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Jio starts ‘Call of Duty Mobile Aces Esports Challenge’ on JioGames platform
PTI, Apr 3, 2021, 4:32 PM IST
Digital company Jio in partnership with an arm of mobile chipmaker company Qualcomm announced the hosting of online shooting game Call of Duty Mobile Aces Esports Challenge on the JioGames Esports platform.
Call of Duty game, published by US-based Activision Publishing, is a competitor of PUBG that is banned in India.
Jio and Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Asia Pacific Pte (QCTAP) have started registration for the first e-contest of ‘Call of Duty’ in India with a prize pool of Rs 25 lakh.
The tournament “Call of Duty Mobile Aces Esports Challenge” will be open for both Jio and non-Jio users, according to the joint statement.
Qualcomm India president and vice president Rajen Vagadia said mobile gaming is one of the fastest-growing segments in India and almost 90 per cent of the gamers in India are using their mobile as their primary device for gaming.
“We wanted to collaborate with a brand like Jio that deeply understands the opportunity and matches our belief, not only in the superlative experiences our technology delivers but also in the tremendous gaming capabilities of Indians in the hyper-competitive world of mobile esports,” Vagadia said.
Both solo players and teams can participate in the tournament.
The registration for solos will close on April 11 and 5v5 team plays will close on April 30 and there will be no registration and participation fee for the tournament.
“With a shared vision of empowering gamers Qualcomm Snapdragon and JioGames aim to create a platform that will not only drive gaming-oriented content but will provide a training ground for gamers to hone their skills for more professional level opportunities,” the statement said.
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[Editor’s note: “The Battery Maker Set to Soar 10X-Plus by 2030” was previously published in February 2022. It has since been updated to include the most relevant information available.]
When it comes to stocks with enormous long-term upside potential, few look more compelling than QuantumScape (QS).
As the leading solid-state battery maker, QS is developing a new generation of batteries. These next-gen batteries will enable electric vehicles to drive thousands of miles on a single charge. What’s more, QuantumScape’s breakthrough could allow for fast charging (in mere minutes). Most exciting of all? It’s a “forever battery.”
That’s a big deal.
Electric vehicles are the future of transportation. That’s a foregone conclusion. But today, the average electric car only gets about 250 miles of driving range. And for that, it takes upward of an hour to fully charge. These truths impede EVs’ ability to replace gas-powered cars.
To solve these issues, we need a new type of battery. Current lithium-ion batteries are maxed out. With present battery tech, we simply can’t create EVs that drive thousands of miles or recharge in minutes.
We need a new solution.
And QuantumScape is leading the charge.
Introducing the Future of Batteries
While everyone is so hyped up about the EV Revolution, the plain truth is that it won’t go mainstream until we make better batteries.
To understand why, we need to take a quick trip back to chemistry class.
Batteries comprise three things: a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte. They work by promoting the flow of ions between the cathode and anode through the electrolyte.
Conventional lithium-ion batteries are built on liquid battery chemistry. That is, they comprise a solid cathode and anode. Connecting the two is a liquid electrolyte solution.
And these batteries have worked wonders for years. But due to the constraints of liquid electrolytes, they’ve reached their energy cell density limit. So if we want our phones, watches, and electric cars to last longer and charge faster, we need a battery unlike any we’ve seen before.
Insert the solid-state battery.
With solid-state batteries, the name pretty much says it all. Take the liquid electrolyte solution in conventional batteries. Compress it into a solid. Create a small, hyper-compact battery. And since it has zero wasted space, it lasts far longer and charges far faster.
Of course, the implications of solid-state battery chemistry are huge.
Solid-state batteries could be the key to making our phones sustain power for days. They could enable our smartwatches to fully charge in seconds! And, yes, SSBs can allow electric cars to drive for thousands of miles without a recharge.
That’s why they’re dubbed as “forever batteries” by insiders. It’s the critical technology that can propel the EV Revolution into its next phase: supercharged growth.
QuantumScape Has Figured Out the Impossible
Up until recently, making solid-state batteries was the stuff of science fiction. The science was just too prohibitively complex.
Then, a team of genius Stanford professors, scientists, and a few tech execs came together to simplify it. And 12 years later, QuantumScape has basically solved the solid-state battery problem.
The biggest issue with solid-state batteries is something called “dendrites.” These are small cracks that form in the solid electrolyte during charging and recharging. Eventually, they get so big that they short-circuit the battery.
Thus, the big breakthrough in solid-state batteries lies in developing a solid electrolyte material that is dendrite-resistant. And QuantumScape has cracked this code.
In late 2021, the company illustrated that its forever battery performed in 4-layer formats up to 800 charging cycles. A quarter later, it scaled successful results to 10-layer batteries up to 800 cycles. And earlier this year, QuantumScape successfully demonstrated its 16-layer battery’s successful results at over 500 cycles.
In other words, QuantumScape’s solid-state battery breakthrough is proving to work even as the company scales up the battery size.
If this trend continues, then QuantumScape will soon be commercializing effective solid-state batteries that are big enough to be used in cars.
Enormous Upside Potential in QuantumScape Stock
The battery of the future will arrive – and QuantumScape will be the company making and selling that battery.
And that means the potential upside in QuantumScape stock is enormous.
By 2030, we estimate that around 75 million new passenger cars will be sold globally. We believe about half of those cars will be EVs. Of those, we think around 10% will be outfitted with solid-state batteries. Assuming QuantumScape nabs about half of the solid-state battery market in EVs — and sells those batteries for around $7,000 a pop — the company could be looking at over $13 billion in revenues by 2030.
Assuming target 25% operating margins and a 20% tax rate, that implies potential 2030 profits of about $2.6 billion. A 20X price-to-earnings multiple on that implies a potential future valuation for QuantumScape of $55 BILLION – which is up nearly 15X from the current market cap.
That’s impressive. So, if you’re looking to buy and hold a growth stock that could make you really rich, QuantumScape stock should be at the top of your list.
Buy this stock. Hold it. Wait for it to change the world.
The Final Word on QuantumScape Stock
Solid-state batteries are the future, and they represent one of the most promising technological breakthroughs of the 2020s.
Over the next few years, this emerging technology will forever change the EV industry. And, indeed, it’ll forever change the entire electronics world.
Some of the stock market’s biggest winners in the 2020s will be solid-state battery makers.
QuantumScape stock projects as one of those mega-winners. But it won’t be alone. And in fact, it won’t be the biggest winner in this space.
Indeed, we see this as the beginning of a massive Energy Transition.
Even the world’s largest company, Apple (AAPL), is getting onboard with its own autonomous EV.
Yes, the creator of the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac and the Apple Watch is making a move into the Energy Transition via the launch of its very own EV.
Considering how Apple’s previous innovations have shifted paradigms, the Apple Car will be a gamechanger for EVs.
We’re even more convinced that the companies that supply critical components for Apple Car will make fortunes for their investors.
We’ve identified one such critical parts supplier. And its stock is only trading for $3.
To prime you, I just put together a presentation about the Energy Transition. In it, I talk all about Apple’s next big product launch and the tiny supplier stock that could soar 40X as the Apple Car takes over the world.
The energy revolution is here. It’s time to plug in.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

domain: news


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Apple May Finally Approve Google Voice Apps To The App Store
Earlier this week, Apple made a significant decision to modify its App Developer License to let developers make use of third party development and analytics tools. As part of the announcement, Apple also took a major step forward to make the review process itself more transparent by making the app review guidelines public.
The announcement has caught a lot of users and developers by surprise and has made us wonder if applications such as Google Voice, that were apparently rejected by Apple due to its growing rivalry with Google, could also stage a comeback.
That seems likely if a tweet from Sean Kovacs, the developer of an iPhone app named GV Mobile is anything to go by. GV Mobile was one of several third party apps that were built upon Google Voice to offer better call management services to users. Apple had rejected GV Mobile along with several other apps last year citing duplicity of features. While Sean Kovacs moved the app underground and made it available on Cydia, other apps like VoiceCentral were relaunched as web applications. According to Kovacs, Apple has now indicated that his application shall be accepted if it was resubmitted to the App Store for review.
It is not clear if GV Mobile will relaunch under the original name though. Kovacs has noted that he had deleted the applicaton from iTunes Connect soon after it was rejected. Consequently, we are also unsure if the new app shall be able to relink with its earlier customers.
This latest development also means that users may be able to get access to the native Voice application from Google. There were speculations earlier this year that Google could be taking the legal route to fight Apple after Vic Gundotra, the vice president of engineering at Google had stated that iPhone users will get Google Voice "one way or the other". However, Mountain View had put these speculations to rest by launching a web app version of the Voice service soon after.
Nevertheless, considering the convenience of an native application over a web app, we are now looking forward to accessing the Google Voice app on our iPhones once again. How about you?
- GV Mobile+: Popular Google Voice iPhone App Returns To The App Store
- First Google Voice App Hits the App Store
- Official Google Voice App Reportedly Approved By Apple; Mozilla Has No Plans To Build Full Firefox Browser For iPhone
- Official Google Voice iPhone App Now Available In App Store
- GV Connect: First Google Voice iPhone App Hits The App Store


