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Unfair for consumers to bear the stamping cost on each eggs, urged Gerakan
15 Apr 2011, 3:12 PM
In response to the fake egg incident, the Veterinary Services Department came up with a proposal to stamp eggs with the Grade of the egg, place of manufacture, expiry date and collection date etc. Wanita Gerakan Deputy Chief Ng Siew Lai said that it is not a bad idea to carry out a blanket accreditation standard on eggs, however, she also said that the additional cost of stamping should not be born by consumers.
Recently, the Chairperson for the Egg Unit of Federation of Livestock Farmers’ Associations of Malaysia, Yap Hoong Chai said that the stamping of each egg could lead to a price hike of 4 cents per egg.
Ng Siew Lai is also Penang Gerakan Wanita Chief. She says, 4 cents increase per egg is much too high, thus unacceptable as it will cause a sudden inflation in the market. Eggs are widely used in the Food & Beverage industry, an increase of prices of eggs will definitely lead to inflation of food price which at the end, the end users will again be the group who suffers.
To resolve the matter from the root cause, Ng Siew Lai urges for the cooperation of a few important authorities. First of all, the Customs Department needs to ensure that there is no importation of eggs from China, because as far as we know, there had been news of fake eggs being produced in that country.
Secondly, the Veterinary Services Department may carry out spot check on the various egg production farms to monitor the quality of the eggs being produced.
Last but not least, the Health Ministry should educate the public on how to differentiate fake eggs from real eggs, it is crucial that the end users learn how to identify the eggs themselves and protect themselves for it is quite unlikely that every single egg be checked and certified, that checking measure itself will incur a lot of expenses on the government and the farmers which eventually the additional expenses will be passed on to the end users.
Ng Siew Lai added, stamping on the eggs to certify the genuity of eggs is not an ultimate solution to the problem because it is possible that the measure could be abused somewhere along the line. Hence, educating the public is still the best and absolute way to solve the problem.
- Previous Gerakan welcomes the Credit Card Alert System proposed by Bank Negara
- Next Endless raids on night clubs not a permanent solution, said Gerakan


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Jaguar has unveiled the I-Pace Concept – the company’s first all-electric model – which is due to go on sale in 2018.
The EV SUV has a range of more than 300 miles (500 km) thanks to a 90 kWh battery, which powers two electric motors producing a combined 400hp and 700 Nm of torque.
These figures are good to get the electric Jaguar from 0-62mph in around four seconds, and gives the I-Pace an all-wheel drive set-up.
Quoted at 310 miles on the NEDC cycle, Jaguar also states that the more accurate US EPA test cycle – a better indication of real-world range – sees the I-Pace able to cover 220 miles on a single charge.
A rapid charge will take just over two hours on the existing 50kW network, with the battery designed in house by Jaguar Land Rover.
Set to be officially launched at the Los Angeles Motor Show tomorrow (Wednesday 16th November), the I-Pace was revealed to the public in a world first cross-continent Virtual Reality event. Further details will be revealed at the motor show launch, but the I-Pace is confirmed for production in 2018.

domain: news


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Tuesday morning we'll take a one day test drive in the Tesla (TSLA)Model S from Washington, DC to a suburb just outside Boston. We are not the first, nor will we be the last to recreate the same test drive that led to a very public spat between New York Times Reporter John Broder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. If you haven't followed the back and forth between Broder and Musk, it's worth going back on CNBC.com and reading what both men wrote about Broder's test Drive of the Model S.
(Read More: CEO: Report About Tesla Electric Car Is Bogus)
Whether you believe Broder or Musk, one thing is clear, this is a watershed year for Tesla and the Model S.
It's one reason Musk responded so vehemently to Broders article and a picture showing a dead Model S being loaded onto a flatbed and being towed away.
Musk believes Broder paints the Model S as a flawed and ultimately impractical car. That is the last thing Tesla needs in a year when it is expected to finally post a profitable quarter and make the Model S more than just a niche car.
Why is this such a critical year for Tesla?
I recently talked with a respected veteran auto analyst about Tesla. The analyst does not cover Tesla, but he's watched the firm closely. I asked him for his take on Tesla. "If they can get up to speed this year and the Model S takes off, watch out. Tesla will turn heads," he said.
(Read More: Tesla's 'Model S' Wins Car of the Year Award)
Sure, there are a lot of unknowns.
Can Tesla deliver 20,000 Model S Sedans?
Can the company keep costs in check while ramping up production of the Model S?
Once thousands of the Model S models hit the road, will there be reliability issues?
Behind all those questions is a skepticism in the U.S. that electric vehicles will ever become viable, every day cars you see in your neighborhood. I hear it on a regular basis. Just a few days ago when I told a friend I was making this test drive he said, "Come on, how many people are really ever going to buy an electric car." Implicit in his comment was the suggestion EV's will be limited to a few wealthy or "greenie" types.
Musk believes otherwise. For him, this is the start of the electric car revolution. The start of EV's popping up in mass numbers all around the U.S., and eventually around the world. It's a bold vision, and you may think he's nuts. Believe me, there are plenty of people in the auto industry who think a pure electric car will never work. There are also plenty who are scared to death Musk and Tesla are right.
Time will tell if 2013 is the year Musk and Tesla go from being a fledgling auto maker and become a car company with the staying power.
(Read More: Toyota Top Auto Brand, Tesla Gaining: Survey)
And right now, whether or not that happens depends largely on the Model S. Let's hit the road.
-By CNBC's Phil LeBeau; Follow him on Twitter @LeBeauCarNews
Questions? Comments? BehindTheWheel@cnbc.com
More From CNBC
- BMW Shows Off Concept 4 Series Coupe
- The New Way to Tax Car Owners: Pay Per Mile Driven
- Rolls-Royce Rolls to Record Sales; U.S. #1 Again


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Sep 17, 2012
The recent approach by operators to boost ARPUs is a deviation from the approach they have so long taken of adding subscribers to their network. Industry experts say that this approach can only be beneficial for the operators as well as for subscribers. #WhyNow #Average revenue per user #telecom operators #Mobile users #Mobile subscriber base #Cellphone Operators Association of India
Mar 27, 2012
Jul 28, 2011
CRISIL, the credit rating agency, expects smaller players in the telecom space to find it hard to continue putting funds into expanding and building a better network. This might push them to the merger route instead. #Bharti Airtel #Vodafone #3G #inthespotlight #CRISIL #Bharti Enterprises #IDEA Cellular Limited #Average revenue per user
Sep 26, 2014
WATERLOO—BlackBerry Ltd. isn’t out of the woods yet. The smartphone maker delivered a round of financial results Friday that showed some improvements, but also further challenges to overcome. The Waterloo-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. ...


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We would love to do more business through our Web site, but we haven't been able to reach the audience we've wanted to reach
Chicago, IL (Vocus) January 16, 2008
Hostway Corporation, the global Web hosting leader, announced Robin Noyes, owner of White-Noyes Technologies, as the winner of the Ultimate $5,000 Online Business Makeover. The sweepstakes highlights Hostway’s commitment to offering the best products and services for the small- to medium-business (SMB) market's needs.
"Hostway is dedicated to helping SMB customers reach their online potential. This prize package will enable the winner to make significant strides in her online business strategy," said John Enright, vice president of marketing and business development for Hostway.
Noyes was automatically entered in the sweepstakes by purchasing domain names for her company, a small but growing mobile computer repair, support and sales company. Noyes said she plans to use the prize for a complete Web site makeover.
"We would love to do more business through our Web site, but we haven't been able to reach the audience we've wanted to reach," said Noyes.
Noyes won any combination of Hostway products and services valuing up to $5,000, including:
- Web design services
- Search engine optimization
- Professional online advertising
- Local business profile
- Domain name registration
- Web hosting
Hostway Corporation merged with Affinity Internet last year to form one of the largest full-service Web services companies in the world, so the Ultimate $5,000 Online Business Makeover was open to customers of both Hostway and ValueWeb (formerly an Affinity company).
"As it stands right now, I'm very, very happy with the products and services we have received [from ValueWeb],” said Noyes, a ValueWeb customer since 2007.
She co-founded White-Noyes Technologies about three years ago in Temple Terrace, Florida, just north of Tampa. Her company’s Web site http://www.whitenoyes.com , is a simple, well-crafted site that describes White-Noyes's services. But Noyes is interested in seeing how Hostway can help drive more sales through the site.
“This is an opportunity for Hostway to showcase what we do best — help businesses achieve success on the Web,” said Enright. “We are looking forward to assisting White-Noyes Technologies transform its Web presence.”
About Hostway Corporation
Hostway Corporation provides domain name registration, Web hosting and ecommerce, colocation, managed dedicated hosting, SaaS hosting, Web design and online marketing services to more than 600,000 customers and over 2 million Web sites worldwide. It operates state-of-the art data centers that reduce the complexity and cost of Web-based technologies for small businesses and large enterprises. Founded in 1998, Hostway is one of the world’s largest Web hosting companies with a direct presence in 11 countries, 15 worldwide operation centers and more than 700 employees. Hostway franchises include: Affinity Internet, Bigstep, DiscountDomains, Hostway UK, Hostway Netherlands, Hostway Korea, Hostway Australia, Hostway Denmark, NetNation, PowerMedium, RegistryPro, Server Service, Service Over Internet, ValueWeb and WinSave.
Lyza Swearingen Latham
Director of Marketing


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If you were eagerly awaiting domestic travel in the US this summer, you should be ready to shell out big bucks.
Prices for flights rose 33.3% in the last year, 18.6% in the month of April alone, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (pdf). That’s “the largest one-month increase since the inception of the series in 1963,” and far outpaces the already-high consumer index on all items of 8.3% from the year prior.
There isn’t just one reason for the increase. The airlines’ costs are higher—the price of fuel has risen 150% in the past year, according to the International Air Transport Association, and many airlines are contending with staff shortages that sometimes require higher worker pay. There’s also a spike in demand of people anxious to travel after two years of pandemic.
Though prices for international flights are also rising, there is some evidence that demand for them is not rising as quickly as demand for domestic flights.


