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Does a supposedly natural coffee that will improve your libido and sexual stamina using just herbs sound too good to be true? Well, it was. CaverFlo Natural Herbal Coffee, which promised to do just that, is being recalled after a consumer died after drinking it—and subsequent Food and Drug Administration tests found that the so-called "natural" coffee actually contained sildenafil and tadalafil, the same active ingredients that Viagra and Cialis, prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction, contain. It's not clear what led to the consumer's death, the Consumerist reports.
CaverFlo's website (which has apparently since been taken offline) marketed the coffee as "an absolutely all herbal beverage containing instant coffee and three herbs," all of which grow wild in Malaysia and have supposedly been used for centuries to boost sexual health. The website didn't disclose the two active ingredients in the coffee, which is a big deal because those ingredients can dangerously interact with nitrates, which are found in some prescription drugs taken by men with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease. The FDA says the coffee also may contain undeclared milk, which could cause an allergic reaction. Food Safety News has a picture of the coffee packet and instructions for what to do if you bought any. (A deadly combination of legal beverages killed this teen.)


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The battle between Amazon and the state of California over whether or not the e-tailer should be compelled to collect sales taxes may be drawing to a close after the two parties appear to have come to a tentative agreement that would have the online megastore collecting taxes, but not for another year.
From the L.A. Times:
Under the deal, Amazon would delay collecting taxes until September 2012, Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) said. The new law had mandated that Internet retailers start collecting state taxes in July if they had offices, workers or other connections in California.
The deal leaves open the possibility that, should the U.S. Congress rule between now and July 2012 on how to collect taxes from online retailers, Amazon would have to start collecting taxes before next September.
“It’s a safe harbor for up to a year,” said Assemblyman Calderon. “If they can’t get Congress to act by next July, then they will start to collect the tax in September 2012. If by chance they get Congress to act, then that would trump the state law.”
Of course, there is still Governor Jerry Brown to deal with. The governor has not indicated whether or not he will support the deal made by the Assembly.
Amazon cuts deal on California sales taxes [L.A. Times]

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Hours before the meeting between the National government and supermarketsconsumers warn that some chains imposed a limit of units in the purchase of certain products. Businessmen had warned that there could be shortages of certain items as a result of the war in ukrainewhile the Executive believes that it is a speculation maneuver.
According to the report of multiple Twitter users, the COTO chain established that You can only buy two units per person of some brands of oils, flours and sugar. According to online reports, the same scenario is replicated in other well-known chains with multiple branches in the country, such as Carrefour and Walmart.
This scenario in the gondolas dates from last Thursday, a day before the president Alberto Fernandez talk about your “war” plan against inflation and the impact of the war in Eastern Europe. The three limited products are produced with raw material that is highly demanded by the world and that today has very little supply as a result of the battle that impacts two of the main producers.
From the business sector they emphasize that there is a lack of raw material as a result of the fact that Russia and Ukraine, large exporters, do not sell to the rest of the globe. Consequently, a significant percentage of Argentine production was exported and there is less stock left for the local market. However, from the Government they insist that it is a fully speculative decision.
Does the Supply Law come into play?
In the midst of the climate of tension between the Executive and businessmen, the administration of Alberto Fernández has already anticipated that it will appeal to the legal framework to stop the rise in prices and avoid empty shelves. The main weapon on the table is the ‘Supply Law’, which includes obligations and sanctions for companies.
This legislation empowers the State to intervene in the markets by establishing prices and profit margins, and obliging companies, when it deems it necessary, to “supply the market in the quantities and prices that it discretionally establishes.” In other words, if there is a situation of shortage or scarcity of goods, the Government may order that the sale, production, distribution or provision throughout the country be guaranteed.
In case they do not comply, the companies could receive sanctions such as economic fines that can reach 10 million pesos; the closure of the establishment for up to 90 days; and the disqualification of up to 2 years for the use or renewal of credits. In addition, there is the possibility that the merchandise and products that are in violation may be confiscated.
Key meeting and news
In the afternoon, the minister Matias Kulfas together with the Secretary of Domestic Trade, Robert Feletti, They will receive the authorities of the Association of United Supermarkets (ASU) and the Coordination of the Food Products Industries (COPAL) to approach positions on the increase in prices and supply.
Then, between Tuesday and Wednesday, Feletti is expected to announce the implementation of the measures that would contemplate the expansion of some programs and the possible officialization of the application of certain regulations such as the Supply Law.


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While multiple forecasts have new-vehicle sales gaining significant or perhaps record-setting steam in April, the projection for used-vehicle sales to be generated during the fourth month of 2016 contains a year-over-year decline of nearly 4 percent.
TrueCar indicated that its used-vehicle forecast for total sales — including turns at franchised and independent dealerships as well as private-party transactions — may reach 3,346,766 units, which would be down 3.7 percent from April of last year.
Edmunds.com also is saying that used-vehicle sales will drop this month.
Edmunds indicated that an estimated 3.3 million used vehicles will be sold in April for a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of 38.2 million compared to 3.6 million or a SAAR of 37.1 million used sales in March.
On the new-model side, TrueCar is much more upbeat as analysts pegged their projection for total new-vehicle sales, including fleet deliveries, to reach 1,502,100 units in April. The forecast represents a 3.2-percent rise from a year ago and the highest volume for the month since 2000.
TrueCar went on to share that the month’s SAAR for total light new-vehicle sales is an estimated 17.4 million units for the month versus 16.75 million units a year ago. On a daily selling rate basis, overall sales dipped 0.6 percent given one more day compared with April 2015.
Excluding fleet sales, TrueCar determined U.S. retail deliveries of new cars and light trucks should rise 4 percent to 1,233,900 units on steady consumer demand.
“April is typically a transitional month wedged between higher-volume March and May, but this year dealerships appear to have benefited from an early Easter that fell in March,” said Eric Lyman, TrueCar’s vice president of industry insights. “It’s reassuring when retail sales grow faster than the overall industry pace as it indicates consumers remain very active and engaged in the new vehicle market.”
The analyst team at Kelley Blue Book shared similar sentiments about where April’s new-car sales figure could land
KBB analysts indicated new-vehicle sales are expected to increase 4 percent year-over-year to a total of 1.51 million units in April, resulting in an estimated 17.5 million SAAR. They added that April sales could report the highest April volume ever, surpassing the previous record of 1.5 million units in April 2005.
“Following a disappointing March, we expect sales to get back on track in April with SAAR in the mid-17 million range,” Kelley Blue Book analyst Tim Fleming said. “Increased fleet sales and rising incentive spending among automakers remain the factors to watch, but retail demand appears to be holding steady, signaling the industry’s strong run isn’t over quite yet.”
And like TrueCar and KBB, Edmunds.com also is suspecting that new-vehicle sales could produce records in April.
Edmunds.com forecasted that 1,514,855 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in April for an estimated SAAR of 17.5 million. Its projected April sales figure would be a 4.8 percent decrease from March but a 4.3-percent increase from April of last year.
Jessica Caldwell who is Edmunds’ director of industry analysis, explained that this month’s sales are poised to eclipse the April record of 1,500,648 new car and truck sales set in 2005, and 2016 is on track to shatter last year’s full-year record of 17.5 million sales.
“Even though Q1 ended with a relatively lackluster March the industry still as strong as ever, and this month’s sales will only reinforce that strength,” Caldwell said. “Considering that April is typically the calm before the storm of summer sales, there’s every reason to believe that 2016 will be a year for the history books.”
Edmunds.com also estimated that retail SAAR will come in at 14.4 million vehicles in April, with fleet transactions accounting for 18.4 percent of total sales.
Like the KBB team, Lyman over at TrueCar mentioned incentives to move new metal, too. TrueCar indicated incentive spending by automakers averaged an estimated $3,021 per vehicle in April, a 13.1-percent increase from a year ago, though down 2.7 percent from March.
“Incentives have ticked up, but backed off from the post-recession high seen in the third quarter of 2015,” Lyman said. “This is a metric we monitor closely as the longest auto sales expansion in the modern era continues. The bottom line is that economic conditions remain favorable and there are still many consumers who need to replace aging cars and trucks.”
TrueCar also pointed out several general economic trends that could help to spur both used- and new-vehicle sales.
“The Federal Open Market Committee left interest rates unchanged last month and overall U.S. economic conditions are still healthy,” TrueCar said.
“March’s unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, the lowest for the month in nine years, and gasoline prices have stayed favorable for consumers, falling to a national average of $2.14 per gallon on April 26 from $2.53 a year earlier,” the firm went on to say.


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Mazda’s Coming Diesel-Powered Range: CX-5 RM166k, Mazda6 RM206kBuying Guides
As reported by Carlist.my late last year, Mazda is expected to launch at least four diesel-powered models in 2016 – the Mazda 2, Mazda 6, CX-3 and CX-5.
We have just been informed by reliable sources that all four models will be launched very soon, within this quarter, and that the CX-5 and Mazda 6 will have an estimated price of RM166k and RM206k respectively.
No information on prices for the diesel-powered Mazda 2 and CX-3 models yet.
Both the CX-5 and 6 will be powered a 2.2-litre SkyActiv-D diesel engine, while the 2 and CX-3 are powered by a 1.5-litre SkyActiv-D diesel engine.
The CX-5 diesel will be locally assembled at Mazda Malaysia’s assembly facilities in Kulim, Kedah, while the rest of the diesel range will be imported (Japan for 6 and CX-3, Thailand for the 2).
More details will be announced when we get closer to the launch date.


