Kong-based analyst with brokerage CLSA. The company has $3 billion in cash, and very little debt, and IBM is a very willing seller, he added.
“If IBM sells all its server business, except the top-end servers, the deal is worth $2.5 to $3 billion,” Baratte said.
“There is no financing problem for $3 billion, but I don’t think it will be one hundred percent cash.”
Wi-Fi is becoming an increasingly important access technology to operators, either to offload their cellular networks or, as in this case, to offer subscribers data access when traveling. Universal Wi-Fi is specifically aimed at multinational enterprises.
The service uses more than 1.3 million hotspots at locations such as airports and hotel chains, including Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and Sheraton. To get that many hotspots, Telefonica is collaborating with iPass and Swisscom, for example.
It has also partnered with Gogo to offer in-flight coverage. Gogo has put Wi-Fi on 6,000 planes from Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Virgin America.
Telefonica didn’t immediately reply to questions about what the service will cost. Users will pay a fixed cost for access using up to five devices, according the operator.
Competitor Boingo Wireless charges $59 per month for up to 2,000 minutes of worldwide Wi-Fi access per month on up to four different laptops and mobile devices. It also works with Gogo’s in-flight service.
From 2013 to 2017, operators are expected to spend $8.5 billion on carrier Wi-Fi equipment, led by mobile operators using the network technology for data offload, Infonetics Research said in a recent report.


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NEW ORLEANS—Searing heat and lack of electricity throughout New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ruined hundreds of thousands of bottles of rare wines by degrading corks and cooking the contents.
Owners fear that even those bottles that appear to have survived the hurricane may hold spoiled wine.
This city's once-vibrant culinary industry, already beaten back by disaster, has been further injured by damage to its wines. Losses are estimated to be as much as tens of millions of dollars. Private collectors, restaurants and distributors are preparing to destroy much of their stock. Insurance companies are just beginning to assess the damage and deal with the tricky job of determining the wines' value.
For wine lovers, it's an incalculable loss.
Dr. Chuck Mary, a Metairie area resident, returned to his home weeks after the storm to find his 500-bottle private collection destroyed by flooding and heat.
Losing a bottle of 1946 Chateau Latour hit Mary the hardest, he said, but not just for its estimated $1,500 value.
"It was given to me when I got married in 2000, and I intended on drinking it on my fifth anniversary," which was Oct. 14, he said.
Many wine collections in this low-lying city, including in upscale French Quarter restaurants, were kept above ground in attics and storage rooms. When electricity and air conditioning failed, the temperature rose and ruptured corks, which allowed in oxygen that degraded the wine. Some were ruined just from simmering in 98-degree New Orleans temperatures.
"Like food, when you cook it, that changes it," said Gladys Horiuchi, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Wine Institute. Even subtle changes in taste can make a prestigious wine un-sellable, she said.
About 1,000 restaurants in the greater New Orleans area have wine collections and nearly all were affected, said Tom Weatherly, spokesman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association.
"I know we are talking about millions of dollars in loss down here," Weatherly said. Collections will have to be rebuilt and allowed to increase in value.
The value of wine can increase over time as bottles become more rare and sought after. The real financial blow is the lost appreciation, Weatherly said. A spokesman for Great Central Insurance Co. of Peoria, Ill., which insures many of the restaurants in New Orleans, said he couldn't comment Friday, but the company is assessing claims in the area.
These are already difficult times for the city's restaurant industry. Tourism is still only a trickle in the French Quarter and nearly nonexistent in the Warehouse District downtown. Restaurants such as Antoine's, Tommy's Cuisine and Emeril's New Orleans remained shuttered last week.
Rick Gratia, who co-owns Muriel's restaurant on Jackson Square in the French Quarter, said he hired an appraiser in anticipation that his insurance company won't pay or will low-ball the value of his wine collection. He estimated the restaurant lost about $143,000 in wine.
Bottles such as the 1989 Chateau Latour, which sells for $550, are likely undrinkable. Gratia said he may try to serve the wines, but if they're bad, he'll have to subtract the charge from customer bills and cover the cost himself.
"The bottom line is just about all of it is tainted," Gratia said. "Nobody can afford to take that kind of a hit. Now I have to do battle with my insurance company."
The companies that supply wine to New Orleans restaurants are hurting, too.
Cindy Johnson, president and CEO of East-West Wines Inc., said the company lost its entire wine stock—about 84,000 bottles worth $500,000—when Katrina blew over the building's compressors and punched 10 holes in the roof.
Wine was shipped statewide before the storm. Now, heavy equipment will be brought in next week to haul away and destroy the cases, which include rare and specialty wines, Johnson said.
But there's hope for wine lovers. Last Thursday, crews were scrubbing down and rejuvenating restaurants such as Nola, in the French Quarter, indicating that diners may have access to more wine menus soon.
Tommy's Cuisine in the Warehouse District will begin popping corks for customers on Nov. 1. The owner, Tommy Andrade, is even planning to expand his wine offerings. He bought the closed wine bar next door and plans to open it soon.
(c) 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): STORMS-WINES
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Jungkook Calvin Klein Leaked Hot Photos Wallpaper On Twitter
Attention all Jungkook and BTS fans, get ready to be blown away by the latest buzz circulating around social media! The leaked hot photos of our beloved K-Pop superstar – Jungkook – decking out in Calvin Klein JEANS AND UNDERWEAR have taken over TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and Telegram by storm. As a global ambassador for the brand, Jungkook is undoubtedly setting the internet ablaze with his impeccable physique and iconic style. Dive into our blog post for an exclusive scoop on these captivating visuals that you won’t want to miss!
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Design Inc have created all the facets of the new brand launch for City Diamond Exchange – a new breed of diamond investment consultants, providing select clients diamond investment advice, diamond sourcing and exclusive bespoke jewellery design.
The new brand launch is all showcased in the new website and advertising campaign (breaking in The Guardian newspaper investment supplement next week). Furthermore, Design Inc have orchestrated a discreet and niche new brand launch strategy and brand positioning and this has included brokering sponsorship deals between the company and some prestigious A-list events over the next couple of months namely, the Channel 4 British Comedy Awards and The Autosport Awards.
The Channel 4 Comedy Awards is the biggest night of the year for British comedy, when the UK’s top comedic talents come together to celebrate the triumphs of the past 12 months.
The Autosport Awards is one of the World’s most prestigious motorsport awards evenings, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London and attending by the motorsport elite, it recognises the best talent in motorsport across a wide range of formulae.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish our new clients every success with this exciting venture and we look forward to support them in their growth with strategic marketing guidance, advertising and design services through 2014.
View our Branding portfolio
To discuss your own branding requirements, please contact Frank Norman on 01784 683000 or by email.


