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THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017, KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) through its export brand awareness campaign called Beyond Nations is urging Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to integrate export in their business operations, following a relatively low contribution in export by the SMEs despite making up 97.3 per cent of business establishments in Malaysia.
Currently, the export contribution among SMEs stood at 17.8 per cent and this figure is set to rise to 23 per cent by year 2020, according to the SME Masterplan. Additionally, the role of SMEs is crucial to the economy and social development as they contribute to nearly 36 per cent of the Malaysia's Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and 65 per cent of the country's employment.
According to MATRADE's Chief Executive Officer Ir. Dr. Mohd Shahreen Zainooreen Madros, SMEs have to take part in export to ensure the sustenance of their business, especially when Malaysia is driving the agenda of globalisation. "Despite the huge number of SMEs (over 900,000), most still do not include export in their business. There is an abundance of business opportunities overseas. ASEAN alone, our closest neighbour, has a market of 625 million people. China, which is our biggest trading partner has a market of 1.4 billion people and India, our emerging trading partner, has a market size of 1.3 billion people. Not to mention the other big markets such as the USA, Latin America, Europe and Africa – all of which offer billions of consumer database for our SMEs," he said at the Beyond Nations Public Contest prize-giving ceremony held at Menara MATRADE today.
MATRADE through its registry has over 19,000 registered members who are manufacturers, service providers, trading companies, contract manufacturers, trade associations as well as co-operatives, and 48 per cent are exporting. "We would like to invite all Malaysian SMEs to register as a MATRADE member to be the first to know the latest programmes by MATRADE and to be updated with export opportunities from around the world," Ir. Dr. Mohd Shahreen said. He added that MATRADE's 47 global trade offices will also be able to help link local SMEs with potential business partners from over 6 continents.
"The international buyers find our brands interesting and unique. They appreciate our local values and find them a good business proposition to attracting buyers in their respective market. Around the world, out of over 200 nations, Malaysia is the world's top 23 exporting nation and top 24 trading nation. That is impressive for a small country like Malaysia with a population of 30 million people, and proof that Malaysian companies have what it takes to compete globally," Ir. Dr. Mohd Shahreen mentioned.
MATRADE as Malaysia's export promotion agency offers exporters development programmes and organise export promotion activities. The former helps to build companies' capacity in export while the later provides access to market and global business networks. The agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) works hand-in-hand with other MITI agencies such as SME Corp, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and SME Bank to execute its initiatives.
The Beyond Nations brand awareness campaign was launched by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak in September 2016 with the aim of creating a stronger awareness on export and making export a common business value for all SMEs. "It functions to promote the inspiration and aspiration of going beyond borders, beyond the local SMEs' mindset and to breakthrough out of their comfort zone into a vast overseas market; simply by taking a first step, going beyond Malaysia and eventually beyond nations," Ir. Dr. Mohd Shahreen shared.
MATRADE has recently introduced a public contest with the objective of engaging with the community where the public had the opportunity to nominate Malaysian brands or companies they think could excel in export. Six winners have been selected and are being celebrated at the prize-giving ceremony.
The event also features Malaysian companies - Selia-Tek Sdn Bhd, AETINS Sdn Bhd and NCL Solutions Sdn Bhd - that have succeeded in export. These export champions shared their success stories to the companies nominated by the winners, in a bid to inspire them to follow in their footsteps. The export champs are also the contest's strategic partners, along with Petronas Dagangan Berhad.


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PARIS – On a recent blustery day, Jérôme Callais wrapped a second-hand biography of Robespierre tightly in cellophane, covering the burgundy leather hardcover with an expert flick of the wrist and positioning it near a large tome on Talleyrand at inside its dark green shelf on a quay above the Seine.
The sky was a dazzling blue and the sun cast a pink glow on the faces of the gargoyles adorning the Pont Neuf, not far from where Mr. Callais has sold dusty classics to countless visitors for over 30 years.
Normally, Parisians and tourists from around the world browsed his wares, as well as those of some 230 other open-air booksellers known as “booksellersWhose rectangular metal shelves stretch nearly four miles along the left and right banks of the river.
But as lockdown restrictions to curb the coronavirus pandemic keep browsers at bay, booksellers’ livelihoods are quickly threatened. Many are bracing themselves for what they fear will be the final chapter in a centuries-old craft that’s as iconic in Paris as the Louvre and Notre-Dame.
“We are trying to prevent this ship from sinking,” said Mr. Callais, 60, who is also president of the Association des Bouquinistes, glancing worriedly at the rows of shuttered stalls lining the Quai de Conti, above the tip of the Ile de la Cité. “But Covid made most of our customers disappear.”
Even before France imposed a new national lockdown last month to fight a resurgence of the virus, tourists who are a staple of second-hand booksellers’ incomes had largely stopped coming. And the beloved Parisian pastime of strolling – aimlessly strolling around to enjoy life – has been almost stifled, smothered by curfews and quarantines that have deprived booksellers of die-hard customers.
Sales have fallen an average of 80% this year, Mr Callais said, throwing many sellers in a precarious position, especially those dealing with Eiffel Tower key chains, Mona Lisa coffee mugs and other kitsch memorabilia on books like cash cows when tourists blocked the docks. .
Days go by without any salesperson making a sale, and when they do, they have the chance to earn over $ 30, he said. More than four-fifths of the stalls that run on both sides of the river, from Notre Dame au Pont Royal, are more or less permanently closed.
“We barely do enough to eat,” said David Nosek, a former sound engineer who sold classical literature, modern paintings and antique lithographs near the Louvre for three decades.
Mr. Nosek is one of the few holdouts who have tried to stay open despite the drop in foot traffic. But on a Saturday in October before the new lockout, it closed at the unusually early hour of 6:30 p.m. after selling a single book for 10 euros. In the previous four days he had not sold anything at all.
Before the virus, he said, he could count on 2,500 euros per month. Now Mr. Nosek earns barely 400 euros a month.
All that keeps him and many of his colleagues afloat is a new wave of government support for struggling small businesses of up to 1,500 euros per month that began in October, after three months of aid to the government. spring.
But the booksellers want to work. They are keen to maintain a tradition that dates back to the 16th century, when merchants peddled “boucquain”, or small second-hand books, along the Pont Neuf bridge from wooden carts and large pockets sewn into their pockets. coats.
The profession has faced trials through the ages, including intermittent bans under a variety of French kings. In the 1800s, Napoleon finally authorized permanent bookshops on the parapets of the Seine, popularizing booksellers and making magnets for students, intellectuals and writers like Honoré de Balzac. A large outdoor library of around 300,000 books can now be found in stalls spanning 12 quays.
Many of today’s second-hand booksellers are pensioners living on pensions who are eccentric collectors of obscure literature and magazines, mostly bought from estates and from people. They come from eclectic backgrounds as former philosophy teachers, punk rock singers and pharmacists.
A growing number of people in their 30s and 40s have joined their ranks, drawn by the freedom to work outside an office in the rain or shine, and by the creativity of building a literary universe in a tiny space. .
Even before the pandemic, second-hand booksellers grappled with cultural changes that have affected the book trade everywhere – such as the fact that amid the distractions of technology, people don’t read as many physical books as they did before, and if they do, often look to Amazon to buy them.
Mr. Callais hopes to do his part to keep the printed word alive. A talkative man capable of joking for hours with strangers, he likes to think of himself as an analog relic from a simpler era, in front of busy people with their eyes riveted on an iPhone. There is a working beige landline phone perched atop his bookstore. Underneath, he had recorded a handwritten sign: “Reading causes great damage to stupidity.”
Volumes on Ivan the Terrible and Voltaire lined his stalls. Because people can’t live off history alone, he said, he’s mixed his selections with musical and natural themes, including books on Glenn Gould, feng shui, and the Pyrenees.
“I work the old fashioned way,” he declared, his voice muffled through two masks. “My clients are people I meet on the docks. My shelf is an oasis of resistance to the machines that replace everything, ”he added. “It’s a philosophy of life and how we want to live it.”
Mr. Callais has a cell phone, but he refuses to sell on the Internet. Some of his colleagues had “gone modern,” he said, and turned to online sales to fight declining incomes.
Elena Carrera, 30, who opened her booth last year, is part of the Instagram generation that now roams the docks.
Ms Carrera, whose booth features whimsical pins, Asterix comics, vintage Playboys, and Brigitte Bardot biographies, makes about half of her sales posting photos of her merchandise on his Instagram account. Many of the dozen or so younger salespeople who have recently started the business also do most of their sales online.
“We are part of the young generation who entered this field because of our love of books, and it is up to us to keep the profession alive,” said Ms. Carrera.
“But in order to do this, booksellers need to change over time,” she added. “We cannot be dinosaurs.”
Mr. Nosek, the former sound engineer, has his own website, and recently created bouquinistesdeparis.com, where his colleagues can upload photos of their books for sale around the world. But most of the older providers – over two-thirds are over 60 – lack the internet savvy to increase online visibility, let alone get to the top of search pages dominated by Amazon book ads.
Of 300 books downloaded from the second-hand bookseller’s site so far, only five have been sold, said Nosek, 67.
“We have to do more,” he admitted. Still, he hoped the craft would recover, as it had done time and time again over the centuries.
The booksellers’ website, he noted, was adorned with the Latin words “fluctuat nec mergitur”, the old Paris slogan, which translates to: “She is tossed about in the waves, but not sinking”.
“I never imagined it would come to this,” he said, glancing down to the empty sidewalk.
“However, booksellers have been there since the Middle Ages,” he says. “I would like to think that the coronavirus will not finish us off.”
Antonella Francini contributed reporting.

