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10 Top Location-Based Marketing Campaigns of 2015
Despite the emergence of beacons two years ago, the Bluetooth devices only seemed to come into their own in 2015. And notwithstanding adoption by the likes of Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, and Target, the proximity tools have yet to penetrate mainstream retailing.
Marketers and brands still have hurdles to overcome in terms of consumer acceptance — 70 percent of shoppers aren’t even aware beacons exist, according to one study from this past fall. However, that doesn’t mean indoor marketing specialists lack impressive numbers for engagement and store visitation, particularly when combined with more commonplace techniques such as geofencing and targeted mobile ads to spur app users to opt in to receive retailers’ messages.
If retailers can show that the cases below can drive connected consumers to cash registers, these examples of 2015’s best location ad efforts may seem mundane by this time next year.
Dr Pepper’s Geo-Based Thirst Quench: The soft drink brand worked with programmatic platform Rocket Fuel and in-store attribution specialist Placed to serve location-targeted mobile ads to more than 1,000 grocers — and prove that those placements led to physical purchases. Placed’s data indicated the ads helped drive 213,000 in-store visits. The ad-tech provider said the campaign ultimately put Dr Pepper products in 25,000 new households.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Navigates “The Deep Indoors” with iOS App: With more than 35,000 animals and plants on display and over two million visitors annually, the Silicon Valley-area marine life center turned to Apple to map its 200 galleries so they could be accessed using Wi-Fi signals via a branded app.
“We have a longstanding relationship with Apple, dating back to the launch of our Seafood Watch app in 2009,” said Humberto Kam, director of online engagement and marketing for Monterey Bay Aquarium, referring to a separate guide that it previously developed for buying sustainable seafood in listed restaurants and markets. The app got the aquarium on Apple’s radar. “When we started discussions about adding indoor positioning to the existing Aquarium app late last year, Apple very generously offered to help us create the best possible user experience.” The aquarium is considering adding iBeacon connections to provide a clearer guide for special exhibits.
Opt-Intelligence Draws a Full Circle Around Email Marketing and Location Ads: Traditions 118, a family-owned restaurant in Granite Springs, N.Y., sought to generate 100 new subscribers per month for the establishment’s newsletter. To solve the restaurant’s challenges in attracting new customers, lead-gen provider Opt-Intelligence created geo-targeted ad units that invited users to sign up and receive email messages. The campaign resulted in meeting the restaurant’s goal of gaining 100 new subscribers in one month, and 18 percent of those local subscribers redeemed the first coupon sent by the Opt-Intelligence ads.
Craig Anderson, Opt-Intelligence’s president and chief operating officer, believes that the high success rate speaks to the importance of using geo-targeting to deliver not just a hoard of new email subscribers, but also the right subscribers. “Without geo-targeting, we couldn’t serve a large portion of the small business world we’re working with today,” he said. “When we work with companies like Traditions 118, where it’s a single location, sole proprietorship, they just want to target the radius around their zip code, because those are the people who are going to come in. Using geo helps to make the signup invitation so much more relevant to the consumer.”
Memorial Healthcare System’s Pandora Ads Delivered 500 Percent Increase in Mobile Traffic: Memorial Healthcare System (MHS) has been providing healthcare services to South Florida residents since 1953. Today, it’s the third-largest public healthcare system in the nation. But when it came to promoting its new cardiac risk assessment, MHS wanted to target new patients to get more leads, not just existing ones. MHS tapped Pandora to run an ad campaign that would target on-the-go people only in the South Florida geographic area, and specifically those who were 40 and older.
Pandora used three solutions: Audio Everywhere, to serve cross-platform ads on web, mobile, and tablet; Display Everywhere, to show ads to users based on interactions; and geo- and demographic targeting, to hit the right potential patients with as little waste as possible. The campaign resulted in 37,000 clicks among MHS’ target demographic and a 500 percent increase in mobile site traffic — and brought in more than a few new patients, too.
Thinknear and Whole Foods Geo-Conquest Rival Grocers: The gourmet uber-market used location data to improve post-click conversion rates for its mobile ads, while edging out local competitors. It tapped Thinknear to place geofences around a number of Whole Foods locations and targeted ads toward users who passed through these areas. Thinknear also employed geo-conquesting tools to aim ads at smartphones near competing grocers. Both timing and location were factors, as ads were served on weekends, when most customers do their food shopping for the week. By the end of the campaign, Whole Foods had a 4.69 percent post-click conversion rate — more than three times the national average of 1.43 percent.
Charlotte Russe Shoppers Overwhelmingly Opt In to GPShopper’s Push Notifications: In April, San Diego-based young women’s casual clothing chain Charlotte Russe partnered with proximity retail platform GPShopper on building out its online-to-offline strategy around the idea of the retailer’s regular “Appy Hour” promotions. The “Appy Hour” offers discounts on purchases made in Charlotte Russe’s mobile app or in stores, and a key part of its plan rested on the use of push notifications designed to drive sales and store visits.
On the specific date the study looked at, April 16, sales were 42 percent higher on average when compared to the previous 20-day period. Meanwhile, unique visitors to the app grew 61 percent over the previous month. In the end, in-store sales dollars wound up being 3.7 times greater than in-app sales figures. Over 500,000 users downloaded the app between its initial launch and July 2015.
xAd and Oxfam Use Location Data to Help Raise Money for Poverty-Stricken Communities: Although we tend to think of geo-targeted mobile ads as being used in the context of retail marketing, location ad platform xAd used its targeting tools on behalf of Oxfam America, an affiliate of Oxfam International, to fight poverty in the United States by sending place-based ads to consumers who appeared positioned to donate to a worthy cause. xAd used insights on mobile consumer behavior from its platform of nearly one million advertisers to target people around three primary locations: 1) Oxfam America’s out-of-home media placements at PATH Stations, bus shelters and airports; 2) at grocery stores that carried magazines with relevant print ads; and 3) malls and shopping centers where audiences are in the gift-giving state of mind.
It was Oxfam’s first holiday campaign to use mobile location in a nationally-integrated marketing push that included outdoor, print, and online ads as well as a social media. This year’s metrics have yet to be calculated as the campaign is still live. Last year’s “Unwrapped” campaign brought in 7,000 new donors and raised $1.4 million.
inMarket, Wells Fargo Bring out Beacons in Support of Zac Brown Band’s Veterans’ Benefit at Wrigley: In another example of trying to “do well by doing good,” beacon platform inMarket expanded the use of its proximity marketing tools from retail to charity for a 9/11 concert at Wrigley Field by the Zac Brown Band, which was sponsored by Wells Fargo. Proceeds from the concert, held on one of the most solemn days on the American calendar, went to Warriors to Summits, part of No Barriers USA, a nonprofit that helps veterans and transitioning service members with disabilities and their families.
“You can do a lot more with one beacon and a reach of 36 million than you can with a million beacons and a small audience,” said Dave Heinzinger, inMarket’s senior director of communications. “The beacon is just the facilitator. It’s about being able to engage people where they are with a beacon. As an analogy, if you build houses, you use a hammer. But the point is to build the actual house, not just have a hammer.”
Coca-Cola and Unacast Use Beacons to Retarget Moviegoers Before and After the Credits Roll: This indoor marketing campaign was pretty atypical for beacons in 2015, but it’s likely to become the dominant use case in 2016 and beyond. Proximity retargeting platform Unacast demonstrated how physical businesses can use location-based advertising beyond direct response-oriented push notifications. The campaign involved Norwegian media conglomerate Schibsted and Nordic cinema chain operator CAPA with the purpose of promoting Coca-Cola products at concession stands and then in the days after smartphone-toting consumers left the theater. To get users to turn on their smartphone’s Bluetooth receiver, which is the main way to accept a message via beacons, readers who had an app from VG, a major Norwegian newspaper owned by Schibsted, were given a prompt and asked if they were interested in a free Coke before the movie started.
About 60 percent of customers clicked through that offer, a number that Unacast dubs “extraordinary” considering that VG normally achieves average click through rates of 0.18 percent on mobile ad campaigns. Of those that clicked the ad, 50 percent went back to the cinema and redeemed the offer of a free ticket.
Elle Magazine’s Location Celebration: Shop Now! Beacon Effort Drove Half-Million In-Store Visits: While most retailers are still discovering the use of beacons, even fewer media outlets appear to be aware of how the Bluetooth Low Energy devices can be part of their integrated marketing mix. Hearst Magazine’s Elle became something of a pioneer by partnering with beacon marketing provider Swirl Networks, along with coupon marketplace RetailMeNot and curated deals company ShopAdvisor (proximity specialist Gimbal will be handing the geo-fencing aspects of the program), for its Shop Now! ad program. The concept was tied to the release of Elle’s 30th birthday issue at the end of August. It so happened that the September issue coincided with the print ad blitz heralding fall fashions. As Elle readers selected their favorite brands within the apps or online, they were provided with exclusive content and offers using location-based mobile technology — specifically, beacons and geo-fences.
Over the course of September and October, the Shop Now! program delivered 500,000 in-store visits and a more than 12 percent content engagement rate for participating retailers Barnes & Noble, Levi’s, Guess, and Vince Camuto across the country. Over 700 physical stores took part in the promotion. “The in-market success of our Shop Now! program exceeded our expectations, and also achieved one of our major goals — to activate an initiative that would be a retail traffic-driver for our brand partners,” said Elle publisher Kevin O’Malley, in a statement.
David Kaplan is managing editor of GeoMarketing.


