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Client: Zero Waste Scotland
"Zero Waste Scotland – Fighting climate change by the Clyde
COP26 – the UN’s Climate Change Conference – brought the world to Glasgow in 2021. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Boris and Biden, key environmental culprits and champions would come face to face from across the world for a rare meeting of minds.
For Zero Waste Scotland, it was crucial that the number one driver of climate change in Scottish households was on the nation’s plate – fighting food waste. With Scottish households throwing away around 600,000 tonnes of food waste every year, Zero Waste Scotland needed to stand out and ensure the issue of food waste was highlighted by powerhouse media and everyday citizens.
The conference provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the message out to Scottish consumers that their food waste was more damaging to the environment than their plastic waste.
Whipping up stunning visuals of food waste in the shape of plastic bottles, created in partnership with world-renowned portrait photographer Rankin, the campaign homed in on the shocking statistics.
Delivered via a photography trail in Glasgow’s city centre, PR activity and social media, the campaign kept the threat of food waste at the forefront of the minds of Scottish consumers in the midst of a global summit.
By the end of COP26, more than 1.3 billion across the world had heard about the damaging impact of food waste, with media outlets from outwith Scotland shouting about the cause, including Sky News, Press Las Vegas, MSN News and News of America.


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Boston-based Carbonite Inc., which charges consumers $59 a year to backup their computer files, on Thursday filed for an initial public offering.
Carbonite did not disclose how many shares would be included in the IPO. An offering of $100 million was listed, but that amount is used to calculate the IPO's registration fee and can change.
At the end of April, Carbonite had more than 1 million consumer and small and medium-size business subscribers in more than 100 countries. The company said that since 2005 it has backed up more than 100 billion files while restoring more than 7 billion files that might otherwise have been permanently lost.
It currently backs up more than 200 million files each day, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Carbonite generated revenue of $38.6 million in 2010 and $12.8 million during the first three months of this year. The company has been losing money as it spends heavily on advertising to add new subscribers. Carbonite lost about $26 million in 2010 and $5.3 million in the first quarter of 2011.
The company reported $11.1 million in cash at the end of March and had a working capital deficit of $18.2 million in the first quarter. Carbonite charges consumers a $59 flat fee for one year of unlimited online backup, with discounts for multi-year subscriptions.
Update: In addition to the cash declared on its balance sheet, Carbonite holds $10 million in short-term investments, a spokesman said.
In January, Carbonite added $20 million in venture capital, led by new investor Crosslink Capital of San Francisco. Investors include Performance Equity of Stamford, Conn., Menlo Ventures and Lexington, Mass.-based CommonAngels. Last month, co-founder Jeff Flowers stepped down from the CTO role, to be replaced from within by former chief architect Eric Golin, who has public-company experience. CEO David Friend remains at the helm of the company.

domain: news


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// Levi Strauss confirms plans to list on the stock market at NYSE
// Denim retail giant yesterday filed documents stating its intention to launch an IPO
// Could make the company valued up to $5bn (£3.9bn).
Levi Strauss & Co has filed documents that indicated its intent to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as it seeks to return to public markets for the first time in three decades.
The 145-year-old denim maker and retailer, commonly known as Levi’s, said in its documents that it intended to list as “LEVI”.
It also set a placeholder amount of $100 million (£78 million) to indicate the size of the IPO.
However, the the final size of the IPO could end up being different.
According to CNBC reports in November, Levi’s could be valued at around $5 billion (£3.89 billion) when it debuts on the stock market.
Levi’s Japanese arm Levi Strauss KK is already publicly listed in Tokyo, which is why the company already posts quarterly earnings reports.
San Francisco-based Levi’s, which is still controlled by the descendents of founder Levi Strauss, has faced changes in consumer behaviour in recent years as people opt for cheaper denim brands or athleisure apparel.
Levi’s sells its products in more than 50,000 retail locations, including about 3000 standalone stores and concessions across 110 countries.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley are part of a 12-member underwriting team handling Levi’s IPO.


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Maruti Ignis sees a few cosmetic updates save for the BS6 engine. The 2020 Ignis price witnesses a noticeable surge compared to its pre-facelift version
After a lot of melodrama Maruti Suzuki has silently introduced its 2020 Ignis facelift at Rs 4.83 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The changes to the new Maruti Ignis 2020 are not radical, in fact subtle. The Japanese carmaker recently unveiled its new Ignis at the 2020 Auto Expo. The updation of the engines to BS6 compliant made the new Maruti Suzuki hatch costlier by up to Rs 25,000.
The new 2020 Maruti Suzuki Ignis continues to be retailed out of the Nexa showrooms. The Ignis witnesses minor cosmetic updates such as chrome-lined front grille (takes cues from the Brezza), faux skid plates at the front as well as the rear and redesigned bumpers and black A & B pillars are some of the noteworthy changes.
The 2020 Maruti Ignis cabin too continues to feature the pattern of its predecessor. The changes are minimalistic and barely differentiates the pre-facelift from the facelift Ignis. With no alterations to the dimensions, the Ignis continues to be a perfect car for four occupants.
Underpinned by the 5th generation Heartect platform, it gets 17.78cm Suzuki’s SmartPlay touchscreen unit supporting Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
The 2020 Maruti Ignis engine too remains the same 1.2-litre petrol motor which produces max power of 83PS at 6000rpm and max torque of 113Nm at 4200rpm. This engine is paired with either a 5-speed manual transmission or a 5-speed AMT gearbox. The new engine, of course, complies with the upcoming BS6 norms.


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Lava, in partnership with Google, has launched its first Android One smartphone in India, the Pixel V1. Priced at Rs. 11,350, the smartphone will be exclusively available online via Flipkart .
Much like other Android One phones, Google promises that the Lava Pixel V1 smartphone will receive guaranteed Android updates for 2 years.
The smartphone features a 5.5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) IPS display, which is definitely larger than the first-generation Android One phones that featured 4.5-inch (480×854 pixels) IPS FWVGA display.
Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek (MT6582) processor coupled with 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The Lava Pixel V1 Android One smartphone will run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box. It will be available with 32GB built-in storage and will support expandable storage via microSD card


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3D Printed Brake Parts Could Save Ford $2 MillionAugust 9, 2019
The Ford Motor Co., which opened its $45-million Advanced Manufacturing Center late last year in Redford, MI, continues to accelerate its AM efforts. This includes printing of brake parts, which could be a money-saver for the automaker.
"Additive manufacturing is a huge priority," says Michael Mikula, global chief engineer, manufacturing system and infrastructure. "It's a legitimate alternative today for the right parts.” Such parts include two 3D-printed brake parts for Ford’s upcoming Mustang Shelby GT500. One undisclosed use of that technology reportedly could save the automaker more than $2 million."Our goal is to create the factory of tomorrow, today," Mikula says. "The business needs it, the market requires it and consumers will benefit from it."


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AURORA: THIEL Audio's new live ultra-HD streaming studio
THIEL Audio has announced the creation of AURORA, its ultra-high definition live streaming music venue located in Nashville, TN. AURORA, created to merge the heritage of THIEL Audio with the legacy of Nashville, was created to be a place fans can unite with their favorite musicians and emerging artists live and in ultra-high definition video and lossless audio.
“We have created this beautifully appointed space so that our guests might Live Inside the Music – the true essence of the THIEL experience,” THIEL Audio Chief Brand Officer Rebecca Abrahams, said in a statement. “This immersive, fully interactive space combines 40 years of dedication to acoustic excellence while reaching out to a new generation of luxury brand consumers, looking for next generation high performance audio products.”
AURORA houses a live performance stage and was created as an ideal place to experience THIEL Audio’s refined loudspeakers. The listening room, which includes 4k video, allows guests to play music, view concerts or movies, go online and access social media.
THIEL stated that the creation of an entertainment division was a natural progression. They wanted to follow on-the-go, connected luxury brand consumers who access content via phones and tablets. They also wanted to showcase Nashville to a worldwide audience in live and in ultra-high definition.
AURORA is scheduled to open March 2016.
THIEL Audio is a loudspeaker manufacturer that provides components for music and cinema sound reproduction in the home.


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Celebrity fave Judith Leiber (whose bags have been carried by Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez) is known for bedazzled accessories in whimsical shapes. Now the designer is taking on wedding style with her first-ever line of big-day bags. The droolworthy clutches, including a three-tiered-cake creation, will be up for grabs for couture-loving brides with big budgets this spring -- just in time for wedding season!
For more style news, check out this issue of Life & Style Weekly!
Get the look this spring: Judith Leiber, $6,995, judithleiber.com
Your life just got exponentially better and more stylish now you've signed up for our newsletter. Fabulousness awaits!


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MODERN homes today are getting internet-connected light bulbs, thermostats, TVs and speakers. So with a simple voice command or the touch of a button on our smartphones, we can set the temperature, turn on a light or prepare the TV to record a program.
What could go wrong?
A lot more than most people are prepared for, it turns out. If one of these devices gets hijacked, hackers could potentially snoop around for sensitive data like financial or health information. Or they could use a network of compromised devices to perform a widespread attack that takes down major websites, which is what happened last October.
The good news is that so far, online attacks on home devices are relatively uncommon. Only 10 percent of American consumers said they were victims of the crime in a recent study done for the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company. However, those who experienced such an attack through their home gadgets reported losses of $1,000 to $5,000 from the incidents.
“There’s still this whole sort of, ‘Gee whiz, it’s so cool’ thing that’s going on” with internet-connected home appliances, said Lee Tien, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on digital rights. “That’s also what often gets us into trouble.”
As smart home devices become more popular, they will become bigger targets for hackers. So it behooves us to get ahead of the curve by securing our home appliances, using these tips from security experts who have closely studied smart home accessories.
Research Before You Buy
When shopping for an internet-connected home device like a smart speaker, lighting system or television set, a good rule of thumb is to go with a trusted brand.
Larger, well-regarded companies like Amazon or Google have a background in developing products with security in mind, said Liviu Arsene, an analyst for Bitdefender, which sells security hardware for protecting smart home accessories. Before buying a product, consumers should do a web search on it to see if the company regularly issues software updates that fix security vulnerabilities, he said.
People should also carefully read company privacy policies. David Britton, a vice president in the fraud and identity department of Experian, the credit reporting agency, said people should be curious about whether companies themselves were a threat to user privacy.
Read more on… Here Is How to Fend Off a Hijacking of Home Devices
Author: Brian X. Chen


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Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Finally the Video iPod.
Apple announced today the release of the new iPod, with video. Along with the new iPod, iTunes has also gotten an upgrade with video. You can now buy music video, video podcasts, and TV Shows to play on your computer or you iPod. The new iPod has a bigger, better screen and the iPod itself is 30% thinner than it's predecessors. Finally a way to watch porn on the go!!!


