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EA Sports announced a brand new fifa mobile game recently. Named by “EA Sports FIFA”, it will replace FIFA 16 Mobile this year, allowing players to experience the most realistic set of football features and celebrate every amazing attack. In addition, you will be allowed to exchange players and even keep roster in the current season but only update abilities according to performances in real life.
Perfect console-quality and Hybrid touch control
In EA Sports Mobile, gamers will enjoy much better and more fluid gameplay. There will be better skill moves, more exciting goals, more responsive controls, smarter team mates… Continue reading
SPOT OFICIAL. SUSCRÍBETE AL CANAL DE SONY PICTURES ESPAÑA http://www.youtube.com/user/EspacioSony?sub_confirmation=1 Spot de The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Jugado…
Reportaje Andres Iniesta en Torneo Brunete 2/4.
(PRWEB) August 31, 2006
CNBC Arabiya will offer mobile TV streaming services to customers in Jordan enabling them to receive real-time business news on their mobile phones in partnership with Javna Mobile. Under a deal signed by CNBC Arabiyas Director Sales Omer Ghani and Javna’s CEO Mansour Mansour, the regions leading business TV station will deliver streaming video using Javnas integrated technology solution.
Ghani said, “We are delighted to be launching this service in Jordan, one of the regions leaders in telecommunications, to keep our viewers informed while on the move. The service underlines CNBC Arabiya’s vision to harness… Continue reading
San Francisco & London (PRWEB) October 24, 2006
Winning a star sparkled line-up of Mobile Star Awards from Mobile Village, eight wireless industry clients of high-tech boutique PR agency VSC Consulting are glowing brightly in the mobile technology sector, earning prestige as visionaries, leading technologists and mobile consumer experts.
As named by readers of MobileVillage.com’s Go Mobile? newsletter, VSC Consulting winners include: ipsh!, Counts Media, Greystripe, Twistbox Entertainment/Waat Media, AdMob, embience, Sennari and Everypoint. Each client has demonstrated forward thinking, even daring, approaches to wireless technology, content and customer delivery that is proving to be quickly adopted by mobile… Continue reading
Hampshire, UK (PRWEB) November 17, 2006
Mobile sports information and entertainment services are expected to take an increasing share of the global mobile sports, leisure and information content (infotainment) market over the next five years.
According to Juniper Research, the global market for mobile sports content and services will grow from just over $ 1bn 2006 to $ 3.8bn in 2011 at an average annual growth rate of 27 percent. This is out of a total sports, leisure and information content market worth just under $ 4.2bn in 2006 and growing to $ 9.5bn in 2011. Over the whole… Continue reading
Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) March 29, 2012
The lives of youth sport athletes, their parents, coaches and fans just got a lot easier thanks to the latest mobile app from My Mobile Fans, a mobile app development company focused on bringing affordable apps to sports clubs, individuals, small businesses and organizations of all sizes. The Carmel FC mobile app gives users the ability to find their individual teams schedules and field locations, download GPS directions to those fields, get contact info for club officials, coaches and managers, read the latest Carmel FC news and call the weather hotline with one touch.… Continue reading


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Even though US inflation has finally decreased dramatically, this information was released after the election. However, since the midterm elections had minimal effect on investors, we are discussing the markets upcoming movements. In a nutshell, the celebration will probably go on.
Only 0.3% growth—less than half of September’s increase and less than the 0.5% forecast—was seen in the US Core Consumer Price Index in October. While 6.6% was expected, the YoY result barely increased by 6.3%. A notable fall has occurred. Further encouraging news for consumers is that the headline CPI slowed to 7.7%.
In July, Core CPI likewise experienced a similar decrease. Markets gained after that number increased by 0.3%, but then had to deal with two increases of 0.6% in a row. Simply put that this might just be an isolated case.
Both the decrease in the value of the dollar and the present stock market fiesta seems likely to last for now. The information is likely enough to confirm a 50bps increase in December, a decrease from four successive 75 bps increases. But what comes next?
It is crucial to keep in mind that Fed Chair Powell repeatedly highlighted that the peak interest rate will be higher than what the bank had previously anticipated and what markets anticipated. After December, the Fed might still increase interest rates, bring them to a high peak above 5%, and then hold them there for a prolonged period of time.
The Fed will make its decision on December 14 after the release of the CPI report on December 13. A return to a high inflation reading would fundamentally alter the situation. Forecasts for higher rates would accompany a 50bps increase in December.

domain: news


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German luxury fashion eTailer Mytheresa has teamed up with resale platform Vestiaire Collective to enable its top clients to sell their pre-loved items in exchange for store credit.
The program aims to cut down on the time consumers typically have to spend waiting to get paid for the products they have sold. It speeds up the process by providing customers direct price quotes and then giving them store credit as soon as the item is quality checked and authenticated.
The offering is currently only being made available to customers in Europe. Eligible items that are accepted under the program include handbags from a list of 20 luxury designers. The two companies are planning to expand the service to include a wider array of customers, designers as well as product categories in the near future.
Mytheresa’s move to partner with Vestiaire Collective follows Alexander McQueen’s recently launched “Brand Approved” program, which enables a select group of clients to receive store credit in return for garments, accessories and shoes from previous collections.
The move also follows a resale trend that many high-end designers are finally making an effort to do their part.
The service offering launches today.


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After launching its public beta a year ago, SimpleGeo is making public its storage product the company is based upon. Though the company has offered a few other geo APIs in the interim, the SimpleGeo Storage API geo database solution is the only product for which it charges and it appears to have lowered the price.
Propeller Health has opened new access to its asthma conditions forecast technology. The Air API is open and free for users to integrate with third party apps and services. Propeller's predictive technology gathers weather and pollutant data to make asthma conditions forecasts for geo locations.


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BOISE -- Boise Police are asking for the public's help in identifying a man who smashed a window and broke into a small electronics shop early Monday morning.
The burglary happened at 12:30 a.m. at a business near West Overland Road and South Vinnell Way.
Police say the suspect broke into a display case and took several items.
The suspect and his white pickup truck were seen on store security video.
The suspect is a white male. He was wearing black shoes, blue jeans, a green-hooded sweatshirt and a gray beanie.
The suspect's vehicle is a white Dodge Dakota 4-door pickup.
Anyone with information about this crime is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 343-COPS.


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- Advertisers more than doubled (124%) their spending on Facebook Stories in Q4 2018 from the prior year, according to a Nanigans report shared with Mobile Marketer. Cost per mille (CPM) jumped 112%, click-through rates (CTRs) surged 52% and cost-per-clicks (CPCs) grew 39% for Facebook Stories.
- Advertisers dedicated 61% of their overall ad budgets to video and spent the remainder on image-based ads, per the report. Video ads tend to boost CPMs while lowering CTRs, but continued investment in video suggests its ROI compensates for those trends.
- Global CTRs on Facebook in Q4 returned to the Q2 level of 1.5% after dipping in Q3. Nanigans attributed the rise in click engagement to the effectiveness of dynamic ads delivered at scale among Facebook's user base, especially during the holidays.
Facebook Stories, which the social network introduced after rival Snapchat made the format popular among young adults and teens, is showing positive performance trends that likely will encourage more brands and marketers to invest in the format. Facebook's News Feed is still the dominant way for marketers to reach a broad range of users on the social network, which continually experiments with ways to engage audiences, but the company has worked to make Stories an additional driver of ad revenue.
The adoption of Facebook Stories ads by marketers appears to be good news for the company. In the company's Q3 2018 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned analysts that ads in Stories would take time to become a significant driver of revenue growth. The company in May started testing the first Facebook Stories ads in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil before rolling it out worldwide in September.
Nanigans' data suggest that the format is making gains, even if it is dwarfed by the social network's more established News Feed. As the price of Stories ads rise and marketers put more money into the format, Facebook's overall revenue could grow, even as the social media industry matures and competition heats up. Not only is the Stories format popular among users, but they're proving to be an effective ad format from a marketing perspective as well. Sixty-two percent of people said they became more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories, according to an Ipsos survey commissioned by Facebook IQ.


