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St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard expressed optimism that the United States and China will reach a deal to end their trade war.World Economyread more
Morgan Stanley earlier this month upgraded shares of Target, calling it a "survivor" in retail.Retailread more
Consumers in China are taking to social media to express their support for Huawei as the U.S. government looks to ramp up pressure on the Chinese smartphone maker.Technologyread more
British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to make a final attempt at persuading lawmakers to back her "new" Brexit deal on Wednesday.Europe Politicsread more
It's not fast and may be years from visiting your neighborhood, but a walking robot is part of Ford's vision for how its autonomous vehicles deliver packages and goods in the...Technologyread more
Tensions between the two parties have heightened in recent months as the campaign for seats in the Brussels and Strasbourg-based parliament has crescendoed.Europe Politicsread more
Shares of Saudi shopping mall operator Arabian Centres were trading at 24.34 riyals ($6.49) in early deals in Riyadh.IPOsread more
There is at least one thing in common between the U.S. and Russia – their willingness to weaken the European Union, a top EU official said.Politicsread more
U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff increase — and Beijing's plans to counter them — are hitting U.S. companies in China, according to a joint survey this month by...China Economyread more
"We are also constantly watching whether the trade war will turn into a tech war," Ma said Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation of his Chinese remarks published by a locak...China Economyread more
TransferWise, the money transfer start-up, was valued at $3.5 billion after investors bought $292 million of shares in a secondary sale.Technologyread more
Uber, the ride-hailing service provider, is to significantly expand its security team as it seeks to soothe worries about data privacy, defend against hackers and even protect its offices and employees from physical attack.
The group, most recently valued at about $50bn, plans to end the year with more than 100 staff in its security team, an increase from about 25.
Joe Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor of cyber crime, was appointed as chief security officer in April, just months after Uber was criticized for how it handled data. In February, it said the personal information of about 50,000 Uber drivers had been accessed in a data breach by an unknown party.
Mr Sullivan was poached from Facebook, where he was chief security officer for five years. He and his team have responsibility for physical security, trust and safety including investigating incidents with drivers, as well as cyber security. The issues it handles are as disparate as vetting driver identities, to protecting staff attending court hearings about whether Uber can legally operate in certain jurisdictions.
"The thing I'm most excited about is we can use technology to improve all four areas [of responsibility] at the same time," said Mr Sullivan.
More from the Financial Times:
Uber employees might need protection as they could be "polarizing figures in their communities", Mr Sullivan said. The company has faced battles with taxi drivers, including high-profile clashes on the streets of Paris, and governments, such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's failed attempt to limit the number of Uber drivers last month.
Just last week, police raided Uber's Hong Kong office in an operation that led to the arrest of five drivers who are accused of driving without the required permits and insurance, according to local media.
Late last year, a company executive, Emil Michael, sparked controversy when he was quoted saying Uber should hire private investigators to launch smear campaigns against journalists critical of the group, accessing their profiles to discover information on their movements.
Mr Sullivan said Uber had already been working on securing data before he arrived, assessing who had access to customer data, for how long and for what purpose, to reduce the potential for abuse.
"Every company is a data company now, no one can be unsophisticated. The challenge is half the company needs access to customer data some of the time — it is not just customer support, it is marketing, engineers as they iterate, communications when they need to figure out what happened in an incident," he said.
To solve this problem, he said, access to data are monitored with random auditing that seeks to detect, for example, if someone on the city team in New York is looking up accounts in California, or if someone is trying to access accounts belonging to celebrities.


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The beer is almost here: Serda Brewing has announced its opening dates.
According to information posted at the company's Facebook page, Serda Brewing will hold an "open day" on Saturday, Nov. 25, followed by a grand opening on Friday, Dec. 1.
According to the post, the craft brewery will open at 4 p.m. weekdays and noon on Saturdays and Sundays, closing at 10 p.m. most days but at 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
The brewery occupies the site of a former Goodyear Service Center at 600 Government St.
It has been more than three years since John Serda, owner of Serda's Coffee, went public with plans to launch a downtown brewery, and more than a year since Serda and his partners locked in the Goodyear location as the home of their project. Along the way, a Serda Brewing Kickstarter campaign exceeded its $25,000 goal by several thousand dollars. "We really appreciate your patience and support while we made our way through construction and first brews," said the post announcing the opening dates.
The site has undergone extensive renovations this year, transforming a long-vacant eyesore into a showplace. According to www.serdabrewing.com, planned beers include a "flagship Pilsner" called the Hook Line & Lager, a Vienna-style brew called Tidewater, a Mobile Bay IPA and a Clear Prop porter.
Serda Brewing will be Mobile's first functioning microbrewery since Mr. Jim's Cannon Brewpub closed in 2009; since then, changes to state law have aided the brewing industry, which has blossomed around the state, particularly in Birmingham and Huntsville.
Mobile has at least two more brewing operations in development: Iron Hand, a brewpub based in De Tonti Square, and Haint Blue, which has faced difficulty in finding a location and has brewed beer in Mississippi in the meantime.

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It wouldn’t be Halloween if RAZE didn’t create, craft, and cook up some sort of all-new flavor of its flagship RAZE Energy drink, as this is something we’ve seen it do specifically for the event a few times before. Back in 2019, we got the crowd-sourced Voodoo, and last year we were treated to Franken Sour, both products arriving around Halloween and featuring a spooky theme.
This year, fans of the RAZE Energy drink are indeed getting another, although the beverage brand is keeping it all under wraps for now. With about a week until the event, RAZE has said it is about to reveal an all-new Halloween flavor, and it has teased four different types of tastes, and presumably, one of them is going to be what we get in the Halloween edition.
The RAZE Energy drink flavor for All Hallows’ Eve for 2022 is either going to be Sour, Spicy, Sweet, or Tangy, which does kind of cover almost any type of taste. Either way, the product is going to have a flavor in one of those areas, but the most important news is we’re getting something for Halloween, and it is separate from RAZE’s recently revealed collaboration, Joie Juice.


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There's another new Pokemon game coming soon, as Let's Go: Catching leaks ahead of an incoming Direct.
Already, we have another Pokemon game on the horizon, and we're not talking about the one you think.
There's a new Pokemon Direct reportedly on the way, and leaks indicate that Diamond and Pearl remakes will be on the agenda.
However, it seems there's more to come than just a remake of Generation 4. A new Pokemon leak reveals that there's also a sequel to Pokemon Let's Go: Pikachu and Pokemon Let's Go Eevee on the way.
Pokemon Direct Announcement Coming This Week
According to numerous leaks, there's a Pokemon Direct right around the corner, and it's going to be announced this week.
At first, fans were confused at the lack of Pokemon coverage in the recent Nintendo Direct. But if Nintendo was saving the news for its own special Direct, that's sure to make fans feel better about a rather lacking 50-minute presentation.
According to Pokemon leaker Dark Ho-Oh (AKA Regizap) on Twitter, a new game in the Let's Go series will be the next reveal to drop.
The user attests that there's a new title, named Pokemon: Let's Go Catching, set to be announced in an upcoming Pokemon Direct. The Direct is getting a reveal this week, so it won't take long to see if this leak is legit.
The leaker's tweets were initially made more valid by likes from KeliosFR, a more well-known Pokemon insider. However, Kelios states that they were simply liking the idea of the game, rather than confirming its existence.
In the past, fans were of the belief that Diamond and Pearl remakes would feature Let's Go-style catching mechanics. However, now it looks like this won't be the case.
Instead, Let's Go Johto may be on the horizon. Or perhaps Let's Go catching will be more of a celebration of the entire franchise, rather than locking down a specific region.
Whatever Let's Go Catching has in store, we won't have to wait long to find out! After all, other leaks indicate that huge Pokemon news will be coming this week, before Pokemon Day on the 27th.
There are also some intriguing new Pokemon trademarks prompting further speculation from fans. We're excited to see what Pokemon 'Fusion Arts' are, and how they could relate to the upcoming titles.
And in other Nintendo news, the final two Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters are leaking online. Are you happy with the game's final DLC picks?


