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Frozen food specialist Iceland is planning to open 40 new stores and take its online shopping service nationwide despite seeing profits slip for the second year running.
The privately-owned chain revealed underlying profits fell nearly 11% to £202m as the retailer was battered by the supermarket price war and invested in overseas expansion. Total sales rose just 2.7% to £2.8bn in the year to the end of March despite the company opening 46 new stores. Sales in stores open more than a year were level amid increased competition from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl as well and a wave of price slashing by major supermarkets including Morrisons and Asda. The company denied that last year's horsemeat scandal, when traces of horse DNA were found in some Iceland burgers, had also affected this year's figures.
Malcolm Walker, co-owner and founder of the chain, said: "Yes the price war is real and we have to keep our prices competitive but we have something different to offer as we are in the frozen food market."
The company said Iceland has demonstrated its ability to withstand intense competition and outperform the major grocers by using products and services, the convenient nature of its store locations in local catchments, and by maintaining its competitive edge on price. Despite that, the past year was one of "major investment" for Iceland as it opened 43 new stores in the UK, took online shopping to 280 outlets and stepped up international expansion with two stores in the Czech Republic and food exports to South Africa and the Middle East. The retailer also bought out its franchise partner in the Republic of Ireland. The company is planning further international moves this year helped by its shareholders Brait in South Africa and Landmark Group in the Middle East.


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Byline: STAFF REPORT
MANATEE COUNTY -- The financial situation at the Shoppers Bazaar flea market in Bradenton hasn't been good.
That was clear from a bankruptcy filing last July in which bazaar owner Terry Schneider told a court he was losing $16,500 a month at the business at 3201 First St. W.
Rent payments weren't being made to the building's owner, who had sued. And, Schneider said in the filing, the business was in debt for nearly $445,000.
But things may have been even worse than they seemed for Schneider. State revenue officials say Schneider pocketed or spent more than $145,000 in sales taxes he was supposed to give to the state. …

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Solar Foods to develop protein for Mars journey
Finnish company Solar Foods is teaming with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Business Incubation Programme on food production for the colonisation of Mars.
Solar Foods has been able to grow protein in the testing phase using only air, water, electricity and a small amount of trace elements. The revolutionary method attracted two million euros in funding earlier this year.
The Finnish company has now been selected for the ESA Business Incubation Programme to develop a system for producing protein in space conditions for flights to Mars and on the planet itself.
“The conditions in Mars colonies are very different from those on Earth, but they have sunshine, and there are huge amounts of carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere,” Kimmo Isbjörnssund, manager at ESA Business Incubation Centre Finland, says in a press release. “The pioneering technology of Solar Foods enables a new way of producing food even in closed spaces. We assume that ingredients available at the Mars base can be used with the new technology.”
The method is based on research conducted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology, and Solar Foods aims to start commercialising it in 2021.
“The method of Solar Foods for producing protein arose from a desire to produce food in a more environmentally friendly way, without using land,” explains Pasi Vainikka, CEO of Solar Foods. “The concept is not dependent on agriculture, weather or climate; instead, it makes possible efficient and low-cost food production with solar energy anywhere, whether in a desert or in space.”


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Libstar CEO Andries van Rensburg reflects on 30 years in the food business.
The food business used to fall under the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. Now it’s called consumer packaged goods (CPG), but that doesn’t mean anything has slowed down. In fact, the opposite is true. Things are moving faster than ever.
To operate successfully in such a fast-moving environment, a business needs to be agile, with the ability to adapt quickly as trends develop. But it also helps if you can see the future first. At Libstar, strategy is about seeing the future first. Seeing where the market is headed. Seeing the opportunities, the gaps. Seeing where there’s space for innovation. Strategy drives the future of our business, and two subsets of that strategy are the habit of innovation and the art of joining the dots.
Trust your gut
Lancewood has a special place in the Libstar family. And in the story of Lancewood, innovation has always been a key ingredient.
In 2008, Lancewood was a bankrupt dairy. The banks had literally put padlocks on their doors. Libstar took on the Lancewood business and now, 11 years later, Lancewood is the most profitable natural cheesemaker in South Africa.
Everyone told us to stay out of the yoghurt category. Apparently it was too competitive for a newcomer to make an impact. But when I was travelling in Portugal, I noticed how amazingly good their yoghurt was; much better than what was on offer in South Africa. I wondered why. Why couldn’t we in South Africa do a yoghurt that was better than anything they have overseas?
It took us a year, but it’s fair to say that Lancewood now has the best double-cream flavoured yoghurt in South Africa – it won one of only six Qualite awards handed out at the 2019 Dairy Association Annual Fair –and sugar-free and low-fat-high-protein versions will be launching soon.
Another example of how to connect the dots is Lancewood Sauce Delight – we took fresh cream, which all the dairies have on shelf, and added real cheese, mushrooms or peppercorns to produce three brand new flavoured white sauces. A few months ago, that product sector did not exist. Now we’re producing about 30 tons of Lancewood Sauce Delight every month.
Multi-Cup – the small food packaging company that Libstar owns – has also seen the future first, in this case by moving away from manufacturing plastic cutlery, cups and lids and towards producing wooden cutlery, paper straws and compostable cups.
Environmentally sustainable packaging has been on Multi-Cup’s radar for years. Initially we imported biodegradable cups and straws, but that turned out to be far too expensive. So now we are the first to manufacture eco-friendly packaging solutions in South Africa, supplying customers like KFC and our new Precious Planet brand. It’s a market opportunity that we’ve grown from zero to a R3-million turnover per month.
You get a culture of innovation, which is great, but then you get innovation in your DNA. If, like Libstar, you have the latter, then growing profitability in a hands-on, more efficient and more innovative way will come naturally.
There’s building a machine to inject nitrogen into peanut butter to make it easier to spread; a new forex management system that secures better exchange rates on imports and exports; working with retail partners to drive innovation in product categories – we do all this and more. Because of our entrepreneurial background, innovation at Libstar never sleeps.
The many faces of innovation
A successful strategy doesn’t have to be fancy. Daniel Jacobs, our CEO at Ambassador Foods, looks for gaps in the market and then he finds a way to fill them by any means necessary. Ambassador currently packs 54 tons of product for Woolworths per week – all of which is based on expanding simple nut production into categories like cereals, snack bars, confectionary, groceries, and health and wellness. Achieving that kind of product diversity (147 lines in total) is rooted in continual innovation.
Amaro Foods, which bakes exclusively for Woolworths, is another great example of how connecting the dots can be a key skill and how technology can play an important role.
Tony Amaro, the CEO of Amaro Foods, prides himself on developing scratch recipes – which means using no pre-mixes, only pure raw ingredients. Tony spent eight years perfecting the current Woolworths hot-cross bun recipe and, in fact, everything baked by Amaro Foods is from-scratch recipes.
Amaro Foods will also become the first Libstar company to run a totally paper-free production facility when their new artisanal bakery opens in December. The point of going paperless is not only that it’s green, more efficient and will drastically improve data management – it’s also another way of seeing the future first.
There’s one final thing that’s central to connecting the dots of successful business collaborations and relationships, and it’s rooted in something my mother used to say. “My son,” she’d say, “You’ve only got one name. If you throw that one name away, you don’t have another name. You’ve been given onename.”
I think it’s important to realise that in the trade you only have one name. Yes, Libstar works hard at innovating, but integrity and absolute honesty and openness are at the heart of everything we do.
Without these core values, I believe that it would be difficult to stay in business long enough to see much of the future anyway.


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Ryanair set to charge £5 for online check-in
Thursday 14 May 2009
Ryanair passengers face a £5 charge per flight to print out their tickets at home as part of moves to abolish check-in desks and increase revenues. The policy replaces Ryanair's practice of offering free online ticketing and charging anyone who opted for face-to-face check-in £10.
In future, anyone who arrives at the airport without a pre-printed check-in card will have to pay a £40 "boarding card re-issue fee". In-built restrictions to the online ticketing system mean many customers will be unable to print their tickets when they book, raising the chances for penalty charges from customers who think they have completed the process.
Ryanair says its system won't allow customers booking more than 15 days before their flight, or within four hours of one, to check in at that time. so those who book farther in advance will have to revisit the website nearer the time of their trip to check in.
The EU has forced Ryanair to change the way it lists the costs of its tickets to include taxes and some – but not all – fees up front. Advertised "free" tickets can still end up costing £20 to £80. For example, Ryanair adds £10 or more to each round-trip ticket if it is purchased with normal credit or debit cards, making the charge almost impossible to avoid, but this cost is omitted from the initial price.
The airline defends this practice because it offers free booking to holders of a restrictive, ill-marketed Visa Electron card that is unavailable in major countries.
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Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too. — Taslima Akhter.
Image: Two victims of a garment factory building collapse in Savar, Bangladesh by Taslima Akhter via Time Lightbox. Select to embiggen.
UPDATE: Via the New York Times, Clothing Is New Front in Movement for Fair Trade.
With fair-trade coffee and organic fruit now standard on grocery shelves, consumers concerned with working conditions, environmental issues and outsourcing are now demanding similar accountability for their T-shirts. And some retailers are doing what was once unthinkable, handing over information about exactly how, and where, their products were made.
The death toll from the Bangladesh factory collapse is now over 800.