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Brad McQuaid, key designer of EverQuest; co-founder of Sigil Games and developer of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, is working on a new MMORPG titled Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.
McQuaid tweeted the news after the game’s official Twitter account was unearthed by fans ahead of a Kickstarter announcement for the project.
Despite earlier reports, Sony Online Entertainment is not involved despite this, domain registry filed back in November.
SOE purchased Sigil Games in 2007, and after years of working with SOE on and off, McQuaid announced he had returned to the firm back in March 2013 to work on EverQuest.
In September, McQuaid announced that he had left SOE once again in an official capacity, but was still “working closely” with the company, leaving many to assume his next project was a “spiritual successor” to both EverQuest and Vanguard.
The Kickstarter for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is expected to go live later this month.


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Olivia Culpo Criticized By India For Taj Mahal Photo Shoot
byFree Britneyat October 10, 2013 7:42 am
Miss Universe Olivia Culpo is named in a complaint potentially being filed by the Archeological Survey of India afterallegedly shilling for shoes at the Taj Mahal.Miss Universe Olivia Culpo ControversyOn Sunday, the 2012 Miss Universe winner and her team headed to the Taj as part of a 10-day tour of the nation tospread awareness about women's issues.There, Culpo took part in a footwear photo shoot on the marble ledge known as the Diana Seat, modeling multiple pairsof shoes taken from a large bag.She used the Taj Mahal as the backdrop. According to the Hindustan Times, which described the shoot as "covert'promotion,'" this is a huge no-no.As such, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is threatening action againstOlivia Culpo, as "any branding or publicityon the Taj premises is prohibited."“We are gathering information from the tourism police about those who were managing the visit," an official with ASI saidMonday, per the
."After we get the names, [a report] would be lodged."Other sources put the blame on the Central Industrial Security Force and tourism police, whose officials allegedly sawthe Miss Universe photo shoot going on.It is unclear what brand of shoes was being photographed, but the beauty queen andNick Jonas girlfriendmet at themonument with fashion designer Sanjana Jon.As for Culpo, she seemed unaware of any controversy.She posted from the Miss Universe Instagram account: "We made it to the Taj Mahal. One of the most beautiful placesI've ever seen!!!! So amazing."


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Make supply chains more visible to cope with unexpected change
Image credit: Shutterbas/Dreamstime
Aerospace and defence manufacturers can’t prevent the disruption caused by Covid-19, but shifting away from traditional sequential planning methodologies can help mitigate the risks.
Aerospace and defence (A&D) is a broad sector encompassing a raft of organisations, each of them facing different but momentous challenges in navigating the current pandemic. Civil aerospace has been especially badly hit, with many airlines now running at only around 20 per cent capacity. The arrival of vaccines has the potential to help restore air travel to pre-Covid levels, but airlines aren’t expecting to see a significant boost in passenger numbers in the near future.
This drop-off has had a knock-on effect on aerospace manufacturers who have seen demand for aircraft drying up. In the UK, aircraft manufacturers received just 13 orders in July and August 2020 and none in September. This figure compares with 152 during the same period in 2019. At the end of October 2020, it was being reported that 12,000 UK jobs in aerospace had either been lost or were at risk because of the pandemic. Defence has been doing better thanks to funding from government ministries, but even here reductions in budgets may have an impact on manufacturers over the longer term.
Across both industries there is an important people dimension, with many employees unable to carry out factory work because they are self-isolating due to sickness or are concerned about health risks. The fact that vaccines are now being rolled out is, of course, welcome news for the sector, but a new approach will still be required by all the stakeholders involved if the A&D industry is to start returning to its previous strength any time soon.
Moving forward, it is inevitably going to be a challenge for all A&D firms to get a handle on demand. Forecasting how demand fluctuations will impact airlines and aircraft manufacturers will be very difficult; the industry is facing an unprecedented environment so historical forecasting will be of little value and traditional sequential forecasting is just too slow.
As a result, many manufacturers, whether they supply into the civil sector or defence, will cut optional capital spending to support operational continuity and they may also reduce expenditure on non-essential projects until demand picks up. This strategy may well work for larger manufacturers, but tier one and tier two suppliers will struggle as they lack the financial power to bounce back.
These supplier businesses will likely end up being the bottleneck from the financial and operational standpoint so they will take a greater hit which will disrupt the whole supply chain. This turbulence will affect civil aerospace in particular, while defence will remain cushioned from the worst impacts because it will be able to turn to government support to protect the supply chain.
Over the longer-term, companies are looking to develop a more flexible supply chain that allows them to move to an alternative supplier if one link in the existing chain fails. We are seeing a huge shift to manufacturers wanting to put in place an alternative supply chain and those manufacturers that fail to do so will surely feel the longer-term impact severely.
In the civil sector the ‘old normal’ seems elusive. With few able to predict for certain whether we will ever get back to anything like the demand levels of the past, it is high time for a new approach to help the industry get back on its feet.
Whether civil or defence, manufacturers need to ask: how do we get a stronger real-time awareness of the supply chain? They must understand, for example, which locations have hardly been affected by Covid-19, as well as the places where there has been a heavy impact.
Manufacturers also need to be aware of how they can gain access to alternative suppliers. They must keep lines of communication with customers and suppliers open. That’s especially key with the defence industry because if they fail to do so they could end up incurring huge penalties.
There is now a need to move away from the sequential planning and manual-focused approach that many have relied on historically to move to a more agile planning methodology. Doing this will help manufacturers mitigate risk going forward.
In terms of defence, the end customer is the government so contracts are likely to be programme-based and therefore will have specific systems, data, and operational processes in place. For example, part numbers that can be specifically introduced for the duration of a programme helping to track parts. Any changes in circumstances, to do with a part for instance, will need to be communicated across the supply chain. Lack of transparency across the extended supply network can result in a failure to fulfil an order by any contractor, which will have a knock-on effect on the entire chain, leading to conflicting priorities where different contractors bid for different projects.
If manufacturers don’t address this issue, they will overrun budgets and be forced to ask for more money and as a result they are likely to be penalised by the government.
On the other hand, civil manufacturers have commercial agreements with private companies. These businesses will need to look into alternative suppliers, real-time visibility and achieve real-time situational awareness across the chain. Ultimately, A&D manufacturers don’t have the power to stop the disruption, but what they can and must do is find and prioritise ways of mitigating the risk.
The best way to do this is by adopting a concurrent planning technique. Concurrent planning is the process of making and managing unified plans across multiple time horizons, business processes and organisational boundaries at the same time. It synchronises data, processes and people to collapse decision-making time, break down organisational boundaries and dynamically balance the end-to-end network. If one person makes a change, everyone else instantly understands the impact on themselves, their team and the organisation.
Whether civil or defence, this can help manufacturers to reveal supply chain failures by modelling their entire supply chain and creating a digital twin of it. They can then reduce supply chain risk by providing full visibility through this concurrent technique throughout the entire extended supply chain network.
Any potential disruption can be modelled to provide the ability to assess the alternative risk-mitigation scenarios and all this can be done in real-time. New kinds of approaches such as this will certainly be necessary to ensure a bright future lies ahead for the sector.
Kourosh Samini is senior industry principal with Kinaxis.
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FN America announced the addition of an FDE-finished FN 509 Midsize handgun in mid-2020.
Demand from military and law enforcement agencies, as well as civilian consumers, for a brown/tan rendition of Leupold’s DeltaPoint Pro reflex sight has been heard and addressed by the Beaverton, Ore., optics manufacturer.
Beretta has announced a $50 rebate promotion for its APX striker-fired pistol.
American Rifleman’s Kelly Young test drives a full-size, suppressor- and optic-ready pistol from FN.
Lipsey's and industry icon Larry Vickers have added a fourth model to their "Vickers Glock" series.


