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IT HAS STARRED in more blockbusters than most Hollywood actors but now the Ford Mustang faces the toughest comeback of its career, writes Nick Rufford from the New York motor show.
Approaching its 50th birthday, the all-American muscle car has been facelifted and surgically enhanced to recapture the appeal it had in the 1960s.
Then, it took the record as the fastest selling model of car ever launched. The 2015 Mustang will have the advantage of going on sale not just in the US but around the world including the UK, with a right-hand drive version available from next year at prices expected to start at £30,000.
Ford claims it will be engineered to suit British tastes with a new fuel-efficient 300bhp 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo engine capable of “meeting the performance and fuel efficiency requirements of European car buyers”. This will put it head to head with rivals such as the Audi TT, BMW 4-series and Mercedes E-class coupé.
Those wanting to live out their Bullitt fantasies ‒ a 1968 GT fastback
Mustang grabbed the limelight alongside Steve McQueen ‒ will want to
sample the 414bhp 5-litre V8 version.
The special 50th anniversary edition will be based on McQueen’s car and will come in a choice of white or blue. Just 1,964 will be sold (a homage to the Mustang’s launch year).
Performance brakes and tyres will be fitted, as well as 19in alloys and lowered three-quarter windows (harking back to the original) plus a unique badge at the rear and a special steering wheel.
Ford won’t say whether the anniversary version will be on sale through dealers in the UK (the decision has “yet to be made”) but it will be available through importers.
Ford repeated a publicity stunt last night that it first pulled off in 1965 by slicing up a yellow Mustang convertible and putting it inside the elevators at the Empire State Building. It was reassembled on the observation deck, 86 floors up where it greeted slightly bewildered visitors.


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Stora Enso and Tetra Pak combine forces on carton recycling in Belgium amid lacking infrastructure
14 Jul 2022 --- Stora Enso and Tetra Pak are examining a shared beverage carton recycling solution to meet the growing demand in the Benelux for circular paper-based packaging. The joint feasibility study includes a plan for a comprehensive beverage carton recycling facility at Stora Enso’s Langerbrugge site in Belgium.
PackagingInsights speaks with Frank Vandewal, sustainability director at Tetra Pak, and Mandi Alaterä, senior vice president, communications & marketing, division packaging materials at Stora Enso, about the planned beverage carton recycling project.
When asked where the companies will source the carton for recycling from, Vandewal says: “The target material for recycling will be the Benelux area. Furthermore, discussions with relevant packaging recovery organizations will start. The focus will be on local recycling, offering full circular solutions: packaging to packaging for fibers via cooperation with Stora Enso and local polyal solutions.”
“We plan to get the used beverage carton materials from the Benelux countries within a reasonable transport distance,” adds Alaterä.
The fibers would be processed at the Langerbrugge site, while the polymer and aluminum barrier materials would be recycled by a partner.
Filling the carton recycling gap
Approximately 75,000 metric tons of beverage cartons are put on the Benelux market annually, a growing volume of which more than 70% are already collected for recycling. Currently, there is no existing beverage carton recycling infrastructure in Benelux, highlights Stora Enso.
The partnership between Stora Enso and Tetra Pak would create a complete recycling system for beverage cartons in Benelux and surrounding regions.
Stora Enso would process collected beverage cartons and recover the fibers within the solution. The recycled fibers would serve as source material for producing recycled containerboard within the Langerbrugge site, delivering a fully circular solution.
“We would collect packaging used specifically in liquid packaging cartons with polymer and aluminum barrier coating,” explains Alaterä.
“The used beverage containers (UBCs) will be recycled in this specific recycling line. The UBCs will be separated into paper fibers and PolyAl,” adds Vandwal.
“Only the paper fibers will be processed directly at the Stora Enso mill. The PolyAl will be processed by a separate recycler outside the Stora Enso mill. This partner has not been defined yet.”
Converting the Langerbrugge site
The recycling project is linked to Stora Enso’s recently announced feasibility study to potentially convert one of the Langerbrugge site’s paper lines into a high-volume recycled containerboard line. This feasibility study is expected to conclude in the first half of 2023.
Upon a decision to invest, the recycled containerboard line is expected to be in production during 2025. The joint study with Tetra Pak will follow the same timeline.
The proposed recycling line in Langerbrugge will initially process an estimated 50,000 metric tons of recycled cartons per year, with the potential to increase.
“With this joint initiative, we underline our aim of local recycling progress and improving infrastructure in Benelux, a region with high volumes of collected beverage cartons,” adds Chakib Kara, managing director for France and the Benelux at Tetra Pak.
“Stora Enso has the know-how and experience we need in fiber recycling. Together with them, we have the potential to put in place a circular solution that helps us secure a world where a growing number of carton packages is collected, recycled and we can minimize litter.”
The leading pulp and paper manufacturer highlights that beverage cartons contain high-quality fresh fibers that are an “excellent source material” for producing recycled paper containerboard.
Stora Enso and Tetra Pak previously explored the possibility of constructing a new recycling line that could significantly increase the recycling rates of UBCs in Central and Eastern Europe.
By Natalie Schwertheim
To contact our editorial team please email us at email@example.com
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According to a report by XDA Developers, Qualcomm and Microsoft might have an exclusivity deal that restricts Windows...
Parth Shah, , Apple, Featured, iPhoneHacks, macOS, macOS Monterey, Microsoft, Productivity, Windows, Windows 11, 0
Windows 11 is generating huge buzz among the tech community, and rightfully so. Microsoft’s next-generation Windows 11 brings...
- Top Apple Stories of the Week: Apple Sues Pegasus Spyware Creator, Great Black Friday Deals on iPhones and Macs, More November 27, 2021
- Telegram vs iMessage: 10 Reasons to Use Telegram Over iMessage on Your iPhone November 27, 2021
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AirPods Apple Apple Music Apple News Apple Rumors Apple TV Apple TV hacks Apple Watch App Store CydiaHelp Deals developer beta Facebook Featured General Geohot.us Google Hacks How to iOS iOS 11 iOS 12 iOS 13 iOS 14 iPad iPad Pro iPhone iPhone4jailbreak.org iPhone 8 iPhone 11 iPhone 12 iPhoneHacks iPhone news iPhone X iPhone XR iPhone XS Jailbreak jailbreaknation Mac MacBook MacBook Pro macOS News Redsn0w.us samsung


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Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has recently released a trailer for its upcoming 2.5.0 update, which promises to bring a range of exciting new features to the popular mobile game. The trailer has generated a lot of buzz among fans of the game, who are eagerly anticipating the release of the update.
One of the most exciting features teased in the update is the introduction of a new weapon, the MG3. This powerful light machine gun is sure to be a game-changer, offering players a new option for dealing massive damage to enemies. The trailer also hints at the introduction of a new mode, which is expected to be team-based and offer a fresh gameplay experience for players.
In addition to these new features, the update is also expected to include a range of improvements and optimization...
Junior NTR is busy shooting for his film 'NTR 30' these days. Jahnavi Kapoor will also be seen in the lead role with him in this film. Now another news is coming about Junior NTR that he has been entered in the film 'War 2'. In this, he will share the screen with Hrithik Roshan for the first time. Film critic Taran Adarsh has shared this information on his social media account. He wrote in his caption... 'Junior NTR has been officially entered in Yash Raj Films' Spy Universe film 'War 2'. He is going to share the screen with Hrithik for the first time. Not much information has been revealed about what will be the character of Junior in this film. Let us inform that recently Ayan Mukherjee has also become a part of this film. Tiger Shroff was in the lead role alongside Hrith...
ery player playing PUBG Mobile and BGMI wants that their device should be with 90Hz or 120Hz display feature because these games provide 90 FPS options to the players for smoother gameplay and better graphics, by enabling the players can play games in a better way. If players want to play these games with the 90 FPS feature then they should have a device with a 90Hz or 120Hz feature because without it they will not be able to play the game with the 90FPS option. Today in this article we are going to give a list of those devices of Xiaomi which have been launched with 90Hz or 120Hz display features. It is possible that if some devices are left to be added to this list, then players can visit the official website of Xiaomi for the complete list.
List of Xiaomi devices supports 90FPS optio...
PUBG Mobile Lite is called the Lite version of PUBG Mobile and so far this game has been downloaded by millions of players on their phones. Like PUBG Mobile, developers always release new updates for this game almost every 2 months, in which maps, modes, and many exciting features are added to the game.
PUBG Mobile Lite released the new update 0.22.1 of the game in December 2021 which was just a patch update and this update did not release new maps and modes so players are eagerly waiting for the release of a new update of the game but no official announcement has been made yet. PUBG Mobile Lite 0.22.1 update can be downloaded in 2 ways, firstly from Google Play Store or secondly through APK file. Countries, where the game is not banned, can download it directly from their phone's p...
Xiaomi has recently shared a list of some of its selected devices on the official website, so that if you are using a Xiaomi smartphone model from the list given below, then you can easily increase the RAM of your device by using the RAM extension feature.
List of Xiaomi RAM extension updated list 09 December 2021
Redmi Note 10 Pro 5G
Redmi 10X 4G
Redmi 10X 5G/Pro
Redmi K30 5G
Redmi K30 Ultra
Redmi Note 8
Redmi Note 9 5G
Redmi Note 9T
Redmi Note 10 Pro
Mi 11 Ultra
Mi 10 Pro
Mi 10 Ultra
Mi MIX 4
Mi 10T Lite
Mi 10 Lite Zoom
Mi 11 Pro
All Snapdragon 888, 870, & 865 Phones (except Mi MIX Fold as it is yet to get MIUI 12.5)
POCO X3 GT
POCO X3 NFC


