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Staying Safe Through Winter
Our industry is fortunate to have a significant amount of outdoor shopping area, but as the weather turns colder, the products our customers want tend to be indoors. And therein lies the issue during a global pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recently updated some of the information on its website about how COVID-19 is transmitted, including the following:
The principal mode by which people are infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus.
Respiratory droplets are produced during exhalation (e.g., breathing, speaking, singing, coughing, sneezing) and span a wide spectrum of sizes that may be divided into two basic categories based on how long they can remain suspended in the air:
• Larger droplets, some of which are visible and that fall out of the air rapidly within seconds to minutes, while close to the source.
• Smaller droplets and particles (formed when small droplets dry very quickly in the airstream) that can remain suspended for many minutes to hours and travel far from the source on air currents.
That means the recommendations continue to be keeping customers and employees at least 6 ft. apart, which many retailers have now marked on the floor with guides, and to install Plexiglass barriers at places like cash wrap stations. The CDC also recommends moving payment stations farther away from the employees checking out customers and shifting primary stocking hours to after-store hours.
The CDC also continues to recommend face coverings in all settings where social distancing may not be possible.
Let’s talk about that face covering for a moment. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, here’s how to wear a mask properly: “Your mask should cover your face from the bridge of your nose to under your chin. It should be loose fitting but still secure enough to stay in place,” according to details on the website. Just to reiterate, that’s means completely covering the nose as well as the mouth. “Make sure you can talk with your mask on and that it doesn’t irritate you, so you are not tempted to touch it or pull it out of place, which could put you at risk from touching your face or limit its effectiveness.”
Reusable masks should be washed after use, so employees might want to have a steady rotation of masks. They likely aren’t going away any time soon, so it might benefit a retailer to offer branded masks.
Cleaning & Sanitizing
When the pandemic first began there was an intense run on cleaning supplies. That’s starting to get better, but now there are more options for sanitizing against coronavirus, specifically SARS-CoV-2.
One product is SaniDate All Purpose Disinfectant from BioSafe Systems. The company announced in September it received EPA labelling specifically for human coronavirus.
“This three-in-one solution saves time and money by cleaning, disinfecting and deodorizing hard surfaces in one step with one product,” the company says on its website. “In addition to human coronavirus, SaniDate All Purpose Disinfectant works against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enterica.”
FloraLife, a division of Smithers-Oasis Company, also announced earlier this year that two of its products meet the criteria for disinfecting against coronavirus. The products, FloraLife D.C.D. and FloraLife MicroBLOC, both kill and prevent bacterial, microbial and viruses on hard, non-porous surfaces.
“In areas where there is no contact with food, the cleaners can be sprayed or wiped onto the surface that needs to be disinfected and air dried,” the FloraLife website states. “For areas in contact with food, surfaces can instead be rinsed after application. To determine which surfaces need to be rinsed off, users should follow label instructions.”
Whatever products you use to clean, stay vigilant on your cleaning regimen, and show customers you’re consistently disinfecting high traffic areas and touch points. They’ll appreciate your efforts.
In the spring, a few visionary thinkers banded together quickly to write a document that highlights why growers and retailers in the green industry were “essential businesses.” This document circulated through local and state decision-makers at a time where municipalities and state governments were closing businesses and services. One of the most important segments talked about allowing people to grow their own food during times of uncertainty and emphasizing the importance of allowing growers and retailers to stay open to provide these materials. Here’s a small section of the document:
“Americans are resilient and resourceful in the face of adversity provided the opportunity to produce their own food and manage any shortage in the supply chain. Millions of Americans engage in food production at home and more are sure to follow as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds.
With thousands of garden retailers serving communities across North America, these stores provide much-needed services. Whether helping Americans produce home-grown fruits and vegetables, as Americans did during WWII as Victory Gardens, as a mental and physical health relief or providing wholesome activities for children, garden centers offer products and support that individuals and communities can utilize during these stressful times.
Many of the products carried by garden retailers are agricultural, like seeds and edible plants. Others are necessary tools and supplies. Together, they’re essential to maintaining a healthy living environment. In many communities, the garden retailer may be the only outlet where consumers have access to essential supplies for growing, gardening, maintaining or repairing their residences.”
While winter is often a time for gardeners to regroup, they’re still buying seed starting kits, seeds, tools and other materials for next spring. Consider ways to help customers find what they need easily, whether it’s tutorials online that provide a way for customers to build a shopping list of all the items they need (complete with recommendations for items they may not think about, like fertilizer, rooting hormones, etc.), or online order and curbside pickup/delivery options.
In the past, our industry has focused on browsing and keeping customers meandering through stores. However, this holiday and winter, focus on getting customers the products they need quickly and process them through quickly. Setting up stores for fast shopping can help everyone stay safe. GP
For More Information:
- CDC.gov has updated information for businesses about stopping coronavirus spread, as well as updated posters that can be printed for breakrooms.
- Johns Hopkins Medicine has a robust website that includes a self-checker, research updates and more: www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus
- At www.EPA.gov/coronavirus, you can find specifics on disinfecting and cleaning, as well as the latest information on indoor air circulation and coronavirus.


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We’re talking big bucks! An $85,000 median price rise in 30 months is a strong indicator of affluent buyers commitment to Arrowhead Woods.
The difference from year to year was a median price rise of 13% in 2013 and 16% in 2014 (estimated). Sales fell as prices rose. Days to a sale extended to near six months in 2014.
The lowest price homes, below $200,000, are virtually gone. This range, up to $500,000 are 70% of the Arrowhead Woods sales. Mainstream sales are now below 2012 recordings, more than two months behind the pace of last year.
Mid-range, $500,000 to $1 million looks better. We’re about the same as last year against declining sales above and below these middle priced homes.
The $1 million plus market is too small now to project much of a change by year end 2014. Buyers are shying from the high end leaving 70 listings unsold.
Home sizes are relatively unchanged as the price per square foot rises and a reflection of the modest number of homes sold above $500,000.
The national real estate news, up and down, offers no clarity. Mortgage rates are a gathering cloud over our market, expected to rise in the Fall. Interest rates is a very sensitive number for vacation home ownership.
January 2012 to 2014, estimated to year end, is a 31% price rise.

domain: news


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Before a nationwide TV audience on NBCSN, Brad Keselowski captured the checkered flag at the NASCAR Federated Auto Parts 400 on Sept. 12 at Richmond Raceway.
The race marked Federated’s 25th consecutive year of involvement in NASCAR.
Prior to the start of the race, Federated member Tim Parks of Parks Auto Parts in Charleston, South Carolina, presided as the grand marshal of the Federated 400 and announced the traditional “drivers, start your engines” instructions. Federated recently honored Parks with its most prestigious member recognition, the Art Fisher Memorial Award.
“In celebration of this milestone with NASCAR and in conjunction with the Federated 400, we kicked off a special ‘Be a Federated Fan’ promotion for our Federated Car Care Center members,” said J.R. Bishop, motorsports and event marketing director for Federated Auto Parts. “Many thanks to our supplier partners for their participation and support. We are looking forward to being together at next year’s Federated 400 and hosting the grand-prize winners.”
Supplier brand sponsors of the Federated Auto Parts 400 include MPA, WIX Filters, East Penn, Standard Motor Products, BCA, Dayco, KYB, TrakMotive, Warren Distribution, TRW, MAHLE, Peak, Dorman, CRC, Delphi, Gates, Bendix, Denso, DRiV, Hastings, Lumileds, Raybestos, Remy, Stant and TRICO


