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I am scratching my head at an announcement that said activist Jana calls for Macy’s
Macy’s and its sister brand Bloomingdale’s have worked hard to maintain a business model that blends e-commerce business with store business. Both brands want customers to shop them wherever and whenever they like and enjoy a consistent brand experience. Each store brand has one set of buyers who buy merchandise for both the stores and internet. When the buyers buy an item, they hope it will sell well both in the stores and on the e-commerce platform. At this point, the internet business sells a lot of that merchandise that the buyers bought, and store results vary. The total merchandise that is sold generates a profit for the company that allows the company to remain in business across both channels.
If the company is split, it will mean setting up new sales tracking and human resources policies as every action will have to be prorated to the two businesses – the brick-and-mortar unit and the digital unit. Depending upon how sales are reported going forward, it may prove that some store units are unprofitable or vastly less profitable since they no longer get credit for internet sales. Macy’s said that its digital business is now about one third of the total business. What happens when the digital business outpaces collective store growth and is about half of the total business? Will Macy’s have to close some stores because they now appear to be unprofitable?
If a particular store is unprofitable and is an owned property, it will have to be written off since the asset is no longer viable and must be closed as an operating unit. There may be several units that will have to be closed at this time or in the future. Perhaps some stores should be closed, but that will create another source of disruption and new reallocation of business expenses.
Every salary in the company will have to be reviewed and many will have to be prorated across both the digital and the brick-and-mortar company. That means the salaries (and the time) of the CFO as well as the warehouse associate who touches both store and digital merchandise will be prorated. Most likely, every truck will have to be prorated to the digital and the brick-and-mortar company, since each will probably transport merchandise for both store and digital sales. On the other hand, people who only handle digital sales will not be charged to the brick-and-mortar company. In contrast, the cleaning lady who cleans the floor in the store will only be charged to the store company. That all sounds like more administrative workload to me, especially as the business evolves and the relationships between digital and physical sales keep changing.
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According to Bloomberg, Jana said on Wednesday, that Macy’s could follow the lead of Saks Fifth Avenue, whose owner spun off its e-commerce business. At a similar valuation, Macy’s on-line business could be worth about $14 billion, Jana said.
Macy’s as a whole has a market valuation of about $7 billion, including its brick-and-mortar business. Jana, run by Barry Rosenstein, did not disclose whether it owns a stake in the 163-year-old retailer.
Macy’s spokesperson Blair Rosenberg responded that the department store chain is committed to delivering a “dynamic, seamless, omnichannel experience.”
POST SCRIPT Macy’s digital sales for 2021 are expected to be between $8.35 billion and $8.45 billion; that reflects sales that have nearly doubled in the past four years according to a company investor’s presentation in August. If Macy’s spun off its e-commerce business at a similar sales multiple to Saks.com, it would be valued at about $16.8 billion including debt (or $14.1 billion on an equity basis).
That is certainly a big number, but I still see the potential for write off’s, a need for additional administrative staff and all sorts of confusion. After all, Macy’s has hundreds of stores and a larger scope of operational support to reallocate than Saks had. I think the current organization, if well run, has potential for profitable growth. Just as importantly, a single, well managed organization could more smoothly ensure that seamless experience a customer would want. I do not believe a split-up would benefit the growth of Macy’s.


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Samsung has been widely known for their design stunts, which they have been very successful at
Samsung had debuted its flagship Galaxy S8 series last month in New York and now the premium smartphones have finally arrived in India. Samsung has been known for their design stunts, and they have been very successful in what they did till date — starting from the very first successful Galaxy S6 Edge which took the world by a storm with a curved edge AMOLED display. Samsung has always been at the top when it comes to implementing unique designs on their products and we must agree that they can beat the world to it as far as premium designs and incorporated technology is concerned. Now that the Samsung Galaxy S8 is here, we are being treated to a new unique display design, which is a first again — Infinity Display. The display curves around its sides, flushes with the rear panel to produce a gorgeous infinite screen. The premium looks will definitely see many takers wanting one of these babies in their hands.
However, with premium flagships defining the future of the smartphone world, are they worth it? well, yes, but in their own domain. For example, Apple’s iPhone marked one of the first smartphones with a touch display, Samsung ruled the design element making the impossible look possible, Xiaomi took the display to the ‘edge’, while Google pioneered the photography segment, and many more brands that went ahead to be the first to make fictional tech a reality. While each one commands its own high price, are they really worth investing on? Let’s find out if the Samsung Galaxy S8 is worth an investment.
Style statement: Yes, if you are concerned about style, and if you have that kind of money to spend, go ahead. Consumers around the world have the privilege to opt for premium smartphones at the minimal price as they have an attached contract that helps them pay for the device over time, similar to an EMI. However, we are yet to witness the trend in India, though limited carriers have that option open.
Performance: Definitely! Samsung Galaxy S8 models are one of the fastest smartphones in the world. It has been proven that the Exynos variants that Samsung ships to Asian countries are a tad faster than the Snapdragon variant. However, the Snapdragon 835 chipset is also the first to feature on the S8 and there is not phone out there with such ‘horse’ power — except the Xiaomi Mi 6 that launched yesterday, but only available in China currently.
Display: One of the best displays on any smartphone out there, Samsung definitely leads the pack. With an Infinity Display, they have taken a leap ahead and others are yet to follow. If you are looking for a smartphone with the best display yet, Galaxy S8 should top your list. Yes, Sony has the world’s first 4K smartphone, but still does not offer an OLED panel. And yes, the
Safety: With security being one of the best till date — iris scanning with fingerprint and Knox, Samsung definitely takes security into high consideration. What’s more — other brands have still failed to feature waterproof and dust proof handsets similar to what Samsung offers. So feel safe, your smartphone will definitely not give up on you in water and your investment is safe.
Other features: Slim profile, wireless charging, autofocus front camera, next-gen future-proof hardware,
What’s the downer!
Damage: With an Infinity Display boasting one of the best displays in performance and technology, the Samsung Galaxy S8’s display does not come cheap. If you happen to have buttery fingers, your phone could just be a piece of broken glass in no time. Samsung’s S8 is prone to immediate damage — if you are one of those ‘unlucky’ guys. Even though they are protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5, the glass has its own limitation to the kind of torture it goes through. And if you happen to crack it (be it the main display or the rear panel) be ready to put a huge hold in your pocket as the repair isn’t cheap. Even if you repair it, you still stand a fair chance to lose the waterproof feature as the seals are no more protective.
Firmware: Yes, Samsung has Nougat on their flagships. While most Android security patches will be delivered, Samsung is known to roll out Android upgrades pretty slowly. So with Android O around the corner, the S8s will see it pretty late — probably as late as early 2017. If you are concerned about being the first ones to have the latest Android on your baby, we think Google’s Pixel is the way to go, or opt for an iPhone.
Price: The main factor that makes one decide on their next phone is his budget. With flagships costing at the end of the rainbow, it’s not as pleasing. Samsung’s new flagships will drain you down to the tune of Rs 57,900 and Rs 64,900 for the top model. Considering the price tag, one would probably opt for a cheaper Chinese Xiaomi Mi 6 flagship for almost half the price. However, while you could see performance on your side, what you lose is the additional premium features that the top brand has to offer.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S8 has its advantages and disadvantages. While the advantages are pretty impressive and makes it your next dream phone, the disadvantages will definitely be a concern for a few too many. It probably, finally boils down to your budget. If you can afford to get one of these babies, you will definitely find it worth every penny you spent.

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MLGW to abandon payday lenders as part of its payment network
Memphis, Light, Gas and Water is working to abandon the 30 ACE Cash Express locations that accept payments for the city-owned utility, the utility's leadership told the Memphis City Council Tuesday.
MLGW CEO J.T. Young told the Memphis City Council that the utility had heard the public's concerns about the use of the payday lenders. He noted that the utility did not know if the thousands of customers paying their bills at the stores were taking out high-interest loans, but "[I] certainly understand the concern about what may happen."
The utility has contacted FirsTech, the third-party firm that set up 93 authorized pay agents where customers can pay their bills within one business day, about removing the 30 ACE Cash Express stores.
In a council presentation, MLGW said it would "work with FirsTech to ensure new authorized payment agents are business entities that reflect positively on MLGW and our community."
The utility's decision comes after The Commercial Appeal reported last week that it had collected $22 million from more than 133,000 payments made at ACE Cash Express stores. The utility, which serves a population that is 46.7 percent un-banked and under-banked, has no way of knowing if those paying bills are taking out loans at the same time.
ACE Cash Express says 97 percent of the MLGW customers who pay their bills at its stores don't take out a loan within 24 hours.
On Tuesday, members of the City Council were muted in their criticism of MLGW's practice. In private, some of them expressed concerns, but, in public, they praised the utility's steps to remove the payday lenders. Some, particularly Michalyn Easter-Thomas, were keen to hear how quickly MLGW would remove the lenders.
Young assured the council it would be over the next three months.
Stories that lead to change take time and resources. They can't be done without your support. You can subscribe here.
In an interview with reporters after the meeting, Young said MLGW was looking to replace the 30 ACE locations with about the same amount of other retailers to keep the same level of convenience for customers.
Most MLGW customers pay their bill through the utility's website, its mobile phone app, or by mail. The $22 million MLGW collected from ACE stores since late-2016 is a tiny fraction of the more than $3 billion in revenue the utility has collected in that time.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at email@example.com.


