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Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) and BYOD™ team up to provide the hospitality industry the future of health screening.
Article by: The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association
LANSING, MICH. – The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) has partnered with Michigan-based BYOD™ to provide employee health screening and contact tracing software through TEMP PROTECT™ and GUEST PROTECT™, offering value and resources to Michigan’s hospitality industry.
“We are proud to partner with BYOD™ to provide the best tools available for contact tracing,” said Justin Winslow, President & CEO of the MRLA. “As a Michigan-based company, BYOD™ leadership understands the complex environment in which restaurants and other businesses operate in our state to ensure the health and safety of customers and employees. Providing employee health screening and guest contact tracing software enables restaurant owners to effectively and securely do their part as we work toward full reintegration.”
GUEST PROTECT™ uses any smartphone with a camera to scan a QR code that is unique to the participating operator. The guest enters their name, phone number and email which then submits the encrypted data to a secure Amazon Web Services Cloud storage environment for retrieval if required by the health department. The process takes less than 20 seconds and can be completed by the guest or the operator. In the first day of use on November 3, 2020, more than 400 guests uploaded their data.
“In the restaurant business, people don’t see all the measures that are handled behind the scenes, but they have always trusted the right protocols were in place.” said Dave Dittenber, owner/founder of BYOD™. “As we operate within ‘the new normal’ and embrace more public-facing transparency, this technology shows consumers that restaurants are taking the necessary steps to create a safe dining environment.”
TEMP PROTECT™ is a mobile application that health screens staff via a five question survey and generates a QR code for location scanning. The staff member’s responses are then encrypted and stored in a secure cloud environment and accessible only to the administrator of the account. Importantly, this process provides a one-day work permit and staff must re-certify daily through the app.
MRLA and BYOD™ are currently onboarding MRLA Members to both platforms at no cost and non-members for $25 per month, per location.
To opt in or join the MRLA and take advantage of this no cost offer, visit mrla.org/byod.
BYOD™ is a Midland, MI-based Virtual Restaurant Manager powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Combining advanced analytics with deep learning from IoT technologies, its platform measures restaurant performance and provides real-time actionable step to reduce costs, increase revenue and support consistent operation. BYOD™ developed the Protect Suite of tools—TEMP PROTECT™, GUEST PROTECT™ and EVENT PROTECT™—to help restaurants and event spaces open, reopen and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, visit www.byod.ai, www.guestprotect.ai, www.tempprotect.ai and www.eventprotect.ai.
Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) is the recognized leader of Michigan’s hospitality industry, providing essential services to the foodservice and lodging community. Founded in 1921 as the Michigan Restaurant Association and now known as the MRLA, the Association represents over 5,000 Michigan foodservice and lodging establishments. The industry plays an integral role in Michigan’s economy, employing more than 595,000 people and creating nearly $40 billion in annual sales. For more information, visit www.mrla.org and www.detroitrla.org.


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Google IO, Google's annual developer conference, and we're at Moscone Center ready to live-blog this morning's keynote.It's Day Two at
Yesterday's keynote featured announcements about Android, Google Music, and Google movie-rentals, as well as news about extending the developer platform to include hardware via Google's Open Accessory API and Accessory Developer Kit.
What we didn't hear about was anything relating to Google's Chrome OS, and we're anticipating that will be the focus of today's keynote. Rumors are that Google will announce a $20/month Chrome notebook rental program aimed at students, but we're sure Google has more for us in store.
9:30 a.m.: Vic Gundotra takes the stage to welcome us to the second day of Google IO. He says that over 600,000 people tuned in yesterday to watch the keynote - "global enthusiasm."
9:32 a.m.: It's about the "open Web," says Gundotra as he introduces Sundar Pichai, Chrome's Senior VP
9:34 a.m.: There are now 160,000,000 active users - more than doubling since last year. Pichai chronicles what has happened over the last year with Chrome, adding a stable channel for Mac and Linux and rolling out releases every six weeks. This culminated this last week with the latest beta release of Chrome 12
9:36 a.m.: Pichai talks about the upcoming APIs in Chrome, and brings Ian Ellison-Taylor to the stage to talk about these new features:
- Speech support
9:43 a.m.: What's next? GPU acceleration for the canvas and WebGL. The demo utilizes the famous aquarium from Microsoft which now can be filled with hundreds of fish without losing frame-rates.
9:48 a.m.: Emphasis is on speed. But "writing these applications only matter if you can reach users." Hence the launch of the Chrome Web store. Users are spending more time in the apps - about a 2x increase. And game developers are also seeing about 2.5x increase in transactions.
9:49 a.m.: As of today, Chrome Web Store opens to all users, in 41 different languages. Although this will open up usage, the challenge of monetization still exists. Vikas Gupta from the Google Payments team now joins the stage to discuss in-app payments.
9:51 a.m.: Graphic.ly demoed as an example. Graphic.ly wanted users to be able to read a comic before they actually make a purchase - something that's now possible with the API. Gupta demonstrates that it only takes a single line of code to be able to add this.
9:53 a.m.: Gupta stresses keeping it simple for developers to monetize things. This new Payments platform is priced at a flat fee of 5% - that means 95% of what customers spend in an app stay with the developer.
9:55 a.m.: Gaming capabilities on the Web: Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka from talks about the challenges and now the ability to bring Angry Birds to the Web. Angry Birds will now be on "the biggest platform that's out there" - the Web. "It's a very smooth, very nice Angry Birds experience," says Vesterbacka, who says this version of the game is built using WebGL. The Web version will use local storage so that you can play the complete game offline. There will also be exclusive levels for Chrome users, as well as "The Mighty Eagle" that users will be able to buy to help them clear levels. "Let's pop some pigs!" - in other words, the game is available in the Chrome store now.
10:09 a.m.: People spend all their time on the Web, within a browser, "which was why we developed Chrome OS," says Pichai. "We wanted to rethink the entire experience and distill it down to nothing but the Web." Google says it's focusing on notebooks because that's where users are - Chromebooks.
10:10 a.m.: What's different about Chromebooks?
- Instant on
- Always connected
- All-day battery
- Access your stuff anywhere
- Gets better over time
- Security built in
10:13 a.m.: Cr-48 Pilot program has had over 1 million applicants. Pichai talks about the improvements on the devices: better support for Flash, for external devices. Kan Liu takes the stage to talk about Chrome OS's new file support functionalities - file attachments, music and video files, photos. New file extension APIs are built into the platform so that users will be able to have their files transferred easily to the cloud, no matter which apps they're using (such as Box.net)
10:23 a.m.: Addressing important use-cases for Chromebooks, such as using them offline. Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs will be available offline for users this summer.
10:24 a.m.: Showcasing various Chromebooks: from Samsung and Acer. There will be priced between $300-$500. They'll be available to order June 15 via a.m.azon and BestBuy in the U.S. Full jailbreaking capabilities.
10:27 a.m.: Businesses and schools: IT infrastructure complicated. Upgrades are costly. Emphasis on laptops, not desktops - which can bring security challenges when devices move in and out of firewall. But companies are moving to the cloud, says Pichai. Google has partnered with Citrix and VMware for virtualization. According to a Google survey, companies said that with the combination of virtualization and Web apps, they can move 75% of their users to Chromebooks.
10:32 a.m.: Working to develop a Web-based console from which IT administrators can manage users' apps and policies. Software and hardware packaged together - Chromebooks for Business that will be $28 per user per month. "Software and hardware as a service."
10:33 a.m.: School usage: "We want to make it possible for every student to have a computer." $20 per user per month for schools. These will be available, like consumers, starting June 15.
10:37 a.m.: Every Google IO attendee will get a Chromebook. (Do you hate me for live-blogging that? Sorry)
The Web is what you make of it

domain: news


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Temmler Pharma has a specialty portfolio of 13 products including key Central Nervous System (CNS) products
A day after announcing a $880-million acquisition in the US, drug maker Lupin said it will acquire speciality product portfolio from German company Temmler Pharma for an undisclosed amount.
Chief executive Vinita Gupta said Temmler’s business had a “strong strategic fit with Lupin’s Hormosan business in Germany and enables Lupin to bring an enhanced specialty central nervous system (CNS) portfolio to the German market.” Established in 1917, Temmler is a part of Aenova Group, a pharmaceutical contract manufacturer. Hormosan, also a German pharmaceutical company, was acquired by Lupin in 2008.
Based in Marburg, Germany, Temmler has a specialty portfolio of 13 products including key CNS products and specialty products that address rare disease areas like myasthenia gravis, huntington’s disease as well as fast-growing dermatology products for anti-wart treatment.
The announcement came after the close of business hours at the stock exchanges. On Friday, Lupin stock closed at Rs 1,672, down 3.27 per cent from the previous day’s close. This is the second consecutive day of decline in the stock price. On Thursday, the stock lost over five per cent after it announced a 16 per cent drop in consolidated net profit for the June quarter. The Mumbai-headquartered drug maker has lost Rs 6,844 crore of market value between Thursday and Friday owing to a drop of over eight per cent in stock price.
Earlier this week, the country’s biggest pharma company, Sun, lost over Rs 34,000 crore of market value in a day after the company said its profit will be ‘adversely impacted’ due to expenses related to integration with Ranbaxy, a company it acquired last year.
This is Lupin’s sixth acquisition in 18 months. In February 2014, it had acquired Netherlands-based Nanomi.
A month later, it acquired control of Mexican company Grin. In May, it bought Brazilian company Medquimica Industria Farmaceutica. Earlier this month, Lupin acquired ZAO Bio Biocom in Russia. On Thursday, it announced acquisition of New Jersey-based generic drugs firm GAVIS for $880 million. GAVIS is the largest overseas acquisition


