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SHAZAM invests in payment authentication company
SHAZAM, Inc., has made a strategic investment in Adaptive Payments, Inc., a payment authentication company. SHAZAM, the Johnston, Iowa-based electronic funds transfer network, chose to invest in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company after partnering with Adaptive Payments for Internet PIN debit processing and gateway services.
“We made an investment in Adaptive Payments because we believe in the company and the technology they are implementing,” said Michael Hollinger, SHAZAM president and CEO . . .


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SEC vs Ripple drawing to a close? Both parties want an immediate ruling
The SEC vs Ripple case heads to a conclusion!
In December 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple Labs on allegations that it raised more than $1.3 billion by selling XRP in unregistered securities transactions.
Following the debacle, now Ripple Labs and the SEC have both requested that a federal court judge rule on whether Ripple's XRP sales violated US securities laws.
Both parties want a decision on whether Ripple violated federal securities laws or for the case to be dismissed entirely.
Both the SEC and Ripple have asked District Judge Analisa Torres to rule on the assertions made in the accompanying documents.
Ripple has claimed that the SEC has run out of answers to prove that XRP sales constituted an "investment contract," whereas the SEC has maintained its position.
The SEC claims that various statements by Ripple executives show that Ripple sold XRP and that XRP investors bought the cryptocurrency with the expectation that their holdings would increase in value over time.
According to Ripple, many XRP holders who purchased tokens through exchanges would have had no idea who they were buying them from.
"When asked in discovery, the SEC refused to identify a contractual basis for a single offer and sale of XRP. Thus, because the Securities Act's definition of an 'investment contract' requires an underlying contract, the SEC has no case to take to trial," Ripple wrote in its motion.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, in his Tweet, said SEC "want to remake it all in an impermissible effort to expand their jurisdiction."
This lawsuit is very critical for the crypto world. If SEC wins the case, XRP will be classified as a security rather than a currency in the U. S. A decision, in this case would set an important benchmark in deciding which cryptocurrencies can be classified as securities.
PGA Tour Golf NFTs Coming to Autograph Platform
The PGA Tour is the most illustrious sports organisation to enter the NFT market. It has announced a long-term agreement with NFT startup Autograph, co-founded by NFL legend Tom Brady, to produce legally sanctioned digital golf collectibles.
The new NFTs will showcase some of the most well-known professional golfers in the world as well as memorable moments from the PGA Tour, which was founded in 1968. Additionally, NFT owners can receive benefits from the programme, such as "access to exclusive online, physical, and onsite experiences."
A "season ticket" pass for Tom Brady, which grants entry to a private fan club with benefits including events and access to only those items, was recently released by Autograph through its website.
Fortnite Developer Epic Games’ Marketplace Lists First NFT Game
Mythical Games' Blankos Block Party is the first Web3 game powered by NFTs to be launched on the Epic Games marketplace. A little over a year ago, Mythical Games raised $150 million in a Series C investment round at a $1.25 billion valuation.
The digital vinyl toys known as Blankos can be purchased, improved, and traded inside the game. Third Kind Games and Mythical Games collaborated on the game's development.The Epic Games Store has adopted a different strategy for Web3 gaming, claiming to have more than 194 million users overall by the end of 2021.
Since its release, the game has enlisted a number of corporate and artist partners for limited-edition releases, including Deadmau5, Burberry, and Atari.
“Epic Games Store will welcome games that make use of blockchain tech provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group,”

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(STUDY FINDS) -- NEW YORK — Everyone has a go-to coping mechanism, and according to a new survey of 2,000 Americans, many are relying on impulse purchases to make it through this pandemic. In January 2020, the average U.S. citizen was spending $155.03 per month on impulse shopping. By the end of April, though, that average had increased by 18% to $182.98.
The research, commissioned by Slickdeals, also discovered that the average American has treated themselves to a $156.53 purchase since the pandemic started. Another 27% of respondents said they’ve spent over $200 on a single item since COVID-19 appeared.
If you’re wondering why so many people are spending money at a time like this, the answer is stress relief. Almost three in four (72%) respondents said that their coronavirus impulse buys have helped them feel better. Many (65%) even indicated that the right purchase can turn a bad day into a success.
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Woman charged with retail theft
MANSFIELD – Alexis K. Hackett, 26, of 80 Capitol Drive, Nelson, was charged by state police with retail theft after she allegedly took three Lego toys from the Wal-Mart store, Richmond Township Nov. 12.
According to documents filed at District Judge James Carlson’s office, Hackett put the toys, valued at $160 plus $10 sales tax, by putting them into a shopping cart and leaving the store, then coming back in after turning around in the vestibule and walking to the customer service desk, where she returned them in exchange for a gift card of $170.
She then allegedly used the card to buy two cell phones and left the store.
She was issued a summons to appear at a Jan. 22 preliminary hearing.


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Google Glass comes to the Boston Center for the Arts (Video)
Google offered Bostonians an opportunity to try out Google Glass this past weekend as part of a sales and marketing push for the technology.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) describes its Glass technology as a "sleek and lightweight hands-free computer device encased in a titanium eyeglass frame."
Bostonians tried Glass firsthand on Saturday, July 26 at Boston Center for the Arts' Cyclorama building at 539 Tremont St. in Boston.
The informational exhibit featured a history of Google Glass, a photobooth, and areas where people could try out different Google Glass apps.
Google has been slowly expanding the Google Glass Explorer program since last fall, and a spokesman said the company will continue to do so until their consumer launch at a date to be determined.
Glass is available for purchase through google.com/glass and ranges in price between $1,500 to $1,800 depending on the style.
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N Brown sizes it up right at £58m
WOMEN aged 40 and over and size 16 or above are the new growth market in the youth-dominated fashion world, according to home shopping group N Brown.
'Rather than using size 10 models, we have been using older women of the same size as the target market, and it has gone down very well with customers. Sales of our Simply Be catalogue doubled to £15m last year,' chief executive Jim Martin said.
Martin, one of the retail world's longest-serving chief executives, will hand over later this year to Alan White, a former finance director of N Brown poached back from rival Littlewoods. Martin will become deputy chairman.
He bowed out on a high note today, with news of a 12.4% increase in profits to £58.5m for the year to 2 March, on turnover 14.2% higher at £449m. Earnings per share rose 12.4% to 14.5p and the dividend total is up 10.6% to 5.75p. Turnover in the first 10 weeks of the current financial year is ahead by 6%.
Martin said the group had again increased its share of the £10bn-a-year home shopping market and would continue to target specific groups of customers with specialist direct catalogues.
As well as the larger-sized, older market, the group is also aiming at 'younger' customers, which it defines as those in the 30 to 45 age bracket. It has also increased its ranges of household and electrical appliances, which now account for about 31% of home shopping sales, up from 24% two years ago.
Martin believes the trend away from traditional 'big book' catalogues towards smaller, more-specialist ones will continue.
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The Bank of England has unveiled the design for the new plastic £5 note.
The new banknote will be smaller than the current one and be printed on a thin plastic.
For more than 100 years, English banknotes have been made from cotton paper.
What is polymer?
Polymer banknotes are made from a very thin, flexible, see-through plastic film, with the design printed on special layers of ink on the front and back.
Because the main material is see-through, the design can include clear spots that are like little windows you can look straight through.
More than 20 countries around the world already use polymer banknotes - they include Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Why is polymer better than paper?
The Bank of England says that polymer banknotes will be better than paper, because they will be:
Cleaner: Shiny plastic doesn't get wet and dirty like paper.
More secure: Features like the see-through windows are difficult to copy, so it's harder for criminals to make fake notes.
Longer lasting: Plastic won't tear as easily as paper, so the notes should last longer.
They're even expected to survive if they accidentally go in the washing machine, although they'd melt under extreme heat.
When will the new note be in use?
The new £5 note will be going into circulation in September this year.
And it's not just the £5 that's going plastic - polymer £10 notes are planned for 2017, and polymer £20 notes should be available by 2020.