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Greenwich, Conn.--Direct Media has been selected to manage Plastics News'
e-mail subscriber list. The 36,000-name list--derived from Plastics News'
active subscriber list and its three online newsletters, âDaily Newsmail,â âMaterials Alert Weeklyâ and âClassified Alert Weeklyâ--is new to the market. Direct Media has managed Plastics News'
postal list for more than 12 years. Plastics News
is published by Crain Communications, BtoB's


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Shares of Microchip Technology Inc. MCHP, +2.12% fell more than 3% late Monday after the Chandler, Ariz., company reported fiscal second-quarter 2018 adjusted earnings and sales above expectations. Microchip said it earned $189.2 million, or 77 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $34 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, the company reported a net income of $344.1 million, or $1.41 a share, compared with 94 cents a year ago. Net sales reached $1.01 billion, up 16.2% from $871 million a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $1.35 a share on sales of $984 million. The company forecast fiscal 2018 third-quarter sales between $972 million to $1.01 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 and adjusted earnings between $1.30 a share and $1.40 a share; the analysts surveyed by FactSet expect sales around $984 million and adjusted per-share earnings around $1.30.
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The Tri-City Rose Society will meet at 7:30 p.m. April 23 at the Sandburg Event Center in West Richland.
The program is "The Perfect Arrangement for Your Table."
The presentation includes two parts: one on drying and displaying flowers and the second on design using fresh roses.
Full-sun, shade flowers available at plant sale
The Basin Bloomers Garden Club will hold a plant sale from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 28 at 2221 S. Rainier St., Kennewick.
They will have plants for full sun and shade, a variety of herbs and vegetable starts.
There also will be an assortment of yard-related items for sale.
Club members will be on hand to help select plants.
Master Gardeners to hold plant sale in Kennewick
The Washington State University Master Gardeners for Benton and Franklin counties will hold a plant sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 28 in the parking lot of the grange at 1620 S. Union St., Kennewick.
Proceeds will be used to help support the Demonstration Garden.


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Riverbed adds an update to product range
Riverbed Technology has announced new Steelhead Mobile capabilities that allow organisations of all sizes to deploy a mobile WAN optimisation solution with increased scalability.
Riverbed is introducing Steelhead Mobile Controller – Virtual Edition (SMC-VE), increased capacity for the Steelhead Mobile Controller (SMC) appliance and additional application-level latency optimisation for Steelhead Mobile.
“Productivity is a major challenge for mobile workers as companies embark on IT consolidation projects that result in workers being further from their data,” says Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president at Yankee Group.
“With many companies looking to expand the number of users that work remotely, it’s clear that a solution designed to optimise the performance of applications when a worker is mobile is critical. By expanding the scalability of its mobile WAN optimisation solution, Riverbed is providing companies of all sizes with the opportunity to give mobile and remote workers LAN-like access to corporate files and information and broadening its market reach.”
SMC-VE is a virtual package deployed on the Riverbed Services Platform (RSP), a virtualised platform that resides on the Steelhead appliance that provides customers with the capability to run up to five additional services and applications in a protected partition on the Steelhead appliance.
Broadest Set of Application Acceleration for Mobile Workers Riverbed is also announcing support for application layer Lotus Notes acceleration for mobile users. Riverbed is the only vendor to provide this capability which improves the speed at which mobile employees can access large e-mail attachments and manage calendaring.
SMC-VE and the above mentioned enhancements to Steelhead Mobile are expected to be generally available on Monday, July 27, 2009.


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- 23 Jun 2015:Any split of AMD would result in two smaller companies, heavily interdependent, taking on larger, entrenched, and determined competitors.
- Goldman analysts added that they expect DRAM prices to drop 30% over the next three quarters.
- 18 Jun 2015:Samsung Electronics has asked that a full bench of an appeals court should review a damages award in a long-standing patent infringement dispute with arch-rival Apple.
- The proximate source of a lot of this pressure is China, say SouthBay Economics' Andrew Zatlin. Semiconductors are suffering a fallout stemming from China's slowing economy just like other commodities have.
- Intel's CEO, Brian Krzanich, made his commitment to wearable technology very clear shortly after assuming his current role in 2013.
- 16 Jun 2015:Pricing of DRAM, based on his "checks" with entities in Taiwan, is weak in PC, servers, and in graphics applications, writes Moore.
- Chip makers are feeling pressures to find new sales, including by merging with rivals, amid declines in some businesses such as personal computers and rising expectations for margin growth.
- 15 Jun 2015:Demand for semiconductors continued to weaken in the second quarter with some PC assemblers in Asia suggesting a decline in purchases of some parts of as much as 15-20% from the second quarter of 2014, according to a report from Wall Street analysts at Deutsche Bank.
- 12 Jun 2015:Facebook showed the world its first commercial version of virtual reality on Thursday - and offered tantalizing hints of how it hopes to turn three-dimensional goggles into a new kind of computing and communications device.
- 11 Jun 2015:Meng has 30 years of telecommunications experience, eight of those with Qualcomm, which included serving as senior vice president and president of Qualcomm Greater China from 2008 to 2010.
- Integrated Silicon Solution (ISSI) has finalized a definitive agreement to be acquired by Cypress Semiconductor for US$20.25 per share in cash, according to the fabless memory supplier.
- 10 Jun 2015:In the data center, where Intel has handily trounced AMD in sales of server microprocessors, there is still a need for x86-compatible chips, of which AMD holds the only cards outside Intel. That could make AMD a target in the data center for Xilinx or for Chinese state-owned investment vehicles.
- Cypress Semiconductor's latest acquisition ambitions have been stopped due to anti-trust concerns.
- 8 Jun 2015:Applied Materials announced that its board of directors has elected Willem Roelandts as chairman effective immediately. Roelandts succeeds Michael Splinter, who has retired from the board.
- Synopsys has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Atrenta, a privately held provider of SoC realization solutions for the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries.
- 4 Jun 2015:Toshiba and Microsoft have announced that the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly develop solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT).
- 3 Jun 2015:According to industry sources, SK Hynix will start processing 20-nano wafers for mass production from next month, and start the full-fledged production of 20-nano class DRAM in July.
- 2 Jun 2015:MagnaChip Semiconductor now offers a new 0.18-micron Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) 100V high voltage process. This new process features operability up to 100V for various applications that include DC-DC converters, Power-over-Ethernet, LED drivers, motor drivers, audio amps and PMICs.
- Rohm has moved to acquire a 200mm wafer fab from Renesas Electronics for JPY450 million (US$3.7 million).
- A new low-power, high-speed memory technology on the horizon could replace solid-state drives, hard drives and DRAM in PCs, and bring higher levels of storage capacity to mobile devices and wearables.
- But company officials and market experts say if the two raise their production capacity, the long-term supply growth will remain constrained due to technological complexity.
- Altera has been a key customer at TSMC for years, especially at the advanced tech node, accounting for around 3% of TSMC's revenue at 20/28 nodes.
- The Helio P10 is built using TSMC's 28nm HPC+ process.
- 28 May 2015:Daimler and Qualcomm announce strategic collaboration on connected car technologies (May 24) - Company releaseIn the first phase of the collaboration, the companies will focus on transforming future vehicles with mobile technologies that enhance in-car experiences and vehicle performance such as 3G/4G connectivity, wireless charging technology for in-vehicle use and implementation of the Qualcomm Halo Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) technology.
- Chip maker Avago Technologies is in advanced talks to buy rival Broadcom in a deal worth about US$35 billion, the latest in a wave of takeovers for the companies that supply parts to power smartphones, tablets and other gadgets.
- 27 May 2015:NVIDIA reiterates for the second time in three months that TSMC is their primary manufacturing partner as they head towards 16nm, and even 10nm production.
- China's Spreadtrum Communications will use Intel's 14nm FinFET process technology for both the low- and high-end mobile chips the company plans to launch in 2016, according to Spreadtrum chairman and CEO Leo Li.
- 26 May 2015:The next-generation iPhone will reportedly sport a camera with a 12-megapixel Sony sensor that makes use of the firm's RGBW technology to help with low-light photography.
- 25 May 2015:Globalfoundries offers new low-power 28nm solution for high-performance mobile and IoT applications (May 20) - Company releaseGlobalfoundries has announced it is offering a 28nm High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) radio frequency (RF) process technology that will provide power-efficient solutions for highly integrated mobile applications and connected devices.
- Samsung was shy on specs, but said the process node will be in full production by the end of 2016, about the same time as its rival TSMC.
- 21 May 2015:Huawei and Qualcomm jointly complete CAT11-based 3CC CA+256QAM test, reaching 600 Mbit/s rate - Company releaseHuawei and Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, have jointly announced the completion of tests using LTE CAT11 terminals.
- 20 May 2015:The US has charged six Chinese nationals over the alleged theft of technology used in mobile phones. The six, including three university professors, are accused of using the technology to benefit universities and companies controlled by Beijing.
- 19 May 2015:A new leaked roadmap slide purportedly showing Intel's plans through to the end of 2016 has been published by a Finnish computer technology website. If the slide is genuine we will likely see Intel release its first 10nm Cannonlake CPUs sometime around the second and third quarters of next year.
- As Apple basks in the unprecedented demand for its latest iPhones, suppliers from Tokyo to Taipei are sharing in the spoils.
- Xiaomi wants its own custom-designed processors to differentiate its products and control its destiny, an executive of Leadcore Technology told EE Times.
- 18 May 2015:Fujitsu and Intel have reached an agreement to combine Fujitsu Laboratories' distributed service platform technology with the Intel IoT Gateway to build out comprehensive IoT solutions.
- The recent earnings season turned out to be largely good news for the companies that make semiconductor manufacturing gear. But investors haven't quite come around yet.
- Silicon Storage Technology and Globalfoundries announce qualification of auto grade 55nm embedded flash memory technology (May 5) - Company releaseMicrochip Technology through its Silicon Storage Technology (SST) subsidiary and Globalfoundries have announced the full qualification and availability of SST's 55nm embedded SuperFlash non-volatile memory (NVM) on Globalfoundries' 55nm Low Power Extended (LPx)/ RF enabled platform.
- 15 May 2015:With the adoption rate of the ARM mbed IoT Device Platform increasing rapidly, the company has announced a new assurance standard, the ARM mbed Enabled program.
- Imagination receives TSMC 2015 Graphics Partner of the Year Award
- Revolutionary dynamic AC test system for power transistors
- Merck shows strong commitment by accelerating its development in the semiconductor sector
- Advantest to exhibit and present papers on its newest IC test solutions at the International Test Conference, October 6-8 in Anaheim, Calif
- Fortrend Engineering (Hsin Chu) Corp. – A pioneer in semiconductor automatic system integration
- Embracing the New Generation Intel Atom Family with DDR3 Memory Support
- Got The Message? Ensuring efficient and reliable delivery of content across a mission critical digital signage network
- Emb' Store On-Demand Software Service for Embedded Computing
- Efficient Network Management for Digital Signage
- Design Benefits of the MI/O Extension Solution
- Rockchip statement on merger rumor
- Perforce Software Introduces Perforce Swarm
- Perforce Unveils Git Fusion, Improving Git Experience
- ATO Solution Co., Ltd. to launch 1Gb SLC NAND Flash after 256Mb/512Mb mass production for the first time in Fab-less industry
- Chilisin's miniature power inductor in 0603/0805 sizes
- Digitimes Research: Shrinking tablet market prompts China touch panel supply chain to look for growth elsewhere
- Digitimes Research: Tsinghua Unigroup acquisition of Micron faces difficulties, but is a must for China for further development
- Digitimes Research: Qualcomm to push inexpensive mobile device market with Microsoft and Allwinner solutions
- Digitimes Research: Touch IC developers turning to fingerprint sensors
- Digitimes Research: Intel 28nm SoFIA 4G AP delayed to early 2016; may face overlap issue with 14nm version
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) is seeking to acquire an up to 25% stake in fellow packaging house Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL).
After acquiring MStar Semiconductor, MediaTek has announced more acquisitions.
Semicon Taiwan 2014 will kick off in Taipei from September 3-5, with this year's theme focusing on advanced wafer processes, next-generation memory technologies,...
Digitimes Research expects Taiwan's IC backend production to outperform global average n 2014
The acquisition of Freescale by NXP Semiconductors will make NXP the world's second largest MCU supplier...
Socionext, a Japan-based corporation focused on the design, development, and sales of system-on-chip...
The Cortex-A72 processor is ARM's highest-performance and most advanced processor. Based on the ARMv8-A...
Networking is a hot topic these days, whether it is connecting all devices in the Internet of Things...
- Taiwan DRAM module industry overview - Jun 2011
The year 2010 represented a peak in recent years for the DRAM module industry. Optimism surfaced in the second half of 2009 thanks to a return of demand on the...
- Taiwan DRAM-module industry overview - May 2010
Back to 2006 when total revenues for the third-party module market reached US$12.2 billion, Taiwan had over 15 vendors shipping DRAM modules under their own brand...
- Taiwan semiconductor equipment industry overview - Aug 2008
Worries about a global economic downturn have taken a toll on a number of industries, with the semiconductor industry being no exception. Players in the semiconductor...
- Foundry overview - Sep 2006
Taiwan's semiconductor industry has begun to out-run its global peers, once more, in 2006. This followed a trough in 2004, caused by over-inventory, plus volatility...