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- 3 min read
Will RBI’s MPC take the Budget 2021 route?
Budget 2021 has revised the fiscal deficit to 9.5% for FY21 and 6.8% for FY22, indicating that the government’s borrowings would be high, and in such a scenario it can be difficult for the RBI to maintain low interest rates going forward.
The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began its meeting on Wednesday, and it is expected that the committee would maintain the interest rates and continue with an accommodative policy stance to push the growth.
Meanwhile, the Budget has revised the fiscal deficit to 9.5% for FY21 and 6.8% for FY22, indicating that the government’s borrowings would be high and in such a scenario it would be difficult for the RBI to maintain low interest rates — to encourage banks to lend more.
Since the last three meetings, the MPC has kept the rate unchanged at a record low of 4%, and the reverse repo rate is 3.35%.
Moreover, inflation is now back within the MPC’s target band despite concerns over rising input costs, and the economy appears well poised for a growth recovery, believes Rahul Bajoria, Chief India Economist, Barclays.
“While the MPC will likely draw comfort from the favourable developments on growth and inflation, it will wait to gauge the sustainability before signalling a change in approach. Liquidity guidance may take precedence over policy guidance in the interim,” he added.
The price pressures, too, have also been softening and with retail inflation posting successive downward surprises for November and December, the MPC may draw some comfort from this situation. Against the central bank’s estimate of 6.8% in Q4 2020 inflation averaged around 6.4% YoY. In addition, the price decline in vegetables has continued in January, which may drive CPI inflation closer to 4% YoY.
Softening of CPI inflation reflects easing of supply side constraints that affected food inflation. Sunil Kumar Sinha, Principal Economist and Director Public Finance, India Ratings and Research, noted, “The growth needs to be supported through the monetary policy… and December numbers showed that the CPI has somewhat moderated.”
Experts also believe the MPC may ensure availability of adequate liquidity to stimulate investments in the infrastructure sector after the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget 2021 speech, announced that the government would set up a dedicated infrastructure financing body.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to contract by 7.7% per cent in the ongoing fiscal year but is likely to rebound with a 11% growth in FY22, making for a "V-shaped" recovery, noted the Economic Survey 2021, taking cues from resurgence in high frequency indicators such as power demand, e-way bills, GST collection, etc.
Another expectation is that the RBI might continue to hike banks' held to maturity limits (HTM) till FY24 to fund high fiscal deficits without hardening yields. The RBI has already hiked banks' HTM limit by 2.5% of book till FY22 to support recovery by enabling the Centre to run higher fiscal deficits.
“Banks will buy G-secs without fearing maturity to market (MTM) hits. RBI contains yields/lending rates by incentivising banks to invest the $80 billon money market surplus in G-secs without fear of MTM hits. As banks raise deposits at 5%, they would invest in G-secs at, say, 5.9% if exempted from MTM hits. It is fairly reasonable to assume that yields will rise over the next 12 months as growth normalises. Although we expect the RBI MPC to cut 50bp in 1H21, as inflation abates to the RBI's 2-6% inflation mandate, we also see a 100bp hike in FY23. We are tracking December inflation at 5.2%,” said, Indranil Sen Gupta, India Economist, BofAS India.


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The Italian fashion house has signed an alliance with Fiat to design the new image of the car group.
Fashion travels in style. The Italian company Trussardi has sealed an alliance with the car giant Fiat for the design of the new image of one of its Panda model cars.
“In the seventies, my father thought that his company should not only represent the fashion, but could expand to other products and activities and was one of the first to understand that lifestyle belonged to fashion”, stated Tomaso Trussardi, president of the company.
Trussardi’s design proposal for the Fiat Panda model includes the logo of the fashion company inside the car, on the steering wheel or belts, replacing the Fiat monogram.
At the same time, in the presentation of this collaboration, Trussardi has launched a capsule collection inspired by the bumper of the car, which includes sweatshirts, pants and t-shirts.


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2019 is shaping up to be a big year in the world of video advertising. Evolving methods for activating audience data, the rise of programmatic guaranteed, and a surge in live content are contributing to the rapid growth of ad-supported OTT, particularly on the big screen. Additionally, political advertisers are shifting their 2020 campaign dollars towards Total Video strategies, and the industry is continuously strengthening brand safety measures and stopping bad actors in their tracks.
In a continued effort to address critical ecosystem challenges and capitalize on opportunities, SpotX formed its inaugural Media Owner Advisory Board (MOAB) in early 2019.
MOAB unites industry leadership — drawn from some of the largest media owners in the U.S., including Disney, Viacom, and Fox Networks — to facilitate ongoing strategic cooperation around pressing issues carefully selected by its members. This past August, MOAB members convened in Sea Island, Georgia, to discuss top insights and challenges over sweet tea at the board’s first annual retreat. SpotX hosted the members for three days and together they uncovered new ideas and technical solutions to overcome challenges faced by both media owners and advertisers. The progress made by this select group of media owners in three short days was remarkable. Read on to learn more about some of the issues that board members will look to to tackle this year.
Throughout the retreat, MOAB members expressed concern over the lack of one standardized unit of measurement across the OTT landscape. Measurement providers such as Nielsen and comScore offer different approaches for OTT which has led to fragmentation and can create confusion and inefficiencies in the market.
Transacting at scale during live events
As the scale of live event ad inventory continues to expand, the ecosystem at large needs to continue to work together to solve a range of hardware, software and media planning challenges that arise when serving ads into this highly sought after medium.
Converging digital and linear
As more and more users cut the cord, we’ve seen the business models of both traditional linear television companies and digital-first platforms evolve. Digital-first publishers are creating linear TV channels to distribute their content across OTT, while programmers seek to merge their traditional and digital sales organizations technically and operationally. For these media owners to continue to build profitable businesses in an era of rapidly changing viewership habits, both buyers and sellers will need scaled solutions that bridge the old world with the new while accounting for divergent technologies, measurement methodologies, data-sets and organizational practices.
Unifying ad platforms
Media owners use a variety of campaign execution types and (often) ad platforms to monetize their content, making the implementation of unified yield strategies and business rules challenging. The launch of advanced solutions that blur the lines between different systems and campaign types will give media owners the tools they need to boost revenue and minimize operational overhead.
Activating audience data
Traditionally, data activation has happened primarily in DSPs. Today, we are seeing a rapid increase in data activation on the supply side, allowing media owners to prefilter against 1P, 3P and advertiser 1P data before bid requests are made to the DSP. This creates efficiencies for all players in the value chain, and we expect this trend to accelerate in 2020.
According to Raoul Marinescu, VP of revenue partnerships at Pluto TV, “Programmatic is a formidable challenger thanks to smart first- and third- party data usage. Now, we can get more precise and surgical about reaching audiences that drive business outcomes.”
Scaling Programmatic Guaranteed
Programmatic Guaranteed is the fastest growing transaction type in the SpotX platform, driven largely by OTT clients who are looking to marry the guaranteed budgets of traditional direct sales with the efficiency of programmatic. Look for programmatic guaranteed campaigns that leverage advertiser 1P data to be a major revenue driver in 2020.
SpotX is proud to provide a platform for leading media owners to build consensus on strategic decisions that will drive the industry forward. We look forward to continuing to foster our relationships with board members in an ongoing effort to tackle these industry-wide challenges. The Media Owner Advisory Board will open up membership at the beginning of each calendar year.
This article was written by Matt McLeggon, senior director, advanced TV growth at SpotX.


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New applications for unemployment benefits held nearly steady last week after a period of larger declines, a sign an increased number of Covid-19 cases in some states and related restrictions on businesses is causing the labor market’s healing to stall.
Initial unemployment claims fell by a seasonally adjusted 10,000 to 1.3 million for the week ended July 11, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
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Tesco throws open the doors of an eco-friendly supermarket in UK
Every time I stop by at the local supermarket to pick up my groceries and veggies, I speculate about the amount of energy the colossal store would be consuming to keep it well lit and at the correct temperature. But Tesco, UK’s supermarket giant is on its way to serve consumers as well as our planet by throwing open the doors of an eco-friendly supermarket in Manchester. Spread over 52,000 sq ft store, the supermarket boasts of many eco-friendly features that may lure eco-shoppers to stop by for shopping. Situated at Cheetham Hill, it has managed to cut down about 70% of carbon foot print than the other comparable stores. Refrigeration will come from an environmentally friendly carbon dioxide system, and will use 15% less than a normal cooler.
The store’s lighting system is understood to be capable of dimming bulbs when it gets brighter outside and it has a checkout packaging area made from recyclable plastic. Also about 230 jobs have been created and allotted to locals.