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Investigators are still looking for the two men suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of watches from a store in the Diamond District earlier this week, in a heist so spectacular you can't help but think they may actually deserve the loot. We don't often get a good heist! Now, though, the NYPD's floating around a few ideas as to how these two men managed to pull off the burglary, with prevailing theories including that the thugs were sent to the shop by a rival jeweler, and that it may have been an inside job.
According to the Post, a Russian jeweler rival of the robbed Watch Standard Jewelry store at 23 West 47th Street has admitted to sending the two suspects over to intimidate the competition, though not to steal the goods. "They wanted to show they had muscle," a law enforcement source told the tabloid. "They have a beef over money and jewelry, and the Russian [whom the victim and his partners] are beefing with sends these two guys over there to scare them."
Then again, cops were reportedly turned onto this rival heist theory by Watch Standard Jewelry owner Danny Mikhaylov, who apparently has a lengthy arrest record and history of claiming to be a victim of heists. Police aren't ruling out that this was an inside job, noting that the heist occurred in daylight in a heavily secured area, and that the watch store was located on the eighth floor of the building. "The store was not on the ground floor, so there has to be some reason why they went there,” one police source told the Daily News. “Someone knew the fact they had stuff there.” CBS 2 reports that one shop employee even had a criminal record, and was suffering from financial woes.
Meanwhile, cops say that Mikhaylov's initial estimate that the thieves took $2 million worth of jewelry and watches was incorrect—in reality, the burglars made off with $500,000 in watches and about $6K in cash. And authorities have unearthed surveillance footage showing the suspects both before and after allegedly committing the crime—one suspect is in a suit, wearing a Kangol cap, while the other is wearing a red baseball cap:


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By Jim Karpen updated on 01/16/2013
Apple's stock is down again today, falling below 500, and it's dragging the whole stock market down with it. Much of the decline can be attributed to the Wall Street Journal's report citing unnamed sources that demand for the iPhone 5 is weak. Yet analysts are saying, after checking with their sources in the supply chain, that demand continues to be robust. We'll likely find out the real truth next week when Apple reports their December quarter results and tells what they expect for the March quarter. In the meantime, it doesn't help sales that bloggers like me keep passing along rumors of the Next iPhone. According to AppleInsider, Apple is currently testing two prototypes of future iPhones and will begin preliminary builds of the iPhone 5S in March, suggesting that it will come to market in a June/July time frame. No doubt some people thinking of upgrading to the iPhone 5 will now, on the basis of these rumors, consider waiting until the Next Model.
In addition, the market analyst who's the source for AppleInsider's information is also predicting that the iPhone 6 will have a 4.8-inch screen.
Meanwhile, rumors of a low-cost, entry-level iPhone continue. DigiTimes, which gets its info from sources in Apple's supply chain, and has a spotty record for accuracy, is saying that a low-cost iPhone is in the works and that it may have a plastic chassis. The site also notes there are rumors of a chassis that's both plastic and metal — and that it would even have a see-through design that would reveal the internal metal parts (which AppleInsider says is unlikely). The site says that the device could show up in the second half of this year.
I have to admit that it was so unusual that Apple responded to last week's rumors of a low-cost iPhone, since Apple has always ignored rumors in the past, that you wonder if maybe there's something to it.
All the while Apple's stock inexplicably goes down. The Wall Street Journal based its assertion regarding weak demand on a statement by the maker of displays for the iPhone 5, who reported that Apple had halved the number they originally ordered for the March quarter. But many have pointed out that there could be other reasons for this. One would be that now that the manufacturer has gotten better at making these technically difficult displays, there are fewer defective units, meaning that yield rates have improved. This would naturally lead Apple to reduce their order. Another reason would be that Apple is adding another supplier of the displays and is, therefore, reducing its order with the original supplier. Apple is increasingly diversifying production in this manner, in part to not be so reliant on individual companies.
Another reason would be that a new model will be appearing earlier than expected — which would be the May-July period that some sources are suggesting. Naturally Apple would have to gradually begin to reduce production of the current model. You can read more on Seeking Alpha.
And finally, BGR says the math of the Wall Street Journal report just doesn't add up.
I predict that the WSJ got it wrong, that Apple will report a spectular quarter, and that their guidance for the March quarter will also be encouraging to investors.


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Here you will find the latest news and most recent developments on the Twitch, with regular updates and all the information you need.
Samsung finally announced a consumer version of its virtual reality headset yesterday, bringing the experience to the public at an affordable $99 price tag. Now that the Gear VR will be widely available, demand for good content will also increase, and Samsung has armed it with a couple of important weapons. The company announced that […]


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NEW YORK -- One of the creators of the California raisins and M&Ms animated characters has established a new company, Character, to continue to help clients create memorable advertising icons, the company said.
David Altschul, who led the Vinton Studios production house for 20 years, opened the company recently in Portland, Ore. The idea came out of the Will Vinton Studios as The Character Development Lab, he said.
In a statement, Altschul said, "I kept seeing that many of the difficulties advertisers were facing in creating strong relationships with consumers could be
helped by a deeper understanding of how stories work and how characters work."
Character is also working on ongoing project with Pepsi-Cola North America on a new character set to debut this fall.
Jim Hardison is the creative director of Character, and Brian Lanahan is director of strategy.


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Over the past 20 years, the banking industry has witnessed a dramatic shift. It’s time to say goodbye to long lines at the bank, complicated procedures, and physical transactions. Our financial system has made a seamless transition to the digital age. When it comes to banking, new methods like RTGS and NEFT have evolved, as well as ECS and EFT. NET BANKING has taken the place of bank passbooks. E-cheques have replaced the physical checkbooks. Our ability to make use of new technology is accompanied by an increase in fraudsters’ ability to take advantage of us and our hard-earned money.
Nearly daily, ATM clonings, phishing or fraudulently encouraging clients to give their own information and then stealing money from the account are occurring. These scams still focus on the individual and have little impact on the economy as a whole. As white ants and tumours consume our economic institutions, we need to pay more attention to the systematic and coordinated scams perpetrated in the business sector with the active connivance of bank officials.
Due to AI’s rapid rise in popularity, we must be prepared to deal with the threat of system hacking, otherwise, the banking sector might go down the same path as Nokia. Nokia used to be among the most prestigious brands in the mobile phone industry, but they were slow to adapt to the rapid changes in the electronics industry and were soon overtaken by APPLE, Samsung, and a slew of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, all of whom had far more advanced systems and user-friendly interfaces. Every indication leads to an increase in online banking fraud in the future years. Banks must deal with the rising threat proactively rather than merely as another revenue loss item on their books because it has already become such an endemic concern.
Hacker gangs and multinational criminal organisations are no longer the only ones responsible for attacks on internet banking. Nowadays, we don’t run into the brilliant ’80s hackers, the computer geniuses who wreaked havoc on the world’s largest financial institutions. To carry out assaults, bad actors may now use a wide range of tools and data breaches available on the dark web, from state-sponsored groups to well-funded cybercrime syndicates. Illegal activity committed online has a far lower chance of being detected and prosecuted than traditional forms of criminal activity. Online banking fraud is viewed as a way of life by those who have no criminal ties or expertise in the world of crime. Additionally, many of today’s new breed of cybercriminals do not view their actions as anything more than an extension of their favourite video game.
Furthermore, the internet world has created a clear area for crime to be perpetrated with minimal constraints, a location just outside justice’s grasp, where interior problems like morality and honesty have either muddled or vanished entirely. Indeed, the growth and business volume of internet banking have exploded in the last several years. Because of the increased activity, it is only logical that criminal activity would increase as well. But is this all there is to it? We need to learn more about the psychology of fraudsters if we’re going to get to the bottom of this problem and stop it from happening in the first place.
This is what pushes someone to commit online fraud, whether it’s from within or without. A person who decides to steal at some time in their life isn’t a criminal by nature; rather, they are a person who, for whatever reason, has made the choice to steal. In other cases, this pressure stems from an internal desire to retaliate, a desire to acquire what they consider their own, or a desire to respond in some way to a sense of injustice.
In order to avoid seeing themselves as swindlers, the individual who conducts the fraud goes through an internal mental process of justifying their actions. People driven to perpetrate fraud will always exist. It is impossible to eliminate the human nature that makes someone decide to commit a crime; to cross the line into illegality, for that matter. This does not imply that this triangular component cannot be altered. It’s impossible that this is the case at all. There are several ways to alter or alter human motivation.
It is possible to perpetrate fraud because of this feature. Online banking fraud is made feasible by a breach in security, a flaw in the system, or an unlocked door. Hackers can take advantage of issues in user identity verification or the systems in place to ensure it. To put it another way, there will always be people motivated to perpetrate fraud, and while we can influence some of them, we cannot influence all of them. People that are highly driven appear to be lured to online banking fraud as a means of achieving their objectives.


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Deborah Barrow, president of the consumer magazines group at Primedia Inc., was quietly let go on Tuesday, according to a company source. Ms. Barrow oversaw the company's large circulation magazines, including Seventeen, Modern Bride and New York.
Hired in October 2000, she replaced David Tanzer, who was ousted in a restructuring. The source says there has been no replacement named for Ms. Barrow, a former Meredith Corp. vice president and publishing director.
Like other publishers reeling from a dreadful advertising market, Primedia is tightening its belt.


