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16 February 2017:
Cigarette giant Philip Morris, which professes it wants a smoke-free future, is facing major regulatory obstacles to its plan to introduce to Australia a new cigarette that eliminates smoke by heating tobacco rather than burning it.
The product, which Philip Morris International says has cost the company $US3 billion in research and development over the past decade, has already been banned in New Zealand.
A spokesman for Philip Morris said the company was working through “regulatory issues” with a view to launching the “no-smoke” cigarette in Australia. He would not give a date for the planned launch, despite other industry sources suggesting it was as early as April.
The cigarette company claims its new product, known as iQos, reduces the amount of dangerous toxins that smokers inhale from conventional cigarettes. It uses an electrical device to heat tobacco, rather than igniting it, producing a nicotine vapour instead of smoke. While conventional vapourisers heat a liquid inside the device, “e-cigarette” users puff on a stick of dried tobacco, much like a conventional cigarette.
But the company’s claims have not only failed to persuade health authorities in New Zealand. The European Union issued a statement in January urging caution towards the product, saying there was a lack of evidence about short and long-term health effects. Russian authorities are also reportedly opposed to the product.
Australia’s assistant Health Minister, David Gillespie, said his department knew Philip Morris had launched the product across 12 cities in Japan in October 2015, but he was not aware of the cigarette company’s plans for Australia or that New Zealand had banned iQos.
However, Dr Gillespie made clear the tobacco company was unlikely to get permission to sell the new cigarette in Australia under current regulations.
“The commercial supply of nicotine is effectively prohibited in Australia via state and territory poisons legislation, with some exceptions, such as for tobacco prepared and packed for smoking, and certain nicotine replacement therapies,” the minister said in a statement to Fairfax Media.
“The department is of the view that these exemptions would not likely apply to heat-not-burn products as the nicotine in them would not be in the form of tobacco prepared and packed for smoking. Australia also has a comprehensive set of tobacco control measures, a number of which may apply to heat-not-burn products. For instance, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 and the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 would likely apply to heat-not-burn products.”
The recent decision by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration to retain nicotine on its poisons list also complicates Philip Morris’s plans. The TGA’s decision effectively bans e-cigarettes, or vaporisers, containing nicotine.
Despite the TGA having no direct role in making rules about “heat-not burn” products, Dr Gillespie said that “further consideration of policy options to address heat-not-burn products may be considered in the context of a national response to e-cigarettes”.
The lack of an exemption from laws prohibiting the commercial supply of tobacco for purposes other than smoking is similar to the ruling that has banned the product in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Ministry of Health notified Philip Morris early this month that “heated not burned” products were banned under a section of the Smoke-Free Environments Act because they contained tobacco for oral use.
The NZ Act states that “no person shall import for sale, sell, pack, or distribute any tobacco product labelled or otherwise described as suitable for chewing, or for any other oral use (other than smoking).” Philip Morris’s invention was judged to be “not for smoking”, and therefore was banned, the Health Ministry ruled.
The cigarette company was informed of the New Zealand government’s decision after it had launched iQos at an expensive event on the Auckland waterfront and had advertised for people to market the product across New Zealand. Philip Morris is fighting the NZ decision, declaring the regulations were long out of date and had been created to regulate chewing tobacco.
Philip Morris International’s vice president of communications, Tony Snyder, made clear in a statement late last month that iQos was an attempt to tempt smokers to switch from conventional cigarettes without losing most of the sensations of smoking tobacco.
“Adult smokers are looking for product choices that offer the satisfying taste, ritual, and pleasure they get from cigarettes, but with far lower amounts of the harmful compounds found in smoke,” Mr Snyder said.
Philip Morris is the world’s biggest cigarette company outside China.


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WASHINGTON – In a letter to President Biden, global tech trade association ITI is urging the administration to address a critical semiconductor chip shortage in the U.S. The urgent demand for chips – driven by the COVID-19 pandemic – affects nearly every industry in the U.S. economy, including health care, energy, automobiles, consumer devices, and more. In the letter, ITI requests that President Biden significantly fund the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act provisions in his upcoming budget request in order to incentivize domestic manufacturing, research, and design efforts to alleviate chip supply issues.
“The very technologies and industries that are critical for U.S. competitiveness, as well as the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, all rely on ready access to cutting-edge semiconductors,” said Jason Oxman, ITI’s President and CEO. “By including funding for the CHIPS Act in his upcoming budget request, President Biden can help fuel U.S. manufacturing and stimulate all sectors of the American economy—a key part of his administration’s goal to build back better.”
Advances in semiconductor design will be essential for the adoption of innovative use cases of 5G communications infrastructure, including empowering the Internet of Things (IoT), leveraging Artificial Intelligence for many important tasks, improving cloud services and computing, and strengthening U.S. competitiveness in quantum computing, ITI writes in its letter.
The CHIPS for America Act, enacted as part of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), establishes a grant program at the U.S. Department of Commerce to drive investment and support for increased U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, prototyping, and design. The measure is critical to increasing long-term U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity and vital for innovation in all sectors of the economy.
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden:
The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a number of unpredictable economic forces colliding in ways that result in the global supply of semiconductors falling increasingly short of the demand for them. Supply chain challenges and increased demand have caused delays to many sectors, including and especially among manufacturers of IT equipment and automobiles. On behalf of member companies that both produce and use semiconductors and microelectronics in a wide array of hardware applications, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) respectfully requests that you include substantial funding for the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America law in your Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget Request to Congress. Doing so will support the swift and effective implementation of the CHIPS initiatives and help to ensure an abundant supply of semiconductors into the future.
Semiconductors are vital to a wide range of products and equipment that have proven essential throughout the pandemic with the need for social distancing, shift to remote work and learning, expansion of telehealth services, and an increased demand for electronics. Chips are critical to the information technology systems that drive healthcare and the government’s response to COVID-19, support first responders and caregivers, allow educators and students to connect and continue teaching and learning remotely, and enable the millions of workers who have been forced out of offices to work from home. At the same time, semiconductors are an essential part of increasingly technology-driven passenger vehicles. Shortages of semiconductor chips limit the availability of much-needed equipment and in-demand goods and can cause considerable drag on recovering U.S. and global economies.
Semiconductor producers are working to address supply challenges and ensure that available chips are optimally allocated. Any actions taken by the federal government in response to this short-term problem should not pick winners or losers or favor some sectors and applications over others. It is even more important that government support robust increases in domestic chip production to ensure all consumers of these products have ready and ample access to them.
Enacted as part of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), P.L. 116-283, the CHIPS for America provisions establish a grant program at the U.S. Department of Commerce to drive investment and support for increased U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, prototyping, and design. This law is critical to increasing long-term U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity and vital for innovation in all sectors of the economy. Advances in semiconductor design will be essential for the adoption of innovative use cases of 5G communications infrastructure, including empowering the Internet of Things (IoT); for the application of Artificial Intelligence to many important tasks; improving cloud services and computing; and to strengthening U.S. competitiveness in quantum computing.
Policymakers should also pair funding for research, development, testing, and evaluation of projects and activities related to semiconductors and other components critical to the high-tech ecosystem with tax incentives to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for semiconductor chips.
By swiftly implementing and fully funding the CHIPS Act, Congress and the Administration can ensure that we meet all public sector and commercial semiconductor consumers’ needs beyond the COVID-19 pandemic as demand for these items continues to increase with the evolution of technology.
Thank you for considering our views. We look forward to working with you on this important matter.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Information Technology Industry Council (ITI)
Neera Tanden, Nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council (NEC)
Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council (DPC)
Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor)

domain: news


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Celsia Technologies has entered a multi-year agreement with Taiwan-based Yeh-Chiang Technology (YCTC), a manufacturer of heat pipes. Under the terms of the agreement, YCTC will manufacture Celsia’s thermal management products in China. YCTC will also license Celsia’s patented thermofluidic technology to offer to its key OEM customers.
“Celsia’s technology is exactly what the market needs today,” said John Yang, founder of YCTC. “With Celsia’s new vapor chamber technology and its thin, flat form factors, customers can have greater flexibility and simplicity in their electronic designs and assemblies. We believe this technology is the next step for electronics heat transfer, and it will provide great differentiation to our customers.”
“We are building partnerships across the electronics supply chain so that in addition to our strong technical position, Celsia is equally strong in its distribution and supply network,” said George Meyer, Celsia’s chief marketing officer and general manager of the Americas and Europe. “YCTC is an excellent heat pipe manufacturer with a laser focus on manufacturing two phase heat transfer products. The combination of Celsia technology and YCTC manufacturing will be a formidable force in the market.”