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Verizon is expanding its retail presence in Massachusetts with the opening of its own FiOS branded store in Newton.
The store, at 224 Needham St., a busy shopping area, will demonstrate FiOS TV and Internet services, alongside other Verizon products and services.
The outlet is furnished with a family room setting where visitors can sample DVR features, FiOS video selections and Internet speeds. Current customers can swap boxes, pay bills or pick-up remote controls there, too.
The announcement of the Verizon-branded store comes after the telecommunications company announced it would sell services through a partnership with the Jordan's Furniture chain, beginning with the outlet in Reading, Mass.
FiOS Internet is now available in 90 Massachusetts communities. Video services from the company are available in 65 communities in the state.
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The Detroit Free Press reports Ford is set to boost production by 40,000 units. The company plans to half its summer shutdown to just one week at 13 plants this July. Ford says that it is already operating most of its facilities at maximum capacity, and adding a week of production is a good way to balance manufacturing with demand. The automaker is also adding extra shifts at three of its production facilities this month. Overall, Ford will increase its production this year by a whopping 400,000
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Posted: January 13, 2014 By Robert Camuto
There are lots of reasons to love wine, but for me the most important reason is people. Wine is, after all, a story of humans working within the dynamics of nature, culture and history. When you put those forces together, you are bound to have tales of operatic proportions. These are the stories I love telling and will share in my new twice-monthly blog, Letter from Europe, reporting from the wine regions of France, Italy and beyond.
Posted: January 8, 2014 By Tim Fish
If you drink Robert Mondavi wines and Jim Beam Bourbon, you probably vote Republican. If you prefer Moët & Chandon and Courvoisier Cognac, chances are you’re a Democrat.
Who knew that you were making a political statement every time you reached for a bottle of wine or spirits? Consumer data supplied by research group GFK MRI and analyzed by the National Media Research Planning and Placement, suggests that what you drink says a lot about how you vote.
Posted: January 7, 2014 By Ben O'Donnell
In recent years, the shift from cork to screw cap seemed inevitable. Forward-thinking regions like Australia and New Zealand now use screw caps for around 70 percent and 90 percent, respectively, of all their wine to better protect the quality.
So it came as a surprise two years ago, when winemaker Adam Mason, working for South Africa's Klein Constantia at the time, announced that he'd be returning the Perdeblokke Sauvignon Blanc to cork, after four vintages under screw cap—for technical reasons. Not long after, Christian Canute of Barossa's Rusden Wines made the same switchback on the Driftsand Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre, after five years under metal, despite an Australian wine press hostile to cork. "There is a fear that non-conformity on this issue might affect how a producer's wines are rated," Canute told me.
Posted: January 3, 2014 By Bruce Sanderson
Wine Spectator senior editor Bruce Sanderson is blogging on his recent trip to Italy's Piedmont region, where he visited growers and tasted the new vintages that will be released in the United States in 2014. In this installment, he tastes the Barolos and more at Roberto Voerzio. Here are his notes.
Posted: January 2, 2014 By James Molesworth
It's that time of year. Time to make a resolution, only to watch it fade out. Common wisdom says that most New Year's resolutions are broken in less than two weeks. And of course, the most common resolution folks make is to lose weight. In 2012 and 2013 I made the same resolution …
With the calendar turning, I thought I'd ask a few people in the wine and restaurant industry how they first got into and now stay in shape. It's an industry rife with pit falls—long hours, big restaurant meals, travel and, of course, alcohol. Being a sommelier, restaurateur or a wine journalist can easily become a built-in excuse for taking your health for granted.
Posted: December 24, 2013 By Jennifer Fiedler
Do you still drink the same wines you did when you started drinking wine? I don't, and I'm guessing you don't either.
It's a truism that understanding wine is a journey. With so many styles and types of wine out there, it's natural that people start in one place and end in another.
Posted: December 19, 2013 By James Laube
Bottle size matters when it comes to wine, but maybe not as much as you might think. That's important to understand if you own larger-format bottles, or are considering buying some.
Conventional wisdom is that smaller bottles age faster than larger ones because smaller bottles have a smaller ratio of wine volume to oxygen, of which there is about the same amount in all bottle formats. That anecdotal thinking has been passed along for decades, becoming one of winedom's golden rules. Actually testing the theory is more difficult.
Posted: December 18, 2013 By Mitch Frank
I love hearing people's "aha!" moments with wine—that instant when they realized that wine is more than just a beverage, that great wine has personality.
Here's a good one: A young man takes his visiting father out for dinner to celebrate dad's birthday. Neither knows much about wine, but the son decides this is a special occasion so he orders the most expensive bottle on the list. The wine—a 1996 Opus One—opens the young man's eyes. Within a few months, he's buying several bottles of Opus One, then other top wines. (Luckily, he has a decent amount of money.) Soon, he's hooked. Wine becomes his passion, and he's attending tastings and collecting rare bottles. Burgundy in particular beguiles him.
Like much of what we know about Rudy Kurniawan, it's hard to tell how much of this story is true and how much he concocted. Kurniawan told this tale to a journalist in 2006, just after an auction of his wines raised $24.7 million, a record for a single-consignor auction. Since he began attending auctions and tastings a decade ago, Kurniawan had always been vague about his origins and his seemingly deep pockets.
Posted: December 18, 2013 By Ben O'Donnell
The youngest generation of wine drinkers wears an iPod like an appendage. Yet the wine industry fails again and again to gain traction with the music world, largely because celebrity brand allegiances look—and usually are—forced and phony, as I wrote yesterday. I became skeptical that wine companies could create cred out of nothing. One small import company, however, is topping all the charts and hitting high notes in sales.
In 2006, Jay-Z publicly boycotted Cristal Champagne over a clumsy remark by Roederer's managing director. The same year, Jay rapped about "gold bottles of that Ace of Spades," and the Champagne's shiny fuselage made a cameo in his video for "Show Me What You Got." Ace of Spades, in its shimmery metallic gold casing, is perhaps the most slickly packaged wine since, well, Cristal. The brand was officially called Armand de Brignac; it had no pedigree in Champagne—it seemingly materialized out of nowhere—but bottles cost $300.
Posted: December 18, 2013 By Tim Fish
So many good wines and only 365 days to drink them. That's what makes it tough to pick the best wines of the year. My go-to list of course is Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2013, but I also have my personal favorites. These are wines that left an impression on me for many reasons: where I was when I tried it, who I was with, the meal that went along.
Posted: December 17, 2013 By James Molesworth
Wine Spectator senior editor James Molesworth is back in France visiting châteaus in Bordeaux and blind tasting the 2011 vintage. Between blind tastings, Molesworth visited Domaine Andron, Château Calon-Ségur and Malescot-St.-Exupéry.
Posted: December 17, 2013 By Ben O'Donnell
Some Boston University School of Public Health professors and students were jamming out pretty diligently to produce a recent study tallying alcohol brand mentions in 720 Billboard-charting songs from 2009 to 2011. "The most striking finding was that alcohol-brand references are concentrated among a small number of brands [in pop music] …," according to the research published in Substance Use and Misuse. "Four brands alone—Patrón tequila, Hennessy Cognac, Grey Goose vodka and Jack Daniel's whiskey—accounted for more than half of all alcohol-brand mentions."
Yes, here we are, 17 years after Biggie Smalls proclaimed "Cristal forever!" on Jay-Z's "Brooklyn's Finest." Wine fervor among young people is at an all-time high—especially for bubbly and rosé, which are the most party of all wines. Yet most wine brands are still clueless on how to get a shoutout and a lucrative lyrical plug when, as the study shows, there are plenty of outs to be shouted: 64 brand mentions in 720 songs. But for wine? Two Moëts and two Cristals in the "urban" genre, plus a Dom Pérignon in a country song.
Posted: December 13, 2013 By James Laube
With the exception of the 2011 California Cabernets, which are trickling in, most of the 2011 wines from California have passed through our tasting room.
For some vintners, 2011 was the worst harvest in decades. For many, 2011 was the most difficult in a career. It's impossible to put a happy face on a year marked by uniformly cold temperatures, hard rain at harvest, crops at 50 percent of hope and minimal financial returns.
Yet for all the headaches and ordinary wines from 2011, there are plenty of lessons. One is that modern viticultural practices could salvage what was in most ways a nightmarish vintage.
Posted: December 12, 2013 By Harvey Steiman
One of the comments on my blog last week about UC Davis' study on microbes and terroir reminded me why this is such a slippery concept. It shouldn't be, but it is.
Some see terroir, the idea that wine profoundly reflects the place where the grapes to make it grew, as wine's be-all and end-all. Call me simple-minded, but let's not lose sight of the fact that wine's first duty is to please our taste buds. If it can do that and also express the nuances of flavor and texture of a certain site, all the better.
Posted: December 11, 2013 By James Molesworth
Wine Spectator senior editor James Molesworth is back in France visiting châteaus in Bordeaux and blind tasting the 2011 vintage. Between blind tastings, Molesworth visited Domaine de Chavalier, Haut-Villet and Clos Fourtet.
Posted: December 11, 2013 By Tim Fish
Now that I've been reviewing California sparkling wine for Wine Spectator for the past decade, I can say the wines have never been better, whether it is the luxury "tête de cuvées" or the value wines the Golden State has long been known for.
Look for reviews of some of my favorite California bubblies in the Dec. 31 issue. Meanwhile, here is a selection of the top wines as well as three great values priced at $20 or less.
Posted: December 10, 2013 By Bruce Sanderson
Wine Spectator senior editor Bruce Sanderson is blogging from Italy's Piedmont region, where he is visiting growers and tasting the new vintages that will be released in the United States in 2014. In this installment, he tastes the Barbarescos and more at Pio Cesare, La Spinetta and Cigliuti. Here are his notes.
Posted: December 10, 2013 By Mitch Frank
In 2008, I had the chance to walk through the cellars of François Raveneau, one of Chablis' greatest producers, to taste the wines and ask Bernard Raveneau how he and his brother Jean-Marie crafted such mind-blowing expressions of Chardonnay. It was one of the most frustrating hours of my life. The wines said a lot. But coaxing lengthy answers from the reserved Bernard was about as likely as getting the small French oak barrels to talk to me. What was the secret of Raveneau's success? "We are just doing what our father did," said Bernard, the first of several times he spoke those words during the day we spent together.
Numerous winemakers have told me the same tale: I am just doing what the previous generation did. Tradition informs every move I make.
Posted: December 5, 2013 By James Molesworth
Wine Spectator senior editor James Molesworth is back in France visiting châteaus in Bordeaux and blind tasting the 2011 vintage.
Posted: December 4, 2013 By Bruce Sanderson
Wine Spectator senior editor Bruce Sanderson is blogging from Italy's Piedmont region, where he is visiting growers and tasting the new vintages that will be released in the United States in 2014. He spent a day in Serralunga d'Alba to taste the most recent vintages at Giovanni Rosso, Schiavenza and Rivetto. Here are his notes.
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The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) appointed renowned Lebanese designer and artistic director Rami Kadi as their Regional Goodwill Ambassador for sustainable fashion in West Asia.
Rami Kadi is a celebrity-loved couturier born in the US and raised in Lebanon on a mission to shed light on the harmful environmental impacts of the fashion industry and promote sustainable practices to adopt after the COVID-19 crisis.
Rami Kadi began his career as a fashion designer at the age of 25, designing couture dresses in his atelier and showroom in Beirut. He has been frequently showcasing his collections in Paris during fashion week since 2014.
Rami Kadi presented his Spring Summer 2020 Couture collection through the region’s first virtual fashion show, highlighting global issues such as the progressive and destructive nature of climate change, and featured the region’s first-ever couture dress made completely from recycled plastics.
He is rapidly gaining international recognition and has dressed some of the entertainment industry’s biggest names, including Rita Ora, Jennifer Lopez, Jameela Jamil, and many more.
"I am excited to be a part of such a change and I am looking forward to working with the UN Environment Program in the region. Sustainability has been something that I have been trying to incorporate into my collections and has become a topic that is very dear to me. Responsible production will become a reoccurring theme throughout my collections, and I cannot wait to join forces with the UN Environment Program to achieve our goal. I truly believe that together, we can help shape the future of the industry and promote better and more responsible behavior."
- Rami Kadi, Lebanese American fashion designer
The UN Environment Programme works with prominent personalities, through its VOICES portfolio, to help generate public awareness, interest, and understanding of the most pressing environmental issues facing our planet.
It collaborates with Goodwill Ambassadors, Patrons, and Advocates, across several campaigns and initiatives, to inspire people around the globe to engage and to act as environmental custodians.
The UN Environment Programme aims to push the fashion industry toward more sustainable practices. It spreads awareness of the industry’s detrimental impacts, promotes circularity and sustainable consumption and production while encouraging cross-sectoral collaborations to find innovative solutions.
The UN Fashion Alliance, an initiative jointly led by UNEP and International Trade Centre, comprises nine UN agencies that seek to change the path of fashion from a social, economic, and environmental perspective to work towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.
"The UNEP Regional Office for West Asia is thrilled to have Rami Kadi on board as the Regional Goodwill Ambassador to support our program on sustainable fashion. Through this, we hope to promote behavioral change within the industry and its consumers that will benefit future generations and help protect our environment. We are excited to be working alongside such a prominent figure towards our common goal of transitioning to more sustainable practices and influence consumers to become more mindful of their actions. We have seen the incorporation of environmental responsibility in Rami’s latest works, and we hope that through this partnership and program, we will be seeing more designers following in his footsteps."
- Sami Dimassi, Regional Director and Representative of UNEP in West Asia
The Regional Office for West Asia is based in Bahrain but serves twelve countries, including Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
The leading global environmental authority sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
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It's been just over two years since Samsung introduced the capacious Galaxy Note to an intrigued press corps at IFA in Berlin. Who'd have thought that it would turn out to be nothing less than a phenomenon, spawning a new sub-category in smartphones and innumerable flattering attempts at imitation? The original Note sold 10 million units by August 2012, but according to Samsung, the Note 3 has reached the same lofty goal in just two months.
You just experienced a weekend of epic deals, and it's not even close to over yet. There are still all kinds of holiday app sales going on, and then it'll be on to the New Years sales, then the Presidents' Day sales, then the Valentine's Day sales, and so on in that fashion until all the apps are sold.
Update: Despite allegedly increasing the number of devices available through the promo, all the spots are already gone. It took under 10 minutes. There are going to be a lot of unhappy folks out there, but there's another slot open next Monday.
Original post: Things didn't go super-well for Motorola on Cyber Monday – it turns out people really like getting $150 off a full-price phone and pretty much crushed Motorola's website on Monday.
Venturing out on Black Friday to score sweet deals is a dangerous endeavor, but the magic of the internet affords you an alternative. From the warmth and safety of your home, you can snap up the best deals – getting up at 3AM to beat everyone else is optional. We're going to keep loading this post up with relevant deals as we find them, so check back later in the day too.
We had previously heard that the US version of Motorola's shockingly inexpensive Moto G would be headed to the United States in January, a couple of months after some international markets. It looks like Motorola couldn't wait until next year and has started selling the phone on its website. You can order the US version of the GSM phone now, and it's set to ship on December 2nd.
The phone is being offered in 8GB and 16GB versions, with the low price of $179 and $199, respectively.


