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Huntsman and Croley are just two of several recent additions to the senior leadership team. Late last year, Suzy Deering joined Ford as head of global marketing after serving as chief marketing officer at eBay, bringing with her a background in technology, data and analytics as Ford looks to reorient its relationship with customers.
And Ford recently tapped Franck Louis-Victor, formerly an executive at French automaker Renault SA, to head up the automaker's new businesses platform. In that role, he's responsible for devising a strategic plan that encompasses both existing and new capabilities in such areas as autonomous vehicles and mobility service. He also oversees new ideas developed via the company's incubator, Ford X.
Open for business
Meanwhile, Ford last month welcomed Doug Power into a newly created position — vice president of corporate development. He came from multinational foods giant General Mills Inc., where he led the company's $8 billion acquisition of the pet food brand Blue Buffalo.
The University of Michigan graduate has spent 25 years in the mergers-and-acquisitions space, including stints at Merrill Lynch and two technology firms.
Now that he's made the move to Ford, Power is focused on beefing up the company's M&A team, developing a cohesive strategy that serves the company's growth plan and proactively identifying deals that fit in with what Ford is trying to accomplish.
"I've been doing M&A now for 25 years and I've been at four different companies," he said in an interview. "This is the clearest strategy a company I've joined has had, and it's also incredibly clear where we can add value from an M&A perspective."
Those areas align with Ford's plan. His team, for example, could play a role in connected services by acquiring the necessary software capabilities. Another area of focus, he said, will be Ford Pro, the dedicated commercial vehicle business Ford announced earlier this year. And on electrification, Power sees potential around EV charging and vertical integration of the supply chain.
Ford already has made moves in those areas, for example with its recent acquisition of EV fleet charging provider Electriphi, and with its EV battery-manufacturing joint venture with SK Innovation. There are other parts of the supply chain where Power's team will look for M&A potential.
"We're in the strategy phase of vertical integration right now, with the whole stack under review," he said. "I imagine that over time, in the near term, we will identify at least one or two areas where we're going to decide, 'If we can find the right company, with the right capabilities, the right people, it would be better to own this capability.'"
He emphasized it's not just about closing deals, however, but making proactive, strategic moves. Ford's top leadership, he said, already is behind that approach.
Meanwhile, said CAR chair emeritus Cole, "You never work on a detail outside of the context of the bigger picture. What these announcements from Ford basically say is that, 'We've got to be appropriately plugged into the bigger political picture.' "©2021 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


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The Korean tech giant finally unveiled the Samsung Galaxy A31's successor. The new A32 is the cheapest 5G Galaxy model launched yet, following an exhaustive series of leaks. As such, the release comes with little surprise, but the added cost of 5G has made this budget line of A-series more expensive than ever. More so, when compared to its Chinese counterparts with the same chip.
The obvious changes over last year's A31 are reflected in the design. The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G features a clean, LG-velvet-inspired design, just as the leaked images had shown. Gone is the thick, blocky camera bump, leaving behind four ring-bound lenses simply sticking out the shell. The fingerprint scanner resides with the power button.
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Samsung Mobile Price in Pakistan 2021
In recent memory, it's the most minimalist and unimposing look in a Samsung phone. The A32 5G comes in white, blue, charcoal, and lavender colors.
The onboard optics system is made of five cameras. On the front, we're looking at a 13MP sensor with a narrow f/2.2 aperture. For its rear-facing setup, the Galaxy A32 features a 48MP sensor with an f/1.8 lens, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a pair of 5MP macro and 2MP depth cameras.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 screen is a dated TFT LCD. This means the viewing angles won't be as consistent as an IPS panel. It stretches 6.5" across. But combined with its 720P resolution, it already feels out of place in 2021. A notch carved into the Samsung mobile screen houses the front camera.
Samsung, ever reluctant to name the chipset, only lists its octa-core CPU. However, several sources note that the Galaxy A32 5G runs on Dimensity 720 — an entry-level 5G chip from MediaTek. It's powered by a 5,000 mAh battery and 15W fast charging. And shipped with 4GB/6GB/8GB of memory and 64GB/128GB of internal storage. A removable microSD card slot provides storage expansion as well.
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Samsung Galaxy A32 5G Price in Pakistan & Specs
Samsung announced the phone via a press release, detailing the launch timeline. The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G will hit stores on February 12 in Europe first and may soon land in other countries. And its base variant starts from €279 (~ Rs. 54,500.)

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Recently, the payment giant has been testing different ways to get over the existing obstacles and check if it will be able to accept settlement payments made using stablecoins on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.
American multinational financial services company Visa Inc (NYSE: V) is planning to keep its focus on the crypto industry, paying more attention to stablecoin settlements. At the Starkware Sessions 2023, Visa’s Vice President and Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield shared the company’s crypto vision. According to Sheffield, Visa’s ultimate goal is to enable its customers to convert digital assets into fiat currencies.
Visa Planning Stablecoin Settlements
Cuy Sheffield explained:
“We’ve been testing how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting on Ethereum and paying out in USDC on Ethereum. So, these are large value settlement payments.”
Further, he mentioned that this is the area in which Visa is seeking to “build muscle memory.”
“The same way that we can convert between dollars in euros on a cross-border transaction, we should be able to convert between digital tokenized dollars and traditional dollars.”
The key obstacle for the company is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system that still handles most of the settlements. The system has numerous limitations such as slow transaction processing that can take up to five working days or higher fees due to multiple banks involved in transactions. As a result, Visa can not move money as often as it would like to.
Recently, the payment giant has been testing different ways to get over the existing obstacles and check if it will be able to accept stablecoin settlement payments on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.
Cuy Sheffield said:
“We’re thinking a lot about how to take some of the value that visa provides on existing bank rails, with existing forms of beyond in a rebuild that on top of blockchain rails, using stable boards. If we think there are huge opportunities in that area, it just kind of stays on emerging.”
Earlier, former Visa CEO Al Kelly was also briefly speaking on the company’s plans for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and private stablecoins, claiming that they can play “a meaningful role in the payments space.” He also mentioned that Visa had numerous initiatives underway.
Visa’s Crypto Initiatives
As per the company’s website, Visa is aiming to facilitate bridging a gap between digital currencies and the traditional financial system. Despite the current downturn in the industry, the company still finds crypto assets, especially stablecoins, promising, and it has not suffered any credit losses.
In October 2022, Visa unveiled a joint blockchain payment gateway in partnership with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). Besides, Visa was talking about launching its own crypto wallet. As we reported at that time, the Visa International Service Association filed two applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its character mark to be used in software “to view, access, store, monitor, manage, trade, send, receive, transmit, and exchange” crypto assets and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)”.
Later, in December, Visa was planning to allow customers to make auto payments from their Ethereum self-custodied crypto wallets.


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New Delhi: The government on Monday budgeted Rs 1.75 lakh crore from stake sale in public sector companies and financial institutions, including 2 PSU banks and one insurance company, in the next fiscal year. Unveiling the PSE policy in Budget 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said barring four strategic areas, public sector companies in other sectors will be divested. The policy would give a clear roadmap for disinvestment in strategic and non-strategic sectors.
She said strategic sale of IDBI Bank, BPCL, Shipping Corp, Container Corporation, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, among others, would be completed in 2021-22 fiscal year beginning April 1. Also legislative amendments required for LIC IPO would be brought in 2021-22.
She said NITI Aayog has been asked to work on next list of central public sector companies for strategic disinvestment.
Sitharaman said a revised mechanism for fast-tracking closure of loss making PSUs would be worked out and an incentive package would be developed to incentivise states to sell stake in state PSUs.
To monetise lands owned by CPSEs, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be developed.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in her previous budget for 2020-21 set a target of raising Rs 2.1 lakh crore from privatisation and sale of minority stakes in state-owned companies. This include Rs 1.20 lakh crore from selling stake in CPSEs and Rs 90,000 crore from stake sale in financial institutions.
So far this fiscal, the government has garnered Rs 19,499 crore through minority stake sale in CPSEs and share buybacks. JD ANU ANU
Satinder Bajwa, senior vice president and Head of Sales and customer care, and Harish Lalchandani, VP, Marketing, Mahindra Automotive, have quit the organisation, three people aware of the matter informed ETAuto on condition of anonymity.


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It was just announced that Illinois is under a "Stay at Home Order"... which is perfect timing to announce our brand new "Chicago Handshake"
design. It's the only safe handshake! (For those not in the know, a Chicago Handshake is an Old Style
beer with a shot of Malort


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Red velvet, check. Mechanised base, check. Built-in massage, check. Covered LED canopy lights, check. 32-inch LCD television, check. Vanity mirror, check. Frikkin' kickass champagne cooler? CHECK. Here I give you the Hollandia International Sphere Bed.
Hollandia Sphere Bed Comes With Obligatory Champagne Cooler
Trending Stories Right Now
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Ku released a report overnight that detailed all of the new Apple products that we can expect in 2019. And boy is there some big news in there, including a massive new MacBook Pro, the return of the iPod Touch and a 6K monitor.
We are mere days away from Unpacked, where the Samsung Galaxy S10 will be officially be revealed. But that hasn't stopped the figurative boat from leaking. An early hands-on video of the S10 and S10+ surfaced over the weekend. It featured TechRadar's Matt Swider and seems to have accidentally made its way online early. Uh oh.