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Right level of rupee is 59-60/$; will still be competitive for exporters, says Chidambaram
The Finance Ministry wants the Reserve Bank of India to include bank credit to exporters under the priority sector lending category. Such a move could boost export income and reduce the country’s current account deficit.
Priority sector refers to those sectors of the economy which may not get timely and adequate credit in the absence of this special dispensation.
Typically, priority sector loans are small-value loans to farmers for agriculture and allied activities, micro and small enterprises, poor people for housing, students for education and other low-income groups and weaker sections.
According to RBI guidelines for priority sector lending, for every Rs 100 mopped up as deposit, a bank has to lend Rs 40 to the priority sector.
At an interactive session of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, Finance Minister P. Chidrambaram said: “As you know the Ministry of Finance supports it (priority sector tag to export credit). But there are some issues that have to be resolved. The fear is that if you put export credit under the priority sector, some other elements of priority sector may get affected.”
“We’re in talks with the RBI. The Padmanabhan Committee has already made a number of recommendations on export credit, including cost of credit and the quantity of credit,” he said.
On the rupee, Chidrambaram said the right level of the rupee is 59-60 against the dollar. “The rupee should not overshoot its mark. But even at 59-60/$, I think it is extremely competitive for exporters.”
The rupee closed weaker at 62.50 against the dollar on Friday on increased buying of the American currency by banks and corporates.
The Finance Minister said he will consider raising Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India’s automatic insurance cover provided for exporters from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
According to Chidambaram, global markets have begun recovering, offering an opportunity to Indian exporters. “Things are changing. In the US, the economy is clearly on an upswing. In Europe too, some countries are showing better growth rate and Japan is bouncing back. So, there is a better opportunity for exporters,” he said.
He said that there will be no roll back in the duty on iron ore exports.


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A stronger marketing team than before is in place at Nekter Juice Bar, operators say.
Winner: Nekter Juice Bar
When his brother started living what Gagan Batta calls “that so-called Nekter life” and saw results, Batta decided it was worth looking into a juicing concept as a possible business venture.
A veteran Subway franchisee with his brother Aman and father, “we started looking for the next big thing,” says Batta, first having conversations with other brands because Nekter Juice Bar wasn’t franchising except to friends and family. Batta kept coming back to Nekter, however, and began talks with founders Steve and Alexis Schulze, eventually signing a multi-unit agreement in late 2015 to open five stores in Southern California.
“We opened our first Nekter in January 2016 and we have 11 open already, two in Las Vegas and the rest in Southern California,” says Batta, who adds that original agreement quickly changed to 15 stores following several strong openings.
Selling cold-pressed juices, smoothies and acai bowls, Nekter Juice Bar has grown quickly to 100 locations in eight states since its launch in 2010. The Santa Ana, California-based concept stood out in the Healthy Lunch category for its average gross sales of $837,263, low unit closures—just one since 2014—and attractive investment range of $201,500 to $462,600.
With menu prices ranging from $6 to $10 for most items, Nekter positions itself as an upscale yet affordable lifestyle brand appealing to health and wellness-minded consumers.
And Nekter isn’t just playing off of what consumers perceive to be healthy, stresses Batta, something he says some other concepts do while loading up their menus with high-sugar, high-calorie items.
“We’re a raw juice bar, no additives; it’s pure fruit and vegetables only,” says Batta.
“The product was really what made us go for it,” he continues, followed closely by strong store-level operations.
The commitment of the founders, too, stood out to Batta, who says even as the system has grown he still feels like part of a family: “It feels like home visiting the corporate office.”
That’s in contrast to being part of a nearly 45,000-store franchise such as Subway, though Batta acknowledges there’s a whole different set of challenges that come with being an early owner in an emerging brand.
Though Batta’s Redlands area locations are only about 60 miles from where Nekter first got its start, most consumers in the area had never heard of the brand and Batta and his family handled the majority of the grand opening burdens on their own.
“We spent thousands of dollars on each store opening,” he says.
The marketing approach, too, needed to be tailored to those unfamiliar with Nekter and with the idea of juicing.
“The marketing push had to be a lot different,” says Batta. “We really had to directly address and educate the customers. We did a lot of marketing things on our own—a lot of social media marketing on our own.”
The company learned from those early franchise experiences, welcoming feedback and using it to make changes, including the bolstering of its internal team.
“They have a really great marketing team now versus what they had two years ago,” says Batta. Vice president of business operations and vice president of franchise operations positions were also added, along with a director of supply chain.
Still, Batta says, it’s up to each franchise owner to promote the business, such as by sponsoring local sports teams or running ads in area fitness centers, both of which Batta does.
Most of his locations are above the national average in sales.
Being familiar with franchising gave Batta an advantage in evaluating the Nekter concept and he advises that no matter what brand someone is considering, they should make multiple visits to its stores and be confident the product is differentiated from the competition.
“And then the product you would feed to your family should be the one you want to bring to the community,” he says.
— Laura Michaels
'Zor Awards 10 Categories
Finalists: Abrakadoodle, Engineering for Kids, LearningRx, Mad Science
Finalists: Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits, Church’s Chicken, Pollo Campero, Zaxby's
Finalists: 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Caring Transitions, College Hunks Hauling Junk, Junk King
Finalists: Kid to Kid, Clothes Mentor, Plato’s Closet, Uptown Cheapskate
Finalists: Another Broken Egg Cafe, Denny’s, Huddle House, Village Inn
Finalists: Nekter Juice Bar, Pita Pit, Saladworks, Tropical Smoothie Café
Finalists: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Golden Corral, Hilton, Ruth’s Chris
Finalists: Rock & Brews, Walk-On's, Wingstop, UFC Gym
Finalists: Cicis Pizza, Dickey's BBQ, Hardees, Taco Bell
Finalists: Bar Louie, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, The Brass Tap, Bar Louie
3 ways to choose a franchise


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Abandoned is a cinematic, first-person horror survival shooter set in a highly detailed open world environment and favours a realistic approach to survival. Yet, there’s definitely something super creepy this upcoming PlayStation 5 survival game, but we fear the speculation is now getting out of hand. Two of the top-voted posts on PS5’s sub-Reddit now pertain to Konami tweets about upcoming Silent Hill merchandise, meanwhile, fans have tracked down Blue Box Game Studios head Hasan Kahraman’s PlayStation Network account and started sending him messages.
After that, the story hasn’t really developed, although Summer Game Fest host Geoff Keighley has claimed that he’s been in contact with Kahraman and is trying to get some screenshots of the title. A demo will purportedly release on the PS5 imminently, where you’ll be able to “experience” the game’s trailers in real-time. In fact, screenshots have shown Kahraman using the app on his PS5 recently.
The problem is that, at this point, fans are expecting something big here; either a Silent Hill sequel, a secret Hideo Kojima title, or something else. But while we agree that there’s something not quite right with this project, it’s the strangest hype cycle we’ve ever seen for a new release. The weirdness doesn’t automatically mean that it’s worth paying attention to. In fact, it’s the contrary, Blue Box Game Studios, assuming it is a real developer, is playing a very dangerous game here. Even on the off-chance that Abandoned isn’t Silent Hills, it’s still a big PS5 exclusive horror that’s now coming to PC too, and that’s always good news.


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Breckenridge, Summit County businesses prep for USA Pro Challenge
August 20, 2013
Close to 1 million people are expected to turn out for this week's USA Pro Challenge, a seven-stage bicycle race beginning in Aspen and rolling through the mountains to Denver.
For the first time in its three-year history, Breckenridge will host a stage start and a stage finish, which will keep tourists in town for an extra day than in the past.
Although local businesses can expect a bump on tourist traffic this week, Kim Dykstra-DiLallo, director of communications for the town of Breckenridge, said officials have always been attracted to hosting the Pro Challenge for its potential long-term economic benefits.
"We look at it more as a long-term benefit to promote Breckenridge as a hub for road and mountain biking," Dykstra-DiLallo said. "It fits with our message that Breckenridge is a bike haven."
“They (business owners) all said overwhelmingly that they wanted the race to come back. We bid for a Saturday finish last year and thought we hit a grand slam getting a start and a finish this year.”
Director of communications for town of Breckenridge
Now in its third year, the USA Pro Challenge has made a stop in Breckenridge every year attracting tourists and injecting funds into the local economy. Although town officials have not tracked economic data since 2011 when the race kicked off, Dykstra-DiLallo said business owners, particularly restaurateurs and hoteliers, can expect a bump in business when the race rolls through town.
Following the 2011 race, the town of Breckenridge issued a survey to local business owners to determine the economic impacts and to gauge whether or not the community would want to host the race again in the future.
According to the results of that survey, the average increase in lodging sales was 63 percent. Restaurants experienced a 39 percent increase in sales and retail business spiked by more than 75 percent.
"They (business owners) all said overwhelmingly that they wanted the race to come back," Dykstra-DiLallo said. "We bid for a Saturday finish last year and thought we hit a grand slam getting a start and a finish this year."
Like Dykstra-DiLallo, Marty Ferris, finance director for Summit County, said the county also looks at the race for its potential long-term economic benefits.
"People all over the world are going to be watching this race, so the overall exposure for county is great," Ferris said. "I think people still think about us as a winter destination and this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase we're also a nice place to visit in the summer."
To capitalize off of the international exposure, Breckenridge officials ask fans to come out Tuesday and Wednesday decked out in orange t-shirts.
In an effort to capitalize off of the event as much as possible, the town of Breckenridge rented and already set up a Jumbotron at the Riverwalk Center Lawn to broadcast live coverage of the race for the entire week.
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Global share markets have soared in value in recent days as hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine have ballooned. Strong demand for UK shares in the new trading week is pushing stock prices higher again. The FTSE 100, for one, is surging back to Wednesday’s five-month peaks of around 6,400 points.
It’s too early to claim the new bull market has begun. Certainly while Covid-19 infection rates continue to surge and a vaccine is still to be signed off. And also while other issues, such as Brexit and bickering over trade tariffs, rumble on in the background.
What’s pretty much definite though, is that the bull market will come. It’s simply a question of timing. And now’s the time for UK share investors to start thinking about what stocks to buy to get rich from the economic recovery.
A FTSE 100 firecracker
Here’s a selection of top-quality UK shares I’m thinking of adding to my Stocks and Shares ISA today. I expect them to enjoy explosive earnings growth as the new bull market kicks off. And, what’s more, at current prices they look too cheap to miss too:
The growth of e-commerce has been one of the big investment themes of 2020. I bought DS Smith (LSE: SMDS) shares a couple of years back to play this idea, and I’m tempted to buy more right now. According to Adobe Analytics, online spending from US customers during the November and December Holiday period will soar 33% from the same period last year.
It’s a trend which box maker DS Smith will profit from, thanks to its recent expansion into the US marketplace. And it’s a phenomenon that will be replicated in the FTSE 100 firm’s other territories. I believe this UK share will be a great way to play the new bull market too as improving economic conditions will drive broader consumer spending levels even higher. Today, DS Smith trades on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 14 times. It boasts a chunky 3.8% dividend yield too, providing plenty of bang for an investor’s buck.
Another UK share I think trades at an unmissable price
Ryanair Holdings (LSE: RYA) will likely be another early beneficiary from the economic recovery. The travel sector has been one of the hardest hit in 2020, smacked by a double whammy of a severe economic downturn and travel restrictions stemming from the Covid-19 crisis. If a coronavirus vaccine is released in the coming months, as many now predict, Ryanair can expect its profits to soar as strong pent-up demand for holidays is set loose.
Buying into UK shares like this obviously remains a huge risk. But this Irish flyer has a strong balance sheet that’ll see it through the crisis. And it’ll benefit from rising traveller spending power and a thinning out of the market during the economic recovery. I reckon its forward P/E ratio of 14 times makes Ryanair an attractive buy for the new bull market.
Royston Wild owns shares of DS Smith. The Motley Fool UK has recommended DS Smith. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.