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A video of a female hawker cursing and scolding a food delivery rider has recently gone viral on TikTok.
In the 1-minute video, the woman is heard complaining about the delivery rider’s intolerance and was screaming and cursing in front of other customers and food delivery riders.
Photo via TikTok (@tiktokgraphyofficial)
The incident allegedly happened at a famous burger stall in Cheras.
It was also understood that the delivery rider had been waiting for 50 minutes for a customer’s order. The delivery rider then decided to ask the woman when the order would be ready.
Enraged by the question, the hawker started scolding the man.
After realizing that the complainant was recording a video, she continued to get angry and threw a bottle of cause towards the complainant.
Several people at the scene were annoyed by her behavior and told her to stop acting inappropriately.
The food delivery rider added that many in the line behind him had already received their orders.
Social media users berated the woman for her short-tempered behavior.
Netizens also claimed that the hawker lacks empathy and cannot or would not put themselves in the shoes of the person who is waiting on them.
What do you guys think about this? Is it okay to make people wait if your food is good?
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat


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New Straits Times
By Azanis Shahila Aman
November 13, 2020 @ 6:40pm
KUALA LUMPUR: Lazada Malaysia has seen another record-breaking performance on its platform during 11.11 Biggest One-Day Sale.
Lazada Malaysia chief executive officer Leo Chow said Lazada’s record-breaking performance during the sale was a reflection of the continuing strong trust in its platform by Malaysian shoppers, brands and merchants.
“Our confidence has been further strengthened and we are more dedicated than ever in our commitment to contribute to the increasingly vibrant local digital economy,” said Chow.
According to the e-commerce platform, its LazMall enjoyed unprecedented popularity among Malaysian consumers during the 11.11 sale.
Lancôme, Xiaomi Global and OnePlus Flagship Store all recorded one-day sales of over RM1 million to join the Lazada’s Millionaires Brand Club.
Meanwhile, Lazada said mobiles and tablets were the number one selling category, with Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo and Apple showcasing stellar sales performances as the Top 5 brands in the category.
The strong performance from local small and medium enterprises sellers on Lazada is another remarkable highlight.
“New SMEs who joined via Lazada’s stimulus initiatives since March represented more than 40 per cent of active sellers, who collectively sold over 680,000 items.
“These initiatives helped the local SME community digitalise their business and bounce back from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said
Chow said Lazada logistics arm had made 100 per cent successful same-day deliveries direct from Lazada’s warehouse to shopper’s homes, delivering a premium quality shopping experience with 50,000 LazMall orders delivered within 24 hours the following day.
“This was made possible by its data-driven and efficient logistics infrastructure, backed by Alibaba’s cutting-edge technology, which has enabled 50 per cent more efficiency in average delivery time in the Klang Valley area, and to ensure timely deliveries across Malaysia,” he added.


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The PBS Board unanimously voted today to amend national program underwriting standards to require a higher level of review for food and beverage companies seeking to sponsor kids’ shows. Under the revision, President Paula Kerger told the board, “a potential sponsor for a PBS Kids series will be acceptable only if its product could be considered to make a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet.”
The amendment will have “only a minimal impact on our funding mix,” Kerger said. Less than 1 percent of children’s content sponsors in fiscal 2013 will be affected, she noted. The recommendation came after months of review of current underwriting guidelines for children’s shows by PBS staff and the board’s corporate services advisory committee. Major producing station WGBH, Sesame Workshop and nutrition experts also participated.


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According to the International Data Corporation, the Philippines is among the “few remaining bright sports” for traditional PCs in the Asia Pacific region, as it is the only Southeast Asian country that shows PC adoption growth.
For the past five years, the Philippine PC market has had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3%, as its ASEAN neighbors have had declining CAGRs between -3% to -12%. IDC cites the country’s slow technology adoption, mobility trend, and large millennial Filipino population as the reasons behind the trend.
“Despite smartphones having drawn away a portion of consumer demand in recent years, desktop and notebook PCs remain viable personal computing devices, especially for heavy workloads and higher-level entertainment,” said Sean Paul Agapito, associate market analyst for client devices at IDC Philippines.
Laptops have become the traditional PC of choice among consumers, while desktops are mostly used for commercial and gaming purposes.


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Techstars, one of the largest pre–seed investors in the world, recently released the results of its inaugural survey on the state of innovation within the global early-stage startup ecosystem. Entitled “Techstars 2023 State of Innovation Survey,” the report features insights based on the survey responses of more than 1,600 current, past and aspiring entrepreneurs and venture capital investors on how they view innovation on their home turf and around the whole world.
What were the key findings of Techstars’ survey?
The Techstars research revealed that while entrepreneurs and VCs surveyed still view Silicon Valley as the most innovative global hub today, its influence is expected to decline over the next five years. Asked to select up to five hubs, close to two-thirds (63%) of respondents identified Silicon Valley as the most innovative hub today. However, when asked which hubs will be the most innovative in five years’ time, Silicon Valley’s share dips to under half (45%).
Key findings from the results of the Techstars 2023 State of Innovation Survey include:
- Regions: The majority of entrepreneurs and VCs surveyed (51%) consider Asia-Pacific (APAC) to be the most innovative region outside of the U.S. today, suggesting that APAC could soon challenge the historic dominance of the U.S.
- Sectors: Nearly half of the entrepreneurs and VCs we surveyed predict that five years from now, HealthTech (51%) and Sustainability (44%) will be the two most innovative fields, indicative of the way founders are increasingly pursuing many of the biggest challenges of our era – from health and longevity to climate change and food resilience.
- Firestarters: Innovation takes an ecosystem. Only one-quarter (26%) of respondents believe that VCs and angel investors will be the biggest driver of innovation over the next five years, with no single force or influence – such as governments or corporates – emerging as the dominant factor.
- Founders’ Attitudes: Companies have been staying private for longer, and our survey confirms this trend with more than one-quarter (28%) of entrepreneurs saying their long-term goal is to remain private/independent. By comparison, just 16% are targeting an IPO and 7% are targeting an acquisition by private equity.
What were the executive remarks about the survey?
“Against a backdrop of ongoing market flux, the results of our Techstars 2023 State of Innovation Survey reflect the shift away from traditional U.S. dominance of innovation, towards a multipolar age in which tech entrepreneurship flourishes around the entire globe – a trend which is underscored by our respondents’ conviction that Africa will leapfrog Western Europe this year by producing more startups,” said Maëlle Gavet, Chief Executive Officer of Techstars.
“With today’s investors being able to source deal-flow worldwide and entrepreneurs able to build businesses from anywhere around the world, it is not surprising to us that we are seeing the potency of a single technology hub, such as Silicon Valley, recede. The results of our Innovation survey reaffirm that outstanding entrepreneurial talent is thriving all around the world, and also that innovation requires the support of an entire competitive ecosystem.”
“We expect competing forces to shape the innovation market in the next months. The collapse and fallout of Silicon Valley Bank has made what was already a tight fundraising environment tighter. Unable to fundraise or raise venture debt, some founders will simply run out of road.”
“Conversely, the wave of layoffs across the tech industry will help create a boom in early-stage innovation, as significant numbers of laid-off workers become entrepreneurs. We are seeing increasing numbers of applicants to our programs tackling the biggest challenges of our lifetime in areas like HealthTech, Sustainability and resilience of food supply,” added Gavet.


