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A senior minister in Pakistan has urged people to reduce tea consumption to buoy the economy amidst severe crisis.
The country’s Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal, told reporters on 14 June that Pakistanis should reduce their tea consumption as imports are putting additional financial pressure on the Government.
“I appeal to the nation to cut down the consumption of tea by one to two cups because we import tea on loan,” Iqbal said, according to Pakistani media.
Pakistan is the world’s largest importer of tea, buying in more than $600 million (£495 million) worth last year.
Iqbal further suggested that traders could close their tea stalls earlier in the evening to save on electricity.
The unusual request has gone viral on social media and outraged many Pakistanis. The public has heavily criticised the ministers’ views in such distressed times, arguing that the country’s serious financial problems can hardly be solved just by cutting down on tea.
Pakistan has been facing severe economic challenges for months, leading to an increase in the prices of food, gas, and oil. Just recently, the Federal Government has banned the import of around 41 luxury items for two months to prevent financial default.
Pakistani foreign exchange reserves are also crippling downward; Reuters reported that funds held by the Central Bank fell from $16.3 billion (£13.5 billion) at the end of February to just above $10 billion (£8.2 billion) in May.
The economic crisis is putting newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to test and his re-election seems very unlikely as former Prime Minister Imran Khan has joined skeptics challenging Sharif’s mandate.
In 2019, Commonwealth representatives visited Pakistan to help strengthen the security of online election tools and databases following election-related violence the year prior.


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best online part time jobs|ऑनलाइन पैसा कमाने 2021
The crash also claimed the lives of two other people who were in a separate vehicle. Garlock identified them as 29-year-old Cody Fox and his 9-month-old daughter, Ariana, both of Marion County, Tennessee.
3. Standing order: You are in control. You instruct your bank to pay the money to a particular person or company, and it is your responsibility to change the payment details (eg, the date or amount) if they need to be changed.
First, you must estimate how long you can afford to blog without profiting. Like any new business, there’s a startup period in the red that must be expected with blogging. For many, it only takes about six months to start seeing a profit from blogging. Some need up to a year.
Sony's announcement came in a letter to artists on Friday, a copy of which has been shared with the BBC.
Making money online is possible and there are many ways to make money. Especially now after the pandemic in the world today, governments around the world have been printing so much money which has made the dollar the weakest it has ever been as we are witnessing future consequences of quantitative easing. In our world today, everyone should be working from home to make that extra income/ends meet because business and Income is increasingly being switched over to the Internet.
6. Become a proofreader

domain: news


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Nate Chastain “betrayed OpenSea by using its confidential business information,” alleges U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer previously stated that some suspicious NFT trades made by a former executive had been “misframed” as insider trading. Today, the Department of Justice called those trades “insider trading.”
The FBI and Department of Justice arrested and charged Nate Chastain, a former OpenSea product manager, with wire fraud and money laundering for alleged trades he made using insider knowledge of which NFT collections were going to be featured on the marketplace’s homepage.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“With the emergence of any new investment tool, such as blockchain supported non-fungible tokens, there are those who will exploit vulnerabilities for their own gain,” Michael J. Driscoll, FBI assistant director-in-charge, said in the statement. “The FBI will continue to aggressively pursue actors who choose to manipulate the market in any way.”
The DOJ, which worked with the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, alleges that between last June and September, Chastain secretly purchased dozens of NFTs right before they were scheduled to be featured on the homepage of OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace.
As part of Chastain’s role as product manager, investigators said, he was responsible for selecting which collections would be featured.
Once those NFTs had been featured and appreciated in value, he sold them for “two- to five-times his initial purchase price,” and used anonymous accounts and crypto wallets to conceal the transactions, according to investigators.
In September, just a week after Chastain resigned from OpenSea following the discovery of one of the wallets he used to flip NFTs, the company’s CEO objected to calling Chastain’s actions “insider trading.”
“I do think there was a misframing of it as insider trading,” Finzer told Decrypt editor-in-chief Dan Roberts and executive editor Jeff John Roberts at the Messari Mainnet conference. “We don’t view NFTs as financial assets, so that does not apply. That’s a very specific thing.”
OpenSea has not responded to requests for comment from Decrypt.
The arrest and court proceedings will likely put a damper on Chastain’s new project, Oval, which describes itself as “a social commerce platform designed by talent from Instagram and OpenSea.”
In March, pitch materials viewed by CoinDesk revealed that Chastain was staging a return to the industry with a new venture called Oval. The NFT discovery platform was looking to raise $3 million in seed funding at a $30 million pre-money valuation in February, revised down from an earlier goal of raising $7.5 million at a $50 million pre-money valuation.
Even before the arrest and unsealing of the indictment, the controversy over Chastain’s departure from OpenSea had lasting effects.
In April, after growing concerns that traders had been taking advantage of the company’s listings process, CoinBase CEO Brian Armstrong published a blog post outlining new policies. One of the main changes was the decision to stop publicizing a shortlist of assets that were being considered for listing on the exchange.
Although he didn’t address it directly, the post seemed to be a reaction to allegations that a trader was able to gain access to a list of coins that Coinbase was considering adding to its exchange before that list had been made public in a company blog post. The trader was able to buy up $400,000 worth of tokens on Coinbase’s shortlist one day before they increased in value 42%. Read More at DECRYPT
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Timescale, a New York-based creator of TimescaleDB, a relational database for time-series, raised $110M in Series C funding at a valuation of over $1 billion.
The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from all existing investors Benchmark, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint Ventures, Icon Ventures, and Two Sigma Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to increase investments in product, engineering, R&D; broadened efforts in serving the Timescale community, customers, and developers worldwide; and grow the team.
Timescale is dedicated to its mission to build a data platform for developers, enabling businesses to build exceptional data-driven applications on top of time-series data.
Timescale is the creator of TimescaleDB, a relational database for time-series. Tens of thousands of organizations use TimescaleDB to build data-driven products that measure everything that matters: software applications, industrial equipment, financial markets, blockchain activity, consumer behavior, machine learning models, climate change, and more.
The company today serves over 500 paying customers and tens of thousands of other organizations using TimescaleDB in the community, including companies like Akamai, Cisco WebEx, Comcast, DigitalOcean, GE, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Uber, Walmart, and others.


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Delayed by two decades: why India’s flight to a two-airport system will be riddled with turbulence
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone for the Noida International Airport, India will inch closer to a two-airport system. It is expected to bring in more competition, improve services, and boost local economies. But there are concerns that the private sector-led expansion could create regulatory minefields if it’s not executed with utmost care.
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It’s great when the top-ranked individual among the super-rich donates some of his fortune to worthwhile causes. A rising tide lifts all boats, right?
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is trying to stop the literal rising tides, having given $10 billion to the fight against climate change and earning the No. 1 spot for the largest charitable donation of 2020.
According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Bezos’ gift to the Bezos Earth Fund was the world’s largest, as Bezos announced the first 16 grants from the fund totaled $791 million to 16 different organizations.
The trade journal listed Nike CEO Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, second and third.
In February 2020, Bezos used Instagram to reveal plans to support scientific projects, activists and NGOs addressing climate change.
He wrote that Earth can be saved.
“It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals,” Bezos added. “I’m committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer. Earth is the one thing we all have in common – let’s protect it, together.”
Knight and his wife donated more than $900 million to the Knight Foundation and $300 million to the University of Oregon.
Also making the list, in order:
- Fred Kummer, founder of the HBE Corporation construction company, and his wife June, with a $300 million donation to begin a foundation at the University of Missouri focusing on science and technology.
- Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, with a donation of $250 million for U.S. election security directed to the Center for Tech and Civic Life.
- Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, with a $200 million donation through his Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta foundation to build a new hospital.


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Apparently, Amazon needs cash. About $3 billion of it. And for that cash, it’s willing to pay .7542 percent, 1.301 percent, or 2.601 percent, annually, for three, five, or 10 years, respectively.
In other words, Amazon is issuing a bond offering, according to the Wall Street Journal, inviting investors to lend the U.S.’s largest online retailer cash for what it says are “general corporate purposes.” Those general purposes apparently include a new, billion-dollar corporate campus.
In a sense, this is not a shock, even though the last time Amazon raised cash was in 1998, because while Amazon sells billions of dollars of physical and digital goods, it keeps only tiny vestiges of those billions in its exceedingly slippery fingers.


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China will lift the foreign ownership caps of certain shipping firms in the Hainan free trade port as part of the efforts to boost the port's development, an official statement said Wednesday.
The removal of the limits, effective from May 5, will apply only to ships engaged in navigation and operation within the port, according to the State Council.
The move is an adjustment to the implementation of a regulation on ship registration in China, which stipulates that at least half of the stakes of ships registered and mainly operating in China should come from Chinese investors.
Transportation and marine departments in Hainan Province should strengthen information exchange to enhance monitoring of relevant processes to safeguard the order of domestic waterway transportation and national security, said the State Council.
China released a master plan for the Hainan free trade port on June 1, 2020, aiming to build the province into a globally influential, high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.


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Future Trends in Lithium Battery Prices
As of the end of 2015, China's energy storage project installed capacity of the top ten manufacturers, the largest number of lithium-ion battery manufacturers. The latest report shows that in the next 10 years, lithium-ion batteries will become the mainstream battery storage technology. Light weight, compact space and large storage capacity are the main reasons for the widespread use of Li ion batteries.In addition, compared with lead-acid batteries and sodium sulfur batteries, lithium-ion batteries can use anhydrous electrolytes. The use of anhydrous electrolyte can make the battery thinner, smaller and more energy intensive.
Although the cost of lithium-ion batteries is too high, is the biggest challenge facing the development of the industry, but many companies have been committed to improving the cost performance of lithium-ion batteries. Depending on the continuous improvement of the lithium battery industry chain in the field of new energy vehicles and power industry, the cost of lithium batteriesis declining.


