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The 100th National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show was held at Chicago’s McCormick Place from May 18-21. For the fifth year-in-a-row, the Show had record exhibit space sales at 723,069 square feet and welcomed 42,557 restaurant operators, retail foodservice professionals, equipment dealers, food distributors, and many others -- 3% more than 2018. Total registration, including exhibitors, exceeded last year’s total at 65,526.
“The centennial Show was a success by every measure,” said Mary Pat Heftman, President, Restaurant Show Group at Winsight, the Show’s producer. “Besides the record exhibit sales and strong attendance growth, the energy on the Show floor was palpable. Education sessions were standing room only, there were delicious new foods at every turn, and once again, ingenuity was on display everywhere you looked.”
“The Show added a number of features to inform and inspire attendees in the 100th anniversary year,” said Heftman. “From the new Sysco Culinary Experience Center, to the new Digital Media Slam, the new Women Leaders Panel led by the James Beard Foundation, the new Technomic Ask the Experts sessions, and even a new butchery demonstration, there was truly something for everyone.”
“We bring staff from QA, purchasing, franchise development, operations, IT and other critical departments. Our franchisees come, too,” said Scott Redler, Co-Founder and COO of Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers and Co-Chair of the 2019 Show. “This is an important show for the continued growth of our business. Not only do we get the continuing educational opportunities and exposure to products and services to help us grow, it’s a time for our team to get away from the day-to-day and think about how to further our success. I was a co-chair because I believe in the value and power of this Show.”
A Show favorite was the 23-feet high birthday cake in the middle of McCormick Place’s Grand Concourse. “The Show takes its celebrations seriously,” said Mike Hickey, Executive Vice President and President, Ecolab Inc.and 2019 Co-Chair of the National Restaurant Association Show. Eli’s Cheesecake created a 1,200 pound cheesecake that was cut in a 100thanniversary ceremony that included Ted Balestreri, Chairman & CEO of the Cannery Row Company and the 100th Anniversary Chairman, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Julianna Stratton, Dawn Sweeney, President & CEO of the National Restaurant Association, Mike Wood, CEO of Winsight and Mary Pat Heftman. “We’re so grateful that Eli’s was able to create a dessert equal to the magnitude of a 100thanniversary,” said Hickey. “The crowd at the celebration loved every last piece.”
A highlight of this year’s Show was the annual Signature session, which included senior leaders from various segments across the foodservice industry. Moderated by Sweeney, the panel included Chris Gheysens, President & CEO, Wawa; Tim McEnery, Founder & CEO, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants; Randy Edeker, Chairman, CEO & President, Hy-vee, and John Cywinski, President, Applebee’s Bar & Grill. The discussion was about the future of dining -- where, what and when consumers will eat in the next 5-10 years. “We all compete for share of stomach,” said Cywinski, summing up the thoughts of the c-store, grocery and restaurant panelists represented on stage. Edeker recalled a recent customer encounter – “I want you to be what I want when I need you,” said the woman. “If you’re not, I’ll go somewhere else.” All of the panelists agreed that addressing the needs of consumers like this is critical to remain competitive.
Heftman made an exciting announcement on the first day of the Show – the 2020 Show will include a fourth exhibit hall. “The demand this year exceeded the available exhibit space. We were “wall-bound.” In order to accommodate the many exhibitors that want to join the Show, and allow for booth expansion among current exhibitors, we simply need more space,” said Heftman. “Adding more space and exhibitors also lets us bring to operators, more innovations and game-changing ideas than ever before.”
“The Show was everything we hoped and more,” said Christine Schindler, CEO & Co-Founder of PathSpot Technologies. “PathSpot is a new restaurant tech startup and this was our very first Show. We filled four fish bowls with leads and now our whole team is focused on following up. Every new industry supplier needs to be here if they want to meet the right people.”
“It’s so inspiring to see entrepreneurs like Christine, who developed her first product in her tiny NY apartment, in the same marketplace as industry heavyweights like Sysco, Welbilt, and so many others. This Show is about building business whether your sales are in the billions or your headquarters are in your living room and your dog is your receptionist,” said Heftman, with a laugh.
Over 100 countries and all 50 states were represented at the 100th anniversary event. “We saw attendee growth from the three largest US states, California, Texas, and Florida, and from the local region too, with Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Indiana all showing positive gains,” said Heftman. “We also saw growth from all corners of the map including key markets such as China, Japan, Colombia and others. Growth like this comes from keeping the Show fresh every year, but more importantly, keeping our focus on helping operators of all sizes grow their business and driving profitability.
Thousands of restaurant operators, from the #1 brand down to the local pizza parlor, along with representatives from the top dealer/distributor, contract management organizations, filled this year’s Show. The Show’s attendance included:
- 92 of the top 100 restaurant brands
- Contract management representation from Compass, Sodexo, Aramark, Delaware North, Elior, Centerplate, Legends Hospitality and more
- Dealer/Distributor representation from Sysco, US Foods, Clark Associates, Boelter, TriMark, Chef’s Warehouse, Burkett, Bargreen Ellingson, Edward Don and more
As the dynamics in the industry change daily, the Show also saw growth in professionals from the retail foodservice segment (+3%) and the lodging sector (+13%). These segments were represented by some of the world’s largest brands including Whole Foods, Walmart, Hy-Vee, Roundy’s, Amazon, Target, Kroger, Wawa, Costco, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and many others.
In addition to a full schedule of business-building activity, attendees loosened their ties and put on their party clothes for the 100th Anniversary Celebration and Star of the Bar Finals competition. The 2019 Star of the Bar finals event took place at TAO on Monday, May 20th, in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association Show’s 100th Anniversary Celebration event.
Source: National Restaurant Association


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Greggs up 18% in expansive year
Taxable profits were pounds 7.1m for the year to 26 December, compared with pounds 6m in 1991. Greggs opened 13 new shops in the year, to end with 487 outlets. It also widened profit margins.
The profit performance was achieved against a backdrop of cut-throat competition among bread producers. Poor profit margins on the daily loaf pushed the bread maker Ranks Hovis McDougall into the arms of Tomkins, the takeover specialist, last autumn.
However, only 30 per cent of Greggs' sales are of bread. Mike Darrington, managing director, said its product was better quality and so was spared the worst ravages of the bread wars.
More damaging are the price rises of imported raw materials in the wake of the devaluation of sterling. The price of flour and of sugar-based products for Greggs' cake baking, may increase up to 15 per cent.
Growth in earnings per share, compared with profits, was slower because of a higher tax charge. Earnings were 40.6p against 36.8p. The shares rose from 492p to 535p, although few actually changed hands.
The dividend is 15p compared with 14.1p.
Emergency landing at Heathrow sparks further controversy over London airport capacity
Unrest may spread across Europe, warns Red Cross chief
French government seeks to ban extreme right-wing group
BNP and EDL accused of attempt to fuel racial hatred after Woolwich terror attack
You want to get an Eton scholarship? All you need to do is answer four (not so simple) questions
- 1 What, let gays get married? We must be bonkers
- 2 Rocky Horror star Tim Curry 'suffers major stroke'
- 3 Exclusive: How MI5 blackmails British Muslims
- 4 Lord of the Sings: Sir Christopher Lee, 91, to release heavy metal album
- 5 Exclusive: Woolwich killings suspect Michael Adebolajo was inspired by cleric banned from UK after urging followers to behead enemies of Islam
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.

domain: news


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Our photographer Jason Davis discusses the "decisive moment," with a Range Rover Evoque.
Read This Article
Land Rover has announced prices for both the 2013 Range Rover Evoque--which starts at $41,995 for the five-door model and $44,995 for the coupe--and the LR4, which will set you back at least $49,950.
Land Rover celebrates the past 25 years of the LR4/Discovery before the new lineup debut in 2015.
Land Rover prices the 2014 Range Rover and adds new standard features to the Autobiography model.


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Thinking of Buying a Bike? Get Ready for a Very Long Wait
Some bicycle shops in Brooklyn are selling twice as many bikes as usual and drawing blocklong lines of customers. A chain of shops in Phoenix is selling three times the number of bikes it typically does. A retailer in Washington, D.C., sold all its entry-level bikes by the end of April and has fielded more preorders than ever in its 50-year history.
As the coronavirus pandemic shrinks life in major American cities — limiting pastimes and discouraging use of buses and subways — hundreds of thousands of Americans are flocking to one of the most basic forms of mobility: the bicycle.