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Building a successful personal brand can be a major contributor to overall organization or company brand success. We’ve seen big personalities like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg add value to brands like Virgin, Apple, and Facebook over years of their leadership. But it isn’t only companies that can add value to brands and reputations of the people that support them. It was a very dark time for the Catholic faith with much of the worlds’ population watching in the past few years as the Catholic faith was shaken by scandal after scandal. Then a leader of the faith (and thereby Catholic brand) emerged that began to help with the restoration of much of the trust that had previously been lost: Pope Francis.
Reaching the Masses
Pope Francis did something for Catholic followers (and the world, in general) and made himself more accessible. He stepped down from the ivory pedestal and started reaching out to interested audiences via social media. Not only does he and his staff tweet and re-tweet regularly, he ventures into the crowds that gather around him to take selfies with them!
The shift to social media for the Pope comes just in time too! According to a study conducted by Verizon, almost 50% of the Catholic Church’s audience used social media to connect with members of their faith and 68% of Catholic millennials use social media to share their faith. For the Pope’s tour across America, Emoji’s were even created specially marking the event and allowing social media users to share the Pope’s personal brand quickly. Knowing how to reach your target audience in ways that they like to be reached will strengthen your share of heart with audience – this is true of any business and organization, including religion!
Be Relevant and Like-able
While not everything that Pope Francis has done has been favoured by all that follow the Catholic faith, he has spoken on numerous hot button issues, addressing topics such as divorce, global warming, and even moderated and supported international diplomacy talks between the U.S. and Cuba (helping to restore peace after years of hostile relationship between the two countries). The public seems to enjoy and be more attentive to the messages that Pope Francis brings to them – they can appreciate that the leader of a major centuries-old religion can bring a good mix of tradition and current news to them.
To read more about Pope Francis and his social media team, check out this article by CNBC: A Pope for the social media age.


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Apple Maps is getting a Street View mode like Google Earth in iOS 13 – here's how the update works
'Look Around' mode is Apple's take on Street View
Apple Maps is adding a new feature that aims to replicate the exploratory nature of Google Maps' famed, 'Street View'.
The slight less snappily titled 'Look Around' mode is coming to the app with the iOS 13 update, and lets users visit far-flung streets.
When Apple Maps first launched, it wasn't well received, and has always trailed behind Google's much more established mapping tech.
The addition of Look Around is Apple's latest efforts to bring itself inline with Google. Here's everything you need to know about it:
How do I use Look Around?
The update to Apple Maps will be made available when iOS 13 launches for iPhone devices later this year.
The new iOS is currently available, but only through a developer beta, released early to allow those who create apps for Apples devices to get up to speed and make their products compatible with the new operating system.
Apple have said a public beta will be arriving in July, but it's not usually worth running this on your primary iPhone as the software - still under development - can cause instability and issues like decreased battery life.
If you do still want to take the plunge when the public beta rolls around, here's how to use Look Around:
1. Open Maps2. Search for an address, landmark, or city (not many locations have support for now, but the Bay Area has good coverage)3. Where it's available, a “Look Around” thumbnail with binoculars will appear in the bottom left corner - tap it4, Now you can pan with one finger, pinch to zoom, or tap further down the street to 'move'
It's worth noting that with the feature still in its infancy, Look Around doesn't yet have the same mass coverage as Google's Street View.
In recent years, Apple has been collecting imagery across the US and several other countries, but it's not expected to be up to the ubiquity of Street View upon launch.
And it's very possible it won't even launch in the UK to begin with, perhaps starting in the US, followed by a gradual global roll-out.
What other new features will iOS 13 have?
Unlocking with Face ID will be 30 per cent faster in iOS 13, and downloads will be 50 per cent smaller and uploads 60 per cent smaller, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said during Apple’s annual WWDC developers conference, adding that app launch is twice as fast as on iOS 12.
The long-awaited Dark Mode for iPhone received a hearty reception in the conference hall from the assembled developers. The new mode changes the background of apps and menus from white to black, with white overlaid text. You can also swipe to type along the keyboard, a bit like Microsoft’s Swiftkey.
Messages will now auto-support an image of a user when exchanging messages, and Memoji will be updated with make-up, accessories, hats and glasses (and AirPods).
Memoji will also be available through a set of digital stickers, automatically created for each Memoji the user makes, which can be used in Mail, Messages across all devices with an A9 chip or later.
The Photos app will now automatically remove duplicates, and pictures will be organised into Days, Months and Years.
Unknown callers will also be sent automatically to voicemail to avoid spam calls.


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Mobile transfer features can be found in the Microsoft Photos app in Windows 10, version 2018.18011.13110.0 or higher. Just make sure the phone and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network, then scan a code and start the transfer.
Microsoft has released a new app for wirelessly transferring videos and photos from mobile devices to the Windows 10 Microsoft Photos app.
The previous update made the Photos app nearly a truly universal app, though some advanced features such as Story Remix were missing on mobile. After that, you need to point the scanner available on the Photos Companion app at the QR code to begin the transfer. I'd personally like to see the ability to use the iOS or Android share features to send a photo quickly to your default Windows 10 PC, making it permanently easier to get photos you've taken straight onto your laptop or desktop machine. "We also knew that Wi-Fi access in the classroom was great between devices, but that any solution that required the cloud for transfer could be blocked by overloaded networks", the company added. This way there is no requirement of using the same Wi-Fi on the mobile and PC to transfer.
Colten Boushie's family meets federal ministers after acquittal in murder trial
Linda Charles wasn't surprised to see Gerald Stanley acquitted on Friday, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a painful experience. As set out by the Prime Minister of Canada , "Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike know that we have to do better".
Again in the Photos app, click the Import option in the top right corner and click "From mobile over WiFi" option in the drop-down menu.
The app is available for both Android and iOS devices. "This would enable students to transfer media to their own computers or to a shared, project PC without worrying about network speeds or mobile data charges", the Microsoft Garage team explains.
If primary functionality in your app requires authentication by using an app-specific account, you must publish the app from a company account type.


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February 23, 2020
Coimbatore, Feb 23 : US President, Donald Trump will receive a surprise but a valuable gift, a khadi shirt from a 90-year old master tailor from Pollachi, some 35 Kms from here.
V S Vishwanathan, a master tailor from Vettaikaranpudur had gifted such shirts to political leaders including late Tamil Nadu Chief
Ministers, K Kamaraj and C N Annadurai and also former President, R Venkataraman, his family sources said.
Vishwanathan was running a tailor shop and now due to old age, he was training budding tailors free of cost, they said.
He had stitched the white shirt after seeing Trump in television and also looking at his photograph and expressed confident that
the President will accept and appreciate his gesture.
The shirt was sent to PMO’s address at Delhi, with a mark to U S Embassy, the sources said.


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REGINA, SK – The Saskatchewan Craft Brewers Association (SCBA) has announced the release of the first collaborative beer to be brewed by its member breweries.
Saskatchewan Multigrain Pale Ale was brewed at Black Bridge Brewing in Swift Current, with brewers and representatives from all 13 SCBA members on hand to assist in the creation of the beer.
The beer is a 5.2% abv unfiltered pale ale brewed with a mixture of Saskatchewan barley, wheat, rye and oats, with the result being a “wonderfully hoppy but balanced” ale.
Multigrain Pale Ale is being launched today in 355 ml cans that will be available at all participating breweries, and select bars throughout the province.
For more details, see the profile and review at On Beer.


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Global guidewires market is expected to reach USD 2,197.2 million by 2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing prevalence of target diseases coupled with growing geriatric population base is expected to drive guidewire demand over the next six years. Technology innovation across various product segments, in terms of flexibility, tip retention etc. is also expected to boost market demand by catering to the requirements of healthcare practitioners.
Coronary guidewires dominated the overall market in terms of revenue, estimated at USD 700.1 million in 2013. Coronary guidewires market is expected to grow on account increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and the presence of high minimally invasive coronary procedure volumes.
To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/guidewires-market
Further key findings from the study suggest:
Global guidewires demand was 16,645.9 thousand units in 2013 and is expected to reach 25,640.2 thousand units by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2014 to 2020. Peripheral guidewires are expected to remain as the second largest product segment after coronary guidewires during the forecast period. In terms of revenue, the market for peripheral guidewires is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6.0% from 2014 to 2020 due to increasing prevalence of peripheral vascular diseases (PVDs), peripheral artery diseases (PADs), abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) and carotid artery stenosis (CAS). North America dominated the overall market in terms of revenue share in 2013 majorly on account of the presence of high prevalence levels of cardiovascular and neurovascular disorders and sophisticated healthcare infrastructure Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing regional market for guidewires, driven by increasing demand for medical tourism in emerging markets of India and China and rapidly improving healthcare...
Please join StudyMode to read the full document


text: Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla vehicles made within the past 2 years are getting upgraded auto-parking features. The new upgraded 'Summon' feature will allow Tesla vehicles to drive around a parking lot, read parking signs and find a parking spot on its own. Then the owner can summon the car to them or have it follow the owner like a pet by holding down the summon button. Also owners will be able to use the phone app to remote drive their cars like a big RC car if they are in line of sight of the vehicle. Tesla advanced Summon ready in ~6 weeks! Just an over-the-air software upgrade, so will work on all cars made in past 2 years (Autopilot hardware V2+). Car will drive to your phone location & follow you like a pet if you hold down summon button on Tesla app. Also, you'll be able to drive it from your phone remotely like a big RC car if in line of sight. For those unfamiliar, this uses Tesla Autopark/Summon. Slightly smarter version hopefully ready soon. By next year, a Tesla should be able to drive around a parking lot, find an empty spot, read signs to confirm it's valid & park.


