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A Phoenix entrepreneur is developing specialized office equipment that already has captured the interest of corporations, health care providers and Internet surfers. Called the TrekDesk, it’s a desk designed to be used in tandem with any treadmill.
Steve Bordley, a former commercial real estate agent, created the TrekDesk and is looking to have the prototype finished within a few weeks. He’s obtained a provisional patent for the design and expects the final patent to be issued in six months. Once the prototype has been tested adequately, about 2,000 TrekDesks will be produced for distribution in the U.S. and Canada.
Bordley said the finished product, priced at $399, should be delivered to consumers in March. He believes it will be the only product of its kind at an affordable price because it is designed to augment a consumer’s existing treadmill.
“There’s 50 million treadmills out there in people’s homes, and most are used as clothes hangers,” he said.
He hopes his target audience will move the millions of underutilized treadmills into their home offices, team them up with TrekDesks and start walking.
For those who wonder how it’s possible to walk and work at the same time, Bordley said the key is slow speeds.
“Most people average about 1 mile per hour and don’t even notice doing it at all,” he said.
In fact, it was the “not noticing it at all” part that got Bordley hooked in the first place. He had packed on some unwanted pounds and was looking for a way to integrate exercise into his daily routine. An exercise bike exacerbated his back problems, so he figured out a way to rig up a treadmill with a desk. He slowly walked two to three hours a day while doing routine office tasks.
“I lost 23 pounds in two months, and my back issues went away,” he said.
Bordley figured he was on to something. A cursory check on the Internet led him to research conducted by Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who has written extensively about decreased activity levels at work playing a pivotal role in weight gain nationally, and how lean people appear to move more during the day.
Levine heads the Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis Lab at the Mayo Clinic, and he speaks and writes extensively about the effects of increasing any kind of movement throughout the day to ramp up metabolic rates.
“I didn’t have to come up with medical claims. The information was already there,” Bordley said.
He also discovered Levine had consulted with office furniture manufacturer Steelcase to create the Walkstation, a combination desk and treadmill, through its Details division.
“Dr. Levine had conducted 10 years of research on the subject of obesity ... and he discovered that if a sedentary work force would just get up and walk, they would burn more calories,” said Dave Kagan, director of marketing communication and product launch for Details.
Levine approached Details to create the Walkstation because that division specializes in height-adjustable products. The company has sold 350 units since it was introduced in November 2007, but it’s available only to Steelcase’s network of business customers. It sells for $4,000, Kagan said.
Bordley thought he could come up with something more affordable. He made a few sketches and found a design engineering firm in Virginia. Then he started researching the cost of manufacturing the desk. Although he tried to find a way to build it in the U.S., “it would be five times the price, and that would have made it more like $1,400 to $1,500.”
Through the Internet, Bordley found a U.S. consulting firm with an office in China that would locate the best manufacturing and assembly facilities there. He is aware of the recent controversy surrounding lead-based toys and tainted milk products, but he’s confident the firm he is working with can bring a safe product to market.
The finished TrekDesks will be shipped to the Port of Los Angeles and then to consumers. Bordley will sell the first run of 2,000 through his Web site.
“I haven’t advertised at all. The Web site was up for a month, and bloggers found it,” he said. “Since then, I’ve had response from all over the world.”
He’s getting 300,000 hits a month. About 11,000 of those are unique visitors. Bordley also is encouraged by the interest he’s received from schools and businesses.
“One major university is clamoring to do a study with it, and some corporations are looking at it,” he said.
Family physician Dr. Kim Olson Gibbs of Scottsdale isn’t so sure extensive time on a treadmill is the best way to lose weight, especially for those who have health issues or problems concentrating on work and walking at the same time.
“That concerns me, that people (might) injure themselves,” she said. “I’m not sure I’d be that coordinated.”


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Inflation has been hitting hard lately, affecting everything from groceries to gas prices. Now, even the fast-food giant McDonald’s is feeling the pinch.
As inflation rates surge, McDonald’s has grappled with rising ingredients, labor, and operational costs. To offset these increased expenditures, the fast-food chain has announced a nationwide price hike on its menu items, marking a significant adjustment for customers accustomed to the familiar value meals.
The impact of this price adjustment varies across different states. In states like New York and California, where the cost of living is already notoriously high, the price increases at McDonald’s are extremely noticeable. Customers in these areas may find themselves shelling out considerably more for their favorite burgers and fries compared to counterparts in more economically moderate regions.
For instance, a classic Big Mac meal, typically includes fries and a drink, could now set you back nearly $20 in some cities. This steep price hike reflects the inflationary pressures and the premium placed on convenience in urban centers where fast food is often a go-to option for busy city dwellers.
Conversely, in states with lower living costs and more moderate inflation rates, the price increases at McDonald’s may not be as drastic. Residents in these areas may still experience a noticeable uptick in menu prices, but the impact on their wallets might be less severe than those in high-cost regions.
As policymakers and economists work tirelessly to find solutions to alleviate the strain of inflation on consumers, the reality remains: the cost of a McDonald’s meal is rising. With each passing day, the iconic golden arches seem to stretch a little higher, symbolizing not only the popularity of fast food but also the enduring challenge of inflation.

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American Express started Small Business Saturday in 2010 as a way to encourage shoppers to make holiday purchases at small, local businesses. To help fuel the movement, Amex offered monetary incentives — as much as $25 in the form of a statement credit — to shoppers who made purchases with their Amex cards at independent small businesses on the designated day.
But Amex said it isn’t giving out statement credits to cardholders for this year’s small business shopping event, which takes place Nov. 28. According to the Amex website, the statement credit is no longer necessary.
“In past years, the consumer offer was one of the ways to encourage our customers to make a habit of shopping at small businesses as they begin the holiday season,” Amex explained. “Six years later, we’re pleased to say they have – last year, thousands of communities and 88 million consumers shopped small on Small Business Saturday.
Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday is a reminder for consumers to think small and support local independent businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and help preserve communities.
In 2010, for the inaugural Small Business Saturday event, Amex offered a $25 statement credit and then partnered with FedEx to provide 40,000 $25 Amex gift cards to non-Amex customers.
Amex cardholders who shopped with independent small businesses in 2012 received a $25 statement credit for spending $25 at a small business. In 2013, it offered a $10 credit. Last year Amex offered a $10 statement credit that could be redeemed up to three times.
Although Amex has abandoned the statement credit for this year’s Small Business Saturday, Money reports that Amex is offering a separate promotion called “Shop Small in November,” which offers a $10 statement credit to its cardholding customers who spend $10 at a small business any time during the month.
“But this time it’s being offered only to certain customers, and the offer is not being widely advertised,” according to Money.
It will be interesting to see how Amex’s move to ditch its statement credit for Small Business Saturday will affect the number of shoppers frequenting small businesses Nov. 28. But, as Money noted, Amex hasn’t shared participation numbers in previous Small Business Saturdays, so it will be impossible to know for sure.
Do you shop with small businesses on Small Business Saturday? Will Amex’s decision to pull back its credit for customers who shop small affect your shopping? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.


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Performance and value are not mutually exclusive terms on the 2012 Volvo C70 Inscription.
Read This Article
A best-seller turns 40.
Volvo continues to tantalize American hatchback 5-door fans with its upcoming V40, scheduled to debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show next month.
These days Americans are doing less of a lot of things; with high unemployment we're working less, we're going to fewer sporting events, and as what should come as little surprise to anyone, we're driving less.


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The Antenna Company, a specialist in the design of high-performance antennas, announced it has joined the 450 MHz Global Alliance supporting the development of 450 MHz smart utility and smart meter IoT applications. The 450 MHz Alliance is the only industry organization representing the interests of the 450 MHz ecosystem and its stakeholders. The Alliance’s activities enable its members to reach their commercial objectives most efficiently through various programs and initiatives.
David Favreau, CEO at The Antenna Company said, “Our membership in the 450 MHz Alliance underscores our belief in the importance of the 450 MHz spectrum. In the next thirty days, we will launch multiple new multiband antennas to support this growing ecosystem and enable future proof deployment of 450 MHz enabled IoT applications.”
“We are excited to welcome The Antenna Company to the 450 MHz Alliance. With its expertise in high-performance antenna systems, The Antenna Company is well-positioned to strengthen the 450 MHz ecosystems with its upcoming product offerings,” said Igor Virker, Managing Director, 450 MHz Alliance.
Click here to learn more about the 450 MHz Alliance.