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Undervalued, 5.4%-Yielding Hasbro Stock Has 75% Upside
HAS Stock Is a Great Contrarian Play for Patient Investors
There are opportunities on Wall Street that stock investors take advantage of because the underlying companies are doing exceptionally well. As the old adage goes, don’t fight the trend.
But in some cases, it can make sense to take a contrarian approach to investing. Instead of chasing someone else’s stock market gains, investors can take a close look at stocks that have been beaten down but have compelling growth stories. That’s what you get with Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS).
Hasbro, with its subsidiaries, operates as a global game, toy, and entertainment company. It operates through three business segments: Consumer Products, Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming, and Entertainment. (Source: “Hasbro Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2022 Financial Results,” Hasbro, Inc., February 16, 2023.)
The Consumer Products segment sells toys and games around the world, including toys for third parties such as Lucasfilm (whose brands include “Star Wars,” “Indian Jones,” and “Marvel”).
The Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment promotes Hasbro’s brands through trading cards, role-playing, and digital game experiences.
The Entertainment segment develops, acquires, produces, distributes, and sells entertainment content including films, TV shows, digital content, and live events.
Most people are familiar with Hasbro’s most popular brands, such as “Dungeons & Dragons,” “Magic: The Gathering,” “Nerf,” “Play-Doh,” “Peppa Pig,” and “Transformers.”
With a market cap of $7.3 billion, Hasbro, Inc. is an industry juggernaut. However, it’s a consumer cyclical company that has seen its share price take a big hit lately. As of this writing, Hasbro stock is down by:
- 22.8% over the last six months
- 17.6% year-to-date
- 42.2% year-over-year
That’s not a total surprise for those who’ve been following Hasbro, Inc. The company’s management team said it expected 2022 to be a tough year.
Nevertheless, thanks to a new initiative (which you can read about below), HAS stock’s outlook is robust. Even conservative Wall Street analysts think so. They’ve provided a 12-month share-price target in the range of $69.90 to $90.00, which points to potential gains in the range of approximately 35% to 75%.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
2022 Was a Tough Year for Hasbro, Inc.
Hasbro stock comes by its recent share-price losses honestly. In addition to falling victim to cutbacks in discretionary spending and an increase in fear of an upcoming recession, the company has been missing its financial targets. Its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 results came in below expectations. (Source: Ibid.)
Hasbro, Inc.’s fourth-quarter revenues fell by 17% year-over-year to $1.7 billion. Its full-year revenues went down by nine percent to $5.9 billion. The company also swung to a fourth-quarter net loss of $128.9 million, while its full-year net income went down by 53% to $203.5 million.
Although its financial results were disappointing, the company still managed to deliver its first billion-dollar brand in Magic: The Gathering. Moreover, it reported another record year for its Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment, grew its key investment areas (including licensing and direct-to-consumer), and improved its adjusted operating profit margin.
Hasbro, Inc. also reduced its owned and retail inventory levels from its third-quarter peak.
As mentioned earlier, the company expected 2022 to be challenging, but it took that opportunity to invest in its business growth. That included acquiring “D&D Beyond” for $146.0 million in May of that year, in a deal that became earnings-accretive in the fourth quarter.
In 2022, Hasbro, Inc. returned $510.0 million to its shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. The company’s balance sheet is solid, though, with enough cash to adequately support its short-term business needs.
Despite a weak near-term shipment outlook, Hasbro, Inc. has maintained a long-term forecast of mid-single-digit sales growth through 2027. The company expects its operating cash flow to nearly double in 2023. Furthermore, it’s working to reduce its owned and retail inventory levels further this year.
Plans to Grow Profits 50% Over Next 3 Years
To combat the toy, game, and entertainment industry’s headwinds, Hasbro introduced its “Blueprint 2.0” initiative last October. (Source: “Hasbro Announces Plan to Grow Profit 50% Over Next Three Years,” Hasbro, Inc., October 4, 2022.)
The new plan features near-term changes that should deliver positive financial impacts as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Those changes include focusing on a few big brands and advancing direct-to-consumer capabilities and licensing.
Hasbro, Inc.’s plan is expected to deliver the following:
- $250.0 to $300.0 million in annualized run-rate cost savings by the end of 2025, with $150.0 million expected in savings by the end of 2023
- 50% profit growth over the next three years
- A 20% adjusted operating profit margin by 2027
- Annual operating cash flow in excess of $1.0 billion, accelerating over the period of the plan
- The return of excess cash to shareholders through industry-leading dividends and a future share-repurchase program
Hasbro Stock’s Quarterly Dividend Maintained at $0.70/Share
HAS stock currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.70 per share, for a yield of 5.4%.
Hasbro, Inc. has a solid history of raising its dividends annually. Over the last 15 years, it has raised its dividend 11 times. Whereas many companies cut or suspended their dividends during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hasbro maintained its payout at $0.68 per share. In early 2022, the company increased its dividend by three percent.
In 2021, the company delivered wonderful financial results, including 17% revenue growth, higher operating profit margins, and $818.0 million in operating cash flow. This allowed Hasbro to continue investing in growth initiatives, pay off $1.1 billion in long-term debt, and continue supporting its dividends.
The Lowdown on Hasbro, Inc.
With more than 1,500 popular brands, Hasbro is one of the most well-known toy, game, and entertainment companies in the world.
Unfortunately, even the biggest names can take a hit when facing industry headwinds. Fortunately, Hasbro, Inc. has taken steps to ensure its near and long-term financial growth.
In addition to strong growth catalysts, including film launches and new licenses, the company’s recent Blueprint 2.0 plan includes $250.0 to $300.0 million in cost-saving initiatives by the end of 2025. This should help Hasbro stock continue to provide investors with industry-leading high-yield dividends and share buybacks. The plan should also help juice HAS stock’s share price over the coming years.

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Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the global smartphone market, according to a report released Friday by IDC.
Samsung had 31.3 percent of the worldwide smartphone market during the quarter that ended in September—more than twice Apple's 15 percent share, IDC reported.
The Korean handset maker also dominated the global market for all mobile phones with a 23.7 percent share.
According to IDC, Samsung shipped 56.3 million smartphones during the period, compared to Apple's 26.9 million.
Samsung's shipments during the quarter set another record for the company, IDC said, and was fueled by a "broad, deep and refreshed Android portfolio" led by a full quarter of availability of its flagship smartphone the Galaxy S III.
Apple smartphone shipments during the period were flat, IDC noted, but those shipment numbers represent only one week's sales of the company's latest smartphone, the iPhone 5, which sold five million units during its first weekend of availability. According to IDC, iPhone 5 sales weren't dampened by problems with its mapping software.
Overall, the global smartphone market grew by 45.3 percent over shipments during the same quarter a year ago, to 179.7 million from 123.7 million.
By comparison, shipments for the entire global mobile phone market increased 2.4 percent during the period, to 444.5 million from 434.1 million in the third quarter of 2011.
Nokia falls from top 5
For the first time since 2004, when IDC started tracking mobile phone shipments, Nokia fell out of the top five rankings of smartphone makers, replaced by Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM). However the company remained number two in total mobile phone shipments with 18.7 percent of the market on shipments of 82.9 million units.
Nokia's smartphone fall, according to IDC, was precipitated by the continued rise of Samsung and Apple globally and the success of high-growth vendors like Huawei in China, where Nokia's dominance is on the wane.
"The company's transition away from Symbian-powered smart phones to one shipped with Windows Phone has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months," Kevin Restivo, a senior research analyst with IDC, reports in a statement. "However, the smartphone market is still relatively nascent, which means there's room for multiple vendors and operating systems to flourish, including Nokia."
Other highlights from the IDC report:
- Research In Motion shipments during the period were flat, but it was able to break into the top five smartphone sellers by relying on its installed base of 80 million users. Without a new model smartphone until next year, IDC noted, RIM's position as a top five smartphone maker "will be under tremendous pressure from other companies."
- ZTE made it into the top five smartphone makers largely due to an increased interest in lower-cost smart phones in developing markets and a jump in sales in North America.
- HTC lost market share in some mature markets, such as the United States, but was able to offset those losses through increased interest in some of its new models, like the One X and the EVO 4G. IDC added that HTC hopes to rejuvenate its global fortunes in the December quarter with two new Windows Phone 8 models, the 8X and 8S.
This story, "Samsung, Apple phones lead sales while Nokia droops" was originally published by TechHive.


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Halifax called out for ‘community’ ad that airbrushed town
Halifax’s latest ad extolling the brand as being at the heart of the community has come under fire for airbrushing over a derelict high street.
For the filming of Halifax’s ‘It’s a People Thing’ TV campaign, released earlier this month, the bank decided to smarten up the high street of Goole by putting facades on empty shops, creating a fake cafe as well as a busy local market.
While Halifax has claimed this is common practice for filming commercials, the ad – which ‘celebrates community’ – has left viewers frustrated that it glossed over the deprivation locals are facing.
One resident, Florence Scott, called out the bank for claiming to be at the heart of the local community while simultaneously being “ashamed to show its branch down a struggling northern street.”
Scott said: “It’s jarring to see a version of the same street, with shoppers, a greengrocers and a market instead of empty derelict shops. Apparently some locals were upset because they saw the shoot and mistakenly thought new shops had opened until Halifax packed them up and drove off.”
Terence Smith, Goole’s former Labour mayor, said the ad should have shown “a proper Goole, not an airbrushed reality of our northern towns that are left behind.”
A spokesperson from Halifax told The Drum: “We’re proud to have filmed our latest Halifax advert in Goole and, while we preserved the scene featured as far as possible, we did have to make some digital edits for legal reasons, which are common when making television adverts.”
Ben Uttley, founder and chief exec of production company Stamp, said commercials are required to replace shop fronts due to copyright rules. However, Uttley said the backlash should serve as a reminder to brands and commercial makers to act more authentically.
“There is a growing demand from audiences for brands to act more authentically,” Uttley said. “If you are going to claim you are at the heart of the community and you put out ads like this you are going to get called out.”
Uttley, who has produced for the likes of Six Nations Rugby and Red Bull, said there are lessons to be learned “across the board that businesses need to make sure they are authentic and us as storytellers making the commercials need to be cognizant of what the message is.”
While Uttley maintained that Halifax wasn’t out to mislead audiences, he advised brands to be cautious that their ads stay “truthful” to the message they are portraying.