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IF NOTHING ELSE, our auction of an NFT was entertaining—and lucrative. Starting on Monday October 25th The Economist invited bids for a non-fungible token of an image of our recent cover on decentralised finance. NFTs are a digital property deed that lives on a blockchain and can be bought on financial platforms using digital currencies. At one point, a club of would-be bidders formed a decentralised autonomous organisation, called “RabbitHoleDAO”, to try to crowd-source enough funds to buy our token. A scramble of bids forced the winner, who went by the alias @9x9x9, to make an offer of 99.9 ether—around $420,000. The proceeds, net of fees, taxes and transaction costs, will be donated to The Economist Educational Foundation, an independent charity we support.
Plenty of others are having fun, too. Pokémon-style NFTs are being bred by a quarter of a million users of Axie Infinity, a video game. Armies of art fans trade digital collectables. NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain are today worth $14bn, up from $340m in 2020. Jefferies, an investment bank, thinks the total will reach $80bn by 2025.
At this point you may well have a nagging doubt: what exactly do the owners of NFTs get? The best way of thinking about this is that NFTs are a way to unbundle property rights. Having legal title to a conventional asset typically confers a standard set of benefits. With a house, car or company stock, your title brings proof of ownership, the right to exclusive use, the ability to charge for its use by others and the right to receive the proceeds of a sale.
In high finance it is common, with the help of pricey lawyers, to slice and dice elements of these rights, as with a derivatives contract. But this kind of flexibility is not cheaply available to consumers and small firms. NFTs have the potential to change that. In our auction we defined the property rights using the default conditions on the platform. So the new owner of our NFT has rights akin to a licence: they can display the image in certain ways, but cannot commercialise it (by, for instance, selling T-shirts with the image on them). On behalf of the charity we support, we also have the ability to take a 10% cut of any future sale of the token. In theory an NFT sale can embody any combination of property rights designed by the seller. There are other advantages. A public, irrevocable record of the transaction exists on a blockchain and works with other digital applications.
Yet for all their conceptual promise, NFTs have three big practical flaws, as our experiment showed. Despite the slick interface of NFT platforms, the process is a nightmare. It includes setting up a digital wallet, funding it to pay any fees associated with creating an NFT, creating the token and finding a way to convert the proceeds into conventional money in a bank account. For most legal and tax advisers this is all virgin territory. The process is expensive: we paid “gas”, a fancy word for fees, and other levies. In order to become mainstream, applications in decentralised finance will have to be as easy to use as an iPhone and cheaper than dealing with conventional financial intermediaries.
The second problem is energy. Our modest experiment created as many emissions as a seat on a long-haul flight. Most platforms are exploring how to lower their energy use. If NFTs are to be the Next Big Thing, they must innovate their way towards a carbon-neutral footprint.
A third concern is contract enforcement. We hope that this will not be an issue for our token, because the asset—a unique digital representation of a cover image already in wide circulation—will be used within decentralised finance, and there is no obvious incentive to misuse it. But for NFTs that refer to assets outside this self-contained world, such as a patent or a building, the property rights conferred by the NFT may conflict with other contracts, and courts may not recognise the digital agreement.
This is starting to change. A flat in Kyiv changed hands this year, when an NFT representing it was sold in a deal recognised by Ukraine’s authorities. But decentralised finance has a long way to go before it is integrated with the legal system. The to-do list is daunting, but if these problems are resolved, NFTs could yet become more than a token gesture. ■
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "The fun in non-fungible"


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Bernard Arnault, the world’s third richest man, has denied his involvement in setting up a new Belgian crypto trading company Abesix Belgique.
Arnault was reported to be a co-founder of Abesix by Belgian business publication De Tijd on Aug. 28. Subsequently after the publication of the article, De Tijd posted an update that Arnault has formally denied the report.
According to information acquired by De Tijd, young Brussels entrepreneur Emmanuel Wouters is also involved in the founding of Abesix. Abesix itself declined to disclose more information on the matter to De Tijd.
LVMH is not new to blockchain
Arnault, 70, whose estimated net worth reportedly accounts for $96.6 billion at press time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is CEO of the world’s largest luxury-goods company Louis Vuitton SE, commonly referred to as LVMH.
France’s richest man is not new to blockchain technology though. As first reported in March 2019, LVMH teamed up with major blockchain firm ConsenSys and Microsoft Azure to develop a blockchain platform for tracking its products. The new blockchain product, Aura, is scheduled to initially go live with two major LVMH subsidiaries, Louis Vuitton and Parfums Christian Dior.
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Top 10 Pumpkin-Producing States
Halloween is just around the corner, witch (see what we did there??) means pumpkins will be flying off of shelves. While you might be more accustomed to row crops such as corn and soybeans, pumpkins have proven to be a profitable mean of diversification for some farmers.
In 2018, five states produced more than 1 billion pounds of pumpkins—about 40% of total U.S. production, USDA reports. The No. 1 pumpkin-producing state—Illinois—produced twice as many pumpkins as the other four top-producing states, more than 500 million pounds.
This year’s weather did have an impact on pumpkin yields and planting, but Illinois and California are reporting significant-sized crops. Hot weather during summer months hurt pumpkin pollination, reducing pumpkin flowers and fruit.
About 62% of all U.S. pumpkin acres are contained in these 10 states. Pumpkins produced in these states are primarily for pies and other processed foods. Pumpkin production outside of these states is primarily for decorative or carving, according to USDA.
Prices for pumpkins fluctuates, primarily driven by demand. As Halloween approaches prices will likely inch higher. The first week of October 2019 pegged jack-o-lantern style pumpkins at $3.42 per pumpkin, up compared to the same time last year’s price of $3.32.
Pumpkins used for jack-o-lanterns and decoration bring in better prices than those used for food processing.
Like all things in agriculture, on-farm prices received is significantly less than that of retail. However, the average farm in Illinois produces 40,000 pounds per acre (predominantly for processing). From 2016 to 2018 the average price per 100 lbs. of pumpkins ranged from $16 to $20 on-farm. Illinois pumpkins used for processing received the lowest price range at $3 to $6 per 100 lbs.


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Many people suffer from various visual related problems. The following findings by Dr. Mercola will probably shed some lights on how vitamin D3 can benefit people with vision problems.
When most people think of nutrients and eye health, they immediately think “vitamin A. or beta carotene.”
However, new evidence suggests that vitamin D may be more crucial.
New research from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London revealed striking eye benefits from vitamin D3 supplementation in older mice.
Specifically, after receiving the supplement for just six weeks. Improvements included:
Reductions in retinal inflammation and levels of amyloid beta accumulation, which is a hallmark of aging
Significant reductions in retinal macrophage numbers and marked shifts in their morphology (macrophages are immune cells that can cause inflammatory damage)
The findings suggest vitamin D3 may very well help prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. AMD is associated with both amyloid beta accumulation and inflammation, and vitamin D supplementation appears to benefit both of these conditions.
“These changes were reflected in a significant improvement in visual function, revealing that vitamin D3 is a route to avoiding the pace of age-related visual decline. Excess amyloid beta deposition and inflammation are risk factors leading to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the largest cause of blindness in those older than 50 years in developed countries. Recently, vitamin D3 has been linked epidemiologically to protection against age-related macular degeneration. Hence, vitamin D3 enrichment is likely to represent a beneficial route for those at risk.”
As researchers noted, separate research has also implicated vitamin D deficiency in the development of macular degeneration, with those whose vitamin D intake was among the top one-fifth of participants having a 59 percent lower risk of developing AMD compared to women whose intake was among the lowest fifth.1


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Augmented reality is the next big thing: all the important hi-tech companies are already running around planning projects related to this new technology. Intel is the next one, it seems: last week Wall Street Journal published a news, related to an information leak, that gives for granted that the company is working on a new headset.
It seems in fact that, during last times, Intel purchased at least five companies working in the augmented reality field and invested in three other. They spent no less than half a billion dollars in this operation.
Following the rumours, it looks like Intel wants to enter the world of augmented reality headsets creating its own, taking also advantage of their famous 3D RealSense technology, presented at CES in Las Vegas only last January. This possibility would make the project even more interesting, surpassing as well some competitors as HoloLens and HTC Vive: RealSense, in fact, is a system of sensors that permit to scan objects and spaces in three dimensions, transmitting to the device a map of the surrounding complete of depth. This would be an exclusive feature of the headset by Intel and it would help creating a highly enhanced augmented reality vision: the surroundings’ mapping would help the user moving more easily inside the space around him, without the worry of hitting objects and furnitures.
However, don’t expect an headset signed by Intel: the company seems to be interested in creating the project but not in producing it; other companies will do this, of course using RealSense technology. We can also imagine that the new headset will be more robust than a pair of smart glasses: therefore closer to HoloLens than to Google Glass.