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Consumer electronics keep semi sales strong, despite slipping US consumer confidence, SIA reports
The Semiconductor Industry Association reports that growing sales of consumer electronics in emerging markets have become a major factor driving semiconductor sales.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News — Electronic News, 6/30/2008
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today reported solid growth in the worldwide sale of semiconductors, despite the continuously rocky economic environment here in the United States.
The industry group estimated sales of semiconductors at $21.8 billion in May, up 7.5% on the $20.3 billion reported for May 2007 and up 2.8% on the $21.2 billion reported for April. May is historically a relatively strong month for semiconductor sales.(See chart below for more sales details.)
Year-to-date sales of $103.4 billion were up by 5.3% from the $98.2 billion reported for the first five months of 2007, SIA data showed.
To be true, SIA said that total semiconductor sales excluding memory products would have been higher. According to SIA, sales were up by 12.3% year-on-year and by 2.5% sequentially without memory. Within the segment, SIA reported DRAM sales were up sequentially by 6.4% but declined by more than 20% from May 2007. Meanwhile, NAND flash sales grew by 1.4% sequentially and by 25.5% from May 2007. SIA in early June lowered its estimate for full-year growth from 7.7% to 4.3% on the memory market’s price erosion.
“Global sales of semiconductors grew at a healthy rate in May reflecting continued strong sales of consumer electronic products,” said SIA President George Scalise (pictured) in a statement. “Despite reports of declining consumer confidence in the US, both disposable income and consumer spending rose in May. It is likely that the distribution of tax rebate checks to millions of Americans was a factor in increased consumer spending.”
SIA isn’t banking semiconductor sales growth entirely on US spending, however. The group noted that growing sales of consumer electronic products in emerging markets, including China, Latin America, and India, have become a major factor driving semiconductor sales.
“Consumers account for more than half of all semiconductor sales worldwide. In the past, the US was the largest consumer market and the primary driver of demand. Today this country accounts for less than a quarter of total consumer demand,” Scalise said.
“Until recently, the US accounted for approximately 31% of PC unit sales. Today, with the growth of the consumer base in emerging markets, the US accounts for around 21% of PC unit sales. Five years ago, the US accounted for 21% of cell phone unit sales, and in 2008 that figure will be 13%. ”
According to Scalise, the shift in demand patterns has major implications for the semiconductor industry. “While we haven’t seen a slowdown in US consumer spending on electronic products, a slowdown in the US today would not have the same impact it had in the past,” he said. “The addition of more than 300 million consumers in other regions has created new opportunities for the worldwide microchip industry, and a more diversified market has helped to drive increased sales of semiconductors.”


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The start point for the best source of fleet information
It's a tribute to the longevity of its 2008 rebirth that the Fiat 500 has stayed top of the UK city car sales charts without a single facelift. But while the exterior still looks remarkably fresh, technology has moved on and Fiat has made a few tweaks for the 2014 model year version.
The biggest news is a new 105hp 0.9 Twin Air petrol engine (in addition to the 69hp 1.2, 85hp 0.9 Twin Air and 95hp 1.3 diesel). The extra 20hp it offers helps the car get to 62mph in 10.0 seconds (a second quicker than the 85hp 0.9) and still offers 67.3mpg and 99g/km (versus 70.6mpg and 92g/km for the 85hp 0.9).
There's also a Sport button, and while it wasn't immediately apparent what real difference it made, in a 940kg car, the power boost alone gives noticeably more shove without resorting to sporty Abarth versions.
Inside, a large digital driver dial has been added, as have smart leather seat options, but there's still no integrated satnav, and the centre stack, dashboard and door shoulders are showing their age, with too much flimsy, plasticky and hollow-sounding surfaces.
The Fiat 500 is still a great-looking car from the outside but the interior is showing its age


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Samples in periodicals archive:
According to the World Bank s logistics performance index, PRC has a global ranking of 26 (1 is the best and 155 is the worst).
The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) allows for comparisons across 160 countries and is based on a worldwide survey of operators on the ground (global freight forwarders and express carriers), providing feedback on the logistics "friendliness" of the countries in which they operate and those with which they trade.
Kazakhstan takes the 88th place, a leading among the countries of Central Asia, in the World Bank's ranking of Logistics Performance Index 2014, the press service of the World Bank Group reported.
The UAE has been positioned ahead of all GCC countries in the recently published World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2012, said a senior official.
Lahore, July 22 ( ANI ): The World Bank's most recent Logistics Performance Index (LPI) has ranked Pakistan at number 71 out of 155 surveyed countries.
Taipei, May 31, 2012 (CENS) -- Taiwan moved up to 19th in the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2012 rankings, not only advancing one notch from two years ago, but also surpassing South Korea and China, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) cited the report released by the World Bank as indicating, with such progress reflecting the promotion of the international logistics service project by the CEPD.
Shaikha Lubna pointed out that the UAE was ranked 24th among the 155 countries in the World Bank's 2010 Logistics Performance Index and 16th in the World Economic Forum's Enabling Trade Index.
Dubai also clinched the perfect 100 score in infrastructure measured by the number of international destinations served, airlines served, upload and download speeds, port size, time to export and import, internet users, logistics performance index and e-government web measure index, among others.