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The next time you call your cable company to complain about paying $100 a month for hundreds of channels, get ready for them to agree. That’s because pay TV operators are starting to realize that not all customers are created equal, and that some might be much better served with content that has traditionally been ignored by TV networks.
Case in point: AT&T, (S ATT) which operates its own TV service as part of its Uverse offering, just agreed to jointly invest $500 million with the Chernin Group into a new venture that will acquire, invest in and launch online video services. Some of these services will be ad-supported, while others will be subscription-based.
AT&T and the Chernin Group didn’t offer additional details about the types of content they’re looking at, but a good indicator is that the Chernin Group contributed its newly-acquired majority stake in Crunchyroll to the new venture.
Same-day access to Japanese TV shows
Crunchyroll, which we have covered numerous times before on Gigaom, has become the premier service for Japanese anime content in the U.S., offering anime fans ad-supported episodes as well as a subscription tier that comes with same-day access. Crunchyroll subscribers can watch episodes of their favorite anime shows just hours after they air on Japanese television through a variety of apps for mobile and connected devices.
Crunchyroll recently branched out with the launch of KDrama, a new subscription offering for Korean dramas, and Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao has long said that he wants to expand into other content niches as well. “There is a huge demand for hyper-targeting users of other verticals,” he told me two years ago, when Crunchyroll announced 100,000 paying subscribers for its service.
Crunchyroll, and competitors like Viki and DramaFever, have also highlighted another advantage of the niche: Content is oftentimes much cheaper than the TV shows Netflix and Amazon are competing for, while still highly valuable to certain audiences. Crunchyroll and its competitors license Anime and Korean dramas only for use outside of their home markets, giving broadcasters in Japan and Korea another way to monetize their content.
The same could be done with domestic content that hasn’t gotten enough traction on cable, like college sports events other than basketball, other other niche sports like fly fishing, dressage or even competitive cycling. Other audiences could include Spanish-speaking viewers or other minorities underserved by traditional broadcast programming.
Competing with Comcast, billing through mobile
For AT&T, there is another upside in going for the niche: The phone company’s Uverse network still isn’t available in all markets, and it often competes heads-on with TV and triple-play offerings from Comcast and other cable companies. With niche video services, it could reach every consumer, regardless of their broadband provider, and even use its wireless service for marketing and payment services.
The idea that TV operators would one day move beyond their physical footprint and compete directly with streaming services has long been framed in the terms of virtual cable operators that would offer consumers complete bundles of everything from ABC (S DIS) to HBO, something that Intel Media tried with its OnCue service.
But increasingly, it looks like operators may be looking to the niche to make their first moves. Aside from AT&T, DirecTV has also started to investigate niche online programming, and there have been persistent rumors that Comcast is looking to launch niche online offerings as well.
In other words: The future of pay TV could be about paying for TV you actually want to watch.


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23 September 2016
23 September 2016 - Premier Foods has picked up three FDF awards at this year’s event, which took place last night in London and was hosted by TV’s Hardeep Singh Kohli.
21 September 2016
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Dreaming of a sandy beach? A country-by-country guide to Caribbean reopenings
This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.
By a show of hands, who’s ready for a beach vacation? We definitely are.
For more travel tips and news, sign up for our daily newsletter
Unfortunately, the world itself may not be ready for us to return to its beaches, at least in the Caribbean. As of the time of publication, this sunny vacation region has closed many of its airports for the time being, with various additional restrictions detailed below. Some countries are tentatively set to re-open in the next few weeks, although quarantine extensions could be announced at any time.
This guide is current as of the time of publication, and we will keep information regularly updated as the global situation progresses.
And if you missed it, here’s our country by country guide to reopenings
All of Anguilla’s entry points are closed to tourists, both by air as well as by sea, although repatriation flights are allowed to land for retrieving foreign nationals. Tourists are not allowed under any circumstances, and crew must minimize ground time and cannot make an overnight stay.
Right now, lockdown restrictions are valid through May 31, 2020, although the nation has not yet announced an intention to reopen after that date.
Antigua and Barbuda: Reopening on June 1
International flights have been suspended since late March, but local government has announced the intention of reopening to tourists on June 1. Right now, only country residents are allowed to enter the country and will be subject to enhanced health screenings and a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival. Repatriation flights are allowed to land to pick up stranded foreigners.
Aruba: Opening between June 15 and July 1
Good news from Aruba: Borders will reopen to travelers soon, with a tentative date set between June 15 and July 1.
The Caribbean Journal, reporting Aruba Tourism Authority, said, “For travelers who already have a trip booked and are concerned restrictions may impact your travel dates, please contact your hotels and airlines directly for an update on their rescheduling policies. We will welcome guests back to our sunny shores as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Aruba closed its borders to tourists on March 29, although crew members have been exempt from the restriction.
The Bahamas are under emergency orders through May 30, with no announced reopening date as of the time of publication. No international visitors are allowed to enter or disembark on Bahamian soil for any reason, including transit. The nation’s airports are closed to all incoming passenger flights, although airlines are permitted to fly empty aircraft into the Bahamas to retrieve international visitors.
A mandatory 14-day quarantine at a government facility has been instituted for all visitors entering the country between May 4 and May 17. Passenger flights are not allowed between the hours of 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. Airline crews may spend one night in Barbados, but they must be quarantined at the hotel until departure. Alternatively, crew may remain onboard the aircraft. 90% of the hotels and all of the restaurants on the island are closed due to the lockdown. Current lockdown restrictions for Barbados don’t expire until July 1, 2020.
Alas if the Blue Hole was on your travel list for the spring; all of Belize’s borders and ports of entry are completely closed to tourists. Current restrictions expire on May 30, 2020, with no news announced for reopening yet. A few exceptions are made for specialized incoming flights such as cargo, humanitarian, medical and relief, technical stops where no passengers disembark, emergency/diversion and repatriation flights.
Only Bermuda citizens are allowed into the country at this time. Current restrictions expire on May 31, 2020. All incoming travelers must complete health forms, including flight and medical crew as well as passengers. Forms should be sent to firstname.lastname@example.org; email@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.org. Ferry flights to claim outbound travelers are allowed, and overnight/crew rest is not allowed.
British Virgin Islands: Closed
The British Virgin Islands are off-limits to tourists by sea or air through June 1, 2020, and non-citizen crew members must stay within the port facility. No reopening date has been set as of the date of this publication.
Cayman Islands: Closed
The Cayman Islands have banned all foreign nationals from visiting the islands, which are under curfew each day from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Locals stay within their homes during those hours. Restrictions extend through May 31, 2020, and there has been no talk of reopening borders as of right now. Repatriation and emergency flights are permitted. Returning residents must undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine, and no crew rest is available.
Cuba suspended international travel for commercial and charter flights until further notice, beginning April 2. Transiting flights must depart within three hours of landing. Crew can only remain in the airfield compound, and must avoid interacting with anyone local.
Note that these measures are specific for COVID-19; there are a number of additional restrictions for U.S. travelers visiting Cuba that are not related to the pandemic.
All commercial air and sea access to the nation of Dominica is suspended until further notice. Strict curfews are still being observed as well. There has been no announcement for reopening as of the time of this post’s publication.
Dominican Republic: Closed
The country’s borders are closed by land, sea and air through May 31, and all incoming travelers must be quarantined for two weeks.
All of Grenada’s airports are closed for commercial passenger traffic through May 20, and a date for reopening hasn’t been set yet. Cargo aircraft and pre-approved medical workers are allowed to land.
All international flights have been halted until further notice. U.S. citizens who are currently in Haiti need to coordinate directly with the U.S. embassy there.
All airports and seaports have been closed for inbound international passengers through May 31. All aircraft must have a newly instituted landing permit from Jamaica, and there is no reopening date as of right now.
All international flights have been halted for non-citizens until further notice, and tourism businesses such as hotels are also limited to serving guests who have been stranded. All spas, pools and other amenities are closed. Restrictions expire on May 18, although reopening has not been announced and only one hotel on the island is open, according to Universal Weather & Aviation: the Bakoua Hotel. There is a stay-at-home curfew for Martinique residents spanning from midnight to 5 a.m. Airline flight crew and support staff needed are exempt from travel restrictions, although overnight stays should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.
Puerto Rico: Open, with restrictions and quarantine requirements
Although Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, it merits a separate entry as one of the most popular destinations in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the usual ease of access for U.S. travelers doesn’t exist right now, as the island has been on lockdown since March 2020. All port traffic, ferries and cruises have been suspended, while all travelers arriving by air must pass through San Juan International Airport (SJU) and undergo enhanced health screening, then participate in a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival.
Furthermore, Puerto Rico has enacted a nightly curfew from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., which has been extended through May 25. People are only allowed to leave home for essential purchases such as groceries, and must wear a face mask inside any establishment.
St. Barts: Closed
The country has closed its border to foreign nationals who don’t have a residence permit from the United Kingdom, or one of the Schengen Area or European Union countries. Current restrictions expire on June 1, but a reopening date has not yet been announced.
Saint Kitts and Nevis: Closed
Saint Kitts and Nevis just loosened its 24-hour curfew on May 18, imposing instead a nightly curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. through May 23. Current restrictions expire on May 31, with no reopening date announced yet. All inbound passenger traffic has been banned since March 25, and data for all repatriation flights must be submitted at least five days before arrival and departure times. All information for repatriation flights must be received at least five days before actual arrival and departure date requested. Required information includes date of birth, passport number and expiration date for each passenger, as well as a list of all countries visited by each flight crew member within the last 14 days. Crew members are not allowed to stay overnight or disembark from the plane.
Saint Lucia: Opening June 4 to U.S. travelers
Saint Lucia government officials have announced a phased approach for reopening the island’s tourism sector, to begin on June 4, 2020. The first phase is nothing but good news for U.S. travelers: Hewanorra International Airport (UVF) will begin receiving international flights from the United States only.
Visitors must present certified proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of boarding their flights to UVF. Once they arrive, they will undergo health and temperatures checks. Masks and social distancing will be required for the duration of the stay. The second phase of reopening will take place on Aug. 1, 2020, with details to be announced in coming weeks.
Although St. Lucia has only had 18 confirmed COVID-19 cases with no deaths, the country closed its borders back on March 23.
Sint Maarten: Closed
There are no commercial flights scheduled into Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport, and there is no scheduled restart date as of now. Repatriation flights are allowed to land empty in order to retrieve international tourists returning home. Current restrictions expire on June 1, 2020, but no reopening date has been announced yet.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Closed
All international passenger flights were suspended on April 2. Current restrictions expire on May 31, but a reopening date has yet to be announced. Also, all travelers who entered from the U.S., Canada, China, Iran, South Korea, the United Kingdom or any European Union country within the last 14 days must undergo a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine.
Trinidad and Tobago: Closed
The island nation of Trinidad and Tobago issued a stay-at-home order in late March, banning all tourists. While the two islands began easing restrictions on May 12, the reopening plan doesn’t yet include relaunching tourism. Prime Minister Keith Rowley said in May that the nation’s borders will remain closed until the government is confident the virus is contained.
In the meantime, the government is giving local hotels $50 million in grants toward remodeling costs in order to prepare for when international tourists are welcome to return; officials also launched a “Dreaming of Tobago” campaign on social media.
Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines is receiving a government bailout, and released a video on the airline’s new procedures in the wake of the outbreak. Again, however, there is no stated timeline on when flights or travel will resume.
The country has received high praise for keeping COVID-19 cases to a minimum; in fact, the nation ranked #1 in the world for meeting reopening requirements from Oxford University.
Turks and Caicos: Closed
All international flights have been suspended until June 1, and cruise ships have been banned through June 30. Providenciales International Airport (PLS) is closed to international passenger travel, along with all other airports in the country, although there are exceptions for emergencies, medical evacuations and cargo flights. An evening curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. is in effect until May 25, although this guideline was relaxed somewhat on May 4.
Going to the beach, grocery stores, hardware store, pharmacies and other open-air businesses is currently permitted, although restaurants are only open for takeout. Clinics and pharmacies are the only businesses permitted to remain open on Sundays through May 25. Resorts and hotels have different opening dates; the government suggests reaching out to your specific property for information.
U.S. Virgin Islands: Closed until June 1
Although the U.S. Virgin Islands are part of United States territory, the islands have limited incoming travel even for domestic travelers. The only passengers allowed to enter the USVI are residents, medical personnel, business travelers and property owners. Furthermore, local government has implemented rigorous “safer at home” protocols, resulting in closed restaurants and similar non-essential businesses. Local beaches are also closed.
The goal is to reopen the islands for tourism by June 1, when hotel reservations will begin to be honored and restaurants will reopen.
Although some countries are opening back up, it’s still too early to hope for spontaneity in travel planning. Instead, the best way to operate this summer will be by planning well in advance. So if you’re excited about some Caribbean sun — a trip to Saint Lucia, perhaps — make your reservations early, and make sure they’re fully refundable in case anything changes.
Featured photo by Westend61/Getty Images.
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When Google introduced the Quick Settings in Android 4.2 it brought about a way to quickly access frequently used settings and toggles normally hidden away. Limited though it was, custom ROM makers quickly addressed this, adding the ability to customise what appeared in the Quick Settings menu, now it seems Google may do the same in the upcoming full release, known at the moment as Android L.
While the Quick Settings in the Android L preview are much improved (Auto-Rotate toggle!!), there still remains some settings that people want that don’t appear. A feature request added to the Android L Preview issue tracker brought the initial request to the attention of Google and has now been accepted as feature-16186589, two days ago by a Googler.
There’s no further updates on the Issue Tracker, and wde’re a long way from the full release of Android L – a new version of Android should be released in October/November with a new Nexus if the past years release schedule is any guide – but it’s a pretty good sign.
Which Settings would you want to add to the Quick Settings menu?