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Nvidia revealed its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.
And god fucking blimey are these financial reports something else entirely, as the company has reported that it has achieved a 84% growth in year-over-year revenue reaching $5.66 Billion, with $2.76 Billion of that coming from their “Gaming” division or more rather the sales of GeForce graphics cards.
You’ve heard that right, NVIDIA has managed to generate $2.76 Billion in revenue from their gaming division seemingly during quite possibly the worst shortage when it comes to their production ever recorded, a 106% increase in profit year-over-year mind you.
And NVIDIA are strongly implying that the dramatic surge in cryptocurrency mining had absolutely nothing to do with this.
Because of course they would, given the fact that literally any company in this field have been dealing with shitty global supply constraints the fact that NVIDIA have managed to quite literally double the profits from its GeForce sales totally wouldn’t have been contributed due to the surge in demand for them (for cryptocurrency mining) or NVIDIA selling GPU’s directly to said miners, alongside the insane gouged prices that retailers impose on any GeForce hardware that actually lands in store.
Perhaps we may not need to talk about their hideous CMP HX cryptocurrency mining processors either, having already made bank by rebranding and reproducing age old trash such as a GTX 1660 Super with retailers charging upwards of over $700 USD for the privilege. Which according to the report has generated revenue figures of $155 Million
“What we hope is that the CMPs will satisfy the miners and will stay in the professional mines. CMP yields better, and producing those doesn’t take away from the supply of GeForce. So it protects supply for the gamers,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on a call with analysts.
“Gaming revenue was up 106 percent from a year ago and up 11 percent sequentially, reflecting higher sales
in GeForce GPUs, with both desktop and laptop setting records, as well as in game-console SOCs.”
“We continued to benefit from strong sales of our GeForce RTXTM 30 Series based on the NVIDIA Ampere
architecture. We believe Gaming also benefited from cryptocurrency mining demand, although it is hard to
determine to what extent.“
Quite hard to determine to what extent the insane rush of Cryptocurrency has had a part to play in the overall demand and revenue for GeForce products that seemingly are not being produced in the same sort of numbers as previous generation hardware or certainly are not being sold into the homes of actual gamers who wish to buy them.
Because in comparison to their Q1 FY21 results, of which NVIDIA have managed to more than double recorded profits from its “gaming” GeForce segment. NVIDIA were then charging consumers absolutely fucking cancerous pricing for their RTX Turing graphics cards but in retrospect they would undoubtedly be cheaper in comparison to the sort of shit we find ourselves in today with RTX Ampere.
Now the sales of RTX Turing saw a massive uplift in profits in comparison to GTX Pascal graphics cards, this is mainly contributed to once again, those insane prices of which the fat man from Linus Media Group has demonstrated above.
RTX Turing graphics cards were built on the then exclusive “16/12nm” processing node in conjunction with NVIDIA while competitors sought to actually innovate with their more expensive 7nm process. Being built on effectively a tuned node from which GTX Pascal was tapped out on saw slight improvements across the board on the node front but realistically at that point NVIDIA were already laying the foundation to supersede Volta with necessary architectural changes that would then evolve into Turing and finally into its latest reincarnation of Ampere.
But aside from that NVIDIA were able to utilize TSMC’s 16/12nm to the fullest that even despite the insanely large dies that came with RTX 2000-series graphics cards they were able to produce them without any hitches, with favorable yields and of course much cheaper in comparison to the recently available 7nm processing node.
Though of course looking back on that today you’d probably imagine that Jensen Huang would regret making this sort of decision considering that AMD hold majority of the TSMC’s 7nm orders with NVIDIA only having a fractional slice of that pie for their A100 enterprise hardware.
But that aside NVIDIA were able to produce Turing for cheap, in large quantities and of course with the ungodly barbaric prices you see above. Needless to say they managed to sell less units than GTX Pascal graphics cards, yet somehow managed to completely thrash it when it came to recorded revenue from NVIDIA quarter after quarter.
“We had a fantastic quarter, with strong demand for our products driving record revenue,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
With NVIDIA’s Data Center revenue for this quarter being $2.05 Billion which is up 79% percent year-over-year, with NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang throwing praise regarding their Mellanox acquisition which is entirely hilarious considering how NVIDIA have since shelved the revenue reports of Mellanox since acquiring it after just a single poor quarter.
“Mellanox, one year in, has exceeded our expectations and transformed NVIDIA into a data-center-scale computing company. We continue to make headway with our planned acquisition of Arm, which will accelerate innovation and growth for the Arm ecosystem. From gaming, cloud computing, AI, robotics, self-driving cars, to genomics and computational biology, NVIDIA continues to do impactful work to invent a better future,” said Jensen Huang.
NVIDIA have noted in their 10-Q filing regarding the future of cryptocurrency mining regarding the strong demand to mine with NVIDIA GeForce RTX products:
“Demand and use of GPUs for cryptocurrency has fluctuated in the past and is likely to continue to change quickly. Volatility in the cryptocurrency market, including changes in the prices of cryptocurrencies, can impact demand for our products and our ability to estimate demand for our products. Changes to cryptocurrency standards and processes including, but not limited to, the pending Ethereum 2.0 standard may also create increased aftermarket resales of our GPUs and may reduce demand for our new GPUs. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, we believe Gaming benefited from cryptocurrency mining demand, although it is hard to determine to what extent.”
It’s a pity really, by definition a boom of any kind will always come to an end however with constant delays of Ethereum going proof-of-stake has effectively contributed to the increase of demand for GeForce products and the cryptocurrency market as a whole will continue to maintain and or grow leading up to the long-awaited ETH 2.0 update.
It was also noted during NVIDIA’s 10-Q filing that they expect to remain supply-constrained leading well into the second half of their fiscal year.
We expect to remain supply-constrained into the second half of the fiscal year, primarily in gaming. We may
need to place non-cancellable inventory orders significantly in advance of our normal lead times, pay premiums or provide deposits to secure normal
and incremental future supply.
So, don’t get your hopes up for any GeForce graphics cards making their way to actual gamers anytime soon, even though the company plans to provide LHR or Lite Hash Rate updates throughout their RTX 3000-series lineup barring the RTX 3090.
The prices we’ve already seen the unannounced LHR RTX 3060 go for in South Korea certainly doesn’t get my hopes up. Because it would seem that these LHR graphics cards serve no purpose but to sell GPU’s at the same gouged prices but will only reach the systems of the gamers who are desperate enough to pay the premium for them.


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One of every five beauty purchases online is made via the Amazon marketplace, according to a new report.
Circuit City is operating with new senior management for its online channel as its web sales approach $1.4 billion for the fiscal year ending Feb. 28, as online sales grow to 13% of total sales. Its strategy going forward to be to emphasize interactivity with online shoppers, such as through product videos.
As it rides what president, chairman and CEO Philip Schoonover calls a “massive shift” in how consumers shop across retail channels, Circuit City Stores Inc. expects to do $1.4 billion in online sales, or 13% of total sales, for its current fiscal year that runs through the end of this month, Schoonover says.
Multi-channel shopping activity, meanwhile, is rising in several distinct areas, he adds. For example, more than half of the retailer’s online customers sometimes pick up products at a Circuit City store, up from 25% a year ago.
And when viewing online content, more consumers don’t want to settle for traditional static images. “Video is the way people want to receive content,” Schoonover says. “Millenials especially want to see in videos what they’re buying.”
Going forward, Circuit City is hoping growth in multi-channel retailing will help it climb out of poor financial performance, which resulted in a net loss of $325.7 million on $8.1 billion in total sales for the third quarter ended November 30, 2007, and has deployed a new multi-channel management team.
The retailer has promoted Brian S. Bradley to senior vice president, multi-channel, with responsibility for the company’s direct-to-consumer business, including its web site and call center. The company has also announced the departure of George D. “Danny” Clark, who had been executive vice president, multi-channel sales.
Bradley joined the company in January 2005 as steward of innovation. In April 2006 he was promoted to vice president, strategy and innovation. Before joining Circuit City he worked at Capital One Financial Corp. and before that at consultants McKinsey & Co.
The company has also named John J. Kelly, senior vice president, merchandising. Kelly joined the company in May 2005 as senior vice president, general merchandise manager.


