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Microsoft makes blocking Windows 10 ‘Recommended’ update near impossible; The Best of Computex 2016; Stop Facebook tracking you across the web, change these settings; 10 forgotten (but still useful) tips for Microsoft Word; Five Android apps to feed your RSS needs; Free up Android space: Google trials uninstall app tool to help you do it; Google My Account can now locate Android and iOS devices; 7 Video Games You’ll Want to Buy in June; ‘Tramps Against Trump’ Will Trade You Nudes for Voting This Election – and much more news you need to know.
Microsoft makes blocking Windows 10 ‘Recommended’ update near impossible: Report – Microsoft’s push to update existing Windows 7 and 8.1 users is now becoming a shove, according to a new report. But it now sounds like the situation may not be as dire as feared.
These devices add Windows Hello biometric authentication to any Windows 10 PC – Windows Hello is Microsoft’s biometric security system for Windows 10 PCs, but it requires special hardware. Japan’s Mouse Computer will soon launch add-on sensors for any PC.
Stop Facebook tracking you across the web, change these settings – It takes less than a minute to opt-out of Facebook’s new ads system.
The Best of Computex 2016 – From powerful processors to adorable robots, Computex 2016 did not disappoint.
Five Android apps to feed your RSS needs – RSS offers an efficient way to stay in the know, but the right newsreader can make a big difference. Here are five outstanding Android apps that should do the trick.
10 forgotten (but still useful) tips for Microsoft Word – Plenty of Microsoft Word commands have gathered a bit of dust over the years, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful for those who remember them. Here are 10 tricks you may find handy.
Google launches a simpler website testing tool aimed at small businesses – Google today is launching a new tool aimed at helping business owners determine how well their website performs on the mobile web, including on both smartphones and tablets. Given that mobile searches surpassed desktop search for the first time last fall, it’s critical for website owners – but also for Google – that the sites showing up in search results are accessible, functional and performant. The new website testing tool (available at testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com) is simple for anyone to use – you don’t have to be technical.
Facebook to enable community-activated Safety Check – Facebook is making its Safety Check feature more stable and easier to deploy, which means that you might start seeing more Safety Checks on the platform. Before today, engineers had to type code to deploy a Safety Check. Now, there’s a simple form that any Facebook employee on the team could activate, which brings the total of people able to deploy a Safety Check from about two to a dozen throughout the world. Safety Check is Facebook’s tool that enables you to quickly let people know that you’re okay during a crisis.
Upgrading to Windows 10 and questioning The New York Times – Recently, The New York Times ran a long article, “Why Windows 10 Upgrades Go Wrong, and How to Avoid It,” that featured questionable claims and large omissions. This is my attempt to set the record straight. I was lucky enough to get feedback on the article from Woody Leonhard, who writes about Windows for InfoWorld, and Leo Notenboom who, for years, has been answering questions about Windows on his askleo.com site. Both are experts on the subject and live on the front lines when it comes to battling Windows. Unlike the expert in The Times’ article, Notenboom and Leonhard have public presences online, allowing you to judge their expertise for yourself. I trust them.
Free up Android space: Google trials uninstall app tool to help you do it – Android Police, which first reported the feature, notes the ‘app uninstall manager’ recommends uninstalling apps that aren’t frequently used. It’s specifically aimed at the moment a user attempts to install an app but can’t, due to a lack of space. When that occurs, Google Play will display how much space is needed and how much space is taken up by each app it is recommending for uninstalling. Users can simply check which of the listed apps they want to uninstall to make way for the new app.
ChromeOS bug halts automatic updates on certain Chromebooks – When updates come out for a device, it tends to be good practice to install them. This is especially true for firmware updates, as they can sometimes drastically change the operation of the device. Unfortunately, sometimes those updates can backfire, and that’s exactly what appears to have happened with certain Chromebooks.
Hands-on with Manjaro Linux 16.06 RC2: An excellent distribution – The official Xfce and KDE releases will have a fresh set of ISO images for new installations. I have installed the latest Release Candidates for both of them, and updated a couple of other Manjaro 15.12 systems. Here are the results.
Manjaro Linux 16.06 – Xfce Desktop
Russian facial recognition program beats Google, but big privacy questions linger – NTechLab’s facial recognition app uses AI to identify a face among billions of photos in less than a second, and is one of the best in the world, but the Russian startup draws concerns from academics.
This App Maps Your Face Wrinkles to Help You Deal With Aging – RYNKL is a mobile app that aims to make users aware of their facial wrinklescapes beyond mere vanity. In the long-run, the creators want to help you extend your lifespan. For the moment, snap a selfie and the app will map the saggy areas around your mouth, eyes, and forehead. Using a mixture of deep learning and imaging techniques, RYNKL can work out each user’s “wrinkle index” by looking at the depth of sag and the breadth and number of creases. Users can also compare how their faces fare in relation to people in the same peer group.
This Terrifying Chart Shows Smartphone Makers Are in Deep Trouble – Smartphone sales across the world are slowing as global markets hit their saturation points, according to Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist Mary Meeker‘s often-cited annual “Internet Trends Report.” Device shipments grew 10% in 2015, compared to 28% growth in the previous year. Here’s a look at the data contained in Meeker’s report, released June 1.
The PC upgrade cycle slows to every five to six years, Intel’s CEO says – The upgrade cycle for PCs has slowed down drastically, now extending to nearly six years, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on Wednesday. The “replacement cycle for the PC has extended,” Krzanich said. “Four years was the average, now it has moved to about five to six years.” Intel needs to ramp up its efforts and release the right innovations so people are motivated to upgrade PCs quickly and easily, Krzanich said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York.
Google My Account can now locate Android and iOS devices – With the first birthday of My Account here, Google has added three new features to give users more ways to easily access, control and protect personal data. One of the new features is “Find your phone” to help you locate your phone if it is lost or stolen. Find your phone gives users a way to locate the phone, lock it, and call it. A link to get in touch with your operator is also included to have the device cancelled if needed. Hopefully this is more accurate than Apple’s find your phone feature is in some locations.
Trouble originating between chair and keyboard caused most UK breaches – UK data breaches caused by good old human error rose again early this year, accounting for 62 per cent of all data breaches reported to UK data protection watchdogs in the first quarter of 2016. This far outstrips other causes of breaches, such as insecure webpages and hacking, which stands at nine per cent combined. The figures are based on a Freedom of Information request to the Information Commissioner’s Office by Egress Software Technologies and cover the first three months of 2016. Egress put in similar requests in both 2014 and 2015, meaning it can make a comparison of data breach figures over recent years.
Most of us old timers will remember this as PEBCAK – (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair).
Former NSA and CIA director recommends managing consequences instead of vulnerabilities – Michael Hayden believes managing vulnerabilities is untenable and consequence management using the Risk Equation is preferable. Read about the equation’s components.
TeamViewer denies hack after PCs hijacked, PayPal accounts drained – TeamViewer users say their computers were hijacked and bank accounts emptied all while the software company’s systems mysteriously fell offline. TeamViewer denies it has been hacked. In the past 24 hours, we’ve seen a spike in complaints from people who say their PCs, Macs and servers were taken over via the widely used remote-control tool on their machines. Even users with strong passwords and two-factor authentication enabled on their TeamViewer accounts say they were hit. It appears miscreants gained control of victims’ TeamViewer web accounts, and used those to connect into computers, where they seized web browsers to empty PayPal accounts, access webmail, and order stuff from Amazon and eBay.
Three important security upgrades to Android N – I updated my Nexus 6 to Android N and, although it’s not a massive change to the interface, I’m very impressed. There are features that users will immediately love, and some features they’ll never know exist. Above and beyond multi-window mode and a few other outstanding features added to the platform, there are three improvements that take on various security issues. These are some of the most important updates to Android.
Twitter and Yahoo reportedly meet to discuss merger – Billionaire Warren Buffett, UK outlet The Daily Mail and US telco AT&T have all been said to have expressed interest in buying Yahoo, or at least parts of it, which for months has been looking for a new suitor. Now, we can add Twitter to that list, according to the New York Post. Twitter executives met with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer weeks ago, the publication reports, to discuss a potential merger. It was noted, however, that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was not present during the discussion.
Samsung plans to add intrusive advertising to its smart TVs – Samsung has long been a giant in TV manufacturing, but falling prices and shrinking profit margins have hit the company’s bottom line. As a result, it’s reportedly testing programs that would add new advertisements to the main menu bar of its higher-end televisions. The program is currently only active in the US but is expected to roll out to Europe as well. The Wall Street Journal reports that this move isn’t confined to top-end televisions from 2015 or 2016; Samsung is exploring adding software updates to older models that would introduce advertising on those platforms as well.
Samsung Pay debuts in Spain, its first European market – Samsung Pay has launched in Spain, its first European country. This gives the mobile payment service a headstart over competitors Apple Pay and Android Pay, since the two haven’t landed in Europe yet. In Spain, as in other markets, Samsung Pay is available on Samsung’s flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and S6 series. It will also be added to this year’s model of the Galaxy A5 in the next few weeks.
New rules would make CEO Mark Zuckerberg lose control of Facebook if he quits – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would lose majority voting control of the social networking company if he quits his job or his services are terminated, according to new rules proposed by the board. The rules, which were first mooted as part of a reclassification of Facebook’s shares to help meet Zuckerberg’s philanthropy plans, will be voted on by shareholders at an annual meeting on June 20. The aim of the regulations is apparently to make it easier for the company to hire a top-quality successor to Zuckerberg, who would not be shadowed by the founder or be from his family.
Box down 7% despite “strong quarter” – Enterprise cloud storage company Box posted its first-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Despite beating analyst expectations on revenue and earnings per share, the stock dropped 12.89 percent then recovered to an 8 percent loss in after-hours trading after investors were disappointed with the billings numbers.
Walmart partners with Uber and Lyft to test grocery delivery service – Walmart is partnering with Uber and Lyft to test a grocery delivery service, in a bid to directly compete with similar offerings from Amazon. The pilot program will begin within the next two weeks in Denver and one other market, Michael Bender, Walmart’s head of e-commerce, said in a blog post this week. A Walmart spokesman tells The Wall Street Journal that the service will launch in Denver and Phoenix. Company CEO Doug McMillon will discuss the program at Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday. A last-mile delivery program would mark a direct challenge to Amazon, which has expanded its AmazonFresh grocery delivery service to several cities across the US.
Now there’s an Uber service for bike riders – Cycling has become more and more common as way to get around cities and urban environments. It’s easy to understand the growing popularity; riding a bike is cheaper and healthier than owning a car, and many cities are now creating dedicated lanes and paths for cyclists. But there are obviously still times when people need a car, which explains the rapid growth of Uber in similar urban environments. So, in order to be more useful to cyclists, Uber has announced a new service dubbed UberBike.
Saudi Arabia Invests $3.5B in Uber – Uber’s pockets just got a whole lot deeper: The ride-hailing service this week raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Marking one of the largest-ever investments into a privately held start-up, the money pushes Uber’s latest funding series to $62.5 billion, and its total balance sheet to more than $11 billion. “We appreciate the vote of confidence in our business as we continue to expand our global presence,” company CEO Travis Kalanick said in a statement to PCMag. In return, Uber will spend $250 million to expand its presence in the Middle East, where it boasts more than 395,000 active riders and 19,000 drivers operating in 15 cities and nine countries—including Saudi Arabia.
Indian smartphone leader Micromax plans to sell devices in China – The company’s co-founder also added that it was looking into bringing its budget smartphones to the US.
Games and Entertainment:
The Sims 4 discards gender rules for all clothing, customizations – The Sims game series has typically offered a ridiculous number of options for how their virtual denizens live, work, play, and love—and it has never shied away from political blowback in the “love” category. The only major exception at this point has been a delineation between the series’ three types of Sims—men, women, and children—in terms of 3D character rendering. That changed on Thursday with an official unlocking of The Sims 4’s customization options to all grown-up Sims. Voices, walking styles, clothing, accessories, and physiques can now be applied to men and women however users see fit.
Minecraft hits the 100 million sales milestone – Do you play Minecraft? You’re certainly not alone if you do. According to Mojang, the company has sold an average of 53,000 copies of Minecraft everyday so far in 2016, and it has officially reached (and exceeded) the 100 million sales milestone since first launching. To help put that massive number in perspective, Mojang says that if you were to take everyone who has purchased Minecraft and put them together in the same country, it would be the 12th most populous nation in the world. Because numbers are fun and visuals are easy to decipher, Mojang has published the infographic you see below.
Seven months later, Valve’s Steam Machines look dead in the water – It’s been about seven months now since Valve officially got into the hardware business with its Steam Machines, a line of Linux-powered gaming console/PC hybrids paired with a unique dual touchpad Steam Controller. Today, we’re getting our first concrete glimpse of the impact that hardware has had on the wider market for gaming machines—and the numbers don’t look too good for Valve.
Surgeon Simulator, Meet Donald Trump – Well, at least you know he’s good for the bill—if the presidential candidate survives your horrible attempts at a virtual heart transplant.
7 Video Games You’ll Want to Buy in June – As if 2016 wasn’t already a strong year for video games, June bolsters the catalog further with even more titles you’ll want to check out. This month sees notable video game releases across all platforms, including PC, Nintendo 3DS, and even PlayStation Vita, so there’s something to enjoy regardless of your system of choice. We’ve selected seven of June’s hottest titles for our list, so be sure to take a look if you’re in market for a new game.
Off Topic (Sort of):
Don’t Hook These Gadgets Up to the Internet of Things – In this feature, we’ll spotlight the dumbest and most dangerous examples of the Internet of Things, from egg trays that talk to your iPhone to robotic belts that let themselves out when you’ve downed too many hoagies.
Artificial intelligence brings new life to old photos – A team out of Waseda University in Japan has unveiled some pretty cool images from the first half of the 20th century, given new depth with full colorization thanks to an artificial intelligence. Unlike colorizing black and white photos using software, which can be a lengthy process of repeated cleaning and coloring – this AI samples similar photos and applies those colors and tones to the photo at hand. So, for example, if you have an old black and white photo of your grandparent’s house – and that house is still standing today – you can take a photo of it and the AI will learn how to color the old photo based on the tones and levels from the modern day one. Similarly, if you have an old photo of an area or people that don’t exist, the program can still learn and adapt those colors from similarly colored images. The more photos and images it has to pull from, the greater detail and true to color matching it will be able to provide.
How to survive in the wilderness using primitive technology – Outdoor survival expert Tom McElroy explains how to make the nature your home by constructing sophisticated and ancient technology.
Image: Tom McElroy
Where do dogs come from? Genetic evidence offers a new origin story – Dogs were some of the first animals that humans domesticated. These furry pals were living with people for thousands of years before we invented agriculture and started keeping other animals like goats and pigs. Though we have archaeological evidence of dog bones within human communities dating back 15,000 years, scientists still aren’t sure where humans began the process of converting wild wolves into snuggly companions. Now, a new study suggests that dogs were domesticated twice—once in Europe and once in Asia, probably around the same time.
‘Tramps Against Trump’ Will Trade You Nudes for Voting This Election – The women behind Sluts Against Harper, the votes-for-nudes campaign that helped to oust the former Prime Minister during the 2015 federal election, have passed the torch to some American friends in their time of need. A group of women in the US are hoping to replicate Sluts Against Harper’s success by turning their attention to pestilential Doritos-dust gremlin Donald Trump with a new campaign called, you guessed it, Tramps Against Trump. The rules are simple: send a direct message to the group’s Instagram account with a photo of yourself outside a polling station (you don’t have to show who you voted for), and the Tramps will send you a nude pic from their roster of women, men, trans, and non-gender binary people.
America votes Galaxy Note 5 their favorite, followed by iPhone 6S Plus – Today the ACSI Telecommunications Report 2016 has revealed consumer satisfaction in smartphones in the United States. This American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report is run on “interviews with roughly 70,000 customers annually”, asking questions about customer satisfaction in brands including Apple, Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC, and more. Measures are reported on a scale of 0 to 100, 100 being the most satisfied. You might be surprised who holds the number 4 spot – it’s not a phone released this year, nor last year, believe it or not.
NASA finds 39 human-made sources of ‘major’ unreported pollution – NASA has announced that researchers with the space agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and a couple universities have discovered 39 sources of unreported pollution, and they’re all caused by humans. The discoveries were made “using a satellite-based method,” NASA said in a statement today, and they all involve toxic sulfur dioxide emissions, which helps contribute to acid rain among other things. The unreported sources of pollution were found using satellite data gathered from 2005 through 2014; they are located in Russia, Mexico, and mostly in the Middle East, and result from places like smelters, power plants burning coal, and facilities related to gas and oil work.
Arrests for ‘offensive’ Twitter and Facebook messages up by a third – Two-and-a-half thousand Londoners have been arrested over the past five years for allegedly sending “offensive” messages via social media, statistics have revealed. The full number of arrests made by the Metropolitan Police for alleged breaches of Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 increased by 37 per cent over the last five years. A total of 625 arrests were made for alleged section 127 offences in 2010 – a number which had ballooned to 857 by 2015. During the years 2010-2015 2,130 people were arrested between 2010 and 2015 for “sending by public communication network an offensive / indecent / obscene / menacing message / matter” – which is a criminal offence under section 127.
Something to think about:
“That is the greatest fallacy, the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.”
– Ernest Hemingway – (1899 – 1961), A Farewell to Arms, 1929
Tor – The Tor network is a group of volunteer-operated servers that allows people to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. Tor’s users employ this network by connecting through a series of virtual tunnels rather than making a direct connection, thus allowing both organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy. Along the same line, Tor is an effective censorship circumvention tool, allowing its users to reach otherwise blocked destinations or content. Tor can also be used as a building block for software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features.
Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them and their family members, or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers. Tor’s hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.
Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they’re in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they’re working with that organization.
Groups such as Indymedia recommend Tor for safeguarding their members’ online privacy and security. Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommend Tor as a mechanism for maintaining civil liberties online. Corporations use Tor as a safe way to conduct competitive analysis, and to protect sensitive procurement patterns from eavesdroppers. They also use it to replace traditional VPNs, which reveal the exact amount and timing of communication. Which locations have employees working late? Which locations have employees consulting job-hunting websites? Which research divisions are communicating with the company’s patent lawyers?
A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently. Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.
The variety of people who use Tor is actually part of what makes it so secure. Tor hides you among the other users on the network, so the more populous and diverse the user base for Tor is, the more your anonymity will be protected.
Running Tor on my home machine.
In Pursuit of Freedom – The Pushback Continues:
UK surveillance bill “too broadly drafted”, says human rights committee – Another parliamentary committee that has been scrutinizing UK surveillance legislation currently before parliament says changes are needed to remove concerns the Investigatory Powers Bill would afford state security agencies powers that are too broad.
However the Human Rights Committee is generally less critical of the controversial bill than the security-cleared Intelligence and Security Committee, concluding that the controversial bulk powers the government is seeking to enshrine in law are not, in and of themselves, incompatible with European Human Rights law — at least not if certain legal bases are properly established, and checks and balances built in. It says it is basing this assessment on current case law.
“On the current state of the ECHR case-law, we do not consider the bulk powers in the Bill to be inherently incompatible with the right to respect for private life, but capable of being justified if they have a sufficiently clear legal basis, are shown to be necessary, and are proportionate in that they are accompanied by adequate safeguards against arbitrariness,” it writes.
Australia: NSW government playing Big Brother with citizens’ data – The New South Wales government is currently undertaking a data analytics project in South Sydney to determine who lives where and with whom.
The project falls under the scope of the newly created NSW Data Analytics Centre (DAC), with Dr Ian Oppermann assuming the role of DAC CEO in late 2015.
Speaking in Sydney on Wednesday, Oppermann said the urban renewal project is the only one that genuinely frightens him from a technology perspective.
“Here we’re just trying to answer the question of who lives where with whom, and believe it or not, that’s a very difficult question to answer and it’s difficult because we rely on census data as the baseline for understanding,” he said.
With urban planning the tagline for the project, Oppermann said those that are charged with planning transport, schools, water, and electricity need to know accurate residency information in order to make their plans.
“When you project out 10 or 20 years, it actually makes it a very substantial difference if you know household composition,” he said. “Taking a census every five years is actually a pretty slow sampling rate, particularly when everything is changing [quickly].”
Oppermann said the area near Randwick, south of Sydney, is expected to be the most densely populated area of Australia very soon — if it is not already.
Yahoo Publishes National Security Letter Details – Yahoo this week publicly disclosed details of National Security Letters (NSL) received from the FBI, the first time a company has done so thanks to protections of the USA Freedom Act.
“We’re able to disclose details of these NSLs today because, with the enactment of the USA Freedom Act, the FBI is now required to periodically assess whether an NSL’s nondisclosure requirement is still appropriate, and to lift it when not,” Chris Madsen, head of global law enforcement, security, and safety at Yahoo, wrote in a blog post.
NSLs allowed the FBI to demand data about a company’s users without judicial review, and the companies that received them had to remain silent. There’s been some back and forth over whether they are constitutional or not. But the passage of the USA Freedom Act last year allowed for more transparency.
As a result, Yahoo today disclosed NSLs it received in April 2013, August 2013, and June 2015.
The documents are redacted to protect the identities of the involved FBI agents, Yahoo personnel, and affected users.
The FBI is building a tattoo-reading system to chart criminal affiliations – An investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation has shed new light on an experimental tattoo recognition program run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and raised serious questions about the privacy safeguards in place.
The FBI first began developing tattoo recognition systems in 2014, as part of a collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, but the program is poised to expand dramatically this year. Over the course of the summer, NIST and the FBI will enter a new phase of the project that will test the current tattoo recognition systems at a much broader scale, hoping to compile as many as 100,000 tattoo images from the Michigan State Police, Tennessee Department of Corrections, and Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
Shortly, the FBI will require all male U.S. Citizens to provide details on their penis – including length and girth – because, you know, it just might assist in solving…


