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Strong numbers propel Rolls-Royce higher - but are clouds gathering over the leading UK manufacturer?
Growth engine: Rolls-Royce has enjoyed a record decade of success
Is the mighty Rolls-Royce engine starting to splutter? It might seem an odd question to pose when the group’s half-year results yesterday propelled it straight to the top of the FTSE 100 share risers’ board – not to mention a little churlish considering the company’s long-term performance numbers.
They show that, over the past decade, it has delivered impressive growth regardless of crises including SARS, the second Gulf War and the financial meltdown (see chart).
Rolls-Royce is undeniably a well-managed company with a fine track record.
Nonetheless, there are some stirrings of unease – and this is potentially of wider concern, given its importance as the country’s leading manufacturing company at a time when we are trying to rebalance the economy towards industry and exports.
On the face of it, Rolls’ half-year numbers looked good, with a 15 per cent increase in the order book to £69.2bn, a 34 per cent rise in underlying profit before tax to £840m and a 13 per cent increase in the interim dividend to 8.6p.
The shares, which have risen by more than 40 per cent in the past 12 months, duly gained another 60p to 1240p.
But there are a number of clouds for chief executive John Rishton, not least that by his own account, costs and cash outflows need to be curbed, though he has given no detail on how this will be achieved.
There was a cash outflow of £461m and a £261m increase in inventory over the period, which Rishton described as ‘disappointing’, and which suggests there is room for improvement in the supply chain.
‘It is clear we have a lot more to do on cost [and cash],’ Rishton said. Fortunately we have significant opportunities to improve both, but this will take time and firm resolve to deliver.’
Profits before financing actually dropped 30 per cent to £881m, largely because last year’s number included Rolls’ profit on selling its stake in the IEA engine-making operation to joint venture partner Pratt & Whitney.
And taking account of financing costs – which ballooned to nearly £1.6bn from £254m in the same period of 2012 after its $26.7bn hedging book was hit by movements in the dollar – Rolls slipped £491m into the red before tax.
The exercise of valuing derivatives that are used to hedge against currency movements against market prices, will involve large swings. Still, these are big numbers on any estimation.
Another cloud is the investigation into alleged bribery in China, Indonesia and other markets.
Allegations of wrongdoing were brought to Rolls’ attention by the Serious Fraud Office last year, and Rishton has appointed senior City lawyer Lord Gold to conduct an independent review of its anti-corruption controls.
Rishton has made clear he will show zero tolerance for unethical behaviour, but the episode is an embarrassment for a company with such a long-unblemished reputation.
At this point there is no question that the City is ready to give Rolls the benefit of the doubt. Howard Wheeldon, a veteran industry analyst, points out that the results are ‘in most respects excellent’ and that while cost and cashflow concerns are justified, Rishton and his team fully recognise they need to be tackled.
It would certainly be foolish to bet against the company, given its long-term record. In the past 15 years, its revenues have grown 265 per cent and the share price is up by more than 560 per cent.
While there is little it can do about the dollar exchange rate, maintaining efficient operations and controlling costs is a constant challenge for a manufacturer like Rolls, but one that history suggests the company is perfectly able to meet.
For the sake of UK plc, we have to hope so.
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Charter launches free app for customers
Charter Communications, Inc. has launched a Charter TV App, available to download for free, on the Apple iTunes App Store, Amazon Appstore and Android Apps on Google Play.
Charter TV customers can now watch over 130 live TV Channels anywhere inside their home on their mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones.
With the Charter TV App, you now have even more choice in where and how you watch your favorite programming at no extra charge. Customers can also browse On Demand titles and television listings, schedule DVR recordings, get recommendations and more. A Kid Zone feature enables easy access to pre-approved kid-friendly content, creating a safe viewing experience for children. For sports fans, the Charter TV App Sport Zone feature gives fans instant access to scores and sports content. (Sport Zone is currently available on iOS, Android is forthcoming). You can even use your device as a remote to change channels on the television. With the Charter TV App you now have full control of your TV experience in the palm of your hands.
“We are excited to bring our customers the Charter TV App delivering greater choice and flexibility in how they watch their favorite content in their homes,” said Rich DiGeronimo, Charter's senior vice president, product and strategy. “Our new Charter TV App provides a fully-interactive and user-friendly viewing experience, allowing customers to watch live TV, customize DVR recordings, and browse thousands of On Demand titles efficiently and intuitively.”
If you are having issues logging in to your account call 1-888-GET-CHARTER or visit www.Charter.com/CharterTVApp

domain: news


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Hobby Lobby Stores of Oklahoma City, Okla. recalled about 14,000 White Wood Stools due to potential safety risk.
The stools can break during use, posing fall and injury hazards.
The firm has received seven reports of the stool breaking while in use, including six incidents resulting in minor injuries.
This recall involves the White Wood Stool, which has a wooden brown curved seat with squared-off legs that are painted white with a touch of distressing.
The legs have supportive cross beams at the bottom of the stool. The stool is about 24 inches tall and 15 inches wide.
The stools were manufactured in China and were sold at Hobby Lobby stores nationwide.
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled stools and return them to the nearest Hobby Lobby store for a full refund.
There have been no reported incidents or injuries to date.
© Fourth Estate® — All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Xiaomi has a series of sub-brands that operate in the low to mid-tier segments, earning it a dominant position in markets like India. In its home nation of China, the company shifts focus to its premium products that are usually marketed under Mi branding. Following a packed 2019, when we got to see a total of four smartphones make up the the Mi 9 line, Xiaomi has refreshed its flagship series for 2020 with a pair of devices. Earlier today, the company made the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro official in China following several rounds of teasing and leaks.
There aren’t a ton of points on which the two phones differ. Both the Mi 10 and 10 Pro are powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 chip and get up to 12GB of RAM. Up front you’ll find a curved 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with an FHD+ resolution and support for 90Hz refresh rates. The display has a built-in fingerprint scanner and a hole-punch front-facing camera. Both models have a pair of stereo speakers and are 5G-enabled out of the box, but you cannot expect these Chinese units to work with US bands without a hiccup. While they share the primary 108MP camera sensor as part of a quad-cam setup, the Mi 10 Pro takes the lead with better optics.
The Pro variant differentiates itself with an 8MP telephoto lens allowing up to 10x hybrid zoom alongside a 12MP portrait lens. These cameras have already undergone DXOMARK’s scrutiny, where the Pro topped the current leaderboard with 124 points. Surprisingly, the phone houses a smaller 4,500mAh battery against the standard Mi 10’s 4,780mAh, though it can charge with a faster 50W adapter (versus the non-Pro’s 30W). The Mi 10 Pro’s display also gets a tad brighter at 1,200 nits of peak brightness (among other improvements), over the Mi 10’s 1,120 nits. Finally, the higher-end handset offers more storage across its variants starting at 256GB.
Xiaomi will launch each of these handsets in three RAM and storage configurations, for which Chinese pricing is already out:
- Mi 10 (8GB+128GB): ¥3,999 ($575)
- Mi 10 (8GB+256GB): ¥4,299 ($620)
- Mi 10 (12GB+256GB): ¥4,699 ($675)
- Mi 10 Pro (8GB+256GB): ¥4,999 ($715)
- Mi 10 Pro (12GB+256GB): ¥5,499 ($790)
- Mi 10 Pro (12GB+512GB): ¥6,999 ($860)
Those in China can already pre-order the two phones, which are set to go on sale tomorrow, February 14. According to XDA Developers, Xiaomi will bring the new Mi 10 series phones to parts of Europe, India, Russia, and Indonesia down the line.


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Based in Silicon Valley, HighSend is poised to become a leader in the industry of marketing automation.
(PRWEB) April 10, 2013
Recently launched marketing automation startup HighSend Inc is pleased to announce the release of their new HighSend + Piwik Extension for Magento, now available at Magento Connect.
With this new extension, Magento users now have the ability to automate their cross channel marketing efforts to boost sales and increase ROI. This powerful shopping cart integration tool gives online retailers the ability to engage customers in new ways utilizing social, mobile and email messaging.
HighSend utilizes the power of Piwik, a popular open source web analytics platform used by nearly half a million website owners worldwide. The extension gives retailers the power to automate their email marketing campaigns by sending targeted analytics-driven email via SendGrid, Postmark or Amazon SES.
The HighSend + Piwik Extension for Magento offers sellers a simple way to add abandoned cart and other re-marketing strategies to any online store. Features include the ability to send mobile coupons and product suggestions based on user behavior to any cell phone, email address or Facebook account utilizing the site’s new Notifications API.
The company’s extension is a fork of the Piwik Extension for Magento created by Adrian Speyer and is being released to the public for the first time. Online retailers can download the extension at Magento Connect, the Magento Extension Marketplace.
Based in Silicon Valley, HighSend is poised to become a leader in the industry of marketing automation. HighSend will soon release additional plugins for other platforms including osCommerce, Shopify and more. Company representatives will be attending ad:tech San Francisco 2013 on April 9 and 10 at the Moscone Center West to network with other experts in the field of online marketing.


