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Apple’s M1 line of Macs has proven a massive success, with the latest M1 Pro and M1 Max chips setting new standards in performance and efficiency. The company has also announced the M1 Ultra chip, which combines the power of two M1 Max chips in one. Apple’s not stopping there, though, with rumors suggesting the second generation of chips, code-named M2, are already in the works.
Here’s everything we know about the Apple M2 chip, what products may be getting it, and when fans can expect to get their hands on the new hardware.
There is a lot of speculation about what is being released when, but the Apple Peek Performance event has put some of the rumors to rest — the M2 chip is probably not coming this spring. Instead, Apple has unveiled the M1 Ultra chip in the Mac Studio. Therefore, Apple is likely saving the announcement of the M2 for later in the year.
That means Apple’s M2 Macs will probably come out in the latter half of 2022. You should expect several options, though, as analysts believe Apple is releasing four M2 models in this time period. Those could include:
- A refreshed MacBook Air
- An entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro
- A new 24-inch Mac
- An entry-level Mac Mini
That lineup looks similar to when the original M1 chip launched, with the addition of the new Mac.
The rumored M2 MacBook Pro already finds itself in a strange spot. There wasn’t much to differentiate the 13-inch MacBook Pro from the M1 MacBook Air, and Apple doesn’t seem to be addressing that problem in the latest release. That means the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro is already on the back foot.
However, that doesn’t mean the M2 13-inch model isn’t getting any updates. Apple is expected to remove the TouchBar, which is a long time coming. Buyers will instead get a dedicated function key row again, and Apple will have at last rid itself of a long-lasting sore spot among MacBook Pro users.
Performance is one of the most important things to consider when looking at a product refresh. There isn’t much to go on about what the M2 will be capable of, but a few dependable analysts have given their two cents.
Bloomberg analyst Mark Gurman expects the same number of CPU cores in the M2, but with more high-performance cores. The M1 chip carried eight cores evenly split between high performance and efficiency. The M2 will likely have eight cores as well, but lean more into the high-performance variants (similar to the new MacBook Pros).
Gurman also believes there will be more GPU cores. The M1 launched with either seven or eight GPU cores, but the M2 will reportedly have nine or 10. That’s great for hobbyist creators who want a bit more graphical power but don’t want or can’t afford the beefier MacBook Pros.
The release of the M1 Ultra chip could also be giving us hints about the performance of the M2. The M1 Ultra combines the power of two M1 Max chips, offering a massive performance leap. If the future M2 Pro, Max, and Ultra chips follow in the footsteps of the M1, we’re going to get a real powerhouse of a chip.
While there has been some speculation that M2 Macs could launch in the earlier part of this year, the Apple Peek Performance event made no mention of the M2 chip. As such, it’s a safer bet to expect them in the latter half of 2022. Apple will likely announce them in a single event, similar to how it launched the M1 lineup.
As for pricing, Apple is doing its best to differentiate its product lineup and keep costs down. As of right now, it’s safe to assume that prices will be in line with the M1 prices. The MacBook Air, along with getting a colorful refresh, will likely start at $999. The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro will probably start at $1,299, and the entry-level M2 Mac Mini will likely begin at $899.
For more on MacBooks, check out the best deals you can get on Apple’s devices.
- Best laptop deals: Get a portable workhorse from $98 today
- There’s a major problem with MacBook Pro shipments right now
- Don’t miss these refurbished MacBook deals — from $320
- Everything we learned about AM5 and X670 at Computex 2022
- Best MacBook deals and sales for May 2022


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India’s Wired Broadband Connections Face Free Fall
India’s wired broadband connections are facing a free fall as the number of subscribers dropped 2.33 percent in the last 12 months, TRAI data shows.
Wired broadband connections in India fell to 21.16 million in the June quarter of 2018 as compared with 21.24 million in March quarter of 2018, 21.28 million in December quarter of 2017, 21.35 million in September quarter of 2017 and 21.67 million June quarter of 2017.
At the same time wireless broadband connections – mobile and dongles — in India rose 19.96 percent to 490.66 million in June 2018 from 409.01 million in June 2017. This is primarily due to hyper competitive market conditions.
Broadband Internet subscriber base increased 8.37 percent from 412.60 million in March quarter of 2018 to 447.12 million in June quarter of 2018. Narrowband Internet subscriber base declined 19.93 percent from 81.35 million in March quarter to 65.14 million in June quarter.
Rural India has 140.28 million broadband connections. Urban India has 306.85 million broadband connections. Andhra Pradesh state has 13.62 million broadband customers in rural areas. Delhi has 28.67 million broadband customers in urban areas.
BSNL is the dominant player in wired internet business with 58.33 percent market share with 12.34 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel has 2.21 million wired internet subscribers grabbing 10.42 percent share. Atria Convergence has 6.31 percent share. MTNL has 3.94 percent share. Hathway Cable has 3.58 percent share.
Reliance Jio holds 43.83 percent market share in India’s wireless broadband segment with 215.26 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel has 18.96 percent share with 93.11 million wireless broadband subscribers.
TRAI does not release revenue status of broadband operators. Indian telecom service providers’ Gross Revenue (GR) fell 10 percent to INR 58,401 crore in the June quarter of 2018.
Top telecom service areas in terms of internet subscriptions on wired and wireless platforms are Maharashtra with 41.81 million connections, Andhra Pradesh with 39.73 million, Tamil Nadu including Chennai with 37.76 million, UP East with 35.74 million and Karnataka with 33.33 million.
India has 12.17 million broadband connections on DSL, 3.46 million on Ethernet LAN, 3.19 million on dial-up, 1.41 million on cable modem, 0.81 million on fiber and 0.11 million on leased lines. – Telecom Lead
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The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s just some of what’s been happening while you were enjoying the weekend…
2 NJ Craft Breweries Accused Of Violating COVID-19 Restrictions (Pitman, NJ) – On March 21, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued stay-at-home orders which (among other things) effectively limited bars, taprooms and restaurant to take-away and delivery service only. And now two Pitman, NJ craft breweries are being accused of violating the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Human Village Brewing and Kelly Green Brewing allegedly violated prohibitions against on-premises consumption of food and/or alcohol, the state Attorney General’s Office said Friday. Both breweries are facing a possible 10-day license suspension.
Rick Myers, who operates Human Village Brewing denied violating the emergency order calling the charges “ludicrous,” “We have not been serving patrons in the taproom,” Myers told the Post Courier. “I’ve even got a sign on the door telling people not to come in.”
Both operations are also facing additional charges for violating COVID-19 mask requirements, an infraction which can bring a $750 fine.
Words To Drink By (Washington, DC) – “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me old… when I would never call him short and fat?” President Donald Trump
Asahi Faces Acquisition Hangover (Tokyo, Japan) – On June 1, Japanese brewing major Asahi Group Holdings completed its acquisition of the group Carlton & United Breweries (CUB), a $10 billion purchase of a group of leading Australian breweries that were previously held by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer.
But thanks to COVID-19 the beer world has changed significantly since the deal was first announced in July 2019. And Asahi, now the biggest brewing company in Australia, could be facing an acquisition hangover of epic proportions.
Asahi’s sales in locked-down Australia dropped 40% by volume in April according to the Nikkei Asian Review. GlobalData, a leading British research firm predicts Australian beer sales to fall 13% in 2020 and not rebound to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023.


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Established in 1977, Conquer has since captured the Asia-Pacific fuse market to become the leading fuse designer and manufacturer in the region. With dozens of awards, distinctions and certificates, it’s no surprise that Conquer is the preferred choice for leading companies across the industry.
For over 40 years, Conquer has been committed to delivering exceptional safety in circuit protection for wide ranging applications. Whether it’s protecting external base stations from lightning strikes or expensive internal components in consumer electronics, Conquer fuses are up to the task.
Conquer Electronics Co., Ltd. is committed to the pursuit of product innovation and differentiation, "small and beautiful" enterprise and creates higher added value products through technology upgrading.
Conquer Electronics was ranked among the top 5000 corporations in the category of combined sales by China Credit Information Service for five years in a row.
Conquer Electronics visits the center for family support in Changhua on Feb 26, 2011


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MACRON will be the technical sponsor for LaBerliga 2018!
We are pleased to announce that we have closed a partnership with a technical sponsor, Macron – a leading company in the production of sportswear that will provide each team with a proper jersey.
Founded in Bologna, in 1971, it’s a top brand in Europe, that owes its success to the quality of its products, the high level of service, and the ability to understand the needs and demands of those who practice sport.
Macron will support LaBerliga, by rewarding the winning team, the best player and the leader of the tipping competition. Additionally, Each team member will have a 25% discount at their store in Berlin.
Use this sign up form to be part of the best league of the city!