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HARTFORD – Bills aimed at guaranteeing workers a predictable work schedule and mandating sick leave for more workers drew praise from labor advocates, but questions from employers who said the bills will disadvantage small franchisees by lumping them together with larger employers.
The Labor and Public Employees Committee heard a long slate of bills on the Democratic agenda during a hearing at the Capitol on Thursday, including a bill that would require employers to provide workers with a schedule two weeks in advance, and another that would expand the state’s sick leave requirement to more private employers and double workers’ sick leave.
Workers and their advocates told lawmakers during a long day of hearings on Thursday that inconsistent hours and schedules and a lack of sick leave make it difficult to take care of their families, while business owners and advocates warned that they couldn’t sustain additional mandates in the current economy.
Workers ask for stability, employers for flexibility
Rosa Franco, who said she’s worked at an I-95 service plaza McDonalds for 14 years, told lawmakers in written testimony that scheduling has been unpredictable since COVID – subjecting Franco and her coworkers to regular shift changes and cuts to working hours.
“[The changes] make it difficult to pay our bills, coordinate childcare and take care of other responsibilities we have as working parents,” Franco told lawmakers.
Daniel Schneider, a professor of social policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, told lawmakers that very few service industry workers have regular schedules, and retail and food service workers receive little advanced notice on their schedules.
Citing data from more than 1,000 Connecticut workers as part of a study he co-authored, Schneider said about two-thirds of service workers reported irregular routines, like variable schedules which change day to day, or week to week.
Bu representatives of the hospitality and restaurant industries told lawmakers that shifting schedules are a fact of life in their industries. Scott Dolch, president of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, said reservations or events changing last-minute, workers calling out sick and weather are just a few of the many reasons restaurants would need to change workers’ schedules with little notice.
Jennifer Smyth, HR manager for Waterford Hotel Group, told lawmakers in written testimony that the hotel industry depends on flexibility, and this would take that flexibility away, while also adding additional costs to hotels still recovering from COVID.
“[Flexibility] is why many employees choose to enter the hospitality industry,” Smyth said. “Without allowing for some measure of flexibility, hotels would not be able to adjust to the needs of its guests, events, or its own employees that ask for flexibility.”
Schneider said about 16 percent of retail and food service workers received less than 72 hours notice on their weekly schedules, and workers said schedules are often changed last minute even when they have advance notice, Schneider said. And 80 percent of workers said they have very little input over their schedule.
“While schedule flexibility can be really valuable for workers and their families, that’s simply not the phenomenon we’re talking about today,” Schneider said. “Instead, what we see are workers who are involuntarily exposed to schedule instability and unpredictability.”
Rules for franchises
The bill would impose scheduling requirements on retail, food service, hospitality and long-term health care businesses with more than 500 employees, leaving flexibility for businesses with smaller staffs.
But it would also require franchisees of brands that have more than 500 employees collectively to follow the scheduling rules – sparking a debate regarding whether individual franchises with small staffs, but the benefits of being part of a major brand, should be treated like major companies or small businesses.
Sarah Bratko, counsel for the American Lodging Association, said it was unfair for the bill to place requirements on a small franchise hotel with 50 employees, but not a business with 499 employees. That puts franchisees, who she said own about half of hotels, at a disadvantage with non-franchises, especially when competing with other states for events and conventions.
“It’s easy to assume when you walk into a branded hotel that the hotel is owned and operated by the brand itself,” Bratko said. “However, the vast majority of these hotels are franchisees that are owned and operated by small local businesses that have no control over the hiring practices of a franchisor.”
But Joan Moriarty, representing Change to Win, a national federation of labor unions, said franchises are fundamentally different than small businesses, and their association with established, national brands give them advantages that independent small businesses don’t have – including brand recognition, established supply chains, models for hiring and training workers, and sophisticated scheduling software.
“Scheduling software is near-ubiquitous among chain fast-food,” Moriarty said. “The cutting-edge systems are really powerful tools that integrate data from restaurants’ historical sales records, staff roster, the weather, and other factors to generate a real-time schedule.”
State Rep. Tim Ackert, R-Coventry, said that while franchises do have those advantages, they still have small staffs that make it harder to adjust when workers call in sick or don’t show up to work.
“A 500-person company, they can handle it, they can,” Ackert said. “But a person that has two Subway shops [could not].”
Paid sick leave for all
Since 2012, Connecticut has required all businesses with more than 50 employees to provide paid sick leave to “service workers” – a category that Gov. Ned Lamont’s office has said applies to about 10 percent of workers in the state in about 60 qualifying jobs according to state law.
Democrats on the Labor Committee are pushing a bill that would expand the right to paid sick leave to all employees of all private companies – except those that have union-negotiated health plans involving other employers.
The bill would also double the amount of sick leave workers can accrue in a year from 40 to 80 hours, and allow workers to use sick leave to tend to sick relatives other than just a child or spouse.
Beatriz Moncada, a domestic worker from Norwalk, told lawmakers that it’s time for her and her coworkers to be included in employment protections they’ve been excluded from, like access to sick leave.
“I clean houses. When I’m sick, I have to go to work like this, because I can’t afford to miss work,” Moncada, speaking Spanish, said through an interpreter.
Cliff O’Callahan, a pediatrician in Middletown, said he sees parents who have to delay bringing a child to a doctor because they can’t take off work. Delayed care can make the situation worse, and it makes “economic, medical and ethical sense” to support families with paid sick leave, he told lawmakers.
“I immediately think of the single mother with multiple children who is working and can not bring her daughter in for another bout of wheezing that results that evening in an emergency room visit followed by hospital admission, again,” O’Callahan wrote to lawmakers. “This is traumatic for the child and parent and expensive for our medical system.”
While workers and their advocates argued that sick leave is a basic protection, several businesses testified that it would be another costly burden to them at a time when they’re managing rising costs and workforce shortages.
Rex Florian, president of Southington manufacturer Tiger Enterprises, which employs 35 people, said absent employees are costly to small and medium sized businesses. He said the threat of penalties is another burden on businesses, while the system is ripe for abuse without a system to determine if workers’ are taking paid leave for valid reasons.
“[Paid sick leave], in reality, is an insurance program and should be treated as such,” Florian wrote to lawmakers. “Both the employee and employer would share in the cost and the marketplace would determine the success of the product.”


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Hideo Kojima has been mum about the progress of Death Stranding, the upcoming third-person action game starring Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen. However, some people instantly think that new info about the game will be unveiled at The Game Awards since both Guillermo Del Toro and Hideo Kojima will be presenting.
The news was posted up by the official Game Awards Twitter account, where it was revealed that both Del Toro and Kojima would be in attendance at the event taking place in California. The live awards show will see Del Toro and Kojima on the stage on December 7th. Normas Reedus has also been announced as appearing.
Now the tweets don't say what they will be presenting, or what awards will be presented, or what categories will be involved, but many gamers have strong speculations that the duo will be on hand to unveil new footage for Death Stranding.
You see, Guillermo Del Toro is one of the many stars in the game. He was 3D scanned and captured via photogrammetry for his appearance in Death Stranding though he won't be doing the voice for his character due to time constraints. We found out about Del Toro's role in Kojima's game last year when Kojima Productions unveiled some new footage of the upcoming title.
Previous to that, the two directors had collaborated together on Konami's Silent Hills. Basically, Guillermo Del Toro would be working on the monsters and creatures and helping with the cinematic side of things, while Kojima would be at the director's helm for the majority of the game. It, too, was also set to star The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus.
However, the investors were angry at how long it was taking Kojima to finish Metal Gear Solid V, and decided to pull the plug on the funding and forced it out in 2015. The game was missing its entire third chapter, which would have helped set-up the bridge between Metal Gear Solid V and Metal Gear 1.
Not only did Konami pull the plug on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but the company also completely shut down production on Kojima and Del Toro's Silent Hills as they were getting production underway. The most gamers received out of the project was the playable P.T. Demo, which was also later pulled out of circulation from the PlayStation Store.
Since then, Kojima and Del Toro have had some bad blood with Konami, but decided to collaborate together on the upcoming Death Stranding, which is set to be an exclusive for PS4 and PC. Del Toro won't be working as an assistant director this time around but instead will only be a character in the game.
We still don't know what the actual gameplay will be like, but Kojima previously hinted at it being similar to The Division or The Last of Us. Maybe we'll finally get to see some actual gameplay of Death Stranding at The Game Awards now that it's been confirmed Guillermo Del Toro and Hideo Kojima will be on hand to present?