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Verizon Wireless, Vodafone To Develop Data Card Service
The data card, to be based on Vodafone's Mobile Connect Card, will be marketed by Verizon Wireless via a license from Vodafone.
The service would give business users the ability to access e-mail, the Net and corporate applications on their laptops when located within any of Vodafone's territories or in Verizon Wireless' U.S. network, and when traveling in Europe.
Verizon Wireless, Bedminster, N.J., and Vodafone, London, will cooperate on data card hardware, service interconnectivity and billing, the companies said.
The duo is also working on a GSM/CDMA chipset that would give Verizon Wireless customers the ability to use their phones and phone numbers while traveling in Europe on the Vodafone footprint.


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The Board of Trustees for Startup Queenstown Lakes Trust have announced they are accepting applications for the role of Chief Executive Officer for the Trust.
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James Burnes, a co-founder and the first CEO of Startup Queenstown Lakes Trust, will be stepping down from his role in early February 2020 the organisation announced today.
James Burnes presents at the Vodafone Innovation Summit presented by the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce.
On 26 September at Wanaka’s popular coffee stop Urban Grind, more than two dozen entrepreneurs and socially-minded community members gathered to learn about social enterprise – business models that serve a purpose beyond profit. …
James Burnes, CEO of Startup Queenstown Lakes, shares the story of his team winning Startup Weekend Christchurch.
BIlly Waller, a participant in our Startup Weekend Dunedin 2018 Roadtrip, share how Startup Weekend was a “transformative and progressive weekend” for his personal development.


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Primer has closed a Series B funding round that values the payments infrastructure startup at more than £300 million only 20 months after it was founded.
Primer was founded in early 2020 by ex-PayPal/Braintree employees and employs more than 70 people across 20 countries, with plans to triple that next year. It claims to have built the world’s first automation platform for payments.
The £36m fundraise was led by ICONIQ Growth, a San Francisco-based investment firm that has backed global tech companies such as Adyen, Marqeta, Snowflake and Datadog.
Existing investors including Accel, Balderton Capital, Seedcamp, Speedinvest and RTP Global all participated in the round.
Roy Luo, partner at ICONIQ Growth, will join the company’s board.
“Over the past two decades, the pace of new payment solutions entering the market has been accelerating dramatically to support global consumer demand for trends like mobile payments, digital wallets, 1-click checkout, buy now pay later, and so on,” he said.
“However, no one payment solution is close to accommodating all the changes and innovations that merchants need to keep up.
“So, for merchants’ payment and engineering teams, this dynamic forces immense technical complexity in tying together multiple payment methods, gateways, fraud detection, and more.
“Primer is a team 100% focused on solving that one enormous problem. That’s a quality we look for in businesses we back. We love uncovering such single-minded focus on fixing an important technical challenge.
“What the team has done to learn from hundreds of merchants while building its technology at pace and scale over the last 20 months is nothing short of phenomenal. We believe Primer’s poised to become the most disruptive force in payments for years and the category leader for payments automation.”
The ‘smart’ checkout experiences allow merchants to connect and control their entire payments stack and build their ideal payment flows autonomously from scratch.
“Our past experience running hundreds of deep-dive technical workshops with some of the biggest online companies like Uber, Spotify and Airbnb, has given us unique insight into the deeply-rooted technical fragmentation that exists in global payments,” said founder Paul Anthony.
“Primer offers all the underlying infrastructure for merchants to create new, better buying experiences for their customers. But, we’ve barely scratched the surface of how payments automation will disrupt payments for good.
“Our mission is to make payments a first-class product area in any business. ICONIQ Growth shares our expansive vision, so it’s hugely rewarding to add them to our Board as a trusted, experienced partner and advisor.”
Co-founder Gabriel Le Roux added: “With teams established and merchants live across Europe, Asia and North America, we’re primed to use this investment to expand our already global footprint.
“We have people deployed in 20 countries but need to grow our teams even more quickly to support the demand we’re seeing among both merchants and the third party services across multiple countries and sectors that want to work with us.”
Alex Naughton, head of UK and Ireland at Klarna, one of the first payment methods to connect to Primer in early 2021, added: “Smooth payments are at the core of what we do and Primer is supporting us in delivering the best payment and shopping experience to our customers.
“We have been able to minimise integration time and bring our flexible and convenient payment solutions to even more consumers.
“We are excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to integrating Primer across more retailers and geographies.”


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There's been hardly any online video news this week – joke, there's been loads! We've brought you the latest from ComScore on video ad data for May, how YouTube are riding high on mobile ad sales and how the moving image is winning out on Twitter. In today's weekly round up, we look back at some of the stories that we didn't cover in depth but we definitely wanted to highlight.
Wonder what questions you can ask of Google Glass? We've got that covered. Annoyed with ads on YouTube? You're not the only ones. Wanna buy an internet car with built in YouTube – OMG, take all my money!
The 'Blurred Lines' Video Before The Jimmy Kimmel Cut
The unedited version of Robin Thicke's excellent 'Blurred Lines' was banned from YouTube due to an excess of female nudity but the boob free version has, to date, still racked up (geddit?) over 49 million views. Now, the pre-edit cut that we never got to see has been released and we can at last marvel at the not-at-all-awkward appearance of Jimmy Kimmel and security guard Guillermo. Completely awesome.
Google’s Doubleclick Confirms Growth of Online Video
Google published some interesting online video statistics this week as part of their Doubleclick Think series. They confirm that news sites have tripled their video content, while 68% of all video ads come from the auto, retail, tech and consumer packaged goods sector.
Read More at: Google
Oh Yeah, We'd Totally Ask These Questions Too…
The Glass team take us through some of the uses for Google Glass (mass market them already!) and ask a bunch of questions to see what kind of results they get. I love how all the answers are spot on with absolutely no Siri-style confusion *cough*.
Internet Car To Get Built in YouTube – Sign Me Up
General Motors’ CEO Dan Akerson announced that by mid-2014, GM will partner with AT&T to embed 4G LTE mobile broadband “for faster flow of data that GM says would allow passengers in the backseat to watch streaming video". The aim is to to enable the car to become "a major platform for technology and one with far better battery life than an iPhone." Yes please.
Read More at: BetaBeat
The Economics Of Going Viral On YouTube
Here are some 57 stats that show the economics behind going viral on YouTube. It takes a perfect storm of the right content vs the right audience to be super successful but the benefits are enormous. Just ask Psy.
Read More: MastersinMarketing
YouTube Ad Clusterf*ck
YouTube ads, bane of the viewer's life, monetary lifeline for creators and publishers. Those of you that haven't installed Adblock Plus yet may appreciate the following from UCB Comedy:
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As we all know, the headphones you get bundled with phones are rubbish. But hopefully that could be about to change – at least when you buy an HTC phone, anyway.
That's because HTC has splashed the cash and bought out Beats Electronics, they of the Beats by Dr Dre headphones line, apparently spending $500 million for a controlling 51% stake.
So what's the Taiwanese tech firm doing dropping half a million US on the audio tech firm – surely it's not just about sticking a higher grade of headphones next to new HTC smartphones in their boxes? Well, not entirely, but for the most part yes.
HTC boss Peter Chou says HTC will now be able to “provide customers with unbeatable sound”, while Beats International chairman Jimmy Iovine put things in more artistic terms:
“For Beats by Dr Dre this represents a critical step in our continued mission to clean up the destruction of audio caused by the digital revolution; and reengineer how sound is delivered so that the consumer feels the music the way that the artist intended.”
Now if they could just work out how to clean up the destruction of audio caused by being on the Tube while listening to your tunes, that would be great. In the meantime, those Beats-infused HTC phones will be hitting the shelves from the Autumn.


