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One of the most fascinating presentations at this year’s Game Developer Conference was given by a man I’d never heard of whose game, hasn’t even been released in the United States. The presentation “Making Games for the Other 90%,” chronicled the process of developing a game that would sell millions of copies, establish a franchise and get people who’d never picked up a controller to play a video game. The game was considered a joke when it debuted at E3 in 2005, but today, David Amor, Creative Director at UK-based Relentless Software, and developer of one of the best-selling PS2 titles of 2005, is the one laughing – all the way to the bank.
Released for the PS2 in 2005, Buzz!: The Music Quiz is, in every sense of the word, a casual game. Packaged with four brightly-colored buzzer peripherals, the game allows up to four players to participate in the equivalent of a game show in their own living room, using the buzzers to, well, buzz in with their answers. David Amor says that when they set out to develop Buzz!, they originally wanted to make an artful game with a unique, almost visionary design, involving a “crazy alien game show host,” a cactus for a hostess and a singing clam. “I don’t know what we were smoking,” he says. What they made instead was a game which, at the request of Sony, the game’s publisher, was “more like television.”
“And I think it was the right decision,” says Amor. “I think we have a tendency to add more complexity where it’s not necessary. … We had to be brave in a way to say … we think people will be happy with [simplicity].”
Running counter to what seems to be common sense (in this industry), Relentless held back, safeguarded the envelope and released a game with very little inspiration, almost no “verve” and scored a near instant hit. Yet the game, unsurprisingly, received very little fanfare in the gaming press, and the company’s showing at the E3 trade show in 2005 generated little buzz, if you will.
“Nobody really cared about [Buzz],” says Amor. “For some reason it’s considered an un-sexy thing to be doing.” Un-sexy perhaps, but profitable. In spite of negative, almost ireful reviews (“Buzz? Snore.”), Buzz! had a strong retail showing upon release, and literally cleaned up over the 2005 holiday season.
“[Buzz! was] Sony’s biggest-selling title of 2005 … and way up there in 2006,” Amor says. “[We] sold over 4 million units of the Buzz! franchise … in its first 15 months. So by any measure it’s a successful title.”
In his presentation at GDC, David Amor outlined the characteristics of games that appeal to the mass market. Among them: familiarity, simplicity and approachability. Amor (as well as an increasingly large number of high-profile developers) believes that most games are too complex and too intimidating for non-gamers.
“People have a low threshold for wanting to find out how games work,” says Amor. “When you create a game that has a new set of rules and spend a tutorial explaining how it works that’s a very intimidating thing to have to do. I think if you make something that people know about already then you don’t have to teach them so much.”
This may be news to some developers, but not to web-based game developers like New York based Arkadium, one of a growing number of companies making so-called advergames, small, web-based games designed to promote and popularize a product and be fun at the same time. Their site, greatdaygames.com, which doubles as their portfolio and catalog, features over 100 small, efficient web-based games, many of which are quite capable of laying waste to an entire afternoon.
“As a whole there is this … demographic for the ‘not-hardcore’ gamer,” says Arkadium’s Director of Game Production, Jeremy Mayes. “I think of my mom all the time. She emails me links [saying] ‘Check this out. I played this for hours.’ That sort of thing.”
According to the IGDA’sCasual Gaming Whitepaper (PDF), more people should listen to Mayes’s mom. Almost 40 percent of people in America play computer games, and the majority of these gamers play casual games. 70% of them are women.
“If you make a game fun enough and addictive enough,” says Mayes, “not only do [users] stay longer and longer, but they also tell their friends about it.” Which is exactly the point. Game designers, like David Amor, call this word of mouth. But advertisers call it “going viral.” When a game or advertisement reaches a critical mass of popularity, and friends of friends of friends start telling their friends about it too, you’ve scored a hit, whether you’re selling the game or hawking the product it’s attached to. Before long, you’ve reached the mass market.
“[Advergaming] is wildly successful,” says Mayes, and he should know. Arkadium recently signed a deal with The Hearst Corporation, to create online games for potentially every single one of Hearst’s publications, including Cosmo, Redbook, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and Teen. “If you look at companies who have no experience with advergames, but they’re used to more typical forms of advertising, they’re used to spending millions of dollars [on traditional advertising]. But this kind of advertising only holds a user’s attention for possibly fifteen seconds, if that. [Advergaming is] so much more robust and engaging, they’ll hold a user’s attention for fifteen minutes, 30 minutes, an hour and the whole time they’re being exposed to your brand and all your products. It’s a really sticky form of advertising.”
Wild Tangent agrees. Founded in 1998 by Alex St. John, one of the architects of Microsoft’s DirectX, Wild Tangent has since been making its name, like Arkadium, in the advergaming and casual game sphere. And making it big.
“[Traditional publishers] are in the movie business,” says Dave Madden, Executive Vice President of Wild Tangent. “We’re in the TV business. We’re a middle man.” A middle man perhaps, but with high ambitions. Wild Tangent, according to their own website, was named the 5th most popular online game property by comScore Media Metrix and if you buy a new PC this year, chances are you’ll also be buying a Wild Tangent game. Over 85 percent of all new PCs ship with the Wild Tangent game client pre-installed, giving users instant access to Wild Tangent’s vast library of web-based games, and Wild Tangent access to you. Wild Tangent, according to Madden, is out for nothing less than “ownership of the desktop,” and if 85 percent can be considered a majority stake, one would have to argue that they’ve made it.
According to IGDA’s whitepaper, the advergaming market will account for over $500 million in advertising and sponsorship revenues by 2008, and casual games as a whole over $2 billion, which is more than the GDP of a significant number of westernized nations. To say casual games, therefore, are taking over the world, would not be too far from the truth. To say they’re taking over the industry would be even closer.
“The Other 90 Percent”
“Web development is so fast,” says Arkadium’s Tom Rassweiler. “You can have an idea – a simple idea that’s totally out of the box – and have a prototype to test in two days. [By contrast] we were talking to somebody one who was working for a long time on this game that they knew probably wasn’t going to work, but they [had to] get it further. … And there’s pressure from the top and it’s already in production … talking about this 10-month development schedule for a game that they know isn’t any good.”
That kind of pressure is all too familiar to anyone who’s worked in the trenches of traditional game development, but web-based casual games, for the most part, have eliminated a lot of that pressure. Whereas the typical blockbuster game (Like Gears of War) may take anywhere from 18 months to several years and millions of dollars to develop, casual games, by contrast, average only a few months, and a fraction of a million dollars. But that doesn’t make them any less compelling or any less fun. Again, judging by the numbers alone, one would have to argue the exact opposite.
“You have to be super disciplined,” says David Amor, “and say ‘What people really want is the same thing as last time, but with new [content].'” And that’s exactly what his company gives them. Since the 2005 release of Buzz, Relentless has developed and shipped two more entries in the franchise, each using the same big, red buzzer peripherals, and they’re currently at work on a fourth title in the series. The original, Buzz! The Music Quiz, is still selling at full price, more than a year after its release. Most games only last a few months at full retail.
“I think if you looked at the way [Buzz!] sold,” says Amor, “it was bought by people who don’t normally play games and played by people who don’t play games. … The other 90 percent of people – people that don’t play games – are ready to play games.”
Amor admits he pulled this percentage out of “thin air,” but he’s not far off, and he’s also not the only developer thinking in those terms. The legendary Warren Spector, who’s long championed a refinement of what some might consider “high-brow” game design, targeting gamers who prefer deeper, more complex, story-based games, also recognizes that the future of gaming lies in the hands of people who wouldn’t play System Shock in a million years.
“We’ve got to sell a lot more copies or we aren’t going to be able to make games anymore,” said Spector at his GDC lecture titled “The Future of Storytelling in Next-Gen Development.” “If giving people what we already give them was enough, all of those non-gamers – which is most of the world – would already be gamers.”
“We reach such a tiny amount of people when we make video games,” agrees Amor. “If you bring along the right game, people are going to buy it.”
But what’s the right game? For Amor’s Relentless it was a quiz game that looked – and played – like a TV show; a game people could identify with because it was at once familiar, simple and accessible. “These kinds of games are more important than Gears of War,” says Amor. “These are games your girlfriend buys. It’d be depressing to think we keep making the same games for the same set of people forever.”
Spector agrees. “How can we be satisfied letting players jump from cover point to cover point so they can kill somebody?” he asks. His vision of the future involves iconic characters and meaningful stories. A world and design in which a talented storyteller can create something unique. Spector is currently espousing simpler, cheaper design techniques in favor of putting more resources behind story and actual game design.
“If we start making games that appeal to non-gamers,” says Amor. “Then those people will eventually start playing more sophisticated games, more story-based games. I absolutely believe that if you really think about those people … then I think that they will buy the games that we make.”
Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The Escapist. He has written and produced for television, theatre and film, has been writing on the web since it was invented and claims to have played every console ever made. His blog can be found at www.falsegravity.com.