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Loaded with wares and displays from more than 60 different trucking and transportation technology companies, the Technology Hub exhibition hall at TMW Systems' annual Transforum conference lived up to its name.
The conference wrapped up Wednesday, Sept. 16, in Orlando, FL. A number of exhibitors announced new products, product features or software integrations in conjunction with the three-day event, and the Tech Hub drew steady traffic from attendees testing out those as well as the rest of the exhibitors' product and service offerings.
"Increasing the quality and depth of integration with our ecosystem partners is important," TMW President David Wangler told Fleet Owner. "If someone is on the [exhibit hall] floor and they are a technology provider, it's safe to say we have some level of integration with them as their solutions and ours work together and we add more capabilities."
Some of the announcements included:
• Blue Tree Systems displayed its new hardware platform and "open Android" device and software compatibility


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Advanced Assembly Unveils New Logo Design
Advanced Assembly, a provider of electronic circuit board assembly services, has announced the launch of its new corporate brand that includes an updated logo design and new website.
The American business, which was originally founded in 2004 to help engineers assemble their prototypes and low-volume printed circuit boards (PCBs) in three days or less, says the new logo illustrates the brand’s “unique combination of experience, flexibility, quality and speed”.
“Advanced Assembly’s new logo still features a cheetah to convey the company’s focus on speed and agility. However, the cheetah has been redesigned for simplicity and boldness. It also now stands on top of an RLC circuit as a nod to electrical engineers whose trust and support is critical to the company’s success. The bright colours and smooth gradients help the mark stand out in the industry,” said a spokesperson for the Colorado-headquartered company.
“By simplifying and modernising our brand, while still paying homage to our roots, we have an opportunity to better represent who Advanced Assembly is and what we bring to market,” added the company’s marketing boss, Lisa Holmes. “Our new identity is innovative, modern and bold – just like the company.”
Source: Advanced Assembly


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We do like to be beside the seaside.
Our annual holiday study predicts a bumper year for seaside locations. Holidaymakers will spend more than ever on their Staycation break – boosting the UK economy by £20 billion with Cornwall crowned as the top UK holiday destination.
This year is set to be a bumper one for the Great British seaside as over half (58%) of Britons will holiday or take a mini break to the coast this summer, says the annual Travelodge holiday index. The report also shows that Britons will spend more than ever on their UK holidays this year – splashing out £729.80 on their breaks to give the UK economy a welcome boost of almost £20 billion.
The report, which has surveyed 3,000 British adults for the past six years, shows that 2016 is set to be the biggest year for a jaunt to the seaside since the study started.
Coastal locations dominate the list of most popular destinations, with Cornwall topping the Staycation charts for the second consecutive year, followed by Devon (3rd), Blackpool (5th), Brighton (8th) and Scarborough (10th).
The previous biggest year for visits to the seaside was 2015, when the figure was 56%. In 2013 just 31% visited a UK coastal location, showing how much the seaside has increased in popularity recently. (A full year-on-year comparison of key findings from 2011-2016 can be found in the notes to editors section).
The study also reveals that over two-thirds (67%) of Britons are taking a Staycation break this year. The average British family is taking a one-week holiday supported by four short breaks throughout 2016. A fifth (19%) of families are going all out and taking a ‘traditional’ two-week holiday.
This year British holidaymakers will be splashing out on average £729.80 on their UK break, the highest spend since the study began in 2011 and a 46% increase on last year when the average spend was £501.28. This is also an 83% increase from the lowest total holiday spend in 2013, when it was just £399.28. In total this means that Britons will spend almost £20 billion on UK holidays this year.
Over half (55%) of Britons stated that Staycation breaks provide great value which is why they are spending more this year, and 46% say their holiday is the one thing they refuse to cut back on.
The report has also highlighted that the UK’s top Staycationers are, for the second year running, in Wolverhampton, with 88% of people there taking a Staycation break and the average household spending £1,077.63. The other cities making up the top five are Bradford, Liverpool, Sheffield and Edinburgh.
The table below highlights the UK’s top Staycationers:
|Rank||Town/City||% Taking a staycation||Average spend|
After the seaside holiday, the second most popular type of UK holiday at 38% for Britons is the city break with the top locations being: London (2nd), Edinburgh (6th), Manchester (12th), York (13th) and Liverpool (17th).Over a third (34%) of Britons will explore the UK’s stunning countryside. The most popular rural holiday hotspots for this year are: The Lake District (4th), Yorkshire Dales (7th), Scottish Highlands (9th), Norfolk Broads (15th) and The Cotswolds (19th).
Top 20 Staycation destinations for 2016 and their position last year:
|7||Yorkshire Dales||Yorkshire Dales|
|11||North Wales||North Wales|
Further research findings revealed that four out of ten (40%) use their holidays as a means to explore the UK, by holidaying in multiple locations throughout the week. This helps them feel that they are taking lots of short breaks within one-week.
Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge Spokeswoman said:
“Rooms across our 512 UK hotels are selling fast for this summer, especially at our coastal locations. We have become a nation of savvy value shoppers and we want our holiday to work hard for our pound. A new trend we are seeing is more Britons taking a three in one holiday. This includes taking a city, rural and coastal break as part of a one week holiday. You need to be clever to plan your route but it is easily achievable as Great Britain has so much to offer.
“It’s also great news that 2016 is going to be a bumper year for our traditional seaside resorts. A jaunt to the seaside is going through a revival as parents yearn for their children to enjoy a traditional British seaside holiday.”
Respondents from the study also cited a sense of patriotism towards Great Britain as a holiday destination, with 80% stating that the UK is a perfect holiday destination. In addition a quarter (27%) reported that the Britain is more beautiful than any other destination in the world.The 2016 holiday report also revealed that Britons consider value (40%) as the most important aspect when booking a holiday over doing the correct research (22%), reviews (11%) and images (11%).


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Pennsylvania State Police Charge 23 Members of Alleged Used Car Fraud Ring
Pennsylvania requires all new and used car dealers to be licensed through the Secretary of State’s office. Licensure helps to protect consumers against unscrupulous used car dealers who engage in questionable–if not outright illegal–sales practices. If you are purchasing a used car, you should always make sure that you are working with a licensed dealer. This is especially true if you are working with dealers who advertise on social media, as it is far too easy to skirt licensing and regulatory requirements on the Internet.
Indeed, Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) in Lancaster recently arrested 23 individuals who were allegedly part of an “illegal vehicle sales” ring that primarily operated on social media. According to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s office, PSP began its investigation more than two years ago. Investigators said they found “[i]ndividuals posting as licensed salespersons or private citizens were observed to be advertising excessive numbers of vehicles.” (In Pennsylvania, you are considered a “dealer” if you offer more than 5 vehicles for sale in a calendar year.)
PSP said the individuals in the ring advertised vehicles on popular social media platforms including Facebook, Craigslist, OfferUp, and LetGo. Among PSP’s allegations:
- Some of the sellers falsely claimed they were Pennsylvania-licensed dealerships; they offered customers a variety of dealership-related services such as financing and warranties, that did not actually exist.
- Many of the sellers actually represented out-of-state wholesale dealerships; that is, businesses licensed in other states to “sell or trade vehicles at wholesale vehicle auctions, but not to individuals.”
- These out-of-state wholesalers joined a “corrupt and structured organization” known as County Motors, which allowed them to purchase cars at these wholesale auctions and then illegally re-sell them to consumers; many of these cars were “unsafe,” and when customers attempted to obtain repairs from what they thought was a Pennsylvania-licensed dealer, their calls were “never returned.”
- The County Motors participants asked consumers to “report to PennDOT a sale price less than they actually paid for the vehicle.”
- County Motors did not report Pennsylvania sales tax, and its participants submitted “falsified tax returns” to the IRS–in some cases, the participants even claimed income below the federal poverty level in order to obtain thousands of dollars in welfare benefits.
Altogether, PSP said thousands of Pennsylvania consumers were “unknowingly defrauded” by the County Motors scam. The State of Missouri has already revoked County Motors’ wholesale dealer license. But PSP said many of the same individuals simply resumed their criminal activities under the name Champ Motors.
Speak with a Philadelphia Used Car Fraud Lawyer Today
If you see a used car deal online that seems too good to be true, you should always be suspicious. And if a “dealer” asks you to do anything that seems sketchy, like not reporting the correct sales price to PennDOT, you should immediately pull out of the deal. No honest or reputable dealer should ever encourage you to break the law.
If you have been the victim of a used car scam and need legal advice on what steps to take next, contact Philadelphia used car fraud attorney Louis S. Schwartz at CONSUMERLAWPA.com for a free review of your case.