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The definition of what is and isn’t search marketing is expanding to include other related disciplines. It began with Web developers moving into SEO. A few years ago, SEOs expanded into paid search. Today, one area that more and more search marketers are moving into is social media marketing.
Social media marketers utilize community-based sites like MySpace, Digg, YouTube and Flickr to get a message out to certain groups, to garner links back to their own sites, or to help manage an online reputation by building more pages that will rank in search results for a company, product, or person’s name.
A Natural Progression from Search to Social Media?
But why does this new practice fall under the realm of search marketers? And does it make sense? Most search marketers see it as a natural progression of services.
“Social media dovetails nicely with natural search,” said Tony Wright, VP of client services at Dexterity Media. “A lot of the skills come from search in linkbuilding, which themselves come from public relations. You have to try to convince someone to link to you.”
Search has always been about much more than on-page optimization, or buying search ads. The space is constantly evolving, and because search marketers are often on the front lines of any new trend, they often are in a position to move into new areas that complement search.
“We’re all online marketers. Just because search is the dominant form of navigating the Web, doesn’t mean that we exclusively work in search. The field is much broader than that,” said Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.
Fishkin, whose agency offers some kind of social media marketing services for about half his clients, said that he got into social media in the same way many search marketers did: by accident. Being early adopters in the tech space, search marketers were among the first users of many social media sites, and are still heavily represented in those communities.
Other search marketers got into social media more recently, to explore its linkbuilding value. That’s the case for Chris Winfield, president of SEO and social media marketing firm 10e20. “At first it was all about building links. I was amazed at how powerful social media marketing was from this perspective. We would release (and promote) an amazing piece of viral content and just sit back and watch the links pour in,” he said. “But then I really began to look at it from a much more macro level, and to see how effective it was for marketing online as a whole.”
While the link-building value, and the marketing value overall, was low at the start, it has grown along with those sites. But that is still not the primary value of social media marketing, Fishkin said.
“Now search marketers do it for a lot of reasons. The biggest one for me is reputation management, because social media profiles tend to rank well in the search engines,” he said. “It’s also a good idea to establish your identity on these sites before someone else does.
Social media and search marketing utilize some of the same skills, including general project management and planning, testing skills. Social media also shares the link valuation skills used by link builders to find the most valuable sites and pages to target for placement. It also requires writing skills that SEOs use when optimizing sites, as well as the ability to analyze and adapt to ranking algorithms, in some cases.
“Search marketing is becoming more about marketing, and less about search,” said Rob Murray, president and CEO of iProspect. “Really, it’s all about what it means to engage a user.”
Selling Social Media Marketing to Clients
Clients also seem to see it as a natural progression for search marketers to offer social media marketing services. A growing number of clients are buying social media services along with more traditional search marketing elements. In most cases, they are not coming to the agency asking for social media services, but most do not object to adding them in when the agency shows the value they can get out of it.
“Every client or prospect we talk to is excited with our proposal,” Wright said. But there is a challenge for clients accustomed to the measurability of search marketing, he said.
“One of the many challenges with social media is that it doesn’t ring the register,” he said. “Search has primarily been a direct-response discipline. This may be the branding side of search.”
The size and reach of social media sites is growing, as evidenced by a social media report released by iProspect this week. But it’s important to keep in mind the comparative size and value of search marketing and social media, cautions Murray.
“People tend to talk about a new technology well ahead of its actual adoption. And for sure, you can still reach two or three times as many people through Google, Yahoo, or MSN. But there is more to life than Google, Yahoo and MSN,” Murray said. “Social media is about engagement with the audience. It’s not a reach game.”
We report the top search marketing news daily at the Search Engine Watch Blog. You’ll find more news from around the Web below.
- Niche SEO – using specialised industry knowledge to your advantage, SEO Hotline
- Google Takes Partial Ownership Of Maxthon Browser, TechCrunch
- Why You Can’t Simply “Destroy” Your Online Past, Marketing Pilgrim
- Surviving Rankings, Re-Rankings, Filters and Google Hell., Jim Boykin
- Why Google WILL pay for content, ZDNet Digital Markets
- It’s A Small (Mobile) World After All, StayGoLinks
- Does the AOL Ad Deal Mean an End to Shady Search Ad Distribution Partners?, Threadwatch
- My other interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Wired Epicenter
- Yahoo Snags TellMe Execs, GigaOm
- Addicted to Link Research?, Search Engine Land


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BOSTON—Under Steve Jobs's leadership, Apple revolutionized telephony with the coming of the iPhone. On Tuesday, the company unveiled its latest version — the iPhone 4S — only one day before Jobs died. Several members of the HBS faculty reacted to the long-anticipated event.
Marco Iansiti, David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration
Forget the iPhone 5, at least for this fall. The iPhone 5 is just an iPhone 4S... a bunch more features, 1080p video, voice control, but the same old design and basically the same old phone.
The advanced voice recognition is probably the most interesting feature, but I wonder if Apple is losing its emphasis on "insanely great" products just a bit. This is less the showy, glitzy, "blow you away because we are just Apple" kind of way and more of the traditional incrementalism that we have seen in this industry for a long time.
The one exception is Siri. Asking your phone to set the alarm and having the phone do the work sounds nice, but will it really work? This is the high risk technology that will make or break this phone generation. Is it real value added or just another attempt at voice recognition? Is it more like an iPod or more like the first iPhone? We will see, but so far so good. Siri listens and seems to really do what you say. I can't wait to try it. But is Siri going to be enough?
It is worth noting that this feature-- the most interesting thing in this iPhone launch--came through an acquisition, not an internal innovation. Some tweets also noted that Apple compared the performance and features of its new phone to those of competitors, something that seemed unheard of in the past. Apple was just Apple, and that was it.
Apple might unveil an awesome new release next year, but I don't feel this launch was what everyone was waiting for. Maybe this tweet captures it all: "Biggest test for the iPhone 4S: Would its battery last as long as this press conference?"
Terry Kramer, Entrepreneur-in-Residence
Yesterday, the world lost one of its most notable visionaries, innovators, and executives, Steve Jobs. His ability to create entirely new markets and customer experiences is unparalleled in our day. And his legacy should continue at Apple, since he built a powerful team stocked with both creative and technical talent.
Organizations aren't made of just one person. Apple will continue to write the book when it comes to innovation and ease of use. New CEO Tim Cook has inherited a nimble legacy from his extraordinary, and he is well positioned to take the company forward. Apple has woven a loyal customer web around multiple devices and services, and their fans will keep coming back for more. This week's release of the iPhone 4S is no exception. It builds on Apple's relentless quest to refine and simplify the user experience and throws in some enticing new features, including Siri, a virtual assistant with voice recognition that has the intelligence to process both simple requests like "call home" and more complex requests like multilevel, dependent web searches.
What will be Apple's challenges going forward? Cook and his team will need to keep a keen eye on competitors' moves. More players are moving into the mid- to upper-range smartphone market. Consider, for instance, Motorola's Bionic and the Samsung Galaxy, which offer high-resolution, larger screens, faster processors, and 4G data rates. Emerging market competitors such as HTC aren't far behind, with recent 3G launches offering attractive, multifeatured phones with lower price points. What they don't have is Apple's powerful app store and the legions of customers who've signed up for a sleek, seamless iPhone experience.
As far as providers go, contrary to some predictions, I don't think the iPhone 4S will be Sprint's salvation. With its attempts to appeal to both high- and low-end customers, Sprint suffers from diffused focus. It has the highest customer disconnect rate among the major mobile operators and continues to experience poor customer satisfaction perception issues. It's a dangerous gamble to commit to selling such a huge number of new iPhones (30.5 million iPhones over the next four years at a cost of over $20 billion). To drive the volume of sales required, Sprint risks having to offer significant customer subsidies. Wouldn't this resource and focus be better spent driving a more consistent, low-cost strategy in the marketplace? At the end of the day, this iPhone investment makes Sprint significantly more susceptible to failure.
The big question is: Will I go out and buy the new iPhone 4S to replace my Verizon iPhone? Unlikely, this time around. My Verizon iPhone 4 suits me just fine.
Nancy F. Koehn, James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration
At this week's iPhone 5 launch, we have our first official glimpse into Tim Cook's leadership style as he takes the stage as Apple's CEO. Many wonder how Cook will handle running a business handed over by one of greatest leaders and entrepreneurs of our time, Steve Jobs. Jobs is an icon who forever changed the way we connect. However, he was not the first American business leader to exercise tremendous influence over the way people live and think about what is possible. And this is not the first time such a leader has been replaced.
True, Jobs is on a short list of great American entrepreneurs. Along with Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller and EstÃ©e Lauder, Jobs has had an exceptional ability to envision what could be: products and services we couldn't have imagined that we now can't live without. These leaders all share an intense passion, a driving persistence, a keen sense of strategy and a relentless focus on the details of executing their respective visions. In the 14 years since he returned to the company he helped found, Jobs has embodied all of these attributes (as Apple's long streak of product homeruns, its $350 billion market capitalization and its powerful brand attest). Given this context, the elephant in the room at the iPhone 5 launch is this: With Jobs gone, can Tim Cook carry the legacy?
Click here to read Nancy Koehn's entire blog, which originally appeared on www.washingtonpost.com on October 3, 2011.


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Xbox 720 to double-up as a DVR
The Xbox 720 rumour mill has picked up again this year after patents surfaced which suggest Microsoft's next console may also operate as a digital video recorder, fusing telly, film and gaming into a single entertainment hub.
Though the patent was filed in 2007, it wasn't approved until 27 December 2011. The US Patent & Trademark Office describes the patent as:
"A digital video recorder (DVR) application running alongside a television client component allows users to record media content on the gaming console. The DVR application also integrates itself with the console menu.
"Once integrated, users can record media content while playing games. Alternatively, users can record content when the gaming console is turned off. The recorded content can include television programming, gaming experience (whether local or online), music, DVDs, and so on. When in the recording state, users can also switch between various other media modes, whether gaming, television, and so on."
With the latest Xbox 360 dashboard update, gamers already have access to a host of streaming media through various apps. If the proposal in the patent goes ahead, it could potentially put off content providers, who might be unhappy about their programmes being recorded to a hard drive.
Either way, the concept may boost Microsoft's push for living room domination as it gears up to launch its nextbox 720, which if other rumours are to be believed, could potentially be on show at E3 next year.
PS3 users already have this kind of functionality, thanks to the Play, a plug-in standard definition Freeview tuner module accessory. ®
Hmm, like the PS3 you mean.
I have been using my PS3 as a DVR for 3 years and very happy I am too..
I want to patent inserting a plug into a socket - oh yes I have a lot of money so other people can't to it without paying me.
I wish I was joking.
Use an XBox as a PVR
Not until they make it much quieter!!
I think the PlayTV is only available in Europe and parts of Asia so not everyone is aware of it. But still how is this patent likely to stand up when it's been done already?
10 years too late!
I see a lot of people bringing up the Sony PlayTV, but forgetting the Sony PSX DVR from 2003. It was a fully integrated DVR with a PS2, as well as having some features from the then not-yet-released PS3, including the XMB and forwards comparability with the PSP.