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Secure hardware wallet specialist Ledger has joined the Universal Protocol Alliance (UPA).
The partnership is arguably UPA’s biggest coup and its biggest step towards the alliance’s target for the mass adoption and interoperability of crypto assets.
Hardware Wallet Firm Ledger Joins Universal Protocol Alliance
A Ledger Press Release stated that the French hardware wallet manufacturer was joining the blockchain interoperability coalition, and would be integrating its blockchain security and infrastructure with other Universal Protocol technology and assets.
UPA singled out Ledger Vault as a key component that addresses the concerns of the alliance.
The Ledger Vault specializes in security and flexibility, and is the only digital asset platform that facilitates the availability and flexibility of business operations, without compromising on security.
All private keys in the Ledger Vault are isolated, stored and encrypted within a Hardware Security Module, and are never directly handled by human operators.
And it’s this flexibility and advanced cold storage security that has made the UPA take note and forge a partnership with the leading hardware wallet security specialists.
Speaking of the partnership, the Global Head of Vault, at Ledger Demetrios Skalkotos said,
‘We are honored to be a part of UP Alliance, which can be touted as the developer of the first fully transparent set of stablecoins and a highly valuable mega utility token (UPT). Those looking to solve very practical problems such as the safeguarding of their digital assets can put their trust in our institutional product as it directly compliments UP’s focus.’
The UPA and its Members
The Universal Protocol Alliance’s existing members include Bittrex Global, Cred, Uphold, CertiK and Blockchain at Berkeley.
The UPA’s main focus is on interoperability, and the coalition of blockchain organizations are dedicated to enhancing the innovation and driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
They are targeting consumers, businesses and governments, and through its platform it allows many types of digital assets to be created, and all cryptocurrencies to be converted on a single network.
The UPA is currently working with a few different stablecoins on its platform and is looking to expand on the stability and ease of use of stablecoins to grow its platform and drive mass adoption of cryptocurrencies at large.
As stated, Uphold is a member of the UPA, which stores users funds in their stablecoins: UPUSD and the UPEUR, which are both minted and redeemed through Uphold accounts.
But the UPA’s main utility token the Universal Protocol Token (UPT) is recognized within the alliance as the best way for growth, and it sees Ledger as the bridge between themselves and institutional investors.
UPA co-founder Dan Schatt said that Ledger’s solutions, which are tailored to custody digital assets for banks, hedge funds, exchanges, and high net worth individuals would ‘contribute to UPT as a mega utility token and drive mass adoption of blockchain technology using UP tokens’.
Ledger is the leading cryptocurrency hardware wallet firm, and its innovative security has led to it now undoubtedly the number one in security hardware for crypto assets.
The UPA is out to drive mass adoption and is targeting all corners of society. Through the use of its stablecoins and its platform it aims to make all cryptocurrencies interoperable.
There are many developers racing to get cryptocurrencies speaking with each other, so it remains to be seen if the UPA will be the one to connect them, but with the likes of Ledger onboard, it’s taken a giant stride forward.
Author: Pablo Clarke


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It’s getting close to tax time in the US, which means cyber criminals are targeting popular tax programs. Recently, Intuit, the creators of TurboTax, warned that attackers were trying to reuse stolen credentials to log into the popular online tax application. Whenever criminals steal password databases or credentials leak online, attackers commonly try to use these stolen emails and passwords to log onto other sites, in an attack we call credential stuffing. Watch the video below to learn more about this TurboTax attack and why you should use different passwords at every site you visit.
Episode Runtime: 3:22
Direct YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWQEbd1JoYU
- TurboTax hit with credential stuffing attack – Dark Reading
- Intuit’s letter to affected customers [PDF] – Vermont.gov


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Both Shoppers Drug Mart Corp and Tim Hortons Inc. are expected to show growth in the face of stiffer competition when each reports third-quarter numbers this week. For investors, however, issues of leadership will be top of mind.
In the case of Shoppers, chief executive officer Dominic Pilla will hold his maiden earnings conference call Wednesday, barely a week after joining the company. Mr. Pilla was plucked from the president's seat at drug distributor McKesson Canada, leading some to assume that Shoppers will make strengthening its pharmaceutical business a top priority.
The company has seen its profitability squeezed by provincial efforts to lower health care costs by reducing the price pharmacies and drugstore chains can charge for generic drugs. Shoppers has responded by introducing its own private label generic drugs in B.C., Alberta and Quebec under the Sanis brand. But it is still fighting Ontario, which considers the move a conflict of interest.
Vishal Shreedhar, an analyst with National Bank Financial, estimates that getting Sanis into its Ontario stores would boost Shoppers' profit by 28 cents a share a year. In the meantime, Canada's biggest drugstore chain has been driving growth by expanding its offerings of food, health and beauty products, while at the same time cutting costs and lowering capital spending. The result should be significantly higher free cash flow that would enable share buybacks and dividend growth, Mr. Shreedhar noted.
Candice Williams, of Canaccord Genuity, forecasts that Shoppers suffered a 0.5 per cent decline in prescription same-store sales in the quarter. But that decline should be more than offset by a 2 per cent increase in food, health and beauty items, she wrote in a recent research note.
For the third quarter, analysts are expecting Shoppers to post an 8 per cent rise in per share profit, to 73 cents a share, and a 2 per cent gain in revenue, to $3.16-billion.
At Tim Hortons, which reports results on Thursday, investors are still waiting to hear who will replace the departed CEO, Don Schroeder, on a full-time basis. There is a growing sense that the company needs to pick a leader who can come up with innovative ways to fight encroaching rivals.
For the third quarter, the Street expects solid gains in both sales and profit. But Canada's biggest restaurant chain has come up short of analyst expectations in recent quarters.
The misses haven't alienated investors, who have flocked to Tims as a defensive move in unsettled markets. The share price is up 21 per cent this year, with the stock still trading at a discount – on a price-to-earnings basis – to major competitors such as Starbucks Corp., McDonalds Corp. and Wendy's Co.
What's even more impressive is that the shares have climbed 8 per cent since May, when Mr. Schroeder abruptly departed. The sudden move left analysts speculating that there might be conflicting strategic views within the senior ranks. The company has been looking for a new leader ever since. Interim CEO Paul House made clear in August that the board would not be rushed into making a new hire.
Management has consoled investors by buying back more than 8 per cent of the firm's shares over the past year. But at some point the market is going to want to see a new leader in place to tackle challenges that include slowing domestic growth and intensifying competition. McDonald's, for instance, is fighting back against Tims' market share gains over the past two years by adding more coffee offerings to its restaurants.
Analysts are expecting Tims to post a 40 per cent jump in profit, to $103.3-million, and a 9 per cent increase in revenue, to $730.3-million. Profit in last year's third quarter was hurt by a charge related to closing some U.S. stores.


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Okotokians no longer have to throw out all of their styrofoam as the Town's Eco Centre will now recycle certain types.
Paul Lyons, Waste Services Manager with the Town, says the new move is part of the Town's sustainability goals.
"The Town recognized that in order to continue to achieve our objective of 80% diversion of waste to the landfill that we need to always be looking for new items we can be removing from the waste stream."
There is a catch though, there's only certain types that can go to the Eco Centre.
Lyons asks that residents choosing to recycle any styrofoam bring it into the Eco Centre as it's still not allowed to go into the blue bins.
"Currently we are accepting only clean packaging styrofoam at the Eco Centre." Lyons says "It's important to note that this material is not acceptable in the blue recycling cart."
There is also a limit to which kinds of styrofoam can be accepted.
Right now, Lyons says they're only accepting packaging styrofoam, like the kind that comes out of your brand new TV box.
"This doesn't include the styrofoam packing peanuts, it doesn't include any colored styrofoam, and right now it doesn't include styrofoam coffee cups or meat packing."
If you have questions about what's acceptable or what can be recycled you can bring it into the Eco Centre where they will sort through it with you.
Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at [email protected]


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If you’ve watched any television in your lifetime, chances are you’ve seen more than a few beer ads.
In fact, some of the most memorable advertisements in the history of the medium have been produced by beer makers, as they vigorously compete for customer allegiance. It’s just another part of doing business for beer companies, which depend on TV ads to build brand name recognition.
But if you’re a consumer who enjoys other spirits besides beer, you might be wondering why you never hear anything on TV about your favorite brands, or even competing liquor products. The reason you do not is because, for the past 50 years, the spirits industry has lived under a voluntary ban on the placement of liquor ads on TV. But as revenues have declined gradually over the past two increasingly health-conscious decades, the industry has rethought the wisdom of the ban and began cautiously testing the regulatory climate by placing ads on some local TV or cable stations. The debate over the wisdom of this reversal has been heating up nationally since NBC announced recently that they would allow liquor commercials to run during late-evening programming, making them the first national network to do so.
Not surprisingly, a lot of social do-gooders are up in arms over this and are demanding that federal policymakers take action to halt the practice. These fears seem to be based on the puritanical logic that if people see booze ads on TV, they will drink more. But such post hoc reasoning is faulty. Americans are not a mindless herd of robots who will make a mad dash to their local liquor stores just because they see a few TV ads.
In fact, Dr. Morris E. Chafetz, president of the Health Education Foundation and author of The Tyranny of Experts, argues that "the claim that advertising can lead anyone down the bottle-strewn garden path not only to drink alcohol but to abuse it, is pure hokum." In the mid-90s, Dr. Chafetz conducted a review of academic research for the New England Journal of Medicine on the question of how advertising affected alcohol use. His conclusion: "I did not find any studies that credibly connect advertising to increases in alcohol use (or abuse) or to young persons taking up drinking. The prevalence of reckless misinterpretation and misapplication of science allows advocacy groups and the media to stretch research findings to suit their preconceived positions."
But even though academic evidence suggests that exposure to advertising is unlikely to increase consumption, liquor companies are still willing to run ads, perhaps in an attempt to build brand recognition or attract beer and wine consumers. The question is, is there anything wrong with that?
The answer, of course, is all a matter of personal opinion. In a free society, however, people should be at liberty to make such choices without government entering the picture. Adults should be responsible for their decisions in this regard and they should exercise authority over their children until they reach an age when they can be trusted to make such decisions on their own. Employing the old "It’s about the children!" defense to support an ad ban doesn’t make sense for other reasons. As my Cato Institute colleague Doug Bandow noted in a 1997 Wall Street Journal editorial, "almost every good advertised on the airwaves may have some inadvertent adverse effect on the young," whether it is cars, riding mowers, high-fat food, or computers. "But that’s no excuse for banning ads," concludes Bandow.
Moreover, children can see liquor ads in magazines and newspapers too, so should we ban liquor ads in print? The Courts would strike down any such attempt to ban print ads as a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Yet, for years, electronic media (TV, radio) has received the equivalent of second-class citizenship in terms of First Amendment protection. That may be changing, however, since the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional bans on outdoor liquor ads and televised casino ads in two recent decisions arguing that policy makers cannot prohibit truthful speech about lawful products.
In conclusion, there has never been any logic behind the artificial distinction between liquor and other products, such as beer and wine, when it comes to promotional activities. Alcohol is alcohol. Why should the form in which it is delivered change its legal status? And why place advertising restrictions on lawful products at all? If someone was trying to sell crack cocaine or cruise missiles on TV, it might make for a more interesting debate. But alcohol is a legal product that manufacturers have every right to promote. Policymakers need to take a sober look at these realities before they rush headlong into needless and unconstitutional restrictions on liquor advertisements on TV.


