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Sony goes pirate hunting
- 31 July, 1998 13:52
- Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCE) fired a warning shot at anybody dabbling in software piracy by successfully completing a Federal Court civil suit against a Victorian home entertainment dealer last week.
In awarding $68,000 in damages and costs to SCE for registered trademark infringements last week, the court found that Orce Nikoloski and Malson Nominees P/L trading as Total Home Theatre had imported and sold counterfeit copies of PlayStation games.
While pleased with the outcome, SCE's managing director Michael Ephraim told ARN that this is just scratching the surface of the problem and that several more civil and criminal actions are in the pipeline as well as increased surveillance of suspected operators.
"There is a definitely a directive from us to pursue this even harder," said Ephraim. "We now have our trademark registered with Customs along with the names of companies legitimately trading in PlayStation product. Anything that doesn't match up we are informed about."
Suggesting there might be some sort of organised reselling ring present in Australia, Ephraim said: "In the last nine months we have seized more than 10,000 illegal discs so there might be some kind of underground network of distribution going on."
The heightened attack on what Ephraim described as "blatant theft" is two-pronged. Sony's vast resources are reinforced by other independent actions from games publishers and those of the Australian Visual Software Distributors Association (AVSDA), of which Ephraim is the vice-chairman.
"These people are basically stealing other people's property and we are committed to taking them to court and hurting them financially. It is not a matter of a multinational trying to keep the prices up; it is business protection and a real problem for many legitimate companies.
"With the PlayStation trademark embedded in the game, we have a cut and dried case of trademark infringement and counterfeiters cannot replicate discs manufactured using Sony's exclusive black dye injection technology."
To assist in tackling the problem, sources indicate AVSDA has hired the Australian Film and Video Securities Office (AFVSO) to watch the marketplace. AFVSO has 20 staff on the ground walking into shops, looking at the print media and Internet trading sites as well as stalls at car park computer markets looking for illegal operators.
Meanwhile, the Federal Minister for Justice, Amanda Vanstone, was set to announce government support for the fight against piracy by increasing the penalties for offenders as a softener for the recently announced easing on parallel importing of music titles.
No specific research calculating lost revenue to the industry has been conducted on games or the Australian market, but Ephraim said the cost to the industry is escalating exponentially and was estimated back in 1996 to be worth $US11.2 billion globally.


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The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians’ Four Winds® Casinos are pleased to unveil two gingerbread villages at Four Winds New Buffalo and Four Winds South Bend. In total more than 2,000 pounds of ingredients were split between the displays including 1,200 pounds of gingerbread, 400 pounds of sugar, 300 pounds of royal icing, and 50 pounds of chocolate. Both gingerbread villages also feature an assortment of candies including 15 pounds of peppermint, 15 pounds of Danish butter cookies, 10 pounds of sixlets, eight pounds of jelly bellies, three pounds of candy corn, and 250 candy canes.
Commenting on the construction of the gingerbread villages, Craig Lewkowitz, Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage for Four Winds Casinos said, “The construction of the displays was inspired by traditional Bavarian Villages and prepared through the collaborative efforts of our Culinary and Facilities Departments. Planning for the displays started in June and we began the production of the gingerbread in mid-September, building the houses slowly when time permitted. We really hope our guests enjoy the villages and appreciate the hard work that went into creating these festive holiday displays.”

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With only seven shopping days left until Christmas, Arbor Place Mall is offering the following extended Holiday shopping hours:
Tuesday, Dec. 18 through Saturday, Dec. 22 — 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 23 — 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 24 — 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 25 — Closed
“Extending our hours during the busiest shopping season of the year is critical,” said Bill Ball, general manager for Arbor Place Mall. “Our goal is to be as accommodating as possible to meet the needs of everyone’s hectic schedules. Longer hours help shoppers get exactly what they need for every person on their list!”
Holiday hours are posted on the entry doors of the mall and are also listed on the mall’s website, ArborPlace.com. Arbor Place Mall will be closed on Christmas Day. Department stores, stores with exterior entrances and restaurant hours may vary. The Mall will reopen on Wednesday, Dec. 26 at 8 a.m.


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She’s shining bright like a diamond.
Rihanna is now the youngest self-made billionaire woman in the US — knocking Kim Kardashian to second place.
The 34-year-old singer recently made Forbes’ annual list of America’s richest self-made women for the third year in a row, ranking 21st overall. She’s the only billionaire under 40 on the list.
The next-youngest billionaire on the Forbes list is Kardashian, 41, who has a net worth of $1.8 billion.
Kylie Jenner — who is the youngest non-billionaire on the list at age 24 — was crowned Forbes’ youngest self-made billionaire in 2018, only to have the title taken away after a recalculation of her net worth. Her net worth is currently $600 million.
Rihanna’s net worth is now $1.4 billion, which is only partly from her successful music career. While she is the top-selling digital artist of all time, her catalogue is not as lucrative as it might be since she has relatively few songwriting credits. In 2016, the year she dropped her last studio album, “Anti,” she made an estimated $22.3 million from her music. The accompanying tour also generated more than $110 million in revenue.
Rather, most of her wealth comes from her entrepreneurial endeavors, including Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty.
In March, Bloomberg reported Savage X Fenty lingerie company was working with advisors on an initial public offering that could value the company at $3 billion or more. That’s up from the company’s $1 billion valuation in February 2021. Rihanna owns 30 percent of that company.
The nine-time Grammy Award winner also owns 50 percent of Fenty Beauty, which launched in 2017 and brought in $550 million in revenue in 2020. French luxury fashion conglomerate LVMH owns the other half of the company. Fenty Beauty is reportedly worth $2.8 billion and, according to Forbes, Rihanna’s “stake in the fast-growing cosmetics company comprises the majority of her fortune.”
The star also has an impressive real estate portfolio, including a $13.75 million Beverly Hills compound she purchased last year, followed by a neighboring property she picked up for $10 million just months later. She also has a rental property in the Hollywood Hills (she paid $6.8 million for it in 2017), as well as a “stalker-proof” condominium in LA’s Century Towers. In addition, she owns a residence at the exclusive One Sandy Lane resort on her home island of Barbados, for which she reportedly paid $22 million.
The mogul is also using her fortune to do good. In 2012, the “Love on the Brain” singer started a philanthropy fund called the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF), aiming to “support and fund groundbreaking education and climate resilience initiatives,” according to its website.
A year after the foundation was launched, the Fenty Beauty CEO held two lipstick campaigns with MAC Cosmetics, raising $60 million to benefit women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. In February 2020, CLF was named one of the world’s most innovative not-for-profit companies by Fast Company.
But Rihanna’s main focus isn’t the money — she’s all about the “work, work, work, work, work, work.”
In 2019, she told The New York Times, “I never thought I’d make this much money, so a number is not going to stop me from working.”


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Everyone can agree that the economy is rough. This holiday season, more than usual, is important to local retailers. Small businesses in Porter and Davis squares now have another hurdle to deal with starting November 5th, no red line service on the weekends. The residents probably aren't happy about it either.
According to service advisory posters in red line stations, and yesterday's ... Read more


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16 July 2012 – The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said today that the first Philippine Tourism Fair in Malaysia will open on July 20 at the Main Concourse Area of the Berjaya Times Square (BTS) in Kuala Lumpur. It will run until July 22.
Organized by the Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) and the BTS, it is a joint promotional campaign exclusively featuring the Philippines.
The DOT will have a 235-square meter exhibition area which will showcase the different Philippine tourism destinations. Special promo Philippine tour packages will also be made available to its visitors through the Consortium of Malaysian travel agents selling Philippine tours.
Expected to open the event is Ambassador J. Eduardo Malaya, joined by DOT Representative in Malaysia Melissa Ong and other Embassy and DOT officials.
"The Philippines and Malaysia have been experiencing a renaissance in its bilateral relations, with increasing trade, investment and tourism happening between our two countries. In particular, new air routes have been opening between the Philippines and Malaysia, which has created more opportunities for Filipinos and Malaysians to visit each other's country and discover the beauty and richness of the other's tourism destinations, cuisine, culture, shopping and the innate hospitality of our two peoples.," Ambassador Malaya said.
"We hope that this tourism fair would serve as another avenue for our Malaysian neighbors and friends to discover why, as our tourism slogan would say, 'it's more fun in the Philippines'," he added.
Earlier, AirPhilExpress commenced flights on June 21, and flies the Kuala Lumpur-Manila route every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 to the Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) and back.
AirAsia Philippines also launched its inaugural flight from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark Airport, Pampanga to the LCCT last June 9, and now flies daily. This new route complimented its parent company AirAsia's Manila-Kuala Lumpur route, which flies twice a day.
The entry of AirPhilExpress and AirAsia Philippines brings to four the number of airlines directly servicing the Philippine-Malaysia route. Two other airlines ply the Philippines-Malaysia route: Cebu Pacific Air, which flies twice a day from Manila to Kuala Lumpur and also Manila to Kota Kinabalu once a day, and Malaysia Airlines, which flies to Manila to Kuala Lumpur twice a day.
In 2011, DOT numbers revealed that 91,752 Malaysian tourists visited the Philippines, while Tourism Malaysia said that 362,101 Filipino tourists visited Malaysia during the same period. END


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The Samsung Galaxy Note7 met an untimely demise due to its longstanding exploding battery issues, and Apple customers in China are reportedly complaining of a similar situation belying their iPhone 6 and 6s mobile devices.
Yes, you heard that correctly, iPhones can explode, too. There’s apparently been eight recorded incidents of the device randomly igniting between September 1 and November 30, according to a report compiled by the Shanghai Consumer Council, a watchdog group led by a Chinese government official.
In light of the allegations, Apple delivered a statement, noting that “thermal events,” (a.k.a. explosions), are now the subject of a company investigation. Apple continued, saying: “The units we’ve analyzed so far have clearly shown that external physical damage happened to them which led to the thermal event. We treat safety as a top priority and have found no cause for concern with these products.”
Quartz cites a specific incident of an exploded iPhone 6s Plus, originally bought in March of last year. The phone, which belonged to a woman identified as Ms. Chen in the SHCC report, is seen burnt to a smoldering crisp on Twitter, with a broken screen and a deformed and bumpy back surface. Chen’s iPhone was reportedly replaced by Apple, according to Quartz.