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OCONOMOWOC, Wis.— Elisabeth Hoffman and fiancé Josh Loeser paused by a display of artfully decorated cakes and pastries while shopping recently at a Pick ‘n Save grocery store here. But after a split second of interest, their expressions faded.
“They’re not on the list,” said Ms. Hoffman, a 35-year-old interior designer and remodeler, as they pushed on to pick up chicken breast and diced tomatoes for a chicken chili recipe.
She and Mr. Loeser, a 30-year-old heating and ventilation repairman, have adopted a series of habits to make sure they buy only what they came for. They shop together, for instance, and when possible they avoid grocery carts, which come with the temptation to fill them up.
Retailers wondering what’s gone wrong with their business could learn a lot from the couple—and from other Milwaukee-area families The Wall Street Journal spent time with this fall. Observations of their carefully executed shopping plans identified what may be an endangered species in the retail landscape: the impulse buy.
A new intentionality has taken hold of shopping. Many Americans have the money and the will to spend. But they are time-pressed and deal savvy, visiting stores only when they run out of items like cereal or toilet paper and after doing extensive research on purchases online and with friends. They buy what they came for—and then leave.
Those habits threaten more than just gum sales at checkout. Impulse is why stores offer deep discounts on loss leaders, why they put the milk in the back corner and why marketers spend heavily to pile up products in displays at the ends of the aisles. If shoppers just target the deals and don’t let their eyes wander, long cherished models for boosting sales fall apart.
The shift of attention toward the Web and lingering frugality after the trauma of the financial crisis are the underpinnings of the problem. And the symptoms of the industry’s malaise are clear enough: extended declines in shopper traffic, weak sales growth, and a discount-driven race to the bottom that is sapping pricing power.
Chico’s FAS Inc. CHS -0.08 % says customers are now browsing online first and then coming into stores “on a mission.” Shoppers who once spent two hours at the women’s apparel retailer are down to 45 minutes.
“When you’re online, you lose a lot of the impulse and your units per transaction are less online than they are in a store,” Chico’s Chief Executive David Dyer told analysts in September.
Much of that intentionality has now spread beyond the Web to in-store shopping as well. “Consumers are now conditioned to shop for specific items and it’s not just affecting online consumer psyche but offline consumer psyche as well,” said Joel Bines, a managing director at retail consultancy AlixPartners.
Consider Ms. Hoffman and Mr. Loeser. After picking up their chili-fixings, they headed to Walgreens for Halloween candy. They skipped the plastic shopping baskets near the entrance and darted straight to the candy section.
“Should we get it as a gift?” Ms. Hoffman asked, thinking about relatives with young children who were due to visit the next day. Mr. Loeser shrugged, unimpressed. They passed.
Over in Racine, Wis., Cyndi and Chad Tremelling steered their Wal-Mart WMT 0.99 % shopping cart straight to the grocery aisles, passing brightly colored Danskin athletic gear, rows of “Frozen” Elsa dolls, and boxes of Keurig coffee makers without so much as a glance.
When their 18-month-old daughter, Addie, grabbed a jumbo box of Lucky Charms, the couple first confirmed the cereal was on their list before letting her plop it in the cart.
No such luck when she went for a bag of Snickers chocolates.
“Mama loves Snickers, but we don’t need them today,” she said
Their bill came to $171—every cent from items on their carefully typed shopping list.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. moved aggressively into the low-margin grocery business in the 1980s hoping it would prove a weekly draw for shoppers who in theory would also pick up more profitable items like clothing and toys. But the formula has come under strain.
Groceries now account for 56% of Wal-Mart’s $279 billion in U.S. sales, and categories like electronics and toys are waning or migrating online. Only once since 2012 has the company reported increased U.S. sales, excluding newly opened or closed stores. Meanwhile, traditional grocers like Kroger Co. KR -0.60 % are eroding Wal-Mart’s price advantage.
The Tremellings are typical of the greater Milwaukee area, which is typical of the U.S. Its 5.4% jobless rate, $52,000 median household income and population that is nearly one third Hispanic, black and other minorities mirror U.S. averages.
Mr. Tremelling, a firefighter and paramedic, and Ms. Tremelling, a stay-at-home mom, both 29, moved out of a parent’s basement two years ago, emboldened by nearly four years of stable paychecks. They recently splurged on an $800 swing set for their two daughters and a camera for their first-ever family vacation—to Washington, D.C.
Each of the purchases was accounted for in a budget Ms. Tremelling puts together every two weeks. On their wall calendar she marks due dates for car insurance, mortgage payment and phone bills. Across the bottom is scribbled “Place $$ in savings,” though Ms. Tremelling admits she rarely can.
One recent week, after accounting for the bills, Ms. Tremelling wrote down how much money the couple had left for food on a yellow legal pad and planned out the family meals for the next two weeks, working off a pre-existing two-page, typed master shopping list of already-vetted items.
Wal-Mart and other retailers are reacting to shoppers’ extreme planning in a variety of ways. Wal-Mart is trying to pair items that sell well together, like Corona beer and limes. They call it, “Better Together.” It is also investing in e-commerce and smaller stores that cater to more targeted shoppers. At Dollar Tree Inc., DLTR 0.57 % each week the chain designates a product like a pen or candy bar as “drive items” that cashiers push at checkout.
“It’s just that one last chance to get another item in their shopping bag,” Dollar Tree CEO Bob Sasser told investors in May.
Calculated shoppers like Emily and Jeff Jasinowski have a strong ability to resist, though. The time-stressed, double-income couple said their discretionary spending these days is earmarked for their toddler Mason and for fixing up the three-bedroom house they bought in May in the Milwaukee suburb of Pewaukee. They have separated the projects into one-, five- and 10-year plans.
Walking past a downstairs bathroom full of plastic sheeting and paint cans, they recounted how weekly trips to Home Depot HD 1.09 % to fix up a bathroom and dining room have taken precedence over desires like a curved-screen HD television or dishwasher.
“It’s rarely a ‘No, we’re not going to buy something’,” said Mr. Jasinowski, age 31. “It’s more of a when.”
The couple—he is an art director at an advertising agency, and she is a kindergarten teacher—plan their food purchases carefully, too.
Every year, the Jasinowkis pool together $2,600 with their parents, grandparents and siblings to buy an entire cow from a nearby farm. A butcher slaughters the animal and parcels out individual cuts of meat, which the Jasinowskis freeze and use throughout the year.
“We save a decent amount of money when compared to what we were paying in the store,and we get good, quality meat that goes from the farm to table in the least amount of steps,” Mr. Jasinowski says.”
Adriana Salgado, a 26-year-old Milwaukee native who lives in a townhouse with her older sister, prefers to pick up pens and other supplies for her job running after-school programs at the local Boys & Girls Club at the Dollar Tree—even though her employer has a charge account at Wal-Mart—because she says they are cheaper. After a recent trip, she carefully folded the receipt she would need to get reimbursed for the $11.62 she spent.
She and her friend Paola Felix are just as penny-pinching with purchases for themselves. On a recent evening, as they watched the TV show “Scandal,” they admired the sharp blazer worn by actress Kerry Washington. “Oooh, that jacket is at The Limited!” Ms. Felix exclaimed, before demurring that she’d never buy it because the retailer’s well-advertised “Scandal” collection is too expensive. (The Limited said the line is targeted at a slightly older demographic and that most pieces are priced between $49-$100.)


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Xiaomi is pouring billions of RMB into the auto sector and placing some big bets on multiple startups to build a complete auto supply chain.
In this episode, the guys are joined by regular guest Michael Norris to review some Q2 earnings highlights of Kuaishou, Tencent, and Xiaomi.
Elliott and James welcome IDC’s VP of Device Research Bryan Ma to the show to discuss strong performance from Xiaomi in a tough year.
James and Elliott review the winners and losers of 2020, what they got right and what they got wrong, as well as the lessons they learned.
Over the past six months, I’ve been mapping the global footprint of Chinese tech investment. Here’s what I’ve learned.
China’s dominant smartphone makers have suffered setbacks from Covid-19 and the US-China trade war. Is 5G the light at the end of the tunnel?
With Huawei increasingly cut off from the America-driven tech world, it’s betting on the new Harmony OS to build a new mobile ecosystem.
Xiaomi’s flagship Mi 9 phone comes loaded with new features and a higher price tag.
Samsung has benefited the most, while the future for chipmakers is uncertain.
Some Chinese consumers are ready to switch to homegrown phone brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi.


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On-going peanut recall carries $1 billion price tag
March 17, 2009
Another day, another handful of peanut products recalled. Add them to the list, which now includes over 3,235 individual recalled products. Yesterday we thought they were ok. What if your little one ate them? Or grandma?
The now-bankrupt Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) inadvertently set off the largest food recall in United States history when it shipped peanut base products to food manufacturers in spite of repeated tests indicating evidence of salmonella colonization. The resulting outbreak of illness began in September 2008 but even now, six months later, the outbreak remains on-going, the peanut recall is still in effect, and industry experts say the price tag for the recall may climb as high as $1 billion before the peanut industry can rebuild.
Thus far, 691 people, ages 1-98, in 46 states have become ill with salmonella infection after eating products made from ingredients distributed by PCA, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are nine confirmed deaths. Infants, elderly persons, and persons with impaired immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness.


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Okta sees huge development forward because it expands its service choices.
The cybersecurity firm mentioned Wednesday it expects revenue for the fiscal 12 months to develop by 30% because it unveiled two new products, one in “privileged access management” and one other in “identity governance and administration.”
Privileged entry seeks to defend information from being hacked inside a corporation, whereas id governance and administration was designed to streamline how a corporation decides what data customers have entry to on its servers.
The addition of these new instruments additionally improve Okta’s enterprise alternative by greater than 20%, CEO Todd McKinnon instructed CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
“We have a massive addressable market,” McKinnon mentioned in a “Mad Money” interview. “As everything moves to the cloud, as companies need to connect with their customers through digital channels, as everyone is worried about security, this massive $80 billion TAM (total addressable market) is the foundation for sustained growth for a long time period.”
Okta offers safety instruments to authenticate customers, similar to password authorizations, accessing on-line networks.
In privileged entry administration and id governance and administration, Cramer famous the corporate can be stepping into markets dominated by CyberArk and SailPoint Technologies. Okta additionally companions with each corporations.
McKinnon recommended the id governance and privileged entry providers market alternative provides up to $15 billion.
“There’s enough room for a lot of vendors to go after it. We’re going after it from a very cloud-centric approach,” he mentioned. “We’ll continue to work with these partners, while at the same time doing what our customers are asking us. That is cover all their identity use cases.”
Okta is projecting complete revenues to attain as excessive as $1.09 billion in its present fiscal 12 months. The firm reported $835.4 million in revenues within the earlier fiscal 12 months, which ended Jan 31.
Growth has steadily slowed down lately. Okta posted revenue development of 42.5% within the fiscal 2021, down from 53.6% in fiscal 2019.


