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APPLE has announced a new version of the iPod Touch with a beefed up engine and storage options.
The touch-screen music player helped put Apple on the map following the release of the iPhone, but this is its first update in nearly four years.
The headline feature is a bolstered processor – Apple has stuck in the same A10 chip that it stuck in last year's iPad.
That should help the gizmo perform better when handling heavy-duty tasks like HD gaming.
"We’re making the most affordable iOS device even better with performance that is twice as fast as before," said Greg Joswiak, who heads up Apple’s product marketing team.
"The ultra-thin and lightweight design of iPod touch has always made it ideal for enjoying games, music and so much more wherever you go."
Apple has also added an extra memory option to the Touch.
You can now stick a whopping 256GB worth of music on the player, or about 33,000 songs.
The seventh generation iPod Touch starts at £199 for the basic 32GB model.
You can splash a bit of extra cash for more memory: A 128GB model is going for £299 while the 256GB model will cost you £399.
The new iPod touch is available to order on Apple's website starting today, and in stores later this week.
Apple released the first iPod in 2001, with then-CEO Steve Jobs promising to let users "fit your entire music library in your pocket".
The iPod Touch was released a few months after the groundbreaking first iPhone in 2007.
The Touch has now gone through seven iterations, but is the only type of iPod that Apple still sells.
That's because the rise of beefed-up smartphones with massive amounts of storage has largely made the pocket music player obsolete.
TOP STORIES IN TECH
In other Apple news, an Apple computer released in 1976 as one of firm’s first ever PCs recently fetched £371,000 at auction.
You're not being paranoid – Apple really is slowing down your iPhone, but last week pledged to warn you if new iOS updates will make your handset sluggish.
Apple may be launching two new colours for an upcoming iPhone later this year.
What do you think of the new iPod? Let us know in the comments!
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When the Hyundai Azera showed up in America back in 2006, the rather strange name was explained as "the era between A and Z", whatever that means. It actually took over the reigns as the premium Hyundai sedan after the even weirder XG350 that ended production in 2005. The Azera was the most expensive Hyundai sold until the Genesis sedan hit our shores in 2008, and what a welcomed replacement it was.
As good as the Azera was, it never quite received the attention it deserved largely because of
Hyundai just released its 2018 model line, and the Azera didn't make it. Though it will still sell overseas as the Hyundai Grandeur and will even see a 3rd generation redesign, we won't get it here in the states. The Hyundai brand is rejiggering things with a focus on more upscale Genesis cars.
We actually enjoyed our time behind the wheel of the most recent Azera. It had upscale looks, a nicely appointed interior, robust standard features and a potent 3.3-liter V6 engine good for 293 horses. But there's no room for it slotted above the Sonata and now with the G80 sedan moved to the premium Genesis brand. The Azera is one of those cars that just didn't get the love it deserved for a multitude of reasons, but it's time to say goodbye.

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Joint Juice Acquires Premier Nutrition Brand
Nutrition company Joint Juice Inc. has acquired the Premier Nutrition brand and its assets. Founded in 1997, Premier Nutrition Inc. offers several lines of high-protein nutrition products, including ready-to-drink shakes, bars, powders and cookies.
“With the acquisition of the Premier Nutrition brand, we are now actively competing in the large and growing sports nutrition and weight-loss category,” said David Ritterbush, CEO of San Francisco-based Joint Juice, which offers such joint health nutrition products as a supplement drink, a drink mix and an Easy Shot supplement. “What is especially exciting about the brand is the wide breadth of consumers who purchase high-quality protein products, ranging from sports enthusiasts, to dieters, to healthy, busy people. We believe that our company can build upon the success that Premier Nutrition has created and continue to introduce these great products to more consumers.”
Premier Nutrition produces the Premier Protein shake, bar, 100% whey isolate powder; the Titan high-protein bar and high-protein cookie; and the Premier Nutrition shot.


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Luxury spending slump hit Chanel's 2015 profit and sales. By Pascale Denis and Toby Sterling| PARIS/AMSTERDAM PARIS/AMSTERDAM French luxury goods maker Chanel was hit hard by the luxury spending slump last year, leading to a sharp drop in profit and sales, according to figures filed with the Amsterdam exchange. Chanel International BV said operating profit in the year to Dec. 31 fell 23 percent to $1.6 billion on revenue some 17 percent lower to $6.24 billion. Controlled by secretive billionaires Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Chanel is one of the world's biggest luxury brands alongside LVMH's (LVMH.PA) Louis Vuitton. Chanel declined to say what businesses and regions were included in the figures and refused to comment on them.
By comparison, Louis Vuitton, which also does not publish separate numbers, makes an estimated 8 billion euros in annual sales. In France, Chanel filed numbers for its cosmetics and perfume businesses that showed revenue last year reached 2.6 billion euros ($2.91 billion), down 21 percent against the previous year. Why Americans Aren't Shopping | Intelligence | BoF.
NEW YORK, United States — The US economy hasn’t looked as bright since before the dark days of the Great Recession. In April 2016, the unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent. The same month, 160,000 new jobs were created. (Less than projected and slower than in recent cycles, but still double than what is needed to keep up with population growth, according to economists.) Gas is also delightfully cheap. And while Federal interest rates rose in December 2015 — from a range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent to a range of 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent — in March 2016, the Federal Reserve announced that it would halt plans to raise rates further, due to overall weakness in the global economy, a move that would be expected to boost borrowing — and spending. But while personal income and disposable income increased by 0.4 percent in March, consumer spending inched up just 0.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Fashion retailers have certainly been feeling the squeeze. In Japan, Luxury Flourishes While Economy Flounders | Global Currents | BoF. LONDON, United Kingdom — Japan’s economy is struggling. Despite the efforts of prime minister Shinzo Abe, in 2015, Japan’s economy grew at an anaemic rate of 1 to 1.5 percent, according to data provided by the World Economic Forum. Since the global financial crisis, Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has fallen into recession three times. In November, household spending fell for the third month in a row.
And more turbulence came in January, when Japan’s central bank shocked world markets by adopting negative interest rates, in a bid to dodge deflation by forcing more borrowing and boost Japan’s export-sensitive economy by weakening the yen. And yet, for the past few years, Japan has been a consistent champion in the global market for luxury goods. In the year ended 31 December 2015, LVMH sales in Japan jumped 13 percent, outperforming the conglomerate’s sales growth in Europe and the US, as well as the rest of Asia, where sales fell 5 percent. Britain Now World's Cheapest Luxury Market | News & Analysis | BoF. LONDON, United Kingdom — In the wake of Britain's vote to leave the EU, which pushed down the value of the pound about 10 percent against the euro, the country has become the cheapest luxury goods market in the world, helping to buoy British luxury labels, at least in the short term, according to new research by Luca Solca, the head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas.
"The Brexit vote has made the UK the cheapest market in the world for luxury goods,” Solca told BoF. “A weak British pound will boost travel inflows to the UK, helping British luxury goods players like Burberry, Mulberry and Jimmy Choo. " While luxury goods companies are not expected to raise prices in the UK in the coming months — at least until there is more clarity around exactly when and how the country might exit the EU — Britain should see a boost from tourist inflows and spending due to its weakened currency.
Fast fashion online business have made a fortune for owners of businesses like Zara — Quartz. In its first seven years of existence, Uber has irked cities, flouted regulators, and petrified whole industries. It has yet to make money but is worth a fifth more than BMW and almost a third more than General Motors, both the owners of tons of futuristic technology, tens of billions of dollars in capital equipment, and big profits. In recent deals resembling famous speculative bubbles, rich investors eager for a piece of this juggernaut have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into custom funds that provide exposure to Uber but no equity or financial disclosure.
Which is to say that investors have made a one-way, uber-bullish bet on Uber, forecasting that the company will be at the center of an utter transformation of our collective lifestyle. If not everyone is betting on it, they’re at least not betting against it. Even if you wanted to short Uber, it is generally thought impossible to do. But what if the consensus has miscalculated? There is logic to this view. Consider GM. The Hidden Gem in Tiffany’s Outlook: Access to Cheaper Diamonds | News & Analysis | BoF.
NEW YORK, United States — Tiffany & Co. is suffering from currency fluctuations and a jittery global economy, but there’s one definite bright spot for the luxury jeweller: lower diamond prices. The cost of commodities like gems and metals is declining, which will help bolster gross margins, the New York-based company said on a conference call Friday. Lower metal expenses have already driven an improvement in profitability, and the benefits from cheaper diamonds will show up in results next year, Tiffany said. The shift could add 3 percentage points to margins, bringing a multiyear tailwind to the jeweler, according to Jefferies analyst Randal Konik. That’s helping the company cope with challenges on several fronts.
Tourism spending is down, the strong U.S. dollar is crimping sales, and demand for luxury goods overseas has been sluggish. Comparable sales — a closely watched measure — fell 5 percent globally in the fourth quarter, excluding currency fluctuations.


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With widespread utility deregulation on the horizon, direct mail-package archiving firm marketIQ Inc. is busy scanning in the contents of two years' worth of utility mailings in the hope that a newly competitive marketplace will drive companies into monitoring their rivals' efforts.
“With literally hundreds of utilities within every state who will soon be competing against each other, just about every one will be interested in watching what's going on as deregulation happens from one state to the next,” said Marcia Waite, vice president of marketing at marketIQ, Fair Haven, NJ. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us.”
The company says its DirectIQ database includes scanned images and analysis of more than 10,000 credit-card or loan solicitations, 10,000 insurance mailings and 5,000 financial-services offers available for viewing at www.marketiq.com.
Other categories include telecommunications, bank-card insurance, pharmaceuticals, child-oriented mail and order clubs. Waite said the database goes back about three years. “We don't delete,” she said. “We try to cover a few key categories very deeply.”
She estimated that the utility database, slated for a June launch, will also include about 10,000 mailings from all types of utilities.
Waite said marketIQ will pitch the service by mail to “in the hundreds” of utility marketing managers nationally by the end of May and will attend utilities trade shows. She declined to say how much of a boost in subscribers the company expects.
About 7,500 people have access to the DirectIQ database through corporate subscriptions which cost $25,000 annually for one category and $15,000 for each additional category. marketIQ culls mailings from 800 participating households in the top 25 markets in the U.S. who agree to turn over all their unsolicited correspondence twice a month.