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The New Networks — Data Privacy and Content Ownership — Reflections from the 2018 Blockchain Summit in Morocco
Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum said he identified blockchain technology as a way to help artists protect their intellectual property because “a user should be able to own content in a way that rewards the artist. When the blockchain came along, I said, this can happen. And the way it will work is through smart contracts.”
“This feels very rock and roll to me,” Sorum, who now runs communications for Artbit, told a Blockchain Summit panel today on data privacy and content ownership. “Very rebellious.”
Jack Brockway, a photographer and entrepreneur, told summitgoers that we need to identify a way to use blockchain technology to track users who “steal” art.
“People steal art, most of the time through ignorance,” he said. “But can we come up with a concept — an incentive for a deterrent? If you are going to use a photographer’s work, there should be a way to ensure that that photographer will know. And therefore, you will have to pay them for it.”
Sheila Warren, head of the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies project at the World Economic Forum, said part of the challenge is that deterrence costs money. “You can’t engage in deterrence unless you have the funds to support that effort. … And that’s not something that people tend to want, to fund the protection of your content.”
Warren said society today doesn’t honor the creation of IP. “But blockchain blows up the economic model that currently exists for distribution and monetizes it so that the creator of that content is the power player,” she said.
Valery Vavilov, the CEO of Bitfury, said blockchain technology will put people in charge of their own systems, which will empower societies.
“The main issue is that today, we have systems in the middle, and people around the systems. Systems should work for the people, but now the people are working for the systems,” he said. “We should switch that. We should put the person in the middle, and make the systems work for the people. Once you do that, with this technology, you will empower the people, to own the data, to control the date. This is very important.”
Nicole Shanahan, founder and CEO of ClearAccessIP, an integrated patent management technology, said one way to address these challenges is comprehensive patent reform.
“We live in an environment where the top 1 percent of companies own about 70 percent of the IP. That’s a staggering number,” she said. “The way the government issues patents hasn’t changed much in the past 70 years.”
Antoine Dresch, co-founder of Korelya Capital, said Europe is taking a lead in catalyzing blockchain innovation, in part because the technology will drive positive economic and financial realignment on the continent.
“Europe missed the first wave of the internet, which was entirely led by the United States,” he said. “There is a fundamental misalignment of economic interests in the current business models. And it can be solved with tokenization. I’m absolutely convinced of that.”


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Big Movers in the Stock Market
NEW YORK (AP) _ Stocks that were moving substantially or trading heavily Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.
Pep Boys, down 50 cents at $5.25
The car parts retailer announced second-quarter earnings of 7 cents a share, well below Wall Street analysts’ estimates of 30 cents.
Kellwood Co., down 81.20 cents at $16.688
The clothing manufacturer said second-quarter earnings will fall below analysts expectations due to flat sales.
Philip Morris, up $2.625 at $31.25
A Goldman Sachs analyst said shares of the tobacco and food conglomerate could rise 50 percen to 60 percent this year.
Dell Computer, down $4.062 at $37.688
The computer retailer reported second-quarter earnings per share of 22 cents, beating analysts’ expectations by a penny. But revenues fell below projected figures.
Adaptive Broadband, down $7.625 at $23.125
The company posted a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of 20 cents a share from continuing operations, wider than analysts’ expectations of 17 cents. In addition, an analyst at CIBC World Markets downgraded the company’s stock to hold from strong buy.
Verio, up $1.562 at $58.75
The FBI has resolved U.S. national security concerns over Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.’s planned $5.5 billion acquisition of Verio.


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Company says efforts to increase phone's battery life caused device to catch fire prompting an estimated $5.3bn recall.
Samsung has embarked on a campaign to restore its battered reputation [Reuters]
Smartphone giant Samsung has blamed faulty batteries for the fires that hit its flagship Galaxy Note 7 device last year, as it sought to draw a line under a damaging scandal.
The South Korean company was forced to discontinue the smartphone, originally intended to compete with Apple's iPhone, after a chaotic recall that saw replacement devices also catching fire.
The debacle cost the company billions in lost profit and reputation.
COUNTING THE COST: Samsung - Going up in flames (25:54)
Internal and independent investigations "concluded that batteries were found to be the cause of the Note 7 incidents", Samsung said in a statement on Monday.
"We sincerely apologise for the discomfort and concern we have caused to our customers," said Koh Dong-jin, the head of its mobile business, bowing before h


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Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011 | 4:39 p.m.
More arts and entertainment
- Check out Robin Leach's VegasDeLuxe.com for more celebrity and A&E coverage.
Nightclubs on the Strip may be rivals during the year, but during the holidays, they join forces for DJ Chet Buchanan’s 13th Annual Toy Drive. While he’s freezing atop the scaffolding encampment at Nevada Energy for his round-the-clock, 10-day drive, nightclub employees have been busy fundraising and shopping to make donations.
Illusionist Criss Angel from Cirque du Soleil’s “Believe” at the Luxor is just one of the Strip celebrities duplicating their gift giving again this year. Tomorrow, nearly 100 employees of XS and Tryst at the Wynn donate a portion of their earnings and will buy more than $100,000 in gifts at Wal-Mart.
The mountain of toys will be packed into semis and driven to Chet’s collection point. Last year, XS and Tryst co-owner Jesse Waits saw his team deliver $106,000, and with 3 hours of shopping in the morning, he expects to shatter the figure and set a new record.
Surrender at Steve Wynn’s Encore features its Second Annual Toy Drive tomorrow night when dynamic Australian duo Nervo performs. Partygoers who bring new, unwrapped toys receive free admission, and the gifts benefit Las Vegas After-School All-Stars.
Staff at Tao in the Venetian, Lavo in the Palazzo and Marquee at the Cosmopolitan were the first to donate to Chet’s drive with a truck of new bicycles.
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.
Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.
Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.
Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.


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Facebook on Thursday announced it’s rolling out a new Jobs section on the mobile app and via the web interface at facebook.com/jobs. This new feature will allow users to find and apply for hourly-paid job openings advertised on the service by small businesses in the United States and Canada.
Designed for lower-skilled workers and people who aren’t actively looking for a job, the new section is currently in limited testing in the US. Job posts will be accessible through News Feed via a dedicated Jobs tab and promoted on the business’ Facebook Page.
After acquiring machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) startup Turi for a reported $200 million, Apple is now ramping up hiring for its new machine learning division and has spun Turi into that unit, according to job posts first discovered by MacRumors. Apple’s new division should remain in Seattle, where Turi was originally based.
Following setbacks, Apple’s first retail store in Brooklyn, New York City’s most populous borough, could open some time this year.
That’s because the company’s now started a recruiting process for the Brooklyn area. The store should be located at 247 Bedford Avenue, at the corner of North 3rd Street, in Williamsburg.
A series of job post on Apple’s website, first spotted by MacRumors, advertise positions for Creatives, Experts, Geniuses, Specialists, Business Leaders and management, with LinkedIn ads seeking a Retail Manager and Senior Manager specifically in Brooklyn.
An Apple job listing seeking a seasoned Los Angeles, California-based Original Content Video Producer was discovered Monday, our best indication yet that the company is now creating original video content for both Apple Music and iTunes.
A proven track record in producing branded video content and content series for social platforms is required and the ideal candidate will work from Apple-owned Culver City campus, which belonged to Beats before the company was acquired last year by Apple for $3 billion.
Pitchfork recently said that Apple has actually been making music videos for select artists in-house.
Currently, Apple Maps are accessible on the desktop via Mac, on mobile iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices and through your wrist via Maps for Apple Watch.
Providing an HTML-based Maps web app should support any standards-compliant web browser while putting pressure on Google Maps. In addition, Maps as a web service would make it comparable to Microsoft’s Bing Maps, Nokia HERE and other mapping service accessible through the desktop web interface.
Natalie Portman has decided to pass on the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, according to a new report from Variety. Portman was said to be in talks for a lead female role in the movie, either as Jobs’ daughter Lisa or former Mac marketing chief Joanna Hoffman.
Additionally, The Wrap reports today that Universal Pictures is eyeing Jeff Daniels for the role of former Apple CEO John Sculley. If he signs on to the project, Daniels would join fellow Newsroom alumni in writer Aaron Sorkin and producer Scott Rudin.
A new job listing hints the Apple Maps team is working on improving community crowdsourcing, as well as better Siri and Passbook integration. First spotted by 9to5Mac, the listing calls for a ‘Maps Community Client Software Engineer’ to join the Cupertino firm’s growing Maps group.
According to the position’s description, the engineer will focus on “high level UI development of the ‘Report a Problem’ feature.” They’ll also be working on the frameworks and plugins that enable Maps to “integrate deeply and seamlessly with other applications” such as Siri and Passbook.
Apple today released a plethora of freshly-updated stats and pretty charts that paint a rosy picture of the company’s positive contributions to the European job market and the continents’s economy as a whole.
The so-called app economy is now sustaining half a million jobs across Europe, with a total of 629,000 jobs created or supported by Apple in Europe. Apple paid out $6.5 billion to European app developers so far, representing nearly out-third of the $20 billion the company paid to developers globally.
I’ve include additional stats and key charts right after the break…


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The Mayor, Boris Johnson, said:
"It is absolutely fantastic to have someone of Raymond's calibre spearheading our drive to help the food industry wake up to the power of apprenticeships.
"From restaurants and bars to shops and suppliers, the capital's food industry is a booming trade that has huge potential to give thousands of young Londoners their first big break on the career ladder.
"With 100,000 apprenticeships now under our belt I believe this vibrant sector of our economy can play an increasingly important role in helping to swell that number even further."
More top news
The London boroughs of Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Hackney and the City of London were all found to be lagging behind.
An open letter by residents said they wanted to ensure justice is served for everyone on the estate.
The world's first ever 'hole in the wall' was installed in Enfield, north London, on June 27 1967.