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This year, writers and publishers learned about the power of #BookTok—a literature-loving corner of TikTok where readers post videos inspired by the books they love. Viral trends involving certain books launched backlist titles to the top of the fiction charts; particularly, tearjerkers with moving or shocking endings, as BookTokers captured their reactions (tears; hand clapped over mouth; etc) to reading the last lines of novels.
But, unintuitively, a very different type of book has been propelled to late success by BookTok: Cain’s Jawbone, an obscure murder mystery puzzle from the 1930s. The Bookseller has reported that following a viral TikTok about the book, Unbound—an experimental crowdfunding publisher—is scrambling to reprint seventy thousand new copies of the novel.
Cain’s Jawbone, written in 1934 by The Observer’s crossword writer, Edward Powys Mathers, under the pen name Torquemada, consists of 100 pages, bound out of order; the reader’s job is to put the pages in the one correct order, which allows them to read the book chronologically and solve its six murders. When you take into account that there are over 32 million possible orders for the pages, it makes sense that only three people have ever solved the puzzle: two readers in 1935, and British comedian John Finnemore last year. The solution has never been released to the public.
But in November, Sarah Scannell—a 24-year-old TikTok user known on TikTok as @saruuuuuuugh—picked up the book at her local bookstore and made a TikTok about it: “I’ve decided to take this nearly impossible task as an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream and turn my entire bedroom into a murder board,” she said. The TikTok went viral; as of now, it’s been viewed over 5.6 million times. Within 24 hours of Scannell posting the clip, Unbound sold out of Cain’s Jawbone. In late November, Unbound issued 10,000 reprints of the book, but that’s still not enough: likely due to both the viral TikTok and the holiday push, Unbound is reprinting 70,000 more copies. Half the profits from the book’s sales will go to the Laurence Sterne Trust, as Sterne, according to John Mitchinson, Unbound’s co-founder, “adored setting literary puzzles and finding clever ways to market his books.”
“It has been amazing to see the demand for Cain’s Jawbone build over the last 10 days,” Julian Mash, Unbound’s head of sales, told The Bookseller. “We have worked very hard to expedite a reprint in order to get this back in bookshops in time for Christmas gifting both in the UK and US. To see this kind of grassroots demand from shops has been incredible.”
Scannell has made over ten videos tracking her Cain’s Jawbone progress, inspiring other users to pick up the book. Booksellers have noted the extreme demand for Cain’s Jawbone as a bellwether of BookTok’s power: said Gaby Lee, genre fiction buyer at Waterstones, to The Bookseller, “We’ve seen huge demand for Cain’s Jawbone over the last month; once it became viral on TikTok we sold out in a matter of days and demand has continued to be strong since then. It’s consistently exciting to see BookTok give books like this a new lease of life.”


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Apple promotes production in Vietnam and India
|Traditional recipe of young ribs braised with pineapple for Tet Holiday|
|Why Foxconn supposes to move some parts of production from China to Vietnam?|
|iOS 14.3 and iPadOS 14.3: New features and How to update|
Apple promotes production outside of China
Apple is ramping up the production of iPhones, iPods, Macs, and other products outside of China, Nikkei Asia has learned, in a sign that the tech giant is continuing to accelerate its production diversification despite hopes that U.S.-China tensions will ease under President Joe Biden.
Sources said iPad production will begin in Vietnam as early as the middle of this year, marking the first time that the world's biggest tablet maker will build a significant number of the devices outside of China. The California tech giant is also stepping up iPhone production in India, its second-largest production base for the iconic device, sources added, with plans to start producing the latest iPhone 12 series -- the company's first 5G smartphones -- there as soon as this quarter.
In Vietnam, Apple is mobilizing suppliers to expand production capacity for the latest HomePod mini, the affordable version of its voice-activated smart speaker lineup. The device has been produced in Vietnam since it was introduced last year. The Cupertino-based tech giant has already increased local production of its audio-related products, including its various AirPods lineups, sources said.
Apple has relocated some production of the Mac mini, one of its desktop computers, to Malaysia, another person familiar with the matter told Nikkei, and the company is also set to move a part of its MacBook production to Vietnam this year. Most of its computer production remains in China.
Apple suppliers have been working to meet their client's desire for more diverse production bases. Key supplier Foxconn, formally traded as Hon Hai Precision Industry, injected $270 million to set up a subsidiary in Vietnam late last year as part of the Taiwanese company's efforts to expand its production capacity in the country. Luxshare Precision Industry, a new iPhone assembler that is also a key supplier of AirPods, is ramping up its capacity in northern Vietnam for the HomePod mini to solve supply constraints for the popular device, Nikkei learned.
Tech giants' trend of shifting outside China
Apple's moves are part of a larger trend of global tech giants reducing their production dependence on China, long known as the world's factory. The country's rising labor costs, the prolonged trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that severely disrupted the supply chain have all driven home the risks of depending too heavily on one country. The U.S. government, moreover, has initiated a "supply chain restructuring" campaign and urged tech suppliers to move away from China, the Nikkei reported earlier.
China, which boasts the world's most sophisticated and comprehensive supply chain, remains a key manufacturing hub for major tech companies, but Apple's decision to move such a wide range of products out of the country indicates the tech decoupling of the two countries is likely to continue into 2021. And while there are some hopes that the political climate will improve under the new U.S. president, Biden has said he will not immediately reverse the tariff policy that the Trump administration implemented against China in mid-2018 -- a policy that eventually saw tariffs levied on $360 billion worth of Chinese imports.
China's Goertek, a key Apple AirPods assembler, asked all of its suppliers to evaluate the feasibility of moving production to Vietnam as early as late 2018 and was the first Apple supplier to confirm a plan to shift production. In 2019, Apple asked multiple suppliers to study the cost implications of moving around 15% to 30% of production out of China for a wide range of product lines. Its AirPods series, which ship around 90 million units a year, first went into trial production in Vietnam in the summer of 2019, with mass production following in 2020. A portion of the production of AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and the HomePod mini was also allocated to Vietnam last year. Apple began making the iPhone 11 in India in 2020.
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Today the Hoodline team is happy to announce that all of Hoodline’s articles are now enabled with Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). With this change our articles will load almost instantaneously on mobile devices, and be more discoverable within Google products like the new “Top Stories” carousel in mobile search results.
Look for the grey-lightning bolt beneath each story's headline.
This release was done in conjunction with one of our newest partners, Relay Media, and we’re excited to continue to work with them to increase access of AMP to other local publishers in the Hoodline partner network.
With our recent launches of Uber Trip Experiences, Neighborhood Kits, and Facebook Instant Articles, AMP joins the set of exciting products we’ve built that aligns with our mission of making local information and quality journalism more accessible.
Thank you all, and please stay tuned for more exciting updates including Hoodline in Oakland - coming soon!


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Montana's outdoor recreation economy accounts for a larger share, 5.1%, of the state's Gross Domestic Product than every other state in the nation besides Hawaii, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
“Outdoor recreation has quickly grown to be a powerhouse in Montana, representing over 5% of our economy and $70 billion in annual consumer spending, while creating over 71,000 jobs," said Rachel VandeVoort, director of Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation.
And Missoula is capitalizing on the state's appeal by attracting companies focused on outdoor recreation.
A small California-based adventure footwear manufacturing company called Bedrock Sandals is moving its manufacturing facility to Missoula, according to company founders, the Missoula Economic Partnership and the Montana Governor's Office of Economic Development.
The company sells sandals at retail outlets like REI in Missoula, where a staff member said they've been popular. The sandals are "adventure grade" similar to Chaco sandals, and Bedrock works with Vibram for the soles.
“We wanted a place with better backyard access to rivers and mountains, a more affordable cost of living, and more seasons for testing and developing new footwear,” said co-founder Nick Pence. “We looked for new landscapes to explore, a more sustainable atmosphere to continue building our homegrown business, and a better environment that suits our ethos and lifestyles. Missoula’s down-to-earth feel, outdoor recreation, and sense of community hit all the marks.”
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The company will start out with 5-7 employees in Missoula next year. They haven't disclosed their exact location yet but the Missoula Economic Partnership said they'll be inside city limits. The new headquarters will host office space, a flagship retail store and a workshop for in-house repairs and resoles.
Big Sky Fulfillment, a Missoula distribution company, will handle inventory and distribution for Bedrock. Through their environmental stewardship “1% for the Planet” program, Bedrock has already started giving back to Missoula-based organizations like Clark Fork Coalition and Adventure Cycling.
“I’m a huge fan of Bedrock Sandals, and excited to welcome Nick, Dan and their team to Montana,” VandeVoort said. "The Office of Outdoor Recreation is here to help companies like Bedrock leverage our unique ecosystem of skilled workers, public lands, and access to resources that sustain and inspire our best ideas.”
Pence and co-founder Dan Opalacz are currently located in a solar-powered warehouse in the Bay Area and say they're going to have a new product launch in March.
“Bedrock is what we consider a best-fit business, one that builds long-term success around great people, a great place, and a great product," said Missoula Economic Partnership CEO Grant Kier. "It’s been a pleasure to get to know them and help them make Missoula their home."
According to a report from the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, manufacturing employment has grown much faster in Montana than the U.S. overall since the Great Recession. Montana manufacturing employment increased from 19,841 jobs in 2010 to 23,896 jobs in 2016, a jump of 20.4%. The national increase in manufacturing jobs was 8.3% in the same timeframe, from 12.1 million workers to 13.1 million.