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More than half of companies participating in a recent survey said the applications they find the most essential apply intelligence, meaning that they have the ability to anticipate the outcome and take or suggest the next action. The intense focus on artificial intelligence at Advertising Week supports this point.
Fantasy sports fans may claim a touchdown at the news of a niche search engine that provides stats and analysis to make it easier for players to create winning starting teams. The data-geek founders call the search engine Spearch.
Marketers are willing to open their pockets and trust Google, Bing, and Yahoo to charge the appropriate cost per click while protecting their brand search term, but this year they will open their wallets just a bit wider for Facebook.
The U.S. presidential debates Monday night created the perfect second-screen scenario for fact-checking as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton continually urged viewers to fact-check through phrases like "I hope the fact-checkers are turning up the volume and really working hard."
Optimization and personalization have never led the list of top priorities for advertisers, especially in North America -- until now. It's about their digital maturity. More than half of North American organizations that Adobe surveyed admit they are on the path to digital maturity, but it's clear this has become a slow road to tow.
Consumers tend to spend less on mobile devices than on desktop, which will lead to slower ecommerce growth this holiday season. On average, consumers spend roughly 22% less on mobile than on desktop, according to a recent report.
Google has begun to include general Web search results in its Accelerated Mobile Pages project to improve the mobile experience for Shopify merchants with plans in the next few weeks to roll it out to select merchants participating in the test pilot.
Programmatic is not the shiny object in every campaign strategy. Despite the hype surrounding programmatic, more than 50% of advertisers still do not include it in their media-buying strategy. Among the ones who do, about 30% found it was not an effective marketing channel for them, according to survey results scheduled for public release next week.
Ted Baker's espionage campaign using shoppable video ads launched earlier this month, making waves across the fashion world but little noise in advertising. It integrates all the bells and whistles, including Google voice and retail store window displays that send secret messages to the consumer's phone using location signals.
Wood from weathered barns, dilapidated hotels and fire-stricken buildings full of rich character provides an amazing way to restore history. In fact, uncovering that history of the reclaimed wood made into tables, chairs or other pieces of furniture makes the pieces that much more special. Without search engines the history would become incredibly difficult to uncover.

domain: news


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UK internet use more than doubled in 2020, as people stayed home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Boxing Day was the busiest day for broadband users, according to data from Openreach, which runs much of the UK's broadband network.
Over the festive period, large parts of the country were put into tier four restrictions, and Christmas gatherings were limited.
Live sport, online gaming and home-working all contributed to the boost.
Openreach operates the cables, ducts, and other infrastructure used by many other providers, including BT and Sky. It said that this year:
- Openreach customers consumed 50,000 petabytes of data this year, compared to 22,000 in 2019
- Properties connected to its fibre broadband used, on average, nine gigabytes of data a day
- On Boxing Day, a record 210 petabytes was used on the network
A mix of video calls to get in touch with family and friends, as well as TV streaming and gaming downloads were contributing factors to the 26 December record, it said.
The year's second-busiest day was 14 November, as Amazon Prime broadcast two live rugby matches. Openreach said usage surged just before kick off.
Online gaming also had a big impact on the UK's broadband consumption, with many of the major data spikes focussed around updates to popular PlayStation, PC and Xbox games - including Call of Duty and Fortnite.
Colin Lees, chief technology and information officer at Openreach, said that the company's network had worked hard to "make sure there's enough network capacity for every eventuality".
"It's been a year unlike any other and we believe that's played a major part in this huge jump in data consumption," he said of the pandemic.
"We know more businesses asked their employees to work from home throughout most of 2020, so connecting remotely has been and continues to be important for everyone."


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Autonomous "smart drones" ride KDDI's network
KDDI's cellular network has successfully helped a self-flying drone find its way across the countryside, marking a major step forward in package delivery, emergency damage assessment and security that the company is keen to master.
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China's steady buildup on Woody Island
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Zozo's body suit -- for when a tailor isn't around
It might look strange, but it ensures that clothes ordered online will fit. The Zozosuit lets customers make precise body measurements with only the help of a smartphone and some white polka dots.
Mercari hits record startup valuation in Tokyo debut
The flea market app Mercari has begun trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market.The stock opened at 5000 yen.
Diving into interactive digital art in Tokyo
Tokyo has a new museum, and it is interactive. Mori Digital Art Museum: teamLab Borderless features exhibits full of lights, mirrors and projectors that offer seemingly endless ways to explore .
Rooms fit for an emperor
Ever dreamed of staying at an ancient temple in a room once meant for the Imperial family? Ninna-ji Temple in Kyoto now offers just that as it opens its doors to its hermitage. But booking the renovated lodging is not cheap.
Airbnb announced its new strategy for Japan
Airbnb announced the company's new Airbnb Partners strategy, under which it will work with 36 Japanese companies including bookseller Culture Convenience Club and security services provider Secom.


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An increase in Arabic online content, the proliferation of social media, and the convergence between satellite TV and the internet in the Middle East now affect almost every aspect of daily life of Arabs, according to Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan of Jordan.
Inaugurating the 8th Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference in Amman on 6 June, Princess Sumaya said: “Media diffusion is building a broader choice of content that is oblivious to state borders and blind to cultural difference.
“Diverse worlds are colliding and an astounding array of connections are being made between Arabs and the wider world. The extraordinary immediacy of this new technology has built a framework for following and analysing developments as never before.”
Addressing 500 delegates, Princess Sumaya also said Arabic online content is expected to grow dramatically in the coming years as more than 320 million Arabic speakers demand far more than the 1% of global online content that is currently provided in Arabic.
“I am delighted to say that Jordan is the top contributor of Arabic online content today with over 75% of the region’s Arabic content originating in the Kingdom,” said the Princess, “but there is enormous potential for growth.”
In terms of broadcast growth, there were 538 free to air (FTA) satellite channels in the Arab world by April 2011, according to conference organiser Arab Advisors. Indeed, the current proliferation of regional FTA stations represents a 438% rise from January 2004 to April 2011.
Plus, by May 2011, 14 out of 19 Arab countries had fully competitive mobile markets, with the exception of Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Qatar and the UAE - which have mobile duopolies. Competitive Internet markets are now seen in 14 countries, with just four countries having duopoly Internet markets. Fixed services lag, however, with only four Arab countries having competitive fixed telephony markets.
There are, said the Princess, reasons to celebrate the blurring of boundaries between regional media and telecommunications operators, and that “under-represented sections of society” such as women and young people, “were gaining a new and durable prominence.”
“Our [Arab] world is dynamic; it is demanding; and it is ambitious. It is fuelled by passion and it is empowered by technology. It is creative, it is hopeful and it is not going back to the isolation of the past,” concluded Princess Sumaya.


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The company, which has an exclusive business partnership with Amazon, more than doubled its online business in the last one year and is confident of maintaining the momentum.
"Our objective is that by 2020, 10 per cent of our sales should come from e-commerce," RB India marketing director Rohit Jindal told PTI.
On the growth of online sales in India, Jindal said it has been growing at 20-25 per cent month on month.
"The business has doubled two-and-a-half times last year," he said, adding that the company expected a similar growth this year, too.
Last year, RB had stated that India would soon be among its top three markets globally, with health and hygiene business led by power brands such as Dettol, Harpic and Durex expected to drive growth in the country.
Jindal said that for RB India, rural markets will continue to be a big driver, with small volume sachets slated to play a key role.
"We expect a growth rate of 32-35 per cent in rural areas," he said.
The company will also introduce more brands from its global portfolio to drive its growth and foray into new sectors.
As part of the strategy, the company today introduced new 'Durex Jeans' condoms under its sexual well-being brand Durex. RB India is also looking to consolidate its position in the contraceptive market.
Jindal said that currently the Indian condom market is around Rs 1,300 crore and RB India has an 8 per cent share.


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Konami Digital have announced that it will release two demos for PES 2012 . The demos will be available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.
The PC demo will be made available through this link.
The first demo will be released on August 24th and will be based on a preview build of the game. While there will be areas that are refined, Konamu wants PES users to try out the game’s many new Teammate Control elements prior to launch and experience the realism that Active AI brings to PES 2012, and which have been singled out for extensive praise by the media.
Konami will issue a second free demo reflecting the final version’s feel and gameplay in mid-September for the same formats. This will also offer 10-minute matches, but with a different team roster of Tottenham Hotspur, FC Bayern Munich, FC Internazionale Milano, Rangers FC, Club America and Sport Club Internacional.
“We have spoken a lot about the new additions to PES 2012, and now we want users to see it for themselves,” explained Jon Murphy, European PES Team Leader. “By releasing a demo for preview purposes, we want people to get in early to try out the Teammate Control elements and to see for themselves how the Active AI works. This will then be followed by a second demo that offers different teams, and a closer approximation of what the final game will play like. We truly value the support and input of our user base – and these demos are so they can see how their help has aided the most ambitious PES to date.”
Share Your Thoughts Below (Always follow our comments policy!)


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Shoemaker, Allbirds, is in the process of interviewing banks as they prepare to go public, according to a report in the New York Times DealBook. The company has been valued at approximately USD1.7 Billion.
The company, which began as a Silicon Valley eCommerce retailer, has since opened stores and gained attention from celebrities such as investor Leonardo DiCaprio and Barack Obama. Its Wool Shoes have become popular within the tech world of Silicon Valley.
Allbirds was founded by soccer star Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger, an engineer and “renewables expert.” It has managed to raise over USD200 Million since 2016 and just closed on a USD100 Million round of venture capital in September.
According to Zwillinger, the incoming cash will be used to add stores as well as products and provide capital for direct-to-consumer sales operations. “Business can be a force for positive change, and this additional capital will allow us to further our mission of bringing more sustainable products to people around the world,” he said.
Though it is unclear when the company plans to IPO, the move would catapult it into a hot market, amid an abundance of tech IPOs.
Throughout the pandemic, the shoemaker has experienced an influx of demand for its products, including for its slip-on sneakers made of wool and other sustainable materials. Today it has 23 stores, in locations such as London, Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo.
“A big focus for us is to try and make better products with less environmental impact,” Allbirds co-founder Brown said in a recent interview. “The business has been extraordinarily resilient through a difficult period of time.”


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It was supposed to take place on September 15, but it ended up happening a little earlier.Amazon is already raising its subscription prices Amazon Prime In France.As a result, it changed from 49 euros per year previously to EUR 69.90 per year.
Hence, the increase is over 42%, knowing that the monthly price increases €6.99 per month instead of 5.99 euros per month. As a result, monthly growth was more modest at over 16%. However, in the current economic environment and inflationary period, this is not something that should quell some of the grievances.
The special student discount is €34.95 per year or €3.49 per month. Previously €24 per year, €2.99 per month. Still, there’s a 90-day free trial, compared to a 30-day free trial for a classic Amazon Prime subscription (no commitment).
After US Amazon Prime price hike
For this price change, Amazon justified an increase in operating costs for Prime France and applied the new prices to subscriptions renewing from September 15, 2022.
Keep in mind that countries outside of France have seen price increases for Amazon Prime subscriptions, such as the US starting the year at $139 per year and $14.99 per month, or nearly 17% and 15% higher, respectively.
Prime Video influences price hike decision
Across the Atlantic, the group highlighted rising wages and shipping costs. It also highlights that Amazon Prime deals are more widespread in the US than in France. Amazon added that each country has a different rating from year to year.
» Since we launched Prime in France, we’ve expanded the selection of products eligible for Prime Unlimited Fast Shipping; added and expanded Fast Grocery Shipping; and added more premium digital entertainment, including TV shows and movies on Prime Videomusic from Amazon Music Prime, games from Prime Gaming, and books from Prime Reading. ”
To explain the price hikes in France, Amazon has specifically insisted on increasing the number of Amazon original series and movies, as well as acquiring the rights to broadcast the French Open.