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TAIPEI — Apple Inc. has placed orders for key components used in a next-generation iPhone it is preparing to launch sometime in the third quarter, according to people familiar with the situation.
According to some suppliers of components to Apple, the new version of the iPhone is expected to be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4 and sport an 8-megapixel camera. One person said the new iPhone will operate on Qualcomm Inc.’s wireless baseband chips. The current iPhone 4 uses memory chips made by Samsung Electronics Co. and baseband chips from German chip maker Infineon Technologies AG, according to a report by market-research firm iSuppli Corp. Officials at both companies declined to comment.
Apple, like many other big personal-computer and consumer-electronics brands, doesn’t actually make most of its products. It hires manufacturing specialists—mainly companies from Taiwan that have extensive operations in China—to assemble its gadgets based on Apple’s designs. T
Read the entire article here:
Apple Preparing For New iPhone in Third Quarter – WSJ.com.


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OUTSPAN PNG Ltd has rewarded cocoa growers in Mamose with incentives totalling K325,000 through its Rainforest Alliance incentive payout programme.
Farmers in Yangoru and Angoram, East Sepik, received K125,000 while those in Madang received K90,000 and Markham in Morobe K110, 000.
The premium payments were determined by volumes supplied through various sustainability programmes aimed at improving crop yields, quality and farmer livelihoods.
East Sepik Cocoa Board regional manager Daryll Worimo Wobar acknowledged Outspan’s efforts.
He said it added value by bringing buyers directly to farms on a regular basis to understand more about how cocoa was grown in the country.
Wobar said no other export business had implemented such projects like Outspan with its unwavering approach to directly invest in farmers that supply cocoa beans.
National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority regional manager Sophie Numbuk was impressed to witness cocoa farmers receive additional incentives for their efforts in cocoa.
She said there was an increasing market interest for quality PNG cocoa beans due to the unique flavor.
Numbuk encouraged farmers to continue applying best practices to meet future demand.
In Madang, 250 farmers were rewarded on Thursday.
Division of primary industry assistant director Godfreid Savi said there was no better example of working in partnership than what Outspan was undertaking in Madang.
He said the approach between Outspan and farmers, involving various stakeholders, was reaping rewards in the development of cocoa Industry in country.
Savi said farmers’ efforts to boost cocoa production in Madang resulted in K61 million being paid to them in 2018 compare to K40 million in 2017.
He said the Outspan and Rainforest Alliance programme demonstrated real passion and true heart for cocoa farmers.
The company also conducts cocoa sustainability projects in East Sepik, Madang, Morobe and East New Britain in conjunction with international chocolate companies Mars, Lindt and Puratos.
The programmes aim to improve farmers’ livelihoods by providing free training support, tools, seedling distribution, market access support and reward programmes.
Source: The National PNG


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Sri Lanka approves UAE firm’s $ 25 million luxury resort on Maussakale Reservoir
Daily FT: The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Monday approved a $ 25 million luxury resort proposed by United Arab Emirates Capital Investment on Maussakale Reservoir.
Cabinet nod was for the investor to acquire land adjacent to Maussakale Reservoir and a small island located in the same reservoir, which are currently in the custody of the Ceylon Electricity Board, on a long-term lease basis.
The proposal to Cabinet was by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Investment Promotion Minister to allocate those lands to the UAE company on a long-term lease basis to implement the proposed project by obtaining the agreement of the relevant institutions.
The steady growth in tourist arrivals to the country and the overall expansion in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is indicative with the interest shown by foreign businesses/investors to enter the industry. The growth and business potential in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, especially in the leisure and hospitality sectors, continues to expand with the need for new businesses/properties in keeping with thr new tourism concepts adopted by the country. Sri Lanka has gained much publicity in the foreign media as a must visit tourist destination and local tourism authorities have also carried our aggressive promotional campaigns targeting new tourist source markets. Given the expanding tourism industry, foreign businesses/investors could explore the growing opportunities in leisure and hospitality sectors or even look at developing supplementary infrastructure facilities required by the fast-expanding tourism industry.
|Article Code :||VBS/AT/20230707/Z_7|


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SINGAPORE - From Jan 1, 2015, Ms Elsie Chua will take over Mr Leslie Fong's position as Head of the Marketing division. Mr Tan Ooi Boon will be the Deputy Head of Marketing division and oversee both the Integrated Sales Department and the Classifieds Department.
Mr Fong will stay on as Senior Executive Vice President, but will work only half-time. He will continue to oversee acquisitions and joint ventures in new media as well as the Marketing division, and the Digital division, which is headed by Mr Julian Tan.
In her new role, Ms Chua is expected to continue promoting SPH's newspaper and other non-digital businesses, focusing on new ways to serve existing as well as new advertisers, with the aim of retaining SPH's leading position in the media industry.
The challenge for Mr Tan is to develop new revenue streams and foster effective cross-platform selling across print display and classified, out-of-home and digital advertising.
SPH CEO Mr Alan Chan said: "The restructuring of Marketing Division demonstrates SPH's commitment to a proper and orderly succession within the Company. It also ensures better focus by the Marketing and Digital divisions in their areas of specialisation and assures our stakeholders that their needs will be effectively served".


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Consumer confidence soared in March, the Conference Board reported yesterday, offering more evidence that the optimistic resilience of the American shopper is pulling the nation back from recession.
In the daily flow of economic data, that was the latest headline, and it sent stock prices smartly higher for a while. A second report -- new orders last month for computers, machinery, trucks, planes and other durable goods -- was also positive. But it failed to provide convincing evidence that companies were once again expanding. Without that turnaround in capital spending, the consumer-led recovery could lose steam.
''The message in these latest numbers is that consumers are doing surprisingly well, but companies are still struggling with investment and production,'' said James W. Paulsen, senior economist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. ''That has been the story for nearly six months.''
Positive economic data -- and the data has been much more positive than negative in recent weeks -- raises concerns, particularly on Wall Street, that the Federal Reserve may push up interest rates to slow growth and thus restrain inflation. Although the Fed's policy makers have stopped cutting rates, they have been less optimistic about the economy than have most private forecasters. And one policy maker, Robert McTeer, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, reflected that caution in an interview yesterday.
''Sooner or later, as the economy gathers momentum and gets stronger, an adjustment will have to be made'' in rates, he said. ''But I'm in no hurry,'' Mr. McTeer told Bloomberg News while attending a forum in Prague.Continue reading the main story
The surge in consumer confidence this month reflected a growing impression among Americans that unemployment had stopped rising and layoffs were less of a threat, said Lynn Franco, director of the consumer research center at the Conference Board, a private research firm. After dipping slightly, to 95, in February, the confidence index jumped to 110.2, its highest level since last August.
A similar surge in confidence, for roughly the same reasons, showed up in preliminary data for March released earlier this month by the University of Michigan.
New orders for manufactured durable goods rose in February by $2.7 billion, or 1.5 percent, to $179.4 billion, the Commerce Department reported. This was the third consecutive monthly increase. But in analyzing these numbers, most economists exclude aircraft and ships; because of their huge cost, they can make durable goods orders vary sharply month to month.
Excluding transportation, new orders fell 1.3 percent, to $124.1 billion, and the increase in January turned out to be considerably smaller than originally announced. The greatest strength last month was in orders for military equipment, a big item in increased government spending. A surge in government spending, from the federal level on down, explains, along with consumer spending, why the economy has performed so much better in recent months than forecasters had expected.
When it comes to capital spending by business, no category serves as more significant a barometer than the category of orders for computers and electronic equipment.
Investment in such equipment was a huge source of economic growth in the late 1990's. It then plunged, helping to produce the recession. Now economists, awaiting a turnaround, drew some encouragement from the February numbers.
''While investment in electronic gear is not yet a source of strength, adding to economic growth, it is no longer a constraint on the economy, as it was all of last year,'' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy .com, a forecasting and data gathering service.
Orders for electronic gear fell slightly in February, to $33.62 billion from $34.44 billion in January. But in fits and starts, these orders have risen steadily from the September low of $29.31 billion, and many economists have concluded that capital spending, having passed its worst days, is showing signs of revival.
The durable goods report also shed light on inventories. For months, companies have been selling from their stockpiles, and their reluctance to reorder merchandise helped cause the recession that started last March. The hope is that a rush to replenish inventories will produce a surge in economic growth this spring, after which growth will settle back to a moderate pace.
Business inventories are tracked in the durable goods report, and they declined 0.5 percent in February after falling 0.9 percent in January. The slowing decline suggests that reordering is taking place, said James Glassman, a senior economist at J. P. Morgan Chase, ''but the reordering is not yet keeping pace with consumer spending.''Continue reading the main story


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Ahead of iOS 12 announcement and start of iPhone rumor season, it seems like Apple is ramping up efforts to prevent leaks from happening, at least the leaks that happen through its own employees.
Bloomberg has published a report about a memo that the company has sent out to its employees warning them of consequences that include possibility of them losing job and facing legal action if they are caught leaking confidential information to the press. The memo goes as far as saying these actions could even result in the employee becoming unemployable at other companies.
The memo uses iOS 11 GM leak as an example and talks about the time when an Apple employee leaked a link to the unreleased software to the press. Apple notes that the employee who shared the pre-release copy had been caught within days following internal investigation and fired.
The memo also talks about popular Apple blog 9to5Mac, noting that several employees who were leaking information to the website have been caught by company’s Global Security’s digital forensics. The company has caught and fired 29 employees for leaking confidential information to the press, 12 of those employees were even arrested.
In the memo the company also talks about much recent leaks that revealed the company’s plans of delaying new iOS features and is focusing on stability improvements in the upcoming iOS 12 release.
Apple didn’t just talk about its own employees getting caught and fired. The memo also references to supply chain leaks and how Global Security is working with suppliers to prevent Apple product related leaks.
You can read the full report and memo on Bloomberg here.