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Mysuru: Apples, grown primarily in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, continue to enchant most of us, at least those in Southern India. Apples are enchanting not just as fruit but also the awe that surrounds the fruit, especially its taste and the picture of apple orchards. Consider them lucky who have had a chance to visit apple orchards in Shimla or Kashmir, a dream that many can only afford to dream. But can you believe it can be grown in Mysuru and that too on a terrace? However, far-fetched it may sound, meet Sharon Prasad of Namma Mysuru to believe it to be true.
Sharon Prasad, a resident of Sri Shivarathrishwara Nagar in Bannimantap has done what’s even considered ‘impossible’. Sharon has grown apple on her terrace in huge paint buckets and today, the plants are the star attraction to her neighbours, friends and relatives. A plant lover at heart, Sharon’s terrace is a beautiful medley of ornamental plants, herbs, veggies and fruits. But why apple?
“Who doesn’t like apple? I have been growing many fruits on my terrace and growing apples has always eluded me. Thanks to hot and sultry weather of Mysuru that the idea of apple was always discouraging,” said Sharon Prasad to Mysoorunews.com, Never one to give up, she tried to test-grow apples on terrace. For, terrace is her field.
“I got the saplings and tried. But I was unlucky, thrice” said Sharon. But, she still wanted to try and in her fourth attempt, she became success.
“I got apple plants from Kashmir that can be grown in hot climate.” She booked the order for ‘Hariman 1999’ variety of apples by paying around 500 to each plants. Not to forget the cost involving in logistics, Sharon had ordered around 15 plants. The plants were neatly packed to protect its root stock as they had to be brought all the way to Mysuru. She planted around eight of them in huge paint bucket and the rest she has planted in her farm near Tumakuru.
The plants were given different organic manure that she prepares at her home and also fed micro-nutrients required for the plant. She had to manage the plants from pest attack and she did it all without the help of fertilizers.
She planted these saplings in last year around October and around June this year, the plants had first batch of fruits.
“Around January and February (this year), I could spot pleasant pink flowers in the plant and that made me believe that nature do surprises us,” said Sharon excitedly. The aroma of the flowers filled my terrace and slowly, they turned into fruits. “First they were pale yellow and then turned to peachish pink and full red,” Sharon explained of the fruits. Each of her plant has around nine red juicy apples. “The initial ones were little sweety-sour but later, they were sweet and tangy,” Sharon said.
The size of the fruits were slightly small from what’s available in the market. “May be because of the space. But I will make it up next time,” Sharon added.
Interestingly, Sharon was asked not to grow them in pot by the seller in Kashmir as the apples are grown on land. But when she shared the pictures of her harvest in her paint buckets, the seller was surprised, to say the least, says excited Sharon.
Ever since, she has posted pictures of her harvest on social media and shared the news with her friends, her home is buzzing with visitors. Everyone, wants to know everything about it, she says with pride.
One might think, she may have had a fluke of luck. But, a look at her three-step terrace on her home, will prove otherwise. For, a green thumb she is, Sharon has a fruit market, literally on her terrace. She has papaya, guava, chiku, custard apple, orange, dragon fruit, grapes, passion fruit, Ooty apple and such all on her terrace. Apart from this she also grows several vegetables including ridgegourd, bottlegourd, brinjal and capsicum for her household needs. Sharon has over 300 variety of ornamental plants, including those in bonsai, that are placed aesthetically at her home. In a small compound of her house, she has grown pomegranates, avacados and lemon, too
A native of Hubballi, Sharon has made Mysuru her home after she got married here. Sharon credits her mother for her love for the plants. “Our home in Hubballi was full of plants and I used to keenly watch how my mother used to tend to plants. I don’t have much space around my house, so I started growing on terrace. I draw inspiration from her,” says Sharon, who has been winning first prize in Dasara terrace gardening competition for the past three years.
Isn’t it too expensive to grow so many plants on terrace? “Not at all. I would not spend money on expensive pots to jacket my plants. I grow them in any container and use only organic manure that’s generated in my kitchen. Of course, I try other variety of organic manure and use natural spray to keep pests at bay,” adds Sharon. Her gardening skill has come handy in running a landscaping firm that her sons manage in Mysuru.
Today, her terrace is not just a garden but a live-school for many enthusiastic gardeners, who visit her terrace for practical knowledge.
Credit: Source link


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Shanghai game products are popular internationally, helping the traditional Chinese culture "going out" "Original God" "Chinese style" circle powder overseas players ■ Reporter Zhang Yi reporters recently learned from the 2022 Shanghai Internet Publishing Management Conference that in the past One year, a number of head enterprises with revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan emerged in Shanghai, and the scale of the Shanghai Internet publishing industry has grown further. Not only that, represented by Miha Touring "Original God", Shanghai game products are widely popular internationally, helping to "go global" in traditional Chinese culture.
I am marvel at the charm of traditional Chinese culture. "This is the first time I have listened to Chinese opera. Now I can’t help but play." . "These popular comments are from the hands of overseas players in the game" Original God ". On the eve of the Spring Festival, Shanghai game company Mihayou specializes in "The Original God" to create a video of the opera singing section "The View of the Goddess", which has made many overseas players marvel at the charm of traditional Chinese culture.
On the overseas live broadcast platform Twitch, the live broadcast of the "Goddess of Woman" trailer attracted 600,000 netizens to watch, equivalent to 30%of the platform audiences watching the "Original God" channel; 10,000 times.
The protagonist of this drama videos is the new role of "The original God", "Yun Yan", sighing, a smile, full of "Chinese style".
According to Liu Wei, the founder and president of Mihayou, the design inspiration of the character in the game in the game comes from the heroes such as Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying, Liang Hongyu and other heroes. Patto Huadan Yang Yang dubbing and singing.
"In the 13 languages ??such as Sino -British and Western France, the part of Chinese opera music all retained Chinese singing. The purpose is to allow global players to enjoy the original Chinese love and Oriental rhyme." Overseas, "Original God" A wave of global "fans" for the Chinese opera art circle. After watching "The View of the Goddess", countless netizens poured into the Peking Opera videos released by CGTN (China International TV) two years ago. In just a few days, the video playback volume increased by more than 10,000.
The game has become a "innovative variable" in the past year, and the Shanghai Internet Publishing industry has handed over a dazzling transcript. According to preliminary statistics, the Shanghai game industry achieved sales revenue of 125 billion yuan, an increase of%year -on -year, accounting for one -third of the country.
Online literature achieved sales revenue of 13.3 billion yuan throughout the year, a year -on -year increase of%. The overall scale of the e -sports market reached 28.3 billion yuan, a year -on -year increase of%. Among them, the revenue directly related to the event was 100 million yuan, occupying half of the country, and the status of Shanghai Network Publishing Town has more consolidated.
In the context of the normalization of the epidemic, Shanghai online publishing enterprises actively explore the new development model. "In the absence of online events, we founded a new online competition brand.
Gu Liming, senior vice president of Perfect World.
Since 2020, the DOTA2 Vocational Tour (DPC) and Perfect World Professional League (PWL) have been established one after another, and the live broadcast stream has been pushed to major platforms at home and abroad with remote production models. Shengqu Game actively explores the cross -border possibility of "game+".
Taking "Game+Education" as an example, the dramatic functional games developed by Shengqu and the Normal University have become courseware for primary and secondary school students to learn traditional culture; take "Game+Red" as an example, and use VR, AR, holographic image , Naked Eye 3D and other technologies, creating a space for digital party history education "revival · Song", exploring new paths for the digital development of red cultural tourism.
"With the advancement of science and technology, the game has the first -mover advantage in the personalized creation of digital content, the research and reserves of human -machine interaction mechanisms, and the commercialization capabilities for end users.
Xie Fei, president of Century Huatong Group, said, "The game can quickly integrate into more digital application scenarios, become ‘innovative variables’, and release greater value in many areas such as education, medical care, cultural heritage, and scientific research.
"(Source: Jiefang Daily) (Responsible editor: Yan Yuan, Xuan Zhaoqiang) Share more people see it.


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PayPal locks out ProtonMail, asks if encrypted email service has government approval
Ms. Smith |
July 2, 2014
PayPal locked down ProtonMail's account allegedly because PayPal isn't sure if the Swiss-based NSA-proof email service 'is legal' and if ProtonMail has 'government approval to encrypt emails.'
Many people had asked for PayPal to be an option, which is why ProtonMail said it used the service at all. People can still contribute via Bitcoin or via credit card directly on Indiegogo and bypass PayPal completely.


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A Twin Cities destination is closed after decades in business, but you can keep a piece of it forever.
Skaters laced up at the Roller Garden for the last time over the weekend. The owners say the pandemic forced them to close the St. Louis Park staple after more than 50 years.
An auction will sell everything from signage, to arcade games and roller skates. Bidding opens on June 8. Click here for more information.