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Siam Discovery ‘Breaks the Rules’
Bangkok shopping centre Siam Discovery has been wrapped in a giant vinyl curtain to raise awareness of the centre’s redevelopment and planned reopening early next year.
Owner Siam Piwat says the revamped mall will reopen in the first quarter of next year with a completely renewed retail concept and execution. It follows the success redevelopment of the neighbouring Siam Centre which was reopened in 2013 and was recently named amongst the world’s best shopping centres by the US-based ICSC.
Siam Piwat is spending 4 billion baht (US$112 million) in revamping both the interior and exterior of the Siam Discovery.
The company has already adopted the campaign theme “Break the Rules” to promote the renewed retail destination when it reopens.
The giant vinyl wrapper which has now appeared on the building is designed not just to prmote the redevelopment but to match international safety standards.
Located in the center of Pathumwan Intersection, the vinyl has been formed into a gigantic billboard on which is the graphic designing of shattering glass.
“This symbolic image represents a familiar sight of Siam district before being changed to make a better creation,” said a Siam Piwat spokesperson.
“It is absolutely the talk of the town among both Thais and foreign tourists who look forward to seeing the new look of Siam Discovery. This will also modify Siam district to maintain its rank of being Thailand’s everlasting shopping destination.”


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THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) tapped digital financial services leader PayMaya to provide additional livelihood opportunities to drivers as well as access to cashless payment options to drivers and operators of Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs) as quarantine restrictions begin to ease in some parts of the country.
PayMaya is offering various taxi and transport operators and their drivers QR scan-to-pay capabilities via its mobile app, which will also give them access to a digital financial account that they can use for everyday transactions such as bills payments, airtime load reloading, and sending money to friends and family.
As transportation services resume in areas under General Community Quarantine (GCQ), the LTFRB recently issued guidelines mandating taxis and TNVS to adopt cashless payments such as PayMaya as a measure to help curb the further spread of Covid-19.
“Cashless payments particularly in taxis and TNVS vehicles is part of our new norm, and we are glad that our drivers and operators have easy and convenient options such as PayMaya so that they can quickly implement this solution for the safety and benefit of their riders,” added LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra III.
Soon, drivers and transport operators may also receive contactless payments through credit, debit, and prepaid cards via tap-to-pay technology through the other digital payment solutions of PayMaya.
Operators may also utilize PayMaya’s PayOut disbursement solution to easily distribute salaries and other incentives through their drivers’ PayMaya accounts.
In the past, PayMaya has also partnered with bus and taxi companies in Metro Manila and also in other areas such as Baguio and Cebu, such as in enabling transportation facilities such as the Araneta Bus Port in helping them accept cashless payments through credit and debit cards as well as via PayMaya QR. (PR)


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WACO, TX — Coreopsis was in the middle of changing locations and rebranding when the coronavirus pandemic began.
For a decade, the local boutique stood in midtown Waco. In February, they decided to move their location and rebrand at the same time.
"We had our grand opening, and then right after we had the shelter-in-place shutdown. So, we had a nice run and all of a sudden we are like, "What are we going to do?"" said McKenzie Cole, Director of Marketing.
Cole says the pandemic hit at the worst time. Nevertheless, they acted quickly to find the best way of selling their products.
"We did not panic. It was more of "What are we going to do?" So I started putting everything online, starting from the bar soap," said Cole.
She says it was about strategically using social media and their website to get in front of their customers virtually.
"We did different things like customized Easter baskets. We had people on FaceTime and walked around and they picked their things. We put it together and delivered it to them," explained Cole.
Their online presence now reaches people beyond Waco and Texas. Cole says it's because of their customers that their goals remain high.
"We want to be able to expand and create our own brand really, and I think we really do have the potential really," she said.
It's a dream she says they need to keep pushing for, pandemic or not.
Coreopsis is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can also shop online.


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Ubisoft’s executive director of production services at the firm’s Montreal studio, is of the opinion that AI will be the next, big technological step forward with the next generation of home consoles.
According to Yves Jacquier, next-gen consoles won’t be focusing primarily on graphics hardware, thanks to Wii proving that better graphics doesn’t necessarily sell hardware.
“AI has always been the real battleground,” he told GI.biz. “The challenge is that, if you see an AI coming, you’ve failed. And that’s a problem we have to overcome as we create the impression of flawless, seamless worlds.
“In general the industry expects that graphics will not be a strong feature any more… Obviously, graphics are better for marketing purposes because you can show things. AI you can’t show. Our challenge with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox  is that we’re extremely limited in what we can do. It’s a challenge for the engineers to provide nice graphics and nice AI and nice sound with a very small amount of memory and computation time.
“We think that the next generation of consoles won’t have these limits any more. Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what’s the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?”
Jacquier has been working with students at Montreal University, using Ubisoft’s recent pledge of $200,000 a year for the next five years, in order to help students come up with “other ways of thinking” about game development.


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Wizkid has just added a luxurious Black Badge Rolls-Royce Cullinan to his impressive car collection.
The Grammy Award winner is reported to have spent an astounding 620 million naira for the new ride.
Mayfair, the auto dealer, revealed pictures and videos of the car’s journey from the dealership to Wizkid’s house on social media, leading to massive congratulations from the artist’s fans, who are collectively known as Wizkid FC.
The purchase of this expensive vehicle is proof that hard work really does pay off for this gifted star!
This article was updated 3 months ago


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Black Tusk Has Been Working On New IP Since Inception
Many thought that Black Tusk‘s fate was decided when news broke that they’d be continuing the Gears of War franchise. Based on a few tweets from Xbox Jobs, there’s another iron still in the fire at Black Tusk,
Phil Spencer has gone on record saying the Black Tusk footage that was shown back at E3 last year was a “concept” and not directly tied to a project. The fact that the future of the new IP is in question leads me to believe it may be on the back burner so the studio can dedicate their manpower to Gears of War. Hopefully the promise of new Xbox IP’s is still alive, and Black Tusk’s unannounced project is alive and well.
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Today, WalkMe—the software training and onboarding platform provider—announced it raised $40 million in Series F financing.
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When using a computer, perhaps the only time you want someone looking over your shoulder is when that someone is teaching you to do something new with an unfamiliar piece of software. Skilled trainers are the unsung heroes of the software world, but when deploying new software to a workforce of hundreds or thousands of people, a more automated, scalable solution is in order.
Dan Adika, co-founder and CEO of WalkMe, said in a statement that “[t]his latest round of funding will help us grow at an even faster rate globally, while ensuring our leadership position in creating and forging the digital adoption category.”
The round was led by prior Series E investor Insight Venture Partners. Mangrove Capital Partners, which has been an investor in WalkMe since the company raised its Series A back in April 2012, followed on its prior investments by participating in the round. This Series F brings WalkMe’s total funding to $207.5 million, according to a statement from the company.
The goal of its training programs is to help people learn how to use software to its fullest extent. To this end, WalkMe helps organizations manage technology change by giving them a way to create interactive walkthroughs and training materials for employees. For sales and support teams, WalkMe can be used to build onboarding workflows for new and prospective customers.
WalkMe said it intends to expand its onboarding solutions “through additional technology acquisitions.” In the last eighteen months, the company has acquired three other startups. Those deals include: machine-taught interface navigator DeepUI in June 2018, analytics company Jaco in April 2017, and mobile app engagement platform Abbi in January 2017.
The company says the new funding will allow it “to continue its hyper-growth worldwide.” According to its statement, WalkMe has over 650 employees and 2,000 customers distributed worldwide. The company intends to roll out localized versions of its products to select non-English speaking markets in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
As more companies transition more work from generalized office software suites to specialized software platforms, the demand for training and onboarding software will likely keep growing. Where there’s a learning curve to overcome, there’s money to be made in building ramps and toeholds.
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.


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Versed, a New Skin Care Line, Makes its Target Debut
A Bullseye View, May 15, 2019
An innovative new skin care brand is joining Target’s beauty assortment. Versed relies on powerful, clean ingredients that fight everything from dryness to acne to aging, and it’s making its debut at Target this Sunday. Versed comes from the same partner of Target-exclusive apparel and accessories line Who What Wear.
Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/2WJO8Yl


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MANILA - A local retailer of the Sony PlayStation 5 on Tuesday announced that it will be “having regular stocks” of the popular gaming console, which used to have a long waiting list of buyers.
DataBlitz said people who want to buy a PS5 can visit any of its stores or buy from its e-commerce shop.
The PS5 had been hounded by shortages when it was launched internationally in November 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The console was launched locally in December 2020.
Even as late as July 2022, units were hard to come by in Japan, and were sometimes sold at a premium by shops that were able to secure units.
A computer chip shortage had hobbled production of the PS5 as well as a wide range of goods, from cars to computers.


