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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has highlighted in announcing its half-year results that technology has been and will continue to be a key investment priority.
The bank reported a 16 percent increase in statutory net profit after tax (NPAX) to AU$4.2 billion from the corresponding period in the previous year.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev said the result demonstrates the bank's focus on its long-term strategic priorities — people, technology, strength, and productivity.
"All of our businesses have performed well. We have strengthened our focus on enhancing the financial well-being of our customers, and have used our leading technology platform to deliver innovative products and services to business and personal customers," he said.
According to Narev, the company invested AU$589 million during the half year in technology, productivity, and risk. As a result, the company was able to introduce a new CommBank app in December, which now has over 1 million registered users; video conferencing across its network of branches; smaller, smarter express branches that focused on self-service; and more simplified processes that saw an 80 percent reduction in online account opening times.
The bank highlights that its long-term. Retail customer satisfaction has grown steadily since June 2007, and there are now more than 83 percent of CBA customers who say they are satisfied. Similarly, business customer satisfaction results are indicating that CBA is out-performing its peers in the large business segment.
At the same time, NetBank logins via a mobile device peaked at 70 percent in December 2013. This follows the release of improved and new mobile applications for the bank's NetBank and CommSec products across iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. Last October, CBA also launched itsto meet the growing demand for mobile transactions.
Narev said that going forward, the focus for the company is to look at the "branch of the future" by addressing three key pillars: Proud people, simple and easy process, and leading technology.
He said there are plans to introduce video conferencing in all major CBA branches, 189 smart ATMs allowing anytime deposits, new tablet and software for branch concierges to enhance customer flow, and dedicated small business capability with 123 new specialists. CBA is also trialling new concept branches across the country.


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Pass It Down, a startup that enables cultural institutions and brands to build interactive touchscreen exhibits and online exhibits for visitors, is the winner of the 2019 the BREW High-Stakes Pitch Competition and the $100,000 prize.
Pass It Down, a startup that enables cultural institutions and brands to build interactive touchscreen exhibits and online exhibits for visitors, is one of 11 companies selected as semifinalists for the BREW 2019 High-Stakes Pitch Competition. The competition offers a $100,000 investment prize to the winning company at a live pitch event on Friday, Nov. 15.Continue reading
We are excited to share that the Pass It Down team has officially launched the 2.0 version of the Pass It Down storytelling platform. With Pass It Down, any organization can create interactive digital experiences in a matter of minutes and for...Continue reading
The National Council on Public History just highlighted the Asbury Park African American Music Project which will be powered via the Pass It Down platform. Check out the story below. Preserving Asbury Park’s African American Music Heritage 27 JUNE 2019...Continue reading
Pass It Down is excited to announce they are partnering with the Asbury Park African-American Music Heritage Project to help preserve the rich history of Springwood Avenue. AP-AMP’s mission is to: Share the music, cultural heritage and stories of Springwood...Continue reading

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Tags: Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA)
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $725 billion equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for January was ...
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As part of the plan, Amazon has agreed to purchase 100,000 electric delivery vans from vehicle manufacturer Rivian.Technologyread more
At least in terms of monetary policy, Pence says should be taking after other regions who keep their benchmark interest rates near zero.Delivering Alpharead more
The plan will allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices on as many as 250 drugs and apply those discounts to private health plans.Health and Scienceread more
Hedge fund titan Leon Cooperman said he's concerned about a shift to the left in the political landscape, which could harm the economy and the stock market.Delivering Alpharead more
The move could bring a welcome salve to farmers caught in the crosshairs of the trade war if it results in a reopening of the market.Politicsread more
Apple's big iOS 13 update for iPhones is out now and includes lots of new features. Here's how to install it on your phone and what devices are supported.Technologyread more
The pilot program will deliver food and beverage, over-the-counter medications and other items within minutes, the company said. Prescription deliveries will not be available.Health and Scienceread more
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:Market Insiderread more
The FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations opened a probe "shortly after" people started falling ill, Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, told...Health and Scienceread more
Investor Jim Chanos is betting against GrubHub, and said the food delivery company makes almost nothing per order.Delivering Alpharead more
Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman on Thursday said he believes that the Federal Reserve is "screwing the savers."Delivering Alpharead more
How the mighty have fallen.
After leading the stock market to fresh records on a seemingly daily basis, technology stocks tanked on Monday.
The five giants -- Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon -- each sank at least 2.5 percent. Shares of many companies valued at $100 billion or more changed hands at more than 200 percent the usual volume.
The S&P 500 Information Technology Index dropped 4 percent, almost matching the decline in the overall S&P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted over 1,000 points, closing down 4.6 percent. Among technology companies in the Dow, Cisco was the worst performer, dropping 5.3 percent.
The result was $194 billion slashed from the market capitalization of top tech stocks, according to data collected by FactSet and analyzed by CNBC. About $90 billion of that was in just four stocks: Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Netflix.


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In a recent Cabinet meeting held in the capital city of Tbilisi, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibaşvili discussed the evolving relationship between Georgia and China.
Recalling his successful visit to China in July, Garibaşvili emphasized the positive trajectory of bilateral ties.
He stated, “As you know, I had a very successful visit to China. Today, China stands as the world’s second-largest economy and is among the strongest. One of our primary interests is to strengthen commercial and economic relations with China and attract more investments.”
Highlighting the objective to attract more tourists from China, Garibaşvili announced, “Henceforth, we have decided to initiate visa-free travel for Chinese citizens.”
It’s noteworthy that during the opening ceremony of the 31st FISU World University Summer Games held in July, Prime Minister Garibaşvili and Chinese President Xi Jinping had announced the elevation of relations between the two nations to a “strategic partnership” level. (AA)


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Cryptic Studios has announced the platforms for the upcoming Action RPG Magic: Legends open beta starting March 23. It’s a launcher called ARC and the digital Epic Games Store. Besides, users who log into the game through EGC within the first two weeks after launch will receive a free costume, creature skin and two power-ups.
In Magic: Legends, players can take on the role of a planeswalker hero from one of five classes, build a deck of over 170 different spells, and set out to save the multiverse. At the start, 3 worlds will be available, each with its own unique characteristics. The release date of the new items is unknown, but at the release, it will be available on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One platforms, and in most digital stores, including Steam.
Below you can see the latest trailer for the upcoming beta:


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On the 24th April Flextronics celebrated the 10th anniversary of its operation in Hungary in the company of Mr. Péter Kiss, Minister, Head of Prime Minister’s Office in its first plant, in Tab. Flextronics has industrial parks in Nyíregyháza, Sárvár and Zalaegerszeg and a factory in Tab. Flextronics operations have changed significantly in the past ten years
In the early 90’s the company concentrated on simple contract manufacturing, while as these days the focus is on high value added complex manufacturing services. The biggest share of the added value today is given by the Hungarian workforce: Flextronics is offering a full range of design, manufacturing, logistics, reverse logistics and distribution services in Hungary. In the future with the development of this activities, Hungary can be a centre of certain regional functions. "What is good for Flextronics is good for Hungary too" – said Mr. Péter Kiss, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office. Jim Rowan, regional General Manager of Flextronics added: "I hope, we will celebrate in similar company the 20th anniversary of our operation in ten years time." Among the Hungarian and international partners of Flextronics the 108 employees were celebrating in Tab, who have been a part of the Flextronics team from the very beginning. Our agency, as the communication agency of Flextronics has taken a significant part in the planning and organisation of the event.


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Let’s be real: Planning months ahead for a camping trip isn’t your preferred style. That’s especially true during the busy summer months when crowded national parks can feel like Disneyland (with trees).
So, it’s welcome news to hear that Hipcamp and REI have partnered on a “Summer of Magic Campout Series.” Essentially a campaign to offer free camping, it means free stuff offered throughout the summer, including outdoor gear, guided trips, and campsites during peak weekends.
It’s a way to improve brand recognition for Hipcamp, a growing platform that offers access to thousands of private land campsites across the U.S. As outdoor recreation continues to grow, alternatives like Hipcamp have become more popular.
In 2023, the Outdoor Participation Trends Report found a 12% increase in camping, with 51.4 million campers registered last year. Hipcamp also saw 75% growth compared to 2022.
“Finding a great spot during the peak summer season can be tough, especially if you’re booking last minute,” Hipcamp CEO and Founder Alyssa Ravasio said in a press release. “That’s why we’re so excited to work with REI to help thousands more campers accomplish our mission to get people outside.”
Hipcamp: How to Sign Up
Interested in getting your free campouts this summer? Head over to The Summer of Magic and click “Get on the invite list.” Next, download the Hipcamp app to receive notifications about upcoming campouts. You’ll need to keep up with those announcements and RSVP fast because the “Magic Passes” are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis — and you only have a 24-hour window.
These passes offer several different perks, from access to premium Hipcamp sites during peak weekends to gear packages, guided outdoor trips, and “surprises” from REI and other guest collaborators.
Specific examples include deluxe outdoor dining experiences, last-minute camping reservations in scenic locales, and pre-outfitted campsites with brand-new REI gear, firewood, and s’mores kits, the company said in the press release. The first drop will give campers the chance to witness next month’s total solar eclipse at several Hipcamp locations.
Participants may also engage in night hikes and stargazing sessions led by the REI Experiences team, while some lucky recipients will receive REI camping gear packages with tents, chairs, and backpacks.
Just sign up with your email on the Hipcamp website, wait for announcements, and RSVP as soon as possible to try and snag a spot!