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Walgreens is launching its third partnership with a major online delivery platform in less than a year.
The drugstore giant is offering tens of thousands of products, including over-the-counter medications, health and wellness, beauty and personal care, household essentials, and convenience products, for delivery via Instacart in as fast as an hour to customers in Illinois. The company plans to roll out the service to all of its nearly 8,000 stores in the 50 U.S. states over the coming weeks.
Walgreens’ partnership with Instacart comes after the retailer initiated similar on-demand delivery collaborations with Postmates in March 2020 and DoorDash in July 2020.
Following the launch in Illinois, Walgreens will expand its partnership with Instacart over the coming weeks to markets including Southeast Florida, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Walgreens and Instacart plan to scale the same-day on-demand delivery collaboration nationwide across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. throughout the spring and will also increase the products offered over time.
“Convenience is at the core of what we do and Walgreens is thrilled to be partnering with Instacart to bring customers a simple and trusted same-day delivery option for the products they need right to their door,” said Stefanie Kruse, VP, digital commerce and omnichannel at Walgreens. “This collaboration builds upon several other recent steps in our digital transformation to deliver health expertise to customers in new channels, which is timely given shifts in customer needs during the pandemic.”
“At Instacart, we’re dedicated to giving customers same-day access to the essentials they need from the retailers they know and love. We’re proud to expand on that commitment and welcome Walgreens to the Instacart marketplace, offering customers nationwide an unmatched online assortment of Walgreens items available for same-day delivery,” said Chris Rogers, VP of retail at Instacart.
Walgreens operates more than 9,000 retail locations across America, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. No membership is required when using Instacart, but the company does offer an Instacart Express membership that includes reduced service fees and unlimited free delivery on all orders over $35.


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Google is out in force at GDC 2019, and while most are waiting on tomorrow’s big announcement, the company also has a slew of announcements, updates, and resources for the Android game development community during what it calls Google Mobile Developer Day.
As mobile gaming continues to grow, having already become the largest segment of the global gaming market, Google understands Android’s place as one of the two major platforms. To help continue to foster game development on Android, Google is constantly advancing both it and the Play Store to better meet the ever-changing needs of mobile game developers.
First and foremost, the ability to open a pre-registration period for mobile games is now generally available. This allows developers to generate hype and gauge customer excitement for upcoming games. Many developers use the associated statistics to start campaigns that reward players based on certain pre-registration count goals.
The Play Store is also getting some new tools to help developers further drive their game’s install base both locally and globally. New store page A/B test support lets you experiment with multiple versions of an app’s store page and get performance statistics from each. If your app targets multiple markets, the Play Store now has tools to build a specialized store page for each country.
Our devices and network speeds have gotten better in recent years, and the Google Play Store is updating its policies to match. As of today, for an app to be considered a “large download” and warn the user, it needs to be at least 150MB (up from 100MB). Additionally, app sizes are beginning to go down thanks to Android App Bundles support implemented by major game engines like Unity and Cocos Creator. Complementing the new “large download” threshold, Android App Bundles can now also have a maximum size of 150MB.
For more information on each of these new developments, check out Google’s full announcement or watch their live stream with all of today’s Mobile Developer Day announcements and developer-oriented sessions.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
Customers take photos while waiting on line to purchase the Apple iPhone 5 outside the Apple Fifth Avenue flagship store on the first morning it went on sale. An entire shadow economy has emerged around the iconic device.
Today is Apple iPhone 5 day. At Apple stores across Southern California, hopeful shoppers have lined up in the hundreds to obtain the glistening new gadget.
These folks will part with money, but they're also engaged in an ad-hoc iEconomy that's using the iPhone — versions both current and past — to generate profits. Here's how it goes...
It's all about real estate. According to LATimes, people who've lined up outside the Apple store at the Grove shopping complex are selling their places on line. Ten kids showed up at sunrise with the goal of selling five spots in line for $300 a pop, for a neat take of $1,500, pretty much all of it profit (they opportunity cost of standing in line at 6 a.m. when you're 19 is pretty much nil). But they miscalculated their market and could only sell the spots for...$100. Still, that's $500 in coin for...standing. In line. In warm and sunny L.A.


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Windows 11 is gaining some decent momentum with gamers, at least going by the latest stats from Steam, although Intel has slipped slightly compared to last month’s Steam survey.
The hardware and software survey for January 2022 showed that Windows 11 is now used in 13.56% of the gaming rigs evaluated for this report, which is up quite strongly on December’s figure of 10.15%.
That’s good news for Microsoft, of course, but the survey produced somewhat disappointing results for Intel on the hardware front.
In December’s stats, Intel actually witnessed an increase in its processor market share among Steam gamers to the tune of 0.82%, with Team Blue securing 69.27% in total.
That looked significant given how dominant rival AMD Ryzen processors have been in recent times, stealing a lot of turf from Intel in the desktop PC world – but the upward movement has ebbed for Team Blue, as it dropped slightly to 69.02% in January 2022, albeit that only represents the loss of a quarter of a percentage point.
Analysis: Nothing too worrying for Intel, and serious momentum building for Microsoft
With the Intel figures, while the chip giant might be slightly disappointed that growth hasn’t continued – and that new Alder Lake CPUs aren’t sparking a continued upswing – it’s not a huge surprise.
This is only a very slight loss for Intel, after all, and in recent times, the figures for Team Blue have been rather up and down anyway (even before Alder Lake came out, we saw some decent upticks with Rocket Lake). Really, this is a pretty minimal downward dip, and could be put down to the typical margin of error that Valve’s survey is doubtless working with.
Windows 11’s progress is a more clearly defined growth spurt, and with an increase of 3.41% for January 2022, that’s almost double the gain Windows 11 witnessed from November to December (1.87%).
In short, there’s a clear suggestion that more and more gamers are making the move to Microsoft’s newest OS, despite the early bugs which we’ve written multiple reports about (mind you, some of these are now fixed up, and it’s not like Windows 10 doesn’t have bugs either).
- Check out our guide to Windows 11 problems and how to fix them


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Mintel, a global supplier of consumer, product and media intelligence presented the results of its exclusive consumer survey. The study shows that online US Hispanic adults are quickly surpassing other demographic groups in acquiring new online communication skills, claming to stay on top of the latest and greatest in online communication.
Thus the research found that Hispanics who use the Internet devote nearly three times as much time weekly to browsing websites on their cell phones, making up 1.1 hours against 0.4 hours for non-Hispanics. Hispanics spend nearly twice as much time online using social networking websites or chatting through the instant messaging, that is 5 hours compared to 3.5 hours for non-Hispanics.
According to the research, online Hispanics adopt new media technology, web TV, for instance, faster than non-Hispanics. It was also found out that Hispanics that use the Internet spend more time listening to Internet radio and downloading music than non-Hispanics. Finally, the survey shows that online Hispanics devote more time weekly to Internet browsing than non-Hispanics.