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Several news services are reporting that the son of Eugene Kaspersky, founder of the Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky Labs, has been kidnapped for ransom in Russia.
The weak first quarter growth in gross domestic product announced by the government Wednesday was blamed, in part, by a decline in public sector spending. But some tech vendors, including Hewlett-Packard, selling to the federal government may not be ...
Seagate's proposed purchase of Samsung's hard disk drive operations will likely lead to faster development of new hard disk drive (HDD) technology and improved solid state drive (SSD) and hybrid drive output, according to industry observers.
PC sales in the first quarter of this year suffered, and analysts are placing the blame on the tablet market and the disaster in Japan.
ORLANDO -- Mentors and sponsors can play a key role in helping women advance their careers in information technology, according to members of a panel discussion at the Collaborate 11 Oracle user conference here.
Could a few 7-year-old emails slice off as much as half of Mark Zuckerberg's stake in Facebook -- and the fortune he has earned from that stake?
Cisco announced Tuesday that it is killing the Flip portable video camera business in a restructuring move that will include exiting other parts of Cisco's consumer businesses and reducing the company's headcount by 550 workers.
Facebook's start-up days are long behind it.
Dramatic expense cuts and a narrowed focus on five networking technologies, including video, are coming to Cisco Systems as part of a massive planned turnaround, Cisco CEO John Chambers told financial analysts Thursday.
SANTA CLARA, CALIF. - Intel and Micron plan to further shrink NAND circuitry, doubling the density of their flash chips and further reducing the cost of solid state drive (SSD) storage.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) surveyed Indian companies across a variety of industries and found that in the majority of industry sectors, about 80 per cent of their U.S. workforces were local hires. The exceptions were in the IT and bus...
No other disaster has hurt the worldwide computer chip industry more than last month's earthquake and tsunami in Japan, according to analysts.
Gartner Wednesday revised its worldwide IT spending forecast upward, mostly in response to strong 2010 sales of media tablet computers like Apple's iPad.
LinkedIn hit a major milestone this week when its membership rolls passed the hundred million mark.
ORLANDO -- Samsung Tuesday expanded its Galaxy Tab tablet line-up with a new device that has an 8.9-inch screen.
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The Center for Disease Control and Prevention started to raise the issue about public safety when the hair bands made in China came to America`s market. They state that Chine is using used condoms, recycled, are being processed and sold into hair bands at the markets and the beauty salons.
The main concern is about the possibility of getting STDs, genital warts and even can be infected with AIDS.
These kinds of hair ties are being sold all over the country and they are easy and cheap to get. Here is the statement from the CDC in regards with this:
“ The CDC is sure that these hair ties and rubber bands which are made out of unsanitary condoms, has 4 times bigger amount of bacteria on it than those bacteria found in the public restroom toilet. The AIDS virus, warts, herpes and other STD venereal diseases are easy to get when the rubber band or hair ties end up in the mouth while setting their hair.”
Woman from Los Angeles was shocked when she realized that the hair band she bought was made from recycled condom.
She got the scissors and carefully cut around the edges. She saw the used condom and she lost words. She wanted to tell more people about this so that people would stop using them.
Look before you buy next time. If they are made in Chine they are a potential health hazard. Throw them immediately!