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"Unreal Tournament is certainly a major long-term priority but we're planning not to release a major retail game in the series. for several years," Sweeney said. "So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives."Presumably Gears of War 3 is keeping the house pretty busy right now.
Meanwhile, Sweeney stated that Epic will continue to support the mod community and in the future announce plans to "open up the engine to more people to use freely and use cool stuff."
How long till the next UT?
Bryn says: It's not a shocker to hear this given the company's success with the Gears franchise. And while the most recent UT releases have been decent-to-great, it could stand to take a little time out. Will Epic become another major developer that focuses more and more on the console side of the industry?
I can certainly see why it might want to. Will you miss UT for the next couple of year? I'm still too busy playing the original to care!


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Proposed by Merchant Warehouse, this infographic details the benefits of mobile phone payment.
While smartphones are the majority in the United States and in France, these are now real digital wallets and facilitate purchasing by allowing barcodes to be scanned or by simplifying membership in loyalty programs.
We learn that 38% of American consumers surveyed by Merchant Warehouse have already used their smartphones to make a purchase and 21% of them to look for promotional offers.
Mobile payment should become essential by 2015 according to a study by the American company Discovery, cited in the infographic. Discovery, specialist in the installation of mobile payment terminals (160,000 shops equipped in the United States) indicates that in 2015, payments via smartphones will represent $ 22.6 billion. In 2012, they were already in the majority compared to other dematerialized means of payment, with a volume of $ 2.1 billion against $ 900 million for the latter.


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VC Funding in India during Q1 2015 had reached new heights as the number of Tech investment deals surpassed China, first time ever. However, investors decided to play safe and investment amount was down by 28.5% compared to the earlier quarter. During the three-month period, ended March 30, 2015, the VC investment in Tech startups in India totaled $1.36 billion. The investment was made via 69 deals, the maximum ever in the last nine months.
During FY14-15, total $5.2 billion investment was made in tech startups via 233 deals in India. The staggering 426% financial Y-O-Y growth in the tech investment portrays the flourishing scenario of the Indian startup ecosystem.
One97 Communications, the parent company of mobile commerce platform Paytm led the growth by clinching a single deal, equal to 42 percent of the total VC investment made in tech startups during the quarter. Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba invested $575 million in One97, at a valuation of $2 billion.
Mobile app based Taxi-booking aggregator OlaCabs raised the second highest amount of $126 million in a Convertible Note round. While Clues Network, the parent company of one of the eCommerce majors ShopClues.com, raised $100 million its series D round led by Tiger Global.
The silicon valley of India, Bangalore, topped the list of Cities with maximum number of investment deals in tech startups. Tech startups in Bangalore raised $147 million via 19 deals in Q1 2015. With 14 deals, Mumbai secured the second position in the list though, but startups there raised almost double the amount of Bangalore. Gurgaon and New Delhi remain at third and second position in the list. Interestingly, tech startups in Noida managed to click only a single deal, but the largest in amount, thanks to Paytm.
The report also highlights the top investors of tech startups in India. Sequoia capital, Tiger Global Management and IDC Ventures remained the top three investors in India tech startups. Sequoia Capital participated in 3 out of 6 largest investment deals – Freecharge, CarDekho and NewsHunt – during the quarter and had topped the list. Tiger Global Management emerged as the second most active investor of the quarter, by banking on early-stage deals to companies including News in Shorts, Grofers and MoonFrog Labs.
Tech Investment Across Asia Q1 2015
Overall, $4.8 billion was invested by VCs in tech startups across Asia in Q1 2015. China took the biggest chunk of the pie by securing $2.99 billion, followed by India and Japan. Out of 15 top deals, valued $100 million or more, 12 took place in China.
Beijing remains the hottest destination for tech startups in China with 31 deals valued $1.14 billion. Unlike India, Sequoia failed to secure the top position in the list of top tech investors of China. Matrix Partners has made the maximum investment in tech startups in China, including Zhaogang’s $100 million Series D round.


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Four of the outfits Lady Gaga will wear for her upcoming concert in South Korea were unveiled on Monday.
The four Giorgio Armani-designed costumes will also be shown off at four other venues during her Born This Way Ball world tour that kicks off in Seoul on 27 April, said Shinsegae International, Armani's South Korean business partner.
The new costumes, which are in line with the singer's extravagant and eccentric style, include a leotard fashioned from guitars and a giant piano keyboard headpiece, a black bodysuit made of hundreds of glittering vinyl tubes sewn together with metal studs and glass pieces and another skimpy outfit made of nets and fringes, decorated with scores of crystal pieces and sharp spikes.
"The state-of-the-art outfits were made of materials... that epitomise the futuristic concept of this tour," Shinsegae said, adding the costumes will also be shown at shows in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
South Korea has banned under-18s from the much-anticipated concert – her second in the country – after it was deemed unsuitable for younger audiences.
Religious groups have protested against Gaga's show, accusing the singer of advocating homosexuality and pornography.
Gaga – real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – shot to fame with pop songs including Just Dance, Poker Face and Bad Romance.
She is expected to perform 110 shows this year on the back of the success of last year's Born This Way, which has sold nearly six million copies since its release in May.
The singer has been named one of the Top 100 most influential fashion icons by Time, and has regularly wowed fans with shocking wardrobe choices that include a dress of raw meat.


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Algatech is launching AstaPure 5% natural astaxanthin oleoresin. The Israeli biotech company already produces natural astaxanthin from micro-algae in 10% and 15% concentrations, but said the addition of a lower concentration oleoresin would allow customers“more flexibility in product formulation development”.
“AstaPure 5% natural astaxanthin oleoresin can be used in all forms of oil soluble supplements and any type of softgels and liquid caps,” Efrat Kat, director of marketing and sales for Algatech, told NutraIngredients.
The food supplements space is already a fertile breeding ground for astaxanthin-based introductions, with the absence of supporting EU-approved health claims doing little to dampen demand.
Product launches up 50% in three years
According to Innova Market Insights, the number of product launches tracked globally with astaxanthin increased by 50% between 2011 and 2014, and 90% of these products were food supplements.
Data from the market research company showed that North America was by far the largest marketplace for astaxanthin products, accounting for 62% of product launches since 2011. However, it reported that Europe was the fastest growing market; the number of astaxanthin-based introductions in the region soared by 36% between 2013 and 2014.
It found that skin health was the number one claim for products containing astaxanthin, featuring on 28% of product launches, closely followed by eye health and heart health.
EU-approved claim still important
Whilst the market appears unconcerned that astaxanthin’s purported health benefits have not been recognised by regulators, Algatech confirmed that it does have a health claim in its sights under the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR).
“One of our objectives is to file for health claims in the EU. This is obviously in the joint interest of all natural algae astaxanthin manufacturers and we, as one of the founding members of NAXA [Natural Algae Astaxanthin Association], hope to promote it,”said Kat.
Asked what benefits the carotenoid was thought to deliver, Kat said: “Natural astaxanthin is a very potent antioxidant. Astaxanthin has been found to have beneficial effects in many health conditions related to central nervous system disorders, skin health, joint health and muscle endurance as well as the cardiovascular, immune, eye and other systems.”
5% of what?
Algatech’s astaxathin is extracted from the algae biomass using a proprietary high pressure CO2 technology, which yields an oleoresin that is an extract of all lipids naturally available in the microalgae.
“By controlling the extraction parameters we can standardise the astaxanthin content,” explained Kat.
The 5% is active astaxanthin oleoresin, the remaining 95% is other naturally occurring carotenoids produced from the extraction, along with other oils, said Kat.
In addition to the new 5% complex, Algatech has developed several new formulations for use in functional food and beverages, all scheduled to launch in early 2016.
“Astaxanthin is an ideal active ingredient in functional food and beverage products such as gummies, yogurts, beverages and nutrition bars,” said Kat.


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SUMMIT, NJ - Thanksgiving marks the joyful march to the heart of the holiday season, with Summit Downtown, inc. unveiling a 'Shop Summit Passport Program' that launches November 25, the same date as the nationwide "Small Business Saturday" initiative.
'Shop Summit Passport Program' Details
Shoppers must collect eight different passport 'stamps' -- with four coming from retail shops -- in oder to be entered to win one of three 'Shop Summit' Grand Prizes valued at more than $1,000 each. For a complete list of passport pick-up and drop-off locations, visit summitdowntown.org. No purchase is necessary, and passports must be turned in by 7 p.m. on December 1. The winning completed passports will be drawn at Regal Bank at 8 p.m. during the 'Celebrate in Summit' event December 1.
"Small Business Saturday"
"Small Business Saturday" offers consumers a meaningful alternative to shopping at the mall -- or on Routes 10 and 22 -- for "Black Friday" and, at the same time, affords residents and community neighbors the opportunity to support local businesses. Parking downtown will be free all Thanksgiving weekend. Many downtown businesses will also feature special promotions and sales for the day.
In addition, Summit Downtown, Inc. has purchased new, lighted holiday wreaths for the downtown area, which were recently installed by the Summit Department of Public Works staff.