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Nook falls behind in tablet war with Apple, Amazon, Google
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- Staff San Francisco Business Times
The Wall Street Journal reports that the company saw a drop in revenue for the nine-week holiday season, driven largely by lower sales of Nook tablets and e-readers.
Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) said Thursday that revenue for the Nook business including devices, content and accessories dropped 12.6 percent to $311 million for the period, compared with a year earlier.
The company is competing directly with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) in the market for tablets in the $200 price range.
And those devices are meeting new competition from Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad Mini and tablets from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
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July 2, 2019
When Apple’s famous head of design decided to call it a day last week, there was widespread speculation around what may have caused such a move.
The most Juicy gossip came from the Wall Street Journal, which wrote a piece contending that Jony Ive started the process of clearing off long ago and that it was motivated, at least in part, by CEO Tim Cook’s relative disinterest in the design process. This in turn demoralised Ive who, according to the account, became an increasingly distant figure at Apple Towers.
Tim Cook has always been known as an operations specialist with a particular talent for managing an efficient supply chain. Since he took over from the more creative, mercurial Apple founder Steve Jobs in 2011, these talents have ensured the company has gone from strength to strength in terms of revenue and profitability, but there has always been speculation that this has come at the expense of innovation.
The last truly disruptive move from Apple came with the launch of the iPad in 2010, but it looks like Ive was hoping the Apple Watch launch in 2015 would be a similar inflection point. While Apple has flogged quite a few of them and doubtless trousered a pile of cash in the process, there’s very little that differentiates the Apple Watch from its competitors and the category itself has failed to set the technology world on fire.
So it’s easy to see why a narrative that contends innovation at Apple is being suffocated with him in charge might trouble Cook somewhat, which seems to be confirmed by his response to the WSJ piece. Uncharacteristically he publicly took issue with the story via a statement sent to NBC News, in which he asserted it was at odds with his own perception.
“The story is absurd,” wrote Cook. “A lot of the reporting, and certainly the conclusions, just don’t match with reality. At a base level, it shows a lack of understanding about how the design team works and how Apple works. It distorts relationships, decisions and events to the point that we just don’t recognize the company it claims to describe.”
Grizzled Journalists soon recognised this as the kind of non-specific denial companies often send out when they want to cast doubt on the legitimacy of a story without calling out any specific inaccuracies. Cook is essentially saying he disagrees with the conclusions but then he would, wouldn’t he?
Ive’s departure doesn’t seem to have done Apple’s share price any harm, but it does increase the pressure on the company to prove it can still be a consumer technology trailblazer without him. While Apple hasn’t shown much evidence of that for a while, its lack of differentiation was largely put down to the maturity of the smartphone form factor and the openness of the component supply chain. If Apple still hasn’t invented anything revolutionary in a few years’ time, people now might pin the blame on Cook.
About the Author(s)
As the Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, Scott oversees all editorial activity on the site and also manages the Telecoms.com Intelligence arm, which focuses on analysis and bespoke content.
Scott has been covering the mobile phone and broader technology industries for over ten years. Prior to Telecoms.com Scott was the primary smartphone specialist at industry analyst Strategy Analytics’. Before that Scott was a technology journalist, covering the PC and telecoms sectors from a business perspective.
Follow him @scottbicheno
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Almost like heaven: Evansville's Bacon, Burger and Beer Festival
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Evansville Events leaped onto the festival scene last year with a series of tasty food events. This weekend, they are kicking off the outdoor food festival season with the Bacon, Burger and Beer Festival.
“When we put together these festivals, we're looking for food items that a lot of people are going to love to eat,” Joe Notter of Evansville Events said. “Of course bacon and burgers are both huge hits, so we wanted to bring them together with beer because we're a beer drinking city. They all go hand in hand, share good common ground.”
This will be Evansville Event's sixth food festival, continuing a run that has showcased donuts, tacos, wings, strombolis, grilled cheese and more.
“We had a great year one with tremendous attendance,” Notter said. “We've gotten a lot of compliments, and we want to keep it rolling into year two.”
The Bacon, Burger and Beer Festival will take place at and around the Veterans' Memorial Coliseum on Court Street from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday.
This event is not all about bacon cheeseburgers, although those will certainly be available. Over 25 food vendors will be on hand with a seriously wide variety of food. Each food vendor must offer either some sort of burger or a food containing bacon, or both, and it looks like the offerings will run the gamut from expected to exotic to wildly inventive.
“You're going to be able to find bacon-wrapped jalapenos, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, bacon cheesesteaks, bacon and beer flavored ice cream, cheeseburger pizza...” Notter said. “Acropolis is going to do a Greek burger with gyro meat. We'll be introducing Fired Burger, a new concept that offers gourmet burgers with varying levels of heat. There will be hometown favorites too, for example, burger bank will be there.”
On the exotic side, a bevy of Hispanic vendors from Fiesta Evansville, Zamoritas, Los Nardos, Gollita Peruvian, Taqueria Morelos, Gollita Peruvian and others will be offering takes on the dishes of their own regions, enhanced with bacon or beer — bacon quesadillas, nachos or tacos are among their planned dishes.
Other booths include Merkley and Son's Meats, The Oink BBQ, Sugar Pigs and The Fresh Market. Food samples will be priced at $3.
To keep it extra spicy, chef Adam Edwards will be providing all-day cooking demonstrations.
“This year we kept it to one selected brewery, which is Tin Man,” said Notter. “They're going to bring four different craft brews, which will be poured from kegs on the Tin Man semi truck.”
Mike's Hard Lemonade is also a sponsor and will be serving margaritas.
In addition to eats, music and activities will be offered.
Enjoy a burger eating contest and a bacon eating contest, kids' games and bouncy houses, tailgate games, laser tag and beer pong — the unholy offspring of a college drinking game and a carny ball toss.
The event booths will be outside the Coliseum on Court, Market and NW Fourth Streets. Inside the coliseum will be seating and bathrooms.
General admission tickets are $9.99 in advance or at the gate. These and VIP tickets are available at evansvilleevents.com.
Notter is already filling up the rest of his summer festival calendar. Look for the return of your favorite food celebrations from last year, including the Stromboli Festival and the Taco festival.
- The Evansville Food Truck Festival is June 3, at Bosse Field, with both local and out of town trucks and food vendors.
- Evansville Stromboli Festival is July 28 at Bosse Field.
- Evansville Taco Festival is Oct. 13, location to be determined.
If you go
What: The Bacon, Burger and Beer Festival
Where: Veterans' Memorial Coliseum at 300 Court St.
When: Noon to 7 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: General admission tickets are $9.99 in advance or at the gate. These and VIP tickets are available at evansvilleevents.com.


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Square Enix revealed during his last financial briefing that Final Fantasy 16 Probably won’t see the light of day on PS5 for some time, as its next batch of releases for the period ending March 31, 2022 will focus on the new IP.
The post revealed that its main IPs, which obviously include Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, will arrive later, which means we’re looking beyond April 2022 for Final Fantasy 16.
Square Enix surprised the results by saying that upcoming titles in the period ending March 2022 will focus on new IP titles (Outriders, Forspoken, etc.), with major IPs coming in subsequent years. So I think it means FF16, DQ12, etc. will be April 2022 or later. Surprised #Square Enix
– David Gibson (@gibbogame) May 13, 2021
For now, it looks like new IPs such as Outriders and Forspoken are the main objective of the company. This matches the recent rumor that Forspoken will be released in January 2022, although nothing has been confirmed at this point.
Meanwhile, Dragon Quest will receive a special 35th anniversary feed later this month, where Square Enix will make a number of announcements for the series.[Source â David Gibson on Twitter]


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AliExpress Russia, an e-commerce joint venture launched in 2019 by Alibaba and its Russian partners, is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) in pursuit of a new funding source to support its business as the online retailer’s supply chains have been affected by coronavirus-induced restrictions, according to Reuters.
AliExpress Russia, which operates domestic and cross-border sales with 29.1 million monthly active users, said that it plans to launch the IPO next year or later, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Without providing a growth comparison, AliExpress Russia said that its gross merchandise volume (GMV) for the 2020-2021 financial year totaled 230 billion roubles ($3 billion), a little more than three quarters of which came from its cross-border transactions, which CEO Dmitry Sergeev said grew in line with Russia’s total e-commerce market. Reuters said that Russia’s total e-commerce sales enjoyed a year-on-year increase of about 40% in 2020, citing data from market research firm Euromonitor.
In a previous interview with Reuters, Sergeev disclosed that his company’s goal was to achieve annual turnover of $10 billion by 2023. Russian e-commerce leader Wildberries has reported full-year GMV in 2020 of 437.2 billion roubles, up 96% year-on-year.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (firstname.lastname@example.org)


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This is all a best effort software fix to mitigate a hardware issue and the patch changes how Windows does memory management. Since AV can hook the kernel/memory in weird ways, an AV that doesn support the changes can cause system instability (BSOD). Rather than brick x% of systems to prevent a currently mostly hypothetical attack, they made this trade off..
And while some snow has fallen in Canada by November, snowblowers and shovels don get discounted in a significant way until many months later.6) Winter outerwear and boots: Consumers might see discounts of 25 per cent on selected down filled parkas and boots, but the real deals don come out until clearance season in February and beyond, as retailers realize the diminishing likelihood of selling the goods at full price.7) Home improvement: not an opportune time for anyone hoping to do home renovations to get a Black Friday deal, said Michael McLarney, the North American Retail Hardware Association managing director for Canada. Hardware or home improvement products are not sold at a big profit margin compared with other merchandise categories. However, home improvement retailers such as Lowe and Home Depot carry major appliances, and many of those do get marked down on Black Friday, McLarney added.
Pre rolled joints, for example, spiked in popularity by 67 percent in just one year, according to BDS Analytics, a cannabis industry data firm. They are sold for as little as $2 and come in small plastic containers. But doob tubes usually cannot be recycled, even when made of recyclable plastic, because their small size means that they fall through the grates of the recycling machines..
Citing Nike jobs announcement, Obama said that more Nike products would be made in the USA. That means thousands of new jobs in manufacturing and engineering and designs in Nike facilities across the country, and potentially tens of thousands of new jobs along Nike supply chain here at home. That what trade can do..
And instead of offering further thoughts in formal question and answer sessions, jury chairs are following their initial remarks by leaving the stage to wander among scrums of journalists. The shift was described Monday as more “casual,” which it definitely was, if a little more frantic too. The first press briefing addressed just three categories; later installments this week will stuff in as many as six..
Their most successful era came during the eighties after drafting Isaiah Thomas in 1981. By the late eighties, they had developed a physical style of basketball and became “The Bad Boys” with players like Dennis Rodman, Bill Laimbeer, and Joe Dumars along with Thomas. The Bad Boys appeared in three consecutive Finals from 1988 1990, winning back to back titles in 1989 and 1990.