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Time running out for $6.4 billion Large Hadron Collider as scientists hunting God Particle come up empty-handed
- Smartphone users warned of 6000 PERCENT increase in malicious apps
- World population doubles in less than 50 years - sub-Saharan Africa has highest birthrate and deepest poverty
- Smash and grab gang trash shrine to Steve Jobs in $100,000 raid at Apple Store
- Call of Duty Elite released in beta on XBox 360 is 'stats and not much else'
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Amid an outlook for slower growth and more moderate inflation, the Fed shifts to data dependence.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s message after the July meeting was that the central bank has entered a data-dependent phase after one of the fastest rate-hiking cycles on record. He spoke after the Federal Open Market Committee hiked rates 25 basis points (bps) on 26 July to 5.25%–5.50%, keeping on with its fight against still-too-high inflation. Powell signaled that future monetary policy decisions would depend fully on how the economy fares in the coming months.
Changes to the statement were minimal, leaving market participants to focus on Chair Powell’s press conference. While he was clear that inflation still remains unacceptably high, he stopped short of pointing to the additional rate hike suggested by June’s median summary of economic projections (SEP) that guided toward another hike this fall. Powell’s communication suggests to us that if the pace of nonfarm payrolls and core inflation (which excludes food and energy sectors) stay moderate through the summer, the Fed will stay on hold.
Our baseline scenario still projects that the U.S. economy will enter a mild recession late this year or early next – enough to bring the unemployment rate up and help inflation fully return back to target. That expectation, plus cooling inflation in the second half of the year, implies that July could very well end up being the last hike in this cycle. However, if the economy (and the labor market) continues to prove resilient, inflation is likely to settle uncomfortably above target and necessitate more restrictive policy.
Near-term inflation cooldown
The U.S. inflation outlook is improving – at least for now. After moving sideways in the first half of 2023, inflation could fall rapidly in the second half as pandemic-related price distortions run their course or even reverse. Key drivers include:
- An apparent end to fiscal-stimulus-induced price-level adjustments. After an initial shock sent the real M2 money supply above its historical trend by 20%, higher inflation and some normalization in the Fed’s balance sheet have brought the real value of money back to trend. (For details on how debt-financed fiscal policy can contribute to inflation, read this recent Viewpoint.)
- Substantial normalization of supply constraints that had worsened demand-pull inflation from fiscal policy. Input price cost-push inflation is markedly lower. For instance, steel and wholesale used car prices are declining, and spot shipping costs, particularly on China–U.S. West Coast routes, have normalized. China is also once again exporting deflation.
- Inflation in rents is moderating. Data indicate rental inflation for both new leases and rollover leases is slowing. The last three U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation reports underscore these trends. (Read our analysis of the latest CPI data in this blog post.)


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Jan Koum, co-founder and chief executive of the messaging app acquired by Facebook for $22 billion in 2014, told the DLD technology conference in Munich that WhatsApp is scrapping the 99-cent annual fee it charges consumers after a year. He said the company would instead focus on making businesses pay to connect with its 900 million users.
In a blogpost, the company said it will test tools to allow users to communicate with organisations on the platform. “That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight, ” it said, adding that it wanted to find a way of doing this in a way that did not rely on advertising.
Thomas Husson, analyst at Forrester Research, told Financial Times said that WhatsApp was following in the footsteps of China’s WeChat. The service, owned by internet group Tencent, offers much more than just messaging, including the ability to access entertainment content, order a taxi and pay for goods directly from the platform.
Sales integration between Facebook and Instagram is increasing as the latter looks to build upon its advertising business, according to Instagram’s chief operating officer Marne Levine.
The image-sharing platform is leveraging Facebook’s resources in a bid to woo small businesses as part of its global expansion strategy, the Financial Times has claimed.
Facebook acquired the photography app three years ago for $1 billion with a view to running the business as an independent group.
Speaking at the DLD technology conference in Munich Monday, Levine said Instagram has been relying more heavily on its parent company’s sales team.
“When we launched ads two years ago, ads were available in just eight countries. In September, we opened for business in around 200 countries… What you’ve mostly seen so far is bigger brands and bigger businesses using advertising to connect with consumers, ” she said.
“I think what you’ll see in 2016 is small businesses starting to advertise more and take advantage of this platform.”
Pointing to the fact that two thirds of the app’s 400 million users are based outwith the US, she said that global domination would be key in the coming year and that Facebook’s commercial arm would play a pivotal role in helping Instagram hone in on small businesses.
“We can plug in to the infrastructure and really leverage a lot of the resources that Facebook has, ” she added.
In 2015, Instagram scaled up its advertising business to implement a “seamless backend” so marketers could use it in tandem with Facebook.
On top of allowing brands to display several images at once and use clickable links it also introduced a new ad format, Marquee, which gives marketers the ability to target a massive audience in a short time frame via a series of images or videos.
However, Levine was quick to quash rumours that the site intends to implement a ‘Buy’ button similar to the one Facebook has been toying with.
Research conducted last year noted that marketers are rapidly embracing Instagram, with the use of the platform forecasted to double in 2016.
Source: The Financial Times


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Farmers market: Camarillo market offers wide range of fresh produce
Published 11/9/2013 at 1:00 p.m. 0 comments
The Camarillo farmers market last weekend was alive with music and customers as it continued its mission to bring fresh food to the community and raise money for the Camarillo Hospice.
Farmers Market: Spiny lobsters are pricey; a variety of crab claws available
Published 11/2/2013 at 1:00 p.m. 1 comment
Lobsters, crabs and fish draw a crowd at Ventura Harbor farmers market.
Farmers markets vie for finite supply of locally produced produce
Published 11/1/2013 at 2:17 p.m. 0 comments
In the past few months four new certified farmers markets have opened in Ventura County — three of them in Ventura — with the goal of offering farm-fresh food directly to the consumer.
Farmers Market: Newbury Park farmers market back at its old spot after construction of parking lot
Published 10/26/2013 at 1:00 p.m. 0 comments
I finally made it up the Conejo Grade to visit Helen Lee and the Newbury Park farmers market, which had to spend the summer either in a different location or closed because of construction on the parking lot at the ...
Farmers market: Comparing apples to apples
Published 10/19/2013 at 1:00 p.m. 0 comments
At the booth of Ha's Apple Farm of Tehachapi, Choon Kim explained the different types of apples she was selling by offering a slice of each along with a description.
Farmers market: Grass-fed Jersey cows produce creamiest milk
Published 10/12/2013 at 1:00 p.m. 0 comments
At the Channel Islands Harbor farmers market, people last weekend were beating the heat by checking out the seaside offerings of produce, seafood and various crafts booths.
Farmers market: Neighborhood market within walking distance of Westside Ventura customers
Published 9/28/2013 at 2:00 p.m. 0 comments
One thing that stood out on opening day at the new Westside Ventura farmers market was the number of people coming on foot to check out the fresh produce and other offerings.
Farmers market: Bustling Westlake Village market has wide variety
Published 9/21/2013 at 1:35 p.m. 0 comments
The Westlake Village farmers market always seems busy on Sunday mornings where patrons can buy goat cheese, healthful jujubes or tomatoes among the vast array of fresh and healthy offerings.
Farmers market: Fruits, peanuts, pomegranates, tomatoes among choices at Agoura Hills market
Published 9/14/2013 at 4:45 p.m. 1 comment
September brings variety to Agoura Hills market.
Farmers market: Plaza Park turns lively with music, fresh produce
Published 9/7/2013 at 2:00 p.m. 0 comments
The downtown Oxnard farmers market becomes a weekly fiesta at Plaza Park with music, food trucks and fresh produce on Thursdays.
Farmers market: Flagrant flowers give Camarillo market smell of summer
Published 8/31/2013 at 1:00 p.m. 0 comments
Flagrant flowers give farmers market a sweet smell.
Farmers Market: Fisherman's market attracts long line of people seeking seafood
Published 8/24/2013 at 2:00 p.m. 0 comments
The line at the Ventura Harbor fisherman's market begins to form at 7:20 a. m. with people waiting for the 8 a.m. opening of the market.
Farmers market: Cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets
Published 8/17/2013 at 2:45 p.m. 0 comments
For people who didn't have the foresight to plant a garden this season, the alternative is hanging in a basket from Alive Styles from Oxnard, which has a booth at the downtown Ventura farmers market.
Farmers market: Customers at Ojai market find lots to choose from
Published 8/10/2013 at 2:00 p.m. 0 comments
Custormers at Ojai farmers market have lots to choose from as fruits and vegetables pour in.
Farmers market: Newbury Park market moves to church grounds until parking lot construction is finished
Published 8/3/2013 at 3:00 p.m. 0 comments
Newbury Park market is at King of Glory Lutheran Church, 2500 Borchard Road, where market manager Helen Lee said it will be relocated until the construction is done on the parking lot.
- Nov 17th 2012 Citron draws the curious to question…
- Apr 7th 2012 T.C. Boyle uses reality to write fiction
- Mar 24th 2012 What crops are in season?
- Feb 4th 2012 Farmers markets need nurturing
- Dec 31st 2011 Buddha's hand known for its zest
- Dec 24th 2011 Newbury Park farmers market carries…
- Nov 26th 2011 Free-range eggs, salad mixes at the…
- Nov 19th 2011 Channel Islands farmers market offers…


