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Jack Springer has been honoured by business consultancy Ernst & Young
Malibu Boats CEO Jack Springer has been named 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast region by the business consultancy of Ernst & Young.
Now in its 33rd year, the EY program recognises entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies who are excelling in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities, and winners are selected by a panel of independent judges.
“While I am named, this is an award for all of Malibu. Leadership and an entrepreneurial spirit are strong at Malibu and exhibited every day by many of our people,” Springer said in a company statement. “Our products bring people together to spend quality time with one another in a world that never slows down. It is also a huge honour to be a part of a great team that focuses every day on bringing family and friends together by building the best boats on the water.”
Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur of the Year national competition. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the overall national award winner, will be announced at the awards gala in Palm Springs, California on 16 November. The awards are the culminating event of the Strategic Growth Forum, EY’s gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.
Founded in 1982, Malibu Boats includes the Axis, Cobalt and Pursuit boat brand and is known for its innovation in the growing towboat market.


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The billionaire owner of Triumph Motorcycles has paid himself a £13m dividend after profits at the business leapt.
John Bloor, who made his money in property before rescuing the Triumph brand, took £13m out of his business empire in the 12 months to June, newly filed accounts show. The payout was up from £12m in the previous period.
Bloor Homes, his main business, endured a “more challenging” year because of high interest rates. However, Triumph’s pre-tax profits rose by more than £20m to £72.4m.
Mr Bloor rescued Triumph Motorcycles, the iconic brand favoured by the likes of Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen, 40 years ago.
Founded in 1902, the company created iconic motorcycles such as the Bonneville series during the 1960s, dubbed by fans as the “Bonnie” and named after the salt flats in Utah where speed records were attempted.
However, Triumph struggled to compete with more efficient production methods employed by manufacturers abroad, notably Japanese companies such as Honda. Triumph Engineering, as it was originally called, fell into receivership in 1983.
Derbyshire-born Mr Bloor, 80, bought the Triumph name and then instructed managers to study Japanese motorbike production before relaunching the business.
The company sold more than 88,000 motorcycles last year, accounts show. Triumphs can cost up to £23,600 for the 2.5-litre, 3-cylinder Rocket 3 GT Chrome Edition, although a much more modest 0.4-litre Speed 400 comes in at less than £5,000. Profits leapt because more models with higher margins were delivered.
The value of Mr Bloor’s business empire rose from £1.8bn to £2.1bn last year, according to accounts for his holding company Bloor Investments.
As well as motorbikes, Mr Bloor’s interests span home building and renting out portable cabins. Sales across the group rose from £2.21bn to £2.25bn last year, while profit before tax slid to £406m from £427m.
Average sale prices for homes built by the company fell from £322,000 to £317,000. The cost of building materials also rose, eating into profit margins.
Mr Bloor’s ownership of Triumph has not always been plain sailing. In 2002, Triumph’s centenary year, a serious fire destroyed around half of its Hinckley factory.
In 2008, the recession and a collapse in the housing market caused Mr Bloor to breach banking covenants on the debt for his company Bloor Holdings, which controls Bloor Homes but also Triumph. However, he was able to renegotiate the loans with banks.

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Samsung Electronics reported sales of KRW 62.05 trillion and operating profit of KRW 14.53 trillion through the conference call of the third quarter in 2017, and the display business recorded sales of KRW 8.28 trillion and operating profit of KRW 0.97 trillion. Display business sales increased 7.4% compared to the previous quarter and 17.3% compared to the previous year, but operating profit of 1 trillion fell with a decrease of 43.3% of the previous quarter and 4.9% the previous year. OLED sales are shown to occupy 60% of the display industry.
According to Samsung Electronics, in the 3rd quarter of 2017, main customers of OLED have increased through the launch of new flagship products focused on flexible products. However, its performance has decreased than the previous quarter due to factors such as increased costs of new OLED lines initial ramp-ups, and intensified price competition between rigid OLEDs and LCD panels.
Samsung Electronics plans to increase supply of flexible products in OLED in the 4th quarter, and expand sales of rigid OLED products to secure profitability. In the LCD industry, there are off-seasons and excess supplies resulting to supply and demand imbalance, but profitability is to be secured by strengthening yield and cost activities and expanding sales portion of high value-added products such as UHD, large-format, and QD.
In 2018, OLEDs are expected to become the mainstream in the mobile display market, with expectations that flexible panel dominance will be particularly strong in the high-end product line. Samsung Electronics said it plans to develop a system to meet the flexible demand of major smartphone manufacturers and improve earnings by securing differentiated technologies.
In 2018, the LCD market may continue to expand in China and intensify competition among companies, but trend of large-sized and high-resolution TVs are expected to continue. Samsung Electronics states it will strengthen its strategic partnership with its customers and concentrate on improving profitability by promoting sales of high value-added products such as UHD, large format, QD, and frameless products.
Samsung Electronics sold 97 million mobile phones and 6 million tablets in the 3rd quarter of 2017. Mobile phone sales in the 4th quarter are expected to decline Quarter on Quarter, but tablet sales are expected to increase QoQ. TV sales reached a record around 10 million units, and sales in the 4th quarter were expected to rise to mid-30%.
10.4 trillion was invested in facility during the 3rd quarter of Samsung Electronics, of which 2.7 trillion was invested in display. Displays are reported to have additional production lines to meet customer demands for flexible OLED panel.
CEO Chang-Hoon Lee of Samsung Display said, “In the case of small and medium-sized OLEDs, we are planning to apply it to AR, VR, foldable, and automotive industry.” Also, “In Automotives, OLEDs are focused on energy efficiency, design differentiation, and black image quality which is critical to driver safety, in preparation with client company cooperation.” Additionally, “Foldable is constantly being researched and developed in line with customer demand, and is centered on enhancing the level of perfection demanded by the market and customers. We will work with our clients to prepare these for mass production desired by our customers.”


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December 09, 2014 - 2:52 PM
KAMLOOPS - Members of the public are encouraged to donate toys and other items to help families in need as part of the RCMP and Christmas Amalgamated partnership in the "Stuff the Cruiser" campaign.
RCMP members will be set up at Toys R Us and Walmart from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 13 for those who wish to donate a toy to the campaign. Volunteers are asking for new toys, clothes or general gifts that can be donated to infants, children and teens.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at email@example.com or call 250-319-7494. To contact an editor, email firstname.lastname@example.org or call 250-718-2724
News from © InfoTel News Ltd, 2014


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A new way to view consumer credit
ATLANTA, January 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — An Equifax December 2016 Consumer Credit Impact analysis found that on an annual basis the addition of trended credit data could result in:
- 4% or 267,000 more mortgages or improved loan terms for consumers who may have previously been ineligible
- 11% or 1.1 million more auto loans and/or improved interest rates and terms
- 4.1% or 65,000 more home equity lines of credit (HELOC) issued to consumers who may have previously been ineligible
Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX), a global information solutions provider, today announced that its December 2016 Consumer Credit Impact analysis found that trended credit data used alongside a consumer’s traditional credit report could improve access to credit and/or loan terms for up to 1.5 million consumers on an annual basis.
Trended credit data provides up to 24 months of a borrower’s payment patterns, and offers a historical perspective of specific payment behavior – including scheduled payments, actual payments and past balances. This expanded, two-year, granular view of the consumer gives the lender the opportunity to extract meaningful insights to help predict future behavior around credit.
Trended credit data was first introduced into the marketplace in September of 2016 as part of the mortgage underwriting process in partnership with Fannie Mae. Prior to its introduction, when assessing a potential homeowner’s credit report, mortgage lenders historically had access to an individual’s total outstanding balance of credit, utilization and overall credit availability as part of a consumer’s traditional credit report. The report did not offer details on whether payments serviced all or part of an individual’s debt or if patterns existed in the consumer’s balance utilization.
As an example, one consumer might pay off their balance monthly or pay more than the minimum amount due. While another consumer might make only the minimum payment due almost every month, yet still on time. Assuming both their credit histories and loan characteristics are otherwise about the same, including the fact that they both pay on time, the consumer that pays off their balance monthly or pays more than the minimum amount due would typically be considered a lower credit risk based on their trended data attributes.
Support of a healthy loan marketplace
The Equifax December 2016 Consumer Credit Impact analysis found that on a yearly basis the addition of the new Trended credit data could mean an approximate increase of 4% or 267,000 more mortgages being issued to consumers who may have been previously ineligible. For HELOCs, approximately 65,000 more accounts or a 4.1% more lines of credit could be issued to consumers. Auto loans are expected to see the most significant impact with an anticipated 1.1 million more auto loans either being issued or receiving more favorable terms.
“Giving weight to how borrowers pay off credit debt puts more power in their hands to manage their credit evaluation.” said Peter Maynard, senior vice president Global Analytics at Equifax. “New ways of assessing consumer credit behavior through unique insights is something we are continuing to develop at Equifax, and opportunities to expand credit to consumers and mitigate for risk for lenders make these types of approaches solid ones for the entire marketplace.”
Equifax expects an increasing reliance on credit data insights like trended credit data particularly as some industries, like the auto sector, settle into what some analysts view as more of a post-recession norm. For these lenders, it will be vital to leverage as many insights around consumer debt behavior as possible to more confidently assess risk in support of a healthy loan marketplace.
Over the last 10 years, Equifax has focused on utilizing the data it has on hand to support the sustainability of the financial marketplace, as well as the needs of creditworthy consumers. Consumer credit data is the most accurate way to assess a consumer’s financial health and a useful tool in assessing current economic performance. Equifax is working to revolutionize consumer credit information to enhance its offerings in support of consumers and economies around the world.
Equifax powers the financial future of individuals and organizations around the world. Using the combined strength of unique trusted data, technology and innovative analytics, Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading provider of insights and knowledge that helps its customers make informed decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its databases include employee data contributed from more than 6,600 employers.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500® Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,400 employees worldwide.
Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Ranked 13 on the American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2015); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2015); named one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015). For more information, visit here.