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Devs should do more mainstream TV says Levine
Irrational Games boss Ken Levine is convinced that games developers aren't doing enough mainstream publicity especially on TV.
Levine reckons that guys like Cliff Bleszinski, Tim Schafer, Dr Ray Muzyka and Dr Greg Zeschuk should be just as at home on shows like The Daily Show as best-selling authors and politicians.
He argued: "I mean, how many times have you seen images of Transformers? Whether you want to or not you've probably seen it 15 or 20 times... We're making products that cost however many millions of dollars and have the potential to have a large audience, but... to get people who aren't alpha gamers there's a whole different kind of activity that you have to undertake."
He continued: "That isn't just about buying ads. It's the places you can reach [new people]... We need to be on mainstream shows, we need to be on NPR, we need to be on The Daily Show, we need to be in those places talking about what we do. We're still ghettoized as game developers, and Spike TV is a great place in the middle, but we really need to think about how do we reach out and talk to people so you don't have a room full of college kids saying, 'I've never heard of that damn thing.'"
"You can't find a more impressive set of guys than Ray and Greg from BioWare," Levine added. "They're medical doctors, they're MBAs, they run this company, they're brilliant game developers, but I haven't seen them on The Daily Show. It's not their fault. It's our fault. As an industry we need to think of ourselves differently. We need to think of ourselves that way and present ourselves that way... We have a responsibility. People like me, like Cliff [Bleszinski], like Ray and Greg, have a responsibility to educate people who don't think of games. Like the people booking those shows."
Thanks Gamers With Jobs.
- Final Fantasy XIV's first expansion Heavensward will launch in June
- Sony gives the full PS Plus line-up for April
- Before The Fall patch arrives for Final Fantasy XIV today
- Evolve's first load of DLC arrives today for Xbox One
- Lords Of The Fallen exec producer confirms a sequel is in production
- Pacman takes over Google Maps
- Techland warns of contaminated Antizin hitting Dying Light tomorrow
- Speedrunner beats Bloodborne in just 44 minutes
- Dragon Age: Inquisition's Jaws Of Hakkon DLC not out on remaining platforms till May


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Global asset manager Franklin Templeton has set its sights on penetrating the millennial investment market by recruiting a fintech from the gaming sector to help it build a digital wealth management platform.
Franklin Templeton, which has more than $1.5trn of assets under management, has teamed up with Razer Fintech to develop the platform for its Singapore-based business Templeton Asset Management.
According to the two companies, the "next-generation digital wealth management platform" will be unique in its theme and goal-oriented approach to personal finance and its ambition to improve financial literacy among today's youth.
The move represents another example of Razer looking to expand into the financial services and personal finance market from its origins as a gaming company.
It is also indicative of asset managers' attempts to collaborate with fintech startups from sectors such as gaming in a bid to capture more of the growing millennial investment market.
It is estimated that as much as $68trn will be passed down to millennials in the next few decades and that by 2030 they will be five times richer than they are now.
“We are proud to enter this strategic collaboration with Razer Fintech in Southeast Asia, the heart of the youth, technology and growth," said Dora Seow, Singapore head at Franklin Templeton. "The reach of Razer Fintech’s iconic brand among the youth and millennials aligns with Franklin Templeton’s desire to target the new generation of investors, with next-generation investment solutions”.


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13 June, 2012
True mobile wallets a step closer
True mobile wallets look to be a step closer following a successful trial of NFC (Near Field Communications) technology between BNZ, Vodafone, Visa and Paymark.
The four month trial saw participants using specially equipped mobile phones to make contactless payments at two inner city cafes in Auckland and Wellington. For the people involved in the trial, transactions could be made simply by waving the mobile phone over the terminal.
BNZ Director of Retail, Andy Symons, says the trial was an outstanding success with the customer experience given the thumbs up and all the technology working seamlessly. Symons points out that perhaps the more interesting results came from the survey of participants that took place at the end of the trial.
“People really enjoyed the ease of not having to carry around cards or cash to pay for such small amounts. Since our trial was limited to small transactions for which no PIN was required, it really sped things up at the point of sale. This is something both the customer and the retailer said they loved.”
“This convenience factor for both retailers and customers is at the heart of all the technology. Making things simpler, faster and more convenient is what we’re trying to achieve through innovations such as this. We look forward to working with all parties to help make this a reality.”
“One thing that excited us was in the way participants embraced the technology not only from a purely transactional point of view, but in the way they began to see broader opportunities for making their mobile phone a more integral part of their everyday banking needs.”
Visa New Zealand Country Manager, Sean Preston, says the collaborative approach taken by Visa, BNZ, Vodafone and Paymark is key to getting this technology into the hands of consumers.
"Visa’s strategy is to enhance the consumer purchase experience by ultimately making mobile payments broadly available across many different handsets and operating systems. Trials such as these ensure that future payment technologies are as easy, intuitive and secure as card-based transactions are today.”
Vodafone General Manager Business Development Steve Rieger says the trial, which began in November 2011, was the first of its kind in New Zealand as it saw the Visa chip integrated into the SIM, and used with an actual NFC phone.
“Even in the few months since we did this first-in-New Zealand trial, we’ve seen huge advances in both the technology to support contactless payments and the overall infrastructure which will allow widespread adoption of it. As more and more smartphones come onto the market with NFC capability, we are getting ever closer to a future where New Zealanders can leave their wallet at home for good and live life on their smartphone.”
Other findings saw that virtually all the participants indicated they would like to use their mobile phone in place of plastic cards to make payments once the service becomes publicly available.
• 97% of respondents were likely to use the service if it was launched in the future. 3% were undecided
• 62% of respondents expect the service to be free (14% willing to pay up to $3 per month)
• 100% of respondents reported a positive experience using the service
• 100% of respondents were likely to recommend the service to friends, with 46% indicating they would be “very likely”
• 95% enjoyed the convenience of not having to enter a PIN for low value transactions
• 78% enjoyed receiving a digital receipt on their phone instead of paper
• 81% enjoyed not having to carry a wallet
• 85% would prefer PIN-less transaction were limited to values of $80 or less.


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- INDUSTRY VOICE
Dragon Rouge global chief executive Jean-Baptiste Danet is inspired by his (rather unusual) desk.
The DBA’s John Scarrott looks at the pros and cons of working with family-run businesses.
In digital design, genuine collaboration between designers, developers and their clients is good for all three parties, says Brand Perfect editor Neil Ayres.
Purple founder and creative director Steve Bewick is inspired by 1950s sci-fi films.
Mark Magidson, creative director of Exhibition Plus, likens the UK exhibition design procurement process to a Spaghetti Western.
Jon Daniel talks to art director and former Rolling Stone designer Gail Anderson.
The Sagmeister & Walsh partner talks nudity, play and learning HTML as a 12-year-old at this year’s Adobe MAX conference.
Simon Wright, managing director of Greenwich Design, sees worrying signs in the state of design education.
Plan-B Studio creative director Steve Price says students who perform better ought to be rewarded with better rates of fee-repayment.
Dalziel and Pow creative director David Dalziel looks at what brands could learn from the H&M retail model.