text: Prior to becoming the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Calabasas Hills-based video game publisher THQ Inc., Brian Farrell had never been the CEO of a major corporation, as most of the former CPA’s time in the business world had been on the financial side. Yet that lack of experience hasn’t stopped Farrell from leading THQ to 10 straight years of sales growth, with the company’s 10-year compound annual revenue growth rate measuring a robust 36 percent. In these years at the helm of THQ, Farrell has transformed the company from a relatively small niche player to being one of the most prominent independent video game publishers in the nation. The company that had an $8 million market cap in 1995 has become one with an approximately $1.6 billion market cap today. In accordance with this size increase, Farrell has grown THQ’s global marketing and sales force to where it now directly serves more than 75 countries worldwide, with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Australia and Korea. Farrell has also been the mastermind behind the company’s decision to expand its internal intellectual property development division to the point of where it employs 1,100 people, scattered across 12 studios. This growth is not just organic, but also includes several strategic acquisitions including Relic Entertainment, Rainbow Studios and Volition Inc. And despite the video game industry’s current sales slowdown due to a transition into the next generation of video gaming platforms, Farrell has managed to keep the company’s earnings projections on track while keeping its stock price on the rise. Question: The video game industry has been in a relative slump of late. THQ’s main competitors Activision and Electronic Arts recently said that their third and fourth quarter results would be below expectations. However, THQ’s earnings expectations have been on track. How has the company managed to overcome this industry-wide trend? Answer: We’re not immune from industry-wide trends but since 1991, I’ve been through four platform transitions and we were able to plan our product launches in through the year, very very well. We thought that we’d have the best success coming out with new brands directed at the core gamer segment away from the holiday season, and the hype that it typically brings, and this decision has paid off well. In the fall quarter, we came to market with big brands (games from licensors WWE, Nickelodeon, Pixar) aimed not at the core gamer but the mass market and this also paid off for us nicely. Q: Do you anticipate that as the next generation of video game platforms hit the market, the software market will pick up accordingly? A: We agree with most industry and financial analysts that the calendar year 2006 is a transition year with the launch of new hardware platforms. The industry will probably be flat to slightly up this year, but the big growth story for the industry will be between 2007 and 2009, as all of the new platforms will be hitting their sweet spot. This has been the normal trend and we think that we’re going to grow significantly in our next fiscal year based on the introduction of a couple of things including the “Cars” video game that we’ll launch with the film in June. We’ve got to manage through the transition, but the future looks bright Q: In recent years, THQ has branched out significantly in the wireless video game realm. How important is the THQ Wireless division to the company’s future and what are your plans for it? A: We were one of the really early movers into the wireless game space. We saw wireless devices and continue to see them as a great platform for gaming. The upside is that all of these handsets around the world can turn into mobile gaming devices. The flipside is that interface on phones isn’t great and the graphics are still relatively primitive. We see it as a high growth market. Our guidance is roughly $50 million for the wireless market this year. It’s small now, but we see it as a potentially high growth market that will continue to be important in the future. Q: Recently, EA purchased Jamdat, one of the major players in the wireless game space. Do you anticipate that the competition will become more fierce in the sector? And if so, how will THQ overcome this heightened competition? A: In all of our segments, whether it’s platform, PC gaming, online gaming or mobile gaming, it’s going to be fiercely competitive. The answer is that the best content will win. We also have to have great distribution to compete. We currently have relationships with 90 to 100 carriers around the world on all platforms. The best content will win and we think our portfolio for wireless is impressive, including licenses like Star Wars and Major League baseball and the National Football League that we don’t have for the platform games. Q: You recently signed a deal to have dynamic ads placed in THQ’s upcoming games, making the company the first major United States publisher to do so. Why did you feel that this was important for the company and what are your plans for its future? A: As we look into the future overall, the big vision is the fact that our consumers are now online a lot of the time. This creates the opportunity for some new revenue models and one of them is game advertising. The thing that we like about our deal that we signed with Massive is that we have a lot of control as to what’s being served up to consumers and when the ads are being served. This will allow us to maximize revenue without interrupting the game experience. If you look at our chief demographics, gamers now are not just teenagers and 20-somethings. Gaming is for 4-year olds to people in their fifties. But the sweet spot for advertisers is the males in the 17-34 category and one can expect manufacturers of consumer products, apparel, food and beverages to want to get into this new advertising market. Q: In recent years, the major Hollywood studios have intensified their efforts to make headway in the video game sector. How has this altered the competitive state of the industry? A: It really hasn’t changed it. The studios have gotten in and out, but our strategy has been fundamentally aligned with making games for our three core brands: World Wrestling Entertainment, Pixar, and Nickelodeon. However, we also have 1,100 people in our product development organization that are working on intellectual property owned by THQ. We have a very extensive pipeline of IP that we have control of. Q: With Disney purchasing Pixar, do you anticipate this changing your relationship with the company? A: We’re currently prepared to launch with Disney and Pixar the games that are based on their upcoming film “Cars.” We’ve worked with Disney on a number of initiatives in the past and we have an ongoing relationship wwith Pixar. Our track record is unparalleled with over seven million units sold of the “Finding Nemo” video game and five million units sold of “The Incredibles” video game. We’ve done an amazing job with Pixar and we have long-term rights for the next five Pixar films. We’ll stand on our record. Q: As the market continues to consolidate, has THQ been approached often by companies eager to acquire it? Conversely, is the company in an active acquisition mode itself? A: We have the same position on mergers and acquisitions whether they’re upstream or downstream. It’s all about content when we look at acquisitions, we think what content can the acquisition create. THQ is a company that has shown the ability to do both. What we’re seeing now and what we’ve been saying publicly is that the consolidation in the industry isn’t really because of mergers and acquisitions. It’s more a result of the dominance of key players like THQ. We’ve been steadily gaining significant market share and we’re not nearly finished with our growth path. As long as we continue to see significant market share gains, our view is that we want to do that independently and aggressively. One never knows what’s going to happen and there are a lot of discussions that are held over time, but we think we’re one of the long-term consolidators based on our business model and management team. Q: What is your vision for the long-term future of THQ and the industry? A: We think that the interactive entertainment industry is going to continue to grow. One of the big picture trends currently going on is the growth of these systems not just in the United States, but worldwide. We’re in a growth industry and we have a strategy of core brands that make sense, we have an enviable network of global distributors and we think that we’re going to be one of the major players and will continue to consolidate that position over the next five to six years.


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Barcelona's Mobile World Congress came and went, and didn't amount to much in the way of US cellphones. The rest of the world got some seriously nice gear, though. Here's the best of the best of the out of reach.
Verizon's rollout of its 4G Long Term Evolution network is in the trial phase in three metro areas, and lucky testers are seeing peak speeds of 60Mbps—wireless. Best of all, 2010 commercial launch is confirmed.
Andrew Lees, Microsoft's dude in charge of cellphone software told the NY Times in so many words what you can expect from Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress next month. Some's good, some's clueless.
Next month at MWC, Microsoft's cloud services will crash to earth: SkyBox, SkyLine and SkyMarket. Neowin says that SkyBox is Microsoft's answer to Apple's MobileMe, the killer being that it's maybe for non-Windows Mobile phones.


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Following up on yesterdays rumors of BlackBerry Z10 returns being higher than average, BlackBerry has stated that they will be looking into the reports and say the claims are completely false. Investment firm Detwiler Fenton had originally said that Z10 returns exceeded sales on numerous carriers. We reached out to the firm but they were unavailable for comment on the claims.
Thorsten Heins says sales of the Z10 "are meeting expectations" and that returns are "at or below our forecasts". There is nothing to show that returns of the Z10 are any greater than that of other premium devices.
BlackBerry Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein said that BlackBerry will be taking action and presenting a formal request to US and Canadian regulators in the next few days.
WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 12, 2013) - BlackBerry® (NASDAQ: BBRY)(TSX: BB), a world leader in mobile communications, today said it would seek Securities and Exchange Commission and Ontario Securities Commission review of a false and misleading report about retail return rates for the Company's new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone.
"Sales of the BlackBerry® Z10 are meeting expectations and the data we have collected from our retail and carrier partners demonstrates that customers are satisfied with their devices," said BlackBerry President and CEO Thorsten Heins. "Return rate statistics show that we are at or below our forecasts and right in line with the industry. To suggest otherwise is either a gross misreading of the data or a willful manipulation. Such a conclusion is absolutely without basis and BlackBerry will not leave it unchallenged."
BlackBerry and Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. carrier, on Thursday refuted claims from research and investment firm Detwiler Fenton that BlackBerry Z10 devices were being returned in unusually high numbers. Detwiler Fenton refused to make either its report to investors or its methodology available to BlackBerry, even after the Company said the firm's findings were "absolutely false."
BlackBerry Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein said: "These materially false and misleading comments about device return rates in the United States harm BlackBerry and our shareholders, and we call upon the appropriate authorities in Canada and the United States to conduct an immediate investigation. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the merits of the many competing products in the smartphone industry, but when false statements of material fact are deliberately purveyed for the purpose of influencing the markets a red line has been crossed."
Zipperstein said BlackBerry would present its formal request to U.S. and Canadian regulators in the next several days.


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Viacom has admitted that its Rock Band series is still not making any cash - on the contrary, it's losing the company money. Viacom's chief financial officer, Tom Dooley, admitted in a quarterly earnings report that "Rock Band was a negative contributor to margins in the third quarter".
He added: "We expect it to break even or be slightly profitable in the fourth quarter from a margin point of view. It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season".
The big problem is that making the plastic guitars, drums and microphones is expensive. The company's plan, it seems, revolves around getting those controllers into as many into people's homes as possible, then selling them future games in the franchise that cost both the company and the consumer less.
To that end, both Rock Band 2 and Beatles: Rock Band are compatible with older controllers on the same platform, but it seems to be a pretty long-term strategy. Having said that, Beatles Rock Band is apparently doing reasonably well - "the economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we'd like", said Viacom's CEO, Philippe Daumann.


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Property group Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has said that it expects to see upwards of 1,300 new hotel rooms to open in Dublin this year, an increase of 6% over current levels.
The increase in room supply is coming from numerous new developments, including the soon to be open Iveagh Garden Hotel on Harcourt St, the Clayton Charlemont near the Grand Canal and the Maldron Hotel on Kevin St.
RevPAR, or revenue per available room, is expected to slow somewhat over the year as a result - down to 5% growth this year, as compared to 7.8% in 2017. Regardless, Dublin achieves come of the highest occupancies in Europe, currently standing at 84%.
JLL is predicting that Galway City Centre and Dublin Airport are both primed for growth in terms of hotel developments, especially given Galway's status as the European Capital of Culture in 2020.
“Whilst these figures are fantastic for the industry, the biggest challenge facing the Irish hotel market is Brexit,” said Dan O’Connor, senior vice president of hotels at JLL. “Ireland is experiencing a decline in UK visitation, and UK demand may weaken further as the British consumer faces into higher inflation and economic headwinds in 2018.”


