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Infineon backing of HSMC set to include equity investment
April 19, 2007 //
Infineon is likely to take a stake in recently-launched Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (HSMC), according to a report in the Economic Times of India. The amount of equity Infineon will take has yet to be determined.
MUNICH, Germany Infineon is likely to take a stake in recently-launched Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (HSMC), according to a report in the Economic Times of India. The amount of equity Infineon will take has yet to be determined.
The paper quotes HSMC top manager Devendra Verma saying that the German semiconductor manufacturer will "definitively" take "some equity" in the Indian company. According to Verma, the amount of Infineon's stake will be finalized during the ongoing negotiations, which are expected to be finalized within the coming six weeks.
An Infineon spokesperson declined to acknowledge the statement directly. "We always said that the financial terms of our licensing agreement with HSMC are yet to be negotiated," he said. "There are many options, including an equity holding - eventually."
According to Economic Times, HSMC is presently in talks with financial institutions and state governments to raise funds for the first of its two planned semiconductor manufacturing sites in India, with the exact location still under discussion. Possible locations are Karnataka, Chennai or Hyderabad, Verma said. Decisive factors are, besides incentives from state governments, resources like water and electric power. The first fab to be built is planned to produce 8-inch wafers. This site will require investments of approximately $1 billion. In addition, HSMC plans to erect a second fab, intended to process 12-inch wafers, which will require another $3.2 to $3.5 billions of investment.
Two weeks ago, HSMC had announced that it will license process technologies for standard CMOS chips as well as for RF and embedded flash devices from Infineon. In addition, Infineon will offer expertise and support for setting up the fabs and crank up production. However, Infineon hitherto avoided the impression it was interested in a direct investment into HSMC.
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InterviewCEO interview: What's next after Tower's turn-around?
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By Nadia Arumugam, Forbes Contributor
The average American shells out in excess of $1700 a year on their wardrobe. That’s billions of dollars spent on apparel alone in the U.S. With this much up for grabs and the holidays just around the corner, it’s no wonder stores are jousting fervently for our business. And there’s a clear winner amongst the competitors: Kohl’s has seized the top spot as the nation’s favorite fashion retail chain, according to a survey conducted by Market Force Information, a leading customer intelligence solutions firm. Coming in at the No. 2 spot is Nordstrom, followed by Macy’s at No. 3.
Such favor isn’t new to Kohl’s. Famed for its competitive prices, personable sales associates, easy-to-navigate “racetrack” style layout, and wide selection of accessible merchandise, the popular Wisconsin-based chain with 1,100 stores and 136,000 employees ranked a clear first for the third year in a row. “Not only did we find that Kohl’s led in operational excellence,” said Cheryl Flink, Market Force’s Senior Vice President of Customer Knowledge, “but it’s also very good at driving new traffic and at maintaining loyal customers. It’s rare that brands are good at all three. ”
A total of 6900 respondents ranging in age from 18 to over 65 from Market Force’s pool of 300,000 independent mystery shoppers voted for their favorite fashion retail chain from a list of 91 stores in the October survey. Since the survey addresses consumers’ in store experiences, the votes were weighted against the number of brick-and-mortar outlets each chain has. To understand what shoppers valued most about their retail experiences, they were also asked to rate the stores according to a series of attributes. These took into account: price, ease and convenience; the pleasure/enjoyment factor of shopping; the selection of merchandise, and the availability of specific designers.
Unsurprisingly, price was most important to the shoppers surveyed. Here, Kohl’s was by far perceived as the most cost-effective chain. “Kohl’s is a discount operation,” says consultant Steve Pruitt, founder of Blacks Retail. “Many of the brands it carries aren’t the most up-to-minute, on-trend ones, but those that are a bit dated, so they’re going to be cheaper than say, Macy’s, which is much more designer conscious.”
Even so, Macy’s didn’t fare too badly in the price category, probably by virtue of the fact that the store excels in promotions and sales. “Very rarely do you pay full price of most things in Macy’s,” concedes Pruitt. Nonetheless, achieving the highest score in the “availability of specific designer” attribute, Macy’s extensive catalogue of big name brands is no doubt its most powerful weapon against its competitors.
The distinctly fancier Nordstrom with its racks of Prada, Gucci and Valentino didn’t please the bargain-hunters amongst Market Force’s respondents. But, it was most amenable to those who valued convenience and a pleasurable shopping experience. “Nordstrom’s has a very accessible feel,” says Carol Spieckerman, President of NewMarketBuilders. “It’s in a sweet spot compared to other upscale retailers who carry the same exclusive brands but which are intimidating for shoppers to go into.”
To add to the convenience factor, there’s the new web-based inventory management system so shoppers can check online to see if the merchandise they want is available in the Nordstrom store closest to them. “This means they don’t waste a trip or spend money on fuel needlessly looking for something that isn’t there. More retailers would be wise to offer this simple option,” says Spieckerman.
But, it’s Kohl’s again that trumps all its competitors when it comes to making shopping easy. Its no questions asked, no hassle return policy neither requires a receipt nor has any time restriction. Stores nationwide feature kiosks from which shoppers can order merchandise online if they can’t find the garment in their size or in the right color. Centralized checkouts at the stores’ exits mean shoppers don’t have to search for scattered registers.
As is often the case with excellence, however, there’s still room for improvement. Kohl’s fared decidedly poorly in the loyalty program benefits category. “It’s likely a lack of awareness, and that Kohl’s simply isn’t promoting its program as well as it could,” offers Cheryl Flink as an explanation. But it should. According to Market Force research, once shoppers are made aware of a loyalty program, not only do 86% join, but 65% of those report that they shop at that store much more frequently. That’s a lot of sales that even a top-scoring retailer can’t afford to lose.

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With a legacy of more than 208 years in the men’s grooming industry worldwide, Truefitt & Hill, the world’s oldest and luxurious barbershop is all set to unwrap its new store in the upcoming corporate hub of Mumbai. The latest store will be in the premium and luxurious Palladium Mall, at Lower Parel.
Truefitt and Hill successfully introduced a new level of indulgence for the metro-sexual man that makes them one-of-a-kind brand since its first store was established in Mumbai at Khar in May’14 followed by the opening of second store in Colaba in June 14. Krishna Gupta, Managing Director, Lloyds Luxuries Ltd says: “We are thrilled with the response we have received, and are very proud to announce the opening of our third barbershop. We are also due to open a fourth store in another posh locality of Mumbai as we enter the next year.”
Further elaborating on the expansion plans, Istayak Ansari, Director, Lloyds Luxuries Ltd also states, “We will end our first year of operations with four+ open and operating stores across premium localities of Mumbai. We intend to open multiple corporate owned stores in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune next year. We have set a target to open 10+ corporate owned stores in the above territories. Our first store outside Mumbai will open in South Delhi. We have set a target to open 75+ stores over a period of five years of which 50+ will be corporate owned and the rest will be franchisee run. We intend to start franchising from next year onwards once we have set up operations in Delhi and Bangalore.”


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» Didi Ne Raat Ko Gand Chati
Didi Ne Raat Ko Gand Chati
Didi Ne Raat Ko Gand Chati on Technology News and Updates AdmaTechnology.com at Thursday, April 24, 2014
Right now who do not know Instagram, a photo sharing application. If you include people who have an account Intagram, here’s how to play smart application.
Not a photographic aesthetic interest to many people but that enshrined [...]
Requires heavenly guidance in work or romance.
A temple in southern Taiwan will launch a smartphone app that can help religious Taoist to seek enlightenment from the Almighty when being activity.
In a report released CNA news agency on Saturday (10/22), [...]
Sony seems keen to use Firefox operating system that was released recently.
Quoted from Ubergizmo, Friday (3/1), one of the latest series of Xperia, Xperia E, used as the test material to adopt the OS.
“At Sony Mobile, we continue to evaluate [...]
Sony finally officially announced their latest generation console, the PlayStation 4, at an event in New York, USA, some time ago.
Here are some things You gamers need to know about the PS4.
PS4 using the x86 AMD 8-core CPU and GPU with [...]
Compel Apple to admit mistakes.
The adage “already fallen, hit by the stairs anyway” seems to fit the subject at Apple in the case of the lawsuit in the UK. After the appeal was rejected British High Court, in London, the U.S. tech giant [...]
HTC launched its newest product to sail in 2013. This time, they introduced Android smartphone named HTC One.
Quoted from Ubergizmo, Wednesday (2/20), one of the most highlighted features of the Taiwanese manufacturer is Ultrapixel camera.
Through these [...]
Will spend 140 days in the mission.
A Russian rocket carrying two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut blasted off into space on Tuesday (10/23). The three astronauts will be on duty on the International Space Station (ISS).
Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin [...]
One of the best Android smartphone HTC output, One X, is now getting a refresher with some improvement in terms of hardware.
Products named HTC One X+ uses an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 2nd generation 1.7GHz speeds.
“One X+ equipped with batteries [...]
The key features? iPhone
Every day the number and types of smartphones is increasing. Choose the one that suits the needs of each person, require adequate information about the technology, features, and operating system. Especially considering the price [...]
Easy to find because it is positioned right next to the “Like”
Facebook are testing the “Reply” button at the comments posted on the Timeline each user, say a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable last weekend.
Various monitors with lots of different sizes in the market at affordable prices. However, sometimes you are confused in choosing the size of the computer monitor widescreen or standard size.
Here are some comparisons of the size widescreen computer [...]