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The Intel Arc discrete GPU will be released on Wednesday, marking the company’s official entry into the discrete GPU market. Tune in on March 30th at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Intel is preparing to offer a live demonstration of its new Arc laptop GPUs on Wednesday, to coincide with the launch of the new laptops. This would be the first time we’ve heard anything official about these new GPUs since an Intel investors’ event a couple of months ago.
“OEM devices with Arc GPUs will be introduced before the end of this month,” according to an Intel tweet. The date and timing of the broadcast were revealed on a landing page for the livestream that was discovered a few of weeks ago, thereby spoiling the surprise of the event.
It appears that Intel is preparing at least five different notebook SKUs, ranging from high-end discrete graphics with 512 EUs and 16GB VRAM to a low-end SKU with 96 EUs and 4GB VRAM, so ensuring that there is a laptop GPU to suit every budget.
We are hoping to have a better understanding of the gaming capabilities of these GPUs during the presentation, as well as what the pricing will be for OEMs who will be employing these discrete graphics cards. We anticipate that these Intel processors will compete in the lower-to-mid-range laptop market, which is always a welcome development.
Due to the fact that the debut of Intel Arc desktop GPUs has been postponed until June, we do not expect much from the company. When it comes to the debut of the Arc desktop GPUs, Intel wants to make sure everything goes smoothly, especially at a time when its competitors’ video cards are not only back in stock, but also decreasing in price. Well, they’re lower than they were before.
Yes! We are about to launch our brand-new Intel Arc graphic solution. The OEM devices featuring Arc GPUs will be launched by the end of this month. You may take a first look at our discrete graphics for laptops on March 30th at 8 AM, PST via https://t.co/rKmNtFEPYF
— Intel Support (@IntelSupport) March 26, 2022
This is also an excellent opportunity to see how XeSS works in practise. Intel’s AI upscaling technology promises a two-fold increase in performance, which is encouraging, especially on low-cost laptops.
We’ll put these Intel Arc laptops through their paces as soon as we get our hands on review samples, and we’ll see if Intel’s return to the GPU scene makes a significant difference in the extremely competitive GPU battle.


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- Bill would allow classic car owners to forgo front plate Updated: Feb-09-16 1:29 pm
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota - A state House committee approved a bill Tuesday that would allow owners of classic and sporty show cars to display only rear South Dakota license plates.
- Obama, Xi discuss NKorea amid signs of rocket launch preps Updated: Feb-05-16 4:45 pm
WASHINGTON - The presidents of the U.S. and China agreed Friday that a planned rocket launch by North Korea would violate U.N. sanctions, the White House said, amid signs the isolated nation was moving closer to blastoff.
- Woman injured by speeding wrong-way SUV in Brooklyn Updated: Feb-05-16 7:03 am
NEW YORK - A woman who was walking her dog when she was struck by a speeding wrong-way driver is hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
- Truck renovation keeps wheelchair-bound owner on circuit Updated: Feb-02-16 5:05 am
FRANKLIN, Indiana - Every detail was personalized and agonized over.
- Kenny Chesney, KISS to headline 51st North Dakota State Fair Updated: Jan-26-16 6:52 am
MINOT, North Dakota - Country superstar Kenny Chesney and rock legend KISS will headline the grandstand acts at this summer's North Dakota State Fair.
- Detroit auto show draws more than 815,000 visitors Updated: Jan-25-16 5:26 am
DETROIT - Organizers say there were more than 815,000 visitors to the North American International Auto Show this year.
- Designer makes gowns out of car interior material Updated: Jan-22-16 9:07 pm
DETROIT - One auto supplier is taking the term "ready to wear" to a whole new level.
- Detroit's Cobo Center considers another possible expansion Updated: Jan-22-16 5:25 am
DETROIT - Downtown Detroit's Cobo Center is considering another possible major expansion and is taking steps to shore up its funding.
- Van Gogh exhibition in Chicago to feature bedroom paintings Updated: Jan-21-16 5:16 am
CHICAGO - A Chicago exhibition next month will mark the first time in North America that three versions of a famous Vincent Van Gogh painting will be shown together.
- Obama tours auto show, pledges help for Flint's water crisis Updated: Jan-20-16 8:31 pm
DETROIT - President Barack Obama on Wednesday hailed the revival of the nation's auto industry while acknowledging the water crisis in nearby Flint, Michigan, saying the detection of high levels of lead serve as a reminder that the government can't shortchange basic services.
- Who's your co-pilot? Pope's Fiat going up for auction Updated: Jan-20-16 10:55 am
PHILADELPHIA - One of the two Fiats used by Pope Francis during his September visit to Philadelphia is going up for auction.
- Lego model of Detroit's Renaissance Center makes debut Updated: Jan-19-16 1:35 pm
DETROIT - A 6-foot-tall model of downtown Detroit's Renaissance Center that's built of Legos is on display at the North American International Auto Show.
- Obama plans to visit with Detroit residents during trip Updated: Jan-19-16 5:47 am
DETROIT - President Barack Obama is expected to visit a Detroit neighborhood and talk with residents during his trip to the city.
- Officer injured, man killed in undercover prostitution sting Updated: Jan-16-16 12:19 pm
SOUTHFIELD, Michigan - Authorities say an undercover officer has been injured and a suspect killed in an exchange of gunfire during a Detroit-area prostitution sting.
- North American International Auto Show opens to public Updated: Jan-16-16 11:09 am
DETROIT - The North American International Auto Show has opened to the public following a week of previews for the press, industry officials and others.
- Auto industry agrees to cooperate with government on safety Updated: Jan-15-16 1:14 pm
DETROIT - After two tumultuous years of recalls, fines and friction, the government and the auto industry struck a peace treaty of sorts by agreeing to cooperate on safety issues in the future.
- Auto Show: Some see sales slowdown; fuel economy quandary Updated: Jan-12-16 4:04 pm
DETROIT - The North American International Auto Show opens to the public Jan. 16 in Detroit. Here are some of the things we learned at this week's media preview:
- Lincoln revives the Continental, with eye on China Updated: Jan-12-16 1:34 pm
DETROIT - The Lincoln Continental has a storied past. Now it has a future.
- Missouri Gov. Nixon to attend Detroit auto show Updated: Jan-12-16 5:02 am
DETROIT - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is going to this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
- Bevin promoting Kentucky at auto show Updated: Jan-12-16 4:01 am
FRANKFORT, Kentucky - Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is promoting the state's automotive industry at the North American International Auto Show in Michigan.
- 'Michigan House' opening up during previews for auto show Updated: Jan-12-16 4:01 am
DETROIT - A temporary downtown Detroit venue called "Michigan House" is opening up during previews for the auto show.
- Honda, Volvo take top awards at the Detroit auto show Updated: Jan-11-16 10:28 pm
DETROIT - After a few years of Detroit domination, two foreign automakers nabbed 2016 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year honors.
- 3 questions for Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz Updated: Jan-11-16 8:15 pm
DETROIT - Toyota's chief executive in North America doesn't see a U.S. auto sales bubble anytime soon, but he does expect shifts in the market as demographics change and thousands of late-model vehicles come back from leases.
- The Latest: Ford looks to future with new app, stores Updated: Jan-11-16 4:00 pm
DETROIT - The latest developments from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.


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S K Chadha, managing director of Nafed, the state owned cooperative marketing federation which maintains stocks for central government, said onions have a shelf life of three and a half months, after which they dehydrate.
“We have been buying onions since March-April for the buffer stock. It’s been 6-7 months. So, damages in the stock is quite normal,” he said.
He said Nafed had offloaded about 43,000 tonnes of onions in the market, and can release another 22,000 tonnes by the first week of November. “The remaining 25,000 tonnes are likely to be damaged,” he said.
The government has started building buffer stock for onion since last year so that it can intervene in the market when retail onion prices rise.
“Last year, Nafed created buffer stock of 57,000 tonnes. Out of which around 30,000 tonnes of onions were damaged and only 27,000 could be distributed. This time, situation is better. We have created around 1 lakh tonnes, out of which only 25,000 tonnes are likely to be damaged.
After the spike in onion prices, the centre has received orders of 35,000 tonnes from states like Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep. Nafed is offering onions at Rs 26 per kg plus transportation charges.
Apart from that, the consumer affairs ministry has also asked Nafed to create a fresh buffer stock and start buying onions when the fresh harvest hits the market.
“We will be maintaining buffer stock round the year by replenishing the stock,” said a senior consumer affairs ministry official.
Onion prices are likely to cool down by first week of November through government’s import intervention. It has relaxed norms for easing imports of onions and asked state marketing agency MMTC to launch bid for importing red onion.
Private traders have already started importing onions from from Afghanistan, Turkey, Dubai and Egypt and in next two weeks, around 6,000 tonnes of bulb will arrive in India.
“The landing cost would be around Rs 40-45 a kg which much less than the prevailing cost in wholesale mandi of Nashik where prices are in the range of Rs 60-65 a kg. The imports will control the price rise,” said Ajit Shah, president of onion exporters association.
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Toyota plans to take a 4.94% stake in Suzuki at a cost of £743.3 million for 24 million shares of common stock. Suzuki, meanwhile, will invest roughly £372 million in Toyota. The deal is awaiting approval from the foreign competition authorities.
The difference in investment amounts reflects Toyota's inflated value; in 2018, the company became the first Japanese firm to achieve annual sales of 30 trillion yen (£232 billion), while Suzuki achieved roughly a tenth of that, at 3,871.5 billion yen (£28 billion).
A statement from Toyota read: "The two companies intend to achieve sustainable growth, by overcoming new challenges surrounding the automobile sector by building and deepening cooperative relationships in new fields while continuing to be competitors, in addition to strengthening the technologies and products in which each company specializes and their existing business foundations.
"Specifically, to take up challenges together in this transitional era, the two companies plan to establish and promote a long-term partnership between themselves, for promoting collaboration in new fields, including the field of autonomous driving."
In March, the two companies announced the first details of a new wide-ranging collaboration, which will involve Toyota producing Suzuki-badged hybrid vehicles based on the Toyota RAV4 and Corolla estate for the European market. The deal will include Suzuki vehicles being built at Toyota's Derbyshire plant.
The two Japanese firms signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a partnership in 2017, and have now agreed ‘concrete details’ of the deal. The two firms say the agreement will bring together “Toyota’s strength in electrification technologies and Suzuki’s strength in technologies for compact vehicles”.
The agreement is also designed to help both firms “grow in new fields”, and will include joint collaboration in production and electrified vehicles. Toyota and Suzuki say they will “continue to fairly and freely compete against each other”.
Both firms have given details on a number of specific projects in which they will collaborate, split into three strands.
Toyota will supply its hybrid powertrain system to Suzuki at a global level, and will supply Suzuki with two new electrified vehicles based on the RAV4 and Corolla wagon for the European market. The two new models, both due on sale in late 2020, will be additions to Suzuki's current range, rather than replacing any current model.


