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Game developers at Perfect World, a Beijing-based game company (Photo/China.org.cn)
Consider playing video games is simply a waste of time and money? You may need to think again.
Those thousands of hours spent playing video games, especially if supplemented with a degree in game development and design, can now lead to a career in the video game industry with a very competitive salary.
Game developers and designers are earning the highest salary among almost all professionals in the cultural and creative industry, with a median salary of over 10,000 yuan (U.S.62.5) a month in China, according to a report released by the Beijing-based market consultancy CNG.
Its chief analyst Wang Xu explained this could be attributed partly to rapid industry development and to the high demand for talents.
China's game market has become the world's largest, with sales revenue rising from some 10 billion yuan in 2007 to 203.6 billion yuan in 2017, a nearly 20-fold jump in a decade, according to China Gaming Report.
Despite the rapid development, the country still faces a lack of skilled professionals in the industry. Survey analysis shows the gaming market still need over a million game designers to match its rapid development.
Although a high diploma is not a must in the career, big game companies still prefer college graduates with hands-on experience and vocational skills in game development and designing, CNG reported.
Due to course design and lack of interaction with the industry, however, universities usually are not producing the kind of graduates suited to industry demand, said Guo Lei, executive dean of the Pixseed Digital Art Education Base, a talent incubator focusing on digital art fields such as games, comics and animation.
"We want to work with top universities at home and abroad as well as leading companies in course designing and work orientation, so as to cultivate more talents fitting the industrial demand," she added.


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Egypt expects several IPOs by year-end
IPO WATCH – Pharma company looking to make EGX debut this year: One private pharma company worth more than USD 61 mn is planning to offer shares on the stock market by year’s end, Sayed Abdel Fadeel, head of the Financial Regulatory Authority’s corporate finance department, told Reuters without naming the company. EGX Chairman Mohamed Farid said that the stock exchange is working with two companies on the procedures of listing and selling shares on the EGX, but that the timing of the transactions is contingent on market conditions and how fast the companies finish preparations.
FRA is reassuring everyone that the state will sell shares under the privatization program this year: The government expects to sell shares in two state companies on the EGX by year’s end, Abdel Fadeel said. What Abdel Fadeel didn’t do was specify whether these were share sales or IPOs, and so we are no closer to discerning the timeline for the state privatization program.
What we know of the program: What we know of the state privatization program is that Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling Company (ACCH), Abu Qir Fertilizers, and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (Sidpec) are looking for stake sales in the vein of Eastern Tobacco’s 4.5% stake sale in March. State e-payments platform e-Finance and Banque du Caire are looking for initial public offerings.
What we don’t know: The timing of how all this will play out. Public Enterprises Minister Hisham Tawfik had told us that IPOs have been postponed to early 2020. Earlier this month, however, e-Finance Chairman and Managing Director Ibrahim Sarhan said that the IPO would take place this year, contradicting statements he made weeks prior that the IPO was not a certainty.

domain: news


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Two European logistics firms have reflected on 45 years of business together.
Hellmann acquires overnight express specialist
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is expanding its overnight express capabilities in Europe.
Hellmann smashes annual revenue record with €4B
Germany-based company, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, closes 2021 as the most successful financial year in its 150-year history.
Hellmann announces major investment in NZ
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has announced €28 million lease and development investment with Auckland Airport to establish a new 19,200-square-metre ambient warehousing complex dedicated to multinational manufacturer, Techtronic Industries (TTI).
Hellman expands Management Board
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has announced a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) will join the company’s Management Board next year.
Jörg Herwig joins Hellmann as COO
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has recruited Jörg Herwig for the position of Chief Operating Officer Road & Rail (COO), effective 1 March 2021.
Hellmann extends contract with automation firm
German logistics company, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, is stepping up its cooperation agreement with Siemens.


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Friday, May 16, 2008
Canon EOS Rebate Offer
Canon U.S.A., Inc., between May 18th and July 19th, 2008, Inc. will be offering an instant rebate offer on select EOS cameras and accessories. Save up to $300 on select products. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.
Get 11 Issues of Outdoor Photographer for only $14.97!
That's 77% off the cover price!


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New CEA Working Group Melds Content with CE
CEA's new Device, Apps and Content (DAC) working group to unite content creators, app developers and consumer electronics manufacturers.
The Consumer Electronics Association has formed a new working group called Device, Apps and Content (DAC) to unite content providers and consumer electronics (CE) device manufacturers.
The group will be a collaboration among device manufacturers, content creators, aggregators and app developers to increase and enhance consumer availability of content and apps on CE devices.
“Our aim is to transform content convergence so that consumers have better access to what they want directly from their electronic devices,” says Jason Oxman, SVP, industry affairs for CEA.
The DAC working group is chaired by Bryan Burns, VP of strategic business planning for ESPN.
The first meeting will take place via teleconference on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012.
For more information, or to join the DAC working group, contact Kinsey Fabrizio at [email protected].
NewsOnline Quotation Tool Provides Smart Home, VR, Home Theater Estimates
Monitor, Control Z-Wave Products via Pro Control with Pro.zwi Z-Wave Interface
Dayton Audio’s Small Aero Speaker Hits Bullseye on Sound Quality
CE Pro People & Places: Artison Names Neumann; Emotiva Adds Schofield; GoVision Appoints Jarmac
Unparalleled Hi-Res Performance, Tailored for Custom Install
View more News


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The Massachusetts governor’s office has announced $12 million in funding for the Commonwealth’s electric vehicle rebate program, Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles (MOR-EV). The announcement builds upon the Department of Energy Resources’ (DOER) $2 million commitment in January and represents more than double the rebate funding over the lifetime of the MOR-EV program. MOR-EV is administered on DOER's behalf by the Center for Sustainable Energy.
“The adoption of electric vehicles is an important component of the commonwealth’s plan for reducing emissions and meeting our Global Warming Solutions Acts goals,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “With the continued growth and consumer choice for electric vehicles, our administration is committed to working with all stakeholders to promote the host of positive benefits electric vehicles offer.”
Since June 2014, the MOR-EV program has issued or reserved over $6 million for 2,931 vehicles, cutting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions output by an estimated 8,123 short tons annually. Consumers can qualify for rebates ranging from $750-$2,500 on the purchase or lease of more than 25 qualifying new electric vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric and fuel cell electric vehicles.
MOR-EV funding is financed by Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction proceeds, and aims to help reduce reliance on foreign oil and meet Massachusetts’ goals under the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector 7.6 percent by 2020.


text: China's Tencent builds stake in UK digital bank MonzoChinese gaming and social media company Tencent Holdings Ltd has taken a small stake in Britain's Monzo as part of a fundraising, the digital bank said on Friday, just weeks after it fetched a valuation of $4.5 billion. TPG Becomes 2022’s First Big I.P.O.The private equity firm’s trading debut is seen as a gauge for the health of the market. EarthLink internet review: A decent option | ZDNetWith more and more of the world moving online, many people are looking to ensure they've got the right internet service provider to meet their needs. Here's our review of Earthlink internet, an ISP option that might be right for you. Four firms steer Uber Freight's $2.25 bln Transplace buyCooley and Sullivan & Cromwell are taking the lead advising Uber Freight on its plans to pick up transportation logistics company Transplace for roughly $2.25 billion. Optus says it has to overcome decade-old perception it is lacking coverage | ZDNetAlternatively, customers can also be in inner west Sydney, have double brick walls, and also get no coverage. Tata Motors soars 20 percent on news of fund raise for EVsThe Jaguar Land Rover owner has raised $1bn for its EV business for which it will form a separate unit. Telstra CEO wants NBN to tell telcos copper line speeds to prevent misleading sales | ZDNetThe root cause of customers being sold plans at speeds their connections will never reach lays at the feet of NBN, Telstra CEO Andy Penn said.


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Financial institutions must tune into consumer expectations and meet them where they are to retain and attract loyal customers
SAN ANTONIO, July 19, 2022: Vericast’s latest research revealed how consumers’ relationships with financial institutions are changing, and in some surprising ways.
Nearly half of respondents say they seek financial advice from friends or family, while less than a third are seeking it from a bank, credit union or financial advisor. Thirty-four percent of Gen Z consumers obtain financial advice from TikTok and 33% get it from YouTube, while only 24% of this age group seek advice from financial advisors.
To uncover insights on the current state of financial perceptions and priorities, Vericast, a leading marketing solutions company, conducted the survey of 1,000 adults in the U.S. and found that people are increasingly turning to alternate sources for financial information and advice.
“It is clear that financial institutions have a critical need to innovate quickly and reimagine their approach to retain customers,” said Stephenie Williams, Vice President, Financial Institution Marketing Product and Strategy at Vericast. “Banks and credit unions need to meet customers where they are, not only positioning themselves as a go-to, trusted resource providing education through traditional strategies, but also using new channels and platforms to reach younger generations.”
Furthermore, there is opportunity to deliver on evolving expectations to help banks and credit unions acquire and retain customers amid market volatility. According to the survey, consumers expect financial institutions to accommodate them during widespread financial hardships, like the unprecedented inflation we are experiencing today. Seventy-nine percent expect flexibility on rates and fees, such as waiving overdraft or late fees, while 66% say they expect it to be easier to obtain new lines of credit. An additional 69% said notifications about lines of credit available to them and promotions on special rate offers, such as low interest balance transfers, are also expected during times of financial instability.
Additional findings from the survey include:
- There is a correlation between mental wellbeing and banking
- 75% of consumers say the amount of money in their bank account impacts their mental health.
- For this reason, almost half (48%) are prioritizing building their savings account in 2022.
- Mobile banking, interest rates and sign-up incentives factor into choosing a financial institution
- Sixty-one percent of consumers surveyed selected mobile banking capabilities as one of the top factors influencing their choice to bank with a financial institution.
- When asked what would persuade them to switch financial institutions, two-thirds noted better interest rates as well as incentives to open an account, such as a cash reward for signing up, while 68% said fewer fees would incentivize switching.
- Financial priorities for 2022 show opportunity
- Amid market volatility, building up savings (48%), paying off debt (47%) and investing directly in stocks (21%) are top financial priorities this year.
- Only 12% plan to open a new checking account this year, and only 19% anticipate opening a credit card; for over half of consumers, it has been five years or more since they last opened a bank account.
- There are opportunities for financial institutions to generate business: nearly half (42%) of consumers are planning to buy a car in 2022 and 34% are planning to remodel their homes.
Vericast is reimagining marketing solutions one business-to-human connection at a time. By influencing how over 120 million households eat, shop, buy, save and borrow, Vericast fuels commerce, drives economic growth and directly accelerates revenue potential for thousands of brands and businesses. While its award-winning portfolio of products, technology and solutions are part of the Vericast story, its people are the true differentiators; trailblazers in data intelligence, marketing services, transaction solutions, campaign management and media delivery.