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A Sears Shopping Center in Lincoln Park, Michigan has found a novel way to kill their competitor - close the easement the developer is using to access the property.
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Application Deadline Approaching for Tufts Post-Master’s CAGS in Urban Justice and Sustainability - Feb. 15
Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
The 16th annual version of the nation’s largest multi-disciplinary, smart growth and sustainability conference will be in St. Louis, February 2-4, 2017.
Town of Jackson
Northeast Michigan Council of Governments
NMHC Research Foundation


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Palm: from pre-historic to cutting edge
Palm, the creator of the legendary PalmPilot PDA, hasn’t been doing so good the past year or two, I think we can all admit that. However, last week at CES, the company presented it’s latest smartphone: the Pre and unlike Palm’s previous (short-lived) experiment, the Foleo, it was warmly welcomed by the tech-crowd in Vegas.
So what does it do ?
- Touch-screen: the Pre continues the touch-screen trend as set by the iPhone. What’s innovative though is that swiping the screen allows the user to rapidly switch between applications by going left or right and quitting the app by swiping up, something other touch-phones and even the iPhone don’t offer.
- Multi-tasking: the Pre brings true multi-tasking to the mobile platform. Switching between apps is as easy as swiping your finger and gives it all an exposé-like look and feel.
- Connections: the Pre has only been announced yet for Sprint’s EVDO (3G) network, besides that the device offers Wifi, GPS and bluetooth.
- Multimeda: the Pre comes with a 3 megapixel camera and 8 gigabytes of, sadly enough, built-in memory to use it as a media player.
That’s about all that’s known about the device for now. I’m really glad to see Palm got it’s act together and will possibly return to the smartphone-market as a big player. The release date should be somewhere in the first half of this year, US pricing (with a plan) is estimated at around 200 dollars.


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China has its eye on becoming the next tech superpower and other nations, including the U.S., may fall behind as the nation quietly increases its AI initiatives from now until 2030.
China is bolstering its AI fleet with robust investments, domestic talent and a desire to dominate the sector in upcoming years.
Today, China and the U.S. remain neck-in-neck for AI efforts, but Beijing’s goal of establishing a $150 billion industry by 2030, coupled with increased AI investments, demonstrates the nation’s desire for moving ahead of the U.S., The Financial Times reported. What’s more, Beijing’s recent AI activity could place China ahead of the pack—as other countries, including the U.S., scale back on their technology funding.
China’s tech-savvy population and budget opens doors for AI growth
China’s AI potential could be attributed to three advantages—a tech-savvy population, data access and a hefty domestic budget.
China’s online population—730 million—is not only double the size of the U.S.’s, but is more familiar with e-commerce and mobile shopping platforms driven by AI applications.
“Mobile [use] in China is light years ahead of anywhere else,” said one tech player to The Financial Times. “So you have a huge experimental lab for exciting AI applications. In China, we see different consumer behaviors every day, in the U.S., it’s a lot slower.”
The nation’s data access also boosts its global AI positioning. China’s data spans multiple AI-driven technologies, including autonomous vehicles and e-commerce sites that provide personalized recommendations for consumers. What’s more, China’s privacy laws are weaker than those in the U.S., since China begins collecting data on its citizens from birth and the nation’s tech tycoons, including Alibaba and Tencent, can access what they buy daily.
Unlike the U.S., China is not cutting back on science and technology funding next year. While U.S. federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), are not increasing their funding next year, China is tapping government and private sector funding to elevate its AI offering.
“The way the government is putting money in is getting smarter and smarter. Before they just gave money to research projects or big SOEs or universities,” Baidu co-founder and co-director at Peking University’s AI Innovation Center, Ming Lei, told The Financial Times. “But now they are more likely to give it to a private company, to one that is more active and can really produce the products and services.”
(Read more about China’s technology developments: Chinese Factories Ramp Up Spending on Robotics Amid Major Automation Push)
What China is doing to overcome AI challenges
China may have more tech-savvy consumers, better data access and unlimited tech funding, but the nation, which has the second largest AI ecosystem after the U.S., is taking on numerous efforts to step up its AI presence.
China has its sights on becoming the next AI superpower, by improving its national security and increasing its economic presence among other global tech leaders. Despite these goals, a recent LinkedIn survey indicated that China only had 50,000 people working in AI, while the U.S. has 850,000.To remedy this outlook, China, at the government and private sector level, is fronting large amounts of money to lure Chinese citizens, including those that traveled overseas to study and work, back to China to help build it’s AI sector.
The question remains, though, whether China is setting out to dominate the AI sector—or join other nations, including the U.S., in ramping up the international AI landscape. However, there is still concern that China, or consumer tech giants like Amazon and Alibaba, could control and lead AI over the next decade.
Companies sourcing in Mexico will very soon be facing labor costs that are 10 percent higher.Read more
The North American Free Trade Negotiations have turned into a blame game about which party is doing the most to damage the deal. Needless to say, little progress seems to have been made at the fifth round of negotiations that wrapped in Mexico City Tuesday.Read more
These retail technology startups are enabling retailers to boost operational efficiency and improve consumer purchasing journeys on multiple channels.Read more
Neiman Marcus revenue up on e-commerce initiatives and women's, Burlington income surges on strong assortment and off-price model, Madewell boosts J Crew's top line and Free People leads Urban Outfitters.Read more
FDRA data revealed that footwear consumers may be shopping more in stores for the holidays.Read more
Price may be king but convenience governs much of the way traditional retailers are thinking about their customers today.Read more


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Wholesaler Wanis has secured a long-term deal to become the sole UK distributor of the Jamaican Dragon Stout, as well as malt drink DG Malta, from the same country.
The distributor said it believed the Jamaican food and drink market was tipped to be the next big thing. MD Sanjay Wadhwani said: "Dragon is a truly great brand - Dragon Stout appeals to both the core ethnic base, as well as consumers from other backgrounds. More and more people are travelling to the Caribbean and returning home with a taste for Caribbean food and drink."
The 7.5% abv stout, which comes in a 284ml bottle, was first brewed in Jamaica in 1920 by Desnoes & Geddes.
"Dragon Stout represents a link to a life that is rooted in heritage and all that is genuinely Jamaican," said Wadhwani.


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Behind the wheel of vehicles of all types.
Posts filtered on Tag
Ford has been touting best-of-both-worlds powertrains lately, which deliver on muscle and fuel efficiency. The latest boast is that the all-new supercharged 5.8-liter powerplant in the 2013 Shelby GT500 is officially SAE certified as the most-powerful series production V-8 in the world, with peak output of 662 horsepower and 631 lb.-ft. of torque. That’s more […] [Read More]


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One of every five beauty purchases online is made via the Amazon marketplace, according to a new report.
CafePress uses data consumers share through Facebook to make better product suggestions.
CafePress late last year launched Likeable Gifts, a Facebook application that sifts through a consumer's Facebook friends to suggest products that might appeal to his friends. The application shows him suggestions for products he might be interested in, based on his interests, and gift ideas for his family and friends. The tool notes the keywords, pulled from his and his friends' Facebook activities, which guided the suggestions. For instance, it might note that "Mike Davis likes boating, partying and traveling." It then would suggest items in line with those interests, which, for Mike might be a tote bag that can be customized with his boat's name. "Social unlocks the key to valuable data that speaks to the heart of the consumer," says Bob Marino, the retailer's CEO.
To View a Sample Profile: Click Here
To View the Entire List: Click Here


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Ford engine fits in carry-on luggage
A pair of jocks, a few shirts, a toiletries bag and ... a car engine? This, obviously, is not your average suitcase.
Ford has shown off just how light its new 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine is – the company has taken the tiny powerplant onto a plane as hand-luggage.
Photos of the disassembled three-cylinder engine in a small suitcase surfaced on Ford's Facebook site recently, with a description for the photos saying: "We're packing it in a carry-on for the Los Angeles Autoshow!"
The engine in the bag is purely the bare block, without all the essential engine peripherals – including the all-important turbocharger. It was required to be lifted from the bag and placed into a plastic tray - much like you'd do with your laptop when you go through security at the airport.
The EcoBoost is being taken to the Los Angeles motor show as it will soon be offered in the US in the updated Fiesta city car.
The Ford EcoBoost three-cylinder won the coveted International Engine of the Year award for 2012.
-Fairfax News Australia


