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Following the anticipated merger of the Competition Authority and the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Sadique Kebonang, has warned Competition Authority employees that there might be headed for a restructuring.
“Of course the board will likely remain until the act has been fully amended in parliament, but other than that there will have to be a few changes here and there,” said Kebonang.
Kebonang said he will oversee both the separation of the Competition Commission and the Competition Authority as well as the transfer of the Consumer Affairs from the Ministry to the Authority, and as a result there will be some restructuring.
The Competition Authority is the primary enforcement agency for competition law and policy. It was established under the Competition Act of 2009 to monitor, control and prohibit anti-competitive trade or business practices in the economy of Botswana. It has been fully operational since 2011.
Kebonang visited the offices of the Competition Authority and Competition Commission on Wednesday and met with staff as part of his consultation and familiarisation tour of departments and parastatals under the ministry.
In his address to staff, Kebonang announced that all parastatals under the ministry fall under his portfolio, and he will be the link and close the gap between government and parastatals. He said that he will deal with all issues regarding restructuring, appointment of boards and CEOs. “I will be interfering at a much regular basis in your jobs, so brace yourselves for that. I have been given the mandate to oversee about 10 parastatals under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, including yours,” Kebonang said.
He said the role of his ministry is to grow the economy and therefore all bottlenecks that impede business will have to be removed. “When we have to intervene we will do so,” he said.
Earlier, when welcoming the Assistant Minister, the Chief Executive Officer, Thula Kaira, said as a public service delivery system, the CA will always strive to deliver results that are in line with the overall national development goals, saying that though the CA is operationally independent, it accounts to government.
According to Kaira, there has been a cabinet decision to separate the Competition Commission from the Authority. This process will entail creating a corporate governance board for the Authority and a separate tribunal that will hear both competition and consumer matters. In addition to this, the Consumer Protection Act of 1998 will be transferred to the authority for enforcement once it is amended according by parliament. Kaira said proposed amendments to both the Competition Act and the Consumer Protection Act have been drafted and are currently under review by the Attorney General’s chambers.


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There’s just under a week to go until the long-awaited Moon: Remix RPG Adventure gets its very first English localization. Originally released in Japan for the PlayStation way back in 1997, the game has reached a sort of legendary status for those who’ve known about its prescient approach to skewering video game tropes.
Just to make it clear that yes, it really is happening, the game has popped up on the Switch eShop and is available for pre-purchase. It costs $18.99 and takes up 1.4 GB of space.
You’ll be able to start playing Moon once it launches on August 27, 2020.

domain: news


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Apple said on Thursday that the company found no evidence that the iPhone and iPad Mail app is vulnerable. According to a report, cyber-attackers are exploiting the Mail app on iPhone and iPad. Hundreds of millions of people use the iPhone and iPad worldwide. Thus the initial report from a cybersecurity startup, ZecOps, was a real issue for many.
Gizchina News of the week
Apple opposes ZecOps claims
In a statement, Apple dismissed the opinion of cybersecurity startup, ZecOps. The company believe that the software flaw may have caused hackers to invade iPhones and other iOS devices for more than a year. Apple had to investigate if there was an exploitation of its Mail app flaw. According to Apple, the email vulnerability alone is not enough to allow cyber attackers to bypass the built-in security protection mechanism of Apple’s system. The company also promises to release an update and fix it soon.
“We have thoroughly investigated the researcher’s report. Based on the information provided, have concluded these issues do not pose an immediate risk to our users,” the Cupertino, California company said. “The researcher identified three issues in Mail, but alone they are insufficient to bypass iPhone and iPad security protections. We have found no evidence they were used against customers.”
However, ZecOps believes that this vulnerability could make more than 500 million iPhones vulnerable to hackers. According to the company, there is evidence that hackers took advantage of the loophole in at least six cybersecurity intrusions, dating back to January 2018.
On its part, Apple is not denying the Mail app vulnerability on the iPhone and iPad. It has even promised to release an update to fix the issue. However, it believes that the iOS system is still secure despite the Mail vulnerability. For now, iOS users have to wait until Apple officially releases the fix for the Mail vulnerability.


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As part of MeUndies 2.0, the e-commerce site has added more offerings for women. MeUndies
It’s not just subscription: We’ve heard that subscription e-commerce is losing some of its novelty (ShoeDazzle just rejiggered it model), and while MeUndies' Shokrian didn't go that far he did say that some people simply don’t like being committed to regular shipping. So after three months of making it a mandate, MeUndies launched an option last March that allows people to just shop when they like. Those who do subscribe save 20 percent off its underwear prices, which are $16 per pair (up from $15 when the site first launched.). “A lot of people have different buying habits,” Shokrian said. “We found that there were people who would buy 15 or 20 pairs all at once so we set up options that allow people to get shipments that way, bimonthly or quarterly.”
Going international: MeUndies, which offers free shipping in the United States has also been shipping to Canada, and about 10 percent of its business is overseas. Now it plans to do a further expansion to fulfill requests from people who have signed up for the site but are not able to actually shop. Shokrian says that the company still sees plenty of growth in the U.S. market, but the international customers were an opportunity it didn’t want to pass up. But it will cost $12 for any international shipping.
It’s doing bricks and mortar: The company has offered its underwear in trendy hotels like The Standard in New York, and in vending machines at a Los Angeles boutique called Confederacy, where customers can swipe their credit cards to buy a pair. It's been well received, and the company plans to do similar alliances although not too many.
After getting an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, Teresa worked as a general assignment newspaper reporter—general on purpose because besides the usual city hall and police articles, there was the chance to fly an F-18 with the Blue Angels and tag along with bounty hunters on a stakeout—all good preparation for covering entrepreneurs.
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Each of those buzz-creating properties will have its own area on Yahoo as part of a new strategy designed to make the most sought-after pop-culture topics easier for people to find. The move is also expected to create more inventory to sell to brand advertisers.
Vince Broady, head of Yahoo's games, entertainment and youth division, said Yahoo will cull its site to tag the biggest pop-cultural interests among its users -- judged on a certain critical mass and the audience's passion about the subject -- and take those areas of interest and build out a destination dedicated to each pop phenomenon.
Yahoo will aggregate various offerings related to those interests from throughout the site, including TV clips, dedicated chat rooms and outside consumer-created content. The idea is that enthusiasts of Harry Potter or "Lost" can get all the content related to those properties on one page instead of having to search out the web.
Yahoo is looking for brands that appeal to 13 to 34 year olds.
"Over time, we will monetize the relationships and sell advertising on" the pages, Mr. Broady said. Last fall, Yahoo kicked off the so-called Brand Universe program with a dedicated site for the Nintendo Wii. An additional 93 areas will be designed for Brand Universe over the year, he said.
Widening the universe
Yahoo said it might consider adding package goods or other types of non-entertainment marketers to the Brand Universe. "We might open it up to others," said Mr. Broady. For a brand like Pepsi, "might we create an environment for them -- yeah," said Mr. Broady. "But we're not doing that today."
Yahoo said it won't seek permission to launch the destination pages, nor will it share revenue with the pop hits. Instead, it will go about its business as it does with message boards that discuss brands or celebrities -- no licensing or pre-approval is required. "We can support those brands and create new opportunities for them," Mr. Broady said, but he added that any marketer complaining about Yahoo co-opting its property will be dropped from the program. "We will go onto another" brand, he said.
As Yahoo moves to become an entertainment brand of its own, the internet company is finding some interesting differences between audience demographics for TV vs. the web. CBS's "60 Minutes" might have a 55-plus adult consumer on TV, but the news magazine's Yahoo internet clips are among the most requested video streams with 30- to 40-year-olds.