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E-Lites release extended cut of Gangnam Baby ad for National No Smoking Day
E-lites has announced the release of a new 40 second execution of its ‘What are you missing? Gangnam Baby’ TV campaign to celebrate National No Smoking Day on Wednesday 13 March.
The e-cigarette brand’s creative will air on a number of digital and terrestrial channels in a bid to educate smokers that there is an alternative to traditional smoking tobacco cigarettes.
“It was immediately apparent from the launch of the original ad that we had struck a chord with smokers,” commented Adrian Everett, E-lites group CEO.
“As it’s resonating so well with British smokers, we felt National No Smoking Day was the perfect time to launch an extended version. In an ideal world people would stop smoking altogether but we know from both personal experience and customer feedback that not every smoker wants to or can quit that easily.”
The extended cut was also created by McCann Birmingham with an additional 10 seconds dedicated to the baby’s dance sequence.
The original 30 second ad, which first aired on Saturday 19 January, can be seen above.
Content created with:
McCann Erickson BirminghamFind out more


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Small breweries are demanding that the Competition Commission prevent the block sale of Switzerland's biggest brewery, Feldschlösschen.
The group representing small and medium sized brewers says that Feldschlösschen has built up a quasi-monopoly in the beer market through an aggressive policy of acquisitions. Feldschlösschen controls close to 50 per cent of the sector.
It wants the Competition Commission to order the separate sale of different brands such as Valaisanne and Cardinal.
It's also asking Feldschlösschen to allow contracted restaurateurs to choose the range of beers that they take.
And it wants taxes on beer to be brought into line with other European countries as quickly as possible. It says that the interim system is disadvantaging small- and medium-sized breweries.
Feldschlösschen-Hurlimann is selling its drinks division to concentrate on its real estate business.
swissinfo with agencies


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02 Jan 2018
This year, the Awards received more than 1,050 samples sent by 125 print firms across India, where Parksons Packaging Press scooped the coveted Company of the Year trophy. The event was broadcasted on NDTV Prime/ Profit.
In-Store Convention: The design and retail partnership needs to be col...
Abhishek Muralidharan, Sujith Ail
15 Mar 2019
Asia Coat + Ink Show
18 Dec 2018
In Pictures: WhatPackaging? Masterclass
08 Dec 2018
Tweets by printweekindia


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Shipping scam emails continue to circulate
News 8 On Your Side has a warning about what may be the most common scam it is hearing about these days— shipping scam emails.
Several viewers recently forwarded the same email claiming to be from PayPal.
The message tells them the iPhone they ordered for $700 was being shipped to an address in West Virginia.
Unlike similar scam messages, the 8 On Your Side team has shown you, this one does not have any links to click to stop this purchase. Instead, there's a phone number to call.
When you call, they'll ask you for a credit card number or bank account to send you the refund for the phone you never purchased.
If you get this email, you may focus on the $700 – which you don't want to be charged.
But take a closer look at the email address the message came from.
The address isn't from PayPal, and it's not from a business. The emails forwarded to News 8 are coming from Gmail addresses, and any scammers can just make those up.
Paying attention to a small detail like this can help you immediately determine this is a scam.


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The developer network AdDuplex, which specialises in advertising across the Windows ecosystem, has released figures for the month of July. We've followed the data released by the company for months, providing an insight into how the Windows Phone platform is shaping with a sample taken to see exactly what's going on. This month we've got news that the Lumia 520 has become the most popular Windows Phone. Let's jump in and see what's new.
As one can see from the chart above, the Lumia 520 has leapfrogged other handsets and has taken the first spot. In the previous report, Nokia's most affordable Windows Phone was proving a popular choice in both Russia and India, but it's clear to see that the device is catching on for all the right reasons.
Last month the Lumia 520 was in fifth place. This month, the Lumia 920 sits in second, while the Lumia 620 has jumped up to third position with the Lumia 710 in fourth. Here's a neat little graph to show the growth of the Lumia 520:
As noted above, this is reflected in numerous markets.
Netherlands warming to Huawei Ascend W1
Previous reports have failed to include the Netherlands, but it's interesting to see a market in Europe where the Huawei Ascend W1 is on the chart. Sat at 4.1 percent, the Windows Phone is behind the Lumia 900 but isn't out of the race.
India's romance with the Lumia 520
We've already covered the Lumia 520 in this report, but it's worth noting on its own just how well this Windows Phone is performing in India.
Last month's report had the Lumia 520 on 20.8 percent, but this month the device has rocketed to 31.3 percent. That's some growth if accurately represented.
Get the Windows Central Newsletter
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Brazil in the midst of change
You guessed it, more Lumia 520. This handset really is taking off. This time we're looking at Brazil, which has been (and continues to be) heavily dominated by the Lumia 710.
The are still a number of Windows Phone 7 handsets present, but this is likely to change in the future as Windows Phone 8 becomes the only version available.
Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.


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Home Tags The Westin La Paloma
Tag: The Westin La Paloma
Meeting attendees can create their own version of the classic banana split dessert by combining jams, fruit and granola with three scoops of fresh Greek yogurt for an innovative breakfast.
Golf resorts around the world are showing confidence in the market by investing millions of dollars in upgrades, while others have maintained the highest levels of service during the past 18 tumultuous months. With RFPs on the rise heading into summer, there’s a new optimism among suppliers sitting on top of some truly exceptional product, at prices that will be scarce in 2011. So we as planners, while cognizant of the challenges dictated by public perception, need to promote golf networking as the savvy business forum it’s always been, with measurable ROI and the proven ability to generate attendance. Now.


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MTV Networks Music & Logo Group appointed Christina Glorioso to vice president of sales for Program Enterprises. MTVN created the position for Glorioso.
GroupM named John Montgomery chief operating officer of GroupM Interaction North America. The media investment management firm created the position for Montgomery, who was previously worldwide CEO of GroupM’s MindShare Interaction.
NBC Sports selected Crisp Wireless to monetize its mobile Web site.
Fathom SEO selected Alterian for analytics. The search engine marketing and placement firm will use the Alterian Marketing Services Platform.
NetShelter Technology Media promoted Todd Carville to senior vice president, sales. The vertical media network created the position for Carville, who was previously national sales director.
Dynamic Bicycles tapped Room 214 for its social media strategy. The chainless bicycle company tasked the agency with creating a blog and RSS feed.
Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) elected Jordan Cohen to co-chair its Public Policy and Government Relations Committee. Cohen is senior director, corporate communications and government relations for Epsilon, and a founder of AOTA.
This week in digital, we said goodbye to Facebook Exchange and Post-it wars, as we welcome TAG's latest anti-fraud development, Shift, and maybe Siri integrations?
This week at Shift 2016, Andres Sosa, Executive Vice President of the online retailer TheOutnet.com, gave a talk on innovation and content-creation. It reminded ... read more


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UK drivers could be sitting on a staggering £11.2 billion tied up in unused cars, a new study estimates.
That’s the equivalent of a festive turkey feast for almost 439 million households or 17 million fully funded Christmases.
There are now over three million cars with a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) declaration in the UK with a potential average value of around £3,264 – enough to fund five Christmases. The research by Carwow has revealed the untapped resale potential of SORN-registered vehicles nationwide.
SORN’d cars range from worn-out rust buckets in need of repair to high-worth classics tucked away to preserve their value. But even if every registered SORN car was only worthy of being scrapped, with an average scrap value of £275, they would still rake in a substantial £945 million – that’s 37 million Christmas turkeys!
Latest figures from the DVLA show that just over a tenth of the UK’s licensed cars currently have a SORN declaration, a whopping 30% increase since 2018. Remarkably, Northern Ireland leads the pack with 22% of licensed cars classified as SORN in 2023, a huge 51% jump over the same 5-year period.
Estimated SORN value per region:
United Kingdom total
With over 2.4 million off-the-road cars, England’s vehicle owners are sitting on an estimated value of £8.1 billion alone, making up a massive 72% of the UK total.
However, Northern Ireland has the highest ratio of SORN’d cars, with 219 off-the-road cars for every 1,000 licensed in the country. This means Northern Irish owners are the most likely to keep a registered SORN vehicle which translates to an estimated value of £740 million. Comparatively, England demonstrates the lowest ratio with just 90 SORNs for every 1,000 licensed cars.
Paul Barker, motoring expert at Carwow, said, “Looking at these numbers, it’s shocking to see the hidden value held in these unused cars. If you’ve got one of these vehicles sitting idle in your garage, do you know if it is a piece of trash, or is it a piece of treasure? You might want to consider the opportunities that are available to you.
“Recent industry data has shown that certain cars from the noughties have doubled in price. For example, a 2004 Vauxhall Corsa could be worth 94.4% more today than it was in 2019. So, it could save you a lot of money to use a free online valuation calculator to check what your car is really worth.
“At Carwow, we have a specialist team for cars that are a little more unusual, such as classic and vintage cars. This team is available to help if the valuation doesn’t meet expectations or if we are unable to provide a value at the point of listing.
“With over three million SORN vehicles in the UK valued at more than £10.9 billion, these off-the-road cars hold a big opportunity for owners. Not only can the average value of one of these cars fund Christmas five times over, but it could also help towards a larger financial goal. It could be the chance for a fresh start, a new opportunity, or even just a little extra cash.”