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Samsung is apparently working on a smart speaker similar to Apple HomePod and Amazon Echo and Google Home. The smart speaker will be powered by its new Bixby voice assistant, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The smart speaker, currently codenamed Vega, is still in its early stages of the development. The Journal says Samsung is yet to decide the speaker’s specifications and features, or a tentative release date.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, the development of the speaker has been slowed down due to Bixby rollout. Samsung had launched the Galaxy S8 and S8+ without the rollout of its voice-controlled Assistant Bixby, a prominent feature it initially highlighted at the time of launch. The rollout has been suspended because it’s struggle to understand English. Last month, Samsung offered a select Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners in the US to an early access to Bixby’s voice features.
The report claims that the full rollout of Bixby to Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners is “unlikely before the second half of July”, a clear indication that the Vega speaker is not coming to the market anytime soon.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumours of Samsung working on a smart speaker. Last month, The Korea Herald also reported that Samsung could be planning a smart speaker that will be powered by the company’s voice-controlled Bixby assistant. At the same time, a patent filed by Samsung for an “audio” device was unearthed. The patent suggested a smart speaker with a screen mounted on a tripod.
Samsung developing an AI-powered smart speaker should not surprise many. The market for voice-controlled speaker is booming right now, especially after the entry of Apple. The company’s HomePod is its entirely new product after the launch of Apple Watch. The Siri-powered speaker is priced at $349 ( or approx Rs. 22,462).
In the nascent smart speaker market, Amazon is currently the leader in this segment. The e-commerce giant has a complete Echo range to offer, which starts at $49 (or approx Rs. 3172) and goes up to $229 (or approx Rs 14,825) for the top-end model. The search engine company Google is also trying to establish its feet into the growing market for connected speakers. Google Home, which is powered by the Assistant, cost $129 ( or approx Rs 8351). Reports suggest China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba is also planning to launch its own smart speaker, like the Amazon Echo.


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VAIL, COLORADO, FEBRUARY 13, 2018 – The Steadman Clinic will be relocating its facility in Frisco, Colorado to the newly developed Basecamp Center as part of a significant expansion of its presence in Summit County. The announcement was made today by Dr. Marc Philippon, managing partner of The Steadman Clinic and co-chairman of the Steadman-Philippon Research Institute.
Steadman to Deliver Better Patient Care and Improved Patient Satisfaction.
The new facility, which will include an imaging center, will be staffed by four physicians and a number of physician assistants. The new space will encompass nearly 5,000 square feet on two floors and is expected to open in October 2018. It will be located in The Wellness Building at the Basecamp Center which is just across the way from the highest Whole Foods Market in the world, and is home to Kaiser Permanente’s Frisco Medical Offices, EyeTech Optometry and, soon, Steadman Clinic and Imaging Center.
“Our new Steadman Clinic facility in Frisco is designed to deliver better patient care and improved patient satisfaction in a welcoming, campus-style environment,” said Dr. Philippon. “The MRI equipment will make it so much more convenient for our patients, who will be able to receive one-stop diagnosis and treatment. The team at Brynn Grey Partners understood our vision and is doing a terrific job making it a reality.”
Rave Reviews for Basecamp Center.
The Basecamp Center, which opened to rave reviews in April 2014, is anchored by a Whole Foods Market and includes a Kaiser Permanente location along with retail and restaurant tenants. It is located at the primary interchange of I-70 and Highway 9 with easy access to Denver, where about 20 percent of The Steadman Clinic patients reside, and Denver International Airport.
“The Basecamp Whole Foods Market has been a huge success and is proud to serve amazing locals, regional tourists, and international guests. This store was built to provide the best that Whole Foods Market has to offer, nestled in a vibrant mountain community. Having The Steadman Clinic join Basecamp as a business dedicated to wellness is a great fit for our mission as America’s Healthiest Grocery Store,” shares Bill Jordan, President, Whole Foods Market Rocky Mountain Region.
The Frisco I-70 Exit 203 Has Become the Retail Gateway to Colorado’s High Country.
Frisco Mayor Gary Wilkinson, who led the Town Council’s process to approve the Whole Foods Market anchored center, noted that with Steadman, and other recent developments including Natural Grocers and Starbucks, “the Frisco I-70 Exit 203 has become the retail Gateway to Colorado’s High Country.”
“We are obviously excited to have The Steadman Clinic moving into the Center,” said David O’Neil, CEO/Founder of the developer Brynn Grey. “This major announcement, along with the planned $8-10 million renovation of the Frisco Transit Center next door, the Outer Range Brewery being listed as ‘the overwhelming winner for best new brewery’ in Colorado and the completion of the Basecamp Shops & Residences micro condos later in the year creates incredible momentum.”
Kelly Adair, COO of The Steadman Clinic and Steadman Philippon Research Institute, added “Being located at the Basecamp Center alongside these health-conscious brands perfectly aligns with our interest with prevention, health and wellness.”


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We put care into making Halide an incredible app for taking photos. This update is different, however: instead of focusing on how you take photos, we've worked on radically improving how we keep your photos.
October 6, 2021
iPhone Macro: A Big Day for Small Things
The iPhone 13 Pro features a new camera capable of focusing closer than ever before. Let's take a tour of what this lens unlocks, some clever details you might miss in its implementation, why its "automatic" nature can catch you off guard, and much more.
June 2, 2021
Lux Year 4: Doubling Down
A look into year four at Lux — The most intense year yet, with Halide Mark II's launch, a global pandemic and much more.
March 20, 2021
Welcome to Lux
Allow us to to reintroduce ourselves. We're Lux, a tiny studio you might know from our photography apps, Halide and Spectre, or our obsessive articles on photography. Until now, we published though Medium, but today everything changes.
First, a little history.
December 15, 2020
We make the most popular RAW camera for iPhone, so when Apple revealed their new ProRAW image format, we were beyond excited.
Then they announced it’s coming to the built-in camera app. Why would Apple cram a complicated feature into an app meant for everyone?
October 22, 2020
Pro. Camera. Action. Introducing Halide Mark II
After eighteen months of work, today we’re excited to announce a new photography app. It takes everything we’ve learned since launching the acclaimed manual photography app, Halide, and combines it with the technology developed for Spectre, Apple’s 2019’s iPhone App of the Year.
We call this new app Halide Mark II.
May 20, 2020
Lux Year 3: The End of the Beginning
It’s Halide’s third birthday! Every year, we’re going to celebrate with a recap. Last year was big. Buckle up, because this one’s a rollercoaster.
April 27, 2020
iPhone SE: The One-Eyed King?
After four years of waiting, we have a new small and even budget-conscious iPhone.
We take a look at what makes this new iPhone's camera unique — and find an interesting surprise.
September 30, 2019
Halide 1.14: Time to Get Switchy
Welcome to Halide 1.14, our first big update after a busy summer. We’ve spent the last few months preparing for iOS 13 and new hardware, and we’re very excited to walk you through what’s new. iPhone 11 and 11 Pro Support We released a small lightning update on iPhone 11 launch day with basic support for the new cameras. Now we’re ready to release our big update. We engineered new features that take advantage of the powerful new hardware in the latest and greatest iPhones, starting with… The Tactile Lens Switcher In the past we’ve had a simple button that swaps between your wide angle and telephoto cameras. It served us well, but it was time to revisit it for the three cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro. At a glance, our lens switcher looks the same as before; we kept it in the same spot so it doesn’t interfere with your viewfinder and is within easy reach. Keeping the viewfinder clear of any obstructions is one of our highest priorities. It works similarly, too, at first glance: just keep tapping to cycle between 1x, 2x, and 0.5x sizes. Unfortunately, switching cameras has a bit of a delay. If you’re composing..
May 30, 2019
Halide: Year Two
Time flies: today marks the two year anniversary of Halide. It’s kind of wild to think that just two years ago, we were sitting behind our laptops ready to launch our camera app without knowing if it would be well-received. We knew that it was something that worked well for us, and if others found it pleasant to use, we’d consider it a success. Now, Halide is by far one of the most popular camera apps for iPhone. Tons of people use it to take photos every day. It has a sister app: Spectre. And we are now lucky enough to work on Halide and Spectre full-time and have huge plans for their future. So here we are, two years later! We did an update a year ago — so we thought we’d give a update on our last year. The Timeline We’re less than a week away from WWDC, and last year was no different. After the announcement of iOS 12, we spent Summer of 2018 working hard to prepare for the new OS. We released four small updates focused on fixing bugs and cleaning up code. We also started work on our second app, Spectre. We’re a two-person company, and we were both..
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After slamming the automaker for some serious concerns over safety, Consumer Reports has upgraded two of Tesla’s battery-electric vehicles.
The non-profit publication slammed both the Tesla Models S and X last month when it discovered the recently updated EVs did not have working automatic emergency braking, or AEB, systems – something that was offered on the older versions of the electric sedan and SUV. Using over-the-air updates, however, Tesla has activated that technology on the newer models.
“It’s uncommon for a newer vehicle to be less capable than an older vehicle, especially when it comes to safety,” said CR’s director of automotive testing, Jake Fisher.
The problem was that Tesla went through some late technology changes as it prepared to update the two electric vehicles last October. That was a response to a fatal crash a year ago involving a Model S whose Autopilot system failed to brake when a truck turned into its path. Tesla split from Mobileye, the Israeli tech firm supplying a camera system used for both Autopilot and the car’s AEB system.
(Tesla facing mounting problems – and union threat – at Fremont assembly plant. Click Here for the story.)
On the updated versions of the Models S and X, Tesla now relies on radar to operate the two safety systems. But it launched the new models without activating AEB so it could finish tweaking the system’s software. That led to a downgrade – and a promise by Tesla to quickly roll out the upgrade. That was completed over the last several weeks.
Even so, the emergency braking system now works at speeds up to only 28 mph, primarily for heavy traffic situations. The old version of AEB worked at speeds up to 90 mph. Tesla plans further over-the-air upgrades that it says will restore full functionality.
As a result, CR has given the new versions of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV partial upgrades of its own, The two vehicles each lost two points on the CR 100-point scale, the Model S, in particular, slipping from its top segment ranking to number two, behind the flagship Lexus LS. Once the high-speed functionality is restored, CR says it may further upgrade the two models.
Observers warned that such a downgrade could have significant impact as Tesla buyers are considered highly motivated by reviews, especially those from influential Consumer Reports.
It’s not the first time Tesla and CR have had a falling out.
In 2014, the magazine declared the Model S the best car it ever tested, “breaking” its 100-point scale. But only a few months later, CR reviewers reversed course, noting that they had pulled the coveted “Recommended Buy” rating for the battery-sedan because of serious quality issues.
Last year, CR upgraded the Model S, saying it had significantly improved quality – but it then downgraded the Model X for a broad array of its own quality issues, notably with the unusual falcon doors for rear-seat access. Even with the new upgrade, the electric SUV ranks low among luxury midsize SUVs.
(CEO Elon Musk predicts Tesla will build 100K vehicles in 2017. Click Here for the story.)
The upgrade comes at a critical time for Tesla. The carmaker is getting ready to begin production of its first mainstream battery-sedan, the Model 3, in July. Industry analysts like David Sullivan, of AutoPacific, Inc., caution that owners will be far less tolerant of quality problems and feature shortfalls than high-line motorists who often have several other vehicles they can turn to if their Tesla is in the shop.
The success – or failure – of the Model S is expected to determine what happens on Wall Street, where investors have driven Tesla shares up to record levels in recent months. It now has a higher market capitalization than either General Motors or Ford, despite disappointing first-quarter earnings results.
(Click Here to see what was behind Tesla’s bigger-than-expected Q1 losses.)
One response to “Tesla Back in Consumer Reports’ Good Graces”
Tesla buyers should not be reading / following ANYTHING CR reports – they flip-flop more than flap jacks.