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Toyota Has Recordbreaking Output In 2013
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a new record for Toyota.
Talking about a lot of cars here. The Japanese automaker produced slightly more than 10 million cars in 2013. The record-breaking output was due largely to high demand from car dealers and showrooms in the United States and in China.
Now, those are cars produced. When it comes to cars sold, no automaker has hit the 10 million mark in a year, though Toyota came close last year, selling 9.9 million of their cars worldwide. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Allergan, the makers of Botox and other cosmetic surgery treatments, has recently been approached the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about its marketing and advertising campaign of Aczone, an acne treatment that was announced for the U.S. markets earlier this year.
According to a recent report in the Los Angeles Business Journal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is claiming that the ads are misleading and that Aczone’s effectiveness is overstated.
The print advertisements ran in magazines and newspapers in Spring 2009 and did not appear again later this year. However, the marketing and advertising campaign did not include information about the (many) risk factors associated with the Aczone treatment, and as a result, Allergan is no longer allowed to run the same ad.
Azone is promoted as a topical gel acne medication that can be prescribed by a dermatologist. Free samples of the product are available online by visiting and filling out a registration form. The current ads on the website claim that Aczone can produce results in as little as two weeks, and is a “highly effective way to treat acne.”
The safety and side effects section of the website reports that women who are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant, women who are breastfeeding, and individuals who have glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency should not use the product and must consult with a medical doctor before pursuing this type of treatment. According to Allergan, Aczone may not be a good match for those who are taking acne medication with benzoyl perozxide.
Side effects of Aczone include redness, oiliness and peeling of the skin, and if the patient uses benzoyl peroxide in conjunction with the Aczone gel, the skin can turn yellow or orange.
These side effects were omitted from the marketing and adveritsing campaign that Allergan ran this spring.
Allergan has been issued a warning and must send a written response to the FDA by August 28, 2009 before the FDA pursues legal action.


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Today I drive a Volkswagen Jetta – the seventh VW I’ve bought – which is among the 600,000 VWs in the US containing diesel engines that were designed to cheat on emissions testing in order to maintain performance while exceeding federal pollution standards.
Volkswagen America recently proposed to Congress a $14.7-billion settlement that includes repairing or buying back the affected cars and compensating owners for their loss, with $2.7-billion allocated to remediate the environmental impact of the cars, and $2-billion on other cleaner-vehicle initiatives. (VW faces much smaller penalties for the seven million non-compliant vehicles it sold elsewhere in the world, as Europe has less stringent regulations than the US on nitrogen oxide emissions.)
But as VW and its customers, dealers, and regulatory agencies grapple over the settlement’s details, my question is for Volkswagen’s senior execs: even if I like your cars, can I ever again trust your company?
Brand marketing experts emphasize that trust is the foundation for a company’s relationship with their customers, whether dealing directly with consumers or with other businesses. When customers are aligned with a brand, they give it twice as much share of wallet as those not aligned with that same brand. But more than 40% of the people responding to a December 2015 Gallup poll said the news of VW’s deception made them less likely to purchase a Volkswagen.
To make matter worse, New York State filed a civil suit against Volkswagen last month, saying it has evidence that senior VW execs were aware of the scheme, and that the company initially tried to cover its tracks when confronted by regulators. This is a company that needs to take drastic action to earn the trust of current and future customers.
I remember taking that 1960 Vanagon on some terrific adventures, with the added excitement of wondering whether it would be able to huff and puff its way to the top of the next big hill. Volkswagen now faces a similar climb, the steepest in its history; it will be interesting to see whether or not it makes it.


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After the launch of the cheapest 5G smartphone in the Indian market, Motorola has been planning to launch a few more handsets till next month. The new one in the lineup is the Motorola G40 which is tipped to launch in the month of February in the Indian market. The phone will be yet another budget 5G enabled phone offering in the market and has been codenamed Ibiza. There is currently no official confirmation from the company yet, but as per the details from the reliable tipster Mukul Sharma, we will be able to see the launch of the phone in February.
The exact date is unknown at the moment but is expected to be revealed soon. Some of the features that have been leaked about the phone include a 90Hz enabled IPS LCD display and the use of Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 SoC. The phone is expected to launch with a single variant of 6GB RAM and a triple camera setup which will include a 48MP primary camera sensor along with a 5MP macro lens and a 2MP depth sensor.
The front comes with an HD+ display and will have a waterdrop-style notch for the front camera, which is expected to be a 13MP camera sensor. The phone will be powered using a 5,000 mAh battery, but there is no confirmation about the addition of fast charging capabilities. It will operate on Android 11 out of the box and will be a budget 5G offering for those who do not want to spend premium prices for flagship devices with 5G support.


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Ingenia CEO Simon Owen’s aggressive $552 million acquisition pipeline has been given the green light by institutional and now retail investors.
Ingenia announced to the ASX last Monday (22 November) that it had raised the $475 million it had sought to fund its expansion. The institutional component raised $350 million.
After buying 19 sites in FY21, Ingenia has acquired or is in the final stage of exclusive due diligence for 20 additional communities and land sites. It is paying $270 million for the Seachange portfolio of lifestyle communities – two established, two partially sold and two development sites – in southeast Queensland. Ingenia competed with Stockland, Macquarie, GIC and Hometown for the portfolio that comprises 693 existing sites and 548 development sites and its management team.
Its other purchases were Caravan Parks of Australia’s seven mixed-use community portfolio of more than 1,400 permanent, annual and tourism sites in Victoria and on the border with NSW, for which it paid $110 million, and a $24 million greenfield site in metropolitan Brisbane with capacity for a 160-home community.
“The retail entitlement offer closed at 5pm on Wednesday, 17 November 2021, at 5pm and raised a total of $30.6 million, with retail securityholders applying for approximately 5 million securities,” said Ingenia, which began a strategic partnership with America’s Sun Communities, the world’s largest operator of manufactured home parks and recreational vehicle communities, in 2017.
“Approximately 11.6 million securities not taken up under the Retail Entitlement Offer will be allocated to the sub-committee of the Equity Raising Fund.”
Ingenia Communities’ offer price was $6.12. Its share price on Friday was $6.175. It has a market capitalisation of $2.5 billion.


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“We love all our children,” laughs Gail Heimann when asked about her favorite campaigns her agency did last year. Heimann, president-CEO of Weber Shandwick, has a lot to choose from. Last year, the agency churned out notable creative for the likes of Ancestry.com, for which it created a stirring documentary about the Underground Railroad that showed during Sundance; it rented out an Airbnb modeled after Barbie’s Dreamhouse; sold Bud Light “Cleveland Browns Victory Fridges” in Ohio; and masterminded an album of “Pure Michigan” sounds that actually tracked on the Billboard New Age album charts.
None of these are traditional “PR” campaigns, but Weber Shandwick has been busting tradition for years. “We have always been about breaking out, getting ahead and staying ahead,” says Heimann.
To that end, the shop has been investing in data (it now employs more than 100 data scientists) and consulting capabilities with a 50-plus person unit Called United Minds and has beefed up its creative hires. Weber Shandwick now considers itself a “marketing solutions firm,” and says that 40 percent of its global revenue last year was derived from “digitally fueled engagements.”
As for staying ahead, the agency says it has grown 25 percent in the past four years, which, according to its own benchmarking, is four times faster than the top five global PR agencies. Weber Shandwick’s U.S. net revenue came in at $439 million in 2019, up 2.2 percent, with worldwide net revenue of $674 million, according to Ad Age Datacenter estimates.
Last year, Weber Shandwick posted low- to mid-single digit organic growth and reeled in some major new clients, including Kellogg, Michelin, Buick, GMC and USAA. And the shop says that more than 75 percent of its growth last year came from existing clients, which include IBM, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Glaxo SmithKline and Mars. The agency did lose State Farm and the U.S. Army last year, but retained 92 percent of its business.
“We are an organization born in PR that was built to solve problems,” says Heimann, who says an “earned first” mindset remains the hub of what it does. For a global consumer product pitch for a client it won’t identify, Weber Shandwick put its data scientists to work combing through social and other media to analyze 70 million data points to find the next big flavor trend. It built a chatbot for Novartis so that psoriasis patients can manage symptoms, and—as befitting a shop that prides itself on being in touch with popular culture—the shop dreamed up an UNO game for Mattel with a new veto card used when a player breaks the “no-politics” rule. The game sold out at Walmart within two weeks. We’ll let Weber Shandwick’s entry speak for itself here: “Next time Aunt Shirley starts talking Trump, pull out the trump card … pun intended … to skip her turn.”
The agency “is very good in turning insight to action,” says Amardeep Kahlon, chief marketing officer for GSK consumer healthcare in the U.S. “I find them very valuable at finding multicultural trends, consumer insights and the general zeitgeist. They understand brands and the creative opportunity to help with consumer friction points, to intercept with an opportunity to help the brand become more culturally relevant.”
Weber Shandwick might be best known for its work for Mattel as part of an agency team that transformed 60-year-old Barbie from a symbol of old-school sexism into a model of gender equality and inclusivity. That evolution landed the doll the No. 5 slot on Ad Age’s Hottest Brands list in December 2019.
This year, the marketer worked with Weber to get social and media traction for a real-life Barbie dreamhouse for rent on Airbnb, as part of its broader “Only On Airbnb” campaign. The campaign in total generated 18,000 press hits and 25 million incremental views to Airbnb.com.
Weber Shandwick’s documentary “Railroad Ties” for Ancestry.com resulted in a 146 percent uptick in searches for the genealogy site, a 10 percent increase in traffic and an 83 percent rise in consumer consideration.