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The Chirathivat clan has built a fortune in Thai retailing. But after seven decades it is outgrowing its homeland.
On a recent evening a dozen members of the Chirathivat family gathered in Bangkok at their flagship shopping mall, Central Chidlom, to celebrate Central Department Store's sixtieth anniversary. The relatives cooked and served their signature family dishes such as Hailam chicken rice and hot and sour Sichuan soup to a few hundred members of the Bangkok press corps, friends and celebrities.
It was a fitting gesture for a family that has made a fortune serving millions of Thai customers since it opened its first shop 70 years ago. Its Central Group--whose sales are expected to reach $3 billion this year, up from $900 million in 2000--is the nation's largest retailer, boasting nearly 400 stores, 450 restaurants and 11 malls. Its sprawling assets include ten retail chains, including Zen and Top Supermarkets, and the Thai franchises for American fast food outlets KFC, Baskin-Robbins and Pizza Hut and office supply store
The celebration offered a rare glimpse into the low-profile family, one of Thailand's richest. The tight-knit clan has nearly 200 members, with roughly 50 working for family-controlled companies and at least 40 holding shares. The total value of these stakes: a minimum of $2.8 billion. Five individual Chirathivats or groups--parents and their children jointly owning stakes--qualified for our list of the richest Thais, including Central's Chairman Vanchai Chirathivat and his family, ranked 25.
After all their success the Chirathivats and Central have now reached a crossroads. "Central doesn't know where to invest," says Tos Chirathivat, Central Retail's chief executive. Son of the late Samrit and grandson of the company's founder, the 43-year-old Tos is one of the key third-generation leaders who will decide where to take the Chirathivat empire.
The problem is that Central already dominates much of Thai retailing. Last July it opened its newest mall, CentralWorld, the biggest in Thailand. It bought the former compound of the British embassy last year for $95 million and plans to grace one of Central Bangkok's most coveted neighborhoods with a luxury retail complex and hotel. It won the bid to lease a prime site in the bustling Suan Lum section of Bangkok, where it might develop a complex of shops, exhibition halls, an office building and a hotel. It is pumping $500 million into four new malls outside of Bangkok.
Not that the company doesn't have any competition. The Mall Group--Thailand's second-largest retailer but only half Central's size--scored when it teamed up with mall developer Siam Piwat to build Siam Paragon, a megaluxury shopping center. It opened in December 2005 just a short distance from where CentralWorld was being built. Connected to a SkyTrain station, Siam Paragon regularly outdraws its rival.
In any event, by the time their new projects are up and running, the Chirathivats will need a new strategy. "We'll either have to enter another industry or stick to retail and move international," says Tos.
The preference seems to be to expand overseas, but the family's ambivalence is clear. In recent years it's looked at opportunities in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, yet nothing has materialized as it takes its time evaluating potential sites and partners. "In Thailand we might be very big, but we might be nothing internationally," says Tos.
The Chirathivats say they are just being prudent, but some wonder if they are being a bit too conservative. Peter Blaney Davidson, a vice president at Central Pattana and an adviser to Central Group on international business development, says it has been too slow in making decisions and that it will cost them. The price of leasehold land in prime areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, for instance, has almost doubled in the past two years while Central was pondering whether to invest. "There are visionary people in the group," he says. "But senior members, the uncles, are very conservative, and they are afraid of going international."
Still, the family is getting close to signing a deal with Chinese partners. It won't reveal any details other than to say it will likely announce a site by year-end. "The China retail market, though difficult and maybe full of pitfalls, is similar to Thailand's," Tos says. "The two peoples share a very close cultural affinity and strong links, while consumers aspire to leading international brands."
China is a country where the family has deep roots. Central Group's founder, Tiang Chirathivat, left Hainan in the early 20th century and arrived in Thailand dirt poor. The business began as a tiny outlet in Thonburi, a province adjacent to Bangkok, with the sign, "keng seng lee" (baskets for sale). But the operation didn't take off until 1947, when Tiang and his children moved the store near the Oriental Hotel. It began selling a large variety of domestic and international newspapers and magazines under the name Central Trading Store. As the business grew, the family added merchandise and, under eldest son Samrit, opened Thailand's first department store, in Chinatown in 1956.
As the business expanded, so did the family. Tiang's three wives gave him 26 sons and daughters. When Tiang died in 1968 Samrit became the family's head. He oversaw the development of its first mall, Central Ladprao Plaza, and the opening of the first Central Department Store in Chiang Mai, to the delight of the area's residents and visiting tourists. This marked the first time a Bangkok department store expanded to the provinces. By the time he died in 1992 he had established Central Group as one of Thailand's biggest conglomerates.
Tiang's second son, Vanchai, took over and soon began overhauling the operation. Feeling that the company was unfocused, he closed hundreds of small businesses to focus on retail. He also sold its discount retailer Big C and supermarket chain Tops, later buying them back at a lower price. The timing couldn't be better. The 1997 financial crisis wiped out many family fortunes. But Central had a strong cash flow and no significant foreign debt, allowing it to finance its malls' tenants so they could stay in business.
Vanchai, who's now 80 and serves as Central Group's chairman, also tackled prickly family issues. "Very few families in Thailand have so many members," he says. "We were having a lot of problems. Aunts and uncles were trying to suppress their nephews and nieces." In 1995, with the help of Viroj Phootrakul, his friend and the president of
In 2001 Vanchai also established a board of directors. The seven directors, mostly senior members of the family council, approve investment plans, make strategic decisions and decide whether younger Chirathivats are ready for executive positions or outsiders need to be brought in. In fact, the board served as a way for Vanchai to ease senior family members out of day-to-day operating roles and free up posts for the next generation. Among the board's first moves were to promote Tos to CEO of Central Retail and his sister, Yuwadee, to president of Central Department Stores. Vanchai's son Kobchai, then 45, got the nod to take over as chief executive of Central Pattana, the listed property-development unit.
Most of the younger Chirathivats who now run the show are foreign educated and independent minded, which is making an impact on the business. Tos, who got his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and his business degree from Columbia, both in the U.S., brought the idea of supercenters back home with him and started Big C. At Central Retail he's focused on brand building, and he's started such chains as Power Buy, now Thailand's leading electronics retailer, and Supersports, the number one sports store.
Kobchai, who studied political science at the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. and is the family's only Christian, was the one who pushed for Central to take its retail development arm public more than a decade ago. He also oversaw the development of CentralWorld, the group's biggest project so far, and marketed it to foreign media with the aim to not only attract foreign visitors but to familiarize non-Thais with the brands ahead of the company's foreign expansion, when it comes.
Family members dismiss any suggestion that the size of the clan is an obstacle to the company's decision making and growth. Rather, they say, the family council and the board have made the group very well organized and much more efficient in running the business and making decisions. Nevertheless, they are trying to bring more professionals, including foreign executives, into the group. "We have become a model to many other business families," Tos says. "I am planning a future where I don't have to rely on the family members."