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MONROE — It’s the bazaar of the bizarre.
Oddmall Emporium of the Weird is back this weekend after a two-year pandemic delay.
“We’ve got a circus sideshow oddities type of a vibe going for us,” event promoter Brian Pierce said.
Over 100 vendors, artists and authors who specialize in the unique will be inside the livestock pavilion at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.
Wares include fantasy books, 3D-printed items, doll body parts art, scary clown lamps and Gothic jewelry that glows in the dark.
As Pierce puts it: “Seriously, we’ve got some weird stuff.”
Kids can get their picture taken with Krampus. The horned, hairy demon is like Santa’s evil twin. Instead of a bundle of toys, the European folklore character has birch sticks to swat the misbehaving rascals he hauls down to the underworld.
At Oddmall, Krampus will hand out candy.
Pierce said visitors 12 and older must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours. Admission is free. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Expect to hear people saying, “Merry Creepsmas.”
Pierce said Creepsmas is the time between Halloween and Christmas, “where you still have that kind of creepy feeling in mind.”
“Most of the vendors we deal with are very much of this nebulous world,” Pierce said. “They love the creepy. We embrace the macabre, spooky scary skeleton Goth vibes. But also, hey, we like Christmas. Christmas is bright and fun.”
Oddmall was launched in the Pacific Northwest in 2013 by Washington resident David Hopp as a biannual spring and fall art, craft and gift show that was held first in Everett and then Monroe. It is modeled after the Oddmall in Ohio in 2009 by Hopp’s brother, a fantasy author, illustrator and game designer who felt really out of place setting up at craft shows, so he started a bazaar for those of his ilk.
Hopp is expanding the Oddmall footprint to regional areas and other states.
“Eventually we hope to be everywhere between here and Ohio. We are just building the brand,” Hopp said. “This is our comeback show. It’s not your typical craft show.”
Pierce, 48, took over running the northwest Washington region of Oddmall, where he has been a vendor since 2014 with his Captain Slinky’s Weird Lamps.
The Bothell stay-at-home dad makes lamps out of broken toys and knickknacks. “Stuff that you wish you didn’t have to throw away but it’s broken. I take those things and stick them together,” he said.
His wife makes glass spider Christmas ornaments from burnt-out Christmas lights.
Among the other 100 vendors: Curse Purse has a line of scarves, bags and other accessories featuring the F-word. Crooksy Creations will offer doll-part jewelry, such as eyeball necklaces, found object art, holiday ornaments and prints of original paintings.
“Here at Oddmall, you belong,” Pierce said.
About 100 door prizes will be given away.
“It might be a VHS tape recording of ‘Mrs. Doubtfire.’ Or a can of creamed corn,” Pierce said.
“It’s Oddmall. You get an odd door prize. There’s also really good stuff in there, too.”


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EspañolOn November 1, the Christmas shopping season officially began in Venezuela. The Superintendency of Fair Prices (SUNDDE) has launched its 2014 Merry Christmas Plan, and took to social media to promote the initiative, using the Spanish hashtags #NavidadAPreciosJustos and #NavidadesFelices.
The plan coincides with the government’s economic strategy, informally known as the Dakazo, that mandates stores maintain “fair prices” on key items. The idea is to protect the end-of-year Christmas bonus Venezuelan employers are obliged to pay their workers.
To ensure the policy is being followed, President Nicolás Maduro has ordered audits be conducted throughout the country. The government sent out Círculos de Lucha, inspection teams consisting of 27,100 inspectors, 700 attorneys, and military officers, to certify sales are conducted at prices set by the state.
In one day alone — Friday, October 31 — the government conducted 331 audits in Venezuela, as confirmed by SUNDDE through their official Twitter account.
— Sundde (@sundde_ve) November 1, 2014
“The Merry Christmas Plan is providing results. We are not going to allow store owners to speculate and play with the salary and Christmas bonuses of the people. We have to protect that salary,” said Superintendent of Fair Prices Andrés Eloy Méndez.
According to the Venezuelan government, the audits are meant to prevent businesses from holding monopolies or engaging in price gouging. Barbie dolls, for example, that were being sold in Venezuela for 2,999 Bs. (US$29.39) before the audits are now price locked at 553 Bs. (US$5.42).
Inspectors are also on the lookout for products missing price tags, irregular invoices, “speculative” profit margins, or lack of a visible cost structure and inventory rotation policy.
Auditors plan to visit shopping malls throughout the country and inspect any store that may sell items related to the holiday shopping season, including food and hygiene products. They will also ensure every item is marked according to its Maximum Fair Price (PMVJ).
According to Finance Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres, nationwide fairs organized as part of the Merry Christmas Plan will use biometric scanning to make sure “food reaches all Venezuelan families.”
However, Mauricio Tancredi, president of the National Council of Commerce and Services, has said the audits and mandatory sales in 2013 led to shortages and a lack of investment for businesses. He further suggested business owners, while cooperating with authorities, are concerned about the future effects of these audits.
Scarcity of Economic Freedom
In 2013, President Maduro ordered military forces to occupy the electronic retail chain Daka, forcing them to sell at “fair prices.”
Authorities arrested Daka store managers on suspicion of price gouging, and hundreds of Venezuelans rushed to their stores hoping to buy electronics “on sale.” The state reduced the price of kitchen appliance, for example, by 77 percent. One year after the Dakazo, the retail chain has yet to recover: inventories are low, products are scarce, and the number of employees have been significantly reduced.
A similar situation played out on Friday, October 31, at the General Import store in downtown Caracas. After President Maduro announced the “sale” over a television broadcast, the public rushed and formed lines outside the store’s doors, even though it remained closed throughout the weekend.
The doors opened on Monday, November 3, at 5 a.m. local time, and more than 600 people entered the store to shop at government-issued prices. Military officers monitored the sales, limiting customers to three items per person, and only one item of each kind.
Customers complained about the store’s lack of inventory, especially the shortage of popular dolls. By Wednesday, all Barbie dolls and Max Steel toys sold at the regulated price were sold out in all eight General Import stores.
Edited by Guillermo Jimenez.


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October 9, 2019
Brand marketers realize that the packaging is often the first impression online or on the shelf, and it instantly communicates its value system, benefits, features and environmental and/or humane commitment.
“One of the largest challenge’s CPG brands will face as they work to eliminate waste in their packaging is perceived value,” said Meghan Nardone, director of sales and marketing, Creative Printing + Packaging LLC. “Even as the CPG industry is evolving and working toward eliminating waste, there are brands trying to increase the size of the exterior package to drive consumers to purchase their product. On the other side of the playing field, we are seeing brands embrace transparency and modify their packaging to increase visibility to the product.”
Packaging Digest’s 2018 Sustainable Packaging Study (in concert with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition), found that packaging professionals promote the earth preservation concept via eco-healthy packaging—93% of respondents said they believe environmental concerns about plastics used for packaging will continue to increase. And like consumers and environmental activist groups have maintained, marine health (and debris) is the most critical environmental challenge for plastics.
Biobased plastics, explained Kevin Ireland, communications manager of Green Dot Bioplastics, is a solution, and the demand for bioplastics continues to dramatically increase. With this comes confusion between the terms “biobased” and “biodegradable.” Biobased plastics, he noted, are made from renewable resources including commodities like corn, potatoes, sugarcane, wheat, soy and vegetable oil. The USDA BioPreferred Program certifies products with such renewable content as “biobased.”
In Packaging Digest’s survey, 74% of packaging professionals stated that biobased plastics improve the environmental perception of plastics packaging, yet only 42% think it improves the reality. Packagers are looking seriously at bioplastics as more technologies and resources become available and as costs decrease.
Learn more about trends in packaging for food, beverage and supplement the “Sustainable, Safe and Sanctioned Packaging for CPG Brands” session on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019 at 9:00 am at SupplySide West in Las Vegas.
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Update 7/3/19 – The Englewood, Colo., Planning and Zoning Commission voted on June 18 to move forward with WWG’s request to convert a former Kmart store. Commission members agreed to a “findings of facts” process, which allows the city to review the application. The commission will begin the procedure at a July 16 meeting, according to a source.
“We're excited about the project. We're all in on improving this project, and we're going to dramatically enhance it,” added Zeb Ripple, managing partner at Capital Pacific.
The commission will then provide a recommendation to the city council. “The uses will remain retail at that existing Kmart and some possible restaurant uses and so on. There's not a change proposed that would heavily or inversely impact [the site],” said city planner Erik Sampson.
The proposal includes one bike stall per 25 parking spaces, but resident Roger Newmann hopes WWG will add more. “They're planning on putting [in] retail. If it's a coffeeshop or something like that, you're going to have more than two bicycles [at the site],” he said.
6/22/18 – The William Warren Group (WWG), a privately held real estate company that operates the StorQuest Self Storage brand, is looking to convert a former Kmart store in Englewood, Colo., to a mixed-use space that will include self-storage and retail. The company held a community meeting earlier this month to discuss its vision for the property at 200 W. Belleview Ave. Kmart closed the 140,000-square-foot building in November, according to the source.
The plans include converting about 60,000 square feet of the building into a StorQuest facility with a drive-in loading area. The storage units would be built toward the rear of the building, with the remaining space marketed to small retailers and restaurants. Chuze Fitness, which operates gyms in Arizona, California and Colorado, has agreed to lease 40,000 square feet on the south end.
The building is about 230 feet deep, which isn’t ideal for retailers, but great for storage, said Jon Suddarth, vice president of real estate for WWG. “We don’t need the frontage, but we need the space, whereas the retailers need the frontage, but not the space,” he said.
Capital Pacific, the company with the land lease on the site, contacted WWG after Kmart vacated. WWG will develop the storage facility and retail space, except for Chuze. Legend Partners will lease the remaining square footage.
WWG will need support from city officials, who must amend the zoning to allow for storage, the source reported. If approved, construction would begin on the self-storage component next year. It’ll be WWG’s first Colorado conversion involving a big-box store, Suddarth said.
Founded in 1994 and based in Santa Monica, Calif., WWG acquires, develops and operates more than 125 self-storage facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, South Carolina and Texas.
Business Den, Self-Storage Facility Developer Looks to Convert Shuttered Englewood Kmart
Englewood Herald, Planning/Zoning Panel Moves Forward With Kmart Site Plan