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Many Android smartphones are still running on Android Nougat or Oreo and haven’t even received the latest Android 9.0 Pie update yet, and here Google has already started working on a new version.
The Android Q 10 will be the next major update and has already started to surface out, the team at XDA-Developers managed to get their hands on the early Android Q build which gives us a peek at what we might be getting in future. So if you are curious about the upcoming features and update of the Android Q then you have come to the right place.
Here’s everything we know about so far below.
System-Wide Dark Mode:
The most exciting update, in my opinion, is the new dark mode toggle available in Display settings which will enable a system-wide dark theme. This theme will be applied to some applications like Settings, File Manager, Launcher etc. The Quick Settings, Notification and Volume Panel will also turn black.
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Android users have been waiting for this update since a very long time, Google initially started by theming some of their native apps available on PlayStore like Google Phone app, Google Contacts, Messages, Google News, Google Play Games, YouTube, and more but now this will be available throughout the system.
This dark mode theme will apply a dark gray tinge and some parts will turn black to show up against a darker background. There will also be an option available in the Developer options called “override force-dark” which will force apps without dark modes to switch to the nighttime-friendly color scheme.
The next major update in Android Q is the addition of “Permission Usage” in the settings. Privacy is a bigger concern than ever before and Google is taking this seriously. They have now revamped the permission settings which will allow the user to limit the permissions usage to only when the app is in use.
For instance, if you are using the Uber app, then you can go in permission usage settings and set it to only has access to your location when it’s in use. This is really going to improve privacy and will give you more control and authority over who has access to your personal data.
We have already seen OEMs like Samsung and Huawei offering desktop mode feature in their smartphones which allows the user to connect their smartphone to a special dock that enables you to view your smartphone on an external monitor and in a desktop environment. This feature might be coming to Android Q but is not confirmed yet.
There is a new Developer Option called “force desktop mode” and its description reads “force experimental desktop mode on secondary displays”. This feature does not work as of right now but we can expect a desktop mode in the upcoming update.
Upgraded Facial Recognition:
The native android facial recognition system is not as secure as iOS, manufacturers like Samsung have to build their own secure facial recognition system. The built-in facial recognition system by Android relies on cameras but this time you will be getting a proper and secure system.
This will, of course, require your phone to have the hardware for it but for the future it will allow more brands to easily integrate the hardware into their phones without worrying about the software.
Native Screen Recorder:
The stock Android does not come with a built-in screen recorder, and users have to download a third party app for this purpose. Now with the new update, users will be able to record their screens similarly as they take screenshots. This screen recorder can be accessed by long-pressing on the screenshot button in the power menu, but the UI is currently unfinished.
Google usually name the android versions after desserts, for instance, Android P is for Pie, Android O is for Oreo etc. So what will Android Q be called? There aren’t many desserts that start with the letter Q but some possibilities are:
- Queen of Puddings
You can expect first previews sometime in March 2019, the updates will then be rolled out in mid-2019 but it can take time till the update gets on your phone depending on the brand you have as manufacturers theme it for their UI. So this is all that we know, for now, we will keep updating once more details are available so keep checking back around for the latest on the next Android OS update.


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Portsmouth International Port will welcome its largest ever cruise ship this summer.
Virgin Voyages has announced that Scarlet Lady, measuring 277 metres long, will embark on its first ever commercial passenger sailing from the city later this year.
Mike Sellers, Portsmouth International Port's director, said this is "fantastic news" and explained that the company is launching a series of domestic cruises exclusively from Portsmouth for the UK market.
He continued: "Recognised for their pioneering spirit, we are privileged to support Virgin Voyages as they embark on their first ever commercial sailing.
"We are in no doubt eyes of the world will be on Scarlet Lady's debut, but there is no better harbour than this one, famous for its legendary maritime journeys."
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Mr Sellers added: "It will be a spectacle like no other as the distinctive Scarlet Lady sails through the spectacular harbour entrance, we can be sure sailors and crew will experience a warm Portsmouth reception.
"It is a huge opportunity for the city to be Scarlet Lady's home port for the summer and we are thrilled to work with global brand Virgin Voyages on their showcase sailings."
Domestic cruises in the UK could resume from May 17, according to the maritime minister. However, this is dependant on Government guidelines.
Under England's roadmap for easing restrictions, which Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday was on track, the earliest that foreign holidays could be permitted is May 17.
Mr Sellers added: "We have the highest standards for health protocols, which have been vigorously tested as we operated sailings throughout the pandemic.
"We were the first port to have our protocols independently verified by DNV to their 'My Care' standard and took the initiative to implement a range of tools to help against the spread of COVID-19."
What safety measures will be in place?
Strict COVID-19 measures will be in place for passengers who are travelling to the port, and this will be co-ordinated with public and port health teams.
Along with a thermal imaging scanner to check the temperature of staff and customers, the terminal has been reconfigured into a one-way flow system, with reduced capacity and space for social distancing.
Face coverings are mandatory for anyone travelling through the terminal, and cleaning practices have been enhanced through investments in the latest technologies.
From August 6, there will be a minimum of six sailings, varying between three to four night stays. Operating with reduced capacity, with the limit set by Government guidelines, Scarlet Lady will sail around the UK.
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, said: "Virgin Voyages has been looking forward to sailing, and we're so excited to announce our plans to sail from the UK.
"Our team has curated such a fantastic experience for our sailors and know this is a holiday they will love."
For more information, see here.


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Apple’s latest Retina MacBook Pros are only 3-5% faster than the previous generations
If you picked up a Retina MacBook Pro as soon as they went on sale, you may have been a little disappointed when Apple announced a few improvements to them last week. But don’t feel too downhearted; according to the latest benchmarks, the new models are only 3-5% faster than their predecessors.
The results from Primate Labs’ Geekbench tests aren’t really that surprising — after all, Apple did only make minor improvements. With the 15-inch model, all three of the available processors got an extra 100MHz, while only the high-end configurations of the 13-inch model — starting with the 256GB machine — received the same treatment.
In fact, the new mid-range Retina MacBook Pro is actually slower than the previous mid-range notebook, according to the results.
13-inch Retina MacBook Pro benchmarks
15-inch Retina MacBook Pro benchmarks
“One thing to note is that the new mid-range Retina MacBook Pro has the same speed processor as the old high-end Retina MacBook Pro. However, the new mid-range model is slightly slower than the old high-end model,” Primate Labs said.
“While this seems surprising at first, the difference is easily explained by comparing the two processors: the old high-end processor has more cache than the new mid-range processor.”
So, all of the machines Apple upgraded have only shown 3-5% performance increases, according to the Geekbench statistics. While this is nice if you were planning to pick up a Retina MacBook Pro in the near future, it’s hardly a reason to feel like your existing model is now outdated.


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“Apple and Microsoft will be among technology companies asked to explain to Parliament why Australians pay much more for music and game downloads from iTunes, for example, than overseas customers,” Stephanie Peatling and Jim O’Rourke report for The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Federal Labor politicians are hoping the publicity generated by calling the companies to account for their pricing policies will result in prices dropping,” Peatling and O’Rourke report. “The Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, has signed off on the parliamentary inquiry, which will also consider pricing of software and other IT-related material and could have big implications for businesses. ‘There is evidence to suggest that the innovative use of technology is not always matched with innovative new business models in the case of products and services distributed online,’ Mr Conroy said in a letter to Sydney MP Ed Husic.”
Peatling and O’Rourke report, “Consumer advocate Choice, which had been lobbying for an investigation of the price differential, welcomed the inquiry. The excuses overseas technology companies used to justify the higher prices, such as the small size of the market, the cost of setting up support centres and the imposition of local taxes and duties, were not acceptable, Choice spokeswoman Ingrid Just said. Invitations to appear will be sent to all the big computer and software companies including Apple and Microsoft.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]


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For the first time possibly ever, Microsoft appears to have got one over on Google in the search market.
As expected, Microsoft on Tuesday launched a version of its Bing search engine and Edge browser that integrates ChatGPT, the AI chatbot developed by OpenAI that has garnered perhaps more than its fair share of positive feedback since its launch back in November. The aim is to deliver more relevant search results, provide comprehensive answers to ambiguous queries, and even help users with creative tasks like composing emails or creating travel itineraries.
“There are 10 billion search queries a day, but we estimate half of them go unanswered. That’s because people are using search to do things it wasn’t originally designed to do. It’s great for finding a Website, but for more complex questions or tasks too often it falls short,” said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate VP and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, in a blog post.
Right now, anyone who visits Bing.com and runs a query will see an answer from ChatGPT alongside a the regular list of search results.
With the launch, Microsoft has delivered an AI-powered search engine before Google, the dominant force in the search market. To make matters worse for the latter, in an effort to remind everyone of its own AI credentials, Google made a string of rare mistakes that sent parent Alphabet’s share price spiralling downward.
On Tuesday, Google unveiled its own AI chatbot, Bard, and on Wednesday it hosted an event in Paris to demonstrate the improvements that AI will bring to search. All did not go as planned though. First, Reuters pointed out that one of Bard’s answers that was used in Google’s promotional material was factually inaccurate. Then, during its live event, it did not say how and when Bard will be integrated into its search engine. In addition, according to research firm Radio Free Mobile, Google’s visual search demonstration mislabelled a Parisian coffee shop as a branch of Starbucks.
It’s a role reversal that’s as rare as the Cubs winning the World Series or England going through on penalties. It does happen, but typically less than once in a lifetime. The market didn’t take it well, and Alphabet’s shares fell on Wednesday from $107.64 to a low of $98.09, before closing at $99.37.
It would be easy to downplay the significance of this week’s events, but it’s worth considering that in many fields, the difference between success and failure is as much about public sentiment and momentum as it is about technical superiority.
For example, for nearly a decade, Microsoft has tried to claw back lost ground in the browser market by highlighting that Edge’s performance matches or even exceeds Chrome’s. It hasn’t made any meaningful difference. According to Statcounter, Chrome accounted for more than 65 percent of the browser market at the end of January, compared to 4.5 percent for Edge. It’s a similar story in search, with Google enjoying a 92.9 percent market share, while lowly Bing sits on 3.03 percent.
Ask the average punter to explain why they use Google’s products instead of Microsoft’s and they’ll probably tell you that Google’s are better. Chances are they won’t be able to explain why in any great detail though. And chances are, they will be fairly dismissive of the Microsoft versions because they are not considered cool, and because ‘nobody else uses Edge and Bing’.
The same thing could quite easily happen with AI. Google has a long pedigree when it comes to cutting edge AI research and development. Back in 2015, its DeepMind AlphaGo AI won plaudits for besting the European champion at the game Go. It followed that up in 2016 by beating the world champion. During that same period of time, Microsoft’s AI demos were making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
However, as far as this week goes, Microsoft is winning the perception battle and building momentum. Google is undoubtedly aware of this, otherwise it wouldn’t have announced Bard when clearly it isn’t quite ready to be used in its search engine.
“Google is in such a blind panic that it is rushing to market with products and events that are half-baked simply to meet a competitive threat that in my opinion does not exist,” said Radio Free Mobile founder Richard Windsor, in a research note on Thursday.
Windsor contends that when it comes to AI, Google is one of the best in the business, and has previously pointed out that Microsoft-backed ChatGPT is far from perfect. And yet the former is being derided, while the latter is receiving adulation.
“For some reason, the technology press has decided that Google’s product is rubbish and Microsoft’s is revolutionary even though they are pretty much the same and I suspect that Google’s will end up being much better,” he said.
But as Microsoft knows all too well, technical prowess alone is insufficient when it comes to restoring lost credibility.


