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Google I/O happened overnight and it’s safe to say that Google announced that it’ll be releasing more products in the next 12 months than it ever has. Everything from new phones, to a tablet, to new headphones to a brand new watch are set to come out and here’s the recap.
GOOGLE PIXEL 6A
The Google Pixel 6A follows in the footsteps of the Google 6 design-wise. It’ll come in at cheaper than the Google Pixel 6 and has a 6.1″ screen, as well as a 12 megapixel ultrawide and main camera. It’ll be powered by Google’s custom Tensor chip, 6GB of ram as well as 128GB of storage. A lot of the features from the Pixel 6 including Night Sight and Magic Eraser will feature.
It’ll cost $749 when it releases this Winter and will release in Sage, Chalk and Charcoal.
GOOGLE PIXEL 7 AND GOOGLE PIXEL 7 PRO
Whilst it’s not due to release until later this year, Google gave us our first look at the Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro. The design will sport the same camera bar, but it now looks to be a bit more premium with a rectangular glass rather than the plastic bump. The 7 Pro will have three cameras, but we’ll learn more about that later. Obviously, there will be the newest Google Tensor chip powering the phones.
The Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro will release in Spring. The Pixel 7 will ship in Obsidian, Snow and Lemongrass whilst the 7 Pro will ship in Obsidian, Snow and Hazel.
THE GOOGLE PIXEL WATCH
Google announced that the Google Pixel Watch will release alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro later this year. The Pixel Watch sports a gorgeous edge to edge design, as well as a clickable crown that looks similar to that of the Apple Watch, then the two watch bands slots that allow you to change out the band. The Watch will have Fitbit built in, and will use an improved Wear OS UI with more fluid navigations and smart notifications.
The Google Pixel Watch is releasing in Spring alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
GOOGLE PIXEL BUDS PRO
Google has also announced the Pixel Buds Pro. The new in-ear headphones will have active noise cancellation with silent seal, up to 31 hours of listening time, wireless charging and obviously the built-in Google assistant.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro will be available on July 21st for $299 and will come in Charcoal, Lemongrass, Fog and Coral.
THE GOOGLE PIXEL TABLET
Last but not least, Google announced that a brand new Pixel tablet would release in 2023. There’s not a lot of info yet, but it’s thought that this will be a big part of Google’s smart home initiative, with the tablet able to seamlessly dock into a speaker station in order to essentially become a home hub, that is obviously very useable out of the hub.
Here’s a sneak peek at our upcoming Pixel tablet ?


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Candles have been a staple in homes for centuries, providing warmth, light, and ambiance. But in recent years, candles have also become a popular item for entrepreneurs looking to start their own business. With the rise of e-commerce and social media, selling candles has become more accessible than ever before. But with so many people jumping on the candle-making bandwagon, is it still a profitable business? In this article, we’ll explore the current trends in candle sales and whether or not it’s a viable business opportunity for 2024.
The Current State of Candle Sales
The Growing Popularity of Candles
by beyza yurtkuran (https://unsplash.com/@beyzaayurtkuran)
According to a report by Grand View Research, the global candle market size was valued at USD 3.45 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8% from 2021 to 2028. This growth can be attributed to the increasing popularity of candles as a home decor item, as well as the rise of self-care and wellness trends.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Candle Sales
The COVID-19 pandemic has also played a significant role in the growth of candle sales. With people spending more time at home, there has been an increased demand for products that can create a cozy and relaxing atmosphere. Candles have become a go-to item for many people looking to create a sense of comfort and calm in their homes.
The Rise of E-commerce and Social Media
The rise of e-commerce and social media has also contributed to the growth of candle sales. With platforms like Etsy and Instagram, it’s easier than ever for small businesses to reach a larger audience and sell their products online. This has opened up opportunities for candle makers to sell their products directly to consumers, without the need for a physical storefront.
Trends in Candle Sales for 2024
Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Candles
by Boxed Water Is Better (https://unsplash.com/@boxedwater)
As consumers become more environmentally conscious, there has been a growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly products. This trend has also extended to the candle industry, with more and more consumers looking for candles made from natural and renewable materials. This includes soy wax, beeswax, and coconut wax, which are all biodegradable and have a lower carbon footprint compared to traditional paraffin wax.
Customization and Personalization
In a world where everything is mass-produced, consumers are looking for products that are unique and personalized. This trend has also made its way into the candle industry, with many businesses offering customizable candles. This can include choosing the scent, color, and even adding a personalized label or message. This trend is expected to continue in 2024, as consumers look for ways to make their homes and gifts more personal.
Seasonal and Limited Edition Candles
by Paul Green (https://unsplash.com/@pgreen1983)
Seasonal and limited edition candles have become a popular trend in recent years. These candles are often released during holidays or special occasions and have unique scents and designs. This creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity, making them highly sought after by consumers. This trend is expected to continue in 2024, as businesses look for ways to stand out in a crowded market.
Online Sales and Social Media Marketing
As mentioned earlier, the rise of e-commerce and social media has had a significant impact on candle sales. This trend is expected to continue in 2024, with more businesses focusing on online sales and social media marketing. With the ability to reach a larger audience and target specific demographics, social media has become an essential tool for businesses looking to sell candles.
Is Selling Candles Still a Profitable Business?
With the current trends in candle sales, it’s safe to say that selling candles can still be a profitable business in 2024. However, like any business, success will depend on various factors, including the quality of the product, marketing strategies, and competition.
Quality of the Product
by Filipp Romanovski (https://unsplash.com/@filipp_roman_photography)
The quality of the product is crucial in the candle industry. With so many businesses selling candles, it’s essential to stand out by offering high-quality, unique products. This can include using natural and sustainable materials, creating unique scents, and offering customizable options. By focusing on quality, businesses can attract and retain customers, leading to long-term success.
Marketing is another crucial aspect of running a successful candle business. With the rise of social media, businesses can reach a larger audience and target specific demographics. It’s essential to have a strong online presence and use social media platforms to showcase products, engage with customers, and promote sales and promotions. By utilizing effective marketing strategies, businesses can increase brand awareness and attract new customers.
As with any industry, competition is a factor that businesses must consider. With the rise of e-commerce and social media, the barrier to entry in the candle industry has lowered, leading to increased competition. To stand out in a crowded market, businesses must offer unique products, have a strong online presence, and provide excellent customer service. By differentiating themselves from the competition, businesses can attract and retain customers, leading to long-term success.
In conclusion, selling candles can still be a profitable business in 2024. With the current trends in candle sales, there is a growing demand for high-quality, sustainable, and personalized products. By utilizing effective marketing strategies and differentiating themselves from the competition, businesses can attract and retain customers, leading to long-term success. So if you’re considering starting a candle business, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of the growing demand for candles.

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Just moments after posting the updated specification details of the Zopo ZP980+ octacore, we have received spy photos of the phone running impressive Antutu scores!
We have already learned that Zopo’s second octacore phone of the year, the updated Zopo ZP980+, will feature a 1.7Ghz MT6592 processor and 1GB RAM. Although we were expecting at least 2GB RAM the phone, something we are sure will be offered at a later date, the lack of RAM does not seem to have affected the Antutu benchmarks of the phone at all!
Gizchina News of the week
These spy photos show the updated Zopo ZP980+ alongside the flagship Zopo ZP998 running Antutu. The black ZP980+ is the more powerful of the 2 smartphones with an Antutu result of 27,071 points!
The ZP980+ will be unveiled officially soon and is also believe to receive a new 5-inch LTPs display, 14 mega-pixel rear camera, NFC, OTG and electronic compass.[ Weibo ]
I have ZP980 32G with 2GB RAM. Phone is still using 32-35% of RAM, so I think, that 1GB is a little.
What about 3GB RAM i Android device? Why there arent devices from China which have 3GB RAM?
Vivo XPlay 3S for example…


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WeSupply and Kibo work together to help retailers that are facing another potential setback due to the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, that can negatively impact consumer behavior, particularly during the holiday season.
Dec 16, 2021 13:00 EST
December 16, 2021 (Newswire.com) –
WeSupply announces integration with Kibo in order to optimize curbside interactions and increase overall client satisfaction. The integration between the two platforms aims to enable retailers to create a holistic customer experience through omnichannel order viewing and post-purchase notifications.
The pressure to stay ahead in today’s market is immense, but retailers who understand their customer base and what they want will be able to sustain a competitive advantage. Kibo is committed to providing the most comprehensive omnichannel solutions for their…


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The developers of the Tor online privacy service are fixing a weakness which could have exposed the identities of hundreds of thousands of users of sites around the world.
A new kind of web tracking tool bypasses the protections privacy-conscious web users rely on and is already being used to track users across thousands of sites - without users being aware of it.
‘Sextortion’ attacks where cybercriminals blackmail victims with the threat of exposing explicit photographs or messages are increasingly common, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
New facial recognition technology which can instantly identify people from any digital image in seconds is being trialled in the UK for the first time.
Guests who used business centers in American hotels may be at risk from gangs installing keylogger malware on the computers to steal banking and email passwords.
Files sent as a link from Google Drive could have shared more than their senders intended, Google admitted this week - in a Google Drive privacy post where the internet giant admitted files could be visible to people other than their intended recipients.
A new computer vision attack could allow Google Glass wearers to steal passwords typed in on nearby tablet or smartphones - even if the attackers do not have a clear view of the screen.