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BEAVERTON, Ore. — A Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman says a recall of packaged salads, produced at its plant in Kansas, was prompted by a routine check of products sold in Canada.
FDA spokeswoman Juli Ann Putnam said Tuesday that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found Listeria monocytogenes in some ready-to-eat macaroni and cheese and Reser’s did a voluntary recall.
Putnam says a follow-up inspection of the plant by the Food and Drug Administration and the state of Kansas determined there was a potential for cross-contamination with other products, so the recall was expanded.
In all, some 450 products
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Listeria can produce fever, headache, diarrhea and abdominal pain, and can be fatal for people with weak immune systems.


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Shimano says that the global cycling boom sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic is “cooling down.”
The Japan-based cycling components and fishing tackle manufacturer said that net sales within its bicycle division had risen 13.9 per cent during the first three months of the year, standing at 118,176 million (£730 million).
Operating income in the bicycle division – which accounts for more than 80 per cent of group turnover – rose by 17.0 per cent to reach 32,455 million during the same period.
While double-digit growth in both sales and profits in a mature market segment is impressive, the figures do reflect a slowing down of momentum compared to the company’s last financial year.
Earlier this year Shimano revealed that during 2021, its centenary year, its bicycle division achieved turnover of ¥443.7 billion (£2.8 billion), a near 50 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.
In a statement announcing its first-quarter results yesterday, the Osaka-based company said: “The global cycling boom showed signs of cooling down, with market inventories of entry-class and middle-class bicycles approaching appropriate levels, while demand centering around high-end class bicycles remained high.”
Turning to specific geographic areas, the company said: “In the European market, demand for bicycles and bicycle-related products remained firm as governments continued their policies to promote bicycles in response to growing environmental awareness.
“While demand for e-bikes remained strong, market inventories of entry-level and middle-class bicycles approached appropriate levels.
“In the North American market, demand for bicycles remained firm and market inventories, centering around entry-class and middle-class bicycles, recovered to appropriate levels. In the Asian and South and Central American markets, the cycling boom cooled off, and market inventories of entry-class bicycles remained at a slightly higher level.
“In the Japanese market, while market inventories of road bikes remained at a low level due to steady demand for sport bikes, retail sales of community bicycles were sluggish, resulting in market inventories remaining at a higher level.”
It added that “order-taking was brisk for a wide range of products, including the high-end models for road bikes, Dura-Ace and Ultegra, and sport e-bike components, Shimano Steps series.”
The company noted that “In Europe, although the economy had been on the upswing, the acceleration of inflation caused by the worsening situation in Ukraine has weighed on consumer sentiment.”
It is worth noting that with the Russian invasion beginning in late February, its full impact on consumer markets elsewhere will only be fully felt in the coming months as price rises in energy and other areas are passed on to households.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.


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Proposed shopping center gets initial thumbs up
Bainbridge Island’s newest shopping center took another step toward reality Monday as city officials looked over plans for the project and gave their initial thumbs up.
Representatives with Visconsi Companies of Pepper Pike, Ohio along with island architect Charlie Wenzlau met with the city’s Design Review Board this week to discuss the Visconsi’s intention to build a shopping center on the corner of Highway 305 and High School Road.
Wenzlau took the board step-by-step through his site plans for the shopping center, a place he said will be more distinct than its counterpart across the street.
“The goal is to bring the buildings close up to the street so pedestrians walk up to the site,” Wenzlau said, “to have the scale and look of downtown Winslow.”
“We’re trying to characterize this differently than Safeway.”
The board recommended initial approval of the entire seven-building project that includes a bank, Bartell Drugs store, medical center and retail store spaces.
The board, however, did pose a few concerns about the buildings in phase one — the Bartell Drugs and the bank — such as the use of concrete slabs on parts of the exterior walls. Visconsi officials agreed to address the issues and bring back revised plans to the board on June 17, before the matter moves on to the city’s planning commission.
Schematics for the final five buildings were not available at the meeting; other architects will likely be hired to handle their design. The board also asked for a courtesy review of the remaining buildings once those drawings are available, and before the city issues any building permits.
The project has changed a little since the idea was brought forth one year ago.
The medical center, which was initially slated to be 10,000 square feet, is now proposed to be 20,000 square feet.
The remaining buildings will house retail shopping. Wenzlau said that he plans to make this shopping center more distinct than other retail centers on the island.
The buildings will also take on a unique feel, even from each other.
“One thing we wanted to do is make every building distinct, not like Safeway where there is one theme,” Wenzlau said. “Every building is a unique size and shape, the materials change, it is not one uniform development.”
Wenzlau said he aims to make the site a pedestrian-friendly zone. Most of the parking for the facility will be located behind the center.
The main driveway through the shopping center has also been altered. The road that currently is the artery to the ProBuild facility from High School Road will be modified so that its entrance will line up with the entrance to Ace Hardware across the street. The roadway will still act as the main path for trucks to enter and exit ProBuild.
A pedestrian trail is also planned along Highway 305 that will lead to the shopping center from High School Road and will be incorporated into meeting areas and courtyards at the shopping center.


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Walmart late Monday lowered its profit outlook for the second quarter and for all of 2023, saying that inflation is forcing it to slash prices so its cash-strapped shoppers will keep coming in, eating into its margins.
The move comes at the height of the normally bustling back-to-school season for the retailer.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant said Monday it expected net sales growth of 7.5% for the second quarter and 4.5% for 2023, despite second quarter same-store sales growth of 6%, higher than previously expected.
Operating income for the second quarter and full year is expected to decline 13% to 14% and 11% to 13%, respectively, the retailer said. In May, Walmart said its operating income for the second quarter would remain flat or increase slightly.
The retailer blamed the situation on general merchandise price cuts taken at Walmart and Sam’s Club to improve inventory, as well as sales mix.
“Food inflation is double digits and higher than at the end of Q1,” Walmart said in a press release. “This is affecting customers’ ability to spend on general merchandise categories and requiring more markdowns to move through the inventory, particularly apparel … Customers are choosing Walmart to save money during this inflationary period, and this is reflected in the company’s continued market share gains in grocery.”
The company said it is maintaining its expectations for same-store sales growth, excluding fuel, of about 3% for the remainder of the year.
Share of Walmart fell more than 8% after hours Monday on the news.
“The increasing levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how consumers spend, and while we’ve made good progress in clearing hardline categories, apparel in Walmart U.S. is requiring more markdown dollars,” President and CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. “We’re now anticipating more pressure on general merchandise in the back half; however, we’re encouraged by the start we’re seeing on school supplies in Walmart U.S.”