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Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities issued a note to investors Monday in which noted yet again that the iPhone 4 continues to be scarcely available in China. Apple has struggled to meet demand for its smartphone since it first launched in September.
"We continue to believe that China remains in the early stages of catching 'Apple fever' and demand for iPhone 4 has been well above the ramp of the iPhone 3GS thus far," he said.
White recently toured China and met with officials from the nation's wireless carriers. They indicated they believe the total high-end smartphone market in China is between 100 million and 125 million.
That huge addressable market could prove to be a "significant opportunity for growth" for Apple in the years ahead, White said.
"The iPhone 4 is sold out for two months at authorized Apple resellers, Apple stores and China Unicom," he said. "In fact, we estimate China Unicom has been unable to fulfill approximately one-third of the iPhone 4 orders due to shortages.
The iPhone 4 got off to a hot start on carrier China Unicom in September, when it sold 100,000 in its first four days. Since then, limited supply led to extensive scalping, forcing Apple to require reservations for purchases.
And China Mobile, which is not an official partner with Apple, has been helping users trim their SIM card to fit inside the iPhone 4, which requires a microSIM. White noted that even though China Mobile does not sell the iPhone 4, it has the most iPhone subscribers on its network.


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Lexus LF-LC concept, like Bengawan Solo pastries, might eventually make it to a production line. This is due to the overwhelming popularity that the dramatic concept received. It was honored with the ‘EyesOn Design award’ from a jury of leading designers at the North American International Auto Show a few months ago.
After the LF-LC’s debut at the recent Geneva Motor Show, Lexus product planning chief, Karl Schlich, rated the LF-LC’s chances of making to production as 50/50. “A decision has not been taken,” he said. “But we’re now up to a 50 per cent chance from a zero per cent. Every top Toyota Motor Company manager is aware of the great reception it has received and now we’re talking about how we can do it and fit it into the product plan.” Schlich added that dealers have gone crazy for it as well.
Schlich commented that if the proposal for such a dramatic Lexus production car had been presented to Toyota management without the concept, they would have dismissed it. Well, I believe Schlich is right in his observation, considering that Toyota is the company that brings you the conservatively-styled Corolla and Camry.


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This interesting dual-screened LG slider has been making the rumor rounds since it showed up at a June event in the UK, but besides the T-Mobile logo above the screen, no one really knew what it was called or where it was headed for. At the time, it was believed to be the LG Flip II, which would be released as an exclusive for T-Mobile US, but a new report just confimed it: it’s indeed coming to T-Mobile US.
The retail name is still up in the air, but the signs point to the phone arriving as the Flip II, as expected. According to a leaked T-Mo roadmap detailed on This Is My Next, the carrier is set to release a handful of LG-branded phones before the year ends: phones called the Flip II, the Maxx and Maxx Q (a “Maxx” with a QWERTY keyboard), and one more phone called the “Gelato” Optimus II. This phone? It certainly looks like a “Flip II.”
All we know so far is that the phone will run on Android, and is highlighted by a customizable touch-based app launcher between the split keyboard. If this is indeed the Flip II, then the rest of its details should emerge in a month. According to the leaked T-Mobile roadmap, the carrier will launch it on September 14.


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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The merger of Emirates Aluminium Co. Ltd. (Emal) and Dubai Aluminium Co. Ltd. (Dubal) to create Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is expected to be completed this month, according to a company official.
EGA will become the worlds fifth-largest aluminum company by production and make the United Arab Emirates, where Emal and Dubal are based, the fourth-largest aluminum-producing country, Walid Al Attar, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Emal/Dubal, said. Al Attar said he would become EGAs chief marketing officer once the deal had closed.
The formation of EGA was initiated in mid-2013 (amm.com, June 4).
EGA plans to boost its supplies to the Americas as regional supply deficits grow, especially in North America and Western Europe, while Middle East countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region have a production surplus, Al Attar said. "This attests to the Mideast smelters overall intention to remain significant exporters of primary aluminum to world markets," he said Jan. 13 during a presentation at the Platts Aluminum Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Most of the production will be devoted to value-added products, Al Attar said, and EGAs entire annual production is pre-sold. "As such, EGA has no intentions of curtailing production levels at either facility," he said.
But the scenario is different in much of the rest of the world, where Al Attar said a P1020 inventory overhang has been aggravated by warehousing incentives that have dented London Metal Exchange prices and threatened the profitability of producers. EGA has not contributed to that problem, he said.
"Every ton of product cast ... is consumed by our customers. As a result no Dubal or Emal metal is actually placed in LME warehouses," Al Attar said. But EGAs competitors have devoted much of their production to remelt ingot, which has led to a "massive" inventory accumulations in warehouses, low product availability, low LME prices and high premiums, he said.
Al Attar also criticized "protectionism" for distortions in the world aluminum market, citing levies in the European Union in particular, as well as what he characterized as a production glut from uncompetitive smelters in China.
But Al Attar repeatedly returned his ire to the influences of warehouse-financing on the aluminum market. "The woes faced by the global aluminum industries are related primarily to the warehousing dynamics, resulting in a remelt overhang and an associated depression in the LME price," he said, although he noted that the outlook for value-added products remains strong.


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NZ Retail and The Register speak directly to the heart of retail business owners, managers, and c-suite with the latest retail news and advice. Latitude Financial Services were keen to leverage this industry leadership to generate brand awareness. We were enlisted to take care of all of the content creation for them, as well as provide exposure, thought leadership and product knowledge.
We delivered this through:
- Longform article content in NZ Retail magazine and on theregister.co.nz.
- Event sponsorship
- Providing speakers, coverage and presence at events
- Content amplified through email newsletters and social media
We also helped Latitude create a highly successful event – ‘Kickstart The Retail New Year’ – with another planned for April 2018. The Retail Hotlist will award the best thinkers, disrupters and leaders in the industry, supported by a multi-channel approach and a panel of big-name judges.


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Westfield film celebrates 100 years of East End style
By Sarah Shearman, campaignlive.co.uk, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 12:50PM
Westfield, the shopping centre developer, is releasing a short online film that charts 100 years of fashion, dance and music from London's East End to mark the forthcoming launch of Stratford City.
The teaser video, created by The Viral Factory and directed by Jake Lunt, features a couple dancing in different styles from the past 100 years and wearing sixty different costumes.
It was filmed in four different East London locations and finishes in the new Westfield centre in Stratford, London.
The soundtrack has been created by Tristin Norwell, who re-interpreted the track for each different decade.
All the production and media was handled by the Viral Factory, which sent out the video to its network today (31 August).
Westfield opens its £1.45bn shopping complex next to the 2012 London Olympics site on 13 September.
Last week (24 August) it launched an East-End themed Facebook campaign to encourage members of the public to share their memories of the area and win prizes.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
- Mid Weight Planner - ATL Daniel Marks London £30-£50K + Excellent Benefits, Central London
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- OgilvyOne loses BA business
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- Iris and Cheil big winners at MAA Best Awards
- Campaign Viral Chart: Pepsi tops Coke with Jeff Gordon test drive
- Twitter attracts more ads, but rates tumble 67%
- Greenpeace protests outside Saatchi & Saatchi London office


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Several Brands Around The World Join In On ‘Meta’ Jokes, But Wendy's Steals The Show
When Facebook Inc's new logo and name "Meta," was introduced on October 28, social media exploded with memes. Several firms around the world joked about altering their names, with some comparing the name to foods like pita and feta. Wendy's, American fast-food business, stole the show when they changed their Twitter handle to "Meat." While the joke was intended to be amusing, Facebook didn't mind and engaged in friendly conversation.


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To regain its competitive edge, Hong Kong must stay the course in shipping and finance
Edward Yang Liu says the city, as a bridge between the mainland and the rest of the world, has a golden opportunity to leverage its know-how and reclaim its dominance in two key industries
When the first quarter of 2016 ended, Hong Kong, as an international financial centre, has already borne a spate of negative news. Firstly, the international rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s lowered the credit rating of Hong Kong from stable to negative. The Global Financial Centres Index released by British think-tank and consultancy Z/Yen shows that Hong Kong has dropped out of the top three rankings and is now surpassed by Singapore. The lowered credit rating and ranking are undoubtedly a wake-up call for the competitiveness of Hong Kong’s financial sector. Therefore, identifying the right direction of development, so as to exploit its unique advantages to the full as soon as possible, should be the top priority for Hong Kong’s financial industry.
The financial industry and the shipping industry are two traditional industries in Hong Kong. As noted in the nation’s 13th five-year plan published in March this year, Beijing will support Hong Kong to consolidate and enhance its status as an international financial, shipping and trade centre.
However, the Hong Kong government’s “positive non-interventionism” of free-market economic policies has had some adverse consequences, resulting in not only the lack of innovation and development in the financial sector, but also the marginalisation of the shipping industry in recent years. This should change. In the policy address earlier this year, the chief executive clearly pointed out that Hong Kong should develop high-value-added shipping services. And shipping finance, the focus of high-end shipping services, should be the future direction of development.
The shipping industry is a capital-intensive industry. It is difficult for ports, shipping companies and shipyards to rely on their own funds to meet their investment needs. But stable funding for the development of the shipping industry can be realised through financing.
One of the reasons London is still the world’s top international shipping centre in the 21st century is that the advantages of its financial services are fully exploited in the shipping market and it has become one of the world’s leading shipping finance markets. Compared with London, Hong Kong, which is also a financial centre, has advantages such as diversification of financial products, an excellent investment environment where foreign exchange can be traded freely in the market, and also proximity to mainland China. The world’s major shipping finance banks also have regional headquarters or offices in Hong Kong.
To encourage shipping companies to take advantage of asset securitisation and other means to raise funds from the stock market, the newly established Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board should take the lead to set up a working group as soon as possible, with the purpose of liaising with the Hong Kong Shipowners Association and the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing to encourage more Hong Kong and mainland shipping companies to get listed in the city, so as to further expand the financing channels for shipping enterprises. There are currently more than 60 shipping companies registered with the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, and the number of ships registered in the Hong Kong Shipping Register is more than 2,500. The Hong Kong stock market can seek broader opportunities in the field of shipping, as well as further build Hong Kong into a leading shipping finance centre.
In addition, the maritime board should, together with financial institutions like the Financial Services Development Council, explore and expand shipping finance products and services, such as promoting the development and innovation of shipping price derivatives and broadening shipping finance channels in Hong Kong for mainland and international companies.
In addition, the government should follow the example of Singapore and set up a government-led shipping trust fund, in order to enter the capital market, thereby widening financing channels and fund-exit channels for shipping companies. This should also involve, for example, formulating the relevant tax benefits for the shipping trust fund and offering tax incentives for approved ship-leasing companies, shipping industry funds or trusts.
In addition, the shipping trust fund should enjoy preferential institutional benefits than listed companies. For instance, banks should have no lending limit imposed on shipping trusts; shipping trusts should not distribute bonus according to the accounting income, but instead pay dividends based on operating cash flow; income tax and stamp duty should be fully exempted for investment in the shipping trust fund, whether the investment is from Hong Kong, mainland Chinese or foreign investors.
As a centre for international finance and shipping, Hong Kong can provide one-stop financial services for the Asia-Pacific region and the global shipping market. When the Hong Kong shipping industry develops and grows, it can in turn attract mainland and foreign investment to inject more liquidity into the Hong Kong capital market and accordingly lead the development of the financial services industry.
With the construction of “One Belt, One Road”, Hong Kong’s shipping finance services should seize this rare opportunity and become the “super contact” for mainland China’s shipping enterprises to explore the international stage, as well as for international shipping companies to enter the mainland.
Edward Yang Liu is a registered foreign lawyer at Reed Smith Richards Butler