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SOUTHEAST ASIA is expected to be the top wheat importing region in 2018/2019 driven by demand from Philippines and Indonesia, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
In its Grain: World Markets and Trade report, USDA said that wheat imports for the Philippines have more than doubled its demand over the last decade, with a large surge in 2018/2019.
“Wheat imports in that year were boosted by reduced supplies of other grains as typhoons cut domestic corn and rice production,” it said.
Along with the Philippines, Indonesia is also expected to drive the demand for wheat during the period. “Indonesia has more than doubled its imports in the last decade, becoming the world’s second-leading importer after Egypt. Both food and feed demand in that country have skyrocketed in recent years,” USDA noted.
This is expected to continue until 2019/2020, with the Philippines and Indonesia driving the demand. “Wheat demand in the region continues to trend higher based on longer-term shifts in consumption from rice to wheat as diets diversify,” it said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that in April 2019, the Philippine imported wheat valued at $102.04 million, down 12.2% year on year. In the first four months of the year, wheat imports rose 21.6% to $543.6 million.
Meanwhile, in a separate report for oilseeds, USDA said that copra production in 2019/2020 is expected to decline 2.8% due to lower output from the Philippines caused by stress on trees after two years of heavy nut bearing.
“Copra meal production is projected to slightly decrease due to lower copra production in the Philippines while all other countries remain unchanged,” it said.
According to PSA, coconut production in the first quarter of 2019 rose 0.2% to 3.31 million metric tons (MMT). Davao Region was the top producer, accounting for 14.4% of total production, followed by Zamboanga Peninsula (13.6%), and Northern Mindanao (12.9%). — Vincent Mariel P. Galang


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Chinese phone maker Pomp has launched the Pomp C6, an NFC smartphone running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on a 1.5GHz quad core processor with 2GB RAM. The handset features both 13 megapixel rear and 8 megapixel front facing cameras along with a 5.5-inch full HD 1920×1080 display. The device packs 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 and is available to purchase for around US$288.
- Rambus publishes quick guide to Apple Pay
- Chinese banks roll out face recognition at the ATM
- Germany’s central bank reports on potential of blockchain for payments
- NXP releases NFC tag toolkit for iOS
- Banks back government-led Taiwan Pay QR payments service


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Qatar’s Harrods project in Porto Cervo suspended by authorities
Qatar’s Deluxe Village retail project in the Italian summer resort town of Porto Cervo on Costa Smeralda has been suspended by local authorities (La Procura della Repubblica di Tempio Pausania) due to the lack of approvals from several state entities. The Deluxe Village in Porto Cervo has been projected to include a pop up Harrods store and 22 boutiques of major international luxury brands. London luxury department store Harrods has been owned by Qatar Holding since 2011.
adapted from MFF


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With the market trading on very light volume it has been like watch paint dry the last few days. Despite some encouraging economic data, stocks had a listless session and made another lackluster finish.
With the market trading on very light volume it has been like watch paint dry the last few days.
Despite some encouraging economic data, stocks had a listless session and made another lackluster finish. Nonetheless, the major indices managed to eke out a fractional gain, which means that the Dow has finished higher seven straight times.
There weren't any individual leaders for the broader market this session, but retailers (+0.7%) did garner support following better-than-expected earnings and an upside forecast from Dollar Tree (DLTR 50.13, +2.23) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM 17.21, +1.74).
Home improvement retailers (+1.4%) also gained, but their strength was owed to an encouraging new home sales report. Annualized new home sales for July hit 433,000 units, which is well above the 390,000 that had been expected. What's more, the 9.6% month-over-month increase for July is the sharpest rise since 2005. That helped bring inventory down to a 7.5 month supply from an 8.5 month supply. The better-than-expected new home sales report brought about a broad-based buying effort that took stocks to their best levels of the session. However, gains were capped as buyers seemed unwilling to chase stocks higher. That left the major indices to drift lower.
With participants sitting on the sidelines the rest of the day's news items didn't have much of an impact on the overall market. As such, market participants were essentially unimpressed by news that durable goods orders made their sharpest increase in two years by spiking 4.9% in July. Economists had called for a 3.0% increase. Though the increase exceeded expectations, the results were generally the result of the Cash for Clunkers program. Excluding autos, durable goods orders increased 0.8%, which was largely in-line with expectations.
Stocks did drift to afternoon lows following news that an auction of 5-year Treasuries produced a high yield of roughly 2.49% and a bid-to-cover ratio of approximately 2.5. A lack of conviction behind the selling effort enabled the stock market to make its way back to neutral territory. The lack of interest on the part of participants was also made evident by the lack of trading volume this session. Hardly 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. Dow unch., Nasdaq unch., S&P 500 unch., Nasdaq 100 -0.2%, S&P 400 -0.1%, Russell 2000 +0.1%
One thing to watch is the fact that Dry shippers have not particpated in the rally even though strong economic growth is being projected for China. There are some increasing views that China's pace of growth may not be as strong as projected and that the rise in the recent Chines stock market may be subject to a further fall after correcting over 20%. A 20% correction has to be put in perspective of a 100% run up. Considering the US stock market has not experienced any pullback or correction since the march low there is an increasing probability for some give back over the next few months and would in fact be healthy for a further advance.
In addition although the US housing data is certainly a good improvement it remains to be seen if it can be sustained as banks are holding on to a number of troubled properties so as not to flood the market with foreclosures. We will be paying attention to the overall housing mix of numbers, consumer spending, and unemployment statistics coming out in September to further the bullish case of further market gains.