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Tata Communications ends F1 partnershipJanuary 16, 2020
M&S is selling a giant Tomahawk Steak for Valentine’s DayJanuary 16, 2020
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has threatened legal action against the government over its bail-out of "billionaire-owned" Flybe.
Article by [author-name] (c) Business News - Markets reports and financial news from Sky
- Read full story here.


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New Rockstar job listing hints that GTA 6 is almost finished
Rockstar’s Edinburgh site is currently eyeing up potential game testers to find bugs, write reports, and ensure Rockstar’s games are functioning. This has naturally fueled speculation that GTA 6 could be closer than we think.
With every week that passes, it becomes even more astonishing that Grand Theft Auto 6 has yet to be formally announced by Rockstar Games. Their parent company Take-Two Interactive recently came out to publicly address the game’s whereabouts, but other than that, we’re still all left wondering where it is.
Lately, we’ve learned that GTA 6 may not be set in the 1980s as first thought, yet it could still take place in the beloved Vice City. The latest buzz is about the new job listings which point to one of their major games being ready to test.
According to The National, Rockstar is advertising for 48 different roles across their studios, with the main focus being placed on the game tester positions in Edinburgh.
- Read More: Ranking the GTA games from worst to best
The role states that testers will need to be “passionate, enthusiastic, and self-motivated” and will need the following skills:
- Ensuring product quality of Rockstar releases to an industry-leading standard
- Creating and actioning comprehensive test plans ensuring everything is functioning correctly
- Writing concise bug reports and providing all relevant supporting information such as screenshots, videos, and game logs
One conclusion that everyone will come to is that these roles are for the upcoming GTA 5: Expanded and Enhanced remaster coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X.
On the other hand, for years, developers and musicians have secretly been working on projects and then suddenly released them. Or just flat-out announced them with an imminent release date.
Rockstar is clearly not a company afraid to venture out of the norm, and with E3 on the horizon and potential Rockstar games to be announced, it’s very possible that Grand Theft Auto 6 could arrive sooner than expected.
Image credits: Rockstar Games