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Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – More than 2 million dehumidifiers are being recalled because of fire and smoke hazards.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission
announced that 12 separate brands are being recalled because of the problem.
They say 165 incidents were reported – including 46 fires – with the damage totaling $2.15 million.
2.2 million were sold in the US, while 52,500 were sold in Canada.
The recall involves 20, 25, 30, 40, 45, 50, 65 and 70-pint dehumidifiers with brand names Danby, De’Longhi, Fedders, Fellini, Frigidaire, Gree, Kenmore, Norpole, Premiere, Seabreeze, SoleusAir and SuperClima.
For a complete list of the affected products, visit the CPSC website
The CPSC provided a toll-free consumer contact number for Gree: (866) 853-2802.
They can be called from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.


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Disney is the latest major company announcing furloughs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Disney said in a statement, "with no clear indication of when we can restart our businesses, we’re forced to make the difficult decision to take the next step and furlough employees whose jobs aren’t necessary at this time."
Disney said it will begin furloughing non-union workers including executive, salaried and hourly employees as of April 19. The company says it will continue paying its employees over the next two weeks. After that, Disney said it will pay health care benefits and premiums during the furlough period, and furloughed employees can use paid time off. They will also be eligible to apply for an additional $600 a week in unemployment benefits as part of the federal stimulus plan.
Disney's U.S. theme parks in Anaheim, California, and Orlando, Florida, have been closed for weeks now. Its hotels as well as its cruise line have also paused operations indefinitely.
Additional reporting by Mike Scheider of the Associated Press


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Walt Disney Co said it signed an agreement to build two cruise ships for its Disney Cruise Line business.
The company, which signed the agreement with the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany, said on Thursday the ships are expected to be completed in 2021 and 2023.
Disney Cruise Line, which comes under the company’s parks and resorts business, was launched in 1998 and operates out of ports in North America and Europe.
The new ships, at about 135,000 gross tons, will be the biggest in Disney’s fleet.
The company is a much smaller player than market-dominating companies such as Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and has added capacity slowly.
Disney operates four ships, with Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy starting operations in 2011 and 2012, respectively.


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IRobot Grand Opening Pretty Grand
(Page 2 of 2)
the company had been looking for a couple hundred beta testers and more than 10,000 people volunteered. The company had launched a much bigger, kludgier version of the ConnectR back in 2000 or so. But he and Greiner explained it had not gone far: among other things, the robot had been priced too high and the Internet was much less evolved than it is now.
This time around, they have high hopes. Angle explained that rather than a broad-based advertising strategy, the company would target different markets—pet care, for instance, or staying in touch with families—with specific messages tailored to those markets. He said there might be different colors for the robots serving each market, blue for kids and families, orange for pets, perhaps. Angle said the company had not yet set a price, but that it would be “under $800.” He also would not be pinned down on a release date—even when I guessed the holidays—but he did say the robot would not have a “material impact” on iRobot’s bottom line in 2008. Look for the ConnectR to be a bigger deal for 2009, however.
Greiner and I walked down the showcase aisle, which is flanked by devices from various points in iRobot’s history. One that seemed to hold a special place in Greiner’s heart was the 1995-era ROAMS. “This is the robot I brought to the original Special Forces demonstration,” she told me. That event, she said, led to some great feedback: the robot didn’t climb stairs, it couldn’t get up if fell over, it needed to be able to carry extra payloads. Greiner incorporated what she learned into a white paper that led directly to the PackBot tactical mobile robot, the foundation of iRobot’s military business.


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Bustin' makes me feel good.
Bigger and more feature-rich than last year's 4000 Series.
The Master Chief Collection is now complete on PC, but does it go out with a bang or a whimper?
Rockstar, the developer behind Red Dead Redemption and the GTA series, has responded to claims of poor working conditions.
IDF FALL 07: Otellini showed off the world's first working 32nm chip and says Intel is on track for volume production to start in 2009.
Nvidia's Jen-Hsun Huang has said that his company has no plans to enter the CPU business.
It appears that Zune isn't compatible with Microsoft at the moment. Is this really as big a blunder as everyone thinks it is?
December 11 2020 | 17:30
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NAFTA: Not looking good
Already it looks like the powerful corporate interests behind the TPP are seeking to use upcoming NAFTA negotiations to push their toxic digital agenda
Well, that didn’t take long: it’s been just a couple months since public pressure forced the U.S. to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but powerful corporate interests are already finding new ways to push their toxic digital agenda.
Crucial NAFTA renegotiations are rapidly approaching, and it’s already clear that the U.S. will use these talks to try and force Canada to sign up to copyright rules as bad if not worse than those in the TPP.
We need to make sure that our representatives in Ottawa listen to Canadians and avoid the mistakes of the TPP. Will you use our tool to send our crowdsourced Let’s Talk TPP Citizens’ Report to your MP and Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne right now?
Top copyright expert Michael Geist is warning that the U.S. starting position for NAFTA “looks a lot like the TPP”, with plans for copyright term extensions that will rob the public domain, and digital lock rules that far exceed current requirements.
But thanks to the participation of so many Canadians in Let’s Talk TPP, we have the antidote to these bad ideas. Our crowdsourced report — shaped by almost 28,000 engaged citizens — makes clear that Canada should not only reject the TPP, but ensure that Canadians are thoroughly consulted on any future trade plans.
Now we need to make sure MPs hear your message loud and clear: Send the Let’s Talk TPP Citizens’ Report to your MP and Trade Minister Champagne and tell them to put the interests of Canadians before those of corporate lobbyists.
Together, we fought successfully to stop the TPP from criminalizing our online activity and overwriting our laws. The last thing we need is to see the TPP’s extreme proposals resurrected through NAFTA — or through the trade negotiations with China and the UK that are also expected very soon.
But if enough of us speak up, we can ensure these talks put citizens — not powerful conglomerates — first. Don’t let Ottawa ignore you — send our crowdsourced plan to your MP and Trade Minister Champagne right now, and don't forget to share our tool with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.


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TfL have today issued a press release to the trade, announcing the intended changes to the regulation regarding the mandating of credit card payment acceptance and the conditions attached.
After much ado about the customer surcharge being scrapped, we were originally informed that the driver would be responsible for any payment processing charge.
We were also told that in the interests of fairness, any charge would be capped at 3%. We were then told this would be non negotiable on our part.
But it seems it wasn't non negotiable on the part of third party TfL partners who have said they can't survive making a living off the backs of the Taxi trade with just a 3% charge.
And so our regulator scrapped the cap.
I recently asked TfL on the open forum of their Twitter Account if the cap had been scrapped....a simple question requiring a yes or no...and was given this:
Credit and debit card and contactless payments to be accepted in all London taxis
Credit and debit card mandate
All London taxis will be required to accept card payments, including contactless, from 3 October 2016, making travelling by taxi easier and a more attractive option for passengers.
The acceptance of card and contactless payments was the subject of a Transport for London (TfL) consultation at the end of last year that found 86 per cent of respondents backed card acceptance, with 68 per cent agreeing that passengers should also be able to pay using contactless payments.
TfL also committed to work with the card payment industry to link card payment devices directly to the taximeter in future.
The changes in relation to card payments are as follows:
2 April 2016
Any existing signage that advises passengers there is a card payment surcharge must be removed
3 October 2016
TfL is working with card payment systems suppliers to ensure they are prepared to meet the changes, which include the new requirement that a card payment terminal must be fitted within the passenger compartment. All TfL approved card payment systems must continue to have the facility to print card transaction receipts in accordance with the following:
TfL is designing signage to indicate acceptance of card payments and more information will follow in due course.
General Manager, Taxi and Private Hire
12 February 2016