text: The worst is nearly over for Hong Kong retailers, but only those with brands that travel will flourish in the months ahead. As China's economic growth continues to improve the country's standard of living and people's earning power, there are opportunities for retailers with reasonably priced brand-name products with appeal to the middle and high-end markets. Hong Kong clothing retailers are likely to see better earnings growth from China than from the territory, analysts say. Recovery of Hong Kong's retail sector is not expected until the second half of 1996, so retailers who focus on Hong Kong may see further profit erosion. Analysts estimate Hong Kong's retail sales growth at a moderate 10 per cent for 1996 and 11 per cent for 1997. 'I'm not too enthusiastic about the future prospects of those companies that are focusing purely on the retail market in Hong Kong,' said analyst at Vickers Ballas Securities, Vincent Kwan. 'That's because the retail market is unlikely to rebound so soon. But the worst is nearly over and there may be some improvement in the second half of this year.' 'But if the majority of the companies' business is in China, then I think they can expect to see good growth if they have the right product.' Sassoon Securities said in a report that retailers which distribute goods through franchising and wholesaling have been most successful in China, because of the low overheads and operating risks involved, and higher efficiency achieved. Expanding into China had not proved successful for many Hong Kong retailers in 1995 because of the austerity measures, analysts said, so 1996 would be an easier year for those that had established strategic footholds in major Chinese cities. Garment retailer Goldlion Holdings is said to be well placed to reap the harvest after several years of aggressive expansion in China, leading to the popularity of its brand name there. Investors have rushed to buy the company's shares, lifting the price 15 per cent from the end of last year, and 207 per cent from the end of 1994. This is attributable to expectations the company will see 20 to 25 per cent profit growth over the next two or three years, with over 80 per cent coming from its business in China. Some analysts said Goldlion's price-to-earnings ratio, which is about 18 to 24 times, was justified because it could be supported by strong future earnings. Another clothing retailer with huge operations in China is Theme International, which also has seen a share-price upsurge. Theme's shares closed at $2.00 on Wednesday, a 150 per cent jump from 80 cents on December 29, despite reporting a 110 per cent plunge in interim profit. Theme posted a net loss of $920,000 for April-September 1995, against $9.02 million profit for the same period a year earlier. Investors became bullish after the company announced it won an exclusive right to distribute products of American brand name Calvin Klein in China. On the whole, analysts paint a brighter picture for retailers carrying upmarket well-established brand names in China, such as Dickson Concepts, Joyce Boutique, Chaifa and Esprit Asia. 'I think its a good time to start buying, selectively, just because most of them have been heavily discounted after last year's downturn, ' said Lennon Chan, director of Tai Fook Securities. Mr Chan said it was too early to determine whether some retail stocks would generate enough earnings growth to merit the meteoric rise in their share prices. A release of negative news could then trigger a crash in the share price, as seen in the case of Top Form International. Lingerie-maker Top Form did not enjoy Goldlion's success in promoting its products in China, and has faced financial difficulties due to depressed retail sales in China and the Philippines. It recently reported a precipitous fall in profit, from $11.3 million in 1994 to a $68 million loss in 1995.


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Tips for Reviewing Voicebot Vulnerability
Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and other similar products are listening to more people than ever before. For proof, consider that the number of voice assistant users in the United States is forecast to exceed 162 million by 2027, up from 145 million in 2023, according to Insider Intelligence data. Insider Intelligence also found that around 46 million Millennials and 45 million Gen Zers are regularly using voice assistants today. Market Research Future expects the voice assistant market to grow to $30.7 billion by 2030, up from just $4.6 billion in 2022 and $3.5 billion in 2021.
But note that nearly 7 in 10 consumers worldwide are either somewhat or very concerned about their privacy online, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ “Privacy and Consumer Trust Report 2023,” with 57 percent of consumers believing that artificial intelligence poses a major threat to their privacy. Many of these worries pertain to the increasingly ubiquitous and pervasive presence of voicebots and voice assistants used by companies, especially in customer service capacities. People are becoming more aware of and troubled by the collection, storage, and use of their data by corporate America. There’s long been apprehension among consumers that voice assistants could be constantly recording rather than only when activated, leading to fears about unauthorized access to personal and sensitive information. And unease about the protection of voice data from potential breaches or hackers persists, too.
Why User Concerns Persist
Experts agree that there are several reasons for consumers to have trepidation about voice assistants related to data security, privacy, and intrusion.
“People worry that their personally identifiable information (PII) may not be secure and that bad actors could potentially gain access to that information,” says Nikola Mrkšic, cofounder and CEO of PolyAI. “Many aren’t used to talking to sophisticated voice assistants, so much of their concern stems from not yet understanding, and thereby not trusting, the technology to protect their sensitive information.”
Neal Keene, chief technology officer of Gryphon.ai, agrees.
“Three prominent fears I hear are ‘It’s always listening,’ ‘What’s it collecting?’ and ‘Who has access to my information?’ It comes down to one word: trust,” he says.
Certainly, consumers find the notion of devices constantly listening unsettling, as it raises concerns that private conversations could be inadvertently overheard, recorded, and potentially misused by the companies responsible for the voice assistants or by unauthorized third parties gaining access.
Robert Wakefield-Carl, senior director of Innovation Architects at TTEC Digital, says fundamental human emotions often drive these apprehensions and trust issues.
“Bias. Lack of control. Fear of the unknown. Paranoia of loss. Absence of empathy. These are all feelings that consumers express when talking to AI or using virtual assistance,” he explains. “They have the feeling that they can’t control the conversation and are forced into artificial dialogue with a machine and not the human they were calling for.”
Consumers also fret about unintentional activation of voice assistants, which could lead to the recording of private conversations, raising concerns about the extent to which collected information is shared with third parties, used for targeted advertising, or potentially disclosed to other parties without consent.
“This can, in turn, lead to fears of being profiled or monitored based on personal data,” Damian Edwards, commercial manager at Omnie AI, points out. “Consumers are also unlikely to fully understand how their data is used or how to control their privacy settings effectively.”
Indeed, legal and ethical concerns surrounding voice assistant technology abound, heightened by media reports that highlight instances of voice assistants recording without permission or sharing private conversations with unintended recipients.
“Others have increased concerns because voice assistance is more personalized today. Now we’ve seen the likes of Alexa being able to determine whose voice within a family or household is speaking to it,” says Leon Gordon, CEO of Onyx Data. “And with the amount of deepfakes happening today, there’s nervousness around how the audio for voice assistance is going to be stored. Will it be used to train existing models? How secure is the data behind it? And how intrusive can these devices that effectively listen out for keywords be?”
Are these worries overblown?
Many experts believe the concerns surrounding voice assistant privacy and data security are well-founded due to past breaches, unintended data sharing, and companies occasionally flouting data regulations.
“Consumers’ concerns about the privacy of their voice are very real and reasonable,” says David Notowitz, president of the National Center for Audio and Video Forensics. “Many devices, such as cars, toys, and home devices, have horribly negligent security, are easy for most computer experts to hack, and can easily transmit audio recordings to foreign states. Some devices have Bluetooth and wireless capabilities so the signal is flowing through the air. A lot of the components to these parts and maybe the devices themselves are developed in China, a country that can implant, undetected, whatever they want into devices. These capabilities could be programmed and engineered on a chip [and] no one would ever know they are present.”
Edwards insists that the level of fear consumers should have about data security and safety related to voice assistants is a nuanced issue.
“There are, of course, significant benefits to the use of voice assistants, such as convenience, accessibility, and the ability to control smart home devices. However, these benefits do come with risks about eavesdropping and data breaches,” Edwards adds. “Consumers should not be overly cautious to the point of avoiding technology, but they should also not be complacent about these risks. They should maintain a healthy level of concern regarding data security and privacy and keep informed about how voice assistants work, how they collect data, and how this is used and stored.”
Routine interactions, such as asking for a weather update or getting a stock quote, should warrant no serious doubts, Keene says, “but customers should be cautious before sharing more sensitive data like health information or financial account details unless they are confident on how this information is collected, stored, and redacted. Fears of eavesdropping and unauthorized recordings are unwarranted from the larger providers of these services but must be allayed through user control of data and preferences and transparency.”
Remember that voice assistants are largely closed systems trained on internal information and acting as conduits to other technical functions, experts agree.
“If there is some sort of data breach, it’s typically going to be because of a flaw in, for example, the company’s CRM, not the voice assistant itself,” Mrkšic maintains. “The voice assistant is an interface that can’t be used as an entry point to access that kind of sensitive data. As a data processor, the voice assistant itself is secure, but the tech ecosystem that it is a part of could potentially run the risk of leaking data or becoming compromised during a cyberattack.”
Instead of being complacent, consumers should be encouraged to take proactive steps to secure their data and devices in general, including reviewing their privacy settings and securing their home networks and accounts by using strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication where available.
“Consumers should also remain informed regarding developments in technology and data privacy and demand transparency in terms of how companies use their data,” Edwards suggests. “The enforcement of more robust data protection laws can ensure that consumers’ rights are protected, which again creates a safer environment for the use of voice assistants.”
What Companies Can Do to Improve Voice Data Safety
Organizations can do more to ensure that users feel safe when talking to their voice assistants and protect the data gathered from being used irresponsibly. Keene advises taking the following steps:
- Educate customers on how your voice assistant works. “Tell them what you are listening for, what you are recording, and who has access. Letting customers know that the voice assistant is listening for wake words to start a session and is not recording every conversation will help build trust,” Keene says.
- Let users know when the voice assistant is listening. Use voice prompts, disclosures, lights, or other obvious signals to indicate the voice assistant is hearing what is being said.
- Keep data only as long as needed. “Maintaining a well-documented, automated data retention policy and deleting data in a timely and consistent manner is necessary, and in many places, the law,” Keene adds.
- Secure the information you store. It’s essential for companies to obscure or disguise user data whenever feasible. This involves either eliminating or encrypting personal identifying details to prevent the data from being associated with any particular individual unless supplemented with separate information.
- Give users control of their data. Make preference management tools and controls for capturing consent and opt-outs available.
Edwards echoes many of these best practices.
“Most importantly, companies should enhance transparency. This includes providing easy-to-understand privacy policies and regular updates about any changes to data usage practices,” he says. “Furthermore, companies should obtain explicit consent from users before collecting, using, or sharing their data, especially for purposes that are not directly related to the functionality of the voice assistant.”
Seconding the latter is Samuel Danby, head of voice at
“The principle of explicit consent is crucial in respecting user autonomy. Companies should ensure that users are fully informed and have control over their data, offering clear options to opt in or out of data collection,” Danby says. “This practice, reinforced by user education on privacy settings, empowers individuals to take charge of their digital interactions.”
Additionally, companies should adopt robust security measures like encryption, secure data storage solutions, and routine security audits, implement two-factor authentication, and limit data collection to only essential information required for the voice assistant’s functionality, Edwards adds.
Wakefield-Carl says a few other steps are also needed.
“Create an AI advisory board and oversight committee that is privy to all knowledge fed to the AI and provide escalation to a human agent at any point in the conversation,” he says. “Also, ensure that [personally identifiable information] and [protected health information] data are not part of the common knowledge consumed by the AI for assisting customers and that any input from them is stored securely and not accessible to learning notebooks.”
It’s also smart for companies operating voice assistants to adhere to legal frameworks, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and similar privacy regulations in several U.S. states.
“These regulations set a high standard for data protection, mandating that companies handle voice data with the utmost care. By complying with these laws, companies not only avoid potential fines but also signal to their users that they are committed to the highest levels of data security and privacy,” Danby says.
Other Best Practices to Follow
Businesses don’t have to stop there, either. They can adopt additional strategies to better protect voice assistant data and consequently enhance user privacy, experts agree. Here are some additional tips:
- Assure callers that steps are in place to safeguard their data. “People want reassurance that their data will only be accessed for its intended use. Voice assistants should deliver this information in natural, straightforward language, not confusing legal jargon,” Mrkšic advises.
- Undertake regular software updates to better protect user data and privacy.
- Limit access to recordings and data only to employees who need this information. “These strict access rules can prevent unauthorized access or misuse of data,” Edwards says.
- Regularly refresh security protocols and use technologies such as blockchain for maintaining immutable data records.
- Improve your company’s security culture. “Implement a culture of privacy by design and build privacy and security features into core architecture, including voice assistants,” Keene recommends. “In addition, perform regular security audits and address vulnerabilities promptly and transparently.”
- Develop a robust incident response plan to address security breaches quickly and efficiently, including a plan for notifying users on how to protect themselves from potential harm.
- Engage with security researchers and the broader community to identify and fix vulnerabilities, “and encourage the identification and reporting of security issues,” Edwards adds.
What else needs to happen in the near- and long-term future for consumers to feel more secure and assured when using voice assistants? Plenty, experts insist.
“First, continued advancements in encryption, data protection, and voice recognition technology can make voice assistants more secure and reduce the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches,” Edwards says. “Improvements in voice biometrics can ensure that voice assistants respond only to authorized users. The development and enforcement of stricter data protection and privacy regulations globally can also drive higher standards across the industry.”
Better informing the public on the workings of voice assistants and associated risks can ease concerns ahead as well. And implementing and adhering to industrywide standards and best practices establishes a foundation for protection and fosters consumer trust.
“Educating users on privacy controls and adhering to strict privacy laws like the GDPR are key steps. The recent EU AI Act represents a significant move toward aligning voice technology providers on data processing standards, fostering a more transparent and trustworthy industry. The EU AI Act also helps bridge the gap between responsibly acting technologies and those that are not, ensuring a level playing field,” Danby states. “But the responsibility lies with both companies and regulatory bodies to maintain vigilance, suggesting that while improvements are likely, privacy concerns will persist, requiring ongoing attention.”
In addition, companies should improve their communication with customers by clearly indicating when they are interacting with a bot, assuring them of the security of their information and providing assistance as needed.
“Just saying ‘Thank you for calling’ is not enough; instead, the verbiage needs to be something like ‘Thank you for calling TTEC Digital. I am Louis, your secure virtual agent, and I am here to help you, but you can reach a human agent at any time,’” Wakefield-Carl says.
Although there is no single solution that will completely alleviate all concerns about voice assistant security, the widespread deployment of these sophisticated automated solutions in consumer-facing applications, such as phone-based customer support, will gradually increase exposure and enhance resolution levels. This, in turn, will contribute to consumers feeling more confident about the capability and security of voice assistants.
“The more people interact with intelligent voice assistants as time passes, the more they will trust them,” Mrkšic predicts.
Voice assistant technology will also surely evolve and become more sophisticated with the addition of artificial intelligence.
“The difference between success or failure for your company in this space depends on your ability to deliver trusted experiences,” Keene says. “This voice assistant trust concern is likely to remain a significant issue. Technology evolves rapidly, but so do privacy risks. As long as voice assistants handle personal data, consumers will rightly demand stringent safeguards. However, with concerted efforts, we can move toward a future where voicebots coexist seamlessly with user privacy.”
Erik J. Martin is a Chicago area-based freelance writer and public relations expert whose articles have been featured in AARP The Magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Costco Connection, and other publications. He often writes on topics related to real estate, business, technology, healthcare, insurance, and entertainment. He also publishes several blogs, including martinspiration.com and cineversegroup.com.
Generative AI is leading to vastly smarter and more capable bots.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Guiding principles (and potential issues) for our AI-powered future.