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There's virtually no industry growing at a more breakneck pace at the momentum than legal marijuana. According to ArcView, one of the world's leading cannabis research firms, the North American weed industry is expected to grow sales by an average of 26% annually through 2021. This would imply almost $22 billion worth of cannabis being bought legally throughout Canada, Mexico, and the United States in just three years' time.
In recent years, cannabis businesses and investors have turned their attention away from convincing the public that cannabis should be legal -- practically every poll suggests the public agrees -- and have instead focused on capacity expansion. Some growers have chosen to expand organically, while others have partnered, merged, or acquired their way to growth and higher market share. The following five transactions represent the five biggest marijuana acquisitions of all time.
1. Aurora Cannabis buys CanniMed Therapeutics: $852 million
The biggest marijuana deal of all was announced just two weeks ago on Jan. 24. It involved Aurora Cannabis' (ACB 18.15%) acquisition of Saskatchewan-based CanniMed Therapeutics (NASDAQOTH: CMMDF) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $852 million, which was a 181% premium over the very first bid for the company.
What's noteworthy about this transaction is that Aurora made its first unsolicited bid for CanniMed all the way back on Nov. 14. However, CanniMed's board rejected the offer and initially refused to meet with Aurora's management team. CanniMed's board feared that Aurora would cut jobs in Saskatchewan and believed that its initial offer significantly undervalued CanniMed's business.
Now that the two have agreed to the buyout, Aurora Cannabis expects its production to vault from north of 100,000 kilograms of dried cannabis a year once its Aurora Sky project is complete in mid-2018, to over 130,000 kilograms a year with the CanniMed acquisition. Aurora is clearly gunning for market share if Canada keeps moving forward with a bill to legalize recreational pot by July.
2. Aphria buys Nuuvera: $670 million
Even more recently, on Jan. 29, Aphria (NASDAQOTH: APHQF) announced that it would be acquiring Nuuvera (NASDAQOTH: NUUVF) for $670 million in a cash-and-stock deal. It represented a roughly 21% premium over Nuuvera's closing price before the deal was announced.
Though Aphria is known best for its organic growth and the four-phase, 1 million-square-foot project that'll be complete by January 2019 and yield 100,000 kilograms of dried cannabis a year, it's been an aggressive acquirer over the past couple of weeks. The move to buy Nuuvera significantly expands Aphria's international reach, especially given that it's one of the Canadian growers allowed to export dried cannabis to foreign countries that've legalized medical weed.
In total, the deal expands Aphria's reach to 11 total countries and is expected to be accretive to earnings in the first full fiscal year upon closing. Considering that Aphria is one of two marijuana stocks to have generated a full-year profit in each of the past two years, that's music to its shareholders' ears.
3. Canopy Growth Corp. buys Mettrum Health: $283 million
Before Aurora Cannabis and Aphria went on a shopping spree over the past two weeks, the biggest marijuana deal of all time had been Canopy Growth Corp.'s (CGC 15.03%) purchase of Mettrum Health for approximately $283 million. This all-stock deal represented a 42% premium for Mettrum Health's shareholders when it was announced in late 2016.
The Mettrum deal came about long before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation to make recreational marijuana legal, so this was all about Canopy Growth's expansion of its medical-cannabis reach throughout Canada. The deal, when completed, increased the combined company's reach to around 40,000 registered medical patients, which at the time was about half of the country's registered medical patients. More importantly, it also expanded Canopy's growing capacity and licensed facilities.
Of course, Canopy has grown considerably since this deal was announced. As of the end of its fiscal second quarter, Canopy Growth had 2.4 million square feet of growing capacity under construction or in development in British Columbia, with the option to lease another 1.7 million square feet in B.C.
4. Constellation Brands buys a 9.9% stake in Canopy Growth Corp.: $191 million
While not a pure buyout, the acquisition of a 9.9% stake in Canopy Growth Corp. by spirits giant Constellation Brands (STZ 0.74%) -- the company behind beer brands Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico, as well as a broad portfolio of wines and hard liquors -- ranks as the fourth largest of all time. When announced, it was valued at $191 million, although Constellation's investment has increased in size since closing.
The investment from Constellation Brands is designed to keep up with evolving consumer trends, and it was viewed by management as the next step for a company focused on the global alcohol business. Though Constellation Brands currently has no desire to sell marijuana products in the United States, it will consider selling cannabis products in countries that have legalized pot in some capacity.
What's more, the deal provided Canopy Growth with a potential channel to sell its goods via a brand-name producer and distributor. It looks to be a win-win for both parties.
5. Aphria buys Broken Coast Cannabis: $185 million
Finally, the fifth biggest deal of all time was the Jan. 15 announcement from Aphria that it was buying B.C.-based Broken Coast Cannabis for $185 million in a cash-and-stock deal. In other words, three of the five largest deals have all occurred within the past three weeks.
Broken Coast Cannabis currently has a 26,000-square-foot facility, but is in the process of aggressively expanding. Once complete in January 2019, the company is expected to have a maximum annual output of 10,500 kilograms of cannabis. When the deal was announced just days after Aphria partnered with Double Diamond Farms, management guided to around 230,000 kilograms of cannabis production in 2019. This would easily put Aphria among the top 3 pot producers in Canada.
In addition to increased capacity, the combination is expected to result in cost synergies as well. Aphria's supply chain, when combined with Broken Coast's distribution platform, should lead to lower costs and higher margins.
In other words, don't expect merger and acquisition activity to slow anytime soon.


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Sefar America, HR Williams Division
September 01, 1999
by Emily Wilson
• Sefar America, HR Williams Division, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S., has named Mike Branson technical services manager. Mr. Branson will be responsible for technical support for the company's milling customers in the United States, including sales and marketing responsibilities, equipment demonstrations and technical support for fabric selection. Mr. Branson previously was a software specialist for the company's new computer system. He recently completed an extensive training program in weaving at the company's mills in Switzerland.


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ePHOTOzine brings you a daily round up of all the latest photography news including camera news, exhibitions, events, special offers, industry news, digital photography news, announcements and launches.
Ultra wide-angle lens designed for full frame digital SLR cameras.
- 8 Feb 2011
Lee Filters holder for Nikon's 14-24mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens
- 9 Nov 2009
Sony announced three new Sony NEX lenses, and one new Alpha lens to go with the new cameras.
- 24 Aug 2011
Zhongyi Optics have announced a 42.5mm f/1.2 and 24mm f/1.7 lens, along with 35mm and 50mm lenses at Photokina 2014.
- 18 Sep 2014
Leica has announced the new Leica X2, an update to the X1, it features a new image sensor.
- 11 May 2012
HandeVision has announced a new IBERIT range of manual focus, manual aperture lenses, all featuring an f/2.4 aperture for mirrorless cameras.
- 8 Dec 2015


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With much of the Christchurch CBD still cordoned off after earthquakes in late 2010 and early 2011, tourism industry representatives have called for the rebuild of a central city ‘area of normality’ as soon as possible in order to continue attracting the 900,000 international visitors who pass through New Zealand’s South Island gateway city each year.
This area would encompass the Restart the Heart retail area (an initiative aimed at opening the western end of the City Mall in time for New Zealand Cup & Show Week in November), the visitor zone, the Hagley Park events village and hotels within the CBD that can quickly reopen. This and the construction of a new Christchurch Convention Centre form the two key elements of a joint submission by Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism and the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand to the Christchurch City Council’s Draft Central City Plan.
Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism Chief Executive Tim Hunter says the speed at which the tourism sector recovers will primarily be driven by the speed at which accommodation facilities can be restored, as the city is desperately short of commercial accommodation.
The tourism industry is also calling for a powerful city icon to ‘wow’ visitors and attract them to Christchurch. Ideally this would be a stand-out iconic structure which would become synonymous with the rebuilt city. One suggestion is that it could be an Earthquake Centre that will offer residents and visitors a place to remember and learn about earthquakes. Whatever is decided, it is vital that every effort is made to bring visitors back to Christchurch as soon as possible as tourism is vital to the recovery of the city and the region.


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Global boat retailer and builder caps year with third major acquisition
As 2022 nears its end, global boat retailer and builder MarineMax is capping the year with its third major acquisition, securing several parcels of land and a marine construction business in what is reported to be a US$4m deal.
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Best viewed on a device with a bigger screen...
If polls are to be believed, the next Italian government will be formed of a right-wing coalition.
This does not change the near-term outlook for the Italian economy; it will be in recession by Q4.
Markets shouldn’t fear the right wing, but equally they should not forget its unpredictability.
base effects, btp, btp yields, bunds, capital goods, coalition, consumer, consumer goods, draghi, economy, election, energy, energy output, eu, factory orders, fdi, forecasts, Foreign Minister, gdp, gdp growth, german manufacturing, government, growth, ifo, implications, industrial production, intermediate goods, Italian GDP, italian gdp growth, italian government, italy, manufacturing, mario draghi, markets, new orders, orders, PD, pmi, policy, polling, polls, production, q2, q3, q4, recession, rent, survey, taxes, vat, yields, Pantheon Macro, Pantheon Macroeconomics, independent macro research, independent research, ian shepherdson, economic intelligence


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The Champs-Elysees was the setting of a mini-air show as amateur drone enthusiasts flew their high-tech toys over the famed Paris avenue in the city's first festival celebrating the gadgets.
- Festival included a drone race
- Part of the Champs-Elysees converted into drone aviary
- France is the world leader in the market for civilian drones
The afternoon festival included a race and demonstrations of the remote-controlled devices, which are increasingly used as toys as well as for surveillance, aerial photography and in the secretive US counter-terror campaign.
"It's really magical to be at a site like the Champs-Elysees, one of the most famous places in the world," Dunkan Bossian, 19, said.
He was one of eight pilots who competed in the drone race, which featured a brightly coloured obstacle course.
Another entrant, German Julia Muller, said the festival showed how drones could be used in different ways.
"Events like this are important to show people that drones are not only dangerous things but you can have fun with them as well," Ms Muller, 27, said.
Part of the famous avenue — which is carless on the first Sunday of every month — was converted into a drone aviary for the occasion, a space confined in netting about eight metres high and 140 metres long.
Drones are not toys
"There has been a democratisation of the drone for leisure activities," city official Jean-Louis Missika said.
Drones were last year's most popular Christmas present, Mr Missika said, but warned people "must absolutely understand that it is not a toy".
"Regulations are very strict for good reasons," he said.
"You can't fly a drone in the park like you can play badminton."
The festival had a teaching component, with displays on the regulations, the drone's various uses, and workshops on piloting them that allowed amateurs to try their hand.
The event also allowed the postal service to demonstrate its delivery drone, which weighs 3.7 kilos and can carry three kilos of mail over 20 kilometres.
France is the world leader in the market for civilian drones, selling 300,000 of the devices last year — three times as many as in 2014.
The industry had a turnover of some $442 million in 2015, of which $88 million was in the professional drone sector.
The city announced the opening of two permanent sites — in the Bois de Boulogne park in the west of Paris and in the Parc de la Villette to the north — where amateurs can pilot their drones on Sundays, starting September 18.


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You may recall that some time ago Milton Chen, CEO of VSee made a guest appearance on a VUC call. I was impressed by the service, which at the time supported Mac and Windows. Recently VSee announced the availability of VSee For iPad.
Normally, products announcements for the iPad don’t even register on my radar. However, as I recently purchased a third generation iPad with the Retina display I thought this a fine opportunity to revisit VSee.


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Monday, April 12, 2010
Wow, Xbox Live Really Listens to Me
In an article featured on ign.com, Microsoft has announced that as of April 7 of this year, it will be dialing back its points into increments of 400 rather than the original set of 500. The hope is that it will make things a bit easier on users when purchasing online titles. The change was spurred by Xbox community responses. It warms my cockles to think that a company actually looks at the customer with the intent of serving their needs. Now if we can only get tech support to do the same thing. In case you want to know the problem I'm talking about, head on over to youtube.com and look up "Cobra Commander calls to get his Xbox 360 fixed!" Enjoy. "COBRAAAA!!!"