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One of Uganda’s most prominent fashion designers, Fatumah Nakaziba a.k.a Fatumah Asha is exhilarated after being invited to feature in Europe’s largest African fashion show.
Widely known for her glamorous wedding and red-carpet outfits, Fatumah Asha will be showcasing several of her designs at the 2019 Africa Fashion Week in London on August 9th and August 10th at Freemason’s Hall.
Marking the ninth edition, the event which will happen over two days will feature showcases in modelling, catwalks, colorful exhibitions, and so much more by various top designers from around the world.
The Africa Fashion Week London aims at recognizing and celebrating fashion from established and emerging African designers as they get exposed to a wider global audience.
It is not the first time that Fatumah Asha will be showcasing her work at International fashion events after she featured at the Accra Fashion Week and the Nairobi Fashion Week in 2018.
She has worked with several top celebrities including Rema Namakula, Tina Teise, Natasha Sinayobye, Bettinah Tianah, Hellen Lukoma, Sheilah Gashumba, Pia Pounds, among others.
Congratulations Fatumah, keep waving the flag!
Read Also: THROWBACK | Top 25 fashionistas of 2018


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Walmart is the latest company to file a lawsuit against some of the country’s top poultry companies, claiming that the broiler industry conspired to drive up the price of chicken.
In its suit, filed in the Western District of Arkansas, the nation’s largest retailer alleged that certain poultry companies conspired to raise prices by sharing proprietary data and curtailing the supply over the period from 2008 to 2016.
The lawsuit’s claims are similar to those of other suits that have been filed against leading poultry companies. However, one significant difference is some of the companies that were sued in lawsuits alleging poultry industry collusion were absent from the latest piece of litigation.
The defendant poultry companies in the lawsuit include Pilgrim’s Pride, Koch Foods, Sanderson Farms, House of Raeford Farms, Mar-Jac Poultry, Perdue Farms, Wayne Farms, O.K. Foods, Peco Foods, Harrison Poultry, Foster Farms, Claxton Poultry, Mountaire Farms, Amick Farms and Case Foods. Agri Stats is also listed as a defendant.
However, Walmart, which is headquartered in Arkansas, did not include Tyson Foods, Simmons Foods or George’s in its lawsuit. All three companies are also based in Arkansas. Tyson’s and George’s headquarters are in Springdale, while Simmons’ headquarters are in Siloam Springs.
Not all Arkansas companies, however, were immune to the lawsuit. O.K. Foods, the U.S. subsidiary of Mexican company Bachoco, is headquartered in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
A report from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), revealed that Walmart accounts for more than 17 percent of Tyson’s consolidated sales over the past three fiscal years, reported the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Other companies to file lawsuits alleging poultry industry collusion include Darden Restaurants, B.J.’s Wholesale Club, Kroger, Albertsons Companies, Hy-Vee, Kraft Heinz, Conagra Brands, Nestle and Pinnacle Foods.
Fieldale Farms had been targeted in an earlier lawsuit and decided to reach a settlement. The settlement was not an admission of guilt, but rather a means for the business to no longer be distracted with the litigation.


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Apple supplier Foxconn, which has very publicly come under fire over concerns about its allegedly dismal labour practices, has been taken to court by the family of a worker who suffered brain damage following an accident in a factory in southern China, Reuters has reported (opens in new tab).
Zhang Tingzhen, a 26-year-old engineer, was struck by an electric shock in a Foxconn factory last year, prompting doctors to surgically remove nearly half his brain and leaving him with permanent brain damage. But Foxconn threatened to stop paying for Tingzhen’s treatment and expenses if he was not moved from Shenzhen to Huizhou, the city where the company says he was hired.
Tingzhen’s father, Zhang Guangde, has challenged the company’s claims, arguing in court that his son was actually hired in Shenzhen, where worker pay and compensation is substantially higher than it is 70km away in Huizhou.
"Our evidence includes hospital correspondences, notice of hospitalization, factory salary slips, colleague declarations, they all point to the time and place of his injury and his employment being in Shenzhen," said Zhang Xiaotan, a lawyer for the family.
According to labour rights activists, this is a reflection of a typical scheme in China, wherein firms hire workers in low-wage cities like Huizhou and then send them to work in more expensive cities like Shenzhen, while keeping them on their original contracts with lower compensation.
Foxconn has not yet commented on the issue, which is sure to draw more attention to the contractor. In recent months, the company’s factories, where Apple’s iPads and iPhones are manufactured, have seen riots and other unrest (opens in new tab). Foxconn has also admitted to using underage labour at its Chinese factories (opens in new tab), though it has promised to improve its practices and working conditions.


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The latest retail figures from BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor show Food growth stood at 5.4% for the year.
Over the three months to December, Food sales increased 6.8% on a Like-for-like basis and 7.3% on a Total basis. This is higher than the 12-month Total average growth of 5.4%.
For the month of December, Food was in growth year-on-year.
Susan Barratt, CEO of IGD, said, “December 2020 saw the highest ever festive spending in the UK food and grocery retail sector and was largely in line with the elevated trend through the year.
'Tightening restrictions across much of the country limited other sales channels and enabled supermarkets to get the full benefit of people celebrating with food and drink.
'Though last-minute changes put the brakes on larger family gatherings, shoppers nevertheless sought to make up for their disappointments by trading up to treat themselves and their immediate households with premium and luxury lines.
“IGD’s Shopper Confidence Index remained stable in December, boosted by the introduction of new vaccines for COVID-19. Focus turned to Christmas food shopping and there was a significant uplift in online grocery shopping over the festive period.
'Shopper confidence will remain fragile as shoppers grapple with the impact of the new national lockdown, economic downturn and a new relationship with the EU.”
(source: BRC-KPMG, image: pexels)


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The “in” thing seems to be having a live action trailer for your upcoming game, preferably put together by a name movie director. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 has now joined this club.
The Division 2 is garnering a lot of pre-release buzz, and the recent beta went down a storm. Now, Hideo Kojima’s mate and Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn has helmed the live action promo for the upcoming online shooter.
There will be an open beta from March 1 through 4, with the game proper releasing on March 15 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.


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By Greg Gao
Chinese EV giant BYD rose to the second place in global EV sales with a market share of 11.2%, behind Tesla in the 2nd quarter of 2022, according to the latest data of market research firm TrendForce.
The global total sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in the second quarter of 2022 reached 2.192 million units, a year-on-year increase of 53.5%.
The new car market remained under the shadow of supply chain shortages and the pandemic in the second quarter of 2022. But NEVs, including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles, still outperformed gasoline vehicles and maintained positive growth.
Sales of battery electric vehicles (BEV) reached 1.608 million units, a year-on-year increase of 64.9%, and sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) were 580,000 units, surging 29% year-on-year, showed the TrendForce data.
BYD ranked second after Tesla and its global market share has risen from 9.3% in the first quarter to 11.2%.
With a string of car models, BYD landed the sixth of the top 10 ranks in the second quarter of 2022 due to their huge market advantages. It is worth mentioning that luxury automakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz have climbed to 12th and 14th place after accelerating their transition to BEVs.
In terms of PHEVs, BYD ranked 1st with sales of 173,000 units in the 2nd quarter, and a market share of 29.8%. In addition to Li Auto - another automaker focusing on PHEVs that made it into the ranking, the top 10 also includes MG (acquired by Shanghai Automobile) and LYNK & CO - a joint venture established by Geely Automobile and Volvo, thanks to the booming demand in China’s domestic market.
In BEV brand rankings, although EV pioneer Tesla still tops the list, its market share has dropped sharply and the company’s single-quarter market share has dropped from 20.1% in the first quarter to a new low of 15.9%.
Due to the loss of production capacity in Tesla’s Shanghai plant in April caused by the city’s COVID-19 lockdown measures and the fact that mass production has yet to begin at the company’s Berlin plant and Texas plant, capacity allocation has become a headache for Tesla. At present, in addition to industriously increasing the mass production capacity of its new plants, Tesla is also upgraded its Shanghai plant in July to increase production capacity.
However, TrendForce believes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for Tesla to recover greater market share as traditional automakers are narrowing the gap with Tesla including in accelerating vehicle launches, increasing the model varieties, strengthening factory manufacturing capabilities, and accelerating iterations of assisted driving systems.
Although many obstacles remain for the production processes of the automotive market, TrendForce remains optimistic, expecting conditions to gradually improve in the second half of 2022. The penetration rate of NEVs in the overall automotive market is to reach 13% in 2022, TrendForce noted.
BYD plans to establish a sodium-ion battery plant in eastern China’s Xuzhou with an investment of RMB10 billion ($1.4 billion)11-20 17:51
European Commission President von der Leyen will visit China in wake of the EU’s ongoing probe into China’s subsidies on EV industries11-20 16:59
Chinese auto giant Changan Automobile plans to launch eight self-developed battery cells in the future11-20 16:26


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A Bullish Global Business Travel Forecast, Shadowed by Geopolitical Risks
Posted at 12:10 p.m. on July 28, 2014
Spending on global business travel will reach $1.18 trillion this year, nearly 7 percent higher than in 2013, according to a forecast issued Monday by the Global Business Travel Association Foundation.
The United States remains the top market for business travel, with $274 billion spent on business trips in 2013.
But business travel in China grew at 15 percent in 2013, a far faster rate than in the United States, with total business travel expenditures at $225 billion in China.
The business travel forecast notes that “risks to our relatively upbeat forecast are palpable,” pointing to “the relatively fragile state of Europe, financial challenges in many emerging markets, and current geopolitical conditions.”
Last year, the report said, aggregate global spending on business travel grew by 4.5 percent, but it is “still somewhat restrained by the uncertainty in both developed and emerging markets.”
The report said that the Asia Pacific region is the largest business travel region, with 38 percent of the world’s business travel.
“Business travel spending in the Asia Pacific region has grown 7.5%, annually, since 2000, more than doubling in size,” the report said. “We expect that business travel spending in the region will grow at a 10.2% annual pace over the next five years.”
Even though the report was written before the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine on July 17 by a surface-to-air missile, it does note that “the Ukrainian situation poses a major risk to both the Russian and European economic outlook. An escalating Ukrainian crisis could push Europe and Russia into recession.”
It also says “the biggest impediment to business travel growth in Emerging Europe comes from the Ukrainian crisis and plummeting business travel activity in Russia.”
The data analysis for the report was done by Rockport Analytics, a consulting firm based in West Chester, Pa.