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Startup news and updates: daily roundup (March 4, 2021)
Elon Musk, CEO ofand , was a born genius. His mother, Maye Musk, took to Twitter on Wednesday to share a letter from the year 1989, which reveals Elon’s computer aptitude test results. In the test, Elon Musk had scored so well that the examiners could not believe the results.
, the Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn, on Thursday announced its third ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) buyback programme worth $10 million (Rs 73 crore) for its 750 employees. The fintech unicorn said all existing and former employees of Razorpay who hold vested stocks will be eligible to sell up to 33 percent of their vested ESOP shares. Sequoia Capital India and GIC, two of Razorpay’s key investors, will be the buyers involved in this development.
Fintech unicorn Paytm on Thursday said it is targeting over 10 million users and 75 million yearly transactions for FY22 for its wholly-owned subsidiary Paytm Money. Paytm Money is Paytm's digital investment platform that provides a range of service like stock market transactions, mutual fund investments, gold purchase, etc.
Online marketplace for used smartphones Cashify on Wednesday said it raised $15 million from Asia Environmental Partners (AEP) — a fund focussed on the renewable energy sector and environment. AEP is a division of private equity player Olympus Capital. It will use the fresh funds for multiple purposes, including the growth of its newly launched enterprise SaaS business, expansion of its offline retail segment besides hiring, and investments into branding.
Earlier this week, Alia Bhatt took to Instagram to announce that she has now taken to production and launched her own production company Eternal Sunshine Productions. The Bollywood actor wrote: "Let us tell you tales. Happy tales. Warm and fuzzy tales. Real tales. Timeless tales."
B2B startup (Funding) raises secondary funds from marquee investors Deepinder Goyal, Asish Mohapatra, others
B2B startup bijnis on Thursday said it has concluded an undisclosed secondary funding round led by the likes of Deepinder Goyal (Co-founder, Smile Group), who purchased shares from the startup's existing investors.); Asish Mohapatra (Founder, Offbusiness); Sarbvir Singh (CEO, ); and Manish Vij (Co-founder,
The Bijnis Team
Edtech startup Questt announced that it has raised Rs 9.6 crore in a seed round led by Chiratae Ventures and AET Fund. The round also saw the participation of marquee entrepreneurs such as Snapdeal Founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, 91springboard Founder Pranay Gupta, Livspace Co-founder Ramakant Sharma, Razorpay founders (through Marsshot Ventures), and First Cheque. The funding will be used to help increase the platform's user base, add more features, and hire talent.
IT services major Infosys has said it will create 500 jobs in Calgary over the next three years, doubling its Canadian workforce to 4,000 employees by 2023. This expansion was announced by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, along with Infosys President Ravi Kumar, Calgary Economic Development President CEO Mary Moran, and David Knight Legg, CEO of Invest Alberta Corporation.
Caller identification app Truecaller on Wednesday unveiled a new personal safety app called 'Guardians'. The app, which will be free for users, has been in development for about 15 months. Guardians can be downloaded from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app will have no ads or premium tiers.
Jaipur and Bengaluru-based hyperlocal ecommerce startup DealShare has raised Rs 25 crore in debt funding from Innoven Capital. This is the second round of fundraising by DealShare in the last six months. In December 2020, the startup had secured Series C funding of around Rs 153 crore from WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation - a venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital, Z3Partners, Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India.
For the past 10 days, Odisha’s Simpilal Forest Reserve in the Mayurbhanj district has been engulfed in flames. The area is India’s largest and Asia’s second-largest largest biosphere reserve. The fire is believed to have started on the Jualikata-Talpada road, and spread to the reserve owing to heavy winds. According to IANS reports, the Odisha forest department has been unable to contain the spread of the fire to the 2,750 km reserve, which is home to 304 species of birds, 62 species of reptiles, 37 species of fish, and 55 species of animals, including the endangered Bengal tiger.
Rewire, a fintech startup that develops cross-border online banking services for expats worldwide, has raised Series B funding of $20 million, and a "significant line" of credit from a leading bank, it said in a statement. Rewire is a neobank for migrants worldwide. It was founded by Guy Kashtan, Adi Ben Dayan, Saar Yahalom, and Or Benoz.
Insurtech startup raises $9.4M in round led by CEFIF, Think Investments
Singapore-based insurtech startup Symbo Platform Holdings raised $9.4 million in a round led by CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund (CEFIF) and San Francisco-based Think Investments. The round also saw participation from existing investors Integra Partners, Insignia Ventures, and AJ Capital.
Euler Motors, the automotive technology OEM focused on electric commercial vehicles (EVs) manufacturing, has raised Rs 30 crore as a part of its ongoing Series-A round, led by existing investors Inventus India and Jetty Ventures. Existing investor Sujeet Kumar, Co-founder of, also participated in this round, along with new investors Srinivas Anumolu and K Ganesh from Growth Story. Euler Motors plans to use these funds for a new production facility, R&D activities, and expansion of charging & servicing infrastructure.
Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata paying floral tributes to JN Tata on his birth anniversary. Image Credits: Tata Group Twitter
Ratan Tata has once again won the heart of netizens with his heartfelt tribute to the founder of Tata Group of companies JN Tata. He posted a photo on Instagram of himself and his mentor JRD Tata in front of Jamsetji Tata’s statue.
India’s leading ecommerce marketplace Flipkart has expanded the portfolio of its audio capability with the introduction of voice search in Hindi and English. This move is expected to strengthen the connect with customers from smaller towns towards online shopping.
WhatsApp launched private and secure one-to-one voice and video calls for its desktop app on Thursday. The Facebook-owned messaging platform said that the announcement is a result of WhatsApp experiencing a significant increase in people calling one another on the mobile-first app and for long conversations.
India’s leading ecommerce marketplace – Flipkart, which is majority owned by global retail giant Walmart, is looking at the possibility of a public listing in the United States through the SPAC route, according to a media report. A Bloomberg report stated that Flipkart will go for a public listing through a blank cheque company. Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPAC, have lately become the popular route for taking many companies public.
Wipro, one of the leading technology services companies in India, has announced the acquisition of Capco, a London headquartered management and consultancy firm, in a deal valued at $1.45 billion. This is one of the largest acquisitions by Wipro and it gives the technology major a stronger foothold in the banking and financial services industry.
Bengaluru has been declared as the most liveable city in India in the government’s Ease of Living Index 2020 (in the million-plus category). Shimla bagged the top crown in the less than a million population category. The list was released by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri.
Traders' body, NGO ask to back off from Reliance-Future Group deal
A traders' body and an NGO in an open letter on Thursday asked Amazon to "back off" from blocking the Reliance-Future Group deal, alleging that mall vendors and suppliers have become collateral damage in the current tussle between the companies. Amazon and Future Group are locked in a legal tussle over the sale of Future Group's retail and wholesale business to Reliance Retail. Both parties have approached several legal forums.
The government-run Employee's Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Thursday confirmed that it will retain 8.5 percent interest rates on provident fund deposits for the financial year 2020-21. The rate was decided by EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees held in Srinagar, presided by Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Gangwar.
India observes March 4 as the National Safety Day each year to create awareness around the safety measures one needs to undertake — be it on the road, workplace, or any other environment. Organised by the National Safety Council, this year’s theme for National Safety Week is ‘Sadak Suraksha’ (road safety), which will be observed from March 4 to March 10, 2021, highlighting the importance of road safety.


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The two new flavours are aimed at 18 to 34-year-olds who make up half of fruit cider drinkers in the UK.
Both the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) and UKHospitality have slammed the move.
The two say their new "game changing" deal for licensees is bigger and better than before.
On International Women's Day the American beer brand has announced its first ever sponsorship of women's football.
Cricket has over a billion fans worldwide and this year's World Cup will be held in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14.


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Are we ready? … a report
DR. G. RAJESWARAN, DIRECTOR, GRANTWOOD TECHNOLOGIES
Indian Cellular Association (ICA) under the leadership of president Mr. Pankaj Mohindroo & C-ESDM organized workshop Inflexion point in Mobile Phone Manufacturing – PCB Population from 2018 – Are we ready? sponsored by NMTronics India Pvt. Ltd. (the Leading PCB Assembly Process Equipment Supplier of India) was organized on 26th October at Hotel The Lalit, New Delhi. The workshop drew a huge response from all the leading mobile brand/manufacturers along with the EMS companies of India and raised big hopes for the investment and employment opportunities in very near future.
The attendees reviewed the preparedness of the future of mobile phone industry of India and opined on the capability of the Indian Manufacturers to face the emerging requirement of “Populated PCB’ which is a big challenge, as of now. The event was attended by Union Govt. representatives Dr. Ajay Kumar (Additional Secretary -MeitY), Mr. Sanjay Rakesh (Joint Secretary-Electronics, MeitY), Mr. Ajay Sawhney (Secretary, Meity) and opinion leaders with Indian Mobile Phone Manufacturing Companies. All Supporting views and opinions were tabled by the attendees for discussion and comments. This kind of workshops shall be immensely helpful in providing inputs to the government in framing policies and schemes to support Indian Industry to grow as well as remain competitive.
Mr. Soni Saran Singh, (Executive Director, NMTronics India Pvt. Ltd.) presented the snap shot of current PCB assembly industry in India. He outlined the current market size and future requirement of fast growing industry of mobile phone handset manufacturing industry. He also shared the vision of Smart Factory Solution to achieve the objective of cost competitive manufacturing of electronics in India including mobile handset manufacturing in India. Mr. Soni also conveyed sincere thanks to ICA for bestowing them with the opportunity to host this important first-time event of cellular industry, where all stakeholders were at one platform to discuss with respect to critical issues, interests and concerns of mobile phone manufacturing industry.
Dr. G. Rajeswaran, (Director, Grantwood Technologies & Co-Inventor of OLED Technology) presented the insights of Technology in Display of Mobile Handset.


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With Christmas approaching faster, Google has announced some new updates to help people track Santa this year on Google Maps.
“It’s the 15th year of Santa’s Village, an interactive holiday hub where you can play games to learn coding skills, create original artwork, exercise your geographic chops, and more,” wrote Google.
Better Way to Follow Santa 📍
This year as soon as Santa takes off from the North Pole and leading up to the Christmas, Google Maps will show his current location as he travels as and moves.
All you need to do just open Google Maps app and head over to the Santa Tracker dashboard on December 24.
Here is a GIF showing Santa’s location sharing on Maps:
In addition to Santa tracker on Maps, Google also has launched a couple of games highlighted below:
The new Elf Maker game let users stylin’ an elf from head to toe for all of the holiday shindigs.
Users can customize elf using selected outfit, hairstyle, facial hair and accessories.
Google will also now show holiday photos from Local Guides, and also has launched a new festive quiz which is powered by Google Earth and Street View to let people test their knowledge around holiday traditions.
The new Translations game will help the user learn to greet and say “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy New Year” in other languages.
Want more, head over to the Santa’s Village this week, where Google will be posting educational games, lesson plans, PDFs and instructional videos.
Check it out at Santa’s Village starting this week.
Not only Maps, but Google Assistant can also be used this holiday to track or hear a story about Santa. Starting December 23, people can simply ask, “Hey Google, where’s Santa?”.
That’s now all, Gboard is also in festive mood has some new stickers around festivity available on both iOS and Android as well as Santa Tracker Android App.