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Business News›input tax credit
INPUT TAX CREDIT
GSTN defers by 3 months implementation of e-invoice reporting time limit
In an advisory to taxpayers on May 6, GST Network said it has been decided by the competent authority to defer the imposition of time limit of 7 days on reporting old e-invoices on the e-invoice IRP portals for taxpayers with aggregate turnover greater than or equal to Rs 100 crore by three months.
Taxmen to conduct two-month special drive to weed out fake GST registrations, identify masterminds
This menace of fake registrations and issuance of bogus invoices for passing fake ITC has become a serious problem, wherein fraudulent people engage in dubious and complex transactions, causing revenue loss to the government, the GST Policy wing of the CBIC said.
Three firms under scanner for availing Rs 250 cr ineligible input tax credit in Himachal
These firms are part of a network of about 300 firms spread across five states, which conducted transactions of more than Rs 8,300 crore and availed as well as passed on input tax credit of over Rs 1,500 crore. Action against the said network would be taken as per provisions of the GST law, the statement added.
ICICI Pru Life refutes GST dept contention of tax liability due to input tax credit claims
In the absence of receipt of a formal show cause notice detailing the grounds and rationale on which the tax demand is proposed to be raised on the company, the company evaluated the possibility of a tax obligation, which as of now appears to be remote, it added. In September last year, the Mumbai unit of the DGGI had said that an ITC of Rs 824 crore had been availed by 16 insurance companies on the basis of fake invoices. Out of this, insurers had voluntarily paid Rs 217 crore after the DGGI investigation.
Rising complications for corporates in ITC claims under GST
The changes in ITC rules have added responsibilities on businesses to reconcile and communicate with vendors more often. Businesses must take up reconciliations regularly throughout the month and instantly convey any misreporting, omissions or delays in ITC reporting to their respective sellers. In turn, it has led them to take additional steps to secure ITC reporting, such as GST payment blocking while releasing invoice payments.
Retro amendment clears key GST doubt, but opens door for further litigation
The Finance Bill proposes to do away with GST on merchant trade, in-bond sale and high sea sales. But by not refunding the tax collected under these categories, the government is opening another can of worms.
GST ITC restriction on CSR spend: Why businesses are worried about potential challengesAs part of FY 2023-24 Budget proposals, the Union Finance Minister has recommended restricting ITC on goods or services used for meeting the CSR obligation. Experts say this may have adverse impact on CSR benefits.
Ease of GST compliance: Still a distant dreamGST compliances which were envisaged to be easier and less complex, have turned out to be a compliance nightmare with multiple and frequent changes in the tax returns and reporting requirements.
Input Tax Credit cannot be claimed on goods/services used for CSR activities: Budget 2023KPMG in India Partner, Indirect Tax, Abhishek Jain said the Finance Bill proposes to restrict input tax credit paid on goods and services used for CSR activities. "While this would be slightly disappointing for the industry, this change would clear the air on the issue which was ambiguous and was subject to contrary advance rulings," Jain said.
Budget 2023: Insurers hope for tax concessions to underwrite industry's growthScrapping or slashing of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on insurance premiums, making pension/annuity proceeds tax-free, and creating a separate category for tax deduction for premium paid are some of the budget wishlist of Indian insurers.
Gift or not? The confusion over GST on promotional schemes run by businessesWhile the term ‘business’ has been defined under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (the CGST Act), there is no definite yardstick to find out whether an activity is carried out ‘in course or furtherance of business’.
Digital infrastructure providers body seeks Centre to refund Rs 18,000-crore input tax credit to boost 5G network rollout"The total amount stuck with the government because of the denial of input tax credit on equipment at telecom towers amounting to about Rs 18,000 crores, is causing a huge financial burden on the infrastructure industry," Tilak Raj Dua, director general, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (Dipa) told ET. The Delhi-based infrastructure group represents American Tower Corporation, Indus Towers, Ascend Telecom, Tower Vision, Sterlite Technologies and Summit Digitel.
Government tweaks GST rules for claiming input tax creditThe ministry has inserted Rule 37A in Central Goods and Services Tax rules to give effect to the new provision.
Budget 2023: Telcos want licence fee cut, input-tax credit refund"This (recommendations) will leave more funds with TSPs (telecom service providers) for expansion, increase liquidity, facilitate investments required to complete the Digital India vision and 5G roll-outs, and also keep tariffs at affordable levels," the COAI said in an emailed response to ET's queries on budget recommendations.
Decriminalisation of GST Act: Why it can be a big reprieve for small businesses in IndiaTo promote ease of doing business for small businesses and clearly distinguish between minor offenses and willful evasion of duty, the govt is initiating one of the major overhauls of the GST provisions after 5 years.
Exporters may have great festive season amid withdrawal of GST exemption on outbound international freightThe pandemic resulted in severe supply disruption across the globe, and as result the freight rates are much higher today than it was during pre-pandemic.
Amendment in GST return format: Why changes regarding ITC will increase complexity for taxpayersIn most companies, the accounting process of vendor invoices is structured in such a manner that the GST amount, which is ineligible for ITC, is not recorded separately rather the entire transaction amount is booked in the expense GL itself
Businesses can now claim input tax credit for 2021-22The government has notified an amendment to the central goods and services tax Act to provide for additional time for claiming input tax credit, issuance of credit notes, rectification of errors and extending the last date of September 30. The due date of issuance of credit notes and declaration in the returns has also been extended to November 30.
Beyond GST, how technology can enhance tax function outcomesSeveral large organisations are also enabling technology in tax processes through managed tax services (where organisations are not keen to invest and maintain technology due to changing laws and regulations).
From canteen to medical insurance, GST Council provides much-awaited relief on employee perksPerquisites provided by an employer to its employees always attract the attention of the tax authorities. Service provided by an employee to an employer is exempted from GST.
Apartment to get costlier to rent for corporate executives“Furthermore, going by experience in such cases, the input tax credit (ITC) of GST on this rent paid by corporates may be disputed by the GST department arguing on the basis of Section 17(5)(g) of the CGST Act 2017 where the ITC of GST paid for any service for personal consumption is blocked," said Vivek Jalan, Partner, Tax Connect Advisory, a multi-disciplinary tax consultancy firm.
CBIC clarifies ambiguity on GST on pre-packaged items, new rates from MondayAlso the clarification said that if several packages intended for retail sale to the ultimate consumer, say 10 packages of 10 Kg each, are sold in a larger pack, then GST would apply to such supply. Such a package may be sold by a manufacturer through a distributor.
FICCI bats for bringing healthcare under zero-rating GST“Enabling this would not only ensure that the input tax credit chain is intact but will also make compliances easier and ensure that the input taxes are not loaded into the cost of healthcare services,” the FICCI letter said. FICCI also red-flagged the recent recommendation of the GST council to levy 12% GST on bio-medical waste treatment plants, and 5% GST on Room rent (exceeding Rs.5000 per day).
Government hikes GST for cut & polished diamonds from 0.25% to 1.5%Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the apex body of gem and jewellery trade in India, through a series of representations, had been seeking GST increase on cut & polished diamonds to 1.5%, GST decrease on grading and certification (GCS) to 1.5%, refund of accumulated ITC, etc.
Indiabulls Real Estate guilty of profiteering Rs 6.46 cr, to refund homebuyers: NAABased on a case filed by a homebuyer that Indiabulls Real Estate has not passed on ITC benefits in project Sierra-Vizag, situated in Visakhapatnam, the Directorate General of Anti Profiteering (DGAP) investigated the case and found the builder guilty of profiteering.
GST Council may consider changes in monthly GST payment formThe move would help curb the menace of fake billing, whereby sellers would show higher sales in GSTR-1 to enable purchasers to claim input tax credit (ITC), but report suppressed sales in GSTR-3B to lower GST liability.
GST Council may consider modification in monthly tax payment form for better input tax credit reportingAccording to officials, the modified form will provide clarity with regard to gross input tax credit (ITC) due to the taxpayer, the amount claimed in a particular month and the net amount left in the taxpayer's ledger.Load More
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Dublin Fashion Festival & Young Designer of the Year Winner
On Friday September 22 there was a fashion extravaganza in The Round Room at The Mansion House to launch the new A/W season. Titled, Dublin Fashion 2017: The Collective, the event showcased the latest trends, styles and must-buys for the season ahead from leading high street, Creative Quarter and high-end retailers from across Dublin city centre. Hosted by Xpose’s Glenda Gilson, the event welcomed 500 of the city’s most stylish personalities.
Meanwhile, the winner of the Dublin Fashion Young Designer of the Year Award was also announced on the night with Naomi Ajetunmobi crowned this year’s winner. The 12 finalists took their designs to the catwalk before the judges deliberated to select a winner.
Performances on the night came from dance troop, Music from Red Empire and Trinity Quartet, while Ria Murphy of Aerial Cirque wowed with her aerial skills.


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Real-time information has never been more critical than in response to the ongoing public health emergency, wrought by the spread of COVID-19. The post What The FDA Is Doing For Better COVID-19 Data Dashboards appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
This strategically important approval expands beyond the already approved at-home tests using a nasal swab and saline. The post FDA Has Approved A New At-Home Test For COVID-19 appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
Now that the entire nation is presumably hopped up on CBD, are the roads even safe to travel on anymore? It’s a question recently proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Continue reading Could CBD Cause Impaired Driving? at The Fresh Toast.
An expert panel created by the National Football League (NFL) and its players union is downplaying the potential benefits of CBD for players, stating that while the cannabis compound shows promise in the treatment of some forms of pain, the science doesn’t currently live up to the “hype.” Following a […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced a policy change that will expedite the marketing of marijuana testing devices if they’re used for certain purposes. Many companies that manufacture medical devices are subject to FDA’s premarket notification requirements, which generally involve providing assurances that the products are safe and […]
Following the passage of a new spending package at the end of December, the age for purchasing tobacco in the U.S. has now changed. Specifically, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has raised the age from 18 to 21. Spending Package Initiates Change to Tobacco Rules The new change was […]
Like any product that’s made to be consumed, legal cannabis products must undergo a series of tests. By testing the product, different brands and companies can ensure that the cannabis is safe to consume and easy to dose. States that have legalized cannabis have a set of regulatory tests that […]
Opioid addiction and deaths from overdosing continue to rise in the United States despite efforts within the medical community to find a solution. The opioid epidemic has become a serious public health crisis. Deaths from opioid overdoses continue to increase among all genders, races, and almost all adult age groups. […]
As a series of federal agencies warned their employees about the use of CBD products this summer, advocates wondered whether the string of notices was just a coincidence or evidence of a government-wide effort to raise concerns about the cannabis compound. But now we know that the alerts to workers […]
Three federal agencies—the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)—are now accepting comments from the public on cannabis-related topics such as hemp pesticides and the legal classification of marijuana globally. In a notice published in the Federal Register last month, FDA […]