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Rijk Zwaan’s Hydroponics Demo - The Netherlands
As in previous years, Rijk Zwaan’s Hydro Demo in Fijnaart is on the agenda again this year, running from 31 January to 11 February 2022. This demo will showcase the company’s wide choice of innovative and colourful lettuce varieties that have been specifically bred for hydroponic cultivation systems. From the eye-catching Salatrio and Salanova® Teenleaf concepts to crispy, juicy Crunchy Lettuce, the range caters to all tastes.
Rijk Zwaan’s palette of colourful vegetables is in the spotlight
Colourful vegetables capture attention and pull people to the shelf. Vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan is highlighting its colourful palette of bright, healthy, and inspiring vegetables; encouraging retailers, traders and other chain partners to bring more colour to the fresh produce category. Connect with us during our international events this February. Join us in-person or online via live studio meetings to find out more.
Wokcue brings a taste of modern Asian cuisine to Western supermarket shelves
Most European consumers would not dream of trying to cook cucumbers in a wok. Whereas cucumbers are widely stir-fried in Asia, in Western cuisine they are usually eaten raw. The difference lies in their texture; traditional cucumbers have a high moisture content, making them less suitable for use in stir-fry dishes. With Wokcue, Rijk Zwaan has now introduced a unique cucumber variety that is ideal for the wok, bringing a taste of modern Asian cuisine to the Western wold. As a brand-new product, it enables retailers to diversify and simultaneously set themselves apart with their cucumber category.
Rijk Zwaan continues to grow but its mission remains unchanged
Vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan generated a net turnover of €498 million in its 2020/2021 financial year, equating to 4% growth compared with the previous year.
PUM and Rijk Zwaan are committed to transitioning international food chains
Volunteer organisation PUM Netherlands senior experts and vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan are cooperating to support agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries and emerging markets. PUM's 1600 expert volunteers work together with entrepreneurs in 42 different sectors and 34 countries worldwide.
The challenge to change: the future of Asia’s fresh produce business
The fresh produce business is changing rapidly – not only in Asia, but also worldwide – and the coronavirus outbreak has further accelerated the changes. On 28 September, Jan Doldersum, Chain and Retail Manager at Rijk Zwaan, will participate in a panel discussion with two other experts. They will talk about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fresh produce business as well as the longer-term impacts and opportunities.
Demo Days Fijnaart 2021 - Hydroponics
A warm welcome to our Hydro Demo, which is taking place from 20 September to 1 October 2021, close to our Open-Field Demo in Fijnaart. We are expecting it to attract just as much interest as our very first Hydro Demo that was held in June of this year. A new highlight at this autumn demo is cos lettuce for hydroponic production.
Construction work starts on new Rijk Zwaan Trial Center
Rijk Zwaan is building a new High Tech Trial Center for fruit crops close to its headquarters in De Lier, the Netherlands. It is scheduled to open for growers and other visitors in the second half of 2022.
Demo Days Fijnaart 2021
A warm welcome to Fijnaart for our demo of Rijk Zwaan varieties for traditional production, hydroponic production and organic production. From 13 September till 15 October.
Concepts which stimulate consumers’ preferences in both melon and watermelon
Rijk Zwaan is presenting the national and international agri-food sector with the trends that are changing consumer habits at the Global Melon & Watermelon e-vent 2021 conference, held from 28th June to 9th July 2021 at the Demo Centre CED La Palma, located in Cartagena, Spain, both live and digital.


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At 8am Pacific Time on November 4, 2021, the world was invited to Emeryville, across the bay from San Francisco, to watch cardiologist turned start-up founder and CEO Uma Valeti lift an enormous pair of scissors, each blade as long as his leg. “It’s not a dream any more,” Valeti enthused. “Let’s make some meat!”
At this, he sliced through a huge ribbon the colour of beef carpaccio; balloons and confetti rained down, and Upside Foods’ $US50 million ($70 million) facility for growing meat in a factory – culturing it from cells instead of cutting it from dead animals – was officially open.
With typical Silicon Valley understatement, Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) is calling it the Epic: the Engineering, Production and Innovation Centre. The 16,000-square-metre space is “a groundbreaking, world-changing cultivated meat facility”, according to Upside’s chief operating officer Amy Chen.
Livestream viewers were taken on a virtual tour of the “cultivation room”, a vast maze of snaking silver pipes. Masked technicians in blue gloves, white lab coats, hairnets and surgical overshoes inspected gauges and tweaked dials. The camera tracked a technician striding along a gangway through a field of shiny bioreactors: great cylinders with riveted portal windows like those in space rockets.
A voiceover informed us that, at capacity, the Epic will produce 180,000 kilograms of meat a year: “It will serve as an international model for cultivated meat production. In other words, this is just the beginning.” The shot cut back to Valeti. “We’ve never been as close as we are today to realising our mission of creating a world where meat is a force for good,” he beamed.
Even the most ardent carnivore might struggle to argue that meat is a force for good today. The global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gases than the exhaust from every form of transport on the planet combined. While doctors try to curb the prescription of antibiotics to slow the emergence of medicine-resistant superbugs, 80 per cent of the antibiotics used in the US are administered to healthy food-producing animals to minimise infections on crammed farms.
Industrial animal agriculture is a major cause of deforestation, water waste, water pollution, eutrophication and outbreaks of diseases such as E coli and salmonella, not to mention a significant contributor to new zoonotic diseases and global pandemics. Every year, more than 70 billion animals are slaughtered to satisfy the global appetite for meat, their lives often miserable and artificially accelerated.
Ever since the Dutch physiologist Mark Post lifted the cloche on the world’s first lab-grown hamburger in 2013, cultivated meat has promised to save the planet and reshape the future of food. The process is simple, in theory. A sesame seed-sized biopsy of tissue is taken from a living animal; stem cells are isolated, bathed in a nutrient medium and placed in a bioreactor. One cell becomes two, two become four, and this exponential growth continues until there are enough cells to harvest, cook and eat.
The process costs the same no matter which cells are being cultured, be they Wagyu beef, lobster or chicken. Any animal flesh can be created in this way, configured into any shape or texture: kosher bacon, ethical foie gras, even human meat – theoretically, anything is possible. If you’re allergic to fish, you will have a reaction to cultivated fish – but still, this is not meat as we know it. Its legal and ontological status remain unclear.
When I tried San Francisco-based EatJust’s lab-grown chicken in November 2018, it was in nugget form – a mass of cells mixed with plant products and encased in a battered crust. The nugget had the unmistakable taste of chicken and some of the juicy mouthfeel you expect when you bite into meat – but the texture was so mushy I had an almost irresistible urge to spit it out: some primal part of my brain decided meat with a consistency this wrong must be dangerous.
But that was more than three years ago, and the science has improved. The nuggets I tasted made history in 2020 when Singapore granted them regulatory approval, meaning that for the first time meat grown in vitro could go on sale. (They had a limited run at a Singaporean private members’ club, priced at $US23 a nugget.) Several other companies have since reported success in growing cuts of meat, including the Israeli firm MeaTech, which 3D-printed a 113-gram steak in December 2021.
Post’s history-making burger, unveiled in London, cost €250,000 ($373,000) to produce, and while costs have fallen dramatically since 2013, it will be several years before cultivated meat can compete in price with meat from an animal. The first products were grown in foetal bovine serum (FBS), extracted from the hearts of calf embryos: a costly, unsustainable and controversial substance.
Animal-free alternatives have since been developed, but it remains to be seen whether they are as effective. Another cost is running the bioreactors – either enormous ones, or a very large quantity – that producing cultivated meat at scale would require.
These are serious challenges, but not insurmountable. When more than 130 countries around the world aim to be carbon neutral by 2050, a high-tech revolution in meat production looks like an attractive business opportunity. In 2015, Upside Foods was the world’s first cultivated meat company; now there are more than 70, and the market is predicted to reach $US25 billion ($35 billion) by 2030.
Upside alone has attracted more than $US200 million in funding from investors including Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Kimbal Musk (Elon’s brother), as well as Whole Foods and the world’s largest conventional meat producers, Tyson and Cargill.
Last December, the Israeli start-up Future Meat Technologies raised $US347 million in series B funding (i.e. beyond the initial stages) – the single largest investment in cultivated meat yet.
Where Upside goes, others follow, making the opening of the Epic a milestone for the industry. Yet this facility is producing something that still isn’t approved for sale anywhere outside Singapore.


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Office staff across the UK will be waiting with bated breath as popular electronics giant Apple gears up to launch its revolutionary iPhone later this year.
And a recent survey by Harris Interactive revealed that the buzz among US consumers is reaching fever pitch, with 47 per cent admitting they were aware of the product and 17 per cent suggesting an interest in buying one.
Of the respondents that expressed an interest in buying an iPhone, nine per cent said they would buy one on the product’s launch, while another eight per cent said they would do so before their current contract expired.
Joseph Porus, vice president of Harris Interactive’s Technology Practice, said: "Apple’s new iPhone has shaken the industry to its core. Look for strong sales and a new cult to develop around iPhone. Also expect increased orders for midnight oil as competitors scramble to play catch-up."
However, it was not all good news for Apple, with 40 per cent of those quizzed suggesting the product was too expensive and would wait for the price to come down.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPhone during his keynote address at the Macworld conference and expo on January 9th 2007.


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BILLUND, DENMARK—The children’s toy company Lego announced today that all the minifigures (the small Lego figurines) that you’ve been playing with your whole life have all had sex change operations.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher to stand out amidst all the woke virtue signaling, but we feel like this was a step in the right direction,” Lego CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp said in a press conference. “We have gone in and surgically switched all the penises and vaginas on our minifigures so they’re all transsexual now.”
Lego jumped on the social justice bandwagon last year with their 3000-piece Antifa Riot set but upped the woke ante by making everything they’ve ever made transexual.
But they didn’t stop at that. They made every brick gay too.
“Not only are the minifigures transexual, but every Lego brick is now gay. You’re literally building gay buildings when you play with Legos,” Knudstorp said.


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AT&T will stop competing for local and long-distance residential customers in seven states, the company said Wednesday. It placed the blame for the action squarely on the Bush Administration and the FCC. The states targeted are Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Hampshire.
"This action," AT&T said in a statement, "is a result of a June 9 decision by the Administration and the FCC not to appeal a recent Federal court decision that overturned FCC wholesale rules put in place to introduce competition in local markets. The reversal of local competition policy by the Administration will permit the Bell companies to raise wholesale rates as early as November."
The November date is important, because the Administration has been striving to hold back increases on consumer telephone bills -- said by consumer groups to be inevitable after the June 9 decision -- until after the November elections.
AT&T's decision to include long distance in its decision was something of a surprise because long distance has long been the firm's telephone flagship in the consumer market. The company indicated that it cannot compete with "competitive bundles" -- the packages of local and long distance telephoning -- offered by the Bells, so it is dropping out of the seven states entirely. The states involved have a combined population of 38 million.
AT&T's action likewise goes to the heart of the breakup of the original AT&T two decades ago. The telephone colossus was broken up to provide consumers and business with competitive alternatives. "We foresee a future with less choice for consumers," said AT&T Chairman and CEO David Dorman in a statement. "Competitive alternatives are simply not available today for most Americans, because as AT&T loses the ability to provide them with an alternative to the Bell companies, they will have virtually no choice of telecommunications provider."