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Lupe Fiasco’s long battle to get his third album, Lasers, in stores is finally nearing its end.
Lupe released the video for the album’s first single, “The Show Goes On,” just before the Christmas holiday.
Check it out!
Lasers is scheduled to drop on March 8th, 2011!

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American Trucking Show Offers Latest News And Trends
The Great American Trucking Show, which is more popularly known as GATS, is one of the fastest growing auto shows and tradeshows in the country. And if there are auto shows for car lovers, this vehicle showplace has been a sure hit for professionals in the trucking industry. Come the 24th up until the 26th of this month, GATS will already be on. The event will be held at the Dallas Convention Center.
During the said trucking show, Castrol will be one of its main sponsors. With that, it would be having its very own booth that would provide pieces of information and data about their products. They would also be promoting the upcoming Castrol Tection Extra Big Honkin’ Truck Makeover contest which is held annually. Castrol would also be introducing their new CJ-4 Tection Extra which would soon be available come the first month next year.
Page Gray is the brand manager for Castrol and Gray says, “The Castrol booth at GATS will provide insight into the innovations we have made over the last year. Product information combined with the excitement of our Big Honkin’ Truck Makeover contest and a Ford F-150 Power Wheels raffle should provide attendees with a thrilling stop at the event.” This may be applicable for those show goers who are followers of Castrol, trucks, and of Ford. However, for those who prefer other brands like Volvo and Isuzu, chances of finding booths that offer Volvo 240 series parts are quite slim.
The Castrol booth would provide interested parties with information on products from Castrol. There would be a representative from the company who would be able to assist people on their inquiries. There would also be information on the upcoming vehicle and people would also be able to see what this new truck would be looking like.
As per the contest that Castrol will be sponsoring and holding, information would also be provided. In fact, the winner for last year’s contest, Jeff Fields, would also be featured. Sure enough, the truck that Fields redesigned and customized himself would also be shown through snapshots and photos.
About the Author: As a former news correspondent for an auto-related websites, Kevin has gathered extensive knowledge and experience in the automotive industry. This 34 year old father of three from Pennsylvania is a genuine car lover.


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J Balvin is one of the biggest international artists in the world as his songs are always charting around the globe. The artist has a large fanbase and with that comes a lot of endorsement deals. For instance, Balvin has been working with Jordan Brand quite a bit over the past couple of years. Fans will remember his colorful Air Jordan 1 High from last year, and since that time, sneakerheads have been wondering if he would look to recreate the magic.
Most artists are typically given more than just one collab, and with Balvin, that has certainly been the case. This past week, the artist took to his Instagram story with some teasers of a brand new Air Jordan 2 collaboration that glows in the dark. As you can see in the photos below, the shoe appears to be covered in blue, all while the midsole and outsole have a nice glow. Overall, it’s a pretty sweet shoe that could be dropping in the not-so-distant future.
For now, however, a tentative release date has not been given, so stay tuned to HNHH as we will be sure to bring you all of the latest updates from around the sneaker world. In the meantime, give us your thoughts on these, in the comments below.


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As prices for Bordeaux wine reach ever more astonishing levels, chateaux owners are finally tackling the tricky, and long ignored, issue of shipping and transport conditions by testing a new temperature tracking device.
"Fine wine is often shipped in worse conditions that ice cream or lettuce," said Christian Butzke, former winemaker and now professor at Purdue University in Indiana in the United States.
Butzke is acting as independent advisor to the Boston-based eProvenance project, run by Eric Vogt, Harvard professor, wine lover and high-tech start-up entrepreneur.
Vogt's eProvenance system includes a tamper-proof seal, a hidden code and an electronic tag for each bottle, but it is the temperature tracking element that is causing ripples.
Extreme heat, extreme cold, and fluctuations of temperature are all problems for wine, but heat is often the hardest to spot. A frozen bottle might have its cork pushed out, show residue in the bottle, or simply be broken.
The damage done to a wine's taste, smell and colour by extreme heat is something that can go unnoticed until opened -- despite having possibly paid anywhere in the region of 500 to 1,000 or more euros for it.
Over the last six months, about 1,200 cases of wine from some of Bordeaux's top chateaux, including Lynch Bages and Haut Bailly, as well as others who do not wish to be named, have had Vogt's tracking devices -- a credit card sized bit of plastic which carries a radio frequency identification system -- inserted in their wooden shipping cases.
The cases have been sent to locations in the United States, Britain and Japan and will be used to benchmark the kinds of temperatures that fine wine encounters on its normal journey to the consumer.
The fact that temperature damage often goes undetected is also partly due to its fragmented distribution system, starting in Bordeaux, where wholesale merchants buy from chateaux, and then resell to importers or retailers around the world.
Producers, most of whom say their responsibility stops at the front gate, often ignore who is buying their wines and how they get from chateaux to shop.
But as prices for fine wines increase, along with the risk of fraud, traceability is becoming more of an issue for the consumer.
Concurrently, as producers -- who have become stars themselves -- begin to host tastings in China, Russia, South Korea or the US, they are realising that what's in the bottle sometimes doesn't taste as good as it does at home.
"We make the best quality wine we can and don't want mistakes in delivery," said Jean-Charles Cazes of Chateau Lynch Bages, who has begun trials with the property's white wine, Blanc de Lynch Bages.
"I have never had a problem, but we have all had doubts about bottles we have seen, with leaking corks for example, so we can see the wines might not have been shipped in optimal conditions," said Cazes, who already takes the precaution of not shipping Lynch Bages from June to September.
Prolonged high temperatures, says Butzke, "speed-age" wines, which go brown and start to lose some of their fresher, fruit tastes.
"Up to two years aging can take place in one week, if temperatures exceed 40 degrees, or, if they get higher than 25 degrees for two to three weeks, as can happen in the Panama Canal," said Butzke, currently in the process of drawing up a set of temperature guidelines.
Gavin Quinney of Chateau Bauduc, a lesser known Bordeaux chateaux but which supplies Gordon Ramsey's three-star restaurant in London, also decided to test the new system, having seen what can happen to wine, even before it leaves Bordeaux.
"I've seen wine sitting out in the blazing sun, on the forecourts of shipping companies. In June 2005 for example, there were cases of top grand cru Bordeaux, and it was not there for just a short while. It is just not good for the wine," he said.
"I've also had the experience of going out with wealthy clients here, just last week in fact, who ordered a 300-euro Angelus and a 300-euro Pavie-Macquin which was cooked," he said.
Where in the supply chain it happened Quinney could only guess, but, he said, there is no doubt there is a problem, and it's much greater than anyone realises, or wants to admit.
What is bizarre thing about the current situation, Quinney said, is that grapes are treated like caviar during harvest and wine making, then, once the bottles are shipped out the door, anything can happen.
As to who will finally be responsible for the results of the temperature tracking trial when they become available -- before the end of the year, Butzke hopes -- the answer is not clear.
"We have never had a problem," said Veronique Sanders, director of Chateau Haut Bailly, which sent off two or three cases equipped with tracking devices to different customers in the United States last October. "But what I hope, is that this will make everyone in the chain -- merchants, importers, distributors and retailers -- more vigilant."
Or, as Butzke puts it: "We really need to get a grip on the distribution system, because what we are talking about here, in terms of taste, smell and colour, is what makes the difference between a (cheap Australian) Yellow Tail and a (highly expensive French) Margaux."


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CROSS-BORDER Traders’ Association (ZCBTA) president Killer Zivhu has urged his members to embrace donkey meat business and make maximum use of an abattoir recently constructed in Bulawayo by Battlefront Investments.
BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
Zivhu said donkey meat trading would go a long way in alleviating poverty mainly among rural traders, while bringing in the much-needed forex into the country.
“In all the projects that we are doing, we need to promote exports and now that we have a donkey abattoir, it was in our plans to export goat meat and beef, but because of constraints which are involved in licensing, we have decided to take advantage of the abattoir that is in existence,” he said.
“When we supply donkeys, that meat and skin can be taken for export, so we are encouraging all the cross-border traders, especially those who are in rural areas as we are starting a new project of keeping donkeys.”
Zivhu acknowledged that the population of donkeys in the country was too little, but said there was need for investment in donkeys.
“People have not been worried about donkeys due to limited market and less purpose, so now that there is market outside Zimbabwe we want our people to start this business as soon as yesterday mainly in Matabeleland region.”
However, there has been outrage over the construction of the $150 000 state-of-the-art donkey abattoir from animal rights groups, who argue that the act will be cruel and unconstitutional.
The abattoir will have a capacity of slaughtering 70 animals per day against a population of 150 000 donkeys throughout the country.
The conservationists fear that vulnerable rural farmers may benefit from the short-term sale of their donkeys, while unaware of the long-term consequences which include of theft.
In response to such fears, Battlefront Investment businessman Garrith Lumsden assured the public that he would not be accepting deliveries from private donkey suppliers.