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UBF supports International Fraud Awareness Week 2017 in UAE
The UAE Banks Federation (UBF) announced its full support to the International Fraud Awareness Week, reinforcing its role in fighting the growing menace of fraud.
The UBF will be an ambassador of fraud awareness during the campaign that runs from 12-18 November, and joins a group of organisations to partner with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) to support the annual Fraud Week movement that champions the need to proactively safeguard businesses and investments.
“Our collaborations with ACFE comes in a year that saw a spate of cyberattacks and data breaches, which shook the whole world and cost billions to business around the globe. As a major stakeholder in the UAE’s financial services sector and the wider economy, we understand our responsibility towards striving for an ecosystem free of fraud, corruption and all kinds of financial crime, where businesses can flourish and achieve their goals and growth targets. Educating companies and employees about the evolving landscape of fraud, and informing them of the latest trends in fraud prevention and detection are the first steps towards minimising the exposure and impact of fraud, and this is what we are trying to achieve by taking part in this novel initiative,” said HE Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of the UAE Banks Federation.
According to ACFE’s 2016 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, fraud costs organisations worldwide an estimated five per cent of their annual revenues, which could easily run into billions. The Telecommunications Regulations Authority (TRA) of the UAE said last month that it foiled a total of 561 cyberattacks, the second most reported crime faced by businesses in the Middle East, targeting public and private organisation in the first half of the year alone.
ACFE President James D. Ratley, CFE, said that the support of organisations around the world helps make Fraud Week an effective tool in raising anti-fraud awareness.
“The latest statistics reveal that fraud isn’t going away and companies that do not have protective measures in place stand to lose the most. That is why it is reassuring to me to see so many businesses, agencies, universities and other organisations involved in the Fraud Week movement. The first step in combating fraud is raising awareness worldwide that it is a serious problem that requires a proactive approach toward preventing it. Since our first Fraud Week almost 20 years ago, the movement continues to grow,” Ratley said.
As part of its continuous efforts to raise public awareness, the UBF has recently released easy-to-implement tips on financial fraud. Furthermore, the Fraud Prevention Committee of the organisation has plans to launch its initiative calling for creating a central fraud repository, in collaboration with Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB), in order to mitigate application and lending fraud in the UAE.


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The second Vietnamese Coffee Day will run from December 9 to 11 in Gia Nghĩa Town, Đắk Nông Province to boost the sustainable development of the coffee industry and increase the value of coffee products.—Photo tuoitre.vn
HÀ NỘI — The second Vietnamese Coffee Day will run from December 9 to 11 in Gia Nghĩa Town, Đắk Nông Province to boost the sustainable development of the coffee industry and increase the value of coffee products.
The coffee day will be an opportunity for local and foreign companies to learn about the market and share their experience in production, processing and trading coffee, he said. They could also use the event to find partners and advertisers.
This event expects to attract the participation of representatives from ministries, sectors, provinces – especially localities producing coffee – embassies in Việt Nam, global and regional coffee organisations as well as coffee production and processing enterprises.
There are 33 representatives from the Global Coffee Platform, the ASEAN Coffee Federation, the Asia Coffee Association and coffee importers from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Myanmar, Laos and Western African nations.
The second Vietnamese Coffee Day is marked by an exhibition with 50 booths for quality coffee products and several other activities including workshops discussing sustainable development in the industry.
This year’s event is being held in Đắk Nông, the third largest coffee producing province in Việt Nam, under direction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the People’s Committee of Đắk Nông Province and the Việt Nam Coffee and Cacao Association.
Vietnamese Coffee Day 2018 would for the first time include a meeting for local and foreign associations and enterprises to sign co-operation contracts, Lương Văn Tự, chairman of the Việt Nam Coffee and Cacao Association – one of the organisers of the event this year – said.
The event will have coffee cupping by experts for the first time.
Việt Nam has had the fastest coffee development in the world although it started late. The nation’s coffee output accounted for one per cent of the global coffee supply in 1991. By 2017 it accounted for 17 per cent of the world’s coffee. The nation is the second largest coffee exporter in the world after Brazil.
This year, Việt Nam expects to export 1.7 million tonnes of coffee, earning $3.5 billion. The export value of coffee is estimated to contribute about 9 per cent to the total export value of farming, forestry and seafood products this year. — VNS


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Good News for Car Drivers
Meme of the Month: “Is anyone else getting ‘3 weeks to the gallon’ in their cars these days?”
American Family Insurance said it’s refunding more than $200 million in premiums to it’s insured drivers and Allstate, is giving back $600 million.
American FamilyInsurance Company said it will send $50 per insured vehicle to every customers. The typical household will get $100. All told, 2.3 million checks will be mailed over the next two months, Am-Fam said. The rebates apply only to customers with a policy as of March 11.
American Family’s COO, Telisa Yancy, said customers are filing fewer car accident claims in recent weeks and they deserve these rebates.
“American Family-brand data illustrates our customers are not driving as much,” CEO Jack Salzwedel said in a statement. “As a result, we believe they’ve overpaid in their premiums. It’s our duty to return that premium because it belongs to them.”
Government stay-at-home orders aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic have created “an unprecedented decline in driving,” Allstate CEO Tom Wilson said in a statement. He said refunding customers “is fair because less driving means fewer accidents.”
Under Geico’s plan, the average auto customer will see a $150 credit and the average motorcycle customer will see $30 credited. The company will credit about $2.5 billion in total, Geico CEO Todd Combs told customers in an email Wednesday.
American Family and Allstate’s plan drew praise from the Consumer Federation of America and other advocacy groups that have called for auto premium rebates.
Hopefully these safe driving numbers will continue and we may all see even more rebates and refunds in the future.
What’s the Quickest Way to Reach Am-Fam?
For billing, payments and other account questions
For questions about your claim
For questions about claims, please contact our care center staff at 1-800-MYAMFAM (1-800-692-6326).
For questions about payment assistance
During this time, we recognize that customers may find themselves facing financial difficulties. American Family is here to help. If you’ve been financially impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, and have questions about late payments, fees, cancellations, non-renewals or any other concern, we encourage you to reach out to discuss your options by calling 1-800-MYAMFAM (1-800-692-6326).
You can also get assistance on the AM-FAM Website.


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Venture Capital: Food Delivery Start-Up Postmates Sells Out to Uber for $2.65B
The all-stock deal is expected to be announced today according to reports.
Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) is acquiring food delivery start-up Postmates for $ 2.65 billion in an all-stock deal, according to reports by Bloomberg and the New York Times.
Uber and Postmates had discussed a merger on many occasions over the past four years. However, the current feeding frenzy in M&A deal-making in the food delivery sector probably spurred a closure this time around.
It’s all about scale
Uber’s ill-fated plans to acquire GrubHub Inc (NYSE: GRUB) were nixed when European online food and beverages delivery platform Just Eat Takeaway.com NV (LON: JET) swept away GrubHub with a $ 7.3 billion bid. Presumably, Uber reopened talks with Postmates after its abortive bid for GrubHub. The startup is a smaller rival to Uber Eats, Uber’s own food delivery service.
Players in the sector are jockeying for scale and after the coronavirus pandemic boosted demand for food and beverage deliveries.
It’s a low margin, highly competitive business and Uber is probably looking to cut administrative overheads and platform costs by consolidating Postmates (market share 8%) with Uber Eats (market share 23%). On the revenue side, the combined service could gain more pricing muscle.
Its food delivery operations could balance the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Uber’s ride-hailing business.
However, in the rapidly consolidating sector, DoorDash is still the dominant player, delivering about 44% of US meals in May.
Bastian Lehmann, Sam Street, and Sean Plaice co-founded Postmates in 2011. It currently has a fleet of over 500,000 members and 600,000 merchants across 50 American states.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the startup previously held deal-making discussions with both DoorDash and GrubHub.
Postmates is currently number four in the food delivery market share sweepstakes. It has a good customer base in Los Angeles as well as the American Southwest.
It is expected that Uber will merge Postmates into Uber Eats, and Uber Eats head Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty will continue to be at the helm of affairs of the combined entity. However, Postmates Chief Executive Officer Bastian Lehmann and his team will continue to manage the operations of the Postmates unit.
Related Story: The Uber Vs. Grubhub Food Delivery War – ETFs to Profit
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Watch Episode #26 of Automation Unplugged: an Industry Q&A with Coleen Sterns Leith
This week’s show features our host Ron Callis interviewing Coleen Sterns Leith from her home office in St. Petersburg, FL. Coleen has been running her PR & Marketing firm Marketing Matters since 1997. She recently published a book titled Ultra Hi Def Marketing, written to help tech startups reach world domination in the tech industry.
About Coleen Sterns Leith
Coleen Sterns Leith is president and founder of Marketing Matters, an agency working exclusively with technology companies. For the past 20 years, Marketing Matters has been the agency of choice for companies like Bose and Sharp to launch new technology. Her team has helped take a startup company to $200 million in sales in seven years and has won 63 design and publishing awards for the work they’ve done.
Working closely with technology clients, Coleen and her team have created over 200 successful product launches and public relations strategies garnering national and international exposure and a dynamic market presence for each of their clients. Coleen is an active member of the tech community including her work with Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) Audio Division and TechHome Division, is a mentor for start‐up tech companies and she serves as a judge for the TechHome Mark of Excellence Awards that are presented at the Consumer Electronics Show each January in Las Vegas.
Coleen recently released her new book, Ultra Hi Def Marketing for tech start-ups earlier this year. She resides in Saint Petersburg with her husband and French Bulldogs.
Here are some of the topics Ron had the opportunity to discuss with Coleen:
- Coleen’s background in the industry and her current role
- Marketing Matters’ proprietary “5-Step Method to World Domination”
- Ultra Hi Def Marketing – the book that explains that method
- Print isn’t dead – why you still need a brochure
- How integrators can help with their own PR
- And more
To watch the interview, start the video below:
You can find the original article and more interviews here: https://onefirefly.com/learn/automation-unplugged/item/watch-episode-26-an-industry-q-a-with-coleen-sterns-leith