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Malaysia’s takaful insurance has significant opportunities for growth as its penetration rate is still low at 5.2% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Malaysian Takaful Association chairman Ahmad Rizlan Azman (picture) noted the low penetration rate of takaful in the country is due to the lack of awareness on takaful-related products as well as the issue of affordability, especially among the lower segments of the society.
“With Malaysia’s low insurance penetration rate of 5.2% of GDP in 2014 and its young demographics, significant market growth opportunities are yet to be tapped by the insurance and takaful sector.
“We also need to figure out innovative ways in penetrating the underserved market for takaful-related products. A growth rate of 12%-13% for the takaful market this year is possible, despite a slowing economy,” he said at the launch of the Malaysian Takaful Dynamics report on the sidelines of the 11th World Islamic Economic Forum yesterday.
The Malaysian Takaful Dynamics report was jointly developed by Malaysian Takaful Association and Ernst & Young (EY) Malaysia. It is the country’s first central compendium on Islamic insurance.
According to the report, Malaysia’s takaful segment has seen a 12.4% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last five years, compared to the conventional insurance CAGR of 7.8% over the same period.
Takaful products saw a net contribution of RM6.3 billion or 13% of market share, while the conventional insurance segment posted RM42.5 billion.
EY Malaysia partner Brandon Bruce Sta Maria said over the medium to long term, the growth potential for the takaful industry will depend on its ability to tap into the underserved market and enhance consumer awareness on takaful.


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Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado – The stories are similar wherever you are. After news spread about an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon – an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico – on April 20, which left 17 workers injured and 11 more missing and presumed dead, Americans were wondering just how bad this disaster would be.
Oil began leaking from the well 5,000 feet below the surface, discharging upwards of 200,000 gallons of crude oil per day, according to reports.
In the days and weeks that followed, cleanup plans began to surface.
That is when Valerie Snearly, owner of the Hair Fair Salon in Glenwood Springs, decided to pitch in. Snearly heard about barber shops and hair salons that were donating hair clippings to an organization that helps in oil spill cleanup efforts, like the one in the Gulf.
“For years, we’ve all been wondering what we could do with the hair clippings,” she said.
Snearly heard about Matter of Trust, an environmental non profit which has helped clean up oil spills in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond since 1998 by reusing donated hair clippings from hair salons, barber shops, pet groomers, and wool farmers. The hair clippings are stuffed into donated nylon stockings to create highly absorbent booms to contain and soak up oil spills.
“I think it’s a fabulous thing to do with the hair clipping,” Snearly said. “Why throw it away if you don’t have to.”
Snearly has a box in which she has been collecting clippings in since May 5. She estimates that she will have about 20 pounds of clippings when the box is filled.
From there, she’ll seal up the package and ship it off to a warehouse in Florida, where volunteers will make the booms.
Matter of Trust is coordinating efforts of thousands of participants to match nylon and hair donations to space in temporary warehousing along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, according to its website, http://www.matteroftrust.org.
Other area salons and barbershops are also participating in the effort, like Creekside Hair and Skin Day Spa in New Castle. And according to Lynette Cerise, a Creekside hair stylist, it’s the little things like donating hair clippings that really make a difference.
“Do you know how much hair hits the floor in every salon across the country each day,” Cerise said. “It’s got to be a lot.”
Creekside has been rounding up clippings since May 5, as well, and Cerise said that it takes a while to fill a trash bag with hair clippings. But it’s good to know that they are helping a worthy cause.
“It’s a really cool thing and it’s been fun for us to package it up and to be able to tell people about what we are doing,” Cerise said. “And they enjoy being a part of it.”
Cerise said that Creekside stylists are offering 15 percent off hair cuts, through June 30, for those who want to donate their hair.
Matter of Trust has already received donations of hundreds of thousands of pounds of hair clippings, as well as many washed nylon stockings, from all 50 states and several other countries. It’s a good example of how something seemingly insignificant like hair clippings can be used in such a substantial way.
“I feel for the people down there who are going to lose more of their livelihood,” Snearly said.
And for as long as Matter of Trust will accept her donations of hair clippings, she won’t be throwing any in the trash.
“I intend to do it as long as they’ll take it,” she said. “I won’t throw away any more hair.”
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The Mainframe Loses One: IBM Ends Development, Resale of OLAP Engine
IBM’s decision to eighty-six its DB2 OLAP Server has ramifications for mainframe and iSeries shops
Last month, IBM Corp. announced it would no longer be selling its DB2 OLAP Server—a re-branded version of Hyperion Solutions Corp.’s Essbase OLAP engine—to customers. OLAP (online analytical processing) is a key component of many enterprise business intelligence (BI) initiatives.
At the time, IBM’s decision was mostly assessed in terms of its impact on the hundreds of DB2 OLAP Server customers who run that product on distributed platforms. As it turns out, however, IBM’s announcement also has ramifications for mainframe and iSeries shops.
From the beginning, DB2 OLAP Server has been a mix of shrink-wrapped and custom-built code. The idea, officials say, was to incorporate product- or platform-specific features and functionality into the main Essbase engine, with a special emphasis on extending Essbase support to platforms that weren’t then covered by Hyperion. “There was a kind of added value [to the partnership], [which was] an arrangement to get [Essbase] on to the IBM operating systems that Hyperion didn’t support, principally iSeries and z/OS,” said Richard Wozniak, program director for BI strategy and marketing with IBM, last month.
As a result, IBM engineered a version of DB2 OLAP Server for zSeries. The genesis of the AS/400 version of DB2 OLAP Server is slightly more complicated, however. In 2000, IBM notched an agreement with a then-independent company called Showcase to deliver an AS/400-based version of Essbase. In that situation, IBM couldn’t develop DB2 OLAP Server on its own because Showcase had already locked in an exclusive arrangement with Hyperion to port Essbase to OS/400. Showcase was later acquired by data-mining and statistical-analysis specialist SPSS Inc. in 2001.
In any case, Wozniak concedes, we’re not talking about a heckuva lot of users. With respect to DB2 OLAP Server for zSeries, for example, IBM claims a handful of current customers. At the same time, he points out, some of these shops are running extraordinarily large instances of DB2 OLAP Server.
“The zSeries [version] has not been a very big selling product for us. It’s under 50 customers, but some of them are quite large and they have a large investment in zSeries altogether,” Wozniak comments. “For these customers, they think it makes sense, because the data is already there [on the mainframe]. But most customers who use Essbase decided long ago that it was better to run the OLAP server on a Unix box and just use different data access methods to get data into and out of the zSeries if they need to.”
Whenever a vendor announces the end of life for a particular product, customers almost always demand “What next?” For Windows, Unix, and Linux users of DB2 OLAP Server, the “What next” answer is pretty straightforward: They’re to be given the opportunity to transfer their licenses to Hyperion Essbase on a 1:1 basis. Wozniak says Hyperion’s Essbase maintenance charges should be about the same as what they now pay for DB2 OLAP Server.
IBM’s care plans for both zSeries and iSeries customers are very different, given the somewhat complicated licensing scheme of the latter product, in particular.
For zSeries customers, Wozniak says, Hyperion will support a like-kind transfer from DB2 OLAP Server to a distributed version of Essbase.
“For those customers, Hyperion has generously agreed to help them move across to the distributed platform of their choice, and they’ll be given license credit and be able to transfer that to a mainstream platform, such as Unix or Linux or Windows,” he explains.
What about shops that have deployed DB2 OLAP Server on zSeries because it addresses their business needs? In this case, Wozniak says IBM Global Services will offer some support to customers who want to stay the course. But given the small stable of zSeries users, he argues, it’s not clear any of them will be adversely affected by moving to a distributed version of Essbase.
“It’s a pretty niche market. There really aren’t that many [customers] this is an issue for. Also our support organization will be doing engagements with the [zSeries] customers, too,” Wozniak says.
On the iSeries front, IBM has notched a similar like-kind deal with SPSS. “When we got to the point that we saw for sure we were going to be able to pull off this change of status with Hyperion, we went and began this negotiation with SPSS saying we’d like you to take over [DB2 OLAP Server development and support]. There aren’t so many [customers]—a couple of hundred—but we’ve gone ahead and we have this deal. So this gives them an opportunity to transition to SPSS licenses and support.”
Stephen Swoyer is a Nashville, TN-based freelance journalist who writes about technology.