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DENMARK: Target to keep down salmonella in pork nearly reached, says VFA
An external newsletter issued by the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (VFA) today revealed that the target to keep salmonella in fresh pork down to 1% has nearly been reached. The action plan runs out at the end of this year. VFA vice director Henrik G. Jensen said: "We will reach the result. At the moment we are just over 1% but there are still other initiatives planned, so it seems we will get there."
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9to5mac has reportedly pulled information from two iPhone prototypes codenamed N41AP and N42AP. These two prototypes reportedly have NFC chips that are capable of wireless payments. 9to5mac has also found that the NFC chips’s controller connects directly to the new iPhone’s power management unit (PMU).
These rumors are very believable as Passbook was announced in iOS 6. Passbook is a mobile wallet application developed by Apple that allows users to keep boarding passes, rewards cards and giftcards on their iOS device. If NFC is announced with the new iPhone, Apple will definitely bring mobile payments to the mainstream market if they partnered with MasterCard Paypass or something similar for credit card transactions.
NFC would also allow iPhone users to share data and interact with other nearby smartphone users who have NFC enabled devices.
While I’m hoping that the next iPhone has NFC, nothing is confirmed until we hear it from Apple. If Apple continues their current product refresh cycle, we will see this new iPhone in October. Until then, we can only speculate. If you’re excited for possible NFC functionality in the new iPhone, let us know in the comments.


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IWBI, USGBC & GIGA Announce Collaboration on Material Data to Help Projects and Product Manufacturers
LEED Online, Arc, and WELL Online will connect to GIGA’s ORIGIN material data hub
The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), and GIGA have announced a strategic partnership to usher in a new era of materials focus, enabling and supporting the further development of performance-driven, healthy, green buildings.
ORIGIN, the hub of connected building material data developed by GIGA, will integrate with LEED Online, Arc and WELL Online to help drive better collaboration between projects and product manufacturers by facilitating the submittal of product data.
“Achieving market transformation requires increased transparency and accessibility on building material data,” says IWBI Chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. “It also requires the entire ecosystem to be connected so that data can easily flow between manufacturers and project teams. This is a necessary next step in that process.”
“We believe the next phase of market transformation for the built environment is going to be led by material performance”, said Peter Templeton, SVP, USGBC. “Connecting ORIGIN to LEED Online, Arc, and WELL Online simplifies workflows, helping the broader market to design, build and operate healthier, greener buildings at scale.”
“The complexity, incompleteness and lack of accessibility to building material information has hindered the building industry for decades,” says GIGA CEO Raefer Wallis, “ORIGIN solves this by connecting data that is currently fragmented across thousands of databases and enabling that data to flow seamlessly to project teams."


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David Tlale is one of the premiere designers of South Africa -- and one of three black designers to show at this season's New York Fashion Week. His recent show eschewed the typical runway presentation, the couture creator opting instead to perch his models on low white risers in opulent looks.
On Friday, Black Fashion Week debuted in Paris on the heels of the official Fashion Week of the City of Light.
In their sixth collection, the Mataano Spring 2013 show displayed a gentle aesthetic. "We went back to a softer, girlier path for Spring," Idyl Mohallim told theGrio about the sisters' inspiration.
theGRIO REPORT - Here are nine young designer brands we think deserving of the Michelle Obama Effect.


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Shares of Roku (ROKU 3.69%) were trading down 8.2% as of 12:27 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
While the stock was falling on a down day for the markets, there was positive news for Roku on the content-acquisition front. Lions Gate Entertainment announced a partnership with The Roku Channel to give users exclusive, free access to Lionsgate's theatrical releases.
This agreement is the latest move to bring more exclusive content to Roku's free ad-supported channel to attract more users. Roku originally launched The Roku Channel in 2017, and it's been growing much faster than the rest of the platform. It's now among the top five channels on the platform, with streaming hours on The Roku Channel more than doubling year over year in 2021.
Just last week, Roku announced a green light for the new Roku Original series Honest Renovations, hosted by Jessica Alba. This follows a serious push the company made last year when it launched 30 Roku Originals in May.
However, the company experienced decelerating account growth throughout the year. The company reported active account growth of 17% in the fourth quarter of 2021, a far cry from the 39% reported in the same quarter of 2020. That explains why the stock is down 80% from its all-time high, and why investors continue to punish the streaming platform.
It might take a while for the original content investments to pay off. Roku is dealing with major economic headwinds in the near term, with inflation, tight supply chains, and lower consumer demand pressuring growth. Investors shouldn't expect exciting numbers when Roku reports first-quarter earnings results on Thursday, April 28.


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CUPERTINO, Calif. – Advanced Micro Devices is making steady progress toward its goal of transforming itself into a system-on-chip company with broad industry backing for its chips.
AMD expects to announce soon new members of the Heterogeneous Systems Architecture group it launched earlier this year. HSA could finish “within months” the first draft of an applications programming interface for enabling merged graphics, x86 and other cores in SoCs.
“We are investing and trying to bring the industry with us to bring apps” to AMD and other SoCs, said Mark Papermaster, chief technology officer of AMD in a keynote at the Hot Chips conference here. “Without a common API and a path from high level languages [to hardware] you will not see broad adoption and new apps,” he told the annual gathering of several hundred processor designers.
“It’s not a pure speeds-and-feeds race--it hasn’t been for several years--it’s a solutionS problem,” Patermaster said. “It’s about accelerating the apps stack,” he said.
The pending API will help AMD deliver SoCs that support fast switching and a common memory pool among graphics and x86 cores. Such features could give it a leg up against archrival Intel which also makes processors with graphics, x86 and other cores.
Papermaster declined to comment on whether AMD plans to make any ARM-based SoCs for smartphones, servers or embedded systems. ARM is a part of HSA, and AMD has said it will put an ARM Cortex A5 core in an SoC next year to enable security based on ARM’s Trustzone technology.
With the HSA group, AMD and ARM have formed an open alliance to attack their mutual competitor, Intel. Nvidia also is a rival to AMD, thus not a likely HSA member even though it is a key customer for ARM.
AMD will “seed the industry with a compiler” for the coming API, Papermaster said in an interview with EE Times after his talk, declining to give more details. Separately, AMD is expected to rally partners around its so-called Freedom Fabric based on the technology it acquired with SeaMicro earlier this year.
Freedon Fabric is essentially the follow on to the HyperTransport interface AMD helped define and create as an open standard. So far, AMD is keeping close to its chest details of the SeaMicro technology. The new interconnect “will be a tremendous game changer” because it has significant system-level features, said Papermaster, pictured below.
The RapidIO Trade Association is lobbying ARM and its SoC partners to adopt its technology as a standard interconnect. AMD believes the SeaMicro technology includes a broader set of technologies than RapidIO including storage and I/O virtualization capabilities.
AMD will ship an Opteron server card using the SeaMicro technology later this year. Next year it plans to use the technology with a low power server chip, but it has not said if that will be a card or an integrated chip.
Meanwhile, AMD is enhancing its EDA flows and design methodologies to support its SoC work.
For example, the company has a “high-density [circuit] library we are rolling out across our designs,” he said. “Using this with automated place-and-route routines, we are getting up to 30 percent die and power savings at the chip level--that’s like a process technology node’s level of efficiency,” he said.
Separately, Papermaster provided a few details about enhancements planned for AMD’s new high-end core called Steamroller. The core will provide a 30 percent improvement in operations per cycle. Its design is now complete and it will ship in chips and systems in 2013, he said


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This Thursday, 28 November, is Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday in the United States. It’s a time when families gather to express gratitude for the many blessings they have received.
No doubt retailers, both brick-and-mortar stores and online, give thanks for the Friday and Monday after Thanksgiving. “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” as they are known, are among the biggest shopping days of the year.
In reaction to all this spending, the UN Foundation and the 92 Street Y, a cultural organization in New York City, last year launched #GivingTuesday to encourage people to remember those in need.
Boaz Paldi, a Senior Communications Specialist with the UN Development Programme, tells Dianne Penn how UNDP is making this year’s #GivingTuesday (3 December) a global event.


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Posts found in 'E-Commerce'
Rumors of a looming Louis Vuitton price hike have online sellers scrambling to convince customers that now is time to buy.
From mobile shopping to key opinion leaders, a new survey studies how, where, and why Chinese consumers buy luxury online.
Breaking into the China e-commerce market can be tricky for luxury brands—especially setting up payment systems that are preferred by Chinese consumers.
"Looking back, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Alibaba would win. But at the time, it was regarded as almost an impossibility," says Alibaba's former vice president in a Jing Daily interview.
The world's biggest online e-tailer's new investment in a U.S. site shows its faith that vintage e-commerce can gain cachet among China's luxury consumers.


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Exploit: Third Party Data Breach
Risk to Business: 2.001 = Severe
Air India disclosed a data breach impacting 4.5 million of its customers following the hack of airline passenger service system provider SITA in February 2021. Dozens of airlines around the world had data exposed in that ransomware incident and the fallout is still shaking out. The airline confirmed that the breach involved personal data and credit card information registered between August 2011 and February 2021 by Air India or its subsidiaries.
Risk to Business: 2.113 = Severe
The exposed data is reported to include passenger details like name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information, Star Alliance, and Air India frequent flyer data as well as credit card numbers.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Third-party and supply chain data breaches like this one are becoming all too common as clever cybercriminals go for data-rich targets – and the problem will only get worse thanks to booming dark web data markets.