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Mini 50 Mayfair -- Click above for high-res image gallery
Bmw Peugeot Partnership
BMW has said "non, merci" to continuing its diesel engine partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroen. The two automakers began working together two years ago to create 1.4- and 1.6-liter gasoline engines for BMW's MINI and PSA cars. Despite both companies at the end of last year looking at expanding their joint research into a high-tech engine, the synergies weren't providing the cost benefits desired with the small engine, so the affair has come to an end.
- Volvo shoots for self-drivers by 2021
- Jeep spends $1 billion on factories
- Find Parts & Accessories for your vehicle!
- Obama rolls out new EV plan
- Infiniti dealers ranked best, Tesla worst
- Compare Volvo XC90 and Lincoln MKX


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During the Ubisoft Forward E3 presentation, the folks at Blue Mammoth Games shared a new crossover announcement for Brawlhalla. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to the popular fighting game on June 16th available on all platforms.
There hasn’t been information revealed yet as far as the new weapons, stages and everything else this crossover brings. We assume Blue Mammoth Games will announce a dev stream soon to share all the juicy details!
In the past Brawlhalla has done crossovers with the WWE, Adventure Time, Hellboy, Tomb Raider, and most recently Kung Fu Panda. So this is no surprise that Blue Mammoth Games and Ubisoft came together to come up with another fan favorite crossover.
Brawlhalla is currently available on Xbox Series XlS, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mobile.


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Apple iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 users report display freeze, green screen after updating to iOS 16
In the latest development, it has been reported that some iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 13 users are facing the green screen and display freeze issues. The iOS 16 bug has not only affected the latest iPhone 14 series, but it has also affected iPhone 13 users.
Apple has released the eagerly anticipated iOS 16 update for all users, and both consumers and experts have applauded the new features. According to the most recent information, certain iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 13 customers are reportedly experiencing green screen and display freezing difficulties. Numerous purchases of the iOS 16 upgrade have appeared over the last several weeks.
A report claims that owners of the iPhone 13 have also been impacted by the iOS 16 problem, in addition to the most recent iPhone 14 series. The customers appear to be dealing with an issue that causes the smartphone to entirely cease functioning due to the screen freezing.
After the iOS 16.1 upgrade, customers of the iPhone 14 Pro began to experience this problem. A number of iPhone 14 Pro users have taken to social media to voice their concerns and showcase the issue. Users have posted videos of their phones frozen in the freezing bug. According to a YouTube video, the Spotlight Search menu on the iPhone 14 Pro frequently freezes. You can see in the video that the user was attempting to return to the home screen, but it was proving unsuccessful. In addition, owners of the iPhone 13 apparently experience a green display problem in which the entire screen becomes green.
Following the iOS 16 upgrade, the green display problem also surfaced on the iPhone 13. Restarting the phone does not fix the problem, and the green screen is meaningless. You may obtain a new display for your phone if it still has a warranty. Users must endure the discomfort until Apple releases the next iOS 16.2 update, which appears to include a cure for these vulnerabilities.


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Since getting its funding late last year, Foursquare has been spending much of its time rapidly expanding the list of cities the service is available in. But the reality was that it couldn’t expand this way fast enough. So it should be no surprise that they’re throwing that all away. Yes, as the service has officially announced today (as CNET scooped a few days ago), you can now use Foursquare anywhere in the world. And there’s a lot more they’ve been working on as well.
Of the new things, perhaps most notable is that the service is now on a wide variety of platforms. While it’s been out for the iPhone and Android for some time now, the Palm Pre finally has an app, as does BlackBerry, which will officially launch next week (5,000 people are currently testing it, including some TechCrunch staffers). Also of note is that Foursquare is completely redesigning both its website and its iPhone app. We’ve been using an early build of the newest version of the iPhone app (1.5) for a few weeks now, and it definitely looks nicer and seems to run more smoothly. This latest version, which should hit the App Store soon, will officially remove the city-based restrictions and improved the location-finding abilities of the app.
Alongside the move to a global game, Foursquare is expanding its badging capabilities. Badges are graphical items users earn for doing certain things in certain places. For example, if you check in at a gym a certain amount of times in a set period of time, you get a “Gym Rat” badge. While other gaming elements of Foursquare, such as the point system, seem to lose their luster over time, the badges remain something that users long for. And with some backend changes to the service, Foursquare finally hopes to be able to add more badges quickly (you can suggest new ones here).
With the move away from cities, you’ll no longer have duplicate badges for various things, such as “Newbie,” the first time you check-in to a city, but instead these will all be consolidated. That said, there will still be badges that you can only get in certain cities.
The aforementioned point system is also getting tweaked. Again, because of the move away from the idea of “cities,” Foursquare will now have a point leaderboard that is based around proximity rather than an entire city. For example, you may see that you’re among the point leaders in a 25 mile radius. And Foursquare hints that the entire point system is going to be overhauled at some point in the near future to make the game more interesting, and to curb cheating.
Another big change to the service is that you will no longer be required to use an address to create a new venue. This was the biggest barrier to entry in doing so, and Foursquare is making it option by tagging the place you are creating with your GPS coordinates. This is a bit risky since there will likely be a flood of fake or wrong venues now, but it’s obviously important for the global expansion. This method is similar to what rival Gowalla does when users add new venues. The problem with GPS tagging is that it doesn’t work well indoors, but the services are slowly getting better at using other means (WiFi triangulation) to get the location data too.


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A new look at the Wii U hardware digs into what it’s capable of and whether or not third party developers are utilizing its...
Sony is the new owner of a factory that makes Wii U DRAM chips. But Nintendo is already looking for new partners.
A new tech comparison between the Wii U and the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of a game.
Illustration shows the components that make up the Wii U multi chip module.
The Wii U is a very power efficient games console, consuming only half of the power compared to other systems on the market.
The repair costs for the Wii U console and the GamePad controller are quite hefty, as a new report reveals.
Wii U has a 3-core main processor that runs at just 1.2 GHz, according to a Wii hardware hacker.
Take a look inside at the hardware that powers the Wii U and GamePad.
Mixed opinions emerge about the “rattling sound” made by the Wii U GamePad.
8 GB Wii U version will only have about 3 GB left to store games, which is not enough to store Nintendo Land as...
Scanned images of the Wii U instruction manual have leaked on the web.
Nintendo reveals the Wii U mainboard, processors, and other details.
A wild rumor suggests that a Nintendo rep said the Wii U was 19 times more powerful than the PlayStation 3.
Developer behind Nano Assault Neo says the Wii U is the strongest console at the moment.
Enough storage for everything that’s on the eShop. And more.
Up close and personal with the Wii U and its GamePad controller.


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VeChain and OrionOne Ink Partnership to Foster Blockchain Adoption Amongst Logistics Firms.
Saying our integration partnership with US-based logistics software program firm, OrionOne Inc.!
By integrating #VeChain ToolChain, OrionOne gives a seamless #blockchain onboarding expertise for purchasers whereas delivering a revolution for provide chains.https://t.co/vo51GQAQx9 pic.twitter.com/psLPeQDpcx
— VeChain Basis (@vechainofficial) August 10, 2022
VeChain has introduced a partnership with OrionOne Inc to mix their applied sciences to foster the adoption of blockchain applied sciences amongst logistics firms.
Per a current announcement, the combination of Vechain and OrionOne applied sciences will allow the latter to supply logistics firms the chance of using blockchain of their companies with out investing in community infrastructure and digital currencies.
The provision chain trade is estimated to develop to $42 billion per yr by 2027. Regardless of this hypothesis, the trade nonetheless has many challenges for creating distinctive alternatives for blockchain innovation. Commenting on the event, Jason Rockwood, the US arm of VeChain Inc., stated:
“A key barrier to large blockchain adoption is the applying layer that connects infrastructure to particular enterprise issues. OrionOne simplifies the information gathering mechanism and makes the worth of blockchain tangible and straightforward to deploy. This in flip saves company purchasers money and time whereas staying present with the most recent improvements in provide chain expertise.”
Previous to the partnership, OrionOne already provided logistics firms the power to arrange and handle folks, items, and assets throughout the whole provide chain.
OrionOne’s companies additionally entail offering an outline of a product’s motion to the market. OrionOne’s integration of VeChain’s tech to the platform will additional improve its companies to logistics firms.
The press launch acknowledged that an up to date model of OrionOne’s web site with VeChain’s performance can be rolled out by August 15, 2022.
Tommy Stephenson, CEO of OrionOne, took outing to heap reward on VeChain for its prowess in growing dependable blockchain and provide chain options.
“In terms of blockchain and provide chain, there’s just one sport on the town, and that’s VeChain. No different entity can compete with their low-cost, fast deployment, and ease of use,” Stephenson stated, including:
“We’re excited to combine their blockchain into our merchandise to carry VeChain to a wider community of purchasers.”
Rising Adoption of VeChain
VeChain’s answer has been widely adopted across various sectors, particularly provide chain and logistics. In June, UFC, a blended martial arts group, introduced it had chosen VeChain to grow to be its official blockchain companion.
In the meantime, VeChain CEO Sunny Lu not too long ago introduced that the company wants to use its tech to change the world.
– Commercial –


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Latest Ford Australia Stories
With its largest, most interactive display ever, Ford is highlighting an impressive array of new products and technologies at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show while the company gears itself to capitalize on growth in China and across the Asia Pacific and Africa region.
DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) today announced the retirements of two senior executives in the Asia Pacific and Africa region and announced other key executive appointments to support the company's "One Ford" transformation plan.
- Forsooth! indeed! originally a parenthetical phrase used in repeating the words of another with more or less contempt or disdain.