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Ford broadens China expansion with electric-car tie-up
Ford Motor Co.’s growing footprint in China is evidence that the company sees opportunity in the world’s largest car market.
The Dearborn-based automaker on Wednesday announced plans to form a $756 million Chinese joint venture to sell all-electric vehicles there. It’s the latest move Ford has announced for that market, and further proof that the Blue Oval and other automakers see the country as a lucrative expansion despite heavy regulatory requirements.
The partnership with Chinese electric-vehicle giant Anhui Zotye Automobile Co. will be known as Zotye Ford Automobile Co. Ltd. It will build a new research and development center in China, and establish a sales network. The company plans to build a new manufacturing facility in the Zhejiang Province. The venture is owned equally by both companies.
Ford has said China is its second-largest export market, and Peter Fleet, Ford’s president of Asia Pacific, was scheduled to tell President Donald Trump as much during the president’s visit to China on Thursday. Fleet was to join other business leaders there to brief the president on Chinese operations.
The partnership comes about five months after Ford announced the next-generation Ford Focus would be made in China to be exported to North America. The automaker recently began exporting the 2017 F-150 Raptor to China, and expects exports there to increase 30,000 units by 2019.
The company in 2016 sold a record 1.27 million vehicles in China, and plans to export nearly $10 billion in product from North America — most of which will come from the U.S. — to China over the next three years.
“It’s good to see Ford getting into this business,” said Dave Sullivan, analyst with AutoPacific. “Under (former CEO) Alan Mulally, they sold off many of their businesses such as their luxury brands. This signals a major change in direction. With China’s market continuing to boom, this is a good time to get in before the gold rush to expand Ford’s footprint there.”
The Zotye joint venture will be Ford’s third in China. Ford already has joint ventures in the country with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. and Jiangling Motors Corp.
The move into the electric-car business in China could be a workhorse given stricter emission and fuel-economy standards that country plans to implement next year. Ford has said it plans for 70 percent of all its vehicles sold in China to have electric powertrain options by 2025. The automaker has said it expects Asia Pacific profits to improve from the $627 million it made there in 2016.
To sell vehicles in China, automakers are required to partner with a Chinese company. The Chinese government is discussing a plan to allow foreign carmakers to set up wholly owned electric-vehicle businesses in its free trade zones, however.
Ford expects the market for new-energy vehicles in China to grow to 6 million vehicles per year by 2025, of which about 4 million will be all-electric. Deliveries of such vehicles rose 53 percent to 507,000 units in 2016, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Zotye was one of the first electric vehicle-makers in China. The company sold more than 22,500 all-electric vehicles year-to-date through October, representing a growth of over 14 percent year-over-year.
Ford and Zotye will also work on mobility services in China. That would expand on similar efforts in the U.S., where Ford is attempting to launch a new segment of the company devoted to moving goods and people outside of the traditional consumer-owned passenger vehicle.
In addition to amplifying Ford’s effort to establish a greater presence in China, the new joint venture amplifies Ford’s electrification goals. The company has already invested $4.5 billion to make electric vehicles, and plans to bring 13 new electric vehicles to market in the next five years.
That includes an all-electric small SUV to be sold in Asia, North America and Europe. That unnamed vehicle is slated to be built at Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant. Ford’s Changan Ford joint venture announced it would introduce the Mondeo Energi plug-in hybrid sedan in early 2018.
Bloomberg news contributed


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Tanzanian Producer Master J has shared his thoughts when it comes to comparison between Tanzanian and Kenyan artists.
In a recent interview with East Africa radio, Master J said Kenyan artists are more talented compared to Tanzanian artists; however, they lack the knowledge and skills to effectively establish their personal brand.
He threw shade at Kenyan artists for their lack of commitment in pushing their brands especially with how they dress up.
“Wasanii wetu wanajua kujibrand na kufanya marketing kwenye social media kuliko Wakenya, wale bado washamba washamba hata wanavyovaa. Biashara ya muziki lazima uitumie social media."
The producer went ahead to explain the difference between singers and entertainers. According to him, Kenya has best singers but Tanzania has the best entertainers.
He shared that whenever Tanzanian artists visit Kenya, they attract alot of fans and fill stages that Kenyan artists fail to fill. at the end of it all, they go home with alot of money even though they are not good at speaking English.
"Kiitu ninachojivunia ni kwamba waburudishaji bora wa Africa Mashariki wanatoka Tanzania, Wakenya wamebaki na kitu kimoja wanajua Kiingereza na wanatuzidi kuimba kuliko sisi, wana waimbaji bora sana”.
While at it, Master J said Alikiba for example is the best singer in Tanzania but Diamond Platnumz is a better entertainer.
Without mincing his words, he said artists should put more efforts since the music industry is an entertainment business not a singing business.


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Eidos hopes Lara Croft will play Santa
COMPUTER game heroine Lara Croft has a team of 40 working on her latest adventure and Eidos chief executive Mike McGarvey is confident the company will meet a 15 November deadline to hit the pre-Christmas shelves.
The release of the new Lara game on Sony's PlayStation 2 platform is the key date in a new financial year for Eidos in which McGarvey is expecting sales growth of 35%-40%.
With the next instalment of the Lara film out next year Eidos is hoping its most powerful games franchise is set for another bull run. McGarvey said the group is as financially robust as it has ever been, with £50m in cash in the bank.
Eidos intends to hold its fixed costs at £33.2m a year and has ended its football sponsorship deals with the Football Association and Manchester City. Annual net losses to 31 March shrank to £14.1m from £96.4m on sales down 27% to £120.3m. Losses per share fell to 10.7p from 84.5p.
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text: For this holiday season, Boundary Bay Brewery released their newest piece of merchandise…cycling jerseys! Lucky for us, one of our employees was just about to take a bike trip through South America, so we got to put our jerseys to the test right away. This picture was taken on route 7 in Argentina and the ladies are now in Santiago, Chile. Thanks, Cat, for the great photos of our Bounday Bay bike jerseys in motion! And for those of us stuck back at home…cheer up your dreary winter day with a new Boundary bike jersey and dreams of roads finally clear of ice and snow on which to ride!


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The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released a survey which theorised that up to 15 central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could be in circulation by 2030.
The survey summarises the findings of the array of CBDC pilots and projects countries are undertaking across the world to gain concrete projections of how the digital currency may impact the global financial sector.
Surveying 86 central banks, the report revealed that CBDC work has risen by 93% and that retail CBDC work has entered advanced stages over the last year or so.
Furthermore, BIS projected that there could be as much as 15 retail and wholesale CBDCs circulating publicly by the end of the decade, with many central banks believing them to hold potential value for years to come.
The BIS report read: “If issued, retail CBDCs can be expected to complement and coexist with other domestic payment methods: most jurisdictions either have or plan to launch an FPS and believe that there may be value in having both an FPS and a retail CBDC.
“This underlines the importance of ensuring interoperability with existing payment systems to be sure that payers and payees can seamlessly make and receive payments, regardless of the payment method or service provider.”
“Enhancing cross-border payments is among the key drivers of central banks’ work on wholesale CBDCs. To achieve this objective, the interoperability of CBDCs should go beyond jurisdictional boundaries.”
In the previous edition of the BIS report in 2022, it was indicated that many central banks explored alternative options for cryptoassets following the crash in the summer of last year.


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For a franchise that is supposed to focus on stealth, Ubisoft is not doing a great job of keeping the potential existence of a new Splinter Cell title under wraps.
The most recent addition to months of rumors comes from Reddit user Drunk_Uncle_Pete, who noticed a pair of replica Splinter Cell goggles available for purchase on GameStop’s website. While the night vision goggles are cool enough on their own, the really interesting detail can be found in the products description: “For the first time since the introduction of Splinter Cell in 2002, after nine top selling AAA+ titles, and with the 10th release on the horizon, this is your first chance to own Sam Fisher’s signature Ultra High-Frequency Sonar Goggles.”
Of course, this “10th release” could be anything, but the detail likely points to a more substantial entry in the franchise rather than something like a mobile spinoff. In any case, GameStop has yet to remove the detail in the description, so you can check out the information for yourself or see the screenshot we took below.
Just before E3 this year, Ubisoft had another peculiar episode involving Splinter Cell. Ubisoft creative director Julian Gerighty had announced that he was working on the next entry in the series. However, Ubisoft later attempted to clarify Gerighty’s statements, saying, “Julian was obviously joking as Julian likes to do.”
Reports from July also pointed toward Facebook teaming up with Ubisoft to develop VR titles in the famous stealth franchise, though no details have been shared on that front quite yet.
The last mainline entry in the Splinter Cell series came in 2013 with Splinter Cell: Blacklist.


text: The Motion Picture Association of America and movie theaters have updated guidelines to officially ban Google Glass and other wearable technology capable of recording. In other words, the copyright-conscious industry doesn’t want people recording movies. At least one theater has dealt with Glass before. Earlier this year, an Ohio moviegoer was questioned by law enforcement for watching while wearing Glass. He wasn’t recording; he was relying on the prescription lenses.