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BRUSSELS: The EU's anti-trust chief is widely expected to unveil anti-trust charges against Google's Android, the world's most popular mobile phone operating system, as she faces reporters on Wednesday.
The European Commission, the powerful executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, said in a statement that Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager would hold a press conference at 0930 GMT.
Google forced to take back Gmail's April Fool's prank
Chief commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said in a tweet Vestager would unveil "an important competition case." But contacted by AFP, a spokeswoman refused to confirm or deny the topic of news conference would be the case against Google.
Several sources told AFP on Tuesday the EU would formally take aim at Google's Android mobile phone platform in a potentially huge setback for the Silicon Valley giant.
The EU is looking at whether Google gives unfair prominence to its own apps such as maps or music streaming in deals with mobile manufacturers such as Samsung or Huawei.
Buy-Out: Yahoo extends deadline for opening bids
EU regulators "need to be sure that big companies don't try to protect themselves by holding back innovation," Vestager said in a speech on Monday.
"That's why we're looking closely at Google's contracts with phone makers and operators which use the Android operating system," she said.
The case would be the second attack by the EU against Google. Last year the EU formally charged the company for abusing its dominance of the search engine market in Europe.
Buying Core Business: Microsoft in talks with Yahoo
In both cases, Google risks a fine of 10 percent of worldwide global sales for one year, which would amount to a $7.4 billion fine on the basis of 2015 revenues.
Android is seen as crucial to Google's future as customers increasingly rely on smartphones and tablets for their computing needs instead of traditional PCs.
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When speech arouses boycotts
There aren’t many individuals in history whose names are taken in vain more than Capt. C.C. Boycott, the notorious Irish landlord who cut the wages of his tenant farmers and got himself ostracized -- and the English language enriched -- in return.
The captain’s name has seldom been out of public circulation since then. Yet every new boycott inspires vigorous discussion over whether this sort of pressure on the powerful is effective or fair. Currently on the table are two such actions: an advertisers’ boycott of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, and a shoppers’ boycott of the Austin, Texas, grocery chain Whole Foods Market.
The campaign against the egregious Beck, who has done so much to destroy civil political discourse in this country, was organized by the African American political group Colorofchange.org. The group objected to Beck’s labeling President Obama a racist. Last week it claimed to have commitments from more than 40 mainstream former advertisers, including Wal-Mart and Sprint, to drop his show.
As for Whole Foods, its founder and chief executive, John Mackey, wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal this month largely attacking Democratic healthcare proposals. He argued for reforms closely resembling what John McCain proposed during the election, and stated that if Americans would only eat more food like what’s sold by his stores, we “should be able to live largely disease-free lives . . . even past 100 years of age.” Within days of Mackey’s article, a group of customers had organized a boycott of Whole Foods via the Internet. They say they now have more than 30,000 adherents.
These cases have revived the debate over the proper place of the boycott in politics.
Plainly, boycotts can work -- the grape boycott of 1965-70 against anti-union California growers and the anti-apartheid South Africa disinvestment campaign of the ‘80s stand as prime examples.
Those boycotts aimed to change the targets’ behavior. What about boycotts aimed at the targets’ views, like the Beck and the Whole Foods campaigns?
Critics argue that these boycotts are trampling on the targets’ right of free speech or stifling free expression merely because the speaker’s views are distasteful.
The Economist magazine, for instance, argues that silencing Mackey -- or any CEO -- is bad for society because it deprives us of “the logical arguments and wisdom built on experience that . . . business leaders can bring.”
Yet the boycotts’ main thrust is informational. The Beck and the Whole Foods boycotters don’t have the power to force anyone to do their will. In the case of Beck, whose advertisers sought to reach his audience without thinking about the noxious character of his commentary, colorofchange.org simply brought home that their images might be splattered with his bile.
While colorofchange undoubtedly would like to see Beck driven off the air, the thrust of the Whole Foods campaign isn’t to silence Mackey but to ensure that his chain’s customers can better make their own decisions about whether to continue to shop there.
Such informational campaigns as this are obviously most powerful when the information is not widely known, and especially when it undermines the target’s preferred narrative.
Part of Whole Foods’ appeal to many shoppers is that its policies appear to harmonize with their progressive mind-set -- green, healthful, philanthropic, etc. Mackey never made it a secret that he sees this image as a business development tool. (“A certain amount of corporate philanthropy is simply good business and works for the long-term benefit of the investors,” he wrote in 2005.)
Leaving aside some of the substantive problems with his op-ed, which is a melange of misinformation and misconceptions about the healthcare market unworthy of the CEO of a major corporation, its approach to social responsibility lies somewhere to the right of Herbert Hoover. “A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food, or shelter,” he writes. "[T]here isn’t any.”
The discovery that Mackey harbors insensitive and even reactionary views may come as a shock to these customers, as will other things they’d learn by looking more closely at the company -- such as that its anti-union policies have much in common with Wal-Mart’s.
“He’s opened up a can of worms,” the boycott’s co-founder, a television writer named Sally Hampton, told me.
Mackey says his op-ed piece is his “personal opinion,” not that of Whole Foods, but that won’t wash. The Wall Street Journal opened its pages to him precisely because of his corporate position, and a version of his piece appears on the company website.
Nor is there anything wrong in people deciding to shop elsewhere because they disagree with Mackey’s views. Certainly his goal in writing for the Wall Street Journal was to influence his audience. That some shoppers are influenced to stay out of his stores just means his intent may have backfired, not that the outcome was unpredictable or unjustified.
Hampton says the boycott aims to counterbalance the bully pulpit occupied by powerful figures like big-business CEOs. “I can’t get an op-ed into the Wall Street Journal,” she says. “How are we collectively to be heard?”
If there’s a flaw in the Whole Foods boycott, it’s that its endgame isn’t well articulated. The company isn’t going to change its own healthcare policy, which provides catastrophic-illness coverage and health savings accounts for some employees, and it’s not likely to fire Mackey for his op-ed.
Hampton says the organizers may press Whole Foods to sponsor a public forum on healthcare reform including advocates of a single-payer system. To Mackey’s credit, his blog on the company website includes thousands of readers’ responses to his piece, both in support and in vigorous denunciation.
But a wider discussion of healthcare reform, devoid of the misrepresentations and irrelevancies for which Mackey’s article has been properly criticized, is exactly what’s needed in this country. If the Whole Foods boycott leads to something like it, old Capt. Boycott’s misery will, once again, be our gain.
Michael Hiltzik’s column appears Mondays and Thursdays. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org, read previous columns at www.latimes.com/hiltzik, and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.


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Coca-Cola in late April launches a promotion distributing 36.5 million ticket brochures for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games through grocery stores nationwide in May.
One hundred pairs of free trips to the Summer Games will also be placed inside cases of Coca-Cola Classic, Caffeine Free Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Diet Coke, Sprite and Diet Sprite.
Point-of-purchase displays will hold the 48-page brochures, complete with ticket request forms and schedules for the Games. The nine-week promotion is getting a boost from $25 million in media spending, including TV, print and radio ads. The first spots are scheduled to air at the end of April.
"This is the largest distribution ever developed for Olympic Games tickets," said Billy Payne, president-CEO of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
Ticket sales are going to be important, insiders say. Still running short on sponsorships, ACOG will be relying more heavily on gate receipts to foot the Olympics' $1.6 billion bill.
"This should generate a lot of publicity and have a dramatic effect on sales," said Brian Murphy, editor and publisher of The Sports Marketing Letter, Westport, Conn.
Mr. Murphy added that the promotion is also great insurance against ambush marketing efforts by Coca-Cola competitors seeking to use the cachet of the Olympics without paying to be official sponsors.
"With ticket brochures," he said, "it makes it unmistakable who has the Olympic connection."


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6th International Poultry Meat Congress, organised every two years by the Association of Poultry Meat Producers and Breeders, will be held in Antalya between 1-5 March 2023.
Many important scientists, experts and sector stakeholders from many countries of the world and Turkey will participate in the organisation, which is the only and largest congress with international participation in the poultry meat sector.
The sixth Poultry Meat Congress, which has been organised by the Association of Poultry Meat Producers and Breeders (BESD-BİR) since 2011 and has become an important brand in the international platform, will be held in Titanic Deluxe Golf Belek Antalya between 01-05 March 2023.
The Turkish poultry meat sector is preparing to evaluate sustainable production and efficiency, self-sufficiency, local production, logistics services and technological developments in the new world order at the 6th UBEK. Stating that the Poultry Meat Congress, which has been held every two years without interruption since 2011, had to take a break for about 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BESD-BİR Chairman Naci Kaplan continued his words as follows: "We are very pleased to be organising the largest and most important congress with international participation in Turkey for the sixth time. We are also proud to organise our congress on the same date with the 100th anniversary of our Republic and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Association of Poultry Meat Producers and Breeders (BESD-BİR). As always, the 6th UBEK will bring together all participants, including scientists and industry stakeholders, and will also feature important academics and speakers from many countries around the world.
The aim of this great organisation, which we will organise for the sixth time, is to reveal the sustainable production understanding structured in the new world order, the new rules of global trade, and the consumer behaviours that are becoming more and more conscious every day. To produce the most efficient content that will benefit our industry in the light of science and to plan our own road map by discussing the challenges, solutions and new vision experienced worldwide.
In 2011, our congress chairman Prof. Dr. Necmettin Ceylan and his team, who have been with us since our first congress, have continuously improved our content since then and have provided great support for the branding of UBEK on the international platform, continue the preparations with great devotion. We welcome all our stakeholders to our congress in the first week of March in order to provide more benefit to humanity by sharing and discussing technology, knowledge and innovations."
5th International Poultry Meat Congress was attended by approximately 1,500 scientists and industry stakeholders from 32 countries, including agricultural, veterinary, food engineers and medical doctors. With 79 oral presentations and 57 poster presentations in 24 sessions, it hosted its guests as a high-level international congress with its quality content. Poultry Meat Congress is registered in the international CAB Abstract database with its continuity and the quality level it has reached.