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In addition the New York-based firm has significantly beefed up its existing online tools. The moves expand upon the tech start-up's model of providing clients with financial advice augmented by online educational and planning tools.
"Our clear mission is to make financial planning not a luxury," said Alexa von Tobel, LearnVest's chief executive officer. "We think technology can improve this, not only for planners, but customers," she said.
The company expects to have 50 advisors, who must be certified financial planners, on staff by the fall, both full and part-time. Part of the appeal to advisors who might be considering moonlighting is simple: not having to find clients. Plus, unlike some of its competitors that have set up shop as broker/dealers, LearnVest will not be selling financial products, leaving advisors with one job: providing financial advice.
"What's really powerful about this is we don't sell products, so at the end of the day, we can provide the most trusted advice to our customer," she said.
The announcement is the latest in a burst of activity over the last few years from a flock of young technology companies scrambling to serve the neglected mass market. Their larger competitors have taken note: this summer LPL's NestWise unit announced it would buy LearnVest's closest competitor, Veritat Advisors. That fee-only RIA was the brainchild of Wharton professor Kent Smetters.
Although the idea of using technology to bring down the costs of serving otherwise non-profitable customers is attractive, it has also had vocal critics. Some of the early entrants boasted of putting traditional advisors out of business, as TurboTax had thinned the herd of tax preparers. However, many have been largely using algorhythms to create simple, low-cost indexed portfolios for clients, without offering access to advisors. And for that reason, the entire breed has been tarred with the epithet "robo-advisor."
Many critics, including Michael Kitces, a CFP at Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia, Md., have derided the start-ups, insisting that technology is no replacement for the human connection.
"The simple reason why robo-advisors are no threat to real advisors is that the services they offer are nothing like the comprehensive financial planning process offered by a true financial planner," Kitces wrote in his blog. "For better and for worse, the low cost offering of at least the current suite of robo advisors generally begins and ends with setting an asset allocation. In other words, they're not actually financial advisors at all. They're investment advisers; in fact, most of them are actually RIAs simply operating a basic assets-under-management asset gathering business model," he wrote in his blog this summer.
LearnVest's von Tobel strongly rejects the robo-advisor label, pointing out that what sets her firm apart is clients' "unlimited" access to their own, designated, live CFP, via phone and email. Plus, by being advice-only, her firm avoids the asset-gathering charge. Here, she believes "discount advisor" is a more accurate term.
Yet, whatever it's called, unlimited access is expensive. Under LearnVest's new three-tiered pricing model, clients pay from $89 to $599 a year for unlimited access to their planner. However, the majority of the contact for most clients will be over email. Budget Starter, at $89, gets clients one diagnostic phone call to help create a budget, followed by three months of unlimited email support. The Five-Year Planner, for $349, buys a diagnostic call with plus quarterly phone check-ins and one year of unlimited email support. The Portfolio Builder, for $599, gets five-year financial goals and investment guidance, via the same diagnostic phone call, three quarterly check-ins and a year of unlimited email support.
Although at first blush, it may look skimpy to the uninitiated retail customer, four phone calls a year would probably be generous for many small clients at a traditional RIA. Von Tobel said after extensive feedback from clients, the firm concluded that quarterly check-ins were best.
LearnVest's clients run the gamut from those with zero assets to $12 million; the average paying customer is earning over $100,000. (The site also offers some planning tools for free.)
Von Tobel would not disclose how many clients LearnVest has, saying the board of directors is keeping that information under wraps until the company's next round of news, expected to come in four months.


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Decor store chain founder, Kirkland, dies at 77
UNION CITY, Tenn. - Friends and family members say Robert Kirkland, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who built a national chain of home decor stores and donated $100 million to found the Discovery Park of America education center and tourist attraction in northwest Tennessee, has died at age 77.
Kirkland's son, Chris, told The Associated Press that his father died Saturday morning from complications stemming from kidney failure. A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday at Discovery Park, which will be closed to the general public on that day.
Kirkland was born in Newberry, South Carolina, but he lived in Union City for much of his life. In 1966, he and cousin Carl Kirkland founded the Kirkland's home decor stores, which expanded into a chain of more than 300 locations in 35 states.
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The digital asset trading platform Coinwin has successfully entered the U.S. market, which will expedite its global market strategy deployment.
- S&P 500, Dow close slightly up; Nvidia gains after the bell
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NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, Nov. 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On September 15th, it was announced that the digital asset trading platform Coinwin has successfully entered the U.S. market after obtaining the necessary qualifications and completing registration with the U.S. government. Coinwin also plans to establish branches in the U.S. shortly, hire staff to operate, and provide compliant and efficient services for local individuals and businesses engaged in digital currency transactions. Additionally, this move is expected to create new opportunities for the global adoption of digital economics.
According to a data report released by market analysts within the Coinwin exchange, due to a significant increase in investment capital in the blockchain technology sector, the global blockchain revenue is projected to reach $6 billion in 2023. It is further estimated that by the end of 2035, the global blockchain market will generate $169 billion in revenue. This indicates a promising future for the blockchain economy. Coinwin intends to leverage this market opportunity as part of its global expansion strategy, aiming to boost its business revenue and profits.
When looking at the regional presence in the global blockchain market, Coinwin's strategic move is noteworthy. In the global market, approximately 30% of Americans own at least one form of cryptocurrency, and many businesses recognize the attributes of cryptocurrencies. It is anticipated that by 2035, the Americas will have the largest market share in the cryptocurrency market. Coinwin's competitive team positions it well to thrive in this context, and its presence will offer the U.S. digital economy market greater room for imagination in future development.
Coinwin was founded in 2018 in Singapore. Over the years, it has established operational centers in several countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Europe, and more. With its recent entry into the American market, Coinwin aims to make people aware that trading in cryptocurrencies can be done safely and securely. The company's initial offerings will include trading for five digital currencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Additionally, they will provide localized products and services to cater to the needs of the local users.
In the past few years, Coinwin has consistently prioritized security, transparency, and a user-centric approach. This approach has gained recognition from the government, the public, and the media, and it has been well-received in the capital markets. Notable supporters include several globally renowned venture capital firms and international banks. People have been discussing Coinwin's foray into the emerging market, expressing various reasons for their involvement, ranging from the desire to diversify their investment portfolios to a strong belief in its potential to revolutionize security and decentralized currency.
Coinwin also intends to actively expand its presence in overseas markets in the future, guided by the principle of sustainable development. This will enable global digital economic transactions to spread economic and social benefits, transforming the way people live and consume worldwide, while also providing everyone with more rewarding opportunities.
The information provided in this release is not investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. Cryptocurrency transactions carry inherent risks. Users of SpeedyPostage are responsible for conducting their research, ensuring compliance with local regulations, and using the service responsibly. SpeedyPostage or the publisher is not liable for any losses or issues related to cryptocurrency usage for postage services.
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Someone tried to steal a cartload of merchandise from Wal-Mart on Wednesday.
State College police say a woman filled her cart with $250 in items at the Benner Pike store but tried to leave without paying. The woman is unidentified due to pending charges.
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Eau Claire (WQOW) - A major development announcement Tuesday still has a lot of people talking.
Tuesday, we learned about the Confluence Project in Downtown Eau Claire. A public-private partnership wants to build a community arts center and a six-story building that would be home to commercial and retail space, along with student housing.
As mentioned Tuesday night, we have questions about the businesses that may have to be relocated for the project to happen.
"Moving our chocolate equipment would probably be the most problematic" says Obsession Chocolate owner Rebecca Flynn.
This is one of the issues Rebecca could foresee if her shop were to relocate.
Flynn says, "I did find out yesterday about the Confluence Project, I knew something was up earlier because I was told by my landlord to expect an announcement around the 15th."
Right now the expansion of the downtown project to part of Barstow Street is not a sure thing.
"The expansion to North Barstow involves some community dialogue about balancing the historic preservation and the likelihood of somebody actually investing in those buildings to restore them" says Commonweal Development Vice President Dan Clumpner.
"When I first heard about it I was very concerned but there's just no need until we know for one hundred percent certainty what's going to happen" says Flynn.
Clumpner says if businesses along this stretch are relocated... They'll be given about a year to do so once decisions are made.
He says, "We intend to communicate with each directly and individually within the next week or so. But we'll start working with them immediately on the process."
"Obsession Chocolate has always been a destination business, in other words our customers find us. Getting the word out to the customers is oftentimes the most problematic, making sure they know where we've moved to. That would probably be the most difficult of moving" says Flynn.
But for now... Flynn says, "Business as usual until the usual becomes... Not."
We did ask about the negotiation process between developers and businesses. Developers told us they weren't comfortable talking about that.
They did tell us they're currently working on state funding which, they hope, will support more than half of the community arts center. Altogether, the project is expected to cost around 85-million dollars.