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The 23rd annual Gulf Coast Grape Grower Field Day was held on February 6th in Cat Spring, Texas
The Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association’s (TWGGA) Grape Camp 2014 was held in Fredericksburg from November 2-3. Like last year’s event, the first day was geared toward New Growers and the second day was for Advanced Growers. The event drew 250 total people for both days which is the highest attendance rate ever. This is great news for the Texas wine industry which needs more vineyards and grapes available for Texas wine. Even though the first day was primarily for [Read More…]
The Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association (TWGGA) annual Grape Camp is scheduled for November 2-3 held again at the Pioneer Pavilion in Lady Bird Johnson Park, Fredericksburg. Don’t miss your opportunity to attend Grape Camp, a two-day educational seminar hosted by TWGGA, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, and Texas Tech University. Registration is open for attendees and vendors who will display their products and services at Grape Camp.
The 2014 TEXSOM Conference was held August 8th to 11th at the Four Seasons Resort and Club at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas. The conference was co-presented by the organizations Guild of Sommeliers, Court of Master Sommeliers – Americas, Wine & Spirit Education Trust, and Society of Wine Educators. The conference attracts the nation’s top wine professionals and this year was no exception. There was a record total of 900 attendees including 39 Master Sommeliers (MS), 10 Certified Wine Educators [Read More…]
One of the best things about attending TEXSOM is the education you can obtain. At this year’s 2014 10th annual TEXSOM conference, you could select from four different seminars per three sets of time periods for the two days. It was easy to find a topic you could be interested in. I saw a seminar entitled “Exploring Vermouths and Aromatized Wines” and thought that was kind of different among the usual wine seminars, but since I knew nothing about vermouth, [Read More…]
CENTRAL TEXAS, July 21, 2014 – Celebrating one of the largest and most prominent wine education conferences for wine, spirits and beverage professionals, Texas Fine Wine is a proud sponsor of TEXSOM in its 10th year. Texas Fine Wine will co-host with Texas Monthly a Hospitality Suite on Sunday, August 10, for TEXSOM participants. Representing four distinguished Texas wineries, Texas Fine Wine will also pour wines for guests attending the August 11 Grand Tasting. Texas Fine Wine members include Bending Branch Winery, Brennan Vineyards, Duchman Family Winery and Pedernales Cellars, a [Read More…]
TEXSOM, the most prominent and influential wine education conference in the United States, is celebrating its tenth year, has announced that registration is now open for TEXSOM 2014. TEXSOM 2014 will take place August 9 -11, 2014 at the Four Seasons Resort & Club in Las Colinas, Texas. TEXSOM 2014 will include presentations by 39 Master Sommeliers, six Masters of Wine, and eight Certified Wine Educators. Seminars will include regional spotlights, variety intensives, sales instruction, and industry/sommelier roundtable discussions. The [Read More…]
The 2014 edition of Newsom Grape Day was held in the usual location, the “barnery” at Newsom Vineyards. For those who do not know what a barnery is, Neal Newsom said since his mother has a barn, he couldn’t call his a barn and since it’s not a winery, they called it the barnery. It’s the building where the storage equipment for Newsom Vineyards is stored and also doubles as an event center for events like Grape Day. The morning [Read More…]


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Pakistan had stopped all the trade with India after Abrogation of Article 370 by the Indian Government. Also, the Pakistani Government had announced that it would not talk to India until the Indian Government completely rolled back the changes in Jammu and Kashmir. Lately, Pakistan has been softening its stand. The Wagah border has been reopened for cotton and sugar imports from India almost after two years.
India has had trade surplus with Pakistan over the years. In 2018-19, Pakistan was one of the top fifty trade partners of India.Pakistan was pushed out of the list in 2019-20, and this affected Pakistan badly as the country is heavily dependent on India for its raw materials, especially in pharmaceuticals and textiles industries.
In 2018-19, organic chemicals and cotton accounted for half of Pakistani imports from India. The other major Pakistani imports from India are nuclear reactors, plastic, dyeing extracts, boilers, mechanical appliances, machinery. After the ban, the imports of these products fell drastically. The COVID-19 crisis worsened the situation for Pakistan. This is now forcing Pakistan to ease trade relations with India.
In 2018-19, the Indian exports to Pakistan again increased by 7.5% and were at 2.07 billion USD. India reduced its imports from Pakistan in this financial year. In 2018-19, the imports from Pakistan to India were at 494.87 million USD. This is just 1% increase and is highly low as compared to the previous import growth.In 2019 the political relations between the countries entered a deep freeze and India further reduced its imports from Pakistan.
While Pakistan is facing troubles due to the trade ban, India has been stable in spite of the issue. This is because India has found alternate trading destinations such as Saudi Arabia, Chile and UAE.India mainly imports oil, Sulphur, edible fruits, mineral fuels, plastering materials, leather, slag and ash and ores from Pakistan.
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You’d think clocking cars would have died out with the Ford Escort.
Not a bit of it. Car odometers may well be digital instead of analogue, but this has only made it easier than ever to readjust the displayed mileage on a car. Experts say the practice has actually jumped 25 per cent since 2014 alone. That’s around the same time the car finance market really began to blossom. Is this just a coincidence? Absolutely not.
According to vehicle history check provider Cap HPI, one in 16 cars in the UK has a discrepancy between its actual and apparent mileage. That’s an increase of 25 per cent since 2014. It also found that more than 40 per cent of car dealers have bought a second-hand car that they’ve later discovered has been clocked.
The growth in car clocking may these days not be down to dodgy car dealers looking to make a quick buck, but private car owners looking to avoid forking out penalties. Why? The PCP (Personal Contract Purchase) and PCH (Personal Contract Hire) trend.
If you cover more miles that your finance agreement dictates, you’ll be stung for every mile you go over limit. That’s why it’s often cheaper for drivers to pay a ‘mileage correction firm’ to turn back the odometer and escape these, despite facing the risk of hefty fines and even jail sentences if caught doing so.
Again, the figures speak for themselves.
An average 10 per mile over limit, for someone who agreed to a 5,000 per mile PCP deal but ended up covering twice that, would incur a £1,500 bill at the end. In anyone’s book, that’s got to hurt. The fact new cars aren’t MOT’d, and thus don’t hook into official mileage recording networks, for the first three years of their life could also be a factor.
Yes, the service book records mileage – but, with few ways of actually monitoring the true mileage of a nearly new motors, what’s to stop an owner altering the mileage before each service? It’s not a hard process to clock a car.
You simply find a company willing to hook a laptop into your car’s electronics to alter the mileage, and you’ll be driving away again in a magically lower-mileage for just £100 or so. It’s not difficult, but it could be hard luck on the person who ends up with such a car.
The problems that can be caused by a clocked car are numerous.
The brakes could wear out more quickly than you’d expect. Same with tyres. Major components could actually fail way before you’d think they should. Servicing schedules may be mixed up, so the car wears out faster. A timing belt change may be missed – and if it snaps, that’s an engine destroyed, and an owner facing a very big bill indeed.
Drivers who decide to cover the PCP balloon payment at the end of their agreements to keep the car can make a pretty penny out of falsifying the mileage, too. Owners can pocket between £2,000-£4,000 more for a family car with 60,000 fewer miles on its odometer, be it either a truly low-mileage car, or simply one that’s been tailored to look like one. For trusting second-hand buyers, that’s got to hurt.
Want to see it spelled out in black and white? An investigation by a leading motoring magazine showed how mileage affects the value of six different popular family cars.
According to a recent investigation by The Times fewer than 150 prosecutions for car clocking have been brought in the past five years despite an estimated 2 million vehicles having their mileage reduced illegally. The newspaper sent freedom of information requests to all Britain’s councils, which are responsible for policing the crime.
Worryingly, one in five councils had not investigated a single case since 2012. And many of the councils that did chase car-clocking activity were probing very few cases – one in three had not managed to pursue one case a year.
Can we list some mileage correction specialists in West Sussex?


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With easy access to the internet becoming a crucial element in India’s digital growth, cybersecurity is one of the next biggest concerns for Indians. A new report has now stated that a large number of Indians have faced some form of cybercrime including hacks, identity theft and other issues in the past 12 months alone.
Cybersecurity firm NortonLifeLock has released findings from the 2021 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report, stating that over 27 million Indian adults have experienced identity theft in the past year. The report states that over 59 per cent of Indian adults have experienced cybercrimes in the past 12 months and that cybercrime victims have collectively spent around 1.3 billion hours trying to resolve these issues.
Is remote work contributing to increased cyber-attacks?
The report adds that seven in 10 Indian adults (70 per cent) believe that remote work has made it much easier for hackers to take advantage of them. Remote work has also forced a lot of people to take work to their personal computers and laptops, which are often not as securely protected as office machines.
“In a year of lockdowns and restrictions, cybercriminals have not been deterred. More Indian adults fell victim to identity theft in the past 12 months and most are concerned about data privacy,” Ritesh Chopra, Director of Sales and Field Marketing, at NortonLifeLock said.
The survey also revealed that of the 36 per cent of Indian adults who detected unauthorised access to an account or device in the past 12 months, about half felt angry or stressed as a result of the issues. Further, two in five people felt scared or vulnerable, while three in 10 felt powerless against the cybercrimes they became a victim of.
The report further states that over two in five Indian consumers (45 per cent) have experienced identity theft, with 14 per cent impacted in the past year alone (up from 10 per cent in 2019).
About 66% of Indians are afraid of being cybercrime victims
About 66 per cent of Indian adults also stated that they are more worried than ever before about being a victim of a cybercrime. Meanwhile, 63 per cent of Indian adults have said that they feel more vulnerable to cybercrime than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Despite the cyber crimes, 52 per cent of Indian adults have reported not knowing how to protect themselves from cybercrime, and 68 per cent say it is difficult for them to know for sure if the information they see online is from a credible source.
In spite of this, only 36 per cent of Indian adults are estimated to have invested in security software or have increased their pre-existing security software as a result of detecting unauthorized access to their account or device. Over 25 per cent of people turned to their friends for help, and 46 per cent got in touch with the company that the account was hacked from.