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Did the era of the Dogecoin, the most famous cryptocurrency, come to its end, or it is just a calm before the storm? Let’s find out!
Crypto assets demonstrate mixed performance
On Monday, key crypto assets demonstrated mixed performance in Asia. Despite Bitcoin managed to gain, other crypto assets lost ground.
As a matter of fact, Bitcoin rallied by nearly 0.21% ending up with $3,987.9. The number one crypto asset has been struggling to break the $4,000 level without a clear directional catalyst.
Aside from that, Ethereum went down by 0.30% coming up with a reading of $136.32. As for XRP, they declined by 0.73% being worth $0.30639. Litecoin dived by 0.52% demonstrating a result of $59.998.
Market participants took note of reports that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is actually scrutinizing applications related to digital coins. One of them has to do with Bitcoin futures from institutional trading platform Bakkt that has been postponed.
Well, without specifically pointing to Bakkt’s application, commissioner Dan Berkovitz told that the CFTC is working properly with all the applicants to have their applications processed. Dan added they require ensuring that a crypto product meets all the necessary standards as any other financial instruments traded on the market.
ICE is on the verge of launching Bakkt in mid-December, although later delayed the launch to January. Moreover, the crypto exchange platform is going to come up with physically delivered daily futures contracts, which are traded in BTC/USD.
In addition to this, Switzerland’s Federal Council has started a consultation on adapting Switzerland’s federal law for blockchain development. In fact, the move aims to have legal certainty over blockchain applications improved with the aim of laying a basis for the regulatory framework for the industry.
Besides this, the council has also offered to segregate digital coins when bankruptcy occurs, reflected by the proposed change of the Federal Law on Debt Collection and Bankruptcy.
The main digital coin erased all the gains done after Elon Musk's February announcement. What are we heading into?
Ethereum crossed $3000 recently and is aiming at $3500 already. Is it taking over Bitcoin's place?
This week may be the most important since the year started as the Fed assess the economic outlook and the US presents fresh NFP readings.
S&P Global, a private banking company, will release a monthly change in British Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) on January 24, 11:30 GMT+2. The index is a leading indicator of economic health as businesses react quickly to market conditions, and purchasing managers hold the most current and relevant insight into the company's view of the economy.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) m/m on January 12 at 15:30 GMT+2. The index measures a change in the price of goods and services purchased by consumers.


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With the coronavirus taking over the world, many families are raiding stores for supplies to protect themselves. Many stores are struggling to meet the demand for items such as hand sanitizer, cleaners, produce, bottled water, and toilet paper. Many shops are limiting the number of items customers can purchase because one person will buy several items at once, limiting the amount left for others.
Crowds are fighting to get one item in particular: toilet paper. Stores are struggling to restock fast enough because, within minutes, the shelves are bare. Senior lecturer, Dr. Zagorsky believes that “hoarding makes people feel safe,” which is why there is a panic for toilet paper. In Oregon, local police stations are telling citizens to stop calling 911 because they ran out of toilet paper.
Grocery stores such as H-E-B, Kroger, Walmart, and Costco are constantly restocking shelves for customers. These stores have announced that they will be open under modified hours in an effort to slow down the demand for products. Customers will rip through shelves to find items and make a mess in the aisles. Supermarkets are struggling to clean up after customers and are striving to quickly move them through check-out lanes.


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Automotive stalwarts such as BMW, Porsche and German supplier Robert Bosch are betting that e-bicycles will become a lucrative business as consumers look for newer, cheaper and eco-friendly ways to get around.
McKinsey & Co. projects that the micromobility market will grow by 9 percent annually to reach a cumulative $260 billion by 2025. Bikes, including manual and electric ones used in bike-share services, will account for about $180 billion of that, with e-bikes accounting for a growing share of that market.
"In most markets, e-bikes are growing anywhere between 5 and 15 percent per year, while conventional bikes are growing more like 2 percent per year," said Kersten Heineke, leader of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility. "They're cannibalizing conventional bike sales."
E-bikes are popular in countries with strong biking cultures, such as Germany, Heineke said. They're starting from a lower point in the U.S., where decades of car-centric urban planning have made bicycling as a form of transportation sometimes difficult or unsafe.
For the U.S. e-bike market to grow rapidly, cities and bike manufacturers will need to make sure riders feel safe and that they feel like they are getting significant value for their money, said Carla Bailo, an industry consultant.
"People have to feel safe in them and in their ability to get around, and where the infrastructure for that exists is where sales are going to compound," she said.
Public-private partnerships will be needed to boost safety and prompt U.S. cities to rethink their approaches to infrastructure, transit and urban planning, Bailo said. Bicyclists often have to share the road with vehicles or ride on sidewalks alongside pedestrians, unsafe approaches that often result in collisions.


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To celebrate its 40th Anniversary in Australia, Fujitsu has launched an eBook documenting its history over the last 40 years. Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand – The First 40 Years, was written by well-known journalist and analyst Graeme Philipson. The book covers the highlights of Fujitsu’s first 40 years in Australia. The book tells the story of how the company has grown to become part of the Australian and New Zealand ICT landscape.
Today Fujitsu officially announced the launch of the eBook at the Establishment Hotel in Sydney. The launch was attended by around 40 people including journalists, analysts, Fujitsu executives, as well as a number of long-standing employees. One of the highlights of the launch event was the attendance of 5 of the 6 past and present CEOs and Managing Directors of Fujitsu Australia.
In the picture above are Mike Rydon (Managing Director 1973-1985), George Ranucci (Managing Director 1985-1989), Rod Vawdrey (CEO 2003-2011 and current President of International Business), Neville Roach (Managing Director 1989-2000) and current CEO Mike Foster.
The launch event included an address by Keith Besgrove (on behalf of former Senator Stephen Conroy who wrote the foreword to the book), an overview of the book by Graeme Philipson, a business update by Mike Foster and an insight into Fujitsu’s global business by Rod Vawdrey.
The eBook can be found at:


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The FA centres will offer FA product training, product support, technical consultation and technology training for customers.
Increasing demand for product support
Hartmut Pütz, president, Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation European Business Group, said the production of electric machinery is thriving in Italy, and it foresees increasing demand for product support services in the automation sector.
Meanwhile, South Africa is seeing rising investment in social infrastructure projects, which is expected to draw an increased number of Japanese manufacturers and drive growth in local industries.
“Until now, FA product services for Southern Europe and South Africa were handled by the Europe FA center in Poland,” he said.
“The two newly established FA centers will contribute to increased customer satisfaction by providing more rapid and locally tailored services to these regions.
“Wherever there is industrial growth, there is a need for automation. This is as true for Italy as it is for Africa, where we can see demand for technology growing strongly.”
One of two satellite offices
Servicing and support for FA products in Africa had previously been provided directly by the European FA centres, of which the new Italy office is now the seventh.
The South Africa FA centre Satellite is one of two such satellite offices that Mitsubishi Electric now has in the CEE region and Africa.
Pütz added, the Italy FA centre is located within the Italian Branch of Mitsubishi Electric in Agrate Brianza and the South Africa FA satellite centre is established in cooperation with Adroit Technologies in Johannesburg.
The Italy office will have 18 employees covering Southern Europe, Northern Arabic States and West Africa (25 countries).
The satellite centre will have four employees (to be increased to five in FY2016) to cover Central/East/Southern Africa (36 countries).
Mitsubishi FA Italy includes product training, technical consultations, and system proposals where the main models will be PLCs/Inverters/Servos/HMIs/Robots.
South Africa handles product training, technical consultations, and system proposals on PLCs/Inverters/Servos/ HMIs.
“There are a large number of manufacturing companies in these regions that can benefit from the high level of automation support offered by a Mitsubishi Electric office,” added Pütz.
“Both facilities will support the ongoing expansion of Mitsubishi Electric’s FA business in Africa and Europe respectively.”


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We know The Mandalorian will premiere on Disney+ on Tuesday, but what time will the Star Wars series be available on the new streaming service?
With Disney+ arriving on Tuesday, November 12, the big question is what time will The Mandalorian be avalable to stream. With the launch of the streaming service, we get our first episode of the first Star Wars live-action television show.
Entertainment Weekly wrote an article stating the episode should arrive no later than 9 am ET, but it may come sooner. Although Disney+’s own countdown on its website says it should launch by 6 am ET.
More from The Mandalorian
- It’s time to stop asking Katee Sackhoff about a Bo and Din romance
- Emily Swallow talks The Armorer’s future in The Mandalorian
- Din Djarin’s home world could be more significant than you think
- Will Grogu be in 2023’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
- 10 great quotes from The Mandalorian and why they’re good
This makes for a tough time especially since many East Coasters – me! – are getting up and getting ready for work. But that doesn’t mean we won’t figure out a way to watch.
While that doesn’t help too much, we know The Mandalorian will arrive between 6-9a.m. ET on Tuesday. That three-hour window will have many people refreshing their phones, websites, Rokus and Amazon Fires to see if they could download the app.
So when exactly is The Mandalorian launch time? Here’s what we know:
Date: Tuesday, November 12
Time: Between 6-9 a.m. ET
Stream: Whenever you want
The Mandalorian is one of the most highly anticipated pieces of Star Wars content to ever come out. It’s the first live-action series and features a number of old-school call backs to get new and old fans excited about the series.
There’s been a considerable amount of hype surrounding the show with Disney even airing trailers on regular broadcast television. There’s been a considerable amount of marketing behind this series and Star Wars fans hope it lives up to the hype.
Did you already purchase Disney+? We plan on watching The Mandalorian a soon as possible.


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The Orolay Women’s Thickened Down Jacket rose to viral fame last year, eventually coming to be known simply as “the Amazon coat.” This season, the coat—just one of many cult-favorite products found on Amazon—is still popular as ever (not to mention, a common site on city streets), and right now, you can warm up with one of your very own at a discount.
The rarely on-sale coat is marked down to just $111.99 (originally $139.99, amazon.com) in six different colors, including a brand new bright red hue. The jacket hits at mid-thigh, and features six pockets and a cozy down fill, perfect for staying warm on blustery winter days.
There’s no telling when prices on the Amazon coat will rise again, so if you’re looking to find out what all the fuss is about for yourself, be sure to shop soon. And for more great deals, check out CNN Coupons.
Note: The prices above reflect the retailer’s listed price at the time of publication.


