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Speed shopping for the Games
Shera is on a last-minute shopping spree for the much-awaited Commonwealth Games. As the D-day nears, organisers are coming up with more and more items still left to buy.delhi Updated: Sep 09, 2010 00:16 IST
Shera is on a last-minute shopping spree for the much-awaited Commonwealth Games. As the D-day nears, organisers are coming up with more and more items still left to buy.
From office stationery to washing machines, from mobile phones to uniforms, from suitcases to gensets, the list is endless and is growing.
Tenders from vendors are being invited every other day by the organising committee (OC) for the purchase of these items.
Some of the items that the organisers are looking to purchase are the result of unforeseen situations such as torrential rains. The OC is planning to purchase ponchos to keep spectators dry in case of showers, large sheets to cover stadium fields during the rains and tonnes of sand to get rid of slush on the ground.
But mostly, the shopping list comprises items whose specifications the organisers knew way in advance. So why didn't they buy the material earlier is anyone's guess. And now no one is even asking because with about three weeks left for the Games, it is more important to clear proposals and sanction funds than ask uncomfortable questions.
But the OC says the shopping is not last minute.
"This happens all the time at big sporting events. Many requirements crop up at the last minute. But the process to procure these items remains the same and it takes its own course and time,” said Lalit Bhanot, secretary general, OC.
The sheets to cover the ground was an ideal example of this, he said.
"It is raining so hard that we need large sheets to cover the rugby stadium. The stage for the opening ceremony is so heavy that if we do not cover the stage area now, the rain will soften the ground and the stage cannot be constructed there. So we need to buy items to arrange that. Now, this is the kind of item we cannot buy in advance,” said Bhanot.
As a result of the last-minute rush, the OC has to strip down many of its specifications for the items so that finding a bidder becomes easier. Moreover, some of the items have few vendors in the country. As a result, the OC is not in a position to negotiate the rates further because time is running out.
"There is also no time to initiate a Plan B if the vendors faulter in delivery, because the delivery dates are too close to the events," said a senior OC official, requesting anonymity.
Though the OC can justify the large sheets as a last-minute requirement, it cannot do the same for items such as uniforms for the marching contingent of Indian athletes at the opening ceremony. The OC knew about this requirements months in advance.
"How many people will be part of the marching team, the protocol, everything was set. But no one bothered to call for tenders for their uniforms and other kit," he said.
The requirement of some of the items on the list, such as audiovisual equipment for sports presentations, mobile phones, medals, certificates and even stationeries, were known to respective functional areas for long.
"Even officials at the organising committee are shocked that so many items are still left to buy but no one said anything all this while," said the official.
But the OC believes that the end will justify the means.
"We will make sure that whatever items are needed are available and are ready for use. At the end of the day, the Commonwealth Games will be organised in a world-class fashion," Bhanot said.


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Mario Bros. and Other Nintendo Game Characters May Soon come to Life at Universal Studios in Orlando
The theme park has reportedly made a deal with Nintendo to create attractions and entertainment venues based on its popular video game titles
If you ever wanted to run, jump and crawl thought the pipe world of Mario Bros. or perhaps climb Donkey Kong’s high-rise lair, a new deal between Universal Studios Florida and Nintendo may be bringing this live videogame-inspired experience. While the details are still fuzzy, collaboration between these two big names will likely draw great interest from crowds that grew up playing these videogames. From merchandising to themed restaurants, the Nintendo deal may “1Up” other Orlando theme parks, helping Universal Studios gain ground against its biggest competitor.
In recent years, the race between Orlando theme parks to outdo each other has led to great innovation by Universal Studios—as in the case of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter—and tourists can expect this trend to continue. As technology gets more sophisticated and the live-ride experience shifts to simulation rather than a stroll-on-tracks, Universal Studios is expected to continue raising the bar. Not for nothing, Nintendo game-themed attractions at the theme park can be expected to immerse guests into a fantasy world that the whole family will enjoy.
We can only wish and hope for an interactive live-action Mario Kart ride at Universal Studios. The video game series from Nintendo has been a winner in its Wii console, as well as in the Wii U portable video game system. Characters like Mario, his brother Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Donkey Kong—along with hordes of Goomba and Koopa Troopa—would also give Universal Studios guests a chance to get their pictures taken with these video games icons.
Vista Cay Resort by Millenium is impatiently waiting with the rest of Orlando’s hospitality industry to hear more news about what Universal Studios partnership with Nintendo will bring. And rest assured that we will share more updates about it on our Blog!

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Expect Distribution is set to open its fourth warehouse next month and is on the hunt for a fifth after forecasting “unprecedented growth” this year. The Bradford-based family firm has opened a 193,000sq ft warehouse on a 10 acre site, less than one mile from the firm’s head office, as part of a strategy to drive growth in its contract logistics and warehousing divisions. The new facility, which is located close to the M606 and M62, brings additional storage capacity […]
Expect Distribution is hoping to expand its contract logistics business and consolidate its three West Yorkshire sites this year, as it celebrates its 25 year anniversary.
Expect Distribution has signed a three-year warehousing and distribution contract with Lansinoh Laboratories, a supplier of breastfeeding products.
Operators are calling for action against a rise in clients demanding extended credit terms, MT has learnt.


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Thursday, 23 March 2017 03:08
Tablet sales have been dropping for the past couple years and even though companies refresh their offerings the tablet market keeps getting softer. There are a few ideas as to why this is happening and the lack of usage (which prolongs life of the devices) is one them. Regardless of the reasons, the announcements of new tablets haven't been getting the fanfare they once did. TechCrunch has the full story.
In the past month, both Apple and Samsung have refreshed their flagship tablets for the first time since 2014. A lot has changed in the space in the intervening years — mostly for the worse, as overall sales have continued to slip. In Q4 of last year, IDC reported that shipments had dropped 20 percent, year over year, while Strategic Analytics has the number at half that.
There’s room for debate as far as precisely how down the overall market is (not to mention what precisely qualifies a device as a tablet), but there seems to at least be a consensus that early predictions of the tablet space eclipsing PCs missed the mark. The space has suffered for a variety of reasons. Among them, the fact that users simply aren’t refreshing tablets at a rate many manufacturers no doubt predicted.


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Apple's September 7 'Far Out' event gave us a slew of new iPhones, watches and even some AirPods to enjoy, but now that the iPhone 14 is official, we can see how well it directly stacks up against its 2021 predecessor, the iPhone 13.
The iPhone 14 was arguably the most modest of this new generation when Apple showcased the phones at its special event in Cupertino. It certainly looks like the iPhone 13 and even uses familiar silicon, rather than the new top-tier A16 Bionic chips you'll find in the iPhone 14 Pro models.
As such, whether it has what it takes to find its way into our pick of the best iPhones to buy right now remains to be seen but this comparison should at least help you point your bank balance at the iPhone you think offers what you need.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: price and availability
The iPhone 13 started at $799 / £779 / AU$1,349 when it launched in late 2021, but as is so often the case, now that the iPhone 14 range is here, the 13 has enjoyed a welcome price cut.
Both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 can be had with the same 128GB, 256GB or 512GB storage options, with the iPhone 13 now starting at $699 / £749 / AU$1,229, while the new iPhone 14 starts at $799 / £849 / AU$1,399.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will also notice that, although the iPhone 14 doesn't cost any more than its predecessor did when it first launched in the US (yay!) customers in other markets including the UK and Australia are getting charged more for the equivalent iPhone one year on (boo!).
The iPhone 14 range was announced on September 7, with pre-orders kicking off from September 9 and on-sale availability from September 16.
Those keen to get their hands on the new base iPhone should check out our rundown of iPhone 14 deals to get the best value out the gate.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: design
While the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max switch out the notch for the new 'Dynamic Island' cutout, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus both share in a very familiar design to last generation.
As such, there's very little to set the iPhone 14 apart from its predecessor; a phone with a flat display, a large notch at the top of the screen, a metal frame, and a glass back, with a diagonal dual camera setup in the top left corner.
The 14 is marginally thicker than the 13, thought to be as a result of a larger battery, although Apple hasn't formally revealed its capacity. Beyond that, it's the same height and width.
In truth, perhaps one of the only ways to quickly set the two models apart is with the assorted colorways both phones come in. The iPhone 13 can now be had in six finishes (with the sixth joining a little after launch): pink, blue, Midnight, Starlight, green and red.
The iPhone 14 launches with five color options: purple, blue, Midnight, Starlight and red. There's every chance that the 14 will get its own sixth color come spring next year but as far what that color might be, we don't yet know. We'd love to see a new green or the return to yellow on an iPhone though.
For those asking 'is the iPhone 14 waterproof?' Apple committed to adding water resistance to its phones starting with the iPhone 8 back in 2017 and that carriers right through to today's models too.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: display
If you were holding out hope of the 13 Pro's super-smooth 120Hz high refresh rate trickling down to the standard iPhone 14, you're out of luck.
Both the iPhone 13 and 14 share in a familiar notched 6.1-inch 60Hz OLED screen, with a resolution of 1170 x 2532, a peak HDR brightness of 1200 nits and Dolby Vision support. In both cases the screen is also protected by Apple's Ceramic Shield toughened cover glass.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: cameras
On paper, both phone sport a 12MP main and a 12MP ultrawide on their backs, along with a 12MP front-facing snapper, but the iPhone 14 edges out in front, in terms of both hardware and post-processing, on the camera front.
That main 12MP sensor on the 14 is larger than that of its predecessor, packing bigger 1.9µm pixels paired with a wider f/1.5 aperture and new generation of sensor-shift OIS (optical image stabilization), which Apple claims offer a collective 49% improvement in low light performance.
The 2022 iPhone also showcases Apple's new Photonic Engine, which applies its existing Deep Fusion image processing and compositing into the photo capture process, meaning less compression on the colors and details in a final shot.
It's unclear whether this is simply a software addition that Apple could transpose to the iPhone 13, but as it stands, it looks like it'll remain an iPhone 14 series exclusive.
Selfie fans will also benefit from the first autofocus front-facing camera on an iPhone with the one found on an iPhone 14, which Apple again promises a 38% improvement to low light shots, compared to the 13's selfie snapper.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: specs and performance
Amidst the various upgrades that Apple dress the iPhone 14 with over the 13, the chipset wasn't as big of a leap as we've seen in previous years, with both phones technically sporting the same A15 Bionic processor.
The A15 was introduced with the iPhone 13 family but it's odd for the company to place it into its next generation of smartphone too. For those after a true performance jump, you'll have to cough up for the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max, which tout Apple's new top-tier A16 Bionic chip.
The silver lining, despite the smaller upgrade in silicon is that those toying between and iPhone 13 and 14 (especially those who are keen mobile gamers) might want to opt for the newer device, simply because it's using the five-core GPU version of the A15 that was exclusive to the iPhone 13 Pro models (the standard iPhone 13's A15 features a four-core GPU) when they launched.
US users should also come to terms with the fact that the iPhone 14 is devoid of a SIM tray, instead connecting via eSIM, while the iPhone 13 still accepts physical SIM cards (although eSIM is also supported there too).
One intriguing new feature exclusive to the iPhone 14 is 'emergency SOS via satellite', which lets users (only those in the US and Canada, at launch) send texts and location info to emergency services when out of cellular or WiFi range. So for those with a penchant for the great outdoors, the 14 does deliver a little extra peace of mind in that regard.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: battery
Although Apple doesn't serve up specific battery capacities when it launches each iPhone it does often suggested figures for certain tasks, which paired with the increased thickness of the 14 over the 13, all but confirms that there is a bigger cell inside the newer model.
Apple quotes 19 hours of local video playback from the iPhone 13, but 20 hours on the iPhone 14, while audio playback jumps from 75 hours to 100.
Charging remains the same in terms of both speed and standard, with both models offering 20W wired charging via Lightning, up to 15W wireless charging, 7.5W reverse wireless charging and MagSafe compatibility too.
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13: takeaway
To look at, these phones are nearly indistinguishable from one another, while the under-the-hood changes aren't substantial enough that anyone already sporting an iPhone 13 should really consider picking up its predecessor.
As for those looking to upgrade from an older model or outside the Apple ecosystem, there's a case to be had for both devices. If you want the best camera on a non-Pro iPhone, have serious battery anxiety or frequently find yourself in perilous situations without cell service, the iPhone 14 is the clear winner; for everyone else, the iPhone 13 feels like a minor downgrade at worst and at best, a better deal.