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Alongside Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Shanghai and Tel Aviv, Singapore seems to be emerging as the next hotspot of tech innovation in Asia.
I have been carrying this impression for some time as I have been meeting with people behind a few startups in the island state. But the impression got strengthened over the weekend.
The reason behind this was the Unconference 2009 which was held at Matrix @Biopolis on Saturday (16 May). In this conference, more than a dozen startups participated. Most of them were homegrown such as Orsiso, 2359 media, ITwinn, Human Network Labs and Socialwok. Some were works of passion. Others were incubated with local agencies and helped with government funds. Some cool startups from Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand also participated in the conference.
Asia will drive innovation, said Mohan Belani in his opening remarks. Mohan is associated with e27, which organised the conference. He specially mentioned innovation in social networking which was very much on display among the startups.
The feeling about the opportunity for Asia in tech innovation was further buttressed by the remarks of the keynote speaker, Scott Rafer. An innovator, Scott is CEO at Lookery.com and is co-founder and board member at Mashery.com.
Silicon Valley is losing its status in the world, he said in his keynote address. It was befittingly titled as Market size, not magic!
His proposition was that startups here need not get bogged down by the geographical limitation. So what if you dont have a Facebook-like global idea. Southeast Asia itself is a right-sized market that can sustain a startup, said Scott. He gave the example of many European startups that have succeeded with only a regional target audience.
Did you think that it takes a genius to come out with a startup idea?
Practically speaking, startups are more about being good copycats than genuine innovators.
So, the other cool advice that came from Scott was about copying good ideas from other parts of the world. If you see something working somewhere else, copy it, he said. But one must make a 20 to 30 per cent change to the idea and adapt it for the region, he added.
There are two more mantras for successful startups: be late and be boring. According to Scott, being late means introducing the idea into the target market when it has reached a certain level of maturity. And one need not always start with sexy ideas. Thats what he means by be boring. For example, he said, directories, customer lists and analytics can also be wonderful startup ideas.
Capital will follow the market size, he said. So, if you have an idea, there are many sources of fundingfrom venture capitalists (VC) to government grantsto make your idea a reality.
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'We are extremely excited to deliver yet another industry first,' said CJ Webber, CEO of Atlantic Radio Telephone.
Miami, FL (PRWEB) December 18, 2013
Atlantic Radio Telephone, a long time leader in satellite communication and navigation solutions, released the SatStation Extreme Desktop Dock - WIFI today, the first WIFI-enabled Docking Station for an Iridium satellite phone. This release arrives on the heels of last month’s release of the SatStation Isat Pro Dock – WIFI, which was also the first of its kind for IsatPhone Pro users, and the mobile satellite industry as a whole.
“We are extremely excited to deliver yet another industry first,” said CJ Webber, CEO of Atlantic Radio Telephone. “The SatStation Extreme Desktop Dock not only provides customers a great easy to install docking solution, but also allows them to integrate their satellite phone with their smart phone or tablet. Satellite phone users have a growing demand for technology that is compatible with the devices they use every day, and it is imperative we recognize this and respond. This dock truly delivers.”
The SatStation Extreme Desktop Dock is designed specifically for the Iridium 9575 Extreme Satellite phone and includes an embedded Optimizer board by RedPort Global. Atlantic Radio Telephone has once again partnered with RedPort because of their compatibility with a wide range of satellite email services including XGate, Satphone.Me, OCENS Mail, GMPCS SpeedMail, Iridium AxcessPoint Mail and Web and others. All of these services offer satellite-optimized email, web browsing, weather, blogging and social media services including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
With a sleek and professional design, The SatStation Extreme Desktop Dock - WIFI enables users to place and receive calls by either utilizing the Privacy Handset or the built-in loudspeaker with echo-cancellation and background noise filtering for a full duplex hands-free operation. The Privacy Handset provides the convenience of answering calls when it is lifted and ending the call as soon as the handset is placed on the dock meanwhile charging the phone battery when the satellite phone is installed. The dock includes audio output for the recording of phone calls, another feature unique to SatStation desktop docking stations.
A non-WIFI version of the dock is being released simultaneously, which will offer users who do not need to integrate with another device all of the other features the dock has to offer. Both versions of the SatStation Extreme Desktop Dock are manufactured in and distributed from Miami, Florida.
About Atlantic Radio Telephone
Since 1976 Atlantic Radio Telephone, Inc. has been providing communication and navigation solutions to individuals and organizations who find themselves “off the grid.” In 1999, Atlantic Radio Telephone created SatPhoneStore.com to focus on its customers’ growing demand for satellite communications. SatPhoneStore’s mission is to keep people connected anywhere on the globe. Located in Miami, Florida, Atlantic Radio Telephone provides sales, support, installation, integration and repair services to customers located around the world in industries including: maritime, military, first responders, utilities, aviation, education and research, travel and tourism and more. Atlantic Radio Telephone has also developed the SatStation line of satellite phone docking stations and desktop and solar battery chargers.
For more information about Atlantic Radio Telephone’s SatStation line of products for satellite phone users, visit http://www.satphonestore.com/satstation-products.html.


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Alejandro Pena Press
Alejandro Pena, Keter CEO, Keeps the Brand True to the Community Through Sustainability – January 30th, 2023
Alejandro Pena, Keter CEO, ensures that the brand maintains its sustainability efforts through various initiatives.
Keter Group CEO Alejandro Pena on Sustainability and ESG – December 8, 2022
Keter CEO Alejandro Pena has made ESG efforts a cornerstone of what the company looks to accomplish from a business perspective, as well as how it hopes to operate in the larger macro environment.
How To Put Sustainability Ideas Into Action – May 18, 2021
Not that long ago, manufacturing companies that focused on environmental sustainability were exceptions. Now companies that don’t are significantly increasing the risk to their business long term.


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NEW YORK, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Stock in Ferrari, the mystique-laden sports car manufacturer, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday valued at $52 a share.
Ferrari, spun off from owner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, raised $893 million through an oversubscribed initial public offering of 17.18 million shares, or 9 percent of its stock, and began the trading day. It has a market capitalization of about $9.8 billion.
Also read: AeroMobil introduces $1.3M flying car
18:38 Bill O’Reilly’s gone — with $25 million in reported severance. Now the hard work really starts for Fox News18
16:46 Browns GM: We feel really good about picking at No. 1 despite receiving trade offers30
15:50 Gabrielle Union's New Book Has The Perfect Title: 'We're Going To Need More Wine'19
21:31 New York Controller stops $21.3M in false tax refund payments13


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During 1984 new records were set in South Florida for the sale of usable and zoned commercial sites. These are tracts suitable for development of income property such as stores, shopping centers, warehouses, or office buildings.
Last year all annual sales records in Broward County were broken. Buyers acquired 575 commercial tracts, spending $392.4 million in the process. The number of sales was 29 percent higher than the previous best year. Money spent for commercial land in Broward was up 42 percent from 1983. Sales also soared in Palm Beach County in 1984.
The dollar volume of business -- $330.3 million -- reflected an upturn of 38 percent from 1983. Last year 389 sites were sold compared to 338 the previous year. In Dade County demand was strong but not as high as in prior record years. The number of tracts sold totaled 570, a decline of 14 percent from the previous year. Dollar volume of business reached $426.5 million, a 45 percent increase.
Over the last three years there has been a steady growth in the sales of commercial sites in Broward and Palm Beach counties. For instance, in 1982 $89 million in commercial sites was sold in Palm Beach, whereas last year the figure tripled to $330 million. Also, for the first time ever, there were more annual sales of commercial sites in Broward than in Dade County.
These statistics reflect a continuing shift northward of real estate activity into Broward and Palm Beach Counties. An analysis of fourth-quarter sales revealed that the median price paid for a commercial site in Dade was $9.34 per square foot. In Broward the median was $4.71, and in Palm Beach it was $5.01. The median price of a Dade County commercial site is twice as expensive as in Broward or Palm Beach.


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There was a profound need to bring fire detection and fire-fighting on-board container ships higher up on the safety agenda of regulators and the industry at large, marine insurer Gard has said, noting that the SOLAS regulations had not kept pace with the realities of the risks faced.
In late 2018 Gard started an initiative with the objective of better understanding the causes of cargo-related container ship fires and what could be done to mitigate risks. Gard invited a number of stakeholders to its headquarters for a two-day conference on October 17th and 18th, which was broadly attended.
Gard presented an overview of the issue based on its own analyses and on the discussions at the Gard conference.
Root causes of container ship fires
Gard said that there was a broad consensus at the conference that the root cause of fires was often hazardous cargo. Between 10% and 12% of containerized cargo fell into the category of hazardous, or “regulated cargoes”. The fundamental challenge was to carry such cargo in a safe manner on ships. Certain chemicals such as calcium hypochlorite, electronics, batteries and charcoal were among the dangerous cargos known to ignite inside cargo containers.
Gard said that shippers’ misdeclaration of such cargo was probably the single biggest problem which needed to be tackled to prevent fires on-board.
Gard said that, in its view, the problem was wider, and that many of the container ship fires it had seen had arisen from other causes, such as errors in packing and securing of cargo, or various manufacturing defects. Gard said that several container ship fires had been caused by self-heating, combustion or explosion of dangerous cargoes that have been properly declared and properly packed. The combustible nature of the cargo was an important risk factor in and by itself.
Addressing the cargo supply chain
Gard said that root causes originating from the global cargo supply chain and trade mechanisms needed to be addressed. Studies conducted both in Europe and the US that focused on the accuracy of information concerning shipments of dangerous goods in containers revealed alarming statistics. More than 50% of shipments of dangerous goods proved to have deficiencies in terms of declarations or packing/securing for certain trades. The risk remained systemic, despite efforts by container liner operators to improve their routines through “Know Your Customer” programmes, shipper and cargo screening and strengthening dangerous goods booking teams. Conference participants heard about these initiatives and others, including engaging with the authorities of some of the states where much of the dangerous cargo originates.
Gard reported several discussions on how to develop quality in the cargo supply chain. These included mandatory liability insurance for shippers and standard verification of shippers involved in transportation of dangerous goods.
The announcement by several container carriers this year that they would be imposing penalties for any misdeclaration of hazardous cargoes seemed to have been well received, although some participants questioned whether the proposed penalties would be enforceable in practice. Gard said that it believed such preventive measures to be “positive and necessary”. The insurer said that “shippers are likely to improve their practices if they know that there is a higher chance of wrongful cargo bookings being detected through inspections and that there will be consequences for sloppy or, even worse, fraudulent practices”.
Gard observed that, to discourage rogue shipments even further, authorities could do more to prosecute offenders and bring them to justice. The IMO had urged governments to implement inspection programs for dangerous goods, but “few seem to have acted on this so far”.
However, Gard said that it was questionable whether any such programmes would extend to cargo not seemingly dangerous as per the cargo declarations. “Governments and shipping lines may have little appetite for these inspections, given the cost and their influence on speed within a highly competitive supply chain”, said The insurer observed that, to date, the container lines had been unable to share the identity of rogue shippers or develop a common cargo screening system within the alliances to prevent a rogue shipper finding a weak link.
The reality today was that unsafe shipments were going to slip through even the tightest prevention net. Gard said that it therefore became necessary for shipping companies to further enhance focus on what they can control – the ship and crew.
Fire detection and firefighting on board
Gard accepted that there would always be a risk of cargo generated fires as long as dangerous goods were shipped. The question was whether modern container ships were equipped and prepared to deal with a fire adequately without endangering the crew.
Fire detection on container ships today was largely based on the detection of smoke, not temperature. When the fire was detected by smoke in the cargo hold, it was often too late, already too dangerous for crew to enter the cargo hold. The remaining option was to release the limited amount of CO2 on board. However, Gard noted that releasing CO2 into the cargo hold, had proved to be insufficient for extinguishing fires inside a container. The CO2 does not penetrate the container and container hatches are not tightly sealed, meaning the CO2 escapes before the fire can be extinguished.
Fires in containers on deck presented other challenges. The larger ships might have container stacks up to 30 meters high, meaning that many containers would be out of reach for the fire hoses on board. The current SOLAS requirements were largely the same as for other cargo vessels, with some minor additional requirements for container vessels constructed after January 1st 2016. Gard said that the regulations appeared to represent “a compromise following years of debate”, adding that “today’s experts’ opinion concerning the required equipment is that it will be of very limited value in most container ship fire scenarios”.
Innovation in firefighting equipment
Selected companies developing equipment for fire detection and firefighting were invited to speak and to present their products at the conference, with the purpose being to demonstrate that there were solutions available if there was a will within the container shipping industry to improve.
Radicos Technologies GmbH (Germany) offer temperature monitoring for road tunnels and greenhouses that could be installed in cargo holds, thus allowing vessels to monitor temperature of as little as 0.1 degrees Celsius.
Rosenby Engineering (Denmark) offers remote firefighting equipment to penetrate containers also at heights.
Liberty Gasturbine (The Netherlands) offers an adaptation for marine use of equipment used to extinguish fires in mines by way of constant supply of inert gas mixed with water.
It was said by several during the conference that the current objectives of SOLAS were not met onboard the container ships of today. There would be no viable solution to address the risk of fire aboard modern container ships without revised IMO regulations (SOLAS).
The conference was told that some shipping companies had invested in firefighting equipment in excess of SOLAS requirements. But the Classification Societies present said that not many companies had taken up more comprehensive measures that were contained in additional Class Notations.
Gard said that it expected to be involved further in discussions with the German Flag State, which was working on a submission on these exact issues to be proposed to the IMO Marine Safety Committee in 2020.
Gard concluded that “history has shown that effective mitigation measures can be found in relation to large and complex risks arising from shipping activities. Oil spills from tankers have been dramatically reduced over the past 50 years through a combination of international, regional and national laws and regulations, stricter quality vetting by charterers, improved ship design, improved operational standards, more scientific approach to prevention and response, as well as generally a higher regard for the consequences of pollution to the marine environment, business and society at large. Where there is a will, there is a way.”