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The official New York Times app for iPhone was updated yesterday to include a series of new features and more content, bringing it at the same level of functionality of the iPad version, last updated in December 2010. The new version 3.0 doesn’t make any mention of the NYT’s upcoming paywall implementation or Apple’s in-app subscriptions, with the App Store description still reporting that New York Times for iPhone will be “free until early 2011”. We assume another update will be released shortly, to enable the paid subscriptions that the NYT is about to launch for its website, smartphone and tablet apps.
Navigation has been improved, enabling swipes to switch between articles – only on the iPhone 4. The process is quite smooth overall, and definitely helps navigating the app with touch. The app itself got more content thanks to the addition of blogs, which are now part of regular coverage. As for breaking news, those of you who care about being alerted in real-time can now enjoy the new push notification system that will alert you of major news events even if the New York Times app is closed or running in the background.
Whilst sections can still be accessed from the rightmost tab in the bottom toolbar, a new Favorites tab next to it allows you to bookmark sections and save articles you want to read later. We would like to see some sort of online sync with the iPad app, where sections and articles that you bookmark on the iPhone are automatically imported on the iPad, and vice versa. The UI is elegant as usual, and now the app is even more “visual” thanks to the addition of photos and videos within articles. These photos and videos got their own section as well (which can be bookmarked) and they play just fine using Apple’s default media player, although I haven’t been able to test their support for AirPlay streaming yet.
All in all, The New York Times 3.0 for iPhone is a nice update with lots more content and the interesting idea of Favorites, but we know the app will soon go under another update to enable the paywall. Or perhaps the functionality has already been built into the app and the developers are just waiting for March 28 to flip the switch. In the meantime, you can get the app for free here.


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The County Line Road retail corridor will lose another major retailer with the closing of the Best Buy store at 6374 Ridgewood Court in Jackson.
The store will close at the end of business on Oct. 31, the Richfield, Minn.-based chain said Monday in a release. It opened in November 2000.
The announcement comes on the heels of the recent closing of Sam’s Club in the same shopping center. Sam’s opened a new store in Madison in early August.
“We chose to close this store ahead of its lease end, as growth in other nearby areas has accounted for enhanced retail options and changed customer traffic,” spokesman Shane Kitzman said in an email.
He declined to say when the lease will expire.
“When the Jackson store closes, we will continue to operate two big box stores in the Jackson area as we have Best Buy stores less than 20 minutes away in Madison and in Flowood.”
“All 61 employees will have the opportunity to apply for positions at nearby Best Buy stores. Our goal is to keep as many employees with the company as we can. Full-time and part-time employees who do not secure a position at another Best Buy location will be eligible for a severance package. Employees were notified last night.”
In recent years, County Line has been losing retailers to newer shopping centers in the metro area.
Alan Hart, director of community development for Ridgeland, said: “We’re obviously concerned with what’s going on the other side of the street.”
Ridgeland and Jackson are working with merchants along the corridor to form a business improvement district to address issues that arise.
The corridor is still attractive, with 41,000 vehicles a day using the street, Hart said. “That’s attractive to a retailer,” he observed. And improvements on the four-lane road such as addition of a median have made it safer, he said.
The Clarion-Ledger quoted Jackson City Council President Melvin Priester as saying that “we have to reach out to existing businesses to make sure they have what they need and that we are out front on these situations. This is something that we are focused on and concerned about on the council.”
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Today there are some reports from at least two Palm Pre forums of screen distortion affecting the recently launched Pre. Palm has yet to acknowledge the issue, but there’s a lot of discussion at the Precentral forums, where most of the affected users are reporting a similar circular distortion at the bottom of the Pre’s screen., While at the EverythingPre forums, there are similar complaints.
It seems like some Sprint stores are aware of the issue, and have been exchanging the handsets for new ones, if they have the stock. There is some photo “evidence”, some of it more compelling than others. Though some of the “distortion” has been ID’d by users as a normal part of the background design.


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Scandinavian Tobacco Group UK (STG UK) is changing the name of its top-selling miniature cigar brand Café Crème to Signature.
The change, which will take place in February, following a phased transition starting now, will align the name with “positive consumer perceptions of the brand as an authentic, premium and a contemporary high-quality product,” STG UK said.
Launched back in 1963, Café Crème now has a 67.8% share of the total miniatures segment, according to STG.
Transition packs will feature a flash highlighting that the name will soon be changing to Signature.
Each pack will also include an inlay inside the tin with additional details informing consumers of the name change and reassuring them the cigars will remain the same.
New tins, featuring the same pack design used currently, and showcasing the Signature name, will then be brought to market in February.
Again, the inlay will convey more information to consumers and remind them that the product hasn’t changed.
Jens Christiansen, head of marketing & public affairs at STG UK, said: “We’re really excited to be continuing the evolution of one of the world’s leading cigar brands with the launch of its new Signature brand name.
“While the cigar itself will remain wholly unchanged, the new name has been proven to resonate exceptionally well with consumers, offering them reassurance on the exceptional quality synonymous with the brand.”
“The phased transition of the new name into the market will give retailers time to prepare their customers for the arrival of Signature next year to ensure no disruption to sales,” he added.


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A ban on plastic straws, drinks stirrers and cotton buds has been announced by the Government and is due to come into force in April 2020.
This follows a Government consultation which found overwhelming support for a ban.
More than 80% of respondents backed a ban on the distribution and sale of plastic straws, 90% a ban on drinks stirrers and 89% a ban on cotton buds.
Environment secretary Michael Gove said: “Urgent and decisive action is needed to tackle plastic pollution and protect our environment.
“These items are often used for just a few minutes but take hundreds of years to break down, ending up in our seas and oceans and harming precious marine life.”
Surfers Against Sewage chief executive officer Hugo Tagholm welcomed the move, describing these items as “single-use plastic menaces” and added: “It also helps further drive plastic-free options and alternatives for the public so they can truly make more sustainable choices in their daily lives.”
It is estimated that 95% of straws in circulation are still made from plastic.
But some groups think that Gove has not gone far enough. Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) was disappointed that all single-use items were not banned – whether they are made from plastics or not.
CPRE litter campaigner Maddy Haughton-Boakes said: “While it is fantastic news that the Government has taken such decisive action over plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds, we are deeply disappointed that Michael Gove has not taken this opportunity to ban these unnecessary items altogether, whatever the material.
“It is simply not good enough to switch to so-called alternatives when single-use items should be phased out.
“Without an outright ban, manufacturers will continue to produce them in other ‘less harmful’ materials, while our countryside and environment continue to face the devastating consequences of the vast amounts of waste they create.”
As part of the ban, however, exemptions have been made on medical grounds for plastic straws so that people with disabilities or those with special health requirements will still be able to access them. Eateries will be able to provide plastic straws on request but will not be able to hand them out automatically or have them on display. Pharmacies will also still be able to sell plastic straws over the counter and online.
Muscular Dystrophy UK trailblazers manager Lauren West explained that plastic straws were sometimes the only type that works for disabled people because of their flexibility and use in hot and cold drinks.
She said: “If disabled people cannot access plastic straws when out, it could put their health at risk as they may not be able to drink and could become dehydrated.”