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At the 2012 Auto Expo in India, FoMoCo took the covers off its new concept known as the EcoSport. Ford says that the EcoSport provides a preview today of the the company’s new global compact SUV, becoming FoMoCo’s latest One Ford global-wide product.
The new Ford EcoSport will be sold in nearly 100 markets, but we’re not sure yet if the United States will be one of them.
“The all-new Ford EcoSport reflects our commitment to serve our customers with the cars and trucks they truly want and value,” said Alan Mulally, president and CEO, Ford Motor Company. “Our engineering team used their years of EcoSport experience to make every aspect of the next-generation model even stronger.”
The Ford EcoSport will also feature the company’s EcoBoost technology with a 3-cylinder 1.0 liter displacement. While no output figured are available, the EcoBoost will bring turbocharging, direct injection and other technologies and replace larger engines.
Would you like to see the new Ford EcoSport in the United States? Let us know in the comments section after the jump.
– By: Omar Rana


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The EU representative Christoph Konrad, a conservative member of the EU Parliament, believes that "the pressure on the EU commission is too big."
Konrad, a parliamentary expert on the liberalization of the automobile sector, thinks that these are clear delaying tactics by the auto industry. The industry demands that the design-protection regulations that apply to certain components should also include spare parts.
The umbrella organization for the spare parts trade, GVA, fears that this would practically eliminate the competition from alternative providers of spare parts.
Konrad says opponents of the reform want to play for time until the new EU commission takes over on November 1.
The reason for this is that the initiator of the reform proposal, internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein, will have left his post by then. Bolkestein is arguing for an inclusion of a repair clause in the design protection regulations.
Konrad believes that car drivers suffer from this most. "They are paying the price for this every day, as in many EU countries that have no design protection regulations, spare auto parts and repairs are significantly cheaper."


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Today is the day the world has been waiting for. Or at least the technology world has been waiting for. The release of the iPhone 5. What features will it include? Nobody knows yet but we are all about to find out in just a couple of hours time when Tim Cook takes to the stage to host the Apple event held in San Francisco.
For such a big event there really hasn’t been that much hype. Sure the media have jumped on board but that is to be expected as they normally jump on board any good excuse for a story. What’s alarming is still how much this world is struggling financially and the tendency to skip brand new technology products still rains supreme.
It’s no secret that the less fortunate choose to sit back and wait instead of buying a new product once it is released into the wild. But what’s becoming more and more alarming is people’s complete cluelessness and lack of patience. For example, many people I know (and this is fine) have chosen to just recently purchase the iPhone 4S even with me reiterating the importance and the historical significance let alone features and better value the iPhone 5 is set up to be. They just will not wait to grab a new product that’s due out in a few months. This isn’t just one or two people, it’s literally the vast majority if not everybody I know. They jumped on the iPhone 4S bandwagon. Sure that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is the same, but as far as percentage and probability goes, it’s within reason to assume the rest of the world is not much different.
Lets put negligence behind us for a minute and focus on money-saving, if there were to be an ulterior motive involved such as saying they can’t wait but truth be told they’re thinking about saving some money. If you buy a new product now and keep it over any given time span you are spending the exact same amount of money than if you were to buy the older product cheap now and the buy the new product again once it gets older. Not only are you spending the same amount if not more in the long run but you’re not experiencing any product that is new out on the market. Where is the fun in that? It’s a trend that has been around forever and doesn’t seem to be dying. The effects have the world much further behind in technological advancements because it’s all dictated by business. If people don’t buy into products the companies are more than happy to sit back and wait until you do and conjure up a sort of happy medium leaving us way behind the times. Believe me it’s true, there are lots behind closed doors the world just doesn’t know about and when they do it will be sold of as a new product as if it were just thought of.