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Verizon Wireless Opens New Retail Location in Downtown Portland
Three-Day Celebration Will Include Appearance by Trail Blazer Dancers
October 15, 2001
In response to growing demand for Verizon Wireless' communications products and services, the nation's largest wireless provider has opened its newest retail store in Portland. Located at 635 S.W. Morrison (next to The Gap), the store has created nine new jobs. The company now owns and operates 11 Verizon Wireless Communications stores and kiosks employing 70 people throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.
As part of the Grand Opening celebration, the first 100 customers who sign up for new service from October 19 through 21 will receive a $35 service credit after activation. Radio stations KGON and KVMX will broadcast live from the store during the celebration, giving away prizes, movie passes, and autographed posters signed by the Trail Blazer dancers. The dancers will be at the store to sign autographs on Sunday, October 21 between noon and 2 p.m.
"Wireless communications products and services are becoming more affordable everyday, especially with our current offering," said Patrick DeMers, manager for the Portland store. "Customers can take advantage of Verizon Wireless' 3,000 free nights and weekend home airtime minutes per month for life on local, regional, national or Family SharePlans, The annual plans have a monthly access fee of $35 or higher. As long as a customer chooses an eligible rate plan, and stays on that plan, he or she will always have 3,000 (nights and weekend) home airtime minutes. The Family SharePlans currently have a companion equipment offer-buy one Nokia 5185i for $29.99 and get up to 3 additional phones free, one for each activated line."
Verizon Wireless retail stores offer a premier line of digital wireless phones, data products and hands-free calling accessories. Customers can check out the latest wireless Internet and two-way text messaging services, including Mobile Web, Mobile MessengerSM and Mobile Office.
The new retail location is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless communications provider in the U.S. with more than 28.7 million wireless voice and data customers. The coast-to-coast wireless provider was formed by the combination of the U.S. wireless businesses of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD), including Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless and PrimeCo Personal Communications. Verizon Wireless has a footprint covering more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, 49 of the top 50 and 97 of the top 100 U.S. markets. The company, headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, is 40,000 employees strong. Reporters and editors can find more information about the company on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com.


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Compared to its neighbours in Southeast Asia, Malaysia was late to get on the FTA train. But now it does not want to be left out of the major deals, it seems.
Malaysia signed its first FTAs with Japan in 2005. In 2007, it signed with Pakistan. It also has FTAs with Chile (2010) , India (2011) and New Zealand (2009), It has been in FTA talks with the US, but these have effectively been shelves since 2009. It is in negotiations with Australia, and may commence negotiations with the GCC and EFTA.
As member of ASEAN, it is also party to the agreements with China, India, Korea and Japan, and the negotiations with Australia/New Zealand and the EU.
last update: May 2012
The government will expand investment and trade opportunities by signing new free trade agreements, particularly with nations in West Asia and other emerging markets.
Malaysia hopes to draw up a frawework for free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries by October, said International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.
Turkey is ready to commence Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Malaysia after positive exploratory talks between the two countries early this year, Turkish ambassador to Malaysia Serap Ataay said.
Malaysia, which is currently in the midst of negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), will look at several sectors including Islamic banking to be included in the FTA.
Malaysia and India are on target to sign a free-trade agreement by year-end as the two countries readied for a third round of talks.
"The US bilateral (free-trade) talk is not on, so we have to explore other alternatives. It is for that reason we are keen to come on board (the TPP) subject to local consultations," Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed says
Malaysia can have a free trade pact with the European Union (EU), EU ambassador Vincent Piket said, the second in Asean after Singapore.
The Malaysian government is committed to the regional free trade agreement (FTA) with China that came into force on Jan 1, although some parties have expressed concerns the trade liberalisation agreement would hurt local manufacturers.
Malaysia is close to finalising its first Free Trade Area (FTA) deal with Chile and the Latin American leader plans to sign it during a visit to Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia and New Zealand signed a free trade deal on Monday after four years of negotiations, in an agreement Malaysia hopes will see it become a gateway to investment in Southeast Asia.


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When it was announced that the incredibly popular granddaddy of all kart racers, Mario Kart, was getting a virtual reality (VR) adaptation at the VR Zone in Tokyo, fans all over the world immediately started planning how much it would cost for a trip to Japan. For European fans at least, there is now a more local option, as Mario Kart VR is heading to London.
HTC Vive have announced that the official European launch of the Mario Kart VR Experience will take place at the Hollywood Bowl in London on Thursday 2nd August, 2018, where it will open to the media, followed by a public opening the next day.
The experience will become part of the VR Zone Portal located within the Hollywood Bowl at The O2, where it will offer up to four players the chance to climb into a specially design Mario-themed kart before racing against each other as Mario, Luigi, Peach or Yoshi.
The experience is powered by the HTC Vive, along with the Vive Tracker, which will let players physically grab items such as banana skins to throw at opponents and potentially send them spinning off the course. The Mario Kart VR Experience boasts haptic feedback to give players a jolt when they crash into a barrier or another racer to give an extra dose of immersion.
Following the London launch, there are plans to bring the Mario Kart VR experience to other Hollywood Bowl location at VR Zone Portals in places such as Leeds or Tunbridge Wells.
Steve Burns, CEO, Hollywood Bowl Group, said: “We continue to evolve our innovative bowling and wider family entertainment centres, which offer customers a fully immersive entertainment experience in a premium environment. The launch of the iconic Mario Kart VR at Hollywood Bowl is an exciting introduction, as it brings virtual reality gaming to our customers on a large and accessible scale.”
Access to the Mario Kart VR experience can be booked in advance, though spaces will be limited on launch day. Further information can be found on the Hollywood Bowl website. As usual, VRFocus will keep you updated on any further developments.
Update: The article originally indicated that Mario Kart VR would launch on the 2nd August, which will be the media opening, with the attraction opening to the public the next day. The article has now been edited to clarify.


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Don’t know what tbt or oitnb mean on Twitter? The online social media service is now trying to help explain through a new trial feature.
Searches for these clusters of letters following a symbol — known as hashtags — will now display an explanation in addition to associated tweets. The feature, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, was rolled out Friday for users of the Twitter app on iPhone.
For instance, Twitter now explains that tbt stands for “Throwback Thursday,” which involves users posting photos from their past, and oitnb refers to “Orange is the New Black,” the popular Netflix series that has sparked social media conversation.
For those unfamiliar with hashtags: Anyone can create one. The symbol was originally started by Twitter users as a way to mark topics and keywords for which others can search. Hashtags can help users locate subjects and tweets in which they are interested without having to follow specific people.
The company has been trying to make its user experience friendlier. Twitter can be bewildering to some new users who aren’t sure whom to follow, what to tweet or what hashtags mean — potentially limiting the company’s growth.
According to the company’s latest quarterly financial statement, Twitter now has 271 million monthly active users, up 6.3 percent from the 255 million regular users in the previous quarter. Mobile users make up 78 percent of all active users.
Revenue for the second quarter of 2014 reached $312 millions, an increase of 124 percent from the same period last year. Twitter’s new product features, such as the service built around the World Cup that provided real-time scoring and match timelines, gave the company a boost in the second quarter of 2014.
The hashtags are part of Twitter’s strategy to widen the service’s appeal, but some users may still be confused by other hashtags that don’t have explanations attached. For instance, no definition is given for MH17, which stands for the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed in Ukraine last month.
It’s not uncommon to see Twitter try out new features with a small number of users. The hashtag explainer is not available yet for desktop or mobile Android users, which suggests the company is still experimenting and may not necessarily roll it out for all users. Twitter could not immediately be reached for comment.
While Twitter’s user base is growing, the rate of growth is slowing. And despite its surge in revenue last quarter, the company reported a net loss of $144.6 million.


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Discussions with the Japanese Pharmaceutical Medical Device Agency (PMDA) achieved a clear regulatory pathway and acceptance of Immunomic Therapeutics’ LAMP-vax DNA vaccine technologies to continue
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The Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) and the Oxford University Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health have recently begun collaborating to develop a global standard
- To writhe; struggle or twist about with more or less force; wriggle.
- To scribble, jot.


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The Mazda CX-5 made its way out at the LA Auto Show and it showed off some new looks. However what wasn’t made clear at the show was whether the vehicle was going to be the 2017 model or the 2018.
The Mazda CX-5 is a big change taking the carmaker forward into the premium market, just as all the others in the line-up are. Mazda wants to break into the premium market in a big way and while they have been taking it slow, they are slowly but surely heading towards being able to compete with brands from such as Audi and Porsche.
While people enjoyed seeing the Mazda CX-5 on show there was a great deal of confusion as to whether it would be called the 2017 Mazda CX-5 or the 2018 version. Reports suggested that it was going to arrive as the 2017 version but then these were contradicted by some people saying it would be branded as the 2018.
People kept thinking about the Honda CR-V as this is what happened with that vehicle. The 5th gen was supposed to arrive as the 2018 model but it was then revealed to be the 2017 model. Many people wondered whether the same was going to apply to the Mazda CX-5.