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NEW DELHI: Introduction of tax holidays will help new-age digital companies and entrepreneurs expand their business and provide growth impetus to the fledgling industry, IAMAI said today.
"The software and ITeS industry, which is among the most visible sectors in India today, had benefitted significantly from the fiscal support provided by the government in the form of income-tax holiday," Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) President Subho Ray told PTI.
The STPI scheme for IT companies offered 100 per cent tax deduction on profits. The exemption was discontinued after March 2011.
Incentive in the form of tax holiday would help the industry achieve its full potential by facilitating expansion, employment generation and entrepreneurship, he added.
Currently, there is no income-tax holiday available under the I-T Act for digital companies.
"Also, there is limited alternative sources of finance available to small and new entrepreneurs operating in the digital industry. Initial/angel investors are one of the sources for raising funds for entrepreneurs," Ray said.
The sector would benefit if preferential tax treatment is given to investors, he added.
The body has also suggested that issues related to VAT be simplified to promote enabling tax environment for smooth operation of market places.
"E-Commerce firms today are at a cross-road due to indirect tax issues, particularly from the state governments. The current arbitrary demands on VAT and other local taxes by many states are acting as a deterrent to e-commerce," Ray said.
Established in 2004, IAMAI counts players like Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Flipkart, Google India, OLX, mydala and Itzcash among its members.
The body has also suggested that local language should be promoted on the web to help improve penetration of Internet and broadband in rural areas.
"Internet and mobile companies engaged in the business of development of new technology/software/ application, specifically in the field of local language internet and creation of content, be provided with an incentive of a weighted deduction of 200 per cent of amount spent on research and development of application/content," Ray said.
- IAMAI calls founders meet to discuss Google's decision to make its billing system compulsory for in-app purchases
- Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and 13 others adopt self-regulation code: IAMAI
- Restrictions on online sale of drugs to hurt e-pharmacies, says IAMAI
- Industry body IAMAI says FIR against ShareChat an act of overreach
- Bring back M-SIPS to drive investments in mobile manufacturing: IAMAI
- India has over 500 mn active Internet users, 14% of 5-11 yrs: IAMAI
6 Comments on this Story
tmmahes 2113 days ago
Chaos 2113 days ago
These greedy IT companies still need tax holiday? Tax holidays are for weaker sector. These IT companies quarterly profit is in thousands of crores. Why do they still need tax holidays? Let them pay their dues!
hemanthpali kumar2113 days ago
Tax exemption to specific sectors should not be provided, as it will distort the TAx structure & leads to lobbying, as in the past. It industry is a established industry does not require any exemption. What is needed is ease of doing business, provide better infrastructure. Exemptions can be limited to new sectors for a limited period of time & only for smaller enterprises.


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Microsoft has added bitcoin as a payment option for US-based Microsoft account purchases of Xbox games and mobile content, along with other products and services in its Windows Store.
While 16GB iPhone models are popular with consumers, that's not enough memory to store all your photos, apps, and games. With T-Mobile you can get a 64GB iPhone 6 for the price of a 16GB model.
Amazon expands support for its streaming service that targets games developers to any Windows application.
Despite their ages, the crimes are serious: breaking into both the US Army and Microsoft's servers to steal everything from unreleased games to military software.
It's not always easy, but there are many ways to watch NFL games without paying an arm and a leg to your cable or satellite TV provider. Here are your options.
Put your vocabulary and reflexes to the test in Crobble, the unique and captivating word game that blends SCRABBLE with Tetris!TAP...
Content owners have claimed the launch of a new guide for buying TV shows, films, music and games online shuts down claims that Australians download copyright infringing material because it is not available legitimately.
RFID transmitters will be placed inside shoulder pads to track player position, speed and distance during Thursday Night Football games.
1D Games Free - creating high quality free One direction games and apps!Louis Tomlinson Prank Call One Direction app.Ever wanted to...
The tech giant plans to offer restitution for those affected by the 2011 PSN hack in free games, subsidies and cash payouts.
The chipmaker's successes this fiscal quarter were in its graphics and visual solutions unit, which provides hardware to games console manufacturers.
Although the US regulations for internet-based games are not yet final, SecureTrading, Inc. has been building a complete suite of services that ensure safe financial transactions and required consumer protections. It has chosen Connectria's cloud services as a platform.
Downloads for Mac and PC starting at $7.49 for the games and 74 cents for the expansion packs.
In the wake of Games of Thrones airing the first episode of its fourth season in the US, data from TorrentFreak showed Australia downloaded the most pirated copies of the episode.
Microsoft has taken the covers off its latest gaming/graphics programming interface, known as DirectX 12, that will be supported across Windows, Windows Phone and the Xbox One OS by next year.
Security company Netcraft discovered two EA Games phishing operations, netting Apple ID and EA Origin passwords and payment information. EA has patched the vuln allowing Apple ID password phishing.
Hackers took over an Electronic Arts subdomain which they used to host a fake Apple ID login screen designed to steal credit card info.
Free Bejeweled 2 60-minute trial
It's been a busy 24 hours for Mozilla, as the browser maker has showed off upcoming WebGL exporting in Unity 5.0, a new version of Firefox has appeared, and it has detailed a new canvas inspector tool.
Chinese e-commerce giant will pay HK$6.24 billion (US$803.74 million) for a 70.8 percent stake in ChinaVision Media Group, gaining immediate access to a host of content including television dramas, movies, and games.
From snow cannons to deep-packet network inspection and aerial drones, here's some of the gadgets and technologies powering the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.
Given the time difference in Russia, US viewers will be seeing time-delayed coverage. You can follow the action a bit closer with your mobile device using these applications.
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However, a spokeswoman for Trump said: “While we’ve recently ended our working relationship with HMX Group, we’re proud of the success we’ve enjoyed together and look forward to announcing plans for a new apparel licensee soon.”
HMX, which continues to struggle financially, has never been adept at the women’s business. Sources said Trump’s rtw deliveries were late to stores this fall, and there were fit problems.
Lord & Taylor hosted a fashion show for Trump’s rtw launch in the spring, and the store created a sizeable in-store shop for the collection.
Liz Rodbell, executive vice president, chief merchant at Hudson’s Bay Co., which owns Lord & Taylor, said, “We very much enjoy working with Ivanka Trump and have seen major successes with her various product categories. Our customers love her aesthetic and she is on trend with key products that appeal to her core demographic. We look forward to continuing our partnership with her.”
At the time of the L&T launch last March, Trump told WWD: “For me, it’s very important to find the best partners in everything — people I am comfortable working with and willing to work in a collaborative environment. The product needs to be consistent and needs to be my aesthetic. The most important thing is execution — keeping the brand sustainable and well positioned. There’s a very specific person I design for — a professional, elegant hardworking young woman, typically 25 to 40.”
The spring 2012 collection retailed from $50 to $225 and included denim, T-shirts, suits, dresses and separates.
Launched in 2007 as a fine jewelry collection, Trump added footwear through a partnership with Marc Fisher in 2010. The same year, she struck a licensing deal with Mondani to introduce handbags. In 2011, she introduced outerwear with Fleet Street Ltd.
From overseeing America’s fastest-growing speciality retailers to codifying cool, WWD talked to the women who are leading the way for the future of beauty. Check out our Instagram Stories to see how these women built today and are creating tomorrow. (📸: @hannah_khymych) #wwdbeauty
For @laperlalingerie's spring 2018 show, the brand chose to host their event at @thevenetianmacao. With Chinese megastars @bingbing_fan and @hubing in attendance, La Perla debuted a rock ‘n’ roll-inspired collection. The show marked the start of Sands Macao Fashion Week, which runs from October 19 to 24 — the city’s first such event. Pictured here are models backstage with glimmering eyes. #wwdfashion (📷: Cheuk-Yin To)
Trending for spring 2018: top stitch design. Gone are the days of stitch just for seams — designers are using the once-minimal detail to create strong decorative elements. (📷: Paola Testa; Styled by @andrew_shang) #wwdfashion
@tradesy is turning the concept of a showroom upside down with its new space in Santa Monica. Here, the company plans to hold events, art exhibits and a showcase rare fashion pieces like this Louis Vuitton boxing set. Get all the details on Tradesy’s first showroom on WWD.com. #wwdnews
Spotted last night at the @erdem x @hm launch event: Kate Bosworth, Rashida Jones, Kirsten Dunst and Selma Blair. The party, which took place in LA, also marked the opening of their pop-up shop. “I was interested in creating a collection that wasn’t in any way disposable. It was about pieces you’d create and keep forever, things that have a permanence to it,” designer Erdem Moralioglu said. #wwdeye (📷: Katie Jones)
Renee Zellweger in yellow in 2001 and again in 2017. Chosen as one of the 12 @pantone Leading Spring Colors (and dubbed “Meadowlark”), it only makes sense that the bright hue stands the test of time and is making a resurgence this season, seen already on stars like @blakelively and @gigihadid. (📷: Donato Sardello & @rexfeatures) #wwdfashion #tbt
Dior’s 70th anniversary celebration continues with a new exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. “Christian Dior,” which is scheduled to run through March 18, takes a look at the founders tenure from 1947 to 1057 and feature 40 designs. Pictured here is an evening gown from the Ailée, fall 1948-49 haute couture collection. #wwdfashion (📷: Brian Boyle)