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Wikipad, Inc. makers of the Wikipad 7 Android gaming tablet has just announced the creation of a next-gen detachable game controller that will give mobile gamers a new console like experience while playing on their Android devices. It is called Gamevice and it will be a slim portable controller that will connect or fit into just about any Android device.
Gamevice has received a utility and design global patent which uses its flex bridge design to expand or collapse accordingly to fit Android devices. With this unique capability, Gamevice will transform your everyday Android smartphone or tablet into a video game console. It will feature dual analog sticks, both L1/R1 and L2/R2 analog buttons, an analog D-pad, and four analog action buttons; basically all the buttons that video gamers are familiar with, on board this controller.
There is still no word on pricing or availability, but if you happen to be heading to CES 2014, be sure to stop by Wikipad’s booth and check out the demo.
And if you happen to have a Windows 8 device, you’ll be happy to know that Wikipad is working on a version for Windows 8 as well. Support for other OS’s are also in the offing.


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Woman’s optical illusion beanie baffles TikTok
A TikTok user has gone viral after posting about her baffling “optical illusion” beanie. Which colour do you think it is?
A woman caused serious confusion when she showed off her new hat thanks to a baffling optical illusion,
Environment designer and TikTok user Otelia Carmen shared a video of her new hat and immediately went viral for the bizarre, apparently colour-changing item, The Sun reports.
She said: “So, I bought this green hat at the store today and I brought it home and when I took it out, I was like: ‘Why is this brown?’
“Then realised: metamerism. This is why lighting is so important in interior design.”
Metamerism is the colour change seen in a coloured item because of different spectral emissions from different light sources.
Basically, each light source has its own “colour”, so when it’s projected onto a coloured surface, it impacts the colour of that surface.
In this case, we can see that in the shop lighting, Otelia’s hat was green but the lighting in her house makes it look brown.
Even within her own home, the hat changed colours from red-brown in the dining room to green in the bedroom.
She decided to take the hat out into the light of day to see once and for all what colour it really was.
In one of the clips, posted on TikTok, she showed that the hat was, in fact, brown.
The two videos racked up six million views in total and commenters were stunned.
“So … it’s green, brown, red”, wrote one confused viewer, while a second said: “My mind is blown.”
“Here we go again with the ‘is it gold and white or black and blue’ dress”, wrote one viewer, referring to the fabric colour debate that took the world by storm in 2017.
More CoverageBizarre LeBron image sparks wild theories‘Absolute shocker’: Optical illusion stuns fans
Another added: “My brain can’t comprehend what’s happening here.”
This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission


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Consumer demands for personalization and relevance are facing an Amazon-like shift in foodservice. Guests today now expect the same tailored experience and frictionless ordering in their digital food experiences as they do with ecommerce.
Georgia Price, director of digital and CRM at healthy and wellness company Pressed, viewed the shift as an opportunity. Could the brand become more connected with users? Could it attract new ones?
In the past year, Pressed boosted engagement and open rates, and worked 1:1 on levels that promise even further growth.
Price chatted with QSR about the journey, and why although the pandemic might have expedited this trend, it’s been a focus of omnichannel companies for years.
Let’s start with how the pandemic changed channels of communication with consumers. How did Pressed use digital and CRM to engage and build relationships during a time when the face-to-face part of the equation became far less common?
The pandemic shifted everything online, from how brands communicate promotions to how customers order and engage with menu options. Pressed was uniquely set-up to manage the pandemic's swing toward digital ordering. As an established omnichannel brand, Pressed already offered customers online pickup and delivery options, as well as nationwide shipping. This left us with a strong foundation with which to build our customer base, but we also wanted to further engage the customers we already had. To do this we’ve focused on personalizing communication channels based on the customer's preferred fulfillment method and building out robust multi-channel post-purchase lifecycle journeys to capitalize on increased comfort with digital communication from brick-and-mortar brands. Customer-centric tools like Braze for Commerce, a new solution from customer engagement technology vendor Braze, allow restaurants to view each customer as a true individual, with unique preferences from flavors to communication channels. Since onboarding with Braze, we’ve seen a 10 percent increase in engagement and an almost 40 percent increase in open rates year-over-year.
How did you collect guest feedback during this time?
We sent net promoter score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys for all orders on Pressed.com.
What are consumers looking for in their digital experience with restaurants these days? How has that changed over the past two-plus years?
The acceleration of hybrid shopping behaviors and heightened customer expectations means that consumers now expect personalization and are comfortable with retargeting. There is an expectation that previous purchase history or explicit preferences will be considered when opting-in to marketing communications. Consumers are becoming more open to sharing their information and preferences to help develop their digital experiences because there's more communication and transparency from restaurant brands around how they will use this to further personalize and increase that experience. Consumers want a 1:1 experience with a brand, so that they can make decisions quickly and efficiently. And they expect this type of communication across all channels, without a break in the level of personalization or a gap in the brand’s knowledge of their preferences.
While the pandemic expedited this trend, it has been a focus for omnichannel companies for years prior. Over the past two-plus years, the industry has seen an increase in investments in customer engagement and omnichannel marketing technology.
In some ways, are restaurants more equipped now to offer the personalization guests want?
Absolutely. We can use your purchase history to recommend new products, offer a unique promotion, or nudge you to visit a nearby location. And the higher emphasis on e-commerce and digital transformation brought on by the pandemic means increased investments in machine learning/AI. This can help to better understand customers and predict what they would be most interested in. The shift online forced the industry to re-evaluate how to market to customers and put the individual at the forefront of these new initiatives.
What kind of perks within digital communications are customers really asking for at this juncture?
Loyalty programs that reward both new customers and repeat purchases. Increasing inflation rates means that consumers may be ditching their historical brand loyalties in favor of cheaper prices. To stay loyal to a brand, consumers are looking for compelling loyalty programs, and companies are rising to the challenge. In a recent survey of 500 restaurants, merchant services company Square found that 42 percent of restaurants planned to invest in customer loyalty programs.
Additionally, digital communications can offer real-time updates, such as when a new seasonal menu item drops. No-touch delivery also became more widespread during the pandemic, resulting in an expectation from consumers that a brand’s digital communications can provide updates on food delivery status and payment without having to come in contact with a driver.
Where do you think this one-to-one relationship goes from here for restaurants? Is it rewards and loyalty? The metaverse? Something we're not talking about?
Restaurants need to continue to expand their ordering options, increasing their ability to make products and brands more accessible. We can understand what you want, and the next phase is understanding how we get you what you want. We can expand on existing loyalty programs to engage customers in new ways—think experiences and community-building—while offering unique brand relationships.
The metaverse can be a new way to build an online community of consumers in an engaging way, and certainly many in the food industry are diving in. It is important I think to remember that brand loyalty will stem from truly listening and understanding your customer, whether that’s in the metaverse or in their inbox.


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Horseware Ireland New Global Headquarters
1 minute read - 4 April 2023
Horseware Ireland launches their AW23 Collection
Our latest launch campaign is a continuation of our hugely successful brand campaign ‘Through It All’ and it doesn’t disappoint. Ever emotive and real, the campaign celebrates what it means to be an equestrian through the words of Laura and a group of passionate female equestrians from around the world.
7 September 2023
The Business Post on Horseware Ireland
Horseware Ireland CEO, Mark Saunders, recently had the opportunity to speak with Lorcan Allen from the Business Post on Horseware Ireland and on the company's growth plans.
16 September 2022
Horseware Ireland wins International Marketing accolade
Horseware Ireland has won the International Marketing Award at the All-Ireland Marketing Awards for the brand’s inspirational campaign “Through It All’, which has captured the hearts of millions of horse lovers worldwide.
23 May 2022


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OLD BRIDGE — Dozens of workers have descended on the Pathmark in Old Bridge to clean the large supermarket and restock its shelves in hopes of reopening for business soon. An Old Bridge police officer said he thinks the store might reopen Friday.
The store was the scene of a murder-suicide nearly a week ago which left three Pathmark employees dead.
A large poster honoring Cristina LoBrutto and Bryan Breen now covers the window Terence Tyler broke before killing LoBrutto and Breen and turning a gun on himself.
Until recently, the store's parking lot had been cordoned off as part of a crime scene.
A memorial for LoBrutto and Breen at the entrance to the store's parking lot has also grown to include dozens of candles, notes and flower bouquets.