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Earlier today, we reported that the new Apple Watch Series 6 and watchOS 7 will include new health-focused features, such as blood oxygen detection and improved ECG functionality.
Now, 9to5Mac – which is where that information came from – has the scoop on more new features that are coming Apple Watch users’ way, including new watch faces, watch face sharing, and more – thanks to watchOS 7.
The publication has gained access to leaked iOS 14 code snippets, which exposes upcoming Apple Watch and watchOS features, including:
- Infograph Pro Watch Face – The new watch face will include a tachymeter. A tachymeter can be used to compute speed, based on travel time.
- Photos Watch Faces – Photo watch faces can be made using a shared album in addition to individual photos and groups of photos from albums.
- Share Your Face – watchOS 7 will allow users to share specific watch face configurations with other users.
- Parental Controls – watchOS 7 will offer the ability to manage an Apple Watch for a child via a parent’s phone. The feature will include a “Schooltime” feature that allows parents to manage the apps and complications that can be used by children during specific hours.
- Control Center – Control center will offer new switches for sleep mode and noise detection.
- Architecture – In watchOS 7, apps will no longer be based on extensions, which is a holdover from when apps required a phone app to function.
While details on watchOS 7 will be revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (whenever that will be held), any Apple Watch Series 6-specific features will not be revealed until the new Watch debuts in the fall.


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Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD) and Acme Innovation today announced the inaugural cohort for its new accelerator program Collider On The Lot, which provides entrepreneurs with connections to investors, executive-level education, and the opportunity to partner with Warner Bros. Discovery and Acme to explore new business models utilizing emerging technologies.
The promising startup companies, ranging from media platforms to software developers and digital marketplaces, demonstrated innovative, future-forward strategies for engaging fans of beloved brands and elevating digital experiences across the industry during the program’s kickoff event in September 2023 on the Warner Bros. Discovery lot in Burbank, CA.
Selected from hundreds of applicants, Collider On The Lot’s official cohort includes:
Feature is leading a transformative shift in the media landscape, leveraging blockchain and proprietary technologies to revolutionize content marketing, engagement, and loyalty. As a next-generation media platform, Feature’s Smart Content converts passive viewers into engaged fans. By connecting creators and brands to their audiences, Feature is increasing marketing returns and creating deeper customer relationships. To learn more about their technology and projects, visit feature.io.
Flawless is a leading technology company pioneering the generative AI revolution in film and entertainment. Flawless empowers storytellers to achieve their visions by providing groundbreaking post-production tools, trained entirely upon legitimately sourced data, within a breakthrough rights management system that guarantees artist consent and compensation. Honored among TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions, Flawless is the world’s first platform offering responsible, cinema-quality GenAI tools at scale all while protecting the rights and interests of creative talent in front of and behind the camera. For more information on Flawless and demonstrations of its technologies, visit flawlessai.com.
Flickplay is the destination to buy digital toys and discover games and social experiences connected to them. Leveraging their mix-reality commerce and community platform, Flickplay is partnering with some of the biggest entertainment platforms in the world to commercialize digital toys, and empower fans to engage with their favorite characters in their everyday experiences. Redefining play time with their digital toys, and connecting communities of fans all around the world. For more information, please visit flickplay.co.
Fr0ntierX’s software provides enterprises with intelligent data. The proprietary verification suites–including data, identity, and interaction–utilize blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to ensure information is verified, secure, and auditable. These analytics improve business logic and allow for more profitable and strategic decision making. For more information, please visit fr0ntierx.com.
Hexagram creates worlds, developing experiences and technology to bring interactive narratives and characters to life at a level of detail never before thought possible. Their proprietary world platform has already found partners and customers in branded media and some of the biggest names in entertainment and technology. For more information, please visit hexagram.io.
INFLUENCE by The London Fund enables creators and IP holders to generate venture returns by transforming media to equity. Through its proprietary ECHO CHAMBER (TM) technology, INFLUENCE (r) created the world’s first fifth generation media channel with over 270 billion potential impressions. For more information, please visit thelondonfund.com.
Inworld provides a suite of tools that enable AI-powered gameplay. Inworld NPCs exhibit complex and lifelike behaviors, increasing player engagement and immersion. Distinct character personalities can be configured in minutes. AI NPCs express personalities through multimodal AI designed to mimic the full range of human expressions. For more information, please visit inworld.ai.
Koobrik is an innovative automated development tool that revolutionizes the way producers, studio executives, and talent representatives interact with film/TV scripts, books and the associated data. Koobrik streamlines screenplay data management to ensure that all creative data is captured, enabling entertainment executives to read more scripts, discoverstories they want to produce, and keep pace with the ever-evolving speed of the culture. For more information, please visit koobrik.com.
Mod.io is the leading user-generated content (UGC) solution for game studios and publishers, pioneering official UGC support across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, mobile, and VR. Since launching in 2018, mod.io has gone live in more than 160 games, and powers millions of UGC installs daily. Mod.io offers an automated, scalable, easy-to-implement platform for studios seeking to harness UGC in their game. The results are long-term player engagement, and a pathway to creator economies. For more information, please visit mod.io.
Mojito, through their APIs, helps brands increase engagement, acquire new customers, and increase revenue. Mojito powers this with Web3 tech that’s invisible to, and seamless for, end customers. For more information, please visit getmojito.com.
New Canvas is an award-winning, next-generation media company that produces and publishes immersive entertainment for digital-first audiences with an unapologetic focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging for the Metaverse. New Canvas is focused on developing content and formats to help drive mainstream adoption of immersive media. For more information, please visit newcanvas.co.
Quivr is a decentralized social network that gives users access to authentic communities while owning their real online identities. For more information, please visit quivr.com.
Reveel is a payment solution for the collaboration economy. Their revenue share protocol & on-chain account infrastructure allows brands to automate accounting operations, facilitating payouts to creators, collaborators & partners. For more information, please visit r3vl.xyz.
“Collider On The Lot underscores our commitment to fostering the next generation of visionaries,” said Bruce Campbell, Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer at Warner Bros. Discovery. “We’re looking forward to the unparalleled growth and advancements this program will provide for both Warner Bros. Discovery and companies announced here today.”
Moving forward, the official cohort will be guided by Acme Innovation and have the opportunity to collaborate with Warner Bros. Discovery to develop future approaches to creating transformative digital experiences, empowering new storytelling formats and content production opportunities, and engage fans of iconic IP and brands across multiple platforms.
“We’re exploring innovative approaches that will lead to long-term, lasting changes in what this business looks like,” said Mark Ross, CEO of Acme Innovation. “There is a tidal wave of technological disruption happening, and we have a golden opportunity to determine how to implement these new technologies in a responsible and thoughtful manner.”
For more information on these 13 standout companies please visit www.collideronthelot.com.


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Singapore Airlines will operate the world's longest commercial flights from 11 October, with the start of its near-19 hour nonstop Singapore-Newark service.
Using A350-900ULRs configured with 161 seats, the Star Alliance carrier will initally fly thrice-weekly on the route, before growing to daily frequency on 18 October.
SIA will receive its first A350-900ULR in September, with the remaining six on order scheduled for delivery by the end of the year. All seven aircraft feature 67 business and 94 in premium economy class seats.
Plans to launch nonstop Singapore-Los Angeles services will be announced at a later date. Its Singapore-Frankfurt-New York John F. Kennedy service will continue to be in operation.
"Singapore Airlines has always taken pride in pushing the boundaries to provide the best possible travel convenience for our customers, and we are pleased to be leading the way with these new non-stop flights using the latest-technology, ultra-long-range Airbus A350-900ULR," says SIA's chief executive Goh Choon Phong.
"The flights will offer our customers the fastest way to travel between the two cities – in great comfort, together with Singapore Airlines’ legendary service - and will help boost connectivity to and through the Singapore hub."
SIA last operated nonstop services between Singapore and Newark in 2013, when it returned the Airbus A340-500s that were used at that time to the manufacturer.
Source: Cirium Dashboard


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Maine’s 2019 cruise ship season has begun with Bar Harbor getting its third ship visit Friday and Portland scheduled to get its first visit of the year Saturday.
Bar Harbor, the busiest cruise ship port in Maine, had its first visit April 28 when the Zaandam dropped anchor in Frenchman Bay for the day. The Zaandam, which carries 1,400 passengers and 600 crew members, was back in port Friday as it made the return leg from visiting ports in Canada. Amadea visited on May 5.
Bar Harbor is scheduled to get 177 visits this year, and Portland, Maine’s second-busiest cruise ship port, is scheduled to get 100. Pearl Mist is expected to be the first ship to visit Portland when it pulls into the Ocean Gateway terminal Saturday morning, according to a schedule posted on the city’s website.
Information about cruise ship visits scheduled this year for other Maine ports, which typically get far fewer visits than Bar Harbor or Portland, was unavailable Friday.
There are fewer bookings for Bar Harbor this year than there were in 2018, when 181 visits were scheduled for the Mount Desert Island town, but at least 20 cancellations by big and small ships limited the number of actual visits to around 160.
Bad weather most often is the reason for canceled cruise ship visits in Bar Harbor, where ships drop anchor in Frenchman Bay and then ferry passengers ashore in tenders. If the waves are deemed too rough for passengers to disembark onto the smaller vessels, the ships continue on to a more sheltered port on their itinerary.
Most cruise ship visits in Maine occur during the fall months. More than 100 of Bar Harbor’s visits are scheduled from September through early November. Of Portland’s 100 scheduled visits, 58 are expected during that same timeframe.
If none of Bar Harbor’s scheduled visits cancel, the seaside town would host 275,000 cruise ship passengers this year, assuming all the ships are fully booked and all passengers come ashore, according to information posted on the town’s website. Portland would host more than 150,000 passengers this year if none of its scheduled visits is canceled.
According to economic impact studies on the cruise industry, cruise ship firms and passengers together directly spend tens of millions of dollars in Maine each year. Cruise ship passengers are estimated to spend more than $100 apiece in each port they visit, industry analysts have said.