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Tata Motors Ltd, the automobile arm of the salt-to-software Tata Group, posted a consolidated loss of Rs 430 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2015, against a net profit of Rs 3,291 crore in the same period last year. The company’s turnover in the same period rose marginally to Rs 61,318 crore, up one percent year-on-year.
The loss that Tata Motors reported in the July-September period was largely a result of an exceptional charge of Rs 2,493 crore that the company had to recognise on its profit and loss account for the period. This was on account of the Jaguar Land Rover (the British luxury carmaker that is a subsidiary of Tata Motors) cars that were damaged due to an explosion at China’s Tianjin port in August this year.
Excluding the exceptional provision, Tata Motors reported a profit from ordinary activities after finance charges of Rs 1,538.29 crore, a 72.74 percent drop from the year earlier.
Tata Motors’s standalone India business reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of Rs 709 crore during the quarter with an Ebitda margin of 6.8 percent, which was an improvement of 840 basis points over the year earlier. According to the Tata Motors results presentation, this improvement in operating performance was a result of strong growth in the sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles, which was up by 35 percent year-on-year and ongoing cost reductions measures.
At the bottomline level, however, Tata Motors’s India business posted a net loss of Rs 287 crore, though losses narrowed substantially from the Rs 1,846 crore reported in the September 2014 quarter.
On the back of new offerings like Zest, the sedan, and Bolt, the hatchback, which are part of Tata Motors’s new ‘Horizonext’ strategy, Tata Motors’s sales grew 14.8 percent year-on-year in the car segment. In the overall passenger vehicle segment, Tata Motors’s sales grew by 5.2 percent, lower than the 6.9 percent growth in volumes exhibited by the entire passenger vehicles segment in the country.
Overall, the consolidated carmaking entity sold 35,558 units in India and abroad during the September quarter, a growth of 6 percent over last year.
Tata Motors’s Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) business posted revenues of 4.83 billion pounds during the July-September period, marginally higher than the 4.80 billion pounds turnover reported a year earlier. However, JLR’s Ebitda fell by 37 percent year-on-year to 589 million pounds during the quarter and margins declined to 12.2 percent from 19.4 percent a year earlier.
The drop in operating profits and margin was a result of a “less favourable sales mix, higher manufacturing and launch costs and unfavourable foreign exchange revaluation,” according to the Tata Motors’s presentation.
“As previously indicated, Ebitda margins for fiscal 2015-16 (for JLR) are expected to be lower than the high levels in 2014-15 reflecting model mix and launch costs associated with new products, launch and reporting effects of the China joint venture and more mixed economic conditions, particularly in China,” the company’s investor presentation said.
Tata Motors’s share price fell by 1.87 percent on the BSE on Friday to close at Rs 396.25 per share. The bourse’s benchmark index, Sensex, lost 0.15 percent to end at 26,265.24 points on the same day.


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The Mekong Tourism Forum 2022 (MTF) was held this week on 12-13 October to highlight the profile of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) as a unified tourist destination.
Hosted in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Hoi An (Quang Nam Province) in Vietnam, the theme of the Mekong Tourism Forum 2022 was “Rebuild Tourism, Rebound with Resilience,” appropriately framed after a long hiatus of two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam organized the event at the luxury 5-star hotel New World Hoiana in collaboration with the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) and with the support of the Asian Development Bank. More than 250 delegates, both local and regional, gathered in Hoi An to participate in the forum.
The MTF 2022 was the region’s first in-person, government-led event since the pandemic marking a significant milestone in tourism recovery within the GMS member countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China (specifically Yunnan and Guangxi provinces). It brought together regional tourism leaders to rethink the rebuilding of GMS tourism by adopting resilience-based approaches and effectively leveraging technology to create a more sustainable and inclusive sector.
The event also provided a platform for tourism stakeholders and development partners to reconnect in person, exchange their thoughts and experiences on tourism recovery in the region, and gather new insights and advice from industry experts. It enabled the public and private sectors to come together and discuss tourism issues in the area and expand their network for marketing and promoting GMS through collective resources.
Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh, Chairman of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam, urged public and private stakeholders to rethink and reshape the tourism industry towards a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient future.
He said that despite the positive trends in tourism recovery, the challenging economic environment created by high oil prices, inflation, and international supply chain disruptions has resulted in higher transport and accommodation costs for the tourism sector. This adds pressure to tourism businesses and affects the purchasing power of travelers, which could delay the sub-regional tourism recovery.
ADB’s Senior Sustainable Tourism Specialist, Mr. Wouterus Schalken, shared his perspective on sustainably reviving tourism by highlighting relevant policies, regulations, and investments needed to ensure tourism resilience, emphasizing quality infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and industry-wide adoption of environmentally friendly operational practices and diversification.
Cambodia will host the next MTF between 16-20 March 2023 in Preah Sihanoukville Province, centered around the theme “Rethink for Resiliency and Digitalization.” The aim would be to embark on a new age of travel in the context of the new post-COVID-19 normal.


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London: The Holiday Home Association (HHA) has launched a set of industry standards to raise quality and assurance for guests booking a privately owned self-catering holiday home in the UK.
The Holiday Home Industry Code of Practice (HHICOP) is a comprehensive set of guidelines that sets out standards in health and safety, marketing, accessibility, insurance liability, data protection and complaints procedures.
It has been developed by the HHA to reflect the growing need for transparency and professional responsibility by self-catering holiday home providers during a time of increased growth in both the supply and demand for privately owned self-catering accommodation.
The HHA, which is currently the UK’s longest serving trade association for the self-catering holiday home industry since its foundation in the 1970s, is a not-for-profit organisation. It includes members managing one or two homes, to larger cottage rental agencies with portfolios of properties running into the thousands.
HHA chief executive Martin Sach said: “The self-catering industry in the UK has changed considerably over the last few years, with a much greater increase in the availability of properties, with more and more owners and managers joining the market.
“There are also many more distribution channels through which a guest can book a property and these developments, can at times, be confusing for guests who are increasingly looking for more assurance that what they book will indeed be a professionally run and fairly represented example of what they are looking for,” he added.
James Ellis, business development director of The Original Cottage Company and member of the HHA, said: “We are very pleased to be part of HHA’s new Code of Practice. As a cottage agent with more than 4,000 properties, we fully support the need for the self-catering industry to continue to professionalise the offering for guests.”
The HHICOP, which can be easily downloaded from the HHA website, has no cost associated with it and is available for both members and non-members of the HHA.
For more information, visit the HHA website here.


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Browserweb.com was approached by Dr. Rick Nappi, N.D., DIHom., F.B.I.H., (C.E.O. Formulator)to help him redesign and develop a dynamic ecommerce web site with a comprehensive backend functionality. He had been working with an offshore development firm and they had completely devastated his online operation.
Here’s an extract of the statement released by Rick Nappi to his valued clients:
Over the past few months our web site was becoming more dysfunctional week by week. After spending thousands of dollars trying to revive it, the patient was not responding to treatment. So we made the decision to rebuild it from scratch with a new and highly conscientious Web Development Firm. Over two months in the making, countless hours of programming, right here in the USA by web agency Browse R Web and not to mention the expense, the new web site is ready.
On December 10, 2009, at 5:45pm EST the old site went down forever. On December 11, 2009 at 12am EST or even by the time you get this message, the brand new website will be up and running. There will be a whole new look, much more user friendly, and many more features than ever.
Browserweb has completed phase 1 of the development (redesign and launch) and is delighted with the results and functionality that has been created for this leading provider of health and wellness products.
Dr. Rick Nappi


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News by Andrew Kameka on Wednesday February 06, 2013.
|Sponsored links, if any, appear in green.|
Though Nokia announced last week that it has begun its rollout of the Windows Phone 7.8 update, T-Mobile USA has confirmed that the Nokia Lumia 710 won't be receiving the update. Lumia Windows Phone 7 smartphones tied to carriers were known to have to wait longer for the Windows Phone 7.8 software, but after receiving complaints and questions about when T-Mobile would update the Nokia Lumia 710, T-Mobile issued the following statement discovered by TmoNews:
"At this time, the Nokia Lumia 710 will not receive the software update. T-Mobile is committed to enhancing customers' experience with our devices, including providing upgrades to the latest operating systems, and T-Mobile aims to deliver software upgrades when it will provide a better experience for our customers. We'll share additional information on upgrades for the Nokia Lumia 710 when they are available."
The only recourse for Nokia Lumia 710 owners who want the update is to download and manually apply the latest version of Windows Phone 7 software.source: Tmonews
Andrew is based in Miami, Florida.