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This month, Intel unveiled a Wi-Fi radio almost completely made of the same sort of transistors that go into one of its microprocessors. At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Yorgis Palaskas, research lead in radio integration at Intel and the company's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, also showed off a system-on-a-chip that sported this digital Wi-Fi radio nestled up next to a couple of its Atom processors for mobile devices.
242 Recent Stories
The iPhone 5, though only an incremental advance as a device, portends sea changes in cellular network usage as millions of new consumers sign on to faster 4G LTE networks. The question now is whether the networks can handle the demand. Carriers have been preparing. Stung by the 3G congestion debacles consumers faced in recent years, they've spent billions of dollars to expand networks.
When your wireless carrier charges you for the amount of data you used on your cell phone in a given month, how do you know the bill is accurate? It very well might not be, according to a new study. This question is more important to consumers than ever. Over the past year, the growth in the popularity of smartphones has led the largest U.S. mobile carriers to replace unlimited data plans with ones that place caps on data usage, and charge extra for exceeding those limits.
Some crowdsourcing competitions, like the X-Prize, ask people to come up with technological solutions to a problem. Marblar, a startup launching this month, is doing it backward—asking people to come up with problems that a given technology could solve. Cofounded by three PhD students in the U.K., Marblar is a platform that aims to help universities commercialize new inventions and resurrect dusty old patents.
Touching and finger-swiping are the dominant method of navigating on hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablet computers. The same touch might soon confirm your identity, too. A new device dispatches a few bits of data, representing a password, from a special ring on your finger and sends the data as tiny voltage bursts through your skin for capture by the screen of the phone, so that your touch alone identifies you by the code from the ring.
The patents that Kodak is auctioning off to pay its creditors — and those it is holding onto — provide some clue as to what kind of company might emerge from bankruptcy. Kodak is a shell of the industrial icon that spent decades leading the analog film and camera business. Despite inventing the first digital camera in 1975, Kodak was late to enter that market and, even then, it didn't consider it a crucial business until the mid-2000s.
Not having a smartphone or access to a high-speed mobile network doesn't mean you don't still want your phone to act brainy and speedy. That's the premise behind Australian startup biNu, whose free Java app can be downloaded onto most basic phones and used over 2G wireless networks — which remain common in many developing countries — to update Facebook and Twitter, read news, search the web and more.
Between June and December of last year, 17 patients at the Clinical Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. came down with a bloodstream infection. Six of them died. Doctors knew that a patient had arrived with Klebsiella pneumoniae in June, but it wasn't clear how the bacterium, a common culprit in hospital-acquired infections, was passed around, or whether several different patients had simply brought it in with them.
When Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai started building their location-sharing startup, Foursquare in 2008, they chose New York City for their headquarters. Crowley's kitchen table in the East Village served as their first workspace. "We never even had a conversation about, 'the only way to make it succeed is to go to California — should we pack up our stuff?' " he says. Given that the pool of web developers was so much bigger in Silicon Valley, Crowley's decision might have seemed risky.
You often have a slew of ways to get online: a hard-wired Ethernet cable, various Wi-Fi networks or maybe a 3G or 4G wireless device. But what if you didn't have to choose and could also surf the web faster than any one connection would allow? A company called Connectify plans to make this possible with software called Connectify Dispatch that routes your computer's data demands over numerous connections simultaneously.
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Bosses who want help gauging employees' morale can now turn to Microsoft's workplace social network, Yammer. A new feature offers managers a kind of emotional surveillance system, showing which feelings workers are expressing in messages posted to a company's Yammer network. The feature, called Crane, was developed by startup Kanjoya, which makes software that does the emotion recognition and logging, with close collaboration with Yammer.
The average financial institution exchanges anywhere from 1 million to 3 million emails per year. Buried within all the missives about meetings and lunches might be a few damning indicators of a brewing fraud. A company called Digital Reasoning hopes to help banks find this critically important information with machine-learning software that raises red flags found in messy, or "unstructured," text data, including emails, tweets and document files.
Personal genetics company 23andMe announced it has applied for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for seven of its genetic tests. The company hopes that FDA approval will increase consumer confidence and interest in its tests, and ultimately feed into its goal of crowdsourcing human genetic information for medical research.
In a packed room at the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas yesterday, an Android smartphone was tapped with a white plastic card, and within seconds it was running malicious code that allowed an attacker to remotely access the device. The demonstration was given by high-profile hacker Charlie Miller, who was the first person to demonstrate a way to seize control of the iPhone, in 2007, and who has demonstrated many novel attacks on Apple devices since.
Last week, a California biotech company announced that its human stem cells restored memory in rodents bred to have an Alzheimer's-like condition — the first evidence that human neural stem cells can improve memory. The company StemCells is betting that its proprietary preparation of stem cells from fetal brain tissue will take on many different roles in the central nervous system.
As the price of solar panels has plummeted, the amount of solar power being generated worldwide is soaring. Yet solar still accounts for less than 2% of the world's total electricity capacity. Each square meter of solar panel generates around 145 watts of electrical power, enough to turn on just two or three light bulbs. That means you'd have to cover the National Mall in Washington, D.C. five or six times over to match the peak capacity of a large fossil-fuel power plant.
A recently completed distributed energy project at the large, 4,000-inmate Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, California, ties together power from fuel cells, solar panels, wind turbines, and diesel generators—all located at the jail—to form a microgrid that can operate independently of large, centralized power plants. The system keeps the power on when storms take down the grid, which is essential for safety at the maximum security facility, and it's saving the jail about $100,000 a year.
Computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have devised a framework for running large-scale computations for tasks such as social network or web search analysis efficiently on a single personal computer. The software could help developers working on many modern tasks: for example, designing a new recommendation engine using social network connections.
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One of the defining narratives of modern China has been the migration of young workers — often girls in their late teenage years — from the countryside into sprawling cities for jobs in factories. Many found work at Foxconn, which employs nearly 1 million low-wage workers to hand-assemble electronic gadgets for Apple, Nintendo, Intel, Dell, Nokia, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony.
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The short figure creeping around the Carnegie Mellon University campus store in a hooded sweatshirt recently isn't some shoplifter, but a robot taking inventory. Andyvision, as it's called, scans the shelves to generate a real-time interactive map of the store, which customers can browse via an in-store screen. At the same time, the robot performs a detailed inventory check, identifying each item on the shelves, and alerting employees if stock is low or if an item has been misplaced.
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Luis von Ahn is frustrated with the Internet. More specifically, with the amount of content that is available only in English — which is to say, most of it. "The web in Spanish is just shittier," he says, his voice tinged with a Spanish accent. So von Ahn, an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who grew up in Guatemala, is doing something about it.
The top contenders in Mexico's presidential campaign are engaged in a Twitter spam war, with armies of "bots" programmed to cast aspersions on opposing candidates and disrupt their social-media efforts. This large-scale political spamming could foreshadow online antics that campaigners may increasingly resort to in other countries.
Many parents have experienced the angst of a crying baby with an ear infection. In fact, 30 million medical visits in the U.S. are due to pediatric ear infections each year. But a startup called CellScope has developed a device that could make such visits unnecessary. It connects to an iPhone and produces a view inside the ear magnified by a factor of 10. Users can capture and upload images to CellScope's web platform.


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highlighting its grandiosity, and Brazil wanted to show that it's a new player in the world,'' said Erich Beting, a sports business specialist in Brazil. ''What seems to be missing for Russia and Brazil is to properly explain to the population
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Snap: Heisman Preview
speaking college football bowl games will hold its sweets or shopping sprees for game participants. According to the sports business journal. The NCAA let's bowl games give up 550 dollars where that gets a player. While schools can supplementhold its sweets or shopping sprees for game participants. According to the sports business journal. The NCAA let's bowl games give up 550 dollars where that gets a player. While schools can supplement that total with
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On fox sports news analyst Rick were they college sports update. Week fourteen in the books army navy left regular season. The BCS now in the books as well we know he wanted to is we sank the BCS and we also hit it to the annual debate. About 35 poles 718. Into too many people say no because in the
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sponsor Verizon Wireless. The new deal would begin in 2014. And go for four years a billion dollars according to sports business journal the deal gives arrived in the to see all regular and postseason and it fell against a mobile Verizon's previous2014. And go for four years -- a billion dollars according to sports business journal the deal gives arrived in the -- to see all regular and postseason and it fell against a mobile -- Verizon's
Morgenstein: 'Rule 40'
Antonio welcome you this summer games technology and business report breath you might not train. Where I'm at fox sports business correspondent market team who is also an agent to eleven athletes competing parent landed. And let's get our viewersand business report breath you might not train. Where I'm at fox sports business correspondent -- market team who is also an agent to eleven athletes competing parent landed. And let's get our viewers a little


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Microsoft, the software maker that said it had moved on after acquisition talks with Yahoo! failed, revived the possibility that the companies may strike a deal to challenge Google.
Microsoft said late yesterday that it is exploring an agreement with Yahoo that stops short of a full acquisition. Microsoft didn't elaborate on the proposal and said it ''reserves the right" to reconsider its bid to acquire all of Yahoo.
The proposal gives Yahoo, owner of the second-most popular Web search engine, another chance to forge an agreement with Microsoft as investor Carl Icahn threatens to oust the Internet company's board.
Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang demanded a higher price than Microsoft's $47.5 billion offer, prompting Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to abandon talks on May 3.
"The best strategy for Yahoo is to embrace Microsoft," said Troy Mastin, an analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago. "If they structure a deal correctly, they might still be able to retain a lot of the control and autonomy that they have today."
Yahoo said in a statement that it is open to pursuing any transaction in the best interest of investors. The company said it will continue to consider all of its options, including any proposal from Microsoft.
Icahn, who has the backing of Paulson & Co, the New York hedge-fund manager run by John Paulson, said last week that a combination of Microsoft and Yahoo would create ''a force strong enough" to fight Google.
Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, spent three months wooing Yahoo to expand its Internet-search business and compete with Google in the $41 billion worldwide online advertising market.
Microsoft said its next move will depend on discussions that may take place with Yahoo, shareholders of the two companies, or other parties.


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Fast-growing electronics retail chain Kohinoor, concluded the third edition of India’s largest consumer electronic festival – Kohinoor Consumer Electronics Show 2019. With participation from over 50 Indian and International brands, the 2019 edition of the show attracted over 80,000 shoppers across 10 days.
“The Kohinoor Consumer Electronics Show has been growing with each passing edition. This year, we have seen a 25 percent increase in participation as compared to last year’s edition. We believe it is the brands promise that connects the most with customers and vice versa. This year, products were curated keeping in mind consumer demands and interests”, said Vishal Mewani, Director, Kohinoor Tele Video.
“In short, we had thoughtful products for our consumers. Over 20 extremely innovative products were launched during the show. We will continue to stick to our brand promise of Selling Joyfully and look forward to yet another edition of the Kohinoor Consumer Electronics Show next year”, he added.
Promoting an inclusive environment, 40+ specially-abled kids from Reach Foundation and Yash Trust were invited by Kohinoor to the Kohinoor Consumer Electronic Show 2019 to experience the event, witness innovation and get a look and feel of the products displayed.
Electronics brand LG also organized a blood donation camp at the venue. Additionally, brands including LG, Vu, Siemens, VIVO, Amazon, IFB, Samsung, and TCL launched exclusive India first products at the show.
Blue Star, Mi, Lenovo, HP, Sony, Philips, Nokia, Samsung, Lloyd, Hitachi, Unilever, Havells were a few of the other leading brands that had a strong presence at the 2019 edition of the consumer electronics festival.
Senior leaders from various brands and renowned personalities including Aditi Govitrikar, Ali Asgar, Mohit Marwah, and Sajid Khan also visited the show. The show did not simply serve as a platform for brands to showcase products and innovation but provided them with an opportunity to engage and understand more about consumers and their purchase habits.―Business Standard