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Dublin-based data quality firm Similarity systems has closed a second round of venture capital (VC) funding worth €5.5m, which it will use to accelerate sales growth in the US as well as enhance its flagship product. The funding round was led by Trinity Venture Capital.
Existing investors including Delta Partners and a number of private investors also participated in this investment. Similarity Systems intends to use the funds to further evolve its products and expand its international sales and marketing initiatives. Similarity Systems was advised by Francis Hackett of O’Donnell Sweeney for the round.
With its unique business-focused approach to solving the pervasive problem of poor data quality, Similarity Systems has attracted significant numbers of Global 2000 customers in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Similarity Systems’ Athanor is the only suite of data quality products that enables business knowledge workers to take control of enterprise-wide data cleansing initiatives.
“The traction we’ve generated from enterprise customers and the worldwide growth in the market for data quality solutions have enabled us to mold Similarity Systems into the leading data quality company it is today,” said Garry Moroney, chief executive officer, Similarity Systems.
“This latest injection of funds provides us with the backing we need to expand sales and business development initiatives in the consumer goods and finance sectors in North America, where we see a massive untapped market for our business-focused data quality solution.”
By John Kennedy


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At its main CES press conference, Asus pleaded the case for WiMAX flanked by partners Intel and Sprint. It's an interesting gamble, which it is placing a new second generation Eee PC right at the middle of.
The second-gen Eee is due "in the second quarter" of this year according to Jonney Shih, the chairman of Asus's Computer division. Asus know they are onto a winner with a new machine - they've already shifted 350,000 of the old ones in a couple of months.
"Welcome to a new world of mobile internet," he said, talking of WiMAX as truly enabling the fourth stage of internet connection after modem, wired broadband and wireless broadband - "the true mobile internet" said Shih. He added that WiMAX would mark the end of the 'hotspot' concept.
Asus expects to have WiMAX in as many as 15 per cent of its laptops by the end of this year and will doubtless forge other partnerships as it seek to push its WiMAX 'advantage' over other manufacturers. Shih said the Eee in particular would push things forward saying the machine "removes price point and technical sophistication as barriers to WiMAX, making it a true universal standard." Asus and Intel are partnering with Sprint's XOHM WiMAX network in the US.
'Global support' for WiMAX, says Intel
Next, Sean Maloney, Executive VP at Intel took to the stage. "About 2002 it was apparent to us that Wi-Fi, while extremely successful, was frustrating when you were out of range of a hotspot," said Maloney. "2008 is the big year. The way that people use the internet is changing."
"The big thing is that [WiMAX standard] 802.16e has a lot of other global support. My anticipation is that it will be Intel and a couple of other silicon suppliers [involved]."
But will WiMAX really take off? Asus and Intel seem to believe that it could have as great an impact on connectivity and laptop architecture as when Intel announced Centrino back in 2003. Even if they are convinced, we believe there's a little wishful thinking involved, especially when you consider that WiMAX adoption in a country like the UK is miles behind what Sprint is doing in the US.
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Dan (Twitter, Google+) is TechRadar's Former Deputy Editor and is now in charge at our sister site T3.com. Covering all things computing, internet and mobile he's a seasoned regular at major tech shows such as CES, IFA and Mobile World Congress. Dan has also been a tech expert for many outlets including BBC Radio 4, 5Live and the World Service, The Sun and ITV News.


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Branson considers Virgin Atlantic float
Sir Richard Branson is looking at a stock market flotation of Virgin Atlantic in a move that could value the airline at £2bn.
The possibility of going public has been triggered by the revelation that Singapore Airlines is looking to sell its 49% stake in his airline.
Sources close to Branson say he is thinking of buying out the Singapore stake to gain full control of Virgin Atlantic, which he would then float.
This is one of several options being examined by executives at both airlines. But it is thought that a final ownership outcome could be two years away.
Singapore Airlines, which is in close contact with Virgin, is also believed to have looked at the possibility of floating its stake, which analysts have valued at about £1bn compared with the £600m it paid in 1999.
But the airline would need Branson's approval to sell its stake in this way as it would transform Virgin Atlantic into a public company. Branson would remain a 51% majority shareholder.
Even though Branson has drawn up flotation plans, he is known to prefer private to public ownership.
His favourite option is understood to be the sale of Singapore's stake to a major private equity firm with money to invest as the airline will have to spend heavilyon new aircraft in comingyears.
• British Airways' board will give the go-ahead tomorrow for a direct service from America to the Continent, targeted at US business travellers. About 20 wide-bodied planes will be available from next March to fly direct from New York, Boston and Chicago to Milan, Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid.
Central to the new service will be an attempt to exploit the BA brand in the US, where the company's internal research has shown it is highly respected. There is also a perception within the airline that the quality of service from US carriers is not in the same class as BA's and other European airlines.
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As the levels of crypto adoption continue to soar, more websites are beginning to accept cryptos as payment options. Unfortunately, some of the biggest retailers are still distancing themselves from the crypto world in spite of its growing popularity. Fortunately, sites like Bitcoin Superstore and Coinbase are on hand to help you spend your cryptos on almost anything. Bitcoin Superstore works slightly differently to the voucher-based solutions like Coinbase and Bitrefill. You simply paste the product details you wish to buy, Bitcoin Superstore fronts the money and sends you a bill in the crypto of your choice – it’s really that simple.
Demand for Tron Grows
Tronix is the currency of decentralized content sharing platform Tron. It leverages peer-2-peer (p2p) network technology and for this reason it has become incredibly popular. Bitcoin Superstore lets users send in requests of new cryptos they would like to see added to the payment method list, and it then adds the most popular. Currently, the platform now accepts seven cryptos, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and Tron. The increased demand for Tron has helped it earn a place on the prestigious checkout cryptocurrency list, this list is supposed to grow by one new crypto every week, but in reality, we are seeing a new crypto added every month or so.
You voted, and we listened!
Customers can now buy from nearly any online retailer with #TRON! What does the #cryptocommunity think of our addition? #Tronix #Tronics #TRX $TRX @Tronfoundation @justinsuntron @TronNews_ pic.twitter.com/XDLCECRrcx
— Bitcoin Superstore (@BitcoinSuperst1) August 12, 2018
Splashing the Digital Cash
There is an increasing demand from the majority of goods and services markets to start accepting cryptos. When sites have begun to accept cryptos, they have largely seen an uptake in customers – especially amongst those with big amounts of BTC to spend. Interestingly, Beyoncé and Jay Z have listed a handful of packages for the On The Run II tour on an upmarket crypto website, and they have nearly sold out. In addition to musicians, people are also listing their homes in Bitcoin. This is most likely due to the low transaction fees involved and the speed at which it is transferred between wallets.
Simple Ways to Buy Cryptos
This demand for places to spend cryptocurrencies is most likely driven by the fact it is now easier than ever to get your hands on cryptos. Apps like Change and Skrill now give users instant access to the crypto markets, meaning that crypto can be purchased with ease by the average person. Simplistic crypto purchasing methods such as these apps are vital in the drive towards mass adoption, as many users are not comfortable with using crypto exchanges or just don’t have the technical knowledge to configure a crypto wallet.
With more stores beginning to accept cryptos and sites like Bitcoin Superstore covering those that don’t, crypto owners can now almost live day to day using only crypto. Fiat’s reign looks like it could be losing its grip over the online payment world, and as these sites become better known this grip will only loosen more.