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A quarter of the way through 2013, Volkswagen is moving closer to its near-term goal of selling 10 million vehicles annually.
The German company, which finished last year as the third largest automaker in the world, is in position to overtake General Motors in global sales this year—and should close the gap with Toyota for the title of number one in the world.
Still, VW Board Member Christian Klingler sounded a cautious tone about weakness in European auto markets. "The data for March clearly show that the markets are becoming even more difficult," said Klingler.
Strong in China and U.S.
Volkswagen sold 2.27 million vehicles in the first quarter, an increase of 5.9 percent. The twin engines behind the growth were China and North America. In China, VW sales jumped 21.3 percent with the company on track to sell more than 3 million vehicles this year in the world's largest auto market.
Meanwhile, VW sales in North America increased 14.9 percent. Sales in both regions were helped by Volkswagen's acquisition of Porsche last year. The luxury sports car company has been enjoying record sales in the U.S. and China.
Still, the strength of the U.S. and China markets is tempered by Volkswagen struggling in Europe. In the first quarter, VW sales fell 5.9 percent for all of Europe and were down 7.2 percent in the company's home market of Germany. One bright spot amid the overall weakness in Europe was the fact VW posted a slight gain in Russia.
Volkswagen is not the only automaker struggling in Europe. European sales for the industry are at their lowest point since the mid '90's due to the ongoing recession in much of the continent.
Climbing to Number Two in 2013
If Volkswagen can maintain sales growth of 5 percent for the remainder of the year, it will likely finish the year with annual sales of just over 9.5 million vehicles.
2012 Global Sales:
- Toyota: 9.75 Million
- General Motors: 9.29 Million
- Volkswagen: 9.07 Million
Depending on what happens with General Motors, that could move the company into second place for global sales.
(Read More: GM to Invest $5.2 Billion in Germany's Opel)
Toyota has set a target of selling 9.91 million vehicles worldwide in 2013.
Executives with the Japanese automaker have repeatedly said their goal is to increase sales at a more measured rate to ensure the company does not repeat quality mistakes they made in the past when the company grew too fast.
—By CNBC's Phil LeBeau; Follow him on Twitter @LeBeauCarNews
Questions? Comments? BehindTheWheel@cnbc.com
Click on company to track corporate news:


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Back in 2018 Marriott announced a massive data breach. They were very careful to lay the blame on Starwood, though they had already fully merged with them at that point. They even revived the SPG website for guests to get more info on the breach.
Today Marriott announced another data breach, but they can no longer point the finger at SPG. They believe it involves the information of up to 5.2 million guests, including their contact and loyalty info, personal details, partner loyalty information, and more. They don’t believe that any passwords, IDs, or payment methods were stolen.
Marriott is offering a free year of IdentityWorks monitoring service to those affected by the breach.
If your information was breached, you will be prompted to change your Bonvoy password and enable multi-factor authentication for your account.
You should also change the passwords on your partner loyalty accounts.
These breaches seem to happen all too often. That isn’t likely to change if there are no major repercussions for the companies that lose their customer’s data.
Was your information Bonvoyed?
HT: jack6941, via DDF


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Earlier this year, the Goleta Chamber of Commerce, Old Town property owners and the Goleta business community proposed an initiative that would create a significant, ongoing funding source for improvements. Not only would this proposal help businesses thrive, it would enhance the unique character of this special and historic neighborhood.
The proposal - a possible Property Business Improvement District, or PBID - had the buy-in from many businesses, the City's professional staff and the property owners who would be paying the assessment. Crucially, the City of Goleta would own the oversight of the program.
Sadly, on Feb. 5, the Goleta City Council opted to keep Old Town Goleta in its current state. That's disappointing.
The Council balked at moving forward after a misleading campaign against the proposal by a group of opponents, who accused the Goleta Chamber of Commerce of favoring Old Town gentrification and chain stores over mom-and-pop shops and small businesses that are the heart - and soul - of the Chamber's membership.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Kristen Miller, the Chamber's president and CEO, testified at the Council meeting, directly addressing the opponents' attacks.
"The Chamber has been the only champion for small business in Old Town for decades."
Two Old Town small business owners, both Chamber board members, testified as well. Anne Pazier, owner of Santa Barbara Gift Baskets, and Hallie Avolio, co-owner of Latitude 34˚ Technologies, reassured the Council that small business is at the core of the Chamber's public-private partnership with the City.
But, in the face of angry accusations that included repugnant references to the Chamber and its nearly 450 member businesses promoting the "raping and pillaging" of the community, the Council opted to ask for yet more research and studies.
As a result of this inaction, the Chamber is tabling the PBID discussion for now. Our Old Town Business Committee, which includes businesses, property owners, nonprofit organizations and City representatives, will continue to work on programs funded by the City's General Fund. And the committee will continue to explore events, marketing, networking and advocacy to support the Old Town community.
Larger projects - like landscaping and an employee parking lot - will just have to wait. Again.


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Friday, August 24, 2012
Google has done it again with its street-view photos of a remote Inuit village. The firm knows how to get positive publicity and good PR. This series of street-view photos will go with Google's recent shots of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Google has become a major source for visual information, essential scenes consumers and others use daily and rarely think about. The company is a tool for modern living. Whatever one might say about Google in its other activities -- its hits and misses and skirting privacy --, one has to concur that Google is making the world a more familiar place. Even though there are those who would rather not have their buildings appear online, most are satisfied to have cameras pass by mounted on a car or trike. And anyone looking up locations is happy to have an image to help guide the search. Some commentators say Google is becoming a giant media company with its recent purchase of the Frommer travel brand to go with its prior purchase of Zagat. Maybe so, but who should care when it is liberating information and making knowledge universal?


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And it’s a bit surprising considering its Q4 2021 earnings report.
What the report says
According to Jumia, in Q4 2021, usage metrics hit an all-time high.
In 2021, about 8 million customers placed orders on the e-commerce platform, a 17% increase from 2020’s 6.8 million unique customers.
Jumia also fulfilled 3 million more orders—valued at $5 million—in Q4 2021 than in the same period in 2020 and 2019. Its Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) also grew to $330 million, while revenue grew to $62.0 million, up 26% from the previous quarter.
So how can teams continue to produce high-quality work and deal with burnout? How can managers and founders motivate their teams for great performance in this blurry era?
To answer this question, TechCabal spoke with Elizabeth Tweedale, founder and CEO at Cypher Coders, one of the leading coding schools for kids in the UK, on the 6th episode of Building From Ground Up, Season 2, by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub. As an edtech startup, Cypher Coders thrived on a brick-and-mortar work culture, where employees show up at their London central office. But when the pandemic hit, the startup was forced to operate remotely. And now that the world is gradually opening back up, it’s maintaining a hybrid approach to work.
First, by finding the best people and hiring them. For Tweedale, finding qualified people that are self-motivated in their own right is the beginning of building a great team that can function well without supervision.
Ask! “I ask my team what motivates them. And I can see how effective that one-on-one conversation has helped to boost performance across metrics,” Tweedale says.
Communicate clearly. Lack of proper communication is capable of not just leaving employees unmotivated—because they don’t understand what’s to be done anyways.
Give them time off. The best way a company can help employees find a work-life balance is by creating room for breaks. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
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2020 was a turbulent year for many businesses, especially Nigerian agritech startup Thrive Agric.
In October 2020, hundreds of unpaid, angry retail investors were dragging Thrive Agric online asking for their money. Its network of farmers was recording millions of naira in losses and unable to sell or deliver goods to off-takers—companies that purchase the products from the farmers. Some of its off-takers were owing and made repeated failed promises on repayment.
Wow, sounds like a lot
Yeah, it does. American serial entrepreneur Elon Musk once described the experience of running a startup as being similar to the act of chewing glass and staring into the abyss. “After a while, you stop staring, but the glass chewing never ends,” Musk said. Nigerian Agritech startup ThriveAgric’s experience validates this description.
But fortunately, the story doesn’t end here. As the situation escalated, different parties showed up to help out. In a few months, the presence of additional hands, fresh ideas, and “bridge” capital (temporary financing) helped turn things around.
Why it matters: Within the last 2 years, particularly after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in late 2019, what was once heralded as an innovative agricultural financing method has quickly become associated with Ponzi schemes and fraud accusations.
Hurdles like chargebacks often make the running of a global business difficult, because they cause frustrations for your customers. Fincra is here to help. With Fincra’s streamlined payment collection process you can provide a better payments experience for your customers while scaling your business to its fullest potential with simple API integration.
How do you manage distributed teams in a startup’s growth phase?
As your company grows and your team gets wider, your working dynamics change. Maybe when you started, there were just 5 employees working out of your office, but today there are over 80 employees working across different timezones. How do you ensure team synergy and adequately manage processes in such an environment?
Ire is the co-founder, COO, and VP of Engineering at Helicarrier, a company building cryptocurrency infrastructure for Africa. Helicarrier is behind products such as Buycoins, Sendcash, Sendcash Pay, and more.
The #BuildingFromGroundUp series is powered by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub in partnership with TechCabal.
Note: By clicking on the registration link for any of these events, you’ve indicated interest in the event and will get an invite to attend. To opt out, please ignore the invite.
Applications are open for the Sound Connect Funds in Southern Africa 2022 grant. Southern African NGOs and businesses that focus on and support the cultural and creative sector in Southern Africa are invited to apply to get up to €180,000 in grants. Check it out.
Applications are now open for the United States African Development Foundation/Stanbic Kenya Grant Foundation Programme 2022. MSMEs in Kenya that are 100% African-owned are invited to apply for the chance to get up to $50,000 in grants. Check it out.
The VC4A Mentor-Driven Capital Programme Nigeria 2022 is now open to applications. Twenty people—including investors and business professionals—with an interest in Nigeria will participate in the mentor-driven boot camp where they’ll learn valuable insights into building and funding. Invest in yourself here.
What else we’re reading
THE JOURNEY OF MULTIPLE FUNDING ROUNDS STARTS WITH A SINGLE SHIRT 👕