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(Reuters) - Videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) reported better-than-expected profit and revenue, helped by higher sales of “Call of Duty” and “Hearthstone” franchises, and raised its 2015 revenue and profit forecast.
The company’s shares jumped 6.7 pct to $27.40 in after-market trading on Tuesday.
Activision Blizzard, know for its first-person shooter games, raised its 2015 adjusted profit forecast to $1.30 per share from $1.20.
The company also raised its full-year adjusted revenue forecast to $4.60 billion from $4.43 billion.
Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.23 per share on revenue of $4.47 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Activision Blizzard has several titles in the pipeline including updates to popular franchises “Call of Duty”, “Destiny” and “Skylanders”. The company is also reviving “Guitar Hero” this October.
Activision Blizzard forecast third-quarter adjusted profit of 14 cents per share on adjusted revenue of $930 million.
Revenue rose to $1.04 billion from $970 million in the second quarter ended June 30.
Revenue from the “Call of Duty” franchise was powered by sales of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare”, which was released on Nov. 4.
Activision Blizzard’s digital business revenue rose 19.5 percent to $569 million.
Videogame publishers are shifting to the lucrative digital business from physical sales as consumers switch to playing on smartphones and tablets from consoles.
“In the second quarter, our monthly active users grew by 35 percent year-over-year,” Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said in a statement.
The company’s net income rose to $212 million, or 29 cents per share, for the three months ended June 30, from $204 million, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 13 cents per share on revenue of $759 million.
Analysts had expected a profit of 8 cents per share on revenue of $665.5 million.
Up to Tuesday’s close, Activision Blizzard’s shares had risen about 28 percent this year.
Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- General Electric Co. GE, +1.45% Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said the company expects its 2006 earnings to rise 15% as revenue increases 10% to $165 billion, according to a published report on Wednesday. Immelt also said the company expects its revenue in the developing world to double to $50 billion by 2010, Reuters reported. Immelt, speaking at the company's annual meeting, cited strong growth in China, India and the Middle East for the rise in sales. In addition, GE's industrial services sector could exceed $40 billion in revenue by 2010, Reuters reported Immelt as saying.
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Haver & Boecker Niagara has established the brand in Haver & Boecker’s Mexican subsidiary.
The latest dry bulk news
The Port of Rotterdam Authority, ING, ENGIE and Wärtsilä have recently founded Zero Emission Services B.V. (ZES) to make inland shipping more sustainable.
Cargotec’s Kalmar and MacGregor have announced their joint participation in AEGIS (Advanced, Efficient and Green Intermodal Systems).
Angus Frew, current Secretary General and CEO of BIMCO, will extend his tenure by one month until the end of September 2020.
Yaskawa Environmental Energy/The Switch has signed a contract with Caterpillar to deliver an innovative package of electric drive train technology for a series of bulk carriers.
With delivery planned for August 2020, the Konecranes’ mobile harbour crane will increase capacity in bulk materials and cargo handling services.
The British Ports Association has published new research examining the barriers to shore power in UK ports, setting out three proposals to support the industry to meet ambitious emissions reductions targets.
The UK Chamber of Shipping has succeeded in securing exemptions for seafarers and offshore workers from the requirement that persons arriving in the UK from 8 June 2020 self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
Marine sector partners have kept supply chains moving with safety measures on ship and shore during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has issued updated health guidance for the global shipping industry to ensure ship operators and crew can safely deal with seafarers struggling with medical conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.
The project, entitled Antwerp@C, aims to keep CO2 out of the atmosphere and make a significant contribution towards the climate objectives through applications for capturing and utilising or storing CO2.
RightShip, a maritime risk management and environmental assessment organisation, has announced the launch of its new Safety Score.


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Couple ran $60M prescription drug scheme
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Authorities have broken up a prescription drug "diversion" scheme operating out of Nashville that sold nearly $60 million in secondhand pills to pharmacies nationwide, pawning them off as new medicines fresh from the manufacturers.
The scheme was allegedly operated through a company called Cumberland Distribution Inc., which ran drug warehouses in Nashville and was licensed by the state of Tennessee as a wholesale distributor of prescription drugs.
But the drugs Cumberland resold — $58 million worth from 2006 to 2009 — were illegally obtained, the government alleged, often from buying unused prescriptions for pennies on the dollar compared with their original prices, from people on the street or in nursing homes.
The drugs were then sorted and repackaged as new and sold to unsuspecting pharmacies, which passed them on to customers who came in to get prescriptions filled, according to the government's case.
Because of the scheme, customers were at risk of getting potentially tainted drugs, or getting drugs that were old and no longer had their required potency.
Among the recycled drugs that were sold as new were some used to treat HIV/AIDS, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Others included antipsychotic, anti-depression, acid reflux, blood pressure and diabetes medications.
This week, Charles Jeffrey Edwards, 52, and his wife, Brenda Elise Edwards, 43, of Houston entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Nashville and will be sentenced in November, according to court records and U.S. Attorney David Rivera.
Brenda Edwards pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Her husband pleaded guilty to a single count each of mail fraud and money laundering. Mail fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine, while money laundering can bring up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
"Both defendants admitted that Cumberland Distribution purchased a portion of the prescription drugs it resold to pharmacies from individuals and entities that were not licensed to engage in the wholesale distribution of prescription drugs and … were acquired through various networks of 'diverters' who obtained (the) drugs from other unlawful sources," according to the plea deal.
The case was initially investigated by the FDA, which raided the Nashville warehouses on May 14, 2009.
According to the indictment, the defendants made more than $14 million in profits from the scheme over the three-year period.
A third co-defendant, Jerrod Nichols Smith of Houston, who is charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and making a false statement, is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 7 in Nashville.