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Beer is the latest food to be added to the growing list of foods that consumers can’t live without.
A survey of more than 1,000 Australians found that only one in five respondents were buying more beer than they used to.
What does this mean for Australians’ consumption of the drink?
Read moreThe findings come as alcohol is increasingly seen as an essential part of modern life, with Australians spending more than $10bn per year on booze and more than 80 per cent of the country’s adults drink more than one drink a week.
But while the demand for beer has grown, so has the price.
In 2018, beer was around the same price as a packet of biscuits, according to a Beer Market Report released in October.
The cost of buying a single 12-pack of beer is now around $6.75, with the average retail price for a 12-ounce beer in Australia is about $4.25.
The cost of a 12 pack of beer in 2017 was about $5.25, according the Beer Market report.
“The price of a single bottle of beer has gone up over the past year,” said the report’s co-author, Dr Michael Glynn.
“People are just consuming more and more and the prices are going up.”
Dr Glynn said that beer consumption had also risen over the last five years.
“We know that alcohol is a lot more expensive than other foodstuffs, so that has affected people’s willingness to eat less of it,” he said.
The beer boom is a new phenomenon, with many Australian cities seeing record-breaking beer sales.
The Beer Market reported that in Sydney, the average price for an 8.5-ounce bottle of ale was about 30 per cent higher than it was 10 years ago.
In Melbourne, the price for the equivalent bottle of a four-pack rose to almost 60 per cent more than it had been 10 years earlier.
“What we’ve seen is a shift away from buying beer for the sake of beer, and a shift towards buying beer to satisfy your alcohol needs,” Dr Glynn told the ABC.
Beer has also become a way to reduce costs, as well as to get in front of the crowd at sporting events.
Dr Glynnes report said people were now spending more time and money in restaurants than pubs.
“People are eating out more and are spending more and spending more,” he told the broadcaster.
“And they’re buying a bottle of wine or a bottle at a pub and then they’re going out and drinking a pint or two.”
But the big picture for Australians is a little different.
“In the last 10 years, we’ve had a lot of people with very high incomes,” Dr Matthew McConaghy, a professor of economics at the University of Melbourne, told the BBC.
“So it’s been a lot less beer consumed, but a lot was consumed on lower incomes, so it’s a bit more expensive.”
He said the cost of living had also changed.
“There’s a lot that’s gone on in the last few years, but overall, the cost is actually going down, so people are less likely to have beer consumed,” Dr McConahy said.
“And so they’re less likely [to have] it consumed when they’re out drinking with friends or having a social event.”
It’s not necessarily because of the cost, it’s just that people are spending less and less time and more money.
“I think that’s really important.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement that “most beer drinkers do not drink as much as they used at the time of survey”.
“While the increase in beer consumption may be due to the increase of restaurants and bars, there is no evidence to suggest that beer is a key driver of this trend,” the commission said.
Dr McConachy said the boom was a good thing for the economy.
“If you look at the average gross domestic product, it hasn’t been this good in years,” he explained.
Beer drinkers, who are not required to take alcohol-testing tests, have been finding out more about their health over the years.”
We have been spending a lot on things like public transport, which has helped keep up with population growth.”
Beer drinkers, who are not required to take alcohol-testing tests, have been finding out more about their health over the years.
Dr Jody Browning, the chair of the alcohol and drug committee of the Australian College of Surgeons, said that it was “not uncommon” for people to be surprised by their health after drinking beer.
“When I started my practice in 1992, the main thing I thought about was how many people I could save,” she said.
Dr Browning said that the new generation of Australian beer drinkers was getting older.
“You’ve got to look at that and say: ‘Why are we doing this?'”, she said, referring to the rise in alcohol-related hospitalisations.
“And we’ve been saying, we can’t just


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I really am quite prescient these days. It’s an amazing time to be the Annoyed Librarian.
Several months ago, I put forward a proposal in a post I timidly titled, In Which I Solve the Ebook Library Lending Problem. That post was just before a meeting between librarians and publishers, which was preceded by some ridiculous tough talk and some whining about current bestsellers being the “bread and butter” of libraries, as if that mattered to publishers.
I pointed out that from the publisher’s perspective, selling newly released ebooks to libraries “would be like movie studios releasing DVDs alongside their theatrical releases.”
Penguin has just announced that new releases would no longer be sold to libraries, and the status of Penguin sales to libraries was in flux. What did that mean?
I asked whether that meant that “at some point after release, maybe 6-12 months after the initial publication, libraries could then buy the ebooks, is that really such a big problem for libraries or their patrons”, and proposed that “libraries would be allowed to purchase all their ebooks, but only after a certain amount of time has passed so that publishers can make sure libraries aren’t cutting into the sales of new releases.”
Problem solved. And it turns out that might indeed be the solution. As we read right here in Library Journal, America’s greatest library publication, Penguin has entered into a new trial with the NYPL and the Brooklyn Public Library to sell ebooks to libraries once again.
The terms? “Ebooks will not be made available to the libraries until six months after initial publication and availability will be for one year, with renewable terms.”
I have to hand it to you, NYPL, BPL, and Penguin, the six month embargo on new releases is a great idea. It solves everyone’s problems.
Sure, there will be librarians who claim it doesn’t solve their problems, but their problems are imaginary. There are actually librarians who think the main purpose of public libraries is to provide instant access to the most current books in every available format. Well, it’s not.
If libraries can get books and ebooks to people within a reasonable time period, they’ve done their job. Six months is definitely not too long to wait to get an ebook if you don’t want to buy it.
If you need it in a hurry, read the print version at the library or buy your own darn ebook. If that’s too much of a sacrifice for you, then you have some serious emotional and mental problems that you probably need to work out before you start reading bestselling ebooks.
What I don’t understand is the “availability for one year.” That’s even more arbitrary than HarperCollins totally arbitrary 26 checkouts limitation, and being more arbitrary than totally arbitrary is pretty arbitrary.
After a year and a half, the vast majority of books enter obscurity anyway. That’s why most public libraries, which pride themselves on paying whatever’s necessary for current bestsellers, end up tossing out most of their books over time.
Is the one year availability meant to make it easier for librarians to weed their collections? Now they don’t even have to bother to go pull a book off a shelf. It’ll just disappear.
A less arbitrary distinction would be to have annual renewals only for books that were still bestsellers. For most books, once the library pays, the library keeps the book in the system. But if the library has had the book for a year, and it’s still on the NYT Bestseller list, then the library pays to renew for another year, and so on indefinitely.
That way, when the Da Vinci Codes and the Dragon Tattoos come along and stay bestsellers for years, libraries can eventually supply the ebooks and continue to renew them for years. For the majority of the books that stop selling, the library copies could be available in perpetuity, just in case some poor soul wanted to read them some day.
The way things are now, once most libraries weed their print books, those books are pretty much unavailable, but ebooks don’t take up space. They could build the virtual collection of public libraries over time and do away with the one flaw of most library collections, that unless everyone wants it right now, no one gets it ever.
Having older books available means there’s a chance they’ll be read. That also means there’s a chance they’ll be rediscovered, and once again start selling well again. At that point, they go back on the list of books that libraries have to renew for a year, until they fade away again.
And for those librarians who continue to whine and argue that ebooks should be just as available as print books because that’s what libraries need, tough. That’s not going to help anyone until publishers stop fearing libraries.
So there you go. Problem solved, once again. You’re welcome.