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Nvidia on the road to world domination with Tegra 3 (Fall 2011)Posted by _MD_ on Jan 24, 2011 in Web News | 0 comments
Graphics giant Nvidia, which recently celebrated a billionth GeForce chip sold, is adamant to become the key silicon provider for portable gear. It’s no secret that Tegra 2 has “failed to launch” in 2010 and displace chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Texas Instruments in world’s most popular ARM smartphones and tablets. Learning from its Windows Mobile disaster, Nvidia has plotted an ambitious plan to put its silicon inside more gadgets by focusing on Android and improving its Tegra architecture. At CES 2011 Nvidia showed that existing Tegra 2 chips will power flagship Android devices like the LG Optimus 2X and Motorola Atrix 4G smartphones, as well as Motorola’s Xoom tablet.
While the upcoming Tegra 2 3D is the enhanced version of Tegra 2 (performance 5520 MIPS versus 4600 MIPS), the upcoming chips T30 and AP30 are truly new generation of company’s mobile processors. Tablet’s Tegra 3 T30 (performance up to 13,800 MIPS) will be equipped with quad code ARM architecture Cortex-A9 and 1.5GHz frequencies as well as enhanced GPU as opposed to Tegra 2. It can be seen from one of the presentation slides below that this chip will have a special ULP energy saving mode, will be able to play Blu-ray video and can output resolution of up to 1920×1200.
AP30, Tegra 3 version for smartphones, will come out with a choice of quad and dual core chips and will be able to provide 1366×768 resolution. First sample of this chips should be avaialble in the fourth quarter of 2011, whereas Tegra 3-based smartphones are expected to hit the shelves early 2012.
Looking in the future, by 2013, Nvidia is planning to release a new types of GPUs (codename Maxwell) which will include (besides the discrete graphics) the first Project Denver chip. The company postulates that Project Denver would be the next flagman (the next version of Cortex-A15 x64 ARM will be used) for desktop PCs, laptops and servers.
Source: Bright Side of News


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May 18, 2012
ITP VoIP is reminding customers about the importance of managing personal phone service during summer vacations. In time for the season, the internet phone service provider is offering a variety of monthly plans with exceptionally low rates.
May 10, 2012
VoIP phone provider ITP VoIP is introducing its affiliate referral program designed to directly benefit consumers.
May 09, 2012
ITP VoIP, a business and residential phone service provider, is now offering low-cost international rates for travelers. Customers can save on calls around the globe with ITP VoIP’s phone service.
May 08, 2012
ITP VoIP, a residential phone service provider, is currently spotlighting its economical internet phone plans while concurrently promoting good business etiquette.
May 01, 2012
ITP VoIP, a VoIP phone service provider, has issued a checklist for potential customers who need help deciding if they are prepared to switch from landline to internet telephony service.
Apr 11, 2012
ITP VoIP, a digital phone service, is encouraging homeowners to upgrade from landlines to VoIP service to save money.
Mar 20, 2012
VoIP phone service company ITP VoIP recently announced two new complimentary customer service policies that will be added to its existing plans.
Mar 12, 2012
Internet phone service provider ITP VoIP is showcasing its new auto-attendant feature, a part of its home office premium plan, for home-based businesses.
Feb 27, 2012
VoIP service provider ITP VoIP recently debuted its enhanced glossary covering aspects of digital phone service.
Feb 20, 2012
Brooklyn-based VoIP call provider ITP VoIP is promoting a suite of special services crafted especially with new startup companies in mind.


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WINDSOR — Premier Doug Ford has actively undermined the zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) industry in Ontario. After failing to announce any concrete plans Monday to save 1,800 auto jobs at Stallantis in Windsor, his record will have to speak for itself:
- Ford launched a war on the environment, which could lock Ontario out of the auto industry of the future.
- Ford cancelled all incentives for buying an electric vehicle, which caused sales to plummet by 50 per cent.
- Ford paid to have Ontario’s electric vehicle charging stations ripped right out of the ground.
- Ford failed to take action when Stellantis cut its third shift in 2020, costing 1,500 jobs, when Nemak closed that same year, costing 270 jobs, and literally refused to take action when GM took more than 2,300 jobs away of Oshawa.
“Right now, 1,800 jobs critical to our community are on the line,” said Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky. “Not to mention the thousands of spin-off jobs in the community that rely on Stellantis and its workers. We need a government that’s focused on building the next-generation of cars and trucks, like zero-emission vehicles, right here in Ontario. Doug Ford’s actions have spoken louder than his words for years. The NDP will never give up on these auto jobs, and this time, we need Doug Ford to stop undermining the auto manufacturing of the future, and start investing in Windsor.”


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Expedia-owned travel site Orbitz said Tuesday a possible breach of both its consumer and partner platforms may have led to the disclosure of 880,000 payment cards.
According to Expedia, criminals had access to Orbitz consumer and business partner platforms, but not the Orbitz.com website. The consumer side of the Orbitz business platform was open to attack during the first half of 2016, while the partner platform was open to attacked between Jan. 1, 2016 and Dec. 22, 2017, according to Expedia.
Expedia said it was first made aware of a possible breach on March 1.
Compromised data may have included payment card information such as names, phone numbers, email and billing addresses. Passwords are notably absent from the list, pointed out Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech.
The company said in a statement to the media:
“To date, we do not have direct evidence that this personal information was actually taken from the platform and there has been no evidence of access to other types of personal information, including passport and travel itinerary information.”
Expedia stressed its own Expedia platform was not impacted. Expedia acquired Orbitz Sept. 2015, four months prior to the breach. Orbitz has not shared details regarding how the breach occurred; except for publicly stating the breach took place on one of its legacy systems.
Orbitz told Information Security Media Group that no U.S. consumer data was part of the 880,000 cards possibly stolen.
“The first rule in every publicly announced incident is that there’s always more to learn. I’m sure that there are more details about this incident that will shed additional light on the root causes and consequences,” said Tim Erlin, VP, product management and strategy at cybersecurity firm Tripwire.
It’s unclear how the data was breached, or if it was, based on what Expedia is sharing publicly. It’s also plausible the data was exposed because of a misconfigured storage container that allowed a third-party access to Orbitz data. The past 12 months has seen a spate of hackers targeting misconfigured AWS, MongoDB and CouchDB databases and Elasticsearch storage repositories. As of September 2017, IBM X-Force estimates 1.3 billion records tied to just 24 incidents involving unsecured private data stores have been exposed to the public internet via misconfigured servers.
The hospitality sector has also been a popular target for criminals such as Carbanak cybercrime gang. Criminals behind Carbanak are best known for allegedly stealing $1 billion from financial institutions worldwide. Researchers say the group has shifted strategy and are targeting the hospitality and restaurant industries with new techniques and malware.


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GBTA Foundation has quizzed US corporate travellers on the hotel technology they use when staying away for business.
As well as the usual findings on wifi, travellers were also asked whether they have hotel chain apps on their phones and what they use them for.
The findings reveal 61% business travellers have had an app of one of the seven major hotel chains on their mobile phone in the past year and 54% have had at least two apps from major chains.
The majority of business travellers say they mostly use the apps to check the status of a reservation (43%) or manage loyalty points (43%) while almost 40% use them to book a stay.
The apps are less likely to be used to discover restaurants or attractions with only 25% of travellers using them for that purpose and only 10% use them for room service and less to contact hotel employees.
The findings might surprise the startups that have emerged in the hotel app space in recent months to help drive guest engagement as well as some of the bigger players such as Booking.com which recently launched a chatbot service.
The Best Western-sponsored study, carried out in conjunction with GBTA, also looks at reasons why business travellers have not installed hotel apps on their phones in the past year. More than a third of respondents say they can find the same services online or in person while 28% say they don't see the benefit of the apps and 21% say its not worthwhile downloading the app as they don't stay at the same property enough.
In addition to apps, respondents were also asked about other new hotel technology they would like to see.
Despite investment from hotels in initiatives such as mobile check-in, kiosks and keyless entry, business travellers say they're more interested in power and USB outlets (35%), streaming services (34%) and in-room chargers (32%).
27% expressed interest in mobile room entry, 22% in online or mobile check-in and check-out and 18% in hotels building guest profiles for a more personalised stay.
Many major hotel groups are quite far down the road in terms of keyless entry and others have been working on personalisation with Hilton announcing its Fun Finder functionality on mobile earlier this week. The idea is to look at guest profiles to decide the most relevant offers and messages to send.
NB: Hotel technology image via Joana Lopes for BigStockPhoto.