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Barnes & Noble has finally brought out a true (if dated) Android version for their color Nook, which likely makes it the cheapest tablet around. It’s clear from both the performance and features of the new release and the pronouncements of the company that this isn’t intended to be a general-purpose tablet, but it’s also pretty clear that it presages a price war in the tablet space. That will have profound impacts on everything in the online world.
The Nook could, and likely will, launch a kind of e-reader/tablet price war that inevitably spills over into the broader Android tablet space. Sony also announced its own pair of tablets, one roughly iPad sized and the other a five-by-five inch fold-screen model, which shows that more and more device players are jumping in, and jumping on Android. The result of this is likely to mirror the smartphone trends; Android has already taken the lead and isn’t likely to lose it. That would be bad for Apple because it confronts them with the same problem they had in PCs; a choice to sustain margins and control ARPU by creating a more closed ecosystem costs you market share forever. That makes you a second-tier player in a market you created.
The other dimension of the tablet market that’s critical is the impact of the tablet on 3G/4G planning, policy, and deployment. Nobody believes that we’re moving to unlimited-use broadband wireless even now; it’s clear that everyone will do a combination of usage pricing and a usage tier that imposes rate-limiting to constrain video at a certain point. Even with those accommodations, wireless capacity needs will be much higher as tablets deploy. That means more backhaul and metro, less wireline access and core. Most financial analysts are matching our December forecast that wireless will be where growth is, and that operators will constrain wireline spending. Wireless impacts metro, and primarily Ethernet, as well as (obviously) the radio network. This could have a very favorable impact on vendors with strong RAN capability matched by support for Ethernet transport/backhaul and mobile/LTE voice elements.
We’re going to reach an equilibrium with content. A lot of people will use tablets and OTT video to supplement their TV viewing, but that’s where it will stop except for a few users. And the growing pressure to impose usage pricing in wireline won’t help one bit. This is why TV Everywhere and multi-screen strategies are so critical. Ultimately, that suggests that players who have TV broadcast capability and who can create content are the only ones who are truly safe. Even Netflix faces headwinds.
The cloud is another area where recent news points out the universal tendency to over-hype every development beyond the reach of any possible fulfillment. Research is now showing that even SMBs aren’t jumping to the cloud as fast as many believed. Part of the reason is that the hype wave hasn’t really built any level of buyer literacy, and part is that the costs are higher than most SMBs expected and the benefits lower. My own research shows that SMBs’ own estimates of cloud adoption have been based on the presumption that they’d get Internet-based applications for nothing. That’s an easy benefit case to make, but not a very plausible one to present as a seller.
A final issue is growing evidence that “entitlements” are more of a problem than we thought. No, I don’t mean that Social Security or Medicare is less financial stable (how could they be without collapsing?), I mean that we’re also seeing unrealistic assumptions about other pension and retirement health care plans coming under pressure. Pew estimates that state pension fund deficits have increased by over 25%, and there has already been a political battle to curb the traditionally generous retirement benefits of government workers. It will be much harder to talk about changes to “public” programs like Social Security while you continue to fund more generous programs for government workers.
All of modern economics is a Ponzi scheme of sorts. Bubbles in financial instruments clearly are, and so is the politics of benefits. We’d all like to believe our future is secured at no cost to our present, and in a period of strong growth that may appear to be true. More players in the classic pyramid scams delays the inevitable. We could fix the current problems in both economics and deficits/shortfalls by creating financial regulations that forced capital to work in partnership with labor and raw materials to create wealth. Instead we’ve worked to figure out how to make capital an end unto itself. That’s inherently the biggest Ponzi scheme of all.


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Gordon Ramsay’s Sandbox avatar NFTs coming to the metaverse
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is bringing his signature fiery personality to the world of NFTs with the release of his Sandbox avatar NFTs. The digital collectibles will be available for purchase and use within the metaverse.
The Sandbox is a popular virtual world where users can build, play, and socialize with others. The platform uses blockchain technology and NFTs to enable users to create, buy, and sell digital assets, including avatars.
Ramsay’s Sandbox avatar NFTs are unique digital collectibles that represent the chef’s likeness in the virtual world. The avatars are designed to reflect Ramsay’s persona, with the chef sporting his trademark spiky hair and stern expression.
The release of the Sandbox avatar NFTs is an exciting development for both fans of Ramsay and users of the Sandbox platform. Fans of the chef can own a piece of digital memorabilia that represents their favorite celebrity, while Sandbox users can incorporate the NFTs into their virtual experiences.
The use of NFTs in the metaverse is still a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s quickly gaining popularity. NFTs provide a way for users to prove ownership of digital assets and enable creators to monetize their work in new and innovative ways.
Ramsay’s foray into the world of NFTs is not the first time the celebrity chef has embraced new technology. Ramsay has previously explored the world of mobile gaming, releasing popular titles like Restaurant Dash and Gordon Ramsay: Chef Blast.
The release of Ramsay’s Sandbox avatar NFTs is just the latest example of how celebrities and influencers are leveraging blockchain technology and NFTs to engage with their fans and monetize their work in new ways. It will be interesting to see how this trend continues to evolve and what other exciting developments lie ahead in the world of NFTs and the metaverse.


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In an interview with Mindshare’s Katie Rigg-Smith, recently returned Australian CMO Brent Smart said advertising lacks enough emotional storytelling, and that marketers lack the support of their organisations to brand build in the long term.
Smart is the chief marketing officer at Insurance Australia Group, a position he moved to after returning to Australia from the role of chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi New York.
Immediately prior to his CEO appointment, Smart was Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s worldwide managing director. He has also held managing director roles at BBDO San Francisco and Colenso BBDO in Auckland.
The move to Australia, from advertiser to marketer, came out of the frustration of being unable to build brands in the way that he wanted, he told attendees at the Future of TV Advertising conference.
“It was so clear to me what the right thing to do for the brand was, and invariably, they wouldn’t do it,” he said.
In addition, Smart took to the podium to chat with Katie Rigg-Smith, chief executive of IAG’s media agency, Mindshare, about the importance of “emotional storytelling” and its importance for brand building.
“I think it’s rare,” Smart said. “I think when you see it, you really value it, you really connect with it and you like those brands a bit more regardless. It’s hard to do and that’s why it’s so rare.”
In his own experience at IAG, the parent company of NRMA which released some of the most emotionally investing commercials of 2020, trying to tell “simple stories” has been important.
Speaking to Rigg-Smith, he said: “I see too much advertising where the client’s trying to pack everything into it, [saying] let’s get those product messages in there that we care about but the consumers don’t care about. I think you have to strip it back.
“You have to make it very simple and give it room for beautiful storytelling.”
And unsurprisingly, given the event was the Future of TV Advertising, Smart said a key piece to the puzzle of emotional storytelling was having access to “video and a big screen—it’s that simple”.
Smart also touched on what he sees as “the hardest job for a CMO”: long term brand building.
“It’s so easy to react and so easy to focus on a whole bunch of short term tactics that enable you to have a really great meeting with the boss on ROI,” he said.
“And it’s really hard to get a whole corporation to have the patience to let brand building do what it does, because you’re not going to see the payoff in the first year.
“It becomes an incredibly powerful, cumulative effect when you build brands in the long term, but so few marketers either have the patience, the will or the support from their organisation to be able to do it.”
However, the hardest part about building brands is creating distinctiveness, he believes.
“I see a lot of work that is super generic—real people telling real stories, probably with an acoustic version of a popular song, sung by a female—and I could probably put any brand on the end of it, any bank, any telco, insurance company, it’s all the same. It’s not distinctive at all,” Smart says.
“I think distinctiveness, finding something that is so true to your brand, so ownable that it stands out in the marketplace, [is critical], because if your work doesn’t brand … you just wasted a lot of money.”
Today, Integral Ad Science (IAS), a global leader in digital ad verification, released its Media Quality Report (MQR) for H2 2020, providing transparency into the performance and quality of Australian digital media, alongside global comparisons. Integral Ad Science’s H2 2020 MQR highlights brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across display, video, mobile web, and […]
Quintis Sandalwood has appointed Illuminate as its global PR partner following a competitive pitch process. Proudly Australian, Quintis produces and markets Indian Sandalwood oil, logs, chips and powder products across the world to major companies in industries such as fragrance, aromatherapy, cosmetics, handicrafts and Traditional Chinese Medicine industries. Illuminate will be responsible for a global communications […]
Hopefully the weekend has given everyone enough time to recover from B&T’s 30 Under 30 awards and prepare themselves for our official photo dump! We shared some of the highlights last week, and now you can peruse all of the pictures taken on the night. Thank you to everyone for attending this year’s awards, and […]
Kinderling Kids Radio (Kinderling) has announced the completion of its move from DAB+, where it launched six years ago, to a direct-to-consumer streaming model, accessible online or through the Kinderling Kids iOS and Android app. The Parent Brand, the parent company of Kinderling Kids and Babyology, made the decision to shift as streaming and on-demand […]
Most people over 60 stay on top of their health with regular check-ups. Whether it’s eyes, prostate or breasts, they realise at their age it’s important. But one that gets ignored is hearing. They’d rather live with gradual hearing loss, and continually ask what, huh, pardon or sorry until it seriously impacts their life and […]
Creative communications agency Connecting Plots has been appointed by Casella Family Brands to handle the social media accounts for [yellow tail] wine in Australia. The win follows an audit of the Casella Family Brands social activities, which led to [yellow tail] rethinking its approach to social media and how it aligns with its overall marketing […]
v2food, has appointed HERO’s B.B.E as the lead strategic and creative agency for the brand following a competitive pitch process. v2food is an Australian pioneering food technology business with a global vision to feed the planet sustainably. After launching nationally in 2019, v2food has been on a mission to offer Australians an easy alternative to meat […]
Magnite (Nasdaq: MGNI), the largest independent sell-side advertising platform, today announced it has been working with Adform, the only independent global ad management platform covering all aspects of the digital campaign lifecycle, to scale first party identifiers in privacy-safe ways. With the pending elimination of third-party cookies, the industry must establish future-proof identity solutions for publishers and buyers.
The Commercial Producers Council is delighted to announce the appointment of Martin Box (pictured) as its new Co-Chair, effective immediately. Box, Head of Production at Airbag, joins Co-Chair Pip Smart, and fills the vacancy left by Lucas Jenner who steps aside from the Co-Chair role after four years of service, in accordance with the CPC’s […]