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville couple invests their life's savings in fried chicken and cornbread. It's part of the effort to bring new life into a once neglected part of town.
Whether it's big business or a small, locally owned company, more stores and restaurants seem to be springing up in Valley Station these days.
Mapco, a convenience store and fuel station company based in Tennessee, is the latest of several new businesses that have opened in Valley Station during the past several years.
"I've noticed that a lot of buildings that had been vacant for a long time have been torn down and a lot of new businesses have been coming in and it's really nice to see that happen in this end of town," says Valley Station resident Joshua Yates.
Just up the road, along Dixie Highway a locally owned diner has opened again.
Tom Whitted and his wife put what he describes as their life savings to reopen Jessie's Diner, a popular restaurant for many years until it closed two years ago.
"After talking to many, many people, there are just so many fond memories of Jessie's it just seemed right," says Whitted, "everybody talks about having to drive to the east end or to Bardstown Road to go to a nice place, we wanted to do a nice place and have it be part of the valley.
His restaurant serves up what he describes as country comfort food in an unusual setting.
"I call it nostalgic new," says Whitted, "it has got that feeling of an old time diner, yet it's kind of updated and new looking."
The Louisville Independent Business Association (LIBA) is working to get more locally owned businesses to locate in the southwest part of town.
"We are undertaking an education campaign for other independent businesses that are in other areas of town to take a look at the South End," says LIBA Director, Jennifer Rubenstein, "there are a lot of independent businesses that are already there which is great but we really want to add to that critical mass and give people a lot of options for their buying dollar."
LIBA is planning a bus tour later this summer for business owners to check out the possibilities of locating in Southwest Jefferson County.
Copyright 2014 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.


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Spending on mobility solutions is expected to increase 3.2 percent this year, with global spending hitting $1.6 trillion, driven by mobility-related hardware, software and services.
That’s according to a new “Worldwide Semiannual Mobility Spending Guide” from market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), which expects spending to surpass $1.7 trillion in 2021, marking a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8 percent.
“The new mobility use cases and technology adoption in enterprises is driving growth in all three facets of the market, from devices to software and services,” said Phil Hochmuth, program director, Enterprise Mobility, in a press release highlighting the new research. “As device capabilities continue to evolve with augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI), and with 5G networks on the near horizon, technology choices for mobile technology buyers will become increasingly complex and critical to business success.”
According to the IDC, from 2016 through 2021 mobility services will be the largest tech category, accounting for close to 60 percent of all mobility spending and passing the $1 trillion mark by 2021. The category is dominated by mobile connectivity services that will drive more than 90 percent of all mobile services spending. Spending growth is also expected to come on the business side, with enterprise mobility services seeing a five-year CAGR of 15 percent.
Enterprise mobility services are focused on the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance and support of mobile applications and devices at companies. Hardware is expected to be the second-largest tech category, with spending expected to reach close to $675 billion by 2021. Smartphones are expected to account for around 75 percent of all hardware spending. Notebook computers are expected to see spending growth of 1.5 percent CAGR during the forecast period, while tablets are expected to see a decline of 1.9 percent.
Software may be the smallest tech category in mobility, but IDC said it will see growth of 14.7 percent CAGR over the five-year forecast period. Mobile enterprise applications will drive mobile software spending, with the IDC predicting it will hit $7.1 billion by 2021.
“Organizations of all sizes and from all industries are enjoying the benefits of mobile solutions,” said Jessica Goepfert, program vice president, Customer Insights & Analysis. “In industries further along the adoption curve, mobility projects incorporate other transformational elements, such as IoT [Internet of Things], cloud and Big Data to challenge — and change — the status quo. Even smaller-scale mobility solutions are expanding from their initial single-function footprint to empower and enable workers across the enterprise. For instance, in transportation, airplane pilots may have been the initial target users of mobile devices and applications, whereas now we see mobile devices in the hands of customer service agents, baggage handlers, mechanics and other transportation employees. So long as organizations strive to gain efficiencies and deliver a superior customer experience, we expect to see continued interest, adoption, spending and growth of mobility solutions.”


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Hermes opened its 160,000ft² Warrington hub last week, which is capable of handing 550,000 parcels per day. The £14m hub will help the operator expand its next-day and international delivery services, as well as increase capacity for the Christmas peak. An automated scanner with the ability to process 20,000 parcels an hour (pictured right) has also been installed at the site. The operator has created 60 additional roles with the opening of the hub in various positions. Hermes CEO Carole […]
XPO Logistics has been awarded the contract to manage a new fulfilment centre in Lichfield, Staffordshire for online fashion retailer ASOS.
Hermes has won Poundland’s new home delivery contract, after the single-priced retailer said it planned to trial an online shopping system earlier this week.
Hermes has slashed its CO2 output by 6% in the past year, with the business achieving savings of 18.4% since 2008. The parcels firm has set itself a target of a 20% reduction by 2015. The reductions are part of a strategy implemented by German parent Otto Group, which requires a 50% reduction across the entire business by 2020. In the past 12 months, Hermes has adopted automated transmission across all tractor units within its trunking operation, which has improved […]


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EBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) pulled its same-day delivery service app from the App Store. The Now app, which allowed customers to shop from their phones and receive the items from local retailers later that same day, will now be dropped as the company focuses on click-and-collect.
It seems eBay is now rethinking the high cost of offering same-day delivery, reported TechCrunch. According to a company spokesperson, though the standalone application no longer exists, the idea will be folded into eBay's main mobile app and website.
The delivery service launched in 2012 in the San Francisco area and later expanded into San Jose, the Bay Area Peninsula, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Dallas and Chicago. Originally, the company announced the app would expand into 25 markets by the end of 2014.
To accommodate the service, eBay acquired British startup Shutl in 2013 to make same-day deliveries.
Retailers who had partnered with eBay on Now include Home Depot, Target, Macy's GNC, Walgreens, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Office Depot, Urban Outfitters and RadioShack.
So while the service will morph, it will not completely go away. EBay will focus on providing a click-and-collect service for smaller sellers, with annual sales under $100,000.
Last month, eBay's CEO John Donahoe said that same-day delivery was costly and not essential for eBay's core consumer, reported Re/code. He went on to say that same-day delivery was more important for grocery deliveries, consumables and that it was "not really the sweet spot for eBay."
EBay debuted a test of its click-and-collect service in the U.K. in late 2013. And after initial success, the online marketplace extended its partnership with Argos so that shoppers can now choose from a wider range of eBay sellers for pick up at 650 Argos stores.
-See this TechCrunch article
-See this Re/code article
Amazon lockers now accept returns
DSW partners with eBay for in-store pickup
Ebay's new fulfillment center to support growth in Canada
EBay adds full-price Designer Collective
EBay CEO comments pave way for Bitcoin growth


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For Dow stocks, AXP, BA, CVX, JNJ and MMM are all at 52 week highs. There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.
Tuesday, the Dow closed up a couple of points at 14,450.06 and made it’s sixth straight day of record highs.
This morning we are up +11, but we have now had eight straight days higher.
Will the Dow winning streak have nine lives?
Boeing (BA) was given the go-ahead by the FAA to test its new battery casing as it looks to get the grounded 787 Dreamliner’s back in the air.
Americans spent at the fastest pace in five months in February, boosting retail spending +1.1 percent compared with January. About half the jump reflected higher gas prices, but even excluding gas purchases, retail sales were up 0.6 percent.
European markets are mostly lower and Asian markets ended mostly lower.
The national average price of gasoline is up three-tenths of a cent to $3.706 per gallon.
There are no Dow stocks set to announce earnings in the near term.
Express Inc. (EXPR) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.74 vs. $0.70 a year ago.
Guess? (GES) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.87 vs. $1.05 a year ago.
Complete Genomics (GNOM) is expected to report a fourth quarter loss of $0.53 per share vs. a loss of $0.67 per share a year ago.
Hot Topic (HOTT) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.27 vs. $0.21 a year ago.
The Men’s Warehouse (MW) is expected to report a fourth quarter loss of $0.05 per share vs. a loss of $0.05 per share a year ago.
0700 ET Weekly MBA mortgage applications, previous +14.8% with purchase sub-index +15.0% and refi sub-index +14.8%.
0830 ET Feb import price index expected +0.5% m/m, Jan +0.6% m/m and -1.3% y/y.
0830 ET Feb retail sales expected +0.5% m/m, Jan +0.1% m/m. Feb retail sales ex-autos expected +0.5% m/m, Jan +0.2% m/m. Feb retail sales ex-autos and ex-gas expected +0.3% m/m, Jan +0.2% m/m.
1000 ET Jan business inventories expected +0.3%, Dec +0.1%.
1030 ET DOE Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
1300 ET Treasury auction of $21 billion in 10-year T-notes.


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SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Online dealer reviews on social media networks are now playing a bigger role in the dealership selection process, according to Digital Air Strike’s Spring 2013 Automotive Social Media and Reputation Trend Study.
The bi-annual study included an in-depth analysis of how 650 U.S. dealers use social media, as well as an online survey of 2,000 consumers who purchased a vehicle in the last six months. The majority of car buyers said they consider review sites as “helpful” in their dealership selection process. The study also found that 24 percent of consumers consider online review sites to be the “most helpful” factor, exceeding all other factors, including the 15 percent of car buyers who consider dealership websites “most helpful.”
The study also showed that review sites are becoming increasingly important in organic search. Eighty-one percent of car buyers who use review sites said they look at review scores in search results. The dealer component of the study revealed that, on average, five review sites show up in search results.
Car buyers use the Top 5 sites 13 percent more than just six months ago. The most popular review sites were Cars.com (61 percent, previously 55), Edmunds.com (54 percent, previously 50), Google+ Local (37 percent, previously 44), Yelp (14, no change), and Yahoo (11 percent, no change) — the same rank order as the October 2012 study.
The study also revealed that there is a 43 percent probability that a consumer will search for a local dealer on Facebook using Facebook’s new Graph Search. Additionally, 67 percent of car buyers search for local business using mobile devices, with 41 percent having “checked-in” to a local business using their mobile device.
Additional Facebook findings include:
• There is a 59 percent probability that a consumer will trust a review from a Facebook friend vs. reviews on other sites.
• Twenty-seven percent of car buyers click on mobile ads on Facebook.
• There is a 45 percent probability that a consumer will view the dedicated feed for brands in the forthcoming Facebook News Feed.
• Clicks on automotive dealership Facebook ads more than doubled from October 2012 to April 2013 — from 16 percent up to 39 percent.