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I’m guessing most people have completed Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4, and are gearing themselves up for the expansion. But I have some bad news for you if you’re looking to enjoy the game again in its fully remastered glory over on the PlayStation 5, come launch, because your save won’t be transferable. That means you’ll have to start the whole adventure again. Or leave it behind completely.
I guess for some, revisiting Peter Parker and his digitised world won’t be too high on their agenda – what with the expansion coming and the like. But for those gamers who were hoping to swing again in an improved, digitised world, they’ll have to work out if the upgrades are worth their RRP. Because there will be no free upgrade for owners of the game on the PlayStation 4, at least not one that’s being spoken about. And that’s something many believe goes against what Sony has said previously.
But there seems to be a lot of that going on this time around.
Commentators online seem to think this is because the remastered version is seen as a completely new game by the team behind the scenes (rather than being a cross generation upgrade). Coming complete not only with an overhauled presentation, built from the ground up, but a new trophy list to boot. Yet, I’m guessing a lot of those trophies will be familiar from previous run-throughs meaning the platinum will only be available if you’re happy to grind them out again. Another negative to the whole matter.
And let’s not forget, it’s going to be a digital only release as one unlucky Twitter user found out – sounds like a tough sell to me, especially if they’re going to be marketing this two year old game at full price…


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Lovers of Apple what were hoping for: confirms the rumors about the launch of devices with augmented reality systems and virtual reality (AR and VR, for its acronym in English). At approximately this same date, a couple of years ago the giant media Bloomberg announced that Apple was working on augmented reality goggles, with a forecast to be released in 2020. Today we know that those times will not be met and it seems that we will have to wait at least two more years.As reported now international media such as The Information, or Bloomberg, Apple plans to launch a new helmet system with combined AR and VR in 2022. This would be followed by a sunglasses technology augmented reality 2023. To comply with these dates, the company has around to 1,000 engineers working on this new operating system, called internally ‘rOS’ (‘reality operating system’ in English).The new hull will be focused towards the sector gaming, but without forgetting the watch videos or even its use for virtual meetings. Will use cameras externas to ‘map’ the user’s environment, and the availability of a display high internal resolution that allow you to overlay virtual objects in the real world.In terms of the glasses, what is known of them to date is that, unlike the hull, are designed to be used for longer periods, and that its design will be like a “sunglasses, high-end mount is very thick” which will be built-in the battery and the chips. It seems that in addition to their lenses could darken when they are operating, so that others know that the user is using and, thus, is busy.These devices will have a new sensor 3D based on the current sensor FaceID Apple, but more sophisticated. The rumors indicate the first half of 2020 as the date of launch of the renovated iPad Pro, which will have a module with two sensors and rear camera, and a small hole for the 3D system, which will allow users to create three-dimensional reconstructions of rooms, objects and people.We will have to wait a little bit more, although it is also planned for the coming year, to be iPhone with this technology, which is applied to the high-end models. In addition to the smartphone you have connectivity 5G.
20MINUTOS.IS – Technology
December 2, 2019
- ← Nintendo registered five patents related to the peripheral PokéBall Plus
- What is Android System WebView, and why it is important to keep it updated →


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Pizza Patron plans to open 25 company-owned restaurants
Pizza Patron is refocusing its efforts on its core demographics as it plans to open 25 locations by the end of the year.
The Dallas-based Mexican pizza chain has partnered with The Weitzman Group to help with site selection for the new restaurants, which will cost anywhere between $100,000 to $140,000 to open.
“They’ve gotten to the point that just saying, ‘we need to be in the Hispanic market,’ isn’t going to cut it anymore,” said Alberto Rocha of Weitzman. “They want to concentrate on who has been a core customer.”
This means that the pizza parlor chain will be focusing its growth strategy on company-owned stores, with a secondary focus on aiding franchisees with whom it already has established relationships. But the growth will be targeted a very specific demographic.
Pizza Patron has learned that its core customers are between the ages of 19-34, are blue-collar workers, usually are first- or second-generation Hispanics and usually live in a home worth between $70,000 and $120,000. Rocha calls them the “blue-collar millenials,” and said Weitzman will be focused on seeking out neighborhoods that fit this demographic. The main markets in which Pizza Patron plans to expand is Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin.
“We’re just trying to delineate the standard formula so when we have franchisee activity again, we’ll be a little more accurate,” Rocha said about Pizza Patron.
The company also is working on targeting its marketing toward this group, as well. Earlier this year, one of the chain’s newest pizza’s stirred up controversy. The pizza’s name, which was derived from a Spanish word that some critics call profane, reportedly was the reason some media companies refused to run advertisements for the company.
Danielle covers technology, retail, restaurants and hospitality for the Dallas Business Journal. Subscribe to our new TechFlash email newsletter.
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GungHo's competitive Ninjagam action "Ninjara" to be released on Thursday, June 25, 2020.
On May 30 and 31, the second trial event was held, and it was very well received around the world.
As the release of "Ninjara" approaches, the anticipation for the game is increasing, and the first official live broadcast of the game has been scheduled!
The guest will be Kyary Pamyu Pamyu!
The first official live broadcast of "Ninjara" will be held on Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 14:00, one week before the "Ninjara" distribution.
The guest speaker will be Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, a fashion model and world-renowned artist!
During the live broadcast, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu will announce the latest information on "Ninjara" and play "Ninjara" for the first time!
What kind of latest information will be announced? How good is Kyary? Did they invite Kyary-chan as a guest because of " Ninjaribanbanban "? We can't wait to find out!
|"Ninjara's 1st Official Live Broadcast" Overview|
|Date and Time||Thursday, June 18, 2020 from 14:00 (tentative)|
|Cast|| Kazuyoshi Morishita (scenario/game design)
Motoki Kaneda (Director)
|Guests||Kyary Pamyu Pamyu|
|Broadcast site|| YouTube Live
Weapons not yet introduced will be introduced in the video!
The "Ninjala Dev Diary" has been a big hit every time we've posted it, and now we've released "Ninjala - Dev Diary #5", which introduces the weapons and costumes that were popular at the "Ninjala Advance Trial Session #2" as well as the " Makimonotou " and " Drumbeat " that have never been introduced. Ninjala - Dev Diary #5 " is now available!
There is a possibility that Kyary will use the "Makimonotou" and "Drumbeat" in the "Ninjala 1st Official Live Broadcast", so you can enjoy the live broadcast even more if you learn about them beforehand!
The whole world will be watching "Ninjara" just a little more than two weeks before the start of the broadcast!
For more information on the "Ninjara's 1st Official Live Broadcast," please visit the official Ninjara website!


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Prince Sunduzani Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE has a huge potential to increase export earnings from the leather industry value chain and players in the sector have been called upon to invest in quality products to compete on the regional and global market.
In a presentation during a workshop organised by the Leather Institute of Zimbabwe and Homelink Finance in Bulawayo this week, ZimTrade regional manager, Mr Similo Nkala, said local leather producers can penetrate various markets if their products were of competitive export quality.
He said ZimTrade was ready to assist the sector with market data and skills development.
The country’s export promotion agency has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Senior Experten Service (SES), a Germany volunteer organisation for retired experts and PUM Netherlands, which offer technical skills and professional engagement with Zimbabwean companies. Under the arrangement, Mr Nkala said, the partner countries (German and Netherlands) can fly the experts into the country at no expense to assist local companies with Zimtrade only meeting accommodation and meals’ costs.
“In 2017 there were about 13 companies from the leather sector that received experts. This is good for the industry because this is an external person who will tell you the truth because he has nothing to lose. You can engage experts in different areas to improve the quality of your products, for example on marketing and export strategies,” said Mr Nkala.
“We encourage leather players to apply to ZimTrade for the services of the SES and PUM as this will help a lot for their products to be competitive on the export market.” Latest reports indicate that Sadc garnered $3 billion in footwear market trade and of that figure Zimbabwe exported about $1.4 million.
The Comesa footwear market was $960 million, which Mr Nkala said presents a chance for Zimbabwean companies. He challenged local leather producers to position themselves and work out all strategies to penetrate into the lucrative markets. — @PrinceNkosy102.