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19 January 2016
The generosity of Marks & Spencer’s customers and employees has seen the retailer raise more than £2 million for Macmillan Cancer Support in 2015 alone.
£1.6 million of this came from the M&S’ involvement in Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, an event M&S has supported as headline partner for the last six years.
World’s Biggest Coffee Morning took place on Friday 25 September, with thousands of M&S employees across hundreds of stores supporting the campaign throughout September. M&S’ Food business led the fundraising efforts this year, with ways to support Macmillan available to customers across M&S Cafés and Food Halls.
But the fundraising didn’t stop there; M&S backed the partnership through a number of other initiatives, and raised the remaining £400,000 through a range of employee fundraising, promotions and events, including a fundraising ball. The £2 million raised is a record high for the partnership, and is almost £700,000 more than M&S raised for the charity in 2014.M&S is continuing to support Macmillan through both its charity Christmas cards and the new ‘Sparks’ loyalty card. Macmillan is one of nine charities that are supported by ‘Sparks’, with a penny from every transaction going to customers’ chosen charity. Finally, Macmillan is also a recipient of proceeds coming from carrier bag sales in store.
Steve Kemp, head of Food Retail at M&S, said: “Each year we are astounded by the efforts of our wonderful teams and customers in getting behind our partnership with Macmillan, and this year our expectations have been exceeded yet again! £2 million is an absolutely fantastic amount to have raised, and we are proud to support the incredible work Macmillan does. More than one in three of us will get cancer in our lifetime and it’s the toughest fight most of us will ever face. It is a vital issue, and that’s why our partnership with Macmillan is so important.”
Macmillan’s Director of High Value Fundraising, Claire Singlehurst, said: “We are delighted that M&S has raised £2 million for Macmillan in 2015. This is a remarkable achievement and I would like to personally thank all of the generous M&S colleagues and customers who made this possible. Every penny raised will help fund more vital Macmillan professional posts in communities across the UK, to help ensure that no one has to face cancer alone.”
From nurses to dieticians, psychologists to doctors, Macmillan professionals are specialist healthcare professionals who are there for people affected by cancer, right from the moment they’re diagnosed, through their treatment and beyond.
The Macmillan and M&S Partnership has been shortlisted for a Retail Week Award 2016, for Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year. Results will be announced in March.
- Ends -
For further information, please contact:
Sarah Summerfield– Senior PR and Media Officer, Macmillan Cancer Support
Notes to Editors
About Macmillan Cancer Support
When you have cancer, you don’t just worry about what will happen to your body, you worry about what will happen to your life. Whether it’s concerns about who you can talk to, planning for the extra costs or what to do about work, at Macmillan we understand how a cancer diagnosis can take over everything.
That’s why we’re here. We provide support that helps people take back control of their lives. But right now, we can’t reach everyone who needs us. We need your help to make sure that people affected by cancer get the support they need to face the toughest fight of their life. No one should face cancer alone, and with your support no one will.
To get involved, call 0300 1000 200
today. And please remember, we’re here for you too. If you’d like support, information or just to chat, call us free on 0808 808 00 00
(Monday to Friday, 9am–8pm) or visit macmillan.org.uk
About Marks & Spencer
Founded in 1884, M&S has grown from a single market stall to an international, multi-channel retailer. We sell high quality, great value products to 33 million customers through our 852 UK stores and our e-commerce platform.
About Plan A
Plan A is Marks & Spencer’s 100 commitment eco and ethical programme that tackles both today’s and tomorrow’s sustainable retail challenges. Launched in 2007, the plan has helped M&S send no waste to landfill, become carbon neutral and win 190 industry awards. Organised around four pillars – Inspiration, In Touch, Integrity and Innovation – it aims to make M&S the world’s most sustainable major retailer. To find out more please visit the Plan A website - http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/plan-a.


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Louisville woman was arrested Tuesday afternoon at a local store after allegedly being found with multiple illegal drugs after attempting to shoplift.
According to police, Marissa Layman, 20, was observed by Meijer security trying to conceal items in her purse at their store in the 9500 block of Preston Highway.
Police said Layman walked out of the store without attempting to pay for the $121.59 worth of store merchandise.
Police were called and found heroin, pills, a spoon, Q Tips and a straw in her purse.
Marissa Layman is charged with possession of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia and shoplifting.


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Cops probe Massapequa cellphone store burglary
Nassau police are investigating a break-in at a Massapequa cellphone store that took place early Tuesday.
Robbery Squad detectives said someone "threw a rock, breaking the front door" of a Verizon Wireless store at 5070 Sunrise Hwy. at around 2:30 a.m., then entered and took a number of cellphones.
Anyone with information on the break-in is asked to make a confidential call to Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.


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When insurance claims go wrong
It's best to find out exactly what you must disclose to your insurer - and make sure you tell them of any changes in location or career.
Regarding long-term policies such as disability and life - when your circumstances change - when you move cities, change a job - you need to tell your insurers.Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist
In this case it involves somebody whose disability claim was rejected on an Absa policy that she took out when she bought her house. The remainder of the bond was going to be paid out. The reason the claim was rejected is... she did not tell the insurers that she changed her profession. I had an assumption that it was the brokers' responsibility to make sure that your information was up to date - but apparently they are not compelled to do it. The clause states that the insured must inform them in writing of a change in occupation. This clause nearly cost her her home.Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist
Listen to the full report about the insurance policy below.
Get the 10 most-read articles of the week from Bruce Whitfield’s The Money Show, emailed to you every Friday morning.
Consumer Ninja, Wendy Knowler, on payment holidays from banks in which you get a break from interest and repayment of debt.Read More
This edition of Consumer Corner looks at how lay-offs, closures and quarantine will impact people's income and ability to repay debt.Read More
The Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman says the Covid-19 pandemic should force suppliers to review their cancellation policies.Read More
Wendy Knowler, consumer Ninja, has a horror story about insurance policies being cancelled - by sms.Read More
Emirates was asked detailed questions about their protocols following a case of attempted sexual assault on one of their flights last week.Read More
As the coronavirus continues to impact global travel, some international airlines are now offering free cancellation or flight changes.Read More
Hundreds of small businesses which fell prey to a phone directory listings scam, should relax and read here.Read More
Consumers with international travel plans this year are facing high levels of anxiety as the coronavirus spreads across the world.Read More
Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist, on Nedbank's early debit orders.Read More
A South African man has slammed airlines that refuse to issue penalty-free refunds in destinations hit by the coronavirus outbreak.Read More


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Cyberpunk 2077 Won’t Come With VR Support; CDPR CEO Discusses Development
Last week, it's been confirmed that CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 will be a first-person role-playing game, a first for the studio. VR support would enhance immersion greatly, but it seems like it won't be in.
A few hours ago, Reddit user vvit0 asked the Cyberpunk 2077 Official Facebook page about VR support. The answer - VR not found - leaves little doubt on the matter.
On a related note, CDPR CEO Marcin Iwiński has recently discussed development with Kotaku, somewhat confirming some of the issues that the studio had during development. Apparently, CDPR thought they could develop The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 at the same time, but that wasn't the case. However, thanks to the strong pre-production, CDPR was able to kick into high gear once work on The Witcher 3 was complete.
I think it’s also our testament to quality, because theoretically we could have, but then Witcher 3 wouldn’t have been what it was. And again, we thought with expansions, all hands on board, Blood and Wine being 40-50 hours. That’s all thanks to the fact that there was a smaller group working on Cyberpunk. Our initial intention, or bravery, or naivety was, ‘Yeah we’ll pull it off, but hey it’s not working out.’
This time was not wasted because we had a very solid preproduction so we were not rushing things. There was a lot of thinking about the world and the concepts and whatnot. So this helped them accelerate much faster once we had the teams free after The Witcher 3.
Cyberpunk 2077 launches on a yet to be confirmed release date on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.


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The world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, fell 2.6 percent and camera lens-maker Largan Precision Co Ltd slid 3.6 percent.
"Some people may fear that this now means that the iPhone units are going to start going negative year over year because it's easier to talk about great things and not show the details of things that aren't so great", Citi analyst Jim Suva said during the conference call. Indeed, Apple's most recent quarterly report illustrates that Apple - with more margin friendly devices in the mix - can easily generate more revenue even in the face of stagnating iPhone sales.
Consumers in general are not as keen on the XR as Apple thought they would be.
The latest evidence that what's bad for Apple can be awful for suppliers came on two continents within hours of each other.
According to a new report by Reuters, at least three iPhone suppliers have issued warnings on results to Apple that suggest weakening iPhone sales, causing the company's stock to hit a three month low today.
'Up through the first half of 2019 we likely won't see any breakthrough'.
Lumentum, which supplies FaceID components for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, has reduced its profit and revenue forecasts thanks to reduced orders from Apple.
Apple warned earlier this month that sales for the crucial holiday quarter would likely miss Wall Street expectations, which CEO Tim Cook blamed on weakness in emerging markets and foreign exchange costs. Shares of Lumentum plummeted a record 33 per cent while Apple dropped 5 per cent. Oclaro Inc., which is being bought by Lumentum, lost 12 per cent, its biggest drop since April.
JPMorgan analysts said iPhone unit sales could decline on an annual basis in both 2018 and 2019.
Among other Apple suppliers in the region, Hong Kong-based acoustic components maker AAC Technologies Holdings Inc fell more than 6 percent.
"(This) indicates that the company itself is not confident about its performance at the moment", said Park Jung-hoon, a fund manager at HDC Asset Management, which owns Samsung Electronics shares. "With our proven ability to deliver high volumes, years of experience, hundreds of millions of devices in the field, and new product and customer funnel, we remain confident in our leadership position in the nascent market for laser diodes for 3D sensing".