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Facing pandemic bankruptcy, Quebec's sugar shacks launch home dining to 'save the sugar tradition'
Facing possible bankruptcy, sugar shacks across the province are banding together to launch “gourmet boxes” of their classic Quebec cuisine.
Hit hard by the pandemic, 70 sugar shacks have banded together for the “Ma cabane à la maison” project, bringing a taste of maple to people’s homes this winter.
“The goal is to save the sugar tradition so that we can come together again in these festive places next year,” said Stéphanie Laurin, president of the Association des salles de réception et érablières du Québec and co-owner of Chalet des Érables.
According to him, 75 per cent of Quebec’s sugar shacks are at risk closing for good. Since March 2020, around 40 others have already had to close, he said.
Maple ham, baked beans, Oreilles de crisse, puffy omelets, maple syrup grandfathers and more; the menu highlights the classics, all available starting Monday.
Each box costs between $25 to $35 per person. Some are meant to be reheated, others are made for people to cook at home.
But the sugar shack tradition isn’t just about the food. What about music? The box will come with instructions to watch a “festive show captured in the woods” which brings together the duo 2Frères, Daniel Boucher, Yves Lambert and Guylaine Tanguay.
There are plenty of menu options, including vegetarian, vegan, pork and gluten-free meals using fully recyclable containers and packaging, also made in Quebec.
Customers can pick up their order at the sugar shack or in Metro grocery stores. Some cabins also offer home delivery.
-- This report form the Canadian Press was first published on Feb 22, 2021.


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While much is being made of the Victory/Audiam shootout with Spotify, publishers and songwriters seem to forget that one of the reasons that digital services have so many problems keeping current with payments to publishers is because of the lack of an organized database to track all the songwriter information.
As the digital streaming world came to the fore, publishers had grown tired of their inability to audit Apple’s iTunes to make sure that the record labels were passing through the correct amount of mechanical royalties to them. It was the publishers that wanted digital services to license mechanical licenses directly from them so that they could gain the ability to audit those services.
Up until then, the record labels were happy to use the pass-through license, which means the labels retain the responsibility to pay mechanicals to the publishers while passing on the license for the music to the digital services. When all the pass-through licenses required was keeping track of less than a billion transactions a year in the U.S. the labels didn’t mind handling that responsibility because it meant the publishers money flowed through their hands — they’re not so eager to assume that responsibility when the number jumps to hundreds of billions. This year alone, with streaming still growing, it looks like about 300 billion or so transactions will take place in the U.S.
Let’s not forget that the major record labels, who supposedly built systems to collect songwriter information and make proper payments from the get-go, also couldn’t totally handle the responsibility and needed to enter into a $260 million settlement with publishers to make good on those payments back in 2009.
Also noteworthy is that the PROs have had at least 75 years of experience of building systems to keep track of song splits, publishers and songwriters, and had the benefit of adding that data one song at a time, instead of having to play catch-up to 75 years of data all at once, like the digital services have had to do.
Moreover, Spotify, like others, may not have adequately initially built the systems to handle the processing of correct payments and reporting to music publishers, and maybe they placed too much reliance on outside services like Music Reports Inc. (MRI), the Harry Fox Agency’s Slingshot operation, Medianet and RightsFlow, which were created or diversified into the space to help deal with this data problem.
But it’s not like the publishers and companies operating in that sector, at least initially, did all they could to insure payments flowed through to them. In fact, until Audiam started making noise about this issue, publishers admitted to Billboard they were unaware of the problem.
Publishers are — and have been — aware that streaming services haven’t been properly licensing every single track, as the law requires. If they wanted to, publishers could keep track of every notice of intent that the services are required to send under the compulsory license and match those NOIs against their song databases to reveal which songs are up on the digital services site and not licensed. Instead of doing that, publishers looked the other way, because they didn’t want to take on the legal burden and expense to challenge streamers on this issue, let alone possibly interrupting the flow of revenue for the 75 percent of songs properly licensed. At the least, they could have collectively written a letter to digital services asking them not to put up songs that weren’t properly licensed until they got clearances. That, of course, would have infuriated the labels and artists who want their master recording royalties from plays.
On the flipside, digital services could say they are not going to put up recordings until the labels provide the publishing for each song, and you could be sure that the labels would scramble to comply, rather than miss out on master recording performance royalties.
What’s ultimately needed is a global database that ties songs to recordings and so far all efforts in that direction have failed. In the meantime, one of the good things to come out of the discovery that there might be as much as a hundred million dollars in unpaid — or incorrectly paid — mechanical royalties floating around from interactive digital services, is that the National Music Publishers Assn. is not only negotiating a settlement, but will also resolve the larger issue.
NMPA president and CEO David Israelite says that he hopes that the talks with the digital services will yield a slate of best practices that will reduce, if not eliminate, the pending and unmatched files and black boxes at digital services, similar to the outcome with the record label settlement back in 2009.
Regardless of what occurred with Audiam and Victory, sources familiar with Spotify’s stance on the issue say the company’s management is aware of the problem surrounding proper payments to publishers and songwriters and is involved in discussions to not only ensure that the current outstanding payments get to where they are supposed to go, but is interested in working with publishers and the NMPA to resolve the issue.


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Mad Catz has posted record sales for its fiscal third quarter, which ended December 31. Net sales of $92.9 million have been reported by the company, up from $48.7 million during the same period last year. The company reported net income (i.e. profit) of $9.69 million, up from $5.59 million during the same period last year, an increase of over 70 percent.
The report does note, however, that gross profit margin -- an expression of how much money is earned versus how much is spent -- is slightly down over last year. The primary reason for the decreased margin is attributed to "a shift in the Company's sales mix which included higher levels of licensed products." In other words, all those popular game licenses aren't cheap. Still, this marks the second quarter in a row that Mad Catz has posted record results, so we doubt anyone is too broken up about it.


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Sunderland, South Tyneside and Northumberland landmarks feature in new colouring book
Josh Bewick’s initial run of 50 copies of his North East Colouring Book was purchased within an hour of going on sale.
A second batch of 100 books is now also close to selling out with a third order soon to arrive.
Twenty colour pictures of the likes of Penshaw Monument, Soutar Lighthouse and Lindisfarne Castle – which features on the cover – appear as inspiration opposite inverted copies of each image.
Josh, a support worker for vulnerable adults, said: “I take pictures of a lot of these landmarks in my spare time and pass some of them everyday and thought a colouring book might be a good idea.
“Particularly now, with what is happening, it might help people who are bored or in self isolation.
“Last week, when copies arrived, the first 50 were sold in an hour and I had to quickly order more.”
Josh, who lives in Red House and is a former Monkwearmouth Academy pupil, only took up photography as a hobby around three years ago and has already had calendars published featuring pictures of Sunderland.
He is also planning separate 2021 calendars covering the city and the North East.
Copies of his colouring book, which is published by the Calendar Company and costs £5, are available from Sunderland’s Southwick and Fulwell post offices or via his Josh Bewick Photography Facebook page.