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Cher, 69, revealed as the newest face of Marc Jacobs just one month after she accompanied the designer to the Met Gala
Chart-topping icon Cher has been signed up by fashion label Marc Jacobs as the face of its upcoming collection.
The 69-year-old singer's debut campaign for the brand comes less than one month after Cher attended the Met Gala on the arm of Mr Jacobs, 52, and was unveiled in the newest issue of WWD.
It sees the If I Could Turn Back Time singer, whose real name is Cherilyn Sarkisian, posing in a floor-length dress, leather jacket and leather gloves.
Style star: Cher, 69, has been chosen as one of the faces of Marc Jacobs' upcoming fall/winter collection (pictured)
Fashion friends: The singer accompanied the 52-year-old designer to this year's Met Gala in New York (pictured)
She is pictured with something of a surprised expression on her face, while her hair has been teased into voluminous waves which hang down below her shoulders.
Her make-up has been kept relatively simple; Cher wears a nude color on her lips, and a very subtle smokey brown shade on her eyelids, while her dark eyebrows have been accented with pencil.
Cher's appearance in the campaign was met with an overwhelmingly positive response on social media, with fans around the world taking to Twitter to praise the decision to cast such an icon in its campaign.
'Shoutout to Marc Jacobs, this Cher greatness is all I needed to get through this week,' one person tweeted, while another added: 'Cher in the new Marc Jacobs ad is just amazing.'
Many people have praised the fashion label for using an older model in its campaign, with some comparing the move to recent campaigns by Celine and Yves Saint Laurent which starred literary icon Joan Didion, 80, and music legend Joni Mitchell, 71, respectively.
Fashion icon: Throughout her career, Cher has posed for some of the world's most renowned fashion photographers and has modeled on several occasions. This portrait was taken by Michael Ochs in 1966
Picture-perfect: After her split from ex-husband Sonny Bono in 1972, Cher turned to modeling as a means of making money. She is pictured in 1968
'It's so chic to be old these days,' one person noted on Twitter, while also posting images of Joni and Joan's respective campaigns.
A second commented: 'Love the move towards older models in ad campaigns!'
Shortly after the campaign was officially announced in WWD, the debut ad was posted on the official Marc Jacobs Instagram account, along with the caption, 'The first face of our Fall '15 ad campaign @Cher', sparking speculation that the singer will be joined by several other famous faces when the full campaign debuts later this year.
Mr Jacobs himself also shared the image on his personal account, writing alongside it: 'The amazing and beautiful CHER! Photographed by David Sims for our Fall/Winter campaign.. This is just the beginning.... More to come!! [sic]'
Earlier this month, Cher accompanied Mr Jacobs to the star-studded Met Gala in New York, wearing a floor-length sequined dress from his collection.
The duo walked the red carpet hand-in-hand, posing for numerous pictures together and sparking speculation on social media that they were working on a collaboration together.
Icons: Literary veteran Joan Didion, 80, and music legend Joni Mitchel, 71, have both fronted fashion campaigns in the past year; Joan posed for Celine (L), while Joni appeared in an ad for Yves Saint Laurent (R)
And while it is the first time that Cher has worked with Marc Jacobs on a campaign, it is not the first time that she has tried her hand at modeling.
Shortly after her break-up from her ex-husband Sonny Bono in 1972, the two, who had previously been involved as business partners, were tied up in a contractual dispute which prevented Cher from working on her music career.
Instead, she turned to modeling as a means of making money, and, during that time, worked with some of the world's most renowned fashion photographers, including the late Richard Avedon, an incredibly successful photographer at the time.
'I did modeling, because that was the only thing that I could do to keep myself going,' Cher told Vanity Fair in an interview in 2010.
Cher has also posed for dozens of the world's most high profile fashion magazines throughout her career, appearing on the covers of publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Time magazine and Cosmopolitan on numerous occasions.
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If You're in Retail or Finance - Let's Talk About Artificial Intelligence & Automation
Like a lot of people, I needed a break from all the artificial intelligence buzz for a little while. However, I’m starting to see more and more discussion about the impact A.I. and automation technology will have on retail and finance jobs, and I think we should really talk about it.
So, what positions are at risk and why?
Retail Cashiers You’ll probably notice that some of your favorite retail and grocery stores have a convenient self-checkout option. I choose this option pretty frequently since I don’t have to deal with a person, and it’s a straight-forward and easy way to check out and make my purchases.
Recently, the IRRC Institute released a research study on the impact of retail automation. According to the study, “if companies adopt a heavily convenience-oriented strategy, more tasks will be automated and less labor required.” They predict that 30-50 percent of retail jobs will be impacted by automation technologies, creating a job loss of about 6 to 7.5 million in total.
What’s worse is that retail cashiers are considered one of the jobs that’s easiest to automate in the current economy. Although the retail industry has a fairly level playing field of men and women, retail cashiers are mostly women at 73 percent.
Bank Tellers According to PwC, 61 percent of jobs in financial services are at a high risk of being replaced by robots, and bank tellers are pretty high on that list. Honestly, the ATM was just the tip of the iceberg, and many people choose to handle their banking needs via mobile and online platforms instead of physically going into a bank branch anyway.
Although there’s always going to be customers who insist on going into a bank branch to make a deposit, withdraw money, or open a new account – much of this will be replaced by artificial intelligence and technology.
It’s what Andy Mattes, CEO of Diebold (financial software company) says in this recent article, “The ATM of tomorrow is going to replace the teller. It can do approximately 90 percent of what the human being can do, and it’s going to be your branch in a box.”
Retail Stock Retrievers When you think about a warehouse environment, you probably envision forklift drivers, pallet jacks, and the people who manually operate these machines to retrieve products based on the retail demand.
However, look at what companies like Amazon have done to automate this stock retrieval process in the past. Although the robots used are not capable of those tasks requiring finer manipulation or improvising, think of the robotic shelves and other automated pieces of the stock process that have already been enhanced by this process.
Before you know it, retailers will be able to utilize a central computer to retrieve stock items without having to staff a stock room 24 hours a day with human bodies. Those stock items can be retrieved, sorted, and processed for retail employees and customers based on request.
Financial Compliance Currently, there’s a lot of analysis and manipulation of data insights in the financial arena that’s conducted mostly by people – especially when it comes to ensuring compliance. From anti-money laundering to financial regulation to customer identity checking – a vast majority of financial staff are dedicated to the compliance and regulation of financial services.
In the coming years, more and more of these financial jobs will be replaced through artificial intelligence and automation, providing financial managers and leadership teams the in-depth analytics necessary for regulation and compliance on a daily basis.
As with any level of change to the current landscape, it’s really all about adaptation. While many retail and financial positions (among other industries and specialities) are at risk of being replaced partially, if not fully, by artificial intelligence and automation technology – new jobs will be created as a result.
Don’t get me wrong – there will be downsizing for sure. However, those companies who decide to equip top performers with the skills necessary to help ensure technology is performing appropriately will become top employers. They will be able to pave a new path for individuals in the midst of a job landscape change.
What do you think? Will A.I. and automation technology replace a lot of retail and finance jobs in the future?
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In the UK, uncertainty remains prevalent following the Brexit vote. However, the national accounts data for the second quarter of 2016 were stronger than expected. In light of this, we have revised up our main scenario projections for UK GDP growth to 1.8% in 2016 (from 1.6%) and to 0.7% in 2017 (from 0.6%). These projections also reflect that fact that the early official data for July have held up reasonably well, notably for retail sales, but it is still too early to make a judgement on the impact of the referendum on the economy in Q3. We will update our projections in more detail in the November edition of our UK Economic Outlook report.
One consequence of the UK’s vote to leave the EU is that global trade has found itself under the spotlight. It is likely to be some years before we get clarity around the trade terms that will exist between the UK and the EU. However, following Brexit, we expect the UK government to pursue trade deals with leading EU and non-EU economies. Given the UK’s relative strength in services, policymakers are likely to place a particular emphasis on liberalising services trade. Over the last ten years, global services exports grew at an annual average rate of around 6.5% and now stand at about $5 trillion.
If the UK is able to secure trade deals with the US and fast growing emerging economies like China and India that make it easier to export and import services, and if an agreement can be reached on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA - a global agreement involving 23 WTO members including the EU), then there could be even faster global and UK services export growth still to come.
Focusing on the EU, if the Brexit vote results in the UK losing some of its access to the Single Market, then there may be opportunities for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) from the UK. On average, the CEE economies have outperformed the wider EU at attracting foreign investment due, in part, to their low labour costs and relatively fast labour productivity growth. The challenge for policymakers in these economies now is to improve their business environment. If they can do this, then the CEE economies could continue to be among the EU’s star performers in the years to come.
Turning to the US, average monthly job creation to date in 2016 (186,000) has been slightly below our prediction from the start of the year of around 200,000, but the job creation data for June and July were more impressive. If this continues, we would expect the Fed to raise interest rates before the end of the year.
Average US jobs growth slightly below our projection so far in 2016
In the January 2016 edition of Global Economy Watch, we estimated that the US would continue to create an average of around 200,000 jobs per month in 2016. So far in 2016, the US economy has added an average of around 186,000 jobs each month (see Figure 2), slightly below our projection but not too bad.
Reducing labour market slack could bring big benefits
However, despite continued job creation, spare capacity still exists in the US labour market. The civilian labour force participation rate has averaged around 62.8% this year, considerably lower than a decade ago when the average participation rate was 66.2%. Involuntary part-time employment also remains high at close to 6 million, though this is now on a downward trajectory.
Eliminating this labour market slack would reap considerable benefits. For example, if the participation rate were to return to around 66%, and assuming the unemployment rate remained at current levels (4.9%), then US employment could increase by around 8 million. But achieving this would take time and specific policy measures to tempt people back into the labour force.
For policymakers, this slack is a signal that the labour market is still in recovery mode. But it is going in the right direction. Job creation in June and July was impressive and continued tightening of the labour market should begin to push up real wages, and eventually tempt people back into the labour force. It would probably also prompt the Fed to raise rates before the end of the year.
CEE economies outperforming the wider EU
Last year, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) EU economies – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – grew at a GDP-weighted average rate of 3.5%. This was faster than most other EU economies including Germany, France, Italy and the UK.
This strong growth is a continuation of historical trends. Since joining the EU in 2004, the CEE economies have grown at a GDP-weighted annual average rate of 3.2%, compared to average growth of just 1.2% per annum across the EU-28.
What makes the CEE economies an attractive destination for FDI?
The CEE economies have also succeeded in attracting foreign investors. On average, the stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) in these eight economies in 2014 was around 120% higher than in 2004. Over the same period, the stock of FDI across the EU increased by 95% (see Figure 3). Manufacturing businesses in particular have been attracted to the CEE region with several large automotive and electronic companies investing and expanding in these economies.
A number of economic conditions have made the CEE economies attractive for investors:
Looking forward, however, will these CEE economies continue to be a relatively attractive destination for FDI?
Opportunities for further FDI exist…
Economic growth is expected to remain relatively strong in the CEE region. For example in Poland, the largest CEE economy, we are projecting that real GDP will grow by around 3.5% on average in the short and medium-term.
Continued economic growth would be expected to drive up labour costs, and this could have an adverse impact on the region’s FDI attractiveness. However, it would take years for this to really have an impact. If labour costs were to continue to grow at their 2004-2015 compound annual growth rate in every CEE economy, it would be 2027 before labour costs in even one of these economies (Estonia) reached the current level for the EU as a whole. And EU average labour costs will also have risen over this period, even if not so fast, so the CEE’s cost advantage is likely to have narrowed but not disappeared by 2030.
The CEE economies could also stand to benefit from the UK’s vote to leave the EU. If the UK loses its access to the Single Market, then some UK businesses may decide to establish a presence in the EU to serve the European market, and it is likely that they would consider investing in the CEE economies for the reasons outlined above.
…but becoming more business friendly would make the CEE economies even more attractive
For all the CEE economies’ benefits, they do still face some challenges, particularly related to their business environment. Excessive bureaucracy and red tape may discourage some foreign companies from investing, despite the attractive investment proposition on offer. In the World Bank’s 2016 ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Index, the CEE economies rank between 16th and 42nd out of 189 countries. While relatively high in global terms, these economies still lag behind many other European economies such as Denmark, which ranks 3rd and the UK, which ranks 6th.
The CEE economies have been among the EU’s star performers over the past decade. If their policymakers engage with businesses, foreign and domestic, and make the necessary improvements to their business environment, then this could continue in the years to come.
Brexit vote puts trade back on the agenda
Global trade has been under the spotlight over the past few months. In particular, the Brexit vote has prompted uncertainty around the future trade terms between the UK and the EU, which will have an impact on businesses throughout the UK, Europe and perhaps further afield. The UK has a particular strength in services, and it is widely expected that UK policymakers would seek to put services at the heart of future trade deals, but how have global services exports been performing in recent years?
Over the last decade, global services exports grew at an annual average rate of around 6.5%. This was higher than the growth rate of nominal global GDP and global goods exports and has pushed the value of services exports around the world up to around $5 trillion.
So, which economies are the top performers in services? To answer this question, we looked at the value of services exports across the G7 and E7 economies since 2010. Our analysis was conducted in nominal terms and in national currencies to exclude the impact of the strong US dollar skewing the 2014 and 2015 estimates.
Japan experienced the highest growth in services exports in the G7…
The G7 economies contribute just under 40% of global services exports (see Figure 4), with the US ranking as the world’s largest exporter. But between 2010 and 2015, Japan was the G7 country that enjoyed the highest growth in services exports (10.4%), ahead of France (7.7%) and Germany (6.0%). However, the value of services exports in Japan remains some way behind that in the US and the UK in particular.
Japan has also enjoyed relatively strong growth in the value of financial services (FS) exports, which averaged around 23% per annum. Low domestic yields have encouraged banks in Japan to offer loans abroad at competitive rates, whereas in Western economies, the low growth environment and risk aversion by banks has constrained lending activity. As a result, Japan overtook the UK as the largest provider of cross-border loans in 2015 (see Figure 5). Loose monetary policy in Japan, coupled with a likely US interest rate increase later this year and continued uncertainty regarding Brexit in the UK, mean that Japan’s recent success in exporting financial services looks set to continue.
…but it’s in the E7 that the fastest growth has occurred
Since 2010, the average annual growth rate of services exports has been above 10% in every E7 economy. China is unsurprisingly the largest services exporter in the E7 and has enjoyed average annual services exports growth of 14.3% since 2010, but India (15.2%) and Turkey (15.2%) have been the top performers among the E7. Focusing on the two largest emerging economies – China and India – some interesting sector stories begin to emerge (see Figure 1).
In China, financial services has been the strongest performing services exports category when measured in annual average growth terms. While FS exports only comprise 1% of total service exports, the contribution of the FS sector to the Chinese economy is increasing. In 2010, the financial intermediation industry made up around 6.2% of Chinese GDP, but this rose to around 9.2% in the first half of 2016. The increasing prominence of the Chinese renminbi in global markets (as symbolised by its inclusion in the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket), coupled with a growing FS sector, suggest that financial services will have an important part to play as the Chinese economy continues to rebalance.
In India, travel exports (or tourism spending) grew at a faster rate than overall services exports. Figure 6 shows that India does not currently attract as many visitors as some of its E7 peers, but it does occupy a sweet spot with relatively fast growth in both the number of international arrivals and tourism spending. The government has also taken steps to support the tourism sector, for example by introducing and expanding the e-tourist visa scheme to cover 150 countries. As this sector develops, there will be opportunities for both domestic and international businesses, with 100% FDI permitted in the tourism sector and several large travel-related companies already having a presence in India.
So, what next for global services trade?
Talks are ongoing on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), a global agreement involving 23 World Trade Organisation (WTO) members, including the EU. Striking a deal around these negotiations would provide a spur to global services exports.
For the UK, the government will almost certainly seek to agree trade deals with fast growing emerging markets, and these will likely place a particular emphasis on services. Global services trade has been growing strongly, but there could be even faster growth still to come.
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BBC Sport UK
BBC SPORT UK
14 days ago
Turkey 0-3 Italy: The Azzurri start Euro 2020 with impressive win over Turkey squib
Euro 2020 opens in spectacular fashion as Italy get their campaign off to a flying start in front of their own fans against Turkey.
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Things seem to be a lot more serious at Groupon headquarters in Chicago these days. There are more accountants and lawyers, and fun-loving CEO Andrew Mason is cracking fewer jokes, according to a profile in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.
That's because at least two very serious things are going on at the originator of the online-enabled, locally based discount deal. First, Groupon is straining to cope with growth expectations now that later-coming rivals such as LivingSocial, Yelp and others have mimicked its local deals business model.
But second, Mason and company have become very deliberate about advancing his plan to elevate Groupon above its competition — and to ensure its long-term future and robust growth — by becoming a key digital partner to small businesses across the range of their application needs. That means not just helping them produce a quick glut of customers responding to a Groupon-advertised coupon but also becoming what Mason calls "the operating sytem for local commerce" with tools such as loyalty programs, scheduling software, and potentially a credit-card payment service.
Groupon, launched in November 2008 in Chicago, still features "a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, see, and buy in hundreds of cities around the world." In fact, more than 500 cities around the world, and 48 countries at last count.
Looking ahead, Mason envisions consumers using Groupon "as a kind of Yellow Pages to search for new ideas on where to dine or where to find the lowest prices offered by thousands of local businesses," as BW puts it. "Merchants would use the system not only as a form of advertising but also as a touch point for every sale they ring up and a hook for bringing customers back."
"If we can come up with an ecosystem that local merchants use to run their business and it's connected to consumers, then I thin that'a s pretty sizable business," Mason stated. The CEO lately has even taken to serving as the maitre d' at a local restaurant just so he can learn more about the challenges faced by some typical local businesses.
But at least in Groupon's hometown, there are plenty of skeptics about whether Groupon really will be able to come up with a package of internet-based software and services that would have the same raw appeal to merchants around the world as the online discount coupons that have brought healthy numbers of new customers to them during some of the economy's darkest days.
"I didn't quite get" Groupon's customer-loyalty program, which is called Rewards, Bob Bothur, owner of Soundz Good Chicago, commented to Crain's Chicago Business. And the owner of the car-stereo installer said that his company already has its own scheduling system.
Meanwhile, as Mason & Co. fully expected, other online-couponing outfits are marching forward with their own plans to diversify as growth in Groupon's original idea levels off. LivingSocial, for instance, just announced its first foray into physical products with the launch of an e-commerce LivingSocial Shop.
So the obstacles remain for Groupon to remake itself in the face of an unimpressive stock price, at least compared with other recent tech IPOs, and Mason's decision not to sell his company to Google for $6 billion in 2010. Is it a decision that Mason may yet live to regret?