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Cyber Monday Goes Mobile, Breaks $1 billion in Sales
Users were whipping out their mobile devices for more than just texting and tweeting on Monday.
Mobile sales on Cyber Monday totaled $1.07 billion, a 34% year-over-year increase, according to Adobe Digital Insights. Sales on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, were 31% of sales for the day.
“Retailers have been intensely focused on mobile application development and improvement over the past couple of years as they recognize that they are very important cogs in the multichannel shopping wheel,” said Charlie O’Shea, lead retail analyst at Moody’s. “We believe significant sums have been spent by retailers on this technology, so the fact that record sales are being completed by consumers using mobile validates their importance.”
The move to mobile is a “major shift” that indicates mobile is “becoming a real, viable driver of growth,” said Nicole Jennings, senior vice president of paid digital media at PMX Agency, a global marketing firm.
For shoppers, mobile provides an experience that’s different from one they’d get on their desktops.
“Consumers have found that they can receive the same, if not even more, customized experience from a brand on mobile that they may not necessarily get across other platforms,” said Jennings.


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Irving Azoff Calls Lyor Cohen’s YouTube “Make You Rich and Famous” Promise “FICTION”
Veteran music industry mogul and manager Irving Azoff has called "FICTION" the recent statements by YouTube's Head of Music Lyor Cohen that the video streamer will make musicians "rich and famous" and cited a contradictory analysis by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.
After YouTube's Head Of Music Lyor Cohen told AdAge that his sales pitch for skeptical artists, managers and labels is "We're going to make you rich and famous," manager Irving Azoff took to Twitter to declare the promise "FICTION: You didn’t get rich from $.001 per stream." Azoff cited an analysis by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. [Read the full study here.]
FICTION: You didn’t get rich from $.001 per stream. https://t.co/Ps8XsBJde7
FACT: The fair rate is paid by Apple and Spotify. Just ask Jordan: https://t.co/jaUv99Dt43
— Irving Azoff (@irvingazoff) January 5, 2018


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An automated grocery fulfillment warehouse that will serve the Mid-Atlantic region is coming to Frederick, officials said Thursday.
National grocery store chain Kroger is teaming with online grocery retailer Ocado to open the center in a previously vacant warehouse at 7106 Geoffery Way. A groundbreaking or opening date wasn’t immediately announced. Officials said it would open two years after breaking ground.
“Kroger is incredibly excited to construct one of our industry-leading Customer Fulfillment Centers in Maryland in relationship with Ocado to bring fresh food to our customers faster than ever before,” said Robert Clark, Kroger’s senior VP of supply chain, manufacturing and sourcing, in a statement. “Through our strategic partnership, we are engineering a model for the region, leveraging advanced robotics technology and creative solutions to redefine the customer experience.”
The 350,000-square-foot customer fulfillment center, which the companies called a “shed,” will draw on digital and robotic capabilities as the companies seek to get products to customers who ordered via ecommerce. Robots will move along a grid system and select crates that are later assembled into orders.
The center will serve as a hub for markets including Baltimore, D.C. and Philly. In June, Bloomberg reported that the companies were planning as many as 20 fulfillment centers in the U.S. as Kroger looked to expand its online shopping operations.
Kroger operates nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states. For its part, Ocado is a nearly 20-year-old company that was founded in the U.K., where it has 721,000 active customers.
The center will create 400 jobs upon opening, and 100 more as it ramps up. According to info from Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner, the County worked with the companies to fast-track the project and sought to provide a smooth process for permits, water and sewer.
Public funds will assist with project costs, officials said, and doubtless helped attract the companies to Maryland. The Maryland Department of Commerce is providing a $2 million loan through the Advantage Maryland fund. Frederick County is providing up to $150,000 in permit fees. The project is also eligible for $5 million in county commercial and industrial tax credits over the next decade, as well as state tax credits.
“We are thrilled that these two respected companies have chosen Maryland as the location for a new high-tech, innovative Mid-Atlantic hub,” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said in a statement, adding that it’s a “big win” for Frederick County.
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While the Moto G 2016 is just around the corner and a lot of information for the handsets is now available, little was known for the Moto X for 2016 until now. Evleaks and HelloMotoHK have posted pictures of a new Moto phone which coincide with past information of the Moto X.
Who woulda thunk it? Turns out this is 100% real. #motox https://t.co/xRNox3fYmF pic.twitter.com/Eu7tGMSvOv
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 7, 2016
The All-Metal design is already looking good, and may leave a supremely positive impact for the Lenovo take over. The improvement in the build quality and materials means that the Moto X may join the ranks of high-end [...]


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ReutersLOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Lee Iacocca, the charismatic U.S. auto industry executive who gave America the Ford Mustang and was celebrated for saving Chrysler from going out of business, has died at the age of 94, Fiat Chrysler said.
Iacocca died Tuesday at his home in Bel-Air, Calif., of complications from Parkinson’s disease, his daughter Lia Iacocca Assad told the Washington Post.
“The company is saddened by the news of Lee Iacocca’s passing. He played a historic role in steering Chrysler through crisis and making it a true competitive force,” Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said in a statement.
“He was one of the great leaders of our company and the auto industry as a whole. He also played a profound and tireless role on the national stage as a business statesman and philanthropist,” the company said.
During a nearly five-decade career in Detroit that began in 1946 at Ford Motor Co., the proud son of Italian immigrants made the covers of Time, Newsweek and the New York Times Sunday Magazine in stories portraying him as the avatar of the American Auto Age. One of the first celebrity U.S. chief executives, his autobiography made best-seller lists in the mid-1980s.
Iacocca was a cracker-jack salesman. He encouraged his design teams to be bold, and they responded with sports cars that appealed to baby boomers in the 1960s, fuel-efficient models when gasoline prices soared in the 1970s, and the first-ever family-oriented minivan in the 1980s that led its segment in sales for 25 years.
“I don’t know an auto executive that I’ve ever met who has a feel for the American consumer the way he does,” late United Auto Workers Union President Douglas Fraser had said. “He’s the greatest communicator who’s ever come down the pike in the history of the industry.”Speech


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Lawsuit Brews as Coffeehouse Entrepreneur Hungers for More
LAKELAND -- As America's coffee culture grows, coffeehouses are serving a variety of foods beyond the traditional pastries and bagels found just about everywhere the black elixir is brewed.
At Birch Tree Coffee on Cleveland Heights Boulevard, however, the decision to serve lunch has caused a rift with the landlord that landed in court last month.
The popular coffeehouse, which opened in September, began serving prepared salads, quiches and wraps about two weeks after opening. Owner Anthony Earl said he buys the salad and wrap components from a local grocer and then assembles them on-site.
The limited lunch menu was meant to boost the start-up's bottom line and bring in customers during the slow lunchtime. With live music and openmike performances several nights a week, Birch Tree fills up at night, Earl said. But business can be slow in the afternoon.
Earl's decision to serve lunch rankled his landlord, Anchor Investments -- which owns the Country Corner shopping center -- and Roger Weigel, who owns Roger's Quality Meat & Deli several doors down from the coffeehouse. Weigel said he started serving lunch 18 years ago, when he opened. Traditionally, lunch has accounted for 15 percent to 20 percent of his business, though he took a serious hit a few years back when a Subway restaurant opened in the gas station across the parking lot.
The lunch business has rebounded, Weigel said. But he said he's worried that Birch Tree will hurt him.
"Without the lunches, I'd be out of business," he said.
Food is an increasingly important part of a coffeehouse's business, too.
"It is a trend in that people are spending more time in coffeehouses," said Mike Ferguson, a spokesman for the Specialty Coffee Association of America, an industry group. "So they're looking for coffeehouses to meet more of their needs."
Mitch Harvey, who owns Mitchell's Coffee House downtown, said it's hard to keep a business afloat simply on coffee sales alone. That's why so many coffeehouses serve food, he said.
"Food is a very important part of our business, especially downtown" Harvey said. "There wouldn't be enough business down here to support coffee alone."
Harvey said his lease allows him to operate a restaurant, so long as he has proper licensing. Mitchell's serves a light breakfast (bagels and pastries), lunch Monday through Saturday, and caters special events.
Earl's lease is not as specific, though.
The lease, which he said was drafted by Anchor, specifies that he use the space he leases as a "coffee shop." The lease doesn't restrict what kind of food he can serve or whether he can offer live entertainment or display artwork for sale. It does restrict him from running an "adult-oriented" book, video, modeling or novelty business.
After receiving letters from Anchor threatening to terminate his lease, effective May 30, if he didn't stop serving lunch, Earl filed a civil lawsuit against the company last month.
The lawsuit, effectively, asks a court to determine what a coffee shop is and what it should be allowed to serve. It also asks the court to prohibit Anchor from interfering with how Birch Tree is run and for unspecified monetary damages.
What makes a coffeehouse a coffeehouse is a hotly contested issue.
Ron Clark, a Lakeland lawyer who represents Anchor, declined to comment for this story.
"We, as attorneys, are not going to comment on the lawsuit," he said. "Everybody's got a right to their own opinion. But we're not going to say anything."
In letters sent to Earl, Anchor property manager John Tubb defined the type of coffee shop he envisioned in the space he leased to Birch Tree as a place that sold coffee, coffee products and pastries.
"During our lease negotiations, Anthony was advised sandwiches, wraps, soups, etc. could not be a part of his coffee shop lease as Roger's Quality Meats, as a long-term tenant at this plaza, sells these types of items," Tubb wrote in a Jan. 9 letter to Earl's former lawyer, Ben Hardin.
"While Anthony fully understood and agreed to these terms of coffee and pastries prior to signing the lease, he now (has) visions beyond his authorized use for this facility."
Not surprisingly, Earl's vision of a coffeehouse is considerably different.
"The independent coffeehouses are pretty much a bistro," he said. "Their interpretation is wide open. Some of them are wine bars, too."
Some coffeehouses, such as Joe Muggs on South Florida Avenue, serve only pastries in addition to coffee, teas and cold drinks. Though most Starbucks offer a similar menu, some have started serving food.
Ferguson, of the coffee trade organization, said the SCAA defines a coffeehouse as any place that makes 60 percent or more of its sales from coffee and coffee-related items.
Though he said coffeehouses need to adjust their offerings to meet customer demand, Ferguson said adding food items to boost the bottom line is a mistake. A better strategy would be taking steps to improve coffee quality, such as serving a better product or providing more staff training, he said.
"Serving prepared meals is a step up," Ferguson said. "You're sort of entering a different business when you start serving prepared food."
Ultimately, Earl said, he would like to serve a light breakfast, such as a bagel sandwich, and appetizers, such as Italian sausage or personal pizzas, at night. But he said he can't do that until he resolves his problems with Anchor.
"I would like to have an amicable relationship with Anchor with an understanding of our business being able to sell a variety of food products," he said. "We are not here to put anyone out of business."
Weigel, Earl's neighbor, said he doesn't see a way to resolve the present conflict unless Earl stops serving lunch. Before opening Birch Tree, Earl promised him he would not serve lunch, Weigel said, and he wouldn't trust a compromise agreement with the coffee shop owner.
"Who knows what he's going to have down there next?" Weigel said. "A sub shop?"
Jeff Scullin can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or 863533-9079.
An article on page B1 on Monday misspelled the name of Anthony Earl, who owns Birch Tree Coffee in Lakeland.