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Actor Steve Martin is listing his villa in the posh Caribbean island of St. Barts for 8.75 million euros, or about $11.4 million. If he gets what he's asking, he'll score a nice profit on its sale.» Read More
The other 99 percent of this year's output will be up for tasting and sale at VinExpo, the industry's global trade show in Bordeaux that runs through Thursday. But at least some of that top 1 percent, the classified growths of prized Bordeaux, have already been sampled, rated and priced.
The world's largest auction houses will host "blockbuster" sales of contemporary art this week, as buyers' tastes shift away from pre-19th century "Old Masters", a fine art expert told CNBC.
What are art lovers interested in this spring? A peek at the billion dollars worth of art on offer at Christie's and Sotheby's.
A nearly 75 carat diamond's sale at Sotheby's offers further evidence of the roaring bull market in hard assets.
A rare Chinese bowl bought at a tag sale for $3 has sold at a New York auction for more than $2.22 million.
As the spring art season gets underway with art fairs in New York this week, the hunt for big trophy art pieces is especially fierce.
Check out which companies are making headlines after the bell Thursday:
Dec 25- Wine sales at auction houses were flat to lower in 2012, with lower prices for the top Bordeaux weighing on results. But, even so, the Burgundies could not make up for the Bordeaux disappointments. Bordeaux prices headed lower all through the year.


text: Irish alternative broadband provider yesterday announced the launch of a new bundled 1Mbps service costing just EUR6.99 (USD9.71) a month within a bundle. SiliconRepublic reports that the bundle includes unlimited, anytime local and national calls, along with line rental and a 1Mbps (downlink) internet connection. Perlico estimates its new service represents a cost saving to customers of EUR108 per annum in comparison to the incumbent eircom’s offering. For customers wishing a faster connection, Perlico also unveiled a bundled 2Mbps option costing EUR11.99 a month within a bundle. The bundle, which has an all-in price of EUR51.99 per month, includes unlimited local and national anytime calls together with the line rental and a 2Mbps broadband connection.


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Unlike most food, the quality of coffee is quantifiable, says Edwin Martinez. If he and another pro taster in a different part of the world were to evaluate the same coffee, they’d likely come up with near identical scores. This is why Martinez, who grew up growing coffee on the family farm in Guatemala, has a problem with fair trade, the certification given to trading partnerships that guarantee farmers fair market prices through direct profit sharing.
The fair trade stamp on a bag of coffee is usually regarded as shorthand for “responsibly sourced.” The issue, according to Martinez, is fair trade “doesn’t care how much money is made along the way, so long as the farmer gets a certain amount.” This amount is not determined by a farmer’s costs or quality of product, but by a worldwide average.
So even though the cost of production in Guatemala is 40 percent higher than in Honduras, and Guatemalan coffee consistently scores better in quality than Honduran, both regions receive the same compensation via fair trade. To Martinez, this penalizes top-quality farmers and does a disservice to less developed operations—“Say you grow something, and someone tells you, ‘No matter how much it sucks, I’m going to guarantee this price’ what incentive do you have to improve?”
And yet, Martinez’s Onyx Coffee, one of the most respected importers of Guatemalan coffee in the region, started shipping fair trade last year, giving these farmers additional compensation, sometimes 200 percent more than the global average. “To me, [fair trade] is charity, and I pay based on quality,” he says. The certification’s many supporters point to fair trade’s unequivocally positive impacts—from encouraging organic and sustainable farming practices to stimulating the economy in developing countries—but Martinez’s convictions are a reminder of the complicated process by which a faraway commodity becomes something we drink every day.


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Poland’s leading alternative telco Netia has chosen ADB’s latest generation gateway VV 5822 to deliver multimedia services to individual and business customers.
The leading Polish alternative telco Netia saw its TV subscriber base grow by 5% in 2017, ending the year with a total of 190,000.
Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has initiated the second stage of proceedings concerning the takeover of Netia by Cyfrowy Polsat.
Poland’s leading pay-TV operator Cyfrowy Polsat has submitted a bid for a 32% stake in the leading alternative telco Netia. At the same time, it has boosted its content business by buying several thematic channels from ZPR Media.
The Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) is undertaking proceedings against Netia, the country’s leading alternative telco.
Poland’s leading alternative telco Netia saw a sharp rise in its TV subscriber total in the year to June 30.
Poland’s leading alternative telco Netia has begun to sell services delivered on its fibre-optic network.
The Polish alternative telco Netia will make more local TV channels available to its subscribers from this month.
Netia, the French Media software solutions company, has announced that its sole shareholder Globecast (part of the Orange group) has sold all its shares in the company to two French media entrepreneurs, Anthony Savelli and Vincent Benveniste.
The Polish alternative telco Netia ended the second quarter with 172,300 subscribers to its Telewizja Osobista (‘Personal Television) TV service.


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The world is experiencing immense disruption to supplies of commodities. Prices of essentials from food to consumer goods have risen to multi-year highs, putting pressure on household wallets and corporate profits. In their efforts to tame inflation, hawkish central banks are willing to risk recession.
If this storyline sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen the movie before…more than four decades ago. The risk of repeating the stagflation of the 1970s is more real than ever, particularly for Europe. But we think the major markets can avoid this fate.
Here are perspectives on how major economies are poised to perform this year and next.
- Economic growth likely slowed in the first quarter, hindered by COVID-19 infections at the start of the year. But with restrictions eased and offices reopened, the second quarter is poised to witness buoyant consumer spending despite elevated prices. What distinguishes the United States from some other markets is the degree of pent-up demand and unspent pandemic stimulus. These tailwinds should allow growth to continue, even amid policy normalization.
- Prices remain a headache for consumers, businesses and policymakers. Inflation climbed 8.5% in March from a year before, led by increases in food and energy costs. The deflator on core personal consumption expenditures grew 5.4% in February, far ahead of the Fed’s 2% target, affirming the case for rapid hikes. We expect the Fed to hike interest rates by 50 basis points in May. Tightening will continue through the first quarter of 2023, leading to a terminal rate range of 2.50-2.75%.


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A recent study from Aviva indicates that two-thirds of consumers are more likely to choose brands with climate-aware credentials – and although the stereotype is that millennials are behind the trend towards green living, over-55s are most likely to engage in many common eco-friendly behaviours
When you picture an environmental activist, chances are you picture a younger person, perhaps in their early 20s – but new research from Aviva shows the younger generation isn’t the only one that’s living green.
In fact, they’re not even the most likely to take part in green behaviours.
Who are environmentalists?
The survey of 4,000 adults in the UK found that people aged 55 and over are more likely to recycle their waste (84%), avoid single-use-plastic (66%) and buy only seasonal fruit and vegetables (47%), compared to UK adults in any other age group.
They’re also shopping at local stores (63%), using LED lightbulbs (88%), and growing their own vegetables (37%).
This may come as a surprise to some younger climate activists, who may blame the older generation for their inaction over climate change.
But clearly not all older people are indifferent to the imminent climate crisis – and even if some are, they’re already doing many of the things activists would encourage them to do, so there’s little point in tarring everyone with the same brush.
When it comes to avoiding plastic, recycling, shopping local, and more, we’re all increasingly on the same page.
Making eco-friendly personal choices isn’t enough for most people, either, according to the survey – 68% of respondents said that they are more likely to pick brands with sustainable or climate-aware credentials – so many people evidently aren’t even willing to support entities that don’t make environmentally responsible choices.
Marketing to green consumers
Environmentalism has been a movement for about half a century, starting when The New York Times reported on the first Earth Day, but, according to Forbes, marketing to “green consumers” has only gone mainstream since the early 2000s.
Today, brands with sustainability claims are growing twice as fast as traditional competitors who don’t include a mention of eco-friendly credentials.
However, according to the Harvard Business Review, there’s a reason we haven’t seen a real explosion of green business just yet: while many people say they feel this way, not everyone puts their money where their mouth is.
This is known as the ‘intention-action gap’ and narrowing it could have a massive impact on corporate sustainability goals.
A Futerra survey showed that almost everyone in the US and the UK believes that they can make a difference through their own actions, such as recycling and buying ethically. But they want help doing it – from brands.
Not just through promoting CSR activities, but by helping consumers make their own difference.
Evidently, the answer to the question of whether climate-consciousness is the way to appeal to consumers is “yes” – provided there is also an emphasis on helping consumers shape their own behaviour, as well.
Understanding this can help brands create more effective messages for consumers in the short term, but potentially help create a greener future in the long term, too.
This is a sponsored post by our partner Aviva


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Is it safe to eat wild caught salmon from China?
HONG KONG — For years, fish sellers in China have labeled something other than salmon as salmon, according to a local media report that outraged sushi lovers across the country. Now, Chinese fish authorities have responded: That’s perfectly O.K. with them.
Is there wild salmon in China?
Alaska Salmon and Canadian Salmon are processed in China, as well as Atlantic Chum. But, Salmon is caught wild in China also. Here is a link to a company called Siam Canadian that catches, processes and exports Chinese Salmon.
Where does wild Pacific salmon come from?
Five species of Pacific salmon thrive in the North Pacific waters of the US and Canada: chinook (also called king), coho, pink, sockeye, and chum salmon. They begin their lives in freshwater streams, lakes, and rivers and migrate to the sea as small fish called smolts.
Is Wild Pacific salmon Safe?
Unlike Atlantic salmon, there are still healthy wild stocks of Pacific salmon. Alaska for example, ranks as one of the world’s healthiest and best managed fisheries due to management based on sustainable yield – the idea that you harvest only the amount that doesn’t jeopardize the long term health of fish stocks.
Is imported fish from China safe?
We have considerable evidence that seafood imports from China pose significant safety risks. In June, 2007, the FDA put five types of farmed-raised fish and seafood from China under a “detain and test” order, due to repeated findings that the fish contained chemicals banned from seafood in the United States. .
Can you catch salmon in China?
According to the report, China is expected to harvest about 300,000 salmon fish each year from the fish cage, with a total output of over 1,500 tons and an annual production value of more than 100 million yuan ($15.48 million), given that water temperature is suitable.
Why is my salmon from China?
More importantly, any salmon that you’ve seen “from China” is usually due to a company or another that has probably repackaged it for their frozen foods.
Does China grow salmon?
Is wild Pacific salmon really wild?
First, if it says “Atlantic salmon”, you should know that’s almost a guarantee it was farm-raised. Pacific salmon, on the other hand, are often wild but can come from a farm. (Also, “Wild Alaskan Salmon isn’t a type of salmon, it’s just salmon that was caught in Alaska).
Is wild Pacific salmon farmed?
Another clue is the word “fresh.” Wild Pacific salmon are only harvested seasonally, so when you see fish labeled “fresh” in the dead of winter you know they’re farmed. Wild salmon are only available in the off season frozen or “re-freshed” from frozen.
Is wild caught salmon contaminated?
Likewise, other research suggests that children, women of child-bearing age and pregnant women should choose wild salmon — or other sources of omega-3 fatty acids. The bottom line: Both wild and farmed salmon contain contaminants, but wild salmon has lower levels and is considered safer overall.