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Lady Luck seems to smile more at investors who took a bet on breweries and numbers forecast operators (NFOs) in 2019. These sin stocks outshone their peers, in terms of share price performance, despite lingering concerns about consumers tightening their belts more amid the less rosy economic prospects (see chart).
British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT) saw its worst annual share price performance of a 57.2% fall in 2019 as a result of poor earnings even though smokers might not have cut down on smoking. The legal cigarette manufacturer is choked by the rampant contraband products flooding the market here.
Meanwhile, casino operator Genting Malaysia Bhd regained some lost ground in 2019, with its share price up 12.2%. However, it is still a far cry from the 2018 level. The stock was trading at above RM4.50 before the new government slapped a steep hike in gaming tax. It closed at RM3.31 yesterday.
Moving into the new year and new decade, analysts seem to be relatively bullish on the brewery and gaming subsectors, with most of them having an “overweight” rating on them.
The Edge Financial Daily has contacted industry players to gather some of their insights into the prospects for 2020.
A toast to the breweries’ better prospects in 2020
Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd and Heineken Malaysia Bhd shareholders should not have much grouses for 2019 with the two breweries’ share prices reaching record highs — making them the clear winner even among consumer stocks.
This was despite the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) continuously remaining below the 100-point optimism threshold in the first three quarters of 2019. The CSI for the third quarter of 2019 (3Q19) fell to 84 points — the lowest reading since 4Q17, according to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.
Year to date, Carlsberg has surged 46.85% to settle at RM28.86 on Dec 26, valuing it at RM8.88 billion, while Heineken has gained some 33.33% to close at RM27.28, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM8.24 billion.
For 2020, brewers heave a sigh of relief as the government has not raised any excise duty in the recent Budget 2020 announcement. The last hike was in March 2016, when the excise duty structure for beers changed to RM175 per 100% volume per litre, from the previous RM7.40 per litre and 15% ad valorem tax.
Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia’s newly-appointed managing director (MD) Stefano Clini said innovations will continue to play a big part in the revitalisation of its brands, as Carlsberg’s new betterment in its overall consumer drinking experience will be the key.
As consumer sentiment is not expected to be robust in 2020 and costs of packaging and raw materials could be a squeeze on profit margins, on top of the prevalent contraband beer, Clini said Carlsberg has put in place measures to be more efficient in cost management and investments to deliver a sustainable shareholder value.
“We are committed to continue investing in Carlsberg’s new improved packaging and to intensify our consumer activations to drive further premiumisation in both Malaysia and Singapore while keeping costs under control,” Clini said in an email reply.
“The early responses towards Carlsberg’s practical improvements in visibility, packaging and amenities have been very encouraging,” he added.
Moreover, with the recently concluded “Probably the Best Oktoberfest” and “Connor’s Perfect Pour Challenge” campaigns boosting sales, Clini expects the early 2020 Chinese New Year to sustain its current growth momentum before the year ends.
Heineken Malaysia MD Roland Bala expressed his confidence in delivering a satisfactory performance for financial year 2019 (FY19), driven by the group’s efforts in improving cost efficiencies and top-line growth on the strong performance of its core brands and new products.
However, his optimism is tempered by caution, given the softening economic environment, competitive market and continued threat from the illicit trade.
He anticipates these — especially intensified commercial activations planned by all brewers in the market for the final three-month run of the year — to have some impact on the group’s profitability for 4QFY19.
While Heineken has launched new products this year, Heineken 0.0 and Tiger Crystal, the brewer has removed some non-performers from the shelves so that the group only focuses on core brands and innovations that have scale and potential.
“While the rising cost structure remains a mild dampener on the subsector, we observe the brewers could pass-through costs when deemed necessary, because the last price hike in April 2019 did not affect legal consumption considerably,” TA Securities Holdings Bhd said in its 2020 annual strategy report.
Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research expects high beer sales in 2020 amid the anticipation of more tourist arrivals due to Visit Malaysia Year 2020. HLIB noted about 80% of top tourist receipts come from non-Muslim majority countries such as Singapore, China, Thailand and India in terms of total spending, and China, the UK, Canada and Taiwan on per-capita spending.
Another tough year ahead for BAT
BAT is offering the highest dividend yield of 8.62% among the sin stocks, but this does not help to whet investors’ appetite for the counter.
Shares in BAT plunged 57.2%, or RM20.64, to close at RM15.44 yesterday.
In a nutshell, even with the 9% dividend yield, shareholders who have held BAT shares since the beginning of this year have lost 48%.
BAT MD Erik Stoel, in an email reply, said the tobacco industry’s operating environment outlook for 2020 will remain bleak.
While BAT commands 55% of the legal volume share or over 90% in value terms of the legal tobacco industry, Stoel noted that 2019 has certainly not been a year of “business as usual” for the company as it has faced strong external headwinds, mainly due to illicit cigarette and illegal vaping products, no thanks to affordability stretch.
“We foresee the grip that illicit tobacco has on the country to remain the same, if not grow even larger in 2020. Simply put, any legal company will be challenged to operate in an environment that consists of a 68% black market,” Stoel said.
He stressed that pessimism about prospects for the tobacco industry is due to the ministry of health’s (MoH) lacklustre efforts to clamp down on illicit tobacco.
“We urge them (MoH) to take a more tangible approach to curbing this issue as it contributes to underage smoking and a liability on the health agenda,” said Stoel. He noted that enforcement, albeit it has increased, has not been effective and the minimum RM100,000 penalty has not been rigorously pursued.
Nonetheless, for BAT, the 2020 business focus will centre on its continued advocacy for a sustainable tobacco framework, said Stoel.
As the tobacco market in Malaysia continues to be attractive for the industry in terms of value relative to its size, Stoel said the real opportunities, however, lie in transitioning consumers from illegal to legal cigarettes and regulated vaping.
“We will do whatever it takes to push the government to decisively cripple this black economy,” said Stoel, adding that BAT will continue to actively and continuously engage all relevant stakeholders to effect a change that will significantly lower the high levels of illicit tobacco in the country.
In 2020, BAT will also focus on building and investing in new categories of tobacco with BAT’s range of potentially reduced risk products comprising tobacco heating products like Glo and Vaping when regulated, said Stoel.
He said this sector’s current opportunities to grow value in Malaysia will probably unfold more rapidly, should the tax policy for vaping is regulated. “However, this outcome will be determined on how the government shapes its policy surrounding new categories of tobacco products in 2020,” he said.
CGS-CIMB Research analyst Kamarul Anwar, in its 2020 strategy note, wrote the only hope for BAT now rests on the possible regulation of vapes and e-cigarettes under the proposed Tobacco Act, allowing legal tobacco players to capitalise on their rapidly growing popularity. Kamarul, however, said renewed calls to ban vaping are jeopardising prospects of a possible regulation.
Kamarul is forecasting a 22.6% decline in net profit to RM333 million for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2019 (FY19), from RM430 million for FY18, and is estimating a further contraction to RM329 million in net profit for FY20. He is also anticipating revenue to fall to RM2.71 billion for FY19 and RM2.59 billion for FY20.
Bloomberg data shows 17 research houses covering the stock, with only six “buy” ratings. Nonetheless, with a consensus target price of RM19.62, this implies a 27.9% headroom.
Better luck factor in 2020
It was not a smooth sailing for Genting Malaysia Bhd (GenM) in 2019. Still, it was a better year compared with 2018.
While GenM has to bear the 10% hike in casino duties this year, analysts are optimistic the group will be dealt with a better hand of cards in 2020.
In July, GenM reached a settlement agreement resolving disputes with Fox Entertainment Group and The Walt Disney Co, dismissing all claims and counterclaims against each other, with the upcoming outdoor theme park opening in the third quarter of 2020. In addition, the indoor theme park, Skytropolis Funland, opened in December 2018.
In 2020, GenM is expected to benefit from higher tourist arrivals as the opening of its long-awaited outdoor theme park in the second half coincides with Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VMY2020), said HLIB Research.
“We upgrade our call on the sector to overweight in line with our recent upgrades on GenM and Genting Bhd. We believe share prices have overreacted to the increased competition of the VIP (very important person) segment in the region,” said HLIB Research analyst Andrew Lim Ken-Wern.
GenM shares rose around 12.2% during the year to close at RM3.31 yesterday, while Genting was down a minimal 0.16% to settle at RM6.10.
Bloomberg data shows there are more “buy” calls on Genting compared with GenM, with 12 “buy” calls, from the 17 research firms covering the stock, while GenM has seven “buy” ratings out of 20. In terms of upside in share price growth, Genting has a headroom of 19.6% from its consensus target price of RM7.26, while GenM has 9.8% from RM3.57.
Apart from VMY2020 being the catalyst for Genting Group, TA analyst Tan Kam Meng noted 2020 will be a crucial year for Genting as its Singapore unit Genting Singapore Ltd (GenS) is bidding for a licence to operate an integrated casino resort (IR) in Japan.
“So far, we understand [that] there would be three IRs in Japan, one each in Osaka, Yokohama and Tokyo. In fact, IR bids have already started in Osaka and Yokohama where the former has officially accepted bids from MGM Resorts International, GenS and Galaxy Entertainment,” Tan said, adding that the selection of the winner would likely be in 3Q20.
Besides Osaka, GenS indicated that it is now preparing for Yokohama’s request-for-concept, which opened in October and will be closed on Dec 23, 2020, said Tan, adding that the selection of the winner would likely be at end-3Q20 or 4Q20.
Genting would benefit but TA expects the bigger attraction lies in its likely ability to win the casino licence from Japan in 2020, said the research house.
Meanwhile, for NFOs, the government has introduced stern penalties, a higher minimum mandatory penalty of RM100,000 for illegal gamblers along with a minimum mandatory six months’ jail sentence, to curb illegal gambling in Budget 2020, said Tan. This was from the maximum penalty of RM50,000.
“We believe the drastic increase in penalty with [a] jail sentence could effectively curb black market activities in the NFO industry in Malaysia, which command a hefty market share of 50% or more,” said Tan, adding that there are more raids to eradicate illegal gambling.
He noted this bodes well for legal NFOs and the impact is expected to outweigh the reduction in special draws from 11 to eight times in 2020, adding that this move is expected to lower Berjaya Sports Toto Bhd’s (BToto) profit by 0.5% annually, deeming it as “insignificant”.
In comparison to the casino operators, the NFOs have been performing well with Magnum Bhd’s shares jumping some 31.8% year to date to close at RM2.57 yesterday, while BToto shares rose 23.2% to settle at RM2.60.
To add to that, Magnum and BToto have much attractive dividend yields (indicated) of 6.67% and 6.2% respectively.


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Building wave continues with Dawson Street revamp
A number of investors and developers have recently targeted Dawson St in moves aimed at taking advantage of its future when it becomes home to one of Dublin's must lucrative Luas Stops next year. Consequently the Luas may transform the street in more ways than might have been expected when it was originally announced.
Recently at least two developers have been working on plans to take advantage of the demand among major international retail fashion chains for larger stores than most of those on Grafton St. The shortage of such stores has been one of the long-time criticism of Grafton St and one which boom developers such as Bernard McNamara and Joe O'Reilly sought to address by assembling sites to the west of Dublin's super prime shopping street. Now it looks like the combination of the Luas and the return to a more liquid Irish commercial property market has swung the pendulum to the East and Dawson St.
World champion golfer Rory McIlroy is one of the latest to target the street. He recently teamed up with Neill Hughes and Peter Crowley at FL Partners to buy 51 Dawson St for around its €4.25m.asking price It is located on the corner with Duke St, which looks set to provide a key link between a new Dawson Luas stop and Grafton, Wicklow and George's streets.
Brian Shields of JLL, who handled the sale of 51 Dawson, said at the time of its launch that its asking price would reflect a net initial yield of 6.5pc. More than 80pc of its €290,000 rent roll comes from retailers who include Featherblade steak restaurant and menswear outlet Baumler and it offered scope to refurbish and let out some of the upstairs space for offices.
But more ambitious redevelopments plans are in the pipeline for at least three other major properties on the street. These include the transformation of the nine retail outlets at Nassau House on the corner with Nassau St by a joint venture led by London investors Meyer Bergman and BCP International Property Fund. In addition Friends First is working on its planning application for a revamp of Royal Hibernian Way (RHW) which includes an arcade link to Duke Lane which in turn connects via Lemon St to Grafton St.
Facing RHW, construction work is underway on Green Reit's One Molesworth which will offer 40 metres of retail frontage onto Dawson Street replacing a number of small shops with two larger stores.
But the new Dawson St retailers will not be relying on a spillover of Grafton shoppers for their trade. They already have a busy footfall coming from a range of activities including the busy bus stops as well as the surrounding offices. At present the Nassau corner has extremely busy footfall due to thousands of students who attend both Trinity and Independent Colleges and who frequent the cafes and bookshops near this busy corner. These are supplemented by the many tourists who visit Trinity, The National Gallery and other attractions.
Such footfall looks set to be further increased by new office developments underway off Dawson. Up to 2,000 people may well be employed in three new office developments. These include Green Reit's One Molesworth St which will have about 72,000 sq ft of offices; Green Reit's 32 Molesworth St with 28,000 sq ft of offices and IPUT's 10 Molesworth St.
Green's development at One Molesworth will also include 19,000 sq ft of retail at 13-17 Dawson St catering for two units. A spokesperson said that the new retail space "is being pitched as a unique branding opportunity for internationally renowned retailers seeking flagship representation in Dublin city centre, with Grafton Street only 130 metres away. The building is due for completion in quarter 3 of 2017. On tenant type, all I can say at the moment is that it won't be big box retail and will be high-end."
Meanwhile Friends First, the life assurance and investment company is expecting to submit a planning application before the end of this summer for a revamp of its RHW which faces Molesworth St and serves as a link between Leinster House and Grafton St.
Earlier this year, Friends First acquired the remaining 50pc of Royal Hibernian Way and has engaged architects to explore the potential refurbishment opportunities. The property includes about 75,400 sq ft of office space occupied, in the main, by Davys, together with a ground floor, open air, retail mall of about 21,500 sq ft.
Friends' plans include the change of use from retail to food usage for a number of its units. Suzie Nolan senior manager with the investment division of Friends, explained that "The existing units are antiquated in size and layout and Friends First is examining the reconfiguration of these stores along with upgrading the shop fronts and mall area. The redevelopment plans will also include additional office space."
Meyer Bergman and BCP's plans for Nassau House are also expected to include a revamp of its 80,000 sq ft of offices. In addition their latest acquisition of five shops on Nassau St is understood to be aimed at further increasing supply of larger retail stores. This latter acquisition, which is believed to have involved paying more than €13.5m to vendor Ardstone Capital, brings to 14 the number of retail outlets that the joint venture has in the precinct.