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BANGKOK, July 20 — Thailand’s economic growth has not yet been affected by a strong baht, the finance minister said this morning, as the currency hovered near 26-month highs against the dollar.
“The baht’s strength has not yet affected growth. We believe big business sectors can still handle it although SMEs may see some impact,” Apisak Tantivorawong told reporters.
The baht has risen 6.5 per cent against the US dollar so far this year, the most in Southeast Asia.
The finance ministry has forecast economic growth of 3.6 per cent this year after 3.2 per cent growth last year. — Reuters


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As the digital world continues to envelope the physical world, there is a data explosion underway. Business leaders, today, want to know, “How do I make sense of it all?” “How do I build intelligent systems to not only intuitively interact with customers, but also effectively guide me to better decisions?”
AI, cognitive services and Robotics are amongst the most disruptive forces across business sectors today. In fact, some of the advances in the AI space, like image-recognition, automation and natural language processing are game-changers, shifting business strategy to become experience-centric.
India’s role in this evolution is evident from a report that the government's policy think tank, Niti Aayog released this June. The paper titled "A National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence" pitches India as the ‘AI garage for emerging economies’ and identifies key sectors that AI could positively impact - healthcare, education, agriculture, physical infrastructure and transportation.
India already houses some of the world’s most progressive data startups’ and innovation centers for leading data giants. Interestingly, a recent study by IDC and Microsoft states that by 2021, 60% of India’s GDP will be derived from digital products and services. Add to this, the fact that 62% of prominent research publications on future technologies is being authored out of the subcontinent. In spite of the rich environment in India, enterprises here are struggling to capitalize on data, a virtually inexhaustible asset.
The ask, today, is for business leaders to realign organization structures, establish new metrics and re-architect technology platforms. This incorporation of digitization and nurturing of an information ecosystem will ensure that businesses stay competitive.


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Our research shows more than half of young people plan to ditch TV licence
More and more, people are going online to get their TV and video content. We see it in Pure Telecom every day as it's driving an increase in broadband consumption. So we wanted to find out just how much online content people are watching and if it's affecting their desire to own a TV.
Our research found that 55% of Irish TV license holders aged 30 and under are planning on, or considering, ceasing payment of their TV license due to an increase in consumption of online content and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. The research carried out by Censuswide, surveyed 1,001 online adults across Ireland in July 2017.
Our survey highlights how traditional TV viewing habits are changing, as increasing numbers are choosing to go solely online to watch TV and on-demand content. Currently, any household with a TV set is required to pay the 160 license fee, however, the charge does not apply to those who view all their video content via laptops, tablets, or smartphones.
In total, 43% of Irish TV license holders are planning to, or considering, ditching their TV license solely due to an increase in online viewing. One-in-10 Irish adults have already stopped paying the TV license, rising to 17% in the 30 and under age group.
The research also found that the average consumer spends 6 hours 36 minutes watching streamed or online content each week. This trend is even more pronounced with younger audiences, with those aged 30 and under consuming 8 hours 47 minutes of online video per week. We found that people living in Donegal are the heaviest consumers of streamed and online content, watching 10 hours 18 minutes each week. That is followed by those living in Meath (9 hours 13 minutes) and Galway (7 hours 53 minutes). Those living in Cavan spend the least time on streaming sites, watching only 3 hours 12 minutes per week.
Commenting on the findings, Paul Connell, CEO, Pure Telecom, said: The quality of content produced for online platforms has been steadily rising to the point where it is now at least on par with and in many cases, it outshines what is offered on traditional television channels. People also now take for granted the convenience of on-demand viewing and the ability to watch content on-the-go. Coupled with very high-quality content now available online, it is natural that consumers are questioning the need to continue to pay for a TV license.
The results come as no surprise to us at Pure Telecom and solidify our commitment to providing the lower cost, fast and reliable home broadband service that is essential to delivering high-quality viewing experiences for our customers. As people become increasingly reliant on internet-driven content, we are ensuring we will be there to provide the best service for everyone's broadband needs.
Earlier in the year the Department of Communications considered an extension of the TV license fee, which would apply to owners of computers, laptops, and large tablets a suggestion that has since been scrapped. Our survey highlighted that there is little appetite for the charge amongst Irish adults, with 62% opposed to its introduction...