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Free current accounts are in decline, while paid-for accounts are becoming more available, as providers move to encourage consumers to pay for their banking services.
Research into bank accounts carried out by Defaqto, the financial researcher, shows that in-credit current accounts are falling in numbers, with figures down from 65 in May 2009 to 58 today.
Providers used to rely on cross-selling other financial products such as credit cards and home loans in order to make up their losses, but in the wake of the recession, banks are looking at new ways to generate profits.
Experts are expecting this trend to continue, predicting that in as little as five years, free bank accounts may only be offered by new banks looking to attract new customers.
The number of paid bank accounts offering benefits such as annual travel insurance, have risen from 54 to 63 in the last two years. The fees applied to these accounts have also increased, with Barclays and Lloyds TSB now charging an annual rate of £300 to access their premier products.The free banking model has been operating in the UK since the 1980s, allowing customers to deposit and withdraw cash both in-branch and through a network of cash machines, write cheques and use branch facilities without being charged for the privilege.
Current accounts are loss-making products, but bank are able to use them in order to cross-sell other lucrative financial products.
However, in the wake of the financial crisis, banks have been looking into ways of increasing profits made from current accounts. An easy way to raise this extra revenue is to charge a fee for accounts.
Banks have been pushing paid accounts by offering incentives such as discounts on fees and other benefits in an attempted to lure customers in. It is estimated that over a quarter of all current account holders currently have a fee-charging account.
However, these ‘package accounts’ have been criticised by the Financial Services Authority, saying that they charge for extras that “may not benefit” customers.


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THE Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group (BIARMG) has started distributing notices of closure to about 25 establishments that failed to get business permits and violated the road easement law.
Natividad Bernardino, chair of the BIARMG, said they started distributing the closure order Monday, June 17.
The 25 establishments were part two of the crackdown undertaken by the BIARMG against erring establishment owners in the resort island. Last month, the group closed down 11 shops, many of whom were Chinese firms.
"The BIARMG has been giving the establishments notices to comply since April but until now, they are remiss. We have to enforce the closure order in order to remind the establishments that we mean business in rehabilitating Boracay," Bernardino said.
Among the shops that face closure are a famous health and wellness shop, a commercial bank, and cellphone repair shops, among others.
Bernardino said they had informed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu that they are investigating several DENR officials who are allegedly giving out certification to establishments that have existing violations.
She said there may be a third round of closure, as they await the next set of elected officials who sit starting July 1. (SunStar Philippines)


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Latest News Articles by Anna Brady
Modern Art Fair in London is postponed23 May 2016
Although its launch was only announced in February, the ‘Modern Art Fair’ planned for September in London has been postponed, but will run in 2017.
20/21 British Art Fair to be relaunched at new venue in June 201730 March 2016
The 20/21 British Art Fair will be relaunched next summer at the newly refurbished Mall Galleries in St James’s.
20/21 art fair cancelled as venues dry up09 February 2016
This year’s 20/21 British Art Fair, held in September for more than a quarter century, has been cancelled as no suitable London venue can be found.
Colnaghi: a new gallery and succession plan05 November 2015
Colnaghi, the venerable London Old Master dealership, is to merge with art dealers Coll & Cortés (London and Madrid).
Frieze Week to move in 201628 October 2015
London’s Frieze Week, an annual high point of Modern and Contemporary art fairs and auctions, will take place one week earlier than usual in 2016, as the organisers of Frieze fairs have moved their dates forward to avoid clashing with the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
Masterpiece fair to move back a week for 201619 October 2015
Masterpiece London will take place a week later than usual in 2016, running from June 29 to July 6 (with a preview on June 29).
Sir Norman Rosenthal on the trade05 October 2015
Sir Norman Rosenthal, one of the art world’s best known historians and curators, has described the trade side of the business as “a huge mechanism for preserving knowledge and value”.
LAPADA rewards excellence at Berkeley Square showpiece29 September 2015
Antiquities dealers ArtAncient were the winners of the best stand award at the 2015 LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair.
Dealers back a seven-day Olympia fair16 September 2015
The organisers of the ‘Olympia International Art Antiques Fair’ will shorten next year’s event from 11 days to seven following a poll of existing exhibitors.
Sotheby’s to open office in Mumbai15 September 2015
Sotheby’s will open an office in Mumbai, as they bid to expand their Indian businesses with two ‘strategic’ appointments in the region.
Knight leaves Christie’s to join dealers Moretti03 September 2015
After leaving his role as co-Chairman of Old Master and 19th century art at Christie's in July, Richard Knight has formed a new partnership with Fabrizio Moretti of Moretti Fine Art, under the banner of Knight Moretti.
Rediscovered portrait of Churchill by his pal Sickert offered at 20/21 fair03 September 2015
This recently rediscovered painting of Sir Winston Churchill by Walter Sickert (1860-1942) will be offered for sale for the first time at the 20/21 British Art Fair.
Rare August UK antiques fairs north and south29 July 2015
As dealers’ and buyers’ thoughts turn more to Pinot Grigio by the pool than art and antiques in August, only a few fairs rattle around to provide solace for those eager to earn or spend some money.
BADA appoint new fair manager08 July 2015
The BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair has announced the appointment of Madeleine Williams as fair manager.
Bumper visitor numbers for London fair previews30 June 2015
Last week in London, it was hard to know where to be or look as, alongside the major Impressionist and Modern art auctions, ‘Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair’ and ‘Masterpiece London’ at the Royal Hospital Chelsea coincided for the first time.
Core One dealers move from Chelsea to Cotswolds19 June 2015
The 11 dealers who share the space at Core One Antiques, just off London’s Kings Road have confirmed that, after 14 years, they will be closing their Gasworks premises on June 24. They have been unable to renew their lease due to the redevelopment of the riverside area adjacent to Chelsea Harbour Design District.
The old master who plays the long game17 June 2015
ATG speaks to Richard Green as he reflects on six decades as a dealer, his firm’s debut at ‘Masterpiece’ this month and how his sons have broadened his taste in art
Bernheimer sale signals new direction for Munich dealership28 May 2015
Sotheby’s will hold a sale of the Bernheimer family collection in November and Konrad Bernheimer has announced the family’s Munich art dealership will move from its traditional Old Master specialism to concentrate on Modern and Contemporary art under the direction of his daughters.
New show turns spotlight on Kenneth Rowntree10 April 2015
Dulwich Picture Gallery launched a long overdue show of watercolours by Eric Ravilious (1903-42) last week, an artist unswayed by fashion whose paintings and designs encapsulate the spirit of inter-War England.
Gladiator Trojan is now an English porcelain dealer02 April 2015
Like many an antiques dealer, Mark Griffin of Arbatel Antiques lives something of a double life.


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Visa is expanding its online payment service to France, India, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the UK this year, taking the total footprint to 22 markets. Visa Checkout has been launched in 16 countries since its introduction in July 2014, including the US, Argentina, Brazil and Canada, with usage growing to more than 11m consumer accounts and acceptance by more than 250,000 merchants.
- Dutch bank Bunq finds a backdoor way to offer Apple Pay in the Netherlands
- AirAsia to enter the mobile payments market
- Apple’s Gymkit with NFC begins to gain traction
- Macy’s brings mobile self-checkout to department stores
- BBVA bank staff to test face recognition for self-serve restaurant orders and payments


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Nissan already provides rebates, free repair procedures, customer referrals and promotion and social media advertising resources to its certified shops, but the OEM plans to do even more.
Zoba said he thought that in the future, repairers might see additional partnerships between Nissan and “key industry people” which would lead to the shop receiving more information about repair considerations up front.
This advance knowledge leads to setting the correct expectation for a customer, which is “key,” Zoba said.
He gave the example of an insurer predicting a repair would take five days, but a shop able to tell customer it would really be a week based on their upfront understanding of the necessary repair procedures. The customer was then kept informed during that time, he said.
CCC director and lead analyst Susanna Gotsch’s research, first presented in Property Casualty 360 and later in the 2016 Crash Course, has found cycle time is actually less important to the customer than being kept informed of the repair’s progress. That would seem to bear out the idea of accuracy rather than rushing to give the customer a delivery date.
Estimates of when a customer’s collision repair will be finished would be much more accurate if done after the vehicle teardown and the shop had worked out the parts logistics, a panel and audience including insurers and repairers seemed to agree at a July 2015 Collision Industry Conference. At that point, ETAs for repairs would be correct about 90 percent of the time instead of the discrepancies being seen today, participants said.
Such repair planning was already possible with Nissan’s granting certified shops a free subscription to its OEM repair procedures website, which normally costs between $19.99 to access for a single day and $720 for an entire year, according to a Collision Advice webinar Monday.
A slide from the talk noted that certified shops also can score up to 15 percent cash back on certain orders, “with a chance to earn a rebate of $15,000!” (Emphasis Collision Advice’s.)
Both certified and uncertified shops also can use Nissan’s buying power to obtain discounts on certain equipment, and the OEM also will offer special financing opportunities to qualifying shops, according to Collision Advice. (It was unclear if the financing was available to both certified and uncertified facilities as well.)
Certified shops also can use the exclusive email@example.com email address when they have repair procedure questions. Other shops can still contact Nissan with questions through a link on the OEM’s repair procedures website, and all shops can still call the free Identifix hotline 1-855-828-4018 for help.
Zoba said that Nissan has also been working on opportunities this year for more Nissan-specific training in response to shop requests for dedicated training. He said more details would be available in the coming months and the automaker was looking at specific courses with I-CAR and other other entities.
“We’re excited about this year” of providing more information to a shop and working with them to take care of a customer and engage with employees.
He said Nissan also took referrals of technicians who had done the right thing for a Nissan owner, and “we celebrate that” within a quarterly newsletter.
Finally, he said Nissan would soon announce a way for a limited number of shops to attend a “firsthand experience” Nissan event with regards to quality customer service, marketing, leadership excellence and employee engagement.
“We’re doing a lot for our shops” to engage them and ensure Nissan works with the right shops, Zoba said.
Featured image: A banner touts Nissan certification in the Cobo Center during NACE 2015. (John Huetter/Repairer Driven News)


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Anyone who feels there are just too many apps these days has some handy new ammunition for their argument.
Called “A Country of Happy People,” the Blue Park-created app includes pictures, a video autobiography and — yes! — a cartoon detailing her policies.
Meanwhile, the “Geun-hye Garden” app — set up by another gaggle of Park supporters — offers direct access to her mobile fan cafe, her official homepage and her Cyworld “mini hompi,” too. If that still isn’t enough Park action for you, the app also keeps you updated on Park’s Twitter feed.
Said Kim Joo-bok, a representative of Geun-hye’s Garden:
Park is active on Twitter, mini hompi and apps, so we constructed a mobile system that fit with her way of life and lets the electorate get closer to her.
Though a spokesman for Park said that “various reasons” had held up the launch of an official Park app for the iPhone 4, he said it would soon be available. Sometimes, it seems, there are advantages to being a BlackBerry owner in Korea.