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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Well today is Cyber Monday. Lots of deals online for holiday shoppers. And if Black Friday was any indication, it could be a decent day for online retailers. Stores — of the brick and mortar kind — boasted some better-than-expected holiday-kickoff numbers, as Jill Barshay reports.
Jill Barshay: Shopping this Thanksgiving weekend was even better than in 2007, when the economy still seemed to be on track. One in every two Americans was out shopping some time between Thursday and Sunday — a 17 percent increase from last year. And each shopper spent more than the year before.
That’s according to preliminary data from the National Retail Federation. Scott Krugman is a spokesman with the group:
Scott Krugman: I think the reason why people are shopping so much now is because they weren’t shopping at all for the last two months. Consumers looked like they were waiting and waiting for the best deals possible. They knew that was going to happen over Black Friday weekend and they decided to splurge a little bit.
Retailers worked hard to lure shoppers with big bargains. Clothing was the biggest seller, but electronics like big screen TVs sold well too. Still, this buying frenzy will have to continue for many more weeks if retailers hope to rebound from the sales slump of previous months.
In New York, I’m Jill Barshay for Marketplace.
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Jan 8, 2014 The Washington Post’s Lydia DePillis explains the deceptive advertising around weight-loss drugs.
Dec 4, 2013 Newsweek is to be revived, in print.
Nov 25, 2013 Katie Couric's hiring is the latest in a number of high-priced recruitments by Yahoo.
Oct 28, 2013 Instagram wants to put ads into our social media feeds, but it promises those ads will mirror the "Instagram aesthetic."
Oct 28, 2013 A talk about 'Brand America' with Sir Martin Sorrell, marketing whiz and CEO of international advertising firm WPP.
Stacey Vanek Smith
Oct 25, 2013 Instagram has come up with an obvious way to generate revenue. It's going to start including advertising in users' photo feeds.
Oct 23, 2013 The World Series starts and big sporting events like this still bring what advertisers want -- live viewers.
Oct 4, 2013 Imagine you’re a business that relies on advertising revenue, but it’s unclear how many of your customers are bots or not. Meet Twitter.
Oct 9, 2013 Could advertising convince Americans to buy -- or avoid buying -- health insurance?


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Consumer finance regroups: Promise to be good?
Last month the consumer finance company Promise started closing some of its retail outlets, specifically those that still feature human beings. Thirty percent of the company’s staff will be laid off by the end of the year. Promise is currently the biggest of the consumer lending companies that were making so much money at the beginning of the last decade, with 1,361 unstaffed branches and 148 staffed. It was also the first to announce the closing of branches, though according to an article in the Asahi Shimbun all consumer finance companies are following suit. Acom started whittling away at its 118 branches last September and will have only 45 by March. Aiful will have reduced its original 96 stores to 28 by the end of February. And Takefuji will have reduced its 180 outlets to 100 by the end of the year.
Several years ago the consumer finance industry was hit with multiple lawsuits from customers who said the companies were charging too much interest. Courts agreed and awarded large settlements, and in 2006 the government changed regulations to get rid of the so-called gray area that allowed for such exorbitant interest rates. In June, the Money Lending Business Law will start to be enforced, greatly restricting loan extensions. Almost all of the consumer loan companies declared bankruptcy after 2006 and have had to reorganize in order to stay alive. In most cases they’ve gotten back on their feet thanks to their partnerships with major banks, many of which predated their bankruptcies.
So if you see fewer signs for these companies lately, that’s why, but they’re making a comeback and still charging pretty high rates. They’ve even started advertising again though not quite at the same pitch they were famous for around the turn of the millennium, when they practically owned the airwaves after 10 p.m. Now they’re pushing more cautious, responsible borrowing habits. In one Takefuji ad a young man runs into a florist and says he wants to fill his girlfriend’s apartment with flowers, and the salesperson gives him a small bouquet in a basket, saying that this “size” fits his situation better. In other words, calm down or you’ll end up in the doghouse.
But, of course, consumer credit companies rely on people getting into debt for their profits. Before the bankruptcies there was a system the industry called “cascade.” A person who needed case would first go to his or her bank for a “card loan” since the interest was fairly low, between 8 and 12 percent. If the bank refused, he could then go to the bank’s own consumer finance unit (SMBC’s @ Loan, former Tokyo Mitsubishi’s DC Cash One, former Sanwa’s Mobit, to name three) for a slightly higher interest loan, between 15 and 18 percent; and if they refused they would refer the person to whichever consumer loan company – Promise, Acom, Takefuji, Aiful – the bank had hooked up with, for interest rates between 18 and 25.5 percent.
That system is still being used, though in many cases the middle finance company has been eliminated. Promise, for example, works with SMBC and has basically replaced @ Loan, which Promise absorbed. As part of the restructuring and in line with the new law, Promise will be stricter about the criteria used for granting loans. Upper limits for loan amounts will be no more than one-third the borrower’s annual income, and the borrower will have to provide more documents to prove his credit-worthiness. But Promise’s goal is to eliminate all face-to-face loan contract services by March 2013, though it is planning to establish 20 new regional “bases” for face-to-face loan “counseling.” According to the Asahi, at present 60 percent of all consumer loan customers make contracts using ATMs and 20 percent use the Internet. Only 8 percent do so after discussing their situation face-to-face with lenders. Essentially, the industry wants to make everything even more automated and impersonal in order to save money.


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Pune parents complain of ‘old uniform’ scandal
The parents allege that to provide benefit to a contractor, a senior administration official and a prominent office bearer of the ruling party, the entire Direct Benefit Transfer scheme has been bypassed.Updated: Jun 30, 2017 15:32 IST
The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) smart card scheme is being circulated by the municipal administration on a large scale to ensure that various types of materials are available in time to the employees of the municipal corporation and students of the municipal education board. The parents allege that to provide benefit to a contractor, a senior administration official and a prominent office bearer of the ruling party, the entire scheme has been bypassed.Therefore, in addition to doubts regarding the implementation of the scheme, the parents allege that students may get old uniforms this year too.
Every year, the municipal administration provide various types of material to students of the municipal education board. The administration also follows the tender process for this. However, parents allege that there were irregularities in it this year. The allegations by parents have triggered a controversy, leading to delay in procuring the material. Earlier this year, the municipal administration announced that around one lakh students of the municipal education board will be provided uniforms by July 15.
Accordingly, 43 firms agreed to give uniforms to them. The professional firms, however, complained that due to a limited duration given to them, it would be impossible to make uniforms for a large number of students. Later, one of the firms agreed to give uniforms within the deadline prescribed by the civic body. Since, the firm was providing uniforms to students during previous years, it had 85,000 uniforms left over from last year. The firm, therefore, decided to distribute old uniforms to the students.
“I will personally look into this issue.The order for new uniforms for this year was already given, hence, this will not happen,” said mayor Mukta Tilak. “The allegations of old uniforms being given out to students is a rumour. There are 43 contractors who are ready to provide uniforms.Students have a choice whether to buy from the shop or get the uniforms from the school stall,’’ said Tushar Daundkar, chief of store department, PMC.
Meanwhile, students from the Shrimati Shantabai Balkrishna Dhole Patil school at Dhole Patil road said that they are still waiting for school uniforms, even though the school has already started. The students of Mahatma Jyotiba Prathamik Vidyalaya said that they have still not received uniforms meant for the last academic year. Asha Shinde headmistress of school said, “We are allowing students to wear plain clothes because we know that uniforms were not distributed last year. Now, under the DBT smart card scheme we are waiting for this year’s uniform.”
Pune will be the first municipal corporation to distribute the benefits of the DBT scheme without purchasing material for it. The standing committee has also approved this proposal. Therefore, the amount meant for the purchase material will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of more than one lakh and twenty thousand beneficiaries of the board of education. However, there is a doubt in the implementation of this scheme.
First Published: Jun 29, 2017 15:49 IST


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A drunken 60-year-old man was arrested for allegedly kicking a Pepper robot in a fit of rage at a SoftBank store, police said. According to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, Kiichi Ishikawa from..
Tag Archives: Softbank
Fujitsu today announced that the new Arrows A Softbank 201F smartphone will be available only in Japan from SoftBank retailers beginning February 16, 2013.Representing Fujitsu’s second model offered through Arrows A Softbank..
Kyocera completes its solar modules installation for the first phase of the SoftBank Kyoto Solar Park in Japan
Kyocera announced that it has completed installation of its solar modules for the first phase of the SoftBank Kyoto Solar Park (Kyoto City, Japan), and that the approximately 2.1 megawatt (MW) installation..
Softbank BB Bluetooth headset from Softbank will be launched in Japan in late July. Softbank BB is a Bluetooth headset that supports AAC (Advanced Audio Coding). . Equipped with an organic EL..
Softbank to launch high-speed wireless Internet access service featuring speeds of up to 110 megabits per second
Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator Softbank Mobile, will launch a new high-speed wireless Internet access service featuring speeds of up to 110 megabits per second in Japan. Softbank 4G service to be..