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Digital TV News: John Stankey
WarnerMedia unveils HBO Max
Oct 30, 2019 – WarnerMedia has unveiled details about its HBO Max direct-to-consumer strategy, revealing a comprehensive offering of programming options for every audience, product features and functionality, and its go-to-market plans.
News categories: WarnerMedia, HBO Max, AT&T, Robert Greenblatt, Ann Sarnoff, Kevin Reilly, John Stankey, Tony Goncalves, Digital TV, OTT, USA
WarnerMedia launches content innovation lab
Jan 22, 2019 – WarnerMedia has announced plans to launch the WarnerMedia Innovation Lab, an incubator that will combine emerging technologies with content from across its operating units to create new and innovative consumer experiences and businesses.
News categories: WarnerMedia, John Stankey, Jesse Redniss, 5G, Advertising, Big Data, Digital TV, Smart Home, USA, VR
WarnerMedia announces plans for direct-to-consumer streaming service
Oct 10, 2018 – WarnerMedia has issued a statement announcing plans for a direct-to-consumer streaming service. The service will launch in the fourth quarter of 2019. The product will serve as a complement to WarnerMedia's existing businesses.
News categories: WarnerMedia, John Stankey, Digital TV, OTT, USA, Worldwide
AT&T completes acquisition of Time Warner Inc.
Jun 15, 2018 – AT&T (NYSE:T) has completed its acquisition of Time Warner, bringing together global media and entertainment leaders Warner Bros., HBO and Turner with AT&T’s leadership in technology and its video, mobile and broadband customer relationships.
News categories: AT&T, Time Warner, Randall Stephenson, John Donovan, John Stankey, Jeff Bewkes, Lori Lee, Brian Lesser, Digital TV, MnA, USA, Worldwide
AT&T offers 3 ways to stream video
Nov 28, 2016 – AT&T has begun offering 3 video streaming services – DIRECTV NOW, FreeVIEW and Fullscreen, delivering video over a technology platform that will have multiple product capabilities.
News categories: AT&T, John Stankey, Apps, Digital TV, Mobile, OTT, USA
Fullscreen to launch SVOD service on April 26
Mar 30, 2016 – Fullscreen has announced plans to launch an ad-free SVOD service. Debuting internationally on April 26, the eponymous service fullscreen will include feature films, scripted and unscripted acquisitions and originals, as well as exclusive content.
News categories: Fullscreen, AT&T, George Strompolos, John Stankey, Digital TV, Mobile, OTT, USA, Worldwide
AT&T to launch DIRECTV streaming services
Mar 1, 2016 – Later this year AT&T plans to launch the ability for customers to access and stream DIRECTV video services over a wired or wireless Internet connection from any provider and from virtually any device – smartphone, tablet, Smart TV, streaming media hardware or PC.
News categories: AT&T, John Stankey, Digital TV, Mobile, OTT, USA
AT&T completes acquisition of DIRECTV
Jul 24, 2015 – AT&T (NYSE:T) has completed its acquisition of DIRECTV. AT&T is now the largest pay TV provider in the U.S. and the world, providing service to more than 26 million customers in the United States and more than 19 million customers in Latin America.
News categories: AT&T, DIRECTV, Randall Stephenson, John Stankey, Mike White, Caribbean, Digital TV, IPTV, Latin America, Mexico, MnA, Satellite, USA
The Chernin Group and AT&T create OTT joint venture
Apr 22, 2014 – AT&T (NYSE:T) and The Chernin Group have announced the formation of a venture to acquire, invest in and launch OTT video services. The Chernin Group and AT&T have committed over $500 million to the venture.
News categories: AT&T, Crunchyroll, John Stankey, Peter Chernin, MnA, OTT, Private Equity, USA
- Contentos integrates Theta Network decentralized video delivery for COS.tv
- SeaChange selected by Midco to monetize video streaming service
- Apptopia and Braze release state of streaming industry report
- Edge Networks announces 'Evoca' ATSC 3.0 pay TV service
- Allegro DVT releases AL-D21x video decoder IP family with AV1 support
- Nielsen and Sinclair Broadcast announce multi-year renewal
- Verimatrix introduces DRM for video protection between devices
- Deltatre unveils SaaS platform for real-time, data-driven UX decisions
- Omdia cuts 2020 TV shipment forecast by 10 percentage points
- Comscore research shows continuing surge in U.S. daytime TV viewing
- FCC proposed rule change to support ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission
- VideoAmp creates combined Smart TV and STB viewing dataset for the U.S.
- Roku OS 9.3 begins roll-out
- Italian local re-broadcaster RAS goes live with Synamedia virtualized DCM
- Altice Europe terminates discussions on acquisition of Partner Communications
- Asia Pacific set for 417 million SVOD subscribers
- Velocix introduces CDN software for 5G video streaming
- Comscore sees notable rise in U.S. streaming usage
- Movies Anywhere app comes to LG Smart TVs
- Singtel puts HOOQ into liquidation


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Hacktivists create a fake version of the app for new Jay-Z album Magna Carta Holy Grail to comment on government surveillance.
Owners of the Galaxy S4, S3 and Note 2 get the new album today, July 4 -- three days before the rest of the world.
Jay-Z's new album Magna Carta Holy Grail will be released early and for free to 1 million Samsung Galaxy S4, S3 and Note 2 owners.
A million Galaxy device owners will get the rapper's new album three days early, and for free.
Here's another throwback episode of The 404 Show where Jeff sat down on August 3, 2012, with Jay Chandrasekhar and Kevin Heffernan, two of the members of the comedy group Broken Lizard (Super Troopers, Beerfest).
XCAR drives nearly a thousand miles in a 2015 Jaguar F-Type R Coupé, following millions of dollars of metal and catching up with Jay Leno, Brian Johnson and Jodie Kidd along the way.
Samsung is reportedly set to sign one of the biggest sponsorship deals in tech history by splurging $20m on the rapper and impresario.
Market researcher revises its prediction for global PC shipments in 2014, but it still expects a decline.
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer sees profits rise for the third straight quarter to $673 million, beating analyst estimates.
Superstring theory and the music of the spheres create the scientific foundation for Grant Morrison's multiple universe-spanning superhero epic Multiversity.


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It’s not just Amazon and Google personnel hoping to organize. Sources talking to The Washington Submit declare staff at six or extra US Apple Shop areas are quietly preparing to unionize, with “at least” two merchants by now garnering the assistance of countrywide unions and prepping submissions to the Nationwide Labor Relations Board.
As you may guess, the central difficulty is pay back. Staff members conversing to The Publish explained their pay back was similar to what other suppliers offered, but wasn’t holding up with increasing fees of living. Apple’s corporate success also has not translated to much better wages, the staffers mentioned.
The professional-union personnel have reportedly structured in key to stay clear of possible eavesdropping and retaliation from Apple, making use of encrypted chats and even Android telephones to hold communications personal. The staff members have supposedly been informally canvassing coworkers to gauge assistance and likely safe majorities


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There was a drop in the export orders of Taiwan for an 8th consecutive month in June, with firms all over the world increasingly hesitant to invest more in machinery as the trade war between the two giant countries i.e. China & the United States wears on.
On Monday, the data showed a steep decline in orders from Japan & China than the previous month, and shrinkage from Europe, though the demand in the United States for Taiwan products increased for the first time in months, mainly because of supply chain adjustments.
When combined with a sharp fall in the preliminary exports of South Korea reported earlier in the day, the readings give an indication of further strains on Asia’s trade-reliant economies in the approaching months, in particular to those which are highly dependent on sales of high-technology electronics & memory chips.
There was a drop of 4.5 percent in the orders in June as compared with the last year’s $38.5 billion, data from Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs reflected.
That critically lagged a prediction of a 0.83 percent decline in a Reuter’s poll of analysts but was a minor moderation from a 5.8 percent drop in May.
The ministry anticipates a decline of 6.7 to 6.9 percent in the July year-on-year.
The ministry stated that impacted by the trade spat between the United States & China, the global economy is relaxing & clients give their orders with a hesitant and conservative approach.
International orders for machinery witnessed the greatest drop, collapsing 22.3 percent while electronics dropped 4.3 percent, although telecom products rose.
But, the ministry stated that orders could boost in the second half, due to rising demand for the 5th generation telecommunications (5G) technology & as retailers prepare for the ultimate year-end shopping season when key smartphone vendors are set to launch novel products.