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Diageo’s credit quality ‘stronger’ than Pernod Ricard’s, says Moody’s
Credit rating agency Moody’s said in a report published on Monday that Diageo has a “stronger credit quality” than its rival Pernod Ricard.
Moody’s based its decision on Diageo’s lower leverage, larger size and market share, which it says supports stronger credit quality and a higher rating than its French rival Pernod Ricard.
The rating agency currently assigned Diageo as an A3 business, an upper medium investment grade rating, while Pernod Ricard carries a Baa2, a lower medium investment grade.
“Diageo’s organic profit growth benefits from strong U.S. momentum, while Pernod’s growth remains constrained by China,” says Paolo Leschiutta, a Moody’s Vice President and author of the report.
“Pernod will be able to partially compensate for the soft trading conditions in China with strong growth in India, but this market has lower profitability than the group average. As a result, Moody’s expects low single-digit organic profit growth for Pernod, whereas Diageo’s organic profit will grow in line with the broader industry range of 4%-5%,” adds the report.
The author notes that Diageo’s larger size and market share supports its stronger business profile, but Pernod Ricard benefits from a higher contribution from premium products. In the future, both companies will benefit from strong demand for Western brown spirits (whiskies, bourbons, brandy, cognac); however, Pernod stands to gain the most because brown spirits constitute a greater share of its revenues and volumes than Diageo and because of its established presence in the cognac business.
The report concludes by saying that Diageo is slightly more exposed to the uncertainties related to Brexit because a large share of its revenue is derived from emerging markets which have trade agreements with the EU. The UK’s post-Brexit trading agreements will affect both Diageo and Pernod Ricard because of the importance of their respective Scotch whiskey businesses.


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Manage the link between your BlackBerry smartphone and your email, calendar, and organizer.
The most important things to know when shopping for a cell phone.
And why you may prefer to stick with one color or the other.
The move is part of the company's evolution into a software business, which includes working with every major operating system.
If you're willing to trade screen size for a superior physical keyboard, the BlackBerry Classic is a fantastic productivity phone for old-school QWERTY junkies.
The Leap makes an appearance on its website. The company is expected to show off more of its product roadmap today.
Samsung, battling to hold on to its lead in the smartphone market, needs to win back consumers from Apple with its next big thing. But will the new Galaxy S6 be big enough?
Hint: It's not about smartphone sales volume or market share.
The BlackBerry Passport's bullish focus on productivity spawns a fantastic keyboard, but its blocky shape makes one-handed use difficult.
Apps like iMessage or Netflix which only run on certain operating systems "must be prohibited from discriminating," BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said.
The QWERTY keyboard-equipped phone won't be available at physical stores until March 5. Verizon is offering all buyers a $50 rebate with the standard two-year contract.


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July 30, 2013: Andrew Becks has been named VP, audience development at PGOA Media.
He had been director, audience development at Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (release)
April 2, 2012: Megan Sullivan has been named vice president, digital sales, at PGOA Media.
She had been director of partnership sales and social media at Mom365. (release)


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Target has recalled the above nightlight collection previously sold at their Canadian stores in the following models (identified on bottom side of nightlight):
Name - Model Number - Colour - Size (height x width)
The lithium battery may overheat, causing the nightlight to melt or catch fire.
While Health Canada and Target have not received reports of incidents or injuries involving the nightlights, customers are advised to stop using the lights immediately and dispose of them.
For more information, customers can contact Target toll-free at 1-800-440-0680, between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday or via the company's website.
Between November 2014 and April 2015, approximately 3,400 nightlights were sold at Target stores in Canada.


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You might not take your kids all that seriously when they complain about the gross mystery meat served in their school cafeteria, but the children in some schools in Hawkins County, Tennessee had a right to complain last week when they were served pork that had been sitting in the freezer since 2009. [More]
I vaguely remember that day planners are what people once used to organize their lives before they used smartphones for that kind of thing. Apparently, no one in Jim’s town has had any need for one since 2009, so no one has noticed that they still have planners in stock from 2009. [More]
All the money that Amazon has sunk into infrastructure and rapid fulfillment has paid off–the online retail giant was the most trusted brand of 2009, according to a brand study released by Millward Brown. The market research company spent 2009 asking consumers questions like, “How trustworthy is this brand?” and, “Would you recommend this brand?” [More]
It’s that time of year again. m The Earth has moved ’round the sun once again, and for a month everyone will screw up when writing the date. What are your 2009 Financial Resolutions?


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From Tommy Leighton in California
Greig Taylor of New Zealand producer and exporter Freshco told PMA Fresh Summit delegates, in Anaheim, California, that New Zealand faces significant challenges in the changing global marketplace.
"The complexity of the market we are all working in leaves us facing a number of challenges, but also presents us all with extensive and diverse opportunities," he said. "It is very exciting to be involved in the global market at this time."
However, there are potential problems on the New Zealand horizon. Taylor said: "There are some significant threats to New Zealand's exporters, inluding the rising price of oil, the growing demand for reefer shipping capacity from the Chinese market and the effect that both of these factors have on the availability of reefer capacity for New Zealand. It will undoubtedly be very difficult for a country that probably exports its products a greater distance than any other nation."
Asked on his view of the role for club apples and New Zealand's place as a new variety breeder, Taylor added that his country has lost its leadership position. "We have had a very big impact in the past in both apples and kiwifruit, the most significant of course being Gala and Braeburn in the apple sector and green and gold kiwifruit," he said. "But we have seen the breeding work slowing up in New Zealand as both the government and private organisations have reduced expenditure in this area. That is very disappointing and having led the world, we are beginning to fall behind.
"However, there are new varieties still coming through, for example Jazz, which has excellent potential. I think we all have to be careful with club apples. If we don't roll varieties out across the northern and southern hemispheres quickly, the opportunities could well pass us by."
With the demands of the key global retailers being for 12-month supply of product, spreading the production of varieties needs to be rapid if we are not to stifle the opportunities, he said.


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Representatives of Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd to visit and work at Hanoi University
On July 3, 2017, representatives of Japan-based Seven-Eleven Ltd., led by Mr Yasui Makoto, Director General of Human Resource Development, visited and worked at Hanoi University. Joining the delegation with Prof. Dr Nguyen Dinh Luan – President of the University, there are representatives of the International Office and the Vietnam-Japan Cooperation Center.
At the meeting, Mr Yasui Makoto expressed his desire to establish cooperation with Hanoi University. Accordingly, Seven-Eleven Japan Ltd. will organize internships at Seven-Eleven stores for students of Hanoi University. The aim of the internship program is to help them practice and improve their Japanese language skills while learning about business, accounting, management … and to familiarize themselves with the professional working environment of Japan.
In returns, Prof. Dr Nguyen Dinh Luan appreciated the cooperation proposal from representatives of Seven-Eleven Co., Ltd. Japan and fully supports the strategy of human resource training development of the Company. Appreciating the feasibility of this opportunity of cooperation, the President of Hanoi University hopes to have more employment opportunities open to HANU students when specific cooperation activities are in place.
At the end of the meeting, the leaders of the two sides agreed to promote the signing of the cooperation agreement in the future to create the foundation for cooperation between Hanoi University and Seven-Eleven Japan Ltd.
Seven-Eleven is the name of a well-known international chain of convenience stores operating under the franchise. By the end of 2016, the 7-Eleven chain stores have been present in 17 countries with approximately 61,500 points of sale. The parent company of this brand is Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd. This is a Japanese multi-disciplinary retail corporation founded in 1920 and headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan. On 15/6/2017, this brand has officially opened its first store in Ho Chi Minh City and is expected to expand its business in Hanoi.