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MANILA — Heads up, ARMYs! It appears that McDonald's Philippines is bringing new merchandise of K-pop supergroup BTS in the country next month.
In a recent social media post, the fast food giant dropped a photo showing emojis of a bee, a tea cup, a peace sign and a clock timed at 1 o'clock.
"Iykyk [If you know, you know]. Do you? Coming April 2023," McDonald's wrote in the caption.
BTS fans have speculated that the poster was hinting at a collaboration between McDonald's and BT21, a set of characters co-created by the K-pop sensation and creative studio Line Friends.
In February, McDonald's in South Korea launched figurines of the BT21 characters in its stores.
In 2021, McDonald's launched the BTS Meal, sparking a frenzy among fans here in the Philippines and abroad. It consisted of chicken nuggets, two special dips, fries and a soda, packed in a paper bag with the BTS logo printed on it.
Debuting in 2013, BTS is widely considered South Korea's biggest-ever cultural phenomenon: selling out stadiums around the world and dominating the charts while raking in billions and building a global legion of fans.
For more news and features on K-pop, K-drama, and K-stars, visit the Hallyu Corner microsite.
— Report from Hannahlyn Tomaquin, ABS-CBN News intern


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by ASILA JALIL / pic by TMR FILE
HARTALEGA Holdings Bhd recorded a net loss of RM197.9 million in its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022 (4Q22), primarily due to the provision of Cukai Makmur.
While revenue for the quarter stood at RM968.7 million, down 58% year-on-year (YoY) from RM2.31 billion in the same period last year due to the normalising average selling price (ASP) mitigated by the increase in sales volume by 9%.
Read more: Hartalega’s 3Q earnings fall 74.6% on lower ASPs, sales
For its full financial year, the group’s net profit was up by 12.1% YoY to RM3.23 billion from RM2.89 billion last year, mainly driven by higher revenue which was partly offset by higher raw material and other operating costs.
The group also registered higher revenue of RM7.89 billion, up 17.7% YoY from RM6.7 billion, mainly contributed by higher ASP in the first half of the current financial year, after offsetting the impact of reduction in sales volume by 22%.
Earnings per share for the full financial year increased to 94.64 sen while the group’s net assets per share stood at RM1.50 as at March 31, 2022.
Read more: Lower sales, ASP hit Hartalega’s 2Q earnings
The board declared a third interim single tier dividend of 3.5 sen per share, with the entitlement date on May 26, 2022, and payable on June 9, 2022. This will bring total dividends to date for the financial year to 3.5 sen per share.
Hartalega CEO Kuan Mun leong (picture) said its bottom line for the 4Q was impacted by the normalisation of ASPs and demand.
The group expects prospects to remain in financial year 2023 even as the group enters into an endemic phase.
“For the glove sector, current ASPs seem to have bottomed out and the opening of international borders and easing of travel restrictions is expected to relieve the current shortage of workers, which will be of benefit to Hartalega.
“Taking a long-term view, the structural organic step-up in the global demand for gloves bodes well for the group, in light of increased glove usage from emerging markets with low glove consumption base, complemented by increased awareness on hygiene among healthcare practitioners post-pandemic.
“To meet this demand growth, the group continues to progress in its capacity expansion via the Next Generation Integrated Glove Manufacturing Complex (NGC). To this end, our NGC 1.5 expansion is on track and we target to gradually commission the first production line by 4Q22. The pace of commissioning for NGC 1.5 will depend on the prevailing market situation moving forward,” he said in a statement today.
He added the group continues to face external pressures including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the lockdown in major cities in China as a result of the new wave of Covid-19 cases.
These are expected to have repercussions on the global supply chain which is already strained, thus leading to a rise in global commodity and raw material prices, said Kuan.
“Additionally, the recent implementation of the new minimum wage policy in Malaysia is likely to result in higher operating costs for the manufacturing sector.
“Amid this challenging backdrop, we are focused on cost optimisation, continuous efficiency improvement and automation initiatives across our operations to ensure the sustainability and resilience of the group,” he said.
Individuals arriving from Sabah must undergo screening from tomorrow – Health DG