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New consumer agency would have broad powers
Consumer groups are exhilarated by President Obama's proposal to create a strong, independent agency that would regulate virtually all consumer credit, savings and payment products offered by U.S. banks and non-bank financial institutions.
"I call it a game changer," says Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that since the creation of deposit insurance, there is nothing so important for consumers that could be done by the president and Congress."
He says it was the centerpiece of the sweeping financial reforms that Obama proposed on Wednesday.
The president wants to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would oversee checking, savings and other deposit accounts; and home, auto, credit card and other consumer loans, including nontraditional ones such as payday loans and overdraft protection plans.
The new agency would share authority with the Federal Trade Commission for credit-related services such as credit repair, debt collection and loan modification. The FTC would transfer authority over financial products it oversees to the new agency. The Securities and Exchange Commission would continue to regulate investments such as stocks and mutual funds.
Under the proposal, banks would still be regulated for "safety and soundness" by their primary regulator, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or the Federal Reserve. But the new agency would have sole authority over the structure and sale of consumer products.
"That doesn't just mean curbing abusive products, it means ensuring creditors provide clear, accurate, understandable information," says Travis Plunkett, legislative director with the Consumer Federation of America.
Many banking and business groups are against the creation of another regulator.
The Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group, says it "opposes separating the regulation of the entity from the regulation of the products, as each regulator will only have half of the information."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce acknowledges that consumers need more protection. "For us that means better disclosure, better consumer education and stronger enforcement against people who commit fraud or predatory lending," says David Hirschmann, president of the chamber's center for capital markets. He thinks that should be done by existing agencies.
"Regulators are ineffective. They don't talk to each other. Is the answer to create more?" He says it's "like putting five people in charge of watching a child swimming." Chances are none will watch closely.
Reading the proposal, it's not clear what would happen if a bank's consumer regulator told it to stop charging overdraft fees, for example, while the primary regulator said those fees were necessary to maintain the bank's safety and soundness.
It's also not clear whether the new regulator would have to approve products before they went to market, like the Food and Drug Administration, or whether it would pull products from the market that proved to be dangerous, like the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
It could do a combination of the two. For example, a bank could offer a 30-year, fixed-mortgage without prior approval but would need approval for more exotic ones.
Mierzwinski says that industry groups are gearing up to water down the plan, perhaps by putting the new agency under the Federal Reserve. "It is going to be a heck of a lift getting it through Congress" in anything resembling its current state, he adds.
One contentious issue will be whether states can impose stricter consumer-protection laws that apply not only to state-chartered banks but also to nationally chartered ones.
"Historically, national banks have only been regulated by federal regulators and all states' laws have been overridden or pre-empted," Mierzwinski explains.
This is a big issue in California, which has imposed tough consumer protection laws the big banks have been able escape.
The Obama plan appears to say the new agency would establish national rules that would serve as a "floor," but that states could impose tougher ones, even on nationally chartered banks.
"We also propose that states should be able to enforce these laws, as well as regulations of the (Consumer Financial Protection Agency), with respect to federally chartered institutions, subject to appropriate arrangements with prudential supervisors," it says.
Robert Litan, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, calls expanding state authority "a recipe for disaster. That could lead to 51 different laws" and the need for banks to create 51 different products and disclosure statements, he says. Still, he likes most of the plan.
"The banking agencies historically have not put their highest priority on consumer protection. It's important in principle to have a single-purpose agency whose sole mission is to do that," he says.
The biggest potential benefit he sees is that "it will lead to a menu of simpler and easier-to-understand products. Hopefully we will get disclosures that won't look like the FDA's patient package inserts."
To read the full plan, go to links.sfgate.com/ZHKH.


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— Stadium Goods (@stadiumgoods) November 1, 2016
The Nike Air Force 1 is a long-running shoe that has helped drive the sneaker culture since it was first released back in 1982. To commemorate the Air Force 1’s legacy, Stadium Goods has teamed up with Nike to offer 100 different pairs of the sneaker at ComplexCon for $89.95 each.
Some of the most highly praised Air Force 1s of all-time will be up for grabs at the event, which takes place from November 5-6 in Long Beach, California. Some of the pairs include those designed by graffiti artist Stash, the limited-edition version of Jay Z’s The Black Album, the rare “PlayStation,” “Entourage.” “Taiwan,” “Camo,” “Tisci,” “Questlove,” pairs and more.
According to Stadium Goods co-founder John McPheters “Some of these shoes are the ultimate grails, we even got the ‘Taiwans,’ which were super hard to find a pair in good condition because most pairs had cracked on the patent leather or came with yellowed soles. But I think we got a good pair.”
Finding the pairs was one thing, getting the people to sell them was even tougher. “There’s an interesting subculture of Air Force 1 collectors, and it’s different than other pockets of sneaker culture,” McPheters says. “If someone has had these sneakers for 15 years, they’re not going to want to just give them up.”
Luckily Stadium Goods has been able to find the Holy Grails and they’re bringing them to ComplexCon.
Below are some of the pairs that will be sold.


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The same hacker or group that leaked season five of the Netflix show Orange Is the New Black has now publicly released the first eight episodes of the as-of-yet unaired reality competition Steve Harvey's Funderdome.
"We're following through on our threats as we always do. We firmly believe that honesty and determination are the two most important factors of any business," reads a Pastebin post from the adversary, who goes by the pseudonym The Dark Overlord.
Funderdome, which is set to premiere on June 11 on ABC, features entrepreneurs looking to win funding for their businesses and products by pitching their ideas to a studio audience. According to DataBreaches.net, The Dark Overlord stole these episodes and other titles from third-party production vendor Larson Studios, an audio post-production company.
The adversary had previously threatened via Twitter to dump content from FOX, IFC, National Geographic and ABC, presumably unless these networks paid a ransom fee. It was after Netflix refused to pay The Dark Overlord that the episodes of OITNB were leaked.
Variety, one of the first outlets to cover the latest leak, reported Sunday that it had not yet verified the authenticity of the dump, but it did observe details on The Pirate Bay file-sharing website that would indicate someone had indeed uploaded eight video files of the new Steve Harvey vehicle.
Last May, another actor had threatened to released a purportedly stolen digital copy of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. It now appears that this threat was a bluff. “To our knowledge we were not hacked,” Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger told Yahoo! Finance in late May 2017. “We had a threat of a hack of a movie being stolen. We decided to take it seriously but not react in the manner in which the person who was threatening us had required.”


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The collaboration is a strategic step towards making cashless payments on the go.
As the country’s most widely used mobile wallet, Paytm's integration will provide an established payment option to M-TAXI customers.
Till now, customers could pay only through cash for a ride and the Paytm wallet integration aims to remove this hurdle for time crunched commuters.
M-TAXI as a startup brings its technology platform with its on-ground fleet, to provide last mile connectivity from busy commuter intersection to their destinations. It has designed a customised technical platform that aggregates demand and calculates fare for the ride.
For an enhanced customer experience, M-TAXI's recently launched android app has a clean UI with a design overlaid in the shades of yellow and black.
Increasing smartphone penetration and data usage is paving the way for rapid growth of on-demand services across verticals on the click of a button.
With Paytm wallet, not only the travellers will get an additional option to select their payment mode, they will also get a break from the eternal struggle of carrying “change” for paying-off the fare.
Arunabh Madhur, Founder and CEO, M-TAXI, said, “M-TAXI is expanding as a service, and with Paytm wallet, it will be providing customer the convenience of speedy, secure and hassle-free payments”.
He said the pact would also lead to fewer transaction failures and “shorter turnaround time for payment approvals”.
In an interview with PTI, Lulu Group Chairman and Managing Director M. A. Yusuff Ali said the company had committed an investment of around Rs 4,500 crore for the development of five shopping malls in India in the first phase of expansion in the country and out of the five, the three malls have already become operational at Kochi, Thrissur and now Bengaluru.
The Mumbai centre will house 72 international and Indian brands, 27 culinary outlets with cuisines from across the globe, an open-air weekend community market, pet-friendly services, according to the company's statement.


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Dell introduces a 11.6-inch rugged laptop that can double up as a tablet read more »
Companies will start pulling the trigger on projects they planned in 2013, according to a Gartner analyst read more »
Consumers should see significant savings on mobile battery life read more »
Fujitsu also showed a laptop with its PalmSecure palm-vein authentication built in at the Cebit trade show read more »
The company wrote off NT$1.3 billion (US$43 million) related to raw materials inventory and other costs read more »
Intel will support DDR4 memory for server chips code-named Grantley read more »more news ..
Ultrabooks Blogsmore blogs ..
Watch this on demand webinar which explores IT innovation, managed print services and business agility.
Check out our latest articles on Microsoft's next-generation operating system.
Join ComputerworldUK's editor in chief, Mike Simons, and Dell executives in a series of video discussions on how to respond to cyver criminals.
Following HP's dispute with Autonomy, we look back at other HP acquisitions in this Computerworld UK slideshow.
Ultrabooks In Depth
With Office 365 Home Premium, Microsoft brings excellent cloud features and pay-as-you-go pricing to the world's best office suite read more »
These seven announcements - covering data analytics, collaboration, RAM and more - may impact the systems and devices your employees use in 2013 read more »
For the first time in what seems like forever, Microsoft's ubiquitous centerpiece booth and opening night keynote are missing from CES. read more »
Can the Ultrabook bounce back from dismal sales last year, or will ultra-thin laptops be squeezed out of the PC market? read more »
Though the cost and effort of upgrading to a new OS can be a challenge, small businesses should consider switching to Windows 8. read more »
Given the choice, Puget Systems' customers ignore Windows 8 and buy Windows 7 machines instead read more »more in depth ..
We take a look at the products that did not live up to their hype and fell short of expectations read more »
Improve your bottom line by dumping these technological artifacts read more »
These devices attempt to bring the best of the tablet and laptop worlds together in one portable package read more »
As the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors were unveiled so were a flurry of ultrabooks, here are eight that are worth a closer look read more »more slideshows ..
Protect your network from the risk of mobile devices read more »
The 'bring your own device' (BYOD) trend is having a significant impact on enterprise organisations read more »more white papers ..