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Ministers are working with car manufacturers to develop an easy-to-understand measurement that can be included on ’product labels’ to help consumers make better choices when considering the environmental impact of a vehicle.
Commonly displayed information such as the number of miles a car can drive on a gallon of fuel are useful, says the government, but do not offer consumers a complete picture of what the full cost of the car will be. Inefficient cars that use a lot of fuel are likely to have higher insurance premiums and a higher road tax levy.
The initiative is part of the government’s long-term plans to improve the information that consumers get when making purchases. It recently unveiled plans to develop a system that gives consumers instant digital access to the data collected on them by brands for marketing purposes.
Separately, the government has facilitated the setting up of a research and development unit to investigate ways of providing consumers with product information regarding their impact on health and the environment.
The aim is to publish a paper with recommendations for manufacturers and retailers, with recommendations expected by the end of the year.


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Orem, Utah, April 7, 2020—Avetta®, a global leader in supply chain risk management solutions, hosted a webinar on April 3 to help small businesses understand how they can qualify for the New Small Business Assistance Programs (CARES), the recent legislation approved by Congress and the White House related to the coronavirus outbreak. The webinar features two of the nation’s top employment law attorneys.
Interested individuals can listen to the webinar at https://www.avetta.com/suppliers/supplier-resource-library.
Small businesses across the country are being significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those companies could benefit from assistance programs already in place, as well as new programs such as the recently passed CARES Act.
The webinar includes advice from Travis Vance and Benjamin M. Ebbink, members of the Fisher Phillips law firm’s COVID-19 Taskforce. Both attorneys share details on the numerous options available to employers.
“Of utmost importance is that workers and their families are safe,” said Richard Parke, SVP of Supplier Services, at Avetta. “We also encourage businesses to review all options available to help them during this difficult economic period. While many states and regions are under stay-at-home orders and business operations are interrupted, it is so important that small business leaders know how they can get help to maintain liquidity and remain viable until conditions return to normal. The resources provided on the webinar will get you started on choosing the emergency program that will be right for your business.”
Numerous loan programs are available for companies to get through the COVID-19 pandemic, including a Paycheck Protection Program for up to $10 million, an SBA Disaster Loan for $2 million, Emergency Economic Injury Grants of $10,000, an SBA Express Bridge Loan of $25,000 and Debt Relief for Existing and New SBA Borrowers for principal, interest and fee payments for current SBA loans. More details about these loans can be found at SBA.gov.
State and local small business assistance may also be available. For more information, visit the SBA’s Local Assistance Directory.
“There are many resources available for businesses to both keep their employees safe and help their business survive this incredibly difficult time,” said Benjamin M. Ebbink, partner, Fisher Phillips. “Each program serves a different purpose, including different pros and cons, so you need to learn all the details to make the best decision for both the short-term and long-term. This webinar will help get you on the right path.”
Avetta has created a COVID-19 resource center for businesses to learn more about how to help their employees respond to COVID-19 in their workplaces. Resources, including this webinar, can be accessed at https://www.avetta.com/covid. Avetta has also created a specific resource center for small businesses that can be found at https://www.avetta.com/suppliers/supplier-resource-library.
Avetta leads the world in connecting leading global organizations across several industries, including oil/gas, telecom, construction materials, facilities management and many others, with qualified and vetted suppliers, contractors and vendors. The company brings unmatched access and visibility to its clients’ supply chain risk management process through its innovative and configurable technology, coupled with highly experienced human knowledge and insight. We contribute to the advancement of our clients’ sustainable growth by protecting supply chains from a wide range of potential risks through trusted contractor prequalification, safety training and monitoring, regulatory compliance, insurance/financial stability and other areas of risk. Avetta currently serves more than 450 enterprise companies and 95K suppliers across 100+ countries. Visit www.avetta.com for more information.
Mark Fredrickson, +1 801-806-0161
Scott Nelson, +1 801-850-3363


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The pandemic has given businesses a new-found understanding of the importance of having the right tools for effective forecasting, according to Rishi Grover, co-founder and chief solutions architect at Vena.
“Pre-pandemic everyone used their forecasting models to look one or two years ahead, maybe five years at a push,” he says. “These forecasts were based on assumptions that business would carry on as usual, with some growth patterns based on the market and the industry. But now we have been through something that caused everything to change overnight.”
Businesses had to be able to quickly reforecast their business models to include a large amount of uncertainty. “Firms that were not already agile struggled to do this,” says Grover. “The pandemic was obviously terrible, but it was a great use case to understand the value of agility.”
To help businesses react to unpredictable changes and be proactive in driving agile and informed decision-making in the face of uncertainty, Vena helps its customers with end-to-end business planning, covering finance planning, operational planning, as well as data modelling, analytics and reporting.
“With our Complete Planning platform, users have access to a central and analytical database, a workflow to allow for collaboration, and an engine to drive reporting and analytics,” says Grover.
The clincher is that Vena’s platform is built on top of Microsoft Excel. “Everyone knows Excel – we grew up with it,” he adds. “It is intuitive and by far the most flexible modelling canvas out there. If you can think it or model it in Excel, then it will fit into Vena. And because businesses need to be very agile, Excel allows them to do that in a quick way so you can easily model scenarios.”
But Grover and his team saw opportunities to build on the functionality of Excel, specifically in collaboration, enabling users to aggregate models and performing analysis at a high level.
“So that’s where our platform helps, but Excel as the end user modelling tool allows companies to be much more agile,” says Grover. “When the pandemic hit, businesses that were using their own financial planning and analysis (FP&A) solutions – which traditionally replace Excel – immediately exported out to Excel, so that they could play with their model, make changes, test assumptions etc.
“It is the financial instinct to work in Excel because users have complete transparency. They can see the data, the models and the formulas, and they can be very nimble in the way that they play with their assumptions. Businesses are now doubling down on their ability to be agile, and Excel plays a very good part in being able to do that.”
Not only does Vena Complete Planning help customers improve their forecasting and therefore their decision-making, it also helps users to mitigate risk.
“There are a few ways of looking at this,” says Grover. “For example, there is a risk of low user adoption with any solution. You can buy the best technology in the world, but if your users don’t adopt it, it could be the worst. Because Excel is so familiar to our customers, user adoption is generally very good.”
Grover believes that Vena’s platform can also mitigate risk because it enables users to get a much closer look at all their metrics, data and forecasting material. “With Vena Extended Planning, customers can access a new level of detail based on a wealth of financial and operational data that better informs plans and reforecasting,” he explains.
The platform also integrates with Power BI, which further helps users to identify trends and insights from this data. “Power BI is by far the world leader in business intelligence technology and has a lot of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) built into it,” says Grover. “But ML and AI are only as good as the data they use.
“So, the fact that we can do finance-led and extended planning, consolidating all that data from source systems at that detailed level, these systems can now give me a lot of insight into my data. It can detect correlations and anomalies in the data, really bringing this information to life.”
Among Vena’s over 1,000 customers is Coca-Cola Consolidated. As the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the US, with 76 distribution centres and 17,000 employees, the business wanted a solution to make business planning easier and more collaborative. With the foundation in Excel as a major factor, the firm decided to use Vena Complete Planning, which integrated with existing source systems, automated data consolidation and brought the entire cross-functional planning process into one central solution.
“The information we generate is being used across the business to better understand results and to make better business decisions,” says Matt Blickley, vice president of FP&A at Coca-Cola Consolidated. “Vena is probably the best professional decision that I’ve made in my career.”
This article was originally published in the Autumn 2021 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.
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Queer Eye's fashion expert Tan France will team up with fashion icon Alexa Chung in an upcoming Netflix competition show called Next in Fashion. The show will feature a group of eighteen designers who will face off in different tasks and challenges revolving around trends and styles that have influenced the entire fashion world. Watch the trailer here!
This is what we know so far about Tan France and Alexa Chung's Next in Fashion
Next in Fashion will also feature guest judges for the ten-episode first season, including Eva Chen, Jason Bolden, and Prabal Gurung. The winner of the show will win $250,000 and the opportunity to debut their fashion collection with luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter!