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One woman's solution
One woman turned the theft of her stroller at a Disney park into a business.
Annette Atteridge had borrowed a $350 jogging stroller that was stolen at Disney World in Florida six years ago.
Atteridge created the Buggyguard, a combination lock designed to wrap around stroller wheels.
Atteridge said her business has sold about 100,000 stroller locks. The standard lock costs $14.98 at Babies R Us.
“I think it's a lot more common than is known,” Atteridge said of stroller thefts. “I think it's underreported, and it's unfortunate.”
- Man found stabbed to death behind a Spires restaurant in Anaheim
- Residents fight plan to demolish barns for luxury homes in Coto de Caza
- Maybe Disneyland should have a land called 'Constructionland'
- Newport Beach police ask for public's help finding package thieves
- High-speed, stolen car chase ends with driver and passenger in Anaheim police custody


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OLYMPIA, Wash. – A bill that would eliminate Washington’s wholesale auto dealer’s license passed in the state House of Representatives Friday.
House Bill 1722, which is sponsored by Reps. Steve Kirby, D-Lakewood and Brandon Vick, R-Battle Ground, passed 71-26.
Out-of-state transportation regulators claim Washington’s current lenient law is fueling auto sale fraud around the country.
Holders of Washington wholesale auto dealer licenses are accused of hurting consumers through theft, turned back odometers, and wiped titles. A KING 5 investigation found the license was relatively easy to get, and it was attracting people who wanted to bend the rules.
Washington isn’t the only state facing trouble with the wholesale auto license. Indiana recently eliminated it, and about half the country does not offer the license.


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The CW’s surprisingly cogent, generally well written, and frequently brilliant DC television universe, a relatively small handful of passable live-action films, and a consistent animated universe are the only good things that fans of DC comics have had to hold onto. Now, the legendary comic book publisher is looking to expand on their proclivity for content geared towards TV audiences with a new brand new streaming platform called DC UNIVERSE that doubles as a place for fans to read through a thoughtfully curated set of their comic books as well.
The goal of the platform is to ultimately make the DC universe more accessible with new upcoming shows like Young Justice: Outsiders, Titans, and Harley Quinn all of which are set to be available on the new platform. While new content is always a really good draw for new fans, DC is hoping that fans will stick around for a chance to have unlimited access to classic DC shows and movies like Batman: The Animated Series, Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, and Christopher Reeves’ Superman films.
“It’s a welcoming place for everyone to immerse themselves in their own level of DC fandom, with the epic characters, stories, and experiences they have come to expect from DC,” said the company’s chief creative officer Jim Lee. “We are investing in and creating original, high-quality shows including the new Titans series, and curating the most beloved nostalgic content, while at the same time elevating the comic reading experience to new heights.”
In a lot of ways, this is the best move that DC could make. While there was so much hype surrounding films like Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Justice League, most of the films in the DCEU—barring the exceptional Wonder Woman— have been commercial and, or, critical failures. While hardcore DC fans have always found more to like about the DCEU than literally everyone else, one of the chief complaints that you’ll hear about DC’s extended universe is that it’s totally inaccessible.
In the race to keep up with Disney’s MCU and mirror the success of that franchise, DC and Warner Bros. have taken so many inartful shortcuts when it comes to world building. As a result, moments in the films that should be huge and go without saying (think the botched showdown between Batman and Superman) are habitually undercut by poorly done films with non-existent stakes and thin character development. Perhaps a massive multimedia DC streaming platform can change that trend?
There aren’t any price points to speak of yet, but one can’t imagine that it would get too pricey if they hope to keep up with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Fans can still sign up to try out the DC UNIVERSE beta here and can expect a full rollout sometime this Fall.


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Sleepwell International looks to expand export market
Samoa-based mattress and furniture maker, Sleepwell International, is looking at expanding its regional footprint.
The General Manager of Sleepwell International, Teleiai James Potoi, told the Samoa Observer that the company has an export strategy to expand their sales beyond Samoa and it is an exciting time for the two-year-old firm.
"Launching our export strategy is an exciting time for our people and the future of our company," he said.
"Exporting into the Pacific two years into establishment is an outstanding achievement that I would like to thank all my team for, I’m very proud of how quickly the company has grown, and we’re all looking forward to an exciting challenge as we expand heavily into the Pacific."
The company began to export its products to other Pacific Island economies last year and are working to secure retail agents throughout the Pacific, including Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Fiji, Guam and Kiribati.
While their products are sold much higher than some of their competition, Teleiai said the price came down to the quality of the product.
"And we've found out that with export markets, even though our product have priced a little higher, but it is really about the quality that matters," he said.
The cost of freight within the region is another challenge the company has to overcome, but Teleiai said they are working with shipping companies to address that issue.
"So we're working our way through trying to rationalize our routes and of course working with the shipping companies to see what we can deal with that because all our materials come from overseas, from China, from New Zealand and to some extent, Fiji, and so we pay a lot of freight for the materials coming in and then we pay a lot of freight going out."
Employing skilled personnel to lead the work at the factory in Samoa is another area. But Teleiai said they have done well with the owners of their parent company Sleepwell New Zealand sending trainers to provide training in Samoa.
Staff in the factory are required to complete intense training sessions managed by the New Zealand co-owners, who have over 30 years’ experience in mattress manufacturing.
Teleiai said the company encourages local customers to purchase to purchase locally made products which in turn boosts local businesses and creates more employment.
"Because we've managed to increase our production line, we've managed to employ more and more people and that is our intention, we need to make the whole floor as productive as possible," he added.
Sleepwell International was established in November 2017, as a result of the expansion of Sleepwell New Zealand, and at the invitation from the Government of Samoa set up in Samoa to increase employment. It is currently co-owned by the founders of Sleepwell New Zealand, and the founders of Samoa Stationery & Books (SSAB).
Sleepwell currently employs 42 people in its Samoan operation.


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Apple has released iOS 11.1.1 for all iPhone and iPad customers. The latest software update includes bug fixes and improvements including a fix for the notorious ‘i’ autocorrect bug that resulted in an A and [?] character appearing.
Users can find the update available through the Settings app under General and Software Updates. The fix has already been available for developer and public beta testers running iOS 11.2 beta.
Apple previously asked customers to create a text replacement workaround for the ‘i’ autocorrect bug as a temporary fix. With iOS 11.1.1 and later, the workaround solution is no longer required.
Here are the full release notes:
iOS 11.1.1 includes bug fixes for your iPhone or iPad. This update:
- Fixes an issue with keyboard auto-correct
- Fixes an issue where Hey Siri stops working
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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Telecom major Vodafone today announced the launch of its Vodafone SuperNet 4G service here. The service was launched by sporting legend Milkha Singh here. Starting with Chandigarh today, the Punjab capital, the SuperNet 4G will shortly be rolled out across major towns and cities of the state by March 2017, Vodafone India Operations Director Arvind Vohra said on the occasion. He said the SuperNet 4G will enable customers to access internet via mobile with speeds across a range of smart devices including Mi-Fi and dongles. Also Read - Reliance Jio vs Vi vs Airtel: Best 4GB daily data prepaid plans under Rs 600Also Read - YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps stops working on these phones from today: Check if your phone is in the list
Vodafone 4G services can be readily accessed from 4G enabled handsets offered by leading smartphone manufacturers and available across the country, he said. The Vodafone’s SuperNet 4G launch in Punjab follows the successful rollout of services in Kerala, Karnataka, Kolkata, Delhi and NCR, Mumbai, Haryana, UP (east), Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam and North East, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and UP (west) circles, he said.
With launches planned in several other prominent locations across the country, Vodafone SuperNet 4G coverage will be available in 2,400 towns by March 2017. The 17 Circles where Vodafone is offering 4G service, contribute over 90 per cent of Vodafone India s data revenues, it was informed on the occasion. Vohra said out of a network of 10,000 plus Vodafone exclusive stores in the country, more than 220 are in Punjab. With aggressive plans being offered by different operators these days, Vohra told reporters, “We believe tariff will never be a long term differentiator. Long term differentiator will be really superior customer experience, consitently superior customer relevant propositions, which is where Vodafone SuperNet 4G comes. Having said that, we have also come out with lot of exciting offers on the 4G launch”. ALSO READ: Vodafone partners Tata Medical Centre to spread cancer awareness
To a question, Vohra said, “we are consistently investing in our networks to make sure that we come out with superior customer experience..today’s 4G launch is also a step in that direction. It is not just about a 4G launch, but it is about bringing a complete repertoire of 4G propositions that the customers can leverage.” Speaking on the occasion, Rajat Avasthi, Business Head Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Vodafone India, said, “Punjab is a key market for Vodafone India and as a committed telecom service provider, our almost 5.2 million customers have a lot to look forward to. To cater to the growing volumes of customer usage increasing need for speed, the company invested over Rs 2250 crore in the state till date to expand, modernize and build a more technology and energy efficient network”. ALSO READ: Vodafone India could merge with Reliance Jio or Idea Cellular: Report
“Beginning with Chandigarh and Mohali, we will soon expand our Vodafone SuperNet 4G services across the entire state of Punjab in a phased manner,” he said. “With SuperNet 4G, customers will experience a significant enhancement in their mobile internet experience with faster download/upload of videos and music, seamless video chats and will also enjoy greater ease in using their favourite apps, Avasthi said. “Vodafone s customers in Punjab have a bonanza of special benefits to enjoy the SuperNet 4G experience seamlessly. These include free upgrade to 4G for customers along with high-speed 4G SIM, 2GB data free with every 4G SIM upgrade. Besides, two hour free 4G services daily for 30 days, to all prepaid customers with 4G handset and 4G Sim, array of data packs and 4G international roaming in 35 plus countries with many more countries to be launched in the near future.”