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His Majesty King Abdullah’s personal website has been named the best Arab website by the Pan Arab Web Awards organised by Dubai Internet City and the Assembly of Professionals and Technicians in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera.net won the award for best news website. The contest seeks to encourage Arab designers and innovators to enhance the standards of technical excellence in the field of website design in the Arab world.
Source: [The Jordan Times]
This is good news for Jordan and still more proof that the Kingdom is on the right path towards development, transparency and democracy.


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Amazon India gets Rs 2010 crore fresh capital infusion
This has been a year of aggressive expansion for Amazon in the country as it has launched a slew of global programmes, including the Prime subscription service.
The Jeff Bezos-owned company, which operates the online marketplace Amazon. in, is estimated to have lost over Rs 1,000 crore to woo customers with special offers and discounts in the festive season in October, according to two people aware of the details.
“It is losing about Rs 600 crore every month (non-sale months),” said the one of the sources, who reckons the Seattle-based company will burn up nearly a $1billion this year in India as it races to outpace its Indian rivals.
“We will invest what it takes to become the customers’ preferred choice in India, and are encouraged that we are India’s largest and fastest-growing ecommerce marketplace,” said an Amazon India spokeswoman in a statement to ET’s queries about the investment and losses.
“In an industry reportedly flat or negative, Amazon India has continued to show remarkable growth of over 100% this year,” the spokeswoman added.
The firm also operates different units for logistics, wholesale commerce and payments, with capital for those businesses pumped in separately. In recent weeks, Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal and ride-hailing app Ola’s cofounder Bhavish Aggarwal have been at the forefront of a debate after they said Indian-origin startups need policy support to counter what they claim is “capital dumping” by foreign rivals.
“(Earlier) Amazon spent a lot of capital to build warehouses and infrastructure, but in 2016 they have increased spending on customer acquisition,” said Satish Meena, an analyst with Forrester Research, who believes Flipkart will now need to raise fresh money of its own to counter Amazon.
The Bengaluru-based company, backed by New York Investment firm Tiger Global, has raised about $3.4 billion so far.
“Flipkart was in investment mode in 2015, which it has cut down in 2016. It will need to raise capital before it can start matching Amazon’s spending,” said Meena. The capital infusion by Amazon is the first since the Indian government announced new norms for online retail in April, and also the first after Bezos increased capital commitment to India from $2 billion to $5 billion in June.
This has been a year of aggressive expansion for Amazon in the country as it has launched a slew of global programmes, including the Prime subscription service, where customers get guaranteed delivery in a day or two as well as early access to deals. Last week it also launched Prime Video, for which Amazon has been tying up with a number of content creators.
The aggressive spending has started showing some results. Amazon Seller Services’ turnover for the last fiscal rose 116% to Rs 2,217 crore. In the same period Flipkart Internet’s sales increased 153% to Rs 1,952 crore. However, these figures don’t include the revenue of Flipkart’s fashion subsidiary Myntra. Both Amazon Sellers Services and Flipkart Internet earn revenue through commissions, advertisements and shipping fees that they charge sellers.


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In a sign of the times, Uber said today it had agreed to purchase alcohol delivery company Drizly in a $1.1 billion stock and cash deal. The acquisition is expected to close within the first half of 2021.
With ongoing lockdowns and restrictions, it makes sense for Uber to continue to expand its delivery offerings to alcohol with Drizly, a company that partners with retailers in 1,400 cities to deliver alcohol on demand.
In December 2020, Uber announced the completion of the acquisition of food delivery app Postmates in an all-stock $2.65 billion transaction. And last August, Uber Health expanded its services to include access to pharmaceutical delivery in Seattle and Dallas, in partnership with the delivery platform NimbleRx, “with plans to grow in the coming months.” The company said at the time that as COVID-19 cases were still on the rise across the U.S., getting to a pharmacy to pick up prescriptions can be challenging for many and nearly impossible for some.
“Wherever you want to go and whatever you need to get, our goal at Uber is to make people’s lives a little bit easier,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a statement today. “That’s why we’ve been branching into new categories like groceries, prescriptions and, now, alcohol. Cory [CEO Cory Rellas] and his amazing team have built Drizly into an incredible success story, profitably growing gross bookings more than 300% year-over-year. By bringing Drizly into the Uber family, we can accelerate that trajectory by exposing Drizly to the Uber audience and expanding its geographic presence into our global footprint in the years ahead.”
The pandemic has fueled online sales of alcohol. The Wall Street Journal, citing industry tracker IWSR, said e-commerce made up just 1% of retail U.S. alcohol sales by volume in 2019 but is expected to grow to 7% by 2024.
The WSJ says the tracker estimated online alcohol sales in the U.S. grew 80% by value last year from the year earlier, and the country is “poised to overtake China this year as the world’s largest online alcohol market.” IWSR, as reported by The WSJ, goes on to say that the pandemic has created enormous awareness among Americans that they can buy booze online, and 44% who buy alcohol via e-commerce only began doing so last year.
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Food: Page 2This is page 2 of the food coverage from Watchers Watch
The Food Network's Next Stars? (2007-07-04): In between firing up the grill, entertaining relatives and getting ready for fireworks festivities, we kept sneaking peeks at a reality show that we've become quite addicted to: The Next Food Network Star, where people compete to get their own show on The Food Network.
Aussies Love Cat Poo Coffee (2007-05-21): Reuters reports that Australians love a new imported coffee called Kopi Luwak.
Incredibly Hot Chili Pepper Discovered (2007-02-26): The Associated Press reports that a man named Paul Bosland has discovered the hottest chili pepper in the world.
K-Fed Superbowl Ad Infuiates Restaurant Industry (2007-01-24): Kevin Federline's new ad which will run during the Superbowl has absolutely infuriated the fast food industry, which claims that the ad makes fun of people who flip burgers for a living.
The Horrors of Kraft Guacamole Dip (2006-11-30): A woman is suing Kraft Foods, Inc.
KFC Logo Launch in Area 51 (2006-11-15): KFC has now built the first fast food chain logo that will be actually visible from space.
Big Boy Look Alike Contest Winner Announced (2006-10-10): 11-year-old Ian Appold of Bay City, Michigan has won the Big Boy look-alike contest.
No McDonald's For Moses Martin (2006-09-25): Little Moses Martin will not be enjoying Mickey D's anytime soon if mom Gwyneth Paltrow has anything to say about it.
Junk Food Diet Helped Man Live to be 112 (2006-09-02): A California man lived to the ripe old age of 112 while living on a fun diet of junk food his entire life.
Grilling Out To Impress (2006-05-29): In an article entitled "Pimp My Grill", The New York Times delves into the latest suburban obsession: having a bigger and better grill than the guy next door.
Creepy Cupcakes for Hoffa Search (2006-05-27): FBI agents are searching for Jimmy Hoffa's remains in Milford Township and a local company baked creepy Hoffa cupcakes. The FBI agents bought some.
Georgia Upset Over Alabama's Plans to Adopt the Peach (2006-02-24): The BBC reports that Alabama is close to adopting the peach as its official state fruit tree.
The Great Mac and Cheese Debate (2006-01-14): As we were perusing The New York Times last week, we ran across an investigative, in-depth article about how to make the best homemade macaroni and cheese.
Mariah Carey's Eating Habits Revealed (2006-01-03): Cindy Adams of The New York Post examines the backstage eating habits of superstar Mariah Carey.
Martha Stewart and the Desperate Housewife (2005-09-13): She's back! Martha Stewart has done her time and is back on TV, with not one but two new shows.
We Celebrate National Sandwich Month (2005-08-08): Apparently, we've managed to go an entire week without realizing that it's National Sandwich Month.
Instant Ramen Inventor Achieves Lifelong Dream: Space Noodles (2005-07-30): Momofuku Ando, the inventor of the popular instant ramen noodles and founder of Nissin Food, achieved his lifelong dream earlier this week when the Discovery space shuttle >successfully blasted into space carrying some high-tech space noodles.
Crying While Eating Site Explained (2005-06-26): Daniel Engber, a New York writer, explains how he created the Internet hit website Crying While Eating in this confessional piece on Slate.
The Powerful Spell of Grapefruit (2005-06-21): A new study has found that men under the powerful spell of grapefruit aroma think the women around them are six years younger than they actually are.
Counterfeit Stamps End Subway Promotion (2005-06-03): Some people will do anything to stay on the Subway diet, short of actually paying for a sub.