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Yes, there is currently a lawsuit against Seresto, an anti-flea and tick dog collar maker. The complaint alleges that the Seresto collars have caused harm to both pets and their owners due to its use of insecticides including permethrin and pyriproxyfen, two chemical ingredients that can cause skin irritation, hair loss, vomiting, seizures and worse.
The complaint was filed by concerned pet owners in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, pointing out potential defects in design regarding the collars. Plaintiffs claim Seresto failed to warn consumers or provide instructions on safe uses despite knowing or should have known of the harm these chemicals can cause if handled carelessly or without proper warning. The plaintiffs allege they suffered physical and emotional damages due to them using their pet’s collar.
The lawsuit claims that defendant Bayer Animal Health has neglected their duty to test the products before it was released and failed at performing proper research regarding the potential risks posed when using these products long-term. If a jury decides in favor of plaintiffs, restitution could be offered as well as possible punitive damages for disregarding aware consumers about potential danger when using these collars on cats and dogs
Who has Filed the Lawsuit?
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Seresto for injuries caused by the flea-and-tick product, which contains a chemical called imidacloprid. The lawsuit claims that Seresto causes adverse reactions and serious health problems, including neurological damage from the high levels of imidacloprid in the product.
The lawsuits have been consolidated for pretrial issues before a federal judge in Pennsylvania. The primary plaintiffs in the case are animal owners throughout the U.S., including many individuals who used Seresto on their pets and then experienced negative health effects from it. However, other groups such as animal advocacy organizations have also filed suits against Bayer Animal Health, who manufactures Seresto, claiming that their product is dangerous and should not be allowed on the market.
The outcome of this case will likely decide whether or not Seresto will still be made and sold in stores.
What Are the Key Allegations Raised?
The lawsuits allege that Seresto is responsible for causing pets to suffer health problems due to their https://www.seresto-collar.com/ use of the flea and tick collar. The key allegations are as follows:
1. Seresto Flea & Tick Collar exposes animals to chemicals that can cause kidney, liver and thyroid problems; neurological issues such as seizures; skin reactions and hair loss; and a variety of other health issues.
2. Bayer, the manufacturers of Seresto, did not properly warn consumers about potential risks associated with their product.
3. Bayer has allegedly misrepresented the safety of Seresto’s active ingredients including transdermal Fipronil and Imidacloprid, both of which are neurotoxins or poisons suspected to cause various adverse reactions in humans and animals when handled improperly.
What Are Possible Legal Remedies Available to Pet Owners?
It is important to understand that any lawsuit may take several years, if not longer, before a resolution can be reached. Therefore, pet owners should consider all possible legal remedies available in the meantime.
One of the primary legal remedies available to pet owners is filing a product liability claim against Seresto, alleging that serious harm or death was caused due to the use of the product. In such cases, pet owners may be able to recover financial compensation for their medical bills, pain and suffering and other losses they suffered as a result of Seresto’s negligence.
In addition to damages from a product liability claim, pet owners can also pursue compensation from suing for breach of warranty and/or fraud. Breach of warranty alleges Seresto failed to meet its obligations stated in its warranties. And similarly with fraud claims; it alleges that Seresto purposely made false statements or did not accurately represent some facts about the product in order to get people to buy it. For both breach of warranty and fraud claims, plaintiffs may be supported financially through punitive damages (that help punish defendant’s conduct or discourage similar conduct) if successful in court. To best understanding what type of legal remedy your situation requires you should consult with a qualified lawyer in order evaluate your case properly.
Considering all of these
If you believe your pet may have been injured or died due to the use of a Seresto collar, there may be legal recourse available to you. It is important that you seek legal advice as soon as possible from an experienced attorney to determine your rights in this case.


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Twitter is testing a new way to display tweets that link out to e-commerce product pages — like products on a Shopify store. The company is doing this by incorporating a big “Shop” button into the tweet itself.
It’s an interesting experiment that may end up being useful for both Twitter and e-commerce businesses. However, there are some important caveats to consider:
Twitter is testing a new way to display tweets that link out to e-commerce product pages.
Twitter qatar perez techcrunch
In an effort to expand its reach and revenue opportunities, Twitter is testing a new way to display tweets that link out to e-commerce product pages. This feature could be a potential way for brands to sell directly from their profiles, something that Instagram and TikTok have both recently launched.
Users on Twitter in Qatar have spotted a new card format, which displays a “Shop” button with integrated product details inside the tweet itself. The card appears to be a bit wider than the standard “link” card, as well as taking up a bit more feed real estate. The change was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who shared screenshots of the new design on Twitter.
Twitter Shops are free, mobile-first features that allow businesses to showcase their online stores from within their profile and drive sales from the platform. They’re currently only available to selected merchants in the US, and are a part of Twitter’s larger effort around Professional Profiles.
As more people buy products through social platforms, it’s important for brands to be able to offer seamless customer experiences that encourage purchase and repeat purchases on the network. As such, Twitter is testing a new shopping feature that will let users buy products from their Twitter profiles and track the conversion rates from those clicks.
This is a good thing for brands and creators who have already built up a strong audience on the platform. It allows them to monetize their content, and create a consistent brand experience.
Another new e-commerce feature on Twitter is Product Drops, which allow brands to share sneak peeks of new products in the form of a regular Tweet. This allows them to build buzz around their latest releases and drum up anticipation before they launch officially.
Product Drops are ideal for launching new collections, as they can be used to share behind-the-scenes footage and give shoppers a sneak peak at the collection’s style, colors and packaging. They’re also a great way to track which user profiles engage with a specific Product Drop, which could help inform future advertising and marketing initiatives.
Twitter is experimenting with video chat.
Twitter is now testing a new feature that allows users to share video clips up to 30 seconds in length. It also enables them to upload videos directly from their gallery. This marks a big expansion of Twitter’s video-sharing functionality, which has already been improved by its recent acquisitions of Instagram (which allows 15-second videos) and WhatsApp.
A software reverse engineer and frequent tipster, Alessandro Paluzzi, has revealed that Twitter is working on adding an in-app video chat feature. According to Paluzzi, Twitter is testing the option with a small group of iOS users, but has not yet rolled out the feature to all Twitter accounts.
Paluzzi posted screenshots of a ‘Mute’ button on the DM page that suggests Twitter is working on an in-app video call feature that will be similar to those found on platforms like Telegram and Signal. The ‘Mute’ button is also supposed to let you prevent a user from calling you, something that will be helpful for those who might receive unwanted calls in the future.
This is an important addition to Twitter, as the social network has struggled to compete with apps like Facebook and Instagram that already have a video-calling feature. The added functionality will undoubtedly make the platform more appealing to a wider range of users, especially those who are already using video-chat apps such as WhatsApp or Instagram.
The company is also working on a new audio Spaces feature, which will allow users to create audio-only chat rooms where their connections can listen in or participate. Unlike with Fleets, where creators have to use the hashtag to highlight live broadcasts, audio Spaces will be notified to users right at the top of their feed.
One of the biggest challenges for creators on Twitter has been content discovery – there are often no notifications when a broadcast is happening, and it can be hard to find a particular discussion if you’re not following the people who are broadcasting. This will hopefully help with that, and it will also mean that users can have access to a more diverse range of content, which is one of the things that made Fleets so popular in the first place.
Twitter is experimenting with a new way to search for people.
Twitter is testing a new way to search for people that might make it easier for people to find others who are interested in the same things as them. The new feature works like a social search engine, which allows you to filter through people’s tweets using specific keywords. It’s available in the iOS app, but it’s only being tested with a small group of users.
The search bar is located in the Home tab of the iOS app, which is a new addition to Twitter’s mobile apps. Currently, the search bar is only accessible through a separate tab in the Twitter app, but now the social network is looking to make it a permanent part of the Home screen.
This new option, according to techcrunch, is being tested by a small group of users in the US and Canada. It’s called “Nearby” and it displays a map of nearby tweets in the upper half, with icons that show where each person is mentioning the microblogging site.
What’s more, the map will show a timeline of recent nearby tweets as well, which will have images linked to them. As you move around the map, more picture-linked tweets will pop up.
Despite the fact that this could be a handy tool for finding people who are interested in the same things as you, it raises a number of privacy concerns. The feature could also allow Twitter to use user location data to target ads in a specific area.
In another test, the platform is experimenting with content warnings on photos and videos sent out through tweets. This feature is only being tested with some users, and it will let you add specific content warnings to individual photos and videos.
For example, if you flag an image that you think contains sensitive material, it will appear blurred out and overlaid with a warning. The text of the warning can be customized, and you can choose whether it’s for “nudity,” “violence,” or “sensitive.”
Twitter is also experimenting with a new feature that will let you share links through direct messages to people who have asked to receive them. This is a useful tool for those who share a lot of their tweets with friends via direct messaging. The feature is available to a small group of users, but it’s worth checking out if you regularly communicate with friends on Twitter via direct messaging.
Twitter is experimenting with a new way to send direct messages.
Twitter is a popular social media platform where people post tweets, which are short updates that include links and messages to other users. The tweets can be shared on other users’ timelines and can be retweeted, liked or commented on. It allows people to share breaking news and other information.
It has a user base of over 253 million active monthly users and is targeting close to one billion. But it can occasionally be difficult to use Twitter due to a number of glitches, outages and technical issues that can happen from time to time.
This is why Twitter is always looking for ways to improve its service and is constantly experimenting with new features. This new experiment aims to make it easier for users to send direct messages on iOS, without having to slide into the inbox through the DM button.
In order to do this, Twitter is testing a shortcut that lets users send a Direct Message from within a tweet rather than visiting their profile and searching for the person they want to DM. It works by putting an envelope icon on your message, rather than the usual search tab, which could save users a tap or two when they are attempting to contact someone directly.
The new DM shortcut is being tested on iOS only and it works like this: If you see a tweet that you would like to DM, simply tap the envelope icon in the upper right corner. Once you have done so, Twitter will then display a message box where you can start a conversation.
Alternatively, you can also retweet or like the tweet to show that you agree with it and add to the conversations around it. This option also allows you to reply to the tweet, and it will show you the replies from other Twitter users who have retweeted the same tweet.
This feature is currently only available on iOS, but it is expected to expand to other platforms soon. It is a small-scale test, but it will be interesting to see how users react.