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Feeding consumers’ app-etite for digital engagement
Of all the numerous ways in which our lives have been altered by the current global pandemic, one of the most significant must surely be the reliance on digital technology to facilitate all aspects of our existence – from socialising to working, to shopping.
With this has come a huge acceleration in our shift towards being digitally savvy consumers, with a recent report from KPMG showing that 25% of customers in the UK have downloaded a new app as a way of engaging with a brand or business during lockdown, and 42% of consumers predicting they will shop online more often than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
These findings have significant implications for the marketing industry, as we help Clients adapt to changing customer behaviour and demands for greater digital engagement platforms. In particular, Agencies are having to look at their app offering, consider how they can empower Clients to take advantage of the growing opportunities for customer engagement in this space and how they can stand out in the increasingly competitive app marketplace.
In a new article for The Drum, Cat Davis, Group Marketing Director for MISSION Group, speaks to Agency heads about how they are working with Clients to utilise apps to drive greater customer engagement, and critically, how they can drive app usage through creative and thoughtful marketing content. Read the article here.


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Dairy Crest raises Unigate stakes
The battle for St Ivel reached boiling point as Dairy Crest topped Scottish rival Robert Wiseman's latest offer for Unigate's dairy business by £10m.
Dairy Crest's £250m offer comes hours after Wiseman trumped its earlier bid of £235m by £5m and looked set to divert the Unigate board's allegiance. Today's £10 million sweetener keeps Unigate on the Dairy Crest side and is clearly intended to be a knockout blow.
Dairy Crest chairman Mike Dowall said: 'This revised offer is clearly superior to Wiseman's proposal. Dairy Crest believes that it is in the interests of all shareholders to bring this process to a timely conclusion and accordingly we have responded promptly.'
Under the deal, £150m will go to shareholders with the remaining £100m sucked up by debt.
Wiseman said it was considering its options but it is unlikely to give up without a fight. The company already has 85% of the Scottish milk market, so its only real chance of growth is to move further south. While £250m is already 11% higher than the Scottish company's original £225m bid, Wiseman still has some leeway. It has a pot of £325m to play with through existing arrangements with WestDeutsche Landesbank.
Unigate shares rose 5p to 296p. Since Unigate and Dairy Crest, whose chief executive is John Houliston, unveiled what they believed to be a done deal in mid-February, the shares have risen more than 20%.
Although the winner would acquire Unigate's St Ivel and Shape, it is also about the consolidation of the milk industry. Dairy Crest, which owns Cathedral City cheddar and employs 3800 workers including 900 milkmen, has said it would find cost savings of £25m a year.
Unigate chairman Ian Martin said: 'The agreement we have reached with Dairy Crest today provides a further significant increase in the cash value available to Unigate shareholders.'
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LOS ANGELES (Apr. 10, 2015) – Following its release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last month, Square Enix Inc. today announced that FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD has shipped over one million copies worldwide since its launch.
FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD launched in North America on March 17, 2015, with Day One units including an exclusive demo of the highly anticipated FINAL FANTASY XV game titled FINAL FANTASY XV ‑EPISODE DUSCAE‑.
After welcoming players to share their feedback and experiences with the FINAL FANTASY XV ‑EPISODE DUSCAE‑ demo through a recent survey, SQUARE ENIX also announced a player feedback special of its Active Time Report with Director, Hajime Tabata. The broadcast will take place at 11:00 p.m. (PDT) on April 27th, with Tabata discussing some of the feedback and opinions submitted by players, as well as detailing some of the ways the development team plans to address them. Fans are invited to visit the FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD Facebook Page for more details.
The FINAL FANTASY XV ‑EPISODE DUSCAE‑ player feedback survey is still open for all players to provide feedback on their experiences, and will close on May 19th, 2015. In order to provide feedback via the survey, players will need to input the FINAL FANTASY XV ‑EPISODE DUSCAE‑ demo voucher code that accompanies FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD.
FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD is now available for PS4 and Xbox One in North America for $59.99 MSRP. The exclusive FINAL FANTASY XV -EPISODE DUSCAE- downloadable demo is available only while supplies last for the disc product. The digital version of FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD comes bundled with FINAL FANTASY XV -EPISODE DUSCAE- for a limited period.
Source: Press Release


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- Equinom will produce custom pea protein for use in Meatless Farm's products as part of a new supply agreement between the food tech company and Meatless ingredients subsidiary Lovingly Made Ingredients. The new pea protein from Equinom will deliver about 50% more protein and reduce Meatless Farm's overall carbon footprint, according to a statement from Equinom.
- This partnership is Equinom's first involving a yellow pea protein ingredient for a CPG company. The Israel-based company that focuses on specialized crop breeding for human food plans to make more of its customized pea protein available to select manufacturers in the plant-based space later this year.
- Equinom is known for its work using conventional breeding to improve the taste, nutrition and performance of commonly used ingredients. The company, which closed a $20 million funding round this summer, produces all non-GMO ingredients and is also working on improving sesame seeds and soybeans.
Equinom has been working on improving the yellow pea since 2015, and its program is beginning to bear fruit. Avichai Amrad, Equinom's projects and partnership manager and head of the company's yellow pea program, said that increasing demand for alternative proteins makes the up-and-coming ingredient worthy of the company's attention. After all, he said, common plant-based proteins like soy and wheat can only do so much.
The two companies have been talking about this potential partnership for a long time, Amrad said. CPG companies, which are used to buying whatever ingredients are available, do not always consider the possibilities of improving and modifying them. Meatless Farm, a European plant-based meat company whose products are available in 20 countries including the U.S., would benefit from Equinom's work in its pea crop and be able to tout its higher protein content and easier ingredient farming, which lowers its carbon footprint.
Amrad said there are also significant benefits to this agreement for Equinom, which symbolizes the first "closed loop" project in the space — in which the ingredient maker and the manufacturer work together.
"It's a good process that we can innovate through," he said. "They can tell us about all of the things they have in their production, in their food and we can see the end product. And then through that, we can take it back to the genetics and the peas, and breed a better product for them."
Meatless Farm Founder Morten Toft Bech noted Equinom's research into developing nutritious and sustainable plant-based ingredients and its ability to naturally and efficiently breed seeds. "We are committed to creating a more sustainable global food system from field to fork and partnering with Equinom takes us a step closer to reaching a net zero supply chain," Bech said in an emailed statement. "The higher protein content of our products will also help achieve our mission to help people reduce their meat consumption by providing credible plant-based swaps for meat that are accessible and still taste great."
Yellow peas have been one of the key ingredients for plant-based food in recent years, but the crop hasn't historically seen much innovation. According to statistics from Equinom, it's the fastest-growing protein source for meat alternatives, and is expected to be worth more than $140 billion globally by 2029. Tyler Lorenzen, CEO of pea protein company Puris, told Food Navigator last August that there had been 600 product launches in 2019, and 490 up to that point in 2020.
While peas are popular for plant-based applications, the nutritional value of these products can be lacking when compared to meat. Dialing up the nutritional value of pea protein could make these proteins more desirable for manufacturers.
Having an example of what Equinom's improved pea protein can do on the market could also provide a boost. CPG manufacturers and ingredient processors will be able to test its performance in the Meatless Farm products and see if the nutrition, taste and mouthfeel are as good as promised.
But this agreement could benefit Equinom in a much broader way. Manufacturers and ingredients companies who have no interest in using yellow peas will see how Equinom was able to customize this pea ingredient to Meatless Farm's needs through its breeding method. It may inspire more companies to think differently — considering ways to make the raw materials better tailored to the end product — and work with Equinom to customize more crops.


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Editor’s note: This sponsored post is produced by VentureBeat.
With a bright idea and a credit card, hundreds of startups and small businesses have launched and scaled in the last few years thanks to affordable cloud solutions like Amazon, Box, and Salesforce. The cloud continues to deliver these advantages today, but it now has credible story to tell prospective customers in the enterprise.
CloudBeat 2013 — VentureBeat’s premiere event on enterprise cloud adoption, September 9-10 in San Francisco — will track the growing maturity of the cloud with two days of high-level discussions, customer case studies, breakout sessions, and exclusive announcements.
This year’s program features new cases from PayPal, NASA, Netflix, Pivotal, LinkedIn, General Electric, and IBM, to name a few. See our lineup of speakers here.
Mediabistro readers register here with code “Bistro” and save 20%!
Other cloud events focus on legacy technologies and incremental change and tend to let the cloud “vendors” do the talking. CloudBeat, by contrast, puts the customers front and center. Their discussions with vendors and other experts unearth rare lessons on adoption, providing insights and actionable data on new cloud technologies, what’s working, who’s buying what, and where the industry is going.
Join 500 executives — with a mix of business and IT decision makers, analysts, investors, brands, marketers, and press — and learn how to benefit as the ‘cloud grows up.’


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Google Brushes Up Contacts App for Android
Google has updated its Google Contacts application for Android to version 2.2 with changes to how it looks and functions. For example, the main contact view card brings back large photos, action buttons, and profile details. The action buttons, in particular, can be useful for quickly initiating new messages, emails, or video chats. Google says its suggested contacts tool should behave more uniformly across Google products, especially concerning those contacted frequently. The merge tool gains the ability to merge all duplicates at once directly from smartphones. Last, users can customize the contacts list view to show only certain labels if so desired. Google Contacts 2.2 for Android is free to download from the Play Store.
Feb 23, 2018
Google says its Android Messages app is on the upswing thanks to new RCS-based tools and growing support from phone makers and wireless network operators. To start, brands now have more power to interact with consumers thanks to RCS business messaging.
May 22, 2018
Google today provided more information about business features baked into Android P. To start, Android P makes it easier for businesses to set up, manage, and keep separate work and personal profiles.
Mar 22, 2017
Google updated a handful of its apps and services today, including Duo, Allo, and Photos. Moving forward, Duo users on Android and iOS will be able to make voice-only calls when they wish.
May 23, 2017
Facebook today announced two new features for live video that should make it more interactive and social. First, there's Live Chat With Friends.