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Household Enterprise USA’s Annual Survey Will get Added Enhance from Formation of Bi-Partisan Congressional Caucus Centered on Household Enterprise
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES, January 20, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Annually, Household Enterprise USA asks America’s household companies how they really feel in regards to the economic system, their companies, and points, however this yr a brand new Congressional Household Enterprise Caucus is including a contemporary highlight to the quickly to be launched outcomes.
When Household Enterprise USA declares its nationwide findings on how effectively household enterprise of all sizes are doing, the Household Enterprise USA 2023 Annual Household Enterprise Survey now has a brand new platform to distribute these outcomes: the Congressional Household Enterprise Caucus.
Final month, Representatives Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), and Brad Schneider (D-IL) launched the bipartisan Congressional Household Enterprise Caucus, the primary congressional caucus targeted solely on the crucial points going through generationally owned household companies of all sizes and industries throughout america. Moreover, a second Democratic co-lead can be introduced shortly.
The Congressional Household Enterprise Caucus will meet recurrently and can join members of Congress with America’s household companies in Washington, D.C. and of their districts and residential states.
The information is giving a lift and a brand new highlight to household companies generally, which make up some 59 p.c of the nation’s non-public workforce, or 83.3 million staff. There are 32.4 million household companies within the U.S, representing $7.7 trillion in annual GDP.
Final yr, the survey discovered the largest worries had been expertise retention and new taxes, with some concern about inflation.
This yr’s survey, launched this month, is predicted to have over 400 respondents, representing a cross part of America’s core industries.
“Elevated taxes and the speedy development of inflation are possible going to be the crucial elements popping out of this yr’s survey,” mentioned Pat Soldano, President, Household Enterprise USA and its sister group, the Coverage and Taxation Group. Each organizations advocate for household companies and are based mostly in Washington D.C. and are caucus supporters.
“With this new Congressional caucus, household companies will now be extra within the highlight and can have the targeted help of our leaders in Congress,” mentioned Soldano. “As this new survey factors out key points that must be addressed, we are able to take our survey findings to those Capitol Hill leaders and present them the actual want for assist in these highlighted areas,” she mentioned. “The survey will level out household enterprise ache factors and the way we have to deal with them. We stay up for working with the caucus on the various points going through this nation and our household companies.”
The Household Enterprise USA Annual Household Enterprise Survey is predicted to be accomplished in late February. Outcomes are anticipated to be introduced in March 2023. Household enterprise house owners can take the survey at www.familyenterpriseusa.com.
About Household Enterprise USA
Household Enterprise USA promotes household enterprise and job creation, development, viability, and sustainability by advocating for household companies, their lifetime of financial savings, and the problems they face working their companies day by day. The problems we combat for or towards with Congress in Washington DC are excessive Earnings Tax Charges, attainable elimination of Valuation Reductions, improve in Capital Features Tax, enactment of a Wealth Tax, and the continued burden of the Property Tax (loss of life tax), and with the attainable elimination of Step up in Foundation. Household Enterprise USA represents and celebrates all sizes, and industries of household companies and multi-generational employers. FEUSA is a 501.C3 group. www.familyenterpriseusa.com
Household Enterprise USA
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January 20, 2023, 16:10 GMT
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Aiming to push its hardware beyond the corporate world, Hewlett-Packard will release a new version of its The Wall Street Journal reports.that will also be marketed to consumers,
We don't have many details yet (iPaq App Store?), but the latest iPaq apparently will sport a touch-screen and keypad and will run on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, according to sources cited by the WSJ. The phone will likely hit Europe by the end of this year, with a broader release to follow.
Though definitely better known for its laptops and desktop PCs, HP isn't new to smartphones. The company has released several models in the past, including the HP iPaq hw6945 Mobile Messenger and the (the first Windows Mobile 6 smartphone). Both were geared mainly toward businesses, and both garnered their share of favorable reviews from users.
The most recent iPaq, the HP iPaq 910c Business Messenger, launched this summer. CNETand found it to be a well-stocked, messaging-centric smartphone for mobile professionals, but said it faces stiff competition from the likes of HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.
Fellow PC maker Dell, meanwhile,of its own plans to enter the smartphone realm. And up-and-coming PC maker Acer of Taiwan said earlier this year that on deck for the end of this year or early 2009.


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Nissan has launched a new online service booking system on its website.
It is designed to enable owners to arrange and manage the servicing and MoT of their vehicles using their laptop, tablet or smartphone.
Connected to all 220 dealers in Nissan’s UK network, the system also notifies customers when servicing is due, what work needs to be carried out and how much it will cost.
Supplied by automotive data management specialists, Clifford Thames, the new system can also suggest relevant extras such as vehicles accessory options and special offers.
Mike Thompson, aftersales director at Nissan Motor (GB), said: “We have had an online booking system on our website for several years now but we are always looking to improve the experience for our customers.
“This new system is a big step forward in usability, simplicity and practicality and will make it much easier and more convenient for Nissan owners to care for their vehicles.
“It will also help to increase service bookings for our dealerships and will assist them in building and maintaining better relationships with customers.”


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|To Help People Fall in Love, Don't Do This||
This is not the Valentine's Day article I intended to write. As is so often the case in journalism, the idea that sparks a piece shifts radically with research, and you end up with something no one was expecting.
|The Tyee||14 Feb 2015|
|In Praise of Reporters Who Stir the Pot||
I burst out laughing when I saw this predictable Globe and Mail headline: "Jesse Brown is quick to expose the failures of Canadian media. But what about his own?"
Contrary to what you may have heard, nobody in the trade likes investigative reporters much, and most hacks are openly hostile to the ones who start covering other media.
|The Tyee||29 Jan 2015|
|How Harper's office is playing news editor||
Kudos to the weekly Barrie Advance for exposing the way some journalists are taking their marching orders from Erica Meekes, a flack in the Prime Minister's Office.
|The Tyee||20 Jun 2013|
|The Jane Austen Guide to Manliness||
This year's 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice arrives not a moment too soon to deal with the current crisis in manliness.
|The Tyee||23 Feb 2013|
While I'm happy to join the hand wringing parties over the demise of one of my favourite movie houses, the Ridge, the death of Vancouver's iconic popcorn palace suggests it's time to address the elephant in the room: movies suck.
|The Tyee||30 Jan 2013|
|Relating to Dr. Divi||
I'm at Vancouver's 20th annual wellness trade show, where Dr. Divi Chandna, a licensed medical doctor and a "certified medical intuitive" is delivering her confusing hypothesis on how to treat depression with help from the "law of attraction." Dr. Divi (as she styles herself) is telling a few dozen mostly middle-aged women that insomnia is the result of spirit guides or angels waking us up to have a chat.
|The Tyee||30 Mar 2012|
|The Facebook Follies: The New Crowd-Sourced||
While you’ll see dire warnings about Facebook privacy, and enthusiastic-but-unproven marketing promises
|The Tyee||30 Aug 2010|
|Older Women Invading Facebook||
Facebook is getting old, in every sense of the word.
Since early 2009, when Facebook trumpeted the fact that the female 55+ demographic grew by 550 per cent, (while underplaying the fact that the under-30 enthusiasm stagnated), I've been amused to see it evolving into the equivalent of the retirement home's social centre.
Women who used to scrapbook are now farming on Facebook and sending us all tiresome updates. (PopCap Games reports that 60 per cent of FarmVille's 82 million users are women over 40.)
|The Winnipeg Free Press||10 Mar 2010|
Barbara Ehrenreich's latest masterful book, Bright-Sided, opens with the most hopeful frontpiece I've seen in decades. "To complainers everywhere: Turn up the volume!"
Ehrenreich subtitles the book How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America, and she investigates how the 19th century's faith-healing movement developed into today's pop culture tool for social control.
|The Tyee||21 Jan 2010|
|Against Social Media||
|The Tyee||22 Jun 2009|
|Beware of Neuromarketing||
Adults are taught to be sceptical. But the subconscious is like a toddler.
Forget focus groups, marketing studies or even psychographics, 2009 is the year the selling juggernaut will use neuroscience and our own biology against us.
|The Tyee||25 Dec 2008|
|Dust and Lust||
The point at which sex and housekeeping collide.
|The Tyee||12 Apr 2006|
|'Write Dirty for Me'||
Slap the monkey? Slap the editor!
Pierre Trudeau said famously that the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation and, to this, let me add: that sentiment should go double for news media.
|The Tyee||12 Dec 2005|
|Let's Give Americans a B.C. Liberty Tour||
Bush-mad Yanks need flu shots, medicinal tokes, and orca-viewing; and we need bucks.
To: Tourism B.C. Re: Liberty Retreats
The time has come to put aside the post-election jokes about our American neighbours and recognize what the George Bush landslide really means for B.C: a tourism windfall.
|The Georgia Straight||18 Nov 2004|
|Real dicks dream up faux chick flicks||
Ever since I saw the film Kate and Leopold, any invitation to dinner-and-a-movie has taken on a sinister tone.
K&L, which is currently topping the hot videos lists, is the latest in a growing roster of "dick flicks". You know what I mean: those romantic comedies that are marketed to women as chick flicks but often seem designed to insult us. Or worse: they reflect the way some man wants women to behave. In short, they could only have been dreamed up by some dick. Or, if it’s really bad, a committee of dicks.
|The Georgia Straight||12 Sep 2002|
|Women are fed up: Call it a trend, or call it a revolution||
Since greeting cards have to express popular sentiments in order to make a profit, I’ve long thought they were a good indication of the zeitgeist.
In that case, what are we to make of a Valentine’s Day card I found last year? The card is by the creator of the Cathy comic strip and reads, “It’s Valentine’s Day and once again women all over the country will be shouting those here special little words… On the next page, Cathy yells: MEN ARE PIGS!”
|The Globe And Mail||14 Feb 1995|