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- Outdated operating systems in connected devices could create patient safety issues in addition to medical device cybersecurity concerns. A faulty implanted device could impacts patients or ransomware could prevent patients from receiving proper care if a provider is temporarily shut down.
Legacy devices are the biggest cybersecurity challenge right now, not the devices that are new to the market according to Yarmela Pavlovic, who is a partner in the FDA Medical Device practice at Hogan Lovells.
The devices that were released at a time when cybersecurity wasn’t really an issue, or at least when it was not a key consideration in the industry, can create data security concerns, she told HealthITSecurity.com.
“One of the interesting things is that cybersecurity is an ever-evolving animal,” Pavlovic said. “While legacy devices are the big issue today, it’s interesting to think about what the issue will be in 10 years. What are we not thinking about today? We just have no idea what will be an issue in 10 years? It’s a real challenge for companies to address the unknown.”
Devices that weren’t intended to be network-connected are sometimes being “jerry-rigged with WiFi connectors or other network connections,” she added. For example, older devices might have USB ports there were meant for uploading software, but might also be used to connect the device to a hospital network.
However, open USB ports could also lead to problems, for example. Asking about open USB ports has become a common FDA question during premarket review, Pavlovic explained.
“We regularly get questions about [USB ports] if it’s not clearly addressed up front in a marketing application,” she said.
For example, a USB port meant for upgrading software can also be used to upload malicious software.
Assessing risk for digital health security
It has become a standard part of the pre-market review of all medical devices to assess whether or not there is any sort of connection to outside the device, Pavlovic stated. This is almost always the case when it comes to digital health.
“Then the assessment becomes focused primarily on whether the company – the manufacturer of the product – has assessed the potential for cybersecurity vulnerability and risk and how they have chosen to mitigate those risks,” she said. “Two years ago you could submit a new product application and not mention cybersecurity, and occasionally you would get questions. Now, it will be a question that FDA asks in every instance.”
The FDA issued a guidance document that lays out the information the agency expects to receive as part of that pre-market review, which is largely tied to risk analysis, Pavlovic added. The risk analysis is essentially the core of medical device design and development.
“You figure out what the risks of the product are, and that helps you figure out how you need to change it to mitigate those risks: to make the risks less likely,” she explained.
The FDA is also doing work with post-market surveillance on the backend. Once a product is available on the market – whether it is a new device or a device released 10 years earlier – FDA has a document to help companies figure out how they should be reassessing cybersecurity in the post-market phase. The guidance also aids in how changes should be reported, or handled so devices do not keep cybersecurity vulnerabilities in place once they’re identified.
“For medical devices that require FDA clearance or approval prior to marketing, every time you change that product after the first marketing authorization is granted, as a manufacturer you have to assess whether that triggers the need for a new filing with FDA,” Pavlovic observed. “Do you have to go back and get a new 510(k) or a PMA supplement? You also have to consider whether any changes made to address safety issues trigger recall reporting obligations.”
In exchange for companies being very proactive with cybersecurity, FDA has given them a bit of a pass on the number of things that need to be reported back to the agency, she said. It basically allows companies to move more nimbly to address potential vulnerabilities. In many instances it may not require a new 510(k), a new marketing authorization, or reporting under the recall rules.
Information sharing and collaboration have also been highlighted as important areas with medical device cybersecurity. This is also part of the proactivity, where companies need to participate in Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs) to skip some of their reporting obligations.
The FDA post-market guidance said such an approach is necessary given the understanding that cybersecurity risk management is a shared responsibility.
Manufacturers were also encouraged to participate in ISAOs.
“[Manufacturers] are supposed to be participating in an information-sharing organization, and those organizations serve kind of like clearinghouses of information,” Pavlovic said. “A manufacturer can submit information to the clearinghouse and have it be available to others in the industry without necessarily disclosing who reported the information.”
There is the idea that many organizations have very similar operating systems or other components that are being used off the shelf that then lead to potential vulnerabilities, she added.
“If the companies all share information, or all of the shareholders and stakeholders in this process share information, then that just increases the chances that another company will realize early that they have a potential issue and fix it,” Pavlovic explained. “FDA views the collaboration among all the different stakeholders as pretty critical to maintaining the cyber-health of the healthcare infrastructure.”
Creating long-lasting, comprehensive security measures
The FDA has principle jurisdiction over medical device manufacturers and companies that make products available. One of the very challenging things is that those devices then get implemented into a healthcare institution, Pavlovic stated.
“Sometimes they’re used at home, but often they’re being implemented by a hospital,” she noted. “The network within which the device is operating has an impact on cyber-vulnerability. There will be a continued emphasis for manufacturers to be working with healthcare institutions to try to protect the devices that are out there, and the networks on which they’re relying.”
There will likely also be continued efforts on furthering cybersecurity education and ensuring that companies are aware of, and thinking about the evolving cybersecurity issues, Pavlovic added.
“If you think about all other areas of risk for a medical device, you almost always are thinking about them in terms of the intended use of the product,” she pointed out. “Something that’s a little bit unique about cybersecurity is that the intended use of the product doesn’t necessarily matter.”
For example, perhaps a blood pressure monitoring device is connected to a hospital network, Pavlovic proposed. It might be connected through the cloud. Overall, the device seems fairly low-risk because it simply monitors vitals.
When it comes to cybersecurity though, it doesn’t really matter what that device does if it is a way in to the hospital network.
“If it is connected to the hospital network and also an external location like the cloud, then that connection may present a vulnerability for accessing the hospital network,” she said. “The consequences could be significant from a cybersecurity perspective, even though the risk of the device in a medical sense is quite low.”
“One of the messages that FDA has really been hammering on is you need to think about cybersecurity more broadly than the intended use of the product,” Pavlovic stated. “That is definitely a big piece of what they will continue to educate companies on.”
When it comes to cybersecurity, FDA’s biggest interest right now is not in punishing companies, but rather in helping them meet challenges, Pavlovic explained.
“There hasn’t been a lot of cybersecurity-oriented enforcement, because right now FDA’s in a very collaborative stance, trying very hard to get companies to work on this proactively,” she said.
However, if the FDA felt an organization was being too cavalier, then the agency could use any of the enforcement tools it already has at its disposal.
An FDA warning letter may be issued to a company, which could then become public. This could have a huge impact on a company, Pavlovic stated.
“The warning letter in some ways is sort of like a public shaming of the company that lets everybody in the public know that this company hasn’t been doing what they were supposed to be doing and that FDA is working with them to fix it,” she said.
While rare, FDA also has the ability to recall a device or product, Pavlovic noted. This is used when the agency feels that something is unsafe and the risk to health is significant.
“The FDA will escalate through the chain of possible enforcement tools, depending on the nature of the situation, the risk to patient health, and the extent to which the company tried to fix the problems once they became aware of them,” she said.


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According to initial calculations by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 89.14 million tourist trips were made across China during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday. The travel volume during this year’s festival, which took place today (14 June) but spanned the weekend, increased by 94.1% over last year. However, it was lower than the 100 million trips predicted by China’s top travel agency Trip.com.
Tourism during the long weekend brought in 29.43 billion RMB ($4.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 139.7%. Tourism revenue from the festival has recovered to 74.8% of that before the pandemic.
Dragon Boat Festival dates back to ancient Chinese traditions and occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar. People usually reunite with their family and eat zongzi 粽子, a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaf.
Learn more about Dragon Boat Festival 2021 in our infographic below:
Read more about Chinese festivals:


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FILE PHOTO: A worker from atre market (atre marche), a local online food delivery company, drives with a delivery outside a market amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Adjame a neighbourhood of Abidjan, Ivory Coast June 9, 2020. (Photo: Reuters)
A pandemic-delayed African free trade deal, if fully implemented, could boost incomes across the continent, pull millions out of poverty and cushion against the negative fallout from COVID-19, the World Bank wrote in a report on Monday.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was due to come into force on July 1, but that proved unworkable after the virus forced widespread border closures and halted talks between governments over the removal of tariffs.
It may now begin operating from the start of 2021.
The pandemic is expected to cost Africa up to $79 billion in lost economic output this year alone with the additional risk of millions of job losses.
"In this context, a successful implementation of AfCFTA would be crucial," the report said. "(It) is a major opportunity for Africa, but implementation will be a significant challenge. Lowering tariffs is only the first step."
Once in force, the AfCFTA will bring together 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with combined gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion.
World Bank researchers estimated the trade deal would lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty and 68 million from moderate poverty by 2035.
Full implementation could increase real income in Africa by 7%, or nearly $450 billion, mainly by reducing the cost of trade through the elimination of tariffs and red tape.
Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe - countries with the highest costs of trade - could see income gains of 14%.
The volume of total exports would increase by almost 29%, according to the World Bank, with exports between African nations rising 81%. Exports to non-African countries would increase 19%.
"The report estimates that compared with a business-as-usual scenario, implementing AfCFTA would lead to an almost 10%increase in wages, with larger gains for unskilled workers and women," the report said.