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If you are reading this online and not in a print newspaper, you can easily understand why Sears and other retailers are closing stores across the country.
People purchase more services than goods. News is a service. You can get it online and avoid the need to pick up a paper at the local store.
How newspapers work economically is changing quickly, hardly leaving time for publishers, advertisers and readers to adjust. Just last week, one of the largest newspaper chains filed for bankruptcy.
You went to Sears for a screwdriver or a refrigerator. But you don’t go to a department store for services like health care or retirement living, among the fastest-growing markets.
The number of both newspapers and retail stores is declining. The Sears store in Brunswick is closing, leaving only one of the company’s stores in Maine. If Sears can’t make it in the country’s most rural state, it seems likely soon to disappear.
In the 1970s, I wrote the unofficial, corporate biography of Sears, Roebuck. It was published just at the high point of the company’s history. The potential loss of the chain’s retail dominance was evident even then, but it failed to adjust.
Just as the Sears catalog brought a huge array of products into the most remote homes, the internet has expanded the range of products and services available and reaches almost all homes and businesses.
Rural Free Delivery, once a revolutionary innovation, was long ago replaced by the United States Postal Service as the final delivery arm of private companies like FedEx and UPS.
Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart, with stores all over the state, has made the move to compete electronically. Ordering online and picking up at the store is growing. Electronic retailing should keep gaining.
Yet it seems a bit too simple to conclude that electronic shopping is replacing the 9,000 stores that closed last year and the 1,200 closings already announced this year. Online sales are only 11 percent of the total retail market, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The rapid rise of online sales represents change occurring at a fast pace in the economy, as in many other aspects of life. The reasons for the decline of retail stores, especially smaller shops, go well beyond the ease of shopping with your thumbs on a smartphone.
The change in the distribution of income impacts the retail market. If people have less to spend, they reduce their shopping. That’s evident these days with people holding onto their cars much longer than in previous years before buying a new model.
While national income has risen, the gain has not gone to the middle-class shopper who is the principal customer of retail stores. The middle-class contribution to the national economy is steadily decreasing.
Middle-class Americans have less money to spend on extra items even though they spend all they make.
Retail merchants focus on people with less to spend. The huge growth of “dollar” stores is a reflection of the market moving to provide inexpensive products to shoppers of limited means.
Most of the income gains have gone to the top 10 percent of the population. They do not spend all of their added income on shopping. Instead, they save a large part of their income. It goes into investments, which have flourished.
The combined effect of the changing distribution of income — revealing a shift from the middle class to the wealthy — and the rise of online sales has hit companies like Sears.
There’s an increasing recognition of the growing income and wealth gaps between the rich and everybody else. If that seems unfair, political candidates are ready to offer proposals to boost taxes on the wealthy.
Changing income distribution could affect government funding and reduce the exploding national debt, but it could also have a less obvious economic impact. Tax relief for the middle class, if funded by higher taxes on the wealthy, could allow the middle class to recover some of its lost purchasing power.
Politicians promise “jobs, jobs, jobs,” but with the current full-employment economy, having a job does not alone guarantee prosperity. And retail jobs are being lost when stores are forced to close as they lose their markets.
Tax cuts boosting the wealthy and higher tariffs on goods but not services are tools from the past, designed to keep the economy growing. The private sector may create new opportunities, but it may not add new jobs.
Sears failed to adjust to a changing economy and to the rapid pace of change. Its demise sends a warning to the broader economy and to the government that anticipating change and adjusting to an electronic, service-oriented economy is urgently needed.
The closing of the Sears store in Brunswick is not an isolated event. It is a sign of major economic change that will be ignored at peril to the economy.


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To prepare for the Console Launch Update, we'll be performing a maintenance during which GWENT: The Witcher Card Game will be unavailable.
The maintenance will start on all platforms on Monday, December 3rd at 9AM CET, and will last until Tuesday, December 4th. PC players will be able to log in to the game at 10 AM CET, whereas PS4 and Xbox One players will be able to launch the new version of GWENT at 12 PM (noon) CET.
Console players will have their card collections milled for full scraps value. Learn more about the Homecoming update here.


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The present Huawei and Honor branded cell phones will continue to have access to services as well as security from Google Play Protect. Users will be able to update apps such as Gmail and Youtube through the Play Store.
Sending out software updates to its devices poses a possible risk of removing Google apps from it’s existing devices as well. Google and the majority of its services are already barred; however, rumors are circulating that Huawei may introduce its own operating system.
It already has a back-up plan should it be forced to give up Android.
It is no longer news that the current trade war between China and the United States of America is actually what led to the ban of Huawei in the United States. While this is actually a negative development, especially for Huawei users all across the globe, the good news is that users will still be able to enjoy the various phones and laptops from Huawei.
It will interest you to know that new android phones and laptops are still in the market for users to buy. The issue here is that already existing phones will operate in a different way, and the newly released phones from Huawei will not have some features.
For instance, newly released phones like Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro do not come with Google apps, though they have Android 10 as the operating system. Already existing phones before the ban will still be getting security updates from Google.