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Bumper to bumper traffic on narrow, ill-made roads have become a part of life in most metros across the country. The fumes and frustration of navigating these roadways, however, has brought about a marquee shift in the Indian four wheeler market. Automatics, long vilified as fuel guzzling, expensive monsters, are now the toasts of the Indian metro consumer.
The last two years have seen the rise of relatively cheap, fuel efficient automatics — two adjectives that no discerning Indian consumer would have used to describe one, just four years ago. But the trend in consumption patterns of these vehicles point to another important factor — the exponential increase in the number of vehicles on city roads and the difficulty in maneuvering vehicles with traditional manual transmissions in such conditions. “The constant need to use the clutch, to be always alert while changing gears, all this is very tiring to the driver,” asserts V S Prasanna, who commutes from the OMR to Porur during peak hours every day. “An automatic removes one big chunk of what tires drivers. Not having to work the clutch is a huge relief, especially at the end of the day,” he adds. Prasanna now drives an automatic variant of the Baleno.
Automatics are riding this growing distaste for manual transmission vehicles in cities, as is seen from the percentage of automatic variants comprise of total sales in metros. According to KPMG, automatic variants comprise 45% of total sales of Maruti Suzuki’s Celerio in Chennai. Other cities also show high numbers for automatics - Bengaluru (56%), Kochi (53%) and Hyderabad (47%).But it isn’t just the traffic or the influx of new drivers that has made automatics sudden viable.
It is the inroads that Automatic Manual Transmission (AMT) has made in the recent past. The advent of viable AMT systems has simultaneously removed two of the biggest roadblocks that dampened the Indian consumer’s attraction for automatics — cost and fuel efficiency. “The price differentials between automatic variants and manual ones are decreasing quickly. They are now almost as fuel efficient as any other car and the increasing traffic on Indian city roads are making automatics a highly comfortable option,” pointed out KPMG’s partner and head for the Automotive sector Rajeev Singh.
AT: Completely Automatic Transmission systems work on a system that is different from manual transmissions to change gears — using hydraulics and electronics to change gear ratios
Automated Manual Transmissions are the same as Manual transmissions, except for one thing. The gears shift automatically, with the help of an electronic module. There is no clutch
Advantages of AMT TechnologyNo clutch pedal and gearshift operations needed from driverBetter fuelefficiencyManual modes allow drivers to shift gears at will
(Left) The paddle shift in a car that has automatic transmission system


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By Stephen Ubanna
For years, the Federal government had been losing billions of naira to importers with their clearing agents and Customs collaborators at the seaports, airport and land border stations. The importers were said to have been shortchanging the government through wrong Classification of goods, transfer of value and under-payment. The rot may have been exposed by Muhammed Uba Garba, Comptroller Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A who took the battle to the areas.
A senior Customs officer told the Magazine that Muhammed and his officers may appear to be winning the war against the dubious importers with their agents and Customs collaborators in the south west because there is no fraud that could be committed at the seaport , airport and land border stations without the involvement of an officer to give a clue to it .
The officer disclosed that the day Customs officers would turn their back on agents , government would be geenrating the appropriate revenue from the non oil sector. The officer said Hameed Ali , a retired Colonel and Comptroller General , Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, had not helped matters , particular at the seaports, as importers who have the money and are well connected could take delivery of their goods with ease notwithstanding whether it complies with the government fiscal policy measures or not. The situation , according to a source is worse at the bonded terminals in Lagos.
Given a half year report of the Command, Jerome Attah, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs and the Command Image maker disclosed that importers with their agents who had been shortchanging the government over the years would never forget their experience in a hurry in the last six months, particular those whose Containers or exotic vehicles fell into the waiting hands of the Command personnel on the road.
Attah averred that but for the vigilance of the Command’s Operations and Lagos Roving team and other teams set up by the Area Comptroller to put a close tab at what is happening at the seaports, airport and land border stations, the revenue loss to the government would have been monumental disaster in the last six months.
It is not surprising why Maritime analysts had described the FOU, Zone A, as the Economic and Financial crimes Commission , EFCC, arm, of the current Ali led Customs.
They noted that the work which the Customs Comptroller and his officers were doing were not quite different from what Ibrahim Magu, a Commissioner of Police and acting Chairman of the EFF and his team were doing in seizing suspects property, mostly houses and exotic vehicles , worth billions of naira f including cash which are transferred to government coffers.
Given an insider information, the Customs Image maker confirmed that the Command impounded 167 units of exotic vehicles ranging from Lexus, bullet proof, Toyota C-HR, Toyota Prado Jeeps, Toyota Hilux, Ford F150, Pajero to Mercedes Benz vehicles, ranging from 2015 -2018 models respectively.
The interception of the exotic vehicles may have exposed the rot on the Vehicle Seats at the sea ports and land border stations since the ban on the importation of vehicles through the land border last year. There was the initial fear that the fire in Muhammed in going after importers with their agents and smugglers would burn out fast because agents have way of penetrating Customs ranks to perpetuate fraud at the seaports. They may have met a match in the FOU, Zone A, Customs boss, who , sources said had remained unyielding to their demands.
Investigation by the Magazine shows that agents and officers were working together to break down the FOU, Zone A, Operations and Lagos Roving team personnel by bribing their way. Indeed, agents in the past , according to a source, blackmail their importers that they needed to bribe the FOU personnel to be able to take delivery of their goods which may have contravened the government fiscal policy measure from the seaport without trouble on the road .
The source disclosed that the importers fell for such blackmail and, thus were going about with the impression that the FOU, Zone A, were not saints as people were made to believe. The officer disclosed that it took most of them time to realise that they were being duped by their agents when they started getting information of their Containers being arrested on the road and transferred to Customs warehouse for re-examination and issuance of Demand Notice, DN. The DN, an agent confirmed run into millions of naira, which must be paid by the importer or forfeit the Consignment to the government.
Those who could not afford to abandon their cargoes at the Command premises had no option but to pay the DN. It is not surprising why Muhammed could beat his chest that despite heading a purely anti-smuggling Command, the Command still recovered over N400 million for the government between January and June , 2018.
He is optimistic that with the support of Ali, the Customs Comptroller General and the entire customs Management team including the Army Police and the Department of State Security , DSS, leadership. ,the Command would do better in the remaining six months of this year.
The indexes, he said, are already clear that the Command would do better going by the scores of Containers being transferred to the Customs warehouse daily by the Command Customs Operations and Lagos Roving team headed by Riks Lura, the Bauchi state born Chief Superintendent of Customs. The Containers which usually intercepted by the team , a source said are based on intelligence report or advice from Customs Headquarters of having contravened the government fiscal policy.
A document made available to the Magazine shows that the N405 million recovered by the Command in six months was part of the Command’s N8.6 billion total revenue that was said to have been generated for the government within the period. Much of the money were said to have accrued to the Command based on the calculation of the duty paid value, DPV, of the goods impounded from smugglers mostly foreign parboiled rice, vegetable oil and second hand clothing.
At present, the Command warehouse and the mechanical workshop which had been converted into a warehouse are filled with impounded Containers , truck laden goods and thailand parboiled rice, that could take about 58 trucks to load. The foreign parboiled rice seizures in the Customs warehouse awaiting the Presidential order to be evacuated to the Internally Displaced People’s IDP, Camps in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in the North east geo-political region including the IDP Camp in Edo state , south-south geo-political region.
in spite of the huge revenue generated for the government and the items seized from smugglers ,across the six states in the south west , Muhammed may have been enthused by the number of suspects apprehended by his men. At the last count in the month of June, 2018, no fewer than 17 suspects were in their net . Some of them were said to have been dragged to Court in connection with some of the impounded goods and exotic vehicles while some were granted bail. The good news, according to a source , was that the suspects were apprehended without the input from the Comptroller General’s newly established Customs police, meaning that the officers in the Unit should endeavour to make their services available to the Commands for proper Coordination.


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Outlet Mall Issue Passes In Delaware County
The Simon-Tanger outlet mall levy won by 25 votes.
10TV has learned that construction could begin next spring with a grand opening in the summer of 2015.
Trustee Rod Myers opposed the mall, but he told 10TV that the fight is over.
Myers was reelected despite leading the opposition to the referendum.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that the mall’s plan proposed 1,000 acres of stores, warehouses and hotels, an auto mall and a recreation complex.
The next steps will be working on site architecture and design concepts.
Tanger Outlet Centers spokesman Quinten Pell says that they hope to blend with the rural character of the area, while also helping to ensure sensitivity to traffic flow and the area’s environmental need.
Watch 10TV and refresh 10TV.com