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These are dark days for the environmental movement. A year after being on the cusp of passing landmark legislation to cap greenhouse gases, greens are coming to accept the fact that the chance of national and international action on climate change has become more remote than ever. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is under attack by newly empowered Republicans in Congress who argue that the very idea of environmental protection is unaffordable for our debt-ridden country. Accustomed to remaining optimistic in the face of long odds, the environmental movement all at once faces a challenge just to stay relevant in a hostile political climate. In 2004, authors Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus faced a harsh backlash from the greens when they released a polemic essay called "The Death of Environmentalism," but now it appears they might have been ahead of their time.
|Urban gardening is becoming increasingly popular
What makes the food movement so unusual is that it's not a single national movement at all, it's a series of organized smaller mobilizations — which is both an asset and a liability. A sustainable-food conference I attended in Manhattan over the weekend, put on under the TED imprimatur, shows the striking diversity of the movement(s). Laurie David, the Hollywood environmentalist and co-producer of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, explained how regular family dinners improve not just eating habits but also classroom grades and good behavior. Cheryl Rogowski, an organic farmer in New York's Hudson Valley, talked about the challenges and rewards of producing for the local food market. Dr. Scott Kahan, an obesity expert at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, spoke about the role that mass advertising plays in promoting unhealthy foods for kids. Britta Riley, a New York City–based artist, talked about window farming in the city and the growth of DIY urban agriculture. That's the food movement today: farming and eating and health and policy and business, all jostling for position and influence, but increasingly finding a common cause.
What's amazing is how quickly the food movement has become a measurable force in American society. Environmentalism can trace its origins to the Sierra Club founder John Muir pushing for the establishment of America's first national parks in 1899, but until recently, food wasn't really on the radar for progressives, beyond the mission of coping with world hunger. It wasn't until the food-safety scandals of the 1980s and '90s — followed by the publication of exposés like Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and the growing threat of obesity — that Americans really started paying attention to what they were eating. Some of them weren't very happy with it — and they wanted a change.
They're making one. There are now thousands of community-supported agriculture programs around the country, up from just two in 1986. There are more than 6,000 farmers' markets, up 16% from just a year ago. Sales of organic food and beverages hit nearly $25 billion in 2009, up from $1 billion in 1990, and no less a corporate behemoth than Walmart has muscled into the organic industry, seeking out sustainable suppliers. Green chefs like Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., have become national superstars, and local sourcing has become a must for hip restaurants in Brooklyn, Berkeley and in between. First Lady Michelle Obama — she of the organic White House garden — has decided to make childhood obesity her signature issue, and she's done so by pushing the food industry to provide healthier fruits and vegetables over cheap processed options. Even the Department of Agriculture — usually a staunch ally of mainstream farming and the distributor each year of billions in often wasteful agricultural subsidies — has gotten into the sustainability game with its "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program, which connects consumers with local producers.
Why has the food movement sprouted so rapidly, even as traditional environmentalism has stalled? Simple: it's about pleasure. Before the political games, before worries about dead zones and manure lagoons, before concerns about obesity and trans fat, the food movement arose around a simple principle: food should taste better. Like their environmental brethren, foodies could be accused of trying to force people to eat their vegetables — but these vegetables are more than metaphorical: they are from a local organic farm and they're sautéed to perfection. The food movement has also directly jacked into that other great American obsession — health — in a way that distant concerns about climate change have largely failed to do. And there's the simple fact that food is present in our lives in a way that endangered species or deforestation or Arctic melting simply aren't. We buy food, we cook food (though less and less frequently) and three times a day, we eat food — occasionally while watching cooking shows.
The challenge for the food movement will come as it matures and begins to take on established political interests. Even with all the growth and all the glossy magazine covers, sustainable food still makes up only a tiny portion of the overall American food system. Perhaps 1% of total U.S. cropland is farmed organically, and organic food and beverages still command less than 4% of the national market, even after years of growth. Slow Food USA — one of the most dynamic of the new food-movement groups — has perhaps 20,000 members nationwide, while the Sierra Club has more than 1.3 million. As foodies go from promoting the perfect heirloom tomato to tackling the country's entrenched agricultural practices, they'll need a new level of commitment, organization and energy. That challenge will only be tougher if the food movement is somehow seen as competing with environmentalism.
But here's the good news — the two sides aren't really competing. As the food movement matures and grows, it could end up being the best vehicle available for achieving environmental goals. The industrialized way we farm today damages our land, our water and our climate. Reforming agriculture and promoting sustainability won't just help us get better and healthier food; it will also fight greenhouse-gas emissions and water pollution. The food movement has been criticized as elitist, but that reputation belies recent efforts to get low-cost fruits and vegetables to urban poor who suffer disproportionately from obesity and diabetes.
Environmentalists once thought that the only way to create lasting change in the U.S. and the rest of the world was by controlling our carbon emissions. Not quite. As Brian Halweil, a leading thinker on sustainable food, put it in Saturday's TED conference, "If the environmental movement is dead, then I say, 'Long live the food movement.'" Environmental and social changes are coming — and they will be served up on our dinner plates.


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The Electronic Frontier Foundation today launched a new online tool that tracks changes in the Terms of Service agreements of 44 Web sites like Google, eBay, Amazon, Craigslist and Facebook.
The foundation’s TOSBack.org site automatically checks every hour for changes in terms of service, privacy policies and other user agreements.
It then displays the terms side-by-side against previous versions, some culled from the Wayback Machine, with deletions highlighted in blue and additions highlighted in yellow.
Most people skip reading the TOS because it’s boring and confusing. “When you do look at it, in most cases you’ve got to be a lawyer to understand it,” Tim Jones, the foundation’s activism and technology manager, said in an interview. “And even if you are a lawyer, a lot of it can be vague.”
But that language is the foundation of a person’s relationship with the Web site or service.
“Some changes to terms of service are good for consumers,
and some are bad,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann in a statement. “But Internet users are increasingly trusting websites with everything from their photos to their ‘friends lists’ to their calendar – and sometimes even their medical information.”
Back in February, when social media network Facebook changed its terms of service, it sparked a grassroots revolt over privacy concerns. In April, Facebook went back to the old policy after a vote by members.
Some terms go months without changes, and when it happens, it’s to clean up language or typos. But then there’s cases like when eBay changed its user agreement five times between 4 p.m. May 14 and 6 p.m. May 15. The biggest change was language clarifying eBay’s policy on counterfeit items.
Right now, the TOS tracker right can’t explain why the changes are made or what they mean, but it can alert watchdogs out on the Internet who can.
“We launched it to get people talking and thinking about these issues,” Jones said.


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A former Rockstar developer has shared new details about the fate of the studio’s cancelled spy game Agent.
Announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive at E3 2009, the game was planned to take place in a 1970s Cold War setting, but it was ultimately abandoned for being “too much of a distraction” from the company’s work on Grand Theft Auto.
That’s according to former technical director Obbe Vermeij, who spent 14 years with Rockstar North before leaving in 2009.
He said the original plan was to split Rockstar North into two teams, with half working on GTA 4 and the other half working on Agent, which was codenamed Jimmy.
“It was a James Bond game and Jimmy is the Scottish version of James,” he wrote in a blog post that has since been unpublished (via Rock Paper Shotgun).
“The game was to be set in the 70s, be more linear than GTA with a number of locations. There was a French Mediterranean city, A Swiss ski resort, Cairo and at the end there would be a big shootout with lasers in space.”
Vermeij said he worked on Agent for over a year before the studio decided to prioritise development of GTA 4.
“The game wasn’t progressing as well as we’d hoped,” he said. “It was inevitable that eventually the whole company would have to get behind GTA4.
“We tried to cut the game down in an attempt the get the bulk of it done before the inevitable call from [Rockstar New York] would come. We cut out an entire level (I think Cairo) and maybe even the space section.
“It became clear that Jimmy was going to be too much of a distraction for us and we ditched it. I think it was handed over to another company within R* but never got completed.”
Following several renewals, Rockstar abandoned its Agent trademark in 2018, before pulling the game’s website in 2021.