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P&G reports a $2.7 billion profit, beats forecasts
Procter & Gamble reported Tuesday a $2.7 billion profit for the three months ended Sept. 30, an increase of 4 percent from a year ago.
Sales were flat during the first quarter of the fiscal year, staying at $16.5 billion. Organic sales, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange rates, acquisitions or divestitures, increased a robust 3 percent. Earnings per diluted share were 96 cents.
Both core earnings and sales beat Wall Street forecasts, according to Bloomberg. Analysts had expected P&G to report on Tuesday a 98 cents per share in core earnings, which exclude one-time items. The company's core earnings per share was $1.03. P&G's sales also topped $16.5 billion when forecasters expected revenues slightly under.
P&G shares rose $2.87 or 3.4 percent to close at $86.97.
Last year, the company reported a $2.6 billion profit on sales of $16.5 billion in the same period.
Organic sales growth was driven by a 2 percent increase in product volume, while pricing remained flat. Organic sales also surged to 3 percent growth in the U.S. and 2 percent growth in China, the company's two largest markets, according to P&G's chief financial officer Jon Moeller, who spoke with reporters in an early-morning conference call. By comparison, organic sales grew just 1 percent in the U.S. and shrank 8 percent in China from July to December 2015.
Foreign exchange shaved 3 percent off total sales. Sales were growing in all top 10 markets, except Great Britain, which is struggling in the wake of the Brexit vote fallout.
Analysts mostly cheered strengthing results, though they noted relatively easy year-ago comparisons given P&G's sluggish growth in the past few years.
"We believe sales growth is most important, and a 3 percent increase, despite favorable (year-over-year) comparisons, indicates P&G is making solid progress," wrote Stifel analyst Mark Astrachan, in a Tuesday note to investors, pointing out P&G's organic sales were the strongest quarterly gain in more than two years.
A skeptical Barclays analyst Lauren Lieberman also noted the increase but said results were aided by slumping sales last year and a lower tax rate and flat costs this year. She noted the strong first quarter sales, didn't prompt P&G to increase its outlook for the fiscal year.
"As we see it, investments P&G needs & plans to make in product innovation, marketing, branding (and seemingly pricing) will take time and money to drive sustainably stronger results," Lieberman wrote.
P&G reaffirmed its forecast Tuesday that calls for a 2 percent increase in organic sales that will translate into a 1 percent total sales increase after foreign exchange is factored in.
The quarter's results come three weeks after P&G completed a split off with nearly a third of its beauty business. The challenge going forward is for P&G to reignite sales growth at its remaining core businesses of Tide detergent, Gillette razors, Pampers diapers and other household staples.
CEO David Taylor said the new fiscal year was off to a solid start at P&G.
"Our first quarter results mark a good start to the fiscal year, " Taylor said in a statement. "We’re pleased with the progress we’re making, but there is still more work to do."
Taylor and other P&G executives have promised Wall Street that a smaller company will be easier to manage. And despite cutting away 14 percent of its sales, Taylor said the brands P&G kept are responsible for 94 percent of the company's profit. P&G has 10 product categories for its remaining 65 brands.
The latest results reflect P&G results prior to the divestiture because the transaction closed days after the July-September quarter that is being reported. Analysts' profit forecasts were based on profits split among by 2.8 billion shares outstanding. Nearly 105 million shares were retired in the beauty divestiture in early October.
Early this month, P&G finished a two-year process of divesting more than 100 brands with a final, massive split-off of 41 underperforming beauty labels such as CoverGirl makeup.
The latest divestiture transaction merged the beauty brands – doing $4.5 billion in annual business – with New York's Coty Inc., which makes Calvin Klein perfume and Rimmel makeup. Since 2014, Cincinnati-based P&G also completed deals to sell Iams pet food, Duracell batteries and dozens of smaller labels.
Also, through a combination of buyouts, layoffs, attrition and brand sales, P&G has cut 34,000 jobs or 26.4 percent of its workforce since it announced a restructuring plan in 2012. Today, the company's payroll is now at roughly 95,000 – its lowest level since 1991.


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Drones everywhere. CES has been littered with new drones from many of the industry’s biggest names, all vying for your attention, and proving that the business for UAVs still has much to offer.
China’s DJI, one of the most renowned manufacturers, was surprisingly low key this time around though. It did however launch two new versions of its Inspire and Phantom drones but neither is a dramatic change for the company. GoPro was tipped to unveil its long awaited drone, Karma, but it doesn’t look like it’s coming this time around but it’s expected sometime this year
Intel, on the other hand, was one of the first drone exhibits at CES to grab the spotlight. Along with the company Yuneec which it owns a stake in, it revealed its new drone, the Typhoon H, which can autonomously avoid collisions and obstacles in its path through RealSense technology.
It comes with a 4K camera and will cost around $1,800. “At this price point, no other drone comes close to the Typhoon H in terms capability and value,” said Yuneec CEO Yu Tian. Intel and Yuneec revealed no release date but said it will come within six months.
Safety was a common theme among drones this week in the wake of some recent accidents, such the drone that collided with skier Marcel Hirsher recently.
Belgian company Fleye displayed its drone that looks more like a ball. That’s because it is encased in a protective shell to avoid injuries from the rotors but whether or not it will be as efficient as its peers remains to be seen.
China’s Tencent and Zerotech demonstrated its Ying drone, which is based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight platform, and designed by both companies and is decked out with a 4K camera.
Parrot, another major player in drones, revealed what has been called a “drone on steroids” on the event floor. The Parrot DISCO drone eschews the typical quadcopter design of most UAVs and looks more like a plane with its fixed wing design. It uses an auto pilot feature to autonomously fly to its destination and can stay airborne for up to 45 minutes with speeds of up to 50mph. No pricing or release date has been confirmed.
California’s Lily Robotics ended up as one of the stars of CES this year when it came to drones. It won this year’s CES Innovation Award for its Lily Camera drone. The company describes it as a “throw-and-shoot” camera where the user just needs to throw the device into the air to commence filming and from there it’s operated with a wrist band controller. It will cost $800 and begins shipping next month.
ProDrone meanwhile revealed Byrd, which is available in three different models, ranging from 1080p to 4K cameras and lengthier flight times for the premium editions.
All of these announcement and exhibits paled compared to one brazen company with one of the more bizarre drone displays. Ehang, the Chinese company behind the Ghost drone, showed off the staggering 184, a massive quadcopter capable of carrying one person that it says will be the future of transportation. At least that’s what the company claims and that’s all we really have to go on right now. The vehicle weighs about 440 pounds and can fly for 23 minutes at speeds of up to 60mph. It’s fully autonomous and doesn’t even have any controls on board in case of an emergency.
Realistically you would think this UAV is many years away from actually being released and served more as an attention getter for the company, which still has regular drones to market. However the company’s CEO told reporters that the drone will in fact be released later this year and cost between $200,000 and $300,000 but it will face a huge barricade when it comes to legal matters. “The whole world never had something like this before,” said CEO Shang Hsiao.
Drones in general have become commonplace, as evidenced by the sheer number on display at CES, but Ehang shows that there is still a lot of innovation, risks, and legal wrangling ahead.


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In June this year, Ford led its domestic rivals in the largest sales increase compared to its June 2010 sales.
Read This Article
The 2014 Jeep Cherokee launch was not without mistakes, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne admits.
Another 137,176 Jeep Liberty models were added to a suspension recall today, bringing the total number of recalled vehicles to 346,900.
Off-roading has become more and more popular, and in return automotive companies are beginning to offer an abundance of new options and models related to off-roading.


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Winter NAMM Imminent
January 5, 2010
This year’s Winter NAMM is taking place on January 14–17 at the Anaheim Convention Center, with over a thousand exhibits attracting thousands of buyers from around the world and displaying the latest gear in MI, pro-audio and lighting technologies — the NAMM Show’s got it all.
The Center’s vast exhibit floors will be more alive than ever before, which expects this show to be one of the biggest music products trade shows yet. What better place for Steinberg to present its most recent achievements, to network with other attendees and simply have a ball than at the 2010 NAMM Show.
Booth 6528, Hall A
Anaheim Convention Center
800 West Katella Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92802, USA
Visit www.namm.org for more information on Winter NAMM.
September 19, 2014
A new version of Steinberg’s renowned iPad app Cubasis is now available for download from the App...
September 10, 2014
Created by sound designer and composer Simon Stockhausen comes our second signature VST Sound...
September 3, 2014
Steinberg is happy to announce the availability of new maintenance updates for Cubase and...
August 20, 2014
After releasing the update to Groove Agent 4 last month, the full retail version is now available...
August 6, 2014
Nuendo is the top-choice solution for audio post-production professionals working in the film, TV,...
July 28, 2014
The fourth iteration of Steinberg’s ultimate drum studio is rolling out today. Groove Agent 4...
July 28, 2014
Steinberg is happy to announce the availability of a new maintenance update for VST Connect...
July 22, 2014
Nuendo 6.5 is now shipping to distributors and dealers worldwide. Also available through the...