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09:44 | 23/07/2015 Trade
(VEN) - The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will organize the Vietnamese Goods Identifying Week 2015 – Pride of Vietnamese Goods from July to October this year. The event is intended to help consumers easily identify Vietnamese goods while helping businesses receive feedback from shoppers.
The press conference announcing the decision to organize the Vietnamese Goods Identifying Week 2015
The event which will be held simultaneously in three large cities including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City is part of the Domestic Market Development Project and part of the Buy Vietnamese Goods Campaign for the 2014-2020 period approved by the government.
Many market and sales related activities will be implemented during the event, including strengthening promotion of quality Vietnamese products and services that have gained consumer trust and organizing a supply and demand forum in Da Nang.
A trade fair will be held in the last week of the event, where consumers can access goods and services promoted during the event while domestic producers can also directly receive consumer feedback. During the week, all domestically-produced goods will be subsidized, according Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa. “The MoIT will at first focus on goods manufactured by companies that have won Vietnam Value or Strong Brand titles. However, it will later ask related agencies, local authorities and companies to promote other outstanding products during the event,” she added.
According to Director General of the MoIT’s Domestic Market Department Vo Van Quyen, market surveillance forces will strengthen monitoring and inspecting goods to verify that whether they are genuine or not to protect both consumers and companies.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa said, “The Vietnamese Goods Identifying Week 2015 aims to make the Buy Vietnamese Goods Campaign known to 90 percent of domestic consumers and companies this year.”


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Sean Ramsden and his family have been shipping British food abroad since the U.K. joined the European Union more than four decades ago.
For most of that time, delivering to the single market has been simple, at least compared with what Ramsden must do to clear customs from Beijing to Dubai. The paperwork accompanying non-EU orders of classic British items like Malteser chocolate balls and the thousands of other products he distributes can run to over an inch thick. In all, his company needs to know how to complete 49 different kinds of document, according to Bloomberg.
In less than two years, Ramsden may encounter similar bureaucratic demands from the 27 remaining EU states in a post-Brexit landscape.
It all depends on whether Prime Minister Theresa May secures the sweeping free-trade deal with the bloc she aspires to by the March 2019 exit deadline. The EU has been adamant that, after voting to leave last year, Britain won’t simply be able to negotiate an agreement that keeps the status quo. The two sides resumed talks this week with the EU’s chief negotiator expressing mounting frustration at the pace of progress.
“The import tariffs aren’t what impairs trade — it’s the non-tariff barriers, the complexity,” Ramsden, 46, said at his company’s headquarters in the northern port town of Grimsby as workers nearby loaded pallets with Golden Syrup destined for Denmark . “It’s in everyone’s interest for that to be kept sensible.”
Since 1995, the EU has alerted the World Trade Organization to 1,700 such curbs for goods coming from outside the bloc, according to HSBC Holdings Plc economist Douglas Lippoldt. Without a deal, U.K. firms may face export-licensing requirements, pre-shipment inspections, and limits on how many foreign parts a product can contain.
Non-tariff barriers could end up increasing the cost of trading with the EU by roughly 15 percent or more, three times the average rate of duties companies would face under WTO rules, Lippoldt said.
For exporters like Ramsden and his company, Ramsden International, it could get messy. It’s been shipping overseas since the 1970s, when Britain joined the European Economic Community, the precursor to the EU. It currently sends goods to more than 100 countries.
“Within the EU it’s fairly straightforward to ship products from A to B — today, I should say,” Ramsden’s operations director Tony Barker said. “When we get to our international territories overseas, the compliance, documentation, certificates of analysis and certificates of origin — all these different requirements are quite complicated.”
Ramsden packages, labels, and translates product descriptions to comply with a wide array of rules across the globe. Many quintessential British brands, such as Walkers potato chips and Maltesers are now owned by U.S. giants like PepsiCo Inc. and Mars Inc., yet are mostly made in Britain and shipped by distributors like Ramsden.
“The transaction costs will rise, come what may,” said Erik Millstone, a professor of science policy at the University of Sussex. “The paperwork into the EU might become comparable with that to get into China, and Chinese food standards are way below those of the U.K. and Europe.”
Moreover, once outside the EU, the U.K. won’t have a say in the region’s future regulations, meaning it could face further compliance costs down the road or lose access.
May has until March 2019 to secure a deal with EU leaders and speaks of nailing a “deep and special” new relationship based on mutual interest. The government is proposing to keep the U.K. aligned with the tariff-free customs union for some years after the official divorce and then pursue a new way to manage customs focused on avoiding obstacles to trade.
Yet EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has already made clear it’s “not possible” for Britain to enjoy trade with the bloc as easily as it does now. “I have heard some people in the U.K. argue that one can leave the single market and build a customs union to build frictionless trade,” he said.
Back in Grimsby, once among Europe’s largest fishing ports and now more reliant on cargo and serving off-shore wind farms, Ramsden International is confident it can handle any Brexit-related changes. Barker just hopes the government grasps the scale of the challenge.
“One of my concerns is that people who make decisions don’t understand that level of complexity,” he said.


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$18.70 Minimum Wage Hike Disappoints Labour Unions, But Employers Warn of Job Cuts
By Vittorio Hernandez | June 5, 2014 8:44 AM EST
Like the Reserve Bank of Australia's overnight cash rate decisions, the Fair Work Commission's (FWC) announcement on Wednesday hiking the minimum wage by 3 per cent or $18.70 per week was a damn if you do, damn if you don't situation for the federal government.
Demonstrators prepare signs supporting the raising of the federal minimum wage during May Day demonstrations in New York May 1, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Labour unions are not happy at the increase they consider measly, while employers warn the new minimum salary of $640.90 per week by July 1 would lead to job cuts.
Dave Oliver, secretary of ACTU, describe the measly pay hike as "a real blow to low-income earners." He pointed out that "Productivity is up, real labour unit costs are down and the workers' share of the pie is diminishing."
He added that the FWC decision didn't take into account the impact of the budget being proposed by the Coalition government, considered the harshest in Australian history.
"Today's decision is going to compound the gap between average wage earners and the minimum wage. If that gap continues, we will end up with a US-style working poor in this country," Oliver warned.
ACTU sought a $27 per week increase, but the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) wants the $18.70 lowered to only a paltry $8.50 because of the pressure the wage hike would place on struggling businesses, said ACCI Chief Executive Kate Carnell.
She said the mandated wage adjustment would impact on ACCI members' capacity to hire, especially young people and other workers with not-so-high skills set. Carnell warned it would lead to unemployment.
Similar arguments were raised by Australian retailers that the wage increase would stress and damage local store dealing with weak sales and lower consumer confidence.
"The retail industry is more reliant on pay scales than any other industry, and also suffers a highly disproportionate effect in minimum wage increases ... due to deregulated hours and penalties across all retail awards," Australian Retailers Association Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said in a statement.
To contact the editor, e-mail:
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- Marvel Announces Release Dates Of 11 Upcoming Movies From 2015 To 2019
- Xiaomi Becomes World’s Third Largest Smartphone Manufacturer By Dethroning Huawei
- Entry Of Peshmerga Fighters From Iraq Boosts The Kobani Battle Against ISIS: Turkey Provides Transit
- Nokia Lumia 730 v. Sharp Aquos Crystal – Specifications, Features And Price Showdown
- Nexus 6, 9 Buyers on November Release Will Enjoy These 3 Killer Lollipop 5.0 Features First
- Australia Special Forces Await 'Delayed' Iraqi Visas Before Joining ISIS Fight
- Woman Hanged In Iran Talks Abuse In Prison, Left Chilling Message To Family


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Sulphur market improved in 2010, consumption to grow in 2011
Published: Friday, 07 January 2011
Global production grew by 7% to 51.9m. tonnes in last year, surplus expected – IFA
market conditions improved in 2010 as global output of
elemental sulphur rose by 7% to 51.9m. tonnes, the
International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) reported in
its new short-term outlook.
Although demand has shown similar growth ,with a 7%


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There are many series currently in development for Disney+, and one of those is “Star Wars: The Acolyte”, which was originally announced at the Investor Day in 2020.
“The Acolyte” is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era, which is around 50 years before the events of “The Phantom Menace.”
The series is going to star Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto and Lee Jung-jae.
Leslye Headland is going to be the director, writer, exec producer and showrunner for the Disney+ series. She has previously created Netflix’s “Russian Doll”.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Charlie Barnett is going to be reuniting with Leslye Headland on the new Disney+ Star Wars series. Charlie Barnett has previously starred in “Russian Doll”, “Arrow” and “You”.
Disney hasn’t officially confirmed the casting, and no details on what character Charlie will be playing have been revealed.
Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom.