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Remember the good ol’ days of packed casinos and long lines to ride the newest roller coaster or get into a live music venue?
What seemed a normal part of visiting a poppin’ tourist destination is now a thing of the past.
It’s no secret COVID-19 has destroyed local businesses, many of them forced to shut their doors forever. But infamous tourist destinations are facing the brunt of it too – and some won’t be able to recover.
As businesses slowly begin to ease restrictions, many are operating at minimum capacity, terrified their business will create an outbreak if they open their doors.
And when they do, visiting once sacred locations will be a miserable experience with mandatory masks and temperature checks upon entry – not to mention several activities within the popular venues shut down indefinitely.
After all, what’s the point of paying a premium to visit a place if you can’t experience all it has to offer like live entertainment and shows?
Sure, popular tourist destinations might try a gradual reopening to see how it goes, but with rental fees and other operating costs – destinations all around the world simply can’t withstand such stringent mandated social distancing restrictions.
Here’s a look at some of the top tourist destinations around the world and how they are dealing with the “new normal.”
Disney Warns You Might Get COVID-19
A once thriving destination for families and couples, Disney is now a ghost town.
According to Orlando Weekly, capital spending across Disney parks has been reduced by a whopping $900 million worldwide.
Several projects at Epcot that were expected to draw in large crowds have been postponed indefinitely.
Disney Springs has started a gradual reopening allowing guests to sample a small number of shopping boutiques and restaurants – but for now, the theme park and resort hotels are closed.
New social distancing guidelines could include everything from mandatory masks for all guests and employees, to temperature checks upon entering the park.
If that isn’t enough to deter people from visiting, Disney actually posted a statement on their own website warning people if they visit Disney they could get COVID-19.
Their website states:
“An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death.”
Not exactly a statement of confidence from Disney or one that will draw in a crowd.
Le Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco – Throw Away Decks
Gamblers looking for a relaxing time at the casino are in for a rude awakening with mandatory temperature checks and masks.
And upon opening, casinos will be forced to take on additional expenses such as throwing away decks of cards after a single use, not to mention a limited operating capacity.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
“When the principality’s four casinos reopen, possibly in June, guests will receive pouches containing hand sanitizer and silk gloves as well as masks, which will be mandatory. Decks of cards will be discarded after a single use. Dice, chips and slot machines will be wiped regularly with disinfectant.
Expect a twist at the roulette table, where the croupier normally allows the ball to circle the wheel twice—during which gamblers can keep picking numbers—before announcing “no more bets.”
Kind of takes the fun out of gambling when it’s being run like a surgical hospital.
People want to gamble and relax – not focus on having their games altered and an obsession with disinfecting everything they touch.
And expect to see the same restrictions in Vegas.
Visit Hawaii – Get Arrested
Once a beautiful destination for romantic getaways and adventurous island hopping has turned into a “do not visit” spot.
In fact, the Governor has point blank told people to stay away and has extended his mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travelers until July 1st.
Think you can get away with visiting Hawaii and doing stuff anyway?
One tourist recently visited Hawaii and posted several photos on his Instagram page.
The pictures were innocent enough – a few of him on the beach and walking around at night.
Apparently, Hawaii is pretty serious about their mandatory 14-day quarantine – and once they viewed the photos and found out this young tourist was walking around – he was arrested with a bail of $4,000.
And during COVID-19, even sunbathing on the beach is a crime.
With such ridiculousness, Hawaii is bound to continue to take a massive tourism hit.
Only The Strongest Will Survive
With such a drastic decrease in guests and the added expense of implementing costly social distancing protocols, we can expect several companies to go out of business – the cost is just too great to maintain.
How can a business survive at a 25-percent operating capacity?
They can’t. At least not for long.
And with some projections claiming social distancing will last well into 2021, sadly we can expect some of our favorite places to close their doors forever.
It’s a different world folks.
And travel will never be the same, at least not anytime soon.
To stay current on the latest Proud American Traveler stories, follow us on Facebook and be sure to like and share our posts!


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We’re Going To CES 2021?
There have been several valiant attempts at recreating some sort of show experience in the digital space this past year. None have unfortunately delivered the full networking-and-demo interaction of a real show, but how could they really? One of the biggest consumer electronics shows every year is CES in Las Vegas, and in lieu of the IRL event the big budget convention is looking to make good on some type of deep dive information transfer this Jan 11-14th.
Truth be told, there hasn’t been a lot of new product releases for high fidelity audio in quite some time from the show that used to stand as a significant landmark for the audiophile market. Headphones (and especially wireless options) have carried most of the weight, while burgeoning sectors like wearables and home automation have managed to take up whole city blocks of real estate on show floors.
Regardless, Audio-Head will be accessing what there is left to see from CES 2021, and reporting results (if any) on the site here. Along with steady sales, there have been some interesting developments this year – did you know they make custom IEMs now that can be fitted and molded from the comfort of your own home?
Even with low bar for CES 2021, it might be easy to set expectations with a few new tricks added to True Wireless headphones, new workout playback and maybe a sound bar or two. CES regulars on the exhibitor list include SVS, Beyerdynamic, analog devices, audio-technica, Shure, V-Moda and a few others that usually make the hifi show circuit.
In the meantime, you can see everything from the last few years here in our on-site coverage. Also available to play catchup is The Occasional Podcast highlights from CES 2020, along with an in depth interview from Sonus Faber’s President Jeff Poggi and Brand Manager William Kline.
More info: CES 2021 International


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MIPS forms open source initiative May 23 2014
Processor IP provider creates Prpl to encourage open software ecosystem and keep its challenge to ARM alive
IBM created the OpenPower consortium last August, putting a great deal of its hardware and software into the open environment and signing up supporters including Google, Nvidia and Mellanox. Its main target is the emerging breed of low power servers for the cloud.
Now MIPs, owned by GPU specialist Imagination Technologies, has its own foundation, called Prpl. Initial members, aside from Imagination itself, include many of the names you'd want to give an architecture credibility - Qualcomm, Broadcom and Cavium (major ARM users all) plus Ikanos, Lantiq, PMC-Sierra and some smaller licensees. The aim is to build software that runs on MIPS to ensure a solid continuing base for its instruction set.
Prpl is the brainchild of Amit Rohatgi, who joined MIPS from Qualcomm in 2011 as principal architect and was responsible for bringing Android to the MIPS platform. "We will work on everything from the data center to the internet of things," he told EETimes. "Every company does a lot of open source work behind the firewall; prpl aims to move out the firewall."
The platform's heartlands are in broadband equipment, set-top boxes and some industrial gear, and Broadcom is a particularly important customer. However, ARM has been challenging in the set-top and networking spaces, and is also looming wherever MIPS seeks new markets. The latter's smartphone efforts failed, bar slots in a few low cost tablets, and now it has its eyes, like everyone else, on low power servers and the internet of things (IoT).
Like ARM's own Linaro effort, Prpl hopes to establish a significant software base, because its members are pooling their efforts, and because it will offer standard implementations of MIPS code. This should make it less risky for companies to use the platform. Among the items in focus are Linux distributions for data centers; and real time OSs for embedded systems. Prpl will also work on secure OS, hypervisors and Java developer kits. Among other elements, Imagination will contribute its ARM-to-MIPS binary translation software as open source code.
The first work item will be to create a standard version of OpenWRT for home gateways and routers and this shows Imagination's wider ambitions for Prpl - to help establish it as a mover and shaker in industry standards for the next wave of the internet, even beyond its own architectures. OpenWRT will be one reason for Qualcomm's interest - its Atheros unit already uses it in its WiFi router chips, to encourage a third party apps ecosystem. Dan Rabinovitsj, SVP of Atheros, said the hope of a more standard stack and a broader developer community was Qualcomm's motivation to join Prpl.
This shows how Imagination hopes to build influence beyond the user base for MIPS processors. It insists that any firm can join Prpl, including backers of x86 and ARM, which Rohatgi claims makes the foundation more open than Linaro.
A surprising omission from the initial line-up is Oracle, which recently announced a partnership with Imagination to optimize Java technologies, including the embedded version and the developer kit, for the UK firm's PowerVR and MIPS cores.
Comcast, the US's largest broadband provider, attended the Prpl launch and its chief software architect, Sree Kotay, told EETimes he was interested in an ecosystem focused on security and connectivity. Comcast is increasingly using open source code, he said, because it could not "afford to buy our way out, nor could we build all we needed".
Prpl is to some extent about keeping existing customers loyal by making it easier for them to bring open source software to their products. But Imagination is looking to new areas too, and aims to harness optimized support for Android, Java and other open software to help. The next major product will be new 64-bit MIPS cores supporting 64-bit Android - an area where Intel has so far led the race. Imagination CEO Hossein Yassaie says the firm is now shipping about 800m MIPS cores a year and has signed almost 70 new licensees since it bought the firm.