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Smith has kept up with continued demand for perfume during this time by boxing up all shipments in her own home, since the shipping solutions she once relied on are no longer available. She’s not sure if she’ll be able to continue to obtain the artisanal French glass she’s always bottled her perfume in. “Typically, France shuts down in August for their summer holiday, but if they do that again after quarantine, it’s going to make our bottles and components a lot scarcer,” Smith says.
Of course, that’s assuming perfume brands will have anything to bottle in the first place. “The base of all fragrance is alcohol, and there is currently a shortage due to the increase in sanitizer production, which is obviously an absolute priority at this time,” Feeney says. Some brands, like Sol de Janeiro, whose most recent perfume, Sol de Janeiro Sol Cheirosa ’62, launched the week that stay-at-home orders were issued across the country, have responded by leveraging its relationships with alcohol suppliers to launch its own hand sanitizers. Marc Chaya, CEO and co-creator of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, says the brand may focus more on personal-care items to meet shifting demands.
The future of perfume shopping when non-essential businesses are allowed to open their doors again is up in the air. But with countries like New Zealand and Australia starting to open back up, global brands and retailers alike are quickly trying to come up with a plan. (Editor’s note: Allure reached out to Coty, who owns the licenses for Gucci, Tiffany and Co., Lacoste, Marc Jacobs, and more, and Coty declined to comment on COVID’s effect on its perfume brands.)
For their part, many brands are holding summer launches for fall. Gommichon says Diptyque’s stores plan to incorporate masks, gloves, sanitizers, and frictionless payment into all of their stores, while exploring avenues like phone orders, video consultations, and innovative sampling efforts. Atelier Cologne’s president Gerard Camme says its brand is currently offering Zoom and FaceTime consultations and envisions making curbside pickup available to customers when stores are reopened.
Until that day, perfume boutiques like Aedes de Venustas, a New York City staple nestled next to Bar Belly on Orchard Street and Canal, will lie empty. Or mostly empty. “I still turn on the chandelier every day, just for myself,” co-owner Robert Gerstner says. “I turn on the music every day, just for myself. I close the door, and it’s like time stood still. It’s such a feel-good place.”
And every day, the USPS delivery person comes by, laden with boxes of perfumes to bring to Aedes’ customers. “He told me, ‘The one joy I have every day is picking up the boxes from you because it makes the truck smell so good,” Gerstner says. “It’s about these little things.”
Read more on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the beauty industry:
Now, watch the power of scent:
You can follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all things beauty.


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Nvidia has allegedly requested that its add-in-board (AIB) partners temporarily halt the production of its upcoming flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards. There are reportedly issues with hardware and firmware, two websites reported on Friday. The exact nature of these issues remains unclear, but it is possible that the new top-of-the-range board will arrive on the market somewhat later than expected.
TweakTown reported the news without disclosing reasons for the temporary halt, the time when Nvidia's request was made or whether Nvidia reached out to all of its partners. This report is supported by VideoCardz, which claims that Nvidia wanted to pause production of its next flagship consumer product due to issues with the BIOS and hardware.
We have no idea what kind of 'BIOS and hardware' issues could lead to a temporary production halt after volume manufacturing was initiated. Typically, overheating due to insufficient cooling and/or overvoltaging, choice of wrong/weak components, problems with select applications, and incompatibility with certain hardware are among issues that plague newly released parts. Developers try to avoid such situations, which sometimes can cause delays.
Nvidia formally announced its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics board at CES on January 4, 2022. However, it never revealed its actual launch date and advised the enthusiast community to wait for more information later this month.
In fact, the company did not even disclose its actual specifications but only said (opens in new tab) that the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti will provide "40 TFLOPS for shaders, 78 TFLOPS for ray tracing and a whopping 320 TFLOPS of AI muscle" while carrying 24GB of GDDR6X memory with a 21 GT/s data transfer rate. With such characteristics, we can safely say that the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is going to be the new king of the GPU benchmarks and one of the best graphics cards around (with an exorbitant price tag to match).
As far as we can tell, based on unofficial information, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti uses a fully-enabled GA102 GPU with 10752 CUDA cores, 112 texture mapping units, 84 render backends, and 336 ray tracing cores. Unofficial sources also pointed to a January 27 launch date for the product, but that date now seems in jeopardy.


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Zoom is introducing a pilot advertising program that will show ads to users on its “Basic” free tier. The company says the ads will support investments and enable it to continue providing its platform to free users.
Basic tier users will only see ads if they join a meeting hosted by another Basic tier user. For the initial test, ads will be displayed on the browser page users see when they end their meeting. It’s possible that Zoom may show ads in other areas of the user interface once initial testing is concluded.
As part of the pilot, Zoom users will see a banner on its website that provides a link to its cookies management tool so they can manage which ads they are shown. Zoom also notes that it has updated its Privacy Statement to make it clear that it will not use meeting, webinar or messaging content for any marketing, promotions, or third-party advertising purposes.
Although the company has made it clear that users won’t see ads during meetings, this latest move is a significant change for Zoom. The platform’s free basic service lets users host group meetings for up to 40 minutes, which allowed Zoom’s popularity to skyrocket amid the pandemic. With this latest change, Zoom is imposing a new restriction upon its free basic users, which it says is a necessary step.
“This change ensures that our free Basic users are able to continue connecting with friends, family, and colleagues with the same robust platform we have always offered,” Janine Pelosi, Zoom’s chief marketing officer, outlined in a blog post.
The change comes as Zoom has spent the last year focused on being more than just a popular video conferencing tool. Earlier this year, the company launched a $100 million fund to invest in companies building applications based on the company’s platform. Zoom recently made its first round of investments as part of the fund.
In terms of acquisitions, the company recently announced plans to acquire German startup Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions or “Kites” for short, to bring real-time machine learning-based translation to its platform. Zoom had also planned to acquire Five9, a maker of cloud-based customer service software, but the deal was subsequently called off.


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Smoother auto insurance interactions
An online auto insurance company is using a data integration platform to help power its real-time quoting and purchasing service. Processing as many as two million records each day, Insurance.com has selected Informatica PowerCenter to enable a wide range of interactions with customers.
"[The solution] will allow us to use real-time business intelligence to drive and enrich the customer experience, leading to better informed consumer decisions, higher response rates and increased sales," says Joe Singleton, IT director at Insurance.com. "PowerCenter offers the robust foundation and performance we need to instantaneously move, aggregate and process customer-generated data in order to provide more productive online interactions." He also singled out the solution's real-time performance, high-quality data transformations, speed of development and manageability.
Insurance.com had been gathering a huge amount of Web site data for business intelligence and reporting, but not in real time. With the new system, the company can capture the 100 to 150 data elements generated by each customer as he or she goes through the quote process and integrate that information in real time into an active data warehouse where it can be used for more meaningful online interactions. Data administrators can leverage the technology to monitor how data is being moved and transformed, as well as take action to avoid processing bottlenecks.
Insurance.com anticipates that the deployment will result immediately in a five percent to 10 percent increase in its sales conversion rate, according to a press release from Informatica.


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On September 22, 2017, a business event was held as a business trip to Pars Saman Iranian (SWAN) factory, in Mashhad. There was 30 participants participated in this in this event. within a day, all members visited 7 SMD LED production lines and the process of producing SMD LED. Next, the assembly production line was introduced where workers assemble some electronics parts into a LED aluminum frame, in order to produce Edge panel lit.
The Russian commercial Board said that we could feel the atmosphere of Pars Saman Iranian (SWAN), which is the spirits of decreasing human errors and creating high-quality products. At last, Russian delegation stated that, this event was very effective for increasing communication and cooperation between Russian groups and SWAN groups.