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A new video shows a Microsoft Store employee playing with the Surface Music Kit cover, but the company has told Neowin there are still no plans to offer the unique cover to the general public.
The Ashley Madison hack: a confusing battle between good and evil
...of Lumia flagships, Windows milestones, and Samsung's reminder to RTFM
One month on, what do you think of Windows 10 so far?
Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10532 rolls out
Samsung confirms devices it plans to upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Known issues with Windows 10 Insider build 10532


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Enlightening Our Customers
Introducing science to the art of beauty helps inform product selection.
A first-of-its kind flagship NEUTROGENA® store opened in Mumbai, India, in 2009, creating a new opportunity for consumers. “Walking into the store, they see a dermatologist and have more confidence about the products available to meet their skin care needs,” says Geetanjali Shetty, M.D., F.C.P.S., D.D.V., a dermatologist who works in the unique setting.
“Today the role of dermatologists extends beyond just treating problematic areas to educating consumers about things like sun damage, the importance
of using sunscreen and use of skin care regimens.”
With dermatologists in markets around the world recommending NEUTROGENA®, Dr. Shetty says, “The store itself is a good platform for educating people about science-based skin care.”
Innovative Skin Care
NEUTROGENA®, along with AVEENO®, RoC® and CLEAN & CLEAR®, is among the well-known skin care franchise brands that bring science to the art of beauty. “Beauty is about more than science,” says May Shana’a, Vice President, Skin Care R&D, Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies. “What we’ve been able to do is really bring science and art together to produce innovative products with great clinical performance, as well as a look, smell and feel that’s right.”
May explains teams with both R&D and marketing expertise are assembled to come up with innovative skin care solutions that can be leveraged across brands. Such teams were the first to stabilize retinol, a significant anti-aging advance for skin care, and to develop other best-in-class skin care solutions like breakthrough sun protection technologies HELIOPLEX® and ACTIVE PHOTOBARRIER COMPLEX™.
Another example is Feverfew PFE™, a proprietary botanical extract with anti-inflammatory and calming properties. Three scientists who developed Feverfew PFE™ were recognized in 2009 with the prestigious Johnson Medal, given annually by Johnson & Johnson since 1960 to accomplished researchers for extraordinary creativity and scientific achievement. Their work provided new scientific information in the area of inflammation and skin aging, and brought together science and natural health supplements.
Other skin care researchers have developed a new anti-aging alternative, leveraged across brands and launched in early 2010.
“Best-in-class is not just a slogan,” says May. “Every claim we make is substantiated by testing, from preclinical testing to skin cultures and in-vitro work to studies on consumers. Our commitment to delivering innovative skin care is very strong.”
Clinical studies that are shared with professionals at medical meetings, such as the American Academy of Dermatology Meeting held each March, play a role in forming important relationships. Products that use technologies developed by skin care R&D researchers from Johnson & Johnson companies are recommended to consumers by dermatologists and other health care professionals.
A heritage of professional endorsement is part of product messaging and is a key to success in many sales channels, ranging from traditional retail settings to more innovative new channels such as home shopping networks, online sales and even door-to-door sales.
As with the dermatologists on site in India, well-developed professional relationships play an important role in connecting with consumers. Such relationships have been integral from the start for some of the most successful products from the skin care franchise.
AVEENO® was founded in 1945 at the Mayo Clinic with a colloidal oatmeal bath that provided the naturally active benefits of oats. NEUTROGENA® soap, the product for which the company was named, was marketed directly to dermatologists, a novel idea in the 1950s.
“Each of the brands in the skin care franchise has brought learnings about developing these relationships,” says May. “Today we work with dermatologists at many different levels, from product development to consumer education, driving innovation to meet consumer needs.”


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As futuristic as the year 2025 sounds, it is now less than eight years away. Will time travel, flying cars and summer vacations to Mars be in the cards? Probably not, but drone delivery, chatbots and an AI-driven retail industry are near certainties. And the people driving these changes, the “digital native” generations, are quite open to disrupting, if not destroying, old retail practices. Sure, McKinsey predicts brick-and-mortar stores will still account for approximately 85% of U.S. retail sales in 2025, but will the shopper journey be the same as it is today? Not a chance.
Two sessions at the 2017 NRF Big Show explored the exciting, and at times worrisome, not-too-distant future of retail. For those who are ready to greet the future’s potential triumphs and challenges, read on. For those who still believe the old school model of retail might be coming back, this is your chance to grab an old catalog and dream of days gone by.
The Upside To Being A Disruptor
Let’s start off with some good news: by 2020, 30% of web browsing won’t require a screen interface, (thanks to AI/natural language recognition-driven personal assistants like Alexa, Cortana and Siri), and cars will be more autonomous.
But just five years after that, by 2025, futurists predict that robots will replace workers; stores may be associate-free; and the British Retail Consortium forecasts that as many as one-third of retail jobs will disappear, spurring a thinning of the middle class due to automation and the increasing minimum wage.
“Automation is coming and retailers must adapt and adopt,” said Kate Ancketill from GDR Creative Intelligence, in the session titled: Retail Opportunity For The Fast Changing World And The Human Mind. “There is a race on to lead in AI and there is a big upside if you’re the disruptor. The winner will rule the world.”
Ancketill gave several game-changing examples of automated disruptors, including:
- Starship’s autonomous delivery robots, which can deliver two shopping bags to customers at four mph within a three-mile radius;
- Cowa’s Robot R1 smart suitcase that follows its owner thanks to a synched-up bracelet at a maximum speed of 4.5 mph; and
- Zume Pizza’s delivery service that utilizes robots to make and bake pizzas in a truck. The mobile pizza parlor houses 56 ovens that schedule the cooking to delivery times. Customers will enjoy pizza that will be fresher and timelier than ever before. Retailers will benefit as they will have less overhead from eliminating redundant pizza makers and delivery drivers, allowing them to put some of that extra money into organic ingredients.
The motivation behind these and other innovations is simple: consumer expectations continue to rise. In fact, shoppers will expect retailers to speak their language, provide ethical transparency, offer individualized products and services that simplify their life and serve them 24/7.
Seeking ‘Centaurs’ As Store Associates
Many of these consumer expectations are already evident. Meeting them will require retailers to hire smart. The future of retail requires companies to hire extremely well-qualified store associates, or what Ancketill referred to as service “centaurs.” These are technologically enhanced employees who use nuanced emotional intelligence to serve shoppers. The keys to having good “centaurs” are technology and training.
While Ancketill jokingly ended her presentation with an offer of psychological counseling for future shocked attendees, her message was as serious and straightforward as can be: “If any aspect of your customer service can be improved by AI, you must adopt it,” Ancketill reiterated. “If you don’t adopt AI, makes sure it’s only if you choose to do so; not because you missed it.”
Digital Natives Will Lead The Way
As unsettling as referring to associates as “centaurs” may be, the sentiment aligns with the insights presented at the session titled: The DNA Of The Digital Native Audience. In fact, Ancketill’s vision of the future was brought further into focus thanks to seismic changes in consumer behavior. Lee Peterson, EVP of Brand, Strategy and Design at the customer experience strategy and design company WD Partner, identified two groups of retail consumers: digital natives and digital immigrants.
A digital native has what Peterson calls the “speed of tech thinking,” whereas the digital immigrant struggles to adapt to tech’s zooming pace. By 2025, digital natives are expected to dominate as customers, and, it may be assumed, retail decision-makers. Peterson emphasized that while some age groups tend to naturally fall more into one category than the other, the divide is not just about generational differences.
The differences between the two groups are fairly stark:
- 51% of digital natives use mobile devices to make purchases, while only 15% of digital immigrants do so;
- 57% of digital natives prefer mobile self-checkout, while 33% of digital immigrants do so;
- 76% of digital natives say they are definitely or somewhat “addicted” to digital devices, compared to 39% of digital immigrants;
- 65% of digital natives are interested in BOPIS drive-through, while only 49% of digital immigrants are willing to try it; and
- 55% of digital natives believe the showroom concept of retail will be the store of the future, versus 28% of digital immigrants.
In the digital native’s world, there will be no patience for brands claiming to embody modernization that don’t have the products or experience to back it up. Stores are already capitalizing on the digital native’s open-to-anything attitude and desire to try new things. Their presence in the market pushes brands to reimagine both stores and service.
“People don’t have to go to stores, they have to want to go to stores,” said Peterson. Young shoppers’ expectations are driven by the on-demand economy of Uber and Airbnb, so “to have crappy employees at the store is a death knell,” Peterson said.
In fact, Peterson noted that Gen Z shoppers assume much of the technology they read about should already be deployed in-store: 43% would use a beacon-enabled mobile checkout, such as the Amazon Go app being piloted now, compared with 19% of digital immigrants.
Peterson listed a number of things that are still in use today that are destined to be totally unfamiliar to people born in 2025, including: cash, checks, banks, taxicabs, traffic lights, maps, car insurance, offices, catalogs and malls.
What this new generation will be accustomed to includes:
- Implantable mobile devices;
- Driverless automobiles;
- Clothing connected to the Internet;
- Cities without traffic lights;
- Augmented reality business meetings; and
- AI-powered predictive analytics given a “seat” on a company’s board of directors (already a reality for a Hong Kong-based VC firm).
How ready will retailers be for the very different shopping world of 2025? The answer depends on their responses today. To be ahead of the game retailers must strategize where the customer will be in less than a decade. This requires immediate planning and goal setting to keep from being left behind.