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Feds sue to block Microsoft’s $69B video game deal
FTC argues the deal would harm competition in the video game industry.
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued to block Microsoft’s purchase of the video game giant Activision Blizzard, maker of the hit games Call of Duty and Candy Crush, arguing the $69 billion deal would harm competition in the video game industry.
The lawsuit is the FTC’s biggest move yet under Chair Lina Khan to rein in the power of the world’s largest technology companies. It is also a major black mark for Microsoft, which has positioned itself as a white knight of sorts on antitrust issues in the tech sector after going through its own grueling regulatory antitrust battles around the world more than two decades ago.
The lawsuit, filed in the FTC’s in-house administrative court, comes a day after Microsoft executives and the company’s lawyers met with the agency’s three Democratic commissioners in a last ditch effort to defend the deal, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Now that the case is pending in the FTC’s in-house court, an administrative judge will preside over a trial, followed by an appeal to the commissioners, who are now walled off from the staff attorneys working on the litigation.
The FTC voted, 3-1, to issue the complaint, with all three Democrats — Lina Khan, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter — supporting the move, and Republican Christine S. Wilson voting no.
POLITICO previously reported that a lawsuit could come as early as December.
Central to the FTC’s concerns is whether acquiring Activision would give Microsoft an unfair boost in the video game market. Microsoft’s Xbox is No. 3 behind the industry-leading Sony Interactive Entertainment and its PlayStation console. Sony, however, has emerged as the deal’s primary opponent, telling the FTC and regulators in other countries that if Microsoft made hit games like Call of Duty exclusive to its platforms, Sony would be significantly disadvantaged.
On Thursday, the FTC said Microsoft has a history of buying game companies and making key titles exclusive. The agency pointed to the acquisition of ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, and the subsequent move to make several games, including"Starfield” and “Redfall,” Microsoft exclusives “despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles.”
Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, said that the company has “been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns, including by offering earlier this week proposed concessions to the FTC,” adding that “While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court.”
In a missive to employees, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sounded upbeat on Thursday, noting that while news of the suit “sounds alarming,” he remains confident “this deal will close.”
“The allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn’t align with the facts, and we believe we’ll win this challenge,” Kotick added.
Microsoft has pledged to continue making Call of Duty available on Sony’s PlayStation console, and recently made an offer to give Sony access to the game for the next 10 years, an overture reiterated in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Monday by Microsoft President Brad Smith. Sony has not accepted the offer and has yet to comment publicly.
On Tuesday, Microsoft said it reached similar 10-year agreements with Nintendo and Valve, operator of video game distribution service Steam. Call of Duty is not currently available on Nintendo, but it is through Steam. The agreements are contingent on Microsoft closing the Activision deal.
Microsoft has repeatedly said that pulling Call of Duty from Sony’s market-leading PlayStation console would not make financial sense. The FTC’s concerns, however, extend beyond physical consoles, and include whether Microsoft would leverage the deal to dominate the nascent cloud gaming market and subscription gaming services. The company’s Xbox Game Pass is already the market-leading subscription service.
Concerns also extend beyond Call of Duty, with the agency asking during its investigation whether Microsoft could leverage future, unannounced titles to boost its gaming business, according to two people with knowledge of the review.
The FTC said that Microsoft would have both “the means and motive to harm competition” if it brought Activision’s big games under its control. Microsoft could change pricing, make a game play differently or perhaps worse on rival consoles or keep content “from competitors entirely, resulting in harm to consumers.”
The FTC is not the companies’ only hurdle. Both the EU and U.K. also have ongoing in-depth probes of the deal, with a preliminary U.K. decision due in late January and final decision due in late March. The EU also has a late March deadline to wrap up its probe. An FTC official, who requested anonymity as a condition of speaking with press, said the outcome of the European probes won’t necessarily impact the agency’s case.
“The fact that the commission voted out a complaint meant that they believe there’s grounds to proceed at this point,” the official said. “There’s nothing that welds U.S. regulators to move in lockstep with non-U.S. To the contrary, we have our own statutes.” The official also noted that the FTC’s case deals specifically with the U.S. geographic market and “harm that could occur to U.S. consumers.”
The FTC is currently neck deep in the gaming market, with a trial also starting Thursday in its lawsuit to block Meta Platforms takeover of Within, maker of Supernatural, a virtual reality fitness game. And the agency is now in the middle of prosecuting a sprawling antitrust case against Meta. The FTC and its backers in Congress have long worried the agency lacks the resources to go toe-to-toe with the largest tech companies — and now it’s just picked a fight with another one.
“These are very, very wealthy corporations. They hire armies of lawyers,” the FTC official said. “At the same time, I would say we are absolutely ready to litigate this case. The FTC has, I think, the world’s finest antitrust fighting force, and they are standing ready to prosecute this.”
Brendan Bordelon contributed to this report.


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A LOCAL MLA has welcomed the government’s speedy U-turn on their Bangor Christmas parking ad ban – but says he still can’t work out why they said no in the first place.
As the Spectator revealed last week, North Down Borough Council wanted to help out Bangor town centre businesses struggling with disruption from the public realm reconstruction scheme.
The council planned a publicity blitz advertising Bangor as open for business, something designed to brighten up the vital Christmas shopping period for local retailers who have seen takings down by as much as 50% in the past few months.
As part of that plan the council wanted to hang a few posters off lampposts around the town centre telling motorists where car parks are located, how much they charge and how many spaces are available.
But officials in the recently rebranded Roads Service, Transport NI, banned the council from doing it – even though Transport NI allows councils to hang similar posters off lampposts advertising special events like Christmas markets.
The council defaulted to a plan B of putting posters in retailers’ windows while angry business leaders contacted the Spectator over the parking ad ban.
We demanded answers from the Department for Regional Development (DRD), which controls Transport NI.
Last Wednesday morning (3rd) the DRD promised us they’d negotiate further with the council – but by mid-afternoon they’d done a complete U-turn and given the council the go-ahead for the posters.
Now North Down MLA Gordon Dunne, who went as far as petitioning the Regional Development Minister in attempt to overturn the ban, has welcomed that high-speed U-turn.
But, perhaps understandably, he’s questioning why Transport NI said no in the first place.
“I am pleased that the signs can now be erected,” he said, “but I cannot understand why the DRD’s Transport NI initially rejected this initiative.
“The weeks leading up to Christmas are a very important time for local retailers and it is imperative that every effort is made to promote Bangor as an accessible place. The message must go out, Bangor is open for business.
“That’s why I could not understand Transport NI’s rationale and raised the issue with Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy to ensure the correct decision was made.
“I am glad that common sense has prevailed on this occasion, any attempt to make Bangor more accessible to shoppers must be welcomed and encouraged.”


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January 10, 2011
InteraXon, a Canadian digital innovations company, was the hit of the recent Consumer Electronics Association tradeshow in Las Vegas this month when it unveiled the latest products incorporating Thought-Controlled Computing: a technology that lets users control a digital interface using simply the power of their concentration. InteraXon's creations include thought-controlled 3D glasses as well as an iPad game that tests a person’s ability to focus their mind for an extended period of time.
“We’ve developed a simple sensor that sits on your forehead and reads your brainwaves," InteraXon CEO Ariel Garten told FoxNews.com. "It’s just like a heart monitor that can read your heart rate. And the software translates your brainwave data and uses it to control your virtual world.”
InteraXon has also been working with Peter Carlen, a neurologist from Toronto Western Hospital, and Berj Bardakjian
, a biomedical engineering professor at the University of Toronto. They intend to develop BCI technology that can detect seizures in those suffering from epilepsy -- and maybe even predict them, too. Carlen believes that the work is merely the tip of the iceberg in what will soon become an industry standard.
Follow the link to read the full article on the Fox News website.


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The battle over Internet speeds and net neutrality continues to rage, with service providers such as Verizon on one side, and consumers and content providers such as Netflix on the other. But on July 30, consumers received support from perhaps an unexpected place: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
In a letter to Verizon, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler questioned part of Verizon’s plan to cap speeds for heavy data users during times of high demand. In the letter, Wheeler questioned why Verizon’s current plan only applies to customers on an unlimited data plan.
“I am deeply troubled by your July 25, 2014 announcement that Verizon Wireless intends to slow down some customers’ data speeds on your 4G LTE network starting in October 2014,” the letter opens. Wheeler later adds, “‘Reasonable network management’ concerns the technical management of your network; it is not a loophole designed to enhance your revenue streams. It is disturbing to me that Verizon Wireless would base its ‘network management’ on distinctions among its consumers’ data plans, rather than on network architecture or technology.”
Recently, many network carriers, including Verizon, have turned away from unlimited data plans in favor of data caps or usage-based pricing. However, Verizon has also agreed to grandfather in customers who previously held unlimited plans. In the letter, Wheeler said that this move could unfairly steer customers from the unlimited plans they have held for so long, forcing them to select data caps in order to maintain Internet speed.
“I know of no past Commission statement that would treat as ‘reasonable network management’ a decision to slow traffic to a user who has paid, after all, for ‘unlimited’ service,” Wheeler said.
The FCC is still currently devising rules concerning how network providers can manage data on their networks. Although many technology companies have called for net neutrality — the idea of an equal Internet for all — Verizon and other providers seek the ability to make deals and provide some companies with a speedier service.


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“We have been debating how to start out this advisory. How do you explain that 90% or so of the Windows NT web servers on the Internet are open to a hole that lets an attacker execute arbitrary code on the remote Web server?”
eEye’s Digital Security Team recently issued a security alert regarding the latest release of Microsoft’s Internet Information Server 4.0, “the most commonly used web server on the Internet.”
According to the eEye alert, while testing their Retina network security scanning product, they discovered that by utilizing what’s known as a buffer overflow bug in the web server software, an attacker could remotely execute code to enable system level access to all data housed on the server.
What this means, of course, is that outside, hostile forces could potentially exploit this vulnerability to assume control of Web sites, including e-commerce operations, accessing credit card information and more.
“When the team notified me of the breach, I felt the ground move,” commented Firas Bushnaq, president & CEO of eCompany LLC, an e-commerce firm and parent company of eEye. “Are you telling me that our Web sites, online businesses and our clients data are open to any cracker with half a brain?”
Microsoft ‘s Security Advisor page posted a workaround to assist users in dealing with the problem, but at press time had not yet posted a patch “to eliminate the vulnerability altogether.”
According to a Microsoft security bulletin dated 6.15.99 — one week after eEye notified the software giant of the hole they’d discovered — the vulnerability could allow either denial of service attacks against an IIS server or, under certain conditions, it could allow arbitrary code to be run on the server.
The eEye advisory states that this security hole might permit remote access to a IIS server if an attacker finds a buffer overflow in .HTR files, exploiting a capability that allows users to remotely change their password. The ISM.DLL, that processes .HTR files, could be disabled, essentially granting the unauthorized access.
“We’ve Created The Hacker On Steroids”
Retina, The Network Security Scanner, is currently available for beta testing from eEye’s Web site. According to the firm, “one of Retina’s features utilizes an Artificial Intelligence engine that is designed to think like a hacker. Collecting data and mining for information from the target network or Web server.”
The data is then used in auditing efforts to spot potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses in security, such as what was found with the Microsoft server product. “We’ve just released the first beta of Retina one week ago and already we have more than three major exploits on our hands, and we’ve definitely created the hacker on steroids, I can imagine what’s coming in the next month,” stated a member of the eEye Digital Security Team.