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WAREHAM, Mass. (WPRI) — You might think of Wareham as one of those towns you have to pass through when you’re on your way to a different destination – say Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, or maybe somewhere on Cape Cod like Dennis, Chatham or Provincetown.
But the town is now taking action to encourage people to stop by before the infamous Cape traffic begins and enjoy their coastline instead – all 50-plus miles of it.
They’re launching a campaign to rebrand the town as a destination in its own right rather than a gateway.
“We want folks to know Wareham has everything our neighbors across the bridge have – just with less traffic and lower costs,” Town Administrator Derek Sullivan said in a news release Tuesday.
The campaign slogan is: “It’s Better Before The Bridges.” While the town is happy to acknowledge it’s a geographic and historic gateway to the Cape, they want to draw attention to its beaches, attractions like the village of Onset, resources like Tobey Hospital (where $25 million is being invested in expansion), industry like cranberry-growing and craft-brewing, and shopping at big retailers as well as specialty stores.
The town has launched a new website, discover-wareham.com, to share offerings, listing 20 restaurants and eight locations for lodgings.


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Pepsi did not fulfill promise to take two Big Brother Naija housemates to Dubai for a year now.
GISTMASTER gathered TrikyTee and Ozo won one million Naira, a year supply of Pepsi and a all expenses paid trip to Dubai durning the BBN shine your eyes edition in 2020 but the promise is yet to be fulfilled. Some commenters online described it a very bad. Don’t use people to shine with promises you can’t fulfill.
In a post he made online, TrikyTee wrote “Na wa o @pepsi_Naija whats up with this Dubia matter na, it been over a year o”
Pepsi Nigeria, a product from SevenUp Bottling Company, Nigeria sponsored the Big Brother Nigeria but making a promise before the whole world and not fulfilling it is not good for a brand that pride itself as one of the major beverage companies in the country.


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Neiman Marcus is equipping all of its 4,000 associates at its full-line stores with smartphones in an effort to better serve customers, company executives said on the retailer’s recent conference call with analysts. Neiman’s executives also said the company plans to remodel it stores on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and in Bal Harbour Shops, Bal Harbour, Fla.
Christian Louboutin, known best for his heels with the iconic red bottoms, is helping Neiman Marcus celebrate its 20th anniversarty with the launch of "Sole Seekers," a social media challenge that asks users to upload Louboutin images into a growing online pictorial spread. The challenge, which will feature entries from Instagram and Twitter, will also be hosted on the Neiman Marcus Facebook page and NMdaily, The Neiman Marcus Blog, according to a company press release. "Sole Seekers" runs Feb. 10 through March 10 when one winner will be selected to receive a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. Participants submit


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The sanitary metal brand presents its new position and reinforces its line of water-saver products.
REPENSE signs the creation of the new integrated communication campaign of DOCOL, one of the biggest sanitary metal companies in Brazil.
The campaign inaugurates the brand’s new graphic identity, presents its new positioning “A Escolha Inteligente” (The Smart Choice) and highlights some of its products that ensure the conscious water-use, with highlight to Residencial Flex (turned to residential use) and DocolMatic (destined to public environments) lines, which provide an economy of up to 70% in water consumption.
These water-saver products, along with other actions, such as the creation of the blog www.docol.com.br/planetaagua/ show DOCOL concern with the environment and evidence sustainability as one of the main brand’s pillars.
The communication mix of this first campaign contemplates the addition in television, radio, adds in printed media, besides the new PDV outfit and external media.


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DAVENPORT, IA - PCT Engineered Systems, a manufacturing solutions provider that develops and implements automated systems and BroadBeam electron beam technology, has been awarded the Better Business Bureau’s annual Integrity Award.
The Integrity Award was established in 1993 to recognize those firms whose business practices and related activities exemplify the Better Business Bureau’s mission, “To Be the Leader in Advancing Marketplace Trust.”
PCT was one of five local businesses honored at the Better Business Bureau’s annual Integrity Awards luncheon and awards ceremony on April 26.
PCT President Terry Thompson was pleased with the recognition, which stemmed from a nomination from a local company that conducts business with PCT.
“The culture, work ethics, honesty and integrity that drive the Midwest and particularly Iowa have allowed us to become a very successful company,” Thompson noted. “These core values come out every day in the things that we do. A company that is driven by integrity has distinct advantages when dealing with the many different cultures of the world, as we do.”
Export business for PCT has grown substantially in recent years, currently accounting for over half of total annual sales, and continued global expansion remains a priority.
“We are actively involved in producing systems that are exported all over the world,” said PCT BroadBeam Sales and Marketing Director Karl Swanson. “In fact, we currently are involved in projects with customers from Germany, Australia, Mexico, Taiwan and India, and we have initiatives pending in several other countries. The Integrity Award is wonderful recognition that our team has both grown and continued to do business the right way.”


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Foxconn Adding More Chinese Manufacturing Workers To Increase iPhone Production Capacity
Foxconn, the original equipment manufacturer for Apple products, is reportedly expanding its manufacturing capacity in 2012, aiming to increase production for iPhones and iPads to meet the ever-growing market demand.
According to reports in Chinese local media, Foxconn is cooperating with the municipal government of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, to double the number of its employees in the local plant. The Zhengzhou plant is Foxconn's new factory which began production on August 2, 2011, as the Taiwanese high-tech giant has begun moving its factory production to inland China. It currently has about 100,000 employees, which means an additional 100,000 jobs will be provided to job-seekers.
In 2011, Foxconn reportedly invested USD1.1 billion in the new Zhengzhou plant. On the completion of the new recruitment, the production capacity of this plant will be greatly increased and it is expected to become the world's largest smartphone manufacturing base.
Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant currently can make about 200,000 iPhones daily, and the scale may be doubled as the result of the new recruitment.


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UK is losing a whopping 17 billion pounds annually on food and drinks wasted by Brits , a new report has revealed.
According to the report published by Wrap, the Government's recycling agency, Britain's waste mountain - comprising food, drink and discarded packaging - hit 18.4 million tons in 2009.
"Neither the economy nor the planet can afford to foot the bill for the staggering level of waste in the UK food chain. There is not enough talk about prevention, which is where we need to see much greater focus from government and industry. The Government must act on this report across the food supply chain and end its own wasteful and costly obsession with incineration," the Independent quoted Julian Kirby, Friends of the Earth's resource use campaigner, as saying.
The report said Brit households dumped nearly 11.9 million tons of food and drinks every year, at a cost of 12billion pounds. Manufacturers waste five million tons annually, with retailers wasting 1.4 million tons and a further 100,000 tons going to the bins during the distribution process.
Liz Goodwin, chief executive of Wrap, said: "We need to improve communication between various parts of the supply chain. For example, if retailers talk to their suppliers, we will be able to get the best outcomes."