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During a livestream from PAX East, Mass Effect: Andromeda Creative Director Mac Walters revealed that the highly-anticipated new installment in the series has more then 1,200 speaking characters, a number equivalent to Mass Effect 2 and Mass
After the recent reveal at Nvidia's CES press conference, Mass Effect Andromeda developers are continuing to trickle down information on the game.
Following yesterday's Mass Effect Andromeda gameplay reveal, BioWare has been answering questions from the fans on the upcoming game.
BioWare General Manager Aaryn Flynn mentioned that news on multiplayer are coming "soon."
@aneeshsharma7 Yep soon :)
Another new Mass Effect: Andromeda info dump has happened, this one courtesy of an interview between Mass Effect: Andromeda's creative director Mac Walters and producer Fabrice Condominas with Eurogamer.
After the much awaited gameplay reveal at The Game Awards, information on the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda is continuing to trickle down the grapevine, thanks to Creative Director Mac Walters, who is keeping up a consistent line
Mass Effect Andromeda’s Ending Story Will Feel Complete; Players Challenged to Be Explorers, Adventurers, and Diplomats
There's no denying that Mass Effect 3's ending left a lasting impression with the gaming community when it launched over four years ago. Though some found the last choice satisfying, many others hated it, criticizing that for
After the reveal of Mass Effect: Andromeda, more and more information are being gradually shared by BioWare, and today we get a few more details.
Mass Effect Andromeda Will Let You Have Multiple Relationships, Rivalries, Love, Hate, Jealousy and More
Now that Mass Effect Andromeda is starting to get a sizable amount of information and assets, Creative Director Mac Walters is keeping up the steady stream of answers on Twitter, sharing some interesting aspects of the game.
Mass Effect Andromeda’s Relationships “Will Vary from Person to Person;” More Intelligent Aliens Teased
One of the most important elements of the Mass Effect Series is relationships among the main character and those he'll meet, and quite evidently the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda won't be an exception. Creative Director Mac Walters
Yesterday, via Twitter, Mac Walters Creative Director of Mass Effect: Andromeda revealed that the new trailer released yesterday is voiced by the father (who still is nameless) of game's two protagonist, the Ryder siblings.
Here's the exchange:
The next generation of Mass Effect has been in active development for some time now, and details are scarce as to what the story will entail and what changes may be being made. All we know is
At this week's EA spotlight event in New York City, we had the chance to catch up with the folks from BioWare for what is undoubtedly our final preview for Mass Effect 3 before it launches in
We already spoke to Mac Walters about how he goes about writing the story for the Mass Effect games. However, if you want some more insight, BioWare released a new developers diary from the team that focused
One of the best parts about any convention is the sheer amount of awesome people there. At NYCC 2010, I was able to sit in a panel run by Dark Horse, Obsidian and BioWare with regards


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Study reveals that exercise during pregnancy aids fetal development
NEW ORLEANS According to a study called the “Effects of Maternal Exercise on Fetal Breathing Movements,” researchers determined that exercise during pregnancy may benefit fetal development.
Specifically, fetal heart rate was significantly lower in a control exercise group during both breathing and non-breathing movement periods; and fetal short-term and overall heart rate variability were higher in the exercise group during breathing movements.
“These findings suggest a potential benefit of maternal exercise on fetal development because of the link between fetal breathing movements and the developing autonomic nervous system,” stated Linda May of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.
The researchers are planning to next explore the use exercise as a potential intervention to improve short and long term outcomes in children born to women at risk for gestational diabetes.
The researchers will discuss their findings at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Physiological Society, which is part of the Experimental Biology 2009 scientific conference in New Orleans April 18 through 22.
Nuvilex reduces suggested list price of Cinnergen
CHERRY HILL, N.J. Nuvilex, formerly eFoodSafety.com, last week reduced the suggested list price of Cinnergen, a cranberry cinnamon liquid supplement, corresponding with an advertising and promotion campaign that helps promote healthy glucose metabolism, raise customer awareness and garner increased demand for the product at the lower price point.
“By improving our marketing and sales efforts, we intend to raise awareness and drive demand for Cinnergen,” stated Martin Schmieg, Nuvilex chairman and CEO. “Engaging our retail partners with better pricing while maintaining current gross margin levels will help us in retail positioning, and the lower suggested retail price will be good for current and future Cinnergen users. Furthermore, our partnership with dLife will expose Cinnergen to the large pre-diabetic and diabetic population that is looking for healthy alternatives. We plan to closely monitor and track our Cinnergen advertising and promotion activities and hope to report a significant return on our investment.”
Nuvilex has executed a partnership agreement for the promotion of Cinnergen with dLife, the only multimedia network serving the diabetes community. The dLife advertising and promotion campaign is expected to launch in mid-April. The multimedia outlets include dLife TV, which airs every Sunday on CNBC at 7 p.m. With more than 80,000 pages of content, 9,000 diabetic recipes, and 400 videos, dLife.com is a leading online destination for diabetes information. The dLife network also includes: dLifeRadio, which can be heard on stations around the country and on XM Satellite Radio; and dLifeDirect, the only diabetes cooperative direct-mail program.
Phase one of the dLife partnership will include 1.2 million banner ads plus content integration on the dLife website, banner advertising in three upcoming dLife newsletters (350,000 circulation) and banner advertising in the upcoming Rite Aid Connect Newsletter (550,000 circulation). Nuvilex has engaged the Iridium Group to design its web and print placement ads and will also focus on improving its search positions with Google and Yahoo. Nuvilex also intends to promote Cinnergen on WebMD.
Effective May 1, Nuvilex will reduce the suggested retail price for a 32-ounce bottle of Cinnergen to $26.95 from $34.95. Additionally, lower multi-level wholesale pricing will be established to support the Company’s retail partners.
Nuvilex will discontinue production of the 16-ounce bottle size of Cinnergen.
Stem cells may curb insulin use for Type 1 diabetes patients, study finds
NEW YORK An experimental stem-cell treatment for juvenile-onset diabetes kept patients off insulin for at least a year, according to published reports.
According to WebMD, of patients recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes who received the treatment, more than half were able to go without insulin for at least a year, and four patients managed to go without it for at least three years. The treatment also uses drugs to suppress the immune system, however, and two of the patients contracted pneumonia.
The original study appears in the April 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.


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If you’ve been relying on the screen on your Android mobile device to display Android Auto, you won’t be able to when Android 12 arrives and when you make the transition to it. The OS is in its fourth beta on selected devices and is slated to be officially released later this year.
With its arrival, the plug is being pulled on the Android Auto for Phone Screens app, handy for those looking for the Android Auto experience but without a vehicle infotainment system capable of handling it. Debuting in 2019 as a stop-gap measure to offset the delay in the introduction of delayed Google Assistant Driving Mode, the app is set to be replaced by Google Assistant Driving Mode.
According to 9to5Google, phone users running on Android 12 beta have started reporting that Android Auto for Phone Screens is no longer accessible to users, with a notice telling users that “Android Auto is now only available for car screens, and “to try Google Assistant Driving Mode instead.”
You can find Google Assistant Driving Mode in Google Maps, with a pop-up inviting you to try it when you set a destination. The interface is noticeably different from what you’ll find in Android Auto for Phone Screens, with the map view taking up the majority of the screen, joined by a bar with large, on-screen buttons for quick access to the app drawer and voice assistant. Playing media like Spotify will result in an additional bar with limited controls to appear near the bottom of the screen.
The impending switch will only impact those with devices running on Android 12, essentially newer phones and future devices. According to Google, Android Auto for Phone Screens will continue to be accessible to users running on older versions of its OS, and of course, Android Auto on vehicles will continue to offer the built-in mobile experience as usual.
Locally, Android Auto is not available on the Google Play Store, so that feature has never been official here, with users on earlier OS needing to install an Android application package (APK) for it, manually updating it each time. Android 10 users have AA baked into the operating system, which can run wired (or wirelessly, if supported) on vehicle infotainment systems that support it, but the phone screen app itself has been a sideload APK affair.
Source: Read Full Article


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SALINA, Kan. (KSNW) – Salina police are looking for four individuals after they stole 58 cell phones from Sam’s Club at 2919 Market Place.
Authorities say three women and one man entered Sam’s Club at the same time on Sept. 8 between 4:45 p.m. and 5:05 p.m.
Police said the suspects were were able to cut the lock on the case that was holding the phones. They stole 58 cell phones, concealing them as they left together in a dark SUV.
The value of the cell phones is a combined $41,145.
Salina police are working with the store to receive security camera images of the suspects.


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Architectural Blue, a Palm Springs-based company that builds and designs outdoor spaces, recently broke ground on an innovative new center that will be a one-stop shopping experience for backyard aficionados.
Known as Garden, the complex will house new offices for Architectural Blue as well as a nursery, outdoor showcases, a café, and lots more. “When working with my clients over the years, we would go shopping at many stores looking for plants, artwork, custom-made metal works, etc. and were left feeling disappointed,” says Architectural Blue’s founder and President/CEO, J. Matthew Naylor.
“Since we were already creating spectacular backyards, I decided we needed a place where our customers could get inspired with ideas and have a place to shop for items we could not find in our area,” he adds. “We also would not have to disturb existing customers to show them our work. Garden now helps with showing our ideas and samples of materials.”
RENDERING COURTESY OF ARCHITECTURAL BLUE
Garden will be an environmentally friendly complex that will be completely off the grid with solar and other cooling methods, and its building structure will utilize recycled shipping containers.
While the Architectural Blue offices will occupy 3,200 square feet, the overall complex will encompass 1.3 acres. And there will be an interesting environmental spin to the property. In addition to being completely off the grid, with solar and other cooling methods, Garden will use recycled shipping containers as its building structure.
“[For many years,] I had researched the idea of container homes,” says Naylor. “I like the idea of using recycled materials that are often forgotten, or sitting somewhere, such as containers in a shipyard. There will be around 35 containers that will be used.”
Garden will feature elements that touch on all aspects of a homeowner’s property. There will be outdoor showcases where customers can see, feel, and touch materials associated with swimming pools, as well as areas that will change often and have different design ideas.
“[There will also be] outdoor furniture, pots, drought-tolerant plants and a potting area where you can pot your own plant, along with organic mulch, water features, etc.,” says Naylor. “The Learning area will have weekly events ranging from gardening, outdoor living, cooking demonstrations using herbs from your garden, [and classes and lectures on the] environment, pool chemistry, outdoor sound, landscape lighting, and many more topics. The Café will offer coffee, ice cream, and snacks.”
Another unique offering will be an artists’ area where vendors can showcase their art. “The artists will be hand selected by me and [reflect] my desire to keep the theme of handcrafted items,” says Naylor.
“Many customers come to us for ideas,” he adds. “[They] want to see the latest trend, latest materials, etc. Architectural Blue is changing the way pools are made with unique materials that customers will be excited about.”
Garden, which will house new offices for Architectural Blue, will be built next to the firm’s existing location.
Garden is projected to open in February 2018 at 710 East Research Drive in Palm Springs.