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Looking for a silver lining, in the midst of the threat of the coronavirus outbreak becoming a global pandemic, may seem a tall order. However, it is worth quoting from a recent BBC report, that " the virus has laid bare how exposed global trade is to a sudden shock as supply lines have been interrupted".
Commercial Property Advisors (CPA) adds that UK firms have quietly been catching up with the production techniques of China, and increasingly compete on low cots, besides offering quicker delivery times, and a more creative rapport between suppliers and sellers.
This boost to domestic production chimes well with the increasing emphasis in the high street on "buying local", and a marked move away from the standard corporate image, to innovative, "experiential" stores.
2020 may thus prove to be far from the retail apocalypse some have predicted, but rather a positive re-adjustment to unforeseen global challenges.
Call us if you think that coronavirus could affect your business.


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While Pattison Outdoor offers digital spectaculars, billboards and digital screens in transit, we have to applaud the company for its new green initiative, completely overhauling its lighting system infrastructure on its standard billboards.
Over the past six months, a total of 7,800 outdoor billboards were converted to new energy efficient LED light fixtures. The project was designed to coincide with the shorter days of the fall and winter when boards are illuminated for longer periods of time.
“By converting the boards to LED’s, we have lowered our electrical consumption by 66%,” says Randy Otto, president, Pattison Outdoor.
Steve McGregor, vice-president operations, says, “We are constantly researching environmentally friendly alternatives and innovative technologies to minimize the impact on the environment in the neighbourhoods in which we operate.”
Previously, the Holophane fixtures consumed approximately 2,000 kwh per year while the new LED fixtures will consume approximately 580 kwh per year. This will reduce Pattison’s overall energy consumption by over 11,100,000 kwh per year – the equivalent to taking 931 homes ‘off the grid’ each year.
Of course, Pattison has 29 Digital Spectaculars across nine markets in Canada including several landmark, high traffic locations including Gardiner Expressway in Toronto; Autoroute 40 in Montréal; and King George Highway in Vancouver. Their Smart screens adjust brightness to ambient light.
Pattison also offers 90 Digital Horizontal Posters – 10’H x 20’W Digital LED displays – in 20 markets including all of Canada’s largest cities
And it offers 40″ screens in Toronto transit, reaching over 1,150,000 captive viewers daily.


text: Wakuu naona hii kama ni kweli inatekelezwa ni ukombozi mkubwa kiuchumi kwa watanzania, itafungua macho wengi na kufungua hata opportunities za baadhi ya watu. Naona serikali inastahili kwa kazi hii. Si vibaya tukiilaumu serikali kwa makosa, ufisadi na uzembe wake. Na ni haki tukiipongeza kwa kazi nzuri, japokuwa tuliichagua kufanya kazi nzuri. Habari hii nimeona IPPMEDIA web version tarehe 16 The government is finalizing phase two of linking up regions and districts through the fibre optic cable with a view to enhancing communication. Speaking in an interview over the weekend, Science and Technology minister Prof Peter Msola said everything was going on as planned. He said already seven countries had been linked to the fibre optic cable, a move that would help to reduce the cost of communication. As of now, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia are connected to the system, which aims at enhancing and improving the communication network, said Msolla. As Tanzanians are complaining that the cost of communication is very high, the fibre optic cable is expected to cut down communication costs. The minister said soon two other countries would be connected after a committee of experts came up with channels for connecting them. He named the countries as Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prof Msolla said the project was expected to reduce the cost of mobile phone communications by about 80 per cent. He clarified that Rwanda had been linked through Rusumo, Burundi through Kabanga and Kenya through Sirari, Namanga and Horohoro, while Zambia was linked through Tunduma, and Malawi through Kasumulu. The minister noted that connectivity to the regions and districts would ease access of important services such as visa and passport applications. Recently, TTCL chief executive officer Said Amour Said was quoted as saying that price reduction in internet charges was due to the firms connection to the submarine fibre cable. TTCL has reduced its Internet prices effective early October, last year. In order to pass on this cost-saving benefit to end-users, high customer expectations of reduced costs in Internet services have finally been met, he said. The new prices would see high volume Internet users including banks, large businesses and corporations, government agencies and other institutions enjoying a substantial Internet bandwidth cost reduction as customers would get the same capacity of bandwidth at a third of the current price, experts say. Under the new structure, a client who buys 1Mbps of Internet capacity for 9.2m/- would now buy the same for just 3.14m/- . For small and medium businesses like cyber cafes, the price had been slashed by 50 per cent, they say. Customers who were buying 5GB for 200,000/-, would now purchase 10GB for the same amount of money, while all Internet subscribers in this category would continue to get high speeds of up to 4Mbps through their TTCL fixed lines, they say.


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Ninestar’s latest white paper reveals the secret behind the company’s incredible growth
To celebrate its twenty-first anniversary, G&G’s parent company, Ninestar, has released a new white paper: Ninestar – Just watch us grow! The company explains how it has grown from a small ink cartridge refiller to the world’s largest third-party consumables supplier in its report, which is available free of charge via the link below.
In his white paper Ninestar – just watch us grow!, The company offers new insights into its growth strategy. A critical component of this strategy was the company’s willingness to invest in its manufacturing and R&D facilities. As a result, Ninestar now operates a 450,000-square-meter campus in the Zhuhai Hi Tech Industrial Development Zone and has the capacity to produce 20 million toner cartridges annually, as well as 100 million ink cartridges and 30 million ribbon cartridges. Ninestar’s technically advanced R&D team has more than 2,500 engineers, scientists and technicians around the world.
Ninestar’s phenomenal growth has been attributed to the company’s ability to consistently be first to market with its G&G branded ink, toner and ribbon cartridges. Known for their impeccable performance, the products in the G&G line reflect the innovation that has been the hallmark of Ninestar’s success since it began operations in 2000 5,000 patents worldwide and has another 1,000 patents pending.
“Our customers know they can count on us to be the first manufacturer to bring the most popular products to market,” said Eric Zhang, general manager of Ninestar Image. “And they trust G&G to always deliver the strongest value proposition. In our latest free white paper Ninestar – Just watch us grow!let’s describe how we built that trust.”
click here download Ninestar – Just watch us grow!
To learn more about Ninestar’s innovation, click here here download Ninestar – Innovative success.
Media contact: Ruby Wei
About Ninestar & G&G
For almost two decades, Ninestar has been recognized as a leader in the supply industry thanks to its commitment to innovation. Since 2000, Ninestar has invested heavily in the ability to quickly bring the industry’s most technologically advanced products to market. Today, Ninestar’s G&G branded products are known worldwide for their superior performance and reliability.
© Ninestar Image Tech Limited. All rights reserved worldwide. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
What do you know about toners? 15 minutes. WEBINAR will show you.


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Microsoft releases first flaky iPhone app
Wot no Windows Mobile version?
Those well known Apple fanboys down at the Microsoft ranch have released the company’s first application for the iPhone before adding the app to its own Windows-based mobile platform.
Seadragon Mobile hit Apple’s App Store on Saturday. However soon after Redmond admitted that it hadn’t all gone quite to plan because the most important feature in the application – the ability to browse Photosynth libraries – is, well, a bit busted.
“The 'Browse Photosynth' functionality broke right after we submitted the app to the AppStore,” wrote Ben, a Microsoft Live Labs employee. “Hopefully we'll get a new version with this fixed submitted to Apple in the next few days. Photosynth search and adding a user to view their Synths still works. Sorry!”
Microsoft has offered a less-than satisfactory workaround while the company attempts to fix the cockup.
Ben said a last minute bug in the app’s PhotoZoom service meant that Microsoft had no choice but to yank the ‘Browse Photosynth’ feature. Apparently the bug has now been fixed but it won’t reach Jesus Phone lovers for about a week.
In the meantime, customers can use the functionality by entering an unwieldy url via the RSS feed.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft’s Live Labs team has had a problem with the launch of a new app. In August this year MS released Photosynth – a free photo-stitching tool that runs in the cloud – but sadly, at launch, the firm couldn’t cope with the demand. ®
Sounds like the kind of crap you would get pre-installed with your new mac as opposed to the kind of crap MS would release.
Given that the iPhone is both gorgeous and shiny, why on earth would I soil such a lovely device with a piece-of-sh!t app from the Redmond mob? FFS, couldn't they have come up with something more interesting than that?
I loaded this.
10 minutes later, my iPhone just comes up with these red rings of death.. Good to see Microsoft keeping to their tradition of producing turds.