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The World's Most Expensive Bottle of Whisky Just Sold for $1.1 Million
Back in the '80s, an Italian artist named Valerio Adami designed and signed the label on twelve bottles of Macallan 1926. Today, those bottles are worth more than just a pretty penny: $1.1 million dollars, to be exact.
The bottle was put up for auction by Bonhams in Edinburgh, Scotland, setting the world record for the most valuable bottle of
Distilled in 1926 and kept in a cask until bottling in 1986, only 24 bottles were ever produced, and no one is sure how many still exist. The reason for their insane value isn't about the
The record may not last long. Sotheby's is set to auction off a Peter Blake-signed bottle in New York on October 13th, and it's expected to push that record to $1.2 million.
And for those of us who paid rent this week, here's a reminder that Aldi's $17
This story originally appeared on Townandcountrymag.com.
* Minor edits have been made by the Townandcountry.ph editors.


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Sainsbury's 'Feed a family for £50' campaign
Sainsbury’s has launched a major advertising campaign telling customers that they can feed a family of four for a week for £50.
The supermarket giant has taken out three-page colour advertisements in the national newspapers containing a seven-day meal planner. The slogan reads: ‘Four people. One week. Only £50. How good is that?’
Evening meals included a bacon, butterbean and sausage hotpot, and cottage pie, with roast chicken for Sunday lunch – although sandwiches were promoted as the lunchtime staple.
Earlier this year, Sainsbury’s ran a push offering five family meals for £20, having debuted its ‘Feed Your Family for a Fiver’ deal in March 2008.
The £50 promotion comes on the back of an intense price battle in the supermarket arena, following the Tesco ‘double the difference’ debacle. Having promised to reimburse shoppers who could buy products cheaper at Asda, Tesco was forced to backtrack after hundreds of people took advantage of promotional offers to bump up their refunds. Tesco has since imposed a £20 limit to the PriceCheck offer.
>Tesco sets ‘PriceCheck’ refund limit
>Sainsbury’s position vulnerable


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Facebook’s head of the Libra cryptocurrency project said that while development of the cryptocurrency venture would get tougher, it was “absolutely not” in jeopardy despite the departures of several key partners.
David Marcus said in an interview with Yahoo Finance that the withdrawal from the Libra Association of payment companies PayPal, Mercado Pago, Visa, Mastercard and Stripe, and e-commerce groups eBay and Booking made no change to the plans to launch the cryptocurrency.
He added that the Libra Association would continue its job of finding further members – creating “more diversity” among its partners and targeting around 100 members before the planned launch in the first half of 2020.
Marcus dismissed the idea – defined by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier this week – that the departures from the project had been down to fears over regulatory hurdles, such as those governing financial crime and money laundering. He said:
I understand that they have a responsibility to their shareholders and ot their stakeholders and they were under a lot of pressure. We're fleshing out all of the regulatory requirements and oversight required for this to operate, but nothing has changed.
Earlier, the Libra Association set out its position on Twitter, saying it was doing everything it could to ensure full regulatory compliance before launch.
We've said from the beginning that Libra shouldn’t and wouldn’t launch without the appropriate regulatory oversight and addressing legitimate concerns. Every time someone agrees with us, it doesn’t constitute a “blow” or “setback.” Innovation and regulation can live in harmony.
— Libra (@Libra_) October 15, 2019
Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com


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Entertainment retailer HMV has blamed a weak games market in part for a decline in sales for the period ended September 4.
Sales were down in the UK and Ireland by 14.9 per cent on a like-for-like basis, but chief exec Simon Fox singled out a strong product line-up of games as a positive for the coming Christmas period.
"As was highlighted with the group's preliminary results on 30 June 2010, trading during the first quarter of the new financial year has been difficult, particularly in HMV UK & Ireland, where the World Cup disrupted the pipeline for new entertainment product, and the games market continued to be weak," said Fox.
"In line with our new strategic plan, over the summer we progressed the changes to our stores that will enable us to drive our new fashion and enhanced technology offers. These initiatives, combined with a stronger product line-up, particularly in games, are key to the delivery of a successful Christmas," he said.
The company added its market share of the games sector was "satisfactory."
HMV also announced that 14-year veteran Neil Bright, group finance director, will leave the business in December.


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Apple to Repair Some iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus Units That Won’t Power On
On a Friday afternoon, Apple has announced a new repair program for select iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus units that won’t power on.
“Apple has determined that certain iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices may not power on due to a component that may fail. This issue only affects devices within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between October 2018 to August 2019,” explains the company.
Those who believe their iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus may be affected by this issue can enter in their serial number here.
If your device is eligible, Apple will repair it free of charge. If you paid to have your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus repaired over this no power issue, Apple says contact them for a refund.
“The program covers affected iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices for 2 years after the first retail sale of the unit,” says Apple.


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Cities: Skylines has shifted 12 million copies to date.
That's according to the game's official Twitter account, which revealed this sales milestone yesterday (Tuesday, June 22nd). This comes over seven years after Cities: Skylines' initial March 2015 release date. The game was published by Sweden's Paradox Interactive and made by Finnish developer Colossal Order.
“We are grateful for how active Cities: Skylines community is, and we’re overjoyed to see them sharing their passion for city-building games with us,” Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen said.
“It's been a dream come true seeing the game resonate with so many players during all these years. We keep listening to the feedback we receive and we are committed to working hard to bring even more joy to our fans in the future”.
At last official count – back in March 2019 – Cities: Skylines had shifted six million units. That means that the game sold the same quantity of units in its first four years on the market and its most recent three years, pointing to a solid acceleration of sales. This is likely due to continued support with post-launch content.