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Samsung, who wants to bring the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the forefront, cut Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max model. Samsung likes to fight rival smartphone brands provocatively. The company, which had previously made similar initiatives, now ran two new ads against Apple.
The company, which wanted to highlight the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, had its eyes on Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max. In the commercials, the camera features of the two devices were compared with each other.
Samsung declared war on Apple!
Highlighting the Space Zoom feature in the first commercial, Samsung shows the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G at the top and the iPhone 12 Pro Max at the bottom. While both phones point to the moon; It is evident that Samsung phone can reach farther points. Here, the company is revealing its own 100x digital zoom experience versus the 12x zoom capability of the iPhone.
In the second commercial, Samsung again compares the same phones with different criteria this time. The company, which displays a photo of a Cheddar cheese sandwich on two devices separately, displays the difference in quality with the S21 Ultra’s 108 Megapixel main camera compared to the iPhone’s 12 Megapixel camera.
Samsung attention-grabbing commercials are on the social media agenda. It is not yet known whether Apple will receive an answer to this.


text: A study indicates that the more vitamin D you have, the less likely you’ll be to have a stroke. Data from 21,000 people, ages 45 and older, who took a food frequency questionnaire, examined vitamin D and stroke risk. Suzanne Judd is at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “We found an 11 percent reduction in stroke in those people who had the highest intake of vitamin D.” (7 seconds) The majority of us get some of our vitamin D from the sun. “10 minutes a day, arms and legs exposed in the spring and fall and summer should be fine.” (9 seconds) Fatty fish like salmon and tuna are also a good source of vitamin D. The study presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference was supported by the National Institutes of Health.


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04 Apr 2014 15:00pm
By Charles Tjatindi
BRUSSELS, 04 APR (NAMPA) - The just-ended European Union (EU)-Africa Summit has failed to unite leaders of African, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) countries over trade deal agreements with the European Union.
The summit was held on Wednesday and Thursday in the Belgian capital Brussels, the headquarters of the EU.
African leaders failed to forge a united front against the most prominent trade deal with the EU - the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) - as many sought to consider their countries economic interests first.
While many countries initially agreed to lobby for better conditions attached to the signing of the EPAs, most failed to see their promises through, and instead indicated that they would be signing the EPAs.
Nampa has learnt from sources which were present during closed-door engagements that many African leaders bailed-out of the united front against the EPAs at the last minute.
Many countries which had agreed in principle to sign the EPAs were those which do not have high volumes of exports to the EU, and as such sorely rely on the EU for most of their foreign earnings in export goods.
Namibia exports beef, fish and grapes to the EU in large quantities.
Nigeria and many of the Caribbean nations have agreed to honour such agreements with the EU before the stipulated cut-off date of 31 October 2014, while South Africa has adopted a wait-and-see approach.
Namibia has been leading the pack of countries within the ACP which refused to sign the EPAs in their current form, arguing that they are more tilted in favour of the EU.
Namibia and the few countries supporting its cause argue that signing the EPAs in their current form will be tantamount to mortgaging off the country's wealth to the EU, in return for weak trade arrangements.
Namibian Prime Minister Hage Geingob, who is leading the Namibian delegation to Brussels, had warned before the summit that the country needed to tread carefully to avoid falling into a trap when dealing with the EU on the EPAs.
The Premier, according to sources, was disappointed in African countries withdrawal from the pack, but nonetheless decided to forge ahead with negotiations for better deals through the EPAs.
The EU is the most lucrative market for African products, and trade arrangements between the two entities have raked in millions of dollars for African countries, which export mainly finished goods to the EU.


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If you are waiting to fill up at $1 a litre, forget it — that is the message from a leading fuel industry consultant.
- Retail and wholesale margins have historically been between 7 and 12 cents a litre, but are currently closer to 30 cents a litre
- Rising Australian dollar and oil price weakness has seen fuel prices near nine-month lows
Price comparison apps have done little to encourage price competition
Fueltrac co-founder and 30-year veteran of the industry Geoff Trotter said while a rising Australian dollar may strip a few cents off the current price, that would be about as good as it gets, and any relief would likely to be temporary.
Data released by the Australian Institute of Petroleum reported the national average price of unleaded petrol fell by 0.8 cents to 122.6 cents a litre in the past week.
The metropolitan petrol price fell by 1 cent to 121.3 cents per litre, while the regional price fell by 0.3 cents to 125.1 cents per litre.
However, at the same time the key Singapore gasoline price — in effect the wholesale price that is heading down the pipeline — rose by 3.5 per cent in Australian dollar terms to $80.77 a barrel, or 50.8 cents a litre.
While motorists are benefitting from a temporary lull in prices above $1.30 a litre, it is the refiners, dealers and retailers who are really enjoying things at the moment, according to Mr Trotter.
"For refiner margins, wholesale margins and retail margins, we're talking over 30 cents a litre," Mr Trotter told Business PM on ABC radio.
"Historically, margins have been, at the wholesale level, in the order of 7 cents a litre. For retail margins historically they were in the range of 10 to 12 (cents). We're not talking 30 cents a litre.
"Those margins were are seeing now are historically very, very high."
Commsec's Savanth Sebastian said the national average pump prices were holding just shy of recent nine-month lows.
"Since early May, CommSec estimates that average Australian motorists are saving as much as much as $12 a month from the cost of filling their cars up with petrol," Mr Sebastian said.
Mr Sebastian said motorists could save even more at the pump if they studied the discounting cycle.
"Between the peak and the trough in the cycle motorists could save themselves up to 20 cents a litre," he said.
"In Sydney and Melbourne, prices could get close to $1 a litre in the coming fortnight."
Lack of competition encourages high margins
But that did not impress Mr Trotter, who argued motorists should be paying a lot less and blamed a lack of robust competition across most retail markets.
"You get a competition effect when you get a concentrations of independents," he said.
"Where there is no significant concentration of independents you don't get significant competition.
"That applies for most rural and regional areas of Australia. We only get significant competition in Adelaide and Melbourne and Sydney, and Perth to some extent."
Mr Trotter is also not a big fan of fuel price apps promoted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, arguing they make it easier for the big fuel companies to maintain fat margins without even having to get on the phone.
"All they tend to do as far as I can see is to provide a signal for retailers to know exactly what everybody else is selling the fuel for, and they don't have to collude on their price information anymore — they just look up the app.
"Since those things have become predominant in the consumer market, they have had no real effect on the reduction on margins or in average lower prices for consumers.
"The digital solution is just window dressing."
The ACCC's June quarter report on the petroleum market is expected to be released late next month.
|Market||Average petrol price [past week]||Average change [past week]|
Source: Commsec, AIP