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TRENTON, Fla. — Demand and prices remain higher than normal as a tardy southeastern watermelon deal brings smaller early summer volume to the market.
A cold spring delayed production up to two weeks in all the growing regions from south Florida to Georgia.
In late May and early June, north Florida was beginning production as central Florida was winding down.
Georgia growers aren’t planning to begin harvesting until June 12-15.
Raleigh, N.C.-based Etheridge Produce LLC began harvesting from Williston on May 29, later than northern Florida’s typical pre-Memorial Day start.
In early June, Mike Caruthers, Etheridge’s Immokalee-based salesman, said Arcadia was finishing harvesting and said central Florida should harvest until early- to mid-June before north Florida enters higher volume.
“Supplies will be tight,” Caruthers said June 2. “There will be adequate supplies, but there won’t be any oversupply. We couldn’t get enough for Memorial Day and it will be the same for July 4. In another three weeks, there will be a transition period when north Florida finishes as Georgia starts to get going stronger.”
Florida is producing higher supplies of the 36s compared to the shorter than normal smaller 45 sizings, he said.
In early June, Caruthers quoted f.o.b.s at 22-23 cents per-pound for 45s and 36s while Billy Smith, owner of Billy Smith’s Watermelons, quoted 21-22 cents per-pound for the 45s.
That’s similar to last year, which was also a later-starting season.
In early June last year, seedless 36s from south and central Florida sold for 22-24 cents a pound and 45s fetched 20-22 cents, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In late June last season, Georgia seedless opened at 22-23 cents a pound for the 36s and 20-21 cents a pound for the 45s, according to the USDA.
Prices after Memorial Day usually average 18-20 cents a pound, grower-shippers said.
“Watermelons should be short overall and I think the market will be good,” Smith said June 2. “It’s natural for buyers to want cheap prices after Memorial Day, but it won’t happen because there won’t be a large supply. We haven’t had a bunch of watermelons to sell.”
Billy Smith’s Watermelns started harvesting May 27.
Greg Leger, president and partner in Cordele, Ga.-based Leger & Son Inc., agreed supplies should be lower, but ample.
He said Georgia should begin volume in late June.
“At some point in Georgia, there will be volume, but I’m not sure if it will be before or after July 4,” Leger said in early June. “We have balanced supplies now. The volume and demand are there for north Florida. Retail has been set at good pricing so everything has been cleaned-up or moving. That creates opportunity for people to make a little more money hopping in and out of the deal, so to speak, but with higher prices.”
Leger said he expects Georgia to produce high quality fruit.
He said Plant City and Wimauma should harvest limited volume through mid-June.
Smith characterized north Florida quality as high but said rains delayed harvesting.
Through May 30, Florida districts shipped 9,136 40,000-pound units of seedless fruit compared to 5,775 units during the same time last season, according to the USDA.
Overall, Florida growers last season shipped 13,538 units of seedless melons, the USDA reported.


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Remember that can’t-miss Super Bowl weekend that flopped in downtown San Jose?
All that business finally happened this past weekend when Comic Con returned to the geekdom of its birth and nobody saw it coming.
Along with two concerts (Ana Gabriel and Yanni) that drew a couple thousand each, a pair of Sharks home games in the 15,000-16,000 range, a private dance event at the Center for Performing Arts that drew 1,500, a Grease sing-along movie festival and a financial convention, it’s safe to say more than 50,000 people came downtown Saturday and again Sunday.
There were traffic jams, sold-out parking lots, long lines for food and even a restaurant that closed when it ran out of stuff to eat.
But there was no doubt that Comic Con, which sold about 30,000 tickets each day — exact figures are still being compiled — and packed the convention center, was the driving force.
“This was Steve Wozniak,” Roger Springall, owner of Caffe Frascati, said of the man who brought a Comic Con to San Jose for the first time since the Bay Area science fiction conventions of the 1970s started. “This was just way beyond our expectations.”
“How much more perfect could an event be for San Jose?” asked Laura Chmielewski, vice president of marketing and communications for Team San Jose, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. “It’s one of those unique events that hits on all cylinders of who we are.”
But there were other tweets from inside the convention center complaining about long lines for food and tickets.
“We now know what kinds of crowds we can draw and we have to do better,” Comic Con CEO Trip Hunter said.
Hunter said he personally made three trips to a nearby Safeway to buy cases of bottled water that he handed out to Comic Con fans waiting in ticket lines Saturday.
Which raises the question that if Silicon Valley is inhabited by closeted Jedi warriors, Batpeople, steampunks, Back-to-the-Futurites and other creations of the tech/sci-fi/fantasy world that its nerds sell at great profit to every corner of the planet with electricity, why didn’t the business community anticipate and prepare for last weekend?
If Comic Con seems like a slam dunk now, why didn’t it seem like a slam dunk last Thursday when Meredith Wright was prepping for the weekend at his new Our House restaurant on Park Avenue?
“We basically got hit so hard by so many people all at once at lunch Saturday,” Wright said. “All the tables were full and we had a line out the door. Then all the hamburger was gone, all the fish was gone, and we had to close.”
Wright moved from high tech to being a restaurateur in January, so maybe he could be forgiven.
A few blocks across town, Johnny Rockets general manager Hector Lozano switched from his restaurant’s usual menu to a slimmed down “event menu” selection of burgers and shakes that he implements to speed up service on weekends when he expects a huge influx of hungry customers riding hoverboards or carrying lightsabers and needlers.
Lozano didn’t go with that special menu for Super Bowl week, but he brings it out every year for Fanime, the annual convention of anime fans that’s similar to Comic Con because so many attendees dress as their favorite characters.
“Our biggest weekend of the year is Fanime weekend,” he said. “For the first year, I thought Comic Con was very successful.”
Original Joe’s GM Bob Patane said, “We were over-prepared for the Super Bowl. I think everyone was fooled. We brought in extra people again for Comic Con. Everybody was at their max, but we didn’t have any issues, although by the end of the night we were pretty low on some things like prime rib.”
Both Team San Jose and the San Jose Downtown Association circulate calendars of upcoming events to help businesses plan, and while Chmielewski and Downtown Association executive director Scott Knies say they anticipated a big weekend, neither expected a big weekend.
“We saw pretty much unprecedented levels of business,” SoFA Market GM Nate LeBlanc said. “It was one of our best days ever. I can’t say we saw that coming.”
Hunter, the Comic Con CEO, said, “We’re going to be spending lot of time in the coming weeks debriefing and doing post-mortems. But I think we can align a lot of the press a lot earlier in the process to prepare for next year.
“This year we started in February. Next time we will push that back to November so we can mail out tickets by March 1 so we don’t do two-thirds of our ticket sales in the two weeks prior to the event. We’re dedicated to San Jose. We want to be here, we really do.”


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The days get dark early. Holiday decorations have started to appear, and the department stores are having sales every weekend. This can only mean it's junk mail season.
Well, technically, it seems like junk mail is a year-round phenomenon, but at this time of year, with the election just days away and Christmas looming, the volume of junk mail increases exponentially, especially when it comes to catalogs.
Truthfully, I look forward to some of the catalogs we receive at our house. Catalog shopping is easy and convenient, and I know I'll do a large percentage of my Christmas shopping that way this year. What I object to are the hundreds (it feels like thousands) of unsolicited catalogs that clog our mailbox.
I would include in this group companies that I patronize who feel the need to send me a catalog every three days.
My message to these people would be: Trust me, I just need one.
It's probably quixotic of me to think I can stem the flow of this river of paper, primarily because there is one very important player in the process who doesn't want it to stop — the U.S. Postal Service.
The post office recently reported that direct mail represents 52 percent of its overall mail volume and about 20 percent of its revenue. So the post office probably won't be backing any effort to reduce the flow of junk mail, despite what the catalog load must be doing to their its carriers' backs.
But if the catalog companies are ramping up for the holidays, the credit card companies seem to be backing off a little. A report in a recent issue of Time magazine said that mailed credit card offers dropped 17 percent in the second quarter compared with last year. If my mail is any kind of example, that must mean that I was getting five or six offers a day last year compared with the current three or four.
Mark Twain once noted that everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. For years, the same could be said of junk mail. But now, there's at least one company that claims it has a solution.
GreenDimes (http://www.greendimes.com) guarantees it can stop 90 percent of your junk mail. It says that by working with you, marketers and catalog companies, it can ensure you'll only get the mail you want to receive. And, what's more, if you become one of its premium members (a $20 one-time fee), it will plant five trees in your name to help counteract the effect on the environment of all the paper used in the production of junk mail.
GreenDimes claims to have stopped 12,970,606 pounds of junk mail, including more than 2 million catalogs. It's possible, however, that it hasn't really stopped those catalogs, it's just redirected them to my house.
Still, the catalogs are a sign of the season and not an entirely unwelcome one. In fact, this year, they may even help a little as consumers look for ways to stretch their dollars.
So, soon the catalogs will begin arriving in bulk — Hickory Farms, Victoria's Secret, Herrington and all the rest — and we'll read some and recycle the rest.
And we'll say a little prayer for our mail carrier, who knows the catalogs are job security, and we hope he remembers that as he suffers through several months of back pain.
— Contact Star columnist Bill Nash at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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01 August 2008 22:32 [Source: ICIS news]
HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Mexico’s caustic soda producers implemented on Friday a $60/dmt (dry metric tonne) price hike amid tight supply conditions and rising import costs, they said.
The increase pushed local prices to $930-980/dmt (€595-627/dmt) ex-tank, up from $870-920/dmt in July, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.
Producers said the increase was implemented without negotiation with buyers.
Mexico’s caustic soda producers do not produce enough material to meet all domestic demand, but they said prices for caustic soda imported from Europe to make up the difference were rising quickly amid globally tight supply conditions.
The prices hike was necessary to pass the costs to buyers, producers said, now that import prices for caustic soda in Mexico had risen swiftly to $850-900/dmt CFR (cost and freight).
“We know these prices are very high, but we were worried about the effect higher prices would have on demand when the price was $500 [per dmt] and again when it was $700,” one producer said. “Our goal is to sell at the market price.”
With no signal that supply conditions in Mexico would loosen - particularly amid news of a possible maintenance turnaround at a Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) chlor-alakli plant in August - producers said prices were likely to continue along an upward trajectory for the foreseeable future.
Caustic soda producers in Mexico include Mexichem and Iquisa.
($1 = €0.64)
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Smartphones and cars can focus on what each one does best with the arrival of this new dashboard connection technology.
The Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower and now Sydney -- a new art installation is illuminating Australia's harbour city and giving the light switch to the people.
There are many, many apps for the Apple Watch. Here's how you get them on and off, and what they actually work like.
Few users remember to take this important step, which can really save the day if your computer gets hosed.
Technically Incorrect: Some of Hertz's NeverLost systems now have cameras and mics -- which the company claims it doesn't intend to use at this time.
Just a month into its PC release, Grand Theft Auto V mods are here -- and they're weird, over-the-top and hysterical. Here are just a few of our favorite mods and instructions on how you can mod Grand Theft Auto V yourself.
Have a Windows Phone device and want to test out Windows 10 on it? Now you can.
Boost your Mac's performance and reclaim hard-drive space with this handful of tips.
Technically Incorrect: A Volvo accelerates toward people apparently watching a demonstration. The company says that its owner didn't have the pedestrian detection feature installed.
What will the smartphone pie look like for Google's Android and Apple's iOS in 2019? Pretty much the same as today, says research firm IDC.