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Toshiba Regza tablet delayed to end of summer
The launch of the upcoming Regza Android Honeycomb tablet from Toshiba has reportedly been pushed back to a later date.
Website RegHardware was tipped by Toshiba UK’s head of business laptops, Ken Chan, about the delay of the tablet. “It’ll be here at the very end of summer,” said Chan. Unfortunately, he was unwilling to share any reasons why the Regza tablet will arrive later in the year. RegHardware, however, suspects it to be component supply shortages due to the recent Japanese tsunami and earthquakes.
The Toshiba tablet has been around since January, but its official name was only recently announced. The 10.1-inch Regza tablet will include an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, 1280x800 resolution screen, front and rear cameras, HDMI, USB, and SD card reader. The specs are quite similar to other Tegra 2-equipped tablets, such as the Motorola Xoom and upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.


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Another quarter, another stellar performance – that's the verdict for Veeam which has again reported high growth in its quarterly results.
The vendor saw bookings revenue for the second quarter of 2016 up 27% year on year, with customer numbers now hitting 7530 – up from 7168 in Q1 of 2016.
The company has also added 100 more ProPartner's across Australia and New Zealand, to 2190.
Figures for the VCSP numbers – which have grown from 968 to 1050 – suggest cloud and disaster recovery-as-a-service remain in high demand locally.
Don Williams, Veeam Australia and New Zealand vice president, says Veeam's success in the enterprise market to deliver availability solutions shows customers and ProPartners in the ANZ region continuing steady growth.
However, the ANZ figures were below the international growth seen by the company, which saw 38% year on year total bookings revenue growth. Quarter on quarter growth was even higher at 40%. Traditionally the ANZ figures have been ahead of global figures.
Peter Ruchatz, Veeam CMO, says the first half of 2016 has been ‘monumental' for Veeam.
“Our penetration into the enterprise market continues to accelerate as [enterprises] seek to meet the needs of users who are embracing transformative technologies such as cloud, mobile and social platforms,” Ruchatz says.
The quarter saw Veeam surpass 200,0000 customers.
Peter McKay, Veeam's newly appointed president and COO, says the company is excited by the extent to which customers are embracing its approach to delivering availability across the enterprise.
“Our latest results clearly indicate that a seismic shift is taking place within the industry, and to have the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas as our 200,000 customer is a great testament to how vital Veeam is in modern business,” McKay says.
“Businesses of all sizes are abandoning ‘traditional' thinking and are beginning to understand that 24.7.365 Availability is now a prerequisite.
“Our strategy for the future is clear, and we are continuing to add richer features and functionality to our portfolio which will deliver not only on the needs of today's users, but provide a foundation for the future.


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Social media website Facebook may soon add a news section to its Android and iOS smartphone apps that may look like Facebook Paper — a standalone mobile app created only for iOS. Facebook confirmed to Mashable tech website that it is testing the new, sectioned news feed, in addition to the current format, though it is unclear if the feature would ever get an official launch. Also Read - Facebook smartwatch to feature cameras alongside fitness functions: Yes, detachable cameras!Also Read - What happens to your Facebook account after you die?
Some screenshots surfaced on Twitter on Friday, showing that a new layout of the mobile app that highlighted multiple news sections, with topics such as world and us, sports and food.
“People have told us they would like options to see more stories on Facebook around specific topics they are interested in,” a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying. “So we have been testing a few feeds for people to view more and different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas,” the spokesperson added.
The report said the move would encourage users to get more news from Facebook rather than other sources like Twitter or Google News.
Recently Twitter was also testing a new design for its Android app version to make it more user-friendly and easy to navigate. Several people using Twitter s alpha and beta apps have begun seeing a design that places Twitter s four core areas main feed, Moments, notifications, and direct messages as large tabs across the top of the screen.


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E Umbrella, an umbrella sharing startup that launched in China just three months ago, has reportedly lost most of its inventory. Why? A high percentage of its users decide to keep the umbrella instead of returning it. In less than three months, the company has reportedly lost 300,000 umbrellas. The umbrellas, which were placed in 11 cities across China, appear to be a success as many are renting but the big problem is that many are not returning them.
In recent years, sharing companies have become quite popular across the world. Bicycle and car sharing companies have been a success in most countries but the umbrella idea hasn’t been bad either, with thousands of umbrellas being rented since April. The difference between the other companies and E Umbrella is that they don’t have to keep replacing the inventory because it’s not returned. E Umbrella launched back in April and charges customers nearly $3 for the umbrella deposit and $0.07 every 30 minutes. The umbrella stations are available across 11 cities and all users have to do is pay for the umbrella on the app. After the payment, users receive a code to unlock the umbrella.
E Umbrella’s problem doesn’t appear to be renting but seeing those umbrellas come back. The loss of umbrellas isn’t stopping the company though. According to the founder, the company plans to add 30 million more umbrellas in 2017. The founder also revealed that each umbrella costs the company nearly $9.
Another problem with E Umbrella is that the company doesn’t charge unreturned fees, which means users don’t have to really worry about returning the umbrellas. The lack of information and stations to return the umbrellas also appear to be a problem for the company. The loss doesn’t sound like much when the company has plans to add 30 million umbrellas by the end of the year. But the launch was less than three months ago, so the company is going to have to come up with some ideas to reduce its inventory loss.


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While Victoria is expected to remain in lockdown until the start of October, the Victorian Government will be rolling out additional financial support for the state’s small and medium businesses as they continue to grapple with the sustained impacts of lockdown restrictions.
On Saturday 4th September the Victorian Premier announced the state’s largest business support boost package, which will be jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Victorian Government.
The boost will run primarily to businesses that are entitled to the Business Costs Assistance program. Over 175,000 Victorian businesses are expected to benefit from this four-week booster support package, which will run until the 30th September.
The program previously capped payments to businesses at $2,800 per week, however these September payments will be made at three tiers:
- Businesses with payrolls of no more than $650,000 will receive payments each week of $2,800;
- Businesses with payrolls of between $650,000 and $3 million will receive $5,600 per week; and
- Businesses with payrolls of between $3 million and $10 million will receive a weekly payment of $8,400.
Most payments will be instantly deposited automatically into businesses’ bank accounts.
The three-tiered system will offer a more targeted approach to business support across the state. Therefore, businesses with more employees will have greater support to maintain those numbers in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the Government will continue to stand by Victorian businesses and their workers.
Businesses such as bars, cafes and restaurants who are eligible will continue to receive the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund payments of between $5,000 and $20,000 each week depending on venue capacity.
Venues that have a capacity of up to 99 patrons will receive $5,000, while those with a threshold of between 100 and 499 patrons will receive $10,000, and those with capacities of 500 or greater will receive payments of $20,000.
An Alpine Support Package will assist in sustaining resorts through the remainder of the season and September school holidays with an automatic top-up payment of between $10,000 and $40,000, dependant on the business location and whether they hire staff.
In the announcement the Victorian government also reminded eligible workers that they will continue to receive support under the COVID-19 Disaster Payment scheme, and so, too, will sole traders who are ineligible for any other payments.
The payment will offer individuals who have lost between 8 and 20 hours per week $450 each week, and $750 each week for those who have lost 20 hours and above. These payments are being processed through Services Australia.
Due to the changing circumstances, the Government came up with this package which is bigger than anything announced before. This is for all the dedicated business owners across the state and its workers to support the hardest-hit sectors and businesses to ensure they can keep up with their expenses.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stated, “We will continue to support Victorians, with our ongoing economic assistance to meet the challenges of the Delta strain.”
Details about Victorian business support payments are available at business.vic.gov.au.
Should you have any queries in relation to these support payments please call our office on (03) 8393 1000.


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ICON and the Texas Military Department partnered to build 3D printed military barracks at Camp Swift Training Center in Bastrop.
Kornit Digital to Expand Digital Textile Fabrication with Acquisition of Voxel8’s Additive Manufacturing Technology
Kornit Digital announced the acquisition of Voxel8 to use its advanced additive manufacturing technology for digital textile fabrication.
adidas is collaborating with eyewear company Marcolin to produce a limited-edition pair of futuristic 3D printed eyewear called the 3D CMPT.
Wi3DP a nonprofit organisation dedicated to promoting, supporting, and inspiring women working in the AM industry recently announced the appointment of Sarah Goehrke as the new Director of DEI Initiatives


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The first-quarter report from InfoSpace today reveals the urgency the Bellevue-based Internet and mobile content developer has toward the rapidly growing mobile content market.
The numbers are hard to compare with the year-ago period because of a one-time gain last year from the settlement of litigation between the company and its founder, Naveen Jain. But the takeaway is that the numbers are pretty much on par with prior quarters, minus a heavy amount of investing.
InfoSpace said during a conference call today that it spent $3 million of the planned $5 million on investing in three hot areas: mobile search, content acquisition and a direct-to-consumer brand. In all, it reported a net income of $3 million or 9 cents a share on record-breaking revenues of $90.3 million during the quarter.
To update the financial community on where the company stands in those three segments, InfoSpace said that during the quarter it launched new mobile search platforms with Sprint Nextel (called Find it!) and a new search tool for T-Mobile USA customers. On the content acquisition front, it secured 20 new licenses for a total of 600 agreements to create a "deep library of music and entertainment products." It also launched new services with Cingular Wireless, including "American Idol" ringtones and a ringtone service on MySpace for undiscovered bands.
On the direct-to-consumer front, InfoSpace said it is getting closer to launching its own brand. Up to now, it has emphasized white-labeling, so that its technology was branded with the carrier's name. Now, it's aiming to sell content directly to users using an off-portal model that circumvents the carrier.
CEO Jim Voelker, who didn't want to go into too many details for competitive reasons, said the product should be ready this quarter.
And the investing won't stop there, either. InfoSpace said it plans to spend $6 million to $7 million on those three segments during the current quarter. The company said it expects a net loss of $2 million to $3 million in the second quarter, which includes $6.5 million in stock compensation expense.
InfoSpace's stock climbed higher in after-hours trading to close at $27.50.