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Doha Jewelery and Watches Exhibition will be a Great Success
Organizers and participants in the 18th edition of Doha Jewelery and Watches Exhibition, which will be organized from May 9 to 13 at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, confirmed that the next edition of this exhibition will be distinguished and filled with many exciting events that respond to the wishes of visitors and those interested in such exhibitions.
They noted that everyone is awaiting the launch of the exhibition's activities after it was not possible to organize it last year due to the Coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic, expressing great confidence in its success and its ability to form a prestigious platform for those interested in the jewelry and watches sector in Qatar and the world.
In this regard, the Head of Marketing and Planning Department at Qatar Tourism Sheikha Hessa Al-Thani, said in a conference organized by Qatar Tourism today that the new edition of Qatar Jewelery and Watches Exhibition will witness the participation of more than 500 brands from more than 10 countries, in addition to a selection of young Qatari designers, stressing the prestigious position that the exhibition enjoys at the local and international levels.
She explained that the timing of the exhibition's activities is important and exceptional for exhibitors to present their products of jewelry and watches, noting that there is a high turnout of exhibitors to participate in the event, especially since it will witness the display of many new jewelry.
She added that the exhibition will include a number of workshops and events, which will be announced at a later time, pointing to the great coordination taking place at the current stage with the various relevant authorities for the logistical preparation of the events and the preparation of the pavilions through which the exhibitors will present their products and exhibits.
The Head of Marketing and Planning Department at Qatar Tourism stressed the role played by Qatar Tourism in terms of supporting Qatari talents in all the events it organizes, which constitute a platform to introduce their capabilities and achievements, considering that the participation of a group of Qatari jewelry designers in the Doha Jewelery and Watches Exhibition is a unique opportunity for them to gain new experiences and collaborate with the rest of the exhibitors.
For his part, the Head of the Technical Support Department for Tourism Events and Festivals at Qatar Tourism Hamad Al Khaja, stressed that the exhibition has gained an international reputation within the global calendar of events related to jewelry and watches, saying, that the increase in participation in the event is increasing from one edition to another and this reflects its high global value and high attractiveness to exhibitors and visitors alike.
He also stressed the importance of the participation of the Indian and Turkish pavilions in the exhibition, given their position in the global market for jewelry and watches, pointing out that the Indian pavilion will include 18 exhibitors and the Turkish pavilion will include 8 exhibitors, both of whom will present the latest collections of jewelry and watches, indicating that the exhibition will also witness the display of video films about jewelry for the first time since its inception.
In addition, Qatari designers praised the role of the exhibition in introducing their capabilities and giving their products a double impetus to increase their spread in the Qatari and global market, as well as establishing cooperation and partnership relations with other international designers and companies, describing their participation in the exhibition as a strong push towards greater success.
It is noteworthy that last year, the 18th edition of Doha Jewelery and Watches Exhibition was postponed due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) around the world, before the nineteenth session was recently announced.


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In the user interface concept Google debuted today, developers are now able to see how this feature will look to the end user.
Today after the bell amidst a deluge of major technology company earnings reports, Alphabet reported its own second-quarter performance.
Following last fall’s debut of Google TV, the new user interface for Chromecast devices, Google is today giving its Google TV companion app for Android a makeover. The updated version of the mob
It takes a really specific consumer to buy an Android phone, yet use Apple Music. But the small overlap in that Venn diagram may be getting bigger. Last month at WWDC, Apple unveiled a free update for
If you’re looking to succeed with paid social marketing, you need a creative testing framework.
One year later, Clubhouse is finally out of beta. The company announced Wednesday that it would end its waitlist and invite system, opening up to everybody. Now, anybody can follow Clubhouse links, ho
Much has been made of the rise of the “creator economy” in the last year. With the pandemic biting, millions flooded online, looking for a way to make money or promote themselves. The podcasting w
With the pandemic affecting every aspect of life and industry, it’s no surprise that digitization is coming to construction fast. Construction suppliers are increasingly under the same pressure
Over the weekend, an international consortium of news outlets reported that several authoritarian governments — including Mexico, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates — used spyware developed by N
Like some of the best consumer tech from the last decade, I didn’t know I needed an e-bike until I was on one, breezing down the bike lane contemplating my newfound freedom. Before buying a Nint
The pandemic’s effect on the global app market has not been hard to miss. In the first quarter and first half of this year, consumer spending in mobile apps hit new records at $32 billion and $6
At its Game Developer Summit, Google today announced a new feature for Android game developers that will speed up by almost 2x the time from starting a download in the Google Play store to the game la
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a
A group of 37 attorneys general filed a second major multi-state antitrust lawsuit against Google Wednesday, accusing the company of abusing its market power to stifle competitors and forcing consumer
Several widely used opioid treatment recovery apps are accessing and sharing sensitive user data with third parties, a new investigation has found. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to
Given APIs' ubiquity and importance, it’s understandable that all eyes were on the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 5 ruling in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., which addressed two core questions.
Google is making it possible to store digital versions of either COVID-19 test results or vaccination cards on users’ Android devices. The company on Wednesday announced it’s updating its
Lego has worked extremely closely with Apple over the years, experimenting with unreleased iOS tech and demoing it onstage at launch events like WWDC; this has included some pretty heavy tinkering on
Volvo Cars wants to completely electrify its lineup by 2030 and on Wednesday offered a glimpse into how it plans to get there and what its next generation of vehicles might look like. But it’s not g
Microsoft today released the first preview build of Windows 11 to those in the Dev Channel of the company’s Windows Insider program. If you have joined the Insider program and meet MicrosoftR


text: Happy Halloween! Today also kicks off the celebration of Día de los Muertos (DEE ah deh lohs MWEHR tohs), a Mexican holiday that honors the dead. Día de los Muertos is Spanish for Day of the Dead. The holiday is also celebrated in many Mexican American communities. But Día de los Muertos is celebrated much differently than Halloween. While the two are related, Día de los Muertos is a much more colorful, lively, and happy celebration. Halloween is often about spooky and scary things; Día de los Muertos is about showing love for family members that have passed away.


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In addition to showing the slow-loading graphic, many sites are taking things even further. Tumblr plans to release a video featuring actor Mark Ruffalo, who is an avid Tumblr user. Tumblr will also be asking visitors to its site to call and e-mail lawmakers in Congress, and promoting a net neutrality hashtag on social media.
"A multi-tiered system," Tumblr said in a statement, "catered purely to the economic interests of broadband providers with termination monopolies to end consumers, will undoubtedly harm innovation and competition in industries reliant on the Internet (a set of industries that now extends far beyond the usual 'tech' sector) and stifle free expression for millions of users of Tumblr."
Etsy is calling on its users to create handmade crafts that address net neutrality. Policy director Althea Erickson said in a recent Etsy forum post that the site will promote net neutrality-themed artwork heavily in the hours leading up to the protest and that the company may even deliver a few of the crafts to the Federal Communications Commission to be submitted as public comments. Examples include this embroidered loading symbol and these engraved housewares, according to Etsy spokeswoman Nikki Summer. (A whole group on Etsy has sprung up to plan and coordinate this action.)
WordPress.com is making the loading icon available to all of its individual bloggers, according to a person familiar with the plans, so that visitors will have to click through the icon — and get a prompt to take action — before getting to read the blog's content.
Meanwhile, the Web hosting provider Namecheap took out the domain netneutrality.com and has turned the site into an advocacy page for net neutrality. It's also placed calls to action on the administrative dashboards of many Web site operators.
"This effort is way beyond our hands at this point," said Evan Greer, one of the initial protest organizers at Fight for the Future. "We threw the spark into the Internet and it's been spreading wildly. ... It's important to make it easy for everyone to participate in a way that makes sense for them."
The temptation to draw parallels with earlier Internet protests, such as the widespread content blackouts in response to the online piracy legislation known as SOPA and PIPA, is strong. Marvin Ammori, a net neutrality legal scholar, said Sept. 10's protest would be "the biggest thing the Internet has done" since those demonstrations.
But every day of protest is different, activists say, including this one. This time, the targets of the action are not lawmakers whose votes could determine in a matter of hours whether a piece of controversial legislation passes or fails. Instead, the Internet slowdown day is much more about process — urging consumers to write to the FCC ahead of the final Sept. 15 comment deadline, an act that will inform a bigger decision-making system. Without as much immediate urgency as there was with SOPA and PIPA, organizers say there isn't as much need for drastic action.
That hasn't stopped some from exploring how to actually slow down the Internet as a form of protest. Networking experts say it would be "trivial" for sites like Netflix to bring its own service to crawl. Such a move would likely inflame public opinion in the same manner as a similar case earlier this summer, when Netflix blamed Verizon for slow streaming speeds. Although it is participating in the Internet day of protest, Netflix says it has resisted the idea of degrading its application.
"Too many of our subscribers have experienced such slowdowns because of purposeful congestion caused by Internet service providers," said Anne Marie Squeo, a Netflix spokeswoman. "Our net neutrality efforts are focused on eliminating that experience, not extending it."
Others, such as the Web hosting site NeoCities, has singled out the FCC for slower treatment. Visitors from FCC IP addresses are being slowed to dial-up speeds, while reddit users have been talking for months about replicating that effort on other sites — to give FCC officials a taste of what the redditors believe to be the agency's own medicine.
Would it really be possible for the entire Internet — or a substantial portion of it — to deliberately slow itself down? The hard part probably wouldn't be technical. Sites can restrict their own capacity to respond to requests by altering their configuration files, according to IT specialists.
"The folks running them know exactly how they could slow them down if they needed to," said David Belson, a senior director at the Web traffic firm Akamai. "To throw all of the work they have done to optimize site performance out the window and say, 'we're going to slow down the site' is more of a business or organizational issue."
Organizers say the symbolic approach that protesters initially envisioned, with the loading graphic that doesn't slow anything down, is still expected to convert a lot of people to action. Net neutrality has quickly become a household term this year. But actually messing with people's Internet speeds would likely provoke an even stronger response. It'll be interesting to see if more sites take that route.