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Woodhead celebrated Earth Hour with a candlelit cocktail party on Saturday 26 March. Sydney’s Orbit Bar provided stunning 360-degree views of the city during the hour-long blackout.
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What makes a prodigy? Let’s ask this year’s partner for the 2018 INDE.Award for The Prodigy: Cosentino.
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Microsoft: Windows Phones sales will top Apple in China
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Bloomberg reports that Chinese officials for Microsoft didn't spell out a timeline for when Windows Phones will outsell Apple's, but added that China is a huge smartphone market, expected to be the world's largest this year, surpassing the U.S.
Microsoft's Windows Phones will have a way to go to catch Google Inc.'s Android smartphones in China, which dominate the market currently with 70 percent of the Chinese market. But Microsoft officials say that topping Google's Android is a long-term goal in the Chinese market.
Microsoft is also looking at opening retail stores in China.
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According to the US Travel Association, estimates of job losses from the coronavirus outbreak in the travel industry are worse than initially believed.
Revised projections indicate a deteriorating effect of coronavirus on the U.S. economy: a loss of 5.9 million jobs due to declining travel by the end of April, according to statistics released by the U.S. Travel Association and the economics of tourism on Tuesday.
U.S. Travel urges the inclusion in the “Phase III” Coronavirus package being negotiated in Congress of numerous relief measures for travel businesses, including:
- Access to more significant small business loans that have immediate access to retain employees to meet critical expenses during shutdown.
- A Workplace Stability Program to support small and large travel companies maintain their jobs and stay solvent.
- Tax relief to help reduce economic losses.
New research from the US Travel Association also forecasts an estimated loss of $910 billion in travel-related economic activity by 2020, seven times the effect of 9/11, and the organization estimates that the recession in the travel sector alone would force the US economy into a deep recession.


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The slashing of marketing budgets by big spenders on Madison Avenue already has hit Hollywood pretty hard. But the biz should brace itself to feel the brunt of reduced spending this year.
The Oscars, long a favorite for major advertisers, generated $72 million for ABC this year, down from $81 million last year, TNS Media Intelligence reported.
The web sold 26 minutes of ad time during the kudocast. It filled six minutes and 20 seconds with network promos, the most since 2006.
The tough economy forced ABC to charge $1.4 million per 30-second spot in an effort to sell the inventory. That’s comparably less than the $1.7 million it brought in last year per spot.
The reason is this year’s show saw heavyhitters like General Motors and L’Oreal ankle for the first time. They’d been Oscar’s biggest buyers in the past.
In fact, GM had spent the most — $105 million over the past decade to promote its vehicles during the show.
Departure created an opportunity for other companies like Hyundai, Coca-Cola and JC Penney, who each had eight spots, as well as Audi, Sprint Nextel, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoover and Maytag to take over the time to promote their own brands at a cheaper price.
Disney and Paramount also pushed their pics during the show; this was the first time pics could be promoted during the broadcast.
But the Academy Awards could be a sign of things to come.
Procter & Gamble has hinted that it will slash spending by as much as $80 million, with much of that currently going to television.
This week, GM, the nation’s biggest automaker, disclosed that it would slash $800 million from its North American marketing budget in 2009, due to devastatingly slow sales. This week it reported a net loss of nearly $31 billion for 2008.
Troubled automaker is seeking billions in federal bailout funding and is now close to bankruptcy, forcing the company to carefully reconsider all of the marketing dollars it doles out.
Earlier plans had called for GM to cut $600 million in marketing by 2012, but a worsening economy forced it to hasten cutbacks.
Ironically, move comes months before GM’s cars and trucks are prominently featured as the shape-shifting stars of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” that Paramount will distrib this summer. Original 2007 blockbuster was essentially considered a glorified infomercial for the automaker and its vehicles’ roles as the heroic ‘bots is even bigger in the sequel.
Considering its financial woes, automaker isn’t likely to spend any marketing dollars to promote its tie-in with the pic, however.
Without the General’s dollars in the overall ad mix, television networks could face a serious problem this May when they roll out their new fall slate for marketers.
Media buyers may be interested in the new crop of programs, but they may just not have the money to buy time in those series.
Analysts like Jack Myers already anticipate TV ad buying will drop by as much as 15% and that there will be no media turnaround until mid-2010. He expects overall U.S. advertising to drop as much as 10% this year.
On the bright side, ABC’s tally for this year’s Academy Awards still bested the show’s 2004 broadcast.
“This year’s tumultuous economic climate was both a boon and a bane to ABC’s Academy Awards telecast,” said Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media Intelligence. “While several major advertisers dropped out of this year’s event, it allowed new brands to participate. Despite a challenging business climate and an overall downward trend in audience ratings, marketers understand the unique power of TV advertising for marquee events such as the Academy Awards.”


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In a flurry of tweets Wednesday evening, Nintendo is on quite the roll to round out January 2018. In addition to announcing a release month for their paid online service and announcing a new Mario Kart mobile title, Nintendo of America has announced that Nintendo is in talks with Illumination Entertainment, […] Read More
Taking to Twitter yet again today, Nintendo of America has announced its latest mobile app, Mario Kart Tour, and that it will be launching sometime during fiscal year 2019. The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart […] Read More
We finally have a release window for Nintendo Switch’s paid online service! According to a tweet from the official Nintendo of America Twitter account, the premium online service will be launching in September 2018. #NintendoSwitch Online will launch in September 2018! pic.twitter.com/h3Rpeyymsx — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018 […] Read More
We’re finally back after a looooooooong holiday break! Join Nick and Chris as they react to the recent Nintendo Direct Mini, discuss everything Nintendo Labo, explore a potentially odd investor plan for a RollerCoaster Tycoon Switch game, and much more!
As an increasing number of party games hit Nintendo Switch, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up. Though aimed at only one or two players, two new games from developer Vile Monarch, Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator and Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast are out now on the Switch eShop. Originally developed for […] Read More
The first patch for Nine Parchments on Nintendo Switch is now live, and it brings a host of welcome improvements. The main attraction here is that the game finally supports multiple save slots, what we considered to be the game’s chief issue in our review. Here’s the full changelog (from a Frozenbyte […] Read More
After last week’s surprising (or not-so-surprising) Nintendo Direct Mini, surely Nintendo had played their full hand for early 2018, right? Apparently not, as today Nintendo unveiled their new DIY peripheral initiative, Nintendo Labo. Coming in two flavors (the Toy-Con 1 Variety Kit for $69.99 USD and the Toy-Con 2 Robot […] Read More


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SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls the California lottery an “underperforming asset” and there’s solid evidence that the state does rake in fewer dollars per resident than many others in the lottery business.
But exactly how would the state double lottery profits – the centerpiece of the governor’s plan to close a $15.2 billion budget deficit?
Consider these possibilities: How about playing the lottery online? Or sliding your credit card into a machine to buy tickets, instead of waiting in line to fork over cash to a convenience store teller? Actually, forget the convenience store – how about purchasing a $10 or $20 scratcher (most tickets now go for $1 to $3) on the way out of Target or Costco? Or while you’re waiting to catch a flight at the airport?
As legislators take up the governor’s lottery plan and its lure of an immediate $15 billion check, they will have to decide where to draw the line. Many Democrats cringe at the thought of state government aggressively peddling tickets, convinced that it’s mostly poor people blowing their grocery money who buy them.
But there’s a rub: The governor is depending on investors to front the $15 billion he seeks from the lottery, but the more the Legislature regulates the games, the less money those investors are likely to pay. And the less California gets from the lottery, the more it will have to cut programs or raise taxes.
“If we’re going to expand it, we need to figure out how, and what’s the right mix,” said state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, an expansion proponent who is chairman of a committee that oversees the lottery. Florez said it would be appropriate to sell tickets at popular retail outlets like Costco, but not at schools or universities. And he would balk at aggressively marketing toward young adults; people 18 or older are now allowed to buy tickets.
“I would not want to see marketing with ‘American Idol’ or Snoop Dogg or MTV type of themes,” he said.
There are two ways to ramp up sales: Sell more tickets where they’re sold now, or add more outlets. The state is already trying to do both, but the governor’s plan would increase those efforts many-fold, said Lottery Director Joan Borucki.
The lottery is hamstrung by restrictions voters put in place when they approved it in 1984. The rules, which Schwarzenegger wants voters to waive in a November ballot initiative, require that 34 percent of revenues be devoted to education, and at least half go toward prizes, with the rest for administration of the lottery.
What that means is lottery players are less likely to win in California than elsewhere: Of every dollar played, 54 cents is returned in prizes. Other states offer a payout as high as 72 cents. Some states that have boosted prize payouts have seen revenues double.
Research also shows California lags in the number of retailers selling tickets relative to the population. Borucki said the state needs to fix both shortcomings, which she said work hand in hand: The lottery has a poor image because people don’t win often enough, and that makes retail outlets less willing to sell tickets.
“When all of a sudden you have a lot more winners and a lot more excitement, the brand image will improve and you won’t have as much of a negative image,” Borucki said. That image “stems from people not seeing anybody winning, not hearing about winners, and they’re not sure who’s getting all the lottery money. And we’re not selling tickets where everybody shops, so there’s not a lot of convenience.”
All that would presumably change if voters relax the lottery rules. But Schwarzenegger’s plan has to win bipartisan legislative support to make it to the ballot, and some Democrats are wary of a huge lottery expansion.
More places to buy
To make the governor’s proposal pencil out, the state would have to start selling tickets in places like laundries, movie theaters and airports, predicted Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. “Maybe even a bus stop,” Yee said.
Borucki, the lottery director, didn’t deny that; she said the state would look to install self-serve terminals in popular retail outlets. Outdated terminals would be replaced with ones that take credit cards, and new games with poker and blackjack themes likely would be introduced. (To avoid drawing opposition from American Indian tribes, the state does not contemplate offering video terminal gambling.)
“We’d be basing our budget on the weaknesses of people, and I think that’s a horrible way of banking your future,” Yee said.
The lottery has collected data it says shows that those who play reflect the state’s population as a whole. But Yee and others don’t believe it.
“They are individuals living paycheck to paycheck, and instead of buying food or clothes,” he said, “they’re going to spend it in on the lottery.”
However the debate unfolds, one thing is certain: Doubling lottery profits from $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion, as Schwarzenegger’s plan envisions, would be nothing short of a massive undertaking.
“It’s one of the most ambitious goals to increase lottery sales that I’m aware of,” said Jason Dickerson, a lottery expert at the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. “I’m not sure you’re going to find anything comparable.”
Contact Mike Zapler at firstname.lastname@example.org or (916) 441-4603.