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The Coronavirus outbreak is prompting several technological giants to clear their commitments at the 2020 edition of the Mobile World Congress. the heavy absences confirmed in the past few days, which include LG, Ericsson, Nvidia, Amazon and Sony, are now joined by Intel, Vivo and NTT DoCoMo.
Withdrawals could put the realization of MWC 2020 at risk and the pressure for the GSMA to make a decision regarding the direction of the technological fair is increasing.
According to the Spanish press, the organization of the event has called an emergency meeting of the council for the next 14th of February, which may be anticipated.
Catalonia's regional government, Generalitat, is also working in collaboration with GMSA.
Intel is the third US company to cancel its participation in the technological fair in Barcelona.
The safety and well-being of all employees and partners is our priority and, for this reason, we decided not to be present at this year's Mobile World Congress, advances the technological giant in an international press release.
Like the North American manufacturer, Vivo indicates that its decision relates to ensuring the safety of its employees and the public.
The Chinese company planned to unveil its new Apex 2020 smartphone on February 23 at MWC.
However, Vivo clarifies in a press release that it will postpone the presentation of the equipment and make its plans known soon.
NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese telecommunications operator, clarifies in a statement that it will also cancel its participation in MWC 2020 in order to ensure the safety and well-being of its customers, partners and employees.
For now, the Japanese company does not advance if its CEO, Kazuhiro Yoshizawa, remains one of the members of the panel of speakers.
Concerns about the Coronavirus outbreak have also led companies like Samsung to reduce its presence at the fair and also technological ones like ZTE and, more recently TCL to cancel the press conferences they had planned for MWC 2020.
For now, the three manufacturers maintain their decision to exhibit and participate in the event organized by the GSMA.
It is recalled that the GMSA has already reacted to a recent wave of cancellations.
In a statement released on February 9, the association clarified that the technological fair will continue as planned, although the Coronavirus is causing some disruption in terms of the number of participating companies.
The GSMA announced that it is taking even more precautions in addition to the previously announced set of preventive measures.
The entry of participants from Hubei province to the event is not allowed.
The decision may have an impact on the participation of companies such as Lenovo, aXiaomi, Siemens or SchneiderElectric, which are represented in the Chinese region.
To date, organizations have not yet indicated what direction they are going to take.
The GSMA indicated that all individuals who have been to China will have to provide proof of how they left the country at least 14 days before the event.


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Upcoming 12 months, e-commerce will be a driving pressure in how entrepreneurs have interaction with shoppers. E-commerce approaches will penetrate channels like Tv, social media and in-retailer encounter, to a increased extent than marketers could have imagined.
Entrepreneurs will adapt their e-commerce techniques to be a lot more individualized, simplify their customer info and marketing and advertising stack, include shoppable advertisements and even retrain their in-retailer associates to improved accommodate digital-first customers.
The future of e-commerce will be pushed by personalization. To make improvements to accuracy in messaging, as properly as ROI, models will have to simplify info resources and their e-commerce stack, according to Tracey Ryan O’Connor, Team Vice President at personalization engineering firm Qubit, which was just lately acquired by AI-run practical experience system Coveo.
“Overall, models have obtained a superior return on expenditure in their personalization devote, but the e-commerce and electronic marketing stack has developed incredibly intricate, which has led to disparate information resources that threaten the performance of providing personalized ordeals,” explained O’Connor. “As a outcome, brands began attempts to simplify the tech stack and reduce down on the variety of purchaser details resources from which they produce actionable intelligence in 2021.
She included, “I consider these endeavours will accelerate in 2022 with simplification as the driver for even more innovation in personalization top to convergence with product discovery.”
Receiving a lot more private
As we observed in the most the latest holiday break shopping push, seasonal events are spreading out over a longer period of time of time. Cyber Monday has come to be Cyber Thirty day period. And Amazon’s Prime Day summer time promotions are truly additional like “Prime Week.”
In 2022, buyer journeys will continue on to get a lot more personalized. Marketers who shell out attention to these data alerts will achieve a aggressive edge.
“By merging personalization and product discovery, brand entrepreneurs and merchandisers will be ready to leverage info from these sources, together with the mixed view of shoppers, to make sure they are tailoring each and every check out and working experience at just about every level and every touch issue of the procuring journey,” said O’Connor.
“We’ll see AI-run personalization evolve to produce far more really personalized experiences in 2022,” O’Connor stated. “This involves device discovering versions that take into account all consumer behaviors as nicely as several facts sources that can be fed, ingested, and leveraged to much better fully grasp customers at scale.”
She added, “We’ve already moved earlier the a person-size-matches-all AI design, to algorithms that satisfy the demands of specific customers without the need of obtaining to ‘test and learn’ just about every time. For case in point, new AI versions can be used to electricity products carousels that are centered on your location, or habits, or even the weather.”
E-commerce merges with in-shop
When the item discovery journey will be individualized by way of personalization, activities in-retail store and on the net will merge. To fully grasp the shape that this development will take in the coming year, it is important to observe that e-commerce will be the motor that drives this merge.
“As in-shop and on line purchasing merge, ecommerce will explode in 2022,” claimed O’Connor. “While purchasers are returning to bodily shops, we’re not viewing a reduce in online procuring – in fact, we’re looking at continued advancement. In 2021, we noticed far more individuals beginning their procuring journey on line, browsing for the products and solutions they want at the greatest value and the actual transaction taking place in-retail outlet. Even when the pandemic dissipates, on-line buying will continue on to prosper simply because this habits is now ingrained and recurring.”
She defined, “In 2022, models will be faced with determining how to adapt the blended on the internet/in-keep procuring encounter to match the leaps and bounds that e-commerce has made more than the previous two years. This will be specially vital for retail sectors wherever purchasers nonetheless choose an offline element to the working experience, these as vogue or attractiveness, but in the conclude, we do not anticipate the on the net performance to decline for the reason that stores have reopened.”
Holistic technique to brick-and-mortar
Be expecting a holistic strategy to bodily shop ordeals that incorporates e-commerce and permits digital consumers to get what they want out of their take a look at, reported Nikki Baird, Vice President of Retail Innovation at retail technology company Aptos.
“Prior to the pandemic, there was a lot of emphasis on creating experiential store concepts, practically as a way of trying to compete with the on the net channel,” claimed Baird. “Fast-ahead to 2022 and we’ll see vendors go after holistic shop experiences that are concentrated on helping buyers changeover concerning actual physical and digital interactions with their brand.”
Baird prompt that 1 resource suppliers might undertake far more broadly is the “virtual closet.” Consumers would carry with them a digital representation of all the items they own from that retailer. They could reference this as they shop, as could retailer associates.
Empowered retailer associates
“Store associates will get a digital update to contribute to the CX,” said Baird. “With all the investments that vendors made in on the web engagement for the duration of the pandemic, as shop site visitors rebounds, we’re seeing a ton of vendors start out to consider how they can offer a equivalent level of digital engagement in their suppliers.”
Confident, vendors want to make guaranteed they do not drop the ball by providing a seamless changeover from electronic purchasing to in-shop expertise. The successful merchants in 2022 will make certain not to depart associates out of this equation.
“There’s continue to a major proportion of purchasers who take a look at retailers to engage with associates,” Baird stated. “In 2022, savvy stores will appear to elevate the purpose of associates in the in general shop working experience and leverage cellular technologies to help this.”
As additional bodily outlets open up, a new period of digitally-enabled searching will have to have expense for personalization, optimization and encounter.
“Retailers’ money recovery, blended with the actuality that omnichannel browsing behaviors pushed legacy IT systems near to the breaking stage during the pandemic, is going to travel investments in foundational modern-day technological know-how devices in 2022,” claimed Baird.
Provide chain troubles in the very last yr, along with raised purchaser anticipations, involve merchants to offer serious-time understanding of what things are readily available for acquire and when they can be sent.
“Retailers are at the stage where they know they cannot bogus it any longer,” reported Baird. “They have to get the essentials right – and this includes real-time inventory visibility. If stores just can’t offer genuine-time stock visibility, they’ve already misplaced. There is no way shops can maintain up with the pace of buyers with no it.”
Ads will be additional shoppable
Personalization and authentic-time visibility into inventory will also affect marketing, earning ads far more shoppable.
“Shoppable advertisement performance is now enjoying a greater purpose than ever in advance of, primarily as function-from-house shopping practices are colliding with provide chain issues,” reported Oz Etzioni, CEO of AI-driven dynamic ad-serving and ad personalization system Clinch. “The positive aspects of shoppable commerce lengthen outside of the buyer as very well, providing retailers with invaluable perception into buyer preferences for foreseeable future campaigns and for the brand name in general.”
Channels like email and SMS have prolonged utilised personalized knowledge like modern buys and deserted cart things in purchase to become much more related to consumers and to strengthen profits. Nevertheless, these individualized aspects will be more integrated in screen and Tv set advertisements in 2022.
“Both the greatest challenge and the major option for entrepreneurs deploying shoppable strategies in 2022 will be in shoppable Tv set,” explained Etzioni. “The essential will be employing all the resources offered to them in generating those shoppable adverts as appropriate as attainable. This requires layering in initial-bash knowledge and personalization that demonstrates a shopper’s surroundings, like time-of-working day, weather, regional promotions and a lot more. From there, entrepreneurs can obtain a further knowing of their individuals and adapt extra immediately with applicable CTAs that allow for their shoppers to make paying for selections in true time.”
He adds that with ongoing source chain concerns difficult product or service availability, marketers ought to contemplate some form of dynamic creative optimization (DCO) to ship the most related up-to-date messages to prospects.
“Now that product scarcity is growing across the board, shops have had to rebalance concentration from mid- to higher-funnel aims, and they have experienced to do it rapidly,” Etzioni defined. “For illustration, a car manufacturer with limited inventory would not want to fade absent in the minds of shoppers, so they’ve been shifting to producing absolutely sure that their prospects are nevertheless informed of their presence, but not always travel them to the dealership.”
Social commerce will diversify
Social media platforms have prolonged been sources of valuable phrase-of-mouth excitement for makes and products and solutions. In 2022, these digital communities will be big sources of shoppable profits. And this suggests brands will be searching outside of Fb to diversify and preserve ad expenses down.
“Diversifying your social searching to new channels will be key,” said Rob Van Nuenen, CEO of e-commerce answer company Channable. “Disruptive social channel Tik Tok will likely deliver nearly 2 billion customers in 2022, while Instagram and Pinterest are providing related social commerce experiences. With that, social commerce revenues are poised to arrive at almost $50 billion, so it is essential to make a technique making use of these channels.”
Entrepreneurs will include price to their social commit by incorporating “social proof” (person-produced remarks and critiques) into their social existence and advertising unique events and other engagement strategies, according to Rosa Hu, Vice President of Merchandise Internet marketing for e-commerce advertising system Yotpo.
“TikTok’s new partnership with Shopify — and its in-app getting abilities — will give models considerably far better return on advert commit vs. opponents in 2022,” Hu mentioned.
Several of these new e-commerce innovations will be pushed by ROI. But to gain that return, entrepreneurs will have to become extra nimble with their personalization facts technique, DCO execution and social media engagement. In performing so, they’ll build a deeper connection with clients in 2022 though growing efficiencies in their promoting budgets.
Read following: 2022 Predictions: Consumer Knowledge & Digital Expertise