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GroupM has revised its worldwide advertising spending forecast for 2014 downward, citing economic gridlock in the US and a persistent financial crisis in the Eurozone.
For 2014, the 74-country ad spend is estimated to increase by 4.6 per cent, representing $531bn, a marginal revision from the 5.1 per cent hike predicted earlier this year.
The revised forecast was made in GroupM’s biannual worldwide report, ‘This Year, Next Year,’ which also projected that 2013 worldwide ad spending in measured media would hit $508bn, a 3.3 percent increase over 2012 spending of $492bn.
For the US market, the report said advertising investment in measured media grew 1.8 percent in 2013 to $156.3bn, up from $153.5bn the previous year. For 2014, the revised forecast predicted a 2.9 per cent increase to $161bn.
“Ad spending in 2014 will enjoy a slight bump thanks to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, with spending coming mostly from existing budgets,” explained GroupM chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni. “But overall we estimate only marginal US growth on a comparable component basis.”
Looking at the 2014 predictions for digital ad spending, GroupM estimated that investment in digital media would account for 19 per cent of measured ad spending globally this year ($97bn) and 21 percent in 2014 ($110bn).
Smith noted that in 2013, as in past reports, most of digital’s share growth came at the expense of print media (newspapers and magazines). Television’s share of overall global ad spending remains stable at around 45 per cent.
Finally, ad spending in the UK throughout 2013 remained strong, with an estimated end growth of seven percent in 2013, and a predicted six per cent increase in 2014. This makes the UK the world's fourth-largest ad market (after the US, China and Japan) and the third-largest contributor to ad growth in 2013 and 2014.
Despite this, Western Europe remains in ad recession with a projected one per cent decrease in spending expected in 2013.
“Central and Eastern Europe ad spending growth remains in high single digits, thanks mainly to Russia and Turkey, bringing the whole continent of Europe to net zero ad growth for the year,” Smith said. “We predict Western Europe advertising will return to modest two per cent growth in 2014, but this depends on stability being restored to the troubled Eurozone periphery.”
The report stated that countries in that area (Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal) have seen ad spending contract 40 per cent from the 2007 peak, including a 10 per cent decline in 2013.


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May 23, 2013
Mr. Jobs helped usher in the era of the personal computer and led a cultural transformation in mobile communications and music for the digital age.October 6, 2011businessObituary (Obit)
Steven P. Jobs, who has cancer, made Apple one of the world’s most valuable companies. Timothy D. Cook will take over as chief executive.August 25, 2011technologyNews
The history of Apple Computer can be told through its advertisements as well as its products.November 14, 2004technologyNews
Steve Jobs recalls his years at Apple fondly, then makes it clear that he is doing nothing more than reminiscing.January 12, 1997technologyBiography
Laurene Powell Jobs has carefully entered the public sphere, pushing her agenda in education as well as global conservation, nutrition and immigration policy.May 17, 2013, Friday
The Justice Department said Apple was the “ringmaster” in a conspiracy to fix e-books prices, a more direct leadership role than portrayed in the department’s April 2012 antitrust lawsuit.May 15, 2013, Wednesday
The next Steve Jobs may well be living in a place like Pakistan, Turkey or Nigeria, thanks to a surge in entrepreneurship that is a response to the peril and promise of a globalized economy.April 5, 2013, Friday
Nolan Bushnell, one of Steve Jobs’s first and only bosses, blended memories of his former employee with advice about hiring and nurturing creative talent in a new book called “Finding the Next Steve Jobs.”March 26, 2013, Tuesday
A 25,000-word article on the nation’s health care system appears to be on course to become Time magazine’s best-selling cover in nearly two years.March 17, 2013, Sunday
The comedy Web site intends to unveil “iSteve,” starring Justin Long, on April 15.March 17, 2013, Sunday
When two powerful companies go head to head trying to attract talent, the weapon of choice is usually money. Yet neither Apple nor Google seems to be doing much to woo app developers.November 27, 2012, Tuesday
Steve Jobs is represented in a lot of parodies, rants, marketing hooks and memorials in the form of Twitter accounts under variations of his name. Compared with the treatment of President Obama, they are pretty respectful. Compared with Justin Bieber, they are legion.November 09, 2012, Friday
A decision to fire Scott Forstall, the leader of mobile software development, means the departure of a high-ranking proponent of the visual design style for software favored by Steve Jobs.November 1, 2012, Thursday
Patent maneuvering in the technology industry has a rich history, as an I.B.M. patent negotiation with an upstart Apple shows.October 08, 2012, Monday
SEARCH 597 ARTICLES ABOUT STEVEN P. JOBS:
An up-to-the-minute resource on all things Apple
REVOLUTION IN THE VALLEY: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made. By Andy Hertzfeld (O'Reilly, 2004). A lively group of stories collected by one of the original Macintosh programmers.
THE SECOND COMING OF STEVE JOBS. By Alan Deutschman (Broadway Books, 2000). A gossipy look at Mr. Jobs.
INFINITE LOOP. By Michael S. Malone (Currency/Doubleday, 1999). Little original reporting, but well written.
APPLE: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders. By Jim Carlton (Crown Business, 1997). Some tawdry stories from the Sculley era.
INSANELY GREAT: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything. By Steven Levy (Viking Penguin, 1994). A wide-eyed celebration of the making of the Macintosh.
STEVE JOBS & THE NEXT BIG THING. By Randall E. Stross (Scribner, 1993). Mr. Jobs in exile.
WEST OF EDEN: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer. By Frank Rose (Penguin Books, 1989). Best book on the Sculley era.
STEVE JOBS: The Journey Is the Reward. By Jeffrey S. Young (Scott Foresman Trade, 1987). Some original reporting on Mr. Jobs personal life and the end of his first era at Apple.
THE LITTLE KINGDOM: The Private Story of Apple Computer. By Michael Moritz (William Morrow, 1984). Good material on Mr. Jobs's early years.
FIRE IN THE VALLEY. By Freiberger and Michael Swaine (Osborne/McGraw Hill, 1984). The original history outlining the personal computer era in Silicon Valley.
- John Markoff


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What role will U.S. manufacturing play in the national and global economies in the coming years? What jobs will be left for American workers?
The loss of manufacturing jobs was a big reason the nation's unemployment rate shot up to 6.4 percent in June, the highest level in more than nine years. Factories led in payroll cuts last month, with 56,000 jobs lost. Since July 2000, the nation's factories have cut 2.6-million jobs.
The future of manufacturing is more than an academic question for many company owners. Stan Donnelly, who owns Donnelly Custom Manufacturing Co. in Minnesota, is studying Mandarin in case he has to move his machines to China. Already, he buys molds from China to make his custom-designed plastic parts. To date, Donnelly has been able to keep production of those parts in the United States. But as his customers increasingly demand lower prices, he wonders if he will one day need to move production to Asia as well.
Many experts believe that the pattern of past years will continue _ that low-skilled jobs making lower-value, mass-produced items will keep migrating to countries where labor is plentiful and cheap, while manufacturing in industrial nations, such as the United States, Japan and Western Europe, will center on complex, value-added products and systems. Demand for more sophisticated luxury cars and ever-more-elaborate communication systems will keep fueling highly automated machinery and processes. Many of those higher-margin, technology-intensive productions will remain in the United States and should help jobs here become steadily better, safer and higher paid than in earlier generations.
Other jobs serving certain protected markets, like medical instruments that are carefully monitored and require collaboration between doctors, hospitals and producers, should also remain, as will those involved with making something big and bulky, like kitchen cabinets that are costly to ship, or perishable items such as frozen food and bread.
"There's not enough boats in the world to bring all that Americans want into the U.S.," says W.R. Timken Jr., chairman of the century-old maker of bearings as small as marbles or big enough for a person to walk through. His company has operations all over the world but still needs plants in the United States to make bearings for cars, trucks, helicopters and X-ray machines made here.
Demand will also escalate for basic goods like washing machines, cars and telephones in parts of the world where many people have never had them before. That will keep global assembly lines humming, as well as fueling demand for ever-more automated systems to operate them more efficiently.
In short, demand for manufacturing will remain robust for both the developed and developing world, concluded a two-year study by the Manufacturers Alliance, a public policy and business research group in Arlington, Va. "Every industry has certain pieces of manufacturing that will shift abroad, but also pieces that will remain in the U.S. because they embody high technology within that product," says Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist with the Manufacturers Alliance. "Over time it will evolve."
That isn't to say higher-skilled jobs won't also move overseas eventually. Already work forces in some developing nations are upgrading their skills and winning contracts to produce higher-end products. At the same time, the wage gap will continue to narrow as workers in developing nations grow more prosperous and develop a taste for a better standard of living.
So, what is likely to pull manufacturing overseas in coming decades? Cheap and available energy. Signs of such a trend are already here: Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. is building a smelter in Iceland because of cheap hydroelectric power. The same plentiful power has attracted interest from Russian Aluminum and Alcan.
What will ensure U.S. manufacturing's future is innovation, just as it has in the past. A sheet of glass made by Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries Inc. is now self-cleaning, its coating breaks down and loosens organic dirt, which means less work for cleaning-averse consumers. The average car contains between 200 and 300 types of steel designed to be lighter for better fuel efficiency, yet strong enough to protect a passenger. In a decade, there will be yet more composite materials.
Beyond automobiles, even clothes and computers will be increasingly customized. It will require tremendous flexibility to innovate and get a product to the market quickly, as well as to integrate new technology and processes.
The United States will undoubtedly continue to lose jobs in areas like textiles, where both labor and materials are plentiful overseas. But positions in computer and mathematical occupations are expected to increase 29 percent in the coming decade.
Other hot jobs are expected to focus on industrial automation equipment, such as robotics. The U.S. Department of Labor projects that those jobs will grow faster than the economy as a whole and, in particular, even exceed growth in manufacturing. Toys and sporting goods, drugs, garden machinery, motor vehicles, metal coating and screw machine products, bolts and rivets industries are all in the top 25 percent manufacturing industries for both productivity growth and job growth, the Labor Department says.
In fact, U.S. manufacturers are increasingly worried about a serious projected shortage in skilled machinists and other factory workers.
That kind of demand will continue to make blue-collar life not only better, but also more critical to the health of the nation's economy. As Donnelly, the owner of the small Minnesota manufacturer, notes, a brilliant idea is worthless unless it can be made into something tangible and distributed. "That is what drives the economy and wealth of a society," he says.
_ Information from Times wires was used in this story.
The U.S. Department of Labor projects these manufacturing fields will see the most job growth:


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Facebook Stories ads can now be added worldwide
Author: Rosalie Visser
Starting today Facebook Stories ads will be available to advertisers around the world," a statement from the world's biggest social network said as it was announced at a New York media event. Facebook Stories ads offer the same targeting, measurement and optimization capabilities as other ad products on the Facebook platform as well as the same objectives available via Instagram and Instagram Stories ads: reach, brand awareness, video views, app installs, conversion, traffic and lead generation.
Facebook has 300 million daily users of their "stories” feature as said Wednesday. A format inspired by Snapchat, the announcement shows Facebook is making strides in this new format which allows people to share videos or photos with emojis and augmented reality options that allows users to draw eyeglasses or hats on faces, and which disappear after 24 hours.
What does this say in numbers?
"Advertising in stories has proven to drive valuable business outcomes." Facebook, which at one point sought to acquire Snapchat to tap into the market for younger users. Facebook introduced their story format in 2016 on Instagram and in 2017 extended that to Facebook and Facebook Messenger users. According to Facebook, 400 million Instagram users employ the stories format in addition to the 300 million in the Facebook platform, with a large number using both platforms.
The new shift in Facebook appears to be having an impact on Snapchat, earlier this month, the research firm eMarketer revised down its revenue estimates for Snapchat by 36 percent, predicting $662.1 million in net digital ad revenues, compared with an estimated $1.03 billion projected in March.
Facebook stated that Stories had 150 million daily users in May, and it began a trial period with selected advertisers in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil.
Now that the user total tops 300 million, worldwide brands can now add Facebook Stories ads to their campaigns.


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A recent report by IHS Inc showed that in 2012, capital expenditure on industrial automation equipment in Asia reached the striking total of $76.6B, representing 46% of global investments in the sector. Despite this established and rising trend, selling industrial automation equipment in Asia remains a clear business opportunity and one where many European providers are lagging behind.
Despite the first half of 2012 seeing an Asian market slowdown, with only a 3.7% growth in overall revenue from industrial automation equipment, the second half of the year showed definite improvement. The positive trend has continued in 2013, with the industrial automation sector set to grow by 6.2%. In such a dynamic market, getting new business can be both a business and technical challenge.
One of the key areas of opportunity is the power industry, where the booming consumer and industrial power markets in developing economies such as China and India have created rocketing demand. In China the per capita energy use is still a long way behind most of Western Europe, meaning the potential for growth is still huge. Without question, Asia represents a perfect storm of opportunities for European automation suppliers.
In order to help businesses better understand how to take advantage of the current climate and increase their industrial automation sales in Asia, particularly China, the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) is hosting a seminar entitled ‘Gateway to China’. The event will take place on September 24, 2013 at the Mitsubishi Electric Europe Tokyo Conference Suite in Hatfield.
For more information on the speakers and to book tickets for the event, just visit the CLPA’s EventBrite page: http://gateway-to-china.eventbrite.co.uk/.
In the light of the sensitive current economic climate, many Asian companies are taking a more careful approach to investment; they are becoming more demanding towards their suppliers and making more enquiries before purchasing. Furthermore, according to IHS’ research, several Chinese manufacturers are currently developing products which are in direct competition with the ones provided by Western suppliers of industrial automation. These are only a few of the obstacles facing European vendors who want to penetrate the Asian market to change the way they do business.
Flexibility and the ability to respond to very specific demands are becoming essential factors when dealing with the Asian market. Being able to offer technologies and products which are compatible with the needs of Asian clients is no longer an option, it’s a must.
This is great news for CC-Link – a leading open industrial network in Japan and the rest of Asia. With a market share of close to 20% in the region, CC-Link is an essential technology for any supplier who would like to tap into the APAC region.
Furthermore, any company wanting to approach the Asian market must develop a thorough cultural understanding of its countries, people and company cultures. A good way to gain access to this knowledge is joining the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA). This will enable you to access a well-established network of manufacturers of CC-Link compatible products and users of CC-Link technology.
The CLPA can provide valuable expertise for European companies in accessing the Asian industrial automation market by offering technical assistance and conducting conformance testing.
John Browett will be speaking at Gateway to China, the CLPA’s (CC-Link Partner Association) international trade seminar being held in Hatfield, UK on September 24.


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The scope of the Japanese airbag problem is a little wider than first reported, with a total of around 3.4 million vehicles set to be recalled worldwide.
The recall includes 490,000 cars in Europe and 580,000 from North America.
The concern is that airbags in front of the vehicles' front passenger seat may not inflate when required, a spokesman for Toyota said.
He added that no injuries or deaths had been reported because of the fault.
More top news
Dippy the Diplodocus is to forced into retirement and moved out of the Natural History Museum's main hall.
Alice Biggar has managed to survive on cheap tins, heavily-reduced supermarket goods and even chicken bones from butchers.
People should go online to report crimes instead of dialling 999, Home Secretary Theresa May has claimed.


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Tesla and its wunderkind founder and CEO, Elon Musk, unveiled a new gizmo this week: solar panel tiles that double as roof shingles.
Aesthetically, they're undeniably cool. The solar tiles are made from textured glass to mimic classic designs — standard black asphalt shingles, Tuscan shingles, slate tiles, and Spanish-style curved clay shingles. "You'll want to call your neighbors over and say 'check out the sweet roof,'" Musk promised.
This new offering would complete his trifecta: Solar power-generating tiles on every roof, a battery in every home, and an electric car in every garage. Modern clean-energy living, independent of the grid.
Unfortunately, while the presentation was stunning, it lacked practical considerations — like, well, cost.
When pressed about his system's price tag, Musk was troublingly vague. "[He] said that someone who buys a Tesla roof will save money compared with someone who buys a comparable traditional roof plus electricity from the grid," Bloomberg reports, calling Musk's math "squishy" since new roofs range between $7,000 and $70,000.
This is a problem. For Tesla's solar roofs to make a difference in the solar market, they can't rely on looks alone.
Other companies like Dow have actually attempted solar panels that double as rooftop shingles before and wound up crashing against the hard realities of cost and efficiency and market competition. (Though some others have managed to eke out niche markets.) "It's been a tough field to enter into with essentially no success stories," David Fenning, a University of California-San Diego professor and solar researcher, told CNN Money. "The challenge with solar comes down to cost. You want to be squeezing out every 0.1 percent in efficiency."
So what would it take for Tesla's solar roofs to attract a critical mass of consumers? Their cost is probably going to have to be in the ballpark of, and hopefully lower than, the average electricity bill. That's the gold standard for solar panels.
What does that mean, exactly? Over three decades — about the life expectancy of Tesla's tiles — that comes to around $39,000 for an average household.
There's a hiccup, though. We already know that Tesla's shingles have an added cost: A battery to store the electricity they produce for when the sun isn't shining. The Powerwall 2 battery that Tesla unveiled along with its solar roof system will run you $5,500. Unfortunately, you'll probably need more than one. The Powerwall 2 is a 14 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery, but a standard home probably needs at least a 30 kWh battery to cover one day of electricity use — and probably 60 kWh just for comfort. That comes to around $11,700 for the former, and $23,400 for the latter.
So the price of Tesla's tiles really should be at least below $27,300 to lure in consumers.
Now, as Musk pointed out implicitly, this might be a different story for someone who's building a new home or needs to replace their roof anyway. Then you can add between $7,000 and, um, $70,000 to that base — a lot more wriggle room. So if I had to guess, Tesla's system is going to be limited mostly to the new construction market or people looking to replace their roofs anyway.
That's nothing to sneeze at! But to build up enough critical mass in the market to really shift how our entire society generates electricity — to get the great bulk of all those millions upon millions of individual economic decisions to turn in green energy's favor — rooftop solar can't just win that competition by inches; it needs to win it by a lot more.
Right now, Tesla is trusting the aesthetics of their new product, its durability, and the convenience of the ecosystem they're offering — rooftop solar, home battery, electric car, all off the grid — to put them over the hump. Which is probably a package deal that will only work in high-end consumer markets.
The good news for Tesla is that, by all accounts, battery prices are dropping fast. In 10 years we should be at or near $150 per kWh, at which point a 30 kWh or even 60 kWh plus Tesla's solar tiles should be a competitive purchase for any home, in need of a new roof or not. In fact, Tesla thinks it can get to that target even faster, once their "gigafactory" is up and running and producing batteries at mass scale.
And of course, if by some miracle Tesla can get the costs of its system under that of standard roof solar, well then we might be on to something.
So Tesla's new creation might yet be a game changer. But first we need to see some hard numbers.
This article originally appeared on The Week. Read more from The Week:


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In the last six weeks, two Internet-based distributors of pet goods and services have combined to raise $116 million in venture funding from investors that include Amazon.com Inc., PETCO Animal Supplies Inc. and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.
In an effort to succeed in the increasingly crowded market, Allpets.com is building a community site for pet owners, rather than an e-commerce pet superstore, said Chief Executive Niloo Howe.
Zone Ventures, the Southern California affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, led Allpets.com’s first institutional round of venture financing. The Series A round also attracted investments from Wasatch Venture Fund, another Draper Fisher affiliate, and Avalon Investments. The company would not disclose further details of the financing round.
As part of the deal, Zone Ventures Partner Frank Creer has joined the company’s board of directors, which also includes former executives from c2c Media and Fox Broadcasting Co.
Allpets.com, which formerly operated as an online pet encyclopedia, plans to re-launch its Web site August 16. Proceeds from the investment will support the re-launch, increase staff to 50 from 10 employees by year-end, and build sales and marketing operations.
“I view it as an advantage to be an Internet company that is nimble, flexible and unconstrained by all the problems associated with traditional retailers,” Howe said. “We don’t need to spend multi-million dollars to get listed on America Online and Yahoo!”
Howe said Allpets.com will differ from the larger sites by offering only high-end pet products that are not sold in grocery stores. She added that the Web site will also provide a wider resource for users, and focus on a variety of pets beyond cats and dogs.
The company will likely raise an additional private round and recruit additional strategic investors sometime in the next three months.