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Even though a majority of us here at The Flickcast use smartphones made by Apple, that doesn’t mean we only care about iOS or things from Cupertino. We also like Android quite a bit too. And when a new smartphone is reportedly ready to be announced by Google itself, we pay particular attention.
That phone is the much-discussed “X Phone.” And now we’ve got a picture (or two) of it, curtesy of gadget blog Tinthe.tn, so you can see exactly what it’s all about.
From the pics we can say that the device does look a lot like other Android smartphones, particularly those from Samsung. Not that that’s a bad thing. In addition to the pics, there’s also info about the internals of the device.
It’s reported to sport “an HD display measuring about 4.7 inches diagonally, 32GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM and a nearly stock version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The phone will reportedly ship with protective skins available in as many as 25 different colors.”
As to when we can expect and actual announcement of the this new device? Well, with Google I/O coming up soon, it’s probably a safe bet we’ll hear something about it there. We’ll keep you posted.


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A look at the week's top news from Los Angeles tech, including Snap Inc.'s efforts to guide users through its augmented reality functions.
Snapchat maker Snap Inc. is saying 'Hallo' to media outlets in Germany with the launch of its Discover section in the country. Bild, Spiegel Online, Sky Sport, and Vice will begin publishing content in German on Snapchat starting April 25, a Snap spokesperson told Business Insider. Show More Summary
Snapchat is looking to geofilters as the next source of growth for its fledgling ad business. Starting Monday, Snapchat maker Snap Inc. is allowing its ad partners in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada to sell and manage sponsored geofilters,...Show More Summary
Snap, Inc., the company behind Snapchat, is branding itself as a hardware company. What hardware does Snap make? Spectacles, or a camera attached to a pair of sunglasses. Snap, Inc. has a market value of around $30 Billion USD. For his Hackaday Prize entry, [William Glover] is building a device that’s easily worth $100 Billion. Show More Summary
Snapchat app maker Snap Inc. has reportedly paid $7.7 million for the rights to a patent application from the entrepreneur behind the Yo app. According to reports in GeekTime and TechCrunch, Snap earlier this month purchased the pending geolocation patent from Mobli, whose co-founder, Moshe Hegog,...
Taking a page from the book of its fellow technology giants, Snap Inc. is stocking up on intellectual property in a bid to prepare against potential litigation. Anonymous sources told TechCrunch on Thursday that the messaging giant has...Show More Summary
Snap, Inc., the company behind Snapchat, just paid a staggering $7.7 million to acquire a “geofilters” patent and prevent it being snapped up by Facebook. It is believed to be “by far the highest amount paid” for a single patent in Israel — the previous record was less than half that — and it goes […] (via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)
Australian supermodel and beauty entrepreneur Miranda Kerr is a seperate person from her fiancee, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel. But you wouldn't know it from the hectic trolling she's receiving on social media. The hashtag #UninstallSnapchat...Show More Summary
Oracle Corp. has acquired digital measurement firm Moat Inc. for an undisclosed price. Founded in 2010, Moat assists advertisers and publishers manage and track online advertising with a range of tools, starting with a free search engine for display ads through to paid services including ad measurement, analytics, and intelligence. Show More Summary
Snap Inc. is a camera company, and on the day of F8, Facebook's annual conference for developers, they want to remind the tech industry, Wall Street, and their loyal users of that mission. Snapchat is launching new world lenses, anShow More Summary
The stock price for Snap Inc. just fell below $20. Goldman Sachs: Buy, $27 price target Morgan Stanley: Overweight, $28 price target Citi: Buy, $27 price target RBC: Outperform, $31 price target Jefferies: Buy, $30 price target Oppenheimer:...Show More Summary
The stock price for Snap Inc. just fell below $20. Shares of the parent company behind messenger Snapchat have been on a wild ride since the company's IPO. The stock rallied from $17 to $27 in its first two days of trading, only to tumble...Show More Summary
The campaign was in response to disparaging remarks about the country allegedly made by Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel, who reportedly called it "poor."
Snapchat maker Snap Inc. is denying that its CEO, Evan Spiegel, once said the app is "only for rich people" and that he doesn't "want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain." The quote, which Snap is calling "ridiculous,"...Show More Summary
The latest app to delete? Snapchat. Snapchat users in India have been deleting the app since learning about a comment allegedly made by Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel in 2015. “This app is only for rich people,” Spiegel allegedly said at the time, during discussions about Snapchat's overseas growth. Show More Summary
After months of relentlessly copying Snap Inc.'s features for its own version of vertical video, Instagram says it now has 200 million people using the Stories feature on a daily basis. Today, the Facebook-owned platform announced the latest total, putting it ahead of Snapchat's own official count of 158 million. (Snap Inc. reported the total...
(Reuters) — Chinese internet firm Baidu Inc has agreed to acquire U.S. computer vision firm xPerception for an undisclosed amount to support their renewed efforts in artificial intelligence as Chinese tech firms face regulatory headwinds in U.S. Show More Summary
Earlier this year, a former Snapchat employee named Anthony Pompliano filed suit against Snap Inc. for inflating user numbers and flat-out lying to investors about the company's long-term potential for growth. Pompliano's lawsuit was originally filed this past January, albeit in redacted form. Show More Summary
This post originally appeared in Business Insider. Snap Inc. executives frequently tout Snapchat as the best place for advertisers to win over its youthful, primarily millennial user base. Now the company is letting advertisers track...Show More Summary


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At a time marked with severe slashes to its valuation and looming questions of profitability and acquisition, India’s number one favourite startup Flipkart has reportedly raised about $38.7 Mn (INR 260 Cr) from media giant Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL). Mint reported that the funds were raised by selling a small stake to BCCL, for cash along with advertising space, as per regulatory filings.
In June 2016, it was reported that Flipkart was in talks to sell a small stake to BCCL in a $75 Mn (INR 500 Cr) deal. The deal was reported to be funded partly by cash and partly by ads.
Under the terms of the proposed deal, Flipkart will issue shares to BCCL in return for cash and ads over several years in its media properties – such as The Times of India and The Economic Times newspapers, ET Now ,and Times Now channels. BCCL had earlier inked a similar deal with Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd) in February 2016.
The report also states that BCCL has made a private placement offer of about $38.7 Mn (INR 260 Cr) to purchase a warrant for Class B equity shares in Flipkart. As of now, the media giant has invested about $3.8 Mn (INR 26 Cr) in Flipkart, the remaining amount will be paid when the warrant is converted into equity shares.
No More Rocky Times For Flipkart?
This move comes at a time when the homegrown ecommerce biggie’s valuation took a beating in 2016 and had a tougher 2017. In January 2017, US-based mutual fund investor T. Rowe Price reduced Flipkart’s valuation by another 4% to about $9.9 Bn.T. Rowe Price had invested about $100 Mn in Flipkart in December 2014, when the firm raised $700 Mn funding. In April 2016, it marked down its shares in by 15%. This markdown came after Morgan Stanley slashed the value of its Flipkart shares by 38.2%.
Earlier this week it was announced that Flipkart is consolidating the offerings of its logistics arm– Ekart and it has suspended Ekart’s customer-to-customer (C2C) courier operations. The report also stated that it has ceased its hyperlocal delivery services in Bengaluru that were launched in November 2016.
Flipkart entered 2017 with a major reshuffle in its organisation structure. Co-founder Binny Bansal stepped down from the position of company CEO. Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who was heading the Category Design Organisation, became the new CEO of Flipkart. However, just a day after these leadership changes were announced, three of the top level executives reportedly resigned from the company.


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The one-year anniversary of the original Google Panda update has come and gone and we’re still seeing significant tweaks in the aftermath . Google Panda was aimed at filtering out and eliminated junk content sites and/or sites heavily supported from ads by penalizing them for having poor content. While Google can’t physically remove data from a website, they sure can effectively prevent the masses from finding them by rating them lower than those with content perceived to be more useful. If they don’t do it on their own, they sometimes ask users for help locating things they miss.
The most recent Panda update has been dubbed “version 3.5”, which went live on April 24th, 2012. Google claims these updates were merely a “data refresh” but sometimes they’re just Google mistakes. If sites were punished by mistake, Google claims wrongful punishments should now be removed. I commonly call this “blowback” – an effort where Google uses feedback from the webmaster community to measure whether or not their updates have gone too far, and then pull back a little if need be. While these goals might seem noble, there has been no shortage of critics when it comes to these updates.
So far, is seems that the Panda filter is applied on a site-wide basis. If a certain number of pages are tagged, the entire site suffers. However, some good content might continue to rank well. Removing or replacing your poor content should remove the penalty. The new ‘over-optimization’ penalty, another part of recent changes, generally seems to effect only the keywords optimized for, or “over optimized” for, including heavily optimized sites and link anchor text manipulation.
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®
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Sony’s gaming console company, PlayStation has announced a new sponsorship deal with the European football governing body, UEFA. Following this association, the brand has been named the official partner of UEFA Women’s Football, sponsoring the UEFA Women’s Champions League and UEFA Women’s EURO 2025.
The three-season agreement, which begins with the current season and runs through 2025, is a logical extension of the success the video game hardware provider has had with the UEFA Champions League in a relationship that dates back to 1997.
UEFA Women’s Champions League, UEFA Women’s EURO 2025, UEFA European Women’s Under-19 and Under-17 Championships, and UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO are just a few of many events that PlayStation will sponsor as a result of the agreement.
Andrea Perez, Senior VP of Brand, Product and Services Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said, “Women’s football has transformed the world of sports and captivated millions around the globe. We are thrilled to team up with UEFA to further elevate women’s football and explore new crossovers between football and gaming culture through this exciting expansion of our 25-year partnership. As the PlayStation brand looks to reimagine the future of play, it’s a privilege to be part of this exciting moment in football, led by game-changing athletes who are inspiring a new and diverse generation of fans.”
Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Marketing Director, said, “We are delighted to welcome PlayStation, a long-term partner, as a new sponsor of UEFA Women’s Football. This is a significant moment for the sport and for UEFA, as we continue to work towards developing and growing women’s football across Europe and beyond on the heels of last summer’s historic UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and the UEFA Women’s Champions League. With PlayStation’s incredible reach and engagement with fans worldwide, we believe that this partnership will help us to reach new audiences and inspire the next generation of players.”