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CNET news editors and reporters provide top technology news, with investigative reporting and in-depth coverage of tech issues and events. information technology, IT sector, software industry, BPOs, outsourcing, US economy, US jobs, US outsourcing jobs, US, Bangalore, Bangalore IT industry, new technology, IT deal, IT honchos, IT companies, IT companies results, IT companies stocks, IT comp. Corporate houses, big corporate houses, Q1 results, Q2 results, Quarterly results, Corporate policies, business policies, business houses, business, business news, Earlier this week, CPRL's logistics partner Radhakrishna Foodland stopped the supply that led to the shutdown of all McDonald's outlets in East India. More.
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Meme stock GameStop has been on a wild ride in the last couple of years, but cash burn and lack of profitability loom large over the video game retailer.
Last week GameStop Corp’s
stock surged after the the company reported a narrower-than expected loss and also announced a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
GameStop shares, which have fallen 24 % this year, have risen 9% in the last five days. The S&P 500 Index
has declined 17.9% and 2.3%, respectively over the same periods.
Like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
GameStop is a meme stock darling. Earlier this year GameStop rocketed to its longest win streak in over a decade, boosted in part by a bullish post on the WallStreetBets subreddit.
GameStop, like AMC, was a major beneficiary of the meme stock buying frenzy in January 2021, sending the struggling company’s stock skyrocketing to dizzying heights. Between January and March 2021, GameStop’s stock price rose more than 1,200% and the company’s market cap surpassed $17 billion. GameStop’s market cap is now around $8.6 billion.
See Now: GameStop stock jumps 12% after retailer’s narrower quarterly loss, crypto deal
As of Jan. 29, 2022, GameStop had 3,018 stores in the U.S., according to an SEC filing, down from 3,192 a year earlier.
GameStop is clearly still capable of generating buzz, but what is the reality behind all the noise?
Independent equity research firm New Constructs added GameStop to its list of “zombie stocks” in August.
The research firm, which uses machine learning and natural language processing to parse corporate filings and model economic earnings, has been bearish on GameStop for much longer, according to New Constructs CEO David Trainer. New Constructs first highlighted the risk posed by GameStop in a report in April 2021, he told MarketWatch.
“GameStop was a struggling brick-and-mortar retailer before it entered the meme-stock stratosphere,” he said. “The meme-frenzy distracted from business fundamentals, but becoming competitive again will be no easy task.”
See Now: GameStop stock rises after narrower-than expected loss but company ‘remains a mess,’ Wedbush says
Cash burn, in particular, is an issue. “Since 2020, GameStop has burned through $727 million in free cash flow,” Trainer added. “The cash drain is getting worse as the company burned through $263 million in FCF excluding acquisitions over the trailing 12 months ended fiscal 1Q23, which is down from positive FCF excluding acquisitions of $46 million in the TTM ended fiscal 1Q22.”
“ They (meme investors) are definitely the same kind of dynamic you see in a cult.’”
There is also limited cash available, according to Trainer. “GameStop’s cash balance could only sustain its cash burn for another 18 months after fiscal 1Q23, assuming cash burn is similar to the TTM,” he said. “Raising additional capital to fund a business that has failed to improve profitability over the past four years and faces heavy competition in the retail/ecommerce market would likely be very expensive, if not impossible.”
GameStop ended its most recent quarter with cash and equivalents of $908.9 million. The company also said it ended the quarter with no debt other than a low-interest loan related to the French government’s response to the pandemic.
In its second quarter, GameStop reported quarterly sales of $1.136 billion, down from $1.183 billion in the prior year’s quarter and below the FactSet consensus of $1.266 billion.
The retailer’s recent results also marked GameStop’s sixth consecutive quarterly loss.
See Now: ‘Zombie’ stocks AMC and GameStop could feel the cash burn, says New Constructs
New Constructs’ Trainer cites GameStop’s “ongoing lack of profitability” as a major problem. “GameStop’s net operating profit after-tax (NOPAT) margin and return on invested capital (ROIC) are worse than during GameStop’s fiscal 2021, which occurred largely during the COVID lockdowns of 2020,” he said.
Set against this backdrop, Trainer isn’t confident of GameStop’s chances of exiting the list of zombie stocks. “It is unlikely that the company will ever make enough money to satisfy stakeholders with higher claims on the company’s cash flows than common equity shareholders,” he said. “Not surprisingly, GME has an economic book value, or no growth value, of -$19/share.”
“In other words, we do not think equity investors will ever see $1 of economic earnings, which means the stock is worth $0 today,” he added.
Others are also unconvinced by GameStop.
“Fundamentally, GameStop remains a mess,” wrote Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, in a note released last week. “The company has lost money for the last six consecutive quarters, and has lost over $700 million since January 2019.”
See Now: Is the golden age of the meme stock rally over?
Additionally, Pachter is not convinced that the FTX deal will move the needle for GameStop. “Financial terms were not disclosed, though we are skeptical that the partnership will drive meaningful revenue or profit contribution,” he wrote.
Wedbush lowered its GameStop price target to $6.00 from $7.50 and maintained its underperform rating. The new price target implies about 76% downside from current levels, according to Pachter.
Bespoke Investment Group Analyst George Pearkes is also critical of the social media-fueled buying frenzy that turned GameStop, like AMC, into a meme-stock darling. “They are definitely the same kind of dynamic you see in a cult,” he told MarketWatch.
While he acknowledges that this is not true of everybody that owns the stocks, the analyst says the noise surrounding meme stocks and reality are two different things. “Regardless of how big the investor base is, their talk is probably much larger than their holdings,” he said. “The amount of propaganda and promotion is probably far, far larger than the positions they hold.”


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Google Pixel 6 phone app adds new business and call screening features
- The Google Pixel 6 phone app includes a number of exclusive features.
- They include being able to see projected wait times when calling a toll-free number.
- There’s also Direct My Call, which lets you see the menu options that are being voiced by the automated message.
The newly announced Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones have a number of software exclusive features, including a major Pixel 6 phone app update. Many of these new features incorporate technology from the AI-based Google Duplex service.
The Pixel 6 phone app has added Wait Times. This allows anyone who calls a toll-free number to see not only the current wait time for your call to be answered on the screen, but projected call waiting times later on in the week. When you decide to call, another feature called Direct My Call can come in handy. It will show you real-time transcriptions of both automated messages and any menu options the company has set up.
There are also some new features designed to fight the ever-growing amount of spam calls. If you receive a call from an unknown number you can now share info about that number when you call or answer that phone number, including what type of business it is. Finally.
Google is also expanding its Call Screen feature to new countries. . It is now going to be available in the U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Italy, and Spain in addition to the US, Canada, and Japan. For those that don’t know, the feature lets Pixel owners find out more info about unknown numbers by using Duplex-based automated messages and encryption.
Google says that all audio transcriptions on the Pixel 6 phone app are stored in the phone, and are not sent to Google unless you make the choice to send it so the company can continue to improve its features.


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There is an upside to being peripatetic, a tendency our president does not deny.
Because of this, he and the first lady have extensive experience in traveling to other countries even before he was elected president.
President Marcos Jr. announced several policies and practices that would facilitate inbound and even domestic travel, better promote tourism, which is the main driver of any economy.
The easing of travel restrictions due to the long pandemic is one thing, and it certainly showed immediate results in our tourist arrivals in the fourth quarter, both from neighboring countries and Balikbayans.
When travelers found the One Health Pass too cumbersome, the government simplified the process after several complaints.
The NAIA complex under its new management and the leadership of Jimmy Bautista of the DoTr has made registration more efficient by eliminating redundant X-rays and security checks.
We just hope that the immigration office can find ways to deal with the long queues at peak times, although we understand that space in our outdated terminals is a limitation.
The President’s recent directive to our embassies and consulates in China, Japan, South Korea and India to accept electronic visas for inbound visitors is another good move.
These are large nearby markets whose tourism potential has not yet been optimized by the country.
The Economic and Cultural Office in Manila, our de facto embassy in Taiwan, has been issuing e-visas since 2015, an innovation started by the late Chairman Amadito Perez and the MECO board.
When I took over in July 2016, 20 to 25 percent of our travel visas for Taiwanese visitors were done electronically.
Before the COVID pandemic hit and we restricted travel, we were already reaching 70 to 75 percent utilization of the e-Visa service.
We contacted Taiwan’s CTBC, which had several branches and ATMs all over the island, including 7-Eleven stores, to facilitate the payment of the visa fee, which is MECO’s main source of income.
The e-Visa should be very convenient, especially for large countries like China and India, where our embassies and consulates are few in number.
In China, for example, we have an embassy in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xiamen, Macau and Hong Kong. An eVisa will allow tourists coming from other provinces to apply without visiting our consular offices.
The President actually advertised MECO’s Taiwan e-Visa and ordered the BID and DFA to use the same as a template.
Another good policy is to refund VAT for tourists who shop while in the country.
Shopping is an integral part of travel and a VAT refund for tourists is certainly a welcome idea.
There are several key considerations when it comes to effective VAT refund application.
The first is obvious: what local products are worth the tourist’s time? If they buy branded items and clothing made elsewhere, the effect on our economy is minimal.
But Joey Salceda has a solution, which is to tax all such designer branded luxury goods at 25 percent on top of VAT.
Anyway, luxury lovers among tourists can always go elsewhere for them. And nouveau riche Filipinos can always shop in Singapore and Hong Kong and pay the road tax on the way there.
What we need to do and this is where the DTI, DOT and LGUs need to put their heads together is to promote well-designed, well-made and reasonably priced locally produced items that can compete with those from other countries.
A good example is Don Papa Rum, a local brand that uses our cane sugar and has become a hit especially in Europe. It was blended and introduced originally for the Negros market 10 years ago and became popular in the UK and Spain.
Don Papa was recently purchased by Diageo from its owners for €260 million, a truly successful and strategic marketing product in the Philippines.
Imelda Romualdez Marcos, if memory serves, initiated the creation of Design Center Philippines precisely to make good design accessible to Filipino artists, artisans and small producers.
DTI’s Citem has in the past been quite active in promoting Philippine products abroad. But variety, packaging, quality and other aspects of product development need to be improved.
The other important consideration is how to equip our shopping malls with convenient tax refund centers. Getting a tax refund at our derelict airports where there is little space (except Cebu International and Clark) is impossible.
I was in Spain late last year and getting my tax refund was easy at Barcelona International Airport.
In less than a week, the bank that issued my card received the VAT refund. I guess we’ll have to wait for Bulacan and/or Sangley to replace our NAIA terminals for good.
Although some would disagree, the vacation economy is the way to go, especially to boost domestic travel.
In Erap’s short-lived regime, then ES Ronnie Zamora approved my proposal as head of the Philippine Tourism Authority to push the holidays to the nearest Friday or Monday, something that GMA’s successor government implemented.
Sunk by PNoy and held as such by the PRRD, President Marcos Jr. is now reviving the holiday economy.
But wait! Productivity is hindered here in the backwater not by the holiday economy but by too many holidays – religious (I thought we were a secular country), historical, special (by presidential order) or local like those idiotic Araw ng whatever city, or even quasi-religious and practical bacchanalian celebrations in honor of patron saints that the inhabitants do not even properly recognize.
Last time I counted, we have 18 national holidays, not including two local holidays (Araw ng… and the religious fiesta) for a total of 20. By contrast, the US of A has 10, and France, which our president will visit in June or July, there are 11.
As for those who lament the loss of sentimental significance of commemorating heroes and others on imprecise dates, the US has moved almost all of its commemorations to Mondays or Fridays for six decades.
My final suggestion, which I’ve written about in the past, but which is a drive that will surely earn total disapproval, is to group all the holidays in the first term into a whole week to coincide with Holy Week.
Likewise, all vacations for the second semester be combined into a long vacation starting from December 24 to January 1 of the following year.
The only exception should be June 12, when we celebrate our national holiday when we declared independence from foreign rule.
As we write this material, we are happy to know that Valenzuela’s ideal civil servant, Rex Gatchalian, has been appointed DSWD Secretary. Congratulations!
By the way, Rex was told on Tuesday morning that the president wanted him to join the cabinet and could he rush to the palace in the afternoon to be sworn in?
This was to come after the celebration of the DSWD in the morning, where no hints were given about the new head of the agency.
In any case, Rex possesses both excellent command of public communications and managerial competence, which would be a credit to the DSWD.