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- Ford India plans to launch new small car model after Figo, hike EcoSport capacityHonda Amaze, Ford EcoSport, Hyundai Grand i10, Mahindra Vibe, Tata Nano in Hits & Misses of 2013Ford cuts car prices by up to Rs 1.07 lakh, EcoSport cheaper by Rs 25,947Ford EcoSport: A winner, from looks, performance to price
Few years before Sid Makkar (the face in the new EcoSport TV ad) had this wild idea to go to Brazil for his next profile picture, Ford was already ready with its plans to launch the EcoSport in India. Previously, the EcoSport was only available in the Brazilian market and this was the first time that Ford decided to produce its urban SUV in another part of the globe as part of its ‘One Ford’ strategy.
The evolution of the EcoSport for the Indian market is not a new story for any auto enthusiast at home. At under four metres in length, it could avail of the lower excise duty benefit of Indian regulations but the product had to undergo changes specifically for the Indian market such as right set of engines, features and variants. Keeping in mind the fast changing consumer trends, the product also had to have the capability to add more features, like a sunroof, in the future.
There’s also the Renault Duster, a product that just two years after proving itself in the European market was introduced in India. The Duster received massive response in its introductory year and also helped the Renault brand garner significant recall value in the market.
What is common between both these cars? They are global models that have found their way into India in a very short time after their global launches. Gone are the times when the Indian car market was treated as second fiddle with either outdated models or specifically-designed cheaper versions being launched here; as the competition gets aggressive, companies are launching global products here in a bid to showcase the best in their portfolio.
But there are challenges for new players in a market where a few like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have cornered a lion’s share. It is far easier to bring global products, but in a market with low risk appetite it is tough to convince the buyer of their value. Even though both the EcoSport and the Duster received massive media coverage and the Indian youth is seen to be passionate for competitively-priced SUVs and crossovers, they faced production constraints in the beginning due to high demand, both cars had a long waiting period due to high bookings, and finally it resulted in many customers shifting to rival models. The focus on exports by both Ford and Renault to benefit from the depreciating exchange rate also hurt the sentiments


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Cambridge is considered a technological centre of excellence within the world.
New series of marketing courses for high technology companies
To keep UK companies at the forefront, has developed a new series of marketing courses designed to meet the unique environment in which high tech companies compete.
Cambridge Marketing College has sourced some of the latest marketing concepts from Europe and the USA and have fused them with practical examples found in the high tech industry, creating a series of courses specifically targeted towards the high tech company.
Companies working in Telecoms, Software/computing, Aerospace and Electronics sectors would all benefit from marketing courses aimed at highlighting the unique environment and challenges found in the high tech arena.
Charles Nixon, one of the course directors, said 'The College has spent considerable time and effort developing a series of programmes to help high tech companies overcome the hurdle between product development and successfully launching the product into a carefully selected market segment'.
The 4 courses available are :-
- Introduction to Marketing for High Technology Companies
- New Product Introduction Process for High Technology Companies
- Marketing Communications for High Technology Companies
- Advanced Marketing for High Technology Companies
The first date for the above courses will be 23-24 June 1999 and places will be limited to 20 to allow for personal attention to all delegates.
The course directors are; Charles Nixon MBA, MCIM who co-founded Cambridge Marketing College and has spent 20 years working for companies like Mercury, Extel and Arthur Andersen. Tony Wilson PhD has over 19 years hands-on experience working for international high technology companies. Terry Nicklin MBA DipM MCIM, has been involved in strategic and tactical marketing roles for 18 years and is currently Group Marketing Manager for Domino Printing Sciences.
For further information contact:
Tel: 01223 421550
Cambridge Marketing College is the leading Marketing College in Europe offering professional Marketing and PR qualifications and courses.


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Guest Column: Brian Sedze
The economic challenges facing Zimbabwe are not about money. Our major issue is deficiency of a supportive government with competencies to design policies that enable innovation and value creation.
The country should also not pin its hopes and aspirations on welfare economics, but rather, it must trade for success. That trade requires new products and solutions instead of benevolence.
National leaders should also disabuse themselves from the fallacy of new money from Bretton Woods, but instead walk into private banks with bankable projects.
The importance of the Bretton Woods institutions should basically be the simultaneous and sequential signalling that the country is not in good hands.
The ‘open for business’ credo, itself a flawed public policy initiative, is premised on foreign direct injection of money. The government expects money without creating a platform for ideas. A country that needs money should be alive to the fact that money chases ideas, not vice-versa. Without ideas, money will not come. Instead, we have to be content with resource robbers.
Creative ideas, intellectual property and new knowledge enable conversations with private banks, venture and private equity firms, among many global funding options. Ideas should be to creatively solve unique challenges, satisfy local demand and for the production of exports to the world.
At the moment, all the government is seized with is trying to solve old problems with new money. New money must be used to create new demand and export orientation.
The government mindset is warped and captured in the old in that they believe the old industries should be resurrected and made to run again. But opposed to that, it should throw away the bravado and have a starting point, where we have to think afresh as if there were no Zimbabwean industries at all.
One Langton Chirinda said:“Zimbabwe should be viewed as completely dead economy-wise and that we have to think afresh as if there were no Zimbabwean industries at all!”
In that respect, we should see the government embark on massive trial and error through research and development budgets! This must be the biggest budget for now — to stir up new thinking that would result in new industries and a new economy!
The government should no longer view itself as this Leviathan that exists to tax existing industries and few employees to the last cent, fix market failures, provide public goods, fund infrastructure and correct industry externalities, but instead drive the next big revolution in innovation and germination of new enterprises.
Let us learn from the Americans and Rhodesians.
The United States became a powerhouse by directly supporting those who were innovative. It often had to move from an innovation policy maker to a player, the reason why the coolest tech companies are American. In fact, some of their great industries germinated within the army. America is great because of innovation, not resources.
Ian Smith made Rhodesia a breadbasket by supporting industries in agriculture. Rhodesian products commanded respect and had demand across the region due to the implementation of quality ideas in agriculture.
In fact, most of the few agricultural products we still export are relics of the colonial government economic initiatives. The country has failed to move forward, nearly four decades later.
Hundreds of manufacturing and service industries post-1965’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Rhodesia depended on agricultural inputs to germinate and run.
We are presently producing products and services that our regional peers and trade partners already have a better competitive advantage comparatively. We will not create valuable exports by investing in this old way of thinking.
Import substitution is a great option, but it should be done by creating and leapfrogging new processes and technology. Investing in ensuring that our country is not being taken advantage by neighbours is a start to great import substitution.
The country may leverage on its resources to create more value instead of just deriving national pride from good soils, great weather and minerals. Is it not shocking that upmarket furniture shops in Zimbabwe import from the United Arab Emirates, an arid country without significant forests and cattle?
The crowds that advise the President (Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), Cabinet, government “technocrats” and other informal structures) should start with this very basic new truth. The new truth is that the country doesn’t need economic renewal, but a complete new birth.
With this new truth, the President should start with a national plan, then derive a structure (ministries and State actors) from there. Structure follows strategy, not vice versa.
Zero-based budgets must be implemented: They should be speaking to national strategy of value creation. More resources should be applied in the generation of the new, instead of feeding the same old and non-value adding structures.
A lot of ministries should be disbanded as they were able to only serve the 1980 economic realities, and not those of 2018. The country should have more ministries focussed on re-birth, creating a new economy and a new Zimbabwe with a focus on radical and disruptive initiatives.
The much touted mega deals, unfortunately, are not exactly the answer as they are mostly based on primary resources. Exporting our chrome, gold, tobacco, lithium, gold, coffee and so forth, without a value addition, will build industries in other countries.
In fact, the companies driving mega-deals are doing exactly what we should be doing. Walk into private banks with business plans to borrow. Not much equity is invested by these companies, rather they invest in ideas.
In their stride, the major idea is that Zimbabweans are sleeping on their laurels and their minerals can be taken after paying a pittance.
To enable creation of the new, the government must entrench fiscal laws that are punitive to exporting raw and a reward system for value adding industries.
Part of the success matrix is to reward technology transfers and local human capital capacitation. Though implemented halfheartedly, value addition proposal in ZimAsset was a step in the right direction.
Beyond the metrics of creating both employment and spurring investment, it is also of strategic importance to have nationals controlling primary resources. The badly negotiated mega-deals disinherits our children.
If we invest in thinking, idea formulation and commercialisation of innovations, we are likely to meet success. This idea of thinking we can just have money without investing in ideas will continue our circle of poverty. We have to create the new.
Brian Sedze is strategy consultant and president of Free Enterprise Initiative. Free Enterprise Initiative is an advocacy in less government, free enterprise, fiscal and public policy. He can be contacted on email@example.com