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New trend at IIT-B: Non-IT students bag jobs with start-ups
This year, other branches like metallurgy, chemical engineering and bio-medical have also seen a rise in the number of placements in the first few days, thanks to the large number of start-ups and e-commerce companies making it big.Updated: Dec 05, 2014 22:18 IST
There has been a new trend at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) placements this year.
Traditionally, computer science students rule the roost when it comes to being placed among the first and top companies. However, this year, other branches like metallurgy, chemical engineering and bio-medical have also seen a rise in the number of placements in the first few days, thanks to the large number of start-ups and e-commerce companies making it big.
Not many sector specific companies come to recruit on campus, making it difficult for students of these departments to be placed in the first few days. However, this year, almost 50% of the students across the so-called not-so-popular branches have already been placed.
At IIT Bombay, as many as 100 new companies, including e-commerce and start-ups, have registered for placements this year, Mohak Mehta, placement coordinator, said. “With new-age companies breaking away from traditional core engineering and software requirements, students belonging to other branches have benefitted,” said Mehta.
Similarly, a large number of consultancy and financial services firms, like Visa, Boston Consulting Group, Axis, Bridgewater, are proving to be a boon for these students.
On Thursday, Ola Cabs, a start-up born at IIT Bombay, recruited 50 students from the institute, the largest offer made by a single company in years. Several students from civil engineering, bio-medical, and chemical engineering have been recruited. Housing.com, Snapdeal and Flipkart have also made a large number of offers at IIT Bombay.
“The profiles these new companies offer are not often technical, but research based. However, there is a lot to learn and explore in new companies,” said a student placed with Ola Cabs.
First Published: Dec 05, 2014 22:10 IST


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The rise of touchscreen devices comes with growing health concerns. People have been asking about the potential impact of long-term use of technologies like smartphones, tablets and laptops, particularly how they damage the eyes and brain.
Some people link the blue light from such devices to eye problems, such as blindness. But to those asking if the same light from your phones or other mobile devices could really damage your eyes, the answer is no.
It is true that blue light could cause damage but only when various cells in the body become overexposed.
Electronic devices, including smartphones, tablets, LCD TVs and laptops emit blue light at amounts not harmful to the retina or any other part of the eye, according to David Ramsey, a retinal disease specialist and director of Ophthalmic Research at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center.
“This blue light is unlikely to pose a physical hazard to the retina,” he said in an article posted by Harvard Medical School. “Consumer electronics are not harmful to the retina because of the amount of light emitted. Industry sources of blue light are purposely filtered or shielded to protect users.”
Ramsey said there is no evidence supporting the use of blue light-blocking lenses to protect the health of the retina. He said some manufacturers have been fined for misleading claims about such types of lenses.
The devices that could emit high-intensity blue light include military grade flashlights and other handheld lights. Looking directly at these high-power consumer products could be potentially hazardous to the eye.
But Ramsey warned that despite being harmless, mobile devices could still affect your health. Exposure to artificial light alone could change the circadian clock or the internal body clock, which then disrupts sleep and other cycles in the body.
“Blue light from electronic devices is not going to increase the risk of macular degeneration or harm any other part of the eye,” the expert said. “However, the use of these devices may disrupt sleep or disturb other aspects of your health or circadian rhythm.”
Source: Medical Daily


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ARTICLES ABOUT DAIMLER AG
Wolfgang Bernhard, who abruptly left Daimler in 2004, is returning to its management board and taking control of the Mercedes-Benz car unit.February 05, 2010, Friday
Tesla's I.P.O. filing reveals that the company is behind on achieving its ambitious goals. But Elon Musk, its chief executive, has big financial incentives to get the company on track.February 02, 2010, Tuesday
Tesla Motors, the electric car company in Silicon Valley, said on Friday that it had filed plans to sell shares to the public.February 01, 2010, Monday
Mercedes-Benz will pay $75 million to $100 million to put its name on an arena in Shanghai. The deal appears to represent a first for China.December 07, 2009, Monday
Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund said on Sunday it booked a profit of $1.1 billion by selling the stake it took in Citigroup less than two years ago when the banking giant was strapped for cash.December 06, 2009, Sunday
CAR-SHARING services like Zipcar have been growing, especially in city centers and on college campuses and other places where there is a multitude of drivers who need to drive only sporadically. But one limitation in these services is that the cars must be returned to their original parking...December 06, 2009, Sunday
The chief of G.M. Europe is seeking help to restructure Opel, but Germany's economics minister said taxpayers should not be expected to play the rich uncle.November 23, 2009, Monday
Formula One champions Brawn GP will compete next season as the official Mercedes factory team after the German carmaker announced a takeover on Monday.November 17, 2009, Tuesday
The Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHybrid manages to improve fuel economy even as it offers the size and luxury typical of the S-Class.November 08, 2009, Sunday
The maker of Mercedes cars and trucks bounced back from a big second-quarter loss, but warned that the last three months of 2009 would be difficult.October 28, 2009, Wednesday
SEARCH 1008 ARTICLES ABOUT DAIMLER AG:
Back then, it was Lee Iacocca and the federal government bailing out Chrysler. Today the German owners must figure out how to fix the company.
The lesson of this decade for automakers? Better to go it alone than bulk up through mergers and alliances.
Chrysler has a backlog of gas guzzlers while consumers want fuel-efficient vehicles, and plant closings and job cuts are rumored to be in the works.
It is hard to shake the feeling that DaimlerChrysler is out of step with both the industry and consumers.
The Daimler-Chrysler merger is similar, in many ways, to the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
When Daimler-Benz A.G. and the Chrysler Corporation merged nearly a year ago, a buzz of excitement went through Detroit.
The German industrial giant that makes Mercedes-Benz automobiles will acquire the Chrysler Corporation.
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While the recession may wreak havoc on Canadian pocketbooks, it might actually benefit rising cholesterol levels, celebrity chef David Adjey said yesterday.
“In a weird way, I think it could help,” said Adjey, who has appeared on the Food Network and launches his new show, Restaurant 101 with David Adjey, this fall.
“I think people are spending less money at restaurants and having more old-fashioned dinner parties at home. We went through a decade of extravagance and we’re coming back to core values.”
This includes cooking for families and loved ones and spending time at home, which often involves healthier food choices than eating out.
Even in a time of recession, spending on quality food is still important, said Adjey, who was in Ottawa yesterday to talk about healthy eating.
“Everyone talks about the economic downturn,” said Adjey. “But it doesn’t matter if the economy is good or bad, we all need to eat healthy. Next to breathing, it’s the most important thing that we do.”
Adjey — who has become a household name after appearances on Restaurant Makeover, Ready, Set, Cook and Iron Chef America — recently contributed recipes, cooking and health tips to cholesteroltargets.com.


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ATLANTA — Lana Cain has been named president of Beall’s Department Stores, where she will be responsible for all merchandising, marketing, e-commerce, store operations and real estate functions for the Bradenton, Fla.-based chain.
The news came out Monday that Krauter had left J.C. Penney, where she was executive vice-president and GMM of men’s and children’s apparel for the past five years. She was also a member of the executive committee. Before joining Penney’s, she was president and chief merchandising officer at Goody’s Family Clothing. Her experience also includes merchandising positions at Sears, Joskes and at Specialty Retailers, the parent company of Beall’s Texas.
Beall’s, Inc. CEO, Steve Knopik, said, “Lana’s impressive background and familiarity with the customer segment that Bealls targets make her an ideal match for our needs.”


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Alphabet has two smart home systems: Google Home and separate Alphabet subsidiary Nest. And it’s going to stay that way, said Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat at the Code Conference Wednesday in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
“Our view is that Home is pursuing one path and Nest is looking at a different set of products and go-to-market strategy,” she said.
This view is not necessarily intuitive given the overlap between the two companies, not just from a consumer perspective but from the perspective of companies that work with the products.
“It’s really a huge separation between dealing with the Nest people and product line and the Google Home people and product line,” said HelloTech CEO Richard Wolpert, whose on-demand tech setup and support company installs Nest and Home devices.
The Nest suite of smart home products was originally part of Google before being spun out into its own company when Google reorganized into Alphabet.
That spinout happened before Google introduced the Home device, an artificially intelligent hub that responds to voice commands and controls smart devices from a variety of makers, including Nest.
Nest co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell left the company about a year ago, raising questions at the time about whether there might be a change in direction or whether Alphabet might just sell the company.
“I think that we have evolved the business,” Porat said when Kara Swisher asked about Fadell’s departure.
She said Alphabet was happy with Nest’s performance.
“I talk about them every quarter. We’re very pleased with what they’re doing. They are continuing to expand globally, expand the product suite,” she said. “We have found areas where its efficient to work with the Google hardware team but they are a separate entity within other bets.”
Watch the full interview at Recode’s Code Conference below.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.