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Internal Apple(s aapl) documents released during the company’s current patent trial with Samsung show that Apple clearly understands it doesn’t have a smartphone product for everyone. Right now, Apple lacks both a no-contract sub-$300 iPhone and a larger screen iPhone. The timing of the document release lines up nicely with recent reports that Apple will offer at least a 4.7-inch iPhone this year, if not an additional 5.5-inch model as well.
Re/code shared some of the court documentation this weekend and among the several slides was an Apple strategy presentation outlining what Apple doesn’t offer versus what consumers want from their phones.
We’ve noted several times over the past year that the expensive smartphone market is generally saturated; more growth is coming from budget models such as the $179 Moto G. Nokia(s nok) too is a big player here, recently announcing its Lumia 630 and 635 handsets starting at $159 without contract. I don’t think Apple is likely to mount a major campaign in this market, however. Doing so would reduced the average selling price of its phones and also cut deeply into per-device profits.
Instead, it’s a safer bet that Apple will bring its consistent mobile experience to larger iPhones this year. Those phones could command a premium price above the iPhone 5s, which starts at $649. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple finally reduce the cost of its traditional iPhone and offer a larger device at the current price: Think $599 for the iPhone 5s and $649 for a bigger model.
While Apple does a fantastic overall job with hardware and software design, the one area I think it has lagged in is device size. In 2011 I argued in favor of a 4-inch iPhone as other handsets with larger displays provided a better visual experience for gaming, apps and video. Apple didn’t move to that screen size until the iPhone 5 launched 18 months later. I also dumped my original 2010 iPad for a 7-inch slate as I saw more portability in such devices; that led to Apple recognizing the market for smaller tablets, with the result being the 7.9-inch iPad mini in 2012.
Clearly, there’s still a market for Apple’s 4-inch iPhone, as the company is selling tens of millions of them. And for some, it’s the perfect size for one-handed use. But there’s room in the market, not to mention consumer pockets, for a larger iPhone. We already knew that; it’s nice to see Apple knows it as well.


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Posted by Shirley Brady on June 9, 2014 08:57 AM
TOP 5 STORIES
adidas partners with YouTube for The Dugout World Cup streaming channel, and leads FIFA sponsors calling for an inquiry into Qatar's bid. Above, its latest World Cup spot (with David Beckham, Lucas Moura, Zinedine Zidane and Gareth Bale), which has passed 9 million views since Friday.
Tyson Foods wins bidding for Hillshire Brands.
Amazon starts managing payments for third parties.
Barclays joins wearable tech revolution with contactless payment wristbands.
Gap Inc. becomes first US retailer in Myanmar with Old Navy and Banana Republic manufacturing.Continue reading...
Posted by Shirley Brady on May 23, 2014 09:18 AM
TOP 5 STORIES
Abercrombie & Fitch is getting more modest.
Amazon hires more robots, escalates battle with Hachette.
Barclays fined $44 million over gold price fix.
HP to lay off up to 16,000 workers as results disappoint.
Taco Bell spin-off won’t get beer milkshakes after all.
MORE BRAND NEWS
Acura renews Jerry Seinfeld web series for four more seasons.
American Express sees a $25 trillion opportunity in mobile.
ANA acquires Brand Activation association.
Arby’s sells the sizzle in record-breaking 13-hour commercial bid.
Boeing is taking a page from Apple's design philosophy book.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on May 12, 2014 05:14 PM
In a world where cameras fall by the wayside for snap-happy smartphones, Instagram is proving that a picture is still worth a thousand words.
“When it comes to click-through rates on Facebook and Instagram, Instagram is annihilating Facebook in the contests of CTR and engagement," according to Business2Community.com.
For brands like Taco Bell and Hollister, Instagram campaigns have seen success among particular genders like never before. A favorite of young men, Taco Bell's month-long campaign helped boost followers by 45 percent with engagement rates up to 400 percent higher than organic posts, Adweek reports. “We felt like this was a great investment, one that complemented our overall media strategy," said Juliet Corsinita, Taco Bell's marketing VP and head of media.
Meanwhile, Hollister's teen girl-focused campaign saw similar success, setting the clothing brand up for an even bigger spending budget with the photo-sharing app through the summer.
As Instagram prepares to expand beyond its current 15-brand capacity thanks to its major deal with Omnicom, Jim Squires, director, market operations, assured Business Insider that the network won't be overrun thanks to strict rules imposed by the service. "We're being very methodical and deliberate," he said, "which is why you're not seeing a lot of ads in your feed."Continue reading...
Posted by Abe Sauer on March 4, 2014 11:53 AM
It may be prominently billing itself as "from San Francisco," but it was Los Angeles' USC Trojan marching band that performed at the March 1 opening of China's first Old Navy store.
The rainy Shanghai opening featured other bits of Americana like cheerleaders, the stars and stripes, a giant gum ball machine, Caucasian bellhops in tails, and vintage cigarette girls. A man dressed as a giant camera snapped photos of visitors under a giant scoreboard—Old Navy vs. Guest—that lit up the floor. Others handed out hundreds of shiny blue and white balloons. A fire engine red, double decker tourist bus emblazoned with the Old Navy logo sat outside the store.
Localization may be all the rage for businesses in China, but there was nothing about the Old Navy opening that was Chinese. The store's signs are all in English. In fact, Old Navy doesn't even have a Chinese name. That appears to be the brand's strategy for China, though it is likely a doomed one.Continue reading...
Posted by Dale Buss on February 28, 2014 09:37 AM
Chipotle rolls out tofu-based Sofritas nationwide.
Abercrombie & Fitch cuts prices and looks to expand outlets.
Quiznos plans to file for bankruptcy.
American Airlines ends bereavement fares.
Caterpillar loses big locomotive job.
Costa Rica launches new branding campaign.
Gap tops upbeat forecasts.
Hilton considers selling Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Michael Jordan tops list of highest-paid retired athletes.Continue reading...
Posted by Dale Buss on February 20, 2014 03:53 PM
It seems the proud days of Walmart are now behind the US brand that is looking increasingly lost in a quickly evolving global market.
The world's largest retailer on Thursday reported a meager net-sales increase of just 1.6 percent and a 3 percent drop in operating income for 2013 as Walmart coped with struggling consumers in America and elsewhere, a drop in US government support for many in its low-income customer base, and even the scourge of bad weather that has hit many US retailers over the last few months.
Worse yet, Walmart comp-store sales actually declined by 0.6 percent, an incredible blow to a brand that achieved the top of the mass-merchandising mountain by being able to create a powerful price-based loyalty among its customers that had survived every impediment before 2013.Continue reading...
Posted by Mark J. Miller on February 20, 2014 01:37 PM
During President Obama's State of the Union address last month, he asked businesses across the US to raise their minimum wage to $10 an hour, even if Congress wasn't going to force minimum wage above its current $7.25 rate, though it plans to pay its own workers $10.10 starting next year.
It seems at least one major US company was listening. Gap Inc. announced that it will voluntarily increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour in June of 2015 after boosting its pay rate to $9 per hour this year, Reuters reports. The increase will benefit about 65,000 workers across the company's Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands.
Harking back to the directive from founder Don Fisher to "do more than sell clothes," the company said that "after many months of consideration, we've made a business decision that's right for our brands, good for our people and beneficial to our customers."
"I applaud Gap for announcing that they intend to raise wages for their employees beginning this year," President Obama said, according to Reuters.
It remains to be seen if Walmart, the largest private employer in America, will follow. Numerous protests demanding that Walmart raise its minimum wage have been ongoing over the last year, as the company made headlines for refusing a pay increase in Washington, D.C. and other pay-related incidents around the holidays.Continue reading...
Posted by Dale Buss on February 20, 2014 09:20 AM
Facebook sees growth anxieties drive WhatsApp purchase.
Sbarro closes 155 company-owned units.
Walmart offers weak forecast and plans to accelerate rollout of small stores.
Aereo suffers a defeat in court.
Audi gives TT Roadster a fresh look.
Budweiser unveils World Cup teaser.
ConAgra seeks to revitalize Healthy Choice brand.
Fiat gives buyers an iconic track experience.
Ford splits with TV pitchman Mike Rowe.
FCC plans to overhaul rules to rescue net neutrality.
Gap announces voluntary minimum wage boost.Continue reading...


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Retail stocks fell Tuesday after No. 1 home-improvement retailer Home Depot Inc.'s
implied fourth-quarter outlook missed Wall Street expectations and TJX Cos.
gave a fourth-quarter outlook that also may fall short. Target Corp.
shares were little changed after it posted a better-than-expected third-quarter profit. Saks Inc.
and Dillard's Inc.
shares both surged after the department-store operators posted surprise profits. The S&P Retail Index
fell 0.5% to 407.79.


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BROWNSBURG, Ind.—While most restaurants close their doors on Christmas, one Brownsburg pizza joint stayed open to give back to its employees.
Rock Star Pizza said one hundred percent of what it made on the holiday went to employees working.
“I actually enjoy it. Every customer we get is happy that we’re open, very friendly, ‘tis the season,” manager Nicolas Horsley said.
The employees said the extra cash helps.
“Just extra money’s always good,” employee Katelyn Roberts, who is home from college, said.
The restaurant said it’s the third year it’s served up pizza this way. Last year, they were so busy they said they ran out of dough.
The restaurant said all of the employees working were doing so voluntarily.
“It’s kind of nice. I mean I’m here literally all the time anyways so it’s like I’m spending time with my family anyways honestly,” Chelsea Street, an employee, said.
Some customers picking up pizza said it was for the convenience, while others simply wanted to help out. The employees said they hope they helped make holidays a little easier for families by working Christmas.
The restaurant said it plans to do the same thing next year.