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Apple is clearly hoping to attract Android users, as it put up a guide for moving content from Android to iPhone, including mail and contacts, photos and videos, music, books, documents, and apps.
As expected, Chrome OS now has the ability to run Android apps — well at least four of them to start: Duolingo, Evernote, Sight Words and Vine.
KitKat, the latest version of Android, is gaining ground, now running on almost a quarter of all Android devices, while older versions such as FroYo and Gingerbread are on the decline.
YouTube has silently given its Android app a neat feature. The mobile experience now includes what seems like a Notifications page or tab that can be accessed from the left slide-out drawer.
Today’s Pushbullet update is very exciting – it makes it a little easier to communicate by allowing you to respond to text messages from your computer.
Huawei stays relatively quiet, but it seems they know their business and aren’t afraid to tell it like it is when hit by the spotlight.
For this week’s Friday Debate we discuss what we would change about Andriod and its ecosystem, if we had the power. What would you change?
A new fragmentation report points out that there are 18,796 “distinct” Android devices, 20% of which are running Android 4.4 KitKat.
LibreOffice developers have expressed interest in porting the open source office suite to mobile platforms, Android included.
The Android platform version numbers for August are out, showing steady growth for KitKat and a very small increase for the antiquated Gingerbread.


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The Philippines Remains In The Top 5 In Global Financial Inclusion Ranking
In this year’s Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) global financial inclusion ranking, the Philippines ranked fifth our of 55 countries. It dropped one notch from last year’s ranking, tied with India, making both countries the two-highest ranking Asian countries in the list. The Philippines’s score slipped to 71 this year from 72 in 2018.
EIU’s report stated that the Philippines has increased its focus on digital financial inclusion, with the launch of a biometric national identification system and a programme to provide a one-stop-shop for online government services. The report also mentioned the efforts being made to increase financial and digital literacy, the only downside to it is that it lacks gender goals.
Earlier this year the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) noted that they are on track in the implementation of the national identification system, which will further boost financial inclusion in the country. Unbanked individuals will be able to open an account with the local banks.
The EIU also noted that Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has created a support institution to focus on digital financial technology for reaching the underserved. Among this initiative include’s BSP’s launch of the Government e-Payments (EGov Pay) Facility last month.
The EGov Pay Facility will allow government agencies to accept digital payments and the QRPh, the national standard for quick response codes across the country. This will integrate all digital payment solutions.
This feat is indeed a step towards the right direction, but it may still be improved with the participation of more institutions, according to the EIU report. It remarked how interoperability in retail payments are still constrained by a limited number of participating institutions and high transaction cost. Non-banks and Microfinance institutions (MFIs) still need strong supervision as well as dispute resolution mechanisms for government payments.


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Dairy giant Vinamilk is the only Vietnamese company to land a spot on latest Nikkei Asian Review’s Asia300, an exclusive list of the most powerful and valuable listed companies in the region.
The Southeast Asian country’s largest dairy producer, officially named Vietnam Dairy Products, ranked eighth on the list, rubbing shoulders with such regional giants as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, according to the rankings released on Thursday.
Founded in 1976, Vinamilk originally entered the market selling exclusively condensed milk, once considered a luxury good, at affordable prices. Since then, the company has become “a pioneer in Vietnam's dairy industry and has persuaded generations of Vietnamese to make milk part of their diet,” Nikkei Asian Review said in a report on Thursday.
Having solidified a firm grip on the domestic market, Vinamilk is now casting an ambitious eye on furthering its international expansion.
As of December 2016, the company’s products were being sold in 42 countries, raking in an overseas revenue of around VND4.4 trillion ($193 million) in the first half of the year. Vinamilk has a sales network of 220,000 retailers, more than any other food processor in Vietnam.
Topping the Asia300 ranking of power performers is Taiwan’s Largan Precision, the world’s leading smartphone camera supplier, followed by India’s HCL Technologies.
Indian companies occupied as many as ten spots in the list’s top 30, outplaying their Chinese and Southeast Asian peers.
The Asia300 is Nikkei’s exclusive list of the 327 biggest and fastest-growing companies from 11 economies across the continent, excluding Japan.
The rankings are compiled based off four factors: growth, profitability, efficiency, and financial soundness.
Below is the top ten of the Asia300 Power Performers Ranking


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More cases are being flaunted for the upcoming iPhone 8, this time by Rock.
There’s very little doubt about what the new iPhone will look like now, so all we are waiting to confirm are the final specifications.
PS – Apple iPhone 8 launch date is expected to be September 12, 2017.
Also, apparently Apple are also looking for another supplier for the OLED screens that they are currently purchasing from… You guessed it? Samsung. For more on that story…read here


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Electronic Arts Inc. reported a drop in revenues for the crucial December quarter on Wednesday afternoon, as gains from digital channels failed to fully offset a sharp drop in videogame sales at traditional retailers.
That brought EA’s EA, +1.12% total revenue for its third fiscal quarter below Wall Street’s projections, though the company posted adjusted earnings for the period that was in line with analysts’ estimates.
Blake Jorgensen, EA’s chief financial officer, said a big part of the weakness stemmed from the industry-wide slump in retail game sales, as gamers are anticipating the launch of new consoles as the current installed base has aged.
“A lot of this has been driven by being at the tail end of the current console life cycle,” Jorgensen said. While he said the company could not comment on plans for new products from console makers, “I think everyone knows that is coming.”
Shares of EA fell initially, then rose slightly in after-hours trades following the results. The videogame publisher issued a forecast that was slightly below the consensus targets projected by analysts. The stock has jumped more than 26% since its last report, though remains down for the last 12 months.
For the period ended Dec. 31, EA reported a net loss of $45 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $205 million or 62 cents per share for the same period the previous year.
Adjusted for items like stock-based compensation and deferred sales from certain game titles, EA said it would have earned $176 million, or 57 cents a share, for the recent quarter. Analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 56 cents a share for the period, according to consensus projections from FactSet.
Total revenue fell by 13% at $922 million. Adjusted net revenue was $1.18 billion for the quarter — below the $1.29 billion projected by analysts.
The company’s “FIFA 13” soccer title was a strong performer in the period, selling through more than 12 million units. But the quarter was hurt by a disappointing performance of the combat shooter “Medal of Honor: Warfighter,” which compared negatively with the company’s last shooter “Battlefield 3” from the previous holiday season.
The March quarter is also an important one for EA, when the much-anticipated sequels to the “Dead Space” and “Crysis” franchises will be launched. EA said Wednesday that early orders of both “Dead Space 3” and “Crysis 3” are tracking well above their predecessors.
Another smaller title called “Fuse” was shifted out of the quarter, and Jorgensen said the company has chosen to be extra cautious, given the current weak retail environment.
The company projected adjusted net revenue in the range of $1.03 billion to $1.13 billion for the quarter — below the $1.22 billion expected by analysts. Adjusted earnings for the quarter are expected to come in the range of 57 cents to 72 cents a share; analysts were expecting 72 cents a share for the quarter.


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IBM will buy analytics and information forecaster SPSS for $1.2 billion in cash, the companies said Tuesday.
IBM is paying $50 per share for the publicly traded company, which closed Monday on Nasdaq at $35.09. At 6:45 a.m. PDT, the stock had jumped to $49.16.
Chicago-based SPSS makes predictive-analytics software and solutions. Its products tap into vast amounts of customer information that companies can use to try to stay competitive.
Predictive-analytics software is used to gather opinions from customers, forecast future demand, and package the information into business analytics. By capturing and analyzing trends, the … Read more


text: Dell has announced a deal to buy security equipment outfit SonicWALL for an undisclosed cash sum reported to be around the $1-$1.5 billion mark.If this figure is correct, it would mean that private equity group Thoma Bravo will have possibly doubled its money after buying SonicWALL for $717 million in July 2010.For the once PC-centric Dell, the significance is that it greatly expands its security profile into the security appliances and Unified Threat Management (UTM) hardware that sell well to the mid-sized companies Dell so covets.The company will add it to a security portfolio that already includes encryption and cloud security company SecureWorks, bought in 2011, and vulnerability and patching vendor, Kace, bought in 2010.What the clutch of acquisitions adds up to is Dell's transformation into an integrated security company, a strategy driven by the need for large tech companies to offer security products without the need for partnerships.Although a distinctly mid-size security hardware vendor - and tiny next to Dell - SonicWALL gives the larger company a presence it badly needs."We are building a strategic software portfolio to address the needs of our customers with key assets in the fast-growing and highly profitable IT security solutions business. Our customers see security as a key IT concern for the foreseeable future," said Dell Software Group president, John Swainson."SonicWALL gives Dell access to unique intellectual property resources and technology that position us well in fast growing parts of the software security business."As an incidental, Thoma Bravo is ridding itself of one security vendor at a healthy profit only weeks after spending $1.3 billion buying another, Blue Coat Systems.