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Amazon Taps Post Office For Sunday Deliveries; A Win-Win?
Much of the talk in recent years about how the U.S. Postal Service could stem its huge losses has been about the things it might stop doing — most notably, delivering the mail on Saturdays (something Congress won't let it discontinue).
Now, as we reported earlier, there's word that Amazon.com has struck a deal with the Postal Service for Sunday delivery of packages. The service begins immediately in the Los Angeles and New York City metropolitan areas and is planned to expand next year to other metros, including Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix.
The early analyses of the deal say it's a winner for both sides.
For the Postal Service, notes The New York Times, the deal offers "a chance to take some business from United Parcel Service and FedEx, which do not deliver on Sundays. Now, some orders that would have been handled by either of those carriers for Monday delivery will go through the Postal Service and arrive on Sunday."
Package delivery is a profitable part of the Postal Service's business, unlike money-losing delivery of Saturday mail.
According to The Washington Post, the Postal Service will deliver the packages "at regular rates. ... Previously, a shipper had to use its pricey Express Mail service and pay an extra fee for Sunday delivery." The Postal Service, adds the Post, "said it would increase staffing in the locations where Amazon will offer the service, but did not offer specific numbers. ... [It] also declined to comment on how much additional revenue the new initiative is expected to bring."
Amazon, meanwhile, "won't change shipping prices for customers" who want Sunday delivery, Bloomberg News says.
But the online shopping giant "is seeking to siphon away customers from Target Corp. and other retailers," Bloomberg adds, at a time when it is "also facing competition from online-shopping sites that are rolling out new services to get products to customers more quickly and efficiently. EBay Inc. offers deliveries under an hour, seven days a week, for some products, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operates a same-day delivery service for groceries and household goods."
Beyond the issue of what it means for both sides of the deal, we have a question.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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CURTIS tea brand (manufactured by May-Foods, a division of MAY) won an international award in the area of creating and promoting brands, "Brand of the year/Effie 2012" The trademark received the silver medal in the "Non-alcoholic beverages" category and became the only tea brand among award winners. Gold was not awarded this year.
CURTIS took part in the competition with the project "Amazing tea." In 2012, CURTIS introduced a unique collection of tea blends featuring flavors of popular European desserts. Besides the outstanding creative concept, experts have noted CURTIS' unique communication strategy which is unusual for the Russian tea market.
CURTIS chose sampling in the press as the major communication channel, which reached 5,3 million targeted customers. This is why the advertising campaign was so effective.
When commenting on receiving the award, CURTIS Brand Leader Leonid Kogay noted, "We are honored to be the winners of "Brand of the year/Effie 2012." Receiving this status is further proof of CURTIS' dynamic and quality development, which, according to our evaluations, has become the fastest growing brand in the tea industry in 2012. I'm truly happy to share this success with my colleagues!"
"Brand of the year/Effie 2012" is the main professional world-class contest in Russia for the most successful projects in brand development in the domestic market.
Since 2001, the Russian National Award is part of the international system of EFFIE - the most respected global award in the field of marketing, which is awarded in 33 countries.
This was the 14th annual "Brand of the year/Effie" contest and the prize was awarded for 33 nominations. World famous brands such as Unilever, McDonald's, IKEA, Philips, as well as popular Russian brands such as Euroset, MTS, M. Video and many others participated in the contest. The most outstanding and effective projects of 2012 received the award. An independent jury - consisting of market experts, representatives of the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (ACAR), the International Advertising Association (IAA) and marketing directors from last year's winning companies - chose this year's winners. The awards ceremony was held on May 24, 2013 at the Gostiny Dvor.


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Increasingly recognised as a one-stop shop for the installed sound market, Sennheiser UK prepares to host two seminars, which have been developed from last year’s successful event in the stunning environment of Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh. This year’s venues are no less impressive, with the first of the two days taking place on 7th June at Ashton Court near Bristol and the second, two days later at Knebworth House in the Hertfordshire countryside.
The seminars underlined Sennheiser’s credentials as a leading participant in the industry and aim to help its customers achieve more from their working relationships, as well as offering support to third-party brands that Sennheiser distributes.
“The seminar will be along the same lines as last year, although the content has been refreshed and updated,” explains Ken Morrison, Business Area Manager at Sennheiser UK. “The accent is still on providing information, education – and a little entertainment – for our installed sound, AV and live sound colleagues in the industry.”
The choice of venues reflects Sennheiser’s desire for the seminars to make a lasting impression.
“Last year, we decided that, rather than hold these events in a predictable, forgettable and anonymous hotel or conference venue, we would push the boat out a bit and have them in beautiful manor house locations that people would remember for a long time,” Morrison continues. “Hence Hopetoun House last year, which helped the day enormously.
“The theme continues. Ashton Court is famous for its hot air balloon festival, and Knebworth – well it’s famous for some of the biggest music festivals in the world over the past handful of decades!”
A new participant at the seminars for this year is Rane Corporation, which is about to release a brand new, networkable DSP solution.
“This will be a world exclusive for us, as the product is not officially launched until the following week at InfoComm,” says Morrison. “Steve Macatee, Rane’s technical guru, will be flying in from Seattle to deliver the seminar, which will lead into an open forum about networking DSP.”
Alan March, Sennheiser UK’s Business Development Specialist and leading authority on the imminent spectrum switchover, will provide an update on radio mics; independent audio consultant Roland Hemming will deliver a broadly-based talk that is a must for anyone involved in any type of audio project; and Sennheiser UK’s Live Sound Specialist Dave Wooster will talk about K-array’s innovative range of loudspeakers, from the almost invisible Lyzards to the brand new KR 400S system along with the newest D.A.S. line array system – the AERO 8A, which has not been seen before in the UK and boasts some very interesting space saving flying advancements.
APart will also be represented, with the Belgian manufacturers latest product innovations on show, as well as an abundance of the best Belgian chocolates…
For anyone who is interested in attending, please go to www.sennheiser.co.uk/knebworth or www.sennheiser.co.uk/ashton to register. Places are limited and will be allocated on strictly first come, first served basis.


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Strong sales of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V helped push the game’s retail performance to nearly 52 million copies, according to Take-Two Interactive Software’s financial report this afternoon.
How well is GTA V doing? This quarter, Take-Two has sold almost seven million copies this quarter of a Rockstar Games title that first debuted in September 2013. The PC version launched in mid-April, and it has racked up 2.3 million sales on Steam alone in about a month. The game is also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Grand Theft Auto V led the U.S. digital games market in April. It beat Skyrim’s record for concurrent users on Steam, and modders gleefully tackled the new PC title, adding strange new twists to the game.
“Fiscal 2016 is off to a great start, highlighted by the April launch of Grand Theft Auto V for the PC, which has exceeded our expectations,” Take-Two chairman and chief executive Strauss Zelnick said in the company’s statement.
Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, also on PC, are the latest chapters in the popular open-world driving-and-shooting game series. The BBC is turning the controversial launch of the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997 into a making-of scripted drama.
The game is also helping Take-Two’s bottom line with downloadable content, especially the Heists in Grand Theft Auto Online. However, 2K said it hasn’t discussed any story-based downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto V in an investor call today.
Register for GamesBeat's upcoming event: Driving Game Growth & Into the Metaverse


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Though diesel rules the delivery fleet in Europe, Nissan would like fleet managers to leave oil-burning behind for the all-electric e-NV200.
Automotive News Europe reports brand general manager for product strategy and planning Thomas Ebeling believes the EV would be a better fit over diesel power, thanks to 40 percent lower costs of operation and better handling due to the van’s low center of gravity and wider stance than the competition. The brand says 200,000 commercial vans are in service over European roads at present, and though it hasn’t offered how many e-NV200s will be sold to replace them, Nissan believes all of those vans are potential customers.
There are a few challenges to meeting that goal. For starters, the van is currently made in one location: Barcelona, Spain. Output is expected to reach 1,200 units in 2015 for the global market, 2,742 by 2020. Another factor is price: German fleet operators pay €16,480 ($22,418 USD) with tax for petrol versions of the NV200, and €18,390 ($25,017) for diesel power. The e-NV200, by comparison, would cost €29,819 ($40,564) with tax and battery purchase, though operators could also pay a monthly rental fee of €87 ($118) for the pack, dropping the price to €23,919 ($32,538).
The e-NV200 is already in showrooms in Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, and will arrive in Teutonic and Nordic countries later this summer before entering Japan in October. As for the United States, Nissan is currently conducting trial runs to determine market viability before deciding whether to bring the commercial EV to market.