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Michael Kors Pushes Its Men's Line
Men can be a dangerous group to court -- look at Juliet. It's not easy or cheap to take a brand known for its women's clothing and accessories and make it appealing to men. Imagine the amount of work that a company like Coach would have to expend in order to make men's successful. Actually, you don't have to imagine. Coach put its money where its mouth was and pushed its men's line heavily. It succeeded, in some sense, driving men's sales up. But it lost focus on its core women's business and things fell apart.
In an attempt to expand its already huge market footprint, Michael Kors is also getting into the men's game. The question is whether it will go the way of Coach, or if it can actually keep its focus sharp while picking up a new line.
Kors' menswear plan
The idea of selling men's accessories isn't new to Michael Kors, but the push is coming. Kors announced that its new SoHo flagship store will be its first to "showcase our men's ready-to-wear and leather collections." To support turning that first step into a bigger success, Kors just added Mark Brashear to its lineup as the head of men's. Brashear worked at Hugo Boss, where he was CEO and chairman of the Americas.
At Kors, Brashear is going to be jumping into the deep end, joining as the company launches a new fragrance for men, a line of men's watches, and its SoHo store. It's the beginning of what Kors thinks could be a $1 billion line of business, split among clothing, watches, and leather.
If that lineup and optimism sound familiar, you might be thinking back to 2011 when Coach was telling investors that men's sales could account for 25% of the company's growth in the coming years. As it turns out, it's accounted for much more than that, but only because Coach's total sales have been so weak. For the first three quarters of fiscal 2012, Coach had total sales of $3.6 billion, and in same period for fiscal 2014 it had $3.6 billion in total sales. In this most recent quarter, men's accounted for 15% of total sales.
Where Kors can win while Coach lost
Coach didn't fail at making its men's line a success -- the line has done well. The problem is that it lost its focus and tried to solve a dozen problems all at once. Kors can avoid that misstep by taking its men's line slowly and by making sure that it grows this business separately, not by drawing on the resources of its core business.
Michael Kors has done well with its main business, and comparable-store sales were up 26.2% last quarter. It has the momentum to turn its business into a much bigger business. The hard part will be making it work the way it has to. Brashear's experience at Hugo Boss will help, but Boss was always focused on men. Brashear and Kors need to find a middle ground where they split their focus without either segment feeling left out. I think Kors has the ability to make this work, but it's a fine line to walk.
Leaked: Apple's next smart device (warning, it may shock you)
Apple recently recruited a secret-development "dream team" to guarantee its newest smart device was kept hidden from the public for as long as possible. But the secret is out, and some early viewers are claiming its everyday impact could trump the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. In fact, ABI Research predicts 485 million of this type of device will be sold per year. But one small company makes Apple's gadget possible. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors. To be one of them, and see Apple's newest smart gizmo, just click here!
The article Michael Kors Pushes Its Men's Line originally appeared on Fool.com.Andrew Marder has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Coach and Michael Kors Holdings. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2014 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Novitec releases a very impressive looking aero kit for the latest Lamborghini Aventador series, the S Coupe and S Roadster
By Mark Smeyers on March 28. 2018 in Aventador.
We've all seen the spy shots of a new Aventador being road tested, will this be the final evolution of the current V12 model to be shown in Geneva
By Mark Smeyers on February 25. 2018 in LamboNEWS.
DMC has unveiled a brand new Las Americas edizione GT based on the Lamborghini Aventador, only 3 will be made, available in North and South America only
By DMC on February 23. 2018 in Aventador.
Spy shots show a new evolution of the V12 Aventador, with Huracan Performante inspired exhaust system ... could this be the Aventador GT
By Mark Smeyers on September 16. 2017 in LamboNEWS.
Automobili Lamborghini SpA introduced the new Aventador S Roadster at the 2017 IAA in Frankfurt, this is the official press conference
By Mark Smeyers on September 12. 2017 in LamboNEWS.
Super car technology seen on the Aventador S has now become available in Roadster form too
By Mark Smeyers on September 6. 2017 in Aventador.
DMC already shows a brand new aerodynamic kit for the new Lamborghini Aventador S called the Tecno
By Mark Smeyers on April 25. 2017 in LamboNEWS.
The Asian debut for the new V10 Performante and V12 Aventador S took place during the 2017 edition of the Auto Shanghai show
By Mark Smeyers on April 20. 2017 in LamboNEWS.
Recent spyshots show a Lamborghini Aventador test mule with high mounted exhaust pipes similar to the ones seen on the Huracan Performante, is this the next V12
By Mark Smeyers on March 25. 2017 in LamboNEWS.
Automobili Lamborghini SpA invited the press to witness the dynamic launch of the new Aventador S on the race track in Valencia, Spain
By Mark Smeyers on January 26. 2017 in LamboNEWS.
Rumor has it Lamborghini will be unveiling the Roadster version of their latest Aventador flagship very soon
We try to visit as much Lamborghini related events as possible, and share the experience with you, the latest event we attended was Super Car Sunday Assen 2019.
Interested in Lamborghini scale cars ? Take a look at LamboDIECAST, a massive collection of small Raging Bulls
LamboCARS now has 21456 photos online over 1345 articles, a total of 92 full specification sheets are listed while we have covered a total of 111 LamboEVENTS and have a collection of 296 wallpapers online


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05:35:01 on 20 Jul 2018,Fri
Riding on its growing Intelligent Cloud portfolio and early investments in Intelligent Edge, Microsoft has surpassed $100 billion in revenue for the first time in the fiscal year 2018. Revenue has increased 17 per cent year over year, and net income is up 35 per cent, the company said in a statement. Microsoft stock jumped over 4 per cent in after-hours trading.
05:35:01 on 20 Jul
10:57:01 on 19 Jul 2018,Thu
The transport department has constituted a state level task force committee in the wake of transport operators planning to go on a nationwide strike from Friday, which could lead to shortage of essential commodities. The committee will ensure uninterrupted supply of essential commodities. It will work in Bengaluru and other district centres along with control rooms.
10:57:01 on 19 Jul
10:41:01 on 19 Jul 2018,Thu
The Madras HC disapproved of the use of police force against landowners who oppose proposed acquisitions for the ambitious 8-lane expressway between Chennai and Salem. Finding that the acquisition process was at a nascent stage, the court said the officials could have avoided so much of confusion if they had anticipated resistance and handled the situation in a better way.
10:41:01 on 19 Jul
02:11:01 on 18 Jul 2018,Wed
The finance ministry is likely to infuse about Rs 10,000 crore within a few days in some state-owned lenders including Punjab National Bank, Corporation Bank and Central Bank of India, to help them meet the regulatory capital requirement, sources said. Some of these banks have come under pressure because of interest paid to their bondholders of additional tier 1 (AT-1) bonds.
02:11:01 on 18 Jul
10:10:01 on 17 Jul 2018,Tue
India's technology hub Bengaluru and capital New Delhi rank 40th and 49th respectively on a list of 50 women entrepreneur-friendly global cities, according to a report by American computer maker Dell Technologies. Delhi and Bengaluru are the only two Indian cities to figure in the Index, which measures the ease with which women can run businesses in different countries.
10:10:01 on 17 Jul
09:25:01 on 17 Jul 2018,Tue
Rules for protection of personal data in the telecom space are not sufficient, regulator Trai said while suggesting that consumers be given the right to choose and to be forgotten to safeguard their privacy. Trai held that consumers are owners of their data and that entities controlling, processing their info are "mere custodians and do not have primary rights over this data".
09:25:01 on 17 Jul
01:35:01 on 16 Jul 2018,Mon
The Dr Reddy's Laboratories stock fell in trade today after a US court granted preliminary injuction blocking the Hyderabad-based firm from selling cut-price versions (buprenorphine and naloxone) of the British drugmaker Indivior's best-selling opioid addiction treatment in the US. The Dr Reddy's stock fell up to 9.48% or 219.75 points to 2,097 level on the BSE.
01:35:01 on 16 Jul
07:11:01 on 13 Jul 2018,Fri
Online food order and delivery startup Zomato have come out with a new user loyalty and reward points scheme called ‘Zomato Piggybank’. The way it works is every time a Zomato customer places an order, 10% of the order value gets deposited in a Piggybank account which can be used by the customer to partly pay while making the payment for his/her next order on Zomato.
07:11:01 on 13 Jul
12:41:02 on 12 Jul 2018,Thu
RailYatri portal has added a feature that claims it can predict how soon tickets will get sold out for each train. Rush-o-meter, predicts the sellout time of available tickets using historic data, booking rate and deep-data analysis. The rush-o-meter could increase the chances of getting a confirmed ticket, since travellers will know by when the tickets would be sold out.
12:41:02 on 12 Jul
11:56:01 on 12 Jul 2018,Thu
ICICI Bank Ltd is preparing to submit details of at least 1,000 loan accounts that turned sour since April 2010 to an independent panel, as part of a board-instituted probe into alleged wrongdoings by the lender’s top executives, including its off-duty CEO Chanda Kochhar, two people aware of the development said. The findings of the Srikrishna panel will decide the fate of Kochhar.
11:56:01 on 12 Jul
10:56:02 on 12 Jul 2018,Thu
India emerged as the world’s sixth largest economy in 2017 surpassing France and likely to go past the United Kingdom, which is at the fifth position, according to an analysis of data compiled by the World Bank. In 2017, India became the sixth largest economy with a gross domestic product of $2.59 trillion, relegating France to the seventh position.
10:56:02 on 12 Jul
10:10:01 on 10 Jul 2018,Tue
In a first for the hotel segment in India, Oyo, South-Asia’s largest hotel chain, has acquired AblePlus, a Mumbai-based IoT technology company in order to enhance and strengthen its technology portfolio. This acquisition of AblePlus reiterates the hotel chain’s technology-driven approach to innovation and its commitment to revolutionizing customer offerings.
10:10:01 on 10 Jul
02:10:01 on 10 Jul 2018,Tue
A Delhi court extended the protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case till August 7. The court had earlier granted interim protection from arrest till Tuesday to Mr. Karti in two cases filed by the CBI and ED in 2011 and 2012, respectively in the Aircel-Maxis case.
02:10:01 on 10 Jul
04:10:01 on 09 Jul 2018,Mon
Participating in the World Cities Summit Mayors’ Forum (WCSMF) being held in Singapore N. Chandrababu Naidu showcased Andhra Pradesh as investors’ destination. Mr. Naidu’s began his three-day visit to Singapore with a meeting with Minister of National Development Lawrence Wong, who said Singapore was extremely selective in choosing their country-to-country collaborations.
04:10:01 on 09 Jul
01:55:01 on 09 Jul 2018,Mon
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) dismissed Cyrus Mistry’s lawsuit against Tata Sons, saying it didn’t find merit in allegations of mismanagement, delivering a big blow to the former chairman who was fighting the case for over 18 months. The family firms of Mistry had pressed allegations of mismanagement and oppression of minority shareholder interests at Tata Sons.
01:55:01 on 09 Jul
08:25:01 on 09 Jul 2018,Mon
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will mark his first ever state visit to India to visit the largest Samsung plant along with PM Narendra Modi today. Samsung has opened a brand new 35-acre Electronics facility at Sector 81 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The company currently has over 10% of its overall production in India and aims to take it to 50% over the next three years.
08:25:01 on 09 Jul
10:25:01 on 07 Jul 2018,Sat
Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said that the all-powerful GST Council will consider bringing petroleum products under Goods and Services Tax and it could happen in phases. Although there is demand for bringing petroleum products under GST, the GST Council will have to finalize modalities. Currently, diesel, petrol, crude oil, and others are outside the purview of GST.
10:25:01 on 07 Jul
09:25:01 on 06 Jul 2018,Fri
In a scathing dissent, Law Commission of India member S. Sivakumar slammed the recommendation made by the majority led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.S. Chauhan, to “legalise” gambling in sports. He said to “save the future generations from treading unethical paths, I am of the opinion that no form of gambling can be permitted from the soil of the country.”
09:25:01 on 06 Jul
04:25:01 on 06 Jul 2018,Fri
Alleging that a “mega Bitcoin scam” to convert black money into white had taken place in Gujarat, the Congress on Thursday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the issue. Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Gujarat police had estimated the size of the scam to be at least ₹5,000 crore.
04:25:01 on 06 Jul
03:14:01 on 06 Jul 2018,Fri
The home turf of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has received a raw deal in the State Budget for 2018-19 presented by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. Observers point out that the bulk of projects and allocations have gone to either Ramanagaram or Hassan, and there was nothing new for Mysuru. Of the old proposals, which have been recycled and repackaged in the budget.
03:14:01 on 06 Jul
02:56:01 on 06 Jul 2018,Fri
Nearly 12 lakh truckers in Tamil Nadu affiliated to AIMTC will stay off the roads from July 20 across the State. Their charter of demands include decrease in fuel price, toll charges and third party insurance premium. Representatives from AIMTC held a meeting with the Chennai Goods Transport Association in the city on Thursday regarding the indefinite strike.
02:56:01 on 06 Jul
09:40:01 on 06 Jul 2018,Fri
Reliance Industries Ltd. plans to take on the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.'s Flipkart Online Services Pvt. in retail by creating a platform that combines online and conventional shopping. Global retail powerhouses like Amazon and Walmart have been investing in India's retail industry, where e-commerce sales could more than double to $72 billion by 2022.
09:40:01 on 06 Jul
08:11:01 on 06 Jul 2018,Fri
Fashion seems to be the next big bet for all online retailers. Kishore Biyani, the promoter of Future Group is now making the bid for Koovs company by offering $140 million for a 29.9% stake, through his company Future Lifestyle Fashions Limited. The deal is subject to receiving the mandatory approvals. Koovs is an online retail store that has been operational for many years.
08:11:01 on 06 Jul