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Canada has passed a landmark law that legalises the recreational use of marijuana nationwide.
The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed and sold.
Canadians will be able to buy and consume the drug legally as early as this September.
The country is the first in the G7 to legalise the drug's recreational use.
Cannabis possession first became a crime in Canada in 1923 but medical use has been legal since 2001.
The bill is likely to receive Royal Assent this week, and the government will then choose an official date when the law will come into force.
It is expected to give the provinces and territories, as well as municipalities, eight to 12 weeks to set up the new marijuana marketplace.
This timeframe will also allows industry and police forces to prepare for the new legal framework.
It is likely that by mid-September, Canadians will be able to buy cannabis and cannabis oil grown by licensed producers at various retail locations.
They will also be allowed to purchase plants and seeds from regulated retailers.
Canadians across the country will be able to order marijuana online from federally licensed producers.
Adults will be able to possess up to 30 grams of dried cannabis in public.
Edibles, or cannabis-infused foods, will not be immediately available for purchase but will be within a year of the bill coming into force. The delay is meant to give the government time to set out regulations specific to those products.
The minimum legal age to buy and consume marijuana has been set federally at 18, but some provinces have chosen to set it at 19.


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Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), the leading US-based copper miner, fell 2.7% yesterday. This fall took its March losses to 4.5%. However, the stock is still up 20% year-to-date. Southern Copper (SCCO), Rio Tinto (RIO), and BHP Billiton (BHP) have risen 23.7%, 24.4%, and 15.1%, respectively, this year.
Freeport is a pure-play copper miner, and its fortunes are closely tied to copper prices. Copper prices have been largely rangebound over the last few weeks. Copper is caught in a tussle between bulls and bears. While bears think China’s slowdown will hurt copper prices, bulls point to the positive supply-side fundamentals. We should remember that copper markets are expected to enter into a structural supply deficit as global mined copper production is not expected to keep pace with demand growth.
Demand tends to be a bigger price driver, especially in scenarios like we currently have. China is the world’s biggest consumer of metals, and even a hint of a slowdown in the Chinese economy sends metal prices into a tailspin, copper being no exception. This month, China’s economic data including auto sales and industrial production have disappointed markets. China’s February trade data also spooked investors, as its exports in US dollar terms fell 20.7%, while its imports fell 5.2% YoY.
However, China’s copper imports sent mixed signals. While its unwrought copper imports fell 11.6% YoY, copper ore and concentrate imports rose 33.1%. Read China’s February Trade Data Compounded Slowdown Fears for a detailed analysis of China’s February trade data.


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News & Events
The Liechtenstein Bankers Association will in future be cooperating with the Blockchain Research Institute. The think-tank, which is based in the Canadian city of Toronto, aims to empower business leaders to become catalysts of the blockchain transformation.
Liechtenstein has presented itself as a sustainable economic area at the Swiss Green Economy Symposium. Chief executives from companies such as Hilcona, Hilti and LGT offered specific examples of how they are contributing to sustainability both at home and around the world.
LGT Private Banking launched its impact investment fund in May. After oversubscription five times the target size, the Lightrock Evergreen Fund has now closed fundraising with a volume of 900 million US dollars. LGT clients and staff were able to invest in it.
Amnesty International, Swiss Section is now accepting cryptocurrency donations. These are being processed by Bank Frick of Liechtenstein. It has developed a model that can be used to check the origin of these transactions.
“Die Liechtenstein Venture Cooperative LVC” – Praktische Fragen und Vorstellung des LVC Code of Conduct 2.0 miit Dr. Thomas Dünser und Dr. Clara Billek
Vortragsreihe – «ÖKONOMIE – ZUSAMMENSPIEL VON WISSENSCHAFT UND PRAXIS»
Save the date – Informationen zu Speaker und Thema folgen.


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BOSTON – Shawmut completed the flagship store for Reebok on the ground level of its new South Boston headquarters. Shawmut worked together with Reebok, Ziba Design, BKA Architects, and Cornerstone Building and Property Services.
The 7,600-square-foot store, located at 25 Drydock Ave. in Boston’s Seaport District, marks the 15th location Shawmut has built for Reebok over the past 12 years. The new space features exclusive experiential elements that reflect the company’s mission to provide best-in-class retail technology and customer service, while honoring its heritage of in-house shoemaking. Shawmut worked closely with the Reebok team to build out the flagship’s most notable feature, the YourReebok Customization Shop, where a staff of craftsmen will handmake custom sneakers for customers.
“Reebok is an iconic American brand, and it was an honor for our team to play a part in the evolution and expansion of its legacy by building this new flagship,” said Greg Skalaski, vice president of retail at Shawmut Design and Construction. “We’re proud to unveil a unique retail experience in Boston that nods to both Reebok’s heritage and its future.”
Shawmut installed custom millwork throughout the space that will display products exclusive to Boston alongside its classic assortment. The team also focused on the space’s technological features, including state-of-the-art enhanced digital displays and a structural steel rig system that supports an LED screen to display footwear. Because the store is housed within a historic building that was used to build ships during World War I, the project required extensive refinishing of the space’s many industrial elements, including century-old concrete ceilings and flooring. The complex buildout was completed on a fast-tracked nine-week timeline.
The Reebok flagship represents the latest in a series of projects for Shawmut’s retail team, including Fred Segal in West Hollywood, Bottega Veneta on Madison Avenue, and adidas on Las Vegas Boulevard.