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The “lipstick indicator,” a term coined in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks, has been a bellwether of amateur economic forecasting. Sure, the economy may be suffering, but an $18 lipstick is still affordable.
Now comes the “fragrance forecast.” The depression talk of 2008 has given way to a slow stock- and housing-market comeback in 2009 and renewed optimism for 2010. Consumers apparently want to smell nice for the rebound.
Beauty-industry watchers noticed large growth in sales of expensive perfumes — those priced above $100 — this year. Meanwhile, lipstick sales were down 11 percent, perhaps disproving the lipstick-indicator theory.
The NPD Group, a market research company, said earlier this year that while sales of prestige fragrances overall were down 10 percent, sales of the most expensive brands were up 10 percent from the same time last year.
Seems as if consumers looking for a little luxury are finding that a new tube of Rum Raisin gloss just isn’t cutting it, but it goes without saying that a trip to Italy or the purchase of that $2,400 Prada coat may have to be put off for another year. Could the $100 bottle of Prada fragrance be a temporary substitute? Can high-style Italian design be captured in a pretty bottle?
“The growth in premium fragrance is driven by the fact that these products are still perceived as more niche and unique to the prestige arena,” says Karen Grant, NPD’s senior global industry analyst and vice president of beauty. “The trends in premium-price beauty show women are becoming increasingly selective in where they choose to invest their limited resources.”
Meanwhile, an NPD survey in November showed that one in five consumers planned to buy fragrances as holiday gifts. The perfume industry accounts for about $25 billion to $30 billion in annual sales.
Thomas Saujet, president of International Cosmetics & Perfumes Inc. and the distributor in the United States of the high-end fragrance line Creed, says sales of his lines are “absolutely fantastic.”
“We’re up across the board,” he says. “We’ve had an incredible year.”
Creed’s line ranges from $122 to a $650 bottle of the rare Windsor fragrance. The company opened its first stand-alone shop in Manhattan earlier this year.
Mr. Saujet says he agrees that while sales of luxury goods such as couture clothing and jewelry have suffered in the past year, fragrances - even expensive ones - are “protected from the downturn.”
“A lady can come into our store and spend $200,” Mr. Saujet says. “That is luxury without spending $800.”
Similarly, Adam Eastwood, co-owner of Scentbar, a perfume store in Los Angeles, and Luckyscent.com says his sales rose this year as well.
“We’re up this year from last, and that was up 10 percent from the year before,” he says. “Even if it is expensive perfume you are buying, it is still more affordable than a $1,500 handbag.”
Mr. Eastwood says one of his most expensive bottles, a $350 Amouage Homage Attar, is selling so well it is hard to keep in stock.
He also attributes the rise in sales to consumers becoming more educated about scents in a manner similar to wine lovers. Sure, anyone can pick up a fragrance hawked by Britney Spears or Jennifer Lopez. But then they would smell like everyone else (but probably not like the celebrities themselves).
Mr. Eastwood says many consumers are moving away from mass-market products and into more custom fragrances. They are learning by visiting specialty perfume shops like his Los Angeles store to test products and learn about different scent notes, similar to the way an oenophile would visit a winery to learn about taste notes.
Pamela Danziger, founder of Unity Marketing, a luxury-goods market research firm, says she thinks it is a stretch to say that a tube of lipstick or a bottle of Chanel No. 5 can make up for not being able to buy an expensive handbag.
However, she agrees that many consumers still associate high-end fragrances with the designer names, which could be why sales are good.
“It is a way people can participate with a brand at a lower price point,” she says.
Unity Marketing’s numbers show that spending on beauty in 2009 was up 62 percent over 2008, Ms. Danziger says. She reasons that the purse strings among affluent customers - those with incomes of $100,000 or more - are loosening.
“That is a sign people are spending,” Ms. Danziger says. “They are not turning to drugstore brands. All sectors of luxury products were hit in 2008. In 2009, home products came back, but clothing and accessories have not. Affluent customers are back to spending, but there has been a shift in priorities.”


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Read the full article here.
This content was originally published by MarketWatch.com - Top Stories. Original publishers retain all rights. It appears here for a limited time before automated archiving. By MarketWatch.com - Top Stories
Talk about Christmas creep. Walmart Inc. is trying to get a jump on holiday shopping, as it unveiled Thursday its list of what it believes will be the “hottest toys” this year.


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Regie AI: Generative AI platform for sales teams
Writer AI Detector: AI Content Detector to check up to 1,500 characters.
Character AI: Create your favorite characters and talk to them
Big Takeaway: According to Business Insiders, Meta is on track to stockpile 340,000+ Nvidia H100 GPUs by end of 2024.
GPUs are essential for training AI models like ChatGPT because of their efficiency in handling parallel processing tasks, which greatly accelerates model training and inference. Think of GPUs as the essential shovels in a gold rush where AI is the gold.
Meta also expects to have 600,000 total GPUs including Nvidia A100s and other AI chips, by year-end.
It comes as companies scramble for a limited supply of Nvidia AI chips to build the best products. Nvidia's stock has risen by 200%+ in the last 12 months amid high demand from major companies and startups.
Big Takeaway: AI voice startup ElevenLabs raised $80 million led by Andreessen Horowitz, now valued at $1.1 billion.
They have totaled $101 million to date, joining a wave of generative AI startups attracting big investments.
Eleven Labs aims to replicate voices in over two dozen languages and sees uses in audiobooks, games, and media production.
But researchers are worried about deceptive deepfakes used in scams and politics. But the big question is: how can we deploy safely and collaboratively amid rapid generative AI advances?
🦿AR and VR walking is now possible
Disney Research revealed the first augmented reality and virtual reality walking platform called "Holotile.” This is groundbreaking for the VR space. (View Demo)
👨🏫 Microsoft makes its AI-powered reading tutor free
Microsoft has made its AI reading comprehension coach, Reading Coach, freely available to anyone with a Microsoft account. It provides personalized practice for identifying challenging words and text-to-speech tools. (Full article here)
🐇 Rabbit r1 upgraded with Perplexity AI’s tech to answer your queries
Rabbit's new AI gadget, r1, will utilize Perplexity's AI search technology to answer users' natural language questions. Perplexity's first 100,000 r1 buyers get 1 year of its Pro service free. (Full article here)
💻 Real Life Use Cases
Chat GPT Prompt: STAR Resume Method
Use the STAR method to practice questions in preparation for your next interview.
🔏 Copy and paste the prompt below ⏬
Develop a detailed and accurate STAR response to the provided behavioral interview question (Insert question) ensuring it aligns with the specific experiences and skills listed on the attached resume (Insert resume)
Here’s a link to the results ⬇
💼 Who’s Hiring in AI
🔮 AI Game
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Coin PR agencies are awaiting to work with more countries
A Coin PR agency is what your country needs.
All around the globe, the tech conversation seems to be driven around cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and blockchain-based applications; and with the level of growth that has occured in the industry, governments around the world are starting to pay attention. Different nations such as Japan, Canada, Germany, and Holland have begun adopting varying strategies to take part in the ever growing and evolving market that is blockchain.
However, as Tim Draper, Founder of Draper Associates, noted during an event announcing the DELTA Summit in Malta, some of the countries that are interested in regulating blockchain are not embracing these change in the most effective and best way possible. As he said, “countries are [currently] trying to fit [regulation] into an existing model, but it doesn’t. When a new technology comes along, the whole game changes, and it is time for governments to recognize that, that they are in competition with each other for the entrepreneurs and the innovators of the world. And now they have this great vehicle which is the blockchain and improve their way of governing.”
What Does this Mean for Your Country?
So following what Draper said, if countries are now in competition with each other in regards to the crypto and blockchain innovators and entrepreneurs of the world, it is more vital than ever that countries begin marketing themselves with a “crypto-based” style of PR – AKA Coin PR. And yet, we have a general idea of how Coin PR looks for companies, but how does it appear for countries and governments exactly?
If done correctly, Coin PR is most successful when an agency is capable of managing and marketing every stage of a blockchain company, meaning the pre-ICO, the ICO, and the post-ICO stages, as well as everything in-between. And while countries that want to start using Coin PR might not necessarily need to include any Coin PR tactics regarding ICOs, they do need to know how to work with and partner with companies that could be in any stage of their company lifecycle. Thus in this situation, knowledge is key. Countries need to join forces with Coin PR agencies that also work with some of the largest blockchain and crypto companies, because the knowledge base will help both the country and the startups that the country partner with get the most out of the situation. Ultimately, using a Coin PR agency to market yourself as a country will take out a lot of back and forth, since everyone will be speaking the same “crypto language”.
Additionally this “coin language” issue might not only exist between the country and different crypto and blockchain companies, but also between crypto journalists and countries. Having a translator in the form of a Coin PR agency would be extremely helpful because sometimes (not always!) each field of journalism can behave differently.
Lastly, going back to what Draper said in his fireside chat in Malta, blockchain is a great way for governments to improve their way of governing. Thus it is only with time that more countries jump on the future and begin regulating blockchain and crypto technologies, and us Coin PR agencies are waiting and ready in the wings.