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The use of bitcoin by criminals has attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, law enforcement, and the media. In the United States, the FBI prepared an intelligence assessment, the SEC issued a pointed warning about investment schemes using virtual currencies, and the U.S. Senate held a hearing on virtual currencies in November 2013. The U.S. government claimed that bitcoin was used to facilitate payments related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
New Market Read
Venture capitalists, such as Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, which invested US$3 million in BitPay, do not purchase bitcoins themselves, but instead fund bitcoin infrastructure that provides payment systems to merchants, exchanges, wallet services, etc. In 2012, an incubator for bitcoin-focused start-ups was founded by Adam Draper, with financing help from his father, venture capitalist Tim Draper, one of the largest bitcoin holders after winning an auction of 30,000 bitcoins, at the time called "mystery buyer". The company's goal is to fund 100 bitcoin businesses within 2–3 years with $10,000 to $20,000 for a 6% stake. Investors also invest in bitcoin mining. According to a 2015 study by Paolo Tasca, bitcoin startups raised almost $1 billion in three years (Q1 2012 – Q1 2015).
In June 2014 the network exceeded 100 petahash/sec. On 18 June 2014, it was announced that bitcoin payment service provider BitPay would become the new sponsor of St. Petersburg Bowl under a two-year deal, renamed the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl. Bitcoin was to be accepted for ticket and concession sales at the game as part of the sponsorship, and the sponsorship itself was also paid for using bitcoin.
The successful miner finding the new block is rewarded with newly created bitcoins and transaction fees. As of 9 July 2016, the reward amounted to 12.5 newly created bitcoins per block added to the blockchain. To claim the reward, a special transaction called a coinbase is included with the processed payments.:ch. 8 All bitcoins in existence have been created in such coinbase transactions. The bitcoin protocol specifies that the reward for adding a block will be halved every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years). Eventually, the reward will decrease to zero, and the limit of 21 million bitcoins[f] will be reached c. 2140; the record keeping will then be rewarded solely by transaction fees.
It would seem even early collaborators on the project don’t have verifiable proof of Satoshi’s identity. To reveal conclusively who Satoshi Nakamoto is, a definitive link would need to be made between his/her activity with Bitcoin and his/her identity. That could come in the form of linking the party behind the domain registration of bitcoin.org, email and forum accounts used by Satoshi Nakamoto, or ownership of some portion of the earliest mined bitcoins. Even though the bitcoins Satoshi likely possesses are traceable on the blockchain, it seems he/she has yet to cash them out in a way that reveals his/her identity. If Satoshi were to move his/her bitcoins to an exchange today, this might attract attention, but it seems unlikely that a well-funded and successful exchange would betray a customer's privacy.
Josiah is an assistant editor at CCN. A former ancient and medieval literature teacher, he has been reporting on cryptocurrency since 2014. He lives in rural North Carolina with his wife and children. He holds investment positions in bitcoin and other large-cap cryptocurrencies. Follow him on Twitter @Y3llowb1ackbird or email him directly at josiah.wilmoth(at)ccn.com.
An official investigation into bitcoin traders was reported in May 2018. The U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into possible price manipulation, including the techniques of spoofing and wash trades. Traders in the U.S., the U.K, South Korea, and possibly other countries are being investigated. Brett Redfearn, head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, had identified several manipulation techniques of concern in March 2018.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables users to be their own banks, store their assets securely thanks to advanced encryption and send money without any intermediaries to anyone anywhere in the World. Bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency with a very good market price. It has made many investors, especially the earliest ones, incredibly rich bringing even 1000x of returns. However, because of this it has become a very speculative asset. Many people are researching Bitcoin only for the sake of profits and not to use it as a fast peer-to-peer payment method
Third-party internet services called online wallets offer similar functionality but may be easier to use. In this case, credentials to access funds are stored with the online wallet provider rather than on the user's hardware. As a result, the user must have complete trust in the wallet provider. A malicious provider or a breach in server security may cause entrusted bitcoins to be stolen. An example of such a security breach occurred with Mt. Gox in 2011. This has led to the often-repeated meme "Not your keys, not your bitcoin".
Bitcoin's origin story sounds like something out of science fiction: It was launched in 2008 on the heels of a white paper published by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity – and country of origin – are unknown. Nakamoto conceived of Bitcoin as a currency that was 1) encrypted; 2) decentralized, i.e. it was ungoverned and did not belong to any nation; and 3) a digital "distributed ledger," such that everyone can verify online the legitimacy of transactions.
In any situation, CEX.IO provides users with the proper conditions for selling and buying Bitcoins and helps them make the correct decisions. The Bitcoin to USD chart is designed for users to instantly see the changes that occur on the market and predict what will come next. This feature allows customers to seize the most appropriate moment for the transaction so that they can gain the maximum benefit from it. So, if you are looking for a Bitcoin to dollar exchange, choose CEX.IO for the best experience. With the platform, you will be able to get an advanced user experience.
Bitcoin’s first mover advantage, popularity, and network effect has cemented it as the most popular cryptocurrency with the largest market cap. Rivals like Litecoin may have numerous technical advantages over Bitcoin’s algorithm (see more about that here), but they only hold a fraction of Bitcoin’s market cap and their dwindling communities largely consist of loyalists, speculators, and antagonistic anti-Bitcoin buyers.
The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was cypherpunk Hal Finney, who created the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPOW) in 2004. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software on its release date, and on 12 January 2009 received ten bitcoins from Nakamoto. Other early cypherpunk supporters were creators of bitcoin predecessors: Wei Dai, creator of b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bit gold. In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Joshua A. Kroll; Ian C. Davey; Edward W. Felten (11–12 June 2013). "The Economics of Bitcoin Mining, or Bitcoin in the Presence of Adversaries" (PDF). The Twelfth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS 2013). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 May 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016. A transaction fee is like a tip or gratuity left for the miner.
The most recent exciting news in Bitcoin history began in November 2017 and led to the current all-time high for the cryptocurrency. In 2017, Bitcoin went from trading at just over $900 to about $20,000. This was a journey with many ups and downs along the way, a drop in trading volumes due to the People’s Bank of China tightening oversight of Bitcoin exchanges and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejecting a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
On 6 August 2010, a major vulnerability in the bitcoin protocol was spotted. Transactions weren't properly verified before they were included in the transaction log or blockchain, which let users bypass bitcoin's economic restrictions and create an indefinite number of bitcoins. On 15 August, the vulnerability was exploited; over 184 billion bitcoins were generated in a transaction, and sent to two addresses on the network. Within hours, the transaction was spotted and erased from the transaction log after the bug was fixed and the network forked to an updated version of the bitcoin protocol. This was the only major security flaw found and exploited in bitcoin's history.
In its October 2012 study, Virtual currency schemes, the European Central Bank concluded that the growth of virtual currencies will continue, and, given the currencies' inherent price instability, lack of close regulation, and risk of illegal uses by anonymous users, the Bank warned that periodic examination of developments would be necessary to reassess risks.
On 3 March 2014, Flexcoin announced it was closing its doors because of a hack attack that took place the day before. In a statement that once occupied their homepage, they announced on 3 March 2014 that "As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss [the hack], we are closing our doors immediately." Users can no longer log into the site.
Speculation drives numbers. Many Bitcoin users are holding onto their bitcoins in hopes of selling them off for an enormous profit one day. With news articles portraying Bitcoin millionaires as lucky kids who got in early, you can’t really blame them. For example, if you had spent your $5 latte money on 2,000 bitcoins one morning in 2010, they would be worth about $5.4 million today. Makes you really wish you’d managed your Starbucks budget better, doesn’t it?
Bitcoin turns 10 — how it went from an abstract idea to a $100 billion market in a decade CNBCBitcoin is 10 years old today — here's a look back at its crazy history Business InsiderFactbox: Ten years of bitcoin Reuters10 years later, we still don't know what Bitcoin is for Telegraph.co.ukIt's Bitcoin's 10th Birthday. Here's What People Are […]
In 2014 prices started at $770 and fell to $314 for the year. In February 2014 the Mt. Gox exchange, the largest bitcoin exchange at the time, said that 850,000 bitcoins had been stolen from its customers, amounting to almost $500 million. Bitcoin's price fell by almost half, from $867 to $439 (a 49% drop). Prices remained low until late 2016.
Bitcoin continued to decline during early 2018, before eventually stabilizing at around $7,000 per coin. It has remained in the $6,000 to $7,000 range since June, and the volatility that characterised the market in 2017 and early 2018 has all but evaporated. On its 10-year anniversary, bitcoin is trading at $6,305 per coin, according to Markets Insider.
One of the first supporters, adopters, contributor to bitcoin and receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was programmer Hal Finney. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software the day it was released, and received 10 bitcoins from Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction on 12 January 2009. Other early supporters were Wei Dai, creator of bitcoin predecessor b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bitcoin predecessor bit gold.
That crash was made up for by a rally in October and November of that year. By early October, Bitcoin was at about $100, and it hit $195 by the end of the month. In November alone, Bitcoin had an unbelievable rally, going from $200 to more than $1,120. The causes of this rally were fairly obvious to most people, as more miners and exchanges were supporting Bitcoin. In addition, China had entered the marketplace.
In the blockchain, bitcoins are registered to bitcoin addresses. Creating a bitcoin address requires nothing more than picking a random valid private key and computing the corresponding bitcoin address. This computation can be done in a split second. But the reverse, computing the private key of a given bitcoin address, is mathematically unfeasible. Users can tell others or make public a bitcoin address without compromising its corresponding private key. Moreover, the number of valid private keys is so vast that it is extremely unlikely someone will compute a key-pair that is already in use and has funds. The vast number of valid private keys makes it unfeasible that brute force could be used to compromise a private key. To be able to spend their bitcoins, the owner must know the corresponding private key and digitally sign the transaction. The network verifies the signature using the public key.:ch. 5
In March the bitcoin transaction log called the blockchain temporarily split into two independent chains with differing rules on how transactions were accepted. For six hours two bitcoin networks operated at the same time, each with its own version of the transaction history. The core developers called for a temporary halt to transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off. Normal operation was restored when the majority of the network downgraded to version 0.7 of the bitcoin software. The Mt. Gox exchange briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the exchange rate briefly dipped by 23% to $37 as the event occurred before recovering to previous level of approximately $48 in the following hours. In the US, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as bitcoin, classifying American bitcoin miners who sell their generated bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (or MSBs), that may be subject to registration and other legal obligations.
Researchers have pointed out at a "trend towards centralization". Although bitcoin can be sent directly to the bitcoin network, in practice intermediaries are widely used.:220–222 Bitcoin miners join large mining pools to minimize the variance of their income.:215, 219–222:3 Because transactions on the network are confirmed by miners, decentralization of the network requires that no single miner or mining pool obtains 51% of the hashing power, which would allow them to double-spend coins, prevent certain transactions from being verified and prevent other miners from earning income. As of 2013 just six mining pools controlled 75% of overall bitcoin hashing power. In 2014 mining pool Ghash.io obtained 51% hashing power which raised significant controversies about the safety of the network. The pool has voluntarily capped their hashing power at 39.99% and requested other pools to act responsibly for the benefit of the whole network.
On 19 June 2011, a security breach of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange caused the nominal price of a bitcoin to fraudulently drop to one cent on the Mt. Gox exchange, after a hacker used credentials from a Mt. Gox auditor's compromised computer illegally to transfer a large number of bitcoins to himself. They used the exchange's software to sell them all nominally, creating a massive "ask" order at any price. Within minutes, the price reverted to its correct user-traded value. Accounts with the equivalent of more than US$8,750,000 were affected.
Bitcoin's blockchain can be loaded with arbitrary data. In 2018 researchers from RWTH Aachen University and Goethe University identified 1,600 files added to the blockchain, 59 of which included links to unlawful images of child exploitation, politically sensitive content, or privacy violations. "Our analysis shows that certain content, eg, illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal."
Computing power is often bundled together or "pooled" to reduce variance in miner income. Individual mining rigs often have to wait for long periods to confirm a block of transactions and receive payment. In a pool, all participating miners get paid every time a participating server solves a block. This payment depends on the amount of work an individual miner contributed to help find that block.


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What’s at stake?
The pharmaceutical industry spends more on marketing than any other entity. Marketing expenditure accounted for 18.2 percent of the sales dollar and is growing compared to research and development, which has slowed to 17 percent. More facts to consider:
Prescription drug spending is the fastest growing medical expenditure for consumers. The average growth is 6.3 percent per year, outpacing hospital services (6.1%) and physician and clinical services (5.4%).
On average, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries spend over $20,000 per doctor each year on marketing efforts.
As of March 18, 2011, there were more than 13,000 individual entries in the Department of Public Health’s public database of payments made to prescribers by drug and medical device companies.
Has the law negatively affected Bay State businesses, workers?
Many who oppose the law claim that the Massachusetts economy was negatively impacted by the restrictions. The facts prove otherwise.
Biotechnology Industry – Venture Capitalist investment in Massachusetts-based companies in 2010 was up 26 percent over 2009 to $246 million on a trailing four-quarter average basis, outpacing and eclipsing Silicon Valley as the most active target for bio-focused venture capital in the nation.
Conventions – Pharmaceutical and medical industry events generated $166.55 million in revenue for Massachusetts in 2009: the most by any industry in 2009 and totaled more than the commercial, technology and education industries combined.
Employment – The number of jobs in the Massachusetts biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry reached an all-time high in 2009 at 46,553, which marks a 60 percent growth since 2000.
Restaurants – Revenues are up, trends point to growth, and the recent industry slowdown was a national trend caused by the economic downturn.


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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has formulated a deal with Californian electric carmaker Tesla that will help it dodge fines for high emissions that could be charged by the European Union under its strict emissions regulations.
The deal would see the Italian/American carmaker pool its vehicles with Tesla’s in order to achieve an overall lower emissions figure, avoiding a penalty for exceeding the new stringent EU emissions rules that demand a maximum emissions of 95gm/km of CO2 by 2021.
It could also be a significant boost to Tesla’s finances, pulling in a major fee for allowing its vehicles to be used to help meet one of its great rivals meet its production targets.
It will effectively sell the credits from its zero emissions vehicles to other car makers who have been slow to respond to the new standards. The Financial Times, which revealed the deal with Fiat Chrysler, said it could be worth hundreds of millions of Euros.
Ratings agency Moody’s has reported that many carmakers in the EU are having trouble meeting the emissions standards, and face hefty fines should they not bring their overall emissions in line with the new regulations by 2021.
Moody’s estimates that carmakers exceeding the regulations – a list that includes Renault-Nissan, FCA, Hyundai, BMW, Daimler AG, Ford, Volkswagen AG, Honda and Jaguar – could face fines to the tune of €2.4-11.2 billion euros ($A3.8-17.7 billion).
To meet the strict emissions standards, the rules allow carmakers to pool models within their own groups, or form “open pools” with other carmakers.
FCA is the first carmaker to do so, having filed an application to pool with Tesla in February.
As reported by the FT, the deal with Tesla “provides flexibility to deliver products our customers are willing to buy while managing compliance with the lowest cost approach.”
Fiat Chrysler has been relatively quiet in the race to develop electric vehicles compared to other legacy carmakers, such as Volkswagen, which has stated it plans 70 electric vehicle models by 2030 and is committing €30 billion ($A48 billion) to do so.
Last year the Italian/American carmaker committed said it planned to spend €9 billion ($A14.23 billion) over the next four years to develop electric cars.
At the 2019 Geneva Motor Show it put on show its first electric concept car, the Fiat Concept Centoventi which once in production would be allow customisation of interiors and accessories, and with a choice of four bumpers, four roofs, 4 wheel covers and 4 wraps.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model 3 and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.