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New Park Brewing has expanded its West Hartford operations, adding a wood-fired pizza kitchen and a select of small-batch wines to the menu.
By Ronni Newton
When New Park Brewing opened in March 2017 the owners said it was the culmination of a dream that had been “brewing’ for years, but over the past four-plus years they’ve continued to expand both their dreams and their operations.
After beginnning the process by working with the Town of West Hartford in 2015 to enact an ordinance change to allow for craft breweries in industrial zones, New Park Brewing has expanded the brewing operations and variety of offerings, added a canning line, and implemented state-wide delivery.
They’ve gradually expanded their footprint as well, opening event space in The Barrel Room and most recently taking over adjacent space in West Hartford’s funky 485 New Park Avenue building.
The latest addition is Patty’s, a wood-fired pizza kitchen, which opened Aug. 4, and complements the dining options also offered by food trucks that take up residence in the parking lot.
“We opened the pizza place this week, which has been fantastic,” New Park Brewing co-owner and co-founder John Doyle said Friday. Staff had a preview earlier in the week, with rave reviews.
Adding a restaurant operation was something that just sort of evolved, spurred by the pandemic, he said.
Doyle said that Alex Dee, also a co-founder and the original head brewer at New Park Brewing, like many people, got really into baking during the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of overlap between brewing and naturally-leavened pizza crust,” Doyle said. Dee would make pizzas and bring them for staff to try.
He said Dee, who who had just finished a master’s program in biomedical science at UConn and was beginning work on his PhD when he pivoted to brewing beer, understands the science of the process. And if he didn’t become a brewer, he would have probably ended up a chef, Doyle said.
“We told him, ‘These are incredible. We should sell them in the brewery,'” Doyle said.
They were able to take over the adjacent space formerly occupied by Panache – which relocated to Park Road – and after auditioning a few brick ovens at a test kitchen in Brooklyn, imported one from Italy.
They cut a half moon-shaped hole in the wall above the bar in the tap room, and use that to pass the pizzas through.
The pizza dough is cold-fermented, naturally leavened for 72 hours, and topped with fresh, seasonal ingredients. There are also small plates and salads on the menu.
Also added to the mix are a selection of “low intervention” wines, inspired by New Park Brewing’s General Manager, TJ Orscher and his wife, who during the pandemic developed an affinity for natural wines.
They connected with Doug Rankin of Missing Link Wine Company, who curated a selection of four reds and whites, and even an orange wine that all pair well with the pizzas.
“They are unique and amazing wines,” Doyle said. And understanding that not everyone likes beer, adding wine to the offerings, “opens us up to a whole new group of people,” he said.
The name – Patty’s – is a tribute to Doyle’s mother. “Patricia, my Italian mom, born and raised in New Britain” was an amazing cook and baker, Doyle said. He said until recently she sold her baked goods at the farmers market on Block Island.
Patty’s menu is available in the tap room on Wednesday to Friday, starting 4 p.m., as well as all day on weekends.
Right now the indoor space with seating is the tap room, as well as The Barrel Room. Eventually they may add some in the area where the pizza oven is located, “but we’re taking a breather right now,” Doyle said.
Beer dinners, in partnership with local chefs, are on the horizon, however, with more information to come.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Lip Smacker lovers, rejoice! Bonne Bell has opened two local kiosks that sell more flavors of the lip balm than any other store in the country.
The pop-up style shops at Westfield Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted and SouthPark Mall in Strongsville are the first of their kind and a trial run for the Westlake-based cosmetics company.
But they’re only around through the holidays.
“Right now we are focusing on these two locations as a test and a way to provide our consumers a great assortment of Lip Smackers,” said company spokeswoman Mary Ann Milo.
The company will evaluate the kiosks’ success after they close up shop at the end of December, Milo said.
That gives fans of the Lip Smacker line, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, only a few weeks to stock up. The kiosks offer more than 65 flavors -- “our largest selection anywhere,” Milo said -- as well as gift bags and collectible tins, some of which are exclusive to the two shops.
Lip Smacker announced the openings earlier this week to its 250,000-plus followers on Facebook, some of whom quickly responded with requests for kiosks in their own cities.
"Aw, I wish they were in California," one follower wrote.
"Pittsburgh isn't that far away from Cleveland... I think we need one, too," wrote another.
"ROAD TRIP!" a fan chimed in.
The balms at the kiosks are $3 each or six for $15. You can also find Lip Smackers at retailers such as Target, Walmart and Walgreens. Go to lipsmacker.com for a downloadable collector’s flavor list.


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You might think that a recession is a daft time to start a business, especially if you are a young graduate venturing out into the big, bad world of work for the first time. Better, perhaps, to play it safe, to try to squeeze into a big company and climb the corporate ladder.
But you might be wrong. The downturn, it seems, has done little to dim the appetite for striking out on your own. Data published for Global Entrepreneur Week, which began on Monday, shows that entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge and launching businesses despite the recession.


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The social enterprise Divine Chocolate has come a long way since its launch in the late 90s. What started as a simple idea to get more Fairtrade-certified chocolate from west Africa on sale in the UK has grown steadily into an international chocolate business with a turnover of £12m a year and offices in both the UK and the US.
Its success has won numerous plaudits along the way. Sophi Tranchell (right), who has been managing director of Divine since 1999, says that part of its success lies in the fact that it produces a product that has widespread appeal. "Through chocolate we're able to engage with everyone," she says. "It makes it quite distinct from social enterprises that are doing more complicated things."
What separates Divine from its commercial rivals is not just the fact that it produces only Fairtrade-certified chocolate, but also its ownership structure. Forty-four per cent of the business is owned by Kuapa Kokoo, a cooperative of cocoa farmers in Ghana set up in 1993. Divine buys almost all of its cocoa from the cooperative and gives 2 per cent of its annual turnover to fund Kuapa Kokoo's work. Tranchell says it has invested more than £2m in projects to support cocoa farming communities to date. "A lot of money has been invested in schools, wells and schemes in medical clinics," says Tranchell. "We have also helped to build information management systems and helped with training on cooperative principles and values."
But the path to profitability has not been smooth. The financial crisis hit Divine hard in 2009 largely because of the problems it caused with the currency markets. Divine buys its chocolate in euros and sells it in pounds sterling and dollars. The fall in the value of the pound in particular meant that its profit margin disappeared almost overnight. "It has been interesting time to operate," says Tranchell. "Since 2009, we have had to focus on rebuilding the business in the UK and building our business in the US."
Tranchell says that Divine has also worked hard on improving the quality of its products to ensure they compete with other leading premium brands on taste. Customers won't keep buying a chocolate bar "just because it has a good story behind it", she says.
It has also worked hard on getting the message out about the difference buying its product makes to cocoa farmers. "We have built brand loyalty off the back of the fact that we have an unusual ownership structure," says Tranchell. "We have made it real by bringing farmers over here to speak at all sorts of events and by talking to MPs."
Changes in consumer behaviour have also helped Divine in recent years. Fifteen years ago only a limited number of consumers were taking into account social and ethical considerations when purchasing products, says Tranchell. Now many more, especially the younger millennial generation, are purchasing ethically.
Divine continues to face challenges. Many of the major chocolate companies now use Fairtrade-certified chocolate in their well-known cheaper brands, which has made it harder to differentiate its upmarket brand from the mainstream. Tranchell considers this a success for Divine because part of its mission has always been to ensure that more cocoa farmers receive a fair price for their products.
But she considers the availability of its products as its main challenge. Divine is stocked by retailers such as Waitrose and Starbucks and in charity shops such as Oxfam, but it's not readily available in locations such train stations. "I'm under no illusion that people can be seduced by cheap things that are easily available," she says. This why Divine is trying to make its products available in more places in the UK and abroad.


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Image via Anna Caballero campaign
Written by The Business Journal Staff
Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Merced) is pushing for a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom on her SB 490 Buy American Food Act.
SB 490 “would improve the quality and safety of state-provided nutrition programs, protect California workers, and reward California’s agricultural industry by strengthening federal Buy American policy at the state level,” according to a news release.
The bill requires that all public institutions receiving federal reimbursement to provide prepared meals only purchase agricultural products grown, packed or processed in the U.S. An exception would be if the imported product costs 25% or more cheaper than the domestic product.
The language would have to be included in the institution’s bids and contracts.
“Buy American reflects our values and how we spend our tax dollars. It supports local farmers, jobs, and the economy and ensures that our residents consume food of the highest quality and safety. SB 490 strengthens federal policy at the state level and ensures that our students receive quality, California-grown products in their school meals. Our children, our farmers and our workers are worth the investment,” Caballero said in a statement.
The Agricultural Council of California, an advocacy group representing more than 15,000 farmers across the Golden State, said SB 490 would ensure growers are supported for meeting the state’s stringent standards when it comes to food safety and labor practices.
Ag Council President Emily Rooney said, “Ag Council thanks Senator Caballero for authoring SB 490 and for her commitment and tenacity to ensure the Legislature approved this important measure, which will benefit California’s agricultural community.”
“Ag Council also appreciates the following labor organizations for their steadfast efforts to help pass SB 490 alongside our organization: California Cannery Industry Labor-Management Cooperation Committee, Teamsters Food Processing Division, California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, UFCW and others.”
Wawona Frozen Foods and Sun-Maid Growers are also local supporters.
Caballlero is hosting a news conference Wednesday in Fresno to promote the bill, which awaits action from Newsom.