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Prada is Still Fighting for its Alligator Hatchlings
Prada, an Italian luxury brand, which uses exotic skins to manufacture its pricey accessories, is still fighting a legal battle over alligator hatchlings with Caporicci USA Corp., a Florida-based alligator contractor. The multi-million dollar battle had started in 2017 when the Miami-based supplier couldn’t offer Prada the 15,000 hatchlings it had officially paid for. To be exact, Caporicci had failed to supply the Italian brand with alligator hatchlings of worth $1.2 million in one case and grown alligators of worth $2 million in another case. Prada took the issue before an arbitrator in Milan when the Miami exporter of quality American alligator skins or hides turned down to refund more than $600,000 after failing miserably to provide many alligator hatchlings.
At the Arbitration Court of Milan, the tribunal had ordered Caporicci earlier this year to refund $633,213 for the 3,761 hatchlings it couldn’t get and deliver to Prada, and for breaching its official agreement with the Italian brand. The tribunal also asked Caporicci to deliver 3,761 hatchlings in place of the ones found inappropriate. Since then, Prada wants the big refund and has appealed to the Federal Court in Miami to enforce the tribunal’s orders and decisions. Caporicci, meanwhile, responded with a request to delay the enforcement until the proceedings in a different but related suit are concluded.
Immediately after Prada began arbitration in Milan, Caporicci filed a lawsuit against Prada and one of its buyers GNP Pelli Di Pezzoli Gian Andrea, and initiated its own proceedings in late 2017 claiming that Prada and GNP Pelli had violated a separate agreement by allegedly buying hides and hatchlings from three alligator farms without paying Caporicci a decided-upon broker’s commission. Caporicci also asserted that GNP Pelli made millions of dollars from the alligator skins and had failed to pay the commission which led to damages of worth $2 million mentioned above.
Although Prada had asked the judge to deny the request of delayed enforcement by stating that Caporicci could have pursued claims against GNP Pelli in arbitration, the legal battle between the fashion house Prada and Caporicci USA Corp. is still underway in Florida’s Southern District Court. For More Visit: http://kashishipr.com/


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General Mills Vows To Improve Animal Welfare
General Mills announced new animal welfare standards today, including a promise to transition its egg sourcing entirely to free range hens.
The Golden Valley-based company, which owns brands like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Progresso soups and Hamburger Helper, is making several changes with help from the Humane Society of the United States as it continues to reshape the way it does business.
All animals in the General Mills supply chain will also be subject to a new set of principles the company is calling the “five freedoms.” Among the principles: freedom from hunger, discomfort, pain, fear and freedom to engage in normal animal behavior.
The company hinted that the transition to cage-free eggs could take some time given the recent devastation to the industry due to avian flu that killed millions of egg-laying birds. “As the industry works to rebuild its supply chain, we will work with suppliers to determine a path and reasonable timeline toward this commitment,” the company said in a statement.
Other food-related businesses—such as Aramark, Kellogg, Nestle, Starbucks and Walmart—have made similar pledges to alter their egg-purchasing practices away from cage confinement facilities where the bird flu was most rampant.
News of shifting animal welfare strategies at the food giant come as the company makes several steps to rebrand itself to meet demands for food that is perceived as healthier and more natural.
In late June, the company said it would remove artificial colors and flavors from its cereals, with a focus on removing them those that appeal to children. Currently, over 60 percent of General Mills cereals have no artificial colors or flavors. This will become standard across its cereal portfolio by 2017. The transition was made to spur cereal sales, the largest of General Mills’ businesses, which have been sluggish .
Though consumers increasingly are asking for fruits and vegetables, interest in the frozen and canned varieties have plummeted. That’s left the company’s Green Giant brand suffering and contributed to $260 million in losses for the company during the last quarter. General Mills has owned Green Giant since 2001 and is reportedly looking to offload it to a willing buyer.
To combat the losses and better situate itself, General Mills announced it would cut about 700 jobs, with a goal to save $45 million to $50 million. General Mills’ earnings report, which arrived less than a week after the job cuts, revealed a seventh straight quarter of declining profits. Profit margins fell 53 percent from a year prior with most of the dropoff coming from the U.S. retail market, which General Mills chalked up to “the impact of changing consumer food preferences.”


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Simeon Gutman: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley's Hardline, Broadline and Food Retail equity analyst.
Brian Nowak: And I'm Brian Nowak, equity analyst covering the U.S. Internet industry. And on this episode, we'll be diving into food, specifically the unprecedented changes in the food retail industry driven by the COVID pandemic. It's Tuesday, May 25th, at 10 a.m. in New York.
Brian Nowak: So Simeon, food retail is one of those areas where you and I have some overlap. we recently conducted a survey of three thousand grocery shoppers around online grocery shopping trends. What were some of the biggest takeaways from your perspective?
Simeon Gutman: The biggest takeaway is that online grocery shopping doesn't look like it's going backwards. This was adopted by many more consumers during the pandemic. And even though we modeled some rate of reversion, we're just not seeing it. It seems like this is sticky and it's here to stay
Brian Nowak: I completely agree with you. And the demographics are broadening. You're seeing even older demographics move online. In addition, 52 percent of the people that we surveyed who shop for groceries online said they expect to do it at the same rate as they did during covid going forward. So there's no turning back from here.
Simeon Gutman: Yeah, and I think if you look into the results, we're at about 40% of all respondents now shop for online grocery. If you were to look at the same number pre pandemic, we were around 27% in 2019.
Simeon Gutman: So, Brian, where do you think this is headed?
Brian Nowak: I think we're heading demonstrably higher. We think full-year 2020 ended about at 9-10% penetration of online grocery and we see it heading toward 15% by 2023. It's important to keep in mind that by our estimates, 45% of the remaining offline consumer expenditure in the United States is associated with grocery. And so bigger picture, we think that grocery is going to drive about 25% of overall U.S. ecommerce growth going forward.
Simeon Gutman: Yeah, food retail has been the biggest under-penetrated category in all of retail. If you look at overall e-commerce penetration, I think it was around 15%-ish pre pandemic, moving up to 20. Now that food retail is so much higher, these online penetration numbers overall will jump way into the 20% range.
Brian Nowak: So Simeon, in the survey data, what was your biggest takeaway on pickup versus delivery preferences?
Simeon Gutman: So both of them are very popular. Over half used either pickup or delivery. What's interesting is that we saw a tilt towards pickup during the pandemic by an incremental 10% of customers, and that's because they were trying to avoid the delivery fee. What's interesting about that is it tells us that consumers don't want to pay delivery fees and therefore, over time, they either won't exist or consumers may gravitate towards platforms that don't charge them. And that reinforces this notion that those online players or traditional brick and mortar players that don't charge delivery fees will likely take market share over time.
Brian Nowak: Table stakes are high. That means competition is coming. So Simeon, how do you think about the competitive environment in the online grocery space going forward?
Simeon Gutman: Yeah, we fear for the traditional grocer. And I say that because the traditional grocer is in the middle of this battle, you have small grocery formats where people go to out of value and convenience. And then you have the very large companies: the e-tailers and the big discount stores. So if you have a national grocery chain that has scale and a presence across many markets, they should have the wherewithal to invest in capabilities, namely distribution. They have to move product to get them to consumers. And most likely it will be absorbed, the costs will be absorbed by them. Whereas some of these smaller companies, they're not going to be able to absorb that in a pretty low margin structure already. And so some of the large national grocers should be well equipped, whereas the small regional mom and pop chains might be under more pressure. Brian, in your world, where do you see the competitive landscape shaking out?
Brian Nowak: I agree with you. The large are going to get larger and we think Amazon in particular is going to get larger into grocery going forward. But it's not just Amazon. We expect more of the shared economy players to continue to partner with traditional retailers and grocery stores to deliver groceries to consumers on a same-day basis. So look for ecommerce players like Amazon and look for the shared economy to be bigger players in the overall online grocery space. And what that means is delivery fees could come into question going forward. So, Simeon, how do you think about delivery fees going forward in online grocery?
Simeon Gutman: Look, we think delivery fees are ultimately going to zero and they become table stakes, which means that the companies that we follow in the brick and mortar land are going to have to absorb those costs over time. And I think the inspiration for this going to zero are these subscription models that already offer it as part of their services.
Brian Nowak: Yes, I think subscription revenue streams will replace delivery fees. Prime is one example, but even the shared economy players are rolling out more subscription-based products that have lower delivery fees for grocery and other offerings. So look for more subscription products across the board to deliver people groceries.
Simeon Gutman: And we're seeing the influence of subscription in our space too. Walmart plus is an example. And if you think about how the competitive landscape evolves, Wal-Mart will be able to offer a number of services and convenient locations. Think about a regional grocer and how they can compete with these national subscription services. It's just going to be that much tougher.
Simeon Gutman: Brian, thanks for taking the time to talk.
Brian Nowak: Anytime, Simeon. Great speaking with you.
Simeon Gutman: As a reminder, if you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcasts App. It helps more people to find the show. Thank you.