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Japan was previously confirmed as one of 26 territories expecting the system in September, but the other 25 remain without a concrete release date. The Xbox One launched in 13 regions back in November 2013, in which Microsoft has shipped 5 million units to date.
Posted on Jan 27th 2015 8:15AM
Posted on Jan 26th 2015 11:00AM
Posted on Jan 26th 2015 10:00AM


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December 28, 2012 At No. 12, Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding tracks the fallout of a routine throw gone wrong.
December 28, 2012 At No. 6, Wild traces author Cheryl Strayed's crisis after her mother's death and a bitter divorce.
December 28, 2012 At No. 2, Gillian Flynn's thriller, Gone Girl, inspects the strained marriage of a missing woman.
December 27, 2012 Conventional wisdom says e-books are destroying the traditional publishing business model. But the story's not that simple. For one thing, flexible pricing allows publishers to hold what amount to one-day-only sales on any given title — which means more people will discover that book.
December 27, 2012 About three-quarters of public libraries offer e-books, according to the American Library Association. But finding the book you want to read can be a challenge when every publisher has its own licensing rules for libraries — and several major houses don't sell e-books to libraries at all.
December 27, 2012 The publishing industry has been in flux for years. First chain stores, then Amazon, then e-books — all combined to create dramatic change. Industry consultant Mike Shatzkin outlines some of the biggest changes, like the recently announced merger of Penguin and Random House.
December 27, 2012 Charles Dickens wrote many of his greatest works in serial form, but serial publishing has fallen by the wayside since his day. Now, it's being revived online, and Margaret Atwood is publishing a future-dystopia novel called Positron in installments via the literary website Byliner.
December 27, 2012 Chef Amanda Cohen's Dirt Candy is a turducken of a book: graphic novel, cookbook and memoir in one. Cohen's East Village restaurant in New York City is focused entirely on vegetables — and with just nine tables, it's become a foodie destination.
December 27, 2012 New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey is currently the only knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues. His memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, explains how his life — and career — have mimicked the unpredictable trajectory of the difficult pitch he throws game after game.
December 27, 2012 This year's literary heroines aren't defined by their desire to love or be loved — or even to be especially lovable. Writer and critic Parul Sehgal celebrates five sublimely stubborn women, frequently at odds with themselves and always at odds with their times.
December 27, 2012 This holiday season, instead of settling for the standard martini, historian Lesley Blume suggests you reach for a taste of bygone cocktail culture. She offers tips for picking the right antique elixir, as well as the original recipe for one of Ernest Hemingway's favorites.
December 26, 2012 The Law & Order creator's detective fiction debut is set in New York after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Although The Intercept borrows stylistically from Wolf's television background, he says novel writing allows him "to tell bigger stories on a bigger canvas."


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Virtual reality is on the hot talks since it has been discovered. It has numerous applications in several areas of research. Even Half-Life: VR is used in the field of gaming to improve user experience.
Constant requests to make an X-box which is VR compatible has been poured over the owner of the X-box. But Phil Spencer who is the head of the Xbox brand mentioned that VR is not in the current focus of the Xbox team.
Interviews And Tweets
Fair feedback. I've said publically, I love how our industry has pioneered: AI, physics, 3D, RT, VR/AR etc. For us, it's about focus on our innovations right now. I've played some great VR games, I got to play HL:Alyx in the summer, amazing. It's just not our focus with Scarlett
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 27, 2019
He added that “No one is asking for VR” which is still absent in the gaming consoles of Microsoft. After this interview with Stevivor, Phil Spencer put on a post on twitter. The tweet said that even after playing the highly anticipated game “Half-life: Alyx”, Phil is still not convinced. Hence implementation of VR in the Microsoft gaming consoles is kept on the wait-list.
In the tweet, Spencer also mentioned that VR is not currently in the focus with Scarlett. Scarlett is a custom-designed AMD processor. It has a high bandwidth GDDR6 memory and also a next-generation SSD. This tweet states that VR won’t be a part of Scarlett’s design.
In the interview with Stevivor, Phil mentioned that they had “issues” with VR. He also said that the top priority of the company is to respond to the requirements of its users. He adds up that due to the availability of the X-box in other means, people really do not demand VR.
Sony’s Playful Retweet
The comments of Phil Spencer in his interviews and tweets had various criticisms. The most notable criticism was a reply tweet from Shuhei Yoshida. He is a Sony employee. He exclaims that Sony often works to implement things that customers do not ask for.
This comment is supported by the fact that Sony has implemented VR over 3 years ago. Sony has also confirmed that their VR headset would continue to work in its PlayStation 5.
Project Scorpio was a code name which was promised to support a High-end VR. A year later, the Scorpio was renamed to Xbox one. But the promised VR functionality was not implemented.
This proves that Microsoft consoles had an inconsistent relationship with Virtual Reality from the beginning. Even now, the situation remains unchanged and Phil is still unconvinced.


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The US presidential race and its unpopular candidates don't just turn off a lot of voters. Even as Halloween costumes, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are unacceptable to many, Michael Knigge reports from Washington.
The line of customers looking for last-minute Halloween costumes was long on Saturday afternoon outside of the Total Party store in the Washington, DC, suburb of Arlington, Virginia. There was even a security guard on duty to manage the flow of shoppers into the store, one of the biggest costume and party supply outlets in the metropolitan Washington area.
Inside the store, people were eagerly trying on action hero costumes, donning black stovepipes or colorful jester hats and asking the helpful staff questions like whether the shop carries rubber hands that can be attached to one's leg. It doesn't.
Though the store was brimming with shoppers and there were long lines to get to the fitting rooms and checkouts, one section right at the entrance was noticeably empty.
Pick a president
The section holds political Halloween paraphernalia, such as red, white and blue sunglasses featuring the symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties, the donkey and the elephant, respectively, and what is sold as an instant President Theodore Roosevelt disguise kit, including a wig, mustache and glasses.
It also features a four-pack of cardboard stick masks of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama for less than $10 (9.10 euros).
But the highlights of the store's political Halloween corner are surely the full-face masks of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Made out of latex, the one-size-fits-all masks are definitely not accurate replicas of the candidates, but they get the characteristic facial expressions of the candidates right, depicting a screaming Trump and a smiling Clinton. With Election Day and the conclusion of what many consider a frightening presidential campaign just eight days after Halloween, who wouldn't want to make a political statement on fright night?
Apparently, most of the folks shopping at Total Party wouldn't.
"No, I wouldn't consider it," John, a costumer from Arlington, said when asked whether he could imagine buying either of the masks. "The election brought up a lot of hard feelings for a lot of people, and Halloween is supposed to be a night for fun, especially at our age, so going as someone that's part of the election seems a little bit offensive or might offend some people, so better to avoid it altogether."
That sentiment was broadly shared by many shoppers. Of about a dozen customers asked, none expressed any interest in buying presidential election gear. Most simply do not want to have anything to do with this election, the candidates and politics. Others find presidential candidate masks uninspired as they expect them to be worn by many other Halloween revelers.
Sam Armour, who works as a sales clerk at Total Party, confirmed that sales of Clinton and Trump masks are few and far between. "They are both selling about the same amount," Armour said. "If I had to tally it all the way up, I would give it a little bit more to him than to Clinton, but just because a lot of people have a certain way that they feel about the election. That's why this one is selling a bit more."
Armour says Trump sells slightly better, but people aren't necessarily dressing as him out of reverence
The only person in Total Party on Saturday afternoon who said she could at least imagine masquerading as one of the presidential candidates was Barbara Raizen, who was shopping with her daughter.
"Yes, it is a temptation to dress up as a politician, but I try to keep my fun and politics separate somewhat," Raizen said. "However, when sometimes there is too much preposterous politics going around, sometimes I get tempted to dress up like someone like Trump."
Ultimately, Raizen resisted the urge to go as Donald Trump on fright night and left without a mask of the presidential candidate.


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Adobe is putting all of its chips in the cloud, a move made readily apparent with a slew of announcements at its MAX 2013 conference in Los Angeles today.
Perhaps the most notable change is that Photoshop (rebranded Photoshop CC, but more on that below) will be a subscription-based service, though Adobe assured us it will continue to support Photoshop CS6.
Photoshop CS6 will still be available for purchase as a download and the company plans to continue providing bug fixes and security updates, but gone will be new versions and boxed software. It's all part of a major update to its Creative Cloud property, one that ultimately will do away with Creative Suite and all CS-branded properties.
Come June 17, Adobe will introduce a new set of desktop applications stamped with as "CC" alongside Photoshop, including InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC and Premiere Pro CC.
In what it's calling an accelerated shift to the cloud, Adobe is revamping Creative Cloud with a boat of features, the whole CC desktop app rebrand and enhanced cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities.
With the update, customers will be able to store, sync and share files through the Cloud onto Mac OS, Windows, iOS and Android. Behance, a creative community owned by Adobe, will be integrated into Adobe's ether-based service as well.
While now a pay-to-use service, Photoshop CC isn't without its enhancements, which include sync settings, Adobe Camera Raw 8 improvements and other editing features.
For those that don't own a steady cam, Camera Shake Reduction may prove the most useful as it promises to deblur formerly unsalvageable images.
Adobe also plans on releases feature updates regularly - "as soon as they're ready," an FAQ on the changes read - meaning customers won't have to sit with an old bit of software for 18 months - 24 months as they wait for a single mega upgrade.
So what will it cost to access Photoshop CC? Adobe is throwing out a Creative Cloud single-app membership for a special introductory price (read: limited time) of US$9.99/month (UK£13.53 ex-VAT/month) with an annual commitment for those who already own Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5 or CS6.
Following that pricing is a rate of US$49.99/month (UK£38.12 ex-VAT/month) for individual Creative Cloud membership. Those who own CS3 through CS5.5 can get their first year in the Cloud at a rate of US$29.99/month (UK£22.22 ex-VAT/month.
Though Adobe's hope seems to be to cut down on piracy, have a more reliable revenue stream and achieve its cloud-integration dreams in a viable manner, whether customers can saddle up to the notion of paying a monthly fee for services they once forked over a one-time payment for remains to be seen.