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Three prominent esports-related organizations, including the management team behind Fortnite streaming-video star Ninja, today announced Popdog, a merged digital-services company specializing in esports and game-focused online streaming, backed by $9 million in venture capital.
The merger brings together Loaded, the Columbus, Ohio-based esports management firm whose other high-profile gaming clients include LIRIK and Shroud; the esports division of brand advisor Catalyst Sports & Media; and NoScope, an analytics platform focused on Twitch's live-streaming data. The merged company also announced $9 million in Series A funding to finance investments in tech, services and product development.
The Popdog rollup is another sign of the maturation of esports, a long-gestating business that's beginning to break into broader popular culture. Analyst NewZoo estimates the esports business worldwide will generate about $1.7 billion in 2018, a tiny but growing share of the $137 billion game industry. As esports grows, support services in marketing, management, brand relations and analytics will become increasingly important.
“The industry needs a backend, and our mission is to be that backend by supporting the ecosystem as a whole with a comprehensive offering of technology and services,” said Popdog founder and CEO Alexander Garfield, a prominent esports executive and former esports champion who in 2014 sold Goodgame and a pair of successful esports teams to Amazon-owned Twitch.
Other Popdog executives include CTO and Chief Product Officer Andreas Thorstensson, Chief Strategy Officer Niles Heron; and Chief Creative Officer Colin DeShong, who was Alexander's former partner at GoodGame, Alliance and Evil Geniuses. Catalyst co-founder Josh Swartz will be the merged entity's Chief Operating Officer.
Alexander said esports is more technology-dependent than any other sports sector, but badly needs additional tech investment so it can be effectively monetized and optimized as it continues to grow and attract large mainstream audiences.
"This funding brings us one step closer to fulfilling that mission," Alexander said. “We’re excited to begin rolling out a suite of products that we think will make operating in the space transparent and scalable, as opposed to opaque and speculative.”
Backers include Makers Fund, a venture-capital fund focused on interactive entertainment. Makers founding partner Jay Chi said the VC "believes gaming influencers will usher a new era of growth and engagement in live, interactive entertainment. Popdog is well positioned to pioneer new methods of engaging users and creating value for influencers and ecosystem stakeholders across the globe.”


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Galvanic, Ltd., committed to connected health solutions that empower people to take control of their health and mental well-being, today announced that it is expanding its international distribution through a new agreement with WYNIT Distribution, LLC. WYNIT, based in Greenville, SC, will distribute Pip, a HIPAA-complaint wireless personal stress management device designed to help consumers recognize and reduce stress levels using biofeedback. Pip detects electrodermal activity (EDA), a primary indicator of emotional stress, eight times per second from a user’s finger tips and then shares this data with a suite of companion relaxation apps that help improve focus and reduce stress levels. WYNIT will market Pip to its retail channel partners in strategic markets throughout North America.
WYNIT Distribution, LLC is a leading distributor of products from the top national brands in the consumer electronics, photo, wide format printing, security and sports & recreation industries. The company serves a wide range of customers ranging from large national retailers to independent value-added resellers through dedicated business units and strategically located distribution facilities.
“WYNIT is at the intersection of the CE and the connected health & fitness market, and is an integral partner for Galvanic as we begin to build out our retail channels in North America,” said David Ingram, CEO of Galvanic. “We look forward to working with the team at WYNIT and have great confidence that they will help fuel awareness and retail availability of the Pip in the connected health market and into national resellers such as Best Buy and others, making it easily accessible to our consumers throughout the region.”
About Galvanic, Ltd.
Founded in Dublin, Ireland in 2011, Galvanic Limited is a digital health company on a mission to create innovative, engaging and user-friendly technologies that empower people to improve their health and well-being. We’re a passionate team who believe in helping students, working moms, busy professionals and athletes achieve a healthy balance in their lives by successfully managing their stress. That’s why we created the Pip. The Pip has been developed in collaboration with leading stress experts and is being used by therapists and psychologists to help their patients learn to recognize and manage stress with great success. Over 30 research institutions and organizations around the world have incorporated the Pip into their stress-related research studies and programs. To learn more visit https://thepip.com/.


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First, we had a growing interest in healthy eating, including plant-based burger alternatives. Add to that a meat shortage, thanks to the novel coronavirus. The result is a perfect storm of opportunity for Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND). BYND stock has more than doubled since bottoming in March.
You’ve surely heard that the coronavirus pandemic is causing huge problems in meat processing plants across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that nearly 5,000 meat and poultry processing workers have reported coronavirus cases at 170 plants across the country.
One of the worst was the now-infamous Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. which is responsible for about 5% of U.S. pork products, More than 640 cases were reported amid the company’s 3,700 workers, making it at one point the No. 1 hot spot for Covid-19 in the country.
It’s in this backdrop that companies like Beyond Foods and privately owned Impossible Foods are getting more attention. After all, these companies boomed in 2019 (doesn’t that feel like a long time ago?) as interest in plant-based alternatives increased.
A recent Nielson report says demand for plant-based meat alternatives increased 278% from a year ago. Impossible Foods just announced demand for its Impossible Burger “skyrocketed” and it cut a deal to sell the patties at 1,700 Kroger (NYSE:KR) grocery stores in the U.S.
The Impossible Whopper is also sold across the country at Restaurant Brands International’s (NYSE:QSR) chain of Burger King stores, giving plant-based foods another highly visible national footprint.
Beyond Meat, meanwhile, has a new deal with Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) to sell its products in the coffee chain’s stores. A JPMorgan analyst also says that he believes McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) will ink a deal with BYND to sell a plant-based burger of its own.
McDonald’s successfully completed a test of a plant-based BYND sandwich at its Ontario, Canada restaurants.
Let’s take a closer look at BYND stock, which recently reported first-quarter earnings.
BYND Stock at a Glance
BYND surprised investors in a good way with its quarterly earnings. Net income was $1.8 million, or $0.3 per share, while Wall Street had expected a loss of $0.6 per share.
A year ago, BYND had a quarterly loss of $6.6 million, or $0.95 per share, so turning a profit so quickly was a huge accomplishment and raised a lot of eyebrows.
Year-to-date, BYND stock is up a robust 76%, and while it’s still a long way away from all-time highs hit a year ago, Beyond Meat is undoubtably on an upward trend. The company says it’s growing a rate of 248% compared to 2019. Retail says of Beyond Meat products were up 190% year-over-year.
In a statement, CFO and treasurer Mark Nelson said he’s confident in the company’s long-term future:
“We are pleased with the Company’s first quarter results even as we began to navigate headwinds stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic late in the quarter. We maintained our solid top-line momentum while driving our best-ever performance in production unit cost per pound. Despite near-term challenges ahead stemming from the ongoing global health crisis, our improving operating results and continued strength of our balance sheet give us added confidence about the Company’s long-term financial position.”
In April, BYND announced the opening of a new $150 million five-year revolving credit facility that includes an accordion feature for up to another $200 million. That facility will be used to help fund future growth, which will be important as Beyond Meat continues to increase its footprint.
The Bottom Line on BYND Stock
Beyond Meat is undoubtedly the No. 1 name in plant-based burger alternatives, but it’s going to have to work to keep its position. Impossible Foods continues to raise money and while there’s no IPO scheduled, taking the company public would put more pressure on BYND.
Partnerships with Starbucks and McDonald’s could give Beyond Meat more visibility. Beyond Meat envisions a day when customers routinely get a plant-based sausage sandwich with their morning coffee or a meatless version of a Big Mac for lunch. That day may not be too far off.
Patrick Sanders is a freelance writer and editor in Maryland, and from 2015 to 2019 was head of the investment advice section at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter at @1patricksanders. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


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LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening around 6 points lower, or 0.1 percent, on Friday, according to financial bookmakers. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on
* The UK blue chip index closed up 2.3 percent at 6,569.96 points in the previous session.
* Investors await U.S. job growth data later in the session. Employers probably added 240,000 jobs to their payrolls last month after November’s outsized 321,000 increase, according to a Reuters survey of economists.
* Focus will be on commodity stocks as oil prices headed for a seventh weekly loss, with key producers showing no signs of cutting output in the face of a global supply glut.
* China’s annual consumer inflation hovered at a near five-year low of 1.5 percent in December, little changed from November’s levels, signalling persistent weakness in the economy but giving policymakers more room to ease policy to support growth.
* London copper was little changed near 4-1/2-year lows and was set to chalk up a fourth weekly loss because of continuing worries about demand from top consumer China and fragile growth in Europe.
* TUI GROUP - The world’s largest leisure tourism company is buying luxury cruise ship MS Europa 2 for 278 million euros ($328 million) in cash and debt, a spokesman said on Thursday, to bolster results at its Hapag-Lloyd cruise business.
TODAY‘S UK PAPERS
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> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * BridgeStation: view story .134 For more information on Top News visit topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Atul Prakash)