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Boston Business Journal
Groups representing the state’s restaurants and retailers are voicing disappointment with the Baker administration’s plans to reopen their industries, including the continued uncertainty around when exactly they’ll be able to welcome in customers.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday that retailers and restaurants can begin opening their establishments to customers, with restrictions, in Phase 2 of the state’s four-phase plan for reopening Massachusetts. They can now offer take-out and delivery if they're a restaurant, or remote fulfillment if they're a retailer considered nonessential. . . . more


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The Hut Group tops Sunday Times Profit Track 100
Having previously topped the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list, The Hut Group has now topped the 2014 Profit Track 100.
Every year the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 league table compares Britain’s 100 private businesses with the fastest growing profits.
View The Hut Groups ranking in the 2014 table.
Winning this award further demonstrates the growing power of The Hut Group, a specialist Health & Beauty on-line retailer and brand owner which trades in six languages and generates over 50% of its sales from outside the UK.
Darren Rajanah (Chief Commercial Officer) commented “Winning this award is a great achievement for The Hut Group and one which underlines the hyper growth we are experiencing.”
“With recent acquisitions and THG’s reputation for disrupting markets, both in the UK and abroad, we envisage this award being just the start of an extremely strong 2014.”


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DALLAS – Jan. 17, 2018 – SymphonyAI, the leading global provider of Artificial Intelligence-enabled decision platforms, solutions and customer-centric insights that drive validated growth for retailers and CPG manufacturers, today announced that Tavria-V ― a regional grocery retail chain in Odessa, Ukraine operating over 70 stores of varying formats, from supermarkets to convenience stores ― selected SymphonyAI’s Store Operations and Store Mobility solutions to help improve overall operational efficiencies.
Recently, Tavria-V had significantly restructured its supply chain which impacted the operations of its existing stores. Due to this, store associates required assistance and tools to streamline operations for maximum efficiency, and store operations needed to be more effectively connected to its headquarters team to improve communication and collaboration.
“We have been looking for a solution that will support end-to-end operations of our stores and allow fast implementation and organization of store processes that are currently going through significant change,” said Sergey Konkov, CIO of Tavria-V. “Having evaluated market offerings, we selected SymphonyAI to provide us with comprehensive capabilities for planning and execution of store processes as well as support full and transparent collaboration between headquarters and the field.”
The solutions will be implemented by a blended team of experts from SymphonyAI and local partner, Consulting for Retail, combining world-class best practices and local knowledge of the Ukrainian market.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to help Tavria-V optimize its store operations with our mobility technologies,” said Stanislav Krupnik, General Manager, Russia and CIS, SymphonyAI. “Our broad experience, based on successful implementations of store operations and mobility solutions in large European retailers, will enable Tavria-V to increase productivity of store associates, improve operational efficiency and fully align store and supply chain replenishment processes.”
SymphonyAI is the leading global provider of Artificial Intelligence-enabled decision platforms, solutions and customer-centric insights that drive validated growth for retailers and CPG manufacturers, from customer intelligence to personalized marketing, and merchandising and category management, to supply chain and retail operations. SymphonyAI is innovating rapidly to drive faster, more profitable decisions through AI, machine learning and voice technologies. We are trusted by over 1,200 organizations including 15 of the world’s 25 largest grocery retailers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains worldwide to help solve their toughest business problems, through AI-powered customer intelligence and retail solutions. SymphonyAI was formed in 2018, merging Symphony GOLD and Symphony EYC. SymphonyAI is a SymphonyAI company. More at www.symphonyretailai.com. Follow us on Twitter: @symphonyretail.
SymphonyAI is a group of companies that provide the leading AI-centric solutions for transforming the business enterprise by driving revenue growth and operational excellence, for the retail, CPG, healthcare and industrial verticals, and for finance, IT and other key enterprise horizontal functions. Founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, SymphonyAI is one of the fastest growing companies in the business-to-business AI solutions sector with revenue this year of $275 million and 1,500 employees. More at www.symphonyai.com.
Ketner Group Communications (for SymphonyAI)