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B of I business customer charges to rise
Bank of Ireland – which is today expected to report pretax losses of €1.8 billion for 2012 – is ramping up its charges for business customers amid continuing losses, which the bank is expected to report today.
The bank is to increase the charges applied to international and cross-border payments, and to electronic banking services effective from March 11th.
The bank will increase the charge applied to electronic banking services, including debit and credit services used by businesses, from 6.5 cent per transaction to 8.5 cent per transaction.
Business On Line same day international payments without foreign exchange will now incur a charge of €42.50 per payment, up from €25.35.
Business On Line same day international payments with foreign exchange conversion will rise from €21.50 per payment to €37.50.
The bank is also increasing charges on inward international transactions over €1,500 from €7.50 per transaction to €12.50.
From an SME perspective, nearly 77 per cent of all business is done through AIB and Bank of Ireland.
“When you have a duopoly like that, it almost gives them carte blanche to raise banking charges,” Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said.


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BlackBerry has announced the DTEK50, a mid-range Android smartphone that the firm claims to be the most secure in the world.
The BlackBerry DTEK50, also known as the BlackBerry Neon, has a 5.2in 1920x1080 Full HD display, an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage expandable via microSD up to 2TB.
There's a customisable BlackBerry Convenience Key on the side of the device, which provides quick access to most-used applications or tasks.
BlackBerry has equipped the handset with Google's Marshmallow operating system, providing support for Android for Work as the firm continues to target the enterprise market.
BlackBerry has added some of its own features on top of Google's software, including the BlackBerry Hub for managing notifications and the firm's DTEK mobile security management software.
The company has gone so far as to claim that the DTEK50 is the "world's most secure" Android smartphone thanks to the added software tweaks.
"When it comes to security, Android smartphones from BlackBerry are ahead of all other Android smartphones," the firm said.
"Security isn’t something that’s tacked on, it’s fully integrated into the BlackBerry device hardware and OS. BlackBerry sets the bar in incident response and patch management, and brings world-renowned security experts and testing to DTEK50.
"When it comes to protecting business-critical data and personal privacy, BlackBerry will keep you safe and secure."
BlackBerry Messenger is pre-loaded, but good luck finding anybody else who uses it.
The BlackBerry DTEK50 is a reasonably slim 7.4mm and has 13MP autofocus and 8MP fixed-focus cameras and a 2,610mAh battery that the firm claimed will offer around 17 hours.
BlackBerry also said that the phone can charge to 50 per cent in an oddly precise 51 minutes thanks to the inclusion of Quick Charge 2.0.
The DTEK50 smartphone is available to pre-order now at the BlackBerry website priced at £275 before it starts shipping on 8 August.
Geoengineering on the sea floor near glaciers would form a new ice shelf to prevent melting
Alterations in capillary blood flow can be caused by body position change
Curiosity rover is in 'normal mode' but not transmitting scientific data back to base
NatWest outage comes a day after Barclays' IT systems shut out customers and staff


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Kevlar-coated phones with a sprinkling of LTE sound like a pretty sweet proposition. Now the Droid Razr's been further sweetened by its new Maxx recast, and Motorola appears to be pretty darn proud of its bordering-on-tablet-territory 3,300mAh battery. Those yearning for a smartphone that'll last longer than daylight hours can hit up the source below -- Verizon's offering it up for $299 on contract, starting today.
*Verizon has acquired AOL, Engadget's parent company. However, Engadget maintains full editorial control, and Verizon will have to pry it from our cold, dead hands.
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX


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Ohio cemeteries say the legislature is trying to put them in a box.
For decades, they’ve been putting 30% of the money they collect from prepaid casket sales into protected trusts while spending the rest on operating costs. Senate Bill 224 would raise that requirement to 90%.
“I look at it from a consumer protection standpoint,” said Sen. Jerry Cirino, R- Kirtland. “The whole purpose of the trusting is to protect the family. Consumers should have the same security regardless of where they do the pre-need contract.”
But Kirk Roberts from the Ohio Cemetery Association says these changes “could make it impossible for not-for-profit cemeteries to sell funeral goods on a pre-need basis.”
When someone goes to buy a casket ahead of time in Ohio, part of their money gets put into a trust that the funeral home or cemetery can’t touch. The idea is that this trust protects the buyer in case the business closes or the person changes their mind about where or how they want to be buried.
If someone spends $1,000 on a casket and later decides to be cremated, current law says funeral homes must transfer $900 toward that person’s new plans, said Mike Dittoe, a lobbyist for Ohio’s funeral homes. A cemetery would give that person $300.
“It is unconscionable to refund only 30% of prepaid funds …,” Dittoe wrote in a statement to lawmakers. “It would be arbitrary and capricious for the law to allow such disparate treatment simply because the consumer purchased the casket from a cemetery rather than a funeral home.”
Cemeteries say the cash from caskets sales are baked into their business models, and they can’t afford to keep most of the money in a trust.
“Cemeteries are for perpetuity, and we need every revenue option available to us,” Rick Meade, president of Catholic Cemeteries in Ohio, told lawmakers in November.
He also raised concerns about whether non-profit cemeteries can legally write these pre-need funeral contracts because of “their inability to sell insurance without losing their tax exemption under Internal Revenue Code.”
And Roberts pointed out that the changes to pre-need sales could put cemeteries under the regulation of both the Department of Commerce and the Board of Embalmers.
“We had a little bit of a turf …….


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Most business leaders are by now aware that the growing use of mobile phones is changing the competitive landscape for all companies, no matter what the industry. The extent of those changes is greater than most appreciate, however. They include entirely new methods of designing products and completely revamped methods for selling them. They also involve a fundamentally reinvented relationship with customers: To be precise, the customers are now the boss.
Those were some of the key ideas that emerged from a recent conference — “How Mobile and Social Are Transforming Innovation Models: Flipping the Paradigm?” — hosted by Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the school’s San Francisco campus. The question mark at the end of the conference’s title probably wasn’t necessary, judging by one of the slides shown by Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Mack Institute and president of Mobiquity, one the country’s largest mobile app developers. The slide was jammed with text and listed dozens of activities including shining a flashlight, using a tape measure and turning an air conditioner on and off. What the tasks had in common, Snyder said, was that all are among the constantly expanding list of things people are now doing with their mobile phones.
“The war is over,” Snyder noted. “Mobile is the new platform. And it is changing our behavior. We are using it for everything, because we like doing things in the easiest way possible.”
There are many implications of this shift to mobile. One, Snyder added, is that the concerns about privacy and “masked identity” that were so dominant in the early days of the Internet are being changed by social networks like Facebook. The “new normal” is what Snyder called “exposed identity” and constant sharing. Because a smartphone always knows its holder’s location, one of mobile’s biggest impacts will involve providing “point of inspiration” messages to consumers that attempt to persuade them into a purchase at exactly the moment they’re able to make it.
Snyder predicted that several industries and professions were on the verge of being disrupted by mobile. Medicine is a prime example. There are now apps that serve as an “OpenTable for doctors,” allowing patients to search for participating local physicians with an opening that same day rather than having to wait a week for a session with their regular doctor.
New Possibilities for a New Economy
Another conference speaker, Todd Hewlin, said the new ground rules in the social and mobile economy were “the perfect storm for disruption,” requiring companies to learn an entirely new way of selling their products. Hewlin is a managing director of TCG Advisors, a consulting group best known for its association with Geoffrey Moore, author of the book Crossing the Chasm. Hewlin is a co-author of Consumption Economics: The New Rules of Tech.
The new way of selling products, Hewlin noted, involves a move from what he called the “CapEx” business model to one dubbed “OpEx.” Traditionally, Hewlin explained, companies assumed that customers made purchases with a “capital expenditures” mentality — i.e., making a big, one-time purchase and then using the product for many years. Hewlin said there was an “asymmetry of risk” in that arrangement, as customers were often stuck with obsolete products before they were able to amortize the purchase price.
Another downside to CapEx is that companies get into a vicious cycle of convincing customers to upgrade to a new product by “improving” the old one with the addition of new features. The results are often bloated products full of features most customers never use.
In the OpEx model, customers, in effect, lease rather than buy products. A number of “software as a service” companies, such as Salesforce.com, have pioneered this approach in the enterprise software market, and Hewlin predicted that the practice will spread to other industries. One of the main causes of this change, Hewlin said, is the growing power of customers. “Simplicity is going to be the key,” he noted. “We have to make products that are so simple that anyone can use them.”
Hewlin added that companies often have no idea which features of a particular product consumers are actually using. New, low-cost sensor technologies are making this sort of feedback possible, and Hewlin said firms should take advantage of them to better understand what customers want. That will help them to avoid crashing into the “margin wall,” which he said is an inevitable part of the OpEx model, with constantly declining prices and commoditized products.
The Psychology of Social Media
With companies turning more and more to marketing via social media, there is increased interest in figuring out what types of outreach will prompt consumers to engage with their favorite brands. Wharton operations and information management professor Kartik Hosanagar and fellow researchers are trying to come up with an answer, studying the psychology of these networks; specifically, what prompts people to “like” or comment on a Facebook post.
Hosanagar, who delivered his presentation via TelePresence technology from Cisco Systems that allowed the talk to be streamed live from the East coast to San Francisco, built a computer file of 106,000 Facebook messages posted by 782 companies over the course of nearly a year, starting in September 2011. Then he used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, which parcels out massive, repetitive tasks to stay-at-home workers, to ask people to categorize a subset of the messages based on criteria developed by the researchers.
Participants in the study were asked: Did a particular message make some sort of emotional appeal? Did it mention a specific deal on a specific day? Did it urge readers to contribute to a charity? Did it mention a holiday, like Christmas or Thanksgiving? After the subset of messages had been scored by humans, the results were turned over to a computer, which, using the latest in “machine learning” technology, used that data to quickly process the remainder of the sample.
The results contained a number of surprises. Unfortunately for retailers trying to drive customers to specific sales events, messages that promoted a particular item didn’t do a very good job of generating “likes” or comments. Neither did those involving holidays. What did? Posts written to appear as if they were coming from a friend or that urged readers to donate to a certain charity consistently got high scores. The lesson for retailers, according to Hosanagar, is that firms need to mix up their social communications rather than just blasting out endless messages about deals and products.
During the Q&A segment, several members of the audience asked Hosanagar whether the social media efforts now underway by big companies have any measurable return on investment. Hosanagar responded that the medium is still too young to know the answer, although researchers like him are actively pursuing it.
Feeding the Ecosystem
The new mobile and social business models bring myriad challenges and contradictions, according to Wharton management professor and Mack Institute co-director Harbir Singh.
Most businesses today understand that they need to exist in an “ecosystem” that includes other companies, some of them competitors. However, Singh said, there is a “constant tension” at firms about the issue. On the one hand, managers need to take steps that will nurture and sustain the ecosystem they find themselves in, but on the other hand, in doing so they often find that someone else, perhaps even a rival, is gaining most of the benefits from their contributions.
The right approach, Singh said, is one of “joint value creation,” wherein companies take great care to monitor what each is getting out of its business environment compared to what the firm is putting into it. Singh added that one tactic many companies use is to open up their products to create a platform that others can contribute to. For example, many small Internet companies have opted to build their services around Facebook’s infrastructure, or access Google analytics data to use in their products.
The conference also featured a panel of representatives from some of the country’s biggest companies who discussed the challenges they have faced in determining how to maneuver as social and mobile applications continue to grow in popularity.
In keeping with one of the big themes of the day — involving the growing role of customers — attendees at the conference were also asked to make their own contributions. During lunch, the audience was divided into three groups: “disrupters,” who are bringing about change; “incumbents,” who must adapt to change, and “enablers,” who are providing the tools to make those changes possible. Participants were asked to discuss the world from their assigned perspectives. After lunch, each table reported back on what had been said.
Many of the lunchtime sessions echoed themes that had been presented by speakers, notably Singh’s dissection of the challenges and opportunities involved in working inside a business ecosystem.
“You have to feed the ecosystem,” Singh noted. “It will die if all you do is extract value from it. But you also have to get your fair share of the benefits.”