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Africa's new car brand Mureza to assemble vehicles in SA
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Johannesburg - To design and build affordable cars in Africa, for African drivers - that’s the aim of a new car company called Mureza.
The start-up is based in South Africa, but describes itself as an African car company as the project is being driven by a group of Africans from various countries. The initial products will be born from a joint venture with Iran’s second biggest car company, the SAIPA Group, which will supply platforms and components - although in the long run the company will strive for product independence.
The first model out the starting blocks will be a crossover hatchback, called the Prim8 (which is pronounced Primate - something they might want to rethink) and South Africans will be able to see it in prototype form as early as this week, as it will be on display at the Automechanika Expo at Nasrec in Joburg from September 18 to 21. Interestingly enough, the hatch is also set to be spawn a half-tonne bakkie, sedan and compact SUV at some point in the future, while a one-tonne bakkie range is also said to be in the works.
The Prim8 will initially be assembled in SKD kit form at a facility in Rosslyn, as well as at the Willowvale plant in Zimbabwe and in the ex-Hyundai plant in Botswana. CKD production is likely to commence at a later stage.
What else do we know about the Prim8?
According to Mureza, the new compact crossover hatch will cost between R180 000 and R200 000 in fully equipped form, and by that they mean it will come with features like a 17.8cm touchscreen infotainment system with satnav, keyless entry, cruise control, power-adjustable driver’s seat, four airbags, ESP stability control, ABS and tyre pressure monitoring.
Under the bonnet you’ll find a 1.5-litre petrol engine that produces 87kW, and it can be mated to either a five-speed manual or CVT transmission.
The car will also be covered by a three-year warranty.
One of the leaders driving the project, Tatenda Mungofa, explains that the brand aims to fill the void between the traditional new vehicles and the used imports that are sold throughout much of Africa (although not in South Africa), with a new model that’s not priced too far above the latter.
“We will also engage with the people selling used imports to retail our new models and will assist them in setting up service facilities where this is viable, or else we will appoint independent servicing outlets in the various SADEC countries that we are targeting as a first step for our new company,” Mungofa said.
“Here in South Africa we are also looking to sell our various Mureza models through used vehicle outlets instead of setting up new car franchised dealerships. Online selling will be important for us too,” he added.
Mungofa also stated that the company would look at cooperating with smaller component suppliers who are not yet able to handle big production runs, with a view to helping them grow their businesses.
The Mureza Auto Company intends to commence production at its first plant in Rosslyn in early 2020, where it aims to build up to around 1000 employees, with a focus on manual work, as it grows production from 10 to 35 cars a day.


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We’re now exactly two weeks away from the official announcement of Apple’s next-generation iPhone 11 lineup. While the company hasn’t yet sent out any invitations to its upcoming iPhone event, the exact date of the press conference has already been revealed by Apple itself. As it did last year, Apple accidentally spilled the beans earlier this month when it mentioned the launch date in a beta version of its iOS 13 software. According to that leak, Apple plans to announce the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max on Tuesday, September 10th. As if we needed more confirmation than a leak that came directly from Apple, that announcement date aligns perfectly with the release date that was recently exposed by one of Apple’s own carrier partners. According to a SoftBank executive, Apple plans to release its iPhone 11 series handsets on Friday, September 20th. An announcement on the 10th would mean iPhone 11 preorders open on September 13th, and the phones will indeed then be released exactly one week later on September 20th.
As for what we can expect from Apple’s new iPhone 11 series handsets, it seems like nearly everything there is to know has already leaked. We’re sure that Apple will still have a few tricks up its sleeve during its big unveiling, but we already know about many of the new features that will be introduced on the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro phones. Huge camera upgrades will be the main focus, which is a page out of Apple’s playbook from 2016, when the iPhone 7 reused the same iPhone design for the third consecutive year. Apple will once again use the same iPhone design for three years in a row, but this time the design is the subject of some confusion.
Earlier this week, we explained that every single leaked image of the iPhone 11 we’ve seen so far is totally wrong. All of the physical mockups that have been circulated by third-party accessory makers in China are also wrong. We won’t go through the whole explanation again, but the gist of it is that all of these designs are based on schematics that were stolen from the Foxconn plant where Apple’s new iPhone 11 models will be built. While those design files include accurate information about things like dimensions, they don’t cover materials or other important specifics. As a result, everyone has simply been mocking up the iPhone 11 so that it looks like older iPhone models. Like this:
The problem, as we explained, is that those renders are totally wrong. As top Apple insider TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been saying since last year, the back of Apple’s new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro phones will actually be frosted glass with a “matte” finish, not clear like Apple’s previous-generation iPhones.
It turns out that the new square camera bump is all wrong as well, since the area around the iPhone 11’s dual-lens camera and the iPhone 11 Pro’s triple-lens camera will be color-matched to the rest of the back, as it has been on earlier iPhone models. On top of that, the render above shows a metal frame around the camera bump, which is how Apple has designed old iPhones. On the new iPhone 11 series, the back will actually be a single piece of molded glass that includes the camera bump. And finally, word is the “iPhone” logo that has been included on every iPhone model to date will be deleted from the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
So, long story short, everything we’ve seen so far is basically just a representation of the iPhone 11’s shape. Just about all the other details are wrong. That means when Apple finally does get around to announcing the iPhone 11 series in a couple of weeks, we’re actually in store for a surprise! Or at least, we would have been if not for a new image posted recently by Twitter user Ben Geskin. For the first time, the image shows physical iPhone 11 mockups that correct most of the design mistakes made by earlier efforts. The result is our first look at what Apple’s new iPhone 11 series will actually look like. Here it is:
The exact finish of the frosted glass may not be entirely accurate, and cost obviously prohibits whichever Chinese accessory maker made these dummies from molding glass to include the rear camera bump. Still, this image shows designs that will likely end up being very accurate representations of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.