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Master of Wine Jeannie Cho Lee could tell instantly when she tasted fake wine at a Hong Kong dinner party.
“Just from colour and the nose, once you taste it, it was confirmation that it wasn’t the genuine wine,” she said.
But not everyone possesses Lee’s acumen. China’s booming appetite for fine wine in recent years has fueled a rampant counterfeit market that industry insiders fear could be turning local buyers off.
“What we’re seeing across the country is a proliferation of knock-offs and copycats and outright counterfeit as the imported wine industry really explodes in this market,” said Ian Ford of Summergate Fine Wines in Shanghai, adding that counterfeiters are taking advantage of inexperienced Chinese consumers.
China has become the world’s fifth-largest consumer of wine, ahead of Britain, according to an International Wine and Spirit Research study. It forecasts 54% growth from 2011 to 2015 — the equivalent of a billion more bottles.
That means supply and demand in the Chinese market can have a significant impact on global prices.
The cost of high-end wines was down more than 20% year-on-year in late February, according to the Liv-ex 50 Index, which tracks Bordeaux wines. The plunge has been attributed to a range of factors, including a pull-back following a strong surge in prices and market turmoil in Europe.
Some believe fake wine may have played a role by denting Chinese consumers’ confidence in the product.
“It has definitely been a contributing factor because there has been a drop-off in demand for some of the wines which have been particularly affected by counterfeits — for example Lafite Rothschild,” says Thomas Gearing of Cult Wines, a London wine investment firm.
“As someone has their fingers burnt by buying counterfeit wine, they are going to lose their desire to continually buy that wine.”
A particularly popular label in China, Chateau Lafite Rothschild is a case in point. Favored as an expensive gift on the mainland, a bottle of the Bordeaux red can retail anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000 per bottle, depending on the vintage.
The price of 2008 Lafite fell 45% from peak to trough in 2011, according to Liv-ex, with many pointing to a drop-off in Chinese demand.
“I think there’s been concern about the integrity of some of those wines in the marketplace. You hear a lot of stories about the amount of ex-vintage of Chateau Lafite consumed in China is five times the annual total production,” said Ford.
Despite the rumours, it’s impossible to tell how much bogus booze there really may be in China. Many brands have been affected by counterfeits, with the government detaining six people in 2010 after companies were found producing forgeries of local tipples Dynasty and Great Wall.
Rothschild, the maker of Chateau Lafite, declined to comment.
But some see a positive effect on the real thing at auction houses, with bidders at Hong Kong auctions willing to pay a premium for guaranteed authenticity, Gearding said.
“It shows the problem which is associated in the Far East region with counterfeit bottles ... people are willing to pay so much over and above the market prices for what they consider to be perfect stock as it were,” Gearding said.
Vintage wines with the best provenance have broken multiple records in Hong Kong in recent years, including a Sotheby’s 2010 auction of 1869 Lafite, Acker Merrall & Condit’s Don Stott Collection in 2011 and, more recently, Christie’s auction of Henri Jayer Burgundy.
This could be part of a wider trend, Ford said, where consumers are becoming more savvy about the wine they buy.
“I think there’s a very rapid evolution taking place, so hopefully the days of these crazy copycats and knockoffs are numbered.”
tap here to see other videos from our team.


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May was a mixed bag in terms of new-car sales. Demand was down slightly because of a drop in incentives, and the supply of some Japanese brands was down because of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.
Unsurprisingly, Japan’s big three automakers saw sales decline from May 2010. Toyota was off the most, down a tremendous 27.9% from May 2010. Its Lexus division was down 40%.
The two other major Japanese brands were less impacted but still saw large declines. Honda was off by 16.1% and Nissan by 9%. While not as big a seller as the other three, Subaru was down 15.3% after months of strong sales.
Ford and GM saw sales flatten from last year, losing 0.1% and 1.2% respectively, despite huge growth in small-car sales. Ford’s new 2012 Focus saw sales up 31.7% to 22,303 units, and Chevy’s Cruze had another strong month, besting the Focus with 22,711 units sold.
The third domestic automaker, Chrysler, saw sales increase 10% with its best May since 2008. Three vehicles were responsible for the bulk of the growth: the new Chrysler 200 sedan and the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs.
Chrysler passed Toyota and Honda to become the third best-selling automaker in the U.S. in May behind GM and Ford.
There were plenty of bright spots, especially for Korean brands Kia and Hyundai, which had sales spikes 53% and 21%, respectively, on the strength of their midsize sedans. Hyundai’s new Elantra compact increased sales with 20,006 units sold. Only the Sonata sold more with 22,754 units. Kia sold a record 11,157 of its Soul compact utility vehicle, making it the No. 2 best-selling vehicle for the brand. The 2012 Soul will be out later this summer. The Sorento was Kia’s top seller in May.
European brands did well, too, especially Volkswagen and Porsche. VW’s new Jetta led its best sales month in more than seven years, moving more than 16,000 units. Sales of Porsche’s Cayenne SUV helped rocket the brand up 50% over last May.


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Gentlemen/ Members of the Chamber
Asharqia Chamber extends its warm regards and informs you that it has received an email from the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry dated (31/1/2024 AD), which includes an invitation to attend the 27th Arab-German Business Forum. The forum sheds light on the existing relations between the Arab world and Germany in various fields of bilateral trade covering key sectors such as machinery, automotive, healthcare, infrastructure, logistics services, transportation, energy, and water.
The annual forum serves as a key platform that brings together business leaders, experts, and decision-makers collectively to discuss challenges and opportunities in the evolving Arab-German business landscape through roundtable discussions and ambassadorial talks. This year, the forum will address key topics such as the future of smart cities, future-oriented logistics projects, advanced artificial intelligence dynamics, unprecedented opportunities in Arab free zones, sustainable tourism growth, and flexible supply chains in Arab-German cooperation.
The forum is scheduled to take place from June 3 to 5 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Berlin. The Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry hopes that interested parties and stakeholders will participate and join this forum by registering through the website or scanning the QR code below.


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League Upgrades are here in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, heralding the beginning of the real Team of the Year grind. Gamers have been looking forward to this since the beginning of the event, as it allows them to obtain a host of league-specific packs that might contain elusive TOTY cards.Team of the Year is the most anticipated event in FIFA, and with the latest iteration of the promo featuring some of the biggest names in the sport, fans will be eager to get their hands on these upgraded versions.
The event has already delivered exciting and engaging content in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, and the arrival of League-specific upgrades is the cherry on top for FUT enthusiasts.Team of the Year cards depict a shift in the power curve of the FIFA 23 meta.
These cards have received incredible upgrades that make them the most overpowered versions in their respective positions. With such desirable items up for grabs in Ultimate Team, fans will be eager to grind the latest League Upgrades to obtain as many packs as possible.These SBCs consist of league-specific packs from the top five domestic leagues in European football, featuring the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue 1.
The pack consists of three gold players from their respective leagues, including one rare version.All five league-specific upgrade SBCs feature similar requirements.Read more on sportskeeda.com