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Smartphone Scanning Accuracy Raises In-app Purchases to 10% of Digital Sales
Decathlon, the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, addressed real estate constraints in physical stores in Singapore, increasing the customer’s product visibility in-store by integrating Scandit’s barcode scanning software with their customer app. A self-checkout app, it provides customers access to all Decathlon products, making shopping convenient with fast and accurate barcode scanning – contributing to approximately 15 to 25 percent of in-store transactions in Singapore.
Scanning can get challenging because we have different barcodes, 1-D barcodes and 2-D QR codes. We cannot ask customers to scan just the 1-D barcode or the QR-code; they must have the option to scan anything, and it has to be fast and accurate to ensure a good customer experience. Integrating Scandit’s smartphone scanning solution with our mobile app has given us the confidence that this part of the experience meets customer expectations.
Digitize customer experiences with the Decathlon app
Decathlon has over 1,647 stores across 1000 cities in 57 countries, and more than 5000 products across 80 sport categories. The company’s stores in Singapore are predominantly centrally located in shopping malls where real estate costs are prohibitively high – making it a challenge to stock and sell their growing range of products in existing large stores and smaller format ones. As a result, they wanted to explore sustainable solutions to help them maximize floor space.
Decathlon was also keen to improve the customer’s shopping experience and increase product visibility instore. Additionally, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic it was important to ensure customer safety. The Singapore team took the decision to accelerate mobile self-checkout solutions and empower their customers with an all-in-one solution.
ON-DEMAND WEBINAR Smartphone Scanning in Retail – Featuring Decathlon Singapore Find out more
Using the self-checkout app, customers would have the option of ordering bulky products, which Decathlon does not stock in-store, and simultaneously purchase essentials available in-store – all of which seemed like a winning strategy for the company.
Decathlon’s ‘phygital’ strategy involved placing digital at the core of their physical stores. The company noticed high volume browsing traffic originating through smartphones, but fewer purchases. They decided to make shopping on smartphones easier, and created the Decathlon app, a self-checkout customer app, which offered customers an omnichannel experience that combined online and offline interactions. The app would ensure that customers had access to all Decathlon products whether they were browsing in store or online, and eliminate queues with faster checkouts. Decathlon also wanted to increase orders through digital channels (the app and website) to over 25 percent, and address shrinkage from stock unavailability owing to real estate constraints.
The app used an open source barcode scanning software, which created accuracy issues, as barcodes could not be properly scanned in glare or low light conditions, at angles and distances, or if they were poorly printed.
Convenience and quality: the best-fit for a ‘phygital’ smartphone scanning app
Decathlon tested multiple barcode scanning solutions, but opted to integrate Scandit’s barcode scanner SDK into their app. Scandit’s solution offered fast and accurate barcode scanning, which was a reliable option for their customers. Also referred to as the ‘phygital’ app internally, the Scandit-powered self-checkout Decathlon app is available for Android and iOS devices, and used across all Singapore stores.
Customers enjoy shopping convenience by downloading the Decathlon app, signing up as members, scanning and paying for products using their smartphones. The cashless and self-service app, coupled with fast and accurate scanning means that customers enjoy hassle-free shopping and no longer need to queue at the checkout.
Check out customers enjoying shopping convenience with Decathlon’s Scandit-powered app
Says Gael Robin, E-Commerce & Mobile Solutions Product Owner, Decathlon, Singapore base, “As Decathlon grows, we want to continue offering customers the convenience and quality they expect from us. Shopping on their smartphones should be a consistent and convenient experience, irrespective of the environment they scan the barcode, or the mobile device they use. While we expected a 99.9 percent scanning accuracy, Scandit delivered 100 percent accuracy, a feature that encourages more customers to use our scanning-based smartphone app.”
Scandit’s barcode scanning solution delivered Decathlon:
- Accuracy: 100 percent accurate scans even when scanning problematic barcodes such as on torn or worn labels, and in low light or at difficult angles.
- Ease of integration: Integrating Scandit’s barcode scanning solution with the Decathlon app was easy and done internally without the need to coordinate with several different developers.
- In app purchases account for approximately 10 percent of digital sales
- Users have downloaded the scanning enabled app
- Customer satisfaction ranks high at 90 percent
Superfast, superior scanning performance increases app adoption
Decathlon has been using Scandit’s scanning solution in its app for over two years now. Customer adoption and engagement with the ‘phygital’ app continues to grow. The convenience it offers shoppers has seen more than 200,000 users download the app on Android and iOS devices.
In Singapore, around 10 percent of digital purchases are made through the Scandit-powered app.The pandemic also helped increase usage of the smartphone app, as customers stayed away from stores, preferring to shop using digital channels. It has proven to help the business address shrinkage from stock unavailability owing to real estate constraints; and will, in the long run, offer significant savings on real estate investments.
Aware of the challenge in changing customer mindsets, Decathlon is promoting their Scandit-enabled smartphone app as an omnichannel solution with a ‘phygital cart’ – encouraging customers to embrace self-checkout to avoid queuing at PoS terminals. For products that are not available in stores, customers can scan the barcodes, pay for them and receive free delivery within two hours at a location of their choice.


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Ann Arbor MI — February 5, 2008 — Better supply chain risk management could have prevented a shutdown of Chrysler factories this week caused by a dispute with Plastech Engineered Products, according to noted supply chain management consultant Bill Michels, CEO of ADR North America.
Chrysler shut down four assembly plants on Monday in the wake of its ongoing dispute with Plastech, a Dearborn, Mich.-based supplier of a range of parts used on most Chrysler vehicles.
The automaker had ended its contract with the financially troubled Plastech last week, and the supplier had filed for bankruptcy on Friday, prompting Chrysler to shutter the plants, saying that it was not receiving parts from Plastech. More plant closures were possible as "just-in-time" parts stopped showing up on the docks at Chrysler's assembly plants.
However, a Plastech lawyer announced on Tuesday that a deal had been reached with Plastech's creditors and that the supplier would begin producing parts for Chrysler on Tuesday, according to a newswire report. As of this writing, Chrysler had not announced when the shuttered plants would reopen.
Michels, a widely known expert in supply chain management with long-time experience in the U.S. automotive industry, noted that the best practice in supply chain management is to have a detailed risk management plan, which would have anticipated scenarios such as a bankrupt supplier and set up contingency procedures.
"It is unfortunate that many companies assess the vulnerability and risk in their supply chain after a catastrophic event occurs," Michels said. "For example, a set of duplicate tooling for critical plastic components might have been cheap insurance for Chrysler. It's easy to see that in retrospect, but it's also possible in many cases to assess risks in time to mitigate them."
Michels said that tools are available to identify potential trouble spots by analyzing key supply chain risk factors. Those predictive models can spot troubled suppliers or other potential problems that can disrupt supplies.
"Chrysler's dilemma also points out the dangers when big companies use too much leverage to try to force down prices from their suppliers," said Michels, who has evangelized — including in this magazine (see related articles below) — a more collaborative approach to supplier relationship management. "It is unfortunate, but as the economy continues to worsen and prices for basic commodities soar, suppliers that have been leveraged by their customers are bound to fail."
Michels offered the following early warning signals of suppliers in financial difficulty:
- Constant price increases, early payment, accelerated payment terms or direct financing
- Consistently using your technical support
- Failure to support sales
- Failure to meet on time in full deliveries
- Requests for pre-payment
- Lack of investment
- Failure to appropriately cut costs during economic downturns
- Delinquent paying taxes
- Deteriorating accounts receivable and payable
- Employment of business turnaround specialists
- Introduction of many consultants – especially business turnaround specialists
- Lack of maintenance
- Negative variances from projections
- Payments on insider debt
- Use of third parties and factoring companies
- Loss of business or market share
- Recent rapid growth in sales volume
- Lack of focus by management or response to requests
- Conduct proper due diligence on the front end
- Periodically audit suppliers
- Create a program to effectively select and manage the supply base
- Conduct internal training for purchasing agents, accounts payable, quality control and plant managers so they can recognize potentially troubled suppliers
- Create a proactive supply chain risk management strategy
Transform Your Supply Chain: Releasing Value in Business http://sourcingguy.wordpress.com


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Texas reported 15,600 new and probable cases of coronavirus Monday - a recent surge in cases spurred by the omicron COVID-19 variant.
Families and industries across the state and nation have been impacted by the variant. The airline industry has seen thousands of flight cancellations, though the recent holiday season remains the busiest travel period since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Though many have grown accustomed to living through a pandemic, the latest omicron surge has prompted additional disruptions to daily life. Have you or your family been affected? Tell us about it below.