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The Belgian-made cookware brand GreenPan engaged in illegal unfair competition against Teflon manufacturer DuPont, a court has decided.
GreenPan, which is manufactured by Anotech International, promotes itself as an alternative to traditional types of non-stick cookware as no PFOA is used in its manufacturing process. The chemical PFOA is under increasing scrutiny as a possible health hazard.
The Commercial Court of Nivelles in Belgium ordered GreenPan to stop using the DuPont and Teflon names in its advertising and to stop its comparative advertising against them.
The company was also ordered to pay DuPont 8,500 Euros and to publish the court’s decision on its website. GreenPan faces a fine if it violates any of the conditions.
DuPont said it was very pleased with the court’s decision. “We take great care in protecting the Teflon and DuPont trademarks and brands, and will continue to aggressively pursue claims against those who misuse them,” a spokesperson commented.
GreenPan is supplied in the UK by a new UK sales, marketing and distribution network, Anotech International UK. It was previously distributed by Typhoon Housewares.


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The North Carolina-based Guess Corporation runs a wide range of luxury businesses, including operations focused on yachts, diamonds, private jets, and private islands. Now it's planning on launching an elite, members-only department store chain reserved for exclusively for the ultra-rich too: To join, you must have a net worth of at least $250 million, so shopping there will be off-limits for the riff-raff and even America's upper-middle-class.
The store will be known as the Guess Private Merchant Company. Plans call for some 40 locations to open around the globe over the next four years, with initial retail stores in the works for New York, Beverly Hills, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, London, and Moscow, the Guess Corporation announced recently.
In addition to the net worth requirement, members will be subjected to an undisclosed annual fee—we're guessing it'll cost way more than Costco—and also spend a minimum amount each year in order to maintain memberships. The company also says it's going to limit membership ranks to 10,000 people around the world.
Obviously, the rich can (and do) shop wherever they want. So why would they want to jump through some hoops and cough up an annual fee to shop at this new concept store? The elitist aspect of the operation is one selling point: Members get platinum plated charge cards for use at the stores, along with the bragging rights that they're rich enough to qualify in the first place.
Read Next: Should You Ever Pay $450 for a Credit Card?
But what the Guess Corporation is really pitching is a pampered, super-luxurious shopping experience like no other. "Members will be greeted by a managing director who is accompanied by a concierge that will remain with the member during their entire visit to manage their overall experience," the company explained in a press release. "The store will be staffed with maids and butlers who will provide refreshments and beverages including wine and hors d'ouevre to members. There will also be on-site nannies and a childcare/nursery for members with younger children. All merchandise offered will be custom for members through special arrangements with luxury designers and items that are not offered anywhere else."
What's more, customers literally get the white-glove treatment, and they'll never ever be expected to do something so mundane as actually touch the goods they're buying:
If you're rolling your eyes right now out of disgust or skepticism, you're not alone. In a story about the concept store at Retail Wire, retail industry insiders overwhelmingly characterized the members-only store for the 1% as "a poorly thought-out model," in the words of Max Goldberg of Max Goldberg & Associates. "The ultra rich don’t go somewhere to shop, they have product brought to them or services shared with them in the comfort of their home."
"How will members prove their net worth? Tax returns? Clearly, Donald Trump won’t be eligible," retail expert Cathy Hotka mused. "The GPMC will probably be wildly successful (look at the Starbucks Black Card) but should leave a bad taste in the mouths of those of us whose incomes don’t exceed the GDP of small countries. Expect some backlash."


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Many industry watchers argue that software ecosystems now present one of the biggest hurdles to mobile platform owners looking to combat the mobile juggernauts that iOS and Android have become. BGR has been covering the issue for years, and in November 2010 we said that absent apps were a huge barrier for Microsoft as it re-entered the mobile space with Windows Phone. Now, nearly a year and a half later, the Windows Phone platform is being taken a bit more seriously by mobile developers, however the issue of getting premium apps onto the platform in a timely fashion persists. In an effort to combat this problem, Microsoft and Nokia have launched a new program aimed at attracting attention from emerging developers. Read on for more.
Nokia and Microsoft recently announced a new program called AppCampus. In association with Aalto University in Finland, the companies have devoted up to $12 million each that will fund developers at the university who build apps for Windows Phone and other Nokia platforms.
“The AppCampus program has been set up to foster the creation of innovative mobile applications for the Windows Phone ecosystem, and in addition, Nokia platforms, including Symbian and Series 40, to create a new generation of self-sustaining mobile startups,” the companies noted on the AppCampus website.
The program will kick off in May and will be managed by Aalto University, which Nokia has identified as a hotbed for new startups. “We are proud to announce this new program, which will enable new and existing developers to create next-generation mobile apps and unique user experiences,” Nokia EVP Kai Öistämö said in a statement. “The partnership will allow developers to ideate and monetize business opportunities globally, via both Windows Phone Marketplace and Nokia Store.”


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Founded in 2007, Gizmox is a company founded by former Microsoft executives. Gizmox aims to empower the standard Internet browser so that it can support rich, data-intensive applications in a standard environment without the need for client plug-ins and built-in security. Gizmox helps companies create mobile apps using HTML5. The company has raised $7.5 million in funding and has appointed Eugene Kuznetsov as their CEO.
Citrix has bought Zenprise for an undisclosed amount. Citrix will integrate Zenprise into their mobile suite of products which include GoToMeeting, ShareFile, and Podio. Since many customers are now bringing their own devices to work, Citrix is able to use Zenprise to connect employees through one common platform. This way employees can keep all of their devices, apps, and data in one place.
Today Citrix announced their investments in Graymatics and Gizmox. Graymatics is a cloud platform that does content-based for video and digital media. Gizmox is the developer of Visual WebGui, a platform for mobile and cloud delivery. Citrix’s Citrix Startup Accelerator seed investment initiative has previously invested in Primadesk and Core Mobile Networks. TechCrunch reports that Gizmox and Citrix will be working together on HTML5 app delivery.


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More than a third of ready-to-harvest coffee crop in Karnataka has been destroyed in the untimely rain that lashed the coffee-growing region. More rain forecast in the next few days has left the growers worried.
According to the Coffee Board, the initial estimation of crop loss put the numbers at more than 33%. The final figures will emerge after the survey by the committees. The committees constituted by the district administrations have been conducting crop loss surveys in each plantation in the coffee-growing districts of Karnataka.
Coffee Board CEO K G Jagadeesha told DH, “The loss is huge. I have visited 10-15 villages in the three coffee-growing districts and more than one-third of the crop has been damaged. It is visible...”
“The teams constituted by the district administrations comprising members from Coffee Board, Revenue, Agriculture and Horticulture departments are conducting survey, and the final figure on loss will be available in the next 10 days,” Jagadeesha said.
This is the second consecutive year the coffee growers are facing the loss due to incessant rains. “Last year, the damage was caused while drying the coffee, this year the rains did not allow us to pluck the ripened coffee beans,” said Moganna Gowda, a grower from Chikkamagaluru district.
According to the Coffee Board officials, experts and farmers, Arabica coffee has suffered the maximum damage as it was the harvest season. “Robusta coffee is not ripe yet and it will be ready in December. But, now we are worried about the storm which is expected to hit in the next few days,” says Somashekara, another farmer from Hassan district.
Arabica is the premium coffee and most of the plantations in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu grow it.
The total coffee growing area in Karnataka is 2.4 lakh hectares, which constitutes about 50% of the cultivation area in the country. Karnataka contributes 70% of India’s coffee production. Arabica alone accounts for about 70% of the total coffee produced in the state.
Farmers and growers associations have petitioned the government seeking adequate compensation for crop loss. The government is expected to take a decision after the submission of a survey report by the Coffee Board.
Watch latest videos by DH here:


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SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s two major tech giants — Kakao Corp. and Naver Corp. — have begun a crackdown on imitation police costumes on their e-commerce platforms in response to the controversy that fake police costumes obstructed the process of containing the Itaewon crowd crush.
Naver banned all searches for imitation police costumes and equipment on its shopping platform on Wednesday.
Typing in the words “police” or “police outfit” to search on Naver Shopping delivers a result that says “Naver Shopping does not provide search results for keywords related to the police.”
Before the measure was taken, searching for a ‘police outfit’ returned some 10,000 to 20,000 items.
Kakao, too, said it plans to ban the word “police uniform” on KakaoTalk’s shopping service, with the company taking down any related items and merchandise.
The measures come in response to a police request to ban all online sales of imitation police outfits and equipment.
Anyone who isn’t a police officer may be subject to up to six months in prison or under 3 million won (US$2,110) in fines for wearing, carrying, or using an imitation police outfit or equipment.
Lina Jang (firstname.lastname@example.org)