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Start the conversation
The S&P 500 and other major benchmarks soared today on news the European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a massive bond-purchasing program. The U.S. dollar hit an 11-year high against the euro on the news.
Dow: 17,813.98, +259.70, +1.48%
S&P 500: 2,063.15, +31.03, +1.53%
Nasdaq: 4,750.40, +82.98, +1.78%
What Moved the Markets Today: Investors were shocked to hear the ECB's stimulus package will clock in at 60 billion euros a month, up from the 50 billion euros a month many had anticipated. The bank also said it will keep interest rates unchanged. But investors did have reason to remain cautious about the U.S. economy. Jobless claims continue to tick upward. For the third straight week, Americans seeking unemployment benefits exceeded 300,000. A number of corporations like American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP), Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), and Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) have all announced steep layoffs heading into 2015.
Now, check out the other top stories from the stock market today:
- Apple Stock Watch: Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) were up 2.6% this afternoon on news the company's iPhone 6 products continue to surge in popularity in China, Japan, and Korea. Analysts are forecasting the firm will announce shipments of nearly 60 million iPhones during its fourth-quarter earnings call next Tuesday. Apple stock has been steadily rising in anticipation of the earnings call.
- Earnings Blowout: Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) surged more than 8% today on new its profits increased by 71% due to plummeting fuel costs. Meanwhile, Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) was up 4.75% on stronger earnings. The rail giant said an improving U.S. economy has boosted rail traffic and construction of rail track.
- Merger Mania: Shares of Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) jumped nearly 1.2% on news its shareholders have approved a deal to sell the company to rival Dollar Tree Inc. (Nasdaq: DLTR). With 89% of the vote, FDO shareholders chose a more certain deal than the one certain to face regulatory challenges from its other rival, Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG). Shares of Dollar Tree were up 3.6% on the day.
- Activist Approach: Carl Icahn is at it again. Today, the activist investor sent a letter to the CEO of Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) stating his intentions to nominate two new candidates to the firm's board of directors. Icahn, who has a 6.6% stake in the media firm, is pushing for changes in corporate governance and wants the firm to spin off its broadcasting division.
- Oil Prices Today: WTI crude oil prices slipped below $47 per barrel this afternoon on news the U.S. market has hit an 80-year high for supplies. The U.S. inventory report registered a level four times higher than analysts anticipated and renewed concerns about falling prices for a number of U.S. producers. Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) slipped 1.26% on the day. Meanwhile, domestic firms like Goodrich Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: GDP) continue to see their share prices erode as their bonds are trading at "distressed" levels.
Now our experts share some of the most important investment moves to make based on today's market trading - for Money Morning Members only:
- How the Terrorism "Trend" Is Moving Your Money Today: The recent terrorist attack in Paris has spurred the need for a difficult conversation. Here's the thing: The tragic irony in the financial world is that terrorism actually creates far more opportunity than it destroys. Money Morning Chief Financial Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald explains what this means for your money in 2015 and beyond...
- CES 2015: How to Profit from the Hottest Tech Trends: According to the Consumer Electronics Association trade group, Americans will buy 1.43 million UHDTV sets, or roughly 5% of televisions sold nationally, in 2016. That's a 60-fold increase from 2013, when UHDTVs debuted. And of course, there's big profit potential in all those UHDTVs our fellow Americans will be buying. So hit the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show 2015 with Money Morning Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson to start profiting today...
- Why the 'Big Money' Still Believes in Auto Stocks: U.S. auto sales were up big in 2014 and are expected to stay strong in 2015. Oil prices have collapsed and gasoline prices are at their lowest in years, fueling demand for pickup trucks, SUVs, and RVs... Indeed, signs of a boom time for the American auto industry appear aligned, but auto stocks are trading at depressed values compared to the rest of the market. Are auto stocks ripe to buy, or are they simply a value trap? Here's the real answer.
About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.


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When a store like Walmart changes hours for any reason, there is usually some form of public announcement.
After the COVID-19 pandemic affected the store’s operating hours, causing it to close earlier than normal, Council Bluffs Walmart store associates Abbi Andersen and Janna Hightower-Ostdiek decided to make those store closing announcements a little more fun.
Taking to Facebook, the duo — who work at the North 16th Street Walmart location in Council Bluffs — have come up with creative, musical announcements and shared them with the public.
“We wanted to bring a little bit of joy and fun in these strange times,” Hightower-Ostdiek said. “For a minute in the day, we can take (the viewers) mind off the stress and craziness with these soccer moms trying to tackle these popular rap songs.”
So far, they have four videos on social media which have garnered thousands of views. The videos feature parodies of songs like “Ice Ice Baby,” by Vanilla Ice and the theme song from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”
Usually Hightower-Ostdiek makes funny voices for announcements, she said. However, store manager Samantha Schwinderman brought up the idea the associates should rap, and it’s taken off.
“Samantha Schwinderman is 100% our biggest fan and we couldn’t do it without her,” Hightower-Ostdiek said.
The latest video was posted online Friday, and the associates said they will continue to post videos ... as long as they can use rap songs.
“You see people do parodies that are done really well and produced, and that’s not us,” Andersen said. “We’re more of a singing in the shower kind of duo.”
The pair have more songs in mind to parody in the future — each song growing in ambition — to keep entertaining local people during the pandemic. In the meantime, they have created a Facebook group that the public can join called "Closing Announcements and Other Equally Wonderful Stuff."


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While many second-tier Web portals have been struggling to attract ad dollars, Emeryville, Calif.-based Ask Jeeves has bucked the trend and added new advertisers to its roster. On the heels of last week's announcement that brick-and-mortar mainstay Coca-Cola had signed on, Ask Jeeves announced nine more advertisers today: Autoweb, Apartments.com, Intuit, iVillage.com, Marriott, Travelocity.com, JustFlowers.com, Toyota and Hertz. The financial terms for these deals were not disclosed.
The new signings come just as Ask Jeeves announced it would lay off approximately 75 employees, or 15 percent of the total workforce. The company posted a narrower first-quarter loss and said it expected improvement in the second quarter.
Although the majority of the new advertisers are dot-coms, Ask Jeeves vp of targeting and acquisitions Peter Hershberg remained unfazed. "We feel the dot-coms we have advertising with us are very stable companies," he said. "We want to increase our number of traditional advertisers, but not decrease the strong number of dot-coms we have advertising as well."
The new advertisers will have more online real estate to work with than in the past. Last month, Ask Jeeves announced four new ad unit offerings, including branded response, branded animation, DirectLinx and interstitials.
Chicago-based Apartments.com has signed on for the DirectLinx offering, which is a text-based unit that appears on the right side of the Ask.com reply screen. According to Hershberg, it allows advertisers to feature a short headline with a longer description below, and is delivered to users who search for relevant keywords. "It's more of an advertorial," he said.
"We like the way Ask Jeeves has set up its site," said Josh Ehart, interactive marketing manager at Apartments.com. Ehart claimed that while clickthroughs on banners have declined, "ours have gone up." Apartments.com hopes the even more traffic will be generated from the new DirectLinx advertising.


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The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced an upward revision of balance and transaction limits for customers' mobile money wallets, effective 1 March 2024.
According to a statement from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, this adjustment aligns with the growing trends of transactional activities and evolving customer demands.
Under the new limits, daily transaction caps have been raised: from GH¢2,000 to GH¢3,000 for minimum accounts, GH¢10,000 to GH¢15,000 for medium accounts, and GH¢15,000 to GH¢25,000 for enhanced accounts.
Similarly, maximum daily transaction limits have been increased: from GH¢3,000 to GH¢5,000 for minimum accounts, GH¢25,000 to GH¢40,000 for medium accounts, and GH¢50,000 to GH¢75,000 for enhanced accounts.
In terms of monthly transaction limits, minimum accounts will see an increase from GH¢6,000 to GH¢10,000. However, there are no changes for medium and enhanced accounts, which previously had no limits on monthly transaction values.
The statement concluded by advising customers to contact their service providers' customer service centres nationwide for any necessary clarifications.
In 2023, the total value of mobile money transactions in Ghana reached a record level, soaring to GH¢1.912 trillion, as revealed in the January 2024 Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana.
This marked a substantial increase from GH¢1.07 trillion in 2022.
The data disclosed that by the end of the first 10 months of 2023, total Mobile Money transactions had already reached GH¢1.527 trillion.
December 2023 recorded the highest monthly transaction value, reaching GH¢199.3 billion.
Throughout that year, mobile money transactions consistently surged, with all 12 months surpassing GH¢100 billion each. In January 2023, the value stood at GH¢130.1 billion, compared to GH¢76.2 billion in the same period in 2022.
October 2023 set a record with transactions hitting GH¢179.2 billion.
Despite this performance, it remains unclear whether the government is meeting the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) target for 2023, given the current E-Levy rate of 1.0%.


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| Oct 31, 2013
| 10:26 AM
If you've ever wished you could sip a hot cup of McDonald's coffee brewed at home, you'll soon get your chance. McDonald's bagged coffee is to be available at your local grocery store next year.
The fast-food chain plans on selling a variety of packaged...
| Oct 21, 2013
| 1:37 PM
Cash-strapped consumers finally have some good news to toast -- perhaps with a steaming cup o' joe.
The price of coffee beans hit a four-year low on Monday.
Dry weather has improved growing conditions in Brazil, the world’s largest producer...
| Oct 15, 2013
| 11:50 AM
The Walt Disney Co. has recommended that its investors reject an offer from TRC Capital Corp. to purchase shares of the Burbank entertainment company's stock at a price that is below their market value.
Investment firm TRC made the unsolicited mini-...
| Sep 10, 2013
| 6:12 PM
NEW YORK — The stock market's all-star team has some new players.
Leaving the Dow Jones industrial average is aluminum giant Alcoa Inc., computer-maker Hewlett-Packard Co. and financial behemoth Bank of America Corp. Joining the index of 30 blue-...
| May 28, 2013
| 5:00 AM
Television's latest animated superhero sports a purple skirt and cape, pink gloves and white go-go boots.
She is also a he.
Meet SheZow, the star of a cartoon debuting Saturday on the Hub, a kids' cable channel co-owned by cable programming giant...
| Apr 15, 2013
| 10:08 AM
When the Kool-Aid Man next hurtles through some unsuspecting homeowner’s wall, he’ll look snazzier, more up-to-date, more “lifelike,” according to parent company Kraft Foods Group Inc.
Which means that Kool-Aid Man -- a giant,...
| Dec 12, 2012
| 6:41 PM
ESPN's "Octomom" family of networks hopes you enjoy this year's cavalcade of commercials and center snaps as it furiously tries to secure the two games it doesn't broadcast.
Conspicuously missing from the lineup is Ohio State (12-0) vs. Louisiana Tech...
| Nov 27, 2012
| 10:52 AM
Children’s pockets everywhere are safer and parents are breathing a sigh of relief now that Cadbury UK has created a form of chocolate resistant to melting.
The sweets maker, owned by American company Kraft, tested the chocolate against its...
| Nov 9, 2012
Frank Peppiatt, the co-creator of "Hee Haw," a landmark variety show mixing country music with "corny" humor that became one of TV's most unlikely and longest-running hits, has died. He was 85.
Peppiatt died Wednesday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., of...
| Nov 6, 2012
| 5:55 PM
Ballot measure campaigns attract all sorts. The most colorful group in this year’s election, though, might just be the crusaders for Proposition 37, which would require labels on genetically modified foods. They are fighting some of the biggest food...
| Oct 15, 2012
The 49ers couldn't lose. The Browns couldn't win. The Vikings were the sleepers. The Jets were the snorers.
In the ever-changing NFL, though, that was . . . so last week.
Everything was turned on its head Sunday — or knocked on its backside, as...