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- Sainsbury’s plans to spend $1.3 billion to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2040
- The retailer intends to reach the goal by improving the use of renewable energy, reduce the use of plastic and water, and tackle food waste
- Sainsbury’s carbon emissions has gotten reduced by a third over the past 15 years
Sainsbury’s has announced plans to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2040. The UK’s second-largest supermarket chain plans to invest £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to achieve this goal.
The awareness about the need for tackling climate change has been rising in the UK, thanks to climate change campaigners, including broadcaster David Attenborough and Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
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Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe said the company would be contacting its suppliers to make sure they are playing their part.
“We need to understand further up our supply chains how we impact the environment and make sure our suppliers are working towards eliminating their carbon emissions as well,” Coupe added.
Sainsbury’s plans to reach this goal by focusing on cutting carbon emissions by improving its use of renewable energy, reducing the use of water and plastic, increasing recycling, and addressing food waste.
“We have a duty to the communities we serve to continue to reduce the impact our business has on the environment and we are committing to reduce our own carbon emissions and become net zero by 2040 … because 2050 isn’t soon enough,” said Coupe in a statement.
At this time, the retailer emits one million tonnes of carbon each year, however, the company claims that number got reduced by a third over the past 15 years.
Over the next 20 years, Sainsbury’s will invest an average of £50m a year to start using alternative fuel for some of its vehicles and restructure its stores to improve energy-efficiency in order to hit the target.
The company will also collaborate with Carbon Trust to cut emissions and set science-based objectives for reduction. It will publicly report progress every six months.
Sainsbury’s already said it will help the environment back in September, pledging to cut plastic packaging by 50% by 2025. It is the first supermarket chain in Britain to make a commitment of this magnitude.
The UK’s retail behemoth currently has 2,300 stores, 185,000 employees across Britain and Ireland, and serves more than 27 million customers every week.


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MP backs ‘shop local’ campaign
She is supporting Small Business Saturday on December 6.
The initiative aims to promote small businesses in local communities.
Ms Flint wants businesses in the Dearne Valley to take part and shoppers to back them.
She said: “Our small shops and independent businesses are vital to the towns and villages in outlying parts of the borough.
“They are a vital part of our local economy and we need to get behind them.
“In many towns and villages, small businesses add character and are a source of local jobs.
More information on Small Business Saturday is available at https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/


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Cattlemen will appeal a judge’s decision in a big lawsuit against Tyson Fresh Meats. The handful of producers and an Omaha law firm spent years preparing their case and it became a class-action lawsuit against the meatpackers formerly known as IBP. Even before Tyson bought the company, they claimed, it had been encouraging farmers to sign contracts selling their cattle to the packer in advance. The company said those packer contracts added security to the livestock farmers’ industry but some farmers said it blunted the effect of free markets and they think they’d have gotten higher prices at a public auction, the way meatpackers used to buy all their animals. In February a jury in Montgomery, Alabama, agreed and awarded the farmers one-point-28-billion dollars. But the judge held off on finalizing that judgment and on Friday granted a ruling that sets aside that jury verdict. The judge says farmers didn’t prove they lost that much to packer control of the livestock.
You are here: / / Cattlemen say they’ll appeal Tyson decision


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Message of hope in annual Easter ad
Hobby Lobby’s annual full-page Easter message is once again being read in newspapers across the country.
For years, Hobby Lobby has run holiday messages at Christmas, Easter and Independence Day. “These ads don’t include sale items or special pricing,” stated company president Steve Green. “We just want to let people know that we love our Lord, and we love our country.”
This year’s ad features typewriter font and ink spots on a blank page. The text reads “Let the author of life write your story.” An Old Testament scripture from Jeremiah 29:11 reads “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
Since 1997, these holiday messages have been placed in newspapers Hobby Lobby regularly advertises in. With the addition of social media, many more thousands of people view and share the life-giving messages.
This year’s ad is a reminder of the reason for Easter as it celebrates what millions of people around the world and throughout history have considered the most significant event in human history–the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As with previous ads, Hobby Lobby partners with Need Him Ministry to invite anyone who would like to know Jesus as Lord and Savior to contact chataboutjesus.com. The ad also offers a free Bible for mobile devices at mardel.com/bible.
View or download the Easter ad.
Steve Green tells the story of the company’s history of publishing holiday ads in his book Faith in America.


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BACKGROUND IMAGE: iSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
The cloud price wars continue, this time with a drastic price reduction to Amazon Web Services' dedicated instances.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) cut prices by up to 80% on its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) dedicated instances this week and said the changes went into effect retroactively to July 1. Industry watchers say the price cut is in response to market pressures.
The competitive market for cloud storage has intensified recently; AWS, Microsoft Windows Azure and Google cut prices multiple times last year.
With this most recent price cut, Amazon hopes the move will intrigue new enterprise customers and pull them away from competitors.
"Amazon doesn't want to be caught in a position where they're charging the most," said Carl Brooks, research analyst for Boston-based 451 Research. "They want to be known as the industry standard. They want to maintain the competitive edge."
He continued by saying that while Amazon wants to remain the leader of the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) space, it wants to be a middle-of-the-pack service on pricing.
"Never has there been a more legitimate infrastructure for users," he said. "Companies are making it easier to get all these services. Clients want and need these services and know where to get them. So dropping prices will keep customers coming and business going. It's a smart business model."
Competition will only get stiffer from Amazon's rivals, too.
Amazon knows that its main competitors can cut their prices as well, and it puts pressure on them, said John Treadway, senior vice president at Boston-based Cloud Technology Partners.
"Pricing is huge in market entry," Treadway said. "It makes [Amazon] more attractive to enterprise users. Amazon's [main focus] is to acquire more enterprises, so overall, it's a good move because they'll capture more business."
Amazon knows people will always go for the lower price, and that it's less about competitors and more about pricing, Treadway said.
It's also getting harder for enterprises to justify the cost of running their own servers when cloud vendors offer such low pricing, he added.
"It's enticing to new applicants that run internally to go to Amazon now," Treadway said. "The value to move to Amazon is stronger."
Enterprise IT pros like to have control over their whole servers, and dedicated instances gives them the option to do that along -- with more security and performance.
AWS dedicated instance pricing details, analysis
Dedicated instances were launched by Amazon in 2011 and run on hardware dedicated to a single customer account. According to AWS, "they're ideal for workloads where corporate policies or industry regulations dictate physical isolation from instances run by other customers at the host hardware level."
The dedicated instance price cut details that went into effect this month are as follows:
- Dedicated per region fee: An 80% price reduction from $10 per hour to $2 per hour in any region where at least one dedicated instance of any type is running.
- Dedicated on-demand instances: A reduction of up to 37% in hourly costs. For example the price of anm1.xlarge dedicated instance in the U.S. East (northern Virginia) Region will drop from $0.840 per hour to $0.528 per hour.
- Dedicated reserved instances: A reduction of up to 57% on the reserved instance upfront fee and the hourly instance usage fee. Dedicated reserved instances also provide additional savings of up to 65% compared to dedicated on-demand instances.
As far how this price cut helps Amazon down the road, Brooks believes the company will keep growing and its profits will double this year.
Treadway also believes it puts pressure on other cloud companies, such as Rackspace and Google, among others, to offer lower prices or even other services, too.
In addition, he thinks the price drop is in response to a competitive market.
"Microsoft is usually the one that creates response or initiates price cuts," Treadway said. "That said, anytime you lower prices, it's usually in response to something. Maybe the price differential is narrow between them. Basically, this is a race to zero, and who can get there first."
He added that it'll be interesting to see if Google gains any type of traction to this cut. But regardless of what its competitors are doing, Amazon has big plans for the future.
"Amazon cares more about the customer than what the competition does," he added. "Their goal is to become huge and has the potential to be a $20 billion business."
Michael Anderson is an Assistant News Writer for the news department of the Data Center and Virtualization media group. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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This Week's Hot Headlines
Ex-mob boss' pizzeria is a hit in this week's 5 most-read Dallas stories
Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines.
1. Pizza joint with square slices from ex-Mafia mob boss opens in Dallas. A new pizzeria with serious New York City cred has opened in Dallas, just outside Uptown. Called Slices, it's a Sicilian-style pizzeria that serves pizza by the slice, with ingredients imported from Italy and a slice configuration that's square. The concept was founded by the colorful Michael Franzese, a former capo of the Colombo mafia family.
2. Royal Blue Grocery Dallas rebrands itself and closes original location. A Dallas grocery concept that specializes in highly urban settings is doing a big rebranding — one that includes shuttering its original location. The market formerly known as Royal Blue Grocery Dallas will now and forever be known as Berkley's Market. Simultaneously, the chain will close its location in Highland Park Village — but something new is on the way.
3. Whiz kid Dallas chef merges steak and Italian at promising Plano restaurant. Chef prodigy Luke Rogers, who most recently wowed at Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas, has found a new roost: He's working on a new restaurant in Plano called Cathedral Italian Bistro, featuring Italian cuisine with Texas ingredients in dishes such as pizza, pasta, and Wagyu steak.
4. Macy’s debuts first 'off-price' Backstage store in Dallas-Fort Worth. Popular department store chain Macy's will open a new kind of store in Dallas-Fort Worth. Called Macy's Backstage, it's an "off-price" (aka discount) concept that sells clothes, housewares, shoes, cosmetics, and other goods at discount prices.
5. Restoration Hardware on Knox reinvents itself as RH gallery-restaurant. The Restoration Hardware store on Knox Street in Dallas underwent a dramatic transformation and reopened on May 7 as RH Dallas, a three-level home store featuring luxury furnishings, rooftop restaurant, and wine bar.