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Yahoo just reported their most recently quarterly earnings, and the numbers aren’t too good. Overall revenue fell by about 13%; even search revenue fell. (Profits increased, but only because of strong cost-cutting measures, including layoffs.) Google, on the other hand, released their numbers a few days ago, and they showed revenue and profit increases. (Microsoft will release its numbers later this week.)
This doesn’t bode well for Yahoo, and should be a warning flag for search engine marketers everywhere. Yahoo is still number two in terms of search, but the writing on the wall is not positive. (And this does not even take into account Microsoft’s launch and aggressive marketing campaign for Bing.)
As search engine marketers, we should all closely monitor our analytics reports over the next six to nine months to ensure that we continue to allocate our budgets in line with the evolving realities of the market.


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Aujan, Coca-Cola Partnership Forges New Companies
February 24, 2013 – Aujan Group Holding and The Coca-Cola Company agreed to a partnership that will create two new beverage companies in the Middle East. As part of the agreement, The Coca-Cola Company will invest in half of Aujan’s beverage business. The deal will create the Aujan Coca-Cola Beverages Company and Rani Refreshments. Rani Refreshments will hold rights to its iconic brands Rani and Barbican and provide concentrate for those products. Meanwhile, the Aujan Coca-Cola Beverages Company will be a licensed manufacturer and distributor of those products.
“Today’s announcement puts the final seal on the largest-ever investment by a multinational firm in the Middle East’s fast moving consumer goods sector, and marks the next stage of development for our group and our brands,” said Sheikh Adel Aujan, Chairman of Aujan Group Holding. Lastly, the announcement mentioned that Roland Ebelt, the former General Manager of the Coca-Cola Innovation Company in the Middle East, will be the new General Manager at Rani Refreshments.


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MANILA, Philippines – Attention, Filipino Treasure Makers! Concert promoter Live Nation has announced the ticket prices and seat plan for TREASURE’s upcoming Hello concert in the Philippines.
Initially, the ticket prices range from P3,500 for General Admission seats to P19,500 for the VIP section, with VIP ticket holders only being able to choose between the soundcheck or send-off event. But on Wednesday, January 18, the organizer announced new ticket prices.
General Admission seats are now priced at P2,750 instead of the first announced P3,500. VIP tickets, still priced at P19,500, now include both soundcheck and send-off access.
The changes came after fans took to social media to ask the organizer to lower the prices.
Interested concert-goers can register for the presale membership from January 10, 1 pm to January 12, 1 pm, as the Treasure Maker membership presale opens on January 19, 10 am. Buyers can only buy two tickets per one membership ID during the fan club presale.
Meanwhile, the Live Nation presale opens on January 20, 10 am, and the general on-sale starts on January 21, 10 am. Four tickets per transaction are available during the Live Nation presale and general on-sale.
TREASURE’s one-night show, which is set for April 15 at the Mall of Asia Arena, is the group’s first solo concert in the country, and second visit in the Philippines overall. They performed alongside Jackson Wang and BamBam for July 2022’s KPOP Masterz concert.
TREASURE originally made their debut as a 12-member boy group in August 2020. In November 2022, YG Entertainment announced that members Bang Yedam and Mashiho have left the group.
The group has been reorganized with its 10 remaining members: Choi Hyun-suk, Jihoon, Yoshi, Junkyu, Yoon Jae-hyuk, Asahi, Doyoung, Haruto, Park Jeong-woo, and So Jung-hwan. They are known for songs “DARARI,” “JIKJIN,” “Beautiful,” “Boy,” and “COME TO ME.” – Rappler.com


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Tesla has confirmed that it will soon launch virtual power plants using Powerwalls in Texas and Puerto Rico.
The company even confirmed it already has some significant power capacity in Puerto Rico.
Virtual power plants are becoming one of Tesla’s most underappreciated products.
Tesla is using its existing and growing fleet of Powerwalls to aggregate their power capacity and offer electric grid services to utilities while compensating homeowners for using their home battery packs.
The company’s California virtual power plant has already proved successful in its first year.
Now Tesla has been looking to bring virtual power plants to more markets where its Powerwall is popular.
Drew Baglino, Tesla’s head of engineering, confirmed that Tesla is working to bring a virtual power plant to Puerto Rico this summer:
The Tesla exec even confirmed that the company already has over 350 MW of Powerwalls installed in the territory, which means that it can quickly make a sizable impact.
Tesla quickly focused its Powerwall supply to Puerto Rico after the island’s electric grid was badly affected by a hurricane back in 2017.
Baglino also confirmed that a VPP is coming to Texas soon:
As we previously reported, Texas is an important market for Tesla’s energy division as it is approved as an electricity retailer in the state.
Tesla plans to launch several new products in Texas under its new Tesla Electric business.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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Editor-In-Chief of Game Informer, Andy McNamara, tweeted that GTA V will be on the next cover of their December issue along with some new details. He also got to check out a demo, along with some of gaming press. Rock* will also be releasing some information in the next few weeks.
“I’m about to make some of my haters very happy. In NYC, about to check out December’s cover game #GTAV”


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I have some friends who enjoy seeking interesting tech investments via crowdfunding platforms. However, their experience has not always been good.
In some cases, the investors turned out very disappointed as the projects they backed failed to deliver the product on time or even get cancelled.
We have seen many failures in recent times. In one case, Shenzhen-based firm Wicoz successfully raised funds last year, via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, for a smart baby-formula maker. However, the product is yet to come out.
Some backers say they feel like fools when they see shoddy products after a long wait. They can’t do anything but accept the fact that they made the wrong decisions.
I believe all this offers a lesson for crowdfunding platforms: they must ensure better project success rate and offer comfort to the financial backers.
FwdForce did a nice try recently, as it launched a new crowdfunding model “challenge”.
In one challenge, the platform called on contenders to make a portable 3D printer that can be folded, put in backpack in two minutes, weighs less than 14 pounds and costs less than US$2,500.
Contenders can upload their planned solutions for making such a product. The platform will then select the best plans, allowing them to start pitching for funds.
In the next stage, investors may give their commitments to back the project, but the money will not be immediately transferred to the producer.
The investors will be able to vote on two or three best proposals and the chosen producers will get part of the money to make a sample. The crowdfunding platform will invite a third party to evaluate those samples and identify the best one.
The winner will get funding for volume production of the item. The more money one commits to invest in a project, the more powerful their votes will be.
I believe such model can improve the quality of the products.
But will such “challenge” mode limit the number of projects on the platform?
Or will the platform be able to effectively supervise all the “challenges” even when multiple projects are ongoing at the same time?
The whole issue surely calls for more discussions.
This article appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal on April 21.
Translation by Myssie You
[Chinese version 中文版]
– Contact us at [email protected]


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US companies overusing Medicare outpatient PPS (prospective payment system), say hospitals
This article was originally published in Clinica
Major US hospital groups have begun complaining about the device industry's aggressive use of the special new technology pass-through payment available under Medicare's outpatient prospective payment system (PPS). In a July 10 letter to Thomas Scully, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the groups expressed concern that payments for new technologies might reduce the amount of money going for other care areas.
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The number of views YouTube videos get in a single day is up to the billions now, with hundreds of hours of new content uploaded every minute, versus the month it would take twelve years ago when YouTube launched. Searching through that deluge of video can be harder than searching the entire web, so here’s a helpful…
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If you love collecting virtual cats and you have Android Nougat, you’re in luck: Google dropped a cat-collecting easter egg called Android Neko into the latest version of Android, and while it’s not nearly as fun as Neko Atsume, you do get to collect cats by putting out treats.
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This month, vegan brand Field Roast Grain Meat Co. will launch its Chao Creamery cheese in the Creamy Original flavor at more than 150 Costco locations in the Midwest, Southwest, Texas, and Ontario, Canada regions. The vegan cheese is made with a coconut base that is seasoned with fermented tofu and will be available in a pack of three, 7-ounce containers (which retails for $10.89 in Chicago, prices may vary by location). In addition to Costco, Chao Creamery recently doubled its distributions at Target, Safeway, and Albertsons, and will debut at Sprouts stores in February—increasing its distribution to approximately 1,500 retail outlets. In 2017, Canadian meat brand Maple Leaf Foods acquired both Field Roast and Lightlife for $120 million and $140 million, respectively, and created Chicago-based Greenleaf Foods in 2018 as a subsidiary company that independently operates its growing plant-based business. “For over 20 years, Field Roast has led the plant-based foods space in great-tasting, high-quality options,” Greenleaf Foods President Dan Curtin said. “We’re excited to continue our commitment at even more retail locations, inspiring new and existing customers throughout North America.”
Chao Vegan Cheese Launches at Costco
Field Roast’s Chao Creamery cheese expands distribution to the big-box store, along with added locations of Target, Albertsons, Safeway, and more.
January 23, 2020