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RPM International Inc.'s Rust-Oleum unit is bolstering its product line with the acquisition of Ontario-based Siamons International Inc. and its Concrobium brand of specialty mold cleaners.
The Medina-based coatings and sealants company (NYSE: RPM) announced the buy Monday, Dec. 17, in a news release. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Siamons posts net sales of about $20 million, and the transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings within one year, the release said. RPM's stock was selling at about $60.70 midmorning on Dec. 17.
The Concrobium brand includes a range of nontoxic, specialty mold-cleaning solutions. The line — whose leading product is Mold Control — primarily is sold in big-box retailers.
The move allows Rust-Oleum to boost Concrobium's retail presence on an international scope and introduce it to new market categories, RPM said.
The deal also will allow Rust-Oleum to accelerate distribution of other specialty cleaning brands in Canada.
"The Concrobium brand is an excellent strategic fit that will expand Rust-Oleum's specialty cleaning product portfolio, complementing its existing Krud Kutter, Mean Green, Roto-Rooter, Whink, Jomax and Moldex brands and resulting in significant cost synergies and enhanced supply-chain efficiencies," RPM chairman and CEO Frank C. Sullivan said in the release. "The addition of Concrobium will greatly enhance Rust-Oleum's ability to offer a one-stop shopping solution to its retail partners, ultimately making it a leader in the specialty cleaning market."
RPM owns an array of subsidiaries and brands, including Rust-Oleum coatings, DAP caulks and sealants, Tremco roofing and Carboline corrosion-prevention coatings. Its products are sold in residential, industrial and specialty markets.
The company made news in June when it announced it had reached a deal with activist investor Elliott Management to review its business practices and seat two new members on RPM's board of directors.


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In a move that wasn’t entirely unexpected, publishing giant EA has pulled out of E3 2019. Making in the second big company to do so after a similar announcement from Sony late last year.
Instead, the Battlefield, FIFA, and Anthem publisher is focussing on EA Play 2019 which, this time around, will feature “less talk and more play”.
EA Play 2019 – Multiple Livestreams and Hands-On Opportunities
Held at the Hollywood Palladium over a three-day period from the 7-9th June, the publisher explained that this year’s show is all about the EA community.
2019 will mark our fourth year of EA PLAY. What we envisioned as a celebration of play has become an incredible moment that we love to share with the community each year. We are so grateful for all our fans who have joined us, and we look forward to making this year an even better experience.
This year you’ll see less talk and more play, with an event entirely focused on the heartbeat of EA Play: our player communities and the games they love.
As such, there will be multiple livestreams aired during the first two days of the event; some of which will be hosted by content creators over at EA’s Creator Cave. Followed by numerous opportunities for players to get hands-on with the games they love during the final two days of the event (that’s Saturday and Sunday).
Tickets for EA Play 2019 go on sale next month. While additional information, covering everything from ticket availability to the programme schedule itself, will be revealed over the coming weeks.


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BT has launched a range of local geographic numbers that will be available for voice over IP users.
BT said yesterday that the move was inspired by research that consumers have greater trust for businesses that have a local number. Non-geographic numbers, which effectively charged a customer for phoning a business, are said to have eroded the public's trust in companies.
The rise of VoIP, with its non-descript phone prefixes, would not endear the public to businesses any further, said Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business.
"People like to deal with local companies and feel more comfortable calling numbers with codes they are familiar with. But by giving our clients a free VoIP line, we are enabling even the smallest businesses to enjoy the cost savings and convenience of making calls over the internet, while still maintaining their local presence."
BT has been driven to this decision by consumer anger over the way businesses have been seen to charge their customers, said Simon Clark, sales director of communications supplier Atrica.


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Trulia price target lowered to $45 from $54 at RBC Capital RBC Capital reduced its price target on Trulia after the company reported roughly in-line Q4 results. The firm would have liked to have seen the company report higher revenue, but the firm thinks the company's long-term fundamentals are intact and reiterates an Outperform rating on the stock.
Zillow Q4 preannouncement shows revenue momentum, says Canaccord Canaccord said Zillow's (Z) Q4 earnings preannouncement shows that it is gaining revenue momentum. The firm believes the future is bright for the company, which is set to close its purchase of Trulia (TRLA) as soon as today. Canaccord maintained its Buy rating and $125 price target on Zillow shares.


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by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) July 23, 2012
A Chinese dairy has been ordered to suspend production after a cancer-causing toxin was found in its infant formula, China's quality watchdog said Monday, in the country's latest milk scare.
Ava Dairy Co. Ltd has started a recall after high levels of aflatoxin, which is caused by mould, was found in products made between July and December, the watchdog said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The affected formula was mainly sold to supermarkets in Hunan and Guangdong, said Li Yuanping, spokesman for China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
China is trying to crack down on product safety violations to reassure citizens and restore faith in the government after a series of high-profile scandals.
The latest case comes just a month after dairy maker Yili began recalling batches of baby formula when authorities found they contained high levels of mercury.
And in December, aflatoxin was found in milk produced by another leading dairy company, Mengniu Dairy Group.
Milk was at the centre of China's biggest food safety scandal in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.
At least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill after drinking milk tainted with melamine.
Aflatoxins can be found in milk after cows consume feed contaminated by mould and can increase the risk of cancer, including liver cancer, according to the World Health Organisation.
Farming Today - Suppliers and Technology
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Farmers tough on artificial limbs
Chicago IL (SPX) Jul 23, 2012
When a farmer or rancher is injured on the job, there's an 11 percent chance that an amputation will occur. That's two and a half times more likely than in any other industry. Most of these amputations involve fingers or toes. But the artificial hands, arms, legs, feet and other prostheses used by agricultural workers with a major limb amputation don't seem to be durable, affordable or adaptable ... read more
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The battle lines are drawn for the biggest fight since the Rumble in the Jungle. That is of course if Muhammad Ali wore a beanie and was tweeting time-lapse videos of decorating a muffin.
Three weekends ago, the six-second clip-in-a-loop sharing app, Vine, was given a major thorn in its side: Instagram, the behemoth of photo sharing apps, launched its own video-sharing service.
Instagram allows a whole 15 seconds of video to be shared compared with Vine’s six — and it also has various filters (similar to the ones that make your hasty snap outside the Houses of Parliament more photogenic) that you can add to improve the look of your clips. The number of videos shared by influential users on Vine dropped straight away and more than five million videos were shared with Instagram on the first day alone.
Matt McGee, editor-in-chief of Marketing Land, a news site covering social media, says Instagram’s video length is a calculated move. “That’s a common length for TV commercials and Instagram would probably like content like that from major brands on its service.”
Licking its wounds and with the Rocky theme tune presumably on loop in the office, Vine has come back swinging by introducing a host of new features last week to try to woo back users.
Better camera features (including a new grid, autofocus and ghosting tool — which is really useful and lets you see the last frame superimposed as you shoot), the introduction of channels to categorise videos, being able to repost other people’s videos and the ability to protect posts have been rolled out.
McGee says the camera tools Vine has added are good, and re-posting (or re-vining) could be either a great way to discover new users or just become a nuisance as you see videos in your stream from people you don’t know or care about.
However, if you want something a bit more “intimate”, there are other video-sharing apps and networks out there. Vilynx is a brand new app that is still in Beta. It takes videos and creates a short clip, the size of a picture file, which you can share on other social networks. Then people can choose if they want to watch the whole video from the clip.
Juan Carlos Riveiro, co-founder and CEO of Vilynx, says: “Using Vilynx is like sharing a short video that is indexing the original long video within it. This is the future for sharing any online video independent of their length.” The service on offer is different from Vine and Instagram but it’s still microvideos.
“Vine and Instagram are great for short videos but there are more online videos than just short videos, and for those I believe Vilynx is the right solution,” adds Riveiro. “We believe this is going to be the standard for all online videos.”
The team are definitely all behind the venture, and the app is growing at seven per cent a week — if it is the next big thing, just remember where you heard it first. Only time will tell who will be knocked out in this fight — it could even be a deadlock.
Maybe in a couple of months’ time we will know which will be the YouTube and which will be the Vimeo. If you’re wondering what Vimeo is … well, point made.Reuse content