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Two new flavors of Austin Cocktails launch as ready-to-drink options
The line of ready-to-drink cocktails that two sisters launched a couple of years ago is getting a couple of new flavors, just in time for holiday entertaining.
Bergamot Orange Margarita and Fred’s Ruby Red Cocktail are joining the three other bottled cocktails of Tea Twister, Paradise Found and Cucumber Vodka Mojito. Each of these were developed by Jill Burns and Kelly Gasink after a family vacation with disastrous drink options inspired them to get into the beverage business.
“Leveraging our beverage development experience and long-lived family cocktail tradition, we saw an opportunity to develop drinks that tempt the palate with complex ingredients rather than heavy sugars and neon colors,” Burns said in a press release.
The two new Austin Cocktails flavors stay true to Burns and Gasink’s philosophy of creating authentic booze options that aren’t overwhelmingly sweet, according to the press release.
One of them, the Bergamot Orange Margarita, isn’t quite the same as the others. The drink has branched out from the Austin Cocktails tradition of using vodka as the base spirit — because a margarita, of course, can only have tequila. But the ingredient that makes the drink, according to the press release, is the bergamot orange, a winter-grown Italian orange that “is more sour than sweet,” providing “slightly more complex accents to the orange notes inherent to the classic margarita, while the brighter citrus and lower sugar produce a cleaner, smoother finish.”
The Bergamot Orange Margarita also features lime juice, agave nectar and a triple sec that Burns and Gasink created themselves.
The other addition to the Austin Cocktails lineup is Fred’s Ruby Red Cocktail, a boozy homage to the sisters’ Grandpa Fred. He was integral in establishing their family’s “cocktail time” every summer evening at 5:30 p.m., according to the press release.
“Kids got Shirley Temples and adults got something a little stiffer,” the two sisters recalled.
Fred’s Ruby Red Cocktail is a mixture of vodka, grapefruit juice, lime juice, mint and agave nectar — ingredients that show off their grandfather’s “appreciation for the bounties of the land,” according to the press release.
Each bottle is going for about $15 on retail shelves. For more information, visit www.austincocktails.com.


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- Articles tagged "sd camcorders"
Riding on the new wave of heat (and of course, technology), Panasonic officially announced a whole slew of new Lumix compact cameras, HD camcorders and SD camcorders at Wave House, Sentosa. Read on for our in-depth event coverage.
- PSA: Fujifilm releases major firmware update
- THX launches HDMI-cable certification program
- BMW to demo auto-parking technology at CES 2015
- Microsoft recruiting for its new 'Arcadia' initiative
- LG to debut smart TVs running WebOS 2.0 at CES 2015
- Typo2 keyboard for iPhone 6 now available
- BlackBerry Classic launches in Singapore
- Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer to launch new smart watch next summer


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Just been reading an interesting article about “Whoop” which is a wearable device that measures and monitors your bodies vital signs. In our health and wellbeing focus we are more than ever conscious of our bodies. Amplified by the Coronovirus we welcome tools that monitor such things as elevated respiratory rate which could be an … Continue reading Whoop it up!
AccessAbility Solutions supports Get online week which shows the benefits to users. An interesting article by Kelly Chan from AbilityNet explains the main facts about online life in the UK in 2021. Read on with interest:- https://abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/facts-and-stats-about-digital-exclusion-get-online-week
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The revered fashion icon passed away at his home in Connecticut surrounded by family and friends…
Google faces a potential lawsuit over hacked celebrity nude photos…
George Clooney and his new bride went to great lengths to keep their wedding day private from the public, even making guests leave their smartphones at home in exchange for ‘burner’ phones to avoid photo leaks.
“Anchorman” Will Ferrell is offering video game fans a chance to play with him in San Francisco to raise money for charities that help children with cancer.
After three years, the Kardashian family is closing a store at The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that was fashioned as a “celebrity lifestyle boutique.”
Ellen DeGeneres, Lena Dunham and more remember the woman who wanted to make people laugh…
Mary Winstead, Victoria Justice, Ricky Gervais, Other Celebs Tweet Back After Nude Photos Stolen From Apple’s iCloud
Celebrities raged on Twitter Monday after hackers flooded the Internet with nude photos of everyone from Kim Kardashian to Jennifer Lawrence, Rihana, Ariana Grande, Kate Upton and Selena Gomez, apparently obtained from an attack on Apple’s iCloud online storage.
How To Protect YOUR Nude Photos On Apple ICloud And Other Sites After Hackers Exposed Celebrities’ Nude Pictures
The simplest way to avoid having your nude photos posted all over social media like those of Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Rihana, Selena Gomez, Kate Upton and dozens more were on Sunday, is a) not to take nude photos with any device connected to the Internet (or maybe don’t take them at all) and b) don’t upload them to the Internet for storage “in the cloud,” however some celebrities may not even realize their photos were stored on iCloud.
Nude Celebrity Photos Flood 4Chan After Apple iCloud Hacked, Jennifer Lawrence, Rihana, Selena Gomez, Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian Victimized
A flurry of nude celebrity photos flooded the Internet’s nefarious back alley known as 4Chan Sunday night, showing the alleged nether-regions of such A-listers as Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Rihana, Mary Kate Olsen, Selena Gomez, Kate Upton, Victoria Justice, Ariana Grande, Kirsten Dunst, Krysten Ritter, Hope Solo, Kirsten Dunst, and many more.
#Trending In Entertainment: Shia LaBeouf Again, Meshach Taylor Dies, And Robert Downey Jr.’s Son Gets Arrested
This week a child star is in trouble (again), a beloved actor passes away, and an A-lister’s son may be following in his father’s footsteps, but not in a good way.


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Hi-Ho Silver in Newport News Tech Center at Jefferson Avenue and Oyster Point Road announced on Facebook it was closing this past week.
The jewelry store had liquidated most of its inventory by Thursday. Messages to the owners were not returned by Friday afternoon.
Hi-Ho Silver told customers on Facebook that it had already closed its store near Williamsburg in September and its Suffolk location earlier in November.
Hi-Ho Silver, which had been in operation since 2002, moved its Newport News store from City Center to Tech Center in 2015. It had opened the Suffolk store in 2016.
Mr. Boil opens in City Center
Mr. Boil Cajun Seafood & Poke Bowl restaurant and bar celebrated its grand opening this past week in Newport News City Center, at 704 Mariners Row.
The restaurant offers two menus: cajun seafood and poke bowls. Poke bowls offer fresh raw fish or other meat options, sauces, mix-ins like veggies, mango or avocado and toppings on a base of either rice of zucchini noodles. The customizable bowls are catching on in cities across the country.
Customers ordering traditional seafood boils, like those from Louisiana, don bibs and can choose from crabs, lobster, crawfish, clams and mussels and their sauce. The restaurant also sells po-boy sandwiches, wings and fries.
For more info, visit www.mrboil.com or call 757-807-2888.
Williamsburg Realtor association installs president
Ellen Smith Gajda, owner and principal broker of Williamsburg Realty, was installed as the 2019 president of the Williamsburg Area Association of Realtors.
Smith Gajda has been in the real estate business since 2001 and was a top-producing sales agent in Williamsburg and Northern Virginia. She was a managing broker for a Sotheby’s Realty franchise before starting her own real estate company in 2014.