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Slow Performance and Site Abandonment by the Numbers
Most website owners won’t be surprised to hear that a slower load time leads to a higher rate of website abandonment. Surprising new statistics are popping up every month, stressing the need for website owners to focus more and more on individual page efficiency. While many small businesses and entrepreneurs are aware of how crucial it is to have a speedy website in 2016, they may not be aware of how much of a negative impact poor performance can have on ecommerce sales, abandonment rates and overall customer satisfaction.
Let’s start by taking a look at what users expect when they click on a website.
According to Akamai, one of the largest tech companies in the world, 30 percent of consumers expect a website to load in one seconds or less. Nearly half of consumers expect a website to load in two seconds or less. That’s a huge jump from 2009 when Akamai found that only 5 percent of consumers expect a website to load in one second or less. The statistics show that users are getting less patient and this trend isn’t expected to stop any time soon.
Website Performance and Customer Engagement
According to the Aberdeen Group, websites have approximately five seconds to win over their visitors before they will abandon the site. 74 percent of users will leave a website if it takes more than 5 seconds to load. Furthermore, every one-second delay equals a 7 percent drop in conversions, an 11 percent drop in page views, and a 16 percent drop in customer satisfaction.
The Importance of Website Monitoring
As the owner of a website, you might be wondering how well your website stacks up. You can click on your website and measure its load time, but that isn’t an accurate indication of how users are interacting with your website all over the world. There’s no way to know how well a website is performing without a website monitoring service. Programs such as Pingometer will tell you how long it takes your website to load across the globe. Load time reports track your website’s performance over time as you upload new content and optimize existing pages.
Try Pingometer today and track the speed of your website every minute of every day. Your customers will thank you.


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Shameema Rahman: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN) signed a Motor Vehicle Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic on June 15, 2015, in Thimpu, Bhutan. Aside from facilitating the cross-border movement of passengers and goods, the agreement is expected to “promote safe, economical [,] efficient and environmentally sound road transport in the sub-region” and will help to create “an institutional mechanism for regional integration.” (Press Release, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicle Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic Amongst BBIN [Agreement], Government of India Cabinet (June 10, 2015).)
According to a press release on the Agreement, it may increase trade within the South Asia region by nearly 60% and trade by the region with outside partners by more than 30% over current levels. According to media reports, Bangladesh imports about $25 million worth of goods from Bhutan and exports around $2 million to that country. Nepal exports $35.6 million worth of goods to Bangladesh and in turn imports $26.41 million. Bangladesh mainly uses land ports for export and import trade with the neighboring countries. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal Sign Motor Vehicle Agreement, BDNEWS24.COM (June 15, 2015).)
A proposal to sign a Motor Vehicle Agreement was originally adopted during the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit in Kathmandu in November 2014. According to a news report, the agreement was not signed at the time due to reservations from Pakistan. The BBIN nations subsequently decided to pursue the initiative without Pakistan’s participation. (Id.)
The BBIN Transportation Ministers have decided to accelerate the steps for the effective and sustainable implementation of the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Agreement, starting with the “formulation, negotiation, and finalization of the necessary legal instruments and operating procedures.” (Joint Statement on the Meeting of the Ministers of Transport of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal on the Motor Vehicles Agreement, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India website (June 15, 2015).)
As part of the implementation steps, the BBIN countries are planning a Friendship Motor Rally to be held in October 2015; installation of the technical prerequisites for full effectiveness of the Agreement (e.g., information technology systems, infrastructure, and tracking and regulatory systems), is expected by December 2015. (Id.) The parties agreed to each bear their own costs for the implementation of the Agreement. (Agreement, supra.)
Writer: Senior Legal Research Specialist at Law of Library of Congress, Washington.


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Following a vicious backlash from the patrons of the New York City subway, e-commerce giant Amazon seems to have realized that plastering dystopian Nazi imagery across MTA cars was maybe kinda sorta a bad idea. Good job.
The ad campaign was intended to promote The Man in the High Castle, Amazon’s new, alternate history TV series based on a Philip K. Dick novel where the Axis powers win World War II. The campaign covered subway benches in American flags whose fifty stars have been swapped out for a Nazi coat of arms, as well as a variation of the Rising Sun flag of Imperial Japan, retouched with American colors.
How, in fact, Amazon failed to realize that this sort of imagery might cause a stir remains unknown. (Probably, that remote possibility was carefully weighed against the thought that painting the interior of the MTA’s most heavily patronized subway cars with an ad for the crown jewel in Amazon’s growing collection of original series was going to rake in a shit ton of money.)
In any case, following a social media uproar Monday evening, and Mayor Bill de Blasio himself calling the ads “irresponsible and offensive” on Tuesday, Amazon seems to have gotten the message that Americans aren’t too keen about being forced to sit on the flags of Nazi America. This morning, a Variety report quoted MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz saying that “Amazon has just decided to pull the ads.”
Between offending millions of New Yorkers and successfully sending a rocket to the edge of space and back this morning, it’s been a tumultuous week for Jeff Bezos.
Top Image: Spencer Platt/ Getty Images


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HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. — Mars Chocolate North America is ready for some football.
The chocolate maker said it has launched its Snickers limited-edition NFL Minis, a 40-oz. pack of Snickers Minis that are adorned with wrappers featuring all 32 National Football League team logos.
"As an NFL sponsor we know how passionate and dedicated fans are to their favorite teams," Mars Chocolate North America chief consumer officer Roy Benin said. "With Snickers limited-edition NFL Minis, fans don't have to wait until game day to get into football mode — now they can get a taste of the NFL any day of the week."
Each 40-oz. pack of Snickers limited-edition NFL Minis carries a suggested retail price of approximately $8.98 and will be sold exclusively at Walmart stores nationwide.


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It isn't always easy to discern how players feel about the inclusion of paid content like microtransactions or downloadable content in games. The findings of a recent NPD survey entitled DLC and Microtransaction Purchasing should help make public opinion of paid post-release content at least a little clearer to developers.
The survey polled 8,893 American men and women between the ages of 13 and 54 on their purchasing habits, thoughts about paying for additional content, and opinions on the overall nature of DLC and microtransactions.
One of its findings showed that people are more willing to spend money on microtransactions than DLC. 23 percent of people surveyed expressed a preference for microtransactions, while only 16 percent said they favor DLC.
For both DLC and microtransactions alike, people said that price was often what kept them from spending the extra money for more in-game content. All in all, only 28 percent of people surveyed said they have spent money on DLC or microtransactions in the last 3 months, but purchasers of both said they'd buy more if prices were lower.
The survey goes on to say that a 77 percent majority of players think that microtransactions help extend the enjoyment they get from games. Despite this, 68 percent aren’t fans of pay-to-win practices.
48 percent said that they believed microtransactions were, in general, not worth the money while half of people surveyed said the same for DLC.
DLC buyers say that wanting to play games with friends that already own the content is a driving force behind their purchases, as is a desire to own all the content for a game. A small slice of people also said that they believed DLC should be included in the retail price for the game.
According to GameSpot, NPD asked questions about portable, PC, console, and smartphone games. Some of the games mentioned when asking about microtransactions were Battleborn, Grand Theft Auto V, and Halo 5. DLC questions were centered around games like Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, and Super Smash Bros. Wii U.