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His Delta company is one of the province’s bigger producers
On any career path, there are obvious jumping-off points where experience paves the way for someone to move on to the next opportunity. But rarely do said occasions occur as clearly as they did to Mandesh Dosanjh.
The Ontario native had used an engineering degree from University of Toronto to work in the supply chain department for organizations like retailers Target Corp. and Loblaw Cos. But when he joined the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, it unpredictably ended up being a springboard to running a company of his own.
Around 2016, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was preparing to sign cannabis legalization into law, Dosanjh began visiting many of the licensed producers across the country, as many provinces turned the legal market over to their respective liquor boards.
Having led much of the work for the beginnings of Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp., Dosanjh saw cannabis companies start reaching out to him in the summer of 2018, once legalization became a reality.
He decided to move back to B.C. (he’d done a yearlong stint with Aritzia several years earlier) to serve as president and CEO of Pure Sunfarms in Delta.
“I saw a lot of similarities to what I thought would be required to build a successful cannabis company,” Dosanjh says. “Everything from the location of being Delta-based and greenhouse growing, and the ability to create the organization from the ground up.”
Pure Sunfarms only launched as a producer in late 2019, but it quickly became one of the leading cannabis brands on the market and, last year, was wholly absorbed by its parent company, publicly traded Village Farms International. It’s also made some inroads in the edibles market, offering gummies made with real B.C. fruit.
“For me, the insight was that we wanted to be a formidable force in the industry and really do something on a larger entity across Canada,” Dosanjh says. “My belief was that being a leader in cultivation was going to be key, and we have arguably the best conditions specifically for high-tech greenhouse growing in Canada.”
So while Dosanjh certainly has his eye on the big picture as a CEO under the umbrella of a public company, he’s also looking to further establish Pure Sunfarms as the grassroots (pun intended) brand that it is.
The company’s efforts in that area led to the creation of Pure Sunfarms Marketplace—slated to launch in the coming weeks—which sees it partner with local makers to create unique products. Examples include a Grower’s Hand Soap created with Nectrous Botanicals, incense sticks from Woodlot and porcelain ash trays from artist Nathalie Paolinelli.
“It’s some really interesting artistry work that’s also going to expand with apparel sets,” Dosanjh says. “It’s exciting with the growth trajectory of where Sunfarms is heading and how it’s resonating with consumers across the country. We think this is going to be another way to connect with them and grow our story.”
That story is only getting started, according to Dosanjh. Even as Canada’s recreational cannabis industry has led to massive IPOs and grown a market worth billions of dollars, the former liquor exec says it’s just the beginning. And with Pure Sunfarms sporting some 500 employees and preparing to hire hundreds more when its second Delta greenhouse is built, it’s hard to doubt him.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Dosanjh says. “The industry is so nascent still; there’s such a long way to go. Our approach is crawl, walk, run.”


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Bitcoin enthusiasts, investors, and observers have still not gotten over how severely Bitcoin fell from grace, after the Bakkt crypto futures exchange opened for business. The blame-game has continued for weeks. The S&P 500 Index also took a tumble at the same time, as trade talks worsened and recession fears ramped up, but none of these fundamental events seemed to carry any weight with the Bitcoin faithful. It had to be Bakkt, from their perspective, but analysts are still searching for acceptable answers.
First – The Word on Bakkt
The folks at Forbes had initially followed the accepted storyline that Bitcoin had stumbled after Bakkt had done the same badly:
Bakkt, an Intercontinental Exchange-backed bitcoin and crypto platform, was unveiled last year and boasted computing giant Microsoft and coffee chain Starbucks among its partners–promising to open up bitcoin to institutional investors and bring crypto spending to the high street.
They followed with the quasi-obituary that claimed that Bakkt had raised expectations too high and so far had not delivered:
Bakkt’s much-hyped “physical” bitcoin futures, meaning that traders and investors are not able to sell more bitcoin than they actually have, were expected to herald a sea-change for bitcoin markets, though they have so far failed to trigger any meaningful change.
Now, in an abrupt change, Forbes is telegraphing that Bakkt is a brewing success story, publishing this chart as evidence of their change in attitude:
Investment experts, who were well acquainted with how the futures industry operates, i.e., the ones that “physically settle”, as does Bitcoin, had counseled Bitcoin advocates that it would take time for Bakkt to get going due to the several changes that had to occur in back offices before any trader could literally place an order. Somehow this advice fell by the wayside on the way to the trading floor, but now the reality is beginning to support these words that patience is called for. In one day Bakkt BTC futures jumped nearly 800%.
Bakkt management quickly took to Twitter:
As we continue to build the Bakkt bitcoin futures contract, we reached a new trading record of 212 contracts traded [on Wednesday]. With [Wednesday’s] close, Bakkt set a new daily record of $1.93 million, bringing its total number of outstanding contracts to 1197 as of October 9, worth $10.2 million.
In case you are curious, Thursday’s action on the next day fell back to 109 contracts traded. Tom Lee. Co-founder of Fundstrat, a data analytics firm, noted:
Watch Bakkt volumes. It is nearly a pure proxy for institutional demand for bitcoin.
Second – If not Bakkt, then what?
Yes, Bakkt had hyped expectations so high that there had to be an impact when it failed to impress the madding crowds, but surely there was something else. Billy Bambrough, a Forbes contributor, thinks he may have found another answer. Indexica, a Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and financial markets research company, has discovered that Bitcoin has “matured” to such an extent that it is now viewed on financial news channels right along side of other major currencies. It has, in a word, hit the financial “mainstream”.
Indexica first shared their thoughts in an interview with Bloomberg, using the term “quotability”, as a way of describing how BTC is often discussed on news channels, where traders traditionally get their market information. Zak Selbert, chief executive of Indexica, told Bloomberg:
Now that bitcoin is a big kid, anything can make it move, just like anything can make gold or a G-10 currency move. Bitcoin is part of the financial landscape in a very intertwined and mature way.
Consequently, the market boosted Bitcoin immediately after the Fed announced its plans to expand its balance sheet and with it, the money supply, last week.


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John Lewis sales down 0.2% last week
John Lewis saw its sales slip by 0.2% year-on-year last week as the warm weather at the start of the week impacted footfall.
However, trade improved towards the end of the week as the weather cooled and the retailer undertook a price matching exercise against a competitor’s promotions.
Fashion sales increased by 4.8% boosted by strong sales of children’s clothing and shoes. Sales of own-brand women's fashions were also buoyant while haberdashery continued to benefit from the 'Great British Sewing Bee' effect.
Electrical and Home Technology sales rose 4.7% despite strong comparatives from the same week last year, which saw very high tablet sales and was a peak digital switchover week.
The Home directorate found the going tougher with a 9.4% decline in sales.
In the shops, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Aberdeen were some of the best performers due to the cooler weather in the north of the UK although there were also good results in Swindon and Solihull. Online sales grew by 8.2 % as the free next-day Waitrose Click & collect service more than doubled last year's volumes.
Simon Russell, director, retail operations development, said: "The warm bank holiday weekend weather, contrasted with the cooler damp conditions we experienced last year, meant sales just fell shy of last year with footfall much quieter over the week.
"This week has got off to a much stronger start and we are well placed for the week ahead."
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Jack Hyer knew he was going to marry his girlfriend after their first date. He worked on this incredible proposal video four four years, while traveling to 26 countries.
LISTEN: This week's top alternative songs, according to the weekly Billboard chart.
Record Store Day celebrates thousands of independent music stores across America.
Green Day, Joan Jett, Lou Reed, Ringo Starr and others will be welcomed as the 2015 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.