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Those looking to artificially inflate their Facebook stats to impress people or drive sales can simply send a raft of private messages that include a link to a page »
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Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.
Monday morning brought a flood of new information about the Xbox Series X. No, Microsoft's reps did not reveal a price or any details on why we should still expect new consoles to launch as planned later this year, but they did toss around a lot of technical terms for us to bury ourselves in as an alternative to dealing with other problems.
Whether you're a gamer or not, Xbox Velocity Architecture could represent a significant shift in computing, with SSDs ready to deliver massive amounts of data faster than ever before. For game consoles, that means multiple titles on standby and ready to launch in an instant even after a reboot or system update, but it also reduces the load on the CPU. Microsoft says the DirectStorage tech that underlies the technology and all of its compression/decompression magic is coming to Windows, too, and I can't wait to see it. The Seagate-only-at-launch expansion slot, however, is a bit concerning.
Microsoft also explained its use of new HDMI 2.1 features and how the system lowers latency between your controller inputs and every frame that displays on the screen. Using the One S and One X, it worked with the TV industry for several years to promote variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM). Now, a healthy ecosystem of capable Ultra HD screens should be ready and waiting whenever the Series X boxes arrive.
Social distancing, schmocial distancing. Animal Crossing's latest iteration, New Horizons on the Switch, lands on March 20th. It's evolved into a truly meditative and relaxing escape from reality, according to Devindra Hardawar. Read our full review here.
At the moment, the usually $80 16GB model is $50, matching its Black Friday price. That said, you can get away with the 16GB model since the Fire HD 8 includes a microSD slot, allowing you to add up to 400GB of additional storage to the tablet. A 32GB model is also on sale for $70, and the one thing to note is that these prices assume you can handle seeing Amazon's "special offers" ads on the lock screen -- both tablets cost an extra $15 without.
Maybe you don't need the biggest, most expensive Galaxy phone. Few Android flagships look as good as the Galaxy S20, and even fewer sport features this advanced. Samsung's latest phones have a smooth 120Hz screen, versatile triple-camera setup and 5G support (depending on your carrier), making it one of the best Android phones on the market. Cherlynn Low puts the S20 through its paces.
Comcast has been pushing to sell movies via video on-demand while they're still in theaters since at least 2007. With theaters emptying out and closing for weeks as the world reacts to the coronavirus pandemic, Comcast's studio arm is testing the approach.
Starting Friday, several movies still in their theatrical run will be available for 48-hour rentals for a price of $19.99. You can watch The Invisible Man, The Hunt or Emma, and when Trolls World Tour opens in April, you'll be able to see it online at the same time. Studios not owned by cable companies haven't followed, but they'll have to at least consider it. For now, Disney's early releases last weekend, and Warner's decision to push up the VOD release for Birds of Prey are the only signs of a shift.
One year later, and Tesla's Model Y is reaching buyers -- if they went for the pricier Long Range and Performance configurations. The company has confirmed that deliveries of its electric crossover are officially underway in spring (really, late winter) as promised. But if you went for the basic standard-range model, it's not going to reach you until 2021.
Say hello to the new PowerBeats. They have the same audio and design as the pricier true wireless Powerbeats Pro that debuted last year -- but they keep the wire. This time around, the wire routes down the end of the ear hooks, keeping the cord out of your way a little more. The earbuds are IPX4-rated sweat and water resistant, so a modest amount of moisture shouldn't cause any issues. The inline remote is gone, but there are controls similar to the Powerbeats Pro's on the buds.
Apple increased battery life to 15 hours on a charge -- up from 12 hours on the previous model. The handy five-minute Fast Fuel charging feature is still here, and it gives you an hour of listening time in a few minutes. When it's time to plug in, you'll do so via a Lightning cable -- well, you know, nothing's perfect.
The new Powerbeats will be available March 18th on Apple's website in black, white or red for $149, cheaper than the PowerBeats 3 were at launch.
But wait, there's more...
- Apple's new 'budget iPhone' plans could include a large Plus model
- Amazon will hire 100,000 workers to keep up with the surge in demand
- What's on TV: 'Animal Crossing,' 'Half-Life: Alyx,' 'Altered Carbon: Resleeved' and 'MLB: 20'
- There are now 1 billion Windows 10 devices in the wild
- AMD's efficient Ryzen 9 CPUs target Intel's gaming laptop crown
- Engadget Upscaled: How did we get to 5G? The history of mobile networks
- Facebook's new Oculus Quest update will make it easier to multitask
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Wal-Mart nominates Google's first female engineer for its board of directors
The Bentonville, Ark., company (NYSE: WMT) holds its annual shareholders meeting Friday, June 1, at the University of Arkansas campus in nearby Fayetteville.
Mayer has been vice president of local and maps for Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) since 2010. She oversees product management and engineering work for Google Maps, Street View, Google Earth and local search products. For five years before taking that job, Mayer was vice president of search products and user experience at Google.
When Google hired Mayer in 1999, she was the company’s first female engineer. Since then, according to Wal-Mart’s proxy card, she “has been responsible for launching hundreds of products and features.”
Wal-Mart picked Mayer because of her “long-term experience in internet product development, engineering, and brand management.”
Michael Duke is president and CEO of Wal-Mart, which has its online operations based in the Bay Area.
During the year since the last annual meeting, Wal-Mart directors who weren’t executives at the company were paid a $25,000 retainer plus other cash payments. If they travelled by air to board meetings they got $4,000 each time. Directors also got grants of stock worth about $175,000 each.
Steven E.F. Brown is web editor at the San Francisco Business Times.
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Company Shop Opens Flagship North East Store
Company Shop News
Pioneering food redistribution organisation creates over 40 local jobs
Company Shop, the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus food and household products, has opened its brand-new flagship store in Washington – with Deputy Mayor David Snowdon and Washington and Sunderland West MP Sharon Hodgson officially cutting the ribbon.
The Washington store, which opened today, has created over 40 jobs locally and will stock good food and household products for up to one third of their normal retail price. The official launch event was attended by a number of high profile figures including the MP and from the council, as well as industry representatives. At the ribbon cutting, members streamed through the gates in their many.
Company Shop Washington will operate on a membership basis, open to local people working in food manufacturing, the emergency services and the NHS. Membership is expected to reach around 20,000 within the first 18 months of trading.
The opening of the store follows the rapid expansion of the pioneering redistribution model across the country, after the latest store opened in St Helens in January. The new store adds an additional 8300 sq ft of retail space to the businesses network.
Company Shop works with major retailers, manufacturers and brands across the country, to stop more than 60 million items of surplus food and household products going to waste each year. The Company Shop Washington store will stock the surplus products at a fraction of their normal retail price, from the full range of Company Shop’s industry partners.
Surplus is created for a wide range of reasons in the supply chain – be it a wonky label, incorrect weight on a product, seasonable packaging or an incomplete batch. Company Shop takes this perfectly edible, wholesome surplus and redistributes it to its network of members, helping hard-working families to stretch their budgets, and the food manufacturing industry to prevent unnecessary waste.
Jane Marren, Managing Director of Company Shop, said:
“We are delighted to have officially opened our latest Company Shop store and to have brought our innovative model to the North East. This is an area with a thriving food manufacturing industry and hard-working families who will benefit hugely from accessing discounted food in our stores which might otherwise have gone go to waste.
“We are hugely grateful for all of the support we have received so far, including from our partners, our members and the local community. We were delighted to have Sharon Hodgson MP and the Deputy Mayor in attendance”.
Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington and Sunderland West said:
“With food bank usage at a record high and people going to bed hungry in the UK in the 21st century, it is shameful that so much edible food is sent to waste each year. That is why I am so pleased to open Company Shop’s new store in Washington today, so that people working in food manufacturing, NHS and our emergency services can have access to redistributed stock at a discounted price.
“It stops so much food going to waste and also helps families to stretch their budgets a little further.”


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Attention anyone with a closet: Those shoes no longer wanted are desperately needed to fight the tragedy of global poverty.
That message is being delivered by the Central Minnesota Council, Boy Scouts of America, which has launched a drive to collect 25,000 pairs of shoes to help the poor. Used and new shoes can be dropped off at the Boy Scout office, 1191 Scout Drive, Sartell, by April 16. Many Scouts will also deliver door hangers in neighborhoods with instructions on how residents may donate shoes by allowing them to pick them up at a person’s home.
The shoes collected by Scouts will be delivered to Soles4Souls, an international anti-poverty organization that monetizes used shoes to create sustainable jobs and fund direct relief efforts, including the distribution of refurbished shoes. Founded in 2006, the organization has distributed more than 22 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries. Most of the reusable shoes will be distributed to microenterprise programs that create jobs in Haiti and other poor nations. The resulting revenue will help fund the free distribution on shoes in the U.S. and overseas.
The Boy Scouts are involved to teach members how to “help other people at all times” and provide a service to those in need. The
World Bank estimates that 400 million children worldwide live in pronounced poverty. Millions of these children will grow up never having a pair of shoes. Lacking proper footwear, countless children will not be able or permitted to attend school.
To donate used shoes between now and April 16, residents can look for a door hanger for instructions on how to donate or they can drop off shoes at the Boy Scout Service Center, 1191 Scout Drive, Sartell.
For more information, contact JaLee Noelting at (320) 251-3930 or [email protected]


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Tijuana’s car rental industry has seen its worst year yet, with prices climbing as much as 10 percent year over year, according to the local housing and rental agency that manages the market.
In a statement, Geico rental agent Francisco Caminado said rental car prices in the city of nearly 40,000 are now at an all-time high.
“It is a matter of life and death for people like me,” Caminados said.
“People who have paid hundreds of dollars to rent a car, they have a problem.
It’s a very dangerous situation.”
Geico and other luxury rental car companies are facing the threat of losing a significant chunk of their profits due to rising rental car costs.
The price of a rental car in Mexico has been on the rise for years, thanks to cheap labor, low car insurance rates and a surge in people seeking to rent.
The latest data, however, shows that rental car rental costs have not only gone up, but they are now a significant portion of a city’s overall income.
The average rent in the country’s second-largest city, Mexico City, is about $1,000 a month, and a single car costs about $9,000 in the state of Baja California.
The national average is about 25 percent.
The rental industry is also suffering from the effects of the recent wave of immigrants.
While Mexico City is one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in the world, the trend has hit the rental car industry hard.
The number of people coming to the country each year has increased by about 50 percent over the past five years.
The rental industry, however is facing a shortage of rental cars, which are a key component of the industry.
The city has a rental shortage that is increasing every year, and this year the number of rental car rentals in Mexico is almost at 50,000, Caminadas said.
As the economy has taken a back seat, many of the people looking to rent have been forced to find other ways to make ends meet.
One of the many new drivers that are filling the market, said Ricardo Lopez, an analyst at research firm IHS Global Insight, is a recent college graduate who is trying to find work while attending university.
He said he is finding that his salary, while good, is not enough to cover his rent.
“I am paying my rent and living on campus,” he said.
For Caminades, the rental cars are the biggest issue.
“They are the problem,” he told the Times.
“We need to fix them.”