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Black Friday online shopping is continuing to grow, and this Friday will probably be another record-breaking day. The wise travel companies offer Black Friday travel deals. Here’s why you should do it, too.
For the ones who are not familiar with the term of Black Friday, let’s explain what it is. Black Friday comes a day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. It marks the beginning and the peak of the holiday shopping season. And that’s the date when sales begin!
This year Black Friday falls on November 24th, which is perfect for generating last-minute holiday bookings, but most importantly, secure business for the dreadful Q1 2018.
In 2016, Black Friday online sales exceeded $1970 million in the US. When comparing Black Friday to a regular Friday, it is found that traffic is up 220%. It is predicted that this year digital travel sales in the US will reach $189.62 billion, 40% of which will come from mobile devices.
“Last-minute travel deals are helping to drive mobile sales, as consumers opt to book right away via their smartphones,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Chris Bendtsen.
Consumers are booking more travel on mobile due to larger smartphone screens, easier mobile payment methods and overall time spent habits shifting to mobile.
You’ll be assured that Black Friday travel deals are adored when you hear this! People participating in the Black Friday madness predominantly buy holiday gifts ($661), travel ($336) and entertainment ($192). Customers will spend close to 30% of their holiday budget on travel, slightly more than they did last year. Most will visit the family (50%) or take a vacation (42%) while a small portion (11%) will do both.
Is your travel company offering Black Friday travel deals right now? If not, what are you waiting for?!
P.S. Did you know that Orioly is offering a Black Friday deal, too? 🙂 All our packages are on sale for 40% off the original price until November 26th. If you need a online booking system for your travel company, have a look at Orioly packages.
on November 22, 2017
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In early October 2018, fintech firm iZettle ran a rehab centre for online shopping addicts to show the impact e-commerce has on the highstreet. But will this change customer habits?
Spoiler alert, the answer (in my opinion) is no.
The plight of shopaholics is something often covered in sitcoms and films where the protagonist, usually a woman, has an uncontrollable spending habit.
These characters will buy things well out of their price range, sifting through their wallet pulling out hundreds of credit cards before finding one that won’t be rejected.
This is, of course, a real world problem. But where once we’d be swiping cards and carrying armfuls of bags down the busy highstreet, all it now takes is a click.
According to fintech firm iZettle one in three Brits has a nasty online shopping habit, addicted to buying digitally from well-known online retailers, and one in 12 make purchases everyday with at least one of the huge online stores.
The problem with this? Other than empty pockets this habit also puts smaller businesses and highstreet stores at risk, as a majority of these compulsive clicks are with well-known larger retailers.
Apparently, or as iZettle says, if people carry on shopping this way over 100,000 small businesses could close in the next ten years.
In an attempt to stop this from happening iZettle tried out a popup service to help addicts of one-click shopping to kick the habit, presumably so they’ll go back to having their credit cards cut in half by a customer services staff at the till rather than receive threatening emails from their bank.
The service, called the Giant Corp Rehab Centre, was run in early October 2018 by trained therapists and featured a variety of interactive sessions including group therapy, “digital distraction class” and workshops with local business owners.
The aim of these was apparently to make people realise how online shopping impacts local business and encourage people to “swap their ‘one-click’ cravings for local love”.
One of the people who ran a workshop on behalf of the rehab centre, Athena Duncan, co-founder of Hackney floristry business Rebel Rebel, said: “We need our high streets and shops so we can experience real things and touch them, taste them and feel them. In ten years’ time when we turn round and there are no high streets left it will be too late. Support your local shops now. Because we’re worth it!”
The only problem is this doesn’t stop the fact consumers are increasingly shopping for convenience, a majority of which happens online.
People who are addicted to online shopping are not the only reason for the highstreet’s downfall, if anything consumer behaviour as a whole has shifted it this direction.
Stores are becoming places for experiences rather than actual purchases – so many customers go into stores to test the look or feel of a product whilst comparing prices for other retailers online.
Others are trying clothes on in changing rooms, taking pictures for social media and then walking straight out of the store without buying them.
What might be more helpful is if larger firms helped local businesses to adapt to consumer habits, rather than the other way around.
The iZettle Giant Corp Rehab Centre was a gimmicky part of a wider campaign from the firm to make people fall back in love with the highstreet and support local retailers, and the brand will also be spreading that message across tube stations, online, in cinemas and on TV later in October 2018.
But the fact of the matter is technology is driving mass change throughout the retail industry, so those failing to change, whether retail behemoths or smaller local shops, are likely to be left behind.
No amount of adverts about highstreet stores closing is going to change the fact that it’s easier to buy online from a large online retailer who is more likely to drop your package of at an elected location and time, plus send you digital reminders about your order and its progress.
Until the highstreet does more to cater to what customers want, it will continue on the same downhill path it has been on for the last 50 years.


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Falls Church residents on special diets don’t have to go far to find a restaurant to cater to their needs. Local restaurant owners and managers have plenty to offer customers who have particular dietary requirements.
“Every single day we serve people with allergies,” said David Tax, co-owner of Clare and Don’s Beach Shack with his sister, Rebecca. “We kind of specialize in it. It’s weird because we’re a seafood restaurant. The hardest part is to determine if someone is on a diet or has severe allergies because we use a lot of procedures for them.”
For those with allergies, Clare and Don’s use different utensils, gloves, pans, tongs and cutting boards. Tax named the “Big Three” food allergies that he and his staff are cognizant of: shellfish, nuts and gluten.
“We want people to get what they want. The last thing we want is to make someone sick.”
The restaurant has definitely seen an increase in customers wanting special foods. Over the past five years they’ve seen this demand blossom exponentially mainly due to gluten-free customers.
“Our main objective is to please the customer.”
Pizzeria Orso manager Sara Barrera has also observed an increase in customers who have allergies.
“We have a made-to-order salad for vegans or those who need gluten-free ingredients,” she said and reeled off some of the choices they serve at the restaurant including its hanger steak salad and grilled trout with corn, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and olive oil, which can be prepared for persons with allergies.
She has a vegan pizza, an English pea ravioli and new diet-oriented items always available. In general, their menu’s very light and uses high quality ingredients from regular items to daily specials.
For those with gluten allergies, everything in Happy Tart Patisserie is gluten-free.
The Falls Church bakery’s owner Emma Cech has dairy-free items, too. She says she’s seen growth in demands for gluten-free foods with two of the store’s top sellers being coconut frosted French toast and a beef bourguignon crepe.
The number of vegans and vegetarians is increasing, too. A change which has not escaped restaurant leaders.
Vegans eliminate all animal products, including eggs and honey, from their diet. They eat fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes while vegetarians generally eat only vegetables and no meat.
Probably the best known vegan restaurant in the area is the Loving Hut. Started by Anh Ly in 2011, the restaurant owner says business keeps getting better and better.
Ly switched from vegetarianism to vegan about eight years ago. When she gave it up, she says her stomach aches disappeared and now her arthritis is almost gone.
She says vegan food helps combat global warming by emitting fewer greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s healthier, going from meat to vegan. You lose weight and you feel better and are more energized.”
Loving Hut regular Tanika Coates couldn’t agree more. Since she became a vegan six months ago, she’s noticed a definite change in her energy level and a welcome weight loss.
“I don’t feel bloated when I eat now. You can tell a difference when you cut out animal meat,” Coates said. “I will be 40 soon and so many die of heart attacks. I feel like a lot of our health issues come from what we put in our bodies.”
Among the many restaurants at Eden Center is Thanh Van which lists only vegetarian foods on its menu.
Located down a hallway which is filled on both sides with small retailers including restaurant competitors, Thanh Van has bananas, other fruits and vegetables, spring rolls, “bacon” with flour and soybeans, tofu and several different kinds of noodles.
A Vietnamese family, Oanh-Ha, Gai-Ha and Tong Luong have operated the restaurant for eight years in three different locations at Eden Center.
For those requiring gluten-free foods, Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant has a special section on its menu just for them.
Unlike many restaurants, Sunflower manager David Wang says he doesn’t need to change his menu often since 90 percent of his customers are regular, and they like what is offered. His place of business is well known and attracts customers from all over the District, Maryland and Virginia.
For those requiring gluten-free foods, Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant has a special section on its menu just for them, said David Wang, the manager there for eight years.
Unlike many restaurants he said he doesn’t need to change his menu often since “90 percent of my customers are regular, and they like what we have.” His place of business is well known and attracts customers from all over the District, Maryland and Virginia, Wang said.
For Falls Church restaurateurs, the most popular item on their menu is nothing particular, unless you include the special order most customers have to only request once for it to be remembered.