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While Apple looks forward to the launch of Apple TV this year and rumors buzz about an iPad mini, not all analysts are convinced that the stock is a keeper.
Edward Zabitsky, CEO and analyst of ACI Research, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that he rates the tech giant’s shares a “sell,” with a price target of $270.
Zabitsky believes that Apple’s iPhone could see some competition from the Samsung Galaxy and HTC 1X.
“The only reason [the release of the Galaxy] would matter is because Samsung is the top commodity producer of cellphones, the most vertically integrated, and in a more competitive market cost of production is everything,” he said, adding that Samsung is the only company who has the same purchasing power as Apple.
Samsung had a strong first quarter, selling 40 million plus cell phones, and Zabitsky says this put them ahead of Apple.
For Apple’s share price to reach his target, however, the iPhone would have to sustain serious margin erosion.
“We haven’t seen that yet,” Zabitsky said, “We have seen a $30 per unit increase in the cost of the new iPad versus the iPad 2 and that’s a ding in margins. And that could take the stock down to about 10 times the consensus — right now that’s about $460.”
While Zabitsky said that price competition is not yet steep enough to hurt Apple as much as he predicts it will, it is possible as new products hit the market. Phones developed by Microsoft, for example, cost consumers nothing after rebate.
Additional News: Apple, Google Fail to Dismiss Poaching Lawsuit
CNBC Data Pages:
- Dow 30 Stocks—In Real Time
- Oil, Gold, Natural Gas Prices Now
- Where’s the US Dollar Today?
- Track Treasury Prices Here
Zabitsky has no relationships with companies in the industry.


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Historians and economists regularly look to tax policies to get a sense of what happened within a particular industry, society or country. No doubt the chronicles to come about the rise of the internet age and the spread of digital culture will include serious treatment of tax issues.
Indeed, one of the biggest controversies involving eCommerce and its related areas – controversies not yet solved – involves whether and how to tax those activities. The latest issue involves eSports – one of the rising trends in digital commerce, and one of the ways through which some mall and brick-and-mortar operators hope to revive those retail properties. As one estimate put it, “in 2018, the global eSports market was valued at nearly $865 million, (and the) global eSports market revenue will reach $1.79 billion in 2022.”
All that growth is now reportedly attracting the attention of the tax man. As The Washington Post recently put it, “while professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA – and entertainers – have been an attractive target to state tax collectors due to their public schedules and high salaries, gamers have been performing under the radar, until now. With the recent move to franchise type models for The Call of Duty League, Overwatch League and the NBA’s 2K League, states are becoming more aware of when these eSports competitions will take place within their borders, which teams have won big prizes and, more importantly, where the players are located.”
Indeed, it seems that in some states, winners at eSports competitions are waking up to the possibility that big chunks of their winnings – perhaps half or more – could be sent to tax authorities. As the report notes, officials in Pennsylvania are stepping up their enforcement of tax efforts involving eSports participants.
The issue isn’t really about brand-new taxes, but is about enforcing existing tax laws and applying them to eSports. “One prominent player Jay ‘sinatraa’ Won, apparently discovered this fact after winning the Overwatch League’s Grand Finals in Philadelphia in 2019, tweeting that 55 percent of his prize money for that event would be taken in taxes,” the report states.
The realm of eSports is not the only place in the greater online world where taxes are a new and sometimes confusing issue in 2020. That’s largely because in commerce, new business models beget new tax problems. Against that backdrop, tax collection in the nascent restaurant delivery space remains fragmented at best, and confusing at worst.
And although we live in a three-dimensional world, tax policy has so many variables that it can seem like seven dimensions. Consider comments by Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney, who said in November that rivals should be charging more sales taxes on delivery fees. But in many cases, these firms may not be collecting sales taxes at all. Or maybe they are, but at the wrong rates.
The sector is projected to receive more than $10 billion in delivery fees by 2023, which represents a huge leap over the $4.4 billion received in 2017.
Perhaps nowhere has the state of food delivery taxation been more succinctly rendered than in this way: Stephen Kranz, a tax lawyer with McDermott Will & Emery, has said collection policies represent a “hot mess.”
The fragmentation is apparent in the fact that food delivery services are taxed according to decades-old policies that have not kept pace with the digital age. Online delivery services might levy taxes on food charges, or on the combined total of the amount charged for the food, fees and delivery charges – resulting in significantly different taxes collected. In some cases, the taxes are collected by the marketplace, and in other cases, such as noted by The Wall Street Journal, the taxes are remitted to the restaurants themselves, which in turn remit the taxes to the states.
In an interview with Karen Webster, Scott Peterson, vice president of U.S. Tax Policy at Avalara, took note of the challenges confronting even the most diligent food delivery firm that wants to make sure the proper tax amounts are being collected.
As Peterson told Karen Webster from PYMNTS, state and local governments are all over the board when it comes to what constitutes the proper amount to be taxed – and there’s even a lack of uniformity about which points of the food ordering and delivery process need to be taxed.
Of course, all of this follows perhaps the biggest tax battle so far for eCommerce – how to tax purchases made from out-of-state customers, and how to collect from retailers that may or may not have a physical presence in a particular state.
The Wayfair Impact
In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Liz Armbruester, senior vice president of global compliance at Avalara, said 2019 represented a watershed year for tax compliance as states embraced the economic nexus model and passed marketplace facilitator laws. The ground zero, of course, was Wayfair, the 2018 case in which the Supreme Court ruled online retailers could be mandated to collect sales tax – and taxes could be levied by states on firms that do not have a physical presence in those states.
“Going back to 2018, it was kind of like the world exploded,” Armbruester told PYMNTS, with a nod toward the Wayfair decision. “We knew it was going to happen. We knew that economic nexus was going to happen. And 2019 was about, ‘How does each and every state take that opportunity and figure it out for themselves?’”
What will happen with eSports and taxes remains a work in process. But questions about taxes are never really settled – especially not in this fast-moving digital environment.


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Key to downsizing disaster: preparation
Getting prepared for a hurricane doesn't have to be a disaster.
A few simple precautions will go a long way.
The most important way to prepare is to have a "family disaster plan," said Eshanne Anderson, emergency services director for the North Central Florida chapter of the Red Cross.
Such a plan includes knowing where the nearest hurricane shelter is, establishing a safe place to meet, having emergency phone numbers handy and preparing a disaster supply kit for every family member.
The kits, which should be good for a minimum three days, should include: At least a gallon of water per-person, per-day; for cooking and drinking, food, bedding and first-aid supplies.
Stored in a water-tight container such as a trash can with a lid or a sturdy duffle bag, they can also include tools and supplies like matches, non-electric can-openers, a battery-operated radio with extra batteries, toiletries and games.
The American Red Cross recommends having at least one complete change of clothing and closed-toed footwear, too.
Anderson said it's important to think about just how long you may have to live away from home if a hurricane strikes. She prefers packing two weeks' worth of supplies to be safe.
"Often people tell me they're prepared, and then all they have to eat is a box of saltine crackers," Anderson said.
Besides not packing enough food, she said people need to think about the type of food they're stocking up on. When hurricanes are looming, she said stores see skyrocketing sales in foods like beer and Pop-Tarts, rather than more nutritious foods.
Keecha Harris, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, has a few healthier ideas. She recommends canned juices or shelf-stable milk to drink and energy bars or instant oatmeal to eat. Ready-to-eat canned foods, such as meat, vegetables, fruits and stews, are another good source of nutrition in an emergency. For snacking, she recommends trail mix or dried fruits.
Besides preparing for personal needs, it's important to storm-proof homes. Store important documents in waterproof containers, and if you can afford it, avoid the last-minute rush and buy plywood, nails and plastic sheeting to protect windows ahead of time. If you have large trees near your home, consider trimming them.
Jeff Williams, owner of Gainesville's Jeff Williams Lawn Service, says he can trim as much as 1,000 pounds of dead limbs and extra weight from a single tree.
"We go through and cut small limbs and upper limbs off so, when the wind comes at the trees, it can pass through. If a tree hasn't been trimmed, it's like hitting a brick wall," he said.
To find out more about preparing for hurricane season, log on to www.redcross.org/services/disaster and click on "Be Prepared."
Tiffany Pakkala can be reached at 338-3111 or email@example.com
Water Shelf-stable food A weather or AM/FM radio A cooking device A flashlight and extra batteries Source: David Donnelly, Alachua County's assistant director of emergency management


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Monday, November 11, 2019 8:07 AM EST
The Week Ahead For November 11th to 15th
by Geoff Garbacz
Economic releases of note this week and next include the weekly chain store sales, oil/gas numbers, mortgage applications and jobless claims as well as NFIB Small Business Optimism Index, CPI, PPI and Retail Sales.
Futures Start The Week Lower
by Geoff Garbacz & Staff Writers
The S&P 500 is set to open down -12 this morning.
Today's Superstock Investor Stock Scorecard:
Oshkosh Corp (OSK)
by Superstock Investor
Barron's wrote up Oshkosh (OSK) favorably over the weekend. The current price is $90.07. Is there value here?
Morning Briefing Archives