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Stop piling more tax on our pints! Chancellor urged to freeze beer duty rises which mean British drinkers pay TEN times more tax than in Germany
The Chancellor faced calls to stop piling more tax onto beer today as campaigners revealed British drinkers pay ten times more duty than their German counterparts.
The TaxPayers' Alliance asked George Osborne in next month's Budget to halt the 'beer duty escalator', which has increased tax on the pub pint by 42 per cent in the past four years.
Beer duty in the UK is now the second highest in the European Union, with only Finland levying more. It means that one-third of the price of a pint goes straight to the taxman, said the TPA.
More tax is levied on beer in the UK than anywhere in the European Union apart from Finland.
The escalator raises beer duty in the Budget each year by 2 per cent above inflation and is set to continue until 2015, pushing beer price inflation even further ahead of the general inflation rate.
A study by Lloyds TSB yesterday found that beer prices over the last 30 years had gone up five times faster than the overall rate of inflation.
The beer duty escalator is one of the reasons the price of a pint of beer in British pubs is soaring ahead of average inflation.
The report said the average price of a pint of lager was 73p in 1982, but at £3.18 in 2012 it was 336 per cent more expensive - compared to a general inflation rate of 67 per cent.
The TPA also argued that drinkers are taxed three times when they buy a pint - paying VAT, beer duty and then VAT on the beer duty.
The Campaign for Real Ale made a similar plea to the Chancellor in December when they argued that the escalator was putting pubs out of business.
Camra said that since the policy was introduced by the Labour government in 2008, more than 5,800 pubs have closed and the number of pub-goers has fallen by three million.
Launching the 'mash beer tax' campaign, TPA chief executive Matthew Sinclair, said: 'Beer is already taxed more in the UK than almost every other country in Europe. Yet another rise in beer duty at this year's Budget would be a further blow to people already struggling with the increasing cost of living.
'It would also harm the scores of pubs whose existence is under threat because ever higher taxes are putting people off going for a drink.
'In opposition, Conservative and Lib Dem politicians were quick to decry the beer duty escalator for the burden it places on people wanting to enjoy a drink and the threat it poses to pubs up and down the country.
'They're now in a position to do something about it.
'The abolition of the beer duty escalator is long overdue and a freeze in the rate at this year's Budget would help people coping with so many other pressures on their finances.'
The TPA is distributing beer mats to promote its 'mash beer tax' campaign.
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Oman’s Tax Authority has announced that the companies in the Sultanate can fully or partially cover the cost of the five percent value-added tax (VAT) on behalf of their customers.
VAT was officially introduced in the country on April 16, 2021. “Institutions, shops, and/or merchants have the freedom to choose to bear the value-added tax, which is determined at five percent for taxable goods, instead of the customer bearing this cost, whether it is the entire amount or just a part of the tax,” the official said.
There will be no penalties for institutions, shops, and merchants who want to pay this tax. “The decision to bear the fee, as well as the amount to be borne, will be taken by the owner of that particular establishment,” as per the authority official.
The Tax Authority has urged citizens to become acquainted with the goods and services that are not subject to taxation or are taxed at zero percent so that they are fully aware of how VAT affects their purchasing power.
The official also indicated that shops are well within their rights to post price lists of goods both before and after the tax was implemented.
Dr. Mohammed Al Wardi, an economic analyst in the region, has called on banks and other financial institutions to bear the costs of VAT for services given to customers during the difficult times brought about by the ongoing economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the implementation of VAT and the removal of subsidies on electricity and water, inflation is expected to rise. However, there is also a predicted decline in purchasing power, owing to the impact of the coronavirus, the cancellation of bonuses for government employees, and compulsory retirement for some of them. This will slightly reduce the rate of increased inflation,” Dr. Al Wardi added.


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The market for payment cards linked to cryptocurrency accounts is starting to gather momentum, with the announcement by Hong Kong payments and cryptocurrency platform CRYPTO.com that it has launched a trial of two products that incorporate Visa debit cards.
CRYPTO.com (formerly Monaco) is trialling MCO Visa Cards and a premium offering MCO Private. Both are linked to the company’s app, which is already in the market.
CRYPTO.com completed an initial coin offering in February last year.
Paired with the MCO Wallet App, the MCO Visa Card will enable users to spend cryptocurrency at locations worldwide that accept Visa.
If all goes to plan the products will be available in several markets by the end of the year.
Finder.com.au reports that there are already a couple of cryptocurrency wallets in the market that offer debit cards. They are CoinJar and TenX
One of the highly rated features of such products is their ability to exchange currencies and make international money transfers quickly and at low cost.
MCO Visa Card cardholder benefits include: no monthly or annual fee; up to 2 per cent cashback on card purchases and airport lounge access; foreign currency transactions at wholesale exchange rates; and a peer referral program, offering a sign-on bonus per cardholder.
MCO Private is tailored to the needs and interests of high-net-worth clients in the crypto space, offering both specialised services and access including: advice on digital asset custody services; assistance with over-the-counter transactions; exclusive access and invitations to industry events, including meetings with industry thought leaders; preferential allocation terms for competitive investment opportunities; and dedicated customer support.
MCO Private clients are eligible for the MCO Private concierge service as long as their MCO tokens remain locked up.


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It’s been covered well here since the release of NBA 2K12 – the online troubles that have been at the root of the ire consumers have directed towards 2K Sports regarding the title. General performance issues with connections and lag affect nearly everything online related but that has been compounded by the removal of popular modes and options (even lobbies) and a terribly disappointing Online Association offering.
Today Kotaku posted an article on the subject that includes discussion with director of development at Visual Concepts (2K Sports dev house) going over the state of online play for NBA 2K12. It includes references to the specific problems being experienced and the first time the company has even said the word “Crew” in months – though does not make mention of why the website which houses expected features still has not launched.
“Going into NBA 2K12 the code was still the same code from the modem days of the Dreamcast,” Thomas said. Added-on and modified to account for broadband communications and other modern developments, it still was a relic from the old NFL 2K1 days, the first sports console title with online multiplayer capability. Though fondly recalled for dazzling celebrities at the 2K booth at E3 10 years ago, it had to go. This was the year to do it, 2K Sports decided.
The decision to change online codebases affected everything about the game’s online offerings. As this would be a first run, Thomas directed the team to remove complex features that, although manageable in the old creaky architecture, couldn’t be integrated with the new code in time for the game’s shipping date—which, of course, is set by the NBA…..Though Thomas cannot promise anything, he also sincerely did not rule out My Crew’s return in future editions, attributing its absence in NBA 2K12 solely to the new codebase.
The explanation of having completely re-written the code is questionable however as the company made that very same claim heading into 2K11 – and now as it turns out that apparently wasn’t really the truth given that code from the Dreamcast days remained (the same dramatic thing they stated last year)*. At a minimum now though there is some explanation of why ‘Crew’ was taken out and that it could possibly return in the future.
*Edit: Re-checked and found references regarding Dreamcast “tech and servers” rather than “code” so, though maybe parsing words, it is possible they undertook a different project for 2K12.
The whole article is a fascinating read so make sure to check it out. It was one thing to have severe issues with online play – but another to not publicly address them and be transparent with consumers through the process. Even if it took nearly a month 2K now gets the credit for at least doing that much and working towards solutions.


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Planet42, a South Africa-based car subscription company has raised $30 million equity round led by Naspers Foundry, alongside existing investors Change Ventures and Startup Wise Guys.
Founded by Marten Orgna and Eerik Oja in 2017, Planet42 addresses transport inequality by offering an inclusive car subscription service to customers who typically cannot access traditional bank credit. In emerging markets, including South Africa, vehicle finance – and therefore vehicle ownership – is out of reach for most low and middle-income earners.
So far, the company has bought nearly 3,000 cars in South Africa and plans to increase this number to 100,000 in the next few years — and 1 million cars globally by 2025.
In addition to its rapid growth in South Africa, Planet42 recently bought its first cars for clients in Mexico, a country of over 128 million people who face similar challenges stemming from transport inequality. A high proportion of Mexico’s population are under-banked, with limited access to credit due to a high reliance on cash only transactions.
Meanwhile, on possible African expansion, Eerik Oja, CEO and Co-founder of Planet42 told TechCrunch that, "We’re just not doing it right now, but we’re not ruling it out for the future, However, the main reason is market size. South Africa has like 25% of all the passenger cars on the African continent; that means that whatever market we go next in Africa will necessarily be smaller than South Africa"
"In South Africa, 1.1 million second-hand cars get sold and bought every year. In Mexico, that number is 7 million. So the Mexican market is six times larger than South Africa. So we want to go for the really big markets".
The secured funds [comprising $6 million equity and $24 million in debt financing] will be used to expand Planet42’s car inventory in both South Africa and Mexico, putting the company on track to achieve its ambitious global goal of providing 1 million cars to people facing transport inequality by 2025.
"This funding is further proof that we’re on the right path in fighting transport inequality and promoting financial inclusion", Eerik Oja, CEO and Co-founder of Planet42, said. According to Oja, "Planet42’s car subscription model is unique because we focus on the underbanked customer and the second-hand car. This has allowed us to outperform peers who operate in markets like Europe and the US, where car subscription is a solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist – most people can get a bank to buy a car for them".
Planet42’s proprietary scoring algorithms are the foundation from which the company is able to bridge this lending gap responsibly, using a wider range of data sources than traditional credit scores to assess risk in the underbanked customer segment. These algorithms determine a suitable budget for each customer and, based on this, subscribers can choose any new or pre-owned car from Planet42’s network of more than 700 local car dealerships. Of the customers served so far, 89% would have had no other means of gaining access to a personal vehicle.
Building on its growing mobility portfolio, which includes WhereIsMyTransport, Autotrader and OLX Autos, Nasper is optimistic about this investment. "We are delighted to be the first South African investor supporting Planet42 with its next phase of growth. Planet42 is an innovative solution to addressing transport inequality in South Africa and beyond and has the potential to unlock further economic participation", Fabian Whate, Head of Naspers Foundry, said.
"This fits in with our focus of backing purpose-driven technology businesses. Investing in Planet42 is consistent with the portfolio we’ve built to date and Naspers Foundry’s healthy pipeline of potential future investments", he added.