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Apple has finally begun approving third-party Web-browsing applications for the iPhone. Some of these third-party app submissions date back to October of last year. As MacRumors points out, Opera was previously refused by Apple because it was thought to “duplicate” functionality that the iPhone already offered. So it seems that Apple’s attitude has thawed a bit, but apparently, iPhone browsers must still use the WebKit engine that powers Safari. That still leaves Opera and Firefox out in the cold–for now!
Here are four new applications picked out by MacRumors.
Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it will break in the coming weeks
One insider says the company’s current staffing isn’t able to sustain the platform.
Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready?
Digital clones of the people we love could forever change how we grieve.
How to befriend a crow
I watched a bunch of crows on TikTok and now I'm trying to connect with some local birds.
Starlink signals can be reverse-engineered to work like GPS—whether SpaceX likes it or not
Elon said no thanks to using his mega-constellation for navigation. Researchers went ahead anyway.
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.


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New York -- A group of 17 North American retailers, including Walmart, J.C. Penney, Gap, Target and Macy’s, on Wednesday announced a five-year safety pact aimed at improving conditions in garment factories in Bangladesh. It calls for inspecting all factories that supply their garments within a year, and an agreement to set up basic safety standards within three months.
The announcement by the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety comes after a separate safety plan was announced on Monday by a group of mostly European companies.
The North American plan pledges $42 million for worker safety, and more than $100 million in loans and other financing to help factory owners in the country correct safety problems. It is backed by a number of groups, including the American Apparel & Footwear Association, Canadian Apparel Federation, National Retail Federation, Retail Council of Canada, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and the United States Association of Importers of Textiles & Apparel.


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Apple 'stunned' by iProduct demand
'We do not create shortage for buzz'
Apple doesn't have enough iPads and iPhone 4s to meet consumer demand, doesn't know when it will, and doesn't know how many more it needs.
And, no, it didn't create an artificial shortage of either device to hype up a buzz storm.
"We do not purposely create a shortage for buzz," Apple COO Tim Cook to analysts and reporters after announcing Cupertino's $15.7bn third fiscal quarter on Monday. "I'm not sure where that comes from, but that is not our objective. We would like to fill every customer's orders as quickly as we can."
But they can't.
After telling a questioner that Mac and iPod supplies weren't constrained, Cook said: "The iPad and the iPhone are significantly different. Both of these products — the iPad and specifically the iPhone 4 — we had backlog [of orders] at the end of last quarter that we were not able to fill, and currently we are still selling both of those products as fast as we can make them."
Not only are they selling every iPad and iPhone 4 they can produce, Cook said, they're "working around the clock" to address the supply/demand imbalance.
Well, Cook may not being working "around the clock" himself, but the workers in the Shenzhen, China mega-factories of Apple's main assembler, Foxconn, most certainly are — at least when they're not constrained by a shortage of parts.
But Cook wouldn't give details on exactly what was causing the shortages other than high demand. "I'm fairly confident that we will be able to increase [iPad manufacturing] capacity," he said. "It's not a situation where there's something profound that we can't eventually increase."
The iPhone's problems are more related to its newness, and the fact that its manufacturing process is not yet up to full speed. "We just started ramping it in June," he told his audience. "And we're still ramping and increasing volume. But again, there's not a specific thing that is an overwhelming gate. It's just a matter of getting up the ramp."
Not that Cook is all that upset by Apple's two newest products being in high demand. "In the scheme of things it's a good problem to have," he said. When asked if the inability to fill all orders immediately were a supply problem or a demand problem, Cook countered, chuckling: "High demand is never a problem."
That said, it appears that Apple was taken by surprise by the iPad's sales rate. "We went into the iPad thinking that planning a one-million-per-month capacity was a very bold move," Cook said. "A lot of the industry analysts were predicting that we would only sell somewhere around that number for the whole calendar year. As you know we did one million the first month, then the second million the second month, and the third million the third month."
On Monday, market-analysis firm iSuppli increased its iPad sales estimates from 7.1 million to 12.9 million by the end of the year. If those numbers turn out to be true, that'd put the iPad's average sales rate for 2010 at over 1.4 million per month — significantly higher than the "bold" one-million-per rate Apple had predicted.
When asked how many iPhone 4 and iPad sales are being lost or deferred due to Apple's inability to meet demand — that is, whether the gap in supply/demand availability can be quantified — Cook countered: "I don't know. That question is very difficult to answer because the way that you truly find out what it is — at least from my own experience and perspective — is you have enough supply to serve the demand, and then you know what the demand is."
Speaking specifically about the iPhone, Cook explained: "The demand for iPhone 4 is absolutely stunning. We're working very hard to catch up with demand. I can't predict when that will occur, but I can tell you that everyone's working very hard to do it."
When asked what effects Antennagate has had on demand, Cook was adamant. "Let me be very clear on this: we are selling every unit we can make currently." When pressed further, Cook insisted: "My phone is ringing off the hook from people who want more supply."
Cook also noted that Apple shuts down production of older models such as the iPhone 3GS "aggressively" in order to promote early adoption of newer versions. "We would rather the market move quickly to the new product. And that's what happened here — frankly speaking, I'm glad that it happened, and it's exactly the way that we want to manage it." ®


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I was speaking to a startup recently that expressed frustration with Apple’s Tracker Detect app that lets Android users find unknown AirTags nearby. The problem? TrackerDetect had spent 2 years building their SEO and brand recognition for their cybersecurity products. Needless to say, when Apple launches a product and puts it on its website and hundreds of media outlets cover the launch, the chances of being found on Google drop precipitously.
The only option TrackerDetect had was to change its company name.
“Apple stole our name,” said Mira Marcus, the company’s public relations manager. Which surprised me, because that’s neither how intellectual property works nor how stealing works. The bottom line is that the company actually had no basic protections in place, such as applying for a trademark for its name.
A trademark application can seem like a really unimportant part of the startup journey – you’re busy building your business, hiring your staff, raising money, working on a product, and getting the press. Spending a few thousand dollars for a lawyer to file a trademark registration can seem like a lot of work and a lot of money out the window. And it is, if it turns out you never needed your brand in any way. On the other hand, having a mark and not needing it is infinitely more convenient than needing a mark and not having one.
In the United States, registering and maintaining registration throughout the process can be a time-consuming and costly ordeal. In my experience, working with an attorney and without much resistance from existing trademark owners usually costs around $1,500. It can be a little less if it’s a very obscure word you’re filing – and a lot more if someone decides to dispute the claim. I’ve been through both – for my company Triggertrap, I ended up trying to register Redshift as a trademark, and camera company Red sent a battalion of lawyers after me. It turned out to be a five figure sum spent on the lawyers and didn’t get us a trademark. I also at one point registered my own name as a trade mark in the UK (for the dumbest reason possible), in a very narrow class. It was undisputed; I did it myself without a lawyer, and the total cost was around $200. In other words, your mileage may vary.
The trademark itself can also be very valuable, as a friend discovered when Facebook launched a product that infringed on his company’s trademarks:
“I can’t tell you exactly how much Facebook ended up paying me,” he told me — and declined to be identified in a story for TechCrunch — “but when the company released a product that violated our brand, we threatened to sue. For them, the cost of renaming the product would have been astronomical, so they bought it from us. They gave us enough money so that we could postpone our fundraiser six-month Series A is all I’ll say. Best of all, we hadn’t launched yet, so renaming our company proved trivial.”
Unfortunately, this was not the case for TrackerDetect:
“As a lean startup, we didn’t file for a trademark,” Marcus told me. “It was not a priority for us.”
It’s easy to say in retrospect, of course, but this shift in the scale of priorities ended up causing a lot of problems. Enough, in fact, that the company had to change its name.
Although TrackerDetect already has customers and claims to have “millions of dollars in revenue”, it announced a name change this week, necessitated by the launch of the Apple product. The new name is Reveal Security, “which hopefully won’t have to fight a giant like Apple for search engine results,” Marcus notes.
Personally, I hope that the company will find great prosperity and success, and I note that when searching with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, I also did not find trademarks for Reveal Security. I asked the company about the lack of a trademark, and it seems they have decided not to ask for one, and they won’t. It seems that some people never learn their lessons; and if another company chooses to trademark or release a product called Reveal Security, there is nothing the company can do about it.
“Frankly, we don’t think a court would be able to help,” Marcus said in an email. “We think a brand would be a waste of time [because] we would need to go to court and it would take years to fix. Even if we had a brand, it would not be realistic in a digital transformation environment: by the time we win in court, we would have already faced the consequences. »
Sure, the company can run its business however it wants, but I know dozens of lawyers on an emergency basis who would happily take on Apple if there was a chance of a big paycheck at the end . Chances are, if you have a valid trademark, Apple would solve the problem by diving into its mighty coffers after a few firmly worded letters.
Either way, as you might expect, changing your name while your business is already up and running can be incredibly complicated, very expensive, and a huge distraction from your primary mission. And, of course, this can be easily avoided by filing your trademark applications as soon as possible – and certainly before launching the business publicly.
I put the ® marks in the title of this article, but I want to point out that it was both inaccurate and a stupid joke: to my chagrin, I failed, in fact, to convince the TechCrunch lawyers to register trademarks for Horribly expensive and Wildly boring.