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Earnings good medicine for Bayer
BERLIN, Germany Bayer AG, Germany's largest drug maker, said earnings before one-time items surged 20 percent in 2000 on growth in its drug and health care division, and said it will ask shareholders to let it raise cash for a possible acquisition.
For 2001, Bayer forecast double-digit growth in both profit and sales. One of the company's largest North American pharmaceutical operations is in West Haven, Conn.
The company said operating profit, excluding one-time items, rose to 3.3 billion euros, or $3 billion, last year from 2.8 billion euros in 1999.
Sales from continuing operations rose 21 percent to 30 billion euros or $27.3 billion, the company said. That excluded revenue from Agfa-Gevaert, which it floated on the stock exchange in 1999, and other units sold in the last two years.
Results were strongest at the drugs unit, which recorded a 35 percent jump in operating profit to almost 1.5 billion euros, or $1.4 billion, as sales rose 20 percent.
Bayer has earmarked the unit for further expansion, and said Thursday it will ask shareholders at a meeting next month for permission to issue new shares at short notice should it spot an acquisition.
The company also plans to raise cash by selling its remaining 30 percent stake in Belgian photo group Agfa-Gevaert and is to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in September.
Improving profitability in drugs offset slipping profit margins in Bayer's other three main businesses chemicals, polymers and agriculture products such as pesticides.
The company blamed problems in polymers on the rising price of raw materials and said it will cut costs and expand its production in Asia. It also said it will focus on higher-margin specialty chemicals to shore up earnings there.


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Russia will select their entry for this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest on Friday 25th September. Auditions were held last weekend to determine the finalists.
The representative will be chosen by 50% jury and 50% public online voting. The online voting will be available for the public between the announcement of the finalists and the end of the voting window during the national final.
Author: Richard Taylor


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Last hours before fake phone switch off
TELECOMS| Sept. 30, 2012, 9:09 a.m.
Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to be affected when Kenya suspends services to counterfeit handsets from midnight tonight.
All unregistered handsets and those with non-authentic Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers in Kenya will be disconnected from networks from tonight.
CCK Director General Francis W. Wangusi says CCK has already carried out adequate public awareness campaigns to sensitize consumers on counterfeit mobile phones and the dangers associated with use of such devices.
Wangusi said recently that close to 10 million queries had been made to the handset verification system out of the total 29.7 million subscribers in the country, representing slightly more than a third of the total mobile subscription base.
“We have noted with satisfaction that the number of confirmations through the system have been increasing dramatically as the deadline for the switch-off approaches. We urge Kenyans to confirm the status of their handsets in good time to avoid disconnection,” he said.
Safaricom said last week that it expected around 600,000 of its 19.1 million subscribers to be affected by the counterfeit phone switch off. The telco said it would conduct the disconnection in phases.
Telkom Kenya Orange has been running a promotional campaign offering low cost replacement handsets for those in possession of fake handsets, with ‘Chagua original phones’ priced as low as Ksh.599; while Airtel Kenya has extended its shop operating hours to serve customers’ registration requests. Subscribers can visit Airtel showrooms at Mombasa, Koinange, Parkside, Sarit and Westgate before 2pm today.
Subscribers can confirm the authenticity of their handsets by dialling *#06# to get the IMEI number, which they in turn send to 1555.
MORE TELECOMS NEWS
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Airtel Rwanda partners with TechWomen on mentorshipAirtel Rwanda has kicked off a two-week mentorship programme in partnership with TechWomen Rwanda, an organisation that aims to encourage more women in Rwanda to take on careers in the fields of Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics. Read More
Orange Business Services appoints new Vice President, AfricaOrange Business Services, the Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, has announced the appointment of Giorgio Heiman as Vice President of Africa, effective this month. Read More
Kenya govt gives go-ahead for security networkThe Government of Kenya has signed a landmark agreement with Safaricom for the roll out of a first-of-its-kind National Surveillance, Communication and Control System. Read More
Econet-Ericsson in new network dealEricsson has announced that it has been selected as the sole supplier by Zimbabwe's largest provider of telecommunications services, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, for the company’s Core network upgrade programme. Read More
TNM courts trouble with investment prospects in ISPTNM, one of Malawi's two mobile telecommunication services providers, has courted trouble with its announcement of plans to invest in the provision of ‘generic’ Internet Service Provider (ISP) operations. Read More
Tigo deploys overhead fibre in GhanaTigo Ghana has embarked on an overhead fibre project in some parts of the country in a bid to reduce damage to its cables. Read More
Bharti Airtel appoints Dr. Titus Naikuni as Chairman, Airtel KenyaBharti Airtel has announced the appointment of Dr. Titus Naikuni as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Airtel Kenya. Read More
NCC descends on Lagos firmThe Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has descended on Owntel Communications for allegedly offering telecommunications services for which it was not licensed. Read More
FEATURED STORYGSMA: half a billion mobile subscribers in SSA by 2020
The number of unique mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa will pass the half billion mark in 2020, says a new GSMA report.
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Only three African countries have so far completed the digital migration process, and serious issues are hampering the migration in other nations.
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- 30 Jan, 2024
Start Saving Todaywith Avaal Blue Fleet CardCheck Now
The high cost of free shipping
- Nov 15, 2018
- Peggy Dorf
I'm doing my holiday shopping early this year.
That may seem overly cautious, considering that everybody and his brother is suddenly offering free shipping. Order before December 22, and shipping is free. Some retailers have even guaranteed free, two-day shipping until that date, with no minimum purchase requirements.
Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other retailers are betting that their offers of free shipping will yield additional sales and boost market share. They expect to come out ahead for the holiday season, even though their transportation costs are sure to increase.
That extra convenience is an incentive to shoppers, including those who buy online at the last minute. And really, with those deals, why NOT procrastinate?
Well, the worst case is that your thoughtful gifts won't arrive in time for the holiday. After all, there's a finite number of trucks and drivers, but there's going to be a lot more holiday freight than in previous years. That combination makes it more likely that some deliveries will be delayed, and the merchandise itself may be more expensive.
E-commerce drives up costs for freight transportation
Freight transportation is a pure example of supply-versus-demand. When you get a lot of additional demand without an increase in supply, it drives prices up. That's why transportation costs are rising so fast this year. The economy is growing like gangbusters, and carriers can't hire enough qualified truck drivers to move all the 18-wheelers where they need to go.
At DAT, we track rising demand and pricing for truck freight transportation. The constraints on trucking capacity have the potential to throttle economic growth in the longer term. For now, however, this trend is adding to the cost of all tangible goods.
Free shipping with no minimum purchase means more individual packages, stuffed with those air pillows, taking up more room on the truck. It's more economical to consolidate multiple items in a single box, and load more boxes per truck. Now that the consumer has no incentive to order more things at once, the online retailers will need to hire even more trucks. And if the goods need to arrive within two days, those trucks won't even be allowed to wait until they're full of those single-item packages. That's not an efficient use of resources, but that's what will happen.
Who pays for all that free shipping?
On the demand side, consumers are ready to spend money. Unemployment is as low as it's ever been, so pretty much anyone who wants a job has a job, and wages are up 3% compared to last year. That means Santa and the elves will be working overtime, too. Retailers are expecting sales to increase by almost 5% year over year, and e-commerce is forecasting more than 16% growth.
In the end, someone is going to pay for all that free shipping. Either the prices of the items themselves will go up, or the stores will make lower profits. According to Motley Fool, that means the shipping bill will go directly to shareholders in those retail companies: "Managing gross margin is a big challenge for both Walmart and Target as they look to compete for online sales. Investors should expect margin pressure over the next few months, but it could pay off with strong sales growth."
AVAAL partners with DAT to offer a special on the TruckersEdge Load Board to its members. Sign up for TruckersEdge today and get your first 30 days free by signing up at https://bit.ly/2IbuHhk. This offer is available to new TruckersEdge subscribers only.


text: Geely Automobile (0175.HKG, GRU.FRA) plans to offer cars jointly developed with Swedish carmaker Volvo in 2015, Bloomberg reported, citing the Chinese automaker’s CEO. Zhejiang Geely, Geely’s parent company, acquired Volvo from Ford Motor (F.NYSE) for US$1.8 billion in 2010. The Swedish automaker signed a memorandum with Zhejiang Geely last year to “leverage its full access” to technology. In February this year, Volvo said it will establish a joint research and development center in Sweden with Geely. Volvo has also begun test runs at its first factory in China as it aims to double sales to 800,000 vehicles in the world’s largest auto market by 2020.