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Over the past year, technology and ‘sharing economy’ start-ups have continued their disruption of traditional industries — from Uber and other ride hailers’ shake-up of the taxi market to Airbnb’s myriad alternatives to conventional hotel stays.
But which will be the next businesses to be challenged by further digitisation and automation?
FT correspondents have looked ahead five to 10 years to identify those industry sectors and companies set to shrink — or disappear completely — as tech disruption marches on.
Here are their next five nominations for industries under threat of extinction.
Disrupter: Online travel platforms
● Industry threatened High-street travel agents
● Reason why More travellers booking online
Tui is the world’s largest tour operator, running high-street travel agencies under the Thomson and First Choice brands, writes Murad Ahmed. But its chief executive Fritz Joussen says the “end game” is to morph into a different kind of business — less reliant on selling package holidays and more focused on owning and operating hotels and cruise ships.
“We have today about 30 per cent to 35 per cent of profit contribution from hotels and cruises,” he says. “In three years, I would say we will be way above 50 per cent. We are really transforming the company.”
The changes at Tui reflect broader shifts in the industry. Traditional bricks-and-mortar agencies have been in decline for years, as travellers become more comfortable booking trips through online outlets such as Expedia.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of travel agents in the US fell from 132,000 in 1990, to 74,000 in 2014. It has predicted that number will decline by another 12 per cent by 2024.
Thomas Cook, one of the UK’s largest tour operators, needed a £200m loan in 2011 to tackle a cash crisis that had jeopardised its survival. Since then, it has closed hundreds of high street stores and plans to shut more if they are unprofitable. It has shifted towards selling travel deals online and creating trips through its own airline fleet and hotels. Last year, it returned to profit for the first time in five years.
Henry Hartveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research, says travel agencies will not wither away completely, but do need to change. “The ones that survive will be true experts,” he says. “They could be used to book a significant trip — a honeymoon, a significant family getaway, or a complex journey like planning a safari.
“They will have found a niche and use digital tools to make sure people know who they are, as well as help their clients book . . . The question for the travel agency is do they need a retail storefront? To be honest, most don’t.”
Some customers still want face-to-face contact with travel agents. Research conducted by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) suggested that the vast majority of travellers book online. But the number of people booking within stores rose slightly in the 12 months to October 2016 to 19 per cent, up from 17 per cent a year earlier.
ABTA’s research suggests the “most affluent households” — the top 4 per cent of the population that represent the UK’s highest earners — were most likely to book in store with 35 per cent having done so.
Mr Joussen said Tui would continue to sell package holidays but would become less focused on the “pure trading bit,” where travel agents search for the cheapest prices on behalf of customers. Bargain hunters will turn to the web, rather than high street, to source the best deals.
Disrupter: 3D printers
● Industry threatened Small component manufacturers and distributors
● Reason why Growing use of on-site 3D printing to make parts
Any concertgoer knows it is easier to print tickets than pick them up or hope they arrive in the post, writes Patrick McGee. Businesses will soon realise the same applies to spare parts, equipment and electronics.
The explosion of 3D printers is expected to shake up entire supply chains, allowing companies to print much of what they need rather than order it, often from overseas.
Bosch Rexroth, the drive and control unit of the private German electronics group, projects that in five to 10 years up to 40 per cent of the manufacturing equipment it uses could be printed instead of purchased.
“If we look at spare parts for older cars or engines, prototypes for new products or small batches in manufacturing, 3D printing will make a major difference,” says Dr. Stefan Hoevel, manufacturing process development manager at Bosch Rexroth.
Bosch is already printing objects to create prototypes that were either not constructible before or took a long time to process. Dr Hoevel says equipment manufacturing could become up to 60 per cent cheaper than conventional methods used today.
The technique is sometimes known as “additive manufacturing” because of the way plastics, metals and other materials are built layer by layer.
At the Munich show Electronica in November, Israeli start-up Nano Dimension showed how 3D printing would go well beyond making simple parts. The company’s desktop-sized Dragonfly printer can create multilayer printed circuit boards — the film-like boards found in smartphones and computers that allow signals and power to be transmitted.
Amit Dror, chief executive, says the 3D printing of circuit boards would boost the research and development process for prototypes, allowing electronics companies to bring new products to market faster.
In a demonstration of the latest methods this year, HP printed a lightweight quarter-pound chain link in less than 30 minutes — then attached it to a hoist and lifted up a car.
The Jet Fusion 3D Printer used is jokingly called “the printer that prints itself” by Stephen Nigro at HP, as nearly half of the parts comprising it can be printed.
“We are not doing this because we can; the printer is printing itself because it makes economic sense to do so,” he says. “We think 3D printing will play a key role in changing the way the world designs and manufactures.”
Disrupter: Driverless cars
● Industry threatened Motor insurers
● Reason why Fewer vehicle collisions with increased use of driverless cars
Imagine a future in which fleets of driverless cars move quietly and carefully around our cities and countryside, seamlessly picking up and dropping off passengers. There are fewer cars on the roads, and those that are there tend to have fewer collisions.
For some, this is utopia. For the world’s insurers it may be just the opposite. Motor insurance is one of the mainstays of the industry. It generates about $260bn in annual premiums for major global insurers and $17bn in profits, according to research from Morgan Stanley and Boston Consulting Group. They estimate that the motor insurance industry has a market value of about $200bn.
New technology, the analysts say, puts a big chunk of that under threat in a variety of ways. First, fewer cars and fewer accidents mean less demand for insurance. In mature economies the market size could shrink by more than 80 per cent by 2040. Second, the insurance that is needed will be bought by companies such as car manufacturers, rather than by consumers. And as carmakers and tech companies get better at collecting and using data, they may be in a stronger position to sell insurance than the insurance industry itself.
Insurers say that in the short term increasing automation is driving up the cost of car cover, because gadget-filled cars are more expensive to repair than more basic models if they are damaged in a crash.
Murray Raisbeck, an insurance partner at KPMG, says new technology will also create opportunities. “There will be different risks that need insuring, such as the risk of an algorithm failing, or cyber risks relating to driverless cars,” he says. “There will be less bent metal and lower personal injury risk.”
Some insurers are starting to react to the changing landscape. In the UK, Axa has joined a number of government-backed groups that are looking at how best to introduce driverless technology. In Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo and Tokio Marine, two of the biggest insurance groups, are examining new types of insurance products that might be needed.
But Mr Raisbeck says the industry as a whole needs to take more decisive action to deal with the threats. “In the UK there are a lot of talking shops, a lot of conversations and a lot of eulogising but there is not much capital invested in technology or in the partnerships that they’ll need for the future.”
“Insurers are good at reacting to change,” he adds. “But automotive and technology companies are completely different competitors coming to try to eat their lunch.”
Disrupter: ‘Robo-adviser’ websites
● Industry threatened Financial advisers
● Reason why Growth of automated financial advice websites and tougher regulation
Traditional financial advisers have encountered a blizzard of regulation in recent years and now face being usurped by algorithms.
The profession began to run into trouble in 2006 when the UK financial watchdog announced a probe into how funds were being sold to retail investors.
New rules introduced in 2013 fundamentally altered advisers’ business model, banning fund houses from paying them commission and increasing the minimum level of qualifications advisers should have.
Liberatum, an association for financial advisers, estimates that 13,500 advisers left the industry following the introduction of the new rules, while the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority puts the figure at 2,000.
The commission ban, which removed advisers’ main source of income, forced those remaining in the business to either raise fees charged to retail investors or increase the minimum investment sum they would offer advice on.
Suddenly unable to afford their adviser, swaths of investors began to turn to one of the new breed of “robo-advisers”, which emerged in 2012.
“Robo-advisers” — websites that recommend a portfolio of funds based on an investor’s answers to an online questionnaire — have tried to disrupt traditional face-to-face advice by offering a low-cost alternative to customers who are increasingly comfortable with digital investing.
Citigroup estimates that assets managed by robo-advisers could reach $5tn globally during the next decade.
Banks, asset managers and wealth managers have also spotted the potential of “robo-advice” as a way of helping retail customers, piling into a space once dominated by nimble financial technology companies.
UK banks Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, and Santander UK have said they are developing online investment websites, as has Swiss bank UBS and wealth managers Investec Wealth, Brewin Dolphin and Killik & Co.
Other big companies have bought into start-ups. Schroders, the FTSE 100 asset manager, took a £12m stake in robo-adviser Nutmeg, while Allianz Global Investors acquired a holding in robo-adviser MoneyFarm, which first launched in Italy.
In the US, automated wealth management services run ETF portfolios and also reinvest dividends and optimise tax efficiency. Betterment, which charges 0.15-0.35 per cent, now manages $6.7bn in assets for 210,000 customers.
In the FCA’s review of the financial advice market this year, it and the UK Treasury said they would look into making it easier for investment advice to be offered online at low-cost, after finding that two-thirds of retail investors were buying financial products without advice.
The increasing popularity of passive funds also looks set to boost the growth of robos over the next few years — robos generally encourage investors to put their cash into passive portfolios rather than into funds run by more expensive stock pickers.
According to Morningstar, the data provider, assets under management in passive funds have grown by 230 per cent globally since 2007, hitting $6tn. Over the same period, actively managed funds have doubled to $24tn.
Disrupter: Electric vehicles
● Industry threatened Car repair garages
● Reason why More drivers switching to low-maintenance electric cars
Electric cars are often marketed to consumers on the basis that they are cleaner and cheaper to run than petrol or diesel rivals, writes Peter Campbell.
But because they contain virtually no moving parts — other than the wheels — battery cars boast another advantage: there is almost nothing to go wrong under the bonnet.
While that may be good news for motorists, it spells trouble for the thousands of garages that make a living servicing and fixing petrol or diesel cars.
The aftersales sector is not only a huge source of jobs within the industry, it is also one of the most profitable parts of the motor sector.
“The business of selling cars is very low margin,” says Philippe Houchois, an automotive analyst at Jefferies. “But as long as we have cars with an internal combustion engine the repairs will continue to be the main source of earnings for dealers.”
While an internal combustion engine in a car sold today may have several thousands of moving parts within it, an electric Tesla contains just 18 moving pieces, according to Credit Suisse.
“Electric motors need virtually nothing doing to them,” says Steve Nash, chief executive of the Institute of Motor Industry, a professional body in the UK.
The IMI estimates there are 40,000 aftersales businesses in the UK alone, ranging from large groups such as Kwik Fit to a vast number of smaller independent garages. An exact number is hard to calculate because many never affiliate to a trade body.
The vast majority of electrified cars sold in coming years will contain a form of mild-hybrid technology that uses both an engine and a battery, analysts expect. But battery-only cars, a growing part of the market, will require a fundamentally different set of skills to maintain, such as electrical expertise.
Volkswagen recently said it would retrain 7,000 engineers in electric technology, as the German carmaker strives to make a quarter of its cars electric by 2025.
“Because they look like cars, politicians assume that someone who works on cars will be able to adapt themselves to it,” says Mr Nash, stressing the need for specialist training as well as the high risks of tampering with an electric car.
The stakes of tampering with an electric car without sufficient training are high, he adds. “An electric car battery can produce 3-400 volts of electric current. That is worse than being plugged into the electric chair.”


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While most of us associate “Let It Go” with an ear worm from the movie “Frozen,” Audi is hoping that its new Super Bowl spot by the same name will prove just as memorable. The German automaker has tapped actor Maisie Williams to star in the commercial alongside its Audi E-Tron Sportback.
Williams, whose credits include “Game of Thrones”, “Robot Chicken”, and “Dr. Who,” takes the wheel in the ad that kicks off the vehicle’s global brand campaign. The musically-inspired 60-second commercial features Williams singing her own version of the song made famous by Idina Manzel.
The commercial features Williams driving an Audi and signing.Photo courtesy of Audi AG
The script for the ad plays out with Williams behind the wheel of the new electric SUV stuck in traffic. Audi says that the intersection she stops at “represents a crossroads of today’s preconceptions and old notions of consumption, success, and status.”
This is the audience’s first clue that they’re about to be lectured on the social and environmental responsibility of owning the SUV.
The ad continues with Williams choosing to reverse course and leave “it all” behind, as she breaks out in sold and drives “towards a more sustainable future.” A musical isn’t complete without a full cast singing effort so along the way fellow drivers, pedestrians, and others join in, “representing the brand’s efforts to usher in a new era of sustainable mobility. The journey is a metaphor for how the decision to make more sustainable choices takes all of us doing our part.”
Williams recorded the vocals for the commercial at the acclaimed Abbey Road Studios in London where the Beatles, Queen, and others have recorded.
Audi has been vocal about its sustainability efforts, leveraging the messaging to help sell its E-Tron line of vehicles, which have faltered out of the gate. The low sales numbers are unsurprising considering a recent Ford survey indicated that a good portion of the world has no interest in owning an electric vehicle. Daimler has recently forced to dispute claims that it was cutting back production of its Mercedes-Benz EQC electric SUV due to a forecasted lack of demand.