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Intel Corp. announced on Monday morning its first multibillion-dollar investment in Rio Rancho in more than a decade to convert its local factory into a global manufacturing hub for the company’s new “Foveros” technology.
Company executives unveiled the $3.5 billion investment at an outdoor news conference at the plant with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other state and local officials. The investment will generate 700 new high-paying permanent positions here, plus about 1,000 construction jobs.
It’s the largest such commitment to Intel’s New Mexico operations since at least 2009, and the largest single investment here to date since the company opened the Rio Rancho plant in 1980, Intel executives told the Journal.
New Mexico will provide Intel $5.75 million in Local Economic Development Act funding for the expansion, including $5 million from the state, $500,000 from Sandoval County as fiscal agent for the project, and $250,000 from the City of Rio Rancho, pending approval by the city council.
“Intel’s $3.5 billion investment in New Mexico will create 700 new jobs in the next three years and establish the Rio Rancho campus as the company’s domestic hub for advanced semiconductor manufacturing,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “… The state and Intel have a 40-year partnership, and today, with innovative economic development tools and global demand for this technology, we can celebrate a new generation of workers and job growth at Intel’s New Mexico manufacturing plant.”
The company will upgrade its current 350,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to manage a new chip-packaging architecture called Foveros that Intel first unveiled in 2018.
That new technology is based on stacking computing chips on top of each other, creating a three-dimensional, compact package for super-fast computation that uses much less space. That lowers manufacturing costs and energy consumption while providing high-performance data processing for today’s tiny, super-light-weight devices.
The company used the new packaging architecture to create its first fingernail-sized 3D-stacked chip last year called Lakefield, which measures just 1 millimeter high and 12-by-12 millimeters around. Now, Lakefield and other advanced semiconductor devices that could be made with Foveros technology will be manufactured at the Rio Rancho plant once the facility upgrade is finished, said Intel spokesperson Linda Qian.
“The new investment will increase manufacturing capacity for this new breakthrough technology,” Qian told the Journal. “Planning will begin immediately. We expect to start construction later this year and be production-ready in late 2022.”
The company won’t erect a new building, but rather re-tool and modernize its existing facility.
“We’re expanding our capacity here to run more wafers through the factory,” Qian said.
The investment reflects a sharp turnaround for the Rio Rancho plant that began in 2017, when Intel began converting the local facility from primarily a chip-manufacturing operation into an “innovation hub” for new, cutting-edge technologies that support the company’s evolving global operations.
That conversion started with “silicon photonics,” whereby Rio Rancho innovators developed new methods to fuse optics technology, or lasers, with traditional silicon-based electronic servers. That next-generation technology uses light to speed data transfer, compared with traditional digital communications that rely on electronics to transfer and process information.
That gave Rio Rancho a new company niche in silicon-photonics components, which are now used in Intel transceivers and receivers for data centers.
Then, in 2018, Intel transferred development of a new memory technology to Rio Rancho called 3D XPoint. It’s a new type of engineering architecture that places data memory and storage much closer to microprocessors inside computers or data centers, allowing information to transfer back and forth at much faster speeds.
And more recently, Rio Rancho became the key corporate site for another technology breakthrough – the Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge, or EMIB. That’s basically a new chip that sits on top of processing, or memory chips, to connect and transfer data between them.
Now, when combined with Foveros, the new technologies give Rio Rancho a unique role in Intel efforts to simplify and optimize semiconductor packaging, memory and connectivity, making the local facility a critical cog in Intel’s domestic and international operations, Qian said.
“We’re not making basic chips, or computer processing units, in New Mexico anymore,” Qian said. “We’re making new, differentiating technologies that from the big-picture standpoint set us apart in the development of packaging, connectivity and even software breakthroughs that help drive new advancements in the company.”
The focus on innovative technologies has reversed a frank decline in Rio Rancho operations that began in 2013, when Intel employed 3,300 people.
At that time, major investments in new chip-making technology were bypassing New Mexico for other company sites in the U.S. and overseas. In Arizona, for example, Intel opened a new $7 billion manufacturing facility last year. And in March, it announced another $20 billion investment there to build two more factories.
As a result, Intel’s Rio Rancho workforce dropped to just 1,100 by 2017 – one-third the 2013 level.
But in 2018, Intel began hiring again in New Mexico, re-building Rio Rancho back to more than 1,800 employees as of last year. Now, with another 700 projected under the company’s latest investment, the local workforce will climb above 2,500 in the next three years.
“We are proud to have invested in New Mexico for more than 40 years and we see our Rio Rancho campus continuing to play a critical role in Intel’s global manufacturing network,” said Keyvan Esfarjani, Intel’s senior vice president and general manager of manufacturing and operations.
Apart from direct LEDA funding, Intel’s latest investment will also be boosted by a 50% rebate on gross receipt taxes generated during construction, thanks to a new law signed in April by the governor that expands LEDA’s economic development impact by allowing state and local governments to share half of the GRT with companies to offset the costs of very large projects. That rebate is expected to save Intel about $14 million on construction and infrastructure expenses at the Rio Rancho plant, something that helped Intel finalize its newly announced plans here, the governor said.
“With this exciting development, we are already seeing the benefits of this year’s legislation expanding LEDA, generating high-quality and high-paying jobs for New Mexicans,” Lujan Grisham said.
At $3.5 billion, Intel’s investment is one of the single largest private sector investments ever in New Mexico, state Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes told the Journal.
And, apart from the new permanent positions and construction jobs projected by Intel, the investment will indirectly support about 3,500 jobs in New Mexico, Intel Vice President and New Mexico Site Leader Katie Prouty told participants at Monday’s event. The company spends about $200 million annually on local suppliers.
The ripple effects on the local economy are immense, said Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull.
“We’re very excited about Intel’s renewed investment in our community,” Hull told the Journal. “It will mean a lot to local businesses, especially now as we’re emerging from COVID. Local businesses need a shot in the arm, and this is just the thing to do it.”
Intel operations by the numbers
Annual economic impact in NM
Spent annually on local products and services
Invested in NM since 1980
In property taxes paid to Sandoval County in 2020


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On Jan. 1, 2019, the Trump administration plans to enact a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imported goods, including furniture, lighting, home decor and their respective parts, At press time, there is no indication that this will not happen, so retailers and designers heading to winter markets in Atlanta, Dallas and Las Vegas will have to contend with this as they meet with vendors.
In preparation for winter markets, Furniture, Lighting & Decor reached out to manufacturers and asked for their 2018 and 2019 plans. Below are the responses we received. While we, of course, did not reach out to every single manufacturer, some did not respond and others declined to comment. We recommend you reach out to any vendor not listed if they haven’t already contacted you.


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Gatwick Airport is set to roll out up to 70 ‘cloud’ based baggage drop kiosks over the next year, according to its chief information officer.
Heathrow today introduced a personal shopper experience with a difference – each guide is an accredited stylist!
Plaza Premium Lounge is the latest big name to commit to Heathrow’s new Terminal 2, which is scheduled to open in June 2014.
Adopting new car parking strategies to improve customer service and generate revenue should be higher up the agenda of US airports, write Steven Grant and Michele Krakowski.
Amman's Queen Alia International Airport has announced the selection of the Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) and joint venture partner Royal Jordanian, as the preferred bidder to provide Meet & Assist services.
Frankfurt Airport today unveiled a hotel with a difference – it is only open to dogs!
A wide-ranging food and retail redevelopment programme will revamp the offering at Reagan National and Washington Dulles airports over the next 30 months.
Frankfurt Airport has introduced Russian speaking 'personal shoppers' to assist traditionally high spending Russian passengers passing through its facilities.
Nordic summer cuisine will be on the menu at a new pop-up restaurant opening at Copenhagen Airport on Tuesday.
Aéroports de Paris (ADP) has unveiled a new 1,500sqm departure lounge in Paris–Orly’s South Terminal.


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Bajaj Auto Q1 profit up 11 percent on better margins
Bajaj Auto has posted Q1FY23 standalone profit of Rs 1,173 crore, up 11 percent YoY from Q1FY22 profit of Rs 1,061 crore. The Q1 revenues from operations rose 8 percent YoY to Rs 8,005 crore compared to Rs 7,386 crore in the same quarter last year.
On a sequential basis, the revenue from operations was flat compared to Rs 7975 in Q4FY22 but the profit after tax slipped almost 20 percet in Q1 from Rs 1469 crore profit in Q4FY22.
Bajaj Auto’s EBITDA margin expanded by 100 basis points in Q1FY23 to 16.6 percent against 15.6 percent on the back of price increases, better foreign exchange realisation. The favourable mix helped to a large extent in offsetting the impact of inflation and enabled margin improvement.
The commissioning of the state- of- the- art plant under Chetak Technologies, part of its EV investment commitment is the key highlight of the June quarter. The company also sustained a track record of surplus cash and at the end of June quarter, its cash surplus stood at Rs 20,509 crore.
Two-wheeler sales for the quarter slipped 8 percent YoY. Even on a sequential basis, the Q1 two-wheeler volumes dipped 7 percent. Export of two-wheelers however, recovered some ground sequentially up 2 percent from Q4FY22 levels despite the 4 percent drop YoY.
New Q8 e-tron, Q8 Sportback e-tron, Q3 and Q3 Sportback, coupled with sustained demand for A4, A6, Q5 and top-of-the-lin...
The new laboratory employs certified ethical hackers, and forensics investigators to deal with malware, and phishing att...
The Japanese carmaker’s Indian technical training school is undergoing expansion to accommodate more students; it also p...


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NEW DELHI: Multi-brand loyalty programme provider PAYBACK has tied up with mobile wallet MobiKwik to extend the strengths of the two platforms to more than 50 million consumers.
The partnership will enable MobiKwik’s 15 million customers to earn rewards for their transactions at MobiKwik and all other PAYBACK partners, according to a company statement.
Bipin Preet Singh, founder and CEO of MobiKwik said, “We are happy to be associated with PAYBACK as it will benefit MobiKwik users at large. The aim behind this partnership is to create loyalty for MobiKwik users and attract PAYBACK users to adopt MobiKwik as their mobile wallet option."
The two entities hope to increase their customer base through their loyalty points programmes.
"Mobile wallets are a fast growing category as India embraces technology and witnesses strong growth of e-commerce," said Rahul Rana, managing director and chief executive of PAYBACK India. “People prefer to store their cash digitally and use it seamlessly via mobile and online transactions. This partnership will allow MobiKwik customers to earn rewards when an online transaction is made.”
The alliance means that PAYBACK customers too get access to a seamless payment experience with wide merchant coverage, Rana said. “Our endeavor is to continue to partner with newer categories in online and offline commerce such that PAYBACK customers can have greater choice in earning and redeeming their rewards at the click of a button.”
With this increase in our network strength, we are confident of leveraging on economies of scale to deliver higher value to our customers, said MobiKwik’s Singh.
Only 14 per cent of consumers in India would use 10-minute delivery platforms to get print-outs delivered at home, a report said on Monday, as Zomato-owned Blinkit recently started printout on demand service in the country.
HUL on Sunday put advertisements for the appointment of new distributors for its brands in all major cities in Madhya Pradesh. The company, which owns brands such as Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf excel, Rin, Pond's and Dove, has invited people willing to invest up to Rs 1-3 crore and can arrange a godown with required infrastructure.