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BUTTE - While the pandemic has been tough on the economy, independent bookstores are doing well in Butte, whose Uptown currently has three small bookstores.
“People are readers, contrary to stereotypes of Butte,” said Second Edition Books owner Ann Finch-Johnston.
Books and Books owner Medellee Antonioli added, “Communities are supporting bookstores and they want bookstores and that is causing sort of a revitalization of the book industry honestly.”
Second Edition Books on Montana Street has been in business 35 years and recorded one of their best years in 2020. The store saw sales from many tourists.
“So many people came to Montana because they couldn’t travel internationally or they came to Montana because we had such a low infection rate this summer, we probably saw more tourists this year than other years as well,” said Finch-Johnston.
The new owner of Books and Books and Park Street thinks the pandemic may have had something to do with increased book sales, because people are burnt out by screen time and would rather read a real book.
“You don’t want to stare at your screen anymore, we’re all experiencing this right now, there is fatigue staring at a screen,” said Antonioli.
Bookstore owners find that many customers not only enjoy in-store browsing for books, but also are passionate about talking about books with others who are passionate about books.
“I mean, we just had some customers in and we spent 20 minutes chatting about what books we’ve read and what we thought each other would like and sharing that information in such an organic and beautiful way that’s what bookstores provide. You’re not going to get that from Amazon, even; you’re not going to get if from, largely, from the some of the big boxes either,” said Antonioli.


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CareOnGo raises $300K seed funding from group of angel investors
Delhi-based CareOnGo has raised $300,000 in its seed round of funding, led by Farooq Oomerbhoy, who co-founded Orios Venture Partners, with Raj Mishra of Indea Capital and Vineet Ganesh of Imperial India Investment.
CareOnGo is a mobile chain of co-branded pharmacy stores which allows users to buy medicines from their neighbourhood approved pharmacies. Earlier, the platform was offering service in preventive care segment.
“We will use the fund to expand our services, build technology and create brand awareness. We are building a platform that will bring the fragmented small pharmacies under a single umbrella. On the consumer front, we empower the users to buy medicines on their mobile from their neighbourhood approved pharmacies,” says Ritu Singh, Co-founder of CareOnGo.
She adds that the platform links with the inventory system of its partnered pharmacies and uses data algorithms to analyse varied trends and purchase patterns to provide a highly efficient procurement platform for the micro-pharmacies. Thus by partnering with a large base of these pharmacies, CareOnGo aims to become a centralised source of e-procurement.
Since its launch, the startup claims to have grown at exponential rate and has spread across many cities in India. The funding will be deployed primarily towards increasing the number of co-branded stores to over 150 across the metro cities of Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and for expansion to Mumbai, Chennai and 11 other cities.
On funding Farooq Oomerbhoy says, “I found the company’s approach unique. It decided on leveraging an inefficiency in the market and bring about a great level of streamline transparency and efficiency into an already existing and dominating part of the pharmaceutical sales model. CareOnGo not only will help these already existing pharmacies expand their reach via technology but also will further help them create a more accessible and an on-demand platform for procurement of authentic medicines benefiting the ecosystem as a whole.”
There exists a huge market for retail pharmacy. According to IMS, retail pharmacy was expected to cross $11.5 billion by the end of 2015 end, growing at a rate of 20 per cent year-on-year.
In this enormous market, there are various players that are vying with each other to grab the largest piece of the pie. Startups like 1mgAyush.com, Healthkart, BigChemist, Healthgenie, Healthadda, mChemist and Deemark are some of the few names.
However, with the growth of the online medicine market, many cases of illegal online sale of medicines have also come up. Since then, the platforms dealing in the segment have claimed to be cautious while partnering with medical stores. With timely deliver, they promise to ensure the authenticity of the medicine as well.
According to experts, the pharmacy is still at the nascent stage. The market will also give ample opportunity for players to grow.


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Tim Horton’s Is Selling Poutine Donuts for Canada Day and We Have Questions
Canada is known for many things. Their hunky Prime Minister, Drake, Celiné Dion, and of course, its very unique drunk food, poutine. This mix of fries, cheese, and gravy was invented in French-speaking Quebec, but has since become a national dish. In honor of the country’s national celebration of Canada Day on July 1, Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons is mixing the standby up a bit with plans to sell a — get this — poutine donut.
That’s right! To honor our neighbor to the North’s 150th anniversary, the fast-food chain will be peddling a honey-dipped donut complete with cheese curds, gravy, and potato wedges for fries on top. Needless to say, people are shook.
— Mark Critch (@markcritch) June 29, 2017
There is now poutine on a donut…
I'm going to bed. I've had enough. This world is too crazy for me.
— White_Noise (@WhiteNoiseDread) June 29, 2017
— V. ♔ (@badgyalvv) June 29, 2017
More surprising than the fact that this is even happening, perhaps, is the fact that the treat actually won’t be available in Canada at all — in fact, only five select US stores will carry the treat, including Columbus, Ohio, Rochester Hills, Michigan, and three more in New York (Derby, Hamburg, and East Aurora). “At Tim Hortons restaurants, we’re proud of our Canadian heritage and we want to share a piece of that in the United States,” the brand explained in a statement. Still, Canadian patrons aren’t impressed.
I'm honestly pissed that Tim Hortons is making a poutine donut and it's only available in the US. I'm a Quebecer GIVE ME MY POUTINE! Please.
— Theresa (@tlcprincess) June 29, 2017
That Tim Hortons poutine donut is only available in the states!?!? AHH THE BITTER TASTE OF BETRAYAL
— Tegan Laing (@teganlaing) June 29, 2017
For those willing to travel, the chain is also offering a Maple Bacon Iced Capp (which is essentially the Tim’s equivalent of a Frappuccino), and maple bacon flavored “Timbits” (AKA donut holes).
This just might be worth the drive, if only for the novelty of it all!
Would you try a poutine flavored donut? Tell us @BritandCo.
(h/t Mashable; photos via Tim Hortons, Spencer Platt, + Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Getty)


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DAILY BRIEFING: PPG boss wants a fourth crack at Dulux owner Akzo Nobel
FOURTH BID Michael McGarry, the boss of US predator PPG which is trying to take over Dulux's owner Akzo Nobel, said he remains interested in negotiating a 'consensual' deal – despite having three takeover bids rebuffed.
DEBT BLUES Government borrowing unexpectedly jumped to £10.4billion last month – a £1.2billion rise on April 2016 – due to a lower than hoped for VAT tax take.
The Office for National Statistics also reported it had revised the last financial year's spending shortfall down by £3.3billion to £48.7billion.
TARGETS REJECTED Oil giant Shell's shareholders have rejected a proposal by environmental group Follow This calling for the oil company to set and publish annual targets to reduce carbon emissions.
RIPE RESULTS Booming demand for 'food to go' meal deals helped sandwich maker Greencore post stellar results. It reported a 46.1 per cent boost in sales to £1billion in the 26 weeks to March.
Profits nearly halved from £20.8million to £11.7million in the period – though it was largely due to the £605million takeover of rival Peacock Foods in December.
EARNINGS SLUMP Profits at buy-to-let mortgage lender Paragon fell to £69.4million in the six months to the end of March, down £100,000 from the same period a year earlier.
LONG HAUL Budget airline Ryanair is selling Air Europa tickets on its website, allowing customers to choose from 20 long haul routes including Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and the United States.
HARDY HOTELS Budget chain EasyHotel said sales in the six months to March 31 rose 21.2 per cent to £3.1million compared to the same period a year before. Profits fell to £60,000.
REVENUE RISE Engineering and IT group Aveva posted a 7 per cent rise in revenue to £215.8million, boosted by the fall in the pound since the Brexit vote. Profit was up 7.4 per cent to £55million in the year to March 31.
SALES SOAR Shoppers stocking up on casual clothing sent fashion sales at John Lewis up 4.9 per cent last week. Total John Lewis sales were up 1.1 per cent to £76.3million.
BARRELS BOOST Kazakhstan-focused oil and gas producer Nostrum Oil and Gas says sales are up to 43,279 barrels per day, compared to 38,754 over the same period last year. Profits had risen to £52million compared to £39million over the same period.
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Trella raises USD 600k+ in pre-seed funding round led by Algebra
EXCLUSIVE- Trella raises >USD 600k in pre-seed funding round led by Algebra: Trella, the trucking marketplace that connects shippers to carriers, has announced that it has secured over USD 600k in a pre-seed funding round led by our friends at Algebra Ventures, who shared the announcement with us in a press release.
Founded in 2018, the tech platform has generated enormous investor interest, having tapped into the success of ride-hailing apps in the region to create a tailored solution for the freight industry, one that aims to reduce market fragmentation, improve efficiency and create a more transparent environment for both drivers and businesses. Among other services, it offers shippers and carriers access to an overview of pricing and payments, provides status updates and tracking, uses tech know-how to optimize dispatch, and analyzes transportation trends.
Also participating in this initial round of funding are seasoned angel investors Esther Dyson and Jambu Palaniappan, as well as global VCs and other strategic investors. Algebra Managing Partner Karim Hussein described the team behind Trella as “superstars … with proven execution ability.”