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Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today announced it will hold a live conference call with the Investment Community at 7 a.m. CST on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, to discuss the company’s fourth quarter earnings results for fiscal year 2022. Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer, and Brett Biggs, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will host the call to discuss the results and answer questions.
The event will be webcast live and accessible by logging onto https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/financial-events and selecting the Fourth Quarter Earnings Release event. The webcast will be archived and available beginning at approximately noon CST on Feb. 17.
The company will release its fourth quarter earnings results and related materials at 6 a.m. CST on Feb. 17.
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online and through their mobile devices. Each week, approximately 220 million customers and members visit approximately 10,500 stores and clubs under 48 banners in 24 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2021 revenue of $559 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.
Investor Relations Contact
Dan Binder, CFA
Sr. Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate FP&A
Sr. Director II, Investor Relations
Media Relations Contact
Sr. Director, Global Communications


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Photo: Rob Pegoraro for Yahoo Tech
Good news, everyone! The recording industry no longer thinks the Internet will kill it.
“The wholesale value of the American music business continues to grow — a 2% uptick this year,” wrote Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) chairman Cary Sherman in a March 18 blog post heralding the RIAA’s sales and revenue data for 2014. He noted that this was “the fourth straight year of such growth,” although retail sales edged slightly down.
A week later, Joshua Friedlander, the RIAA’s senior vice president for strategic data analysis, wrote a separate post breaking out more good news from those 2014 figures.
“The split between revenues from digital, streaming, and physical formats have never been more balanced,” he wrote. CDs and vinyl now constitute less than one-third of total revenues of $4.86 billion wholesale, $6.97 billion retail. “While it’s true revenues from music are not as high as they once were, overall the industry is now in a more healthy and stable place.”
Independent-music advocates also agree that industry has gotten better. (At the same time, they object to the falling incomes that individual artists see.)
“The past couple of years have at least been somewhat predictable,” wrote Kristin Thomson, co-director of the Future of Music Coalition’s Artist Revenue Streams project (before then, co-owner of the Simple Machines label and guitarist for the indie-rock band Tsunami). “The various download, streaming and webcasting platforms are mature enough.”
‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’
Was this rebound of the music industry by the design of its largest organizing group? Hardly. Twenty years ago, when digital music came on to the scene, the Washington-based organization had specific ideas about online music, and no gadget playing “unprotected” files, as they all do today, played a part.
The RIAA sued to block the Diamond Rio MP3 player, arguing that it violated the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992. “This device would enable anyone to copy anything they want off the Net,” Sherman told The New York Times in 1998.
Fortunately, the RIAA lost. A three-judge panel ruled that “space-shifting” a song from a CD to a computer to an MP3 player was legal.
So the industry tried to block the distribution of shareable files. And that scheme, the concept of securing online music with “digital rights management” (DRM) copying restrictions, took longer to die. The first non-Apple music stores were outright listener-abusive. The RIAA’s ambitious Secure Digital Music Initiative project did sink, eventually, due to its own unworkability.
Still, the RIAA stuck to its story line: The music business faced an existential threat from unauthorized downloads and copies. The chorus: How can we compete with free?
The industry thought peer-to-peer (P2P) networks like Napster (and imitators that sprouted up after it sued Napster into oblivion) posed so much of a problem that it filed thousands of lawsuits against listeners for allegedly uploading songs to them.
That campaign arguably worked. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found in 2004 that 6 million Americans gave up P2P downloads as a result.
Then, in 2011, the RIAA strongly endorsed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), arguing that SOPA would thwart “illegal downloads that pay nothing to creators and result in thousands of lost jobs and fewer opportunities for aspiring musicians.”
Outrage over the idea of twisting core Internet frameworks into a copyright-policing mechanism doomed that bill. The RIAA persisted. As recently as May of 2013, an RIAA blog post declared that “the burden on content creators is heavier now than it has ever been.”
I hear a different tune from the association today.
“We are focused on the future of the business,” communications vice president Jonathan Lamy said Monday. “Piracy is not what it once was three to five years ago.”
Primary credit for that change goes not to DRM, lobbying, or lawsuits, but to all the ways we now have to discover music.
Want to hear a particular song? Cue it up on Spotify for free. Want to buy it in a form that plays on all your devices? That’ll be $1 or so. Feel guilty about MP3s you grabbed off BitTorrent? Trade them in for legitimate, higher-quality downloads using Apple’s $25 iTunes Match — or the free version of Google’s Play Music. Want unlimited music to stream or play on your devices, for a fair monthly fee? We have so many streaming services that it’s hard to choose among them.
You could clap with one hand, as one longtime RIAA critic did Monday.
“It’s great that the RIAA has finally realized that embracing what music fans have always wanted — and what the Internet has enabled — is a good way forward,” wrote Techdirt publisher Mike Masnick. “It’s too bad that it had to come after decades of fighting each and every advancement.”
I can’t argue with that.
If the music industry, the one with the product that’s easiest to copy and share, can make this digital transition without DRM or sweeping new laws, what’s holding them back?


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CommercialEdge released its April national industrial report, analyzing the U.S. industrial market’s performance through March 2022.
As Southern California’s industrial markets struggle to keep up with demand, prices continue to skyrocket due to inventories that are tighter than ever.As a result, both developers and tenants are expected to increasingly look to inland markets for their space needs, with some already experiencing the effects of this spillover demand.
Other key takeaways include:
The average national rent for industrial space increased 4.4% year-over-year, reaching $6.47 per square foot in March.
Vacancies for U.S. industrial space averaged 5% in March but dipped well below that for high-demand markets, such as the Inland Empire and its 0.7% vacancy rate.
National construction pipeline neared 622 million square feet of industrial space, with an additional 653.2 million square feet planned.
The average industrial sale price surged 34% Y-o-Y to reach $125 per square foot, with prices surging more than 50% over Q1 2021 figures in 41 markets.
For more insights and market-specific data, check out our full report here: https://www.commercialedge.com/blog/national-industrial-report/


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The Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm has published supply chain information through Crown Estate Scotland in a format consistent with a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS). This outlines the project’s commitments to developing the floating offshore wind supply chain across Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The SCDS follows the five-step supply chain ambition process which is now mandatory for all ScotWind developers. Pentland is not part of ScotWind but the project chose to submit this information to the Crown Estate Scotland (CES) to demonstrate best practice and to reaffirm its commitment to local communities.
Overall, it is expected that Pentland will deliver lifetime expenditure of GBP 419 million in the UK. This is in line with the project’s 40-60% lifetime UK content aim. Projections also show Pentland will support the creation of up to 1,300 FTE supply chain roles during construction and 85 FTE during operation of the project.
To inform the submission, Pentland carried out a supply chain mapping exercise and local content assessment to understand regional capabilities and the geographical breakdown of project expenditure, supported by locally based consultancy Xodus and the University of the Highlands and Islands.
Project Director Richard Copeland says, “These are significant figures for floating wind in Scotland and the UK. They showcase our commitment to the country’s floating offshore wind sector and nurturing the development of local supply chain capabilities ahead of ScotWind project development – a fundamental aim of this project. By carrying out this preparatory work, the process has allowed us to understand the existing supply chain capabilities on offer, and the areas in which we can drive local expenditure, job creation and skills development.”
“We have also taken steps to ensure early visibility of future opportunities and engage with the supply chain as widely as possible. Over the last few months, we’ve held a series of events to give an overview of the work packages on offer and will continue to organise more of these in 2023,” Copeland adds.
Scott Hamilton, Head of Offshore renewables at Xodus says, “We were able to offer our in-depth knowledge of Scottish capabilities, identifying key areas for strategic supply chain engagement for Pentland with the aim of promoting a sustainable local floating offshore wind supply chain ready for commercial-scale opportunities.”
“The project marks an important stepping-stone in progressing the floating offshore wind supply chain in the UK, providing key insights into the strengths and capability gaps of Scottish and wider UK companies,” Hamilton adds.
Euan Black, Subject Network Leader for Business, Management and Leisure at UHI, says, “We were pleased to provide socioeconomic information to inform this development. The report also gave one of our interns an opportunity to gain experience on a real-life project.”
The submission comes ahead of a Business Breakfast in partnership with Caithness Chamber of Commerce. The event will take place in Thurso on 23 November to introduce the project and the opportunities available to supply chain companies in the area.
Further information about the project and the procurement process can be found at www.pentlandfloatingwind.com.


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Animal advocates around the globe celebrated when Croatia decided to ban fur farms, effective January 1, 2017, after a 10-year-long phase-out period. But the ban was consistently threatened by the fur industry, which didn’t want the law to go into effect.
Ultimately, though, Croatia’s Ministry of Agriculture listened to the concerned public and animal rights groups, and we’re happy to announce that the country’s complete ban on fur farming went into effect at the start of the new year!
— Sascha Camilli (@saschacamilli) January 4, 2017
A big thanks is also due to Sharon Osbourne, who encourages everyone to refuse to wear fur coats or trim. When the Croatian fur ban was under fire, she urged the country’s minister of agriculture to uphold a complete ban and sent him a PETA video revealing how chinchillas suffer and die on fur farms.
The demand for chinchilla fur has resulted in the near extinction of the rodent. Originally found only in South America in communities of up to 100 members, chinchillas are now bred worldwide by fur farmers or pet store distributors who then sell them.
For years, PETA eyewitnesses have uncovered the torture that these animals endure. On many fur farms, they suffer from painful seizures after being electrocuted or their necks are broken while they’re still conscious. On a fur farm in Vista, California, which PETA helped shut down, one of the owners admitted to splinting broken bones herself as well as to amputating limbs with wire snips and six drops of brandy.
Together, We Can Create a Fur-Free World
Always wear vegan materials and speak out against companies that sell fur. In the 21st century, it’s easy for consumers to make compassionate choices. With so many fashionable, comfortable, and warm options available today, there’s no excuse for wearing bits and pieces of any animal’s fur or skin.


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There could finally be some good news for those who have been waiting for salons to reopen.
The Cabinet is meeting today to discuss recommendations for Phase 3 from the National Public Health Emergency Team, which is scheduled for June 29.
Today's top videos
It is expected that the reopening of hairdressers and barbers will be part of the next phase, which would see salons given the green light to open their doors at the end of June, in just 10 days.
Salons had originally been due to open on July 20, during Phase 4 of the Government's roadmap for reopening society.
Demand for hairdressers and beauty salons has been building ahead of their reopening – but you can expect a very long wait as businesses deal with the backlog of customers eager to get to the salon.
Customers are already contacting salons to reserve an early spot, with one hairdresser telling EVOKE that there are more than 5,000 people on their waiting list.
In May, the Irish Hairdressers Federation put 110 proposals to the Government, which included the wearing of face masks and gloves while cutting people’s hair, and totally scrapping waiting areas, in the hope that reopening would be pushed forward.
25,000 people are employed in the industry.
Meanwhile stylist Alan Keville spoke to EVOKE about the changes and challenges he is facing.