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According to Boston Consulting Group, the sales growth rate of luxury travel is set to achieve a constant 14% in the next 2 years, surpassing the growth rate of all other luxury sectors, which is estimated at 7% annually.
Splendia, a specialist online reservations platform with luxury hotels estimates a 30% increase in its turnover this year, compared to last year. During the first 5 months of 2012, Splendia registered a 13% increase in the number of reservations, compared to the same period last year. An official of Splendia told Le Figaro that wealthy clients book more luxurious room types, while spending less on transportation.
The head of Kuoni’s Emotions division dedicated to luxury travel confirms that there have been less wealthy customers, however, with higher spending. For this summer, rich customers spend on average 5.900 euros per person, for their summer vacation compared to 5.720 euros per person for the summer of 2011.
Another premium travel operator, Donatello, told Le Figaro that sales of its luxury products (priced from 5.000 to 10.000 euros per person) have grown by 20% since November last year. A representative of Donatello added that the most affected has been the upper middle class, the company witnessing an ebb in buying power.
The CEO of Voyageurs du Monde has a different view, insisting that the niche of ultra rich travellers cannot make up for losing upper middle class customers. The company reports that even a segment of the rich, specifically those in top positions in the financial sector, is seeing a decrease in spending, once at a level of 50.000 euros per holiday. In the past 6 months, Voyageurs du Monde has seen its number of reservations decrease by 15%, which represents 20% of its turnover. The company’s CEO estimates that the increased marketing costs of reaching out to wealthy customers in emerging markets will weigh in heavily on the profits of premium operators.
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In a notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today, Chellarams Plc announced a delay in its annual financial statements due to ongoing talks with the DMK group of Germany . Both companies are finalizing arrangements for the marketing, sales and distribution of dairy products in Nigeria.
Here are key highlights of the notice:
- The two companies have had an existing distributorship agreement for over 25 years.
- Nigerians will benefit from the full range of products DMK supplies to other markets.
- Chellarams DMK will supply products that were hitherto imported into the country namely Oldenburger, Real Milk and Regal Milk
The move into milk production is a form of backward integration by the company. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FCMGs) made up N6. 3 billion of the N20.3 billion it made in the financial year ended March 2016. The depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar in 2016 have made imports much more expensive. Consumers have either cut back on imported products or switched over to locally made alternatives. Companies that needed forex either for importing raw materials or goods, found it difficult to access foreign exchange as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) limited the amount of foreign exchange available. Producing in the country enables the company to cut costs, and leaves it less susceptible to foreign exchange shocks.
Moving into local production also means more jobs will be created, both in processing the milk and dairy farmers who will provide fresh milk. The company however faces a tough battle to gain market share as its products are typically priced at a premium, in a sector that is dominated by low cost brands like Cowbell, Miksi and Loya.
DMK is Germany’s largest dairy, and was created from the merger of two of North German companies Humana Milchion and Nordmilch in July 2010. The company currently has over 8000 milk producers and 7000 employees. Chellarams Plc started operations in 1923 as a textile company and was listed on the NSE in 1978. The company’s operations are divided into two sectors: industrial raw divisions and consumer products.
Fidelity Bank Plc must cover the chink in its curtains to keep rising
Fidelity Bank Plc follows the narrative of top tier-2 banks, which have had better or easier years.
The Nigerian banking sector has consistently been one of the most profitable sectors in the Nigeria Stock Exchange market. However, in 2020, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) have faced a flurry of impediments, which may have affected their solidity.
With reduced income from fee and commission implemented at the start of the year by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the paucity of foreign currency for international transactions, the resulting economic contraction from dire effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and the consequent operational constraints of keeping employees safe, 2020 is obviously fraught with numerous disorders for banking institutions.
For most, it hasn’t exactly been a year for growth at all, more like a walk in the woods, where improvements to bottom-line is almost unexpected. This period, many banks seem content with simply surviving and fundamentally matching their previous feats.
Fidelity Bank Plc follows the narrative of top tier-2 banks, which have had better or easier years. The bank generated a 2020 9M PAT of N20.4billion, rising 7.08% from the corresponding figures last year, but drilling solely into its results in Q3’2020 and its exact comparative period in 2019, the bank suffered reduced interest revenue, reduced fees and commission, reduced profit before tax, and reduced after-tax profit.
Fidelity Bank Plc concluded Q3 with a profit position of N9.1billion, 13.7% decline compared to its position in 2019 y/y. PBT reduced by 12.9% from N10.8billion in 2019 to N9.4billion this year. Gross earning in Q3 was only N49billion as against N57billion in 2019 – plummeting 14%.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, commenting on the result said: “Our 9 months results reflect our resilient business model, particularly in a very challenging operating environment. We worked closely with our customers to gradually recover from the economic impact of the pandemic and the attendant effect of the lockdown. The drop in gross earnings was due to the decline in interest and similar income, caused by lower yields and drop in fee income.”
True cause of the reduction in earnings
DMBs generate gross earnings under three primary subheads: Interests earned, Fees and commission, and Other operating income. Fidelity Bank Plc generated a combined total of N150.8billion for the period ended September 2020 from these three categories, compared to the N158.5billion in the corresponding period last year.
Deeper analysis reveals that this rising tier-2 bank has seen more deficit in revenue from fee and commission compared to the other aforementioned gross-earnings’ generating-sources within this period. Interest earned dropped by a difference of N4.3billion, while revenue from fee and commission saw a decline of N4.8billion from N14.5billion in 2019 to N19.3billion YoY.
Fee and commission as a component of gross earnings
Card maintenance fees, account maintenance fees, commission on remittances, collect fees, telex fees, electronic transfer fees, amongst others, represent the plethora of channels that makes up income from fee and commission.
The real insight this particular component of gross earnings provides is that a spike in revenue generated indicates increasing/increased customer account activity. The more a customer maximizes the usage of an account’s product and facilities, the more the revenue earned from this segment. Thus, earnings from fees and commissions are so overriding due to their apparent controllability.
For example, a bank could make the decision to purely pursue and aggressively drive the usage of its ATM debit card and promptly see the revenue from commission rise. Furthermore, an increased rate of card production and collection necessitates usage and consequently means more money is earned as card maintenance fees.
The fact that gross earnings reduced mostly from fees and commissions should be a telling concern for the Management of Fidelity Bank Plc. Post covid-19 would birth the dawn of a new era for business processes. The management must guarantee the usability of its electronic banking channels, promotion of its cards, and with urgency, implement improved service delivery mechanisms to ensure that it is the first port of call to customers for general payments and remittances.
These measures are of grave significance in the bid to bridge its widened fee and commission income gap.
Holistically, in the 9 months ended September, it is worthy of note that the bank made certain advancements. Customer Deposits, Net Loans and Total Assets all grew in double digits. Customer Deposits grew by 22.3% from N1.2billion to N1.5billion, Total Assets also rose by 21% from N2.1billion in 2019 to N2.5billion, and Net Loans rose by 12.9% to N1.3billion from N1.1billion.
Airtel is paying up its debts
Airtel’s annual report revealed that the company has a repayment of $890 million due in May, as well as, an installment of $505 million due in March 2023.
Airtel’s presence in 14 countries from East Africa to Central and West Africa would have been impossible without relevant financial investments. But, while the funds have been key to its growth in the past few years, many of its financial obligations are starting to mature quickly.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had negative economic effects on different sectors of the economy; however, the resilience of the telecom sector is evident in an increase in Airtel’s income. The overall performance of Airtel increased with a revenue growth in constant currency of 19.6% in Q2 compared to 16.4% recorded in Q1, while revenue on reported basis increased by 10.7% to $1.82 billion, with Q2 revenue growth of 14.3%.
Unilever Nigeria Plc: Change in management has had mixed impact
9 months into the change of management, Unilever Nigeria Plc’s performance in Nigeria has been largely underwhelming.
Change in the management of a company is never a walk in the park. Transitions usually take time to yield the desired results. Organizations can look to past successful managerial transitions for inspiration, but not for instruction because there is no defined playbook. The decision to replace Mr Yaw Nsarkoh, who served as the Managing Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc until the end of 2019 was plausible, but adjustments were never going to be an easy task.
Mr Nsarkoh had served as Managing Director of the company for 5 years and steered the course of its proceedings with remarkable skill up until the financial performance disaster which culminated in his resignation on November 28th, 2019.


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Apple has removed hundreds of apps from its App Store for violating its user-tracking guidelines. Chinese mobile advertising firm Youmi has issued "sincere apologies" for the tracking behavior and promised to compensate affected developers.
The FBI and Secret Service are investigating reports that CIA Director John Brennan's personal AOL email account was hacked by an American teenager, who found and leaked sensitive information on top U.S. intelligence and national security officials.
Dow Jones has dismissed a competitor's report, which claims that attackers operating from Russia hacked into the company's servers and stole sensitive financial information for insider-trading purposes.
U.S. merchants that have not yet completed their migration to EMV should brace for upticks in chargebacks from international card issuers, says Gord Jameison, head of Canadian risk services for Visa, in a video interview.
Fraudsters break into your network by phishing for access in increasingly sophisticated ways. Anthony Giandomenico of Fortinet describes the importance of tracing every step in the attack lifecycle when devising an effective security strategy.
How do you effectively secure healthcare networks when so many devices access them? Deena Thomchick of Fortinet discusses the unique challenges faced by healthcare leaders required to guard against incursion, both by outside hackers and insiders.
Unprecedented levels of collaboration among targeted financial services firms enabled the international law enforcement operation that disrupted the Dridex botnet, security firm Fox-IT says. Now, can that model be repeated going forward?
In an age of ubiquitous information sharing, it is critical to control how information is presented - and to whom. Lynne Courts of Seclore discusses new security strategies and solutions that address this need.
Target - the nation's second-largest discount retailer and best-known data breach poster child - has begun issuing its house-brand REDcards with chip and PIN. The move comes as the majority of card issuers have opted for chip and signature, which some security experts warn is a weaker choice.
An international law enforcement operation - spearheaded by the U.S. FBI and U.K. National Crime Agency - has disrupted the notorious Dridex banking malware and phishing campaign, which has been tied to at least $40 million in losses worldwide.
Indian enterprises must strengthen their capabilities to secure Digital India. To combat emerging threats, security leaders prescribe a self-regulatory approach, rather than one driven by compliance mandates.
Newly discovered breaches at E*Trade Financial and Dow Jones highlight hackers' increasing attempts to steal, sell and utilize personal information. Security experts describe PII's value for fraudsters and scammers and offer lessons learned from these and other incidents.
Dell's announcement that it plans to purchase storage maker EMC for a mind-boggling $67 billion does not make clear the fate of EMC's information security unit, RSA. Analysts believe Dell has not yet determined whether RSA fits into its long-term plans or should be sold or spun off.
Security researchers have demonstrated in a lab setting an information-stealing attack against Amazon Web Services users. But Amazon says its customers "using current software and following security best practices are not impacted by this situation."