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Disney's D23 Expo is their version of ComiCon and it sure is paying off. This year, after posting record highs at the box office and before introducing its ultimate, singular streaming service, Disney held panels showing off what is yet to come. Even though D23 is bi-annual, there's sure to be enough coming out of the expo to satiate fans. Where does Disney get its bite from? Find out only on News Time!
As Disney+ details come out, a lot of positives are coming from its imminent release. But there are many negatives too. Find out what they are only on News Time!
Ever wonder how all these viewer choice award shows came to be? Here's the answer: a bunch of executives and producers individually thought they'd be great ideas. However, this week's News Time takes that answer and makes it somewhat digestible. Plus, the Disney/Fox merger went through. 4,000 jobs have been cut. And reality is hitting the crews of 20th Century Fox. Even the execs are quaking. How did slime season come about? Why are the top brass of 20th Century Fox afraid of losing their jobs? Find out only on News Time!


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CompleteCoverage: CES 2013
Dish Network is releasing an iPad app that will let
customers with the Hopper multiroom DVR use the tablet as a remote control as
well as discover popular and recommended programs and chat about them on social
The free Dish Explorer app will be available in Apple's App
Store on Jan. 7, the operator announced Sunday. Dish is scheduled to hold a
press conference on Monday with CEO Joe Clayton here at the 2013 International
The Hopper, which Dish introduced at last year's CES,
includes an automated ad-skipping feature that prompted lawsuits by major
Other pay TV operators including Comcast, DirecTV, Time
Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems have introduced similar "second-screen"
here to read the full story at Multichannel News.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — Raley’s reports one of its employees at the College Greens Shopping Center has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
A spokesperson for Raley’s said the employee last worked at the Folsom Boulevard location on March 18.
“Based on the timeline of illness and our enhanced cleaning processes since that day, we do not have reason to believe there is a need for concern,” the spokesperson sent in a statement.
Raley’s, like many grocery stores across the region, has stepped up its cleaning efforts amid the pandemic. There are now plexiglass shields at checkout stands and new procedures that enforce social distancing.
Seniors and those who are at-risk have been given new curbside and in-store pickup options.
The spokesperson told FOX40 the company has also “enhanced our leave policies (for employees) during this emergency.”


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A first-of-its-kind event, WEST explores how wearable tech is changing the game of sports and how we make and experience entertainment. Now in its second year, WEST: Wearable Entertainment & Sports Toronto is back on November 3 at the MaRS Discovery District.
This one-day event features presentations, panel discussions, fireside chats and a large expo bringing together companies from all over the globe to look at how this emerging tech is disrupting the sports and entertainment space.
WEST 2015 highlights:
- THE VOID founders Curtis Hickman and James Jensen join our lineup with Curtis giving a keynote on the True Promise of VR providing a behind the scenes look at their VR theme park in Salt Lake City
- Acclaimed wearable tech fashion designer, Billie Whitehouse of Wearable Experiments will be on stage talking about her experience in designing wearables such as the Alert Shirt which allows fans to feel the action
- 2016 US Presidential Candidate for the Transhumanist Party, Zoltan Istvan, closes our event with a futurist keynote on “The Coming Transhumanist Olympics”
- Fireside chats with X2 Biosystems on Wearables & Sports Brain Injury, Brainsights on Neuromarketing and Biglook360 on live streaming in VR
- Panel discussions looking at wearables and the connected stadium experience, wearable toys, VR as a new medium, sports analytics and athlete performance
- Over 30 tech companies in the expo including Samsung, OccupiedVR, Connected Boxing startup Hykso, AR/VR startup Sulon Technologies, wearable sound system Subpac, Moff the smart wearable toy and more!
Participating companies include:
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Zebra Technologies, CFL, PGA, X2 Biosystems, Hexoskin, Biglook360, CFL, Gizworld, Secret Location, Lyteshot, Cinehackers, PixMob, Stadium Digital, Moff, Intellitix, Cinehackers, Mighty Cast, Linkitz, Subpac, Kiwi Wearables, OccupiedVR, Canadian Film Centre (CFC), STATS LLC, Hykso, BetaKit, MobileSyrup, THE VOID, PUSH, theScore, BreqLab, Samsung, Wearable Experiments and more
Learn more at www.westconf.com


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Towing Troubles On Gamedays At Private Lot Near UTEP
If you're a Miners fan, you probably know the parking situation near UTEP can present a bit of a challenge on gamedays.
Erin Torres thought she'd avoided that challenge by parking at the Miners Market shopping strip on North Mesa street last Saturday before the Battle of I-10 game.
"It never crossed my mind that I would get towed because I was eating at Chicago's (Street Food restaurant)," she said.
That's because Torres and other customers at the restaurant were under the impression they could park at the building's lot as long as they were paying customers at the restaurant.
"The owners were telling everybody that even if you wanted to park in front of the restaurant and go to the game that that was fine. All we had to do was put our receipt in the window to prove we're customers so we could leave the car there for the game," explained Torres.
Turns out the towing company employed by the building's landlord, Mimco, had different instructions. The owner for El Paso Towing told ABC-7 he was given permission to tow the cars of customers who left the lot to go elsewhere.
Mimco confirmed that was the company's agreement for Saturday's game. The company said they have to protect their vendors, which is why they trust El Paso Towing to monitor the parking spaces at their properties.
Mimco was unsure why the building's tenants, including Chicago's Street Food restauarant, were telling customers they could dine at the restaurant then leave their cars safely at the lot during the entire game.
Regardless, Torres said she had not left the shopping center at the time her car was towed. She said she and a group of friends had gone to a store within that same building to purchase a drink. When they came out, she said, she and a male friend's cars were gone.
Torres never made it to the game. Instead she spent the night trying to retrieve her car from the towing yard. After presenting El Paso Towing with proof she was a paying customer at the Miner Market in the form of a receipt from Chicago's, she said she was promised by a supervisor at El Paso Towing that the towing fee would be waived.
"The only reason why I didn't get my money back I guess right then and there is that they'd already run the credit card through the machine and they were claiming that they didn't know how to process the refund," she said.
Her friend, however, was able to get his car out without paying the fee. He used the same receipt as Torres. She said days after she was promised her refund, the company's owner Efrain Sanchez told her he would not authorize it.
"They said one thing, that they were going to honor the restaurant receipt and they went back on their word," she said.
Sanchez said he only authorized Torres' friend's refund because he was unaware of the details surrounding the situation.
Upon closer examination of Torres' restaurant receipt, however, he decided not to grant her her own refund because he was still not convinced that was at the shopping center at the time of the towing. He told ABC-7 he will again offer her a refund if she can produce another receipt proving she was on the premises when her car was towed.
As for the confusion over the restaurant's parking policy, Torres said she doesn't blame Chicago's.
"I do believe that the restaurant wasn't behind it, but it hurts business because maybe I'm not going to go to that area anymore," Torres said.
Copyright 2010 KVIA. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Only yesterday we wrote that versions without a built-in 5G modem appeared on Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Mate X2 smartphones, and today a new version of nova 8 Pro was discovered on the company’s official website – on the same single-chip Kirin 985, but only with an LTE modem. The novelty is named logically – nova 8 Pro 4G, and apart from the modem it is no different from the usual nova 8 Pro.
One might think that Huawei is only releasing more affordable versions of its smartphones in order to spur interest among customers who do not need support for fifth generation networks, but these are no longer isolated cases, but a whole downgrade system. In fact, five models of Huawei smartphones are already presented in versions without 5G – these are Mate 40 Pro 4G, Mate X2 4G, Mate 40E 4G, P40 4G and now nova 8 Pro. Why in its range to keep so many 4G models, despite the fact that the company had previously declared its full commitment to fifth-generation networks is unclear. In addition, what is the current flagship without 5G support, and even in China – a country ahead of all others in the development of fifth-generation networks?
It is possible that the company is abandoning 5G in its smartphones for a reason, but because of the limited number of chips at its disposal: single-chip systems and 5G modems in the event that they are not an embedded component of the SoC. Due to US sanctions, Huawei cannot order the production of new single-chip systems – it has to do with what is still in stock.
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The mighty S 1000 RR gets its first ever generation change and we head over to the BIC to discover a machine that is lighter, faster and easier! Rishaad Mody gives you the first impression after a brief ride on the racetrack.
TVS Motor Company Friday launched ethanol-powered bike TVS Apache RTR 200 Fi E100, priced at Rs 1.2 lakh. The company said the new model would be available for sale in sugarcane-producing Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, to begin with. Currently, there are no ethanol fuelling stations in the country. But, speaking at the launch event here, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said his ministry will ask the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to open ethanol pumps in the country.
E-scooters touted as zero-carbon urban transport are flooding city streets worldwide, but just how green they are remains an open question.The companies — from multinationals to local start-ups — distributing them insist the omnipresent two-wheel vehicles are a boon for the environment and a curb on global warming."Bird was founded to help create a cleaner and more hospitable world that prioritises people over cars," the American firm, one of the global leaders in e-scooters, says on its website."Scooters cut the use of vehicles and reduce the volume of traffic on the road," it said. "They also help reduce pollution and improve air quality."
Electric two-wheeler maker Revolt Intellicorp Tuesday unveiled its first electric motorcycle RV400. Revolt Intellicorp has a manufacturing facility at Manesar in Haryana plans to roll out the model in seven major cities in the next four months. Here's all you need to know about the bike:
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We’ve been reporting about Gears 5 rumors for a while now, but Microsoft has never released official information about the status of the game since the reveal at E3 2018.
For what we know from official sources, it is still launching in 2019, and its multiplayer will be revealed in June shortly after the E3 kicks off.
It’s safe to state that the game will also get a focus at E3 2019, with more details on story and gameplay to be shared in the occasion of the Xbox media briefing.
Anyway, it looks like we have something else to look at before that time comes since the guys over at ResetEra have reportedly found a believable leak about the title.
First of all, we get an early look at what should be the cover art of the game, with the new protagonist Kait on the forefront and her right the first trilogy’s main character Marcus Fenix.
The cover looks to point at the snowy location of the fifth chapter, which we have been given a sneak peek back at E3 2018; if it’s on the cover, perhaps it’s more important than we anticipated.
On top of that, the leak also features a release date, which is reported to have been fixed at September 10, 2019.
That’s rather fitting if you consider that Gears of War games and first-party shooter titles from Microsoft have always been launched around September and October.
Of course, we’ll share more information on this leak and other details as soon as they pop up on the Internet; remember that we’re just one month away from the official reveal.