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Hand-made in Modena, Italy, by Carozzeria Grand Sport, the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe is still undeniably an all-American car. Built to dominate the FIA's GT class, the Shelby and its team were the first Americans to take on and beat Ferrari on the world stage–clinching the championship on July 4, 1965. And now the car that helped Carroll Shelby build his name and legend, the 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe bearing chassis number CSX2601, has been sold at auction at this weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in Monterey, California.
The car was recently auctioned at the 22nd Dana Mecum Original Spring Classic Auction in Indianapolis, Indiana last May but didn't sell. At its latest auction, it was expected to bring between $10 million and $15 million but—no doubt due to the global financial crisis—bidding stopped at just $7.25 million, making it the most expensive American car ever sold at auction but still a huge bargain for its winning bidder, believed to be a member of Argentina's Perez Companc family.
“Many vintage race cars have a strong American racing history to share–including this vehicle’s sister car CSX 2299–but no car can claim a finer race hour than the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe CSX2601,” said Dana Mecum, president of Mecum Auctions. “The legacy of its World Manufacturer’s Championship win stays with us more than four decades later, reminding us of one the proudest moments in U.S. race history and a competitive spirit of victory against all odds.”
The Daytona Cobra Coupe was also licensed for the road, however–at one point the CSX2601 car was owned by a North Dakota businessman who, perhaps appropriately, owned a string of gas stations. He used the car to drive the daily 300-mile trip to collect receipts.
For those who would like a taste of the experience but don't have the cash for an original, check out the Shelby-approved Superperformance copy here.


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China's Gree Real Estate to resume acquisition of Zhuhai Duty Free with new chief
>> Gree Real Estate aims to restart the purchase of Zhuhai Duty Free Enterprises Group, a leading tax-free retailer in China, after replacing its probed chairman. The property firm intends to pay in cash and by issuing new shares to no more than 35 select investors, the Zhuhai-based buyer said in a statement recently. But no final agreement has been reached yet so there are uncertainties, it added.
Trip.com Group invites travel industry to journey into the future together at global partner summit
>> Leading travel service provider Trip.com Group held its 2022 Global Partner Summit in Macao. Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, highlighted some of the Group’s financial results, emphasizing triple-digit growth in hotel bookings across key APAC markets compared to the same period in 2019, with its global air ticket bookings increasing by 100% year-over-year.
Rising international air ticket and hotel bookings have empowered partners with a source of business and revenue. Trip.com Group’s hotel travel specials (PKG program) delivered recommendations to over 30 million cross-users and brought over RMB 10 billion GMV to hotel partners.
Kweichow Moutai affiliate buys land, with eye on culture, tourism, wellness sectors
>> An affiliate of leading Chinese liquor maker Kweichow Moutai recently spent more than RMB1 billion (USD144 million) to acquire land in Zunyi, southwestern Guizhou province. Industry insiders believe the move means that Kweichow Moutai Group Distillery, the parent company of Kweichow Moutai, will increase its efforts to position itself in the culture, tourism and wellness sectors.
Few Chinese keen to travel abroad soon, even if COVID curbs ease -report
>> More than half of Chinese say they will put off travel abroad, for periods from several months to more than a year, even if borders re-opened tomorrow, a study showed on Tuesday, a sign that consumer recovery from COVID-19 measures will take time.
Fear of infection with the disease was the top concern of those saying they would postpone travel in a survey of 4,000 consumers in China by consultancy Oliver Wyman, with worries about changes to domestic re-entry guidelines in second place.
Cathay Pacific signs agreement to train cadet pilots in Phoenix
>> As part of its recovery and growth plan, Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific has signed a new long-term agreement with one of the US's most prominent global flight training academies, AeroGuard Flight Training Center. The collaboration will see Cathay Pacific send several hundred new pilots to the US annually for training.
60% of China Southern's Airbus A380 fleet has now been flown to be scrapped
>> A third China Southern Airbus A380 will likely never be flown again after the airline ferried it to the Mojave Desert last week. The aircraft is expected to be scrapped alongside its sisters after China Southern operated its final flight with the giant of the skies in early November.
China Southern went against the grain when it comes to Airbus A380 operators. It was the only airline that didn't ground its double-decker giants during the pandemic. However, despite running the giant quad jets throughout aviation's worst crisis, the Chinese carrier is retiring its fleet of five aircraft now that the industry is recovering.
COMAC's ARJ21 just celebrated 7 years in service
>> Chengdu Airlines celebrated the 7th anniversary of its first ARJ21 delivery earlier this week, on November 29th. As the initial customer of the COMAC ARJ21 program, Chengdu Airlines received its first ARJ21 on November 29th, 2015.
According to Xinhua's news report, it was publicly reported in June for the first time that COMAC has already manufactured 100 ARJ21 aircraft. The report also states that the production rate of ARJ21 is now reaching 50 aircraft annually.
OTH Hotels resorts to further digital transformation with Shiji partnership
>> American hospitality group OTH Hotels Resorts aims to boost digital transformation across its portfolio of properties in a tie-up with technology specialist Shiji. The deal will see the hotel chain strengthen reputation management, cloud point of sale (POS) and golf, spa and activities management software in properties across the US.
China’s mainland shift from zero Covid, some Macau rules tighten
>> The Macau authorities had over the weekend announced tougher rules for arrivals from China’s mainland, after a number of visitors including some air travelers, tested ‘positive’ for infection after initially testing ‘negative’.
With effect from Tuesday (December 6), travelers entering Macau from China’s mainland – even if not among those categorized as needing to undergo hotel-based quarantine-on-arrival – will be required to comply with stricter nucleic acid test and rapid antigen test requirements.


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Dogecoin is living a pretty crazy time. The cryptocurrency meme is making news almost daily, mainly thanks to Elon Musk, and is now gaining headlines from an exchange. Coinbase announced that it will soon allow buying and selling Dogecoin.
The news was confirmed by the platform’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, during a call with investors. There is not much data yet, but the manager stated that they will include Dogecoin within six to eight weeks.
In this way, Coinbase wants cash in on the Dogecoin craze and earn some good commissions along the way. Gizmodo notes that the company’s decision can give the cryptocurrency a “legitimacy gloss”, while further discussion of its real value continues.
It is worth remembering that the network generates infinite Dogecoins, so its high volume of commercialization puts under the magnifying glass the possibility that it is viable in the long term. However, the virtual currency maintains a frantic growth of its market capitalization, which already well over 70 billion dollars.
Dogecoin, the “people’s cryptocurrency”
Dogecoin is not a new cryptocurrency, but it has never had as much publicity as in recent months. The continuous mentions of Elon Musk have brought the currency to an unexpected prominence: from Twitter to the Moon, to Saturday Night Live. And the madness is far from over.
In recent days, the CEO of Tesla launched a survey to find out if the public was interested in the company accepting Dogecoin as a means of payment, and the result was overwhelming. Of the nearly 4 million people who participated, 72.8% answered yes.
Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021
Soon after, Elon Musk himself announced that Tesla suspended the sale of electric cars in exchange for Bitcoin due to the environmental impact of its mining.
And more recently, the businessman indicated that he is working together with the developers of Dogecoin to improve the efficiency of the transaction system. The tweet ended with a phrase that is already making noise: “Potentially promising”.
Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021
While all this is going on, if you still don’t really understand what Dogecoin is, don’t worry. The “trusted” economic columnist Lloyd Ostertag can give you an answer.
Although it is a parody fed by Elon Musk himself, it may be that the ending of the sketch (“It’s a hustle” / “It’s a hustle”) hide the answer to why now Coinbase shows interest in this cryptocurrency.
Read this too …


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NEW DELHI: Ratings for Snapdeal’s app on Google Play Store took a beating on Tuesday, as thousands of people took to social media to voice their discontent over Aamir Khan’s remarks against growing intolerance in the country. Apart from giving the app a one-star rating, users also begun running a campaign on social media titled #AppWapsi that urged people to delete the app from their smartphones.
Khan, one of Bollywood’s leading men, is the brand ambassador for the Gurgaon-based e-tailer and has starred in its recent campaigns. “Dear @snapdeal no purchases from your website until U remove @aamir_khan as brand ambassador; uninstalling your app,” said a tweet from Ro shan Kumar. It could not be immediately ascertained whether Snapdeal’s day-to-day business took a hit from the furore. A Snapdeal spokesperson declined to comment.
“This time, the pitch is higher. But celebrities routinely have been in trouble. Take SRK, for instance, with My Name is Khan. However, unless it blows out disproportionately, reactions such as these on social media are usually temporary blips. Snapdeal should lay low and not react apart from perhaps making corporate-sounding statements such as, “We %are watching the situation….” But even after two weeks, if the situation refuses to blow over, they may have to think about something,” said brand expert and MD & CEO of Futurebrands India, Santosh Desai.
Desai said with the proliferation of social media, brands have to engage in fire-fighting more than ever before. “This is the new landscape. Earlier companies could control the landscape. Now, they have to bear the brunt of people talking loosely about them. They must have several levels of responses up their sleeve,” he said.
Desai’s sentiments were echoed by Godrej Group, which was quick to disassociate itself from the 50-year-old actor on Twitter. “Aamir Khan’s contract with Godrej ended in March 2014. The said current views are his personal & in no way connected to us,” the conglomerate tweeted on Tuesday. Khan was a Godrej brand ambassador from 2013 to 2014.
A hearing of the arbitration took place at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre on October 16 after Amazon had slapped a legal notice on Future Group, alleging that the retailer's Rs 24,713 crore asset sale to Reliance Industries (RIL) violated an agreement with the e-commerce giant.
In a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said, "We are of the considered opinion that direct selling is an integral part of the retail trade like other verticals including big retail, small retail, e-commerce and self employed groups."