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Today, we submitted our response to the European Commission’s exploratory consultation on network fees.
We support the Commission’s goal of “ensuring access to excellent connectivity for everyone” and, in our submission, explain how we have been active partners in delivering that goal. However, proposals by a handful of telecom operators to be cross-subsidised by content application providers (CAPS) are fundamentally flawed. They misrepresent the digital ecosystem, including the symbiotic relationship between telcos and CAPs. We urge the Commission to recognise the value that CAPs provide to the digital ecosystem, in addition to the multi-billion euro investments that Meta has made – and continues to make – into Europe’s digital infrastructure.
We encourage the Commission to deeply examine the negative impacts of the telco-led proposals. We explain why the creation of what is effectively a required private sector handout for selected telecom operators would lead to bad outcomes for European businesses and consumers, disincentivize innovation and investment, and distort competition.
Allowing selected telecom operators to charge twice for the same infrastructure – already charging consumers for internet access while also mandating discriminatory network fees from CAPs – will harm net neutrality, the structure of the open internet, as well as consumers without any guarantee of more investment in networks.
Meanwhile, we continue to be concerned by statements that the development of the metaverse justifies a network fee, which as we have explained are just not true. We were also disappointed that the starting premise of the exploratory consultation was to assume market failure, despite significant evidence to the contrary.
The tide is turning against imposing network fees. From policymakers and regulatory experts to consumer groups and civil society organisations, a range of institutions united by the desire to preserve the basic principles of the internet and a competitive digital market economy have criticised the proposals. Of course, we will engage with any additional consultations and look forward to evaluating a full impact assessment. But we urge the Commission to consider the evidence, listen to the range of organisations who have voiced concerns, and abandon these misguided proposals as quickly as possible.


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The transition to vegan mayonnaise by 7-Eleven has the potential to improve health while also saving money.
7-Eleven has shifted to mayonnaise made from plants. Hampton Creek, a culinary start-up, has created a line of plant-based and vegan goods, including Just Mayo. This mayonnaise substitute contains no animal products.
According to a report by One Green Planet, this move not only benefits health but also helps to maintain the environment. 7-Eleven could save over 81 million gallons of water over the next year simply by switching to Just Mayo. This change will also cut CO2 emissions, sodium, cholesterol, and saturated fat consumption, as well as save almost four million square feet of land.
Although this change may have a significant influence on consumer health and the environment, 7-Eleven’s motivation for making the change is unknown. According to a Fortune story, with the high cost of eggs, it’s possible that the swap was made to save money, as conventional mayonnaise mainly relies on eggs. Because egg production fell by 5.3 percent in 2015, causing egg prices to skyrocket, finding a substitute would be a viable answer.
7-Eleven has discreetly accomplished this shift. Regular mayonnaise will still be available for purchase, but all prepared food items will be created with Just Mayo. It’s unclear how shoppers will react to the change, but Serious Eats found that Just Mayo tasted better than normal jarred mayonnaise in a taste test.
Why is the number 711 in lowercase?
According to Reader’s Digest, “one explanation is that Thompson’s wife believed the logo was a little harsh with all capital letters and requested that the capital ‘N’ be altered to lowercase so the design would look more graceful.” That’s all there is to it.
Is 7-Eleven owned by the Chinese?
BEIJING On its company website, the Japanese-owned operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores in Beijing was penalized for referring to Taiwan as an independent country and other name customs.
What is the significance of the name Seven Eleven?
The stores were renamed 7-Eleven in 1946 to emphasize its expanded operating hoursfrom 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., seven days a week. Southland began to branch out beyond Texas in the late 1950s, opening 7-Eleven locations on the East Coast.
Is there an egg at 7 Eleven?
If you’re shopping at 7-Eleven during COVID-19, you’ll find a variety of amazing selections. Fresh fruits, hard-boiled eggs, and healthful packaged snacks are all readily available.
Is 711 a retailer of tomatoes?
7/11 Ground Tomatoes have a distinct appearance, a delicious tomato flavor, and a signature of Italy for diners and cooks alike. These tomatoes are freshly ground and unpeeled before being canned, leaving flecks of tomato skin throughout.
Is 7/11 going to change its name?
The parent company of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Southland Corporation, announced today that it plans to change its name to 7-Eleven Inc. in order to attract more investors.
The move will be proposed at Southland’s annual shareholder meeting on April 28. Southland, based in Dallas, founded the 7-Eleven brand in 1946. Because Southland and a Japanese joint venture partner own 65 percent of the shares, they can influence the outcome.
“The Southland name stems from 1927 and was fitting when the corporation had a variety of operations.” However, 7-Eleven is our only business now,” said Clark Matthews, the company’s president and chief executive.
Southland claims to be the world’s largest convenience store operator, franchisor, and licensor, with over 18,200 locations globally, including over 5,600 in the United States and Canada and over 7,600 in Japan.
Who came up with the 711 logo?
Will Patterson, a logo designer and brand identity expert located in the United Kingdom, has created a fascinating video that explains why 7-Eleven’s logo is “optically flawless” while being symmetrically incorrect. Patterson explains why it’s alright to defy design standards sometimes and reveals seven lessons he’s learned from the 7-Eleven logo.
What is the tagline for 7-Eleven?
IRVING, Texas 7-Eleven Inc. is launching a new brand tagline called “Take it to Eleven,” which is based on the idea that the convenience store retailer has always been a customer-centric brand.
In Japan, how many 7 Elevens are there?
There were about 70,200 7-Eleven convenience outlets in operation around the world as of January 2020. Japan had 20,988 of these stores, making it the country with the most 7-Eleven locations worldwide. In 1927, the first chain convenience store debuted in the United States in Dallas, Texas.


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Inventor. Visionary. Futurist.
This is Alex Kipman, the man behind Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality goggles, one of the company’s most ambitious products. That seems like a fitting challenge for someone who was admitted to Microsoft’s Hall of Legends in 2011 for his work on the Kinect motion controller.
But two years after the Brazil-born Kipman introduced HoloLens in January 2015, the goggles — which overlay virtual 3D images on what you’re seeing in the real world — still haven’t been released to consumers. (Developers can buy the HoloLens Development Kit for $3,000, while companies can pick up the HoloLens Commercial Suite for $5,000.)
Spanish CNET’s Gabriel Sama caught up with Kipman at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to talk about the future of the HoloLens, its potential as a consumer device and Microsoft’s biggest challenges with AR. Oh, and they also discussed Pokemon Go.
Read more: https://www.cnet.com/au/news/microsoft-hololens-alex-kipman-interview-ar-vr/


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Early sales of the Xbox One and PS4 are very impressive and show neck and neck, although you have to remember that Sony’s next-gen console has yet to be released in many countries. Either way, it will be a very close battle, which is more than we can say for the Wii U.
Let us first take a look at the Xbox One vs. Wii U sales in the UK. The Xbox One UK sales in 48 hours are almost 150,000, which is almost as much as the entire lifetime sales of the Wii U in the UK.
However, to put this into a greater perspective, worldwide Wii U lifetime sales are 3.91 million to date, which is compared to the Xbox One shifting more than 1 million units in its first day.
We have yet to see more up-to-date sales seeing as though the Xbox One was released on Friday, but it will not be long before Microsoft’s next generation console outsells the Wii U, even though Nintendo’s console has been on the market for a year now.
Surely this proves that the success Nintendo has with the original Wii was a fluke and that the Wii U lifetime sales has proven to be a failure because it has been unable to replicate that success.
A few months after the Wii U was launched there was still hope that sales would improve with the addition of new titles, but here we are a year on and things have not improved. And to add insult to injury these latest Xbox One and Wii U sales comparison are laughable.


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The Detroit motor show, also known as the North American International Auto Show is slated to be held on 14 January.
The motor show is held annually for car makers to basically show off their new cars and also show us what they got in store for the future with their weird looking concept cars. Well some are weird looking anyways.
The production cars to look out for are
So which of these would you pick up if funds wasn’t an issue? Let me know…


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TWO friends and entrepreneurs who have launched a new fashion retail business have been praised by the “Queen of Shops”.
Edge Menswear has been set up by Gareth Birkett, 28, and Gareth Owen, 36, both from Bethel, in premises on Castle Square, Caernarfon.
The two found a gap in the market when they were struggling to source fashionable clothing in their home town.
Mr Owen said: “We felt there was a real need for a designer outlet in Caernarfon.”
The outlet came under the spotlight recently when retail and brand expert Mary Portas, dubbed Mary Queen of Shops, called in while filming a television programme in Caernarfon. She complimented the duo on their attention to detail and said the shop would not look out of place in the West End of London.
Three jobs have been created in the new venture, which includes a hair dressing salon on the first floor, and has attracted funding from NatWest.


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Take a trip to Europe and you will find that the diesel is common among passenger cars. Travel back to the US and you will find only one viable choice, the VW Passett TDI. Many US consumers remember the failed passenger car diesels of the past and shudder with fear. However, rising gas prices and pressure by the Federal Government on car makers to improve their overall fleet MPG has many manufacturers turning the eyes back to the old sparkless wonder. Sources within GM hint at a diesel powered Chevy Cruze (shown below) sometime around 2013. Already sold in Europe the diesel powered Cruze averages around 50 MPG on the highway. Even closer to fruition, Mazda has plans to pair their Sky-D diesel engine to the Mazda 6 sometime around 2012. Fuel mileage estimates for the diesel powered 6 range from 33 city to 43 highway. The Sky-D already meets US emission regulations placing Mazda well ahead of competitors. Not bad for a midsize passenger car. It will only take the mild success of Chevy or Mazda to convince other car makers to follow the diesel highway to green dollars.
Image Source: GM