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World Emblem, the world’s largest patch and emblem manufacturer, is celebrating 30 years in business. Located in northwest Houston, the family-owned company first started as a small shop in New Jersey in 1993. Over the past three decades, World Emblem has grown to have nine locations across the world and employs over 1,000 people.
World Emblem produces an average of 250 million emblems and custom products a year. One of their unique features is that they have no minimum quantity requirement for orders – whether you need one garment embroidered or 10,000 garments, they can accommodate your needs.
Some of World Emblem’s big clients include the NFL, Levi’s, New Era, and Perry Ellis. Chief Operating Officer Jim Kozel highlighted the customized nature of their work, saying, “It’s all customized and it’s amazing. You’ll be walking through there, and you’ll see some of the biggest name brands that we’re stitching out.”
ABC13’s Localish team recently visited World Emblem for a behind-the-scenes tour to see what goes into producing thousands of custom patches every day. If you’re interested in learning more about World Emblem, visit the company’s website for more information.


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Google isn’t just an 800-pound gorilla in the room, it’s the King Kong of search – and more like the nearly 400-foot-tall version in recent movies than the 24-foot ape that scaled the Empire State Building in the 1933 original.
Challengers have come and gone — Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo! Search, and Ask Jeeves, to name a few — but none have ever come close to knocking the undisputed king from its internet jungle throne.
That is, until now. For the first time in roughly 20 years, Google is uniquely at risk of losing considerable market share.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported the US Department of Justice is mere weeks away from suing the tech giant over the size of its ad market dominance, potentially uprooting a hundred-billion-dollar business model. Meanwhile, a crop of familiar foes is eating away at search traffic in unexpected ways. While one-to-one competitors remain scarce – at least for the moment, as we’ll see – internet giants like TikTok and Instagram are offering users an alternative way to surf the web.
So How Did We Get Here?
Launched in 1998 by Stanford PhD students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google was hardly the first search engine to hit the web. But the platform roared with a ferocity other early engines — such as Lycos, WebCrawler and the aforementioned Ask Jeeves — could only imagine. Search for “Michael Jordan” or “Madonna” on a pre-Google service and it’d likely return countless spammy pages gaming the system by hiding, or not hiding, loads of text repeating “Michael Jordan” or “Madonna” hundreds of times.
Google, on the other hand, understood that search results should be about quality, not quantity. Its results were determined by what others were linking to — a search for “Michael Jordan” would see top returns for early official NBA and Chicago Bulls websites, because those were the pages most often hyperlinked in media stories, on blogs, and in countless listservs.
By the turn of the century, Google became the most popular search engine, and Page and Brin are now the sixth and seventh wealthiest people on the planet, according to the latest Forbes Billionaires list, each with net worths north of $100 billion. Its flagship service consistently pulls some 92% of global search market share, by most metrics. And by market cap, Google, via its parent company Alphabet, is now one of the five most valuable companies in the world. Not bad for a couple of grad students who knew next to nothing about advertising.
But What About Now?
Although Google offers everything from email to maps to office suites, search remains at its core, powering one of the most potent advertising-targeting tools in existence.
Google’s home search page is almost always the most visited web address on the internet. Even carving away a small part of its traffic could represent a billion dollar bedrock for a competitor:
- Last year, Google’s “Search and Other” division generated nearly $149 billion in revenue, up 43% from 2020. That’s a hefty 58% of the company’s record total $257 billion in revenue last year.
- The site processes over 8.5 billion searches a day, good for about 100,000 searches delivering 160,000 gigabytes of data every second, according to Internet Live Stats.
But there may be cracks in the foundation. As Google has grown, the algorithm and technology fueling its search returns have changed and tweaked. Ads have become more prevalent on the platform over time, something Page and Brin themselves admitted would ultimately distort search results when they founded the company. Additionally, marketers and media companies hire entire teams of employees to engineer content with the specific purpose of gaming Google’s algorithm to the top of search results, a process that’s come to be known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and is largely responsible for the pervasiveness of keyword-laden, clickbaity headlines and page titles.
The Direct Players: There are, of course, direct search competitors to Google – though they’re so niche, they hardly warrant a mention among Google’s greatest threats. Since launching in 2009, Microsoft’s Bing has carved out a bigger global market share than any other competitor. But by most metrics, it still only commands 3% of search traffic. It also powers the tech underlying Yahoo Search, which accounts for a little over 1% of global search usage.
Meanwhile, privacy focused search engine DuckDuckGo has carved out a small but dedicated niche of internet users, with emphasis on small. And international competitors such as China’s Baidu and Russia’s Yandex barely register outside their native lands. But there are a couple of fellow tech giants that have Google’s attention right now.
Nearly a decade ago, back when the metaverse was but a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye and his biggest PR headache was a smarmy portrayal of him by Jesse Eisenberg in a Hollywood production, Facebook attempted to unseat Google at its own game by offering a unique approach to search. Instead of listing links from across the web, Facebook Graph Search, launched in 2013, was supposed to provide users with a new way of accessing information by mostly sourcing data from friends posts and likes. It flamed out almost immediately, and within a few years disappeared altogether.
But Facebook — now Meta — may have stumbled upon a Google killer after all. According to reporting from TechCrunch, Google executives are fretting two unlikely competitors eating away at search market share among young users, Instagram and ByteDance’s TikTok:
- “In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search,” Prabhakar Raghavan, a Senior VP who runs Google’s Knowledge & Information organization, said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in July, “They go to TikTok or Instagram.” Raghavan has since confirmed these statistics.
- “We keep learning, over and over again, that new internet users don’t have the expectations and the mindset that we have become accustomed to,” Raghavan added “the queries they ask are completely different.”
The habits of Gen Z may just reflect the future of Google search: not as a go-to launching point for all internet needs and inquiries, but rather as one of several tools to search and discover across the web. To keep up with the new mediums, Google is working on a deal to index TikTok videos and Instagram posts in search results, The Information reported last year — because if you can’t beat TikTok, you may as well have it join your own platform.
But the youthful pastures of social media isn’t the only place Google is losing search steam. Another outflow of lost traffic comes from e-commerce. About 55% of product searches now originate on Amazon rather than Google, an internal Google survey also found.
The Apple in their Eye: A potentially powerful direct search competitor may also be emerging: longtime frenemy Apple. The tech giants duke it out for smartphone operating software supremacy, with Google’s Android OS vying against Apple’s iOS. But in search, the two have a lucrative, longstanding alliance: Google pays Apple upwards to $18 billion a year to remain the default search engine on iOS devices and on Apple’s Safari browser, according to a recent investor note from Bernstein analysts. But that partnership could become collateral damage as Apple takes aim at search.
In Fall 2020, the Financial Times reported that Apple is quietly increasing efforts to develop its own search engine — a matter made all the more urgent by antitrust scrutiny swirling around the billions it collects from Google. To head its effort, Apple poached former Google head of search John Gianandrea. Job listings for high-level search engineers have also increased in Cupertino lately, while some search functionality within the iOS homepage (found by swiping all the way right on your iDevice) have allowed Apple to learn from its most common user queries.
Rumors of Apple’s own search engine heated up this summer after influential tech blog TechRadar reported the company was gearing up for a January announcement of its own search service.
If that happens, King Kong may soon have to fend off the Godzilla of smartphones if it wants to keep its search crown.


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Global demand for chemicals and associated derivatives has continued to escalate. As a result, prices for a wide range of raw materials for the production of inks have reached record levels. Most recently, China, one of the world most important producers of pigments and precursors for pigments, announced the discontinuation of VAT refunds for export material effective from July 1, 2007. This alone has caused double-digit price increases for pigments, pigment precursors and many other key raw materials.
“Currently, our industry is experiencing extremely tight global supply of chemical feedstocks and continually rising raw material costs,” said Dr. Dirk Aulbert, president, Flint Group Europe. “We remain committed to meeting our customer needs for consistent, high-quality products with reliable supply. But absorbing even higher costs in this environment is simply not an option. These conditions have forced us to raise our ink prices.”


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Carvana slips into bigger-than-expected loss as demand for used cars declines
Nov 3 (Reuters) – Carvana Co
The used-car retailer said retail units sold in the quarter fell 8% to 102,570 and it expects a further decline in the current quarter.
The boom in demand for personal transportation caused by the pandemic is faltering as rising inflation strains people’s pockets, prompting them to rethink expensive purchases.
In a letter to shareholders, Carvana said the monthly payment for a customer buying a typical car jumped 22% in 2022 from a year ago, significantly outpacing the spike in the cost of living.
Meanwhile, the company also faces growing macroeconomic pressures, global supply constraints and higher operating costs.
Carvana, famous for its car vending machines, earlier this year laid off around 2,500 employees, or 12% of its workforce, in a bid to cut costs among its other measures. Read more
According to Refinitiv, it posted a net loss of $2.67 per Class A share for the July-September quarter, higher than analysts’ estimates of a loss of $1.94 per Class A share.
Revenue of $3.39 billion also beat expectations of $3.71 billion.
Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Court slaps injunction on GPL infringer
Landmark German ruling
A German court has granted an injunction for an infringement of general public licence (GPL) software.
Sitecom sells a wireless access router product which uses software developed by the netfilter project. Under the terms of the GPL, this is OK - so long as Sitecom, as redistributor, makes the full source code available too. netfilter says the company has not only failed to do this, but has also neglected to include the terms of the GPL with its products.
Lawyers acting for the netfilter/iptables project said that to the best of their knowledge, this is the first case in which a judge has ruled on the validity of the GNU GPL.
The ruling follows a series of out-of-court settlements the project has concluded with other companies. The organisers of the project argue that the terms of the GPL matter just as much as any other proprietory software license terms.
Initially, netfilter approached Sitecom with a cease and desist order, taking the matter further when Sitecom refused to sign.
Sitecom CEO Pim Schoenenberger says that it could not sign the proposed declaration, "simply because it was phrased, as presented initially to Sitecom, as an admission of guilt on Sitecom's part and that Sitecom was liable for unlimited costs. Naturally we were unable to sign that and have of course taken legal advice regarding all legal documentation in connection with this matter."
Harald Welte, chairman of the netfilter core team, said the court action should not be interpreted as a move against the commercial use of free and open source software, and sought to reassure vendors that there was no legal risk in using GPL-licensed software in products: "But vendors have to comply with the license terms, just like they would have to with any other, even proprietary software license agreement."
Sitecom has been ordered to stop distributing its product until it complies with all terms of the GNU GPL.
Schoenenberger said that all terms, conditions and requirements have now been dealt with. "Sitecom now conforms to the GNU General Public License and are now awaiting their official approval," he confirmed. ®