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Luxury retailers leading the way with in-store technology (Guardian)
"London's famous shopping streets have become a hub for retailers that are transforming the way they engage with consumers, and these stores are some of the most cutting-edge in the world."
Amid Tax Scandal, Italy's Bad Boys Of Fashion Dolce And Gabbana Become Billionaires (Forbes)
"As Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana ready their latest collections for this spring’s slew of international catwalk shows, their lawyers will be working behind the scenes to ensure two of Italy’s most successful designers won’t be spending the next few Fashion Weeks behind bars."
Burberry warns of wholesale revenue drop (FT)
"The credit crunch in southern Europe has prompted Burberry to warn that wholesale revenues will decline, even as Chinese shoppers helped boost overall sales."
Could Learning Mandarin Be the New Key to Succeeding in the Fashion Industry? (Fashionista)
"In December Chinese shoppers officially surpassed American shoppers as the number one consumers of luxury goods. Now, luxury companies are doing everything in their power to adapt to this growing market–and one of the ways they’re doing it is by encouraging, or in some cases, requiring, that their retail associates learn Mandarin."
Russian Revelation: Vika Gazinskaya (Telegraph)
"Gazinskaya is part of a new breed of Muscovites feted for their expensive yet impeccable taste. Where Russia's wealthy elite once heralded the end of Soviet rule by pouring themselves into Swarovski-embellished, fur-lined micro dresses, the four women known by fashion bloggers and photographers as 'the Russian pack' are a study in elegance."


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Apple had been trying to block the M.T.A. from making the new store images public, but officials decided to release images as construction has now started at the station. Jeffrey Rosen, the agency’s director of real estate, would not say when the store is expected to open.
Apple faced a number of design challenges. It had to work with the New York Police Department to figure out crowd control issues. The M.T.A.’s main concern was resolving how commuters and Apple faithfuls would coexist during the release of new Apple products, when lines can sometimes stretch several city blocks.
On Monday, The Real Deal, a New York City real estate magazine, spotted construction at the site of the Apple Store. The magazine said on its Facebook page that workers “seemed to be removing the furnishings — mostly tables and chairs — from the former Métrazur space and erecting scaffolding. The construction manager declined any further access to the site.”
You can see the renderings, architectural layouts and photos of the upcoming Apple Store in the images below.


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There’s nothing quite like a year of COVID-19 to ignite the wanderlust in all of us. But for students, travel has a very different meaning. They’re just as excited about quick getaways and trips of a lifetime – but for international students, in particular, travel is an inevitable part of uni life.
We asked our student insiders to reflect on the holidays and trips that they remember most fondly – and got them thinking about where they’d love to visit once COVID-19 is under control. We also got some insight into what life is like for students who rely on international travel to get home from university.
- While many Gen Z students have freedom and cast to travel as soon as they head to uni, 81% say they still go on holiday with family.
- Longer trips abroad are increasing in popularity – 54% of students say they’ve been travelling abroad for three weeks or longer.
- Social media is students’ top source of travel inspo – closely followed by travel sites and blogs.
Our UK Student Shopping Report is coming soon. Make sure you’re subscribed to Student Beans Insights to be the first to receive it.