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Bethesda has clarified Doom developer Id Software’s involvement in Starfield’s development in the wake of a May rumor claiming the fellow Zenimax-owned studio had stepped in to overhaul Starfield’s combat.
In an interview with IGN ahead of the Xbox Showcase and Starfield Direct, Bethesda boss Todd Howard confirmed Id Software had helped out with Starfield’s graphics, but "they did not help us with the combat.”
“Well, first of all, I'd say being in the company, knowing the folks at Id Software for a long time, I'm a huge Doom fan,” Howard said. “They're the absolute best. Doom Eternal is one of my favorite games.
“So with Fallout 4, they did give us a few tips on how to handle combat. And Starfield, we redid the combat ourselves and it's really feeling great. But Id has helped us really more on the graphics side.”
Howard said Bethesda wanted to “bring over” some aspects of the Id Tech engine into the Creation Engine in a bid to improve Starfield’s look and feel. Id Software is of course well-known for its first-person shooters, and Starfield, like the Bethesda's Fallout games, incorporates this type of action into its combat.
“So we get into motion blur,” Howard explained. “It's just how the game feels smooth. Some other things that they do in id Tech that we wanted to bring over into Creation Engine 2, and they helped us do that, and it's great.”
Howard then teased Id Software’s unannounced next game, but stopped short of saying anything meaningful about it.
“And I'm such a fan of what they do. So being able to get an early look at what they're doing next… Not here to talk about that, but it's just…”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Send news tips to firstname.lastname@example.org.


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In 2016, TreeHouse Foods reorganized into five business units. As assets were divested, the five units became three. On Feb. 26 the company announced the three units would become two – Snacking & Beverages and Meal Preparation.
The Snacking & Beverages unit will include bars, broth, candy, cookies and crackers, griddle, pita, powdered and liquid beverages, pretzels, tea and other blends. In 2019, the businesses generated approximately $1.7 billion in sales and going forward the division will focus on revenue growth, research and development and commercialization.
The Meal Preparation division will include bouillon, cheese and pudding, hot cereal, non-dairy creamer, pasta and dry dinners, pickles, pourable and spoonable dressings, preserves, red sauces, refrigerated dough, sauces, single-serve coffee and syrup. The business has $2.6 billion in sales in 2019, and its focus will be on productivity, efficiency and cash flow, according to the company.
“The retail grocery landscape continues to evolve and be very competitive, and our customers are looking to solve two fundamentally different goals,” said Steven T. Oakland, president and chief executive officer. “First, to help demonstrate value to the consumer and improve margins that they can invest to drive consumer traffic; and second, to help introduce uniqueness and innovation, so they can differentiate themselves and be more relevant to their distinct shopper base. Our reorganization not only enables us to align our resources to help our customers achieve their goals, but it also better positions us for growth going forward.”
Mark Fleming, currently president of Baked Goods, will serve as president of Meal Preparation. He will report to Shay Braun, chief operations officer.
Kevin C. Jackson has been hired to be president of the Snacking & Beverages business. He was most recently senior vice-president of U.S. Retail and North American Away From Home for the J.M. Smucker Co. He will report to Mr. Oakland.
Triona Schmelter, currently president, Meal Solutions, will take on the newly created role of chief transformation officer. She will focus on sharing resources across the organization, including its approach to distribution and logistics, sourcing and shared business services, the company said.
By Keith Nunes
Source: Food Business News
Consumer behaviors and preferences are evolving rapidly. With macro shifts in society, inflation and food supply challenges set to profoundly influence how people consume food and beverages, Givaudan is exploring what the world of dairy alternatives will look like in the coming decade.
After nearly three decades with AFI, Andersen is leaving to pursue a different career path “to work on diverse projects and explore opportunities to serve as board member”. Serving as CEO since 2010, Andersen joined AFI in 1994, initially overseeing applications and R&D. Over the years, he has maintained a strong focus on the whey business.
The Kraft Heinz Company has introduced five new members to its executive leadership team, who will collaborate with Carlos Abrams-Rivera upon assuming the CEO role in 2024. Pedro Navio will assume the position of North America president at the beginning of next year. In addition, Willem Brandt, Bruno Keller, Cory Onell and Diana Frost will join Abrams-Rivera and Navio on the executive leadership team.


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When young industrialists such as Saurav Jyoti and Shekhar Golchha announced to hold the NADA a few years ago, only a few people agreed that Nepal Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), an umbrella organization of automobile dealers in Nepal, would emerge as a game changer in a short period of time.
All the car dealers in Nepal, including Saurav Jyoti, released new models of motorbikes and cars. Similarly, Golchha also released new motorbikes followed by Bishnu Agrawal, who released new cars and motorbikes.
Chaudhary group also released new brands Suzuki motors and United Motor released new brand of Toyota. Similarly, IME also released new heavy vehicles and Sipradi released new version of its cars.
Syakar Trading Company (STC), the authorized distributor for Honda cars in Nepal, has launched the all-new Honda Jazz.
With its sporty crossfade monoform design, bold, super-slick front and side character lines, dynamic alloy wheels and rear spoiler makes, the Honda Jazz is built to stand apart from the crowd, as per a press release. Its elegant aerodynamic style symbolizes speed and control, whereas its futuristic cockpit interiors, based on innovative ‘Man Maximum Machine Minimum’ philosophy, offers best-in-segment space (354 liters) and comfort. To provide maximum safety, it consists of dual airbag, ABS, ACR body structure, first-in-segment multi-view reverse camera, and paddle shift.
CG MotoCorp, the authorized distributors of Suzuki in Nepal, has announced its Dashain and Tihar schemes called Chamatkaar. CG MotoCorp has always maintained an impressive track record of delivering the best of schemes and this year is no different than the previous ones. The Chamatkaar scheme is unparalleled to any other running scheme and is sure to exceed all expectations.
With the numbers of new cars and motorbikes displayed at the NADA, there was a rush of young customers to grab one. When the NADA concluded this week, there were over five billion rupees equivalent in economic transactions with booking for a large number of new cars, motorcycles and other vehicles.
Despite prolonged strikes in Nepal’s southern plains with the road blockades, buyers did not feel any hesitation to book new cars and order them. With the visitors of over 50,000, there was a booking order of over Rs. 5 billion.
As the government still sees automobiles as luxury, it imposes heavy taxes on it. NADA officials are demanding that the government reduce heavy taxes imposed on cars.
NADA also showed that there is a strong rising middle class who can change the economy given the improvement of political situation.
However, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat frankly admitted that the government is in no position to reduce the tariff on luxury cars and said he has already reduced the tariff in importing public buses. The government imposes 240 vehicles expensive and put them beyond the reach of majority of the population.
“Automobile industry contributes around one-third of total revenue but the government isn't investing much on development of roads and transport infrastructures,” said Shekhar Golchha. "Though road network is expanding, it is not up to the standards. Automobile penetration in Nepal stands at 6 percent which is one of the lowest penetration rates in the world."
Others too hold similar views. "Once people's access to automobiles is increased, it will spur economic activities and make significant contributions to national economy,” said Anjan Shrestha, vice president of NADA. "The government should either slash customs duties or subsidize vehicle imports through other means."
NADA officials also criticized the government for its failure to open sufficient vehicle fitness testing centers across the country.
According to the organizers, the event promoted Nepal's automobile industry and increased automobile sales ahead of the festive season.
"Responding to the recent earthquake, this year's Auto Show portrays will, strength, and commitment toward development and rebuilding of the economy," Shambhu Prasad Dahal, coordinator of the Auto Show, said.
There were 120 stalls of 65 domestic and foreign exhibitors in an area spread over 9,000 square meters. The Auto Show showcased four-wheelers from 14 brands, two-wheelers from 15 brands and heavy commercial vehicles from five brands.
Renowned automobile brands like Datsun, Daihatsu, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Skoda, Suzuki, Tata, Toyota, Volkswagen, SsangYong, Ashok Leyland, Bharat Benz, Escorts, Aprilla, MV Agusta, Bajaj, Benelli, Hero, Hero Electric, KTM, Mahindra, Royal Enfield, Suzuki, TVS, UM and Vespa, among others, participated in the Auto Show.
As the deposit in Nepal’s banking sector is going up, banks also joined the show with their stalls to provide loans to potential customers. Instead of thinking about making all poor, the government needs to think about making all of them rich.


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It’s official, we’ve reached the tipping point – In the UK, streaming is now more popular than satellite and cable.
According to BBC News, subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Now TV have now surpassed subscriptions to traditional paid-for TV services, such as Sky, BT and Virgin. Nearly 40% of all UK households subscribe to a streaming service, equating to 15.4 million subscriptions, as opposed to the 15.1 million that subscribe to satellite and cable.
There has also been a drop in traditional TV viewing, with the younger generation watching around 40% less than they did seven years ago. The average age of viewers for TV channels such as BBC One and ITV is now over 60.
So, what do you watch?
Do you subscribe/have access to a streaming service or do you much prefer satellite & cable? And what are your thoughts about traditional TV channels? Do you still watch ITV, BBC etc or do they no longer factor on your radar?
Sound off in the comments section below.