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Gphone rumours continue
September 20, 2007
More rumours today about the possibility of Google launching a phone in the near future.
According to sources at Taiwan handset makers, Google will definitely launch its own-brand handset but has yet to finalize the handset’s specifications, OS, production contractor and operating partners.
It seems Google can’t make their mind up about whether to go EDGE or 3G. Texas Instruments handset chipsets will find their way into the Google phone should the company decide to roll out an EDGE-compliant handset, but Qualcomm could turn out to be the winner if Google decides to bet on a 3G model, the sources noted.
HTC is still earmarked as probable manufacturer of the Gphone. And there are still rumours that Google may try to launch with it’s own operating system to compete with Windows Mobile and Symbian.


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Academics are reminding parents not to buy their kids a pet turtle on the back of the release of the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film on August 4.
Past films have sparked rises in sales of terrapins, tortoises and turtles only for families to seek to offload them once the novelty wears off.
LJMU researchers found hundreds of the unwanted reptiles for sale in a new study on the online trade in shelled vertebrates.
The main message is: “Think very carefully before you buy a turtle or terrapin. And then think some more. And then don’t buy one because you’ll probably regret it,” said Dr Jon Bielby, a senior lecturer in the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences.
An estimated 1 million turtles and tortoises are kept at pets in the UK – about the same number as guinea pigs.
“The animals, which can lead a variety of different ecological lifestyles and have very specific requirements such as UVB lighting, temperature, diet, and water conditions, which are hard to recreate in captivity.”
Specialist rescue centres and sanctuaries around the UK are overwhelmed with the number they receive, while feral populations caused by people releasing unwanted animals into the wild, could also cause ecological problems and suffer from poor health due to UK conditions.”
Dr Bielby said the research – published today in PLOS One – aimed to uncover more about how illegal and unethical sales were taking place and to what extent classified ads were routes to exotic pet transactions.
“We saw that the general use pattern in this group of animals was consistent with people trying to resell. They weren’t selling for profit, they were usually selling animals that they had decided they didn’t want or couldn’t keep any longer.
“Clearly, if we want to make the sale and keeping of tortoise and turtles (and reptiles more generally) ethically sound and sustainable, we need to focus interventions and legislation at the correct point in the supply chain.
“Our results suggest that in the UK general classified adverts may not be the most effective place for sole interventions – instead and changes should potentially be at point of importation or first point of sale.
Jon suggests that more effective methods to reduce imports might include: pre-purchase qualifications for owners, higher prices earlier in the trade, only selling animals with the right equipment, and better information on how tricky these animals are to keep.
“People often don’t even realise that a 5cm long turtle may grow to 40cm in the next two years and will live for 50 years!”
-The paper 'Online classified adverts reflect the broader United Kingdom trade in turtles and tortoises rather than drive it' is published today in PLOS ONE and is authored by Dr Jon Bielby of LJMU, Dr Kirsten McMillan of Dogs Trust, Andy Ferguson of the National Turtle Sanctuary at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, and Matthew Rendle of the Association of Zoo and Exotic Veterinary Nurses"


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News 12 got an early look at some of the newest models on display this year.
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April 17, 2014 11:57 AM
Check out some of the newest hot rides on display this year.


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Fashion social-media platform VFiles has riffed on the fashion house’s inimitable advertisements, throwing fallen stars into the mix.
When news broke last week that Hedi Slimane had cast Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, Ariel Pink, and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon to star in a new “music project” campaign for Saint Laurent Paris, the Internet was rife with excitement and slight disbelief over the concept’s randomness. Slimane, an accomplished photographer and designer, shoots all of Saint Laurent’s campaigns in his signature black-and-white film. It makes the ads—typically designed as a diptych to include a photograph on one side, and the house’s sleek new logo set against a white background on the other—open to Internet-meme-type interpretation.
And this is exactly what fashion social-networking site VFiles has done with its series of Saint Laurent Paris spoofs that were unleashed onto the Internet just days after the “music project” announcement. Employing the help of Photoshop’s more rudimentary features, VFiles has turned photos of Lindsay Lohan, Raven Simone, Amanda Bynes, Jared Leto, Nas, Winona Ryder, and Paris Hilton into Slimane-worthy shots. (They even doctored a shot of Charlie Sheen that came from the pages of our very own Newsweek) The random assortment is not far off from the designer’s own disparate casting choices, making VFiles’s spoof that much more believable.
Her arm was in a sling, but iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg was glowing as she recognized the recipients of her annual DVF awards, given to women who help women.
Legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg paid tribute to an extraordinary group of women on Friday afternoon at the Women in the World Summit, starting with her own mother, Lily.
“In 1945,” von Furstenberg said, “there was a young girl who was 20 who got arrested by the Germans. She was in the house doing her resistance work, and she got sent to the death camp at Auschwitz. She made it. She survived. Fourteen months later, she weighed 48 pounds. But her spirit was amazing.”
Protesters Want Rick Ross Dropped from Reebok: Reebok’s sponsorship of Rick Ross is stirring controversy. WWD reports that more than 40 protesters gathered outside a New York City Reebok store on Thursday to protest the rapper’s sexist lyrics, including “Put Molly all in her Champagne, she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” The rally was arranged by UltraViolet, an activist group against sexism. UltraViolet is working to persuade Reebok to cut ties with Ross. But the group’s staged attempt was unsuccessful: Reebok security reportedly blocked the protesters from entering the store. Ross has since addressed the controversy with a pair of tweets: "I dont condone rape.Apologies for the #lyric interpreted as rape. #BOSS," he wrote in one. The other reads, "Apologies to my many business partners,who would never promote violence against women. @ReebokClassics @ultraviolet." [WWD]
Did Zara Employ Slave Labor?: Zara is under investigation for allegedly using slave labor at one of its Argentinean clothing factories, The Telegraph reports. Upon factory inspection, a workers’ rights group reportedly found immigrants who work 13 hour–plus shifts in sweatshoplike conditions. “They were not registered and they were living in terrible conditions,” said Juan Gómez Centurion, who heads Argentina’s Government Control Agency. “They had no official documents and were held against their will; they were not allowed to leave their workplaces without permission.” A Zara spokesperson responded to The Telegraph, saying the allegations have surprised company officials and that Zara has not received any complaints from Argentinean police. [The Telegraph]
The mayor and environmentalist fronts L’Uomo Vogue’s eco-friendly May issue. By Misty White Sidell.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long campaigned for the fashion industry through organizations like Fashion’s Night Out and the CFDA. And now it seems as if all that fashion do-gooding has panned out—it’s won him the cover of the eco-friendly May edition of L’Uomo Vogue, Italian Vogue’s magazine for men. For the event, the New York City mayor and C40 Climate Leadership Group president was photographed by Italian photographer Francesco Carrozzini in a conservative though spiffy dark suit and striped tie.
Of the casting choice, Italian Vogue editor in chief Franca Sozzani told the Financial Times: “I did think it might be controversial in a sense. But I think that’s good. It should get readers talking.” Inside the issue, Bloomberg speaks of the importance of active climate change reform in urban environments. “Cities are at the frontline of the battle against climate change,” he told the magazine. “Half of the world’s population already lives in urban centers and that number is only going to rise. Urban centers are also responsible for about 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.”
and Christopher Kane insists that he is resourceful.
Nicola Formichetti in at Diesel: Nicola Formichetti has officially made the leap from Thierry Muger to a new job. On Thursday, he was named the artistic director of Italian sportswear brand Diesel. In an unconventional press release issued to The Daily Beast, Diesel proclaimed: “Hell, yes! Diesel ignites yet another firestorm by appointing Nicola Formichetti to be the commander-in-chief of the brave army that will spread Diesel’s marching orders far and wide.” In the same release, Diesel founder Renzo Rosso explained of the appointment: “I finally met somebody as crazy as I am. Nicola shares my vision and I find it incredibly inspiring to work with him: two creative planets are colliding to generate fresh, mad insane ideas.” Formichetti’s first collection will debut for fall 2103. [Fashion Beast Inbox]
Lululemon Restructures Following Recall: Lululemon is now taking internal steps to account for a recent recall of its black ‘Luon’ yoga pant, which the company says will cost them approximately $67 million in sales. Its chief product officer, Sheree Waterson, will depart on April 15 “as part of a reorganization aimed at tightening up processes that led to a recall,” reports WWD. The brand has set up “a new team with expertise in the areas of ‘quality, raw materials and production.’” Lululemon has also stationed employees internationally to oversee various production locations. [WWD]
Recent photos of shopping-addicted sportswriter Buzz Bissinger in high-heeled boots represents just one new case for the style’s return to menswear. Misty White Sidell reports.
Last week, Buzz Bissinger revealed that he has a shopping addiction—a serious condition for which he has checked into rehab. But it wasn’t just the news that surprised people—or the $600,000 price tag on his many Gucci purchases. There was something else shocking too: Bissinger’s experimental new style featured an array of high heels.
Recently it seems that men’s fashion has grown to accept new, formerly only feminine, styles. There have been Justin Bieber’s drop-crotch pants, mandals (men’s sandals), and even mantyhose. But all the while, another trend has been building: meels—or man heels. They are heeled boots for men that take a page from Louis XIV’s book, while finding a new form for today.
Fed up with a culture of sexual harassment, three students in India are building undergarments to help women fend off attackers by delivering electric shocks.
India’s recent brutal rapes have inspired a new invention.
Three engineering students in India have developed “anti-rape” lingerie, which they claim will help women fend off unwanted sexual advances.
Bradley Cooper’s New Hair: The actor’s ‘perm’ (a term he actually confused last month for a set of rollers) has finally made its debut. Cooper, who’s currently filming a new David O. Russell movie that takes place in the Seventies, was spotted in Boston with a super-curly new do. [People StyleWatch]
Formichetti to Diesel?: On Tuesday it was announced that Nicola Formichetti was parting ways with French fashion line Thierry Mugler. One day later, it’s rumored that Formichetti will soon announce a major collaboration with Italian sportswear brand, Diesel. Both WWD and the New York Post report than a Diesel announcement could soon be on its way. [WWD] [NY Post]
Nicola Formichetti and Thierry Mugler “have mutually agreed to end their creative partnership,” following a two-year run, according to the brand.
French fashion house Theirry Mugler has “mutually agreed” to part ways with Nicola Formichetti, its creative director of two years. Hired in 2010 after gaining notoriety as Lady Gaga’s stylist (she walked in his debut runway presentation), Formichetti is credited with reinvigorating the sleepy brand. In his five seasons as creative director of both the label’s men’s and women’s lines, Formichetti produced entertaining runway shows with a millennial appeal. His space-age designs however, often received mixed reviews.
In a release issued to The Daily Beast, Joel Palix, the president of Clarins Fragrance Group and director general of Mugler said “In the two years of his tenure Nicola has accomplished our original mission of bringing his energy to the brand…Nicola has been instrumental in attracting a new audience which is undeniably crucial for the future strategy of the house.”
Courtney Love stars in Saint Laurent ads.
Heidi Klum's Rescue: Heidi Klum saved her 7-year-old son Henry and his two nannies from a riptide in Hawaii on Sunday. The supermodel told US Weekly of the valiant move: “Of course, as a mother, I was very scared for my child and everyone else in the water," she said. "Henry is a strong swimmer and was able to swim back to land. We got everyone else out safely.” Photos of the rescue have also been released. [The Daily Beast]
Angelina Jolie's Jewelry Fund: Angelina Jolie is releasing her Style of Jolie jewelry line into stores for the first time in order to help fund an all-girls school that she’s just opened in Afghanistan. The designs will exclusively retail at Tivol, a jewelry store in Kansas City. “Beyond enjoying the artistic satisfaction of designing these jewels, we are inspired by knowing our work is also serving the mutual goal of providing for children in need,” Jolie told E! News. [E!]
Kate Middleton's reps have trademarked her royal title so it can be used on clothes and other products
Kate Middleton has been a massive boost not just to the Royal Family’s popularity but also to the finances of its charitable arm, the Royal Collection (£4m pounds in wedding china, £10m in ticket sales to see her wedding dress) so no surprise that Kate’s people have now applied to the Intellectual Property Office to trademark her royal title, the Duchess of Cambridge, so that it can be used on "a wide range of goods and services" which specifically include clothing, footwear and headgear.
The latest revelation will add fuel to speculation that a special range of baby clothes will be produced to mark the birth of the royal baby, expected in early July.
The return of the legendary fashion photographer’s book ‘A World Without Men’ adds a new dimension to his iconic photographs.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's new costume exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, tries to pay homage to the gritty, subversive, late-1970s movement. But has punk-inspired high fashion added to its legacy-or destroyed it?
Makeup for men is on the rise—and it’s no longer a taboo. Alessandra Codinha reports.