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We’ve been hearing the rumors for a few days now, but it is official. We now know that No Man’s Sky has been pushed back to come out on August 9th in the US based on Playstation’s website. This is disappointing news to fans, who were slated to have their hands on the exploration space game of dreams in just over a week. The rumors started with Gamestop employees being told to cover up the date on their promotional displays with a coming soon sticker.
Following the official news, Sean Murray, one of the lead programmers of No Man’s Sky, received tons of tweets and messages across social media. Not a huge surprise. Some brokenhearted fans went as far as to threaten Murray, but have no fear, he has rearranged the Hello Games office to resemble the house in Home Alone. Or at least that’s what he Tweeted out.
While its good to see that Murray isn’t thinking much of the situation, its terrible to see people threaten someone who simply wants to make the best game possible. The delay was due to a lack of polish that the team wants to iron out before a full release, which is the opposite mentality of most AAA developers these days, so I have to agree with their decision to push it back. It’s much better than playing a game that’s structurally unfit, waiting for a patch. I haven’t forgotten how bad Assassin’s Creed: Unity played and recently the trend continued with Homefront Revolution. Even the phenomenal Dark Souls 3 suffered frame rate drops in certain areas.
Patience is a virtue that the game industry needs to understand. both sides of the industry, consumer and developer. Often it is the folks in the business side of things pushing games out the door, which is probably why a ton of AAA games start their first week or so in limbo. However, when consumers raise a big to do over wanting entertainment, it doesn’t help the situation and ends up hurting the people putting their life into making something. To put this into perspective, No Man’s Sky was announced in 2013 and yes its a shame that gamers have to wait another couple months.
Yet, I’ve been patiently waiting for Final Fantasy XV, a game that has had a name change, jumped consoles, and was announced in 2006. Good things come to those who wait.


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Blackmore said that both the reorganizationwhich was announced a year ahead of scheduleand the Adaptive Enterprise initiative will go a long way in helping with that. "When you merged the companies, obviously the priority is to stay close to the customers, to make sure the road map transition is followed through, and we quickly get to the end state model of combining the road map, retiring products, confirming what products would survive," he said. "That is a lot of work, and hence the most effective model is to have the three [hardware] groups working separately and independently. Then once you do that, you can say that obviously what the customers are expecting is one technology hardware message from HP and one software message, so lets make it easier to get the technology hardware message aligned. Lets combine the groups.""It shows the capabilities of the new HP and also responding very clearly to customers saying that they wanted [the company] to play at the highest ends of the enterprise decision-making and the business-process level as well as the infrastructure level," he said. "Were more than capable of doing that now." The ESG is now gearing up for the July launch of the next generation of the 64-bit Itanium 2 chip, code-named Madison. HP is preparing a number of product launches to coincide with the new chip, including the rollout of an Itanium version of its high-end 64-way Superdome server. In January, HP will roll out a 128-way version of the system. Currently HP offers a Superdome system that runs on its PA RISC 8700+ chip and supports the HP-UX operating system. The new system will run Windows and Linux. HP, which co-developed Itanium, is banking its 64-bit future on the chip, which up until now has gotten a tepid reception in the industry. But Blackmore said he is confident adoption of the architecture will ramp quickly in 2004 as ISV support grows and impressive benchmarks continue to roll out. "Its really redefining the whole RISC-based marketplace because we have 64-way Madison-powered platforms, we already have benchmarks out there," he said. "As we bring this family of products out to market and redefine the RISC marketplace, we also continue to drive three operating systems very effectivelyUnix, Windows and Linuxand theres really only two players out there which can do that right across the portfolio [HP and IBM]."
The Adaptive Enterprise initiative gives customers an idea of what the new combined company is capable of, Blackmore said.


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Tech companies aren’t the only ones scrambling to create AI-powered chatbots. Cybercriminals are getting in on the action, too.
Earlier this month, a hacker was found to be developing WormGPT, a ChatGPT-like bot that can help buyers create phishing messages and malware. Now security researchers have spotted another evil chatbot, this one aptly named FraudGPT.
The developer of FraudGPT began publicizing the malicious chat program over the weekend in a hacking forum, according to cloud security provider Netenrich. “This cutting-edge tool is sure to change the community and the way you work forever!” the developer claims.
The bot offers similar features to WormGPT. A chat box can receive your prompts and respond accordingly. In a video demo, FraudGPT quickly pumps out an effective SMS phishing message pretending to be a bank. The bot can also be programmed to supply intel on the best websites to commit credit card fraud against. In addition, it can provide non Verified by Visa bank identification numbers to help the user steal credit card access.
FraudGPT’s developer also appears to traffic in hacked information, such as stolen credit card numbers, while also offering guides to committing fraud. So it’s possible all this information could be fused into the chatbot service.
The developer of FraudGPT didn’t respond to a request for comment, making it unclear what large language model the program is using. But the bot isn’t cheap. The developer is charging $200 per month to use the malicious chatbot, making it more expensive than WormGPT, which asks 60 Euros per month.
It's unclear whether either chatbot is actually useful as a hacking tool. But Netenrich warns the technology could lower the bar for cybercriminals to come up with more convincing phishing emails and other scams. “As time goes on, criminals will find further ways to enhance their criminal capabilities using the tools we invent,” the company adds.


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- The robot known as Digit, designed and built by Agility Robotics, walks upright and can carry packages weighing up to 40 pounds.
- Ford and Agility Robotics are still researching exactly how Digit would work with the autonomous vehicles.
It's not fast and may be years from visiting your neighborhood, but a walking robot is part of Ford's vision for how its autonomous vehicles will someday deliver packages and goods.
The robot known as Digit and designed and built by Agility Robotics, walks upright on two legs, goes up and down stairs and can carry packages weighing 40 pounds.
So why is Ford interested in a walking robot?
Digit may be how Ford solves one of the biggest issues confronting the self-driving vehicles it's developing for companies like Domino's Pizza and the food delivery firm Postmates: how to get deliveries from cars to the front door?
"As we've learned in our pilot programs, it's not always convenient for people to leave their homes for packages or for businesses to run their own delivery services," Ken Washington, Ford's chief technology officer, said in a post on Medium.
"If we can free people up to focus less on the logistics of making deliveries, they can turn their time and efforts to things that really need their attention."
Ford envisions a future where Digit is part of an autonomous vehicle that could be delivering pizzas, packages or other items.
Designed to fold up when not deployed, Digit could be programmed to carry deliveries from the autonomous vehicle to the front door or exact location of the final destination.
Ford and Agility Robotics are still researching exactly how Digit would work with the autonomous vehicles. For example, Digit and the car will be able to communicate with each other if there is an obstacle blocking the door or a change in the delivery.
The automaker is targeting rolling out autonomous vehicles by 2021.


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Other benefits include a reduction of wind noise and better forward visibility due to the elimination of large side mirrors. A new Digital Outer Mirror option will debut on the Lexus ES in the Japanese market this October, and it uses exterior cameras and screens inside the vehicle to replace the traditional side mirror. Whenever the driver uses the car's indicators or engages reverse "the system automatically enhances the corresponding area".
The Yomiuri ShimbunToyota Motor Corp. has announced that it would install digital outer mirrors in place of sideview mirrors in its Lexus brand's new ES model to be released in late October.
The cameras will only be available in Japan initially, and only on the new ES 300h Version L, but Lexus will determine whether to bring them to the US after reviewing the feedback from buyers.
Replacing side mirrors with cameras has always been a concept-car flight of fancy, but Lexus will be the first automaker to make this tech a reality for a mass-produced model.
Cartoonist defends portrayal of Serena Williams
Knight told the interviewer that "the world has gone insane ", and said that his wife and children were threatened on Instagram. Wednesday's cover featured several of Knight's cartoons, alongside reasons why they might also have been considered offensive.
Vision from the cameras is displayed on 5.0-inch screens mounted at the base of the A-pillars.
Side view mirrors are about to be the next thing in your rearview. The camera pods are also shaped to resist the accumulation of raindrops, according to Lexus.
The wing mirrors are replaced with small cameras mounted on the outside of the auto, with small screens displaying the feed from these cameras on the inside.


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Samsung’s Galaxy S III was the best-selling smartphone model in the world during the third quarter of 2012, according to a Nov. 8 report from Strategy Analytics.
Telling yet another story of Samsung’s smart use of the long stretch between Apple’s iPhone releases, the research firm found that Samsung sold 18 million of the pocket-busting, Android-running Galaxy smartphones.
“The Galaxy S III captured an impressive 11 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally and it has become the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever,” said Senior Analyst Neil Shah. “A large touch-screen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the Galaxy S III’s success.”
While Apple offered its iPhone exclusively through AT&T for years before expanding its availability to Verizon and Sprint, Samsung’s strategy for the Galaxy S III—from the device’s specs, to the May 3 London event at which it was introduced, to the numbers of Samsung’s carrier partners—has been to go big. While intense global demand for the phone initially caused delays, the Galaxy S III more or less debuted simultaneously the Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular networks.
The Galaxy is remarkably thin and light and packed with features, from the ability to use its front camera to watch the user to the NFC-enabled ability to swap content with another GS III when the two are tapped together. Still, Strategy Analytics suspects that the device’s taking of the title had as much to do with Apple as Samsung.
Apple, with the second-best-selling smartphone of the quarter, sold 16.2 million iPhone 4S units—the result of consumers temporarily putting off purchases in anticipation of the iPhone 5, said Shah. When the iPhone 5 arrived, with just days left in the quarter, Apple managed to sell 6 million of them.
“Samsung’s Galaxy S III has proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia. However, the Galaxy S III’s position as the world’s best-selling smartphone model is likely to be short-lived,” Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston said in the report.
With the iPhone 5 having already gotten off to a solid start, Mawston added, “We expect the new iPhone to out-ship Samsung’s Galaxy S III in the coming fourth quarter of 2012 and Apple should soon reclaim the title of the world’s most popular smartphone model.”
Apple sold more than 5 million iPhone 5 units within three days of the phone going on sale, Apple announced Sept. 24. It added in a statement that it had sold through its initial supply and was working hard to get an iPhone 5 to everyone who wants one.
While the Galaxy S III, at launch, was the largest smartphone most anyone had seen, featuring a display that measures 4.8 inches on the diagonal and measuring 5.38 by 2.78 by 0.34 inches, the iPhone 5 is a study in barely-there. Reviewing it in The New York Times, David Pogue called it startlingly thin and “well on its way to becoming a bookmark.” It features a display that’s 4 inches on the diagonal and it features 4.87 by 2.31 by 0.30.
Consumers, likely, weren’t persuaded away from the prospect of a new iPhone but from nearly everything else. The Galaxy S III accounted for a 10.7 percent share of the market by smartphone model, during a quarter that saw sales of 167.8 million smartphones.