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Each week, we bring you the latest whisky news on WhiskyCast, but a lot can happen during the week. Now, you can keep up with whisky news as it happens here on WhiskyCast.com!
August 30, 2014 – Templeton Rye, the Iowa-based producer of a whiskey linked to bootleggers during Prohibition, will change its label to come into compliance with current federal regulations. The brand’s owners told the Des Moines Register Friday that the whiskey’s labeling will be updated to reflect that Templeton Rye is actually distilled at the MGP-I distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Chairman Vern Underwood and President Scott Bush also committed to being more transparent about the recipe used for Templeton Rye, which has been billed since its inception as being derived from the recipe used by Templeton’s Kerkhoff family to make bootleg whiskey during Prohibition. They acknowledged that the Kerkhoff recipe cannot be the basis for the current whiskey, since it would not comply with federal standards of identity for rye whiskies. The whiskey is in fact MGP-I’s standard mashbill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley that the company supplies for use in many rye whiskey brands, including Diageo’s George Dickel and Bulleit ryes. Customers can vary the taste by using different age ranges, charcoal-filtering the whiskey as in Dickel’s case, and as Templeton acknowledged Friday, by blending it with other whiskies and water to the desired strength.
Underwood and Bush denied any attempt to mislead consumers by not including the state of distillation on the label, and noted that the current labeling has been approved by the Treasury Department’s Tax & Trade Bureau, which oversees alcohol labeling standards. They also told the paper they plan to start building a distillery next year that will eventually replace the need to source bulk whisky from MGP-I. In previous WhiskyCast interviews, Bush has acknowledged the MGP-I link, but has also said that their existing small distillery in Templeton has been unable to produce whiskey that recreates the flavor of what they now purchase from MGP-I.
Earlier this week, Templeton was one of the brands listed on a Chicago-based law firm’s web site as the subject of an “investigation” into what the firm described as whiskies claiming to be handmade “small-batch” whiskies actually produced at a large commercial distillery. Edelson PC specializes in class-action lawsuits on behalf of consumers, and is believed to be looking for consumers to act as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against various distillers and producers. The firm has not returned our requests for more details on its plans, and took care to mention on its web site that none of the brands named on the site had been accused of illegal activity.
Templeton’s Scott Bush has not returned our requests for an interview on either the Des Moines Register story or the Edelson investigation. This story will be updated as needed.
Links: Templeton Rye
August 28, 2014 – Pernod Ricard has announced plans to eliminate a total of 900 jobs worldwide as part of its “Project Allegro” cost-cutting program, with an overall goal of cutting $198 million in costs between now and 2017. CEO Pierre Pringuet disclosed the cuts in an interview with Bloomberg News as the company announced an 8% drop in annual earnings for the fiscal year ending June 30. The project is being led by chief operating officer Alexandre Ricard, who is scheduled to succeed Pringuet as chief executive and become company chairman in 2015. Ricard plans to reinvest at least a third of the savings into marketing for the Pernod Ricard brand portfolio.
Pringuet did not disclose specific targets for the cuts in the Bloomberg interview, but Aberdeen’s Press & Journal reports 100 jobs will be eliminated at the Paris-based company’s headquarters. Chivas Brothers, the company’s Scotland-based whisky and gin unit, is one of the largest divisions in the company. The number of cuts at Chivas Brothers has not been disclosed, but spokesman Jim Long tells WhiskyCast that the cutbacks will target back-office and support functions with little impact on production. Pernod Ricard is the world’s second-largest spirits company, and its extensive Scotch whisky portfolio includes Chivas Regal and Ballantine’s, along with the Glenlivet, Aberlour, Strathisla, and Longmorn malt distilleries. Chivas Brothers reopened Glen Keith distillery in Speyside last year to increase its malt whisky supplies, and is nearing completion of a new malt distillery on the site of its former Imperial distillery in Speyside.
Pernod Ricard USA spokesman Jack Shea told WhiskyCast today that the total of 900 jobs includes positions already eliminated at the US distribution unit earlier this year. Pernod Ricard USA recently revamped its distributor network, with a number of employees transferring to distributors to work specifically on the Pernod Ricard brand portfolio. Irish Distillers has already completed a program of voluntary buyouts that eliminated 35 jobs, with 600 employees remaining on board. A spokesman for Corby Distillers, the Pernod Ricard majority-owned Canadian distiller, told WhiskyCast there will be no significant impact from the cuts on Canadian operations.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with details on cuts at Pernod Ricard’s Chivas Brothers and Irish Distillers divisions.
Links: Pernod Ricard
August 28, 2014 – After three years in orbit as part of an experiment on board the International Space Station, a vial of Ardbeg whisky is set to return to Earth next month. The sample will be carried on a Soyuz capsule that will land in Kazakhstan, and will eventually be returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for analysis.
Ardbeg provided the sample to NASA contractor NanoRocks LLC for an experiment billed as testing the differences between maturing whisky on earth and in zero gravity, but which actually had the scientific goal of testing the difference in chemical reactions that take place in whisky maturation and other processes. The sample will be compared with a reference sample taken from the same Ardbeg cask that has been stored in Houston for the past three years.
During a June interview in New York, Glenmorangie director of whisky creation Dr. Bill Lumsden hinted that something special was in the works to mark the sample’s return. Ardbeg is reviving Supernova, the heavily-pleated expression that was produced in 2009 and 2010. The 2014 version, like the previous versions, carries no age statement. However, it has been bottled at 55% ABV, lower than the earlier releases bottled at 59.9% ABV in 2009 and 60.1% ABV in 2010. It will go on sale September 12, the day the Soyuz capsule is scheduled to return to Earth, at Ardbeg Embassies around the world with a recommended retail price of £124.99 ($207.30 USD).
Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional information on the 2009 and 2010 Ardbeg Supernova bottlings.
August 27, 2014 – A Chicago-based law firm is looking for consumers who bought “small-batch” whiskies from craft distillers and bottlers under what the firm suggests may be false pretenses. The site Consumer Class Actions.com suggests that a number of craft whisky brands have misrepresented their whiskies as coming from “small, independent distilleries when they are actually all made in the same large, generic distillery.” The distillery is not named, but is the MGP Ingredients (MGP-I) distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (formerly known as Lawrenceburg Distillers, Inc., or LDI), which produces bulk whisky for sale to bottlers and whisky producers.
The web site names 10 whisky brands and producers, while maintaining that naming those brands does not “state or imply” that an illegal act was committed. The list includes Templeton Rye, Angel’s Envy Bourbon, Diageo’s Bulleit Rye, George Dickel Rye, and Seagram’s 7 whiskies, Breaker Bourbon (California), High West, WhistlePig Rye, Redemption Bourbon & Rye, and KGB Spirits’ Rancho de Los Luceros Destileria in New Mexico. The site suggests that its attorneys are investigating to see whether “legal rights have been violated.” Redemption co-owner Dave Schmier told WhiskyCast that “Small batch is not a legal term , so they need to define it and the first brands that really popularized the term were the Jim Beam small batch brands.” Beam’s original Small Batch Collection includes Knob Creek, Booker’s, Baker’s, and Basil Hayden’s Bourbons.
While federal regulations ban so-called “non-distiller producers” from using the term “distilled by” in their labeling, they are allowed to use the language “bottled by” or “produced by”. As Chuck Cowdery said during this week’s episode of WhiskyCast, there are a number of cases where non-distiller producers appear to be violating a federal regulation requiring that the state of distillation be disclosed on whisky labels when it is different from the producer’s home state. For example, the owners of Iowa’s Templeton Rye have acknowledged in previous WhiskyCast interviews that their whisky is distilled at MGP-I, but that does not appear on the Templeton Rye labels. The Treasury Department’s Tax & Trade Bureau is responsible for enforcing labeling regulations, but has not focused on the “state of distillation” regulation in recent years. There are no federal standards in place for defining the terms “small-batch” or “craft” whiskies.
At least five of the listed brands have either built or are in the process of building their own distilleries, including Templeton Rye, Angel’s Envy, High West, Ascendant Spirits (Breaker Bourbon) and WhistlePig. It should be noted that WhistlePig does not source its whiskies from MGP-I, but from Alberta Distillers in Canada. WhistlePig owner Raj Bhakta declined to comment on the law firm’s characterizations in an email to WhiskyCast.
High West distills its own whiskies in Park City, Utah, but founder David Perkins has been open in previous interviews and seminars about sourcing whisky from MGP-I. In an email, Perkins said he is “not very disturbed by this nor am I worried for anyone named. It sounds ludicrous!”
“We absolutely do purchase whiskeys from other distillers and have always been open about this on our labels, our website, on our tours, in stories about us, in events that we hold, and in whiskey blogs.”
Ascentant Spirits founder Steve Gertman told WhiskyCast that he has always been open about his company’s sourcing of bulk whiskey for Breaker Bourbon while the whiskey at his California distillery is maturing, and that his labels comply with the TTB’s regulations. KGB Spirits co-founder John Bernasconi ridiculed the law firm’s comments in an email, saying that “I can’t imagine a smaller batch than single barrel straight whiskey. We average 240 bottles/ batch (barrel).”
Seagram’s 7 has been produced at MGP-I for many years, dating back to when Seagram owned the distillery (and has not been marketed as a “small-batch” whisky).
The site is owned by Edelson PC, a Chicago law firm with offices in Denver and Los Angeles that specializes in class-action litigation. Class-action lawsuits typically are brought on behalf of a group of potential clients, with the suit representing all potential victims of an action, with the goal of helping individuals take on an industry or corporation as a group instead of filing thousands of individual lawsuits.
WhiskyCast has asked the firm’s designated spokeswoman for more information on Edelson’s plans, but has not received a response. We have also contacted each of the brands mentioned on the firm’s web site. This story will be updated with more information.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include responses from Ascendant Spirits, KGB Spirits, WhistlePig, and Redemption, in addition to previously added comments from High West’s David Perkins.
August 26, 2014 – This weekend’s 6.0 magnitude earthquake caused millions of dollars in damage at many of Northern California’s wineries and vineyards, with some wineries in the Napa Valley reporting extensive damage to both equipment and cask inventories. However, the valley’s longest-established distillery reports no damage at either of its facilities other than brief power outages.
“I didn’t even feel it,” said Charbay Winery & Distillery’s 13th-generation master distiller, Marko Karakasevic. “I turned the news on the next morning, and all of a sudden, there it was.” Charbay’s winery and brandy distillery is located about 30 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter at American Mountain, while the family’s whisky, rum, and vodka distillery in Ukiah is about 100 miles northwest of the epicenter.
“We took a look, and you know, we don’t have thousands of barrels stacked to the roof, and I can say we just got really lucky,” Karakasevic said.
Editor’s note: This story was corrected to update Marko Karakasevic’s status as a 13th-generation master distiller instead of an 8th-generation master distiller.
August 26, 2014 – Monday is the Labor Day holiday in the US, and for the most extreme fans of Maker’s Mark Bourbon, there will be another reason to celebrate. As WhiskyCast reported in June, the distillery has been testing a cask-strength version this summer with bartenders and distillery visitors, and the new version will go on sale Monday exclusively at the Loretto, Kentucky distillery.
Maker’s Mark president Rob Samuels announced the sale date in an email to members of the distillery’s Ambassadors group today. The whisky will vary in strength between 54% and 57% ABV, but pricing was not announced. In a June 16 interview, Samuels told WhiskyCast there are no plans to expand availability beyond the distillery’s gift shop. “I envision that even if there’s a huge surge in demand, which there very well could be, that it would always be very, very limited,” he said.
Maker’s Mark is in the middle of a $70 million expansion project that will increase the distillery’s capacity by 50%, along with infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the thousands of visitors to the distillery each year.
Links: Maker’s Mark
August 25, 2014 – Put this story in the category of rumor control. Diageo’s groundbreaking ceremony last week for the new Bulleit Distilling Co. site in Shelby County, Kentucky appears to be the end of plans to revive distilling at the historic Stitzel-Weller Distillery on Louisville’s west side. However, there will be new construction work at Stitzel-Weller starting this week, but it is not linked to a revival of the distillery, which closed in 1992.
Diageo will be building a new bottling line at Stitzel-Weller to bottle what a company spokesman described as a “range of American whiskeys.” It will be the first time bottling work has been done at Stitzel-Weller in more than two decades, according to the company.
Diageo has been using Stitzel-Weller’s maturation warehouses for years, and is nearing completion of work on the first phase of upgrades to The Bulleit Experience housed in the distillery’s former administration building. That project had originally been scheduled to open last spring in time for the Kentucky Derby, but is now expected to open to the public this fall. The original Bulleit Experience was completed in 2011, and while designed to be open to the public, was used only for in-house training programs.
August 21, 2014 – Diageo’s newest distillery is still two years away from producing its first spirit, but work has begun on what will be called the Bulleit Distilling Co. in Shelby County, Kentucky. A groundbreaking ceremony for the $115 million project was held today at the 300-acre site along Benson Pike east of Shelbyville, about halfway between Louisville and Lexington just off Interstate 64.
“It’s a brass ring…it’s a life dream for me,” Bulleit Bourbon founder Tom Bulleit said during a telephone interview with WhiskyCast’s Mark Gillespie following the ceremony. The distillery’s name had not been announced until the ceremony, but it will be named for the Bulleit family, which started making whiskey in Kentucky before the Civil War when Augustus Bulleit produced whiskey for nearly 30 years before disappearing while transporting his whiskey to New Orleans in 1860. Tom Bulleit is his great-great-grandson, and revived the family business in 1987 before selling it to Seagram’s, and the brand is now the primary Bourbon in Diageo’s global portfolio.
In a news release, Diageo North America president Larry Schwartz said “Tom Bulleit has a genuine passion for his bourbon that he shares with everyone he meets. The growth of the Bulleit brand is the result of many years of investment and the relationships Tom has built. We are proud to be breaking ground on the new home of Bulleit Bourbon in this wonderful location in Shelby County.”
Listen to Mark Gillespie’s interview with Tom Bulleit:
The distillery will have a capacity of 1.8 million gallons of spirit when it opens, and Tom Bulleit said most of the production will be dedicated to Bulleit Bourbon. “We’ll make Bulleit here, and we’ll see what else,” he said. Diageo executives have said the facility will also be used to produce whiskey for use in other Diageo brands, without giving any specifics.
As WhiskyCast first reported last September, Four Roses gave Diageo notice that it would terminate its contract to distill spirit for Bulleit at the Lawrenceburg, Kentucky distillery at the end of March. Executives from both companies have declined since then to comment on the status of the contract, and Tom Bulleit said today that provisions have been made to meet Diageo’s needs until the new distillery goes into production. “I never comment on our supply contracts that we have for supply contracts with people and have had through the years since we were with Seagram’s,” Bulleit said. “We think we’re gonna be fine…we’ve made provisions.”
No master distiller has been named for the distillery yet, and the facility is not currently expected to have a visitors center or be open for tours. Earlier this year, Diageo opened The Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville to the public after using it exclusively as a training center since 2011. The attraction will also showcase Diageo’s new Orphan Barrel line of whiskies matured at Stitzel-Weller.
Editor’s note: During the telephone interview with Tom Bulleit, Mark Gillespie referred to the distillery’s annual capacity as 750,000 gallons, when the reference should have been to approximately 750,000 cases of whiskey. This story was updated to include comments from Diageo’s Larry Schwartz and a photo from the ceremony, both supplied by Diageo.
August 16, 2014 – While one of the usual suspects led the overall bidding at Bonhams in Hong Kong during Friday’s auction of rare whiskies, the rare chance to bid on unusual Japanese whiskies dominated the bidding. Japanese whiskies rarely come up for auction at Bonhams and McTear’s auctions in Scotland, but bottles from all of the major Japanese whisky producers of past and present were up for bids.
A 55-year-old Macallan Lalique decanter from the Six Pillars series took top honors with a high bid of $37,932 (USD), including bidder premium. However, the runner-up was one of the few Yamazaki 50-year-old whiskies to ever appear at auction, and brought a winning bid of $37,932. Only 150 bottles were released in 2011, and Bonhams had issued a pre-auction estimate of $24,515, with the final bid reflecting the unusual level of interest in rare Japanese whiskies.
This was also one of the few auctions to showcase Ichiro Akuto’s bottlings from his family’s now-closed Hanyu Distillery bottled with playing card-themed labels under the Ichiro’s Malts label. A five-bottle poker straight lot with the ace, two, three, four, and five of clubs sold for $20,546 dollars, and a single bottle of the Ace of Spades went for $11,063 dollars.
The auction also featured several lots from the renowned Karuizawa distillery, which was mothballed in 2001 and eventually closed permanently. A two-bottle lot of 45-year-old Karuizawa single malts sold for $15,014, while a bottle of 21-year-old Karuizawa distilled in 1965 sold for $13,434.
The next Bonhams whisky auction in Hong Kong is scheduled for November 18.
Links: Bonhams Auction Catalog
August 15, 2015 – Russian officials have expanded their sanctions against American whiskey to take on the largest brand in the business with a targeted action against Brown-Forman’s Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and its cousin, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Liqueur. According to the Moscow Times, which cited a state-controlled ITAR-TASS news agency report, regional food safety officials in Sverdlovsk plan to confiscate all of the Jack Daniel’s products being sold in the region for alleged violations of Russian labeling laws. The report says alcohol bottles must include a list of ingredients, the location of the distillery, and the “length of the distilling process” — all in Russian. A spokeswoman for Russia’s food safety agency says the Jack Daniel’s labels in question met none of those standards. and also expressed concerns that Jim Beam’s labels may also not be in compliance.
“We’ve been selling Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey in Russia for 15 years, and we’ve been in compliance with all regulatory and labeling requirements throughout that 15-year period of time,” Brown-Forman spokesman Phil Lynch told WhiskyCast in a telephone interview. “There’s no difference in the Jack Daniel’s being sold today in Russia, and of course, throughout the rest of the world, from the Jack Daniel’s we’ve ben selling in Russia for the past 15 years…so if there are any labeling compliance issues, it must be because the Russian authorities have changed the regulations without informing us and giving us any time to comply.” Lynch noted that Brown-Forman has received no notification of any issues from the Russian government. While declining to provide specific data, Lynch said Russia is one of the top ten export markets for the Jack Daniel’s brand.
The food safety agency is also taking issue with the honey-flavored Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey expression over what the ITAR-TASS report called “chemical substances not common to whiskey.” Lynch described the concerns as either “ignorance or politics,” since Tennessee Honey is not labeled as a whisky. “It is a liqueur and it meets all the specifications and standards in Russia as a liqueur,” Lynch said. “We did not comply with the whiskey specifications for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey because it is not a whiskey, so the government agency in the Ural Mountains that tested it as a whiskey doesn’t know what the heck they’re doing.”
The ITAR-TASS report also cites the agency spokeswoman as saying the labels on Jim Beam Bourbon sold in the Sverdlovsk region also violate legal requirements. WhiskyCast has asked Beam Suntory executives for any confirmation they may have received from Russia.
Last week, the Russian consumer protection agency moved to block imports of Sazerac’s Kentucky Gentleman Bourbon based on allegations that laboratory analysis found evidence of phthalates in the whiskey, and has since banned imports of beer and spirits from Ukraine along with a wider ban on most food products from Western nations. Russian officials have long used the food safety and consumer protection agencies as tools in foreign policy disputes, and the recent round of sanctions has been regarded as retaliation for sanctions imposed by the US, European Union, and other allies against Russia for its support of rebel forces in Ukraine.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a link to the Moscow Times coverage, along with additional information from the ITAR-TASS reports citing a potential problem with Jim Beam labels.