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An FDA official advised Rep. Jason Chaffetz that the agency is releasing new guidance to help companies meet their obligation under the law “to ensure that dietary supplements containing NDIs [new dietary ingredients] are reasonably expected to be safe."
July 28, 2016
In a letter to a member of Congress, FDA acknowledged it failed to clearly convey some of its views regarding five-year-old draft guidance governing notifications of new dietary ingredients (NDIs).
In reviewing comments related to the draft guidance and meeting with consumers and the dietary supplement industry, “it became clear that there was considerable misunderstanding about parts of the draft guidance and that, in some cases, our views were not stated clearly," an FDA official, Dayle Cristinzio, wrote in a March 10, 2016 letter to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah.
Cristinzio advised the congressman that FDA was “in the later stages of preparing the revised draft NDI guidance" and hoped “to publish this document in the near future."
The letter, which INSIDER obtained Thursday from FDA through a Freedom of Information Act request, makes clear that the new draft guidance will not be final.
“We want to stress that we are publishing a revised draft guidance, rather than a final guidance, to provide the public and interested stakeholders with a further opportunity to comment," Cristinzio, FDA’s Acting Assistant Commissioner for Legislation, stated.
Industry sources have described release of the new document as “imminent" and said it could be unveiled in the coming weeks in response to criticisms that the July 2011 guidance poses undue burdens to companies and is contrary to the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
“We’re happy to see that the agency is making this [guidance] a priority and hopeful that it will be out soon," said Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., executive director and CEO of the Natural Products Association (NPA).
Under DSHEA, an NDI is considered “adulterated" unless the “dietary supplement contains only dietary ingredients which have been present in the food supply as an article used for food in a form in which the food has not been chemically altered"; or FDA receives a notification at least 75 days before the new substance is introduced into the market, establishing that the product containing the new ingredient “will reasonably be expected to be safe." As INSIDER has reported, three out of four NDI notifications have been met with some type of an objection by FDA, such as a finding there is inadequate safety data or the company failed to sufficiently describe the ingredient.
“The revised draft guidance will clarify matters that were not clear in the 2011 draft guidance or that were subject to misinterpretation," Cristinzio wrote. “The purpose of issuing guidance on the topic of New Dietary Ingredient … notifications is to provide clear recommendations on when firms should file such notifications and what information should be included in a notification. In other words, the guidance is intended to provide information and tools to help companies meet their statutory obligation to ensure that dietary supplements containing NDIs are reasonably expected to be safe."
Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), looked forward to FDA offering guidance on information that companies should include in an NDI notification. He referenced NDI submissions that are rejected by FDA for obvious reasons, such as failure to sufficiently characterize the nature of the ingredient or failure to disclose the manufacturing process to confirm the ingredient can be made consistently.
“Things like that are things that the industry absolutely needs in a guidance so that we don’t have these rejections for silly reasons, [and] the industry understands going into the NDI notification process what’s expected in that submission," Mister said in a phone interview.
Chaffetz’s office did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment. Neither did the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, which must review the draft NDI guidance before it is published.
In writing to FDA earlier this year, Chaffetz reiterated his previous position that the 2011 guidance was inconsistent with the law.
Finally, Mister said the 2011 draft guidance reflects more than just a misunderstanding between FDA and the industry.
“It’s all in how you couch the gulf, the divide, between the industry and the agency," he said. “We saw it as more than just a, ‘Oh you weren’t being clear.’ We saw it as, ‘No, you got it wrong in some cases and so this is your chance to re-evaluate the position and come back and get it right.’"
Editor's note: Interested in learning more about what’s happening at FDA around dietary supplements? Join FDA’s Cara Welch, Ph.D., senior advisor in the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs, in the SupplySide West Featured Speaker session on Thursday, Oct. 6, at SupplySide West 2016.
Associate editorial director, Natural Products Insider, Informa Markets Health and Nutrition
Josh Long directs the online news, feature and op-ed coverage at Natural Products Insider, which targets the health and wellness industry. He has been reporting on developments in the dietary supplement industry for over a decade, with a focus on regulatory issues, including at the Food and Drug Administration.
Josh majored in journalism and graduated from Arizona State University the same year "Jake the Snake" Plummer led the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes. He also holds a J.D. from the University of Wyoming College of Law, was admitted in 2008 to practice law in the state of Colorado and spent a year clerking for a state district court judge.
Over more than a quarter century, he’s written on various topics for newspapers and business-to-business publications – from the Yavapai in Arizona and a controversial plan for a nuclear-waste incinerator in Idaho to nuanced issues, including FDA enforcement of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).
Since the late 1990s, his articles have been published in a variety of media, including but not limited to, the Cape Cod Times (in Massachusetts), Sedona Red Rock News (in Arizona), Denver Post (in Colorado), Casper Star-Tribune (in Wyoming), now-defunct Jackson Hole Guide (in Wyoming), Colorado Lawyer (published by the Colorado Bar Association) and Nutrition Business Journal.
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May 10, 2017
The mobile phone has been a ubiquitous part of everyday life for over two decades now. Let’s pause to think about that because it’s something we’ve taken for granted. When you leave the house, the one thing you’re most likely to turn back for if you’ve forgotten it, is your phone. It connects you with your world in a way that’s so invasive and seamless, that to do without it would be like having your feet tied together for the day, sure you could get around, but how annoying would that be?!
But the mobile industry is in a state of flux, or perhaps it’s in the middle of a metamorphosis. Everyone within the industry, and most outside observers too, are aware that there’s been no meaningful innovation for a significant period of time. Close your eyes and think about what a modern smartphone does and looks like. Then think about how that’s different from any other smartphone you’ve seen recently. Chances are, what you’ve thought of is a rectangular slab, with a large bright screen which gives you internet access so you can connect to your favourite social media apps. So what happens to how you engage with your social media apps once the smartphone industry makes it’s next innovative leap, emerging for this currently, stagnant, chrysalis?
We’ve already seen that the world’s biggest tech brands are moving away from the prevailing form factor. Don’t believe me? We’ll your favourite and most valuable handset manufacturer has already patented smart glasses. Reports about Apple’s AR research and efforts to miniaturise their tech came out earlier this year. Google has recently shared details of their next OS Fuchsia, hinting at a post-Android future and a more IoT orientated world. And even Microsoft, which has been late to the punch on too many occasions since Bill Gate’s heyday, have said that ‘the phone is already dead’ as they reach towards a Hololens future. But in fairness, that’s just what the tech manufacturers are saying. What about those from your favourite social network? Well, Facebook is ploughing headlong into building ‘brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing’. Even Snap! is focussed more on mixed reality technology which lends itself more to spectacles. Sound to you like you’ll be using that big screen slab in the near future? Me neither.
I won’t pretend to be able to see the future. If I could do that with any accuracy, I’d be an insanely wealthy man and frankly, the age of my boxer shorts would be the first clue to what my financial situation is like. But underwear aside, hopefully you’ll see that I’ve presented enough evidence, to make the conclusion I’m about to draw, at least a little more than plausible. So hear it is, in an IoT, AR, virtual reality world, there’s no place for a device as big and cumbersome as your typical 5” smartphone. The tech that you engage with will either sit on your face (which I personally hope is the route we do not take) or simply be embedded in the infrastructure around us (my preferred route) so that through biometric scanning, we access our cloud services and a more democratised diffusion of technology. If you’re wondering how you’ll take those crucial photos for the ‘Gram in this future, then how much of stretch is it to imagine low-cost drones or embedded cameras supplied by the service provider, whether holiday operator, restaurant or even your local council. This of course is just one potential of a multitude. But here’s the interesting thing, as intrinsic to social media as smartphones are now, they won’t be in the next two decades. Social media maybe be the smartphone’s best friend today but they’re not going to be best friends forever.