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Business Day starts! A huge lineup of all kinds of new games is in store!
Eir Aoi, Egoist, T.M.Revolution, DJ Kazu! Popular anime song singers appeared at Anime Festival Asia Indonesia 2014!
Tons of new Sanrio products! Many Hello Kitty, Kirimi-chan, and even Gudetama products introduced!
The climax of the Kyoto arc is finally here!
From Sanrio! A TV anime themed after a rock band will begin its late-night broadcast in 2015!
Pullip is an impressive line of fashion dolls that have big heads, slender arms and legs, and lovely eyes. Here on TOM, we’ve previously introduced Pullips born from collaborations with such works as Sailor Moon and Rozen Maiden.
A huge outbreak of 50-millimeter-tall Terraformars will take over sweet shops!
Have Miku sing by using a guitar! The first ever in the world! Introducing the Vocaloid effector Miku Stomp!
A new game in the One Piece: Pirate Warriors series, a collaboration between the popular series One Piece and Warriors that has sold over 2 million copies worldwide, is coming to the PS4.
Rozen Maiden is one of the popular collaborative series from Pullip fashion dolls. Though Kirakishou was just released in July, Hinaichigo, the sixth doll, is already joining the Pullip ranks.
Recently, the Manga Translation Battle has been gaining attention as a gateway to success for aspiring translators. In this interview series, we’ll talk with previous winners of the contest about their past and what lies ahead for them as manga translators.
One angel, and one demon? Starting Aug. 28, two high-quality figures from the Wonderful Hobby Selection Series, “Colossal Titan Takayuki Takeya Ver.” and “Yamato Kai: Heavy Armament Ver.” are now available for pre-order.
This year’s Tokyo Game Show will be held from Sept. 18-21 (open to the general public on the 20 and 21).
Collaborative yatsuhashi between virtual singer Hatsune Miku and Shogoin Yatsuhashi Honten, a long-running yatsuhashi company established in 1689, will be sold at the event Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai 2014 in Osaka to be held on Aug. 30 at Intex Osaka.
Salmon, shrimp, and tuna. These delicious-looking socks designed after sushi are trending!
An interview with Keishi Otomo, the director behind the live-action Rurouni Kenshin film series.
America, France, Italy, Brazil. We met anime and manga fans from around the world!
Cosplay from new anime dominated the scene! We focus on everything cute and sexy we found at this summer’s Comic Market!
Even Ash is surprised! It’s a huge outbreak of Pikachus! Yokohama is dyed yellow!
Aug. 14, 2014 02:188
Comiket is a WAR.
Aug. 14, 2014 01:006
Mizuho Kusanagi’s manga Akatsuki no Yona which is currently serialized in Hana to Yume (Hakusensha) is becoming an anime to begin broadcasting this October. A new PV will also be shown at the Marvelous booth during Comic Market 86 being held from Aug. 15-17 at Tokyo Big Sight.
Aug. 13, 2014 12:000
Pre-orders have begun for four items in the “Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel Laminate Series” beginning with a Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel one-piece dress on Bandai’s official shopping site, Premium Bandai.
Aug. 13, 2014 05:0075
Introducing an original anime by the wonderful staff who worked on Evangelion, Steins;Gate, and Fire Emblem: Awakening!
Aug. 13, 2014 04:2253
A video uploaded to YouTube titled “Japanese School Girl Chase” is gathering attention among fans of Japanese pop culture.
Aug. 13, 2014 01:001
Production has been announced on the original TV anime Shirobako which is slated to begin broadcasting this October.
Aug. 12, 2014 13:001
Gundam Reconguista in G, the long-awaited TV series by the creator of the Gundam series, Yoshiyuki Tomino, is finally set to begin. Before the broadcast begins in October, a limited two-week screening of the first three episodes of the TV series will take place in 13 theaters around Japan beginning on Aug. 23.
Aug. 12, 2014 07:0016
Florea Flavia, a Romanian makeup artist who previously went viral for her Female Titan makeup cosplay, is at it again with Colossal Titan makeup!
Aug. 12, 2014 01:003
One Week Friends is an anime popular for its heartwrenching story that was broadcast from April to June of this year. Now, it has been announced that a soundtrack CD including all 32 songs that color the series will be released on Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Aug. 11, 2014 13:005
On Nov. 28, Tokyo's Ueno Royal Museum will be overrun by Titans. That's the day a large-scale Attack on Titan exhibition based on the hit anime and manga series is set to begin.


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Oxfam is now the biggest seller of second-hand books in Europe. No wonder the traditional used-book shops are rattled. And now, I hear, the supermarkets are selling one in every five new books in Britain, compared with just 6.4% only five years ago.The latest figures, from Nielsen BookScan, really do show how Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda have got hold of the market. Of course, they sell books at a discount. In fact, some are even being purchased by smaller book retailers, who, in turn, sell them on. It can be cheaper than buying from their usual wholesaler.
Nothing terribly wrong with books being sold at supermarkets if it encourages people who might otherwise head straight for the cornflakes. But the supermarket range is still pretty limited, as well as being dominated by showbiz memoirs, potboilers and celebrity cookbooks.
For sale: two valuable Rodin sculptures and Alfred Munnings's famous painting After


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(AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on government oversight of cryptocurrency that urges the FederalRead more »
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The Certified Refurbished 1st-gen Amazon Echo has just gone on sale for $69.99. While it has a laughable list price of $164.99, it normally sells for either $89.99 or $79.99. This newly discounted price is $5 more than the lowest it has ever been, which occurred during a Prime-only lightning deal back in May. Apart from not having an auxiliary audio out jack, the 1st-gen Echo has all the same functionality as the newer 2nd-gen Echo. The two perform and sound very similar. I personally find the 1st-gen Echo to have a slightly crisper sound, probably due to its larger tweeter, which makes it my preferred device for podcasts and news briefs, while the 2nd-gen has a slightly richer sound, which makes it a bit better for music. Overall, you really wouldn’t notice a difference between the two unless you heard them side-by-side. If you missed out on the Prime Day sales or just prefer the aesthetics and volume wheel of the original Echo, here’s your chance to get one at a great price.
Amazon tends to trickle out discounts on their certified refurbished devices during the days that lead up to Prime Day and this year is no exception. Several refurbished Amazon devices have just received heavy discounts that are exclusive to Prime members. These prices are almost certainly as low as you’re going to see for these devices, so don’t expect the new versions to be this low when Prime Day arrives. The refurbished Fire HD 8 tablet has dropped to $39.99. This is the new lowest price that this tablet has ever been. The lowest a new Fire HD 8 has ever been is $49.99, so that’s a pretty likely price to expect to see come Monday. The refurbished larger Fire HD 10 tablet is available for $89.99. The lowest price its new version has been is $99.99, which is a price we may see again during Prime Day. These are refurbished version of the latest models, so they both can replicate Echo Shows thanks to the new Show Mode that was just announced. They are also compatible with the new Show Mode Dock. If you prefer the dedicated device, the refurbished Echo Show is now just $109.99. For comparison, the new Echo Show is already on sale for Prime Day at $129.99. Lastly, the refurbished Kindle Paperwhite is on sale for $69.99. The lowest price a new Paperwhite has ever been is $89.99, which is probably as low as you should expect it to be for Prime Day.
Amazon has put all of their certified refurbished Echo devices on sale. The refurbished Echo Dot is on sale for $34.99. That’s $10 off the regular refurbished price and $15 off the non-refurbished price. The refurbished Echo is on sale for $74.99. That’s $10 off the regular refurbished price and $25 off the non-refurbished price. The refurbished Echo Plus is on sale for $109.99. That’s $20 off the regular refurbished price and $40 off the non-refurbished price. The refurbished Echo Show is on sale for $189.99. That’s $20 off the regular refurbished price and $40 off the non-refurbished price. The refurbished Amazon Tap is on sale for $69.99. That’s $40 off the regular refurbished price and $60 off the non-refurbished price. These sale prices end on May 7th.
The Refurbished 1st Gen Amazon Echo is on sale for $69.99. This matches the price it was during Black Friday and is the lowest price it has ever been. While Amazon lists the regular price as $164.99, it has actually been $89.99 for a couple of months, so that’s the more realistic list price. If you prefer the look or the sound of the original Echo, this is probably one of your last chances to buy it at a discount. I personally think it’s a coin flip between this Echo and the new one when it comes to which one sounds better. I think the new Echo has slightly better sounding lowes, noticeable with bass heavy music, while the original Echo has slightly better sounding highs, noticeable with podcasts/news and music vocals.
The 1st generation Certified Refurbished Amazon Echo has just dropped down to $69.99. This is the first time it has ever been priced this low. The price is usually $129.99, but it has been hovering around $89.99 during the last few weeks. If you prefer the look or the sound of the original Echo, this is probably one of your last chances to buy it at a discount. I personally think it’s a coin flip between this Echo and the new one when it comes to which one sounds better. I think the new Echo has slightly better sounding lowes, noticeable with bass heavy music, while the original Echo has slightly better sounding highs, noticeable with podcasts/news and music vocals.
Amazon dropped the price of the refurbished Amazon Echo to $79.99 last week. That sale is still active, but it’s not much of a deal since QVC is still selling new Amazon Echos for as low as $77.56. This week a couple more refurbished Alexa devices have dropped in price, which are a much better deal than the Echo’s price. The refurbished Echo Dot is down to $37.99 and the refurbished Amazon Tap is down to $79.99. While the price for the Tap is a decent price, the better deal is the Echo Dot. It’s not as low as the lowest price we’ve seen for an Echo Dot, which was $34.99 this past Prime Day, but it’s the second lowest price. If you don’t want to wait until Black Friday in November, when the Echo Dot might be a little less than this again, here’s your chance to save quite a bit.
Part of today’s Prime Day Countdown Deals include the Certified Refurbished Amazon Echo for $89.99. The regular price may be listed as $164.99, but the refurbished Echo regularly sells for $134.99, so this sale is a savings of $45 over that price. Both the black and white versions are available for this price, which is expected to last today only. This deal is for Prime members only.
Woot currently has the refurbished 1st-gen Fire TV and the refurbished Amazon Tap on sale. The refurbished Fire TV 1 is $52.99, which is $3 more than the lowest price I’ve ever seen for it. If you’re looking for something a bit more powerful than the Fire TV Stick but don’t want to spend the money for the Fire TV 2, the Fire TV 1 is still a very capable device. Plus, it’s the only model that has an optical audio port, which many can’t live without. The refurbished Amazon Tap is $79.99, which is not that enticing of a price, considering the brand new Tap was on sale for just $10 more just a few days ago.
Amazon has just lowered the price of all of their available certified refurbished Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks. The refurbished 2nd-gen Fire TV 2 (latest 2015 model with 4K support) is now $64.99. The old price was $79.99. The refurbished 1st-gen Fire TV (2014 model with 1080p support) is now $49.99. The old price was $69.99. Lastly, the refurbished 1st-gen Fire TV Stick (2015 model without a voice remote) is now $24.99. The old price was $29.99. All three prices are new all-time low prices that we’ve never seen before. If you’re interested in any of these devices, be sure to order soon because refurbished units tend to sell out fast, due to limited supply, after a price drop like this.
In addition to lowering the retail price of the Fire TV 2, Amazon has also reduced the price of their referbished devices. The Certified Refurbished Fire TV 2 is now just $79.99. This was sold for $94.99 for the longest time and was dropped to $89.99 about a month ago. Amazon is also still selling the Certified Refurbished Fire TV 1, which also received a $10 price drop, and is now $69.99.
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New Jersey’s alternative treatment centers and their overarching business group the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association have for months said that they had the product necessary to service both the medical and adult use cannabis markets. Still, the adult use market—at least the above-board market—has yet to make a single sale.
Now, Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-22nd District, the architect of both the medical and adult use cannabis bills, is looking for explanations.
“These delays are totally unacceptable,” Scutari said in a statement released March 29. “We need to get the legal marijuana market up and running in New Jersey. This has become a failure to follow through on the public mandate and to meet the expectations for new businesses and consumers.”
Two-thirds of New Jerseyans voted “yes” on a ballot initiative paving the way for a legal adult use market in November 2020. Legislative fits and starts ensued in the months that followed, but Gov. Phil Murphy finally signed enacting legislation on Feb. 22 of last year. In the time since, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission established by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory,
Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act has crafted and released initial regulations, and at its March 24 public meeting awarded the state’s first 68 conditional licenses to future cannabis business operators.
At the same meeting, CRC Executive Director Jeff Brown said that current operators are about 100,000 pounds short on product to support both the medical and adult-use markets. He said the CRC plans to visit the state’s eight alternative treatment centers in the coming weeks to evaluate whether they can support both customer types.
Deputy director of cannabis industry advocacy organization NJ NORML Nadir Pearson said that he supports the CRC’s delays, noting that “[e]nsuring medical cannabis patients are receiving quality, consistent, and affordable access should be a top priority for New Jersey legislators and existing medical cannabis operators.”
Still, Scutari wants to form a bi-partisan special committee to examine the delays, and he plans to ask the Assembly to participate. Oversight hearings will include an accounting from CRC officials and input from those operating cannabis businesses or waiting to get licensed, as well as others involved in the adult-use cannabis market.
Moving the goalposts?
When enacted, CREAMMA gave the CRC one calendar year to expand New Jersey’s cannabis market to include adult use sales. Under the law, current ATCs can begin selling adult use cannabis when, among other requirements, they demonstrate that they have sufficient inventory to support both the medical and adult use market.
“It was always in there that the ATCs would get a start in the adult use, the question was how much of a head start they were going to get. They’re the ones that are most prepared to start selling, and that’s what people want,” said Fruqan Mouzon, who leads the cannabis practice at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP. “You can’t have it both ways, you can’t say ‘we want to hurry up and have adult use sales begin,’ and not allow people who are most ready to do it start doing it.”
On Scutari calling hearings, New Jersey CannaBusiness Association President Edmund Deveaux said, “I don’t think there’s a sitting legislator that’s worked harder at getting cannabis legalized than Senator Scutari, and I absolutely understand his urgency.”
At the same time, Deveaux said, “When we look at timelines, it’s all relative. Five years ago, candidate Murphy talked about legalizing cannabis within his first 100 days as governor. Four years later, the Legislature could not come to agreement on a legalization bill and punted the matter to the voting public. That was 2020. The voting public amends the constitution; in 2021, the Legislature crafts a bill, votes on it, Governor Murphy signs the bill, and it’s not much more than just a year ago that we created a CRC.”
Woven into CREAMMA was an emphasis on giving social equity applicants, or those most affected by the War on Drugs, prominent roles in the new industry. Most of the operational ATCs are multi-state operators based outside of New Jersey, and Deveaux noted that with the delay, “we’re closer to maintaining the legislative intent than we would have been had we flipped the switch on the recreational market a month ago.”
Pearson added that the existing ATCs won’t be able to make up the gap in cannabis supply “fast enough to justify preemptively jumping the line in front of all the Social Equity applicants and diversely-owned applicants who are the only ones being forced to adhere to the CRC’s established requirements.”
The CRC, on the other hand, frames the timeline as not delayed at all, highlighting in an email to NJBIZ the timelines of other states’ adult use market openings. Nine months passed from the time CREAMMA was enacted to when the application portal opened, which is akin to Massachusetts’ timeline. It’s now been 14 months since the law was enacted, and if New Jersey followed Massachusetts’ timeline, nine more months will pass before adult use sales start here.
A representative for Curaleaf, one of the state’s largest and longest-serving ATCs, told NJBIZ via email that the company has tripled its growing capacity since New Jerseyans voted to legalize the adult use market.
“Regulators have repeatedly been telling existing ATCs to ensure they have enough supply to serve the state’s needs and we have abundantly prepared to meet the market’s needs, with over 10 tons of product stored in vaults ready to serve the adult use market. We are 100% ready to serve the New Jersey market,” the spokesperson said.
The special legislative committee’s membership and scheduling of the hearing to address the timeline of adult use cannabis sales will be worked out soon, Scutari said.