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Potterheads got all kinds of excited about last November’s announcement of a Pokemon Go-style ARG called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (heck, so did we!). But it’s been months now without any follow-up information on this game, and now it looks like it might be months more before we hear anything.
During a recent interview, developer Niantic confirmed that the ARG will be based on its platform and deal with the same database locations that both Ingress and Pokemon Go uses. The plan is still to release Harry Potter: Wizards Unite by the end of 2018, but that’s all the studio was willing to say on the game.
The studio shared how Pokemon Go’s massive success dwarfed anything Ingress did (with 800 million downloads vs. 20 million). An upgraded version of Ingress, called Ingress Prime, will come out later this year on a new platform and a “refreshed design.”
If all goes well, later this year we will finally be treated to an actual Harry Potter MMORPG in the form of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. While that will be a mobile ARG in the vein of Pokemon Go, it will still be a big step into the online space that MMO fans have been craving for nearly two decades now.
Obviously, Harry Potter continues to be a mammoth franchise for J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., and Electronic Arts, which has handled the video game license over the years. While there have been single-player Harry Potter titles, especially on consoles, no MMORPG emerged even at the height of the IP craze that swallowed up Star Trek, Star Wars, Warhammer, and more. So why not?
The truth is that Harry Potter Online almost did happen. Its brief existence and development isn’t too well-known, even today, but the wasted potential has always tantalized me with what could have been. Using a time-turner, we will go back to the late 1990s today and peek in on a possible future that came to fruition.
Pokemon Go developer Niantic just got enough money to build a second pool in which to put all that money to roll around in. Venture capitalists have poured another $200M into the company through a Series B funding campaign following the reveal of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, its upcoming wizarding world MMOARG. As Android Central points out, Niantic raised just $30M in 2015 following its Pokemon Go announcement, so this is a hefty increase that demonstrates continuing confidence in the power of Harry Potter, MMOARPGs, or both.
Meanwhile, researchers from Purdue University have produced a paper documenting the real cost of Pokemon Go in property damage and human life in a single county in Indiana, which won’t surprise anyone who recalls the parade of articles about crashes and deaths and vandalization last year when POGO first released.
On this week’s show, Justin and Bree wrassle a mess of eastern mobile MMOs that are leaping onto the scene, imagine a world full of Harry Potter gamers wandering about, discuss SWTOR’s server merges, and take Guild Wars 2 to task for lockbox missteps.
It’s the Massively OP Podcast, an action-packed hour of news, tales, opinions, and gamer emails! And remember, if you’d like to send in your own letter to the show, use the “Tips” button in the top-right corner of the site to do so.
Listen to the show right now:
When we first heard rumors about a Harry Potter version of Pokemon Go, I said I could barely imagine what the game might be like before listing several other IPs that would translate better as AR games. It’s not that I don’t like the Harry Potter series (I do) or Niantic (someone’s got to push the envelope). My issue is that I can’t see how their respective styles could combine to create something great.
So I’ve gone back to some of my pre-POGO notes about Ingress and what would need to change before it went live and, well, Niantic clearly thinks differently than I do because this game is very much happening. I thought it might be useful to consider Niantic’s past and how it may affect its upcoming game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Let’s dig in.
Like the idea of a mobile augmented reality game (ARG) but aren’t really keen on Pokémon? Niantic, the operator of Ingress and Pokémon Go, is branching out to include an additional franchise that should rope non-muggles into its community.
The company announced that it working with WB Games to make Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite uses state-of-the-art augmented reality technology to reveal the magic all around us,” the teaser site says. “Explore real-world neighbourhoods and cities to discover mysterious artifacts, learn to cast spells, and encounter legendary beasts and iconic characters along the way!”
Niantic CEO John Hanke said that this game will give fans of the series a real-world outlet for their passion: “The beloved Harry Potter stories have captured imaginations worldwide for more than 20 years, and soon we’ll turn the fantasy into augmented reality, allowing fans and their friends to become wizards and witches.”
Wizards Unite is one of several titles being developed by WB’s Portkey Games for mobile and console. More details about the game will be forthcoming in the new year.