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MEET THE AFRICAN PIONEERS SAYING BYE BYE TO PLASTIC
There’s a terrible irony in plastic.
When the likes of John Wesley Hyatt and Leo Baekeland created the first celluloid and Bakelite products, their invention held the promise of helping to save the planet.
That may sound ludicrous today, in an age where plastic waste contaminates the most far-flung corners of the globe. But turn back the clock a century or so, and the environmental toll of an increasingly affluent world was enormous.
The shell of the Hawksbill turtle was used for hair combs, and thousands of pounds of elephant ivory were consumed each year, simply for making the billiard balls that clacked on baize tables from Sri Lanka to upstate New York. Plastic promised to save the natural world from our ever-growing consumption.
But, as we have discovered to our cost, the tide has turned too far. Particles of plastic pollute nearly every corner of the planet. Scientists have labelled plastic pollution in the sea ‘an ocean Armageddon’, amid fears that, by 2050, the world’s oceans will contain by weight more plastic than fish.
As governments and corporations take a cold, hard look at their addiction to plastic, many lodges, hotels and eco-tourism operators in Africa are likewise investing enormous energy and expense into reducing their use of single-use plastics.
The low-hanging fruit on this front is the proliferation of single-use water bottles. More than 480 billion plastic bottles were sold worldwide in 2016, and Euromonitor International forecasts that this figure will leap by another 100 billion bottles by 2021.
Once seen as a necessary luxury on safari or a seaside escape, the plastic bottle has become the prime target in the industry’s laudable efforts to cut down on plastic.
andBeyond have poured an enormous investment into this sphere, providing guests with reusable bottles and sourcing glass bottles for use at camp. Further, they have installed sophisticated water purification and bottling plants at half of all its lodges, with the remainder due to be completed by mid-2018. In its South African lodges, food-to-go packs are now filled with glass bottles, not plastic.
The impact is immediate – and impressive: by bottling water on-site and using glass and aluminium bottles, camps such as Kichwa Tembo (Kenya) and Ngorongoro Crater Lodge (Tanzania) have reduced their usage by up to 9,000 plastic bottles per month.
Mhondoro Game Lodge in South Africa’s Limpopo province have also invested in a water-purification plant to fill reusable bottles across the lodge. In guest rooms, refillable glass bottles have replaced plastic, and each guest receives a personalised aluminium water bottle for use on game drives.
Great Plains Conservation in Botswana were also early-adopters of the trend, and have been providing guests with reusable water canisters for more than a decade. Borehole water is filtered and UV-purified to provide clean drinking water without the carbon footprint.
Drinking straws are another plastic polluter receiving its share of scrutiny. The United States alone consumes 500 million straws each day, and lawmakers from Scotland to California are attempting to outlaw one of the worst single-use offenders.
Backing the global ‘straw war’, Cape Town’s striking seaside lodge Tintswalo Atlantic have banned all plastic straws, replacing them with re-usable glass straws.
“Although straws amount to a tiny fraction of ocean plastic, their size makes them one of the most insidious polluters”, says Lisa Goosen, owner of Tintswalo Atlantic. “Our location right on the Atlantic Ocean, where we witness amazing sea life every day, constantly reminds us about the vulnerability of nature, and we feel very strongly about supporting the environmental campaign to stop using plastic straws to help save the oceans.”
In Botswana, Great Plains Conservation have come up with a home-grown solution to the problem, employing local women in the Tsutsubega community northwest of Maun to harvest indigenous letaka reeds and fashion them into drinking straws.
“They strip the reeds, cut [them] to straw length, clean the inside and then sandpaper the ends so they are smooth”, explains Hilton Walker, Sales and Marketing Director at Great Plains Conservation. “Each straw takes several minutes to make and is labour-intensive, but the initiative revolutionises the throwaway straw industry.”
Amongst their other initiatives focused on reducing the use of bottled water and plastic wrap, Wilderness Safaris have also turned their back on plastic straws, and are instead producing replacements made from materials such as glass, bamboo and paper.
Asilia Africa have also introduced planet-friendly straws in all of its camps. Made from organically-grown rye, with no harmful chemicals or bleaches added, the straws are completely biodegradable and compostable.
The company – which operate camps in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar – have also removed all cotton buds from its camps, banned the use of cling film, and introduced reusable stainless-steel water bottles. It’s not a new initiative, though: in 2016, Asilia Africa replaced all plastic lunch packs with biodegradable containers and cutlery made from sugarcane, paper and wood.
“Waste reduction is one part of our sustainability drive”, explains Cai Tjeenk Willink, Group Operations Manager for Asilia Africa. “We’re aiming for the complete elimination of single-use plastics in our operations.”


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The athleticwear fashion brand has entered into a partnership with Hydrow, the rowing machine company that, similar to Peloton, offers live and on-demand in-home athlete-led workouts.
The partnership goes live on Nov. 4, with the launch of a dedicated Hydrow experience on Fabletics.com and Hydrow pop-up shops in select Fabletics stores nationwide. The pop-ups will offer shoppers the opportunity to try out Hydrow. (Unlike Peloton, Hydrow, whose rowing unit is priced a bit under $2,300, does not operate stores.) In addition to the pop-ups, the rowing unit will also be for sale in all new Fabletics stores going forward.
Fabletics members (refers to the two million customers that opt-in to a monthly purchase program) will be able to purchase a Hydrow at special pricing, plus an exclusive accessories and gear package. Hydrow is also creating unique content and fitness milestone rewards specifically for the Fabletics members.
As part of the partnership, Fabletics will serve as Hydrow’s official apparel partner, designing and producing all Hydrow apparel. Hydrow’s trainers will exclusively wear Fabletics in all of Hydrow’s workouts.
“We know that 73% of our two million VIP members are working out more than three times per week, and that they love trying something new,” said Adam Goldenberg, co-founder and co-CEO, TechStyle Fashion Group, parent company of Fabletics. “With Hydrow, we are bringing them the best workout they can get in 20 minutes – demonstrably more effective than cycling or running.”
Fabletics currently has 51 stores across the country. In a report by WWD, Goldenberg he has been signing leases for new stores and expects the brand will have 100 stores within the next couple of years.
“We’re completely on track [with business projections] if not a little ahead of where we’d thought we’d be,” Goldenberg told WWD.
“Hydrow is committed to breaking barriers in rowing and making the sport accessible to everyone. Our partnership with Fabletics will help us continue to advance our mission,” commented Bruce Smith, CEO of Hydrow. “By collaborating with Fabletics’ loyal and expansive community, we will be able to bring the Hydrow experience to millions of people who are in search of a workout that not only pushes their body, but focuses their mind. We look forward to this meaningful partnership with Fabletics and to bringing them on board as our exclusive apparel partner.”
The Fabletics x Hydrow partnership goes live with the launch of a dedicated Hydrow experience on Fabletics.com and in-store Hydrow pop-up shops in seven Fabletics retail locations across the country on Nov. 4. The pop-ups will offer Fabletics members and guests the opportunity to experience Hydrow’s immersive concept and unmatched workout performance via demonstrations with Hydrow experts.
Hydrow’s patented immersive technology and 22-inch HD screen allow users to travel the world, no passport required. Hydrow users get the feel of being right on the river as they are transported from their living rooms to waterways around the globe. This unique immersive experience is coupled with game-changing workout performance – Hydrow users receive an unsurpassed full-body workout, in half the time as other cardio machines.
Fabletics x Hydrow will celebrate their new partnership throughout the quarter with a series of surprise-and-delight moments, which will include social media giveaways, special online events, retail activations, and more.
The Fabletics x Hydrow exclusive deal is available to Fabletics VIP members in-store and online at Fabletics.com, with connected fitness pop-ups at Fabletics stores in Bellevue Square in Bellevue, Wash.; Domain Northside in Austin, Texas; St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville, Fla.; Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton, Calif.; King of Prussia, Pa.; Natick Mall in Natick, Mass.; and American Dream in East Rutherford, N.J.


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Cloud-based collaboration platform Box is the latest addition to the tt-exchange programme, enabling UK charities access to licences at much reduced cost. Box allows users to access, share and collaborate on time-sensitive work in the cloud from any device. See Technology Trust news item.
Also new to the tt-exchange programme is the Shopify platform. This will allow UK charities to set up and run their own online shops through donated one-year subscriptions. Again see Technology Trust website for more.
And over on The Guardian, Small Charities Week prompts them to highlight an article on online fundraising platforms suitable for smaller organisations, first published in December 2014.


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Huawei has today announced the world’s first tablet with Android Honeycomb V3.2. Powered by a powerful Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core processor, the MediaPad is Huawei’s slimmest and lightest tablet so far, measuring just 10.5mm thick and weighing 390g.
The MediaPad has a 7-inch IPS touchscreen and supports Adobe Flash content, 1080p video playback, and it also has two cameras; 1.3-megapixel at the front and a 5-megapixel autofocus sensor at the back.
For fast data connectivity, the tablet also supports 3G with HSPA+ for speeds up to 14.4Mbps and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.
Victor Xu, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Device said: “With the Huawei MediaPad, we are demonstrating yet again that design, functionality and performance is within anyone’s reach. The 7-inch tablet remains the preferred size for portability and Android Honeycomb 3.2 is dedicated to enhance the full potential of 7-inch tablets.
The MediaPad is scheduled to be released before the end of the year.