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In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the nation of Estonia is touting what it sees as democratic values as part of its multi-pronged national branding strategy.
Estonia, which borders Russia in northeast Europe, has invested in a national branding effort since the early 2000s — a push to consciously reshape the nation’s image and draw increased interest from tourists and entrepreneurs. It codified the practice in 2016, when the Estonian government officially formed Brand Estonia, the agency in charge of the effort. (Editor’s note: The government of Estonia paid for this reporter to travel and board for a two-day press tour).
“Brand Estonia was developed by Enterprise Estonia, which has now turned into the business innovation agency,” said Stina Vürmer, a project manager for Brand Estonia. “So we are subdivisions with their own goals and topics, and Brand Estonia is like the umbrella that we all use, in terms of visual communication.”
In addition to creating a brand identity for Estonia, including custom logos, color schemes and fonts, Brand Estonia has largely focused its messaging on three pillars, according to Brand Estonia founding member Alari Orav: Estonia’s digital nationhood, its natural beauty and its prioritization of freedom of thought.
So far, the effort has been a success. “Estonia was one of the most-searched countries for entrepreneurship, ahead of the U.K. and Hong Kong, which are established brands, and right after Israel, which is considered the start-up nation,” said Jose Torres, CEO of the national branding agency Bloom Consulting, citing internal figures from a journal article his company published on the topic. “We saw an 83% growth in terms of people searching for Estonia from 2015 to 2018.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Brand Estonia officially added a fourth pillar to its national brand: the country’s embrace of democratic values to assure potential visitors and investors that Estonia will not fall under Russia’s influence, even in the face of mounting aggression by the larger nation.
“We didn’t want to just say it was about safety, though of course it was about safety,” Orav said. “But it’s also about defending democratic values.”
Estonia’s redoubled national branding push is reflected in the nation’s official government policies. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas developed a reputation as Europe’s “new Iron Lady” for her outspoken criticism of Russian aggression and commitment of considerable materiel support to Ukraine; in March, Estonia suspended its e-residency program for applicants from Russia and Belarus.
“They’re a small country, and they know exactly what they are. And what they are is, they’re not Russia,” said Natasha Grand, director of the Institute for Identity, a national branding firm. “Even before the Ukrainian crisis started, if you look at their brand values, the first thing they say is that they’re a democracy.”
As the war in Ukraine continues, there are potential challenges to Estonia’s new approach to its national brand. Russians represent the largest group of Estonian e-residents, and Estonia’s hard-line approach could risk alienating individual Russians, rather than simply standing against actions taken by the Russian government. But Estonia’s rapid response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows how countries must carefully shepherd their national branding to react to geopolitical events.
“A brand is a living thing. Like a country, it’s always changing,” Orav said. “Every year, I think we’re done with this, and then something else comes up.”
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For those attending the March for Life this year:
The Catholic Information Center, downtown Washington’s “street parish” — thought to be the first U.S. Catholic bookstore on Facebook — is poised to be “Blogger Central” on the day of the 2008 March for Life, with free wireless Internet, a 15% discount for pro-life bloggers, and a tea party, plus celebrity book and DVD signings.
“Our store and chapel have traditionally been a respite stop for March-for-Life participants,” noted CIC manager Kevin Jones. “This year, we wanted to do something more, so—since we already offer free wireless internet—we decided to create some special incentives to encourage marchers to show their support for the Culture of Life on the web.”
The 15% discount for pro-life bloggers will apply all day on January 21-22. To receive the discount, pro-life bloggers must register in advance by e-mailing their name and blog URL to firstname.lastname@example.org by Friday, January 18. On the day of the march, those who have registered may give their name to the CIC cashier to receive the discount on anything the store sells, including books, rosaries, jewelry, prayer cards, religious decorations, and stationery.
For the purpose of this discount, and to encourage pro-lifers to have a strong Web presence, the CIC is defining a “pro-life blog” as any family-friendly Web site that actively promotes the culture of life. This includes MySpace and Facebook pages, so long as they contain a prominently displayed pro-life item.
The bookstore recently augmented its own Web site, www.cicdc.org, with a “Catholic Information Center” Facebook page — believed to be the first-ever Facebook fan club for a U.S. Catholic bookstore.
Bloggers who visit the CIC during the afternoon of January 22 will find a special treat: a tea party immediately following the March for Life, from 3-6 p.m., hosted by Dawn Patrol blogger Dawn Eden. Eden, who has appeared on EWTN’s “Life on the Rock,” will be signing copies of her book The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, which will be available for 25% off the cover price.
“I can’t wait to meet fellow pro-life bloggers from around the country and connect faces to names,” said Eden. “Many of us are already planning to come to the Blogs4Life conference at the Family Research Council earlier that morning, before the March. The tea party is a great change to relax and get to know each other better after the long day and, thanks to the wi-fi, do some ‘liveblogging’ for the folks back home.”
The CIC is located at 1501 K Street NW, and will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the day of the march. Mass will be in the chapel at 12:05 p.m., and the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed there from 1-4 p.m. For more information, contact CIC manager Kevin Jones, (202) 783-2062, or e-mail