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This morning I woke up to Liane Hansen talking about small business survival in downtown Marquette, Michigan.
She observes that the success of these businesses is a surprising contrast to what you find in many other small towns around the country. "In so many cities where the commerce has moved out to the highway and the big box stores, it's rare to see a department store in business in a small town," she remarks about Getz's Department Store downtown.
Getz's marketing manager John Spigarelli attributes this to "a lot of loyalty," but I honestly have difficulty believing that there's something exceptional about the amount of loyalty that Yoopers show their local downtowns. I suspected that there was a more basic explanation.
It turns out that this loyalty is pretty fickle. Marquette has big box stores out by the highway: Google Maps shows that there's a Target, a Kohl's, a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a J.C. Penney's on Route 41 west of town, and even a Marquette Bypass, built in the 1960s, that allows people to drive around the downtown. In fact, one local observer tells us that there is a "trend" for Yoopers to drive three hours to Wisconsin for shopping.
But clearly, enough people are shopping in downtown Marquette to enable these businesses to thrive. For at least some of their errands, they don't drive right by the downtown stores on their way to the Target and Green Bay. Why not? My guess is that the bypass doesn't actually save them that much time: it starts just five blocks south of Getz's. So if you're driving from the south or east, or even the rural areas to the north, downtown is still closer than any of the big-box stores. If you're coming from the west, Getz's is only eight minutes further than Target. It's still more or less on the way.
Everything I've ever heard about the UP has involved driving, driving, driving and maybe a long-distance bike tour or two. I wouldn't be surprised if transit's mode share were minuscule here, but I think this story shows that it's possible to have walkable, small-business-friendly "transit-oriented development," even in an area where almost everyone drives. There are two criteria: streets that were built before widespread car ownership, and not a lot of bypasses.
There are many cities around the country that are concerned about their failed downtowns. Most of them have plenty of pedestrian-friendly streets, but some, like poor downtown Belvidere, Illinois with its triple bypass, would require a gargantuan political effort to be on the way to anywhere again.


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Digital Revolution Can Spark Retail Renaissance
The digital revolution can help spark a ‘retail renaissance’, Dan Cobley, MD of Google UK, told the World Retail Congress in London last week. Cobley said that the big winners would be the traditional retailers who also harness the power of new technology.
Data from Marks and Spencer showed customers who shopped both online and in store were four times more valuable, while those who also used mobile spent eight times as much as high street shoppers.
Cobley told delegates: “There is a huge opportunity to bring the power of digital to stores and make it work for consumers. In future we will not think about online and off-line, it will be a multichannel world.”
Innovations such as ‘click and collect’ are blurring the boundaries between online and physical stores, he said, while improving convenience for shoppers. 10 per cent of UK sales are now conducted in this way, but only one in eight offer the service on mobile.
He refuted suggestion that this prevents ‘impulse buying’, as US research has shown that 37 per cent of ‘click and collect’ customers went on to purchase other goods while in store.
Join us at Mobile Marketing Live, our new two-day conference, exhibition and networking event being held at London's Business Design Centre on 1-2 October


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The Finance Ministry extended the deadline for filing summary sales GST Return 3B for the month of September by five days, on Sunday. Earlier, where the deadline was on October 20, now the new deadline is October 25. Additionally, the businesses who wish to claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) from July 2017 to March 2018, can do so till October 25. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) that comes under the Finance Ministry informed this via tweet.
Generally, the GST Return 3B is to be filled up to by the 20th of the following month. And therefore, the last date for filing GST return for the month of September was October 20. But, now the government has extended the date by 5 days to October 25. This, certainly, is a big relief to businessmen.
Businessmen had expressed concern about the deadline. They had said that they face difficulties in reconciling purchase returns filed by the suppliers with their sales return.


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Green Bay Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Dealing Fentanyl Resulting in Death and Possessing a Firearm as a Convicted Felon
United States Attorney James L. Santelle announced that Shon Tay Dessart (age: 46) of Reedsville, Wisconsin was sentenced in federal court to one year in prison after being convicted in June following a jury trial of violating the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Dessart operated a business known as EDS Research Supplies out of a residence he owned in Reedsville, Wisconsin. At the residence, Dessart manufactured and sold prescription drugs using raw materials he purchased from China and then marketed the drugs over the Internet. Among the products Dessart sold were drugs containing the active ingredients found in prescription drugs approved to treat erectile dysfunction (such as Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra), hair-loss (such as Propecia), as well as albuterol and anti-estrogen drugs. Other products included clenbuterol, a FDA-approved drug for use only in horses, not humans.
Trial testimony provided by several United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doctors described the potential harmful effects of using these drugs without a prescription. The FDA witnesses also described potentially harmful effects of merely handling some of the drugs in the forms sold by Dessart, including certain powder forms.
Dessart claimed that the drugs were “for research only” and not intended for human consumption but marketed the drugs on websites dedicated to body building and sold the drugs in various colors and flavors (including sugar-free flavors). Dessart was convicted of 23 felony violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, including operating an unregistered manufacturing facility and distributing prescription drugs without a prescription. The jury found that, in committing these offenses, Dessart had acted with the intent to defraud or mislead the FDA
In announcing this sentence, United States Attorney James L. Santelle stated: "the United States Department of Justice pursued this important prosecution to protect our residents from the significant danger posed by the unauthorized manufacture and sale of drugs. In addition to defrauding the Food and Drug Administration in its beneficial, public-oriented function, the defendant misled consumers of his unapproved drugs and threatened their physical health and condition. I commend the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and our state and local law enforcement partners in Manitowoc for their excellent investigative work in bringing this fraudulent operation to an end."
“The manufacture and sale of potentially dangerous unapproved prescription drugs poses a serious threat to the public’s health,” said John J. Redmond, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations. “We will continue to guard against those who would seek to defraud and mislead the FDA and endanger the public.”
This case was investigated by the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, and the United States Postal Inspection Service, with substantial assistance from the Manitowoc County Metro Drug Unit, the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, and the Two Rivers Police Department.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Jacobs of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Clint Narver of the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel.


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China’s economy is on the road to recovery, according to China’s central bank.
Yi Gang, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China said the stimulus package had kicked in and the nation’s economy is showing signs of improvement.
“The second quarter and the remainder of this year will continue this recovery trend,” he said.
China’s economic growth slowed to 6.1 per cent in the first quarter, but data for March showed industrial output rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier.
China announced a four-trillion-yuan ($A823.94 billion) stimulus package in November in a bid to boost investment to prop up the economy as its exports were hit hard amid the global financial crisis.
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Private-equity firms are piling into a new business opportunity: the opioid addiction crisis.
Drawn by soaring demand, expanded insurance coverage and the chance to consolidate a highly fragmented market, firms plowed $2.9 billion into treatment facilities last year, up from $11.4 million in 2011, according to research firm PitchBook Data Inc. The number of private-equity deals rose to 45 from 25.
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Madison Media has been awarded the media duties for Piramal Healthcare. The account size is estimated to be around Rs 70 crore.
As exclusively reported by exchange4media earlier, the media pitch took place three months ago. The multi-agency pitch took place in Mumbai. The incumbent agency on the account is Lodestar UM.
“Given our ambitious plans, we wanted to enhance our current capabilities in the media strategy and buying front and hence, looked out for partners who could create a higher value on this aspect. Madison Media fitted very well in the requirement and our scheme of things as we were very happy to see their approach being very similar to our mindset,” said Kedar Rajadyne, COO Consumer Products Division, Piramal Healthcare, commenting on the appointment.
The Consumer Products vertical at Piramal Healthcare is among the fastest growing categories in India, with popular brands such as Saridon, Lacto Calamine, i-Pill and Supractiv. The range straddles the pharmaceutical space as well as the personal care space with trusted brands in diverse product categories such as vitamins and nutrition, analgesics, dermatological, antacids and cough and cold.


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We wrote about Microsoft’s idea of creating Surface Blades for different purposes last month. During the second generation Surface launch event held last month, Microsoft announced the Surface Remix Project which showed how you could click in a specially designed Touch Cover that let you remix your favorite songs and share them with the world. Even though it is limited to music for now, it shows that productivity can go various other ways, not just click in keyboards.
Microsoft realized that this concept has a great potential and they visited Art Center College of design to meet students for a three day workshop where students were asked to imagine different blades concepts. Microsoft refers the Cover you click in to Surface as blades. The Surface Remix Project has a music blade and there could be many other blades for various other purposes. Microsoft released a short video to show how students at
Art Center College of Design thought about their own Surface Blade ideas.
Today, Art Center College of Design released a detailed video showing how their students came up with Surface Blades concept starting from simple pencil sketch to mockups, etc. Watch the video above and realize the future potential of Surface Blades concept.