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We’re not quite over the euphoria of South Africa Menswear Week and the amazing work that was shown over the four day period. But now we dont have to, because Ghana is taking on the challenge of bringing West Africa’s first exclusive menswear fashion week.
Menswear has gained serious prominence in the last two decades as international designers began to feed the style craze which celebrity and the narcissism of social media brought to mens fashion. Fashion and designer labels suddenly became acceptable social currency, just the way financial independence and autonomy used to be. As more designers delved into menswear, it became pertinent to create a fashion calendar that catered specifically to the guys.
Accra’s men Fashion and accessories week is themed ‘Fashion Forward Man’ and organized by Fame Model Management. Slated for the 27th and 28th of February 2016, the two day event will hold at the World Trade Centre in Accra. With a Business Of Fashion seminar on the 27th of February in the works for industry upstarts and veterans to discuss how to advance menswear in Ghana and Africa as whole and parse out the issues limiting the industry’s growth, Accra Menswear Week is more than just ritzy clothes and chiselled frames.
Accra menswear week will also have a ‘Mens Gallery’, a designed exhibition space similar to LFDW’s exhibition space as well as evening runway shows. From a cursory glance at the Menswear week digital presence, (it’s website doesn’t work and its Facebook hasn’t been updated since February 6th), something may be off. Neither the sponsors nor participating designers have been announced yet and this gives us some serious pause. Hopefully this is just a case of delayed communication that is unfortunately, common place in West Africa.


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Cheddar afternoon business report for March 12, 2018Posted: Updated:
More information is coming out on of the most highly anticipated IPOs of the year. Dropbox, a file sharing company, is targeting a stock price between $16 and $18 a piece, for a $7 billion to $8 billion evaluation. Dropbox is expected to start trading on the NASDAQ late next week.
March Madness means mocking McDonald's. Wendy's has built a bracket on Twitter to point out how its competitor uses frozen patties. Wendy’s is stating that there are only two teams, team fresh and team frozen. A vote for team fresh means fresh beef offers from Wendy's. A vote for team frozen, is a vote for quote "Mc-D's frozen beef and disappointment." McDonald's recently announced it will serve fresh quarter pounders in most U.S. stores by May.
Are robots coming for your jobs? A majority of Americans say yes. Nearly 60 percent of Americans worry that artificial intelligence is the biggest workplace threat, more than immigration or offshoring.


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The Apple today updated the Apple Music app on the Android platform in order to add two new features.
Got the app now on night mode ” Dark Mode“, which uses a black background color throughout the app, which is in stark contrast to the reality of the basic bright white for the application. You can activate Night mode ” Dark Mode ” permanently from the settings or you can adjust it to work with the feature to save battery in your phone.
The new update also has a feature to sync the words with the song, a feature that you synchronise the words with the song. Moreover, it has now been further re-design of the screen the lyrics of the songs fully so that it now contains the text of a large covers the whole screen.
In the case if these features are familiar to you, it is because he was advertised as part of the iOS system 13, which was announced by Apple at its annual conference for developers WWDC 2019 in the month of June last. Was introduced both features on stage will be issued to users of the Apple Music service on iOS devices with the iOS update 13, which will be launched later this year. Somehow, it has decided to Apple to bring these new features first to Android users rather than users of iOS, this is unusual of Apple. These new features began to appear for some users the Android at least, and is likely to appear for the rest of the users in the coming days and weeks.


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This week’s show features a lot of little news bits starting with a discussion about Charter testing a new smart home device management platform and another chat about facial recognition. We then return to the lessons that Boeing’s 737 MAX saga have to teach the IoT industry before diving into Google news starting with continued conversations for Google Smart Displays, the new local transcription service and what it means for the smart home, and a cool service for the visually impaired. The Amazon purchase of Eero is now closed and an appliance maker added an easier way to connect its products to Wi-Fi, so keep an eye on that. We close by answering a question about an appropriate outdoor plug for a Wyze camera.
Stacey Higginbotham: Podcast: The smart home at SXSW
more iot news
19/08/2019 - 09:43
19/08/2019 - 09:41
Mads Hobye, Jonas Löwgren:Touching a Stranger: Designing for Engaging Experience in Embodied Interaction


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Catch Up With Oni Press At PAX West 2017
by Hannah Means Shannon
Since Oni Press has recently expanded into tabletop gaming with Oni Games, they have to be returned to PAX West this year at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA, from Sept. 1-4.
Find them at booth #6305 where, in addition to a limited stock of Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Card Game exclusive box cover and playmats, they will have the limited edition Dead of Winter #1 comic and a number of collectible Rick and Morty™ enamel pins from Zen Monkey Studios, including Glow-in-the-Dark Rick, Tiny Rick, Pickle Rick, Noob-Noob, plus two *new* pins!
They will also have an array of game-themed comics that include Rick and Morty™: Pocket Like You Stole It #1 “Nintendo Power” homage variant cover by Tait Howard, and the Rick and Morty™ #16 “The Last of Us” homage variant cover by Mariel Cartwright.
On Saturday, September 2nd from 1-2pm, Sean Vanaman, the co-founder and developer of Campo Santo as well as the writer of Firewatch™, will be signing his special Rick and Morty™ #29 one-shot, with an alternate cover illustrated by Campo Santo art director Olly Moss.
Here’s a look at those exclusives:


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Combatting ‘greenwashing’ . As small, socially responsible businesses gain attention, some large corporations start to take notice, and in some cases take over (See, for example, Ben & Jerry’s, Tom’s of Maine and Burt’s Bees.) To help companies maintain their morals in the face of corporate takeovers, and to attract socially responsible investors and consumers, a nonprofit called B Lab has created B Corporation, where the ‘B’ stands for beneficial (to the business, public and environment). — World Changing
- ‘Greenwashing’ Part 2. High tech marketing firm Strategic Oxygen says all technology companies are struggling with the sustainability challenge. To compete in the serious sport of environmental posturing, many tech companies declare green manifestos and adopt stopgap sustainability measures to diminish public criticism and gain consumer support. Strategic Oxygen says they haven’t taken sustainability seriously enough. — Greenbiz
GE Food. The Soil Association has published a report reviewing the last ten years’ research on GE crop yields. It reveals that the yields of all the major GE crop varieties in cultivation are lower than, or at best, equivalent to, yields from non-GE varieties. The report firmly puts to bed biotechnology industry claims that GE crops are needed in order to ‘feed the world’. — Greenpeace
Planet Slayer. The ABC has launched a kid’s information and games site which offers “the dirt on greenhouse without the guilt trips. No lectures. No multinational-bashing (well, maybe a little…). Just fun and games and the answers to all your enviro-dilemmas.” — Planet Slayer
Have you spotted a thought provoking news article or blog post on the state of the planet? Share it with other Crikey readers by sending the link to [email protected]
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Tasty, BuzzFeed’s collection of aerial-view, time-lapse cooking videos, has been the fiercest test of the company’s thesis that the future of media is in creating winning content for social media platforms. The addictive, cheese- and avocado-laden shorts, part of the company’s first vertical that doesn’t bear the BuzzFeed brand, have drawn nearly 40 billion views in less than two years on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and Tasty’s own site.
The channel has also attracted advertiser love because of how smoothly brands can be integrated. More than 1 million people shared Tasty’s jalapeño popper burger recipe cooked on Oster’s 7-Minute Grill, boosting the appliance-maker’s sales. The vertical has even led BuzzFeed into commerce: Tasty: The Cookbook, a hard-copy collection that can be customized according to recipe type (from breakfast food to kids’ meals), sold a whopping 100,000 copies in its first few weeks. “We didn’t even know the brand was that powerful,” says Tasty’s global general manager Ashley McCollum.
BuzzFeed recognized that Tasty could be a test kitchen for other original, service-oriented video brands. So Tasty begot Nifty (do-it-yourself home projects) and Goodful (healthy living). Each new vertical is first proven out within the last one, and each has grown faster than its predecessors. By focusing on categories that already have followings—there are 24-hour cable networks devoted to each one—BuzzFeed is wooing cord-cutters and people who’ve never had cable. As long as “Tasty Inc.” is racking up views, McCollum says she’ll follow her company’s mantra: “Don’t fuck with growth.”
This article is part of our coverage of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2017.