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His talk follows the launch of a Facebook ad sales office in the capital in May (for ads outside of China, where the social network is banned). While many will point out that Zuckerberg failed to mention political oppression or human rights abuses, his interest in getting Facebook uncensored in China could pave the way for future liberalisation in an economy that is simply too big for brands to ignore.
BuzzFeed has reached another milestone after reaching five billion content views in a month. Jonah Peretti (pictured), the media company’s chief executive, told employees this week that the platform’s content is viewed on more than 30 platforms, including Facebook (31 per cent) and Snapchat (21 per cent). In other words, far more people are looking at BuzzFeed content on platforms other than its website.
Vice Media’s TV plans
Shane Smith, the founder of Vice Media, has revealed plans to expand into TV with 12 channels across the UK and Europe next year. Speaking at Vice’s Digital Upfront last Friday, Smith said the channels would be funded by native advertising and would disrupt the monetisation of TV in a similar way to how it changed online display ads on Vice’s website. While sponsored content on Vice might seem too expensive for some media buyers, a more scalable form of native advertising could prove to be fertile ground for interesting and innovative media campaigns next year.
And one thing we don’t…
An inauspicious start
Jekyll And Hyde, ITV’s Sunday teatime drama, attracted more than 500 complaints about pre-watershed violence. The bizarre part of the story is that the same show came with a "restricted content" warning on ITV Player, the network’s on-demand service. Ofcom is now considering whether to investigate if Jekyll And Hyde breached broadcasting restrictions.


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Budget wishlist: FADA seeks GST cut on two-wheeler, used car segments
The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has urged the Centre to reduce GST on two-wheelers to boost sales volume.
As part of its pre-Budget recommendations, the association sought GST rates at 18 per cent. “It is noteworthy that two-wheeler is used not as a luxury, but as a necessity to travel distances by lower class and rural segments for their daily working needs. Hence the rationale of 28 pc GST plus 2 pc cess which is for luxury or ‘sin products’ does not hold good for the two-wheeler category,” the federation said.
According to FADA, reduction in GST rate will somewhat counter the continuous price hike in the two-wheeler segment and create fresh demand. For the used car segment, the federation urged the Centre to reduce GST rate to flat 5 per cent from the present 12 per cent and 18 per cent for two different categories of vehicles.
“Reduction in GST will help the industry shift from unorganised segment to organised segment, thus bringing in more business under the ambit of GST helping in putting brake on tax leakages,” it added. Besides, it seeks reduction in corporate tax to 25 pc for ‘LLP’, proprietary and partnership firms in line with private limited companies.


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We all can now get the official 2020 Olympic DROOL BIB!
Ok, ok, the rest-of-the-story is the that the emblem of Tokyo’s 202o Olympics was first cursed with an embarrassing withdrawn for plagiarism (3Yen / 2015-07-25) .
Now they have a traditional Japanese design for the Paralympics that unfortunately looks like a drool bib (3Yen / 2016-04-25) for the severely disabled. Oh baby.
Audi Japan debuts
special edition A8 5.5 featuring a rice cooker
Exclusive only to Japan, Audi’s new A8 5.5 (www.audi.jp/rice)……The special model name “5.5” was inspired from the Japanese word gohan, which means rice—5 (go) and 0.5 or half (han) …
…In honor of the Japanese rice-eating culture, the Audi A8 5.5 features the world’s first rice cooker in the rear seat console…
…with Audi’s refined, innovative technology, each and every owner can now customize their rice to their own taste of preference…
…the interior is designed with tatami made out of the finest rush grass that is suitable for the high temperatures and the humidity of Japan. Enjoy the aesthetic features of Japanese culture with the new Audi A8 5.5.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this is Audi’s “April Fools’ Day gift” campaign (2015)
Previous ricer reports include:
Pee-chan and Poo-kun are opening in ‘ELIMINATION’, a new Broadway-type musical in Tokyo’s Ginza and guaranteed to be a stinker.
Previous puerile pee and poo reports of Japan on the 3Yen include:
After long debate, the city of Tokyo declined the naming rights offer for the ″ Tokyo Gas & Petrochemical Fish Market*.″
After long debate, new Tsukiji fish market to be called Tsukiji Fish Market (築地魚河岸)
http://t.co/9ufW91CMVU — (@Mulboyne) Oct. 6, 2015
*The-rest-of-the-story is that the new Tsukiji fish market is being built on top of the toxic waste site of Tokyo Gas Company—Tsukiji being the planet’s premier place for sushi.
Refer to The Japan Times report…
New Tsukiji site highly toxic: panel (2008/05/20):
Note that the above picture contains the farty fun slogan, “MY CITY—MY GAS©.” This was Tokyo Gas Company’s slogan that they slapped on the side of thousands of their company’s trucks here in the city. Created for the 1970 Osaka Expo for use at the Japanese Gas Industry Pavilion, the slogan was used actively until the mid-1980s and it is still found in various versions today such as ‘myTokyoGas’ shown below.
Refer to 3Yen / 2008-09-24 : MY CITY—MY GAS©
Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force has unveiled its new, autonomous, bipedal walking-type armored combat robot that has been under development for some time.
The unveiling took place at the High Technical School (HTS) of Camp Takeyama. The grabbing the interest of students and for recruiting future candidates for Japan Self-Defense Forces was assured by the use of high-fashion camouflage patterns.
—goofy Google Translate
子供達の心をがっしり鷲掴みで、自衛隊志願希望者も確保した模様. — イチロー・D・羽田@宿毛湾泊地 (@RJTT_HND_Tokyo) September 27, 2015
A few of the many other reports about J-bots on the 3Yen include:
Japan’s kaiju, Gamera, The Invincible, Super Monster, Guardian of the Universe, and Friend of All Children (Wiki) has been seen invading North Korea!
North Korean zoo upgrades include 65-meter ‘turtle’
NK News – North Korea News / 2015 Sept. 21
Upgrades to Pyongyang’s Central Zoo include construction of a 65-meter turtle-shaped building, and a larger construction in the shape of a bird’s wing, satellite imagery and a bulletin from Korean Central Television (KCTV) reveal…more...
Previous Gamera reports on the 3Yen include:
• Gamera chomp! (3Yen / 2015-09-18)
• Gamera camera (3Yen / 2014-03-24/)
• Gamera captured in Tokyo’s Ginza! (3Yen / 2006-04-25)
• ‘Turtles can fly’ premieres in Japan (3Yen / 2005-07-27)
• Nagasaki’s mutant Crocotutle scare ↓ (3Yen / 2010-08-13)
Hi-tech Japan is always on the cutting edge of innovation…
Caption: Japanese men and boys step through the Stargate sacred ring after purifying themselves in the water during the Kawagtari Event (also known as the Hekokaki Festival) at Kora Taisha Shrine on June 1, 2015 in Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan.
More details via Ghettoey Images (2015-06-02)
A few of the many 3Yen reports of the Japan’s Stargates include:
Den4, the 3Yen’s correspondent-at-large reports:
The Great A’Tuin (Wiki), the giant space turtle that holds up the Discworld, by the late Terry Prachett, seems to have landed on top of a hamburger bun in Shibuya…
Previous spacey reports of burgers and turtles on the 3Yen include:
It’s planting season in Japan and this farmer is well on his way to having a ″bumper″ crop of Toyotas.
トヨタ田植え機始めたんだ— ちばろッシ@あと８連休 (@valenchibarossi) May 2, 2015
Previous ″crop″ reports on the 3Yen include:
Japan’s newest Bullet Train at the “Banpaku Testudou” doesn’t need expensive tracks, hyper-expensive maglev guideway, or even a right-of-way!


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Editor's picks: New lithium battery can be recharged 10,000 times
Plus, Hyundai's investing $7 billion to start EV production in the U.S.
Harvard: New lithium battery can be recharged 10,000 times
Harvard says its researchers have designed a long-lasting, stable, solid-state lithium battery that can be charged and discharged at least 10,000 times — far more cycles than…
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text: Bushwick was originally named Boswijick, or “town in the woods,” by Dutch settlers in the 17th century. Sadly, it seems the only vegetation thriving in the industrial neighborhood these days are the thick weeds growing around the area’s several abandoned lots. The kindly green thumbs of Trees Not Trash, a local beautification project, are changing that. Since the organization started in 2005, they’ve turned a few lots into green spaces, replacing errant shopping carts and tires with petunias and vegetables gardens (the group also has a community garden near a cement factory on Bogart and McKibben streets). More importantly, they’ve collected enough signatures to get the parks department to plant 50 street-lining trees—49 more than there were two years ago, according to founder Kate Gilliam. She said the group plans to have 10 times that amount planted in the next two years. Before we know it, Trees Not Trash will have Bushwick living up to its name. Visit www.treesnottrash.org for upcoming volunteer projects.