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January 11, 2021 - Written by John Cameron
STORY LINK Pound to South African Rand (GBP/ZAR) Exchange Rate Rises Despite Worries Over Stricker UK Covid-19 Restrictions
GBP/ZAR Exchange Rate Edges Higher Despite UK Restrictions Being Under Review
The Pound to South African Rand (GBP/ZAR) exchange rate rose by 0.7% today, with the pairing currently trading around R20.85.
Sterling rose against the South African Rand (ZAR) today despite concerns over England facing stricter Covid-19 lockdown restrictions as infections rate continue to soar.
The Government’s Chief Medical Advisor, Professor Chris Witty, has urged the public to ‘double down’ on avoiding contact with other people.
This has sparked concerns over further restrictions being announced from Downing Street this week.
Nadhim Zahawi, the UK’s Vaccine Minister, confirmed that restrictions were being reviewed.
‘We’re reviewing all the restrictions, but these are pretty tough at the moment. I am worried about supermarkets and people actually wearing masks and following the one-way system and making sure when it’s at capacity they wait outside the supermarket.’
As a result, GBP investors are becoming increasingly concerned about the UK’s economy, which would further suffer from more severe Covid-19 restrictions.
South African Rand (ZAR) Falls on Risk-Off Market Mood
The risk-sensitive South African Rand (ZAR) has suffered from risk-off trade today, with global markets becoming worried about the rising Covid-19 infection rates throughout Europe and the US.
Analysts at Reuters also highlighted South Africa’s slow vaccination programme, saying:
‘South Africa has recorded more than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases, the most on the continent, but it is yet to start vaccinating its population or receive its first doses.
‘A sluggish vaccination programme would dent prospects for recovery in an economy that is forecast to have contracted by at least 7% last year.’
Consequently, ZAR traders are worried that the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 vaccine through South Africa could jeopardise the nation’s economic recovery in the months ahead.
GBP/ZAR Outlook: Could Sterling Suffer from Stricter UK Lockdown Restrictions?
Pound (GBP) traders will be awaiting tomorrow’s release of December’s BRC Retail Sales data.
Any signs of a recovery in the UK’s retail sector would further boost the GBP/ZAR exchange rate.
However, UK markets will be monitoring the nation’s coronavirus developments.
If infection rates continue to soar and Downing Street announces further lockdown restrictions, then we could see Sterling fall.
International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way,
ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.
TAGS: Pound Rand Forecasts South African Rand Forecasts


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Oculus Rift was a great invention but there had to be a point where we must move on and the manufacturing company had to get out of the fantasy of the lone producer. The HMD scene is now filled with many of the competitors and Oculus has now decided to drop down the price tag to $399.
There is no doubt about Oculus Rift being the pioneer in VR HMD production scene but the current market holds HTC Vive and Microsoft as major competitors to the product.
The $399 Package
Speaking of the $399 Oculus package, the Oculus Rift comes with:
- Touch controllers
- Six free entertainment apps including Epic’s arcade shooter and Robo Recall etc
The $399 price tag was revised and announced by the company in a recent press release where the focus of the company was on the price tag being permanent now.


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Lyst Reports That Sustainable Activewear Is One of 2020's Biggest Trends
Demand for yoga gear and bodysuits is also growing.
Lyst has released a new report, Activewear 2020: The State of Fitness Fashion, detailing key trends in workout clothes for the coming year. The report’s findings are based on the searches and shopping behavior of over 104 million users, while also analyzing spikes in search terms over the past three months.
Though we’re only one week into 2020, searches for activewear have increased 59% since the beginning of the new year. “Sustainable activewear” is also a trending keyword, seeing an 151% increase in queries compared to 2019. The appeal of yoga culture endures, contributing to a 42% growth of yoga-related products sold through Lyst — monthly demand for “yoga leggings” specifically has increased. According to preliminary data, items including sculpting leggings, shiny leggings and workout bodysuits are rising in popularity and will reach trend status throughout the year.
Head to Lyst to check out the full report.


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Overnight campers might soon be kicked out of the Cottonwood, Ariz., Walmart parking lot, television station KNXV reported.
The lot was the scene of a weekend brawl involving campers and police that left one suspect dead and an officer shot, according to information from police and witnesses.
Store management will meet with Cottonwood Police today (March 24) to figure out how to keep people from camping overnight at the store, according to Bryan Nick, a Walmart spokesperson.
The current situation outside the store is a concrete jungle campground, where some campers call the parking lot home for days.
For the full story, click here.


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- Category: Economic
- Published Tuesday, December 15, 2015
- CTV News
TORONTO -- Premier Kathleen Wynne made history Tuesday simply by buying a six-pack of beer at a Toronto grocery store, something that hasn't been legal in Ontario since prohibition.
Wynne was carded by the cashier when she bought beer at a Toronto Loblaws store, starting the long-promised roll out of beer sales in select grocery outlets across the province.
The goal is to have six-packs of beer available at 60 grocery stores by the end of this year, eventually expanding to 450 grocery retailers -- large and small -- by 2017.
Last month, the Liberal government announced 13 grocery stores and chains that were chosen to sell beer in the first round, including retail giant Walmart Canada, Metro Ontario and Sobeys, which all have stores across the province.
Of the 60 beer licences, 12 were reserved for small grocers including Starsky Fine Foods in Hamilton, Pino's Get Fresh in Sault Ste. Marie and J-&-B La Mantia in Lindsay.
Loblaws announced beer is now available in 19 of its outlets, including some Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocery and Fortinios locations.
The foreign-owned Beer Store, which has had a virtual monopoly on beer sales in Ontario for nearly 90 years, will keep the exclusive right to sell cases of 24 and most 12-packs.
An interactive version of the map below is available online.


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IMARS mobile phones set to launch in Nepali market soon
Chinese Smartphone manufacturer IMARS brand of smartphones is all set to launch in Nepali market by the end of January. IMARS has appointed Opal Multinational as a authorized dealer for sales, marketing and after sales service provider for the Nepali market.
IMARS is the top ten mobile manufacturer in the Chinese market manufacturing various electronics devices such as smartphones, feature phones, LED TVs and Laptops since last 15 years. The company is a household name in China but unknown to the outside world.
The company will be initially launching 5 new smartphones and 2 other feature phones in the Nepali market.
IMARS World Nepal has setup a after sales service center and experience zone in Tamrakar complex, 5th floor.
The company has also appointed actor Anmol KC as its brand ambassador.
Opal Multinational will be selling 4G LTE supported smartphones, LED TV, Laptops and various mobile accessories in the Nepali market.
The smartphones will be in the range of NRs.10,000 to NRs. 25,000 whereas feature phones of Rs.2000 value will be sold in the initial launch phase.
The company will provide more information on the product details and pricing by the end of January.


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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Consumer Protection Committee (CPC) worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to inspect 61 drinks at 61 random locations across Taiwan, finding 10 labeling violations, the CPC announced in a press release on Wednesday (Sept. 1).
The labels on beverages at several stores did not reflect the true sugar and calorie levels, while four did not disclose the ingredients’ true place of origin. One sample, from a Tigersugar store in Taoyuan, violated both labeling requirements, according to CNA.
Of the seven samples that did not reflect the actual sugar and calorie content, five stores — Taoyuan ATT’s Tigersugar, Backpacker’s Lodge Foods, Zhubei Shengli’s Wanpo Tea Shop, Taichung Wenxin Showtime’s Yifang Tea, and Tainan Chongde’s Dain-Dain Hamburger — had labeled them incorrectly, mostly as having less sugar and fewer calories. Two others, Orange Tea and Tainan Fuqian’s Fresh and Natural, did not include the sugar count in the label at all.
Tigersugar at Taoyuan’s ATT, along with Ching Shin Fu Chuan Tea Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District, displayed false origins for their ingredients, while Pingtung Feng Chia’s KFC and Truedan did not provide the information.
The CPC said the rules are in place so that stores can inform customers as they make a decision to purchase. Stores that mislabel information are subject to a fine of between NT$40,000 (US$1,442.61) and NT$4 million, and those that do not provide the information on labels are subject to penalties NT$30,000 to NT$3 million.
CPC holds press conference to announce inspection results. (CNA photo)
Additionally, the CPC found four samples containing more than 45 grams of sugar in a single cup. The samples were Taichung Truedan’s black sugar pearl milk tea (60.37 g), Kaohsiung Dayungs’ pearl milk tea (58.9 g), Kaohsiung 50 Lan’s pearl milk tea (50.27 g), and Taipei Kebuke’s white pearl milk tea (46.91 g).
A healthy adult weighing between 50 and 60 kilograms with a light physical workload should not consume more than 37.5 to 45 g of extra sugar, reported CNA. The CPC also encouraged people to drink at least six to eight cups of water in place of sugary drinks.