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September 9, 2021 12:31 PM
India Inc’s weak wage growth will be drag on economic recovery, as revenues came under pressure due to the second pandemic wave that affected nearly the entire country, a report said on Wednesday. The “weak” wage growth will prove to be a drag on the overall economic recovery in the medium term as it will affect household consumption, the report by India Ratings and Research said.
An environment of pandemic-led uncertainty and elevated inflation could impact the level of spending and hence the overall demand, it said. The analysis is based on a study of the standalone financials of 2,036 non-financial corporates. The entire sample set has been divided into eight buckets according to the size of the annual revenue in FY19.
“While the resilience of corporates is encouraging, the adverse effect of pressure on employee cost is a cause for concern. This could be a result of job loss or salary cut or both,” it said. Half of the 2,036 companies have reported negative growth in labour costs in Q1FY22 compared to the preceding Q4FY21, it said.
India Inc’s weak wage growth will be drag on economic recovery, While there is some seasonality in employee costs, it is also true that the June quarter is always a better quarter than the March quarter owing to the disbursement of various performance-based payments linked to the previous fiscal, it added.
“The more alarming fact is that the trend has been on a downward trend for the last few years, which is visible in the yearly wage growth data in the last three years,” it said. Resuscitating wages will be critical for a revival of the overall economy and Capex cycle, which has been languishing even before the COVID-19 outbreak, it said.
“The wage channel is more critical at a time when the countercyclical spending by the government has been designed to revive the production side rather than direct transfer to induce consumption demand,” it said.


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Why own car when you can shop online and hail a Lyft when you need a ride?
Instead of freaking out, Ford is preparing for the future with a self-driving car designed for carrying both packages and passengers. Previously, the company promised a fully autonomous car for ride-sharing by 2021.
“We’re developing self-driving technology because the world is changing rapidly,” Sherif Marakby, the company’s vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification, wrote in a Medium post Tuesday morning.
“For many people who live in large cities, owning a car is no longer a viable choice.”


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Source Bulk Foods health store opens in Crouch End
- Credit: The Source Bulk Foods
A new health food store where shoppers can bring their own containers says it is “so excited” to have opened in Crouch End.
The Source Bulk Foods welcomed customers for the first time in early July on the Broadway, opposite Barclays.
The shop aims to reduce waste by selling bulk foods without plastic packaging including organic wholefoods and healthy snacks.
A spokesperson for the store said: “We are so excited to have opened our doors on Monday the 5th of July and have really enjoyed meeting all the amazing locals of Crouch End, they have given us such positive feedback so far.
“Many of our customers have been asking us to open a store in the area for quite some time and we are so happy that we are finally able to provide the community with a zero-waste shopping destination that is conveniently located.
"We see the store as a great compliment to all the stores around us.”
The Source Bulk Foods has seven stores in the UK, six of them in London including West Hampstead.


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The fast adoption of technology products has come with an unwelcome addition for Kenyan companies: A wave of costly intellectual property disputes pitting them against local innovators.
These disputes, usually over products and services, are threatening to hurt the companies’ hunt for bigger earnings in a highly competitive environment.
Over the past five years, Kenya’s leading mobile service provider Safaricom has faced at least four cases touching on copyright while other big corporations such as cigarette giant BAT, phone maker Nokia and edible oils manufacturer Bidco have also been dragged to court over similar matters.
Recently, on July 15, micro lender Faulu Kenya lost its bid to stop Safaricom from offering the savings and lending service M-Shwari, pending the hearing and determination of a court case over the ownership of the product.
Faulu claims that it was the initiator of the M-Shwari concept, which Safaricom runs with the Commercial Bank of Africa. Faulu now has a similar product, Kopa Chapaa mobile loan service, with Airtel.
Safaricom has denied copying the idea. The court threw out the application by Faulu seeking to compel the mobile company to stop offering the service until the case is determined.
Increasingly, local and foreign investors are seeking a pie of world-class technology innovations in Kenya, fuelled by innovation and incubation facilities like iHub and NaiLab.
But poor knowledge and orientation on intellectual property rights has made the innovators lose out to big corporations with strong legal departments.
The piling up of these cases lends credence to the high ranking of Kenya as a hub for abuse of intellectual property rights.
A 2010 global study showed that 79 per cent of the software used in Kenya was pirated, a higher percentage than China’s 78.
Another study commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) in 2010 ranked Kenya 95th of 130 countries in the IPR Index, and 106th of 140 economies in the Global Competitiveness Index 2010.
The Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), the agency that registers patents, blamed the rise in intellectual property rights disputes on the innovators themselves, who it said often launch products and services before registering them.
While the public focus has been on disputes involving high profile companies, lawyers say there are hundreds of cases in the courts involving small enterprises or individual artistes.
Since 2004, there have been at least 30 high-profile intellectual property rights disputes filed in the Kenyan courts according to the National Council for Law Reporting, a legal information repository.
Most of these cases were filed in the past five years, indicating increasing theft of intellectual property rights and a corresponding awareness among innovators.
While most cases are filed in Nairobi, other major commercial centres have recorded their share of disputes.
Christine Kipsang, a Mombasa-based lawyer, said she had handled three high-profile cases in the first half of this year, compared with only two cases she handled in 2012.
“The frequency of intellectual property rights disputes is increasing,” she said. “There are many more cases that are of low scale, indicating an awareness of copyright issues among the population.”
Victor Nzomo, a specialist lawyer in intellectual property rights and consultant at Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) at Nairobi’s Strathmore University Law School, said that big companies stood a better chance of having intellectual property cases decided in their favour not because they are big but because their opponents do not always gather enough evidence and proof to sustain their allegations.
Most of the high-profile cases in the past 10 years have involved information and communications technology-related inventions, with Safaricom, the largest mobile firm by customers and turnover, taking the most hits.
Just this month, Dr Dedan Maina Warui sued Safaricom for infringing on an innovation called Med Dispenser, which he alleges he presented to the company in 2010 to help roll out. The application is meant to help patients contact doctors via phone. Dr Warui says Safaricom has partnered with AAR Health Services to launch a service that bears a similarity to his idea without his involvement.
In 2008, Christopher Ondieki sued Safaricom over the award-winning mobile money transfer system M-Pesa, which is being replicated in other countries, claiming it was his idea.
In 2004, Alternative Media Ltd also went to court accusing Safaricom of copying the idea of an HIV/Aids campaign printed on scratch cards.
The court ruled that Alternative Media had proved it was the owner of the copyright in the artworks used on the scratch cards and granted AM an injunction restraining Safaricom from infringing on the copyright.
In another case against the mobile firm, a musician had sued Safaricom for copyright infringement after they uploaded his music on their popular Skiza platform for ringtones and downloads without obtaining his consent. A court granted the singer, JB Maina, a temporary injunction and an order allowing him to enter its premises and seize records and other data for purposes of establishing his case.
Earlier in 2011, two Kenyans, Jack Khanjira and Joash Moruri, sued Safaricom for allegedly using an idea of mobile money transfer system they had presented to the telecoms company without their involvement. They claimed the M-Kesho product Safaricom launched with Equity Bank was similar to the concept they had presented — Chemi-Chemi na Safaricom — seeking a joint venture.
Last year, Google Kenya was accused of improperly accessing the customer database of a rival company, Kenyan listings firm Mocality, which has since ceased operations.
Google Kenya allegedly used the database to enrich its own Kenya business listings product. Google later apologised. The discovery led to the resignation of several Google staff in Kenya and in Zurich.
Other sectors have had their share of suits and disputes over IP.
Edible oils processor Bidco Oil, for instance was in 2010 sued by Ronald Angwenyi, a University of Nairobi graduate in food science and technology, over a baking powder brand that the consumer goods giant had launched in the Kenyan market.
Mr Angwenyi argued that the product, launched under the Mariandazi trade name, was his invention. Bidco, he said, had used a formula he invented while on attachment there to develop the product without compensating him for his skill, knowledge and originality.
But Bidco argued he had not registered the innovation as a patent and could therefore not claim ownership. Lady Justice Martha Koome ruled that, with oral evidence, it was impossible to know whether Bidco was using Mr Angwenyi’s research paper and ideas to make the product and threw out the case.
Earlier in 2007, British America Tobacco Kenya Ltd filed a suit against Cut Tobacco Kenya Ltd. Both parties are cigarette manufacturing companies operating in Kenya.
BAT said that the Cut Tobacco infringed on its trademark “Sportsman,” cigarette brand, by introducing a cheaper brand, “Horseman,” adding that the packets were substantively similar in colour and design.
As the suits pile up in the courts, lawyers say the public is more aware of intellectual property rights due to education through media.
Benard Murunga, a lawyer who handles intellectual property rights matters, also attributes the growing number of such disputes to a reforming judiciary.
“Judiciary is hearing these cases faster than before, and this has given the public more confidence to seek legal redress,” he said.
“The judiciary now has more judges, some of whom were recruited from private practice, where they were handling intellectual property disputes as lawyers.”
Weakness in law
But most of these cases have been lost by the plaintiffs due to many reasons, one of which, lawyers say, is a weakness in the law in protecting mobile phone-based innovations.
Section 21 of the Industrial Property Act states that patentable inventions do not include “schemes, rules or methods for doing business, performing purely mental acts or playing games” or “mere presentation of information.”


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Keyword: Hilton Grand Vacations
Private equity firms reportedly have expressed interest in acquiring the timeshare operator.
Loughman joins HGV from Hilton, where he served as VP, luxury and lifestyle for the Waldorf Astoria, Conrad and Canopy brands worldwide.
This is the fourth property in the city owned by Hilton Grand Vacations, one of which is located directly across the street from The Quin.
The company has announced plans to sell some or all of its $6.3-billion stake in Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
China's HNA Group is currently negotiating the sale of its 25-percent stake in Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare business.
Shouma Moniz previously was Evolution Hospitality’s national salesperson of the year for 2014, and will manage a team of three sales associates.
The 9.2 million American households that own a shared vacation-ownership product are diverse and looking for experiential travel, just like hotel guests.
Michael D. Brown brings more than 25 years of experience leading a range of asset-management and vacation-ownership sales functions.
Hilton Worldwide is splitting its business into three separate units: a REIT, timeshare and fee-based company.