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Capcom’s latest financial report has reportedly revealed a ‘major’ unannounced game in development at the studio, with this title considered significant enough to boost the company’s overall sales goals, to hit high targets in the financial year ending in March 2024.
The news was spotted by Capcom fans on ResetEra, who translated an investor Q&A that revealed the mystery project. Per translation by thread contributor Angie, a Capcom spokesperson answered a question about how the company aims to achieve its sales goals with the following: “In the second half of this financial year, we plan to release Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy in January in addition to a currently unannounced major title. Moreover, we plan to boost the sales figures of new titles of the first half of this FY to achieve the target.”
This mystery title was further referred to in relation to sales goals for console, suggesting it will arrive on multiple platforms, and that Capcom expects it to sell millions. For now, Capcom has not explicitly detailed this project, although wording around it suggests it may be related to a major franchise – particularly given Capcom appears confident in its potential sales success.
As for what the title could be, there’s plenty of room left for speculation. As an entirely new game, we can likely rule out a new Street Fighter, given the freshness of Street Fighter 6. But everything else is fair game.
A new Resident Evil is a possibility, given how much Capcom has invested in the franchise over the last few years. Mega Man continues to be a success, with nostalgia likely contributing to overall high sales. A new Monster Hunter is a very likely candidate – although the series has had a recent release, in the form of Monster Hunter Rise for consoles.
A sequel or remake for Devil May Cry is also a possibility. Devil May Cry 5 continues to be a popular title for Capcom, and the long gap between game releases suggests something could be in the works.
That said, Capcom has remained tight-lipped about this mystery project. It could very well be an original game, or something completely unexpected. With the studio being confident it will launch by March 2024 and thus contribute to its goals for the financial year, we’re likely to hear more of this game in the coming months – potentially as early as The Game Awards in 2023.
Stay tuned for more details about what’s in the works at Capcom.


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Three months after its postponed launch, we finally have an idea of when the $1,980 Galaxy Fold’s release date. Samsung announced that “select markets” will have a chance to get the convertible device in September.
Its engineers have changed the design to keep debris out of its hinge and discourage people from pulling the protective film off of its Infinity Flex display. The backing has extra metal reinforcements, and Samsung says it’s been working on increasing software compatibility, too.
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/25/the-morning-after/


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What inflation is expected for Mexico in 2023?
Mexicans will have to suffer high prices for at least two more years. The Banco de México forecasts show that inflation will not return to the 3% target until the last quarter of 2024.
In the latest central bank forecasts, inflation is expected to be 7.5% in the first quarter of 2023, which will drop to 5.9% in the second quarter while in the third and fourth quarters, inflation will be 4.8% and 4.2 %, respectively.
How has it affected the end of 2022?
High inflation has been registered mainly in food, beverages and tobacco, with a 14% increase in prices in the first half of December.
With inflation above 7%, Banco de México had to raise the rate to 10.5% to prevent consumers from spending their money and causing more inflation.
By raising the rate, consumers could choose to invest it in instruments such as Cetes, which are yielding returns of up to 11%.


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Google’s Chromecast dongle for pushing digital content from ones phone, tablet, or laptop to a TV screen isn’t exactly a high-end device – the full retail price is $35, and it’s on sale constantly – but its unexpected to many been a huge success for the company. Over 17 million of the dongles have been sold, the Cast button has been pushed over 1.5 billion times, and Google says Chromecast users consume 66% more content per day than when the device launch in 2013. To push the network of Cast buttons and supported content even further, Google has released some new APIs for developers to build richer experiences.
The first new Google Cast API that’s been released is the Remote Display API for iOS and Android, available now under the beta label. Whereas in the past casting any content to the TV would result in a mirroring experience where the same content as displayed on the TV is displayed on the mobile device, now developers can create second-screen experiences where something different is shown on the mobile device. The example in the photo above is a good one, where once a game is casted to the TV the phone turns into a gamepad. Anyone who’s ever used a Wii U or the Xbox Smart Glass should be quite familiar with this idea.
Next up are new APIs for queueing and autoplaying content. When combined together the two new APIs will allow developers to create a seamless experience of continuous playback where they can create queues of content and begin buffering the next video before playback of the current is finished. Once you can queue multiple pieces of content at once it would make sense to also create functions for developers to allow for the skipping, repeating, and reordering of items, so Google added all three of those to the queuing API as well. The company says these sort of seamless playback experiences that can now be created help lift per-session watch times by 10-20%.
Finally, Google is introducing a new Games Manager API that makes it easier for developers to create multiplayer games that use the Cast device (Chromecast, Android TV, etc) as a hub for keeping every player’s game state in sync with one another. Now when anything from a player leaving the game to the game itself ending happens, it’ll simply be much easier for developers to send messages and state changes to all connected devices. This new update was bundled along with Google Play services 7.5.
All of these new APIs are available for Android today, with the updates for iOS and Chrome available “in the coming days.”
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Cisco’s 5th installment in the webseries, Navigating The Shift, features financial industry experts as they discuss key trends and strategies. In attendance were Ariel Roda (Chief Information Officer, PBCOM), Ana Pascual (Vice President for Key Merchants and Acquirers, GCash) and Sharoakh Charna (Industry Lead for FSI, CISCO APJC).
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a huge shift in financial service industries. Lockdown restrictions prevented consumers from physical banking. Institutions had to adapt quickly to accommodate increased demands for digital transformation. This meant investing in infrastructure and technology to ensure their clients’ needs are met. Furthermore, companies had to introduce digital banking to a consumer base that leans more towards traditional banking.
“The traditional way was to go to a physical branch, right? Especially for some set of our customers who preferred to have a face-to-face relationship with many of our frontliners. This is a subset that I think had some difficulty. Fortunately, with tools like Cisco Webex, and all the other online collaborative tools, we’ve been able to continue that relationship with our customers and ease them into this new way of banking,” explains PBCOM CIO Ariel Roda.
Arguably, a lot of Filipinos are getting more comfortable with non-traditional forms of banking. GCash, for example, saw a sudden surge in new users over the span of 1 year. At 27 million users, there’s no better example of the massive shift to online payment methods. Restrictions due to COVID-19 provided a much-needed incentive for users to go digital.
“Because of the strict lockdowns, everyone learned how to buy their essentials online. Everyone learned how to pay their bills online. Everyone learned how to buy their groceries online. They wanted to find a platform that could do all those things in one, so you wouldn’t have to learn multiple things,” according to GCash VP Ana Pascual.
Be that as it may, not all financial service platforms were made equal. Because everything is going digital, users now expect a lot more from their apps. It’s no longer a matter of just function. Customers are looking for a better user experience. This means a banking app isn’t just competing with other banking apps; they’re competing with Facebook, Google and Amazon as well, according to Cisco FSI Industry Lead Sharoakh Charna.
While most financial institutions have been able to adapt with digital transformation, it’s a double-edged sword. As more people perform their financial transactions online, they’re left vulnerable to cyberattacks. There has been a marked increase in phishing, where attackers steal the target’s information by pretending to be a legitimate institution. This spurned financial service providers to beef up their security.
“Financial institutions should have already installed a number of protection mechanisms. For example, two-factor authentication using PINS. For major transactions that are being done online or through the phone, we’ve been offered biometrics, face recognition and fingerprints to authenticate who you are. We have several investments into upgrading a lot of our firewalls. They can monitor, mention which devices (are connected), the where when whats of the transaction,” says Roda.
Cisco’s Charna reiterates that a balance between user experience, security and usability are key components for financial service platforms.
“Cisco has always been the backbone of connecting infrastructure in a secure manner. We’ve been doing that for decades. That’s what has set us apart in the past. But strategy has always been the wider thing, about innovating and about looking at it from a platform perspective, keeping in mind the customer,” explains Charna.
Cisco has been integral in providing solutions to financial institutions. Their Cisco Webex is widely implemented as a simple conferencing tool for more personalized transactions.
Watch the 5th episode of Navigating The Shift, New Normal Trends and Opportunities for the Philippine Financial Services Industry, here:
< Join us as Cisco Philippines streams the 5th episode of Navigating the Shift!>


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Group holds press conference on April 20 to release new products and services.
On the occasion of Reunification Day on April 30 and International Workers’ Day on May 1, the Viettel Group held a press conference to introduce new products, services and activities that aim to focus on expressing the Group’s gratitude to customers and improving the experience of app use on mobile phones.
Viettel officially introduced “Phonesafe”, an app for mobile user protection that provides numerous functions that protect personal data from risks from hackers and malicious code.
“Consumer protection from the risks related to personal information being shared on mobile phones is our responsibility and also expresses our concern toward customers,” Deputy Director of the Viettel Group, Mr. Phung Van Cuong, said. “With this special customers care service Viettel wants to help customers use their mobile device in a safe and effective way.”
On the same day, Over-The-Top’s app called Mocha Messenger was launched publicly. Developed and tested since December 2014, Mocha Messenger has unique features such as Voice Sticker and “Listening to Music Together”, which allowed different users to listen to a song at the same time. The feature’s 3G data plan is completely free for two months from the date of installation.
“The Mocha application has been launched when other applications in the market have many advantages in voice and messaging features”, Director of the Viettel Media Center, Mr. Vo Thanh Hai said. “We decided to choose a completely different path to provide users with a new and unique experience.”
Mocha Messenger has about 30,000 users and Mr. Hai expects the number will reach 1 million by the end of the year.
Viettel is the most popular mobile network in Vietnam, with 55 million customers. With nearly 60,000 base stations for 2G and 3G, the group has guaranteed the service demand of nearly 300 million subscribers to date.