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IN THE BOOM-AND-BUST BILLION DOLLAR CELLPHONE VIDEO GAME BUSINESS, TODAY’S CINDERELLA STORY IS TOMORROW’S OLD NEWS. MEET THE PLAYERS – THE WINNERS AND THE LOSERS – IN THE MOST HIGH-STAKES GAMING BATTLE OF ALL TIME.
Early in 2012 the biggest story in the video game industry came down to one word: booty. “Booty” is among the word clues in Draw Something, the cellphone game that has swept the planet. To play, you choose a word from a list of three and then draw a picture of it on your screen. Once you’re done, you send it to the phone of your opponent, who has to guess what you drew. It’s kind of like Pictionary for the iPhone generation. The secret of the game’s appeal is that you can draw whatever you want. That gives it an edge over the other big games of our time – Angry Birds, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, etc. – because it lets you express your personality and, when words like booty come up, your twisted imagination. While a kid might draw pirate treasure, adults might sketch something more lascivious.
Although only some of the clues are double entendres, there are websites devoted to Draw Something porn (like Draw Something Dirty). As one player joked in a tweet, “I played Draw Something for about two days, then I remembered I could masturbate.” When a game is monopolizing people’s masturbation time, you know it’s a hit. Released without fanfare for iPhones and Androids in February 2012, Draw Something became the biggest overnight sensation in recent gaming history. In its first couple of months, players downloaded it more than 50 million times, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a day for Draw Something’s maker, OMGPOP – impressive booty for a game that cost less than six figures to make. In fact, six weeks after the game came out, OMGPOP – which had been on the verge of going out of business, another start-up tech firm headed quietly down the toilet – was bought by Zynga, the onetime video game publishing behemoth, for $210 million. There’s even a TV show in development based on the game. In the beginning, the stratospheric rise of Draw Something was thought to epitomize the new gold rush that’s turning mobile- game developers such as Dan Porter, Draw Something’s unlikely creator, into titans. Porter had one thing to tell the jealous game makers who disparaged his sudden success. “We’re fucking making money,” he said with a devilish grin when I interviewed him in April 2012. “We’re making a lot of money. We’re the hottest company in tech. I’m like, ‘Dude, we’re destroying you!’” But with so much money at stake, and so many players grabbing for it, today’s rising star can burn out tomorrow. And by mid- year, gamers were asking if Porter would eat his words.
Striking it big in video games is one of the most contemporary of dreams. With nothing more than a cool idea and computer code, a geek in a hoodie can make hundreds of millions. The dream of technologically inclined college grads used to be to work in movies or on Wall Street. Today? Young adults out of Ivy League schools dream of hitting it big working in their basements. The dream began in the early 1970s when Nolan Bushnell, a gangly young Mormon from Utah, launched the first great video game company, Atari. [Ed's note: see story on Bushnell in our September 2012 edition] Over the next decade – which became known as the golden age of video games – home and arcade hits from Donkey Kong to Defender seeded Pac-Man fever among the next generation of players.
With the personal-computer boom in the 1990s, intrepid coders rose to power by making and distributing games over the nascent internet. Start-ups such as id Software (creator of the seminal first-person shooters Doom and Quake) and Epic Games (maker of action hits Unreal and Gears of War) proved they could compete with the Nintendos of the world. migrating from our Xboxes and Wiis to our iPhones and Androids. According to a March 2012 report by the NPD Group, a market research firm, traditional video game sales dropped 25 percent, to $1.1 billion, compared with a year earlier. Even Nintendo, the most storied console maker in history, is taking a hit, with more than $500 million in losses in its latest fiscal year – its first reported loss in 30 years. Meanwhile, annual revenue from mobile games is projected to more than triple, from $5 billion today to $16 billion by 2016. When people first began talking about the new mobile-gaming gold rush, all conversation came back to the elephant in the room – or rather the big red bird in the room. Angry Birds, the game that forged the market, flew in from out of nowhere (Espoo, Finland) three years ago to perch atop the iTunes charts.
As id Software co-founder and self-made millionaire John Carmack once told me, “In the information age, the barriers just aren’t there. The barriers are self-imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don’t need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on and the dedication to go through with it.” The pizza and Cokes are paying off more than ever today but not in the way the major video game companies expected. Now that we’re all living our lives on smartphones, game playing is Despite its absurd premise – slinging birds at pigs – the game has become the go-to finger fix for cellphone addicts. The title has been downloaded more than a billion times and generated more than $100 million last year for its creator, Rovio, which, worth an estimated $9 billion, is now in the ranks of Finland’s most-valued companies, alongside Nokia. With that kind of money at stake, aspiring game developers have one question on their minds: How do they make the next Angry Birds, when odds are they’re just going to lay an egg?
There are a couple of things you notice when you walk into the Manhattan offices where Draw Something was developed. The first is the big red foam numero uno fingers with the word “Zynga” printed on the side. One morning last spring, the Zynga fingers were everywhere inside this bright, airy loft in SoHo. They were tacked to cubicles where 60-some employees pecked diligently at computers. They were resting on big red beanbags and piled on red and white pom-poms. There was plenty of celebrating going on after OMGPOP sold to Zynga. At the time the sale went down, Zynga was the gold standard of social gaming companies – the in crowd. The other thing you notice is that each of the conference rooms is dedicated to a drug dealer on The Wire, the classic HBO drama. The name of the dealer, along with a memorable quote, appears near each door. There’s Marlo (“I wasn’t made to play the son”) and Prop Joe (“The shit is just business. Buy for a dollar, sell for two”).
Though Dan Porter, a clean-cut 46-year-old in jeans and a polo shirt, looks more like Greg Focker than Avon Barksdale, he sells video games like the guys sell crack on The Wire. “That’s where I learned everything in business,” he says. Like what? The $210 million man smiles and quotes the line outside the Omar conference room: “It’s all in the game, yo.” Porter never expected to be in the game at all. Growing up in Philadelphia, he wasn’t a computer geek and couldn’t code a lick. His video game experience was limited to playing Defender at the local bowling alley. But what he lacked in programming skills he made up for in entrepreneurial hustle. After college, Porter helped launch Teach for America, a national teacher corps in the US, and led TicketWeb, a ticket-sales site that he helped sell to Ticketmaster for more than $35 million. Porter was working for Richard Branson, owner of Virgin, on a series of music festivals when he met Charles Forman, a programmer who’d been running a fledgling dating site with the clunky name I’m In Like With You. Porter, intrigued by the success of online games, came onboard in 2008 as CEO to transform Forman’s outfit into a game company, which they redubbed OMGPOP because it sounded contemporary and cool. “I wanted to call it WTFMOM, but it turned out that was a porn site,” Porter says.
OMGPOP scored $17 million in funding, but the company’s games – including Puppy World and Hamster Battle – never got out of the doghouse. Forman left the company, leaving Porter in charge. Porter had heard the stories about start-ups like Rovio and Zynga making millions on mobile and social games. If they could do it, why not him? “I was like, I want to make a game,” he recalls. “I’m not a game designer, but I played all these games on an iPhone. I kind of understood what makes games work: the rhythm, the pacing, the sense of fun, the way they mess with your mind.” Mess with your mind, indeed. The best cell phone games give you something to fill your micro-slices of downtime – riding the subway, waiting in a checkout line. You don’t have to read pages of instructions to play; you can jump in and know intuitively what to do. Swipe your finger here, tap the screen there. Unlike Grand Theft Auto or Mass Effect, a great mobile game is designed to be played in brief intervals, delivering a little dopamine hit that sates you until you can play again. “You always feel like you want to take one more crack at solving the problem,” Porter says.
In this sense, cell phone games like Angry Birds and Doodle Jump hark back to the first golden age of arcades, when playing, say, Space Invaders was as simple as moving your ship and shooting. You don’t need to memorize a million combo moves on your Xbox controller. The secret is to divine the old adage about what makes a game compelling, whether it’s chess or Cut the Rope: It needs to be easy to learn but difficult to master. Few have mastered the formula better, or seen a bigger payoff, than Jason Kapalka, co-founder of the Seattle-based developer PopCap. The company’s pioneering puzzle game, Bejeweled, defined fingertip candy for a new generation. The object is to line up a series of brightly coloured gems that vanish with a satisfying sparkle, only to be replaced by more. PopCap presaged the mobile boom by targeting casual gamers – moms and bored secretaries – on the web. But the company was still struggling. “We knew an audience was big but was very hard to reach,” Kapalka says. Then smartphones came along. “Now nongamers have devices that can easily access games,” Kapalka says. “That caused this enormous explosion.” Bejeweled went on to sell more than 50 million copies, and in July 2011 PopCap sold to video game publishing giant Electronic Arts for $750 million. (Though PopCap sold for more than OMGPOP, its rise was not nearly as immediate.)
As Porter knew, PopCap wasn’t the only company striking it rich in the new golden age of gaming. In 2011 Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, a young husband-and-wife team in Raleigh, North Carolina, became overnight sensations with their hit mobile game Temple Run. Inspired by the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the action game casts you as an adventurer running away from freaky beasts after stealing a temple idol. Released in August 2011, Temple Run has been downloaded more than 100 million times, and it made its creators instant millionaires. “There have been a lot of people banging down the door and wanting to talk to us,” Luckyanova says, “companies wanting to acquire us, venture companies wanting to invest, which is great but a little crazy.” Shepherd still can’t grasp his unusual success. “To see people playing the game in public, on the metro or at a bar, is a little mind-blowing,” he says. As for the money, Shepherd plans to treat himself soon. “I got my eyes on some fancy rides,” he says. With games like Temple Run and Bejeweled paying off for their creators, Porter wanted his shot at fame and fortune. “I wanted to make a game that was played by everyone,” he says. And crazily enough, he did.
Late last year Porter was visiting a friend who worked at a hip-hop record label. He had come to show off progress on his new game, which he’d been working on since June. The game was Draw Something, a new version of a title the company had released on the web with moderate success a couple of years earlier. His friends were skeptical. “They were like, ‘Yeah, yeah,’” he says. “They described it as my Ahab moment.” The original title, Draw My Thing, was a bit like an online game show: Players took turns drawing pictures that others online had to be the first to guess. Porter thought that bringing that kind of Pictionary-like social experience to mobile games would be unique and addictive. As with all game development, this one evolved by trial and error. Initially, to play the game you had to draw something based on a choice of three different words, then the other person had to type out a best guess. But as Porter watched his buddy try to guess the picture he had drawn, something wasn’t clicking. “It’s a bong!” the guy said. “A joint! Weed!”
Actually, it was supposed to be a flower in a vase. But it wasn’t Porter’s lackluster drafting skills that bummed him out. The game wasn’t working. Typing out words on a phone was annoying, and the virtual keypad would pop up and cover half the screen. Players needed to be able to choose answers that were less open-ended. A successful cellphone game had to have, as Porter put it, “the right form” – a sleek, organic way of cramming everything into the screen space without confusing the player. Porter went to the best place for brainstorming – the streets of New York City. He walked around the block until it hit him: tiles. To help ground players, he would show scrambled letter tiles below the drawing to help them narrow the possible answers. Keeping things simple was a mandate. Throughout the development, Porter kept trying to put himself in the mind of an elderly player. “If an 80-year-old person can figure it out, everyone can figure it out,” he says. He knew that the best party games are inherently funny (e.g., beer pong or drunken charades). For Draw Something to get people talking, and laughing, he wanted players to try to draw things that were contemporary (say “Wu-Tang” or “Hunger Games”) and open to interpretation (“wet” or “facial”). The game needed to appeal to both sexes as well, and the best way to do that was to make something that wasn’t just fun but also flirty.
“I thought, This game has to be a way for boys in high school to flirt with girls in high school,” he recalls, and he was dead serious. Porter felt that young people especially needed a more playful way to flirt than texting, which can feel loaded at times. A drawing game could be innocuous but sexy too. “It gives you something to talk about,” he says. The other question was: How could someone win the game? The answer came to Porter one afternoon when he was watching his son and a friend play catch in the park. At one point, Porter’s wife told the kids she’d take them for ice cream if they reached 1,000 catches. “That’s it!” he thought. Rather than compete against one another, Draw Something gamers could play cooperatively, working together to reach the longest possible streak of correct answers.
By February 2012, Draw Something was complete. To make a blockbuster video game like Call of Duty, a company can spend blockbuster-film-style money: $100 million easily, with a team of 150 people. A team of five made Draw Something. There was just one problem – OMGPOP was going under. The company had burned through its $17 million in funding, and Porter was in the unenviable position of having to let good people go. “I felt terrible,” he says. When the investors suggested he raise another round of funding, Porter declined. “Look,” he said, “we’re in the business of making games. If we can’t make games, then I don’t want more money just for the sake of staying alive. I feel good about this game. Let’s see what happens.” The investors eyed him from across the table. “This game is all or nothing for you,” they said. “I bet it all on this game in that sense,” Porter says. “I was like, Holy shit, this might be the last game we ever make.”
He began freaking out. What the fuck was he doing? He was gambling the future of his company. To keep from going nuts, he began waking up at six every morning to meditate and chill. On an early February morning, Porter got up before sunrise, shut his eyes and visualized the best. Then he took the subway to the office and uploaded Draw Something. At the time, if you wanted to cash in on the mobile-game gold rush, you had to get the attention of Zynga. Founded by Mark Pincus and named for his late dog, Zynga has had a market cap as high as $9 billion. It was built on the success of social and mobile games such as FarmVille, CityVille and Zynga Poker. When I visited the company’s San Francisco headquarters in April, it was like arriving at Willy Wonka’s factory. Visitors walk through a neon light tunnel to get inside, where some of the 1,700 employees play Ping Pong and vintage arcade games. There’s a “Zyngabago” motor home parked inside and a full bar for Friday happy hour. Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” is blasting throughout the café, and the lobby rises six stories, revealing the exposed-pipe ceiling. This is the house that video games built, and Zynga built it, in part, by acquiring game developers looking to cash in. One of the biggest scores was Newtoy, a small Texas-based start-up run by two brothers, David and Paul Bettner. The Bettner brothers scored big with their Scrabble-style phenomenon Words With Friends. Zynga purchased Newtoy in December 2010 for $53 million. David Bettner described joining the behemoth as “strapping a rocket booster on our back.”
But with thousands of new games released online every month, how could a little gamer with a big dream get noticed by the big dog? Travis Boatman, senior vice president of mobile for Zynga, distills his strategy to three key words: free, accessible and social. “When you can play a game with everybody, that’s a very broad game; that really resonates with our company,” he says. And there was no game being played by everybody like this little drawing game from New York. On the day of Draw Something’s release, Porter was watching the number of downloads. The game was being sold for 99 cents. There was also a free version that included ads. OMGPOP did almost nothing in the way of marketing or advertising. If a game doesn’t crack the iTunes chart of the top 25 apps, it’s almost like being invisible. Porter saw his game rising but not breaking the all- important barrier. “I kept thinking, Fuck, we’re close!” Charles Forman, Porter’s original partner, was watching too – considering the balance of his bank account since leaving the company had dropped to just $1,700.
Porter had a colleague create a little matrix window on his computer monitor that tracked the game’s downloads and the number of illustrations being created by players in real time, almost like a stock ticker. The first time he checked it the ticker said there had been 1,000 downloads and 8,000 drawings created. Porter and his team tweaked the game to improve its performance speed. By the end of the first day, they had 30,000 downloads. Each morning when Porter woke up in his Park Slope apartment to check the ticker, the numbers increased: 60,000; 90,000; 120,000 downloads. Ten days later, they passed 1 million. “It was weird as shit,” Porter recalls. “I was like, Who are these people?” The game was soon earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each day. Zynga was asking the same question. Porter had fortuitous timing. The Game Developers Conference, the annual gathering of all the major and independent game makers, was scheduled for March in San Francisco. Porter already had plans to go. Now he was rolling in as the big man, the whiz kid who was living the ultimate 2012 dream: developing a golden app. Draw Something ranked number one on both the free and the paid iTunes charts. As Porter walked the halls, other mobile-game developers began showing sour grapes. “Oh yeah, that’s not even a game!” “I had a drawing game, but I just hadn’t made it yet!” “I was like, whatever, dude,” Porter says. “You didn’t fucking make it, so who cares?”
Porter went to the Zynga office to meet with the executives, including Mark Pincus. Porter was impressed by how much Pincus had clearly played the game and how he picked up on the important details. “I got the word Tumblr in the game,” he told Porter. “I get it. It’s relevant.” But sometimes your mind does funny things when you’re faced with living out the ultimate dream, and Porter, despite being wooed by so many suitors, wasn’t sure he wanted to take the pot of gold after all. One night he went to Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood for dinner and overheard a table of middle-aged women complaining about their jobs. Something inside him twisted. Why sell out if it meant leaving the job he loved? “I was like, Fuck, even when we’re failing I have the best job,” he says. “We’re in SoHo making games. Most people think their job sucks.” But then Porter realized he could stay on as an executive and continue his work under a buyer, which is exactly what he and the investors decided to do. There was just one last thing to take care of – hiring back the people he had laid off. But Porter had to act fast and hire them back while their stock options were in place, though he couldn’t tell them why. “Let’s have coffee,” Porter emailed the former employees. “I’m going to take you back,” he told them at Le Pain Quotidien. “But you have to start this afternoon.”
On March 21, just six weeks after Draw Something was released, Zynga announced its purchase of OMGPOP. “The OMGPOP team has created a game that’s fun, expressive and engenders real social interaction,” Pincus said. “Draw Something has captured the imagination of millions of people around the world.” The plan was to use Zynga’s power and resources to scale the game even higher and take over the world by localizing it for different countries, changing the language and cultural references of the game’s clues. In an even more perfect ending, Porter decided to share the wealth – spreading $30 million among his firm’s 40-some employees, including those he had hired back. When asked why he did something so unusually generous, Porter shrugs. “I don’t know,” he says. “It was the right thing to do.”
Before I leave Porter’s office, I challenge him to a quick round of Draw Something. I look down at my screen and see a black line rising up, then over and down. Then another black line up and over and down. Buildings, I wonder? Then I see what appears to be a large pancake circle at the top of one building, then another pancake on the other. But wait – they’re not pancakes. They’re two feet, connecting to two legs that rise beyond the screen. Beneath the buildings Porter has scrawled the word Tokyo. The answer, I realize, is Godzilla, and he’s on top of the world. But as I leave his office, Porter walks me past the Omar and Prop Joe conference rooms, past the pile of Zynga pom-poms, and shows me a wide- screen monitor mounted across from an elevator. The monitor displays a feed of tweets about the company. “It gets you the pulse of things,” he tells me. Just then, as though on cue, a tweet comes up: “Draw Something loses 5 million users a month after Zynga purchase?” When I ask Porter about that, he shrugs it off, attributing it to misinformation.
In the lightning-fast online world, the backlash comes even faster. In the wake of the Zynga purchase, game developers are crying hype and overvalue. As Cliff Bleszinski, designer of the blockbuster franchise Gears of War, says of the high purchase price of OMGPOP (and PopCap), “It’s ironic that all those companies sound like a bubble bursting.” Indeed, in the weeks after our interviews end, a complicated series of events began to threaten the video game industry’s newest behemoth. Suddenly Zynga’s earnings began to fall, as did its stock price – down 10 percent, then 40 percent and 70 percent. The Wall Street Journal called Zynga’s situation an “earnings disaster.” Then, in early August, the company’s chief operating officer, John Schappert, resigned. Meanwhile, the popularity of Draw Something quickly began to fade. “People bring you up,” Porter responds when asked about the decline. “And then they bring you down.”
All of which begs the question: Who will fill the void? Which tiny start- up will be the next OMGPOP, the next Zynga, the next billion-dollar juggernaut? Chances are you’ll find out soon – while playing some new game on your cell phone.
by David Kushner
Illustration by Johan Lazar
Published in Playboy South Africa February 2013