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PODCAST: Obamacare will force some to switch insurance
Share Now on:
As it turns out, some Americans will be forced to switch health care plans because of the Affordable Care Act. Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped design Obamacare, joins David Brancaccio to discuss.
Edward Snowden’s former employer Booz Allen Hamilton announces earnings today. The ginormous contractor gets almost all of its revenue from the federal government: $5.8 billion worth last year. But the landscape for companies like Booz Allen might be shifting.
In Cuba, the government is about to shut down as many as 20,ooo businesses that sell clothing. The businesses hold licenses to do tailoring and dressmaking — not retail — and compete with the Cuban government’s official retail operations. This marks a reversal of sorts for the communist government’s campaign to let small enterprise flourish.
Cheers to trustworthy journalism!
Give just $7/month to get your own KaiPA glass.


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US apparel retailers got off to a good start in January, with the majority posting comparable store sales gains, helped by post holiday clea...
Deep discounts, lower fuel prices and an improved employment market all helped to drive better-than-expected comparable store sales gains fo...
Early Black Friday promotions, falling fuel prices, and labour market improvements all helped the majority of US apparel retailers to record...
October proved to be another mixed bag for US apparel retailers. While the majority reported comparable store sales gains thanks to an impro...
US denim specialist The Buckle has made three senior management appointments, including that of Diane Applegate to the position of vice president of supply chain and merchandising operations.
US denim specialist The Buckle has booked a mixed set of results in its third-quarter with sales growing but earnings remaining flat.
Retailers and fashion businesses have joined forces to call on the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to abandon a patent investigation into laser-abraded jeans.
Teen fashion retailer The Buckle has booked a drop in earnings in the second quarter.
Teen fashion retailer The Buckle recorded a slight decline in earnings in its first-quarter thanks to higher costs and only a marginal increase in sales.
MK Trend Co Ltd in Apparel (South Korea)
Based on its successful performance in the domestic market, MK Trend is planning to launch its brands in overseas markets for further growth. Indeed, since 2001 the company has been offering its Bucka...
- Low labour cost countries linked to highest risks
- Why should brands care about China cotton?
- UK reshoring hub hit by sweatshop claims
- New fibre and fabric innovations for outdoor wear
- China cotton: implications and opportunities
- South Africa to grow grass for recyclable textiles
- US West Coast port contract reached
- 30% of Adidas cotton from sustainable sources
- Activewear driving US apparel spend
- Benetton to embark on living wage roadmap
- Outdoor performance apparel: peaks, valleys, and green fields
- Myanmar's Garment Sector - Opportunities & Challenges in 2015
- Global market review of swimwear - forecasts to 2019
- Management briefing: Outlook 2015: Apparel industry issues in the year ahead
- Apparel Retail: Top 5 Emerging Markets Industry Guide


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Yusaku Maezawa, founder of online clothing store ZOZO, was chosen in 2018 as one of the lucky passengers to embark on Starship’s orbital lunar mission “dearMoon”.
The billionaire was amongst a select group of high-profile singers, artists and pop-culture royalty. However, progress on the moon-circling flight has been slow.
At the beginning of November, Musk announced a delay to the mission, which was due to take place at some point in 2023, citing that SpaceX needed “a little while longer”.
In April, a Starship test takeoff ended in a ball of flames. The “world’s most powerful launch vehicle” spun out of control just a minute into flight.
There has currently been no confirmation of a new launch date.
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Maezawa used the delays to focus on other space goals, which in 2021, included visiting the International Space Station on a Russian rocket.
This year, Maezawa has been focusing on cleaning up space debris. In February, the billionaire invested $23m in Astroscale Holdings, a Japan-based startup which is looking to tackle issues caused by the debris orbiting the planet.
“I want to protect the future of space travel, so I’ve decided to contribute to Astroscale’s mission to reduce orbital debris,” Mawzawa said in a statement.
The news comes as global VC investment fell after a record 2021 for space startups, which saw the value of investment peak, according to GlobalData’s Deal Database.
Investment in the space economy saw a 65% drop in overall deal value in 2022 from 2021.
The investment outlook in 2022 and 2023 is the toughest period for space startups since the economic crisis in 2008, the research company said, due to rising US interest rates leading to a fall in asset prices.
Companies in the space sector attracted total investments of $2.5bn in the fourth quarter of 2022, the research company found.
Our signals coverage is powered by GlobalData’s Thematic Engine, which tags millions of data items across six alternative datasets — patents, jobs, deals, company filings, social media mentions and news — to themes, sectors and companies. These signals enhance our predictive capabilities, helping us to identify the most disruptive threats across each of the sectors we cover and the companies best placed to succeed.


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Macy’s (NYSE: M) announced Tuesday that it will be increasing its minimum wage for employees to USD15 per hour as part of a corporate benefits bundle. Upon the change, the company said that its average base pay will be over USD17 an hour, and the average total pay will consist of USD20 per hour.
The package also includes free tuition and raises for employees of all ranks, which will cover 100% of costs including books and fees. Macy’s is teaming up with Guild Education to execute the program, set to include bachelor’s degrees, boot camps, English language learning, and professional certificates. The company anticipates the program to cost USD35 Million throughout the next four years.
“As we continue our transformation to be a digitally-led omnichannel retailer, a critical component of our growth includes investing in our talent and enhancing all aspects of their Macy’s, Inc. experience with a strong focus on advancement opportunities, culture and engagement,” Danielle Kirgan, Macy’s chief transformation and human resources officer, said in the company announcement.
“As a company, we’re driven by our mission to enable our colleagues’ success and be the preferred employer everywhere we do business, with competitive pay and benefits rooted in principles of equity,” she added. “This program removes a major barrier to accessing education and will help our colleagues to further develop their skills and grow their careers and earning potential.”
Additionally, the department store chain is updating its time-off policy to include more flexibility and an added paid holiday per year. Macy’s had previously introduced various bonus opportunities for workers last year.
Macy’s shares have risen over 177% throughout the year and has a current market cap of USD9.7 Billion.


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Tuesday, 26 Jul 2011
What exactly is a Smart TV and what makes them smart? In this episode, we'll get down to that by taking a look at various implementations of this growing Smart TV platform from LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony to better understand and manage your expectations.
Thursday, 7 Jul 2011
Slim, robust, powerful and sexy - the new Sony Vaio Z boasts chart topping features. This ultra portable 13.1-inch laptop has a matte-like full HD screen, Core i7 processor, SSD and Light Peak technology driven media dock that houses a Radeon HD 6650M discrete graphics to drive quad displays! We show you these aspects and more first-hand.
Tuesday, 21 Jul 2009
The HardwareMAG.com team met up with Mr. Toru Katsumoto, Senior General Manager of Alpha Mount Company. He heads the worldwide Alpha DSLR business. Here's a video interview held in Singapore in June 2009.


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The team of food scientists and product designers hope to bring the two together in their snack and breads project, Insects au Gratin, but before that can happen they must overcome challenges in how to de-fat the ingredient safely. They hope the 3D printing aspect of the project will help tackle certain aesthetics of eating insects which may put some consumers off.
Last summer the Food and Agriculture Organisation published a report outlining the potential benefits of using insects as a mainstream food source to health, the environment and global food security.
Printable insect flour
Ken Spears, one of the food technologists involved in the project, told BakeryandSnacks.com they are working on the development of an insect flour using mealworms which could then be incorporated into cereal bars, baked snacks, cake toppings and later bread.
The team is looking at the use of this flour in various carriers like fondant paste to make intricate shapes using 3D printers adapted to extrude food.
“There are a number of technical challenges in printing insect flour. We have to mix it with a fondant or 'carrier' in order to give it some structure. The large particle sizes of the insect flour and the high fat content causes 'caking' and blocking of the injector heads,” Spears said.
Food safety and taste challenges
In order to prevent this, the food technologists must develop ways to de-fat the insect ingredient. However this is currently posing food safety issues.
“The insect material has a savory meaty taste and quickly becomes rancid because of high fat content. We are interested in de-fatting the material but current techniques would make it unsafe to eat. We can mask the taste in products by using a range of spices and flavorings. Current projects are likely to focus on masking the taste in conventional products,” Spears said.
“We are currently using insects reared for feeding wildlife so there are a number of food safety issues which reduces our ability to provide edible products,” he said.
The insect flour – which Spears says actually produces something more like ground dried meat than cereal flour’s elastic dough – can have 50% protein when dried. He says this could make it an attractive supplement.
Susana Soares, senior lecturer at the university and leader of the project, told us insect flour could have potential in high energy and protein sports nutrition snacks. However she said it could also have broader appeal as a highly nutritional ingredient since insects are high in calcium, iron and magnesium with four crickets providing as much calcium as a glass of milk and dung beetles, by weight, containing more iron than beef.
Spears said prices for insects are not much cheaper than meat, but insects can be produced more cheaply in farmed systems.
Spears said that while there is no particular advantage in using insect material for 3D printing, it could prove useful in enhancing the appeal of such an ingredient for otherwise resistant consumers.
Soares said: “3D food printing enables us to explore the aesthetics of food and in this instance insects, radical uses of 3D printing technology may enable us to overcome the traditional aesthetic issues of ‘eating insects’ and challenge people’s perceptions of eating insects.”
“The use of insect protein as a ‘printable’ material opens up a range of new applications and questions about sustainability, raw materials, nutrition, and food acceptance,” she added.
Speares added: “I’m sure there would be some interest from industry if you could demonstrate a sustainable and high quality food ingredient. In the medium term this is likely to be more of interest to animal feed manufacturers rather than for consumers.”