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New bill proposes changes to country’s EV incentive structure
A new bill has recently been introduced in the Congress for official removal of the ‘200,000 delivery threshold’ for electric vehicle (EV) car manufacturers. The threshold puts an EV maker at a disadvantage because its buyers cannot eventually avail EV incentive in the US market.
The EV incentive structure in the US takes the form of a $7,500 tax credit, and is therefore not a direct discount on EV purchase. The incentive is capped at a limit of ‘200,000 vehicles per manufacturer’, and once an automaker hits the threshold, the federal tax credit for its buyers is phased out over a period of one year.
An effort to change the EV incentive structure and remove the ‘200,000 delivery threshold’ was launched earlier this year. As a result of the effort, a new bill -- H.R.6274 -- was unveiled in Congress by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) last Friday.
The new bill not only proposes the removal of the delivery threshold for EV makers, but also recommends the replacement of the threshold with a ten-year limit for EV incentives. It also proposes that the tax credit system should be changed to a direct rebate on EV purchase.
The introduction of the new bill comes at a time when Tesla Motors is moving closer to hitting the 200,000th delivery threshold in the US this quarter. Tesla will be the first automaker to hit the threshold, with General Motors (GM) likely to follow it.
Ahead of the official unveiling of the BMW iX3 SUV at the 2018 Auto Show in Beijing this week, German automaker has shared a teaser video for the new vehicle, which is being considered a part of the automaker’s X SUV line-up.
According to a survey carried out by AAA, the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is encouragingly on the increase in the United States, with 20% Americans having expressed the possibility of going electric when they buy their new car.
In a new massive energy storage project in the UK, battery packs of BMW i3 electric car have been used for connecting to the UK National Grid.
In an indication that Honda has preparations underway for India’s electric car push, the Japanese automaker is reportedly mulling the option of a battery production facility in the country.
During the course of Tesla Motors first-quarter 2018 earnings call, the company CEO Elon Musk teased a potential gigantic 1 GWh energy storage project which is likely to be announced soon.
Germany has registered impressive 61 percent increase in plug-in electric vehicle sales during April 2018 compared to the same period last year.


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The company Google has reported the launch of its latest update to Google Shopper for IOS, version 1.5 which improves the search for offers in your geolocation service. This improvement includes the expansion of service in the cities of New York and San Francisco, filed two weeks ago. In addition, Google has improved the service for Android mobile devices with version 2.0.
With Google Shopper 1.5, in addition to the button 'Store', the user will see two new tabs at the bottom of the application: 'Specials' and 'My bids'. The tab 'Offers' a list or map of the offers that the companies have been included by Google Places, from variety of restaurants, movie theaters and even classes of tennis or golf.
"Let's say you find an offer of free post at a nearby restaurant, but do not have time to enjoy it until the weekend. Now you can save the deal for future use, saving and exchanging later from the tab" My Offers "says Google's official blog.
Also, if the user has Google Offers in your city, be able to view and redeem their offerings purchased by clicking 'My Offers'. For now, Google Offers only available in U.S. areas of Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and New York, but says that soon other cities will have the service.
With automatic updates, Google Shopper 1.5 is now available for iPhone users in U.S., UK with IOS 4.0 and higher. The update is available for download from the store


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The digital marketing industry is experiencing an unprecedented explosion in digital communication technologies. Slack, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook – the options for communication are virtually endless. While this is true, email, which is viewed as the “dinosaur” or communication remains the most preferred form. According to statistics, it is not just older people who prefer this communication methods. Consumers between the ages of 12 and 17 now use email more often than Facebook and Snapchat. While Snapchat is still experiencing significant growth, the adoption of email is growing even faster. —
Email is still the fastest way to build and grow an audience. While this is true, a large number of businesses aren’t doing email right. Statistics show companies are bombarding customers with bland corporate jargon and hope the half-hearted attempts to personalize the message will be effective. Bizop Media and other industry experts agree that now is the time for companies to revolutionize their email marketing efforts.
Email is now omnipresent thanks to Wi-Fi and smartphones. It’s also most consumers way to communicate with brands (winning by a landslide). Up to 73 percent of people have reported that email is their preferred marketing channel, which means it has trumped eight other channels, including phone, messenger apps, face-to-face, online (for example, web banners), text messaging, and social media.
For marketers, the prevalence and ongoing use of email is good news. Email provides an array of advantages over some of the other forms of digital communication. Email newsletters are a rare medium, as these are “opt in,” which means recipients are choosing to sign up and they can choose to unsubscribe at any time. This results in companies avoiding reaching out to individual who never expressed any interest in what the company offers. This saves money, time, and effort. Email also eliminates certain privacy concerns that plague other, newer communication methods.
While some modern companies have embraced personalization, the concept of using customer data for customization body text, greetings, taglines, and delivery schedules hasn’t reached all companies. However, this is a smart tactic, as personalized email campaigns encourage open and click-through rates than the non-personalized campaigns.
The firms that are utilizing personalized email campaigns stop there. However, half of all email marketing efforts that contain nothing more than the basic personalization efforts, which consists of various low-cost tactics, such as following up with the inactive customers.
According to email marketing experts, it’s time for marketing campaigns have to evolve from just personalization to actual humanization. While the personalization efforts are considered unidirectional – with companies talking to the customers – humanization is something that is bi-directional – it’s an ongoing back-and-fort relationship. When effective humanization it’s possible to create an authentic and deep connection with their audience and this is something Bizop Media can help with.
Creating the human touch in emails is an innovative effort that is going to prove to be an effective method for reaching customers on a more personal and emotional level. With these efforts, people won’t feel as though they are dealing with a faceless division or department. People are going to connect with other people, think Apple and Steve Jobs and Tesla and Elon Musk. This is the effect that a person wants to achieve
Release ID: 88921421


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Hong Kong boosts budget to fight virus, effectiveness questioned
Hong Kong’s latest budget marks its first deficit in 15 years as it includes cash handouts and tax breaks.
Hong Kong unveiled a record-high budget deficit on Wednesday, as it boosted cash handouts to residents and tax concessions for companies to cushion the shock of often-violent protests and the outbreak of a coronavirus on the recession-hit economy.
The measures are aimed at supporting households and businesses that have suffered the economic fallout of the coronavirus, but may not reverse the long-term slide in growth as the city struggles with anti-government protests, analysts said.
“People are worried to do shopping because of the coronavirus, and after the epidemic is gone there is a high chance that violent protests will return. These two factors will make the tax concessions and cash handouts ineffective to boost consumption,” Iris Pang, economist for Greater China at ING, told Al Jazeera.
But “the tax concessions and other relief measures on paying wages to empire can stabilise the job market a bit,” Pang said in an email.
Finance Secretary Paul Chan announced relief measures worth 120 billion Hong Kong dollars ($15.4bn) on Wednesday, which dragged Hong Kong’s budget into its first budget deficit in 15 years at 37.8 billion Hong Kong dollars ($4.85bn), or about 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The relief measures were largely comprised of one-off payments, including handouts of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,284) to Hong Kong residents aged over 18, tax breaks for firms, and other subsidies.
Chan said he expected deficits for the next five years.
The 2019-2020 budget included more than 30 billion Hong Kong dollars ($3.85bn) to cushion the hit from the protests, which saw activists and police clashing in shopping malls and the financial district. It also included 30 billion Hong Kong dollars ($3.85bn) in recently announced handouts for health authorities, small and medium-sized firms and low-income residents.
The economy has been in recession for at least three quarters and many companies in tourism and retail are struggling to survive as a partial closure of the border reduces visitors to a trickle and keeps residents away from public areas.
“Whether this stimulus will be sufficient to pull Hong Kong SAR out of the recession that commenced in 2019 will depend on the severity and duration of the COVID-19 epidemic,” Rajiv Biswas, APAC Chief Economist at IHS Markit told Al Jazeera.
For the 2020-2021 fiscal year, Chan expected a budget deficit of 4.8 percent of GDP or 139.1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($17.86bn), a record value in nominal terms. In 2003 and 2004, when Hong Kong faced a recession caused by an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the budget deficit reached 5.3 percent of GDP, according to ANZ analysts.
The shortfall, which was larger than most analyst forecasts, accounts for lower revenues and the relief measures.
“While the stimulus measures do provide a significant boost to ordinary households through substantial new grants and tax rebates, the collapse of Chinese tourism and new orders is a substantial external shock to the Hong Kong economy,” Biswas said.
Hong Kong usually runs balanced budgets or surpluses, since its pegged currency system commits it to fiscal prudence. Its ample fiscal reserves, however, allow it to run annual budget deficits during periods of economic headwinds.
Chan said while public spending was large, current circumstances were unique and the payouts would not impose a long-term fiscal burden.
Fiscal reserves are estimated at 937.1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($120.28bn) by the end of March 2025, down from 1.1 trillion Hong Kong dollars ($141.19bn) expected in March 2020, a drop that leaves economists relaxed about the peg system.
The Hang Seng Index was down 0.6 percent, performing worse than mainland shares but outpacing much of Asia. The Hong Kong dollar firmed slightly to 7.7890 per US dollar.
Chan forecast the 2020 GDP would range between a contraction of 1.5 percent and growth of 0.5 percent. For all of 2019, the economy contracted by 1.2 percent, its first annual decline since 2009.
The first quarter of 2020, when Hong Kong recorded its first coronavirus patients, is expected to be even worse.
Analysts predict the coronavirus will cut 1 or 2 percentage points off first-quarter growth while the contraction for 2020 may be larger than last year’s, depending on the intensity of the outbreak.
“It’s quite unlikely that Hong Kong can get out of recession because of this budget,” said Natixis economist Gary Ng, who predicts a 5 percent GDP contraction this quarter, and a 3 percent drop for the whole year.
“Because of the weak consumer sentiment, we are not expecting the handout to channel fully into GDP growth.”
With additional reporting by Samantha Ho in Kuala Lumpur