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Italian catering equipment importer Linda Lewis Kitchens (LLK) has unveiled plans to become a provider of third party spare parts and will not limit it just to the brands that it distributes.
The company recently recruited Ryan King as its new service and spares coordinator as part of its new strategy for growth.
King, who has previously worked in the spare parts industry, has already delivered a 65% year-on-year uptick in sales through LLK’s spare parts department since he joined eight weeks ago.
Commercial director, Jenna Lewis, said the move to grow its spare parts business was a significant step for the company given the narrow breadth of its previous spares focus.
“Until recently, LLK was only equipped to source spare parts for the equipment that we sell,” she explained. “Bringing Ryan and his indispensable industry knowledge on board means that we have now expanded our spare parts offering to include all catering equipment manufacturers.”
LLK has also announced the promotion of north-west service manager, Will Pilling, to the role of technical director. Pilling recently gained his Gas Safe accreditation while trainee engineer, Tony Godding, has concluded his basic electrics training to complete his advancement to service engineer.
The Oldham-based firm claims its service department has seen an increase in demand over recent months due to the fast-growing food and beverage climate in Manchester and its surrounding areas.
Managing director, Linda Lewis, commented: “Investing in staff training is one of our core values here at Linda Lewis Kitchens, we find that it is something that is highly beneficial to both LLK and our customers. Having more skilled staff means that we are equipped to tackle bigger challenges and maintain our high standards of customer service.”
IMAGE (L-R): Ryan King, William Pilling and Tony Godding.


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The MedBen home office and client services will be closed from Noon EST on Monday, July 3rd through Tuesday, July 4th in observance of Independence Day. We will reopen on Wednesday, July 5th at 8:00 a.m. EST.
As always, should a need arise outside of business hours, plan members can check claims information, including status and EOB detail online at MedBen Access. MedBen Access is also now available for download on all Apple and Android devices. Just go to your app store on your device and search “MedBen.”
From all of us at MedBen, we wish you a safe, healthy, and happy holiday!


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Amsterdam-based retailer Patta has officially announced that their upcoming Jordan Brand capsule collection, consisting of an Air Jordan 7 and a range of apparel, will be available this Saturday, May 18. It marks the first time that Jordan Brand has partnered with a European brand.
The apparel collection consists of a track suit, shorts, T-shirt and boonie hat.
According to Patta’s Guillaume Schmidt and Vincent van de Waal, the Air Jordan 7 was the ideal silhouette for this partnership for several reasons.
“It was a golden era for hip-hop and a big year for me, a lot of very important albums that I still carry with me came out between ’92 and ’96. And aesthetically, those years had such colourful imagery and strong connections to black empowerment. The VII and its geometric patterns also have a reference to Africa,” says Schmidt, a native of Suriname who grew up an hour from Amsterdam in basketball-crazed ‘s Hertogenbosch.
“The VII apparel was out of this world. The products that we worked on come straight from a short Jordan clip from Barcelona that became super famous. It features a segment where Michael walks past a huge billboard of himself where he’s got the shoes on, and that image has been forever etched in my memory,” says Gee.
The Patta x Jordan Collection releases May 18th at Patta’s Amsterdam and London locations, as well as patta.nl.


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Do you remember the last smartphone by Meizu? Was it the Meizu 18, or even this version didn’t go on sale? Anyway, if you have already buried this brand, do not hurry. Today, TechGoing reported that a new Meizu smartphone had appeared on the GeekBench benchmarking platform. The alleged Meizu 20 is assumed to use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship chip. So there is every reason to think that this brand is back and will compete with the bigwigs in the niche.
Is it the Meizu 20?
The alleged Meizu 20 appeared on GeekBench with the M2392 model number. The Qualcomm chipset inside has a codename, “Kalama.” According to the CPU section, it has one master core clocked at 3.19GHz, three operating at 2.02GHz, and four working at 2.80GHz. The SoC also integrates the Adreno 740 GPU. In other words, this is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 because all parameters match. From the screenshot, we can also see that the phone runs on Android 13 and has 12GB of RAM onboard.
Also read: Global smartphone market shipments will continue to drop next year
As for the benchmark scores, in the single-core test, the phone scored 1409 points, reaching 4199 points in the multi-core test.
If our memory serves well, we heard that Meizu would skip the Meizu 19 moniker for its upcoming flagship phones a month ago. At the same time, the rumors claimed that the company would launch the Meizu 20 and Pro smartphones. Though there was no official statement, the source revealed some info concerning the model numbers and configurations.
If those rumors were accurate, the Meizu 20 would come with an M381Q model number, while the Pro would have an M391Q model number. So if you find these model numbers in any database, just know that they refer to the Meizu 20 series.
Lastly, from that report, we learned that the Meizu 20 and 20 Pro would sport the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. Among them, the Pro version should come in 8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 512GB storage variants.


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NBA 2K15 Won’t Receive a Demo This Year, 2K Confirms
NBA 2K15 is just a couple of weeks away from its release and just before that, 2K has clarified that the upcoming entry in the series will not be getting a demo.
The demo usually arrives just two weeks before the game’s launch but there was no announcement by 2K until today which is why some people were hoping that there will indeed be a demo.
However, this is not the case as Operation Sports received a confirmation from the developers, who cleared the ambiguity by confirming that there will be no NBA 2K15 demo this year.
Those who purchase the game every year wouldn’t mind too much but newcomers would have preferred to try out the game first before purchasing it.
This year, NBA Live 15 is going to release only for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, giving 2K a great opportunity to capitalize on the remaining platforms and developers seem committed to take advantage of this situation.
The PC version of NBA 2K15 is looking stunning and the game’s release of Xbox 360 and PS3 will be welcomed by the millions of owners of the consoles.
Visual Concepts are committed to this project and are looking to make NBA 2K15, one of the best entries in the franchise. We will see how much they succeed in doing so, when the game launches on 7th of October.


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From 28-31 January 2017, around 1,500 world-leading manufacturers and start-up companies will be showcasing in seven halls what the future has in store for the modern office and for paper and stationery products for the end consumer. All of them use Paperworld as the most significant trade fair in the sector for introducing their new products and innovations.
The next Paperworld sees the return of Paperworld Plaza, the biennial concept aimed at members of the German PBS-Markenindustrie trade association that was first introduced in 2015. Plaza will move from its original location in Hall 3.1 to Hall 3.0 in 2017, along with many of its exhibitors. That said, not all association members have chosen to exhibit in Hall 3.0, but instead in the specific product segment areas relevant to them. Edding and Staedtler, for example, have taken space in Creativeworld (Halls 4.1 and 4.2).
Plaza concept returns
Fair organiser Messe Frankfurt is hoping that the return of the Plaza concept will help boost attendance and see an increase on the circa 37,000 visitors and 1,600 exhibitors that made it to the event last year. Says Paperworld Director Michael Reichhold: “We hope that the Plaza area will again be well received in 2017. With the many excellent new and innovative products from our exhibitors, I am convinced that it will, once more, prove to be a visitor magnet.”
A series of complementary events is also aimed at drawing the crowds. “We are investing in a very varied and high-calibre supplementary programme in order to strengthen the trade fair and create a unique networking and training platform,” adds Reichhold. Attendees can expect to see a host of special presentations, trend-orientated events and expert lectures.
A new feature for 2017 and part of the visionary office is the Future Office, held in Hall 3.0 alongside the Plaza. This is a special exhibition which aims to give insights into how we will all be working in a decade. It will illustrate the changing face of the office, driven by new ways of working and collaborating in a complex digital environment. The concept is based on a study called ‘Working Spaces 2025’ that shows how the landscape of tomorrow’s office will have to become more flexible, individual and sustainable.
“We won’t know how accurate we are for another ten years,” says André Schmidt, the exhibition’s architect. “However, I’m confident we’ll give a good impression of tomorrow’s working world.”
Also part of the ancillary programme are the Remcon Seminars in Hall 6.0 where Remanexpo takes place. Here, visitors will be able to find out about the latest developments in recycled printer supplies.
The seminars will feature a variety of presentations by representatives from the aftermarket industry. Topics to be covered comprise pricing strategies, the colour market, intellectual properly, business inkjet, 3D printing, and opportunities and challenges for remanufacturers in the years ahead.
Other events that complement the products and services being shown on the exhibition floor include a repeat of the Sustainable Office Day where, in a series of lectures and discussion panels, experts will provide valuable insights into the latest developments in sustainability as well as address the challenges of eco-fair procurement.
The Trend Show, in the foyer between Halls 5.1 and 6.1, is another perennial at Paperworld that will look forward to the 2017/18 season. It will provide visitors from the OP and stationery industries with ideas for putting together their product ranges and designing their retail outlets based on the latest trends in fashion, architecture and art.
The Mr Books & Mrs Paper show, in Hall 5.1, is aimed at retailers that seek to combine books, stationery and writing products in their assortment. Curator Angelika Niestrath will be giving her insight into the latest trends in the book trade.
Another event that has proven popular in the past is the BMWi promotional area in Hall 6.1. Here, young start-up companies will showcase what they have to offer in terms of fresh ideas and unconventional products, providing inspiration and helping visitors discover new and trendsetting ideas in office supplies.
Back by popular demand also in 2017 is the Paperworld Business Matchmaking Programme. This initiative aims to foster contact between manufacturers and buyers before the event begins. It helps attendees find the firms most important to them and then plan meetings via an easy-to-use online platform, with assistance from the matchmaking team where required.
Lectures and awards
Paperworld’s lecture programme will be running throughout the event, focusing on the latest key themes relevant to the international retail trade. Plus, the show will be rounded off with the ISPA and Insider awards as well as the annual Paperworld Awards that acknowledge the winners in the categories of Product of the Year, Industry Face of the Year and Specialist Retailer of the Year.
For an in-depth interview with Paperworld Director Michael Reichhold, look out for the February issue of OPI.