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Immune checkpoint inhibitors for lung cancer postponed
PHARMAC has postponed the planned request for proposals (RFP) for immune checkpoint inhibitors for lung cancer.
We had indicated in our Annual Procurement Plan that we may release an RFP in 2020/21. However, we cannot seek an RFP until we are confident that there are sufficient funds to invest in these treatments.
We are disappointed that we aren’t able to progress the RFP in the timeframe that we had originally planned. However, we are required to stay within our budget.
At their July 2020 meeting, the Cancer Treatments Subcommittee (CaTSoP) considered the current landscape for immunotherapy treatments, including updated data for the use of these agents.
We are undertaking further economic assessment work to ensure that we have incorporated the most up-to-date information.
PHARMAC continues to work hard to give New Zealanders access to medicines and medical devices to help them live healthy lives. We will reconsider issuing the RFP as soon as we are able.
COVID-19 has affected costs and supply of medicines
The global response to COVID-19 has:
- slowed or halted activities in manufacturing plants, and
- impacted the importation of medicines and devices globally.
As a result, product prices are increasing and we're experiencing disruptions to supply.
We want to fund more treatments for more New Zealanders. But until we know what impact COVID-19 will have on costs of the medicines we already fund, we must be cautious.
Most of the products we fund are imported from countries that have been severely hit by COVID-19. We are currently working through the fiscal impacts of those disruptions.


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Now days we all are addict of using internet and mobile apps But we must have to ensure our privacy .According to a recent study there are more than 70 percent of smartphone apps that are taking our data and share with third-party tracking companies.
Whenever we install any app on Android or iOS platforms , it asks the user’s permission to access personal information, by this process they take our info and can share your data with third-party companies and they track where you are, how fast you are moving and what you are doing.
for ensuring privacy and To get a picture of what data are being collected and transmitted from people’s smartphones, the researchers from IMDEA Networks Institute in Spain developed a free Android app of their own, called the Lumen Privacy Monitor.this app analyses the traffic apps send out, to report which applications and online services actively grabbing personal data.
according to thier statement “We try to show the details of apps’ hidden behaviour in an easy-to-understand way. It’s about research, too, so we ask users if they’ll allow us to collect some data about what Lumen observes their apps are doing – but that doesn’t include any personal or privacy-sensitive data,” the researchers said in a statement released by the institute.
“We discovered 598 internet sites likely to be tracking users for advertising purposes, including social media services like Facebook, large Internet companies like Google and Yahoo, and online marketing companies under the umbrella of internet service providers like Verizon Wireless,” the study said. on internet More than 70 percent of the apps were connected to at least one tracker, and 15 percent of them were connected to five or more trackers, the findings showed.
“Tracking users on their mobile devices is just part of a larger problem. More than half of the app-trackers we identified also track users through websites. Thanks to this technique, called ‘cross-device’ tracking, these services can build a much more complete profile of your online persona,” the researchers said.


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The amount of frozen Canadian beef headed to Japan is about to drop, mainly due to a new tariff slapped on by the Japanese government because of the large amounts that country was importing.
How long the tariff will last is unknown. Countries like Mexico, Australia and Chile have bilateral trade deals with Japan, so their tariff is much lower.
The United States, however, is in the same boat as Canada.
“Right now Japan is the United States’ largest export customer,” Laycraft added. “For a little while, we were, but for right now, it’s Japan. So as these duties come into effect, if that brings U.S. cattle prices down, that will mean Canadian cattle prices will go down.”
It’s bad timing for cattle producers hoping to get top dollar out of their calves. The fall calf run is already upon us, according to seasoned cattlemen Bob Balog.
“I think you are going to see community pastures that have water problems, producers that have water problems,” he said. “Our combine season is here, we are combining our crops three to four weeks earlier than we normally do, and we are also going to start selling cattle, especially calves three to four weeks earlier than we normally do.”
It’s not just the drought situation in Alberta and Saskatchewan bringing calves to market early. A number of B.C. producers have been backed into a corner by wildfires.
“There is going to be cattle that are lost, we don’t know the numbers yet,” Balog added. “There will be cattle that are sold that shouldn’t be because the hay is going to be short, their grass is going to be short, and we pray that we can get along without a huge number of B.C. cattle coming to town.”
With so many factors working against producers, Laycraft said the best thing the Canadian cattle industry can do now is work at building its own bilateral trade deal with countries like Japan.


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- Uganda's digital payments landscape is undergoing a transformative shift, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The introduction of the "Sasuza Visa" campaign in 2021 marked a significant milestone in the adoption of card payments.
- While mobile money has seen widespread adoption, card payments have faced challenges and limited awareness regarding the advantages of card transactions.
- With merchants no longer imposing surcharges, the benefits of transitioning to card payments are becoming increasingly evident.
Uganda’s digital payments landscape is undergoing a transformative shift, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving consumer preferences prioritizing convenience, speed, and security. While mobile money has seen widespread adoption, card payments have faced challenges, including merchant surcharges at point-of-sale terminals and limited awareness regarding the advantages of card transactions.
The introduction of the “Sasuza Visa” campaign in 2021, spurred by the Bank of Uganda’s directive to eliminate merchant surcharges and minimum transaction thresholds, marked a significant milestone in the adoption of card payments. This initiative, complemented by efforts from supervised financial institutions under the Uganda Bankers Association and fintechs, has led to a notable increase in card usage with active debit cards surging by 22% to 3.3 million, accompanied by a 23.5% rise in transaction volumes. Moreover, credit card transfers surged by 60.7% to UGX 66.4 billion, with a 10.4% increase in POS transactions.
Despite these advancements, there remains untapped potential in the realm of card payments. With merchants no longer imposing surcharges, the benefits of transitioning to card payments are becoming increasingly evident. In this exploration, we delve into the diverse advantages that card payments offer to Ugandans, emphasizing the ongoing significance of the second edition of the Sasuza Visa campaign.
First and foremost, the convenience offered by card payments cannot be overstated. Whether it’s purchasing groceries, dining out, or refueling vehicles, the days of grappling with cash and hunting for exact change are swiftly becoming a relic of the past. Visa’s global acceptance ensures that Ugandan consumers can transact seamlessly not just locally, but also internationally, eliminating the need for cumbersome currency exchange processes.
Moreover, the advent of contactless payment technology brings in a new era of transactional efficiency. With a simple tap, consumers can expedite their purchases which in turn reduces waiting times and enhances overall convenience. This innovation aligns with the evolving needs and preferences of modern consumers, who prioritize speed and simplicity in their transactions.
In an age marked by escalating cyber threats and financial fraud, security emerges as a paramount concern for consumers. Fortunately, card payments offer robust built-in security features, including encryption technologies and dynamic data authentication. Visa’s tap-to-pay technology, bolstered by EMV chips, provides an added layer of protection against fraudulent activities, mitigating risks associated with traditional magnetic stripe cards.
Furthermore, Visa’s zero-liability policy and cardholder protection initiatives instill confidence among consumers, assuring them of recourse in the event of unauthorized transactions. As fraudsters deploy increasingly sophisticated tactics, the security afforded by card payments becomes indispensable, safeguarding consumers’ financial interests and fostering trust in digital transactions.
Beyond transactions, card payments catalyze financial empowerment and literacy. Debit cards, in particular, offer real-time insights into individuals’ spending habits, enabling them to make informed financial decisions and exercise prudent budgeting practices. By leveraging intuitive banking apps and online platforms, consumers gain unprecedented visibility into their financial portfolios, facilitating proactive financial management.
The ability to monitor spending patterns in real time equips consumers with the tools to track expenses, identify trends, and adjust budgets accordingly. This heightened accountability fosters a culture of financial responsibility, empowering individuals to take charge of their financial well-being and pursue long-term financial goals with confidence.
- Building a Credit Score
Perhaps most importantly, card payments play a pivotal role in shaping individuals’ financial futures by facilitating the establishment of credit histories and scores. Prudent use of credit cards empowers individuals to seize opportunities and fortify their financial futures. Credit card usage plays a vital role in cultivating robust credit scores, and facilitating access to credit from a variety of financial institutions. By extending credit for transactions, credit cards necessitate timely repayment, reflecting responsible credit management and fostering positive credit scores over time.
A strong credit score offers numerous advantages, including favorable loan terms, expanded credit limits, and lower interest rates. This bolsters individuals’ credibility as borrowers, increasing the likelihood of loan approval and smoothing financial transactions and negotiations. Ultimately, credit cards function not merely as transactional tools but as vehicles for building financial health and enhancing one’s standing in the financial landscape.
- Rewards and Loyalty Programs
In addition to their transactional functionality, present an array of rewards and loyalty programs designed to enrich the cardholder experience. From cashback offers to travel perks and exclusive privileges, these programs incentivize continued card usage while enhancing consumer value. Tiered reward structures encourage consumers to maximize their spending, unlocking increasingly attractive benefits and reinforcing brand loyalty in the process.
Beyond the financial incentives, credit card rewards offer access to exclusive experiences and tailored services, elevating the overall consumer experience. Whether it’s VIP treatment at airports or complimentary hotel stays, these perks cater to consumers’ diverse lifestyles and preferences, transforming mundane transactions into memorable moments.
Ultimately, the case for Ugandans to switch to card payments is compelling and multifaceted. From convenience and enhanced security to empowerment through financial literacy and access to exclusive rewards, the transition to card payments heralds a new era of financial empowerment and opportunity.
You can join this switch by paying with your Visa card on your next shopping trip or Valentine’s gift today.