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With hemp industry ties growing between the USA and Europe, the U.S.-based Hemp Road Trip, a grass-roots initiative backing the industrial hemp industry, will roll across the continent this autumn, according to the campaign’s founder, Rick Trojan.
The Road Trip, initially started as an effort to help expand the U.S. hemp industry, has set an inaugural tour of Europe for this autumn, and is in the process of scheduling more visits, Trojan said.
Leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic say they see opportunities in closer tie-ups: U.S. firms cite a growing need for technology and knowhow from Europe’s more mature platers, while many small European startups, are hungry for funding to expand their operations. Sources on both sides also cite the need to jointly develop global standards and regulations for such sectors as the fast-growing CBD market, with Europeans making steady progress on these issues over the past couple years.
The European Hemp Road Trip will visit leading hemp companies, research organizations, farmers and producers, documenting the Euro hemp scene and highlighting the continent’s industry leaders. The campaign’s mini-bus will be on the road in Europe during September and October. Trojan will give an overview of the U.S. campaign, and present findings fresh from the European tour during the Hemp2020 Business Summit, now in its second year at HempTodayCenter, an industry center of excellence and education based in south-central Poland. The summit is Oct. 20-21.


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WEEK LONG BUSINESS TRAINING AT OFU, NORTH MALAITA
A week long business training began in Ofu, North Malaita.
Funded by the Ministry of Commerce, the training aims to improve rural standard of living and reduce poverty level.
It is facilitated by the Tefila Marketing and Enterprises Development Centre.
Tefila Marketing and Enterprises Development Centre Executive Officer Lovelyn Sauna says, it will also allow participants to better manage small businesses in rural communities.
SIBC stringer for North Malaita John Andrew Kiri reports.
“It aims to improve rural standard of living and reduce poverty levels, second; to develop the country’s human resource to equip them with relevant knowledge to better manage their small businesses and lives.”


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How women ragpickers from Ghazipur have turned into local artisans
Gulmeher has created alternate livelihood opportunities for women waste-pickers of Ghazipur and for women residing in the nearby area.
Life for more than 40 women have changed ever since they joined Gulmeher. These women have come a long way from being ragpickers of Delhi’s biggest landfill in Ghazipur to becoming local artisans making exclusive products from flower waste.
Gulmeher has created alternate livelihood opportunities for women waste-pickers of Ghazipur and for women residing in the nearby area. On a usual day, these women make their way to the nearby phool mandi at 6 am to collect flower waste. After the long segregation and sun drying process, these flowers are ready to be turned into exquisite art.
Making a healthy and comfortable livelihood for women residing in nearby villages was the prime focus at Gulmeher. These women now earn around Rs 7,000-8,000 per month, which helps them run their house and provide education for their children.
Since the work requires fine skills, these women have been trained professionally. They make exclusive products like diaries, diyas during Diwali, rakhis during Rakshabandhan, cloth bags, coasters, and more.
They have also been taught financial and management skills. Now, they have their own bank accounts to save money and can even avail loans at nominal rates.
While there are many benefits from the work they do, the social and sustainable outcomes have been more satisfying. The women work for fixed hours, six days a week, and have been able to transform their lives.
During the pandemic, none of them lost their jobs. Rather, they stitched more than 200 masks from fresh and clean cloth everyday and distributed them in the nearby areas to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
So far, the women have recycled more than 8,000 kilograms of paper and around 15 tonnes of discarded flowers out of the landfill. Their products reflect the hard work they do and their stories of transformation.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta


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The close of 2001 couldn't come soon enough for IC companies building application-specific and programmable logic ICs. The communications market upon which they had reaped huge rewards in the past and which seemed as safe as it was broad-based has turned on them with such a vengeance that they have yet to experience a real recovery.
As ASIC and FPGA suppliers wait out the dry spell, they are counting on a rollout of new technology offerings to give their customers reasons to keep the new designs coming. More advanced process technology, novel chip architectures, streamlined design flows and better intellectual-property (IP) content will come to the fore this year.
Chip companies will have to operate under greater constraints than they have in the past, however. Equipment vendors were once eager to introduce products ahead of the pack with little regard to cost; today, they're more circumspect. Instead of paying top dollar for a high-end ASIC or field-programmable gate array to meet compressed design deadlines, companies now are taking a hard look at their bill of materials costs, observers said.
These cost concerns have sparked renewed interest in FPGA-to-ASIC conversions. Altera Corp. introduced a mask-programmable gate array that is architecturally similar to its programmable logic parts, a strategy the company expects will continue to gather momentum as companies look to drive cost out of their boards. The biggest benefit is cost. With HardCopy, Altera promises to reduce the size of a functionally equivalent programmable logic device (PLD) by as much as 70 percent.
Other companies are beefing up their FPGA-to-ASIC services as well. AMI Semiconductor (Pocatello, Idaho), which has been doing these conversions longer than most other suppliers,
has tapped Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to shift its conversion service to 0.25 micron and has started pushing to 0.18-micron design rules. Atmel Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) is also getting more active in this area by offering 0.25- and 0.35-micron matrices to convert PLDs from Xilinx Inc. and Altera into ASICs.
Xilinx, which buried its conversion program several years ago, said it has no plans to revive it, and instead is taking a different approach than its crosstown rival Altera. As FPGAs grow more complex, ensuring that ASIC conversions have the same timing as programmable devices becomes too difficult, the company said. Instead, Xilinx will shrink the die size of its FPGA architectures to reduce costs, as it did with its most recent Spartan 2e family. Xilinx also plans to continue to upgrade its Web portal site and develop reference designs to spur more demand for PLDs in markets other than telecom, such as consumer electronics.
Cell-based ASIC suppliers are also showing more sensitivity to the high costs of building high-end ASICs. One of the most significant barriers to entry for this class of device is the cost of the mask set, which can run as high as $700,000 or more at the 0.13-micron technology node. Nevertheless, some companies, such as IBM Microelectronics, the industry's largest ASIC vendor, are exploring ways to provide relief to customers by allowing them to share the mask reticles a service that foundries have been offering for several years.
If IBM adopts this plan next year as it shifts to 0.13-micron rules, the company could group as many as four IC designs on one reticle and reduce the price of the mask to about one-fourth of its usual cost. Certain restrictions are inherent in this strategy, though: The size of the four designs should not exceed 10 mm on a side, and customers would have to agree to a fixed schedule for prototype runs, said Tom Reeves, vice president of custom logic for IBM Microelectronics.
The emphasis on lower cost isn't expected to hamper innovation, however. FPGA makers are working hard to find their place in the system-on-chip realm and will continue to develop IP blocks internally and by partnering with third-party suppliers. Altera and Xilinx offer embedded processors that they built from the ground up. As for hardwired CPUs, Altera has announced the availability of an embedded ARM9core, while Xilinx said it expects to introduce in 2002 a PowerPC-based FPGA that it co-developed with IBM.
Indeed, many companies said they are optimistic about the long-term prospects of high-density PLDs. Lattice Semiconductor, which is best known for its in-system-programmable complex PLDs, recently announced its intention to buy Agere Systems' FPGA group. Lattice also announced its intention to introduce by the first half of 2002 an internally developed FPGA.
It's hard to believe that the market could deteriorate any more than it has in the past 12 months, but 2002 isn't looking too pretty. As of this writing, Lucent Technologies Inc., a key barometer of the telecom industry's health, said its revenue for the final quarter of 2001 would drop 30 percent below expectations. Another bad omen: Merrill Lynch recently stated that equipment sales for 2002 would experience double-digit reduction, according to a survey of telecom carriers worldwide.
That translates into what looks to be a tough year ahead for ASIC and PLD makers. Programmable logic vendors, which until last year had performed relatively well during previous chip industry downturns, stand to lose another 6 percent in revenue. This comes on top of the 36 percent contraction in 2001, bringing revenue down to about $2.5 billion by the end of the year, predicted Gartner Dataquest analyst Bryan Lewis.
The market looks even bleaker for gate array vendors. Revenue from these mask-programmable devices, which continue to be undercut by cell-based ASICs and PLDs, is expected to sputter another 16 percent, compounding the 36 percent decline they experienced last year. This would cut the market for gate arrays down to $1.8 billion next year.
Vendors of cell-based ASICs, which comprise the largest piece of the custom-device pie, may have already seen the worst in their market niche. They have little to look forward to in terms of growth, however. Sales this year will be flat compared with last year, when revenue slid 26 percent to $11.5 billion, according to Gartner Dataquest.
While the market for custom chips is in the doldrums, a few bright spots do exist. One of them is the metro-area-network niche, which some experts expect to snap back this year. IBM's Reeves said, "The thing that will drag on the longest is the core wide-area network. There's been a lot of overinvestment in the core infrastructure, and I don't see a return to growth until at least late '02 and '03."
FPGA/PLD developments are available from the following sources:
See related chart