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In the framework of the Annual General Assembly of Confindustria Marmomacchine, held today in Milan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation presented a preview of the exhibition “MARMO. Carving the future”, an integrated promotional initiative supporting the internationalisation of the Italian marble industry set up alongside Confindustria Marmomacchine and the Italian Trade Agency.
The exhibition, with its trans-media format ensuring a highly scenic impact, will offer the international audience a journey across the Italian world of the marble industry, from quarrying techniques, to machinery for the artful processing of stone, to finished products and the latest applications of artificial intelligence. The exhibition project, developed together with several partner companies of Confindustria Marmomacchine, will embark on a world tour starting next autumn, thanks to the network of Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes, that will specifically focus on high potential markets for Italian exports.
“The MARMO project – said Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio – is the first example of a new format for the integrated promotion of Italian excellence (in this case of production chains, based on the dialogue between art, science and business) capable of presenting the know-how, traditions and heritage of the marble industry to the international public, highlighting an evolution featuring research and innovation, advanced technology and creativity. An experiential and emotional tale of Made in Italy excellence,” he stressed, “that enriches the nation branding campaign ‘Italy is simply extraordinary: be IT’ and adds to the measures put in place through the Pact for Export, aimed at supporting Italian companies.”
The Honorary President of Confindustria Marmomacchine, with Delegation of Authority for Institutional Relations, Flavio Marabelli said: “We are honoured to be the first supply chain selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to develop this important integrated promotion project, which triggers a new way of promoting the excellence of our manufacturing industry by intersecting different areas, such as the technological, entrepreneurial, cultural ones, with the institutional one. We have always liked to call ourselves ‘ambassadors’ of the best Made in Italy excellence”.
The initiative “MARMO. Carving the future” is part of the new, integrated promotion strategy of the Farnesina, which aims to consolidated the strong links between culture, territory, creativity, quality and innovation that distinguish the uniqueness of Made in Italy products.
The nation branding campaign “Italy is simply extraordinary: be IT” presented by Minister Di Maio last November, heads in the same direction, aiming to strengthen the image of the country, its traditional values and its technological innovations, while supporting the recovery of exports, primarily focusing on digital channels and the younger generations, new users and promoters of Made in Italy excellence.
Integrated promotion and its contribution to supporting Italian exports were explored in depth during the panel “A normality called emergency: internationalisation and integrated promotion for constantly changing scenarios”, attended by the Central Director for Integrated Promotion and Innovation of the Farnesina’s General Directorate for the Promotion of the National Economic System, Min. Plen. Cecilia Piccioni, by Italian Trade Agency President, Carlo Maria Ferro and by Confindustria Vice President for Internationalisation, Barbara Beltrame Giacomello.
The marble sector in Italy is indeed important. Figures speak for themselves: with over 3,200 enterprises and over 33,800 employees, the stone industry, including raw materials and machinery, recorded exports totalling 2.9 billion Euros in 2021; that’s roughly a 20% increase compared with 2020.


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Hiring Activity Improving Led By Job Recovery In Non-Tech Sectors, Says LinkedIn Report
Recruitment activity in India witnessed an uptick in September and though competition for jobs is lower.
Recruitment activity in India witnessed an uptick in September and though competition for jobs is lower compared to several months ago, it is still 30% higher compared to a year ago, said a report by LinkedIn.
According to latest edition of the 'Labour Market Update', hiring recovery in India reached 30% year-on-year in September.
Findings from the latest edition show that hiring activity is improving and the digital divide is narrowing, suggesting a recovery in hiring for the non-tech sectors.
Earlier in the year, hiring declines reached a low of below (-) 50% year-on-year in April, before starting to slowly recover. In late July, it crossed the 0% mark and continued increasing, reaching 12% in August and 30% year-on-year at the end of September.
Hiring in September witnessed an 18 percentage points climb as compared to August 2020, the leading online professional network said adding that "as businesses and companies continue reopening, we expect recovery to continue as well".
Moreover, job seekers who are currently in the badly affected sectors (such as Recreation & Travel) are 4.2 times more likely to look for jobs in a different sector, compared to pre-Covid time. But this stress has abated from June 2020, where the likelihood was as high as 6.8 times.
Similarly, the stress for the retail sector has reduced from 2.4 times to 1.1 times, it said.
The 'Labour Market Update', a monthly update on hiring trends and insights based on LinkedIn's Economic Graph, a digital representation of the Indian economy built by conducting a close analysis of actions of more than 71 million members in India.


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When the United States went to war, Comtech Telecommunications Corp. went to work.
The Melville, L.I.-based company's sales to the U.S. government amounted to just 9% of its total revenues in 2000. Today, that share is in the 40% range.
Microwave transmitters that shoot signals over the horizon are among the company's hottest products. The gadgets allow military personnel to communicate securely at distances of up to 600 miles. Sales in that telecommunications segment, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of Comtech's sales, jumped 80% between 2002 and 2004 for its fiscal years ended July 31.
Comtech's second-biggest unit, its mobile data communications arm, has posted even bigger increases. Its devices--which use satellites to track tanks and other equipment--are on a tear. Revenues tripled between 2002 and 2004, to $60 million.
The news at RF Microwave Amplifiers, the company's third-largest segment, has not been as good. There, revenues slipped to $22 million last year, down 5%, but are picking up smartly this year.