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Agnathavasi Movie USA Pre-Sales Report
Posted [relativedate] at [relativetime time_format=”H:i”]
Powerstar is for sure a big brand in the USA, his upcoming move Agnathavasi has the highest expectations. The sales of the tickets are also higher in this season. Since it is Trivikram Srinivas’s film, expectations among trade circles and fans and audience have reached a new altitude since its launch. Overseas market, especially in the USA there is a huge market for Pawan and Trivikram. They both have a huge fan following and a strong market base.
It is already a known secret that was announced that Agnathavasi is going to be the biggest ever release for an Indian film in North America with a screen count of 570. It is only a few more days to go for the release, the advance bookings in almost all Cinemark, AMC and local screens opened a couple of days ago. While 75% of regal cinemas have been opened only a short while back.
Exclusive sources reveal that the pre-sales collections have already surpassed half-million dollar mark. To be specific, $513,000 from 415 locations as of date. It is PK’s matchless charisma in overseas that has resulted in such a huge buzz on the film even though the theatrical trailer is yet to be disclosed.
Agnathavasi is most likely to emerge as career highest premiers for Powerstar and many standing records are likely to be tumbled.
Some More Interesting News :


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According to Tacoma News Tribune, Twitter, tweets and a tweet-up are good for business. The paper came to this conclusion after 120 people gathered at Hotel Murano in downtown Tacoma last night for the city’s first major commercial tweet-up. “It’s fun if you can meet people face-to-face,” said Dina Nishioka, spokeswoman for Provenance Hotels, the […]
Subway is giving away $10 Subway gift cards to people who participate in its “Tweet to Eat” promotion. According to Media Post’s Marketing Daily, each day during the promo a famous Subway fan encourages people to use Twitter to weigh in on why they are “a great fit” for the Subway brand. Participants submit their […]
And Twitter get’s brushed off the plate… [via Rum Bunter and The Denver Egotist]
JetBlue’s senior VP-marketing and commercial, Marty St. George, decided to test agencies currently vying for the airline’s marketing account by asking on their Twittership. I don’t know which agencies JetBlue is testing, nor how they faired. What I do know is that agency people who “get” Twitter jumped on this loose ball. In response to […]
Todd Moritz of Substance says what needs to be said.
By monitoring billions of conversations happening on blogs, social sites and forums Sysomos “brings business intelligence to social media.” At the moment, the company is offering a closer look at Twitter users. Sysomos discovered in the midst of their research that almost no one is using the geo-location API tool that Twitter launched last August. […]
Paul Ramirez a.k.a. @pablorazzi on Twitter is a photographer and gadget geek in Phoenix, AZ. He’s also an entrant in Dentyne’s latest promotion on Twitter. I know this because I searched the hashtag #emptycupholder and found his contest entry (see photo) along with many others. The way the contest works is consumers snap a photo […]


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(WXYZ) — The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel will close to all nonessential travel starting Saturday. This is in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), officials say.
The closure will take effect Saturday, March 21 at 12:01 a.m. This move will not effect workers that are deemed "essential" and who have required documentation to travel.
Officials add that there are two other changes being implemented along with the closure:
• DWT will no longer accept CASH from Detroit to Windsor, starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 21. Travelers will be able to pay via their Nexpress account, which can be opened at www.dwtunnel.com/NEXPRESS; by credit card on readers mounted on the exterior of each tollbooth; or by the DWT mobile app (search for NEXPRESS on the app store of your choice).
• Transit Windsor’s tunnel bus service will stop service as of 8 p.m. March 19.


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“Cold brew coffee maybe has a two or three-year head start on the cold brew tea segment, which is certainly nascent with only a couple of brand offerings available currently and nothing else in the premium space besides our new line,” but it has the potential to grow just as quickly and become a major force in the tea segment, Mike Ginal, VP of national sales for Argo Tea, told FoodNavigator-USA.
Indeed, he predicts consumers will quickly embrace cold brew tea as a smoother, more flavorful and healthier alternative to traditionally brewed teas that are sweetened.
“Cold brewing really brings out the best flavors of the teas,” which is why Argo uses only single-estate tea leaves sourced directly from “the best tea growers in some of the best tea growing regions around the world,” Ginal said.
“The whole point of cold brewing is to bring out the flavors of the tea leaves” and by not blending leaves from different locations, Argo delivers a purer and more authentic taste experience, he explained, noting the line currently includes three organic options, including First Flush Darjeeling from the Ambootia Tea Garden in India, First Flush Gyokuro from the Yamaguchi Tea Estate in Japan, and Armenian Mint from the Central Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.
In addition, Ginal said, cold-brewing tea mellows out the beverage’s bitter notes that can be off-putting to some consumers or prompt them to reach for heavily sweetened versions that have higher calorie counts than unsweetened options, Ginal said.
As such, he explained, Argo found through extensive consumer testing at its cafes, that it only needed to add “a very light amount of Fair Trade pure cane sugar for a hint of sweetness that helps bring out the natural sweetness of the leaves.”
Because the company does not need to add as much sugar as it does to bottles of its traditionally hot brewed tea, the cold-brew tea has only 20 calories per 13.5-ounce bottle compared to 70 calories per the same size bottle of the company’s traditionally hot brewed tea.
“The hint of sweetness gives the tea a great refreshment and mouth feel versus a 100% unsweetened tea,” he added.
Plus, because the cold-brew requires less sugar, “it is actually exempt from a lot of the sugary beverage tax laws that are comping out,” which could make it more appealing from a price perspective to consumers, he said.
In addition to being arguably healthier for consumers, at least one of the teas also is healthier for the planet.
The First Flush Darjeeling is a blend of organic and biodynamic Darjeeling black tea, which is Demeter-certified, Ginal said.
He explained that Demeter-certified farmers treat their farms “like a living organism” and hold their products, and the production process, to a standard that is “one step beyond organic.”
He adds that the standard, while not as well recognized as organic, is recognized by “those consumers who are always on the cusp of what is next … as a way to create a more sustainable Earth.”
Argo reformulates Teapucchinos
The new line of cold-brew tea complements an existing extensive line of ready-to-drink traditionally brewed tea and a newer line of more indulgent Teapucchinos, which Argo is currently revamping and expanding.
“In our cafes we sell essentially tea lattes made with milk that have been top-sellers for years,” and Argo recently decided to bottle that success in a line of ready-to-drink products, Ginal said.
While an early version of the bottled Teapucchinos, which were available on a limited basis, used dairy milk, Argo decided to reformulate to use almond milk instead after seeing the high consumer demand and sales success of plant-based milks, Ginal said.
“We have seen emerging in a big way at our cafes consumers who are on the front lines of health and wellness trends shifting their milk preferences from dairy to plant-based for taste preferences and health reasons,” he said. “We wanted to take advantage of that.”
Along with the reformulation, the company is launching two new flavors – Matcha Vanilla and Matte Latte – to complement its existing options, which include Chai, Earl Gray Vanilla and Green Tea Strawberry, Ginal said.
“The other thing we are doing is we are moving the entire line of Teapucchinos to a glass bottle, which we use for our other ready-to-drink offerings, for a more premium experience” than was available in the previous container, he said.
Ultimately, all of these changes represented the next steps in the health and wellness trend and specialty premium tea, which are the main growth drivers in the tea segment currently, Ginal said, adding, “consumers are excited about these changes.”


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Letters to the Editor
A tipping point where Tech Valley is becoming a global cluster
- Staff Albany Business Review
To the editor:
I thoroughly enjoyed your editorial on Tech Valley and the importance of clustering (“Is Andrew Cuomo a threat to Tech Valley?” Sept. 14-20). As a site selection professional I am fully aware of what drives companies in their location decisions. While in attendance at a meeting at Semicon West in 2011 this fact was fully driven home during a discussion on 450mm research. The panel, made up of the top semiconductor executives in the world, was asked where the direction of chip manufacturing was being decided. The CEO of Intel, the most respected chip company in the world, said firmly “Albany.”
Politicians think in terms of towns, counties and states. The tech industry, however, has always looked at things in terms of regions or clusters. These centers of gravity, built ultimately on the supply of bright people, became the fertile soil around which technology companies sprouted. Drive an hour south of Silicon Valley and that fact becomes crystal clear, with town signs saying “Welcome to Podunk CA population 14.” When you study the natural physical development of these places, you see firms that cluster like a beehive. Apparently Podunk didn’t have the universities and quality of life those innovators wanted.
In the global economy these clusters have actually become more important because of the need for more scale. A visit to Semicon West and other trade events shows lavish booths from the likes of Saxony and Grenoble, not Germany and France. Grenoble alone has over 7 billion Euro invested in its cluster. The answer to this clustering debate may lie in who our competition really is. Is it a neighboring city like Utica, or is it Tokyo, Belgium or Grenoble? With that in mind I have always looked at Tech Valley as upstate New York’s gateway to the world. A place where everyone benefits because upstate New York hasn’t been global in 70 years.
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Since Qualcomm unveiled its new flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, manufacturers have been scrambling to update their performance-focused devices. Xiaomi has already debuted the 12S series, and it will soon release a Redmi phone equipped with the newest top processor.
A new Redmi K50 flagship is in the pipeline and will launch “soon” using the Qualcomm platform, according to the brand’s chief Lu Weibing, also known as William Lu, who made the announcement on Weibo.
Lu provided a previous graphic from Xiaomi that demonstrated the Plus’ CPU’s and GPU’s improved energy efficiency of 33% and 30% respectively. Since the series is still restricted to the domestic market, we had anticipated the phone to be called the Redmi K50 Ultra but have heard very little about a successor.
According to some speculations, the model would be called Redmi K50S, similar to the Xiaomi 12S series. S, though, has often stood for a special Redmi lineup member rather than an upgrade.
- Vivo Y22 makes a quick pit stop at Geekbench ahead of official launch
- Lenovo details the cooling capabilities of Legion Y70
- Apple iPhone 14 sales reportedly to be stable, brand orders partners to manufacture 90M units
- Dimensity 810 powered Vivo Y77e 5G officially unveiled
- Vivo V25 Pro to officially hit the Indian market on August 17