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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is a co-sponsor of the legislation to approve the first trade agreement signed under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade.
See her statement below on the bill’s signing:
"Pleased to see that the first trade agreement negotiated under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade was signed into law yesterday. This is a crucial step in supporting and bolstering our economic ties with Taiwan."


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Looking Back at a Decade Of Bitcoin
January 7, 2019 3:16 pm
Bitcoin was introduced to the world 10 years ago. Let us look at the most notable events from this decade-long journey.
18th August marks the date when the domain bitcoin.org is registered. 31st October, a paper is published by “Satoshi Nakamoto” that made way for Bitcoin – a peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System.
12th January, the first bitcoin transaction takes place as Nakamoto sends Hal Finney 10 bitcoins (BTC).
15th August, Bitcoin gets hacked, uncovering a major system vulnerability. Jeff Garzik, a developer for Bitcoin discovers an unusual transaction of 184 billion Bitcoins. Jeff acknowledged by saying “We’ve had a problem here”.
In the same year, the first ever Bitcoin sale is held, this allows the cryptocurrency to be attached to a monetary value for the first time. A user buys 2 pizzas for 10,000 coins, an amount that would be worth about 70 million today.
This year saw the debut of rival cryptocurrencies including Namecoin, Swiftcoin, and Litecoin. Bitcoin received a lot of heat for being used on the “dark web”, websites such as Silk Road relied on Bitcoin for payments. After a crash, the price of Bitcoin grows exponentially.
Bitcoin received mainstream attention by being featured in pop culture. The Good Wife, a US drama showcases “Bitcoin for Dummies”.
People holding Bitcoin dispute on a new transactional rule. This results in a Bitcoin fork, splitting the blockchain into two parts. For the six hours that follow, the two networks operated at the same time, leading to a drop in value.
Thailand bans Bitcoin, making trading illegal. Germany accepts it as a “unit of account”. China prohibits banks from using Bitcoins. Meanwhile, first Bitcoin ATM opens in Vancouver, Canada.
The biggest Bitcoin exchange hack takes place in Japan. Mt Gox goes offline and files for bankruptcy, leaving investors empty-handed. Microsoft allows the purchase of games through Bitcoin.
Ethereum and Coinbase launch. Bitstamp, the European cryptocurrency exchange gets hacked but resumes operations after a few days.
Cryptocurrency ATMs reach 500 outlets at the start of 2016 and 900 by the year-end. Uber Argentina enables bitcoin payments. Swiss national railway and Steam start accepting Bitcoin.
The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is founded in May, gets hacked within a month, losing its currency. This results in a fork, splitting Ethereum into Ethereum Classic.
Bitcoin cash hard fork occurs, splitting into BTC and Bitcoin Cash. Japan passes a law to legally accept Bitcoin. Skandiabanken, Norway gives way to Bitcoin accounts and recognizes it as a payment and investment system. Bitcoin reaches almost $20,000 per coin.
Samsung confirms cryptocurrency mining chips. EU governments join hands to regulate cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s value continues to drop, closes under $4000 at the end of the year.
So as we can see, it’s been an interesting decade so far. Things seem to have stabilized when it comes to cryptocurrency regulations, but we hope that more countries take a positive stance towards the revolutionary cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. To check out the latest Bitcoin prices, charts and more, visit CoinDelite.com.


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Itís in the game's multiplayer where youíll lose days/weeks/months of your life.
HairyArse about Call of Duty: Black Ops
Smug iPad owners have had it all their own way for far too long with World of Goo. The happy news is that the fantastic blob-joining game is now heading to the iPhone and iPod Touch in March.
If the iPad version is anything to go by, it could end up being a day one purchase. There are scant details of what hardware you'll need to run the game (suspicions have been aroused that it might be another one of those annoying 3G and up games - well, annoying if you're a 2G-er like me, at least) but it's very good news for those of us not stupid enough to spend huge amounts of money on an overpriced tablet device.


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Similar to what can be found on some e-commerce sites under “This May You Like” sections, McDonald’s is relying on a new system for establishing menu recommendations. To do this, the fast-food giant has just made the largest investment in its history in terms of acquisition by offering the Israeli company Dynamic Yield, specialist in the genre, for 300 million dollars..
McDonald’s offers Dynamic Yield for $ 300 million and leverages artificial intelligence
The king of the hamburger thus intends to set up its new tool in its self-service terminals and on its mobile application. The goal of this new artificial intelligence adopted by McDonald’s is to adapt its product offering at the time of the order, depending on various factors relating to the customer, their previous orders, as well as the current weather and traffic conditions..
McDonald’s wants to offer personalized suggestions to each customer
McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook thus compares Dynamic Yield’s software to what is done in the online shopping world: “When you select a product and put it in your cart, other related products are automatically suggested ( …) This will also be the case at McDonald’s with, for example, a suggestion from McFlurry if the weather is good or coffee if it is cooler ”. Other innovations should be developed in addition, such as offering a product that will be produced more quickly at times of strong influence. The boss of the Big Mac justifies the company’s new strategy as follows: “In the future, we want to strengthen the role of new technologies and data processing in order to quickly offer more personalized services to our customers”.
“A suggestion from McFlurry if the weather is nice or coffee if it is cooler.” Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald’s
First tested at seven American sites over the past year, McDonald’s intends to rapidly expand its new acquisition to the whole of the United States, then to the rest of the world, with 38,000 establishments in more than a hundred of country. New McDonald’s property, Dynamic Yield is a company founded in 2011 specializing in virtual personalization services. In particular, it has developed its artificial intelligence technology with large companies such as Ikea or Urban Outfitters.
Buyout of Dynamic Yield is McDonald’s largest investment


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Juniper Networks has picked up smartphone and tablet computing security software builder SMobile Systems for $70m (£44.9m) barely a week after CEO Kevin Johnson told analysts the firm planned further market consolidation.
Back in April Juniper bought video streaming outfit Ankeena to enhance its enterprise content delivery proposition.
SMobile's product line, which protects devices running the full gamut of mobile operating systems, from Android to Windows Mobile, will be folded into Juniper's Junos Pulse mobile connectivity, security and acceleration platform.
"Juniper already secures the majority of smartphone traffic in the United States," said Juniper Services Layer Technologies executive vice president and general manager, Mark Bauhaus.
"Integrating SMobile's portfolio into Junos Pulse will provide users with the most comprehensive mobile security solution available on the market," he added.
Juniper plans to move 30 SMobile employees into its Access and Acceleration business unit, including the firm's CEO and CTO, Neil Book and Daniel Hoffman.


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Smithfield Foods has made a raft of changes to its leadership structure in a move to unify all its operations, brands, and more than 54,000 employees globally under one corporate umbrella.
Virginia-headquartered Smithfield said the new structure aims to in infuse innovative ideas in all aspects of the company and heighten its strategic focus.
The restructuring includes the addition of a chief operating officer, a position held by Dennis Organ.
This new role oversees and unifies all Smithfield’s domestic business operations management, including the company’s hog production, fresh pork, and packaged meats businesses. Organ is responsible for strategic development, day-to-day operations and improvement of the Smithfield’s US businesses.
Gregg Schmidt will remain president of US hog production until his retirement at the end of 2019. Brady Stewart, formerly vice president and general manager of Kansas City Sausage Company and Pine Ridge Farms, which Smithfield acquired in 2017, will work with Schmidt for the next year and succeed him upon his retirement.
Smithfield has also created a chief commercial officer of packaged meats position that has been filled by John Pauley, who has been with the company for 18 years.
Kenneth Sullivan, chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods, said: “Guided by our principles of responsibility, operational excellence, and innovation, our new optimised structure and leadership team will further ignite our potential as ‘One Smithfield’ by allowing us to better identify and seek out opportunities to improve our business, including ways to work smarter, serve customers better, and make Smithfield the best of the best.”
Last month, Smithfield invested more than $100 million to create a new distribution centre in Tar Heel, North Carolina, and spent nearly $45 million to grow its operations in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
A new wave of brands is emerging that promotes indulgence and rejects the notion of sacrifice. Low-maintenance “hangover” beauty products are designed to address the effects of late nights and partying without judgment or hassle, and even include cosmetics that are formulated in a way that means you can fall asleep in your makeup without feeling guilty.
The pilot will allow the company to scale circular packaging in about 18 markets over the next three years, an approach that jumps on the success of similar efforts in the company’s Indonesia ecoSPIRITS program, which launched in 2022 and is active in 38 bars.
Unilever’s focus on purpose across its brands has been a source of criticism from some of its investors. Its new CEO Hein Schumacher says the company now recognises there are some brands where the concept is simply not relevant.