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CLEANING SERVICE HASSLE has revealed plans to invest a seven-figure sum of investment into an expansion of its offering in the UK and Northern Ireland.
The company dubbed the ‘Hailo for cleaners’, which has Irish roots through Kildare-native Jules Coleman who co-founded the business with Alex Depledge and Tim Nimmo, will now provide house cleaners on demand in 17 cities across the UK.
Last year Hassle was acquired by German cleaning giant Helpling for an estimated €32 million. Since the purchase Coleman and Depledge have left the company.
Speaking to Fora, Hassle managing director Sam James would not confirm how much the company is exactly investing in the expansion, but said that the money will be pumped into recruiting more cleaners and marketing its services in new regions of the UK.
“At this point demand is massively outstripping the supply of cleaners we have. So our major focus has been on taking on more cleaners,” he said.
“The aim is to be recruiting 50 to 100 new cleaners onto the Hassle platform every week for the foreseeable future. So that would be several thousand over the course of the next 12 months.”
As part of Hassle’s model, no cleaners that are recruited to the platform are hired by the company, but instead work on a self-employed basis.
The national expansion will not see Hassle’s available in every city and town in the UK and Northern Ireland, but James said that is not out of the company’s scope in the near future and there is no reason why the company “can’t have a complete nationwide service”.
“We go where people are trying to book and where the demand is even if we don’t offer services in an area yet. So basically we are working our way down the list and tracking the big hotspots where people are looking for cleaners.
“In fact many of those are commuter towns. For example, we have already launched in Reading, even though it is not the biggest place in the world and Brighton is another example where we have opened and it has exploded.”
Earlier this year, Hassle raised its prices and altered the payment structure for its on-demand cleaning services – a move that saw the company take a larger cut from each use of its service.
James said raising the prices has allowed the company to pay its cleaners a bigger wage for each house visit and the pricing change hasn’t deterred users.
“Obviously there is always an element of customers that are price sensitive, but actually what we’ve seen is that mostly the customers understood that we wanted to pay the cleaners more and give them a fair wage. So for the most part reaction was pretty good.
“We’re still growing our customer acquisition every single month, so it has certainly been a positive change for.”


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Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth, the founders of UK console studio Kuju, and who then set up consultancy Tenshi Partners, are back at the sharp edge of the game business.
Announcing Chilled Mouse, the pair have promised to release games across multiple platforms as part of an ethos to bring “great games to players everywhere – or at least everywhere that has an internet connection.”
The company's debut - a PC game - will launch in December
Nose for smelly stuff
Explaining the decision to start over, Baverstock commented, “The opportunity to bring great games to all sorts of players is phenomenal at the moment.
"This is the second great age of indie gaming. We spent the first one playing games and building a developer; this time we’ll be playing games and building a community.”
The company bio promises to put all that experience to good effect by serving up fun for players whilst avoiding all the obvious traps.
"We know that’s a cheesy objective but at Chilled Mouse our strategy is to stay focused on the cheese.”


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Welcome to the July edition of Bord Bia's Ireland Market Foodservice Newsletter.
Discussions are currently ongoing between hospitality industry representatives and Government in an effort to finalise an agreed plan and set a new date for the resumption of indoor dining. Although the vaccine roll-out gathers momentum, there are ongoing concerns regarding increasing cases of the Delta variant (both in Ireland and across Europe). The prospect of adapting the EU travel cert as a means of reopening indoor hospitality is still under consideration.
For anyone that missed our mid-year Irish Foodservice White Paper webinar, the recording is available to view on our website HERE.
You can also listen back to a 10 minute Bord Bia podcast with Deirdre O’Neill, Managing Director of Compass Group Ireland. We discuss the future of workplace catering and the role that technology will have in shaping that future.
General Industry News
Irish economy set for 11% growth surge as restrictions ease, ESRI says
The Irish Times – 24.06.2021
The Irish economy will rebound dramatically this year – growing by 11 per cent – on the back of stronger exports and a resurgence in consumer spending and investment linked to the easing of restrictions, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has said. This is the highest rate of growth ever forecast by the ESRI and more than double what the Government is forecasting. The think tank, however, warned that the pandemic would still have a scarring effect on the economy in terms of higher unemployment and fewer homes being built. The latter is likely to “exacerbate” existing supply pressures in the housing market, it said. It suggested growth this year and next would be driven by a combination of stronger exports, particularly from the multinational sector, and a rebound in consumption and investment linked to the easing of restrictions.
Manufacturing sector grows
Business Post – 02.06.2021
AIB said its Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a monthly measure of manufacturing activity in the state, jumped to 64.1 in the month of May, up from 60.8 in April. This constituted a record high since the survey began in 1998. For the PMI, any figure greater than 50 indicates overall improvement of the sector. It is derived from indicators for new orders, output, employment, suppliers’ delivery times and stocks of purchases. “Output rose at a record pace, driven by rebounding demand, with record growth in new orders as businesses re-open, both domestically and in overseas markets,” Oliver Mangan, Chief Economist at AIB, said. “As a result, backlogs of unfilled orders also rose at a record pace, while inventories of finished goods fell.”
Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) & Pub Sector
Apache Pizza to open 20 new Irish stores as takeaway business booms
Business Post – 02.06.2021
Apache Pizza said it planned to create 300 new jobs across Ireland in the next six months as it opens 20 new stores. The expansion will bring the total number employed by the chain to 2,740 across 190 stores and comes following the opening of 13 new stores and 195 new jobs in 2020. The new jobs will include roles as supervisors, managers, customer service representatives and delivery couriers, with Apache also seeking new franchisees. “Our online sales have grown by 12 per cent because we invested in making online ordering easier and more accessible prior to Covid-19,” Martin Lyons, Chief Executive, said. “We capitalised on that throughout the pandemic as people spent more time at home and ordered-in.”
JD Wetherspoon to start work on €3.8m Waterford pub
Propel Info News – 15.06.2021
Pub operator JD Wetherspoon is to start development work on its new pub in Waterford. Work will begin on the new pub in Arundel Street/Broad Street on Monday, 28 June, with the pub set to open on Tuesday, 14 December. A total of €3.8m will be invested in the development of the pub, which is being built on the site of a former bank and ladies’ clothing shop. The site had been empty since December 2014. The pub, which will be named The Arundel Gate, will create 70 jobs. The two-storey pub will feature two enclosed courtyard terraced gardens, as well as an open kitchen.
Hotel & Restaurant Sector
Up to 40,000 weddings expected next year due to backlog from pandemic
Business Post – 13.06.2021
Up to 40,000 happy couples could get married next year, twice as many as would normally be the case in a typical pre-pandemic year. According to an analysis by the Business Post, a backlog of 20,000 weddings from last year and this year could result in demand for 40,000 weddings next year, potentially creating an unprecedented situation for the country’s wedding industry.
Hospitality industry pushes for earlier date for indoor dining reopening plan
The Irish Times – 05.07.2021
Representatives of the hospitality industry are pushing for a plan for the reopening of indoor hospitality to be agreed before the Government’s July 19th target date. The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) are arguing that this should happen so they can prepare for the expected resumption of non-essential international travel on that date and the prospect of a return of tourists. The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) have also said their view is that July 19th is the date pubs should be reopening, so a plan must be in place earlier. The Cabinet agreed to prepare a plan – which could include the use of digital passes indicating if someone is vaccinated – by July 19th but gave the hospitality industry no indicative date for when they could open.
Casual Dining & Contract Catering Sector
Center Parcs to spend €85m on Longford resort expansion
RTÉ Business – 15.06.2021
Center Parcs is to spend €85m expanding its forest resort in Co Longford, with the creation of 250 permanent jobs once the development is complete. It said 200 additional accommodation lodges are to be built, including four luxury treehouses, while existing guest facilities are to be extended at the Ballymahon resort. The company also said 300 temporary positions are to be created during the construction phase of the project. If permission is granted next year, Center Parcs hopes to be able to begin construction in 2023.
Sodexo launches Fooditude in Dublin
Business and Finance – 18.06.2021
In December 2020 Sodexo acquired a majority shareholding in Fooditude, one of London’s leading names in ‘delivered-in’ workplace catering. Fooditude has been operating since 2005, with household name clients that include Netflix and Pinterest. Food is ordered in advance via the Sodexo Twelve Pay app that provides an ‘order-to-delivery’ experience. Fooditude’s offsite production capability allows organisations to review their real estate and re-model existing kitchen space for valuable business activities. The launch of Fooditude in Dublin is an evolution of Sodexo’s Vital Spaces proposition, which aims to provide a new approach to help employees transform their workplaces with a connected, people-centric approach.