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Apple’s iOS 10 update includes Circle in its iMessages messaging application.
In an attempt to keep up with competitor’s chat applications, Apple has given developers the go ahead t integrate Circle, the bitcoin payment platform into iMessages in the upcoming update. This shows that Apple has realized that the modernization of its products are going to have to include cryptocurrency in some way.
Apple has shown us that they haven’t been a big fan of the unavoidable cryptocurrency integration. One example is when Apple asked Jaxx Blockchain Wallet to remove Dash support from their iOS app. They also blocked bitcoin applications from the store, only to allow them later down the road. Ethereum wallet apps were treated the same way earlier this year.
This integration of Circle as a third party to iMessages is expected to allow users to execute instant transactions from within the chat application. CEO of Circle Financial released this statement:
“Integration of Circle into iMessages reduces friction…There’s a hurdle to have to install a smartphone app so that I can pay my buddy and all the inputting and setup. To do it all within the iMessages app is a lot easier.”
The new update is still in beta testing. It will be available September 13th, 2016. iPhone 5, 6th gen. iPod Touch, iPad mini 2, iPad 4th gen., iPad Airs, and iPad pros and newer will be able to use the update. The new iMessages update will also support stickers, animations, and other features closely resembling WeChat, Line, BBM, Facebook messenger, and other chat applications.
Apply has increasingly started to follow its competitors by opening up SDKs to third party developers. The company announced the launch of its latest iPhones yesterday, with screen sizes close to the Samsung line up of Galaxies.
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Tesla said CEO Elon Musk’s total compensation for 2020 was zero, compared to $ 23,760 (approximately 18 lakhs) in 2019.
The electric automaker also said in a government filing that the total compensation paid to Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn would be $ 46.6 million (approx.
Musk’s salary package, who is also the major shareholder and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX, requires Tesla’s market capitalization and financial growth to meet a number of rising targets.
By April, Musk had qualified for Tesla options in his 2018 salary package, which are now valued at over $ 30 billion (approximately Rs 2.22.520 billion).
Tesla added “Technoking of Tesla” to Musk’s list of official titles, also known as “Master of Coin” by Kirkhorn, in a government filing in March.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Musk will also be the subject of a biography of Walter Isaacson, the US author who wrote a bestseller about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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Fitbit Charge 5 color options, design details surface in official looking renderings


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This week, Scott Wilkinson is at the "THE Show" (The Home Entertainment Show). Scott says it's a stereo home entertainment show and it's amazing just how popular stereo is. THE Show is at the Hotel Irvine and it's all about speakers, preamps, and power amps. There are also tube amps, which many love the sound of. Tube amps are very retro but the sound is fantastic. They aren't as powerful as solid state amps, though. It's all about a high resolution audio movement, which effects us more emotionally than mp3s.
Scott attended a meeting that indicated that virtual reality is the next great trend in cinematography. It's in its infancy, but cinematographers should start experimenting with shooting in VR by using cheaper cameras like the Ricoh Theta S. Leo says that may be true, but he prefers to be told a story, and told what to look at. When you're looking around, if you think about it, the story teller has failed in telling that story.
Leo does say that Virtual Reality is great for gaming though.
So the Jungle Book came out and Leo says it's fantastic. But they made the deliberate choice to make a combination live action for the human actors, and then CGI for the rest of the animals in the Jungle. The reason is something called "the uncanny valley," which states that as humans, we are so fine tuned to how a human being should look and if it's the slightest bit off, we instantly see how fake it is. We don't get that with animals or other animated characters. So in the Jungle Book, it completely works.
Scott is back from NAB and he went early to attend the "Future of Cinema" conference. He saw a film by Ang Lee that was shot in native 3D on a pair of Sony F65 Cinema Cameras at 120fps. 5 times more than standard 24p. Scott says that for showcasing the film in conventional theaters at 120 fps, they will have to project it in 2K. Some say it looks like video, not a movie. But Scott says that's because we're so used to the way it's looked for the last 100 years. Now that we have better technology, we should keep moving forward. And theaters can always down shift the frame rate.
LG is coming out with a new design for their C series line of OLED TVs. Scott says that while a design change is a good thing, and only the C6 is now curved, it doesn't change the technology powering it. It's just a different design, and a flatter design is a great thing.
Scott joins us to talk about the new Dolby Atmos Soundbar. The idea of superior sound is to get a greater sense of immersion and Atmos adds to the effect of surround sound. It puts the sound above you so that it comes at you from every direction. Atmos does this by bouncing the audio off the ceiling. Then, using DSP, it can create a simulated surround sound effect. Leo wonders if it would be better to have two really good stereo speakers, rather than 7 surround sound speakers that may not be as good. Scott says that is a good argument. But the center channel is where the voice should be.
Scott has big news that Vizio has changed the name of the game in big screen TVs. On Tuesday, Vizio announced the P-Series, which has much of the R-Series features for 1/3 of the price. It comes with HDR with Dolby Vision, and it will get a firmware update in 90 days that will give users HDR10 as well. This is huge because it should drastically drop the price of HDR 4K TVs fairly quickly.
Leo hears that there's a new Atmos Sound Bar. Is it worth it? Scott says that the new UltraHD Premium Spec supports Atmos in the home and it should sound great. And more UHD Blu-ray titles are coming out. Sony is one of four studios that have released UHD Blu-rays as well as Fox, Universal and Lionsgate. So we're coming up to the transition of a new format in home entertainment. Scott even believes that the move to UHD will be faster than when we transitioned from DVD to Blu-ray. And it won't be that much more on the onset.
Scott has discovered that DirecTV will be broadcasting the Masters Golf Tournament in 4K on April 7-10th. It will be their first UHD broadcast. Leo wonders how much that signal will be compressed. Scott contacted DirecTV and found that they will be using AGVC as the codec. But he also found out that DirecTV won't say what the bitrate is. Leo says it's like Netflix doing the same thing, and it ends up being awfully compressed and leaves people with an inaccurate and negative impression of what 4K really is. Scott also says that high dynamic range will be missing as well.
Today we're talking about hi resolution audio, with the Pono Player and the Revealer firmware. The Revealer is a firmware update which enables to improve the quality of audio.


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It’s back above 400,000 according this Associated Press article, and I was one of them. Sorry. My bad.
However: “…the four-week average, a more reliable gauge of the job market, fell to the lowest level since mid-April.” So I suppose that is something.
According to the article the number of unemployed needs to fall below 375,000 to signal that the economy is improving. Why that number precisely? I have not a clue. I suppose it’s as good as any…
The report on weekly unemployment applications does provide some positive signs for hiring in August. Applications are lower than they were in mid-July, when they totaled 422,000.
Employers added 117,000 net jobs in July, roughly double the totals from each of the previous two months. The unemployment rate ticked down to 9.1 percent.
Talk about nickle and diming the numbers. I mean, seriously, are we supposed to get excited about a .1 percent drop in the unemployment rate, especially when it doesn’t really represent the real number of unemployed, since I’m pretty sure that it does not count people whose unemployment benefits have run out and those who have simply given up looking for work because they believe that there are not jobs out there for them as well as the undermployed? At all. Come on.
In that spirit the article also reports:
Other recent data show the economy gradually improved in July, after growing at annual rate of just 0.8 percent in the first six months of the year.
Consumers spent more on retail goods in July than in any month since March. And factory output rose in July by the most since the Japan crisis, a sign that supply chain disruptions caused by the March 11 earthquake could be fading.
Mildly encouraging at best. Or maybe I’m guilty of being cynical, not optimistic enough. Amazing how much of our economy seems to run on optimism. Hope.
In an effort to boost growth, the Federal Reserve last week said it will keep its benchmark short-term interest rate at nearly zero until mid-2013. Previously, the central bank had never given a clear time frame. It hopes the certainty of low rates will encourage consumers and businesses to borrow and spend more.
Despite hope and optimism:
…July’s job gains are barely enough to keep up with population growth. At least double that many new jobs are needed to significantly reduce unemployment. And a consumer sentiment survey taken earlier this month showed confidence in the economy fell to the lowest level in 31 years, raising concerns that Americans could pull back on spending.
Worries about U.S. economic weakness and the ongoing European debt crisis caused the stock markets to plunge in recent weeks. While stock indexes have recovered some lost ground, the Dow Jones industrial average is more than 1,200 points lower than it was on July 22.
The Fed’s assessment of the economy last week was gloomier than it had been in June. The Fed said it “anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually.”
As the man said, “Hope in one hand, shit in the other. See which one fills up first.”