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This week, Rep. Jim A. McDermott (D-Wash.) introduced legislation that would legalize, regulate and tax online gambling. I’m not sure if it’s ever going to happen, but in the meantime, it should be noted that it’s getting harder and harder to bet online.
Let me rephrase that.
It’s easy enough to bet. But collecting your winnings isn't a sure thing.
Years ago, I wrote that the government was never going to stop online gambling run by companies with fifteen different names in countries outside the United States. Well, they’re coming close. They’ve done this by effectively crippling the payment systems.
First, it became hard to get your money to the online books. The credit cards bowed out. Next was Paypal. Then went Neteller and Firepay.
And gambling message boards have been lighting up recently from players complaining about not getting paid, either with slow payments, or even worse, bounced checks. There has been much talk about a company called Zip Payments, which gamblers allege is a top culprit in the check bouncing. My call placed to Zip Payments was not immediately returned--it went straight to a message machine.
Others complain about the major sports books like Bodog telling its customers that instead of the five to 10 business days to withdraw their money, it will take closer to 40 business days. Calls placed to Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which owns the North American license for Bodog, were not returned.
I’m interested in exactly how pervasive this is. If you are a gambler who had your check bounced or have been told that payment would take more than a month, I invite you to share your story with me at firstname.lastname@example.org.
All e-mails must include your full name and proof of your story. Names and identification of any sort will not be used in the story.
Questions? Comments? email@example.com


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Sunny Singh, head of digital marketing, humm group
18 February, 2021
3 December, 2019
Carve out your specialist niche and find your brand's point of difference, it's a strategy tried and tested by countless global challenger banks.
First product, now content
17 September, 2019
First came products and services, now fintech finance content is disrupting content marketing, setting a new precedent for content and how it’s delivered.
Moo-ving farmers to fintech
13 December, 2018
Made by livestock agents for livestock agents and farmers, peer-to-peer lender SocietyOne tells how their fintech fills the gap in agrilending.
24 May, 2018
Sniip is taking on BPAY by creating a disruptive influence on millennials’ bill payment habits, providing another way to fulfil the needs of customers.


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Asus' first batch of Windows 8 tablets won't come cheap, at least according to a leaked product roadmap.
Looking under the hood of two competing systems, we found considerable similarity in the way ultrathin laptops are sandwiched together.
Microsoft today said that Windows RT, the spin-off of Windows 8, has been completed and will power ARM processor-equipped tablets and PCs from Asus, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung.
The updated Zenbook ships with Ivy Bridge, a gorgeous full HD IPS display, and an improved trackpad.
Lenovo's ThinkPad Tablet 2 and these seven other devices are worth a look when they hit the market.
The year is just a little more than half over, but we've already seen an explosion of innovative tech. Here's a look at the best of what is out so far in phones, tablets, HDTVs, cameras, and more.
This 11.6-inch netbook PC is also among the first to feature the new Intel Atom Cedar Trail dual-core CPU.
At Wednesday's Google I/O keynote it's expected Google will announce an Asus-built tablet with a 7-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB or 16GB of storage.


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General Motors (GM) has hired former VP of engineering for Apple’s Cloud Services division Mike Abbott to develop the latest generation of infotainment systems for GM vehicles.
GM recently decided to phase out support for Apple CarPlay in their electric vehicles’ infotainment systems, and are replacing it with a proprietary one that they are collaborating with Google on. The decision to hire a former Apple engineering staff member makes me wonder if GM intends to incorporate iPhone support into the new proprietary system.
The decision to hire Mike Abbott should help to bring some expertise about the Apple ecosystem over to GM and aid the development of the new proprietary system. Whether or not the new proprietary system works better than standard Apple CarPlay remains to be seen. Proprietary technology is seldom better than standards and often compromises compatibility. On the other hand, it can result in better technology if (and only if) the company developing it puts a great deal of effort into designing and testing it.


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An analyst from Gartner has forecasted that CRM will continue to grow in importance as the market is expected to hit 23.9 billion this year. Of that revenue, cloud revenues make up almost half of that figure.
“The key area at the moment is mobile,” Thompson said. “Large organisations especially have their hands full with trying to understand how to make the most out if mobile technology. ”
With the number of mobile phone users constantly growing it’s importance will only grow as well in the CRM industry.
“Mobile is becoming much more important in all sorts of ways that we do not really understand yet,” Thompson said. “I was talking to a supermarket and they are finding that mobile phone can help them with shopping trolleys. They lose thousands of them but if they have a chip in them then the supermarket can track them down and get them back. It was uneconomic to do this, but now it is possible. When chips costs hundreds of pound it was uneconomic but when they cost pennies…”


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YouTube rolling out mobile live video for users with 10 thousand subs
Finally. Google's YouTube rolling out mobile live video for users with 10000 subscribers, yep 10,000 that's a lot huh! It seems ages ago when YouTube announced that they were going to start allowing mobile live streaming. Select users have been using it for about 6 months now. Well, it's finally here, to mere mortals - no
BlackBerry OS 10.3.2 Rolling Out For Verizon And T-Mobile Customers
If you are an owner of a BlackBerry 10 smartphone tied to either Verizon or T-Mobile, you may want to sit down for this news. Seated? Okay, good. Your BlackBerry phone will be getting an update to OS 10.3.2 very shortly.
Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update to start rolling out April 25
While the Windows 10 Creators Update is set to start rolling out to desktop PC on April 11, Windows 10 Mobile users will start seeing it roll out a bit later on April 25.
Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update release
Microsoft has started rolling out the Windows 10 Creators Update release to the dozen or so models of Windows Phones that will support the final version.
Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update rolling out August 16th for carriers, 9th for open market
New information confirms that the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update is due for Tuesday, August 9. However, carrier-branded phones through A&T and others will come one week later on August 16.
Google's mobile-first indexing is finally rolling out: Here's what you need to know
It's here. After more than a year of waiting, the search giant this week announced that it is rolling out mobile-first indexing.
Friendly Update with Xbox Live and Realms rolling out now on mobile and Windows 10!
Today’s a really great day for the Minecraft community, as we’re rolling out the biggest update yet to Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Gear VR Edition and Windows 10 Edition beta. You may remember the preview of this update in last week’s trailer, which featured a huge Rube Goldberg build you can now download for free! We’re calling it the Friendly Update, because in addition to a massive feast of amazing new features to enhance your gameplay like horses, pig riding, and pistons, this update
Why Apple Pay could be the mobile-payment system you'll actually use
Better security for merchants, better privacy for consumers: Here's why Apple Pay will succeed where other mobile-payment systems (including Google Wallet) haven't.
How it Works: Ally Auto Mobile Pay App
Making your car payment just got easier. The Ally Auto Mobile Pay App is now available—a convenient and secure way to make your payment on the go from your i...
What are mobile pay apps and are they safe?
If you have ever been around millennials, you know that they never carry cash. They use these things called person-to-person payment apps. These programs allow you to transfer money between people with just a swipe of your finger. They require you…
How to Navigate the Mobile Pay Curve
The future of payment processing is here. Gone is the need to whip out credit cards, checks or cash. Now customers can hold up their mobile phones and go about their merry way. In theory, it sounds good but it’s easier said than done, as there are hurdles to overcome before customers will convert. What... Read more...
It’s Hard to Overstate How Awful the Government’s Pay System Is
Some federal employees are overpaid, while others are woefully underpaid.
How Does Mobile Pay Impact Marketing Teams?
As a marketer, I am always thinking about how smartphones can be used to disseminate content and engage with the customer. If I think about the first customer touch point on mobile and follow the customer path all the way through to a purchase conversion, I end up at a destination that includes mobile pay. Every marketer wants all customers to purchase, right? We should all be thinking about mobile pay and how it will soon become the norm for consumers Mobile Pay…
Mobile Pay and How Your Business Can Get Ahead
More and more, the standard cash register is becoming archaic in business. The user experience has advanced for the consumer and as a result, mobile credit card processing has become more and more common. According to the AT&T Small Business Poll in 2013, 30% of businesses have already adapted and implemented mobile payment terminals into …
10 Mobile Pay Lessons from Money 20/20
Money 20/20, which took place in late October,, has in four years become the premier global event focused on payments and financial services innovation.
I Used Nothing but Mobile Pay for a Week, and Here's What Happened
Throwback Thursday: How Mobile Pay Has Come Full Circle
Everything old is new again. Including the mobile payments ecosystem. Now, depending on who you ask and what generation they’re from they’ll likely start off a story with “Well, back in my day, we used to…” or “remember when…” and share stories about the clunky, time-consuming payment system of their days. While the device may […]
What does mobile pay need? A lot more discounts
For a technology with huge goals—predicting $27 billion in sales by 2016—mobile payment systems are still stingy with deals and discounts.
How user-pay systems can help DC drivers
A “user pay” system utilizes tolls or vehicle-miles-traveled fees in lieu of fuel taxes.
How to Create a New Federal Pay System Fair to Both Taxpayers and Employees
The Trump administration appears to be serious about reform, but it won’t be easy.


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The Year of the ‘Mega-Moon’
New findings from Expedia revealed that honeymoons are the next big thing in the world of post-pandemic travel. In a recent study, Expedia discovered that an outstanding 97% of honeymoon plans were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly every couple forced to cancel, cut back, or postpone post-nuptial trips over the past two years. As restrictions ease, 2022 looks to be the year to finally plan the perfect honeymoon for those who tied the knot during the pandemic. Additionally, many couples postponed their weddings altogether during the pandemic, creating one of the biggest wedding seasons in history. As a result, nearly 4.7 million weddings are scheduled for 2022 or 2023.
What does this mean for the travel industry?
- Trips instead of toasters. Nearly two-thirds of brides and grooms are likely to add a honeymoon fund to their wedding registry, prompted by the pandemic to prioritize a once-in-a-lifetime experience over traditional registry items.
- Mega-moons. More than half plan to spend more on their honeymoons than they originally budgeted, and even more are contemplating the idea of visiting a bucket list destination.
- Duo-moons. More than eight in ten couples are planning multiple honeymoons, such as a quick trip immediately following the wedding and an extended trip later.
- Redo-moons. Just over half of couples are not completely satisfied with the honeymoon they took during the pandemic, so they are planning a “do-over.”
There is one particular niche with an extreme level of pent-up travel demand, and they plan to make up for lost time this year. Interested in what these results mean for you? Schedule a free consultation today or send us an email at email@example.com.
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