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Remarks by Country Director for Southeast Europe Ellen Goldstein at the Serbia-Albania Summit
Honorable Prime Minister Vucic, Honorable Prime Minister Rama,
Honorable Ministers, Members of the Business Community and Distinguished Participants,
In an Op Ed for the Wall Street Journal last week, the President of the World Bank, Managing Director of the IMF and Director-General of the World Trade Organization reminded us all that “Trade is not an end in itself, but a tool for better jobs, increased prosperity and reduced global poverty. With open markets, more people benefit from access to goods and services, ideas spread, and firms access larger markets abroad.”
They called upon national governments and international institutions to build public support for open trade policies, emphasizing that trade promotes innovation, employment and higher living standards. They also called for greater cooperation to reduce the barriers that still impede trade and stifle productivity growth. Theirs was a timely reminder that trade has been an unambiguous driver of prosperity and poverty reduction on a global scale.
This has been particularly evident in the emerging economies of Asia where integration in regional and then global markets for cars, televisions and garments lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the course of the past fifty years. Today we are witnessing a political backlash against free trade in many well-off nations. The backlash arises not because trade has failed to deliver on economic growth, but because this growth has been inequitably shared, producing winners and losers within society. That is a serious and important topic for Governments to consider in designing economic, fiscal and social policies which affect the distribution of economic gains.
But first, countries need sustained economic gain-and for this, they need to trade with others, particularly if they are small countries with limited domestic markets.
And so it is in the Western Balkans: countries need sustained economic gain, and these gains need to be shared in ways that enhance broad-based prosperity and social stability. With income levels still only about one-third the European Union average, and with high levels of unemployment, the small countries of the Western Balkans need to grow faster and create jobs that keep their young workers at home. To do this, they need more trade in goods and services.
Indeed no small countries have grown prosperous without enhancing trade integration. It is no accident that Albania emerged from decades of communist isolation as the poorest country in Europe despite its abundant resources and location. Typically, as small countries join the ranks of high income countries, exports as a share of national income rises toward 100 percent or more. Trade champion Singapore’s exports equal 200 percent of its national income.
Closer to home, Slovakia and the Czech Republic doubled their share of exports, from 40 percent to 80 percent of national income since the mid-1990s, bringing with it substantial convergence with European Union income levels. Another good example is Poland’s integration in global markets which has translated into uninterrupted growth since the early nineties, with the economy growing two and a half times its initial size, leading to substantial poverty reduction and better jobs.
In contrast, the Western Balkan countries have excelled in exporting labor, while exports of goods and services remain at only 20-55 percent of national income today. At the high end of this range is FYR Macedonia, a country which-despite the negative affects of its current political uncertainty-moved further along in reforming its investment climate and eliminating trade barriers in the past two decades-and saw faster growth rates and stronger employment gains than many of its neighbors.
You may now say “yes, but surely we cannot expand trade amid the persistent low-growth environment in Europe?” And my answer is that you can and, indeed, you already have. Before the global crisis, the Western Balkans grew by more than five percent a year-much faster than the European Union-largely through consumption led growth. Since the global crisis consumption as a share of national income fell by 6 percentage points in the Western Balkans, while exports rose by 10 percentage points. The value of Western Balkan exports to the EU actually doubled at a time when overall imports into the EU were stagnant.
How is this possible? It is possible because Western Balkan exports represent only about half of one percent of all EU imports. Taking that to one percent, or to one and a half percent would bring enormous benefits to your countries in terms of growth and jobs-and this is within your grasp.
This doubling in export value to the EU has been driven in part by increasing export sophistication in several countries. We have seen some successful integration in regional and global value chains in areas such as the automotive sector where Serbia and FYR Macedonia have become important suppliers and producers of vehicles and their components to European and world markets. This success in expanding trade has been an important factor in growth recovery in the Balkans most recently. Today, all countries in the Western Balkans are growing positively, with average growth is accelerating to three percent per year and beyond. This is nearly double that in the European Union, although still not yet fast enough to drive convergence within the next generation.
For this reason, it is important for leaders throughout the Western Balkans to work together to improve the environment for private investment and eliminate the barriers to trade in regional, European and global markets. Countries in the Western Balkans are at a historic juncture where it is possible to make substantial progress toward trade integration. The Western Balkan region is moving beyond the constraints of its recent history, toward an era of increased cooperation to achieve common goals.
Leaders in the Western Balkans-and we are honored to have two Prime Ministers here today from Albania and Serbia–are determined to build strong and prosperous societies based not only on sustained commitment to domestic economic reforms, but also on enhanced collaboration within the Western Balkans to break down barriers to economic integration, improve connectivity, and move toward regional and global markets. Western Balkan governments are working within the World Trade Organization framework and, of course, through the EU accession process to pursue greater economic integration. Regional initiatives, such as the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the connectivity agenda within South Eastern European Transport Observatory (SEETO) are important complementary avenues to foster trade in goods and services and promote regional cooperation.
Country-led efforts to promote regional economic integration were woven together last July at the high-level Western Balkan summit at the A�lysee in Paris, where the six Prime Ministers endorsed a Joint Action Plan for Western Balkan Trade and Transport Facilitation. This joint action spoke richly of leaders who understand that the path to EU accession, integration into international markets and better growth and jobs will be achieved collaboratively rather than competitively within the Western Balkans.
At the World Bank we know that carefully designed programs to facilitate trade and transport can deliver tangible benefits for citizens. Not far from here in Bulgaria we have financed a program that has reduced average border crossing time by more than half. In Latin America, in Colombia, a World Bank operation improved the single window for foreign trade and designed a national cargo risk management policy for ports. These reforms have reduced the time to export by more than 30 percent and the time to import by nearly 50 percent since 2008.
The World Bank is here today to formally launch preparation of a Western Balkan Trade and Transport Facilitation Project-to mark an era of enhanced regional cooperation within the Western Balkans. The objective of the Western Balkan Trade and Transport Facilitation Project is to foster greater economic integration among Western Balkan countries, and between them and the European Union, with a focus on reducing cost and time in trade and transport, strengthening coordination and institutional capabilities, and enhancing harmonization, transparency, and predictability of the trade and transport regimes.
This Program will support implementation of the Joint Action Plan endorsed in Paris, and deepen the reform agenda on trade facilitation in close collaboration with the European Commission, CEFTA, SEETO and other associated regional and international organizations. The Western Balkan Trade and Transport Facilitation Program will be developed by the six countries themselves, establishing a cross-country design and implementation team and relying on results-based financing to create incentives to make progress that transcends borders.
Let me close by saying that I am pleased that the World Bank can contribute to this event today, which I find deeply meaningful for three distinct reasons.
First, we are here at the starting point of the so-called “Peace Highway” which will provide the physical connectivity to foster economic and social linkages within the Western Balkans.
Second, the event is the product of emerging cooperation among the business community in the Western Balkans, which realizes that future growth is in the hands of the private sector and must be accomplished collectively.
Third, I am honored to be in the presence of Prime Minister Vucic and Prime Minister Rama who have made an unprecedented commitment to building a better relationship among their two countries. Both men have shown the wisdom, the vision and the leadership to pursue greater regional cooperation, knowing that this is the path to faster growth, better jobs and EU accession for each and every country in the Western Balkans.
Source: World Bank


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Panelists represent the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, IRS Criminal Investigations Division, and AARP.
More information about the event is available from Heather Hodges via email (firstname.lastname@example.org) or by calling (202) 832-NLSP.
According to the event notice,
Accounting for more than 43 percent of the Commission's identity theft complaints in 2012, tax identity theft was the largest category of identity theft complaints by a substantial margin. In addition, the percentage of tax identity theft complaints nearly doubled, from just over 24 percent in 2011. Program participants will hear from a panel of experts from the FTC, the Internal Revenue Service and the American Association of Retired Persons who will also answer questions about what people can do if they become a victim of tax identity theft.