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Three new local microbreweries—Triton Brewing Co., Bier Brewery & Taproom and Flat 12 Bierwerks—are planning to open in the next few months in a rush inspired in part by the runaway success of homegrown Sun King Brewing Co.
“We think it’s great,” said Omar Robinson, Sun King’s president. “The more good breweries serving good craft beer, the more people get exposed to it, the more we all do well.”
There's plenty of room for growth in Indiana's craft-beer market. Craft brews make up only about 1.25 percent of the beer sold in Indiana, compared to about 20 percent in Oregon and roughly 10 percent in Colorado and California.
The demand for local beer has followed the demand for local produce, local meat, local just about everything, said entrepreneur Mike DeWeese, who is working on one of the proposed new breweries.
“This was a natural progression,” DeWeese said. “Indiana has been so far behind, particularly Michigan, in the number of micros opening up."
The planned new breweries:
— Triton Brewing Co., a new production brewer named for the Greek god of water, is looking for space along the Binford Boulevard corridor.
The owners—DeWeese, Jon Lang and David Waldman—hope to open the brewery and a tap room by October. Tastings would be held Friday nights and all day Saturday.
Triton has purchased most of what it needs to open, including equipment from the now-closed Warbird Brewing Co. of Fort Wayne, giving it a 20,000-barrel capacity. The owners plan to raise $1 million for the venture, and they already have landed a bottling contract with Oaken Barrel of Greenwood.
The brewery name is a reference to beer’s largest ingredient, water. Triton beers will be made with reverse-osmosis-treated water fortified with minerals appropriate for each type of beer. For example, stouts will be made with water formulated to match that of Dublin, Ireland; and IPAs will be made with London-formulated water.
“It’s an extra 7 cents per gallon of cost, but that’s minute when you think of how much better the beer will taste,” DeWeese said. “You’ll taste things in our beer you can’t taste at any other brewery because there will be nothing to mask the ingredients.”
The plan is to start selling in Indiana and expand to the Chicago area within a year.
The three Triton partners earlier had planned to team up with restaurateur Scott Wise on a microbrewery in the former Sunflower Market space in Broad Ripple, but they couldn't come to terms with Wise on pricing and financing.
Wise, who runs the Scotty's Brewhouse chain, now plans to go solo on his own microbrewery and tap room pub, which will serve dill chips, wings, hummus and pizzas. He hopes to start construction in the next two months and open the spot, dubbed Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co., in the fall.
— Bier Brewery & Taproom, the brainchild of veteran brewer Darren Connor, is set to take 4,000 square feet in an industrial building at 5127 E. 65th St.
Connor, the longtime manager of the nearby beer-and-wine-making supplies retailer Great Fermentations, plans to use about half the space for beer production and the other half for a tasting room and to sell beer and merchandise.
A hearing for zoning approval is scheduled for Tuesday, and Connor hopes to open by the end of summer.
He plans to focus on small batches, particularly seasonals, and sell in-house only, rather than recruiting outside accounts like Sun King does.
“The more people that get to know craft beer, the better,” said Connor, a former assistant brewer at Bloomington Brewing Co. “That’s great, as long as they make good beer. There still are a lot of Bud-Miller-Coors drinkers out there. Beer should taste good—it’s not an acquired taste.”
— Flat 12 Bierwerks was inspired by Indy native Sean O’Connor’s experience living in Europe, where he fell in love with craft beer.
Now his new neighbors in the Holy Cross and Cottage Home neighborhoods are falling in love with the concept of O'Connor's new microbrewery.
O’Connor and his two partners have won zoning approval to open the brewery in a roughly 10,000-square-foot industrial building at 402 Dorman St., between Vermont and Michigan streets, a few blocks east of Interstates 65 and 70.
The owners are lining up equipment and other permits required for beer brewing, and hope to open in the late summer or early fall. Most of the space would be used for production, but they hope to maintain a small tasting room with an outdoor seating area.
The plan is to brew six to nine beers, with a focus on distribution in Indianapolis, O’Connor said. They may need to add a second story to the building to accommodate the required equipment.
“We’re excited about what it will mean to the neighborhood,” O’Connor said.


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We all know that using public wireless hotspots can be risky, but is seems that some places are more of a threat than others.
Mobile threat defense company Skycure has put together a study into the most dangerous tourist destinations to use your mobile device, the type of threats you might encounter, and offers some tips on how to avoid falling victim to an attack.
Large city locations dominate the list but Disney theme parks, places where you might expect to feel pretty safe, also feature - insert your own Mickey Mouse security joke here.
The safest attraction is India's Taj Mahal, though the good karma there is largely down to limited connectivity and a ban on using mobile phones within the monument. The safest destination in the US is the Great Smoky Mountains national park in Tennessee, again largely because it's hard to get a signal.
The research also finds that Android devices encounter network related threats almost twice as often as iOS devices. Even though iOS devices connect on average to more Wi-Fi networks, Android devices manage to connect to more threatening ones.
"Unfortunately for mobile tourists, the most magical places on earth can sometimes be the most dangerous," says Adi Sharabani, CEO of Skycure. "When you’re in a high-traffic area like these famous destinations, you're a target for hackers. Unlike your computer, your phone is always on, even when you're taking in the sights. Mobile tourists are a lucrative target for cyber criminals".
The most frequent threat comes from SSL decryption attacks, which allow cyber criminals to capture personal and work information like logins, passwords and corporate credentials even when the user thinks they're secure. The research also revealed cases of SSL stripping, which downgrades secure URLs (https) to non-secure URLs (http). Like SSL decryption attacks, this allows hackers to gain access to private information and communication while the user thinks they're safe.
To protect yourself, Skycure suggests avoiding networks with 'Free' in their name, eight per cent of the total reported threats originated from these. You should also read the warnings on your device and don’t continue if you’re not comfortable with the exposure. You should also ensure you have the latest updates on your device and use a mobile security app. If your phone begins to behave oddly you should disconnect immediately.
You can see the list of the riskiest and safest destinations in the infographic below. You can also check for threats in your area using Skycure's interactive map.


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Samsung will today become the first major smartphone manufacturer to unveil a smart watch.
The Korean company will reveal the product in Berlin and will beat Apple's iWatch - which is rumoured to be released in Spring next year.
More top news
The Prime Minister said Parliament will be given a binding vote on the final deal, but said the result will not stop Britain leaving the EU.
Officials from the train drivers' union Aslef will meet managers from Southern Railway, whilst the RMT will meet separately with Acas.
Last week the organisation wrote on Twitter: "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition".


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I'll stick to my comments and continue to believe that regulation had a stronger impact on the mobile sector than the economic crisis. The recent announcement that the French telecom regulation authority eventually (after years after back and forth discussions and lobbying) granted the 4th 3G license to Free/Iliad (one of the largest ISPs) is a good example of that. The new entrant will not launch before early 2012 but aims at captuting 10% market share by introducing cheaper tariffs (a competitive 3 hour package for less than 20€), bundling Internet access and offering interesting conditions to MVNOs. Evolution of termination rates or roaming tariffs as well as other regulations on spectrum have a much greater impact on operators' bottom line than reduced spending from consumers.
Lots happened in 2009 but it wasn’t a vintage year for digital music (in fact it was the year it well and truly lost the digital buzz to eReaders). All in all I’d give 2009 a 6 out of 10, with the launch of Spotify accounting for at least couple of those points and the following as the 5 key disappointments:
Comes With Music under-whelmed (as did Play Now plus)
ISP services didn’t get off the ground (including unlimited MP3’s nearly but not quite moment)
Apple’s new killer music format was….oh iTunes albums
imeem gave a master class in how not to make money out of social music
The big boys (MySpace, Apple) snapped up the innovative competition (Lala, iLike, imeem)
So will be 2010 be any different?Though I don’t think it will be the year digital music will really come of age (that’s at least a couple more years away) I do expect it on balance to be a stronger one than its predecessor.Leaving aside the few specific developments I’m not able to talk about here are a few of my predictions:
Another interesting announcement was made this morning at the LeWeb conference in Paris, where Orange officially announced the launch of its Application Shop (available in beta in the UK and France for several months). This shop will first be available to 1 million customers in these two countries before being roll-out to millions more customers throughout 2010. For now it gives acess to 5,000 applications.
Replicating Apple's success will not be an easy task and operators should not follow this route. They should on the contrary leverage their key assets to offer:


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Last year a record number of Monterey Institute alumni went the extra mile to support future students and their alma mater - and this year the goal is to break that record again.
Christa Thoeresz: What path will you walk down as an MBA student?
February 8, 2011
Christa Thoeresz (MBA ’11) never wants to wear a suit and work at an investment bank. That’s just not who she is. She would rather use business as a tool for social and environmental change.
Christa spends most of her time in the McGowan building, the center of internationally renowned Fisher International MBA Program, where you can study marketing, finance, sustainable business, and much more.
Christa and her team members recently presented their International Business Plan, a semester-long international consulting project. They worked with a company in the ski travel industry and developed a five year strategic plan for them, including a marketing plan, an in-depth analysis of the company and its competitors, and an expansion plan.
Like this story? Here are a few suggestions:
Fast Fact: Ben once went two weeks in rural Mexico without putting on shoes or a shirt. It had little effect on the speed at which he learned Spanish.
“We're a tight-knit, diverse group at the Monterey Institute, and I've found there's something to be learned from everyone”


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While everyone in Boston (and the rest of the nation) was collectively locked inside their homes and affixed to CNN yesterday, one group of intrepid Bostonians were hard at work: the employees at Dunkin’ Donuts.
“But the police!” you might protest, thinking that we’re making light of the Boston Police Department’s harrowing search for the second Marathon bombing suspect that ended in gunfire last night in Watertown, MA. We would never mock our men in uniform — in fact, we celebrate them. At the request of law enforcement officials, Dunkin’ Donuts remained one of the few businesses operating in locked-down neighborhoods, serving coffee and hot food to emergency service workers and police.
The Boston-based chain was only too happy to comply, reports The Boston Globe — even handing out their products for free. The employees working during the lockdown shifts, too, seemed resolute: “I’m with this guy here — see those tattoos in his arm? He’s the toughest guy in our local,” joked Don Foley, a glazier at the 60 State Street location. “There’s a lot of police presence. I don’t think anything crazy is going to happen.”
Notably, the Seattle-based Starbucks chain shut down all 64 of their stores when the lock-down went into effect. “It was strongly advised that partners and customers who were in the stores remain in the stores,” said Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley, which is PR-speak for “The Government of Massachusetts does not think we are as tough or as ballsy as the fine folks of Dunkin’ Donuts.”
And truly, Dunkin’ Donuts is only for the stout of heart and brash of spirit. As this Boston-based Esquire writer so aptly put it, “If Dunkies closes, the terrorists win.”
Have a tip we should know? email@example.com