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Being the holiday season, many of you have grown quite accustomed to the FedEx truck driving around your neighborhood. FedEx is not only highly sought after for gift delivery, but also for value stock pickers. Shares of FedEx were under pressure last week after the package delivery giant reported results for its latest quarter that were below consensus analyst expectations. For fiscal Q2 2017, FDX posted adjusted EPS of $2.80, versus forecasts of $2.91. While the bottom-lined was soft, revenue for the period slightly beat expectations ($14.93 billion vs. $14.91 billion).
Although volumes in its Ground segment grew 5% year-over-year, less than many expected, the numbers were temporarily impacted as the firm turned away business given a few customers’ desire for aggressive pricing. Additionally, Ground margins were negatively impacted as the company rapidly added capacity to handle e-commerce growth. The Express unit also experienced slightly lower-than-expected growth. We would expect near-term Ground margins to remain under pressure as the company adds capacity to handle the continuously expanding online retail market. That said, we do like that FedEx appears to be focused on pricing discipline, which should aid margins as volumes continue to ramp up.
“FedEx increased revenues and operating income despite continued low growth rates in the global economy. We are in the home stretch of our peak shipping season, and our service levels are high, thanks to the outstanding efforts of our hundreds of thousands of team members around the world,” said Chairman and CEO Fred Smith. “The integration of TNT Express into our broad portfolio of global business solutions is proceeding smoothly and according to plan.”
FedEx also said that the fiscal 2017 earnings forecast before year-end pension accounting adjustments and excluding TNT Express integration and Outlook restructuring program costs and intangible asset amortization remains $11.85 to $12.35 per diluted share. The capital spending forecast for the fiscal year, which includes TNT Express, remains $5.6 billion. “We are on track to achieve our fiscal 2017 earnings forecast, as we continue long-term investments in our networks,” said CFO Alan Graf. “While these network projects are impacting FedEx Ground’s near-term profitability, the investments will expand capacity, improve service and enhance long-term returns and cash flows.”
We believe investors should continue to focus on the positive long-term growth from e-commerce, a market that is growing at approximately 15%, and the accretive margins actions currently being put in place. We would use any share weakness as a buying opportunity for FedEx shares as we like the strong balance sheet, modest dividend yield and position as an industry leader. FedEx trades at approximately 15 times the next-12-months earnings estimate and our Target Price currently stands at $221.
Another one of our current favorites might have been found under the Christmas tree this year in the form of athletic wear. Nike saw its shares get a bit of a boost last week after the footwear and apparel titan reported better than expected results for its fiscal Q2 2017. Nike said it had adjusted earnings per share of $0.50, versus consensus analyst estimates of $0.43. Revenue for the three months was $8.18 billion, versus forecasts of $8.09 billion. The quarter benefited from cost cutting and direct to consumer sales, with some of that seemingly inventory liquidation that boosted revenue but squeezed margins.
Despite significant investment back into the business, Nike also was able to buy back 17.0 million shares during the quarter for approximately $900 million as part of the four-year, $12 billion repurchase program approved in November 2015. As of November 30, a total of 56.0 million shares had been bought back under this program for approximately $3.1 billion.
There is little doubt to us that the company’s key to success in its increasingly heated battle with Adidas and Under Armour will be product innovation, while NKE Chairman and CEO Mark Parker said, “Nike’s ability to attack the opportunities that consistently drive growth over the near and long term is what sets us apart. With industry-defining innovation platforms, highly anticipated signature basketball styles and more personalized retail experiences on the horizon, we are well-positioned to carry our momentum into the back half of the fiscal year and beyond.”
We continue to suspect the near-term will be a bit bumpy as Nike is in the middle of a transition from sport-specific apparel to products that are part-athletic and part-leisure. The comfortable, versatile “athleisure” wear has tremendous potential and should eventually appeal to a wider variety of customers than sport-specific products. The company will also have to continue to navigate currency headwinds and the ebbs and flows of product input costs. Still, we like that Nike sports an excellent balance sheet with net cash and equivalents of almost $2.5 billion. Our Target Price for high-quality NKE has been lifted to $73.


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- Dick’s Sporting Goods lays off 478 PGA golf pros
- Senators: Cease-fire must allow Israel to defend against rockets, tunnels
- Sierra Leone doctor fighting Ebola catches disease
- Iraq welcomes Russian fighter jets, helicopter gunships into ISIL fight
- John McCain laments: Obama’s ‘self-pity … is really kind of sad’
- GOP offer to fix VA gives $10 billion in emergency funds
- Paul Ryan offers to repair U.S. economic safety net with a single grant stream
- Kim Jong-un builds bond with Putin: $250M Russia-backed addition to key port opens
- Pope Francis meets Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman sentenced to death
- Detroit porch shooting trial: Suspect says he didn’t know gun was loaded
Recent Apple stock surge tops Microsoft’s record
Question of the Day
NEW YORK | Apple is Wall Street’s all-time MVP — that’s Most Valuable Property.
On Monday, Apple’s surging stock propelled the company’s nominal value to $623.5 billion, the world’s highest, ever. It beat the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in the heady days of the Internet boom.
After a four-month dip, Apple’s stock has hit new highs recently because of optimism around what is believed to be the impending launch of the iPhone 5, and possibly a smaller, cheaper iPad.
Apple Inc. has been the world’s most valuable company since the end of last year. It’s now worth 53 percent more than No. 2 Exxon Mobil Corp.
Apple’s stock closed at a record of $665.15 on the NASDAQ stock exchange. That was $17.04, or 2.63 percent, higher than Friday’s close.
Microsoft’s 1999 peak was $620.58 billion, according to Standard & Poor’s.
The comparison to Microsoft does not take inflation into account. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the software giant was worth about $850 billion on Dec. 30, 1999. Microsoft is now worth $257 billion.
Analysts believe Apple’s stock has room to grow. The average price target of 38 analysts polled by FactSet is $745.80.
Despite the surge, Apple’s stock is not particularly expensive compared to its earnings for the past 12 months.
The company’s price-to-earnings ratio is 15.6, compared to 16.1 for the S&P 500 overall. That suggests investors, unlike analysts, don’t believe the company can grow its profits much from current levels.
By contrast, Microsoft had a price-to-earnings ratio of 83 at the 1999 peak. The stock was caught up in the Internet mania of the time and investors believed it could boost its future earnings massively.
Analysts believe the launch of a new iPhone in a month or two will be Apple’s biggest product introduction yet.
Scott Sutherland at Wedbush Morgan noted that some investors sold Apple shares last summer, when iPhone sales slowed down as consumers started holding off for the new model.
Those investors missed out on a 50 percent jump in the stock price.
“This time around, investors are a little bit smarter across the board. … They don’t want to be caught not involved in the stock on this next iPhone launch,” Mr. Sutherland said.
© Copyright 2014 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
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“We-’re committed to winning in India through this partnership,” said Devin Wenig, CEO at eBay in an analyst call in the US.
Taiwanese original design manufacturer Wistron — with which Apple has a contract — will begin assembling the iconic phones at its unit in a Bengaluru suburb.
Entrepreneurs and investors bedeviled by growth pangs and lack of sufficient capital in recent months have good reason to be circumspect.
Chefs say it's cheaper and vouch for the freshness it lends to the city's ever-evolving diner. q
Ninjacart, which about 1,000 farmers sell fruits and vegetables to shops and restaurants in Bengaluru, aims to use the funds to step up hiring and look at increased automation of its supply chain.
Paytm is on a head count expansion spree to bring on board 2,000 executives in South India alone to widen its merchant base. The company signed the deal with Innov8.
Titan, whose jewellery business accounts for more than 70% of its annual revenue, opened 16 Tanishq stores in the fourth quarter. It expects revenue to grow in “high teens” this fiscal.
The Mumbai-based company is looking to leverage a part of the capital to build on its product line, which currently includes batters for idli, dals, curries, biryanis and also to strengthen its team.
In an interview with TOI, Schiller talks about how they want to offer the best for Indian customers and developers.
The first-of-its-kind facility for Apple in India, which was announced by Tim Cook during his visit here last year, will also provide support and guidance on Swift, Apple’s programming language created to build apps for iOS, Apple TV and Apple Watch.
still remains intact.In the past few quarters, a new interest.
“Our easy-to-integrate subscription billing service would make payments easier and seamless than ever before while allowing new-age entrepreneurs to offer innovative services at an aggressive pricing."
The startup hub that was once in contention to be India’s Silicon Valley is battling persistent storms
India’s financial capital had found its startup bearings in its northeastern Powai suburb—home to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and the plush Hiranandani housing communities.
Digital startups in other highly regulated sectors such as lending, too, are uniting to ensure policymakers hear them as well as to fight and counter any pushback from established incumbents.
"Our online Mathrubasha Bookstore aims to promote titles in regional languages and boost budding regional authors and publishers across the country," said the Indian arm of the e-commerce major in a statement here.
Flipkart has not raised funds in the past 18 months, even as it defends its leadership position in a bruising marketplace war with Amazon.
New Delhi, Feb 12 () Khadi India has threatened to sue Fabindia, a chain of ethnic wear retail outlets, for allegedly indulging in "unfair trade practice" by using and selling its cotton products unauthorisedly under its registered brand name "Khadi".


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LOS ANGELES — The all-new 2010 Toyota 4Runner represents the 25th anniversary of the popular model, so you’d think that Toyota would give the S.U.V. a big celebration at, say, the Los Angeles auto show.
Try the State Fair of Texas back in September (which also hosted the debut of the 2011 Ford Super Duty).
Why Texas? According to Toyota, it was all about the timing of the vehicle’s fall introduction and the durability testing performed a couple weeks prior on California’s Rubicon off-road trail. Also, “the 4Runner chief engineer was in the U.S. at the time and was able to attend the Texas unveiling,” said Sam Butto, a Toyota spokesman.
Or was the greasy goodness of onion blossoms and scrumptious barbecue meant to distract from something else, like Toyota eliminating the V-8 option?