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Main Street welcomes resale store shooting
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Import duty on crude, refined palm oils hiked
Commodity Alert: Import duty on crude, refined palm oils hiked
Aimed at safeguarding the interests of the domestic edible oil crushing industry and oilseed farmers in India, the Ministry of Finance last week increased the import duty on refined and crude palm oil to the highest levels in recent years. In a late-night announcement by the Department of Revenue, the government hiked the import duty on Crude Palm Oil (CPO) to 44 per cent from 30 per cent and on Refined Bleached Deodorized (RBD) palmolein to 54 per cent from 40 per cent with effect from March 1, 2018. There is no change in duty on soft oils.
(Impact: Positive for CPO)
Source : Business line


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While many had hoped the G7 ban on Russian polished diamonds would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024, it will probably start next March at the earliest, sources involved in talks on planning the ban tell JCK.
G7 representatives working on the issue have said they intend to finalize a proposal by mid-November. Then they will send it to their respective governments, which may decide to modify it, either on their own or in tandem with other G7 countries. (The G7 is a forum for members to coordinate policy but has no power to enforce anything it recommends.)
The ban is expected to initially affect diamonds 1 carat and larger. The European Union, including Belgium, may stop importing Russian rough before it takes effect.
Coming up with a G7 plan has taken longer than expected—the original target date for a proposal was May—in part because officials have had extensive consultations with industry, including a recent visit to India.
“We are grateful for the opportunity that you have given us and the diamond industry to engage with you regarding the framework of import requirements for diamonds,” wrote De Beers CEO Al Cook in an open letter to G7 leaders published yesterday. “Throughout our discussions two things have been clear—why we should do this is easy, but how we should do it is hard.”
It’s proved so hard that even the trade can’t agree on a solution.
The Belgian government, working with Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), has submitted a plan for a Russian diamond ban. Three industry groups have also submitted proposals: the World Diamond Council (WDC); the French jewelry association UFBJOP; and India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), in conjunction with that country’s government.
Most of the plans rely on technology-based tracking services—such as Tracr, Sarine’s Diamond Journey, and Everledger—that will require information be recorded on a “distributed ledger.” One challenge is finding a way for all the systems to “talk” to one another, the same way SWIFT serves as online clearinghouse for financial transactions.
In addition, there’s growing doubt these systems can handle the large number of diamonds that will have to be tracked.
“De Beers has developed the world’s leading diamonds blockchain, Tracr, but even we recognize that no single technology-based platform is capable today of meeting the G7 requirements,” Cook wrote in his letter. “In the near-term, technology can support a framework, but it cannot be the framework.”
UFBJOP made a similar point in its proposal: “These technologies are not mature enough today to support…the entire value chain and could potentially open the door to contamination with Russian diamonds.” The association called for a “third-party evaluation” to test their reliability.
Use of the tracking services raises another issue: Previously confidential information could be made be available on a possibly open document. UFBJOP warned there is a “need for a strong and neutral cross-industry governance around a potential public ledger.”
It will likely cost companies around $20 to $30 per diamond to comply with the Belgium-backed plan, Kilian De Saeger, a policy official with Belgium’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told members of the U.S. industry on a conference call last week. Industry personnel on the call found that number high.
Belgium’s plan would route most diamond production through polished and rough “nodes” that would be located—at least initially—in Antwerp, though it’s possible G7 member Canada could have a node for rough near its mines. UFBJOP warned this could create a “bottleneck” and might not be compliant with international free trade agreements.
At the recent CIBJO Congress in Jaipur, India, WDC president Feriel Zerouki said her group’s G7 diamond protocol “does not favor one center over another” and is “equitable to all” as it would not bar “artisanal and small-scale miners, as well as members of [India’s] cottage industry and trade.”
The WDC plan calls for companies to declare on their import notices that their shipments contain no Russian diamonds; those assertions would then be audited by local trade associations. Some in the business worry that such audits could expose confidential information to competitors; others say industry self-governance won’t provide necessary assurances.
UFBJOP’s plan allows for supplier declarations, which would subsequently be backed up by a “robust quality assurance system,” to be gradually phased in. Like Belgium’s plan, the French one wouldn’t allow parcels of “mixed” origin. (Belgium makes an exception for De Beers’ “Botswana sort,” while UFBJOP’s does not.)
Under India’s proposal, a new GEMPACT system to ensure compliance with the ban would be established, administered by the GJPEC and monitored by India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The G7 is invited to set up an office in Surat or Mumbai to gauge how well GEMPACT works, the plan says.
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AT&T has confirmed that all pre-orders of its iPhone 4 have now been sold out, which is not really surprising considering the expected demand for it. In a released press release AT&T has confirmed that all pre-orders for the iPhone 4 have been completely sold out and although users still have the ability of ordering their Unlocked IPhone 4 through the internet, these would not be shipped until a later date, which would be after the 24th, the launch date of the iPhone. However, if you are a diehard Apple iPhone fan, you can still stand in line for phone on launch date.
The fact that there has been immense demand an interest in the iPhone 4 has resulted in yesterday being the busiest day in AT&T’s history. If you are a customer that has placed an order with AT&T for a preordered iPhone 4, chances are that you will get it only after the 25th due to the massive rush. Says a representative of AT&T, “Since all preorder sales of the iPhone 4 have been booked, we are planning on emailing customers that have recently placed their orders for confirmation. Once their order has been shipped, we will once again email them. At the same time, all iPhone 4 devices will be made available on a first come first serve basis from 24th June onwards.”
The amount of hype that has been generated by the iPhone 4 preorder has been immense and so it is safe to say that any leaked prototypes or glitches in the AT&T system did not affect demand. Considering the fact that many of those planning n purchasing the iPhone 4 must have recently spent money on the iPad suggests that Apple is laughing all the way to the bank. Previously the iPhone 3 and the Unlocked IPhone 3GS 32 GB had both sold more than one million devices in the first weekend and so it will not be surprising to see Apple’s latest model do better.


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Volvo has unveiled its future. The Concept Recharge is a tease at what we can expect when the all-new XC90 debuts in the coming years, making the switch to battery electric power on an all-new platform that allows for a styling revolution for the Swedish brand.
Revealed overnight the Concept Recharge previews the brand’s new EV architecture, which unlike the platform currently used for the XC40 Recharge, is built from the ground up as a bespoke EV. That will allow Volvo to do away with legacy elements of its petrol-powered models, including engine bays and transmission tunnels that compromise its design, to create a more holistic vehicle, according to head of design, Robin Page.
“Our Concept Recharge represents a manifesto for the all-electric future of Volvo Cars, as well as a new type of vehicle,” Page explained. “It displays new and modern proportions that go hand-in-hand with increased versatility and shows what technology can enable in terms of design.”
Concept Recharge has been designed under a philosophy of ‘less but better’ with Page and his designers creating a new shape of SUV, which retains the same elevated seating position customers enjoy but with a more aerodynamic shape and a more spacious cabin. For example, by placing the battery pack under the floor, it has allowed for a longer wheelbase while keeping the front and rear overhangs short.
By extending the wheelbase the interior room has been increased which has allowed for a total cabin redesign. Obviously being a concept that means some boundaries have been pushed, with the interior only having four individual seats and what appears to be a removable bag instead of a centre console, but elements such as the 15-inch touchscreen on the centre preview the next-generation of in-car infotainment.
“Inside the Concept Recharge, we create a truly Scandinavian living room feeling,” Page said. “The interior integrates our latest user experience technology with beautiful, sustainable and natural materials. Each part of the interior is like a piece of art and could stand alone as individual furniture in a room. We use the latest technologies but not for their own sake. We always focus on the benefits that technologies can bring.”
The switch to EV has also meant changes to Volvo’s traditional grille, which has been replaced by what the company calls “a shield-like structure” flanked by an evolution of its ‘Thor’s Hammer’ headlight design.
Also noticeable is the LiDAR sensor that is integrated into the roof. This is part of Volvo’s plans to develop safe autonomous driving by accumulating as much real-world data as possible.
While it’s officially only a concept, this is a preview of the all-new XC90 that’s due to launch in Europe in 2022. It will get the production version of this new generation EV platform which, like the brand’s current modular architecture, will be scalable. So expect elements of the Concept Recharge to filter down to the new XC60 and possibly the S60/V60 and other models.


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New home sales continue to rise
New home-buying momentum continued to pick up in Shanghai last week with outlying districts remaining popular, the latest market data showed.
The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 12.4 percent to about 178,000 square meters during the seven-day period through Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its regular Monday report.
For the second week, remote Fengxian District and the Nanhui area in Pudong outperformed their counterparts around the city, mainly fueled by a recent announcement by the central government to add Lingang, located in Nanhui, into Shanghai's pilot free trade zone.
Seven-day sales in Fengxian climbed 14.8 percent to around 31,000 square meters and remained little changed from a week earlier at some 30,000 square meters in Nanhui. In Songjiang, new home sales jumped 35.3 percent to 23,000 square meters.
A structural shift toward the medium to low-end segment continued to drag average price down. New homes sold for 48,292 yuan (US$6,746) per square meter on average, a week-over-week dip of 2.6 percent and the lowest in 13 months, according to Centaline data.
"Four of the 10 bestselling projects cost no more than 30,000 yuan per square meter and that was quite rare in recent months," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager. "And only one high-end development in Putuo District made into the top 10 list."
Citywide, a project in the Pudong New Area led all after selling 10,196 square meters, or 96 units, of new homes for an average price of 60,602 yuan per square meter. Four projects, two in Fengxian and two in Nanhui and all with a price tag of below 30,000 yuan per square meter, ranked between No. 3 and No. 6.
New supply, however, suffered a notable dive to 27,000 square meters, compared with 205,000 square meters released during the previous seven-day session.


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Awesome Uncharted: Golden Abyss Japanese trailer
2nd Dec 2011 | 11:57
Sony has released a new Uncharted: Golden Abyss movie ahead of the title's Japanese launch on December 17.
Like its PS3 brothers, Uncharted on Vita looks set to be the system's graphical pace setter, and developer Sony Bend seems to have done a great job of bringing the series' adventure gameplay to the new handheld, making nice use of its touch control capabilities.
If this movie's not enough for you, check out 11 more minutes of action here.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss was among the 12 first party games recently confirmed for Vita's day-one European launch line up.