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The underground economy in Alberta was worth an estimated $4.8 billion, or 1.5 per cent of the province’s gross domestic product, in 2012, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. Across Canada, total underground activity was $42.2 billion, or 2.3 per cent of GDP, it said. The underground economy is defined as legal and illegal market activities that aren’t […]
One of the most notable moments in Thursday night’s leadership debate was Jim Prentice’s comment to Rachel Notley that “math is difficult.” Prentice had been taking aim at the NDP’s fiscal policies when he apparently misspoke, claiming the NDP proposed a “20 per cent corporate income tax.” Notley stepped in to correct him, noting the […]
Calgary's downtown office market is expected to experience a continuing rise in its vacancy rate due to the volatility of the oilpatch which dominates leasing activity in the core.
The prolonged slump in oil prices has caused ATB Financial to take a dimmer view of the provincial economy. Its second-quarter outlook, released Tuesday, forecasts real GDP growth of 0.8 per cent for 2015, down from 2 per cent in its January forecast. The Alberta economy grew by an estimated 3.8 per cent in 2014. Todd Hirsch, chief economist with […]
A slumping economy has post-secondary students on edge these days wondering if they will be able to get jobs this summer or even positions when they graduate.
Albertans appear to be big spenders when it comes to new vehicles. Although sales in January were down slightly from the year before, the average selling price was the highest in the country. Statistics Canada said sales of 16,390 for the first month of the year was off by 112 units from a year ago. “Total […]
Wholesale sales in Alberta rose to a record $7.15 billion in September, Statistics Canada said Thursday. It sales grew 0.1 per cent from August and 8.8 per cent from a year ago. In Canada, wholesale sales rose 1.8 per cent to $54 billion in September. That was also up by 8.1 per cent year-over-year. Building material and supplies […]
CALGARY - Price gains in Calgary’s new home market are far outpacing what is being seen across the rest of the country. Statistics Canada reported Thursday that the New Housing Price Index rose in August by 6.8 per cent on an annual basis and by 0.5 per cent on a monthly basis in the Calgary census metropolitan area. Both represented the biggest growth rates in Canada.
CALGARY - The pace of economic expansion in Alberta is expected to remain solid throughout the rest of the year and into 2015, according to the latest quarterly outlook from ATB Financial’s economics group. The forecast, released Thursday, is for real gross domestic product growth of 3.7 per cent in 2014 and 3.6 per cent next year, said Todd Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial.
Alberta’s population growth is outpacing the rest of the country as the province’s economy and robust labour market continue to attract record levels of newcomers, but social agencies are warning a lack of affordable housing is threatening that prosperity. During the three-month period between April and June 2014, the province’s population increased by 35,000 to more than 4.1 million.
That smaller city to the north — you know, the one with the legislature and that megamall — is now growing at a faster clip than booming Calgary. There are 877,926 Edmontonians, according to the city’s 2014 census released Friday. While that remains a far cry from Calgary’s nearly 1.2 million, the capital’s two-year growth rate of 7.4 per cent is greater than Stampede City’s 6.7 per cent.
CALGARY - The perception is that large companies that dominate the skylines of Calgary and Edmonton also dominate the number of businesses in the province. But Todd Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial, said Monday in a commentary note that they actually account for a tiny fraction of the total in Alberta.
CALGARY - The redevelopment of the downtown Bay store to include a dining and entertainment hub is taking a little longer that expected because of the nature of the 100-year-old building in the heart of Calgary. But Andrew Oliver, president of Toronto-based Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants, who is partnering with Charles Khabouth, founder and chief executive of INK Entertainment on the massive project, said a 7,500-square-foot restaurant and a 4,000-square-foot lounge will now open in the first half of 2015. The project also includes an 30,000 to 35,000 square foot event space on the sixth floor that could open earlier.
CALGARY - Annual revenue in Alberta’s accommodation industry reached a record level in 2012, according to Statistics Canada. Data released Tuesday by the federal agency indicated hotel operators in the province saw revenue of $3.8 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 2011. It includes all hotels, motels, bed and breakfast operations, lodges and all other forms of accommodation.
CALGARY - The Alberta government launched on Friday a new web-based tool to help the province’s business community. It said it is the first jurisdiction in Canada and one of a few on the continent to offer comprehensive economic information online.
CALGARY - Alberta wholesale sales dropped for a second consecutive month in December. Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that sales of $6.4 billion in the province were off by 2.5 per cent from November. They were also down 0.2 per cent compared with a year ago.


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Carlsberg has warned that further price hikes are ahead due to the rising price of malt and barley.
“Looking forward, we will be impacted by rising input costs and will therefore have to increase sales prices,” chief executive Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen said in a statement.
The warning came as Carlsberg yesterday unveiled a rise in third-quarter profits of 30% to DKK1.95bn (£225m).
UK volumes for the nine months to 30 September were up by around 5%.
Carlsberg said that although the UK market as a whole had declined, the company had grown its market share in both volume and value terms.
Focus On Alcoholic Drinks (9 October 2010)
Carlsberg targets evenings in with 3D TV giveaway (2 October 2010)
Carlsberg thinks greener with tank manoeuvres (25 September 2010)


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Apple is angling to reinvent the PC world 20 years after the arrival of the first Macintosh. Toward that goal, company CEO Steve Jobs has announced GarageBand, the latest addition to the iLife product family, and a 4-GB mini iPod that sports sherbet colors. However, price may be an issue: At a relatively steep US$249, the mini iPod costs just $50 less than Apple’s 15-GB iPod.
To kick off his keynote at Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, which was Webcast to 60,000 people in more than 100 countries, Jobs screened Apple’s seminal Super Bowl ad with a minor digitized addition: The woman wielding a hammer had an iPod clipped to her shorts.
“It’s going to be a great Mac year, [and we will] announce throughout the year things we think you’ll love,” Jobs said.
At the beginning of his keynote, Jobs announced that the transition to Mac OS X has been completed. Already, he said, 9.3 million Apple users — approximately 40 percent of the company’s installed base — have adopted the Unix-based OS, and the company predicts it will cross the 10 million-user barrier in the upcoming quarter.
Joking that Panther is so advanced that “Microsoft is copying us again,” Jobs said there are now more than 10,000 native apps for OS X, and Microsoft’s latest iteration of Office for Mac is due this spring.
Xserve for Everybody
Jobs also took time to dwell on Apple’s enterprise efforts. After describing the Virginia Tech supercomputer cluster, which used 1,100 dual-processor Power Mac G5s to create the third-fastest supercomputer in the world for only US$5.2 million, he announced the latest version of Apple’s 1U server for enterprises, the Xserve G5.
The new model has two air vents in front, a slot-loaded optical drive and the G5 chip, which offers 64-bit processing power. The starter model with a single 2-GHz G5 processor will retail for $2,999, while a similar model with a dual 2-GHz processor will retail for $3,999. Those machines will start shipping in February. All models will come with an unlimited client license, just as Linux does, Jobs noted.
In addition, Apple has updated its companion Xserve RAID storage system, which can be used with Windows and Linux servers as well as the Xserve. A 3.5-TB model with a 3U form factor will cost $10,999. That price equates to a little more than $3.15 per GB — one-third the cost of the comparable Dell EMC CX200.
Jobs then moved on to iTunes, saying that since Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store (iTMS), it has sold 30 million songs and is nearing 1.9 million downloads per week. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, iTMS has 70 percent of all legal music downloads.
“It feels great to get above 5 percent, doesn’t it?” Jobs quipped.
However, iTMS numbers were the least of Apple’s digital music announcements. The company’s new version of its iLife applications — “the Microsoft Office for the rest of your life,” Jobs said — includes a music creation program called GarageBand, which Jobs described as a pro music tool for everyone.
With recording artist John Mayer on hand to help, Jobs demonstrated the new app’s features. GarageBand can record and mix up to 64 tracks, plus it provides access to more than 50 software instruments using a USB or FireWire MIDI keyboard, 1,000 professional loops, and a set of guitar amps in which to record.
The iLife package will become available January 16th and will sell for $49. However, it will be included for free with new Macs.
Mini iPod, Maxi Price?
Jobs’ final announcement was the well-rumored version of a low-cost iPod, the iPod Mini. The new device comes with a 4-GB drive that can hold 1,000 songs. It works with Mac and Windows and is available in white, gold, blue, pink or green.
Perhaps most impressive is the Mini iPod’s size: It is approximately as big as a business card and only a half-inch thick. The device also comes with both USB 2 and FireWire cables and a belt clip.
Jobs is positioning the Mini iPod to compete directly with Flash-based MP3 players. However, its $249 retail price seems rather high, given that the lowest-end regular iPod now has a 15-GB hard drive and costs only $50 more.