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Nestle has launched a new flavour of KitKat and people are loving it
The lemon drizzle flavour KitKats are currently only available at Asda either as a two-finger chocolate bar or a pack of nine for £1.99
The new bars join mint, orange, cookies and cream, mocha, and dark in a growing experimental range by Nestle which last year, it launched a New York cheesecake flavour KitKat Chunky.
The latest lemon drizzle flavour was first spotted by @newfoodsuk.
We've not tasted the flavour yet. Nestle has been pretty quiet about its latest combination.
But of those who have tasted it, the chocolate looks to be going down well. Many more are keen to try.
Ooh, lemon drizzle kit kat. pic.twitter.com/b2uDQOLF3e— Dr Ian P (@DrImpaler) February 11, 2018
But not everyone's convinced...
Bex.bitoffitness said: "I don’t know how I feel about this... chocolate and lemon??"
Lemons drizzle flavoured kit Kat?!? Not sure about that!! Give me a slice of lemon drizzle followed by an additional separate kit Kat me thinks.— JJ! (@JJ_brum) February 11, 2018


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Nokia Maps For Windows Phone Hacked, Available To All
When we told you that Nokia Maps — not Nokia Drive — will soon be available for free to all Windows Phones we didn’t think of it this way. Instead of Espoo making it available to everyone, XDA Developers recently did.
Nokia recently released its Maps application for the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 but XDA Developers managed to get their hands on the XAP file (which is basically the installation package) and made it available online. If you have an unlocked Windows Phone, either by official Microsoft dev-unlock or ChevronWP7 Labs, you can sideload the application on your non-Nokia Windows Phone. However, if reports turn out to be true, an official Marketplace version should be available soon for everyone that doesn’t like Bing (or Bing doesn’t support their region).
Nokia Drive — the navigation software — was reportedly recently hacked on other devices too, and about this software bit we know that Nokia had no intentions of bringing to other phones. This raises the question, again: will jailbreaking Windows Phones boost homebrew development or piracy?


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It is unveiling a multimillion pound marketing campaign focusing on “time-saving travel”, including television spots, alongside a website overhaul and the introduction of purple as a colour it can “own”. The colour will be introduced across the airline’s collateral, such as uniforms.
Chief commercial officer Paul Simmons says that the company has revisited its heritage to find the “product truth” that will give Flybe a strong positioning, personality and way to engage with fliers.
“It is necessary because very few people know what we do. Now we have a very focused proposition. We were a brand most people had heard of but nobody knows what we stand for.”
He says that as Flybe has no airline competitors on 80 per cent of its routes the marketing will target road and rail users and champion the airline’s speed to destination.
A new strapline “From A to Flybe” is being rolled out with creative executions that show how speedily Flybe can transport you to a destination. There are three TV spots with calls to action for business and leisure travellers and they will be supported by other channels, including social media. The campaign has been devised by The Corner.
The branding refresh and communications are underpinned with a ‘60:60 Guarantee’ product that will give passengers a £60 credit towards their next flight booked within 60 days if, through the fault of the airline, their flight arrives more than 60 minutes late.
Simmons says: “No-one else can do this – not BA, Ryanair or easyJet – because their on-time performance is not good enough”.
The airline claims to be Europe’s largest regional operator and flies to 70 airports in total. In the UK its key airports are Birmingham, Southampton and Manchester.
It sees opportunities for growth in both business and leisure sectors and also as a “white label” airline serving flag carriers as a connecting service for their hubs. Currently half its passengers are business fliers.
Flybe recently overhauled its pricing structure to a “yield to load” model as used by low cost carriers but is emphatically not using a budget airline model. It is retitling its three types of ticket so the propositions are clearer with the new names of Just Fly, Get More and All In.
The company has seen a near total management overhaul since August last year when Saad Hammad was named CEO. A number of senior executives, including Hammad and Simmons, have previously worked at easyJet.
Commenting on Ryanair’s recent charm offensive and promises to become more customer friendly, Simmons says: “If Ryanair is really serious it will make inroads but it will take years, not months.”


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Light rail service in the downtown Dallas area will be halted for six weekends, including the Thanksgiving holiday, during repairs to DART lines. The work begins this Saturday.
Office supplies retailer Staples said Tuesday that it is looking into a potential credit card data breach and has been in touch with law enforcement officials about the issue.
The U.S. government issued an urgent plea to more than 4.7 million people to get the air bags in their cars fixed, amid concern that a defect in the devices can possibly kill or injure the driver or passengers.
Frito-Lay reported that Wasabi Ginger won its contest that gives people a chance to create a new flavor, beating out coffee flavored chips and the two other finalists.
Days of walking around without a wallet won’t be coming for a while, if ever. But Apple’s new payment system for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus brings us much closer.
For more than a week, people have seen the outside of apartments belonging to Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, the nurses who tested positive for the Ebola virus.
Gas prices in North Texas are among the lowest in the country right now. What’s more, the current average of $2.83/gallon is well past a three-year low, even for the seasonal dip that occurs each fall.
Grapevine Mills Outlet Mall will be under construction for the next year as it undergoes a multimillion dollar renovation.
Toyota is recalling 247,000 vehicles in high-humidity areas as an air bag problem that has plagued most of the auto industry continues to widen.
Apple’s skinnier iPads and flashy big-screen iMac are sleek and stunning. But the tech giant is making a bigger strategic bet with next week’s launch of Apple Pay.
Chrysler said Thursday that they are recalling nearly 907,000 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles for failing alternators and heated power mirrors that can cause minor fires.
Apple is expected to unveil a new iPad and more at an event on Thursday, as the company tries to drive excitement amid slowing demand for such tablet computers.
Organic foods will typically cost you more at the supermarket, but are seen as a healthier option. Get the facts on organic foods. Are they worth the added cost?
Think before you eat. More specifically, think about not eating these foods, all of which have been through a scary recall and could send you to the emergency room.
From harassing phone calls to lemon cars, consumers have a lot of complaints. A recent survey data looked at the top 10 consumer complaints.
Apple is known for its hip style in electronics, and that same trend carries over into its retail stores. Look at some of the coolest Apple Stores around the world.