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VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of Vietnamese businessmen now plan to march towards Myanmar, an emerging potential market, in an effort to seek new markets for their products and to escape from the difficulties they are facing in the domestic market.
The Vietnamese real estate developers, who have bogged down in the domestic market because of the weak domestic demand, seem to have found the way out for themselves when realizing the great potentials in Myanmar.
While the domestic weak demand has forced Vietnamese real estate developers to halve the apartment sales prices, the demand is very high in Myanmar, while the supply is short. The foreseeable sharp investment increase in the South East Asian country in the near future would certainly lead to the higher demand for offices.
Analysts have reported that the office leasing fee and apartment prices would increase by three folds this year in comparison with 2012.
Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, a conglomerate which has invested in many different business fields, from rubber plantation to real estate development, is moving ahead with its $300 million project on a complex in the ancient capital city of Yangon.
The owner of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, Doan Nguyen Duc, is a well-known Vietnamese businessman in the world, who stated that he wants to become a billionaire by 2014 at the latest. Though 2012 was really a very tough year for the businessman, his business did not go bankrupt as people thought.
Meanwhile, CT Group is following legal procedures before it kicks off the construction of the two projects capitalized at $150 million in total.
Tran Kim Chung, President of CT Group, said the business has built up a firm distribution network in Myanmar to get well prepared for the landing of foreign goods in the market.
The group now serves as the exclusive distributor for 50 Vietnamese enterprises in the potential market, believing that Vietnamese products would be selling well there, because they have high quality and reasonable prices.
After Myanmar approved the new foreign investment law, international investors have been eyeing the market with great interests. A lot of the investors, including Vietnamese, have come there to explore the market.
Myanmar, in the eyes of international analysts, like any other new emerging markets, still lacks a perfect legal framework, while the infrastructure system remains very poor. Meanwhile, the low readiness of people and the business circle is still a big challenge to investors.
However, it is the problems which could turn into the opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to grab.
“This would be a great opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to exploit to push up the investment in Myanmar. Vietnamese have got used to the risky investment environment with changeable policies when doing business in the home country,” said Pham Chi Lan, a well known Vietnamese economist, meaning that Vietnamese businesses would be able to manage in difficult circumstances.
A report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that in 2012, Vietnamese businesses invested $1.2 billion abroad, but Myanmar was not a choice for the investors.
However, things would be quite different in 2013 with Myanmar being expected to become an attractive investment destination. The county has cultural similarities with Vietnam, advantageous geographical position, while local people have great sympathy with Vietnamese.
Therefore, Vietnamese businesses are believed to be able to compete on par with international investors in the fields of consumer goods, machines and equipment, building materials, farm produce and infrastructure development.
Compiled by Thu Uyen
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Health care and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN 's area. We are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, if any request, please, contact directly Dr Christian SIODMAK, business strategist, owner and CEO of SBC at email@example.com. Many thanks.


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Media Release July 2015
The freshest French pastries will soon be baked before customers’ eyes at the City of Port Phillip’s South Melbourne Market, with the much-anticipated opening of Agathé Pâtisserie’s super stall on Friday 31 July.
The Paris-inspired bakery has developed a cult following since it started supplying cafés in Melbourne’s inner south-east, and serving up at Prahran Market, last year. And now, founder and head pastry chef Agathe Kerr, will unveil the secrets of her success by baking everything fresh from a pastry kitchen exposed behind the Market counter.
“In France, pastries are always fresh because they are baked throughout the day, and we wanted Melburnians to have that experience too,” says Agathe, a Paris-born-and-raised mum of three. “Our customers will be able to see us preparing the pastries, baking them and adding the finishing touches.”
Agathé Pâtisserie will serve a large, and continuously changing, range of authentic French pastries, cakes and savouries – with a focus on innovation. Infused croissants (pandan, matcha, café au lait), along with the “cruffin” (salted caramel, Nutella, peanut caramel), will be among the more unusual offerings.
“A cruffin is a croissant baked in a muffin pan, filled with a flavoured custard,” Agathe explains. “But what makes ours different is that we fill ours on demand, in front of the customer, or ‘à la minute’ as it is known in France.”
In 2010, while living in Paris with her Australian-born husband Warren and their family, Agathe took parental leave to begin the first of a series of baking and pastry courses. They culminated in a professional pastry chef qualification at the prestigious École de Boulangerie et Pâtisserie de Paris.
Agathe, an excellent student who graduated from a top-five French business school, says the “chemistry of baking was a revelation and I loved seeing the transformation from the raw product to the final product,”
Agathe tested the popularity of her baking at her daughter’s Melbourne school in late 2013, serving up croissants and pains au chocolat at the Christmas market. Quickly selling out, she summoned the courage to follow her dream of setting up her own pâtisserie and croissanterie, leaving behind her career as a business consultant.
Agathé Pâtisserie will be housed in two stalls at South Melbourne Market, which is open every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Viennoiseries, such as croissants, crème brûlée and Danishes will cost $5-$7. Patisseries, including millefeuille and peanut-salted caramel Paris-Brest chou, will be $6-$9. Savouries, such as brie and sour cherry croissants, will be available for between $6-$9.
Agathé Pâtisserie is located at Stalls 63 and 64, South Melbourne Market, corner of Coventry and Cecil Streets, South Melbourne.
Acting Mayor Bernadene Voss said the South Melbourne Market prides itself on not only its rich history but also its ability to stay fresh and vibrant. “In the last year, the South Melbourne Market has welcomed a number of new stall holders, which have proven incredibly popular with our dedicated customers,” Cr Voss said. “We know our customers love the finest produce and products and we’re sure they’ll travel from far and wide for a bite of Agathé Pâtisserie.”
For further information contact: Greta Donaldson Publicity | (03) 9696 3234 | 0427 658 638