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Region’s internet economy on track to hit $1t as e-commerce, logistics boom. Southeast Asia is embracing its “digital decade” with the region’s internet economy expected to soar on the back of a fast-growing base of digital consumers and merchants.
James Tan, a Singaporean businessman with more than 10 years’ experience in the digital economy, said Southeast Asian countries are at different levels of development in their digital industries.
“In the Philippines, for example, online shopping is no rare thing. But people can do a lot more things on the internet in some other places such as Indonesia’s Jakarta. Digitization of small and medium enterprises in Jakarta has made progress over the recent years,” said Tan, the managing partner and founder of Quest Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on the digital economy industry across Asia.


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Asian shares trading in the U.S registered slight gains Friday afternoon, while concerns over Katrina's long term economic impact caused uncertainty on Wall Street.
The Bank of New York Asia American Depositary Receipt Index was up 0.13 point to 116.55, while the overall Composite Index was up 0.51 point to 129.29.
Japan stocks posted modest gains on confidence in the nation's economic outlook and expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will slow interest-rate increases, which could boost spending in the most important market for Japanese goods. The Nikkei ended 0.74% higher at 12,600. See full story.
Shares of Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
Honda had the biggest sales increase last month among Asian automakers, with sales at Japan's third-largest carmaker up 23% in August, while Toyota reported a 14% increase in U.S. auto sales.
Shares of Taiwan's technology sector were among the Index's most consistent winners. Au Optronics
stock prices were up 35 cents, or 2.4%, to $15.07, while Siliconware Precision Ind., Co. Ltd.
gained 16 cents, or 3.5%, to $4.71. Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.


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But some travelers coming into Los Angeles say change was needed.
"It would be nice to have the kind of restaurants where you can sit and enjoy," said Jeannine Hester of Atlanta.
Higher-end food choices, some said, is a lot better than what's available now.
After more than a year of going through bids and negotiations, the Los Angeles City Council voted to bring in new eateries, including Wolfgang Puck Express, the Homegirl Cafe, and Carl's Jr.
New stores are on the way as well.
Contracts were awarded to Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson, who will open Magic Johnson Sports.
An express spa will also be added.
Officials said some of the new food and retail stores will be in business by next summer, which will make waiting for your flight a little more palatable.


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Jilted Developer Slams Apple's Purge of 'Overtly Sexual' Apps
Feb 24, 2010
A mere three months after being approved for placement in Apple's app store, the "Cutest Girls" app developed by adult entertainment studio Pink Visual was among the estimated 5,000 "overtly sexual" apps purged from the app store late last week.
Although Pink Visual is renowned for its iPhone-optimized websites and web apps, including its flagship mobile site iPinkVisual.com, the studio has experienced "almost nothing but vexing frustration with respect to the app store," said the company's Director of New Business Development, Liam Colins.
In comments issued today, Colins, came out swinging at Apple's purge, and the policies that led to it.
"Apple has taken their brand control beyond normal standards, and this is one basis of their remarkable success," Colins said. "When they are attempting to control and dictate what is viewed, listened to and utilized by consumers on devices they purchased and pay for monthly, however, it becomes an act of censorship, pure and simple. Mobile porn exists, it is prolific and it is desired by many of Apple's customers. To pretend that people will not watch porn or seek out sexual content on their iPhone or iPods is delusional corporate revisionism."
Colins also took umbrage with Apple's decision to leave certain apps available for purchase, like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition app and apps authored by Playboy, despite having content virtually identical to that of apps that have been removed.
"The fact that they left Playboy and Sports Illustrated up indicates that this action is not only hypocritical, but that it is based more on corporate strategy than on any deeply felt scruples or actual consumer complaints," Colins said. "Do they seriously expect people to believe that a kid seeking out inappropriate content via the app store would try searching for 'Sunny Leone' before searching for 'Playboy'?"
Colins said that his quarrel with Apple is not with the company's policies, per se, but in the way those policies have been expressed, explained and enforced.
"I recognize that iTunes is Apple's medium for distribution and they can choose to sell any product they like for any reason, but they don't give consumers an alternative, which makes this act censorship," Colins said. "It's a sad state of affairs for a company that brought us the 1984 commercial that changed the face of personal computing. The crackdown is even more tragic when one considers that Apple could have opted to implement parental controls and age verification protocols that are already present in iTunes. Instead they opted for a draconian policy and punishing partners who had invested in their product - simply because they could".
in the spotlight
Allison Vivas on SexOutLoudRadio
03 / 10 / 2014 Listen to Allison Vivas discuss her book Making Peace with Porn on Tristan Taormino's radio show Sex Out Loud on The VoiceAmerica. Friday March 14th at 8PM Eastern Continue
Book Release Coming Up
05 / 18 / 2013 Pink Visual President, Allison Vivas, has penned the booked "Making Peace with Porn" which is due to be released next month. Pre-order your copy at Amazon or learn more at the blog! Continue


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Fossil (NASDAQ:FOSL) earnings for the fashion company’s second quarter of 2020 have FOSL stock taking off after-hours Wednesday. That’s thanks to its adjusted losses per share of 28 cents easily beating Wall Street’s estimate of $1.71. Its revenue of $259 million also blows past analysts’ estimate of $182.1 million.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the most recent Fossil earnings report.
- Adjusted per-share losses are 600% wider than the 4 cents reported in the second quarter of 2019.
- Revenue for the quarter comes in 48% lower than the $501 million reported during the same time last year.
- Operating loss of $36.8 million is a negative switch year-over-year compared to an operating income of $1.7 million.
- The Fossil earnings also have it reporting a net loss of $22.5 million.
- That’s 208.2% wider than the company’s net loss of $7.3 million in the same period of the year prior.
Kosta Kartsotis, chairman and CEO of Fossil, said this about the earnings report.
“Our second quarter results were impacted by broad-based global store closures due to COVID-19 throughout much of the quarter. … In navigating this challenging environment, we have taken aggressive actions to increase liquidity and reduce costs, and further engaged with our consumers through digital initiatives and product innovation.”
Fossil isn’t providing guidance for 2020 due to the novel coronavirus. Even so, the company says it expects worldwide net sales to decrease by 35% to 45% during the third quarter of the year.
FOSL stock was up 5.6% after markets closed on Wednesday.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


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Holcim Argentina plans 1000 new Disensa retail chain locations
Holcim Argentina, part of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim, has announced plans to open 1000 new branches of its Disense retail chain by 2024. The Diario Financiero newspaper has reported that the chain opened 40 new locations during 2020.
General manager Natalia Soler said, "Being considered an essential sector, builders merchants continued to operate during quarantine. This scenario benefited us, coupled with the number of customers who took advantage of the context and their savings to make repairs to their homes."


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This article is more than 1 year old
Filer maker BlueArc refiles for IPO
One hundred meeellion dollars wanted
Filer maker BlueArc has refiled for an IPO and wants to raise a hundred million bucks.
It first filed for an IPO in 2007, looking for just over $100m, but the recession struck and market conditions stopped it.
BlueArc was founded in 1998, and is on the cusp of becoming somewhat long in the tooth for a start-up. It sells hardware-accelerated filers to business and has a reselling deal with Hitachi Data Systems.
The company says it has more than 750 customers who have bought more than 2,000 systems.
The company has not made a profit for the past eight years, making a loss of $9.4m on revenues of $85.6m in the year ending 29 January 2011. However it claimed it had record revenues in the fourth quarter of that year and made a profit for the first time in its history. There was a loss of $15.7m in the preceding year.
It is not forecasting when it will be profitable, nor is it proposing to pay a dividend, and investors will be buying the shares to gamble on their growth.
The IPO income will be used for product range expansion, research and development, and working capital. It needs the cash because it makes hardware and has to develop its field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) to keep its filer's scalability and I/O responsiveness ahead of the competition such as EMC and NetApp.
The company is also working on using Permabit's Albireo deduplication technology, said not to impact its host system's I/O performance.
The competitive environment has become harsher for BlueArc as there are other ways to accelerate filer I/O and increase scalability.
Isilon, recently bought by EMC, and Panasas, for example, cluster filer nodes together using a fast interconnect and have targeted high-performance computing (HPC) and video processing-type applications. Avere and Alacritech front-end filers with multi-tiered accelerator appliances featuring solid state storage, and SolidAccess provides flash-based filers.
The HPC-style of computing is spreading into mainstream enterprise IT as big data applications develop, storing and analysing vast growing silos of unstructured data. The need for sheer filer I/O speed is looking to become met by flash storage, and it is possible that BlueArc has to respond to that.
Were it not for the downturn it is likely that BlueArc would now be trading as a public company. As it is BlueArc has not yet achieved escape velocity to free itself from its venture capital backers.
This IPO sees it being trundled out to the launchpad for a second attempt. Let's hope the market weather forecast is better than in 2007. ®