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'Temporarily closed' sign posted at Krispy Kreme on Plank Road
BATON ROUGE- A new sign posted outside Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on Plank Road says the business is "temporarily closed" after rumors swirled over the weekend that the shop might close its doors for good.
The sign posted outside the business Monday morning said the store was closed for the time being, with a new shop supposedly coming in winter.
Speculation about the donut shop closing was all over social media this weekend, but store representatives would not outright confirm that. Dozens of people stood outside the shop Sunday in the blazing heat trying to get more of the glazed treats after rumors of the closure first surfaced on social media.
A company spokesperson released the following statement to WBRZ Monday.
"We have temporarily closed our Baton Rouge shop, as of June 2.
In order to best serve our community, we are working on building a brand new shop, at the same location. We are so thankful to our employees for their hard work and service. We are also appreciative of our neighbors and guests for their business.
We look forward to welcoming you in our new shop, coming this winter."
Desktop NewsClick to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
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During an interview with The National, John Chen, the current CEO of BlackBerry shared the company’s plan of announcing two more Android-powered smartphones later this year.
Although he didn’t give away too much detail about the upcoming handsets, Chen mentioned that the one of the smartphones will have a physical keyboard, while the other one will be full touchscreen.
Another information that the BlackBerry CEO shared with the publication is that the handsets will be in the lower tier compared to Priv, the company’s first Android smartphone.
“The fact that we came out with a high end phone [as our first Android device] was probably not as wise as it should have been. – John Chen”
The decision to come up with a pair of mid-range smartphones instead of a successor to the Priv is based from the feedback that BlackBerry received from its patrons in the enterprise segment. Consumers find the Priv, with its $700 price tag, a little too expensive for their liking, and add that they would prefer a BlackBerry smartphone with a sticker price that’s around the $400 mark.
In his closing statement, Chen reiterated his plans of making BlackBerry’s handset division profitable, a credo he’s been living by since he took the reins back in 2013. However, he stated that if these upcoming Android-powered smartphones (and other handsets in the pipeline) will still not boost the company’s profit, he may be forced to “get out of the handset business” and focus the company’s resources to its software services.


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Anthony Graziani was tired of shopping online or in other cities. But instead of complaining about it to friends, the medical device sales rep decided to open his own upscale, casual menswear store.
“I was disappointed with our shopping options in this city,” Graziani said. “That’s part of the reason why I wanted to open the shop.”
To offer young professionals a new, local option, Graziani plans to open Article. The retailer will operate in a 663-square-foot space in the Gateway Building in Over-the-Rhine. Located at 1150 Vine St., the store is scheduled to open in mid-September.
One of the local designers that will be featured is Chris Sutton, owner and creative director of Noble Denim. His jeans – which are made using selvedge denim, a type of denim that forms a clean, natural edge – will be custom fit and hemmed in the store.
Article will carry a number of other jeans, ranging from $150 to $250, plus T-shirts, pants, button-up shirts, jackets, blazers, belts and other items. About 70 percent of the items carried at Article will be American-made.
The existing store front will get a new facade, giving those walking by a better view of the store. And with such high ceilings in the space, Graziani is planning to use library ladders to reach items stocked up high.
The store will employ five, including Sutton and Graziani.
Article signed a three-year lease for the space. Andy Heldman, a commercial real estate broker with Heldman Real Estate Brokerage, represented the tenant in the lease.
Graziani said he decided to open the store in Over-the-Rhine because the customer he plans to target is living, working and checking out entertainment options nearby.
“We’re really excited about the revitalization of Over-the-Rhine,” Graziani said. “It’s the perfect spot for us.”


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Viki, the global TV streaming platform that just got snapped up for a reported $200 million by the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, is launching branded channels on its site to present shows from broadcasters like Korea’s SBS and Japan’s TV Asahi in a more coherent fashion.
Branded channels are initially just available for a limited number of content partners, but Viki CEO and co-founder Razmig Hovaghimian told me during an interview Monday that he plans to eventually launch personalized channels for each and every user.
Hovaghimian argued that, with cable and YouTube(S GOOG), people have access to thousands of channels. However, most people still just watch shows from 15 or fewer channels. So why not combine the shows people want, plus some recommendations for thing they might like, to one personalized channel? “It’s almost like an a la carte cable play on the web,” he said.
Viki is one of a few services specializing in content arbitrage: The company acquires popular TV shows in South Korea, Japan, Turkey or China and then shows them to an international audience outside of their home country. For content owners, this means that they get access to markets that wouldn’t have been available otherwise, and for Viki, it’s content that’s a lot less expensive than U.S. TV fare would be for U.S. audiences. That allows the site to monetize videos entirely through advertising, and thus reach a much bigger audience that a subscription offering.
I asked Hovaghimian about his plans after the acquisition by Rakuten, and he said that the deal helps him to put more money behind development, with the goal of bringing Viki to game consoles and other connected devices. Viki also wants to open additional offices, including one in Europe, where the company now has a new partner in Rakuten’s Wuaki TV streaming service. And in Japan, Viki wants to benefit from the popularity of the Rakuten ShowTime streaming service to find new customers.
The goal, Hovaghimian said, was to eventually grow Viki to 300 million customers. That’s ambitious, considering that Viki currently has 24 million unique viewers a month. But Hovaghimian seemed optimistic, pointing out that Viki caters to the whole world. “We are a global Hulu,” he said.
This post was updated at 12:09am with additional information on Viki’s audience size.


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After years of waiting, one of the key takeaways from MWC 2019, the world’s biggest mobile event of the year that was held a week ago in Barcelona, Spain, was that 5G is finally becoming a reality.
At MWC—formerly known as the Mobile World Congress—5G smartphones were connected to Vodafone’s live 5G mobile network which uses 5G equipment from different telecommunications vendors including Ericsson and Huawei, while trials of 5G live broadcasting used Samsung’s 5G network.
Although the entire 5G ecosystem—from consumer devices to mobile operators and equipment vendors—was present at MWC, this report will focus however on the announcements made during the show by the major U.S. carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon) which, interestingly, all had a presence at the show despite doing little business in Europe.
Sprint could be first to roll out a real 5G smartphone service in the U.S.
At MWC, Sprint made six 5G-related announcements including the commercial launch of its 5G service in May, starting in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Kansas City with Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and Washington D.C. also slated to launch in the first half of 2019.
The Overland Park, Kansas-based mobile operator also announced the first 5G devices to be available this spring at the launch of its 5G service, the LG V50 ThinQ 5G smartphone, and the HTC 5G Hub which looks like a Google Home Hub or an Amazon Echo Show but acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 20 connected devices and can directly stream 4K videos to an external display.
Like most of the 5G smartphones this year, the LG V50 ThinQ 5G is powered by Qualcomm's first-generation 5G modem (X50) and its latest mobile processor, the Snapdragon 855. The 6.4-inch device also boasts a huge 4,000mAh battery to compensate for the increased power consumption of 5G.
T-Mobile delays the launch of its unlimited 5G service
On the other side of the spectrum (no pun intended), T-Mobile confirmed at the show that it's delaying until the second half of 2019 the commercial launch of its 5G service—which mostly use the 600 MHz frequency band—because of the lack of a 5G smartphone that can operate on the 600MHz spectrum.
Indeed, all of the 5G smartphones that were announced at MWC—except for the devices made by Huawei (Mate 20 5G and Mate X)—are powered by Qualcomm's X50 modem that can't operate on the 600 MHz frequency band.
However, just before the start of the show, Qualcomm unveiled the successor of the X50 modem, the X55, that will be compatible with the Bellevue, Washington-based wireless carrier's 5G network. But 5G smartphones powered by Qualcomm's X55 modem are not expected before the fall—the OnePlus 5G smartphone might be one of the 5G devices that T-Mobile is waiting for to commercially launch its 5G service as it has a close partnership with the Chinese manufacturer.
The good news, however, T-Mobile promised that its 5G service will be unlimited and won’t be more expensive than its current 4G LTE service which costs $70 per month.
AT&T is the first U.S. carrier with a (fake and real) 5G mobile service
The controversy surrounding AT&T's decision to rebrand a speedier version of its existing 4G LTE network "5G Evolution"—which has a theoretical peaked speed of 400 megabits per second (Mbps) but an average speed of 40 Mbps (versus less than 20 Mbps for 4G LTE)— followed the U.S. carrier to MWC where it announced an interesting partnership with Microsoft to connect the tech giant's cloud computing service Azure to its real 5G network, which is about twenty times faster. At my firm, Atherton Research, we believe that edge computing will be a major opportunity for service providers like AT&T to monetize their 5G network notably for ultra-low latency applications including autonomous driving, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), games, virtual reality, telemedicine or traffic systems.
The Dallas, Texas-based operator continues to expand its real 5G network, which currently is commercially available in twelve cities including Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, San Antonio, and Waco. By the end of the first half of 2019, AT&T's 5G+ network is expected to also include Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose.
Currently, the only 5G device available on AT&T's commercial 5G service is Netgear's Nighthawk 5G mobile hotspot which, starting from this spring, will cost $499 upfront and include 15 GB of data for $70 a month with no annual commitment. It's a bit pricey but I'm sure this will rapidly evolve over the next few months when the other carriers turn on their mobile 5G service.
Verizon adds third 5G smartphone
Verizon was the first of the major U.S. carriers to launch a 5G service last October.
However, unlike all the other 5G services covered in this report, Verizon's 5G Home high-speed broadband internet service is "fixed" and therefore is not a true mobile 5G service compatible with devices like smartphones or hotspots but only with a proprietary 5G hub provided by the operator. Verizon's 5G service is still in pilot phase and is currently available in limited areas of Sacramento, Los Angeles, Houston, and Indianapolis.
At MWC, the New-York-based operator announced that LG's first 5G smartphone will also be coming to Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network this summer—a 5G network that is expected to cover more than 30 cities in the first half of 2019. So far, Verizon has confirmed three 5G devices that will be operating on its 5G network: The LG V50, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, and Motorola's Moto Z3 smartphone with the 5G moto mod case that is magnetically snapped on the back of the smartphone.