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A boundary-free global payments market, in which international payments become as cheap, easy and standard as domestic ones, took a step closer to reality recently when 21 leading banks, clearing houses and payment service providers based in Europe, the US, Canada, Brazil and South Africa signed up to the International Payments Framework Association (IPFA).
By joining the IPFA, members agree to adhere to and apply a uniform set of business rules, standards and operating procedures to cross-border payments. Two of the association’s founding members, the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, US, and Equens in Europe have begun processing US dollar and euro payments between the US and Europe.
The main thrust behind the IPFA is to create an integrated, standardised payments market capable of handling larger volumes of transactions at lower cost. As single euro payments area (SEPA) transactions rise, processing payments outside SEPA will become comparatively increasingly expensive. Given that the SEPA infrastructure is now in place and investments are being made in this mediating technology, why shouldn’t payment providers go ahead and start connecting with partners abroad and overseas to start leveraging on a global scale?
The idea behind the IPFA is to create seamless reach around the world starting with Europe and the US, where the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) is also breaking down the walls between national payment systems by adopting, for example, the ISO 20022 standard used by SEPA for financial messaging.
Over the next year, IPFA members are planning to bring the currencies of Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Africa into the framework. Equens, for example, is already talking to financial institutions in Canada, South Africa and South America, and is actively looking for partners in Asia and Australia.
In terms of structure, the IPFA’s board comprises members of six banking institutions and three clearing houses. The elected chairman of the board is Arthur Cousins of Standard Bank of South Africa, who is responsible for steering the direction of the association.
Europe’s opening banking regulation is finally here. After months of preparation across the continent, the Revised Payment Services Directive comes into effect on January 13.
The revised Payment Services Directive regulation, regarded as one of the most disruptive in Europe’s financial services sector, will begin to make an impact on January 13, 2018.
This year promises to further the regulatory compliance burden imposed on financial institutions. How are firms in the sector responding to the challenge?
The benefits of an in-house bank are increasingly evident, but some treasury departments still hesitate to take the plunge. This article offers a step-by-step guide.


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It’s better to start staning for Lara Croft, if your queen is the one owning the sales and ruling the charts.
The latest and award-winning and critically acclaimed adventure of Lara Croft has returned. On 31st January, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was exclusively released for PS4 and Xbox One. No need to say that the real queen of England (sorry Elizabeth) came and snatched the weave of FIFA 2014, which was – I want to focus on word “WAS” – celebrating its 6th week on the top – but not anymore!
Tomb Raider was already one of the best and top selling games in 2013, but also profitable and money keeps coming to Square Enix HQ like no end with this great quality title. Especially after the definitive edition seems to be success by its own. Rumors and reports are suggesting they have decided to buy new climbing axes for everyone at the office to celebrate this incredible success of the release.
Top 10 UK Software Sales (All Formats) Week Ending to February 1
- Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (take that peasants)
- FIFA 14
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Battlefield 4
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes
- Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
- Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
- Grand Theft Auto 5
- Need for Speed: Rivals
- Killzone: Shadow Fall
Categories: Tomb Raider


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The BBA is now integrated into UK Finance. Please go to www.ukfinance.org.uk for new content and updates from UK Finance.
Material published by BBA prior to 1st July 2017 is still available on this website.
From 1 July 2017, the finance and banking industry operating in the UK will be represented by a new trade association, UK Finance. It will represent around 300 firms in the UK providing credit, banking, markets and payment-related services. The new organisation will take on most of the activities previously carried out by the Asset Based Finance Association, the British Bankers’ Association, the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Financial Fraud Action UK, Payments UK and the UK Cards Association.x
Helping industry as it strives to offer customers safe, secure and seamless service delivery is a key objective of the BBA.
In Q1 2015 Bank of England officials wrote to the BBA seeking clarity on our role during a business continuity event. This was part of a wider programme by the Read More
The Bank of International Settlements and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) has released a report addressing cyber resilience in market infrastructures. The intention was to analyse the Read More
Building on the successful Operation Waking Shark II exercise held on November 2013, the Bank of England has today published a generic scenario pack designed to enable BBA members and Read More
A report looking at the new style of sector based Market Wide Exercises (MWE) designed to test the UK’s finance sector’s readiness in the event of a significant IT event. Read More
The Tripartite Standing Committee has released a statement about swine flu. This is available to view online via the link below. http://www.fsc.gov.uk/section.asp?catid=14&docid=2417 For more information about swine flu, please visit Read More
This section is only available to registered users. Take advantage and register today!


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T-Mobile said it would let customers on its unlimited data plans use 7% more data per month before hitting slower download speeds, as the battle to attract mobile phone subscribers remains heated.
T-Mobile customers on the carrier’s unlimited plan, which starts at $70 for one line, can use 30 GB of data per month, up from 28 GB previously, before facing potentially slower speeds. Other carriers have set the level of potentially slowing data lower: 23 GB at Sprint and 22 GB on at Verizon and AT&T.
With the total number of wireless subscribers nearing a saturation point in the U.S. market, the four major carriers have gotten increasingly competitive with their plans. Sprint and T-Mobile first offered the low-priced unlimited plans last summer. Verizon followed last month, while AT&T (T) cut the price of its plan and opened it to all customers in recent weeks.
Now the carriers are battling with even lower prices and improved terms. In January, T-Mobile stopped adding extra fees and taxes onto customers’ bills. Sprint (S) is offering up to five lines of unlimited data for only $90 a month for a year. And all of the carriers have started to allow high-definition video streaming at no extra charge after Verizon (VZ) included that feature as part of its plan.
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Though all of the new unlimited plans do away with limited monthly data allowances, and the hated overage fees they can bring, the carriers have all imposed a more subtle data speed limit. If a customer hits the monthly data threshold, downloads can be slowed dramatically for the rest of the month—but only in areas where the mobile network is busy or congested.
T-Mobile (TMUS) on Thursday took pains to explain that the 30 GB slow down level threshold was not a data cap, like in the old allowance-based plans.
“Customers can continue to use unlimited amounts of data,” the company said in a statement. And, “customers continue to get the fastest available speeds and may only notice a relative speed difference compared to other users during rare times and places of high demand.”


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Consumption trends in Asean with regards to mobile technology and Internet consumption are creating an impact on the global direction of the technology sector.
MOST people from Asean countries may not think of themselves as being influential in the realm of technology, but this is far from the truth.
Due to the growing smartphone penetration rate and hunger for Internet content and services, Asean countries are becoming an important part of the ICT landscape.
According to Google’s Consumer Barometer report, there are only five places in the world where smartphone usage exceeds that of computers. Both Singapore (85% smartphones versus 74% PCs) and Malaysia (51% vs 39%) make the list.
Over in Vietnam, 24% of its users are accessing the Internet purely on their smart devices. On the whole, the nation’s adoption rate of smartphones has grown tremendously and is currently at 36%, a 16% increase since 2013.
Meanwhile, according to IDC, mobile data usage in Thailand has shown strong growth this year due to the launch of 3G as well as LTE services in 2013 and the rapid expansion of data networks that have taken place since then.
Users in these countries have become “highly mobile centric”, thus making them “ripe targets for marketers and advertisers” across the globe, says Daniel Pang, senior research manager for Asean client devices at IDC Malaysia.
Derry Finkeldey, principal research analyst at Gartner, describes Asia as “the largest mobile device market in the world”.
According to Sajith Sivanandran, managing director of Google Malaysia, Consumer Barometer report showed that consumers within the region have taken charge of the Internet and are shaping it in their own image.
“The trend is only going to grow as more people come online and the appetite for all things digital grows,” he adds.
Mobile data penetration may only be at 28.4% within the Asean region, but Alfie Amir, research manager for telecommunications at IDC Malaysia says strong growth is expected in this area within the next five years at a double digit compound annual growth rate of 12.5%.
“IDC believes that this growth will be mainly driven by the proliferation of low-tier smart devices, the expansion of mobile data networks such as 3G and LTE, and availability of affordable data plans.
In other words, from an economic standpoint, Asean markets are very quickly evolving into a great destination for new businesses with a mobile strategy.
Among the ICT trends that are expected to pick up within the Asean region over the next five years are enterprise mobility and the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) within different industries such as healthcare and mobile commerce.
“The highest areas of new technology spending will be in mobile and renovating the core of IT,” Finkeldey says.
“In general, investment in mobile can be broken into app development and device management. This is followed by business analytics as enterprises seek to better understand and manage the drivers of business performance.”
With regards to changes within the core of IT, Finkeldey is referring to the upgrading of both infrastructure as well as applications and services to ensure that they are “digital ready”.
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