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55% of UK smartphone owners have abandoned a mobile transaction because of poor payments experience and usability issues, finds a study by Jumio – and its is costing retailers as much as £6 billion a year.
According to the Office of National Statistics mobile commerce revenues reached £15 billion in 2014. In addition to the majority of the survey recipients abandoning transactions, the study also found that nearly a quarter of consumers abandon their attempts at opening an online gaming (24%) or financial services (25%) account and around one-third (32%) of those who abandon a transaction do not attempt again.
Usability issues (68%) far outweigh purchase uncertainty (21%) when it comes to shoppers abandoning a mobile transaction. Frustrations over slow load times (32%) and complex payment processes (27%) are more important than concerns over payment security (16%) when shoppers decide to give up a transaction.
“As mobile transactions continue to skyrocket, so do abandoned purchases, incomplete account openings, and lost revenue,” said Marc Barach, Chief Marketing Officer, Jumio. “Businesses have heeded the warning and are finally prioritising mobile checkout experiences, underscored by the ten percent improvement in abandonment rates over the last two years,” said Barach, “But, experiences are still far from being as seamless as they need to be in order for retailers to stem the tide of lost opportunity and put a potential £6 billion back in their pockets.”
Fashion is the most frequently abandoned with 53% of respondents abandoning purchases. These rates vary by gender and age, with women (62%) more likely to abandon a clothing or apparel transaction than men (44%).
Surprisingly, the second worst industry for abandonment is food and drink. Despite the popularity of online grocery shopping and ordering take-away food on mobile apps in the UK, 39% of all attempted mobile food and drink purchases are abandoned.
Even more surprisingly, two thirds (68%) of those who have abandoned a mobile transaction went back and attempted that transaction again later, with the computer being the preferred method the second time around – with men (73%) being far more likely than women (63%) to attempt a transaction again.
Barach continues: “While consumers were less likely to say they’d abandoned a transaction that involved opening an account, as compared to making a purchase, this may be in part because these transactions typically require some degree of forethought and commitment, particularly in financial services. These businesses still need to keep factors such as ease of use and security top of mind to maximize the number of users who complete their transaction moving forward.”
And here is the study in numbers:
Abandonment rates by industry:
- Fashion – 53%
- Food (groceries or takeaway) – 39%
- Travel – 38%
- Entertainment – 35%
- Household goods – 35%
- Events tickets (concerts or sporting events) – 30%
- Electronics – 30%
- Financial Services application (opening an account, transferring money) – 25%
- Online Gaming (opening an account) – 24%
- One-third (32%) reported apps/mobile sites being slow to load
- Payment process was too complicated (27%)
- App/site was difficult to navigate (26%)
- Difficult to type information in on small screen (21%)
See what it means for US retailers here


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States with the most registered sex offenders
An affenpinscher named Banana Joe took home Best in Show honors at last year's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. This year's show gets underway today.
Check out the breeds to watch as this year's Westminster Dog Show gets underway.
Police said a man in Jackson robbed two stores within minutes and led them on a high-speed chase.


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A group of industry veterans have launched Sofia Alternatives, a structured products boutique, in Finland. Senior individuals include Niklas Åkerfelt, the former head of Nordic public distribution at Royal Bank of Scotland, who is deputy chief executive of the new firm.
Christer Schoultz, who was formerly responsible for the international alternative investments business at FIM (Glitnir), is chief executive of the new outfit. Schoultz has also previously held roles with Svenska Handelsbanken and Nordbank. He heads a team based in Helsinki.
Sofia Bank has a minority stake in the company and will at first be the firm's main client for distribution purposes. The investments on offer will include capital and non-capital protected notes, leveraged products and a variety of different certificates.
Sofia Alternatives will focus on retail clients in Finland, says Åkerfelt, although it will also look at high-net-worth, institutional and corporate clients. Ultimately the plan is to expand distribution across the Nordic region. The first product is due to be launched next month, adds Åkerfelt.
See Structured Products November for the full story
The week on Risk.net, July 7-13, 2018Receive this by email


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- 【October 2022】China Passenger Vehicle Sales Analysis
Dec. 01 , 2022
- 【September 2022】China Passenger Vehicle Sales Analysis
Nov. 03 , 2022
- Gasgoo Daily: Sales of BYD Han series surpass 200,000 units
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.
May 18 , 2022
- Chinese luxury EV brand HiPhi sells 316 vehicles in April 2022
HiPhi, the luxury EV brand from Chinese startup Human Horizons, said earlier this week it sold 316 HiPhi Xs.
May 13 , 2022
- Gasgoo Daily: Xiaomi reportedly has no plan to build car production plant in Shanghai
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China.
May 10 , 2022
- China auto sales up 18.7% YoY in February 2022
The total sales in the first two months of this year amounted to 4.268 million units, representing a year-over-year growth of 7.5%.
Mar. 11 , 2022
- China's homegrown PV retail sales rise 4.7% YoY in Feb. 2022
In February 2022, the retail sales of locally-made PVs (referring to cars, MPVs, SUVs and minibuses) in China amounted to around 1.272 million units, growing 4.7% from the previous year, according to ...
Mar. 08 , 2022
- Hozon Auto’s NETA brand outsells XPeng, NIO in February
In February this year, deliveries of major Chinese electric vehicle startups were not as outstanding as the three months before.
Mar. 02 , 2022
- GAC AION sees vehicles sales in Feb. 2022 soar 163% YoY
GAC AION, the new energy vehicle (NEV)-dedicated arm of GAC Group, announced its vehicle sales reached 8,526 units in February 2022, surging 163% from the previous year, while tumbling 46.8% from the ...
Mar. 02 , 2022


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GAME to stay open for now as group enters administration
High-street games retailer GAME has gone into administration, having declared shares in the company worthless.
Luke WestawaySenior editor
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Struggling retailer Game Group, which owns the GAME and Gamestation high-street video game shops, has confirmed that it will enter administration, signalling desperate times for the company, which employs nearly 6,000 people in the UK and Ireland.
By going into voluntary administration, the company has secured a 10-day moratorium, which gives it a chance to complete a deal with any potential buyers, the Telegraph reports.
Game Group says that in the short term the business will keep trading, while discussions with lenders and third parties are set to continue. Warnings that Game was just weeks from going bust surfaced earlier this month.
The company confirmed its intentions in a statement, having earlier today requested that its shares be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company says there is "no equity value left in the Group", which means its shares are worthless.
"The board has concluded that its discussions with all stakeholders and other parties have not made sufficient progress in the time available to offer a realistic prospect for a solvent solution for the business," today's statement reads.
"The board has therefore filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator."
The retailer owns 1,300 shops worldwide, 641 of which are located in the UK and Ireland, employing a total of 5,800 people. Its brick-and-mortar business has been challenged by online shops like Amazon and download platforms like Steam, which let you play the latest titles without having to leave your home.
The race is on to rescue the troubled company. The Guardian reports that Game Group faces a £21m rent payment on Sunday, as well as a £12m wage bill at the end of March, and a new investor in the company would need to stump up £100m to Game's banks.
The paper reports that private-equity house OpCapita, the same company that snapped up Comet for just £2 in November, is in negotiations with Game Group to sort out a rescue deal, though an offer made by OpCapita last week was turned down by RBS, one of Game's main lenders.
Games industry magazine MCV reports that Game's current plan is to form a brand-new company on Monday that includes only the group's UK and Spanish chains, and will involve shutting down all Gamestation shops, except for a few that perform well. Game has since been in touch to say it challenges "many of the claims" made in MCV's article, however.
It remains to be seen whether the company can be pulled back from the brink. With Currys sold off last year, and Carphone Warehouse shutting down its Best Buy shops, could this be the end of physical game and gadget shops? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.


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In the News: Apple’s iPhone vs FBI
This story spread like wildfire through the tech media this week and is starting to be discussed in mainstream media outlets. Since this may be my last technology commentary for you in a while — I want to anticipate potential questions in advance and tell you how I see it.
Since iOS 8 was released in Fall 2014, the operating system on iPhones and iPads, it is arguably the safest OS in the world. We are now on iOS 9. Phones like the iPhone 5s, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, and 6s Plus all run iOS 9. Apple claims that it is not able to break into a customers phone due to the advanced security. 2013’s iPhone 5c, a slightly lower priced iPhone released by Apple also runs iOS 9, but it only has a 32 bit processor unlike the 64 bit models mentioned above. It also does not support the fingerprint sensor. Whether or not the the customer activates the "Touch ID", 5s and higher models have a much higher level of security built into them. iPhones with iOS 8 and 9 have been a huge frustration for law enforcement.
Syed Farook (and his wife), the radical Islamic terrorists that killed 14 co-workers in San Bernardino in early December owned an iPhone 5c. The FBI believes sensitive information is located on this phone that may help them close out this case and potentially thwart other terrorist attacks. A court order was issued this week ordering Apple to help the FBI break into the phone. Apple claims that there is no way to recover the password and unlock the phone. The court and FBI are essentially asking Apple to load some custom software onto the phone that can help retrieve data, bypassing the password that Mr. Farook put on the phone.
That password is important. Initially iOS only allowed a 4 digit code, but now it can be a longer, more secure code. Typically, if someone enters the wrong code 10 times – the phone will be automatically erased.
There is another important detail here. The iPhone 5c in question was owned by the San Bernardino Board of Health — Farook’s employer. Apple will not comply and they say that they are prepared to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court.
The key for me in this situation is that the phone belongs to the employer. It is their property. The phone was not Farook’s; his heirs do not have any claim to it. While I totally understand the privacy concern here and appreciate the design principles baked into iOS 8 and later, the FBI (backed by the employer) is simply being asked to get access to information stored on their property. I think we need to remove all the drama of a horrific terrorist act from this analysis.
I think Apple has every right to try and fight this. I also believe that if they are forced to comply, Apple should simply engineer a way to unlock the phone without being pressured to share their methods. There may be consequences for Apple. I could see regulatory agencies blocking shipments of iPhones into this country. Remember, they are all made in China (and Brazil). Apple could even lose the right to sell these phones without guarantee of cooperation in the future.
I don’t want to let the Health Department completely off the hook either. The iPhone, as well as Android device, allow for device policies to be set. These restrictions are especially useful for families protecting children or in the workplace. One restriction that can be placed on the phones is that the employee is not allowed to set a passcode. Another option is to not give the employee the ability to change the passcode. It seems that the employer failed to take these basic precautions.