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Outdoor gear joins coffee, jets as key Seattle industry
Companies catering to outdoors enthusiasts are an often overlooked but growing segment of the local economy, according to panelists at a Seattle Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday on the “Economics of Having Fun.”
In Washington state, companies providing clothing and equipment for outdoor recreation produce $22 billion in revenue and account for approximately 200,000 jobs annually, according to Brian Unmacht, COO at Kent-based Recreational Equipment Inc., better known as REI.
Nationwide, outdoor recreation businesses produce $646 billion in revenue and employ 6 million workers, Unmacht said. A substantial portion of that revenue and those jobs are in rural towns near state parks and wilderness areas where outdoor recreation drives the local economy.
The Puget Sound area is host to several national retailers including REI, Eddie Bauer and ExOfficio; adventure travel companies such as Evergreen Escapes, and equipment manufacturers such as Cascade Designs in Seattle's Sodo district and Redington, Sage and Rio on Bainbridge Island.
Panelists at the chamber luncheon also included Travis Campbell CEO of Redington, Sage and Rio; Ken Meidell, vice president of marketing and sales for Cascade Designs; Dan Moore, chief outings officer at EverGreen Escapes and Steve Bendzak, general manager of ExOfficio.
All five panelists agreed a key risk to the industry is dwindling access to the outdoors as budget cuts shut down state parks and fewer people grow up learning how to camp outdoors. They described a “nature deficit disorder” whereby children are more likely to play soccer or baseball for their outdoor activity than to take a weekend to go camping with their time-starved parents. Then there’s the fear factor, with people afraid they will get into a situation they can’t handle out in the woods.
Jeanne Lang Jones covers retail and real estate for the Puget Sound Business Journal.
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In the next three years, the majority of games might have an in-game cryptocurrency economy, according to researchers from South Korea. South Korea is the
Significant whale action between $22,000 and $24,800 complicates the existing spot market configuration. Bitcoin (BTC) consolidated lower on August 9 following the maintenance of a
Corbin Fraser, a Bitcoin.com executive, stated that the company intends to develop a prepaid debit card that rewards customers with cryptocurrency. Bitcoin.com aims to grow
As the central bank of the 19 nations in the European Union that have embraced the euro, the ECB has a vested interest in developing
Although Bitcoin prices have rebounded by 15 percent over the past week, further network demand is required to maintain further price gains, according to measures.
As a result of progressive rules and institutional adoption, both the United States and Germany are at the top of the rankings for bitcoin usage.
The shift from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) on Ethereum might take years, as it began with the introduction of Beacon Chain in December 2020
The major exchanges in South Africa have welcomed the central bank’s intentions to regulate cryptocurrencies as financial assets. In the next 18 months, South Africa’s
It will be up to the individual ATM operator to determine if they choose to implement the service, therefore it is unlikely that all 175,000
Bitcoin’s ascent to “space money” takes a major stride forward with the addition of a satellite full node in Brazil. A Brazilian Bitcoin user has
The Reserve Bank of South Africa will regulate cryptocurrencies as financial assets, and new legislation is anticipated within the next 12 months. In order to
In a few hours, “very high” CPI statistics will be released, and one argument implies that there is no more room for Fed rate hikes.


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Citroen’s Next Big Launch For India Leaked Through Scale Model
Modified On May 20, 2021 03:22 PM By Tarun
The C3 will be Citroen’s first localised product in India and its second offering here after the C5 Aircross mid-size SUV
A scale model has revealed the new Citroen C3’s styling.
Design language to be inspired by the larger C5 Aircross SUV.
It could get a 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine as standard but no diesel option.
It will be the tenth car in the crowded subcompact SUV segment.
Expected to be launched by Diwali 2021.
The design of the India-bound Citroen C3 subcompact SUV, the manufacturer’s second offering for India, has been revealed through leaked images of a scale model.
The new C3 looks a lot like the younger sibling of the C5 Aircross SUV. It gets a large grille, a split headlamp setup, an upright bonnet, and a dual-tone bumper. It also sees heavy body cladding all over.
The C3 also features C5-like door padding, an almost dual-tone flat roof that slightly tapers towards the end, and blacked-out pillars. The rear profile comes with an upright tail, a chunky dual-tone bumper, and large wraparound tail lamps.
However, we are not sure if this will be the final design for the Citroen C3 in India. It could also get a different name for the Indian market, possibly with a suffix.
The C3 SUV is expected to be powered by a 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine, paired with manual and automatic transmissions. As we confirmed earlier, the subcompact SUV will not offer a diesel engine option in India.
- Citroen C5 Aircross: First Drive Review
- Citroen’s Third Product For India Likely To Be A Hyundai i20-rival
Since it will be a heavily localised product, the C3 may come in at highly competitive prices. It is expected to be launched right in time for Diwali 2021. The Citroen C3 will be the tenth subcompact SUV in India, including the likes of the Kia Sonet, Hyundai Venue, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Toyota Urban Cruiser, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Ford EcoSport, Renault Kiger and Nissan Magnite.
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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) will end its contract with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion in favor of the iPhone, reports “Reuters” (http://macte.ch/BrhEZ).
The agency said in a solicitation document posted last week that it intends to buy iPhones for more than 17,600 employees — a purchase worth US$2.1 million. According to “Reuters,” the agency said RIM “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency.”
It also said it analyzed Apple’s iOS-based devices and Google Inc’s Android operating system. ICE concluded that, for the near term, the iPhone is the best tech fit for the agency.


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A popular Greenock town centre cafe has been put up for sale for £55,000. New owners are being sought for Browns on Nicolson Street, with the current proprietor set to retire after 12 years in charge.
The busy cafe is open six days a week and can seat up to 60 people and caters for people sitting in or who want to take away.
The cafe is being marketed by specialist business brokers Bruce & Co.
In a statement, the company said: “Browns Cafe is an extremely busy business which has been run by the current proprietor since 2006.
“The business is now well established and has built up a reputation for being one of the area’s best places to enjoy a light meal or lunch with friends. The business is being sold due to the current vendors’ wish to retire from the hospitality industry. Browns has built up an excellent reputation for traditional cafe fare.”
Experts say it would be an ‘excellent first business opportunity’ for someone and that there is room to increase trade.
A spokesman said:
“The vendors currently operate the business six days per week open from 10am-3pm Monday to Saturday, offering both sit in and take away. The cafe offers an excellent selection of breakfast fare, light snacks, soup and sandwich platters, lunches, baked potatoes, hot meals, fish teas along a good selection of cakes and pastries to either sit in or take away. Browns Cafe offers an excellent opportunity to expand the business to offer evening meals.”
This article appeared in the Greenock Telegraph on 29 March 2018 and was written by Paul John Coulter.


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May 17, 1999 |
AT&T Corp. and MCI WorldCom Inc. this week will host their annual shareholder meetings as stronger companies than they were a year ago, but both face challenges to extending the gains of their surging stocks, analysts say. Over the past year, AT&T, the No. 1 U.S. phone company, has announced about $120 billion in acquisitions that will allow it to reenter the local telephone market and become the largest cable television operator.
May 14, 1999 |
MCI WorldCom is in talks to buy wireless cable provider PrimeOne in a deal worth about $300 million, a move that would help the No. 2 long-distance phone company secure a path to homes and businesses where its wires don't reach, according to a source close to the situation. Wireless cable operators use antennas to send video signals to subscribers using a technology called microwave multi-point distribution system, or MMDS, that has not been widely adopted.
May 6, 1999 |
AT&T has made a dramatic shift by focusing on cable lines as its entree to customers' homes, but No. 2 long-distance carrier MCI WorldCom need not respond with a dramatic strategic shift of its own. In fact, AT&T's $57.2-billion deal to buy MediaOne Group may actually be a response to aggressive deal-making on the part of MCI WorldCom. Those deals have made the Jackson, Miss.-based company a formidable competitor in the business, data and Internet markets.
April 20, 1999
MCI WorldCom, the nation's No. 2 provider of long-distance service, is buying CAI Wireless Systems for about $414 million. MCI WorldCom has been the only major phone company without a stake in the lucrative and rapidly growing wireless market.
March 10, 1999 |
MCI WorldCom has filed a legal challenge to an FCC ruling that says calls made to connect to Internet service providers are the equivalent of long-distance calls. MCI's appeal, filed with the federal appeals court in Washington, is expected to prompt other major telecommunications company to follow suit. The telecom giant is arguing that the Federal Communications Commission's decision was "arbitrary and capricious."
March 4, 1999 |
MCI WorldCom Inc. and Bell Canada said they formed an alliance that makes Bell Canada the exclusive distributor of MCI WorldCom's voice and data services throughout Canada. Under the agreement, Bell Canada will offer the No. 2 U.S. long-distance phone company's On-Net services throughout Canada. Montreal-based Bell Canada will pay an undisclosed licensing fee to MCI, said Robin Halter, media relations manager at MCI WorldCom.
February 19, 1999 |
MCI WorldCom Inc. said Thursday that it has begun a major upgrade of the National Science Foundation's nationwide network for testing next-generation Internet technologies that will quadruple the network's data-carrying capacity. The Los Angeles-to-San Francisco leg of the very-high-speed Backbone Network Service, or vBNS, is the first to get the upgrade and can now carry 2.5 gigabits of data per second. That's more data than 1,600 high-speed T-1 lines can carry.
February 12, 1999 |
Electronic Data Systems Corp. agreed to buy MCI WorldCom Inc.'s Systemhouse unit for $1.65 billion in cash as part of a broader alliance that pairs the second-biggest U.S. computer-services provider with one of the world's most aggressive telephone companies. EDS and MCI, the No. 2 U.S. long-distance provider, also would switch about 13,000 employees as part of the alliance, one of the biggest in the computer-services industry.
February 4, 1999 |
MCI WorldCom Inc., the No. 2 U.S. long-distance company, said Wednesday it plans to launch an Internet access service for consumers--a business it was forced to exit last year--and offer local telephone service in New York state. MCI Communications Corp. was forced to sell its Internet business to gain regulatory approval for its $40-billion acquisition by WorldCom Inc. in September.