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Approximately 55% of startups pivot their business models.
While not every software product needs to be in pursuit of unicorn status, it can be hard to see a good idea not reaching its full potential. And when Todd Blankenbecler took over EasyRx from a dental lab in late 2015, he had a vision for helping the software live up to that potential.
At the time, it had 13 active paying customers and around 50 free users. All in all, the business was bringing in about $30,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Today, EasyRx has scaled to over $2.5M in ARR with Blankenbecler at the helm as President and CEO. And its growth can be attributed in large part to his decision to pivot the business model.
Flipping the SaaS business model for success
Blankenbecler had been principal at another software company until selling it in 2008, so EasyRx wasn’t his first rodeo as a SaaS leader.
“I wanted to get back to growing a software company; being an entrepreneur again,” explains Blankenbecler. So, he and his business partner acquired EasyRx with a plan to change its direction and help it achieve its revenue potential.
At the time, the EasyRx software was focused on dental and orthodontic labs. But Blankenbecler and his partner had a different idea for it. “We took 2016 to do a little round of funding and we went into the transaction planning to flip the business model to make it a practice-focused solution. We didn’t rebuild the platform from the ground up; we inherited the UX and the workflows, but we enhanced those significantly.”
And it worked. Back in 2015, the product had only a handful of paying users. Today, the business:
- has over 2200 customers—mostly dental and orthodontic practices, but several hundred labs, as well,
- recently acquired another business, and
- received the Ortho Innovator award from the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) in 2020.
“The AAO gives this award annually to the most innovative company positively impacting practices. It was maybe the most exciting moment for me at EasyRx,” shares Blankenbecler.
And, of course, that $2.5M ARR milestone is another good indicator the new business model seems to be working.
The roadmap to $2.5 million ARR
Naturally, a lot went into EasyRx’s ability to find success with its new business direction, and even Blankenbecler admits he made some mistakes along the way.
But more importantly, he and his business partner did a lot of things right. Blankenbecler shared with us a few key points from the journey, along with his advice for other CEOs who may be in the same boat.
Bringing on the right investors for the business’s goals
“Before teaming up with outside investors, it’s important for the founders or initial investors to have some serious conversations about what they want to get out of the business,” Blankenbecler advises.
And the type of investors you look for should depend on the goals that come out of those conversations.
“If you want to remain more in control, friends and family would be where you start first. And I don’t mean you should go to your neighbor down the street; friends and family can be people you know in the industry,” he laughs. “But if you want to grow fast and grow big, you’ll want to get out and look for professional money.”
When going out to raise that professional money, it can be easy to get caught up in the numbers—the valuation and the funding. But even business relationships have a personal side, and Blankenbecler reminds other CEOs to keep that in mind when teaming up with investors.
“You might not be playing golf with them or involving them in the day-to-day, but you’re going to want to know the person who’s going to be your primary contact,” he says. “You’re going to work together to determine strategy and direction, so it’s important that you establish a relationship, and that you want to work with this person.”
As far as the investors Blankenbecler is currently working with on EasyRx? He says, “I think we have a capital partner for the long term. I can focus on running EasyRx, which I enjoy doing, and they let me do that.”
Celebrating all the wins
When you look up SaaS-related news, many of the headlines you’ll see are related to financial achievements—Company X Hits $100M ARR! Company Y Achieves Unicorn Status!
And certainly, financial or revenue milestones are exciting and deserving of celebration. But EasyRx, like any other business, has experienced its fair share of milestones in addition to the financial ones.
“Previously, EasyRx was free for dental practices. When we flipped the business model, we started charging them. And so certainly our first major milestone was when we got around 50 paying practice customers and we thought, ‘okay this change to the business model is going to work,’” Blankenbecler shares. “Our revenue was small, but we were seeing traction in the direction we were taking the product.”
Customer acquisition milestones like this are important—they’re one of the necessary steps to growing those revenue numbers. Another milestone that was meaningful for Blankenbecler was seeing the brand recognition as it began to build traction in the market.
“When you’re a startup, people don’t know you. Initially, we got a lot of pushback from labs,” he says. “And then once we got around 25 labs on board, we would start to hear prospects saying, ‘I heard ABC lab is using EasyRx and their customers like it.’ And then we had a few integration partners engage because they were hearing enough about EasyRx to want to establish a partnership.”
Promoting external growth by prioritizing internal culture
EasyRx has been a 100% remote organization since 2017, so the idea of creating a company culture that motivates and engages employees is important for Blankenbecler and his leadership team.
“If you’re working with a distributed workforce, you really have to make culture a focus. You’ve got to still try to make the job fun, even though you can’t have a barbecue on Friday,” he says.
The EasyRx team regularly participates in virtual social events such as trivia games, fantasy football pools, and weekly company-wide meetings where discussion of work is not allowed. Weekly one-on-one meetings between employees and their supervisors are encouraged to be made a priority.
And as a result? “People like working at EasyRx. Our turnover has been low,” Blankenbecler says. “And that’s great for continuity for our customers—if they worked with a team member on something four years ago, that team member is still here.”
The time is now
The scale EasyRx has seen since Blankenbecler came in and flipped its business model isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Having been first to market, the business works with a healthy share of the orthodontic and dental market in North America, so it’s had time to get ahead of any competition. Coupled with the fact EasyRx has a capital partner that allows Blankenbecler to focus on running his business, he’s looking forward to continuing to make it bigger and better in the coming years.
And for his fellow CEOs that want to flip an existing SaaS product and scale it according to their own vision, Blankenbecler offers one simple piece of advice.
“Not everything can be top level. Sometimes you’ve got to get down in the weeds to really drive your business forward—get on sales, development, support calls to figure out what needs to happen next. You’ve just gotta get in there and do it.”


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A new food-ordering website called Crunchbutton launched at Brown last week, allowing students to order take-out or receive deliveries from their favorite local restaurants and Josiah’s.
Crunchbutton offers the most popular items from each of the restaurants it features, said Judd Rosenblatt, its co-founder and CEO. “People think they want to choose from a whole lot of options, but they don’t really. They want to see the top stuff,” he said.
Sean Glass, a Crunchbutton investor, said the website works well because it reduces the burden of choice. “When you’re really hungry and you start wandering through restaurants and you can’t pick one, you return to a favorite you have,” Glass said, adding that Crunchbutton makes quick decisions easy.
By offering a restaurant’s top items, Crunchbutton helps businesses sell more of its most popular products, he said.
Students can pay with cash or credit at restaurants and can use their meal plans at Jo’s, Rosenblatt said. Crunchbutton also offers one-click ordering, where a user’s favorite items and payment and delivery information are saved on the site.
Crunchbutton’s business model depends on taking a cut of restaurants’ profits from website orders, not on charging a user fee, Rosenblatt said. There is no additional cost for students, he said.
Rosenblatt said he started the website at Yale in order to allow students to order the Wenzel, a famous local sandwich. The website has sold over $60,000 worth of Wenzel sandwiches, Rosenblatt said, adding that the business has grown by 10 percent each week since its launch.
Rosenblatt attended the Sept. 27 open house for Providence startup accelerator Betaspring, The Herald previously reported. Since then, he has expanded Crunchbutton to include restaurants in Cambridge, Mass., New Haven, Washington D.C. and Providence, according to Crunchbutton.com.
Jarrett Key ’13 said he used his meal plan on Crunchbutton Monday night to order a spicy with from Josiah’s. He said the website was easy to use and added that he was able to be very specific about what he wanted on his sandwich.
“I think it’s really foolproof, to be honest,” he said. “I was really hungry and too tired to leave my room.” Key said he plans to use Crunchbutton again when he has rehearsal until late at night.
Participation in Crunchbutton is meant to be an easy experience on the restaurant side of the operation as well, Rosenblatt said, adding that he gives restaurants the option to receive orders through telephone calls, text messages, emails or faxes.
But Natalia Foussekis, manager of the Better Burger Company, said her restaurant found it difficult to accommodate Crunchbutton orders. Instead of working with Crunchbutton, she plans to make the restaurant website easier to use, she said.
Owners of other local restaurants, such as Golden Crust Pizza and Angkor, said Crunchbutton has been beneficial to their businesses.
“It offered us new opportunities to introduce ourselves to new customers and new students and also gave us a lot of a late-night business,” said Gokhan Vural, owner of Golden Crust Pizza, which delivers until 4 a.m. “Most people didn’t even know we were open that late,” he said.
Chutema Am, owner of the Cambodian restaurant Angkor, said he originally decided to put his restaurant on Crunchbutton because he wanted to help the startup succeed.
Crunchbutton is helping Am raise awareness of Angkor’s recently added delivery services, which have been profitable for the restaurant, he said, adding that Angkor does not advertise on its own.
“We have a good word of mouth, but Crunchbutton has been a huge addition to our popularity,” he said.
Crunchbutton has continued to grow as more restaurants find out about the website and ask to participate, Rosenblatt said.


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Another image of the Pixel 4 XL image has also surfaced online. The cameras may also come with an integrated Motion Mode for action shots along with improved Night Sight that could be capable of astrophotography. The device's home screen is displaying the current date as October 15.
Google took the unusual step of confirming the existence of its upcoming Pixel phone this year, but we don't expect the full Pixel 4 unveiling for another month. The image in question corroborates everything previously reported such as the larger upper bezel that's home to a variety of sensor, the impressively slim chin, and the thin side bezels.
The second image, picked up to 91Mobiles, shows the Pixel 4 XL running the DevCheck Hardware and Software Info app, which shows some key specifications of the device.
Google Pixel 4 Launch Date Tipped as October 15, Motion Sense Air Gestures Spotted in Leaked Video
The phone will come with a 6.23-inch display, 1440 x 3040 pixel resolution, 19:9 aspect ratio, 540ppi pixel density, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor.
Both the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL will run on the latest Android 10 OS out-of-the-box. What remains now is only a good look at the phone's features, especially the motion-sensing gestures and the dual camera.
The leak comes via the tech world's colander, Evan Blass, who posted a picture of what is presumably the Google Pixel 4 (we've only seen its caboose in the only official pic from Google) with the screen displaying a date and time of October 15, 10am.
The tweet suggests that the new Pixel devices will be powered by the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, rather than the recently launched Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset.More news: China Removes US Seafood Products, Anti-Cancer Drugs From Tariffs List
More news: Apple responds to Google’s statement on iOS security vulnerabilities
More news: China’s August imports from U.S. fall 22.5%


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Oukitel is preparing to release a new smartphone – the Oukitel C21 model will soon join the company’s line of available devices. Shortly before the announcement, which will take place on August 11, the vendor revealed the design and key specifications of the upcoming novelty, and at the same time spoke about its cost – at the pre-order stage, a device with a large display, eight-core processor and 4 GB of RAM will cost less than $ 100.
The smartphone received a 6.4-inch IPS-display with Full HD + resolution and a 20-megapixel front camera embedded in the upper corner, supported by a software beautifier to improve the quality of images. In addition, it can be used as an alternative to the fingerprint scanner to unlock the smartphone using the Face Unlock function. On the back cover of the device is a quad-camera with a resolution of the main sensor of 16 megapixels.
The Oukitel C21 hardware platform is represented by an eight-core MediaTek Helio P60 processor in tandem with 4 GB of RAM. The volume of the built-in storage of the model is 64 GB, and the capacity of the built-in battery is 4000 mAh. According to the manufacturer, one charge will be enough for the device for a whole day of active work. As an operating system, the gadget received the current assembly of Android 10.