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Integral Ad Science (IAS) this week announced that it was chosen by Microsoft Audience Network to exclusively provide brand safety for native ads across desktop and mobile web.
According to IAS, the integration uses predictive technology and real-time data to ensure that all campaigns activated through the Microsoft Audience Network are brand-safe on a pre-bid basis.
”Building upon our brand safety foundations, the integration of IAS to the Microsoft Audience Network is a great next step in reiterating our commitment to protect our advertiser’s brand equity and spend from unnecessary risks,” said Supratim Roy Chaudhury, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft Advertising, in a statement.
Microsoft Audience Network includes sites like MSN, and Outlook.com. IAS says the integration comes at no added cost to marketers, and will automatically filter out high-risk inventory before the bid is even placed.
“I’m thrilled that IAS is the first platform-wide brand safety partner across the Microsoft Audience Network. This means that we can provide the highest level of brand safety coverage for marketers across this inventory,” said Lisa Utzschneider, Chief Executive Officer, IAS. “The best part, IAS brand safety controls are automatically included for every Microsoft Audience Network advertiser at no incremental cost to them.”


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The Council of Better Business Bureaus warns that scammers are posing as legitimate auto sales outlets on phony Web sites to dupe car shoppers into sending them money.
Council spokeswoman Alison Southwick says reports from regional offices indicate that about a dozen companies in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas have reported that their names have been used on bogus Web sites. She says she is familiar with about half of those reports, and all involved used-car stores.
The sites, which look legitimate, offer deals on repossessed vehicles at prices well below market value, Southwick says. The sites use the name, address, and contact information of the real dealership. According to the council, buyers are instructed to wire a deposit to an individual rather than to a company because it helps the company cut its tax bill.
Southwick says the council does not know how many consumers have lost money but has heard that deposits of up to $5,000 were sent to the thieves.
America Auto Sales, a used-car store in Memphis, Tenn., received more than 1,000 phone calls from consumers across the country who shopped for a vehicle on americautosales.com, a bogus site, Southwick says. The callers were led to believe the Web site was run by the Memphis store.
After paying the deposit, some victims called real dealerships to arrange the delivery of their nonexistent vehicles, and some showed up in person to pick them up.
Southwick says the fraudulent sites disappear after a few days and then reappear with a new site address, using another legitimate dealership's information
(Source: Automotive News)


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LOS ANGELES — Genesis fully unwrapped its second crossover, the compact GV70, after teasing its exterior under a camouflage wrap in late September.
The upstart Korean luxury brand also released official photos of the sport model and said about 100 GV70 vehicles would be available for test drives on Korean roads over the next two months, prior to its official launch in its home market.
The GV70, which will be the fifth vehicle in the automaker's lineup, is expected in the U.S. sometime next year. Genesis also is expected to reveal an electric vehicle next year that likely will go on sale in 2022.
Genesis' first crossover, the midsize GV80, is being shipped to U.S. dealers and has gone on sale at some dealerships, a spokesman for the automaker said. The GV80's U.S. launch was delayed for several months because of the coronavirus outbreak.


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DUBLIN –The “Seafood Packaging Market – Forecasts from 2020 to 2025” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The seafood packaging market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.02% to reach US$25.119 billion by 2025 from US$19.829 billion in 2019.
As lives have become even more fast-paced due to technological advancements and the changing nature of deliverables and rotational working hours, there has been a surge in the need for meal-on-the-go, meal kits. The pure-play online digitally delivery food and beverage servers are increasingly offering an all-inclusive meal option among the myriad of a la carte serving over their digital menus which the consumers who are namely digital adopters keen on due to the convenience associated with such options.
Multichannel adapters have their consumption behavior over a variety of food and beverage establishments, for example, convenience stores like the traditional shoppers, however, their rationale is that of speed and convenience, hence they will also prefer fast food establishments too. They are also keen on frequenting fine dining options to acquaint themselves with a celebrated preparation that may have received a lot of media attention recently. Further, they will also turn to digital delivery options if they are highly recommended by their acquaintances.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: ResearchAndMarkets.com


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Virgil Abloh, an American designer known for bringing streetwear into luxury fashion and a rising star within the LVMH group, has died of cancer at the age of 41, the company said on Sunday.
Abloh, who had designed menswear for the Louis Vuitton brand since 2018, infusing lines with a mix of sportswear and tailoring that had won praise, had been promoted in July to a broader role within the world’s biggest luxury goods conglomerate.
The DJ and creator of the Off-White high-end leisurewear label, a first-generation American born of Ghanaian parents, was one of the most high-profile black people working in the luxury industry and within LVMH.
“Virgil was not only a designer with a lot of genius, a visionary, he was also a beautiful soul and a man with a lot of wisdom,” Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chief and controlling-shareholder, said in a statement.
In a post on Abloh’s Instagram account, his family said he had been battling an aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma, and had chosen to keep his 2019 diagnosis private. He is survived by a wife and two children.
His death sparked tributes in the fashion world, with rival brands such as Kering’s Gucci praising his vision, and from outside the sector too, with French footballer Kylian Mbappé among those crediting his impact.
Abloh rose to prominence in the early 2000s as a creative collaborator with the singer Kanye West. A first clothing label from 2012, Pyrex, did not last long, but the designer quickly built up Off-White into a brand sought after for its hoodies and trainers. It also won credit and prizes in the fashion industry and hosted glitzy catwalk shows in Paris.
At Vuitton, LVMH’s main revenue and profitability driver, Abloh mixed his trademark hoodies with suits and impressed some dubious early critics with twists on more classic looks, amid some scepticism in fashion circles over whether sportswear would be more than a fad.
Conglomerates such as LVMH have been looking to woo ever younger luxury customers, pushing them to rethink styles, while also trying to improve their record on diversity.
Michael Burke, chief executive of Louis Vuitton, told the Financial Times in July that LVMH’s desire to “disrupt a number of businesses” had formed part of its attraction towards Abloh, and had pushed the group to promote him further. He was due to help LVMH launch new brands among other responsibilities.
“I look for people with an immigrant mentality, who are strangers in an industry or strangers in a country, and they’re very hungry, they want to learn, want to be different inside an industry that requires new ideas all the time,” Burke said.
Abloh was not a traditionally trained designer. He had described his inspirations as taken from the street and from modern women, to which he believed some brands were not catering. His shows were infused with music references.
In a 2016 Billboard magazine interview, Abloh said: “I’m trying to create a luxury version, a designer version, of what I see in the street.
“For me, I analyse the modern girl, the girl that I’m friends with. And they’re empowered, they pay their own bills, they have their own style. They wear clothes, the clothes don’t wear them. I see women’s collections that don’t even address that.”
Abloh had also taken part in offbeat collaborations — aside from lines with Nike and LVMH-owned luggage maker Rimowa, one of many brands trying to boost sales with limited-edition collections, he also made rugs with Ikea.
LVMH bought a 60 per cent stake in Off-White in July.


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William Raveis real estate agency has partnered with the Taj Boston, the iconic luxury hotel overlooking the Public Gardens on the corner of Arlington and Newbury Streets, not to deal with condos or apartments, but to market its hotel suites. In what is a unique move, the Taj Boston’s grand suites are available for long-term stays, something like one of those extended stay hotels, but on a super luxurious scale.
“As a hotel, we wanted to engage word of mouth in the real estate world,” says Brian Macaluso, director of sales and marketing at the Taj Boston, who began working with William Raveis’s Arlington Street office a year ago. “The partnership exceeded our expectations and multiple listings were rented, so we decided to continue it,” he says.
“From our perspective, it certainly is a unique situation,” says Eric Rollo, the point person for the Live at Taj team at Raveis. “No one has done this in Boston before. The reaction from people at first was they didn’t understand. But once we got the idea across it resulted in a phenomenal first year. It was not the normal situation for the rental market, but it fulfilled a need for many people coming into the city for medical needs, or who wanted to take their time in looking for a home. Some people are waiting for work on their homes to be completed. We had two renters this winter who had ice dams on their homes and flooding.
“The main benefit is flexibility,” he continues. “Most normal rentals are rarely under six months. There is no security deposit and when you leave it’s as simple as checking out of a hotel room.”
Other benefits include access to the hotel’s amenities: 24-hour fitness center, 24-hour in room dining options, concierge service, complimentary car transfers, a bath butler and a technology butler, and babysitting services. The hotel is pet friendly, too. But it all comes at a price. Even though long-term stays discount a suite price by as much as 50 percent, it is certainly for the rich and, what with Boston’s busy film industry, perhaps the famous, too.
“Well, I could tell you stories,” teases Macaluso of just who has rented. “But we don’t typically talk about it, because of privacy for our guests.”
But what’s it cost?
Taj Boston’s luxury suite rentals range from Luxury Park View Suites to the Presidential Suite, with around 700 to 1,540 square feet of living space. Pricing varies on size and length of stay. From: $10,500-$75,000 per month, with a 30-day minimum stay required. For more info: www.LiveatTaj.com.