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The Sandbox recently announced that it would continue to have strong backing for the Partners Ecosystem in 2023.
What Can We Expect For The Sandbox Ecosystem?
The CFDA is putting out its first event in The Sandbox. It will be a celebration of both classic styles from the past and new technologies from the future.
CFDA Celebrates 60th Anniversary with an Exclusive Metaverse Fashion Event
The Sandbox, a multidimensional voxel playground, has released a major update to its map and dashboard. Explorers of this new Metaversal frontier can now easily and precisely navigate the virtual world.
The Sandbox Releases Major Map and Dashboard Upgrade
The metaverse giant is giving out 2.6 million SAND in total to LAND owners who have supported The Sandbox ecosystem since its inception.
The Sandbox Celebrates 1,000 Days of Metaverse Play with LAND Owners
Asia's largest lender, DBS Bank Ltd, set to purchase a portion of land in The SandBox Metaverse, aims to build a virtual community called “DBS BetterWorld”.
Singapore’s Leading Consumer Bank, DBS appears on The SandBox Metaverse
Keeping up with its create-hype tactics, The Sandbox has shared yet another element of its yet-to-come 3rd Season.
Another Teaser Teasing the Sandbox Community, Revealing the Largest Map Yet
The SandBox has unveiled a contest to mark the 70th year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
The SandBox Organizes Pure British VoxEdit Contest
SandBox begins the distribution of 5M mSAND to all landowners who have purchased land before May 13.
The SandBox Land Owners to receive 5M mSAND on the Polygon Network
The Sandbox has launched KYC verification to remove malicious actors from its Metaverse for a more efficient landowner distribution.
The Sandbox introduces KYC verification for landowners in its Metaverse
Staking multipliers, the ability to rent LAND and ESTATEs, a $SAND airdrop and more is laid out in this year's roadmap for LAND owners.
The Sandbox reveals various LAND Owner benefits in new Roadmap


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Consumer confidence and financial wellbeing in March 2022
Confidence in both the future of the economy and future household finances dropped dramatically in March, to -64 and -40 respectively.
Incidence of financial difficulty continues to increase. 54% of consumers made adjustments to cover essential spending in the last month and 7.6% missed at least one housing, bill, loan or credit card payment, compared with 5.9% in March 2021.
More than half of those who reported missing a bill payment said they had missed more than one.
Consumer confidence takes a dramatic turn for the worse
The Which? Consumer Insight Tracker shows that confidence is dropping rapidly as the cost of living continues to rise and the conflict in Ukraine creates additional economic uncertainty. Despite strong recent economic growth, consumer confidence in the future of the UK economy fell dramatically in March. Just 10% think the economy will improve over the next 12 months, and 74% think things will get worse, giving a net confidence of -64. This compares to -19 just last month and is the lowest since 2020, in the earlier stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The recovery from the Omicron surge likely contributed to economic growth in January 2022, with retail and eating out being some of the drivers of this growth. However, this growth will not persist if consumers lack the means or the confidence to spend. Major increases in the cost of living are likely dampening down confidence among consumers as we head into the spring. The war in Ukraine is also a likely contributing factor, with the chancellor warning last week that the conflict will lead to economic uncertainty in the UK.
Confidence in future household finances also dropped significantly to -40 compared to -21 in February (which was already much lower than at the end of 2021). This confidence level equals the unprecedented low seen in March 2020, just as the first national lockdown was announced (-43), with consumers clearly anticipating that the state of the economy will affect their own finances. This measure dropped.
Sharply rising prices may be a particular problem for retired people since they are more likely to have a fixed income, and we find that the retired are very pessimistic about the future of their household finances. Those in work may be able to react to higher prices by working more hours, seeking a better paid job or perhaps even haggling for a pay rise. The current strength of the UK labour market should help all of these actions, but wages are falling in real terms and we found that confidence in future household finances fell sharply among those in work in March, particularly those working part time.
Households remain under financial pressure
Dropping confidence aside, our March data shows a continuation of the increased financial difficulty seen among households in January and February. More than half of consumers (54%) reported having made an adjustment to cover essential spending in the last month. Increases in the proportion who have cut back on essentials (35%) or dipped into savings (26%) are driving increases in this measure. One in ten (11%) had used an overdraft facility and 9% had borrowed money from friends and family. The 54% seen in March is only a slight increase on last month (52%) but continues a long term upward trend and is much higher than at this time last year (38%).
A smaller but increasing proportion of consumers are under more severe financial pressure. 7.6% of consumers said that their household had missed a housing, bill, credit or loan payment in the last month in March. Again, this continues an upward trend and compares to 5.9% in March 2021.
Rent and bills were the most common types of missed payment, with 6% of renters missing their rent payment and one in twenty (5%) of all consumers saying their household had missed a bill payment. The most common types of missed bill were energy bills (2.5%), phone bills (2.6%) and water bills (2.3%). 1.7% had missed a council tax payment and 1.4% had missed a broadband bill. Six in ten (61%) of those who reported missing a bill payment said they had missed more than one. This highlights the extreme pressure that some households are under, finding themselves missing multiple bill payments in the space of a month amid the mounting cost of living.
The fieldwork was conducted by Yonder on behalf of Which between 11th and 13th March 2022. A sample of 2,071 consumers was surveyed online and weighted to be nationally representative.
If you have any questions or would like to find out more, please email Sophie Beesley at email@example.com
Published on 22.03.22


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Samsung just can’t seem to shake rumors that they’ll soon introduce a stand-alone smartwatch. It was last month we first heard rumors that Samsung was working on a new SIM-enabled smartwatch dubbed the Samsung Gear Solo. Today, a new report from The Wall Street Journal is saying the watch could officially make its debut in the next few months — as early as June or July — and will carry many hardware features found on our modern day smartphones like a GPS, heart rate monitor and, of course, a camera. The tiny watch will be capable of placing and receiving phone calls, and even sending emails.
Really, it seems like the next logical step as over the years, we’ve watch as our smartphones shrank in size, only to grow to tablet heights. A new found reliance on devices that easily fit into our pocket (or our wrists) should complete that circle.
Because Samsung’s smartwatch will have all this added functionality, don’t expect it to run Google’s simple Android Wear interface. Samsung is said to be in talks with the usual carriers in the US, Europe, and Asia to offer the watch on their network. Question is: is there a market for a standalone smartwatch?
Samsung: make all the things!
I like their refrigerators.
The real issue would be battery life. I have noticed that when i have a weak data connection, my phone seems to eat a lot of battery.
I doubt they’ll position it as a phone replacement. More like the ultimate companion. Use it as the traditional smartwatch when around your smartphone, but for jogging, exercising, or cycling, plug in your SIM card for total independence. Best of both worlds for a smartwatch.
My dad wants it so bad. He hates having the hassle of a smartphone
(Overheard at a Samsung managers meeting) Where’s that wall? We got one more thing to throw at it and see if it sticks
A battery that size that has to power a cellular transmitter would last for maybe 5 phone calls.
But for a jog, some cycling, or working out in the gym, it’s infinitely better than having a bulky phone strapped to one’s arm or hip. And if it’ll play nice as a companion when attached to a smartphone, the way Omate’s Truesmart does, it’s everything to anyone who has an interest in a smartwatch.
Q: Is there a market for a standalone smartwatch?
Omate Truesmart. This would be the (currently) only competitor I’m aware of. Omate had a monster kickstarter, followed by a complete sell out of their stock once they started production. I know I’m interested (but currently unable to shell out the $300 out of pocket).
Can this watch do almost everything an Android phone do?
There’s already an Android “IK Wear” watch made in China that has most of phone functions.
Now this will be useful !!


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Your favorite Apple, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Jailbreak, and Cydia site.
01-10-2012, 07:33 PM #1
Apple Blasted with 'Extortion' Accusations
Apple stands accused tonight of what is being described as an act of extortion.
The accuser is Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala, based in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia. As some will recall, this small Spanish firm actually won an iPad-related patent battle against Apple just two months ago. Now the two rivals are back at it, this time over a pretty serious accusation directed at the Cupertino, California-based tech giant.
The company now says it is taking aim at Apple by filing an indictment against the iPhone maker. The move comes in response to what Nuevas says was an act of extortion - Apple trying to stop the company from selling an Android-based NT-K tablet.
Several industry and legal analysts, however, say NT-K's argument is a bit excessive, specifically in that "extortion" denotes a criminal offense, something that is above and beyond the shape most patent-related cases would take.
So while it remains to be seen exactly what will come of this newest entanglement, the language being used is certainly more heated than what we've seen elsewhere in Apple's perpetual patent disputes in global courtrooms.
Source: PC Mag
01-10-2012, 07:54 PM #2
Wowzer. Where can we read more on this.

-Lukr
01-10-2012, 08:29 PM #3
01-10-2012, 11:49 PM #4
Omg the Catalans are sueing Apple? That's what happens when you don't open an Apple shop in BCN! (Nevermind that they're out of Valencia) ....STILL! (^_~)
01-11-2012, 06:26 AM #5
01-11-2012, 09:21 AM #6
Honestly, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to at least claim malicious prosecution (or whatever the equivalent would be for filing all of these lawsuits that Apple is filing that it knows have no chance of winning.) Extortion seems a little far fetched though, as that would indicate that Apple is demanding money, of course if they are, then it could be considered extortion and if they have said pay us $x or we will sue, then it is blackmail.