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Paddy Power Says Goodbye to CMO, Says Hello to One Touch
By Brodey Sheppard - March 14, 2016
Paddy Power has bid farewell to its chief marketing officer after only several months on the job. According to the Irish betting operator, CMO Gav Thompson would be leaving the company after its £8 billion merger with Betfair, UK’s largest betting exchange. Jonathan Devitt, current CMO of Betfair will assume Thompson’s duties. Devitt will also oversee the marketing strategies for the new Paddy Power Betfair entity.
Thompson was hired by Paddy Power last April 2015. Thompson was welcomed into the company due to his “world-class marketing talent and his passion for customers, brand experiences and innovation”. This is why Thompson’s departure now comes as a bit of a surprise. The two companies even pledged to maintain a “dual brand strategy” in order to preserve the tone of Paddy Power’s marketing. Neither Paddy Power not Betfair has given a comment about Thompsons’s departure.
Despite this news, many feel that the merger has been largely successful. Warwick Bartlett, chief executive of Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, said that Betfair and Paddy Power have achieved a great goal with their new online bookmaker offers.
Bartlett said: “Online, they would be number two behind bet365, which remains the dominant force in terms of gross gaming yield, but if you take into account Paddy Power shops as well then they probably would be the largest.”
Paddy Power may have said goodbye to its CMO, but it is saying hello to a new feature called One Touch. According to the company, One Touch is the “the fastest way to bet in-play” and which will “leave competitors behind.” One Touch was rolled out as part of Paddy Power’s latest iOS and Android app updates.
The feature allows logged-in bettors to set a predetermined amount that they would like to wager. One they set the predetermined amount, the bettor only needs to hit one button for desired betting market. Because of this quick transaction, One Touch enables bettors to wager on favourite sports games without fear that they odds would have changed by the time they get around to fill out a betting slip, or going through a confirmation screen.
Paddy Power Sports believes that the simplicity of this new feature will give their live in-play betting turnover a boost. As far as accidentally placing unwanted wagers goes, Paddy Power held a series of consumer trials that have shown that this is not a concern. John Campbell, product manager of Paddy Power, claims that the company feels “confident that that’s not a big risk.”


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Responding to a demand among adult Lego customers, National Instruments this week said it is rolling out the NI Labview Toolkit for Lego Mindstorms NXT. The toolkit, targeted at the version of the well-known Mindstorms toy released last week, enables users to create and download virtual instruments to test the toy robots they build.
Lego representatives said last week that the new software toolkit is too advanced for many kids who play with the toy, but they added that they’ve long known that a high percentage of adults buy and use Mindstorms. When Mindstorms was introduced in 1998, approximately 70% of users were adults. While that number has steadily dropped over the years, adults have nevertheless continued to make up a large population of the toy’s customers. Lego and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) have worked together in the past, and discussion groups called Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL) have popped up on the web. Most recently, a new Mindstorms discussion group has formed on the web called LV-AFOL (LabView Adult Fans of Lego). In that group, users with strong LabView backgrounds help those with Mindstorm knowledge, and vice versa.
“There are many, many engineers who use Mindstroms,” noted Soren Lund, director of Lego Mindstorms in an interview at National Instruments NIWeek. “Many of them work with children as Mindstorms coaches and mentors, and many more just want to toy with our product.”
Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones used to fare quite well in the repairability department, but last year's flagship S5 model took a tumble, scoring a meh-inducing 5/10. Will the newly redesigned S6 lead us back into star-studded territory, or will we sink further into the depths of a repairability black hole?
In 2003, the world contained just over 500 million Internet-connected devices. By 2010, this figure had risen to 12.5 billion connected objects, almost six devices per individual with access to the Internet. Now, as we move into 2015, the number of connected 'things' is expected to reach 25 billion, ultimately edging toward 50 billion by the end of the decade.
NASA engineer Brian Trease studied abroad in Japan as a high school student and used to fold fast-food wrappers into cranes using origami techniques he learned in library books. Inspired by this, he began to imagine that origami could be applied to building spacecraft components, particularly solar panels that could one day send solar power from space to be used on earth.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.


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After a pandemic hiatus, 1 Million Cups Dallas is back for connection, conversation, and coffee. A “grand relaunch event” for the gathering of entrepreneurially-minded people will be held both in-person and virtually on Wednesday, June 22.
The weekly meetup—which has been a staple in the local startup ecosystem—consists of entrepreneurial presentations, Q&As, networking, and (of course) free coffee.
The Kauffman Foundation launched 1 Million Cups in 2012, and it has since spread to more than 160 cities around the country. The name comes from the idea that entrepreneurs can meet and exchange ideas over a million cups of coffee.
Connected Coworking, located at 211 N. Ervay in downtown Dallas, will host the event on June 22 at 9 a.m.
All are welcome, the group says. For more information, go here.
Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.
Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.


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India leads online smartphone sales globally amidst COVID-19
According toCounterpoint Research, 40% of India’s smartphone sales came from online channels in the first quarter of 2020.
India has been a leader in online smartphone sales because of several ‘online-exclusive’ smartphone launches and a lesser mature retail and distribution setup of newer brands. However, due to the pandemic, there has been a change in buying patterns across the world. The share of online channel sales in total global smartphone sales was around 20% last year but is expected to reach 23% this year.
India leads the world in online smartphone sales, followed by the UK which recorded 35% and China which recorded 30% share of online sales. On the other hand, countries like the US, Japan, and South Korea, with strong offline distribution and carrier-ledmodels, see relatively low online sales.
In India, Flipkart was responsible for half of the online sales during the quarter while Xiaomi was the leading brand in online channels accounting for 51% of total sales.
Even brands with stronger offline distribution are innovating in online channels as the global crisis is changing the purchasing behaviour of users and affecting the viability of certain channels.


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June 10th, 2011, 23:45 Posted By: wraggster
Nintendo has revealed that the Wii U console won't be "drastically different" - that's why the E3 announcement focused on the tablet controller.
But Nintendo top-dog Satoru Iwata admitted he "should have made more effort to explain how [Wii U] works".
"We haven't made any kind of blunder," Iwata told the Evening Standard, referencing a fallen Nintendo stock price and defending against allegations of a confusion-causing presentation.
"But I should have shown a single picture of the new console, then started talking about the controller."
"The console is not drastically different," he added, "and Wii U is about the controller. The console itself will be almost invisible."
Exactly what will be inside the console hasn't been specified. We know it's theoretically capable of matching PS3 and 360 output thanks to a show reel aired at the Nintendo E3 conference (albeit of actual PS3 and 360 code rather than Wii U). How far beyond the ageing PS3 and 360 tech Wii U can go, however, remains to be seen.
Iwata went on to echo what he said to Reuters, and told the Evening Standard that people can't properly appreciate Wii U until they play it.
"They cannot see how this can be a game changer," he said of people reading about but not experiencing Wii U.
"What Wii U will offer is very different," Iwata added. "But I believe we have the strong potential to change the entire format of video games and of entertainment."
Eurogamer has played Wii U, and we tallied with Iwata's argument by declaring that "as soon as you pick that controller up, you understand the genius of Nintendo's idea."
But how will Nintendo demo Wii U to every potential customer? That's what analysts are worried about. Wii, a runaway success, had one universally clear message: motion sensing.
Wii U details are gradually seeping out, however - and Eurogamer cobbled together a list of seven things you don't already know about Nintendo's new console (unless you've read the article already you cheat).
For more information and downloads, click here!
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