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How would you describe the substance that comes out of a woman's private parts when she's not menstruating?
Let's just call it what it is: vaginal discharge.
That's what Carefree did in its latest ad for underwear liners, which shows a naked young woman, her body hidden behind white flowers, discussing the often taboo subject of female bodily functions.
"How well do you know your body?" the woman asks. "Even that bit of discharge … is our body working to keep the vagina healthy."
Ads for "feminine care" products are replete with euphemisms (and what's with the blue liquid?), featuring young women beaming at the camera while they strike a yoga pose or jump off a diving board.
"You never see a bathroom, you never see a woman using a product," Elissa Stein, co-author of the book Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation, told The New York Times in a 2010 article about menstrual product ads. "They never show someone having cramps or her face breaking out or tearful – it's always happy, playful, sporty women."
After the Carefree ad aired Sunday night, the Advertising Standards Bureau in Australia starting receiving complaints – five so far. But the company has defended the commercial, saying it is "the first time a major brand has had the guts to use real words, not euphemisms or diminutive terms."
Campaign spokeswoman Debbie Selikman told Nine News in Australia that Carefree conducted research and found that women wanted ads to use the proper terminology for their anatomy; other words used for vagina made women feel like they should be ashamed or embarrassed about their bodies.
It wasn't until 1985 that the word "period" was said on TV in a Tampax commercial by none other than Courteney Cox (before Friends, of course). That was 27 years ago. Maybe one day we'll look back and think how silly it was that "vaginal discharge" would be described in any other way.
Should advertisements for feminine products do away with euphemisms?


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Chris Sacca says there's 'a greed case for diversity'
Chris Sacca, the angel investor in companies like Twitter, Uber and Instagram, gets it. He understands that diversity is simply good for business. "There is a greed case for diversity," Sacca told CNN's Laurie Segall at the Collision Conference. "Diverse perspectives bring us into markets we didn't know existed." It's true. There's a very strong business case for diversity that can affect a company’s bottom line.
7701 Las Colinas Blvd., Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063


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Only the U.S.â€™s next-door neighbors of Mexico and Canada outrank China in terms of exports.
The US-China Business Council (USCBC) recently released its annual report on US State Exports to China. USCBC Vice President Erin Ennis says exports to China are vital to Americaâ€™s economic health and create good jobs for American workers.
«Between 2000 and 2011, total U.S. exports to China rose 54%, from $16.2 billion in 2000 to a record-breaking $103.9 billion in 2011. In addition, U.S. exports to China recovered faster after the recession than exports to anywhere else in the world. Clearly, China is a market that is important to U.S. companiesâ€™ bottom lines, even in tough economic times.»
Key points: U.S. states from across the country are benefitting from exports to China:
48 states have registered at least triple-digit export growth to China since 2000, far outpacing growth in their exports to the rest of the world. Twenty of those states have experienced quadruple-digit growth.
10 states have at least doubled their exports to China since 2009, while three of these statesâ€” South Carolina, South Dakota, and Vermontâ€”have more than tripled their exports to China in the past two years.
30 states now count China as one of their top three export markets and 25 states exported more than $1 billion to China in 2011, with export categories reflecting a broad range of products.


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What’s the link between coffee and diabetes? Recent studies suggest that coffee consumption can significantly reduce someone’s chances of developing type 2 diabetes. In some studies, research has found that for every cup of coffee you consume a day, your risk of developing diabetes is diminished by up to 7 percent!
WARNING! While the studies are encouraging, the coffee diabetes link does not come cheap. You may have to consume anywhere from 4-7 cups a day. You may want to buy your own Starbucks!
There are at least five key studies discussing the link. First, a 30 year study of people living on several Mediterranean islands found that coffee consumption lowered the risk of getting diabetes. Those who drank 5-6 cups a day had the lowest risk.
Second and third, two different Swedish studies both concluded that drinking 4-7 cups a day also lowered the study participants risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Fourth, in yet another Scandinavian study, a group of Fins were found to have a lower diabetes risk if they consumed coffee. The study was a bit less conclusive on why this was the case.
Fifth, a 2011 study found that men who substituted a cup of coffee for one sugar flavored drink, could actually lower there risk of developing diabetes by 17 percent! Incredible.
While these studies have recognized the link coffee has in preventing diabetes, researches didn’t really know why.
This may have changed in 2011. A study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry by Chinese researchers determined that coffee blocked a substance in the pancreas that may cause diabetes. The substance blocked is called HIAPP or human islet amyloid polypeptide. By blocking the substance, coffee may slow, or even prevent the onset of diabetes.
Other researchers make the point that coffee contains very strong antioxidants. Antioxidants protect your cells from damage caused by free radicals. Coffee also contains magnesium and chromium. These minerals have been found to help your body process and use insulin.
But, diabetes health is not the only thing coffee may have benefits. Researchers also believe that coffee can lower your risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and liver cancer. Be careful though. Try not to load each cup up with sugar and high fat cream or milk. Personally, I like coffee with a little soy milk.
Where does the Americans with Diabetes Association stand on the coffee and diabetes connection? Well, they also agree that their may be a link between coffee and lowering diabetes risk. However, they do note that other unknown factors could be involved. Regardless, I am off to a coffee break!
Coffee Helps Prevent Diabetes, Now Scientists Learn Why, Marni Jameson, Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2012.
Sugar Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Rick of Type 2 Diabetes in Men, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2011).
Coffee and Your Health, Webmd (accessed September 2012).
By Erich Schultz – Last Reviewed January 2013.


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Victoria II Summary
Two more teasers fornew IP in the works, which currently hides behind the name of Project Augustus. revealed Henrik Fåhraeus (Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron) as Game Director.
Today's says that "Elections and Technological Development" are important elements to the game. It's most definitely grand strategy material, but it sounds as if things could be moving away from a Roman era?
Paradox Interactive begin "every weekday" teaser campaign for Project Augustus, to reveal at Gamescom
The brand new IP thatis working on will be announced in full at Gamescom next month, but until then we'll be subjected to small teasers "every weekday" until they finally unveil the truth.
This will be the internal studio's "first new major IP" since Crusader Kings debuted over a decade ago.tells us Seven and Three "are important numbers." We're then told to enjoy our weekend.
and Humble Bundle have proposed a royal marriage and accepted an alliance as they bring us the with over $200 in gaming goodness.
War of the Roses, Magicka, Knights of Pen and Paper, Victoria II and more are just a few dollars away in this 'pay what you want' charity drive. Over $5.14 gets you Hearts of Iron III, Crusader Kings II and Impire.
The latest Clausewitz engine is fuelling the rise of nations and colonialism in Europa Universalis IV, and it's gearing up for all-out war in Hearts of Iron IV, buthas more in the works using that engine.
Crusader Kings II lead designer and Game Director Henrik Fåhraeus confirms there's "another game in production and yet another one in pre-production." Who's on the suspect list?
The latest expansion to Paradix Interactive's Victoria II can now be pre-ordered. Heart of Darkness adds a lot more ways to "grab and hold colonies in the mad scramble for Africa." It releases mid-April.
Select outlets will offer Victoria I Complete to those who pre-order, or 75% off Victoria titles including Victoria II and Victoria II: A House Divided. This add-on also adds International Crises.


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The beta Android 11 was released on 3 June. But finally, Google pushes this event. “This is not the time to celebrate,” says the firm of Mountain View. The screen of the Pixel 4 / © Presse-citron.net
This year, because of the pandemic, Google has cancelled his conference, I/O. as a reminder, it is normally during this conference that the firm of Mountain View, in front of an audience of developers, has the next new features of its ecosystem.
And since this conference I/O has been cancelled because of the COVID-19, Google had planned to organize a virtual event, on 3 June, to present the first beta of Android 11. But today, this virtual event is pushed back. And obviously, this is in connection with the events that take place in the United States, following the death of George Floyd.
The news was announced by Google Developers on Twitter : ” We are delighted to tell you more about Android 11, but this is not the time to celebrate. We refer to the event of June 3 and the beta version. We will be back soon with more on Android 11. “
We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate. We are postponing the June 3rd event and beta release. We'll be back with more on Android 11, soon.
— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) May 30, 2020
Android 11 : the fans of Android are waiting for the announcement of the new operating system
Currently, Android 11, is already available in preview version for developers. It is an unstable version that allows application developers to test the new API of the operating system, all sending feedback to Google.
The beta version should be closer to the stable version, and to better reflect the final product that will be distributed to the general public. And the event of June 3 should have been an opportunity for Google to present new. At the same time, the beta should be available on more devices. In fact, currently, it is not possible to test Android 11 on the smartphones of the brand Pixel Google.
The best Android smartphones Galaxy S20 909 € Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro 179 € Huawei P30 Pro 529 € Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro 64 Gb 427 €
For the moment, we don’t know when Google might unveil the beta Android 11. Moreover, it is possible for the firm to follow still the changes of the situation in the United States before setting a date.
But it is not to exclude that this presentation be done in the month of July. Why ? Previous rumors indicated that Google might unveil its next smartphone mid-range, the Pixel 4a in July. And given the current circumstances, it is possible that Google launches the beta of Android 11 in the event he has planned for the launch of this smartphone.
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