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Since Vine was released last January on iOS, the 6-second video sharing service grew to more than 40 million users and is now facing stiff competition from the likes of Instagram, Hipstamatic, Klip, Viddy, Socialcam and more recently Mixbit, from the founders of Youtube.
"Over and over, mobile developers are recreating the wheel to build the same kind of standard video features like face detection, video stabilization or video frame extraction," explains Stupeflix co-founder Jeff Boudier who unveiled a set of cloud APIs for the creation and processing of videos, photos and audio.
The kind of multimedia toolkit that would have enabled Facebook to add video creation in Instagram in just a week, added Boudier, instead of the more than 6 months it actually took them to do so.
The Twilio of video, enabling the next wave of disruptive video apps
"For the first time ever, mobile developers just need to insert a couple of lines of code to add really advanced and complex video, photo and audio features. It's a real revolution," said Boudier.
According to Boudier, already more than 20 million videos have been created using its APIs by customers like Coca-Cola, Visa, American Express, Samsung and Nike.
"Think of us as the Twilio of Video as we enable the next wave of disruptive video apps, in the footsteps of Vine, Instagram or Mixbit," said Boudier.
Developers who sign up will receive $10 of free API credit, enough to create 1,000 photo thumbnails or 20 minutes of video content. After that, access to the APIs costs $30 per month.


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It's been a good year for marijuana stocks so far. Investors have seen many cannabis companies announce impressive sales growth in taking advantage of new opportunities across the globe, including the legalization of recreational pot in Canada and the recently passed U.S. Farm Bill, which made it legal at the federal level to produce and sell hemp-based products.
Marijuana stocks are entering the mainstream, and that means that Wall Street stock analysts are starting to weigh in on their prospects for the future. In late February, Jefferies became the latest well-known financial institution to start covering cannabis stocks as part of its analysis, and in general, it was positive on the industry. Yet although Jefferies picked five pot stocks to do well in the current marijuana boom, it also identified two -- Cronos Group (CRON 2.47%) and HEXO (HEXO -2.45%) -- that it believes won't keep up with its cannabis rivals.
Check out the latest earnings call transcript for Cronos Group.
Why Jefferies likes marijuana in general
Like other analysts, Jefferies has a general thesis for the cannabis industry that includes projections for extremely fast growth. With estimates of about $17 billion in sales for marijuana companies in 2019, the analyst company believes that the size of the market will triple to $50 billion in the next decade using its base assumptions. If things work out a bit better than it expects, then its stretch target for the industry would be $130 billion.
Even with all the press that the recreational cannabis market has gotten after Canada's rollout last fall, Jefferies believes that the industry will retain a balanced split between general adult-use and medical marijuana. The company's projections are for recreational sales to rise from $9 billion to $31 billion over the next 10 years, compared to growth from $8 billion to $19 billion on the medical marijuana front.
Much of the attention that marijuana has gotten early on has centered on production and sale of dried cannabis. However, Jefferies expects that the drive for brand building and innovation will make it more important for cannabis companies to dovetail on other successful products in adjacent industries, such as snack foods, beverages, and tobacco. That will give marijuana stocks that successfully work together with companies that specialize in those other areas a competitive advantage over their rivals.
Why will Cronos and HEXO miss the party?
However, Jefferies wasn't positive about the prospects for every pot stock in the industry. It issued underperform ratings to Cronos and HEXO. Cronos earned a price target of about $13 per share, while HEXO's stock got a target of roughly $4.25 per share. With Cronos recently trading above $21 per share and HEXO having a price above $5.50 per share, Jefferies has strong views about the likelihood of the two stocks seeing outright declines from current levels.
Of the two, the negative call on Cronos Group might seem to be the more surprising. After all, with its high-profile tie-up in December with cigarette giant Altria Group (MO -0.34%), Cronos seems to have exactly the kind of partnership that Jefferies said would be important for future growth. In addition to Altria's pull in the tobacco industry, its substantial stakes in e-cigarette pioneer JUUL Labs and beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD -1.69%) give Altria a lot to bring to the table in fostering Cronos Group's growth.
Yet Jefferies argues that Cronos hasn't yet figured out how it will use Altria's vast financial and other resources. That leaves Cronos as a second-tier cannabis stock in terms of production, dramatically lagging the leaders of the field yet carrying a valuation far in excess of what companies with similar production levels currently fetch. That, in Jefferies' view, justifies the negative call.
HEXO, meanwhile, has given investors more time to digest its partnership with Molson Coors Brewing (TAP -2.79%). The creation of the exclusive joint venture Truss will give Molson the ability to explore cannabis-infused beverages with HEXO, an area that has considerable promise. But even though the two companies announced the joint venture last August, there hasn't been a huge amount of news coming from the business. Jefferies sees HEXO shareholders as having been too optimistic about the partnership and believes that HEXO could struggle to build out its core cannabis business to maximize growth.
Not all marijuana stocks are the same
All that said, analysts aren't infallible, and Cronos and HEXO have plenty of opportunities to defy negative calls. Cronos is in the better position at the moment because of the huge ownership stake that Altria has taken, giving the Marlboro maker a financial incentive of its own to generate success. With the industry still in its infancy, changing conditions will make for volatile stock movements.
The Jefferies report is a powerful reminder that cannabis companies have different business models, market share, and growth prospects. Even if the industry as a whole is a long-term winner, that doesn't mean that Cronos Group, HEXO, or any other individual stock will produce big gains for shareholders.


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Music Videos|September 28, 2021 11:16 EDT
NEEDTOBREATHE to Livestream First-Ever Headline Show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, Oct. 29
GRAMMY® Award-nominated rock band NEEDTOBREATHE have announced they will livestream the Nashville, TN date of their Into The Mystery Tour on October 29 at 9:00pm CT. The show notably marks the band’s first-ever headline performance at Bridgestone Arena. Tickets for the livestream are available beginning today HERE via Veeps for $11. $1 from each ticket sold will be donated to For Others, the band’s charitable partner for the tour.
NEEDTOBREATHE massive Into The Mystery Tour with support from Switchfoot and The New Respects kicked off earlier this month. The tour has already visited iconic venues such as Denver, CO’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre (fifth consecutive sold out appearance) and Los Angeles, CA’s Greek Theatre. The Into The Mystery tour will visit US cities for the next month before wrapping on October 30 in Atlanta, GA. Tickets for remaining dates are available now HERE.
On November 3, Fathom Events and Greenwich Entertainment will present “NEEDTOBREATHE: Into The Mystery” in movie theaters nationwide in a special one-night cinema event. This intimate documentary chronicles the recording of NEEDTOBREATHE’s latest album Into The Mystery, while quarantined in a historic house-turned-recording studio in remote Tennessee in fall of 2020. Watch the film’s trailer HERE and visit needtobreathemovie.com for more information.
Into The Mystery is available physically and digitally now via Elektra Records HERE. Limited edition merch offerings are available exclusively through NEEDTOBREATHE’s online store HERE. Into The Mystery was released in July, and debuted in the Top 10 across three Billboard charts. The critically acclaimed collection has received praise from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Entertainment Tonight, People, American Songwriter, and more.
Into The Mystery is highlighted by current single “I Wanna Remember” featuring seven-time GRAMMY® Award winner Carrie Underwood. The band and Underwood recently delivered the television debut performance of the song at the 2021 “CMT Music Awards”. Crowned as one of the most showstopping moments of the evening by both US Weekly, Vulture hailed it as a “powerful, predictably huge performance of their duet,” and E! called it, “something fans will want to remember.”


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Starbucks CEO Talks Crypto
Starbucks just dropped some hints about accepting cryptocurrencies. Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO at Starbucks Corporation, believes that there’ll eventually be a few “legitimate” cryptocurrencies once the crypto-market matures. He also added that these cryptos will have to be “legitimized” by reputable, brick-and-mortar establishments that are willing to accept them. Mr. Schultz might be overlooking the fact that big name companies have already been accepting cryptocurrencies. WordPress, Wikipedia, 1-800-Flowers.Com Inc, Subway, LOT Polish Airlines, and Overstock are just a few of the well-known organizations that accept bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
Nevertheless, Mr. Schultz thinks that we’re going to see “a significant level of a digital currency that is going to have a consumer application” and that his company “is in a unique position to take advantage of that”. He goes on to clarify that his company doesn’t have any concrete ideas about how to enter the crypto-market at the moment. Furthermore, he stated that Starbucks isn’t planning to develop its own crypto or make any substantial investments in the crypto sector.
Starbucks Doesn’t Believe in Bitcoin, but Likes Blockchain
The giant coffee shop’s CEO stressed that his company does not believe bitcoin will become a legitimate currency of the future. However, he feels that the blockchain technology that underpins most digital currencies could help launch consumer applications that will gain the trust of many. He also suggests that his company could benefit financially due to advancements in blockchain tech. In addition, he asserts that Starbucks could help legitimize cryptocurrencies once it starts to accept them and “significantly create long-term shareholder value”.
Notably, Starbucks Corporation’s stocks are down recently, primarily due to concerns among investors that the company might gradually be losing its US market. Is it possible that Starbucks has started talking about cryptocurrencies so that their shares can get a boost? It’s quite plausible considering that stocks of many companies surged when they announced that they were entering the cryptosphere. For example, Long Island Iced Tea saw its share price spike by over 400% after revealing that it was looking into blockchain technology. And, as reported earlier by Core Media, Kodak, the 130 year old imaging products company, tried to become relevant again by entering the crypto-market with its own token, KodakCoin.
Starbucks’ Mobile Payment App
The coffee company introduced its mobile payment app a few years ago. It has been quite successful due to the convenience it provides and its loyalty rewards program. Back in 2014, it was reported that the company had been processing a staggering 4 million mobile wallet payments per week. If Starbucks can enter into a partnership with a “crypto payment system” provider who could help them incorporate a “payment with crypto” feature into their app, then this might become popular with its coffee drinkers.