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A growing number of former Apple devotees in China have started switching from iPhones to domestic Huawei smartphones as trade and technology tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing.
The South China Morning Post reported that consumers were spurred by a rising “nationalist sentiment” to support the Chinese tech giant which has been blacklisted by the US.
According to the newspaper, “nationalist rhetoric of ‘switch to Huawei’ has gained increasing traction as trade tensions escalate.”
Social media campaigns have been urging citizens to support Huawei at Apple’s expense in response to US-China trade disputes, it said.
Some long-time Apple users in China have started framing Huawei purchases as acts of patriotism.
“There is a calling from my heart that I need to show support for Chinese brands, especially in the trade war climate,” said Wang Zhixin, a manager at one of China’s largest solar module manufacturers. Earlier this month Wang retired his three-year-old iPhone 7 and got a Huawei P30.
He explained that Huawei was not entirely chosen out of sympathy. “The company has a reputation for better quality at a cheaper price… [The P30] is faster and can take better pictures.”
Another former Apple fan, Sam Li, who works at a state-owned telecom company in Beijing, said that “It’s kind of embarrassing to pull an iPhone out of your pocket nowadays when all the company executives use Huawei.”


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by Anton Shilov
01/30/2013 | 11:59 PM
Google this week game a select group of software designers their first look at the Google Glass high-tech head-mounted construction. The developers had to pay $1500 for the device and sign a very strict non-disclosure agreement that does not allow them not only to show the hardware to anybody or discuss it, but even to test drive it outside the Google's events.
For the first time, Google showed off its Google Glass augmented reality glasses to a group of people from outside the company. The Glass Foundry events (in New York and San Francisco) were wrapped in a cloak of secrecy so substantially that no leaks have been made by anyone since early this week, a rather unbelievable situation for today. Apparently, Google decided to adopt Apple’s tight secrecy approach to its projects. The developers were only allowed to use the Glass on-site during the events.
Google Glass which the company demonstrated a year ago was a wearable construction with 0.5” (1.3cm) display, a camera, battery, speaker, wireless chips and antenna. It is unclear how does the new Google Glass look or work.
Target applications for the Google Glass include, among other things, taking and sharing photos, checking appointments, accessing maps and the Internet as well as some other, like e-mail, notification center, information updates and so on.
"I just think it would allow you to be more interactive with your environment because you're always sort of staring at your phone and you're never realizing what's around you," said Ritu Kumar, an owner of the Google Glass, in a conversation with ABC.
One of the main problems of wearable computers is input method as devices do not have keyboards or touchscreens, whereas voice recognition causes a lot of difficulties and cannot be used in many scenarios (e.g., in public places). Another question is about user interface as well as necessary capabilities in general. Finally, a plenty of technologies have to be developed - including displays, batteries, microprocessors, memory and other - to create such devices. All-in-all, Google has a lot of work to do.
If Google succeeds in creation of wearable systems with displays incorporated into glasses, then it will be able to further broaden availability of its services that will be present not only on PCs or mobile devices, but virtually everywhere.


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The iPhone XS went on sale on September 21, 2018, almost nineteen months ago. A year and a half is a long time in this industry, but Apple's relentless pace of iOS updates coupled with hardware chops has managed to keep old iPhones fresh for years before they eventually become outdated. That said, we set out to find out how the iPhone XS compares to the iPhone 11 Pro, Apple's latest and greatest model released six months ago on September 20, 2019.
Global spread of the novel coronavirus has dampened demand for luxurious products and aspirational gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, a situation that has now prompted several Chinese retailers to offer discounts on the iPhone 11 series in order to entice buyers.
Premium Apple accessory maker Twelve South on Thursday released its SurfacePad leather cover for the latest iPhone models in new Spring-themed colors.
If you feel like you should jump ship from your current wireless carrier, Verizon might have an option for you with a familiar brand name.
Heads up iDB readers! We've teamed up with our awesome friends over at Nomad to bring you a special, exclusive offer on their leather iPhone cases. For a limited time, you can get 20% off any iPhone 11 case using our exclusive promotional code. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite deals below.
Apple has made huge gains when it comes to camera quality in the iPhone over the years, making it one of the most important features in its smartphone lineup.
Back in January, Apple launched a new photo challenge. This one was for owners of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and/or iPhone 11 Pro Max, and wanted to see the best shots taken with Night Mode.
Apple's reliance on Chinese supply partners and manufacturing arms is not a secret. And a new report suggests it's a reality that isn't going away anytime soon.
Following recent news by the government of India regarding an increase in import duties, Apple's now responded to the announcement by boosting the price of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 8 models sold in the country in order to offset the costlier import duties.
The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max are expensive handsets, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can't be used by kids, too.
Apple on Sunday released a new shot-on-iPhone footage that tested the limits of the triple-lens camera on the iPhone 11 Pro, especially its ultra wide camera, with sweeping shots of the iconic sandstone structure found in Valley of Fire State Park located in Overton, Nevada.
A lanyard or wrist strap can be an easy and quick way to make sure you don't drop your iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max.


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Of course the The Sims team wants a chance to show off the new expansion pack The Sims 4 Island Living themselves as well. On Thursday, June 20th (a day before the release) at 7pm UK time, they will live stream on Twitch ? Livestream alert! ? Join us June 20th, 11AM PT for a 1hr livestream that *dives* into Island Living gameplay, CAS, BB and ????????! https://t.co/fG1X3Cd513 — SimGuruFrost ?? Sulani (@SimGuruFrost) June 13,...
Today is the day! The Sims will be holding a presentation during the EA play livestream At 8pm UK time The Sims will take the stage to give us hopefully (and likely) very exciting news! You can find the livestream here: EA Twitch The EA play livestream will start at 5:30pm UK time, but will start with other games. Below is the planning listed, keep in mind, these are the PT times in LA. So add 8 hours for the UK time. or use this...
Sul Sul, Simmers! On Friday, May 3rd, SimGuruMorgan, SimGuruGraham, and SimGuruChowder held a Guru Garage where they talked a bit about the Freelancer career, which was free content added in the April patch. If you’d like to watch the stream in its entirety you can find it on The Sims Twitch channel, but if you haven’t time to watch the entire stream – it’s nearly two hours long – we’ve summarized...
19 years ago, on february 4th 2000, a new game was released: The Sims!
The game has had a few generations now, with in 2004 The Sims 2, 2009 The Sims 3 and in 2014 The Sims 4.
There have been many generations, many changes and the most awesome stories in each iteration of the game.
To celebrate The Sims will be hosting a Maxis Monthly live stream today on The Sims Twitch
Welcome to 2019! A whole new year of exciting The Sims news!
To kick off the new year, The Sims has a new Maxis Monthly Live stream in store for us, where they will recap what has happened the last month (year?)
During the first live stream about a patch, SimGuruKate had an announcement for the upcoming plans and communication.
Find out what they are here


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Lineup includes only the 125 cc models. Piaggio India through its Nepalese distributor D-Lifestyles has presented the Vespa lineup at the NADA Auto Show
Tag Archives: Vespa VX 125
D-Styles is the official dealer partner in Nepal. Piaggio India today launched the Vespa scooter in the mountain kingdom of Nepal. Two models, the Vespa
To be on sale only during the festive season. Shortly after the showcase of the Vespa Elegante, Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. (PVPL) has launched the limited
To be positioned above the Vespa VX. Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. (PVPL) has announced that it will showcase the India-only Vespa Elegante limited edition
Derives certain features from the Vespa Primavera. The Vespa Elegante is an India-specific scooter which is getting ready to be launched in the festive
Piaggio will introduce a new offering during the festive season in the form of the Vespa Elegante. A report on the Economic Times says that the new scooter
The Vespa Esclusivo limited edition scooter has been launched silently at INR 81,100 (on-road Pune), commanding a premium of INR 3,200 over the Vespa VX
Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd is holding customer previews for the ‘Vespa Esclusivo’ in select Indian cities. A Pune based Facebook fan page follower has sent us these images from one such event. The Vespa Esclusivo is limited to 1,000 examples
The Vespa VX 125, a richer equipped version of the LX 125 automatic scooter has been launched in India at Rs. 71,380 (ex-showroom Delhi). Piaggio has been
Edit – We have been told by Vespa that these prices are speculative and the actual figure is yet to be announced. Piaggio India has recently previewed the Vespa VX 125 scooter which is essentially a richly equipped variant of the regular LX 125.
Front disc brakes and new color options in the offing. Vespa has conducted a preview of the Vespa VX 125 automatic scooter today to select media houses. The VX 125 is nothing but the LX 125 with additional features.


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Abra, a financial services and technology company operating an all-in-one cryptocurrency wallet and exchange app, has announced the ability to now buy bitcoin with VISA or MasterCard credit cards or debit cards from anywhere in the world. Purchases may be made on abra.com or via the Abra app.
Buy Bitcoin on Credit
Abra users may now buy bitcoin with VISA and MasterCard debit and credit cards.
You can now fund your wallet using VISA or Mastercard globally! Buy bitcoin with your debit or credit card on the web or directly in the Abra app: https://t.co/Z6ap7kVlaR
Learn more about Abra card purchases and our partnership with @SimplexCC here: https://t.co/ryBSq0XliR
— Abra (@AbraGlobal) July 12, 2018
Previously, Abra users were only able to fund their supported cryptocurrency wallets using bank and wire transfers, or by directly depositing bitcoin and litecoin purchased through other means. Users in the United States were, however, able to make purchases using American Express credit cards.
The addition of VISA and MasterCard credit and debit card purchases, together with the aforementioned already-established methods, means buying Bitcoin is easier than ever.
Using a credit card or debit card to purchase the first and foremost cryptocurrency through Abra allows users to make purchases between the range of $50 to $20,000. Purchased bitcoin may be deposited into a new Abra wallet, or directly into any other supported wallet. Depending on blockchain processing times, a bitcoin purchase takes between 20 and 30 minutes.
Notes the official announcement:
The actual purchase of bitcoin with a credit card is as easy as conducting any other kind of transaction on the internet. All you need to do is enter the amount of bitcoin you want to purchase, enter a bitcoin wallet address, enter your credit card or debit card information, and then confirm all the details.
And, with certain exceptions, this service is available across the globe.
Abra’s announcement comes at a time when Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market continues to experience a prolonged and severe bear market. However, buying interest is expected to increase as the market leader decreases in value.
What do you think about buying Bitcoin on credit? Will you make use of Abra’s services? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, CoinMarketCap.com.