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More than half of Canadians believe keeping up with technology is impossible these days and two-thirds worry about the safety of their information online.
This is according to the 2015 Norton Telus Security Study, which found that, given recent technological advances, three-quarters of Canadians believe that protecting their online information is as important as ever and more than half of Canadians say they are responsible for keeping their own information safe online, over security applications (20 per cent), Internet service providers (6 per cent), and the government (5 per cent).
The study, commissioned by Symantec, found that 60 per cent of Canadians find it overwhelming to maintain their privacy and security now that their families and households have so many devices. According to the research, conducted by Edelman Berland, 68 per cent find maintaining their privacy and security challenging now that they have so many online accounts and passwords and use numerous cloud-based services. Consequently, fewer than one-third of Canadians believe they would actually notice if they had been hacked or phished.
Only half of Canadians have security software on their smartphones, and even fewer on their tablets, the report revealed.


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The second Southern Michigan Winter Beer Festival is still a month away, but organizer Denise Owens said tickets are going fast.
Owens, the head of the Jackson County Fairgrounds, said pre-sale tickets are ahead of last year’s schedule, which could mean those who show up the day of the event without one might be out of luck.
“Tickets sales are going great,” she said. “You never know, but I’m thinking we’ll sell out beforehand.”
This year’s beer festival is slated to begin at noon on March 10 at the American 1 Events Center at the fairgrounds, 200 W. Ganson St.
Last year’s event, which drew just short of 1,100 people, was held the same day as the popular Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival in Grand Rapids, which won’t be the case this time around. Owens said 1,500 will be the limit on tickets.
Pre-sale tickets are $25 and can be purchased at startickets.com or through the fair box office by calling 788-4405. If there are remaining the day of the event, they will be $30 at the door.
Owens added the number of beers on hand will grow to more than 140 this year in comparison to the 80 that were available year. A list of beers will be available soon, Owens said. There also will be two large opened-ended outdoor tents brought in to add space.
Look for more on the Southern Michigan Winter Beer Festival on MLive.com in the coming weeks.


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Time of upgradation is near as both Xbox One, and PlayStation has been used extensively by players over the years. Both Microsoft and Sony will be releasing there next-gen of consoles in the next or forthcoming years.
Microsoft will be coming with Xbox Project Scarlett, and its counterpart will be coming with PS5. Both the consoles will feature an AMD Navi GPU and AMD Zen 2 CPU. So at this stage, it is difficult to say which one will be a more powerful console among them.
The duo will be challenging high-end PCs as both are equipped with real-time ray tracing, a revolutionary light rendering technique. These two gaming consoles will also support 8K graphics, which will give the players every detail of the game.
Both the company seemed to go for SSD in there next generation hardware. This will undoubtedly help not to overload the system. Xbox announced that Project Scarlett would offer a 40 times SSD performance increase as compared to current generation consoles.
These next gen consoles are coming with high-end hardware, so their price will be higher than that of their previous models. As of now, no confirmation about it has come from both the parties.
Sony has announced that PS5 will have backward compatibility with all PS4 titles, but Microsoft was less clear about it. There may be a possibility that Xbox Games Pass will be used to play older titles.
The release date of PS5 is still unclear but Microsoft’s ambitious project Scarlett will be released before next year’s Christmas Holidays. Once they are in the market, then only we will be able to evaluate which one is superior.


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JDE Peet’s has partnered with sandwich franchise Pret a Manger to create a new range of aluminium coffee pods that use Pret’s 100 per cent organic coffee.
“We have long been impressed with the Pret brand and the unique organic coffee they serve consumers throughout the United Kingdom,” says Andy Adams, Sales Director of JDE Peet’s, UK.
“We are excited to partner with a premium brand for their first venture into Single Serve coffee in retail and we look forward to expanding our partnership to bring new premium coffee experiences to consumers here in the United Kingdom and beyond.”
The new range is compatible with Nespresso coffee machines and consists of five products: the two new coffee pod stock keeping units (SKUs), alongside a Roast bean SKU, a Ground bean SKU, and a 450-gram whole bean SKU.
The new pods use dark roasted beans to “create an intense and indulgent espresso-based coffee” and are available in two blends: Espresso and Classic.
The Espresso Blend range has notes of dark chocolate spice with smooth undertones while the Classic Blend has Pret chocolate caramel tones.
According to the Pret, coffee shop brands have continued to grow in penetration and play a role in the premiumisation of the coffee category within the UK with consumer numbers doubling since 2019.
Nespresso compatible pods have driven this growth both in the single serve market and in the premiumisation trend with single serve coffee reaching 18.6 per cent of the total coffee sales in the UK, says Pret.
“We are thrilled to be adding coffee pods to our growing coffee-at-home range so more of our customers can enjoy our organic coffees from the comfort of their home. Whether you’re committed to your cafetière, or you love the convenience of using coffee pods, we want to make sure there is something for everyone to enjoy as we continue to expand how people can enjoy the Pret products they’ve grown to love in our shops,” says Clare Clough, UK Managing Director of Pret A Manger
“JDE has been creating coffee for over 265 years, and we’re delighted to be partnering with them to launch our first-ever coffee pods.”
The new aluminium coffee pods are part of Pret’s latest series of consumer-packaged goods in its business transformation program. The range is now available at more than 500 Tesco supermarkets throughout the UK and online here.