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WRESTLED DOWN: We apperceive the action is fake, but WWE Entertainment built angry into a admired business afterwards activity public in 1999. Today, though, investors apparent bottomward the amount of that business by 43 percent afterwards the aggregation issued a black amend on its new online TV network. WWE shares accept collapsed 64 percent back hitting a almanac on March 20.
LOBSTER ROLL: Darden Restaurants is affairs its Red Lobster alternation to Golden Gate Capital, but investors are underwhelmed by the $2.1 billion deal. They bid Darden shares bottomward by 4.3 percent today. Darden is befitting its underperforming Olive Garden brand, which some shareholders were acquisitive would be included in a auction or spinoff.
SHINY PENNEY: J.C. Penney surprised investors with an admission in first-quarter sales, sending its shares up 16 percent. Upscale rival Nordstrom also exhausted analysts’ estimates, and its shares acquired 15 percent.
MAKING SOME DOUGH: Remember when Hostess cakes went abroad for a few months in 2012 and 2013? The association who bought Hostess out of bankruptcy, led by Apollo Global Management, are already planning to pay themselves a $175 actor allotment on their $410 actor purchase, according to a account from Standard & Poor’s.
LOCAL INDEX: The Bloomberg St. Louis Index rose 0.4 percent, in band with the broader market.
LOCAL GAINER: Investors were admiring when Mallinckrodt announced a amount admission for its biologic Ofirmev, an injectable anatomy of acetaminophen.
ANALYST’S INSIGHTS: IHS Global Insight economists Stephanie Karol and Patrick Newport alarm today’s address on apartment starts “a account of two apartment markets,” with multifamily architecture accelerating but the single-family bazaar actual slow. “Multifamily apartment has been the absolute almsman of the apartment recovery,” they write. “The accepted banal of apartments is bereft to amuse demand, sending rents aerial beyond the country and authoritative multifamily units an adorable advance for developers and landlords,” they write. Affordability is a botheration for the single-family market, they add, forth with “rising architecture costs, a absence of developed lots and bereft admission to acclaim for builders.”
THE WEEK AHEAD: It’s a big anniversary for the St. Louis startup scene, with Arch Grants announcing a new accumulation of winners on Wednesday and Capital Innovators showing off its portfolio companies at Demo Day on Tuesday. Existing home sales, on Thursday, may be the week’s best important bread-and-er indicator; economists surveyed by Bloomberg anticipate sales rose 2.2 percent in April. Several added retailers will address first-quarter earnings, including Home Depot on Tuesday, Target and Lowe’s on Wednesday, Best Buy on Thursday and Sears on Friday.
Make it your business. Get twice-daily updates on what the St. Louis business association is talking about.
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PARIS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The head of French aero engine maker Safran said on Tuesday he preferred to wait until the beginning of 2019 before committing to further increases in engine production to support possible jetliner output of 70 a month.
Industry officials say Airbus and Boeing are quizzing suppliers about their capacity to support production of as many as 70 medium-haul jets a month each, compared with targets of 57-60 a month set by each planemaker from 2019.
Safran CEO Philippe Petitcolin said deferring a decision to the beginning of next year would allow the company's CFM engine joint venture with General Electric to assess the status of a sharp ramp-up in LEAP engine production at the end of 2018.
It would also need to understand how long such high levels of jet production would be sustainable as it ponders the investments needed to expand production further, he added.
CFM is experiencing delays of several weeks in LEAP production but aims to catch up within "a few months" as it targets 1,100 deliveries of the new engine this year, up from 459 in 2017, Petitcolin said.
There is no single "black spot" currently hampering deliveries but Safran is closely monitoring its supply chain, he told reporters after unveiling 2017 results.
Petitcolin said Safran would continue to develop the Silvercrest business jet engine after Dassault cancelled its Falcon 5X over engine delays, adding the engine could be optimised to suit the sole remaining buyer Cessna.
He declined to comment on any penalties paid to Dassault, which is due to announce a new jet programme on Wednesday. (Reporting by Tim Hepher Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)


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Curtain Raiser, a new platform from UFO Moviez, recently enabled the producers of the highly anticipated feature film Raees to premier the film’s trailer simultaneously in theatres all across India. What made the event unique was that it also gave fans the ability to interact live with the film’s star – Shah Rukh Khan.
MBO Cinemas, Malaysia, has committed to purchase 100 Dolby ShowVault/Integrated Media Blocks as well as 75 units of the Dolby Digital Cinema Processor CP750 and 25 units of the Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor CP850 to deploy in all of its new cinema screens in Malaysia through June 1, 2018.
CinemaNext has signed an agreement with Empire Cinemas, the UK’s leading independently owned cinema chain, to oversee projection and audio installations, field services and technical customer support. The agreement covers Empire’s entire network of 14 locations across Great Britain, representing a total of 127 screens, including two IMAX Cinemas.
GDC Technology announced today that its TMS-2000 theatre management system rose to number two worldwide and is now deployed on more than 20,000 screens.
Vue Entertainment, UK has signed a multi-product deal with Unique Digital to transform the way Vue manages its digital cinema estate. Vue has deployed Unique Digital’s Smart Trailering centralized trailer planner, Basekey KDM management tool and Ad-Transit pre-show automation solution.
Bow Tie Cinemas has signed on to become National CineMedia’s newest affiliate. Beginning in the first quarter of 2017 Bow Tie’s 43 theaters with 271 screens in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia will become part of America’s Movie Network.
Christie has introduced the CP2308-C, which it calls a high value Xenon projector, based on a powerful new electronics platform. The new projector was unveiled this week at CineAsia 2016 in Hong Kong.
According to Christie, its RGB laser projection system continues to be the preferred choice for a premium 3D cinema experience by leading cinema exhibitors across China. Since its rollout in June 2014 with the world’s first commercial RGB laser projection system installed at the Shanghai Film Art Center, Christie’s pinnacle projection technology has seen widespread adoption, the company said.
Barco has introduced two high-contrast flagship laser projectors for premium cinema screens and five new laser phosphor projectors for small to large screens. They include the 2K SLP series for small to mid-size screens and the 2K/4K BLP range for mid-size to large screens. The 6P RGB high-contrast range doubles the contrast of Barco’s current flagship laser projectors and provides exhibitors with an even broader choice in the Premium Large Format segment. The BLP laser phosphor projectors will be shipping by the end of 2016; the SLP laser phosphor and LHC high-contrast projectors will be available first half of 2017.
Dolby Laboratories and The Walt Disney Studios today announced that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in theatres December 16, will be available in more than 50 Dolby Cinema locations around the globe.


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New car market surges by 25%
- Posted by: Alan Feldberg
- Category: News
The new car market grew 25.8% in June with 177,266 vehicles registered, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The June performance marks the 11th consecutive month of growth as the industry gradually overcomes the pandemic-induced supply chain shortages that constrained production for much of the previous two years.
Growth in the month was driven predominantly by large fleet registrations, up 37.9% to 92,699 units, reflecting the normalisation of supply. Private demand grew more modestly, up 14.8% to 79,798 units.
Deliveries of petrol cars increased 22.7% while those of hybrids and plug-in hybrids rose by 40.1% and 65.5% respectively. Diesel registrations were down 13.5%. and battery electric vehicle registrations were up 39.4%.
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said, “The new car market is growing back and growing green, as the attractions of electric cars become apparent to more drivers. But meeting our climate goals means we have to move even faster. Most electric vehicle owners enjoy the convenience and cost saving of charging at home but those that do not have a driveway or designated parking space must pay four times as much in tax for the same amount of energy. This is unfair and risks delaying greater uptake, so cutting VAT on public EV charging will help make owning an EV fairer and attractive to even more people.”


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With a report variety of new golfers teeing off in 2020, Callaway, the maker of golf balls, golf equipment, baggage and apparel, has been thriving.
Callaway announced in May well initially-quarter web earnings of $652 million, a 47% enhance from a 12 months earlier.
“Callaway pre-Covid was by now the amount 1 brand in sticks, I simply call it, which is putters, motorists and irons,” explained Jefferies analyst Randy Konik. “They were outpacing marketplace expansion and they had been also variety two in balls powering Titleist.”
Callaway has created moves off the fairway as properly. In March, the firm concluded its merger with golf amusement business Topgolf, which combines digital driving ranges with foods and cocktails.
“This is a transformative merger. It generates an entity that does not actually replicate just about anything that at the moment exists, with the chief in golfing products merging with the leader in golfing entertainment,” explained Callaway CEO Chip Brewer.
Previous calendar year, nearly 37 million gamers teed off at a golf system or participated in an off-study course activity like a driving vary. Almost a third of the U.S. population viewed, examine about or performed golfing in 2020.
But with movie theaters, journey and live shows expected to rebound, will golf club-makers like Callaway and its rival Acushnet be equipped to sustain their momentum?