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The holiday season in Japan is a time when people purchase new mobile devices and application downloads surge. To capitalise on this consumer behaviour, mobile internet company Cheetah Mobile sought to raise brand awareness and drive downloads for its mobile game app Tap Tap Fish: AbyssRium (@abyssrium).
However, as competition between mobile apps is particularly high during this period — especially with key holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s Day occurring consecutively — the company needed to reach its gaming audience in a unique way. Faced with heated competition, @abyssrium took to Twitter to launch a branding and performance campaign to boost awareness and engagement.
To maximise results throughout the holiday season, @abyssrium took an approach that combined both branding and performance tactics for its #アビスリウムよいお年を (#AbyssriumHaveAGoodYear) campaign on Twitter. Five short-form video creatives were developed for the mobile app promotion campaign and amplified via First View on 16 December in order to drive massive reach and awareness for the game. The videos were housed within Twitter’s Video App Cards to promote app downloads among new users and re-engage existing users.
In the second half of the campaign, @abyssrium worked to further engage audiences by encouraging them to participate in a lucky draw to win exclusive game prizes. In order to qualify, consumers had to Retweet any of the five key campaign Tweets and download the game through the link to the app store, using the install button on the Video App Card. @abyssrium then tracked campaign participants to determine the winners.


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In the last few months Britney Spears has shared a lot on social media.
But we know that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to everything Britney has endured.
Britney did a whopping $15 million book deal to tell his whole story.
Unfortunately, the book has been delayed. It’s not his fault…but it’s going to be hard for his fans.
Sometimes authors and publishers have to put a book on hold because they haven’t finished it yet. It’s happening.
This is not the case this time. Britney finished her first memoir.
Britney wrote about her childhood, career and work at the conservatory. But publishing is complicated and fraught with potential obstacles.
TMZ reports that Simon & Schuster is struggling to find a release date for a very practical reason.
Simply put, paper is in short supply right now (just one of the supply chain issues).
The original release date was January 2023. Right now that date doesn’t seem possible.
So many of us use e-readers from our books to dedicated readers for tablets and desktops.
It can be easy to forget that book magazine publishing is still essential to the publishing industry.
Unable to print enough physical books, even the publishing behemoth prefers to postpone the release date.
Not everyone likes reading from a screen.
Even for those who do, a physical book is a better gift – and better look.
Like the singer herself, Britney Spears’ long-awaited memoir deserves its time in the sun. The delay is completely appropriate.
Currently, there have been numerous problems in the supply chain, which is exacerbating inflation and causing alarm.
The reasons have been complex.
For example, the fact that more than a million Americans died from COVID-19 in just two years cannot be ignored.
But this shortage is more than a lack of available workers in some industries.
In fact, when it comes to the paper shortage, the reason is actually positive.
See, so many people ordered books since the pandemic started that the industry is struggling to keep up.
In addition, countless workers across the nation decided that enough was enough. Bad working conditions and low pay… it’s raw.
Many have joined a trade union. Many others have simply quit. The paper industry was not immune.
At the moment, we don’t know when the paper shortage will end. Nobody does.
However, Britney’s bookstore is still safe.
He received a reported $15 million advance — after an alleged cost war.
It’s not the biggest bookstore in history, but it ranks very high. We can’t wait to read it! But we do. We wait.
Britney Spears’ Tell-All Book Publishing Date Pushed Back Source link Britney Spears’ Tell-All Book Publishing Date Pushed Back


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Call this a “first sighting”. Notebook Italia has found some information about an Asus MeMO ME570T tablet. The next question of course is what is it? Well it really makes sense that this is that rumored new Nexus tablet. If you recall, the current Nexus 7 goes by the product name ME370T.
What is a ME570T? I would suggest the higher the number, the better quality. Just a hunch. I would suspect that Asus and Google are not going to be able to create a $99 Nexus. However, these same rumors suggested a higher end Nexus 7 which is thinner. Could it be possible that a MeMO 570 is a Nexus 7 HD tablet with a slightly higher or similar $199 price tag? Could be. By the time this tablet gets to market, Google could drop the Nexus 7 to $149 or less, and then introduce a Nexus 7 HD tablet.
On the other hand, let’s not forget about the possibility of a Nexus 10. I’m still convinced that the Nexus 10 is coming sooner than later. I assumed it was the TF500, but perhaps the ME570T is that Nexus 10. A new 10-inch Nexus tablet makes a lot more sense than a new 7-inch Nexus tablet which might be thinner with a higher resolution display. If it’s the same size, wouldn’t that just irritate the consumers who just bought into the current Nexus 7. Yes for sure. Remember how people felt about Asus when they showed off the Transformer Infinity while people were just starting to get their Transformer Prime pre orders filled? They were angry! I could see a similar angst with such a quick update to an existing and new Nexus 7. A 10-inch Nexus 10 won’t cause the same uproar and will certainly put Google in a strong fighting position against all comers including Windows tablets, Amazon tablets and Nook tablets.
A long long while ago it was Asus who was rumored to be releasing a cheap tablet which was to be priced less that $200. That was such a long time ago, however it leads me to another theory. Since the ME370T became the Nexus 7, is it possible that Asus themselves want to release one of their own 7-inch tablets? They haven’t released one to date, so it’s still possible that the Asus ME570T has nothing to do with Google. That would support their stance on the recent rumors that they are not working on a new 7-inch Nexus tablet with Google. Perhaps it’s their own 7-inch Android tablet and Google isn’t a part of it. Asus has had the Eee Reader and the Eee Note which were not really part of their official Eee Pad line-up, but they have the innovation to create a low priced tablet slash ereader device.
Let’s hope for more leaks. Unlikely, but let’s hope!


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|The Rushden Echo and Argus, 23rd December 1949, transcribed by Gill Hollis
Rushden Shops Are Busy - Better Choice of Christmas Gifts
Any lack of enthusiasm for Christmas, which was supposed to have been preventing shoppers from doing any seasonal buying during the past few weeks, has entirely disappeared in the last few days, according to Rushden shopkeepers who have had one of the busiest Christmas spells since the war, working up to a crescendo as the time gets shorter.
Almost double the numbers of Christmas cards and calendars usually sold have already been passed over the counter, and stocks of small presents, such as diaries, autograph albums and engagement books are getting short.
Most of the large types of toys have now been bought, and though there is still plenty of choice in dolls and various games, the best ones have already been selected.
Jewellers have done a good trade in pearl necklaces and brooches, bought mostly by men, and an equally good trade in lighters and cigarette cases, bought by girls.
The old standby, fifty cigarettes, is now, of course, a much more expensive present, but there are few boxes left, and none in the popular brands, and tobacconists report that their supplies of smaller packets are low although there are still plenty of "Turkish."
Turkeys are plentiful even now, and there has been no difficulty in obtaining them. Most butchers have not even confined the sale to registered customers.
The busiest people who will be at work until late on Christmas Eve are ladies' hairdressers, who are coping with last-minute hair-dos, including perms, washes and sets, and the latest short cuts. Men, too have been keeping the barber busy, though most of them had their hair cut at the beginning of the week so that the first shock would have worn off by Christmas.


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The winter storm that is sweeping through the region has closed schools and postponed activities once again.
Unfortunately, it also means a delay for this week’s print edition of the Observer/Advocate.
Travel conditions to the printing plant on Tuesday are too dangerous. As a result, store and counter copies of the O/A and copies to be mailed out will not be retrieved until Wednesday at the earliest.
The paper will be mailed out and available at stores as soon as possible once the storm subsides.
We apologize for the delay.


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It turns out Star Wars video games are big business. Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney in 2012 for more than $4 billion. That has proven to be a great investment, as it has resulted in billions at the box office, as well as untold merchandising possibilities. But EA, who had been exclusively publishing games set within the franchise since the merger, recently revealed that their collaborations have resulted in more than $3 billion in revenue.
The reveal came during a recent EA earnings call. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson was asked a question about user behavior. That prompted Wilson to brag a little bit about their output over the last handful of years, as well as the enormous amount of money that output has generated. Here's what Wilson had to say about it.
"We have generated a number of great franchises, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Galaxy of Heroes, Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order and most recently, Squadrons. That represents over $3 billion life-to-date net bookings and 52 million games sold. And Galaxy of Heroes is a $1 billion franchise. As we've established the very strong part of that franchise, you should expect that we will continue to invest in those as well as some new experiences across platforms for the future."
Star Wars video games have been a huge part of the franchise for decades now. Disney and EA have seemingly managed to milk that cow for all its worth. This, despite the fact that the Battlefront games disappointed huge sections of the fanbase. But Jedi Fallen Order proved to be a huge hit, critically and commercially. Not to mention that the mobile game Galaxy of Heroes, on its own, is a $1 billion franchise, according to Wilson.
But EA will soon have competition. Lucasfilm Games was recently launched to specifically handle the development of the studio's various franchises into video games. Other studios will be getting in on the action. Ubisoft, for example, is working on an open-world Star Wars game. But Andrew Wilson, addressing this issue, says EA's output will not lessen as a result.
"I don't think you should imagine that the fact that some other people will build some Star Wars games is going to change our commitment to that IP or our ability to build the appropriate number of games. And as I said before, we've had a long partnership with Disney, both before our exclusive period that gave us a great opportunity to really establish some very strong franchises like Battlefront, like Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, like Jedi: Fallen Order, like Squadrons. You should expect us to continue to invest in our Star Wars relationship. It's been very profitable, to this point, over $3 billion in net bookings and we're excited by what we'll be able to do in the future. But you shouldn't read this as necessarily us building the less titles."
In terms of specifics, we know a Jed Fallen Order sequel is on the table. There have also been rumors of a Knights of the Old Republic remake as well. We'll be sure to keep you posted as any further Star Wars video game news unfolds. This news comes to us via Seeking Alpha.