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2015 VW Golf
The 2015 VW GTI, Golf and Audi A3 are being recalled to replace faulty fuel pumps that can fail due to flaking nickel plating. There are 6,204 vehicles in need of repair.
The all-new, seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf has captured Motor Trend's prestigious Car of the Year award. The Golf, along with its many variants, which include the diesel-powered TDI, GTI hot hatch and electric E-Golf, beat out a slew of competitors which included corporate cousin Audi and its new Brandon Turkus
Volkswagen is partnering with Target and Funny or Die in a bizarre ad for the latest Golf starring comedian Rob Huebel, probably best known for his work on Childrens Hospital on Adult Swim.
Volkswagen is issuing a stop-sale and recall for the 2015 GTI and Golf because of a problem with the front stabilizer link fasteners. The stop-sale covers 705 vehicles at US dealers, and, according to Automotive News an Chris Bruce
More good news for Volkswagen, as its new small hatchback, the seventh-generation Golf and its sporty brother, the GTI, have both been named to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety's prestigious Top Safety Pick+ list.
There's controversy in the ranks of Germany's Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (more commonly known as ADAC). The group's annual car of the year contest has come under fire after accusations of vote-rigging.
Volkswagen brought just three vehicles to SEMA this year (compare that to Ford's 57 show cars): two Jettas and a Golf. Both Jettas showcase the automaker's new turbocharged EA888 four-cylinder engines - one of which is heavily modified - and the Golf is the fir
Volkswagen is in a spat with German magazine Auto Bild over claims that its new, seventh-generation Golf may already need a recall. The German weekly reports that new Golfs can leak water into front-passenger footwells due to a faulty drainage tube in their air conditioning systems.
The seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf in US-specification officially debuts at the 2013 New York Auto Show. The new model is the first VW in the States to ride on the company's MQB architecture, and as such, it makes use of plenty of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steel to keep weight down. All told, the new shell is 51 pounds lighter than the outgoing generation, despit


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Many people prefer consuming edible cannabis products as opposed to smoking marijuana. Part of it may be an aversion to smoking and the effects it has on one's lungs, but it's also just more delicious. Well, if you live in Colorado, your edible experience may be a lot less fun.
The Colorado Department of Revenue announced that starting on October 1st, edible products that are shaped like human, animals or fruits will no longer be permitted. They said, "Beginning Oct. 1, edible marijuana-infused products in the shape of a human, animal or fruit are strictly prohibited, including shapes that resemble or contain characteristics of a realistic or fictional human, animal, or fruit, including artistic, caricature, or cartoon renderings." Gummy bears, chocolate rabbits and other such products will no longer be sold in Colorado dispensaries.
As to what kinds of edibles are still permitted, the Department of Revenue said, ""Edible marijuana products that are geometric shapes and simply fruit flavored are not considered fruit and are permissible."
An executive from the Department of Revenue said the rules are designed so marijuana products are not enticing to children. Similar regulations are in effect for tobacco and alcohol products.
But the timing is unfortunate for Colorado residents. What kinds of edible products are people going to make available at their Halloween parties? Generic square shaped gummies? Sounds boring to me. Couldn't Colorado have waited just one more month?