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Food City to host annual Johnia Berry toy drive
Published 1:39 pm Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Food City will once again host the annual Johnia Berry Toy Drive. This marks the 18th year the retailer has hosted the memorial drive, which began in 2005.
“Johnia was extremely passionate about helping children and Food City is proud to be part of the annual Johnia Berry Toy Drive, which donates thousands of toys to needy children in our area each year,” said Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer.
The drive will kick-off on November 4 and continue through December 3. Specially marked collection containers will be located at area Food City locations throughout the Tri-Cities. The toys are scheduled to be distributed on December 6, the anniversary of Johnia’s death.Pharoah’s Car Club of Northeast Tennessee and Pharoah’s Car Club of Southwest Virginia have graciously volunteered to assist with the toy pick-up and distribution.
The Berry Family have selected a number of local agencies to receive the toys, including Tri-State Children’s Home, Highlands Community Services – IDD Department, Safe Passage Women’s Shelter, Community Help Center of Northeast TN, Cumberland Mountain Community Services of Cedar Bluff, Va., HOPE Center of Greeneville, local schools in Virginia and Tennessee and many others.
“We would like to thank our loyal customers and associates for their tremendous generosity and support of the toy drive, as well as our media partner, News Channel 11, WJHL-TV,” adds Smith.


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The business-oriented HP Mini 1103 netbook is good-looking and solidly designed, and it has great battery life. Two years ago it would've earned high praise. Today it reminds us how inadequate Atom-based netbooks are for all but the most basic comput...
Pricing for the new HP TouchPad hasn't been announced, but it looks like Research In Motion's 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook will cost $500. That rumor comes after Twitter user Ben Shipley posted a screenshot that shows what appears to be an internal Offic...
HP's TouchPad looks pretty similar to Apple's iPad on the outside but the inside is a different story.
In case you missed it, HP overnight launched three new devices based on Palm's webOS platform; a TouchPad tablet, a Pre 3 smartphone and a compact Veer smartphone. Sadly, none of these slick looking products are ever likely to make it down under.
The tablet landscape just got a bit more crowded: Hewlett-Packard's WebOS event here in San Francisco launched both the new HP Veer and the HP Pre 3 and the company's first consumer tablet. Due out this summer, the HP TouchPad appears set to stand ou...
HP is another in the long line of technology vendors launching a tablet in 2011, and like any hot product, what would it be without leaks a few weeks before its official launch?
Hewlett-Packard plans to commission an external probe into the resignation of former CEO Mark Hurd, including his controversial multi-million dollar severance package.
Leaked photos of HP and Palm's WebOS tablet have appeared online, courtesy of Engadget. The device - slim, sleek and running WebOS - is the companies' response to the iPad and is just a fraction what we will see at an HP event, HP says. But can an HP...
Details of Hewlett-Packard's new WebOS tablet have leaked out, and lots of people are gazing at its shininess and digesting technical details. But one thing appears to have been missed: Suggestions say that it will be the world's first true cloud tab...
A recent CNBC interview with an HP executive is focusing attention on the company's expected webOS device news, including a possible tablet, on Feb. 9 in San Francisco.
EMC will buy network-attached storage (NAS) vendor, Isilon Systems, for about $US2.25 billion. Both companies' boards have approved the deal, which is expected to be finalized later this year.
With mobile phone cameras getting better and better, more people are using their smartphones as their primary cameras. Eventually, you'll want to print the cherished family photos that you've saved on your phone. Rather than dealing with MicroSD card...
A new supercomputer installation in China has rocketed to the top of the twice-annual ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers.
HP today revealed further details of its previously announced $1 billion investment in offshore outsourcing, selecting six countries-Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, India, Malaysia and the Philippines-as its global delivery hubs.
Technology giant Hewlett-Packard has said it is looking into reports
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“Made in Deqing” is the world’s first-ever blockchain beauty product for the real economy fitting with Chinese tech trend advancements.
updated: Jan 14, 2020
January 14, 2020 (Newswire.com) –
As a leader in the pearl-based cosmetic industry, Zhejiang OSM (OuShiMan) Group has taken the lead in the technological innovation of the cosmetics industry to create the world’s first blockchain beauty product series named Made in Deqing. This advancement is in keeping with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s grand blueprint for China’s blockchain technology.
Since 2018, OSM has explored building new models, establishing new systems, and applying new technologies to build a new supply chain by promoting intelligent logistics, intelligent manufacturing, and intelligent management. In 2019, the company utilized these lessons and their platform to take action to bring blockchain industry products to life.
According to OSM’s General Manager, Weixin Shen, the continued economic growth and population expansion have ushered in the golden age of the cosmetics industry, as well as standardizing the industry and increasing product safety to an unprecedented new height. The exploration and application of digital technology by OSM has created a “one yard”, “one source”, “one chain”, and “one platform” digital technology means, enabling an efficient and convenient production and operation model. At the same time, blockchain technology can facilitate raw materials procurement, product production, sales, circulation, and purchase more open and transparent.
Senior Blockchain Architect, Wang Yingshuai, explained that one code, one source, one chain, and one platform makes it possible to use one medium such as QR codes or chips to record key information sources related to a product. Relevant technology supports the formation of a complete chain of credible value transfer between products and consumers, and the creation of a multi-dimensional integrated ecological platform that integrates customers, manufacturers, and supply chains.
“In the future, blockchain technology will give ‘life and soul’ to each product made by OSM, helping it to improve product quality and output while building a full life cycle quality management system for pearl biological products and realize two-way transmission of product data. The outcome will reshape a new business model and bring about the digitalization of the industry,” explained Shen Weiliang, general manager of OSM biosciences.
With the continuous deepening of blockchain technology in the entire process of OSM’s product manufacturing, it will definitely create achievements and advance OSM’s “Pearl Dream, National Dream, Century Dream!”
About Ou Shuman Group
Ou Shuman Group, a top 10 Chinese cosmetic company, is dedicated to pearl based cosmetic products, from pearl breeding, scientific research, processing, sales, to pearl cultural tourism, while continuously exploring ways to integrate digital technology and blockchain technology into the transformation of products and industries.
Source: Zhejiang OSM (OuShiMan) Group


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In honor of Black Friday, Mondo is releasing these awesome Marvel Black Series portrait enamel pins by Tom Whalen! What is the Marvel Black Series you might ask?!? It’s a series of portrait pins featuring four of Mondo’s favorite black-costumed heroes released on Black Friday. This epic new wave of Tom Whalen Marvel Portrait Pins includes Symbiote Spider-Man, The Inhumans’ Black Bolt, Agent Venom, and U.S.Agent.
These Marvel Black Series Portrait Enamel Pins by Tom Whalen will go up for pre-sale on Black Friday, November 25th, at the Mondo online store as a 4 piece set for $35 or individually for $10 each.


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NEC Corporation has also committed to purchase $40 million of Intermedia common stock concurrently with, and conditioned upon, the closing of Intermedia’s planned IPO. NEC selected Intermedia in April 2020, after a comprehensive review of the world’s cloud communications platforms, to be its exclusive provider.
In the 18 months since the partnership was formed, the two have developed and launched the NEC Univerge Blue suite of solutions to markets in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. The suite of solutions includes cloud voice, video conferencing, chat, file sync and share, backup, and omnichannel contact center.
Ram Menghani, president of NEC’s enterprise communication technology division, explained, “The extension of this critical, strategic partnership and our long-term commitment to Intermedia’s future reflect the success achieved by the two companies together thus far. It also signifies the confidence we have in Intermedia’s innovative and focused approach for developing and delivering the cloud solutions that businesses want, and partners want to sell.”
This partnership expansion and investment announcement comes as NEC releases the latest addition to its Univerge Blue portfolio of cloud communications and collaboration solutions – Univerge Blue Connect Bridge. Connect Bridge was jointly developed by NEC and Intermedia; it extends NEC’s on-premises business phone systems to the cloud via mobile and desktop applications while also adding chat, video conferencing, and file collaboration capabilities.
Menghani added, “Intermedia has proven to be the excellent partner we thought they would be. From their highly talented and inventive engineering and product development teams that have produced the Univerge Blue suite of products that now includes Connect Bridge, to their powerful partner platform that enables resellers to brand Intermedia’s products as their own, to their comprehensive sales, marketing, and technical support that are unmatched in the market.”


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The FCC’s new privacy rules were the latest casualties of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda this week as Congress voted to eliminate the rules. After receiving a slight majority vote in the Senate, a resolution overturning the FCC’s privacy rules
The CommLaw Group believes that an “informed” client is the very best client. Knowledge is power – the power to predict regulatory trends, to anticipate risks, and to use your knowledge to make adjustments that will help keep your company out of harm’s way. And when our Firm has important or exciting news to announce about developments at our organization, including awards, achievements, hirings and various presentations & webinars, we will share information through News announcements.
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