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Travel advertisers turn to the Internet to fill seats, cars, and hotel rooms. Research presented to the travel industry by JupiterResearch finds 94 percent of the sector sees strong return on investment in online advertising, versus TV and radio (3 percent) and print (3 percent).
"Almost a third of the money from travel marketers spending will be online for 2008," said Emily Riley, senior analyst at JupiterResearch.
In 2008 budgets, 20 percent of advertisers in the travel vertical said they plan to spend $10 million or more online. A slightly smaller group, 10 percent, said they will spend between $5 million and $10 million. Twenty-seven percent said they will likely spend between $1 million and $5 million on advertising in the travel sector.
"Travel spending is going to increase from the marketer's side significantly," said Riley, adding that the total spend online for travel will be close to $2 billion in 2008 and will reach $4 billion by 2013. "[Advertisers] see where the ROI is, where the consumer goes, and the money that follows."
The primary goals of travel advertisers are to generate sales (87 percent); generate leads (37 percent); increase purchase intent (37 percent); build brand awareness (27 percent); build customer loyalty (17 percent). Survey respondents were able to select three choices from a list of 10 options.
Data are based on a survey and research conducted by JupiterResearch, Insight Express, and Google Travel Executive Survey.
Meet Your Favorite ClickZ Contributors
Many of ClickZ's leading expert contributors will be at ClickZ Live, the new online and digital marketing event kicking off in New York (March 31-April 3). Hear from the likes of: Jeremy Hull, Lisa Raehsler, Andrew Goodman, Bryan Eisenberg, Mathew Sweezey, Aaron Kahlow, Stephanie Miller, Simms Jenkins, Jeanne S. Jennings, Dave Hendricks and more!
March 19, 2014


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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Love ETFs? Love your smartphone? Well break out your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry. Starting today, you can buy a smartphone ETF.
"It's not heavily invested in just a few stocks," said Tom Lydon, president of Global Trends Investments and editor of ETFTrends.com. "It's pretty broadly diversified."
About a quarter of the ETF includes semiconductors, with another 23% dominated by communications equipment.
But the rest is spread out pretty well among electronic equipment, wireless services and others. And some of the bigger names aren't included among the top 10.
There's no Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) or Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) among the ETF's top 10 holdings, which Lydon says "bodes well for how this index was constructed." But those names are part of both the index and the ETF, which have a total of 72 components.
The smartphone ETF is clearly a niche-y product. It's unlikely that big institutional investors will snap it up. But that might be exactly what retail investors are hungering for.
"Some of these companies are huge," said Rick Ferri, investment adviser at Portfolio Solutions. "You're not getting a really pure play on smartphones."
The ETF comes less than a year after Nasdaq launched the NasdaqOMX CEA Smartphone Index (QFON). Since its debut in April 2010, the index has gained more than 19%.
Still, it's worth noting that this is roughly in line with how the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ) ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100 and holds many of the same stocks, has done.
|Overnight Avg Rate||Latest||Change||Last Week|
|30 yr fixed||3.83%||3.86%|
|15 yr fixed||2.95%||2.94%|
|30 yr refi||3.95%||3.98%|
|15 yr refi||3.05%||3.05%|
Today's featured rates:
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Microsoft on Tuesday pointed to five new smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.5 and continued talking up its WinMo platform. From the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the company announced new Windows Marketplace for Mobile service updates and applications. And while expanding the marketplace into Russia, Microsoft is making it easier for developers to sell Windows Mobile apps by waiving marketplace submission fees to additional markets.
To top it off, the software superpower released a developer toolkit for building applications for Windows Mobile 6.5.3, the latest variant of Microsoft’s most recent mobile OS release.
“We’re very proud of our Windows Mobile 6.5 devices that are in the market,” Microsoft spokeswoman Karen Wong-Duncan said Monday. At the company’s Redmond event for showing Windows Phone 7 to local media, she tried to fight back pounding questions about how Microsoft can promote WinMo6.5 when consumers know a spankin’-new version will be out in eight or nine months.
“It’s really meeting a broad spectrum of needs today,” Wong-Duncan said of WinMo6.5. “We think that the phones available do meet the users’ needs.”
It essentially was the Microsoft cold shoulder. If one thing was abundantly clear Monday, it was that Microsoft wanted to move past the antiquity of Windows Mobile 6.X.
“There’s no question in our minds as we go back a couple years,” CEO Steve Ballmer said during his MWC keynote Monday, “that we needed and wanted to do some things that were out of the box, clearly differentiated from our past, and hopefully you’ll agree clearly differentiated from other things going on in this market.” (Emphasis mine.)
And that’s why Microsoft’s approach to Windows Phone 7 is completely different, at least from a user-interface standpoint. Instead of allowing companies like HTC to entirely reskin WinMo6.5 for the HD2, Microsoft will push phone makers to preserve the shiny-new UI of Windows Phone 7, the company said.
But on Tuesday, the HD2 was on a list of new WinMo6.5 smartphones that Microsoft wanted to highlight, most of which gave the OS a serious retooling. Considering that WinMo6.5 is still all Microsoft’s really got, showing what other companies can do with its OS is probably Redmond’s best option right now.
Since the October release of WinMo6.5, the OS has seen some incremental improvement, Will Stofega, a mobile-industry analyst with IDC Group, told seattlepi.com Monday from Barcelona. Could phone manufacturers’ UI tweaks and low-level upgrades (WinMo6.5.3, for instance) get Microsoft through a potential vacuum of consumer interest until the holidays?
“If they play it right, they offer an upgrade,” Stofega said, “it could be even better for them.”
Though initial response to Windows Phone OS 7.0 was largely positive, both in Barcelona and back in the U.S., the hype is calming down – and questions are bubbling up. Microsoft has been deflecting any inquiries that go deeper than the Windows Phone 7 user interface, saying people must wait until the MIX conference for developers March 15 to 17 in Las Vegas.
Michael Cherry, an analyst for the Kirkland-based firm Directions on Microsoft, said he was underwhelmed by Microsoft’s announcement Monday. He didn’t care about the flashy UI, he said – he wanted to know the meaty developer information.
The big question is whether Windows Phone OS 7.0 will have backward compatibility – whether Windows Mobile 6.X applications will work on the new operating system. Microsoft isn’t saying anything yet, but the mere fact it isn’t saying anything is making people wonder.
Then again, Tuesday’s release of a WinMo6.5.3 developer toolkit does suggest Microsoft is continuing to invest in Windows Mobile app development, and hence is continuing to invest in the overall platform. Would it do that if Windows Phone 7 devices couldn’t run the old apps?
“I think it’s important that they start off with a good base of applications in their store,” mobile analyst Azita Arvani, founder of the Los Angeles-based Arvani Group, said Monday from Barcelona. “For Microsoft to have a compelling solution, they definitely have to have applications in a good number. I’d have to say a few thousand or so to be credible.”
There are about 1,250 apps in Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the company said Tuesday. And more are available from third-party vendors such as Handango and MobiHand, bringing the estimated total to more than 20,000.
But there are more than 140,000 apps for the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android Market offers about 10,000. By not supporting backward compatibility, Microsoft would be shooting itself in the foot.
“I think that the competition has shifted to a much higher level since Windows Mobile came out” in 2007, Arvani said. “I think they realized they couldn’t just evolve from 6.5, they have to start anew.”
We’ll find out in a month whether Microsoft, in what many see as the company’s last-ditch effort to save its mobile business, really is starting from scratch. If Windows Phone 7 isn’t backward compatible, WinMo6.5’s developer ecosystem could fall out from under Microsoft.
And Microsoft would be drifting along, with little demand for WinMo, until the release of Windows Phone 7.


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Talenthouse, Vodafone partner to bring out the best in cricket & design
Fans to vote for the best design jersey and cap to be worn by the 22 kids escorting the two teams competing at the Indian Premier League 2013 finals in Kolkata
Talenthouse India, a Reliance Entertainment division, and Vodafone have joined hands to provide a slice of IPL 2013’s action to the audience. Through crowdsourcing, Talenthouse has invited upcoming fashion and graphic designers or anyone with a creative sensibility to design and get a chance to create fresh designs for the kit that includes a jersey and a cap to be worn by the 22 kids escorting the two teams competing at the Indian Premier League finals in Kolkata.
Talenthouse received a pool of jersey and cap designs created in Vodafone’s primary colours of red and white. The winner’s designs will be seen by millions who tune in for the finals as the kids lead the players out to the field.
Fans are invited to view all designs submitted on Talenthouse’s website and vote for their favourite design. The winner will be announced on May 18, 2013 and will receive Rs 100,000 as prize money and also stands a chance to win two match tickets to the finals.
Suresh Rangarajan, Associate Vice President, Public Relations, Vodafone said, “As part of our large digital presence, we’ve often created crowdsourcing activities, especially on our Facebook page. We have collaborated with Talenthouse for a creative activation during the IPL. We believe that the Talenthouse activation represents a great opportunity for artists to work on one of the buzziest brands during the IPL, and also for Vodafone to co-create a presence for our brand with some of the new talent in the country.”
Arun Mehra, CEO, Talenthouse added here, “With all brand managers geared up with their innovative marketing and activation campaigns for the most awaited sports extravaganza, Talenthouse’s crowdsourcing initiative is a game changer in the already chaotic sports arena. We have high expectations from our association with Vodafone, as we work toward providing participants with opportunities and our community will be motivated to showcase their work on the country’s biggest sporting stage.”
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Olive Garden Has a New Zucchini Noodle Dish — and It's Under 600 Calories
Olive Garden may not be the first place that comes to mind when you're looking for a low-calorie restaurant meal, but the pasta chain recently announced a new menu item that serves as an alternative to guests looking for a lighter option when getting their pasta fix. Beginning on May 28, Olive Garden will join the "zoodles" craze with its new Zoodles Primavera dish. The meal, which can be bought in lunch and dinner portions, is made with zucchini noodles that are tossed in a basil cream sauce along with various vegetables like broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms.
Zoodles Primavera can be found on Olive Garden's Tastes of the Mediterranean menu, which features several meals under 600 calories — all inspired by flavors and ingredients popular on the Mediterranean coast of Italy. The lunch portion of the new dish is available starting at just $9, while the dinner portion will sell for $15. Guests also have the option to add chicken to their meals for an extra $2, or shrimp for an extra $4. Read ahead to get a look at some photos of Olive Garden's new zoodles, and then head to the location closest to you to try them out.