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By Alex Rampell for Techcrunch.com
The “wallet” in the modern sense of “flat case for holding paper currency” dates back almost 200 years. The word itself goes back 700 years, and the concept (minus paper currency) for millennia. (more…)
By Daniel Roberts for Yahoo News
Ant is a misnomer for one Chinese fintech company. (more…)
By Killian Bell for Technobuffalo
PayPal Credit, the service that lets you buy items online and pay for them later, is now available in the United Kingdom. It takes just a minute to apply, and shoppers pay zero interest for four months on purchases over £150 (approx. $212). (more…)
By Times of India
Plans to diversify revenue streams by offering financial products like loans and mutual funds
By 2019, eMarketer estimates that the total value of transactions made by tapping a phone on an in-store terminal will reach $210 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2015. For banks and retailers, that presents an opportunity to take on Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay – and maybe save on transaction fees to boot.
By C.Custer for TechinAsia,
The battle over the Chinese epayment market is raging fiercely now that Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have taken to the field in China. But WeChat Pay is heading in the opposite direction: the service announced yesterday that it’s launching support for overseas vendors. (more…)
By Erick Crouch for techinAsia.com
Apple Pay rolled out in China last week to a mixed response. Domestic players WeChat Wallet and Alipay have had years to figure out how the Chinese epayments market works, and a new player – especially one that doesn’t offer staple services like discounts, online purchases, and savings accounts – is facing an uphill battle. (more…)
By Philip Ryan for Bank Innovation,
You might be using a blockchain to order detergent within the next few years. (more…)
By Meghna Rao for TechinAsia.com
Paytm has had a unique approach to ecommerce in India. Originally launched as a site for mobile phone top-ups in 2010, the name is an abbreviation for “pay through mobile”. It soon pivoted to become an online wallet and, four years later, it launched an ecommerce site. (more…)
By Pankaj Mishra for techcrunch.com
Alibaba-backed Paytm, one of the bigger e-commerce startups competing against Amazon in India, is raising money again, just months after a reported $680 million round. Sources close to the company say that Paytm is now looking to raise $400 million by June to help with the launch of Paytm’s new payments business, Paytm Payment Bank. (more…)
By Katie Roof for Techcrunch.com,
PayPal reported earnings after the bell Wednesday, and the stock quickly ticked up 6% in after hours trading. (more…)
We knew that Alibaba was having a big year for mobile when sales via mobile made up nearly 70 percent of the company’s Singles Day haul. But now with the year over, Alibaba’s finance arm Ant Financial has released a bunch of interesting data on Alipay, Alibaba’s online payment platform, throughout 2015. The biggest headline: a full 65 percent of the money exchanged on Alipay in 2015 was sent via mobile. That’s up significantly from 2014, when mobile accounted for just under 50 percent of Alipay’s total business. (more…)
By Laura Noonan for Financial times
Mobile payment apps are soaring in popularity in the UK and US, but the world’s least developed countries are making almost no progress in the move to eliminate cash and cheque transactions that cost them billions of dollars annually. (more…)
By Trey Williams for Market watch,
Since rolling out to the public in 2012, Venmo has been a peer-to-peer payment app. Millennials have taken to it as a way to send money and emoji to friends for meals, event tickets, bills, etc.
By Nashuman Ghandi
“Buy this through XYZ digital wallet and get Rs. 50 (US$0.75) cashback on every ticket booked,” read a recent email you received from PVR Cinema. You usually receive this a few times a week and it keeps you informed about the latest movies. (more…)
EU-STARTUPS: In the last decade, there were a bunch of really successful fintech companies that started in Europe. Companies like Klarna, Adyen or Transferwise (to name just a few) changed the way we do payments or the way we transfer money overseas. By pursuing radical new concepts, these fintech startups became some of Europe’s most valuable companies within just a few years.
TECHINASIA: Alibaba’s spin-off finance subsidiary, Ant Financial, today put out a major new update to its Alipay mobile wallet app. For the first time, the mobile wallet now has ecommerce merchants and shopping baked right into the app. It means that within Alipay, which is China’s top mobile wallet service with over 400 million annual active users, people can now find local services like fresh flowers or food delivery – and then pay for it all in the same app. As in Alibaba’s other marketplaces, all the things are from third-party sellers.
FORBES: Apple has quietly filed for a new patent which details a person-to-person money transmission method which could potentially grab market share from PayPal and Square, and hit the already beleaguered banking sector struggling to keep up with FinTech. Apple is already banking on consumers using the wallet in Apple Pay as their central source for general payments, (more…)
ENGADGET: The money in your bank account is typically covered by federal insurance, but your internet payment services typically aren’t. If PayPal or Venmo went belly-up, you’d probably lose your existing balance. That won’t be a problem if you’re using Google Wallet, though. Google is now holding your Wallet funds in banks with FDIC insurance, so your digital credit is now that much safer. This isn’t to say that rivals leave you completely vulnerable — PayPal has fraud protection, for instance. However, the Wallet move means that you won’t have to go to court to get your cash back if Google goes bankrupt, no matter how unlikely that is.
TECHCRUNCH: The Coin (promising to let you combine all your credit/debit/loyalty cards into a single piece of tech) has delayed for so long that you might have forgotten that you ordered one. In November of 2013, the YC-backed company blew past its $50,000 pre-order goal in forty minutes, but despite a promise of summer 2014 shipping, the company has yet to ship a product that wasn’t in beta. Until today. After a six-month beta program, Coin is finally ready to ship a finished product to the 350,000 people who have pre-ordered in the first two months of pre-order. (more…)
TECHCRUNCH: Google has been stepping up its game in mobile payments the last several months, buying Softcard’s point-of-sale tech and making some international advances for its money transfer service. Today it’s adding another crucial piece to mix: some key integrations with merchants and merchant platforms. Customers that use Android apps from Dunkin’ Donuts and Seamless, and merchants that build online stores through Shopify, will now all be able to access Google Wallet to make and accept quick payments. (more…)
TECHCRUNCH: The rise of e-commerce in India has triggered a wave of startups that are leveraging the increasing adoption of smartphones to provide mobile payment solutions. Alibaba invested in Paytm at an apparent billion dollar valuation earlier this year, and now MobiKwik is the latest to be flushed with new cash. New Delhi-based MobiKwik has pulled $25 million in funding, led by Singapore-based hedge fund Tree Line Asia. The deal included participation from a couple of interesting strategic investors — Cisco and American Express. (more…)


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Disney CEO Bob Chapek advised executives to only take necessary business travels. Virtual meetings should be conducted as often as possible…reports Asian Lite News
Facing a slow revenue growth, Disney has reportedly planned to reduce its workforce and freeze hiring.
According to an internal leaked memo from Disney CEO Bob Chapek, seen by CNBC, the company is “limiting headcount additions through a targeted hiring freeze”.
“Hiring for the small subset of the most critical, business-driving positions will continue, but all other roles are on hold. Your segment leaders and HR teams have more specific details on how this will apply to your teams”, he wrote.
Approximately 190,000 people work at Disney.
“As we work through this evaluation process, we will look at every avenue of operations and labour to find savings, and we do anticipate some staff reductions as part of this review,” said Chapek.
He also advised executives to only take necessary business travels. Virtual meetings should be conducted as often as possible.
Additionally, the company has planned to create “a cost structure taskforce”.
“I am fully aware this will be a difficult process for many of you and your teams,” Chapek mentioned.
Chapek has predicted that the company will become profitable by the end of 2024.
“We are going to have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions. But that is just what leadership requires, and I thank you in advance for stepping up during this important time” he added.
The actions were taken after the company released disappointing quarterly results.
Global revenues for The Walt Disney Company decreased 18 per cent to $1.1 billion and operating income dropped 18 per cent to $0.1 billion, owing to a decrease in advertising revenue due to lower average viewership, especially in India where there was no cricket in the quarter.
The most significant impact was on the timing of Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, as there were no matches on Disney+Hotstar in the quarter that ended on October 1, compared to 18 matches in the prior-year quarter, The Walt Disney Company said in its quarterly earnings call late on Tuesday.
“Lower results from ongoing channels were primarily due to a decrease in advertising revenue and, to a lesser extent, higher marketing spend and an unfavourable foreign exchange impact, partially offset by lower sports programming costs,” said the company.
The decreases in sports programming costs and average viewership were due to the non-comparability of cricket events reflecting the impact of Covid-related timing shifts, it informed.
However, the viewership as well as revenues were set to increase significantly in the ongoing quarter amid the T20 Men’s World Cup.
Global revenues for The Walt Disney Company decreased 18 per cent to $1.1 billion and operating income dropped 18 per cent to $0.1 billion, owing to a decrease in advertising revenue due to lower average viewership, especially in India where there was no cricket in the September quarter.


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Hospitality sector calling for Eat Out To Help Out scheme to be extended
Article Date: 2020-08-20
UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls and Sacha Lord, night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, are among those calling for the government to extend the Eat Out To Help Out scheme for another month.
Kate Nicholls said in a tweet after speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC: “The benefit to consumers, the importance to businesses shows the need to continue it for another month to get the remaining 50% of restaurants and pubs reopen and successfully trading.”
Sacha Lord said of the scheme: “Stopping this next week, combined with rents due and the phasing out of furlough will be a combination leading to closure for many restaurants across the UK.”
More than 35 million means have been bought by people using the discount scheme in the first fortnight, figures from the Treasury revealed this week.
Nicholls told Ferrari of the scheme: “It’s been hugely important to the sector. Restaurants have been able to bring back staff off furlough and crucially it’s benefited trade through the whole week.”
Nicholls said so far 48,000 claims had been made by businesses to the tune of about £180m.
Nick Mackenzie, chief executive of brewer and retailer Greene King, has suggested the scheme could be extended in a targeted way for city centres.
Greene King has almost 60 out of 95 pubs in the centre of London open and trade is 60% down in like-for-like terms.
Even with the boost of Eat Out To Help Out, like-for-likes sales were 40% to 50% down.