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Chevron’s Video-at-the-Pump program featuring inOvationTV is available immediately to selected retailers and can be installed via retrofit to existing Wayne Ovation fuel dispensers.
Chevron has approved the new inOvationTV media platform for its Video-at-the-Pump program.
Wayne, A GE Energy Business and global innovator of fuel dispensers and technologies, and Gas Station TV (GSTV) will make the inOvation TV platform available to up to 1,000 qualifying Texaco- and Chevron-branded retail fuel locations throughout the U.S.
inOvationTV enables fuel retailers to inform and entertain motorists at the pump with programming that includes ESPN sports, HLN news and entertainment, Bloomberg TV business and financial updates, AccuWeather local weather reports, on-site promotions and original programming that also includes c-store promotions. This technology platform allows Chevron- and Texaco-branded retailers, without upgrade costs, to differentiate their sites and provide customers a superior fueling experience.
Chevron’s Video-at-the-Pump program featuring inOvationTV is available immediately to selected retailers and can be installed via retrofit to existing Wayne Ovation fuel dispensers, or can be included with new Ovation dispenser purchases.
The inOvationTV platform is built on Wayne’s iX Media platform with integrated 10.4-inch VGA displays. The program includes system installation and maintenance and six years of technical support and delivers GSTV dynamic programming, featuring ESPN sports, AccuWeather forecasts, Bloomberg Business News and GSTV’s original social media television show, “Your Neighborhood.” In addition, retailers have the opportunity to work with GSTV on a regular basis to develop customized promotions just for their sites, which become part of the featured content.
“This groundbreaking effort gives Chevron- and Texaco-branded fuel retailers the ability to deliver a better overall customer experience and showcases both the Wayne Ovation dispenser and the Wayne iX Media Platform as well,” said Brett Walls, Wayne global account manager. “Wayne’s leadership in dispenser technology and expertise, combined with the exclusive content GSTV delivers has a lot going for it. Together, we’re enabling these retailers to provide a more entertaining and informative fueling experience for their customers—and that can readily translate into increased customer loyalty.”
“We are pleased that Chevron has approved the inOvationTV platform for Video at the Pump,” said Gas Station TV CEO David Leider. “Together with Wayne, our offering helps Chevron- and Texaco-branded retailers improve the fueling experience of their customers and boost revenues.”
Chevron retailer Dan Dawson of Austin, Texas, describes inOvationTV as a critical, unique medium to help expand his business. “Wayne made the install seamless, and GTSV helps me with my custom promotions,” Dawson said. “It’s ready right away and at no cost to me.”


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It’s not meant so much for individual customers as it is for larger firms and companies, transferring bigger amounts of cash Crypto throughout the globe. As more people get interested in cryptocurrency, scammers are discovering more methods to use it.
As of February 2018, the Chinese Government halted buying and selling of virtual currency, banned initial coin offerings and shut down mining. One company is working knowledge centers for mining operations at Canadian oil and gas subject sites, as a result Crypto of low fuel prices. In June 2018, Hydro Quebec proposed to the provincial government to allocate 500 MW to crypto corporations for mining. According to a February 2018 report from Fortune, Iceland has turn out to be a haven for cryptocurrency miners in part due to its cheap electricity.
In June 2018, Korean trade Coinrail was hacked, dropping US$37 million value of altcoin. Fear surrounding the hack was blamed for a $42-billion cryptocurrency market selloff. On 9 July 2018 the trade Bancor had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen. Two members of the Silk Road Task Force—a multi-agency federal task drive Crypto that carried out the U.S. investigation of Silk Road—seized bitcoins for their own use in the midst of the investigation. Concerns abound that altcoins could turn out to be instruments for nameless net criminals.
Don’t put it all on the line and risk your monetary future, your retirement goals, and your family’s well-being. As a end result, cryptocurrencies are worth whatever people are willing to pay or trade for them. You’ve most likely heard of individuals making (or shedding!) hundreds of 1000’s of dollars by investing in cryptocurrencies. But cryptocurrencies have really Crypto been round for about 10 years. The earliest cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, created in 2009 by an unknown one that goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Investing in cryptocurrency is just like exchanging your cash in a brand new nation. Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether are a few examples of “foreign currencies” that work in a really specific context inside certain online communities.
Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, has repeated quite a few times that it’s a bubble that will not last and hyperlinks it to Tulip mania. American business magnate Warren Buffett thinks that cryptocurrency will come to a bad ending. In October 2017, BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink known as bitcoin an ‘index of cash Crypto laundering’. “Bitcoin just reveals you the way much demand for cash laundering there may be on the planet,” he said. In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold had been hit by a successful 51% hashing assault by an unknown actor, in which exchanges misplaced estimated $18m.
For example, scammers may provide funding and enterprise “opportunities,” promising to double your investment or give you monetary freedom. The incontrovertible fact that cryptocurrencies are digital isn’t Crypto the one important distinction between cryptocurrencies and conventional currencies like U.S. dollars. I’ve personally talked to individuals who have taken out a mortgage or cashed out their whole 401 early to put money into cryptocurrency!
One of the attention-grabbing things about mining is that the problem of the puzzles is constantly growing, correlating with the variety of folks making an attempt to unravel it. So, the more in style a certain cryptocurrency becomes, the extra folks try to mine it, the tougher the process becomes. Other digital currencies like Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum and so forth aren’t accepted as widely just but. Things are altering for the better though, with Apple having authorized a minimum of 10 different cryptocurrencies as a viable form Crypto of cost on App Store. There have been many attempts at making a digital foreign money during the 90s tech increase, with techniques like Flooz, Beenz and DigiCash emerging on the market however inevitably failing. There had been many various causes for their failures, corresponding to fraud, monetary problems and even frictions between corporations’ staff and their bosses. Furthermore, from a notion perspective, Bitcoin and different crypto have lately come under fire for his or her capacity to be concerned in unlawful transactions, thefts, and scams.
That’s simply one of the reasons that investing in the list of cryptocurrencies out there nonetheless carries significant threat. Crypto has additionally been suspected as being part of an financial bubble which will still pop. Dead Coins lists 1,050 digital currencies and initial coin offerings as both “deceased.” Coinopsy catalogues cryptocurrency lists of more than 1,700 Crypto cash as practically nugatory. It’s extra properly-known for its digital fee protocol greater than for its XRP crypto. That’s as a result of the system permits for transfer of monies in any kind, be it dollars and even Bitcoin . Ripple is one sort of cryptocurrency on the record, however it’s not Blockchain-primarily based.


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Other research / statistical firms have already shown that adopting the iOS 10 it had surpassed that of iOS 9, but now official.
On a page on the developer portal, Apple reported this week that the adoption of iOS 10 is in the home of 54%, against 38% of the predecessor operating system and 8% of the older ones. Apple discloses this information based on all iGadgets with App Store access, then this is a very accurate number.
Taking into account that iOS 10 was released just over three weeks ago, we are talking about very exciting numbers.
Among the readers of MacMagazine accessing the website from an iOS device, the rate even higher. According to data from the last week of Google Analytics, 82% of visits came from devices running the latest version of Ma's operating system; 14% ?still? are on iOS 9 and 4% on previous versions.


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YBNL’s Fireboy DML has been announced as the brand ambassador for one of the biggest brands in the world.
Talented singer and performer Fireboy DML has been selected as the brand ambassador for a popular technological brand known worldwide. The ‘Playboy’ crooner has been announced as the brand ambassador for popular Technological company Tecno.
He has been announced as the brand ambassador for Spark, a Tecno, a mobile phone model. In an official announcement made by the brand today, Wednesday, June 8, 2022, the singer was unveiled after so much suspense and build-up.
Fireboy, who is currently making preparations to release an album titled ‘Playboy’ and has been nominated for the BET Awards 2022, is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down and fans are super excited about this.