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Heated with the entry of new automakers, the electric car market should have a new model launched in the coming years. Thanks to the cooperation of the multinationals Sony and Honda in the development of a sustainable vehicle powered by electric energy instead of combustion or hybrid format.
While no company has made any major revelations about the project, data from the Sony Honda Mobility deal suggests that pre-sales for the electric car will only begin in the first half of 2025 and official sales at the end of that same year, meaning there is still a long way to go.
According to information, the joint venture between Sony and Honda aims to become a “Mobility Tech Company” by making a vast portfolio of products available to customers by mainly focusing on online sales format rather than physical store adoption, enabling the purchase of extra services to be used in the car.
Apparently, Sony will be responsible for supplying and developing the components that make up the level 3 driver assistance mechanism, while the Japanese manufacturer will be responsible for making the car’s chassis and battery.
For now, there are no details on the vehicle’s specifications, as the launch is still far from happening.


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Each week the Farmers Market, the only one in the Knoxville area on a Wednesday evening, offers fresh produce, local food, cooking demonstrations, creations from the UT Culinary Institute, entertainment, children’s events, educational information, and more.
Mary Rogers, a research associate with the department of plant sciences, works with the UT Harvest Market, selling local and certified organic produce. The Harvest Market, originally composed of five interns and a few tables, started a year ago and has expanded into the Farmers Market, which includes Knoxville-area vendors.
“The students can grow the produce and come to the market and interact with customers,” Rogers said. “They get the experience of learning how to grow their own food and then also marketing it.”
“I think local food is important for a variety of reasons. You’re supporting your local economy and growers in your community,” Rogers said. “Also the food is fresher and oftentimes tastes better. And the market environment is fun because it supports community.”
The market does not limit itself to selling produce.
The “Insect Zoo,” a small collection of bugs, such as cockroaches, scorpions, and tarantulas, doesn’t have anything for sale, but tries to excite people about the world around them. Operated by Jerome Grant and Greg Wiggins, the “zoo” aims to educate market-goers about the advantages and disadvantages of insects for gardens.
“We want to help people appreciate bugs,” Grant said. “If you’re growing vegetables, chances are, you’re probably going to run into some insects and we want to help gardeners understand them a little better.”
Among the items available at the Farmers Market are squash, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, onions, potatoes, herbs, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, cookies, and bread.
The market is hosted by the UT Institute of Agriculture’s Organic and Sustainable Crops Unit and takes place from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. each Wednesday through October at the UT Gardens on Neyland Drive.
C O N T A C T :
Emma McMillan (865-974-2225, firstname.lastname@example.org)
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, email@example.com)


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After hiring staff in India, OnePlus are now ready to start selling their flagship phone in the super hot market.
OnePlus have confirmed that they are building a marketing team specifically for the Indian market! This will be a first for the phone company who currently run all of their international marketing from Shenzhen, China.
The team responsible for India will be working closely with E-commerce sites to sell the OnePlus One, which will be available via pre-order rather than invite. Director of OnePlus, Carl Pei had this to say while speaking to the Economic Times:
“India is a super hot market with rapid data growth and this is the right time to enter the market. We are talking to all three leading e-commerce players in India to start our operations. We hope to finalize our partner this week”.
Gizchina News of the week
When asked about the possibility of a Windows phone, Pei commented that they had been approached by Microsoft and it was something that they might be interested in:
“We have had discussions with Microsoft over a Windows Phone smartphone. We are still looking into it,”
So OnePlus One could be entering India officially before the year is out, and the OnePlus 2 might be shadowed by a Windows mobile device. What do you guys’t think of that?


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AccuWeather meteorologists are tracking a slow-moving storm that is likely to put a damper on Memorial Day weekend in parts of the Midwest and Northeast. The storm will not only keep conditions cool for the unofficial start of summer but could also trigger travel-disrupting rainfall over the holiday weekend. AccuWeather's Bernie Rayno (@AccuRayno on Twitter) has all the details on today's "Weather Insider" podcast!
Download the new AccuWeather app today, available now in the App Store on iOS and in the Google Play Store - https://accuweather.onelink.me/dZpv/49183895
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


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A new Zenith update 1.10 is now rolling out on PS4 and PC. According to the official Zenith patch notes, the latest hotfix brings some minor fixes to the game. Apart from this, the Zenith patch 1.10 also includes performance fixes.
Previously, an update was released that addressed issues related to Arboruht Worldboss Telegraph, crashes, and more.
Unfortunately, since the last patch, players are facing a number of issues with the game. Today’s Zenith version 1.10 will address a few of these issues.
Check out more details below.
Zenith Patch 1.10 Notes – Official
- Addressed account creation issues.
- Fixed Amara’s Tears not showing up in Turtletop.
- Fix for players getting stuck in the air in Galian Plains upon login.
- Fixed players getting stuck on the loading screen when trying to log in.
Download free Zenith update 1.10 on PS4 and PC.
#Zenith #Update #Patch #Notes


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Daylight savings is upon us once again, ensuring my kids are extra tired and I’m extra tired for another week or so. I do like the extra light in the evening though, because it increases the odds that I won’t need my headlamp for cooking.
There have been a surprising number of vertical pellet smokers this year, and Camp Chef just released what could be the best of the bunch. It uses their Smoke Box technology from the Woodwind Pro to give much better smoke flavor than you can get from pellets alone. It’s not officially for sale on their website yet, but I’m hearing it likely will be within the next couple of weeks with a price of $899.
Another new product on the market is Gozney released the Mantel earlier this month for their pizza ovens. It’s a little shelf that attaches to the front of the oven to give extra prep space. It’s a cool idea, especially for the Dome.
With the new Traegers on the market, Ace Hardware is looking to move their Gen 1 Timberlines. It’s still a solid pellet grill, and Ace is discounting it by $700. With the price creep on new Traegers, that’s a great price.
Over at Lowe’s they’re looking for new products by holding a pitch event for new suppliers. It’s the second year they’ve done this, and is a great opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs to get their products on store shelves.
Solo Brands released earnings this week, and turned in a good quarter. What’s interesting is their revenue growth came from wholesale partnerships, rather than direct-to-consumer sales. They also talked about despite inflation, they’re able to hold pricing while preserving margins.
American Outdoor Brands also released earnings this week, but theirs were pretty rough. Beyond their results, we’re still waiting for new Grilla Grills products that should have come out by now. They did note however that sales on the brand increased organically since the same quarter last year.
Finally, over at Vista Outdoor they saw some more attrition. They recently lost their CFO, CEO, and General Counsel for a variety of reasons. Now, the Vice Chairman of their Board announced his retirement.


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On Your Side: Dog Food Recalls
Many of us treat our pets like members of the family and that includes feeding them the very best. But how do you know the food is safe?
FOX8’s On Your Side Consumer Reporter, Melissa Painter explains what to watch out for.
For more information visit: http://diamondpetrecall.com/


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General Motors fires 2,700 in Venezuela after plant closure: workers
By Corina Pons
CARACAS (Reuters) - General Motors' (GM.N: Quote) Venezuelan subsidiary has sent a message to almost 2,700 staff informing them that they are no longer employed by the company and had received severance pay in their bank accounts, according to two employees.
A Venezuelan court last week ordered the seizure of the company's Valencia plant, ruling in favor of two dealers that had filed a case in 2000 against the subsidiary on grounds they had not complied with an agreed sale of 10,000 vehicles.
Workers say that before the seizure was announced, GM had been dismantling the plant, which has not produced a car since the beginning of 2016 because of shortages of parts and strict currency controls in the OPEC nation.
The seizure, which GM called "illegal," comes amid a deepening economic and social crisis in leftist-led Venezuela that has already roiled many U.S. companies.
"We all received a payment and a text message," said a worker who had worked for the company for more than a decade, adding that his corporate email account had been deactivated over the weekend.
"Our former bosses told us the executives left and we were all fired. There is no longer anyone in the country," added another employee who received the same message on his personal cell phone and a payment to his account. He had been at GM for five years.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the layoffs or the worker allegations it had already been dismantling the plant.
GM said last week that it was halting operations and laying off workers due to the "illegal judicial seizure of its assets." Continued...


text: Levitt exclusive craft beers coming to Summer 2020 season January 13, 2020 Tags:news Related Posts Pee-wee Herman takes his first-ever holiday – PEE-WEE'S BIG HOLIDAY Trailer – Netflix [HD] HOTEL !! DESCOBRI O NOVO FINAL SECRETO!! (SECRET ENDING) Learn Korean Holidays – Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving Day About The Author William Frantz Add a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.