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confluent news search results
Developer news items we found relating to confluent
Embracing operational analytics for better development
Friday, November 8, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
Operational analytics defines how we use business analytics to improve business operations. Amazon DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. Hundreds of thousands of AWS customers have chosen DynamoDB as their database for mobile, web, gaming, ad tech, IoT and other applications that need low-late...
Kong Summit 2019 in San Francisco call for speakers
Monday, August 5, 2019 by Richard Harris
Kong Inc. announced that Kong Summit 2019, the conference focused on building the next era in software, will take place in San Francisco at the Hilton Union Square on October 2-3.
The call for speakers is now open until June 16. If you are interested in learning more or applying to speak about topics such as APIs, microservices, service mesh, cloud-native, multi-clou...
The cloud infrastructure startup war brewing
Tuesday, July 30, 2019 by Richard Harris
Cloud infrastructure startups have traditionally faced an uphill battle as they strive to gain footing against market leaders like AWS and Google. As a result, venture investors have tended to shy away from these startups on the assumption that the cloud platforms will eventually eradicate all competition in the market.
Eric Anderson, Principal at Scale Venture Partn...
Google Cloud Next 19 announcements
Thursday, April 11, 2019 by Brittany Hainzinger
Next ‘19 is underway, and here’s a summary of the important news announced from the event.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off talking about Cloud’s momentum and announced their new multi and hybrid cloud offering called Anthos. Anthos lets customers write once and run anywhere—in the cloud, in their data center, or even in other clouds.
Confluent Provides Updates to Apache Kafka Streaming Data Platform
Thursday, June 9, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
Confluent has released the latest version of its open source streaming data platform built on Apache Kafka. The new release of Confluent Platform 3.0 introduces Kafka Streams, a lightweight solution to real-time processing designed to support highly responsive applications. With Kafka Streams, developers can build core streaming applications such as fraud and security m...
How Apache Kafka is Fundamentally Changing the Streaming of Big Data
Tuesday, January 12, 2016 by Richard Harris
LinkedIn, Netflix and Uber are just a few companies who are utilizing Apache Kafka, which facilitates realtime data streams and provides an open source messaging system. We recently visited with Jay Kreps, co-founder and CEO at Confluent, which he founded with other members of the team that built Kafka at LinkedIn. Jay is the original author of several of open sour...
Confluent's Platform Receives Updated Apache Kafka 0.9 Core
Friday, December 11, 2015 by Richard Harris
Confluent has released an update to its open source Confluent Platform 2.0 which is based on an updated Apache Kafka 0.9 core. The release offers new functionality to enable secure multi-tenant operations, simplify development and maintenance of applications that produce or consume data in Kafka, and provide high-throughput, scalable data integration with a wide array o...


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Oakdale grocery stores offer supporters of President Donald Trump a 20% discount on non-beer purchases. The store’s Facebook page was posted this week.
“20% off Trump Supporters”, read an ad decorated with the American flag from a fresh food supermarket on the Montauk Highway. “At the cashier, state that you are a Trump supporter to get a discount. (Excluding beer).”
Alejandr Garcia, a woman who answered the store’s phone Thursday morning, told the caller, “You just go to the counter. You tell the cashier that you are a supporter of Trump, and we are you. Give a discount to. “
The sale starts Thursday and runs indefinitely, but savings are limited to $ 20 per purchase, Garcia said.
In an interview, shopkeeper Jose Colon said he knew the sale would be controversial before posting it on Facebook. He voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections, but said he voted for Trump in 2016 and is voting for Trump again this year.
“I’m a supporter of Trump. We live in a free country. We have free speech to support every candidate,” he said, “this country is a pandemic. Will help you to recover financially from. “
As for the reason beer is excluded from sale, Colon said that the tax he has to pay for alcohol is higher than other products in the store.
On Facebook, post commenters have made various reviews of discounts.
“Some things should be free to upset politics !! Grocery shopping must be one of them,” one commenter posted in her post with two-faced palm emoji. I interrupted and wrote.
But another commenter posted the three American flag emojis and one of the two hands tightly together, saying, “I can’t wait to support your business … God Bless. It means “America”.
In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won a majority of 52.5% of the votes in Suffolk County. Baraku Obama won the county in 2008 and 2012. In Nassau, where Hillary Clinton won, Trump scored 45.9%.
In July St. James’s Peatzeria screamed from Trump’s Twitter account after the owner appeared on Fox News The customer threatened to organize a boycott of the restaurant to display the Trump 2020 flag.
John F. Banzaf III, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said, “Political expression, etc.,” unlike treating customers differently based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or other protected foundations. Is not a protected class, so I think we can legally give discounts to Trump and Biden supporters, or anyone else they want. “
Asked at fresh food if shoppers announcing support for Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden would be given a discount, Colon said, “I’ll give them a discount too,” but Third He accused him when asked about the party candidates.
There are no obvious ads from stores offering discounts to supporters of candidates other than Trump.
With Rachel Weisz


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Google’s still invite-only Inbox by Gmail app has finally got a full on iPad version.
While the company hasn’t officially announced the update, it’s popping up in versions of the App Store around the world right now.
If you’ve got an invite for Inbox by Gmail, you can start using the app straight away.
Inbox is designed to give you a better sense of what’s in your emails without having to open them all first so that extra iPad real estate definitely comes in handy.
➤ Inbox by Google [iTunes via TechCrunch]
Read next: Hands on: Google’s Inbox Helps to Organize your Email Life
Got an iPhone?Download Drippler 2.0
Notify me when Drippler 3.0 comes to iOS.
To Facebook Messenger


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Unibrol USP 250 mg Tablets called for quarantine
- 2021-01-18 14:44:11
Operation license does not replace the product registration
Rwanda Food and Drug Authority (Rwanda FDA) declares that due to the great advantages of antiseptic and disinfectant products to fight against microbes during corona virus(COVID-19) pandemic, the use of these products have increased significantly as well as an increase of substandard and counterfeit antiseptic and disinfectant products. That why Rwanda FDA reminds the stakeholders that the product must be registered before being available on the market and encourages both local and foreign manufacturers, wholesalers, importers, suppliers and representatives for registration of antiseptic and disinfectant products with Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority(FDA) for public health protection.
Rwanda FDA says that during the registration process, the registration documents must be accompanied by 500 milliliters of sample and non-refundable invoice. The local manufacturers are warned that the operation license does not replace the product registration, and they are required to make product registration before releasing them to the market. Furthermore, Rwanda FDA announces 15 September 2020 as the last day for registration of unregistered products.


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Food companies trying to reduce their consumption of plastic have a big problem — it’s hard to find suitable recycled material. Nestlé says it’s willing to spend more than $2 billion to try and fix that.
The world’s biggest foodcompany said in a statement Thursday that it would cut costs in other parts of its business to free up more than 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.6 billion) to buy 2 million metric tons of recycled plastic between now and 2025.
Nestlé said it would be paying above the market rate for the recycled material, part of its strategy to alleviate a shortage of used plastics suitable for food packaging by luring new suppliers into the business. Doing so shouldhelp the company meet its goal of reducing its use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025.
“Making recycled plastics safe for food is an enormous challenge for our industry,” Mark Schneider, chief executive of Nestlé, said in a statement.
“That is why in addition to minimizing plastics use and collecting waste, we want to close the loop and make more plastics infinitely recyclable,” he added
“The vision of INDIANES is that banana fiber is the solution to the environmental crisis caused by the textile and fashion industry. Banana fiber was used for centuries by Colombian communities and does not require any water or extension of land for cultivation, since it is obtained from the residues of banana agriculture.”
“Mattel announced its goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastics materials in both its products and packaging by 2030.
This new goal expands the Company’s Environmental Sustainable Sourcing Principles that were announced in 2011. The Company now sources 93% of the paper and wood fiber used in its packaging and products from recycled or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) content, surpassing its 2018 goal of 90%. In addition, the Company has adopted the How2Recycle label, a standardized labeling system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to the public.”
“As soon as we’d received the Generation 1 shoes, we were able to start Phase 2. We collected the shoes, recycled them, kept them in our supply chain and ultimately remade the recycled material into new running shoe components. The material is melted and developed into new pellets, which are heated to form new components including the eyelets and outsole. Virgin TPU material is used to create the remaining components of the midsole and upper. The remade and new materials are fused together to create Generation 2: a running shoe in a blue colourway, that remains one material and is still 100% recyclable for the next generation. So, this is where we are today: launching the next generation of FUTURECRAFT.LOOP and one step closer to a consumer reality – all in the space of just eight months. A first for adidas”.
This Co.Project brought together a range of CE100 members to explore case studies and examples of how retailers can engage with their customers post point of sale to unlock economic opportunities.
Cranfield University, Arizona State University and PA Consulting Group surveyed 250 consumers in the US, UK, France and Spain on post-sale behaviours – with a survey response rate of 72 per cent. The conclusions in this report reflect the analysis of the survey results, company case stories and the authors’ experience across a range of markets and geographies.
CE100 Co.Project partners that contributed to the wider report include Stuffstr, eBay, Kingfisher, Philips, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
This report was co-authored by PA, Walmart and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
“In a new plastics economy, plastics will never become waste or enter the ocean in the first place,” said Ellen MacArthur, an ex-sailor who began her eponymous foundation in 2009.
“These winning innovations show what’s possible when the principles of a circular economy are embraced. Clean-ups continue to play an important role in dealing with the consequences of the waste plastic crisis, but we know we must do more. We urgently need solutions that address the root causes of the problem, not just the symptoms.
“To get there will require new levels of commitment and collaboration from industry, governments, designers and startups,” she continued. “I hope these innovations will inspire even more progress, helping to build a system in which all plastic materials are reused, recycled or safely composted.”
This article by Anne Marie Mohan, senior editor at packworld.com shows every advancement made on biopolymers applied on the packaging industry.
The industrial sector is at its beginnings but huge players such as PepsiCo are partnering with companies active on developing new bopolymers, which are seen as a natural evolution of the actual plastic industry.
New kinds of manufacturing byproducts are being used to produce biopolymers.
Mixed with traditional plastics, these materials not only reduce drastically the carbon footprint of the products on which are applied, but can offer superior properties.