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The Indie World Showcase will take place tomorrow (April 19), with the livestream kicking off at 5PM BST / 6PM CEST / 12PM ET. When the Showcase begins, you can watch it live through the below video.
As for what the Showcase will entail, Nintendo has told fans to expect “roughly 20 minutes of reveals, announcements, and updates on indie games for Nintendo Switch” — though which studios and titles will appear remains to be seen.
“Uncover top-quality experiences from independent developers with Indie World,” shared Nintendo. “Covering a wide range of genres, Indie World represent some of the best titles available from independent developers.”
While Wednesday’s showcase will focus on some lesser-known titles, Nintendo has recently been ramping up to launch one of its biggest Switch titles – The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom – in just under a month.
Last week, Tears Of The Kingdom received its third and final trailer ahead of the game’s launch on May 12. Combined with a recent 12-minute gameplay showcase, the trailer shared a host of new details on what fans can expect from the Breath Of The Wild sequel — including more abilities for Link, new areas above and below Hyrule for Link to explore, and the return of series villain Ganondorf.
Speaking of Ganondorf, Critical Role star Matthew Mercer has confirmed that he will be voicing the antagonist in Tears Of The Kingdom.
“Many of you know the weight of expectation on my shoulders for this, and I hope to do you proud,” wrote the veteran voice actor.
In other gaming news, Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser has been released from prison early — but still needs to repay the company millions in damages.


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The February 28th North American release for Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is rapidly approaching, and now localizing studio XSEED Games has taken to their developer blog to explain why localizing the game’s DLC is an issue.
In the blog, XSEED detailed the four free patches that were added to the game in Japan post launch, including:
- A new bachelor and bachelorette: Stephanie the contest MC and Woofio. Yes, Woofio the contest judge in the dog suit. This includes new resident and romance events for these characters.
- A few new events such as your father coming to visit and getting together with friends of the same gender for a meal.
- The ability to have a child with the game’s secret marriage candidate.
- A new “performer” story (Which are similar to the TV channels in the previous Story of Seasons).
- A new pet, Cheburashka, a Russian cartoon character that has a presence in Japan.
- New costumes, including ones based on Lest and Frey from Rune Factory 4.
- New reaction dialogue for different outfits and pets from bachelors and bachelorettes.
The studio noted that one of these patches is massive, containing over 200,000 Japanese text characters. This is the equivalent of an entire game’s script in some cases, to which the company simply can’t afford to translate it and release it for free.
XSEED notes to localize this content it would cost “upwards of six figures,” considering that “over half of which is programming and QA costs.” Going even further, they said the required funding and development work is roughly capable of almost releasing “a full other title.”
The last batch of DLC launched back in December of last year in Japan, at the same time the English version of the game was undergoing QA testing and had its localization submitted as well. Coming from this, XSEED said it’s impossible to include this content in the main release, to do so would mean delaying the release by months.
XSEED said that to localize the content and mitigate costs, they have to charge $3.99 per DLC patch, with them combining the first and second patches into a single release. This would reduce the number of post-launch DLC patches from four to three.
Finally, if they charge for the DLC, they won’t be able to include Cheburashka, due to licensing issues. Even if they offered him for free, they aren’t guaranteed the license in North America indefinitely.
XSEED is asking fans to reach out to them via social media, email, and so on to voice their opinion on the DLC.


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News - Audi
Audi opens dedicated showroom in Hobart
Tasmanian expansion to help Audi rein in BMW, Mercedes-Benz market dominance
21 Jul 2014
By BARRY PARK
GERMAN luxury brand Audi has established a foothold in Hobart with a bespoke showroom opening in the Tasmanian capital.
The $13 million, 450-square-meter glass and aluminium Audi Centre Hobart officially opened last week, largely in response to growing customer demand for the brand’s product, Jackson Motor Company managing director Errol Stewart said.
“Audi is a very strong brand in Hobart and it has experienced consistent growth,” Mr Stewart said.
“Our existing dealership had reached capacity and the market has clearly indicated that there is an opportunity to expand our operation,” he said.
The Hobart showroom includes an undercover display area for eight vehicles, with space on the forecourt for 24 more.
The dealership also offers a customer lounge and a dedicated service reception.
Audi Australia managing director Andrew Doyle said the luxury car-maker was pleased that such a statement facility had opened in Hobart.
“This project, along with many others which are under construction around the country, represents Audi’s growing strength in Australia,” Mr Doyle said.
“Supported by markets like Hobart, which is currently in the number two premium position, Audi will achieve its 10th year of consecutive sales growth in 2014.
“In this time, the brand has sold more than five times its volume and we see Tasmania, and in particular growing markets like Hobart, as a very important part of this development plan for the southern states of the nation.”
Mr Doyle said Audi and its dealers were “continuing to invest significantly” in the brand in Australia as part of a strategic growth plan to overtake BMW and Mercedes-Benz “in the medium term”.
The Road to Recovery podcast series
20th of May 2014
Driven: Sedan joins Audi’s record-selling S3 range
Audi’s hot-selling S3 quattro range expanded to include $62,200 sedan variant
7th of May 2014
Driven: Audi S8 returns as part of A8 range upgrade
Audi launches mid-life A8 update headlined by re-introduced twin-turbo S8
14th of February 2014
Audi takes Audi Sport to the red line
Australia becomes second country to roll out Audi Sport branding program
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Motor industry news


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Indonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati emphasizes the importance of cooperation between the government and Indonesia's micro, small and medium enterprises (including start ups). Indrawati spoke at the 12th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) that opened on Tuesday (02/08) in Jakarta. Last week, Indrawati was appointed Indonesia's new finance minister in a cabinet reshuffle, replacing Bambang Brodjonegoro. She had already been finance minister between 2005 and 2010 under former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
In her speech Indrawati stated that Indonesia's micro, small and medium sized enterprises are the backbone of the Indonesian economy. These enterprises account for 99 percent of the total amount of enterprises that are operating in Indonesia and they create a total of 107.6 million jobs in Southeast Asia's largest economy. Moreover, Indonesia's micro, small and medium-sized companies contribute 60.6 percent to Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP). All these facts indicate the importance of the existence of these companies. In fact, they cushion the country's economy in times of shocks. However, the majority of these companies do not pay taxes, while most workers belong to the informal sector.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati also emphasized that after political decentralization (in the post-Suharto era) Indonesia is now in the middle of the process of economic decentralization in which strong economic growth has become felt in the regions rather than the center. Therefore, the micro, small and medium-sized companies in the rural areas have great potential. However, they need to engage in larger networks and it should be made easier for them to obtain credit by lowering the interest rates of Indonesia's micro credit program (in Indonesian: Kredit Usaha Rakyat, KUR), particularly for those that are export-oriented.
Indrawati added that most emerging markets are too focused on economic development in the cities, while more-or-less neglecting the rural areas. However, part of economic decentralization is that the rural areas become increasingly important for the overall economy. Here lies a great task for the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. To support these companies, the Indonesian government has already simplified the permitting process for small and medium-sized companies in one of the economic stimulus packages as well as opening-up 19 sub-sectors for these companies and cooperatives. Moreover, in 62 sectors foreign investment is only allowed provided the foreign investor partners with local small and medium-sized enterprises.
Good move by the new finance minister.


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Fox Seeks Appeal on Dish’s AutoHop4 Jun, 2013 By: Erik Gruenwedel
Lawyers for Fox Broadcasting Co. June 4 are headed to federal court in Pasadena, Calif. seeking to overturn a district court judge’s ruling approving Dish Network’s controversial TV ad-skipping feature dubbed AutoHop.
The technology, along with Primetime Anytime, enable Dish subscribers to skip ads on recorded network programming via the Hopper DVR. Fox, along with other networks, sued the satellite TV operator claiming AutoHop violates its broadcasting and copyright agreements with Dish.
Primetime Anytime incorporates Sling Media technology that allows subscribers to access recorded programming on tablets and smartphones with or without an Internet connection. Satellite operator EchoStar, which is owned by Dish founder and chairman Charlie Ergen, acquired Sling in 2007.
Last November, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee ruled in favor of Dish by denying Fox’s preliminary injunction request against AutoHop. Fox subsequently filed another preliminary injunction against Sling.
“This appeal does not challenge VCRs, DVR, or viewers’ ability to select and record programs for later viewing,” Fox said in the filing. “What it does challenge is Dish’s wholesale copying of Fox’s copyrighted primetime programming in order to offer its subscribers an on-demand library of commercial-free programs.”
Englewood, Colo.-based Dish doesn’t agree.
“Fox sat idle and silent … as Dish has developed and marketed the technologies behind Dish Anywhere and Hopper Transfers,” R. Stanton Dodge, EVP and general counsel with Dish, said in March. “The district court denied Fox’s prior attempt to deprive consumers of Hopper features and we believe that Fox’s second bite at the apple is likewise meritless.”
Separately, Dish said the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act in connection with its proposed $25.5 billion acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corp expired June 3.
Dish is battling Japan’s SoftBank, which already has an offer on the table to acquire Sprint.
The satellite TV operator is eyeing rolling out a nationwide wireless network for connected devices through its Blockbuster stores and other channels.
Meanwhile, Sprint June 3 in a letter to Clearwire Corp.’s board, criticized Dish’s separate offer to acquire the wireless carrier, claiming conditions set by Dish make closing the deal impossible.
ronically, Sprint, which is a majority stakeholder in Clearwire, is competing with Dish to acquire the remaining interest.


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Consumer products giant Unilever has dealt a fresh blow to investors today by revealing that sales of its top 400 brands shrank by one per cent in the third quarter.
The Anglo-Dutch group, whose products include Magnum ice cream, Lipton Ice Tea and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, also announced that it was reviewing its targets up to 2010.
Pre-tax profits fell two per cent to 1.32 billion euros (£916 million) in the three months to September 30 as consumers in Europe and North America kept a tight rein on spending and discount retailers put pressure on prices.
Poor weather compounded its problems over summer, with lower sales of ice cream and
ready-to-drink ice tea responsible for nearly two-thirds of a five per cent fall in underlying sales in Europe.
Unilever warned investors last month that its performance in the third quarter had been weak and said full-year earnings growth was likely to be in the low single digits. This was reiterated today as total turnover fell four per cent to 10.64 billion euros (£7.39 billion), with margins under pressure from an increase in promotional activity.
Sales across the Atlantic were flat because of weak consumer spending, but the group offered some cheer by revealing that sales of SlimFast have stabilised.