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We've already posted a few spy shots of different companies' ideas for the new United States Postal Service mail truck. One of the six companies that were awarded prototype-building contracts is the Indian Mahindra, which is eager to gain a foothold in the U.S. no matter what the niche. Now, Mahindra's mail truck prototype has been spied tes
The U.S. Postal Service is currently looking for a replacement for the venerable Grumman LLV delivery truck. We've seen two possible replacements, one from Karsan, and another from OshKosh. There are four other companies that have prototypes under consideration, too, including AM General, Utilimaster, Mahindra, and VT Hackney. Now the prototype from VT Hackney has finally been spied, and it looks pretty intere
Reinventing how we move people and products around is a big job.
Would like some emissions with your mail, or rather not?
The United States Postal Service has sent a request for information to automakers, seeking bids on a next-generation postal delivery vehicle. It needs 180,000 new trucks built with safety and package delivery in mind to replace the archaic Grumman LLV that's become a huge drain on service resources.
After one of the worst winters in recent memory for much of the country, summer is finally here. It's time to drop the top, open the sunroof or at least put down the windows and take a long drive. The United States Postal Service is celebrating the season's sun in automotive style with two new hot rod Forever stamps.
Bloomberg has an interesting read from Oklahoma, following the story of Jim Ed Bull, a postal worker with the longest route in the country – a staggering 187.6 miles. For reference, that's like driving from the far northern side of Detroit to the far eastern side of Cleveland every day just to deliver the mail. Bull does this five times per week.
Here's a tough sell on eBay: an old electric postal delivery van that only gets eight miles of range. It could go up to 40 miles on a charge, but that would cost about $1,600 for a new battery on top of the $2,400 asking price.
As much as our digital lives have cut down on our trips to the post office, there are still times that sending "snail mail" is necessary. With us car lovers in mind and philately in their hearts, the good folks at the United States Postal Service will introduce a new stamp design called "Muscle Cars" starting on February 22.
With the United States Postal Service facing financial woes, Infrastructurist claims to have found a plugged-in solution that will keep the centuries-old, Constitution-formed government agency alive and kicking: four tips that, if successful, would make Benjamin Franklin* proud. Here's an abbreviated look at tip number one:
To celebrate the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, the United States Postal Service is releasing a run of 50 million first-class mail stamps depicting Ray Harroun and his Marmon Wasp winning the 1911 race. The stamp features a slick art deco aesthetic and was released this week ahead of Fast Friday.
The United State Postal Service (USPS) has discussed dropping Saturday delivery several times in the past. Often, the USPS cites budget concerns and has proposed the five-day delivery schedule as a solution, an option many are unhappy with. So now we're hearing a different approach, and it jumps on the "go green" bandwagon. The USPS is saying reducing emissions is a primary reason for dropping Saturday deliveries. Clearly you can't argue with a company trying to save the environment, right?
U.S Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey visits Zap – Click above for high-res image
News from Zap's California headquarters has been quiet of late, with not much more than a few tidbits about a possible electric SUV and more orders for the Zaptruck reaching our screens. This week, though, we heard about a new possibility for Zap's electric vehicles (EVs) to hit the road:
The United States Congress has yet to pass any of the proposed appropriations that would fund a massive electrification drive by the U.S. Postal Service. Nonetheless, the post office is moving ahead with a test program in Washington, D.C. that will see some of the ubiquitous white boxes be converted to battery power.


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This week: LinkedIn has new ad targeting features, Reddit rolls out new video ad updates, and the European Union’s top court has some bad news if you’re taking a short-cut to get cookie consent.
Here’s what happened this week in digital marketing.
EU Top Court Says Active Consent Needed for Tracking Cookies
This seems like a pretty important story if you’re marketing across the pond.
Europe’s top court ruled this past week that pre-checked consent boxes for accepting cookies aren’t legally valid.
In other words, you can’t assume that the visitor wants to accept your cookies. You must obtain active consent beforehand.
Some sites just track cookies and throw up a notification to visitors that effectively reads: “Hey, we’re tracking cookies to improve your experience. You’re okay with that, right?”
That’s not going to fly in the EU. For now.
The final outcome of the case is still pending.
Reddit Rolls out Three New Video Ad Updates
Reddit continues to ramp up its advertising game. This past week, the company introduced three new video ad features.
First up: mobile landing pages for video ads. They redirect visitors to a website where the video ad continues to play alongside branding or product info.
Next, you can now run ads in a perfect square format or 4:5 vertical orientation. That’s in addition to the 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios that previously existed.
Finally, Reddit is also introducing optional referral URLs for CPV campaigns. They allow you to include referral URLs in campaigns optimized for views.
Instagram Tests Product Launch Announcements
Instagram is testing a feature that allows users to set reminders about product launches.
Users who receive the reminders can buy the products right on the Instagram platform.
Businesses can also give their customers the option to set reminders about upcoming product roll-outs with the product launch tag or the product launch sticker in Stories.
The new feature launched just this past week with select brands participating in the test.
Google Ads Makes It Easier to Analyze Multiple Accounts
Now you can more easily manage multiple accounts with Google Ads.
In the past, you had to download reports and use some other software to view data across different accounts.
Folks at Google understood that was a problem and have responded.
The new report editor will show you cross-account info. You can manipulate the data in real time as well.
Keep in mind: the new feature is only available for Manager accounts. You’re also limited to a maximum of 10 accounts in your reporting.
Google says it plans to increase that limit in the near future.
Google: H1 Headers Useful but Not Critical
On a recent Google Webmaster Hangout, John Mueller reminded webmasters that H1 headers are useful but not critical.
That advice stands oddly against the SEO conventional wisdom that says you must use an H1 tag and it must match your title tag.
But Google says it’s not necessary after all.
Mueller also said that you can use as many H1 tags as you want on your web pages.
“Your site is going to rank perfectly fine with no H1 tags or with five H1 tags,” he said.
Mueller did confirm, though, that H1 tags are useful for communicating page structure.
Looks Like Facebook Will Start Hiding Like Counts on Posts
This past week, Facebook began hiding like counts to users in Australia.
That’s not a surprising move considering that Facebook-owned Instagram started hiding likes recently. I also won’t be surprised if Facebook hides like counts globally after a short time.
The hidden like counts on Facebook will work the same way they do on Instagram. Users will be able to see who liked a post, but they won’t see the overall like count.
Apparently, Facebook is making the change in response to some studies showing that like counts have a negative effect on people’s mental health.
Yoast SEO Opts Users Into All Snippet Features by Default
As of October 1, WordPress plugin Yoast SEO opted users into all of its snippet features by default.
Why? Because Google recently announced new snippet settings. They provide site owners with options to limit the content included in search results.
The company made the change in response to the European Copyright Directive that’s designed to get Google to pay for content in the SERPs.
If you’d like more discretion about how your content is displayed in search, it might be a good idea to avoid updating to the latest version of Yoast (12.2).
Google: Optimizing for RankBrain Same As Optimizing for Users
Here’s another reason to believe that the best SEO is simply developing content that people will love.
According to Google’s Gary Illyes, “you optimize your content for users and thus for RankBrain. That hasn’t changed.”
He tweeted that in response to a question he got about optimizing for RankBrain.
So keep on going with the amazing content marketing.
Google: Don’t Use M-Dot URLs
If your website still uses m-dot URLs for mobile visitors, it might be a good time to upgrade to a responsive design.
That’s because Google’s John Mueller strongly recommends not using the m-dot format.
He tweeted that in response to a question he got about someone thinking it might be a good idea to move a site with 6 million unique views a month to an m-dot URL structure.
Mueller also issued a warning about PWAs.
“[T]hey can do cool stuff quickly,” he said, “but they’re also hard to get right, especially for SEO (not impossible though).”
Report: Instagram In-Stream Video Ads Generating More Purchases Than Story Ads
According to a new report from Wibbitz, Instagram in-stream video ads drive more purchases than Story ads.
The company surveyed more than 1,000 consumers in the U.S. and Europe and found that 31% of Instagram users said they purchased a product after watching a video on Instagram.
Of those, 27% said they bought something after watching an in-feed video ad. Only 12% said they bought a product after watching a Story ad.
Wibbitz also found that 26% of Instagram users follow new brand accounts they discovered on the Instagram Explore tab.
Facebook Advertisers Can Use Story Ads to Start a Conversation on Messenger
You can now use Instagram and Facebook Story ads to start a conversation on Messenger.
Here’s how it works: users swipe up on Story ads with the “Send Message” call to action. That starts a Messenger dialog.
The new feature is available to you if you run a business with Messenger templates set up in your Facebook Ads account.
LinkedIn Campaign Manager Adds New Targeting Logic
Like Reddit and Pinterest, LinkedIn continues to break new ground in advertising almost weekly.
This week, the company announced that it added audience forecasting insights in Campaign Manager. That gives you quick access to the makeup of your target audience.
“When combined with contacts you’ve uploaded to Matched Audiences, you can be sure that you’re not only serving ads to the specific prospects you’re trying to reach, but that you’ll have the demographic insights to deliver the content and creative mix that will resonate with them,” said LinkedIn in a statement.
Additionally, you can now also creating targeting queries with boolean (and/or) logic. That means you can target multiple roles and levels of seniority at the same time.
Finally, LinkedIn will soon roll out new audience-level metrics. Look for those in the coming weeks.
Given what we’ve learned this week, here are a few action items:
- Check your cookie alerts to make sure you’re in full compliance with the recent EU court ruling.
- Look for a subreddit that caters to members of your target market and run some video ads there.
- Get with your developers and partners to determine if you need to upgrade to the latest version of Yoast SEO.
- Without doing any keyword research, identify a subject that you think your visitors will love to read about. Write some long form content about that subject and see if RankBrain blesses you with a top spot in the SERPs.
- Think about how you can use Instagram in-stream video ads to promote your business.
- If you’re in the B2B space, go over LinkedIn’s new targeting options and see if any of them can help you reach more people or reduce your ad spend.