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Novabeans Launches What Could Be The World’s Largest 3D Printed Cell Phone Cover Library
While the Syrian refugee crisis continued to unfold throughout Europe I was struck by something that I saw being passed around social media. It was a picture of several refugees charging their smartphones, along with the suggestion that somehow because they even had a cell phone they were not truly refugees and didn’t need help. The comments that I saw under these images tended to be–let’s be polite and say unkind. Certainly a fair share of them were clearly racist, but I wonder how many of them were made by people who seem to think that cellular technology is something that is only common in the United States or Europe. But whether the reactions are racist or simply ignorant, reality paints a far different picture.
The UN released a rather telling set of figures that puts into context exactly how common cell phones are. Of the world’s population of seven billion, it is estimated that six billion of them have mobile phones. Now if you compare that with the four and a half billion who have reliable access to toilets, then there are more people on the planet with cellphones than functional plumbing. The idea that only those in the West have cellular technology just couldn’t be any more wrong. And as prices on cellular technology continue to drop, that number simply keeps increasing.
A cell phone isn’t just a device to make telephone calls with anymore either; a large percentage of people use phones to access the internet, find directions, shop online and even pay their bills. Cell phones are, at this point, not a luxury of the West, but actually rather ubiquitous to populations all over the planet. In fact, some of the highest concentrations of mobile phones are throughout Southeast Asia, where just in India alone there are nearly a billion people with cell phones. Frankly, I think that a lot of people in the West simply have perceptions of certain parts of the world are woefully out of touch. While many Westerners certainly know that a lot of tech services are outsourced there, India has also quietly been becoming a hotbed of emergent technology, especially 3D printing.
As one of the region’s first providers of 3D printing services, products and education materials Novabeans has found themselves expanding rapidly and adding new services and technology at a quicker rate than most Western companies could boast. In the last year alone Novabeans has added 3D printing education workshops, consulting services, jewelry fabrication services and now what could potentially be the largest 3D printed phone cover marketplace on the planet.
It is interesting watching watching countries that the West often ignores use new technology like 3D printing in ways that we can’t seem to figure out yet. 95% of Americans have cell phones, and the phone case market is already pretty massive, so why aren’t 3D printed cell phone covers more popular? We’ve seen a few attempts to start them up, but they’ve never really taken off. Either the selection is limited, the available options are priced way too high or, if even available, the customization features are hard to use and poorly designed. The US just can’t seem to figure out how to make something that should be a no brainer work.
At launch Novabeans is already offering hundreds of case designs for several popular phone models with more to come. They offer a complete range of customization options including multiple colors, materials and even the option to include a name or create a unique case. And when their target market has a billion people with cell phones looking for protective cases, it isn’t hard to imagine what that could evolve into. The marketplace has just launched, so it is possible that Novabeans attempt will be just as fruitless as the attempts made in the West. But so far they’ve done well with the other 3D printing markets that they’ve entered into, so if anyone is situated to make 3D printed cell phone cases profitable it’s Novabeans.
Will you be 3D printing your own smartphone cover? Let us know in the Novabeans forum thread on 3DPB.com.
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LendingClub (LC) Debuts New Auto Refi Product; Will Initially Launch in California
- Wall Street falls with financials, other post-election gainers
- The FTC Confirms Antitrust Charges Against Qualcomm (QCOM) for Monopolizing Semiconductor Device Used in Cell Phones
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Find out which companies are about to raise their dividend well before the news hits the Street with StreetInsider.com's Dividend Insider Elite. Sign-up for a FREE trial here.
Lending Club (NYSE: LC) announced the launch of an auto refinance product that gives car owners a simple solution to save money on their auto loans. The product is being launched initially to California residents with plans to expand nationally in early 2017.
The new auto refinance product leverages Lending Club's technology and expertise to help eligible consumers save money by refinancing into more affordable loans with better rates, clear terms, and no hidden fees.
"Tens of millions of Americans borrow over half a trillion dollars every year to buy cars. The practices and processes of the auto lending industry offer consumers limited options and a lack of transparency. This has created a gap between the rates consumers pay and the rates they might otherwise qualify for, unnecessarily driving up debt burdens," said Scott Sanborn, Lending Club's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are excited to leverage our technology and core capabilities to put thousands of dollars back in consumers' pockets."
Lending Club has become the nation's largest platform for personal loans, primarily by helping consumers gain access to lower interest rates as compared to traditional options such as high interest credit cards. Currently there is more than $1 trillion in auto debt outstanding, with just a fraction of that - $40 billion - refinanced annually. This represents huge potential for both Lending Club's platform and the millions of Americans who could save by refinancing into a more affordable product. Lending Club estimates the average APR for borrowers on new loans through Lending Club will be about 1-3% lower than their current loan, translating into an average savings of up to $1,350 over the life of the loan.1
"This is Lending Club's first offering of access to a secured loan with an overall risk and return profile that's complementary to the unsecured loans available through our platform. It's a big step in the evolution of our platform, a win for consumers, and will give our investors access to another proven asset," Sanborn said.
The new offering through Lending Club's platform is designed to educate and enable consumers to reduce the total interest they pay and/or lower their monthly payments, through a fast, automated and secure online experience. In less than a minute, consumers can check their rate online to see what they might qualify for based on their credit profile and ability to repay, as well as the make, model, mileage, and current value of their vehicle. Lending Club makes it easy for the borrower to compare the offer through Lending Club to their existing loan, calculating the estimated monthly savings or total savings over the life of the loan. Once a borrower selects an offer, completes the application process and is approved, WebBank will issue a new loan ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, with terms ranging from 2-6 years and APRs starting at 2.49% and up to 19.99%2, and Lending Club will facilitate paying off a borrowers' existing loan. Customers can find out more about their auto refinancing options through Lending Club at lendingclub.com/apply/site/auto-refinancing.
Scott Sanborn will deliver a keynote speech about Lending Club and the new Auto Refinance offering that is available through Lending Club's platform at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada today at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. Eastern Time). The slides from the presentation will be available at http://ir.lendingclub.com under the Events & Presentations menu once the presentation starts.
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Some bot-infected PCs can crank out as many as 25,000 spam messages per hour, new research released Wednesday claimed.
The Obama administration is considering a new military cyber command for protecting US Department of Defense networks and developing offensive cyber war capabilities, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
A security consultant is developing a search engine called NKill that aims to track the security vulnerabilities on every computer connected to the Internet, with the ability for users to search for vulnerable computers in a country or inside a speci...
Criminals have built a massive "botnet" network of hacked computers that has infected an estimated 1.9 million computers worldwide, including systems within U.S. and U.K. government networks, security vendor Finjan reported Tuesday.
AVG launched AVG LinkScanner as a free standalone product.
Officials with eBay encouraged police, prosecutors and U.S. enforcement agencies to contact them for help on investigations, saying that working with law enforcement is a top priority for the huge retail and auction site.
Zango, the adware distributor fined US$3 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2006 for sneaking software onto people's PCs, has closed its doors after being acquired by video search engine blinx.
A worm referencing celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey is rapidly spreading across microblogging site Twitter, security firm Sophos said on Friday.
A computer security researcher has released an upgraded tool that can simplify the placement of difficult-to-detect malicious software in Microsoft's .Net framework on Windows computers.
Google has put a new spin on the CAPTCHA, a way of helping Web sites distinguish between human visitors and bots: It wants people to tell it which way is up in a series of randomly rotated images, a task that humans find easy and computers difficult.
The Internet needs to be more trustworthy if it wants to grow, according to Microsoft's senior security executive, Scott Charney.
Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it is boosting security on solid-state drives by bundling data encryption software with SSDs it ships.
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration and Congress will have to address major civil liberties and transparency concerns as they create new policies to tackle ongoing cybersecurity vulnerabilties in the government and private industry, a digita...
Thousands of Web sites have been rigged to deliver a powerful piece of malicious software that many security products may be unprepared to handle.
The global energy bill required to transmit, process and filter spam e-mail in 2008 totaled some 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), according to a new report commissioned by security software vendor McAfee and carried out by ICF International.
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How to install BiteSMS beta for iOS 7 on your iPhone
If you've jailbroken your iPhone on iOS 7, BiteSMS is arguably the jailbreak app everyone has to have. Mainly because it completely replaces the native Messages app and adds the sought after quick reply and quick compose features that Apple won't. Currently BiteSMS is in beta form for iOS 7 but that doesn't mean you can't have it right now. Here's how to get it:
Full story from the iMore Blog...
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New York — Amazon is backing out of its plan to build a new corporate campus in New York City, according to The New York Times.
The tech giant planned to bring 25,000 jobs to Long Island City in Queens. In exchange, the state and city agreed to give the company $3 billion in incentives.
But the deal sparked opposition from some local lawmakers and activists who criticized the subsidies involved and Amazon’s track record on some issues, including union organizing.
The plan to build in New York came after an extensive search Amazon launched for a second headquarters location outside its home base in Seattle. The company ended up choosing to build two new sites, with the other in northern Virginia.
The company has been more warmly received there. It is also expanding in Nashville, Tennessee.
Amazon said in a statement that local opposition was the main reason it is dropping its New York City plans.
“While polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” the company’s statement said, according to the Times.
The firm did say it would continue to grow its presence in New York City, where it currently has 5,000 employees. Amazon also said it would not reopen its search for a new site and would simply proceed instead with existing major plans for Virginia and Nashville.
“We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion—we love New York, its incomparable dynamism, people, and culture — and particularly the community of Long Island City, where we have gotten to know so many optimistic, forward-leaning community leaders, small business owners, and residents," the company said, according to NBC News.
Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598


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Merged drug duo eye £300m float
A NEW medical research company, created this week by the merger of Scotland's Strakan Group and ProSkelia of France, plans a £300m float.
Harry Stratford, chief executive of Strakan and of the new combined business, said today that the firm, whose products range from a bone-disease treatment to a pill to boost sex drive, will seek a public listing, possibly within 12 months.
Stratford, 56, and Strakan chairman John Kanis, 59, could make £15m each from their stakes in Strakan, which they founded in 1995 and first thought of floating two years ago when it was valued at £200m.
'With a float, we expect the new firm to be at least in the FTSE 350 - worth at least £300m where the market is at moment,' Stratford said.
The pair have together invested £5.5m in Strakan after selling their stakes in Shire Pharmaceuticals, which they founded in 1986.
Stratford said the new company would look for an investment bank to help with a float once it has raised 'at least £10m' from its venture capital backers, Warburg Pincus, 3i and London Merchant Securities.
Strakan's main seller is Adcal-D3, a supplement to help osteoporosis and is trialling its sex-drive pill. ProSkelia researches skeletal diseases and hormone-related cancers.
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Good news for fellow drunks: St. Louis-area liquor stores have been deemed "essential" by St. Louis-area officials and will be exempted from today's "stay at home" order that will force businesses across the region to close in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The stay at home order, which goes into effect Monday in both St. Louis city and county, essentially strongly encourages people to leave their house only if absolutely necessary and mandates that businesses whose services are not deemed essential — tattoo parlors, movie theaters, playgrounds, bowling alleys, etc. — close their doors to the public for the time being.
But there are exceptions for businesses that provide things that the public needs at this time. That includes health care facilities, of course, as well as grocery stores, farmers' markets, produce stands, gas stations and the like.
And, because the ability to get blind drunk in our homes in the absence of anything better to do is truly essential in these trying times, it also includes liquor stores.
Well, OK, that's not exactly how the officials put it. In reality, the stores fall under the category of "essential" because of the other things they provide — primarily food and water and toiletries and similar provisions necessary for humans to live. (The liquor store nearest to my house also sells cool pocket knives and boxes of whip-its — essentials, to be sure.)
And just so there is no room for confusion, County Executive Sam Page made clear in no uncertain terms that the stores would be allowed to remain open, as reported on Twitter by KSDK's Casey Nolen:
Here’s the update we needed. @DrSamPage just said liquor stores will be considered essential services.— Casey Nolen (@CaseyNolen) March 21, 2020
To clarify in a less flippant way...the County Exec said many of these stores provide people access to other supplies and essential items. https://t.co/XMjxGBVysA— Casey Nolen (@CaseyNolen) March 21, 2020
Meanwhile, across the river in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker's statewide stay-at-home order has also exempted liquor stores as "essential" during the lockdown — in addition to marijuana dispensaries.
In other words: Sure, we gotta hunker down, but everything is going to be just fine, everybody. Just fine.
Daniel Hill was the RFT's music editor until he was laid off three days ago, and now he just refuses to leave. Follow him on Twitter at @rftmusic.