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September 17th, 2019 — Continuing the celebrations of its two year anniversary, KuCoin, an IDG-backed international cryptocurrency exchange, has announced a massive 450.000 USD giveaway together with several cryptocurrency projects including Tron, Tokoin, Terra, Amino, and V Systems. The giveaway promotions will run from September 16th to September 26th (UTC+8).
What Has Been Planned?
KuCoin has teamed up with the five projects to hold a range of individual promotions, including trading competitions, Red Envelope giveaways, and airdrops for KCS holders. Also included is a special promotion involving KuCoin’s popular Soft Staking program, where users can enjoy a 21% return on VSYS. Pool-X, a POS Mining Pool platform incubated and powered by KuCoin, will also be taking part with a token lockup and giveaway of its own. Working together with these projects, KuCoin is able to offer great value to users who trade on the exchange during the promotional period.
Michael Gan of KuCoin has stated: “Here at KuCoin, we are always looking at finding interesting and engaging ways for our users to trade. Giveaways offer great incentives for users to trade, with some great prizes for those who participate. We hope to continue working with high-quality projects and offering exciting giveaways and competitions like this on the exchange into our third year.”
Other KuCoin Anniversary Celebrations
The second year anniversary celebrations consist of a series of different promotional activities. Things initially kicked off with a successful 90% discount sale on BTC, where 1.5 million USD worth of bitcoin was sold. KuCoin has also announced a FOMO Trading Competition on its futures trading platform KuMEX. The competition is running simultaneously alongside the giveaways from September 16th to September 21st, with a prize pool of up to 100,000 USD to be distributed to the top 200 users each round.
KuCoin has seen continued growth going into its third year and is expected to grow further going forward. The platform maintains its reputation as “the People’s Exchange” thanks to the diverse range of cryptocurrencies available on the platform and its community-focused development.
The KuCoin Exchange opened for cryptocurrency trading in September 2017 and has enjoyed steady growth into 2019. The KuCoin Exchange puts a high priority on the quality of the projects listed based on a well-trained research department that scours the blockchain industry for the
highest quality projects. KuCoin provides an exchange service for users to conduct digital asset transactions securely and efficiently. Over time, KuCoin aims to provide long-lasting, increased value to its more than five million registered users, in over 100 countries. In November 2018, ‘The People’s Exchange’ officially partnered with IDG Capital and Matrix Partners. https://www.kucoin.com/


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How did a Norwegian electricity company become the biggest fiber-to-the-home provider in the country? By adopting an innovative business model, offering faster speeds at identical prices, and—most unusual of all—letting customers save a few hundred bucks by digging their own fiber trenches through their backyards. We spoke to the company about the willingness that Norwegians have shown to get involved in laying their own infrastructure.
From power to broadband
Lyse didn't start out as a broadband company; before 2002, it was an electrical company that provided power to about 120,000 Norwegian homes. But it was good at infrastructure building, and in 2002 it decided to jump into the Internet game by deploying fiber to the home. That first year, it had only 500 customers; now, it has more than 130,000, making fiber even more important than electricity.
And that fiber doesn't just supply Internet access. Lyse offers the usual triple play bundle of voice, TV, and Internet, but it is also experimenting with tying home alarm systems and WiFi-equipped mobile phones into the fiber connection (every install comes with a wireless router to make this simple to set up). Users can pay for all these services—plus electrical service—on a single bill.
Lyse's business model is different from companies like Verizon, which is currently rolling out fiber across its service area and then trying to sign up customers. Lyse instead sends people into unserved areas, knocks on all the doors, and passes out information on the new fiber service. Only when 60 percent of the people in an area sign up in advance for the service does Lyse start the actual fiber install.
Sixty percent sounds like a tough threshold, but the company says that it has been "very successful" so far by offering people far greater Internet speeds for the same price they are currently paying. Lyse's Altibox service offers 10Mbps, 30Mbps, or 50Mbps connections—all of them fully symmetrical (upload and download speeds are identical). In many areas, the uptake rate tops 80 percent, though competitors have boosted speeds and started deploying fiber of their own in an effort to retain customers.
Digging the trenches
In addition to entering an area with tremendous support already lined up, Lyse also does something innovative: it allows prospective customers to dig their own fiber trenches from the street to their homes. In return, customers can save about $400. "They can arrange things just the way they want," says Herbj?rn Tjeltveit of Lyse, which makes for happier customers; apparently, nothing angers a Norwegian more than having some faceless corporation tunnel through his flower garden.
The scheme also appeals to a Norwegian sense of thrift and do-it-yourselfness, says Tjeltveit, and he speculates that it has an additional benefit: customers who put some sweat equity into bringing their Internet connection from the street to the basement are more likely to be invested in the product and the company. (The obvious downside is that passionate customers are more likely to complain whenever they see shortcomings in the product.)
So far, 80 percent of all customers have elected to do their own trenching, following the instructions and timeframe provided by the company. A technical team still has to come out to pull the fiber from the street through the ducting to the house and then make the proper termination, but much of the tough manual labor is avoided.
A new fiber deployment can certainly be expensive, but Lyse has insulated itself from much of the risk. The model works, too; the company is now the main fiber-to-the-home provider in Norway, where it covers half the municipalities, and its customer churn rate has stayed quite low. As for the future, Lyse can ramp up the speed dramatically once all that precious fiber is in the ground; its partners are already testing both 100Mbps and 1,000Mbps connections.


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This Week in WiMax
Sprint leading the way for business WiMax adoption
The announcement this week of a beefy portable WiFi/WiMax router from Sprint was pretty good evidence that Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), and not Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR), will be leading the charge when it comes to marketing WiMax services to businesses. (See Sprint Offers 4G Routers.)
Given Sprint's standing relationships with enterprises on the cellular side of things, it's perhaps no surprise that Clearwire's majority owner should take the fore in selling 4G to the Fortune 1000. And trust us: A portable router that can support 32 WiFi connections isn't aimed at the consumer market.
As more markets get WiMax and more customers start using the new PocketSpot devices like the WiMax gear from Cradlepoint Inc. or the MiFi for 3G now being sold in the U.S. by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Sprint, it should be interesting to see who is buying the devices, and how they are using them. Though Sprint's new entrants are unique in that they can use both 3G and 4G services, you have to wonder how long it will take 32 users to eat up the monthly 5 GByte download limit of the 3G service contract. "You're gonna need WiMax for that" is a line Sprint salesfolk probably already have memorized.
When will we get to 100 WiMax devices?
While WiMax backers have to be heartened by the continued pace of Clearwire rollouts and product additions like Sprint's, we can't help but wonder how the industry is going to reach Clearwire co-chairman Ben Wolff's previously stated goal of 100 WiMax devices by the end of the year. (See Clearwire Launches in 10 New Markets.)
The portable routers might indeed be a broadband game-changer, but for most folks mobility is something you hold in your hand, not in your briefcase. If Clearwire and other WiMax proponents really want to get momentum rolling behind the technology, there need to be more devices -- an Apple touchpad, perhaps? -- that truly take advantage of WiMax mobility. Right now, those devices (other than the Samsung Mondi) are MIA.
Need to know more about Clearwire and WiMax? My Clearwire NTK report costs less than a triple-soy grande chai latte. Just $4.95 at the Sidecut store. Also available for the Kindle.
— Paul Kapustka is the founder and editor of Sidecut Reports, a WiMax analysis site and research service. He can be reached at [email protected]. Special to Unstrung.


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Early Move Sales: Over 300,000 Units In A Few Weeks
Everyone is wondering how Sony's new motion control technology will fare on the sales charts and we have the first estimates.
Initially, it was reported Sony sold around 140,000 units in the first few days and according to VGChartz, there have now been over 300,000 Move hardware packages sold as of September 25. Bear in mind that it has yet to arrive in Japan - where it's set to launch on October 21 - and overall, we're talking about a few weeks span of time. They also report that Sports Champion has reached 250,000 in sales but that's a bit misleading, as it's bundled with some Move packages in North America. Hence, the 80% attachment rate shouldn't be all that surprising. That being said, it seems like the perfect game for early Move adopters, as it showcases the accuracy and responsiveness of Sony's new motion sensing system. Upcoming titles include The Fight and Sorcery; there are already several Move-dedicated games on store shelves, but more are to come.
When more software arrives, Move will be a more sought-after item, and according to some, it could maybe use a price cut. That really depends who you talk to, though, as Microsoft's Kinect will retail for $150, so no new motion control is exactly cheap.
9/30/2010 8:57:33 PM John Shepard