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Duinb: security electronics
With 120 electronic security products, it launched at the fair different models of cameras, DVRs, multimedia screens, sources and LEDs, among others. The brand’s rear view cameras stand out. Still this year, the goal is to leverage even more sales in retail.
The fair was important for the brand to prospect new retail customers, said administrative manager, Anna Lúcia Elias. “Throughout the event, we talked about Duinb’s launches in automotive safety, especially our rear view cameras.”
Source: Eletrolar News #150


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Don’t be too surprised. Next time you’re feeling sick, your doctor may simply write on your prescription: “Eat two Hershey’s Kisses.”
A new research from Germany showed that dark chocolate seems to lower blood pressure, and it requires an amount less than two Hershey’s Kisses.
The latest research adds to mounting evidence linking dark chocolate with health benefits, but it’s the first to suggest that just a tiny amount may suffice.
Volunteers for the study ate just over 6 grams of dark chocolate daily for almost five months — one square from a German chocolate bar called Ritter Sport, equal to about 1 1/2 Hershey’s Kisses. People who ate that amount ended up with lower blood pressure readings than those who ate white chocolate.
University of Cologne researcher Dr. Dirk Taubert, the study’s lead author, said the blood pressure reductions with dark chocolate were small but still substantial enough to potentially reduce cardiovascular disease risks, although study volunteers weren’t followed long enough to measure that effect.
The research involved just 44 people aged 56 through 73, but the results echo other small studies of cocoa-containing foods. Cocoa contains flavanols, plant-based compounds that also are credited with giving red wine its heart-healthy benefits.
One problem is chocolate bars containing cocoa tend to have lots of calories, so Taubert and his colleagues tested small amounts containing just 30 calories each.
The study appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. It was funded by University Hospital in Cologne.
The results are interesting but need to be duplicated in larger, more ethnically diverse populations, said Dr. Laura Svetkey, director of Duke University’s Hypertension Center.
She stressed that the study results should not be viewed as license to gorge on chocolate.
“I would be as happy as the next person if I got to eat more chocolate,” she said, but cautioned that weight gain from eating large amounts of dark chocolate would counteract any benefits on blood pressure.
Oh well, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too, can you?


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Host of The Industry Eye
“It’s good-bye from him”.
Ed Pownall takes a peek at Vegas, Russia, UK Tax & is also giving out hugs.
Ed Pownall rakes over the Superbowl result, China putting the blockers on, sports data wars & curbs on us punters in the UK.
Ed Pownall takes a closer look at the biggest stories in the gambling industry.
Under the horror-scope this week comes Unibet’s corporate rebrand, NetEnt’s Motorhead minefield, the Presidential race and more.
This week we delve into the panties of Asian powerhouse Macau as well as those of global heavyweights bet365, GVC and PokerStars.
In our second instalment of the Industry Eye, Ed turns his ire err eye towards Mark Blandford’s purchase of The Football Pools and more.
Today's first Industry Eye takes a look over the big stories from the Summer including the merger activity involving Ladbrokes and more.
Bodog casino’s new blackjack game, Zone21©, is ready to rip up the online casino rule book in the same way they did with online poker.
The most overused words in iGaming press releases are ‘revolutionary’ or ‘revolution’. But the area where hyperbole has got out of control
Cake Poker earns scorn in the forums after launch of its new Tuesday Two Hundred tournament.


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Get them while you can
iPad 2 Supply to Suffer From Foxconn Explosion
Analysts at iSuppli estimate that Apple will face a 500,000 production loss of iPad 2 tablets, reported BusinessWeek. The total could be even greater if the productions at the facility last longer than a month, said the firm. Foxconn may have another iPad 2-making plant in Shenzhen, China but in any case it may not be able to make up for the lost output.


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ChemChina, Finanzaria Buying Pirelli In €7.1B Takeover Deal
Should things go as planned, China National Chemical Corp. — ChemChina — will buy into Pirelli in a €7.1 billion ($7.7 billion USD) deal.
Automotive News reports the deal could bring premium-tire technology to ChemChina, while giving Pirelli a huge jump in the Chinese domestic market. However, the chemical company’s bid of €15/share last weekend may be the beginning of a protracted takeover as it and Pirelli’s largest investor, Cam Finanziaria, attempt to secure 90 percent of the stock to take the tire company off of the trading floor; the share price climbed to €15.76 Monday.
The terms of the deal would give ChemChina 50.1 percent of the company, Finanziaria 49.9 percent, and would begin with the former paying €15/share for Finanziaria’s 26.2 percent of Pirelli, followed by a public tender for the rest of the company at the same price. Should that fail, however, ChemChina could merge its 66 percent with Finanziaria’s holdings to force a delisting. Pirelli chair and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera would remain CEO under the deal, while ChemChina will seek a new chair.
The Sino-Italian buy-in is part of a number of takeovers of Italian companies by Chinese buyers, and would be the fifth-largest deal by a state-owned enterprise.
I swore off Pirelli tires many years ago. I tried them three times on a variety of cars, including cars they were recommended in the owner's manuals. They were OEM on three cars my dad bought as well. They went out of round with lots of tread left, blisters popped out on the sidewalls. Pirelli, you've been dead to me for a long time, until I got a scooter that had them. Well, those replacement tires are literally on the way right now. Other than their calendar, I'm not sure why anyone gives a darn about their products.
Haven't bought a Pirelli tire since I bought a retread back in the mid 80s. Now just one more reason to not consider them. And so it goes...
Which tire company today produces -overall- the best tires for passenger automobile use? The highest number of good tire models. I'm guessing it's Michelin or Continental.
Pirelli still makes great motorcycle tires...their Diablo line (Super Corsa, Rosso, etc) is a great track/street tire.


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Tesla's CEO tweets a few details about the company's upcoming electric car, billed as more affordable than its predecessor, including when it should hit the market.
Another unusual formation on the Red Planet wows space fans by resembling a popular eating utensil.
Samsung's newest smartwatches work with the most recent Android phones and support Samsung Pay, among other features.
Despite warnings from Apple, users continue to alter their iPhones to be more flexible.
The company highlights new Windows 10 devices using its new processors -- including an updated Intel Compute Stick -- during a press conference at the IFA electronics show in Berlin.
A California judge rules that the employee vs. independent-contractor case that was limited to three drivers can now be expanded to thousands of drivers.
Samsung's newest smartwatch wears a modern design.
From CNET Magazine: Fingerprint readers, which are more convenient and more secure than passcodes, could finally do away with the weakest link in almost any security system.
The search giant has made big changes this summer, including the introduction of an entirely new management structure. The latest alteration: a new logo.
Commentary: If super high-resolution screens are arguably unnecessary for your 65-inch TV, they're just about useless for your 5.5-inch phone.


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BIG M: French daily Le Monde’s supplement M is turning five. Stella Tennant appears on one of the five different covers of the anniversary issue slated to hit newsstands Friday. The 40-something model was lensed by Jack Davison wearing Holland & Holland (she developed a collection for the luxury outdoor brand with Isabella Cawdor) in the Scottish countryside. Inside the issue, she’s profiled by Olivier Saillard, director and curator at Paris’ fashion museum Palais Galliera. Meanwhile, Richard Avedon fronts another cover, coinciding with the opening of “Avedon’s France: Old World, New Look” exhibition at the BnF François-Mitterrand library in Paris. The issue runs 165 pages with advertisers including Céline, Theory and Audemars Piguet.
M, a weekly, has often been cited as a magazine that does well despite the challenging advertising market for print media in France. Advertising revenue for print media are anticipated to be down 8 percent in 2016, according to a forecast by IPG Mediabrands/Magna Global agency released in June. Earlier this year, French daily Libération and newsweekly L’Obs both brought their lifestyle monthly supplements Next and O respectively to a halt.
“The initial inspiration for M was The New York Times Magazine and T magazine. But for Le Monde, it wasn’t about launching two separate publications so it launched M that covers both news and lifestyle,” said M editor in chief Marie-Pierre Lannelongue. “I am now very at ease with the 2 in 1 [formula]. It’s like standing on two legs.”
M, which is part of Le Monde group owned by the triumvirate made of Pierre Bergé, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse, has the same paid circulation as Le Monde’s, which was down 2.7 percent to 264,559 between July 2015 and June 2016, according to the French circulation audit bureau, OJD/ACPM. On Fridays, the paper is priced at 4.50 euros, or $5 at current exchange rates.
“People are still ready to pay for quality journalism and photography,” said Lannelongue.
Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin shot the cover of the luxury-dedicated issue slated to hit newsstands on Dec. 3.


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Town footfall increased by nearly 30% over the previous two weekends, according to Oswestry BID (Business Improvement District). The measure, using BID’s Oswestry Footfall System, looked at footfall during the weekends of the inaugural Wellness Festival and the popular Oswestry Balloon Carnival compared to recent weeks since Covid restrictions were eased in April.
‘We are so pleased and heartened to see this footfall increase,’ said Adele Nightingale, BID manager. ‘A great deal of hard work has gone into these events and the organisers have had to handle a host of tough challenges, but they’ve come through fantastically well – it’s such a huge lift for the town going forward.’
She also praised the support of Oswestry BID for both events, and the strong partnership of Nightingale House Hospice, Oswestry Town Council, and Spirit Operations with BID in making Oswestry Balloon Carnival such a success.
The carnival drew visitors from across the country, said Adele, ‘with positive feedback on the events and town centre. That everyone felt so welcome is also thanks to the efforts of local businesses and residents too.’
In a further addition to encourage footfall around the town, BID is running The Great Oswestry Balloon Hunt – a free, fun family-friendly trail in which eight model hot air balloons have been placed in shop windows around the town centre. The winners will be announced on 6th September. To take part, visit: oneoswestry.co.uk/bid/the-great-oswestry-balloon-hunt/