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Cliplight Mfg. made an agreement with major wholesale chain, ACTROL, Melbourne, Australia, to sell portions of its HVAC line of service technician tools and products. ACTROL will concentrate initially on
In this issue of Supply House Times, check out our 2015 Premier 150 Rankings. The annual survey, conducted by Supply House Times and BNP Media Market Research, ranks the top PHCP wholesalers by their reported sales for the past year.


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Nearly a year after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules were approved, the controversial measures were published Friday and are set to go into effect Nov. 20.
The heavily debated measures were approved in December of 2010.
The rules are intended to protect consumers by ensuring that everyone has equal access to the Web. The three basic components are transparency from providers; a ban on blocking sites, applications and services; and a ban on unreasonable discrimination.
Advocates for the laws believe that all websites should have the same loading time, so a corporate-backed commerce site such as eBay shouldn’t be able to pay to have a faster loading time than anyone else. After deliberation, it was decided that it was acceptable to slow down a network at certain busy times, but it will be forbidden to block a certain site, such as an entertainment streaming site, that devours bandwidth.
If the FCC suspects that a provider is unfairly or inappropriately managing a network, starting on Nov. 20, it has the power to pursue an investigation or demand transparency from the company.
Consumer Experience Still Steady
Though the rule aren’t officially set in place until November, many providers have been operating under the regulations since the measures were first approved.
“The Internet carriers have largely been abiding by open Internet principles since the rules were announced … they have been doing this because they know they are under very close scrutiny. We hope consumers won’t see much of a difference,” Art Brodsky, communications director at public interest advocacy group Public Knowledge, told the E-Commerce Times.
Consumers, then, likely won’t notice a dramatic change in their Internet experiences on Nov. 20, even though their providers will be under much higher official scrutiny starting that day.
“What is different is that while the rules are in force, if there is an issue, the FCC can enforce the rules, which apply to the wired Internet and less so to the wireless side,” said Brodsky.
It’s still unknown whether consumers will see a difference in wireless use. The rules differentiate between fixed broadband, such as cable or DSL, and mobile broadband, such as the connection on a smartphone over cellular data networks.
“The current rules, while useful in some respects, fall far short of the consumer protections needed, particularly in the wireless space,” said Meinrath.
Whether or not mobile connections should face the same scrutiny is still hotly debated. On one side, consumer activists warn that without the rules — and especially since the wired Internet is under tougher watch — wireless carriers will run wild with throttling services or block specific bandwidth-sucking sites.
“Wireless users could be subject to to more intrusion from the wireless carriers. We will have to wait and see,” said Brodsky.
The carriers, though, insist that the tighter competition in their market forces them to play by the same rules as fixed broadband networks.
Even though consumers might not notice bold changes when venturing online two months from now, the debate between differences in broadband connections and the possibility of legal challenges is likely to continue.
The regulations were met with dismay by lawmakers such as Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tex.), a ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. They, along with certain other Republican members of Congress, view the measures as over-regulation designed to correct a nonexistent problem and have vowed to push for a Senate vote this fall that would overturn the measures.
Corporate interests are at stake as well. Wireless providers Verizon and MetroPCS both filed suit against the rules as soon as they were approved, but since they hadn’t gone into effect yet, the legal cases were thrown out. When the measures are officially in place, it’s expected that at least one of the companies will launch a suit again.
“I expect these rules to be legally challenged immediately and they will have a difficult time withstanding judicial review. Through its own convoluted legal contortions, the FCC has left itself on incredibly shaky ground to defend itself,” Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Initiative at The New America Foundation, told the E-Commerce Times.
“At a time when our economy is under duress, the FCC’s failure to enact meaningful protections is directly harming consumers and businesses alike,” Meinrath added.
Those against the measures argue that the Internet has flourished under current regulations and the move will stifle innovation and large-scale growth.
Many consumer advocacy groups, on the other hand, fought for the regulation — and in some cases, for a more dramatic set of restrictions — and mostly applauded the measures. While public interest groups worried that corporations would use their connections and deep pockets to promote their own interests on the Web, some groups assert that this will offer all parties equal commerce opportunities to grow and thrive online.
However, the regulations should be a reminder that enforcement will require a vigilant FCC and a continuing focus on the consumer as the constantly evolving online world continues to expand, according to groups such as Free Press and Public Knowledge.


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May 10, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer borrowing rose by a strong $25.8 billion in March, the second month in a row of sizable gains and a further indication that the economic recovery is picking up steam.
The March gain reported Friday by the Federal Reserve followed an even larger $26.1 billion consumer-borrowing rise in February. The two monthly increases were the biggest gains since a $26.8 billion increase in December 2019, before the pandemic hit.
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Hinojosa Packaging Group has launched Foodservice, a new range of 100% recyclable primary packaging intended for the prepared foods and beverages markets.
The new line is available in three ranges, including beverage, dairy and food containers.
The beverage option is designed for hot and cold beverages while the dairy model is ideal for products such as yoghurts and ice cream.
Intended for fourth-range and fifth-range prepared foods, the food container range is ideal for restaurants and quick-service chains (QSR).
Available at an industrial level, Hinojosa claims that the new paper-based packaging is 100% recyclable paper and is certified compostable.
In addition to their sustainability benefits, Hinojosa’s new products offer printing techniques suitable for contact with food.
The company also opened its first plant completely dedicated to manufacturing the newly launched line.
With more than 75 years of experience, Hinojosa is one of the leaders in designing and manufacturing sustainable packaging solutions.
The company has 19 production plants across Spain, Portugal, and France, with 2,500 employees.
The launch of the new packaging line for the food service sector strengthens the company’s commitment to reducing single-use plastics.
With its other products such as Halopack and 360GP, the company aims to help firms in promoting sustainability in the food industry.
Hinojosa said in a statement: “The commitment and the work of the company is to generate a positive impact wherever it operates, contributing to the common good. It’s not just about manufacturing the best packaging, it’s about caring for the world.”


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YVONNE RANKIN, Head of the Specialist Retail Division, is to leave the Co-operative Group to work for an international retailer and Paul Hewitt has been promoted to the new role of Deputy Chief Executive to replace her.
Following his secondment as acting head of the Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) after the departure of its former chief executive Mervyn Pedelty
In his new role, Mr Hewitt, currently Chief Financial Officer for the Group, will take on responsibility for its specialist retail businesses.
These include the UK's leading funeral director, Co-operative Funeralcare, the country's largest independent travel retailer, Travelcare and Co-op Pharmacy, a major independent pharmacy chain.
He will also oversee the Group's financial function and work closely with the society's Chief Executive Martin Beaumont on business strategy.
His promotion follows the decision of Yvonne Rankin to leave the organisation and take up a senior position with AS Watson International, the retail and manufacturing arm of the global corporation Hutchison Wampoa.
The Group will recruit a new chief financial officer with Paul retaining his existing responsibilities in the interim.
Martin Beaumont, Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group, said: "I am delighted to promote Paul to this new role and confident he will take these key businesses forward. I would like to thank Yvonne for the significant contribution she has made to the Group, developing the businesses under her control. She is moving to progress her career and we wish her well in her new position."
Ms Rankin commented: "I have really enjoyed leading the businesses I've been involved with. We've got some great people in those businesses and I feel privileged to have worked with them. I would like to thank them for the commitment and support they have shown to me during that time and to wish both the individuals and the businesses well for the future."
In this article
- acting head
- chief executive
- Chief Financial Officer
- Consumers' cooperative
- Cooperative banking
- director , Co-operative
- Economy of the United Kingdom
- Martin Beaumont
- Mervyn Pedelty
- PAUL HEWITT
- Social Issues
- The Co-operative brand
- The Co-operative Funeralcare
- The Co-operative Group
- Yvonne Rankin
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Eleven ships are discharging petroleum products and other commodities at the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports in Lagos, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said on Friday.
NPA explained that the ships were discharging buck wheat, crude palmlein, general cargo, petrol, containers, bulk gas, diplomatic call and aviation fuel.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 35 other ships laden with petroleum products, food items and other goods are also expected to arrive in Lagos ports between June 9 and June 23.
NPA said that the expected ships would bring base oil, general cargo, bulk fertiliser, buck wheat, empty containers, bulk gas, bulk coke, diesel, containers, bulk sugar and petrol.
It said that seven ships had arrived at the ports and were waiting to berth with bulk fertiliser, bulk corn buck wheat and petrol.


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Recently we heard that HTC and Apple had agreed a 10 year licensing deal where HTC would pay Apple a fee for each Android device it sells which is rumored to be around $8 per device.
Samsung were quick to say that they would not be entering into a similar deal with Apple, but know it would appear that Samsung wants to see the agreement between HTC and Apple and have filed a motion with the courts in the US in an attempt to get their hands on the documents.
Samsung is looking to find out what patents are included in the deal, and whether these patents are the same ones that Samsung was found of infringing by a US court, and subsequently ordered to pay Apple damages of $1 billion.
The reason that Samsung want to find out if these are the same patents that Apple sued them for is because Apple said they did not want to license those specific patents to anyone in the trial between Samsung and Apple.
If it is found that Apple has licensed these patents to HTC, but refused to license them to Samsung, then Samsung could possibly have a case for appeal against the $1 billion judgement.
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