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Audible has the distinction of being one of the most favored brands for audio books, the perfect compendium for daily commuters stuck in traffic. Their Windows Phone app is rather nice looking and for a little while the company seemed to show Microsoft some love.
Now, however, that app is one of a few major ones withering in the Windows Phone Store, having seen its last update 14 months ago back in November 2013. In response to a recent tweet question, the company now promises a new update is on the way.
"Hi Jay, an update is on the pipeline for this quarter. Thank you for your patience."
Although the Audible app maintains a 4.0 (out of 5) rating on the Store, there is an avalanche of user complaints. Problems ranging from resume issues, settings not being maintained and perhaps the worst, audio books won't even load plague the reviews section.
It is not clear if Audible is merely placating Windows Phone owners by telling them an update is on the way, or whether one really is – we suppose time will tell.
Audible also has a similar app for Windows 8.1 users that suffers from the same complaints. Fingers crossed that Audible has not just an update, but a re-write that makes use of the 8.1 developer tools.
We'll revisit the issue in the coming months, but for now the waiting continues.
Thanks, @jaykannan, for the tip!


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Sam Adams to Release a David Ortiz Beer Called ‘Big Hapi’
The fall was a maelstrom of tributes to David Ortiz—candles, a shark, a donut mural—to celebrate his final season with the Sox. It was only a matter of time before Sam Adams joined in on all the Big Papi-branded fun.
The Jamaica Plain brewery announced today that, for one day only, it will be selling bottles of mango-infused IPA it’s calling Big Hapi. It’s a double IPA infused with mango, and it will be available to those who show up in person to claim one on Friday.
“Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to watch David Ortiz hit homers out of the park while enjoying a cold Sam Adams,” says Jim Koch, Sam Adams’ founder. “Now, I’m excited to toast to his record-setting career with Big Hapi Double IPA. We’re thrilled to honor our hometown baseball hero by doing what we do best, brewing beer, and giving craft beer and baseball fans a commemorative brew to honor an extraordinary legend.”
Only 541 of the 24-ounce bottles will be sold (“one for each home run Big Papi crushed out of the park throughout his 19 year career,” per a release). They’ll cost $29.99 apiece. Proceeds benefit the David Ortiz Children’s Fund.
A line will start forming at 2 p.m. at the brewery on Friday, according to the Facebook page for the event, and they’ll start handing out bottles at 4 p.m.
Another local brewery, Idle Hands crafted a David Ortiz-inspired porter earlier this month called “34.” Commonwealth Brewing Company has a “Big Papi” beer, too. It’s a double IPA.


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Mozilla has ceased development and sales of its open source, Linux-based Firefox OS mobile distribution, although the code may infuse future IoT projects.
At Mozilla’s “Mozlando” developer conference yesterday, the company announced the end of its ambitious Firefox OS project for low-cost, web-oriented phones. TechCrunch ran a quote from Ari Jaaksi, Mozilla’s SVP of Connected Devices, saying in part: “We weren’t able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels.” Jaaksi also said Mozilla “will continue to experiment with the user experience across connected devices,” and that “we’ll share more on our work and new experiments across connected devices soon.”
Intex Cloud FX
The news was not a complete surprise. Back in May, Mozilla CEO Chris Beard announced the company was dropping the Spreadtrum-based “$25 Firefox OS” phone, which in Aug. 2014 arrived in India in the form of $33 Intex Cloud FX and $38 Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 phones. At the time, Beard said nothing about discontinuing the many other Firefox OS phones that were being manufactured by multiple vendors and sold by even more mobile carriers in dozens of mostly emerging markets around the world. However, he said that Mozilla had begun developing a new “Ignite” version of Firefox OS with higher-end features.
On June 5, it was revealed that one of the original co-developers of Firefox OS, CTO Andreas Gal, had left to start his own Firefox OS spinoff aimed primarily at the Internet of Things market. This followed the earlier departure in March by former Mozilla president Li Gong, who left to form a startup code-named Gone Fishing, with a mission to build a web-oriented mobile OS partially based on Firefox OS.
In July, CNET revealed that Gong’s startup, now called Acadine Technologies, had received a $100 million investment from China’s Tsinghua Unigroup, to launch a Firefox OS fork called H5OS. In October, Acadine and the ARM-backed Linaro announced that Hong Kong-based Acadine had joined the Linaro Mobile Group (LMG). Acadine was said to be the first systems software company to join the group.
“Acadine is committed to make H5OS an innovative open mobile operating system and we’re very excited to join Linaro,” stated Gong at the time. There was no mention of specific products or timelines, however, let alone any connection with Firefox OS.
In August, CNET reported that the other, Andreas Gal-led, spinoff from Mozilla’s Firefox OS team was called Silk Labs. (A teaser website with a contact email is here.) The company was cofounded by new CEO Gal, as well as Chris Jones, who co-developed Firefox OS with Gal, and Michael Vines, a former senior director of technology at Qualcomm.
Silk Labs is attempting to make home automation devices that are smarter and proactive, says the story. For example, the cloud-connected devices might watch and anticipate users’ habits to automatically turns lights and heat up and down. Although Gal had initially said the startup would use Firefox OS technology, in September Gal told CNET the technology would be based on Linux, but use none of the Mozilla technology.
Early or late, Firefox OS scorched by Androids
The CNET story quotes Gal as saying that one of the problems with Firefox OS was that it was “late” to the smartphone market. True enough, yet compared to other open source mobile Linux efforts not called Android, it was early.
One Touch Fire
Aside from the mostly open source Android, Firefox OS was the first such product to reach market with a phone back in July 2013, with the shipment of the ZTE Open and Alcatel One Touch Fire. (Palm’s innovative WebOS preceded it by several years, but it was soon to disappear into LG smart TVs, and the commercial mobile platform was never open source.) Mozilla continued to announce new, low-cost Firefox OS phones, carriers, and manufacturers, reaching into the far corners of the globe, including most recently, Africa.
When Mozilla announced the new low-cost Spreadtrum phones last year, it seemed it may have carved out a space above the dwindling feature phone market and below low-end Android phones. Yet even the slightly higher-end Firefox phones from ZTE, Alcatel, and others were apparently deemed too slow and limited even in emerging markets. It was not a Nokia world anymore — times had changed.
Firefox OS also failed to capture much devotion from mobile Linux developers. This was in part because they were being fragmented into the competing Tizen, Ubuntu Phone, Jolla Sailfish OS, and even the open source CyanogenMod camps in the early days. More recently, they’ve been jumping the mobile ship for Internet of Things, drone, and augmented reality projects. The Firefox OS phones were too low end, and with the radical focus on HTML5, there was not much to interest developers aside from the potential for spreading smartphones to the masses.
|Tizen phone||Ubuntu phone||Sailfish OS phone|
Other prominent Linux-based phone OS alternatives to Android (left to right): Tizen, Ubuntu Phone, Sailfish OS
Firefox OS was always a wild gamble, and it did better than many expected. Mozilla may have been late to the smartphone market, but it was early to a vision of cloud-based computing. That vision has been rebuffed by today’s app-crazed consumers, but it’s likely to take hold in the future.
Google made a similar gamble on an HTML5-based Linux platform with its Chrome OS. But because the project was nurtured by a techno-giant rather than Mozilla, and was competing with the flawed Windows 8 rather than a surging, ever improving Android, Chromebooks finally found a place in the market. It also helped that Google compromised on its original vision of HTML5 purity more than Mozilla ever did. Even still, Chrome OS attracted even less of the fervent Linux developer base so sought after by technology projects and companies. There’s just not that much for them to do.
Mozilla isn’t alone in its Firefox OS troubles. Other mobile Linux projects are treading water. Samsung finally shipped a Tizen phone in India, but has yet to push the platform beyond that, and last month Jolla announced it was restructuring and laying off half its staff. Canonical’s Ubuntu Phone appears to have the most momentum, but that’s not saying much. The “convergence” vision keeps drifting into the future.
None of these projects are dead, however — open source means never having to completely pull the plug — and that goes for Firefox OS, as well. Acadine and Mozilla will likely spin the codebase and experience into interesting new directions. And even though Silk Labs won’t use Firefox OS code, that background is shaping their adventure. Embedded Linux momentum has clearly moved on, however, from smartphones to the brave new world of the “Internet of Things.”