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Recently, Moonrock Capital, a blockchain consulting firm, purchased one of the Degenerate Ape Academy NFTs for 5,980 SOL ($1.1 million) on Saturday, making it the first million-dollar NFT sale on the Solana blockchain.
Moonrock bought Degen Ape #7225, which is a scarred zombie ape with a halo, a gold tooth, and a brain in its mouth. According to HowRare.is, the ape is the 13th rarest in the collection. The company also paid 1,388 SOL ($260,000) for the 18th rarest SolPunk, a Solana-themed variant of CryptoPunks.
SOL is now the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization of over $52 Billion, and as the cost of Ethereum gas forces certain enterprises to search for alternatives, Solana may become a more desirable option. Solana’s growth is expected to accelerate in the coming months, thanks to its scalability, faster transaction speeds, and lower gas rates, which allow anyone to buy, list, sell, or trade NFTs without having to worry about exorbitant gas fees.
Because Solana combines Proof of History with Proof of Stake, there is no latency in block generation, making the blockchain extremely quick and decentralized. Proof of History is based on a timestamping approach. Each transaction is assigned a timestamp that allows the rest of the network to verify it as a legitimate transaction in fractions of a second.
Although Ethereum’s network suffers from higher congestion and higher gas fees even with layer 2 solutions, most NFT-related transactions are conducted on Ethereum — something which may change soon owing to Solana’s promising features. According to data gathered by EtherScan, Ethereum’s gas expenses hit their highest point since May last week. This means more entry barriers, forcing people to seek better options like Solana.
Last month, SOL shocked the crypto market with its dramatic spike in its value, tripling from $36 to more than $100 in August alone. A surge in investor interest in Ethereum’s competing systems with DeFi, NFT, and smart contract capabilities is one of the primary causes driving this amazing success. In fact, it was boosted by the introduction of the NFT Degenerate Ape Academy on the Solana blockchain on August 15.
As you can see, this group of apes had a wide variety of features, each with a unique avatar. Some NFTs, for example, are wearing sunglasses while others are chewing on currency notes and sandwiches. Despite technical difficulties caused by tremendous demand, the 10,000-piece collection sold out in 8 minutes. What makes Moonrock’s Degen Ape #7225 million dollar NFT purchase, a milestone, is that Solana reached this million dollar sale goal in two months. In comparison, Ethereum, the most popular and widely used network for NFTs, took three years to reach its first million-dollar sale.
Meanwhile, the fact that Solana’s DeFi projects recently surpassed the $3 billion mark is proof of Solana’s promise and ability to compete with Ethereum.
Solana NFTs have already piqued the interest of celebrities. For instance, last Thursday, Family Feud host Steve Harvey changed his Twitter profile photo to a Solana Monkey Business NFT, which is another NFT project on the blockchain featuring a set of 5,000 randomly-generated images of animated and pixelated monkeys.
As the demand for Solana NFTs goes mainstream, NFT projects like Degenerate Ape Academy, Aurory, SolPunks, Sollamas, and Frakt will continue pushing its market to new heights.


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The Milton Chamber of Commerce has announced teh recipients of the 2021 Community Awards.
A Gala will be held on Thursday, September 29th, to recognize the exceptional people, businesses, and organizations in teh community.
These are the recipients:
Lifetime Achievement – Ries Boers
Citizen of teh Year – Zainab Azim
Joyce Hagevik Volunteer of the Year – Rob Hewlett
Business of teh Year – Large – Milton Ford Lincoln Inc.
Business of teh Year – Medium – Life Yoga Studio
Business of the Year – Small – Muslim Advisory Council of Canada
Not-For-Profit of the Year – Milton Community Resource Centre
Franchisee of the Year – Blow Blo Dry Bar
Business Person of the Year – Nick Mocan, Crozier Consulting Engineers
Entrepreneur of the Year – Andrea DiMaso, Oh Look, Fabric!
The winners will be honoured at the Community Awards celebration Gala at Granite Ridge Golf Club from 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m..


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Mums 'waste £500 a year' on toddler formula: Ordinary cow's milk is healthier and cheaper, says Which?
- Watchdog said some brands have less calcium and more sugar than cow's
- Specialist toddler milk contains more iron and Vitamin D
- But Which? said nutrients can be obtained from normal diet
Parents of toddlers are wasting more than £500 a year on specialist children’s milk, despite ordinary cow’s milk being healthier and cheaper, say consumer watchdogs.
The milk is marketed as providing all the nutrients needed by children aged one to three, with some brands adding iron and omega 3 and 6 fatty acids to promote growth.
However, consumer group Which? has found that some brands have less calcium and more sugar than cow’s milk.
Which? found some brands of specialist toddler formula have more sugar and less calcium than cow's milk
The study found mums waste up to £500 a year buying formula when cow's milk is cheaper and healthier
It added that although toddler milks do contain more iron and vitamin D than ordinary milk, such nutrients can be obtained from a normal diet and a multivitamin supplement.
A spokesman said: ‘A daily recommended serving of most toddler milks doesn’t meet the calcium requirements of a one- to three-year-old, unlike a 300ml serving of cow’s milk.’
Conventional milk has 122mg of calcium – important for growing bones and teeth – per 100ml, while products from Aptamil and Cow & Gate have just 86mg per 100ml.
The Hipp Organic Combiotic Growing Up milk powder has 7.9g of sugar per 100ml, while full fat cow’s milk has just 4.7g.
Government advice says children can safely drink cow's milk from the age of one
The Government recommends giving children aged six months to five years a multivitamin containing vitamins A, C and D. It also advises that toddler milk is unnecessary because children can safely drink cow’s milk from the age of one.
However, 46 per cent of parents buy powdered or ready-made milks from manufacturers such as SMA, Aptamil, Cow & Gate and Hipp.
In calculating the cost, Which? used SMA’s recommended daily consumption of 500ml of its ready-to-drink toddler milk, which worked out at £1.63 a day or £593.53 a year. The Government advises that children should drink 300ml a day of full fat cow’s milk, at 17p a day or £62 a year.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: ‘When so many household budgets are severely squeezed, parents could be saving hundreds of pounds on toddler milks that the Government says are unnecessary.
‘Ministers should make their advice much clearer and introduce guidance on the ingredients of toddler milks, including the level of sugar and calcium.’
However, Roger Clarke, director of the British Specialist Nutrition Service, which speaks for manufacturers, said: ‘Toddler milks contain around half the amount of protein in cow’s milk, 60 per cent less sodium and less saturated fat than cow’s milk.’
A spokesman for Hipp Organic said: ‘The only form of sugar in Hipp Organic Combiotic Growing Up milk is lactose, naturally occurring milk sugar. No other sugars are added.’
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Cyber risks for retailers, it’s more than just losing credit card details
Retail has changed and it’s the use and dependence on technology which is at the heart of this change.
According to research by eDigitalResearch almost half of smartphone users did some pre Christmas shopping this year on their mobile device and tablet users are “second screening” whilst watching TV. This is the process of reviewing a product immediately after seeing it advertised on TV.
It’s not just about making sure you have brand awareness in the new customer channels though, the process of transacting business is all driven by the technology we take for granted, tills, chip and pin machines and stock management tools are all driven by software that if it fails can cause retailers a massive headache. Causes of failure range from hackers and virus to simple employee error and supplier failure.
Richard Hodson, Head of Technology at Oval Insurance Broking has written an article on the perils retailers face through the increased use of technology and some of the solutions a blog on Social Media management please click HERE!


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The workers there are responsible for supporting the smartphone maker's manufacturing and R&D departments.
Employees were given notice on Tuesday, according to a statement sent by e-mail to CBC News from company spokeswoman Lisette Kwong.
"This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company correctly for new opportunities in mobile computing," she wrote Thursday. "We will be as transparent as possible as those plans evolve."
BlackBerry is trying to regain its footing in a highly competitive global smartphone market, going head-to-head against technology giants such as Apple and Samsung.
BlackBerry's new Z10 smartphone and operating system made their debut in the U.S. market in March, but analysts were underwhelmed by sales of the new touchscreen phone.


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Alcatel is showing off some intriguing new phones here at CES, including the 0.25-inch-thick One Touch Idol Ultra. Here's how it measures up.
Google today announced a new free Wi-Fi network in southwest Chelsea that's now the largest contiguous wireless grid in New York City.
Henge Docks unveils two new docking stations compatible with new MacBooks and iOS devices at CES 2013.
Rumor has it that Apple is readying a low-cost version of the iPhone for emerging markets around the world.
Researchers at AV-Comparatives are constantly testing security products in many different ways. At the end of a year of testing, they've named Bitdefender Product of the Year due to its consistently outstanding test results, and also designated a number of other applications as "Top Rated."
Synology launches the latest software for its line of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices; the DiskStation Manager (DSM) 4.2 beta.
CES 2013 is filled with companies looking to build a better mousetrap, but Hapi Labs is the only one I found that is building a better fork.
France is investigating ways to squeeze more money from large Web companies to offset the costs of local Internet providers' bandwidth usage.
Commission's nearly two-year antitrust investigation into Google ended last week with the Web giant getting a slap on the wrist, but a congressman now wants to know how information about the probe was leaked to the media.
Cricket Wireless has nabbed an attractive, powerful Android phone, so we took it for a quick spin here at CES.
At CES, Favi announces the A4 gaming projector, which runs Android 4.0 and has a dual-core processor.
This little Windows Phone 8 could appeal to new smartphone users.
AT&T demos the perpetually unavailable holy grail of voice calling, but might have a launch date in mind.
$599 ultrabooks? 18mm thin detachable ultrabooks that last 13 hours? These are the highlights of Intel's CES press conference.
Topping tech headlines Monday, 4K TVs were the early trend at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Apple topped the 40 billion app download milestone, and Time Warner Cable and Roku teamed up to bring 300 additional channels to the online streaming service.
On the eve of the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, I had a chance to speak with Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the conference. Shapiro recently published a new book, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World?s Most Successful Companies, which discusses the aspects that make companies successful by combining his observations of technology companies with his martial arts training.
The U.S. government has introduced a new proposal designed to make electric and hybrid cars noisier in the interest of safety.
The USB 3.0 interface is standard on most new PCs and Macs, so why would you use eSATA instead? We compare eSATA vs. USB 3.0.
Dell's budget and mainstream Inspiron laptops get touch, while the Dell XPS 13 goes HD.