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HOUSTON (KTRK) -- StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, revealed what a historic Super Bowl it was for the city of Houston.
Here are the Super Bowl 51 financial numbers:
1. The average ticket price for Super Bowl LI was $3,967. Last year the average ticket price was $4,512.
2. The number of tickets sold was up 4 percent over last year.
3. This was the highest selling single event (in total sales) in StubHub history. It was 20 percent higher than last year's Super Bowl.
4. The spike in sales was due in-part to the rise in mobile bookings, which made up nearly a third of ticket sales.
RELATED: Kansas man wins Super Bowl tickets for life
Where did fans travel from?
1. For Super Bowl 51, a ticket was purchased in all 50 states.
2. Local buyers made up 21 percent of the ticket holder with 14.5 percent from Georgia, 14.3 percent from Massachusetts, 7.5 percent from California and 5 percent from New York.
3. 24 countries were represented, including Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Africa and Australia.
RELATED: High rollers in private jets invade Houston for Super Bowl 51
There were many events going on around Houston Super Bowl week. Other events around town felt the love, too.
Top 5 events in town by sales:
1. 2017 Super Bowl 51 at NRG Stadium
2. Houston Rockets vs. Chicago Bulls at Toyota Center
3. Houston Rockets vs. Atlanta Hawks at Toyota Center
4. Super Bowl Opening Night at Minute Maid Park
5. Bruno Mars at Club Nomadic
PHOTOS: Lady Gaga slept inside this Houston estate
If you're viewing on our ABC13 news app, tap on the photo above to see more images.
Super Bowl 51 was the highest selling single event in StubHub history


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Konami has announced Neymar Jr. is set to be the cover star of Pro Evolution Soccer 2016, and promised a full game reveal on Friday, June 12.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection appears to have been posted on the PlayStation Store in error.
Bethesda has finally given us a Fallout 4 trailer! Let’s see what it has to offer…
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, this year’s main Assassin’s Creed game, won’t feature any multiplayer component, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced during an investor call today.
Batgirl Makes Her Playable Debut As Arkham Knight DLC
Watch Dogs 2 is in development at Ubisoft, according to the CV of senior gameplay programmer Julien Risse.
As someone who is a competitive multiplayer nut, I’m not too miffed about the lack of a raid in the upcoming Destiny expansion, House of Wolves. Today, Bungie revealed all the PvP changes and additions coming to Destiny, and they sound rad as hell. First off, let’s talk big picture changes. PVP as a whole…
EA, DICE and Lucasfilm Invite You to Immerse Yourself in Your Star Wars Battle Fantasies, Watch the New Star Wars Battlefront Trailer Now
GTA Online Heists, a brand new 4-player cooperative gameplay experience is now available for free inside GTA Online.


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A recent Law 360 article (paywall) lays out a possible tell from CFPB Director Rohit Chopra that the FCRA could soon become a vehicle against tech companies. “Although the FCRA is better known as the law that regulates the activities of traditional credit bureaus, background check companies and tenant screening services, Chopra has hinted that he sees Silicon Valley’s collection and monetization of consumer data as potentially within the law’s scope…Not only does coverage invite the possibility of direct supervision by the CFPB, it also comes with a tangle of compliance requirements around data accuracy, transparency and access that aren’t easy — or cheap — to meet.”
We know that the CFPB has taken a heightened interest of late in tech companies,
everything from how these companies police platform access to what they do with the payment data they gather — issues that he has in turn often linked to consumer protections provided under payments-related laws like the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and privacy-related laws like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
But Chopra also invoked Big Tech earlier this month in connection with an unrelated CFPB advisory opinion on credit reporting, issuing a statement in which he observed that ‘tech giants … may be trafficking data and consumer reports that triggers obligations under the FCRA, including restrictions on permissible purposes.’
Last week, Chopra appeared on Marketplace and in his interview with Kimberly Adams, “Chopra named the FCRA as one of several CFPB-administered laws that he said ‘are directly related to many of Big Tech’s ambitions,'” said Law 360.
Plenty of companies structure their businesses to avoid classification as a consumer reporting agency, the article notes. “But there is nothing to stop the CFPB from conducting its own independent analysis under the FCRA to argue that a tech company is substantively engaged in consumer reporting, despite what its contracts and disclaimers might say.”
Eric J. Ellman is Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) in Washington, DC. He also served for eight months as Interim President and CEO of the Association. More


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By Richard Menta 11/11/06
Friday the Americans and the Russians came to terms over their trade differences, leading the US to OK Russian entry into the World Trade organization. The pact covers several grievances, one of them focused on Russia's poor track record on intellectual property rights. The poster boy for this issue became Russian music service AllofMP3.com, which was elevated to this dubious position thanks to a British report. The report found that AllofMP3 was the number two service in the UK, behind only Apple, with an impressive 15% of the regional market. Indeed, AllofMP3's low prices for music tracks combined with their availability in multiple formats without interoperability-killing DRM arguably made it the second most popular service worldwide, an achievment supported by Alexa figures.
The question now is will the Russiand take steps to close the service down immediately or wait until its formal entry into the WTO, still threatened by former soviet satellites Moldova and Georgia.
Sony NW-S205F is available on Amazon
But then maybe the point is moot? The other month the entertainment industry successfully convinced the major credit card companies including Visa and Mastercard to cut off AllofMP3. With its main source of international money exchange removed, AllofMP3 was forced to shift its business from a pay-per-track scheme to an advertised-based model. Whether the company can survive on the new model is debateable.
But if it is successful, then pressure will most likely be brought on Russia to honor its copyright committments and take action against AllofMP3. That doesn't necessarily mean closing the service as Russia could impose a government licensing commission to serve as intermediary between the worldwide record industry and the Russian digital record market. But then again the well is tainted for a record industry who may take an "anybody BUT AllofMP3" stance.
For its part AllofMP3 says it adheres exactly to existing Russian law, paying royalties to services including the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS). The big question that is never anwered one way or the other is simply this: is ROMS legit? No one, including the press or the Russian government, has answered this question and I'll be damned if I have been able to find out.
I still want to know, but then in the world of international politics it probably does not matter anymore. Once AllofMP3 became a WTO barganing chip its days were numbered.
Digg this story
Other MP3 stories:
Podge and Rodge: YouTube Brings Gem from Ireland
iPod Killers for Christmas 2006


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The Evernote ActionScript SDK by Evernote is the official ActionScript implementation by Evernote. This SDK calls the Evernote Cloud API which provides data collection services. Developers need to obtain an API key.
eBay has introduced HeadGaze, a technology that allows users to control an iPhone through head motions. The technology uses Apple's ARKit and resulted in a test app that allows users to swipe through deals on eBay (HeadSwipe). eBay has open sourced the technology and posted on GitHub.


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The second largest market for e-commerce in Latam, right after Brazil, can reach $11 billion in e-commerce sales in 2018 alone. According to the Business Insider, it is also expected to register a growth of 15.6% by 2019.
No doubt that promising winds for e-commerce are coming from Latin America, from countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile. We – at BoaCompra – already shared these markets insights and the most popular payment methods here, but now it is time to talk about Mexico. With 130 million inhabitants and a GDP of USD $987.3 billion (GDP of $7,993 per capita) in 2017, this is a market to keep your eyes on.
Major internet players, for example, have already set their eyes in the Mexican market, launching fully localized sites and services in Spanish, including in some cases local payment options and its expected that more known internet players will follow in the next year.
The optimistic projections reflect a reality which Business Insider stated recently: “(…) we expect Mexico’s share to increase to 15.6% by 2019. By 2018, Mexico is forecast to reach $11 billion in e-commerce sales”, states the report. There are several cash payment methods and its capillarity reach areas that banks still don’t work. 7Eleven, Oxxo and Farmacias are good example of commercial addresses that are used as points of sale for online cash payments.
Mexico has been the first market to create specific laws to regulate fintech’s reach. This important step was crucial to boost the local digital market and “we are glad that one of our local partners was part of these decisive meetings with authorities and payments players”, states BoaCompra Payments Director, Fernando Estevez.
With BoaCompra merchants can:
- Sell to 70 million Internet users, accounting for 55% of the Mexican population;
- No charge-backs with 100% coverage for all transactions;
- Have 31 different local payment methods;
- Over 12000 Points of Sale across the country.
- No need to deal with local taxes and additional fees;
- Sell in Mexico without a local bank account or company registration and get paid anywhere in the world.
Why sell in Mexico?
*Data from 2016 THE LATIN AMERICA E-COMMERCE REPORT by Business Insider.
- In 2016, 49.7 million people made at least one purchase;
- 60% of online consumers have made purchases in foreign virtual stores;
- 90% of Mexican Internet users have access on multiple devices, with at least one PC/notebook and one smartphone.
Payments accepted in Mexico
Local Credit & Debit Cards
Customers can pay with locally issued credit and debit cards.
There are more than 18,000 points of sale, offering total coverage for non-bank users.
Integration with e-Wallet
Accept payments with e-Wallets such as Go4gold, PayPal and Paysafecard.
Online Bank Transfer
We have the best coverage for local banks to make it easier for your users to pay in Mexico.


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Growers and importers of Mexican tomatoes and segments of the U.S. tomato industry continue to spar over a Department of Commerce decision to end an agreement that holds an anti-dumping investigation at bay.
While a chorus of business and industry leaders is fighting for Congressional approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, some sources believe the near-term outlook appears cloudy at best for the deal.
Twenty teams competed to pluck the most strawberries at the sixth annual Strawberry Picking Challenge at Wish Farms, Plant City, Fla., an event raising more than $90,000 for the Redlands Christian Migrant Association.
AUSTIN, Texas - With Washington D.C. distracted by dysfunction and a partial government shutdown, one trade analyst speaking at Potato Expo 2019 said the focus needs to return to the importance of approving the USMCA.
With plenty of drama and plot twists, negotiations related to the tomato suspension agreement between Mexican growers and the Department of Commerce are continuing, according to an official with the U.S. agency.