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Blog: Which spirits category is the next big thing?
Lucy Britner | 13 May 2016
Drinks companies spend a lot of money on trying to predict trends. At last night's Worshipful Company of Distillers City debate, any strategists in the audience got a bit of forecasting for free.
The panel, which was made up of Nomura analyst Ian Shackleton, Craft Distilling Expo founder David T Smith, Chivas Bros CEO Laurent Lacassagne, Brown-Forman's chief brands & strategy officer Lawson Whiting and Adnams distiller John McCarthy, told the audience what they thought would be the "next big thing".
Unsurprisingly, Adnams' McCarthy (who makes lots of gin, among other things) plumped for gin, which he hopes will continue to grow for "several more years".
Next to answer, Whiting said that apart from whisk(e)y, "gin has the most potential in the US market", where it "hasn't been a great category". A gin purchase on the cards for B-F, perhaps?
Meanwhile, sticking to home turf, Smith said: "I think that we'll see four or five English whiskies come online in 2018. I think there will certainly be a bit of buzz around English whisky around then."
Also unsurprisingly, whisky was on the Chivas Bros' CEO's mind, though probably not English whisky.
"Whisky is a very strong trend," he said. "All emerging markets are whisky markets - India, Africa, South America, Asia."
Ian Shackleton, however, plumped for rum. His reason? The potential for Cuban brands when the embargo with America is lifted.
Poor old vodka didn't even get a mention.
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Meet three female CEOs of digital health companies that received over $2 million in venture funding recently.
By Amy Puliafito (Research & Marketing Manager, Rock Health)
Earlier this week, Tuesday, October 16, 2012 was Ada Lovelace Day, a day dedicated to supporting the accomplishments of women in technology and technology policy. Ada Lovelace is considered by many to be the world’s first computer programmer.
To celebrate, we are profiling three outstanding


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Noemi Griffin, Ashley Elmore, Casey Todd
Meals on Wheels
Food truck industry develops
November 14, 2014
Metro center! The rain is clearing up and we are headed your way for lunch! Make this rainy day bright.”
Gabriela Febres, co-owner of restaurant Arepa Zone, hastily updates her company’s Twitter feed. The food is prepped and ready to serve, and now all that is left to do is to turn on the engine and enter D.C. traffic. Febres’s restaurant is not the typical brick and mortar, but a part of a growing industry that involves four wheels and a tank of gas.
According to IBISworld, the food truck industry now claims $1 billion in revenue with 32,381 businesses, and Arepa Zone is one of them.
Febres got the idea to open up a Venezuelan restaurant around Thanksgiving of 2012, and she immediately knew a food truck was the best option.
“There really is only one place to eat Venezuelan food [in D.C.] and not many people know about it, so we were worried that Arepa Zone wouldn’t be well-known enough to bring people to the potential restaurant,” she said. “We saw the food truck as a better vehicle to bring Venezuela to the people and to have people get to know us.”
Dylan Genova, employee of Atlanta’s King of Pops food truck, believes reaching a wide range of customers is the most valuable benefit of owning a food truck. He sees the food truck as a way of bringing culinary variety to neighborhoods.
“All of these mobile carts give a little more flavor and a little more outreach to parts of the city that may not get it,” he said. “It brings people outside of the city and into these communities, which is something we desperately need.”
Genova and Febres also enjoy the variety of customers food trucks attract.
“People that come to food trucks are more adventurous than your average person,” Febres said. “We get a lot of people that want to try new things, and they just ask for the best meal and don’t even bother asking what’s in it.”
While working at the King of Pops, Genova encounters a wide array of people, from mayors to TV actors from the show “The Walking Dead.”
For Lindsay Davis, worker at the Pho Sho food truck, getting to explore different areas of Atlanta is one of her favorite parts about working in a food truck, even though working in one “is a little more difficult sometimes because it’s a smaller space and a faster pace.”
After writing a business plan and securing investments, Febres struggled to find a truck that would fit D.C.’s requirements of being 8.5 feet long bumper to bumper. She searched all over the country until she encountered David Ford.
Ford owns Food Truck South in Marietta, Ga., a company committed to designing customized food trucks. The idea for Food Truck South started after Ford began planning to open his own food truck in Florida.
“I was looking to get a truck and a couple of young people to work for me so I could hang out at the beach,” Ford said. “One thing led to another, and I saw how these trucks were being built. I wasn’t happy with it, so I said ‘Heck with them, I’ll do a better job than this.’”
Food Truck South prides itself in building food trucks professionally and legally. Every state has its own requirements for the design of a food truck, so Ford spends time checking the various “idiosyncrasies” of health departments to make sure his designs are up to code.
“I always tell people, this [food truck] is not something that someone can just build in their backyard,” he said. “It’s a complicated process.”
Beyond the structure of the vehicle, food truck owners face frequent inspections and must have four to five permit documents posted on the window at all times.
“There are people out there that think food trucks are dirty, which is completely false,” Ferbes said. “In the past six months we have been inspected seven or eight times. The [inspectors] really crack down on us. I have seen some trucks get shut down in the middle of lunch.”
Food truck owners also have to plan where they can park, and every city has different methods for securing a permit. In D.C., Ferbes participates in a lottery for parking areas.
Arepa Zone is usually parked next to at least three or four other trucks, but Febres doesn’t feel a competitive environment.
“Everyone is really helpful,” she said. “It’s a general rule of thumb.”
Genova experiences a similar environment.
“In the food truck industry, we’re all actually friends,” he said. “We try to help each other out, and everything is a really healthy balance of competition. We are never at each other’s throats.”
Ferbes has encountered some hostility from owners of traditional restaurants who feel food trucks are stealing potential customers.
“I believe customers are earned, not owned,” Febres said. “If you have good food, people will come back. If a food truck parks in front of your restaurant for a few hours and you are not confident enough in your food, then clearly the problem isn’t the food truck, it’s the restaurant.”
Whether there is hostility or not, Ford believes the industry is expanding rapidly.
From beginning his company by only building trucks for independent entrepreneurs, Ford now builds for larger companies like
Waffle House as well. Business is even expanding internationally. Ford is in the process of building the first food truck ever for Nigeria.
Aside from the restaurant business, other industries are jumping on the mobile-truck trend.
Ford built a boutique truck and is currently building three mobile real estate showroom trucks for large real estate companies. The idea is to drive these trucks on college campuses to attract potential renters for nearby condos.
Wherever the industry goes, Genova is glad he works in it.
“I’ve worked in a lot of food industries,” he said. “This is something completely different. The environment I work in can be stressful at times – we’re always trying to get new stuff out and get stuff done – but it’s the most fun I’ve had.”
Download this infographic.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Anonymous Amazonian demands withdrawal of face-recog kit from sale
Was your anti-surveillance letter sinkholed? Write a blog about it
Seemingly annoyed at being ignored, an anonymous person claiming to be an Amazon employee has repeated demands for the online behemoth to stop selling its Rekognition product to American police agencies.
In an anonymous letter posted on the Medium blogging site, the author – who claimed to be a current Amazon worker – alleges that a letter was sent to chief exec Jeff Bezos "and other executives" demanding that they not only discontinue the Rekognition police facial-recognition tech but also sever commercial ties with Peter Thiel's big data analytics outfit Palantir.
Though the post did not reproduce the letter, it appears to be the same one that was written in June making much the same arguments as the Medium blogger. That letter was posted on an internal staff wiki. Reading between the lines, it appears that Amazon's managers didn't respond in a way that pleased the blog post author – so he had another go at drawing attention to it, four months later.
Palantir has financial links to the CIA spy agency, via the latter's In-Q-Tel venture capital arm. Palantir flogs software to spooks and others for surveillance purposes and mapping trends of human activity for later exploitation.
Adopting the language of social justice activism, the blog post's author states that if Amazon does not end these products and commercial ties "the harm will be difficult to undo".
Amazon is designing, marketing, and selling a system for mass surveillance right now. Amazon's website brags of the system's ability to store and search tens of millions of faces at a time. Law enforcement has already started using facial recognition with virtually no public oversight or debate or restrictions on use from Amazon.
"Why are we building this?" wails the letter's author. "We all have the right to go about our lives without being constantly monitored by the government."
Tech workers in the US have increasingly begun kicking back against their employers' gleeful adoption of US military contracts. Earlier this year Google pulled out of Project Maven, which would have used its cloud-based AI to analyse American drone footage, while Amazon has already been criticised for the Rekognition project by the American Civil Liberties Union for the huge and obvious potential for misuse of such a powerful surveillance product.
Such technology is already in use in China, not a country known for its socially liberal attitudes.
For several months Amazon Web Services has offered a Secret Region, capitalised emphasis and all, in a direct push to attract more classified US government work. That attracted praise from, of all people, the CIO of the CIA, one John Edwards, who described it as "a key component of the Intel Community's multi-fabric cloud strategy" – thereby proving that even spooks aren't immune from marketing babble.
Amazon did not respond to our gentle query as to whether it wanted to respond. ®