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Israel’s hotel industry is on pace for a record-breaking year with average daily rate (ADR) as the main driver of performance, according to data from STR.
Through the first 10 months of 2018, Israel posted an ADR of ILS806.28, which was a 7.8% increase when compared with the same 10 months in 2017. Additionally, that absolute ADR level was the highest for any October year-to-date time period in STR’s Israel database.
“Solid growth in demand that began in 2016 has given hoteliers in the country the confidence to push room rates—even as the presence of the sharing economy continues to broaden,” said Thomas Emanuel, STR’s director of business development. “Occupancy comparisons have been fairly flat thus far in 2018, but ADR increases continue to drive positive year-over-year developments in RevPAR. Over the past two years, both occupancy and ADR have been maintained at roughly 10% above the previous performance peak in the country. All of this points to a healthy marketplace overall.”
Israel’s occupancy was 70.1% through October (-0.4% year over year), while revenue per available room (RevPAR) was ILS565.26 (+7.4% year over year). The absolute occupancy level was the second-highest for the October year-to-date time period, while the RevPAR level was the highest.
At the market and submarket levels, Jerusalem has been the top performer in terms of growth. Through the first 10 months of 2018, the market’s occupancy was up 5.3%, and ADR increased 12.9%. As a result, RevPAR jumped 18.9%.
In absolute values, Tel Aviv has shown the highest absolute occupancy (73.9%) and ADR (ILS939.40).
“Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are the two cities outperforming the national average, but as another indicator of the health of the country’s hotel industry, we are also seeing growth across Haifa, Eliat and the Dead Sea,” Emanuel said.
Research conducted by STR’s Tourism Consumer Insights team found that Jerusalem is the most popular among the country’s destinations. From 482 traveler panel responses, 7% have already visited the country, while 63% have heard of or are interested in visiting the country. Israel’s historic attractions are popular among potential visitors, while the perception of conflict and geopolitical instability is a primary concern.
STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.


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Are you searching for holiday profits? Join the e-club.
Countless thousands of online retailers are competing in what analysts call a “zero sum game” where only one vendor can win the sale. However, take heart. There are plenty of sales to go around.
EMarketer predicts online retail sales will reach more than US$22.34 billion in the fourth quarter, up 27.6 percent from last year’s tally. Analysts said one way for online retailers to ensure they get a fair slice of the revenue pie is to be savvy search engine marketers.
Indeed, whether you are Amazon.com or Joe’s Books, search engine marketing helps to level the online playing field with paid-search listings that go to the highest bidder. Research shows that the highest bidder wins more than the top listing.
A study by Web consultancy Link2City reveals that 33 percent of Internet users believe companies found in the top search results must be a major brand, demonstrating that top search engine listings transmit brand equity.
“Search is a critical part of the buying process,” Gartner analyst AdamSarner told the E-Commerce Times. “Those e-tailers that understand the value of the search engine will be winners this holiday season.”
Timing Your Search Strategy
Of course, it’s not all about being to top listing. Timing also plays a keyrole in the sales process.
“When you capture the consumer at the point of search, it is generally abetter conversion rate,” Trevor Healy, VeriSign’s vice president ofpayments, told the E-Commerce Times. “E-tailers need to be very aware of the peak shopping periods as they add their new paid-search keywords.”
To Healy’s point, online retailing researchers are narrowing the field for merchants who depend heavily on search engine marketing to drive sales. The Atlas Institute, for one, is demonstrating some clear holiday shopping trends that directly impact the timing of paid-search entries.
For example, online shopping peaked at the beginning of December three years ago, as customers were weary of items not arriving due to shipping delays. Then, two years ago, online shopping peaked 14 days before Christmas.
Last year, the story changed again. Online shopping peaked 10 days before Christmas, but remained strong only seven days before Christmas.
Further, Atlas research shows that unlike the brick-and-mortar world, where shopping reaches its peak on Saturdays and Sundays, Mondays are actually the biggest online shopping days.
This seems to indicate that customers who shop offline during the weekend then go online for comparison or bargain shopping. Fridays — traditionally a weak day for online shopping — are also stronger than usual during the holidays.
However, Atlas drills it down even deeper, revealing that online shopping activity peaks between noon and 3 p.m. EST. That’s why the company recommends e-tailers take advantage of the ability to purchase day-part placements on paid-search campaigns to target online shoppers in the middle of the workday and find publisher sites with a high concentration of the at-work audience.
Finally, in light of its latest research, Atlas predicts the busiest shopping day of 2004 will occur during the week of December 13, possibly at the end of that week.
Apples with Apples
Beyond top listing and timing, there is yet another factor in the perfectstorm that is forming around search engine marketing this holiday season.
Online comparison shopping sites like Bizrate.com, Shopping.com andMySimon.com throw a wrinkle into the equation as many also now offer paid placements.
The latest arrival in this all-important holiday shopping segment isShopzilla.com, a shopping search engine that aggregates and organizes more than 25 million products from more than 45,000 stores.
Bizrate has adopted the Shopzilla.com brand name to better position itself as a broad-based shopping site. The site also boasts patent-pending shopping search technology that simultaneously weighs multiple factors, including contextual relevance, price, availability, store ratings and popularity.
Shopzilla even automatically corrects spelling mistakes, understands weights and measures, and intelligently corrects brand names for the right products.
“We set out to build a platform that could scale orders of magnitude beyond today’s best technologies in order to handle the unique demands of indexing, organizing and searching all the world’s products and stores.” said Farhad Mohit, chief product officer of Shopzilla.
“We have six patents pending on our innovations and are excited aboutcontinuing to push the envelope of shopping search for our users,” Mohit said.
New Venues, New Customers
Meanwhile, new search companies and new search tools from some veteran companies are giving consumers and merchants new options this year, according to analysts.
“We’ve had a growth in new shopping search engines or awareness of such tools,” Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, told the E-Commerce Times. “Google, for example, has put its Froogle shopping results as something highlighted when relevant. Yahoo’s also made massive changes.”
A new player called Info.com has also emerged in time for the holidays. It displays results from 14 leading search engines while also includinginformation from content providers like Shopping.com, MapQuest and eBay. Info.com distinctly separates its millions of free and 250,000 paid-listings in side-by-side columns on each result page.
What does all this mean for the holiday season? Analysts said itdemonstrates that consumers and e-tailers alike are well aware of how vital search is to buying and selling products online.
“We’re seeing e-tailers become more aware that they need to consider how they are listed in these specialized tools, rather than the general focus they often have on how they show up in ordinary Web search results,” Sullivan said.
Let Vendors Speak
Wine.com is aggressively partnering with all the major portals this holiday season, shelling out the bucks for paid placement and advertising campaigns in Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Google.
“We have specific campaigns set up with specific tracking codes so we can find out exactly which key words are working, which products are converting and where we need to make changes,” Wine.com general manager Jay Shaffer told the E-Commerce Times.
Meanwhile, eBags.com is leveraging the search terms on its own Web site to accurately buy new terms on Google and Overture.
“We continue to build our search engine relationships because it’s a keystrategy,” Chris Seahorn, director of business development for eBags, told the E-Commerce Times. “Because we are now managing so many new sites, we are looking into a lot more automated systems instead of trying to use resources internally to manage those buys.”
Even the little guys are tapping into search as a big marketing tool. EricLituchy, principal of DelightfulDeliveries.com, told the E-Commerce Times that search engine marketing is critical to his sales.
“Search engines is how people find us,” he said. “Search engine marketing gives us the best conversion rates. It is expensive, but the beauty of it is you can track it all and find out what works and what doesn’t work and optimize it.”
Warring To Win
Many online retailers will tweak their keywords for the holiday season,according to Rob Wilk, director of search engine marketing at AvenueA/Razorfish Search, by adding “holiday” or “Christmas” to their normal offering. However, Wilk told the E-Commerce Times that vendors should beware of those terms because they get a lot of volume and don’t convert well.
“Be ready for fads,” Wilk said. “Can you say, ‘Tickle me Elmo?’ If you have any holiday toy or gift that gets hot, make sure you have all of the right keywords, copy and budget to take advantage of fad type products. Watching search volume grow is the best indicator of consumer interest.”
Kevin Lee, CEO of Did-It, a search engine marketing firm in Rockville Centre, New York, with clients that include top search portals, online travel companies and hundreds of online retailers, told the E-Commerce Times that several factors are converging in search this year.
First, he said, the search volumes dramatically rise as consumers flock to the Web to shop. He predicts searches for particular items could more than double. Second, conversion rates for traffic also tend to increase during the holidays because browsers become buyers with a purpose. Those first two factors lead to volatility in paid-listing prices.
The solution to the equation is balancing ROI on those search terms.Overaggressive vendors, he said, won’t get the return on the keywordinvestment, but under-spending could be just as detrimental to the bigpicture. Lee said for those e-tailers that do search well, it’s going to bea great year. However, for those who don’t, it could be a disappointing season.
“It’s what they call a zero sum game, which means there is really only one winner,” Lee said. “Only one person is going to sell the merchandise. Everybody else loses. It’s halfway between a game and halfway between a war. Retailers have to war to win that game.”
To read Part 2, click here: “Safe, Secure Holiday Shopping.”
To read Part 3, click here: “The Rebirth of Web Analytics.”