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SYDNEY, September 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Data breaches are a looming threat for business owners and consumers alike, with over 378 million victims hit every year. To boost data security on a global level, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Council has been holding community meetings across all major regions to bring together data security experts who can learn from each other and combine their knowledge to create better security standards.
There is a particularly dire need for stronger data security in the Asia-Pacific; the region is two times more likely to be targeted by advanced cyber-attacks than the world as a whole.
As with the previous two community meetings at Berlin and Orlando, Ground Labs will be sponsoring the latest PCI event focussed on the Asia Pacific region, as well as appearing in its vendor showcase.
Live demos will be given of Ground Labs’ three sensitive data discovery tools- Card Recon, Data Recon and Enterprise Recon. The tools are designed to assist organisations in thoroughly identifying rogue cardholder data in all types of data storage, including emails, databases, documents and various other locations.
“PCI community meetings are excellent forums for anyone with responsibility for security of cardholder data,” said Stephen Cavey, the Director of Corporate Development for Ground Labs. “They offer a rare opportunity to share ideas with like-minded industry colleagues learn about the latest initiatives in protecting cardholder data.”
“The latest version 3.0 PCI data security standard is being adopted rapidly, but as an industry we are already thinking about how to further improve upon it, and in turn further refine Ground Labs’ own tools to combat the newest data breach threats.”
The Ground Labs team will be providing pre-release demonstrations of the latest build of Enterprise Recon. Enterprise Recon V2 features an upgraded GUI and an enhanced set of data discovery features designed to help companies scan their entire network for 95 different types of sensitive data, including credit card numbers, healthcare information and personal identification numbers.
The 2014 Asia Pacific Community Meeting will be held November 18-19 at the Hilton Sydney hotel in Sydney, Australia. Additional information about the 2014 PCI SCC Community Meetings is available here.
About Ground Labs
Ground Labs is a global leader in the development of cardholder data discovery software for the payment card industry. Its flagship products, Card Recon and Enterprise Recon, identify data storage risks on thousands of computer systems worldwide, helping companies prevent security breaches that result in the theft of customers’ credit and debit card numbers. For more information and product demos, visit www.groundlabs.com.
For more information, please contact:


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Strife – E3 Dev Interview
DizzyPW heads over to the Nvidia Tent to talk with a creative game designer on Strife about the recent two beta wipes, why they were necessary, and what major changes were implemented in the process to make for a better game before launch.
Hurry and reply to our forum thread now to snag a free beta key!
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Tickets: $10 at the Door
Recycle Saline is hosting its fourth annual Re-Fashion Bash “Where Green is the New Black”, Saturday, April 21, 2018, at the Benton Event Center. Re-Fashion Bash, is an upbeat recycling fashion show highlighting Saline County students, grades K-12 on the runway. Students will walk the runway on this memorable night showing off their fashion in hopes of winning top prize money. There will be first ($500), second ($250), and third ($100) place prizes awarded to the top designers in different group categories. Recycle Saline is accepting student submissions now through January 12, 2018. Tickets will be purchased at the door for $10.00. All the money raised from Re-Fashion Bash goes to the YEA! Team (Youth Environmental Ambassadors) program sponsored by Recycle Saline.
The mission of the YEA! Team program is to provide awareness and education about recycling in our schools and county. YEA! Team members volunteer many hours in the community working on litter pick-ups, beautification projects, and recycling education in Saline County schools. As part of the YEA! Team program, senior YEA! Team members are eligible for a $1,500 scholarship and are awarded the night of Re-Fashion Bash.
“Re-Fashion Bash is the recycling event of the year, where students get to use their creativity in turning items that can be recycled or reused into beautiful treasures! The community will enjoy seeing these treasures in a real fashion show experience,” said Tiffany Dunn, Executive Director for Recycle Saline.
For the fourth year in a row former E! Entertainment producer Brandon D. Campbell will be the co-producer of the runway fashion show. Students will be mentored by fashion industry professionals. Guest will be treated to a special runway presentation by Campbell’s iME apparel line being worn by professional models from Oneofakind Talent Inc.
If you have questions about the event, being a sponsor or the YEA! team call Tiffany Dunn at 501-776-2533 or send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Hours are Mon-Fri 5:30 am until 3:30 pm, Sat 6:00 to 11:30 am. Closed on Sundays and Federal Holidays. Owned and operated by Republic Services. Many services available.Read More
Browse Recycle Saline's resources for answers to your most common questions!View All Resources
114 West Sevier Street
Benton, AR 72015
Hours of Operation
Monday - Friday
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Main Office: (501) 776-2533
Tipline: (501) 778-2222
Fax: (501) 776-2553
Copyright ©2018 Recycle Saline.
All Rights Reserved.


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And the anti-SOPA rallying of the tech world’s best continues.
Just minutes after Ycombinator’s Paul Graham disclosed that SOPA-friendly companies would be blacklisted from the YC Demo Day, Cheezburger (as in I Can Has Cheeseburger, FAIL Blog, Know Your Meme, etc.) CEO Ben Huh has announced that they will be moving their array of over 1,000 domains away from GoDaddy unless the registrar recants their support of the act.
Will Huh’s threat be enough to make GoDaddy back down? Probably not: GoDaddy is a company with plenty of controversies under its belt, so they’re more than used to taking a bit of heat. With that said, it will raise awareness to the fact that taking your domains (and thus your money) elsewhere is a totally legitimate form of protest — in fact, Huh’s tweet just reminded me that I have (make that had) 2 domains sitting in GoDaddy’s yard. Thanks, Ben!


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With the UK being plunged back into a national Lockdown similar the one we experienced back in March, you may be wondering what the rules are for your favourite fast food restaurants.
Luckily, unlike March’s Lockdown, McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Nando’s and other fast food restaurants will remain open but, for the most part, only for delivery and drive-thrus (where available). And some places are still offering takeaway services, like Burger King.
Just a quick update from us; we’re still open for takeaway, drive-thru, delivery and click & collect. So you can still get the Whopper your way, just from a (social) distance.
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) January 5, 2021
You will not be able to dine-in or even get walk-in takeaways at McDonald's.
Paul Pomroy, McDonald’s CEO UK and Ireland has said in a statement: “Following the latest government announcements, our restaurants will remain open for Drive-Thru and McDelivery services and Click & Serve for Drive-Thru which is available via the My McDonald’s App.
"Our dine-in and walk-in takeaway services will be temporarily unavailable while we take time to review and reassess our safety procedures with an independent health and safety body. This is a temporary change in our operations to allow us to test and validate any additional measures that may further enhance the safety of our takeaway service.
“We will continue to keep customers updated via the My McDonald’s App and our website.”
McDonald’s opening times
As before, McDonald’s and other restaurants’ opening and closing times may change, so it's best to check on their official websites for any changes before you head out to treat yourself to a takeaway.
Back in March, when McDonald’s closed for the first time, McDonald’s UK CEO Paul Pomroy said: “Over the last 24 hours, it has become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult and therefore we have taken the decision to close every restaurant in the UK and Ireland by 7pm on Monday 23 March.
“I have been clear throughout this that we would only continue to operate whilst it was safe for our people and together with our franchisees, we feel now is the time to make this decision."
In a statement on social media, the fast food brand added: “This is a not a decision we are taking lightly, but one made with the well-being and safety of our employees in mind as well as in the best interest of our customers.”
So, yeah, things are pretty rubbish again, but at least you know this time around you can still enjoy your favourite fast food.
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Posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2012 at 9:00 AM by Guest
The creator behind Dead Rising, Keiji Inafune, has revealed a new zombie game is in the works. In an interview with Edge, Inafune teased that the new game, code named ‘Yaiba’ – which translates to ‘Blade’ will feature ninjas, robots and zombies.
“A year and a half has passed after becoming independent, and I have been fortunate enough to announce several projects along the way,” revealed Inafune.
“I have announced three consumer titles and three social game titles. I have given speeches in various seminars, panels, universities and schools. I have published three books. I am still aggressively challenging myself in various arenas.
“But I asked myself, ‘Have I covered all everything?’ It felt like something is missing; something people expect from me the most. Everywhere I go, people ask: ‘Are you working on it? When is it coming?’ The expectation seems higher in the west. The expectation is clear. It’s for my next zombie game,” he added.
The platforms in which the game will be released and release dates have been withheld so far, but that information is expected to be announced at the Tokyo Game Show. Inafune, who is working on different title for the Playstation Vita, suggested that he had a secret to announce at the Tokyo Game Show.
To set the bar for this title, Inafune has previously worked on other large titles including Mega Man and Onimusha.
The games industry today is abuzz with talk of the next generation of gaming. With the WiiU already with us, the Playstation 4 having been announced a while ago and, by the time you read this, Microsoft being about to or having just announced the next Xbox unit, you can’t move around the gaming web [...]
Computer games, as much as any other medium, are mysterious things. They can stir our souls, hotwire our adrenaline glands or disappoint us to our core. For every person who plays a game there is a valid and varied opinion. It’s one of the things that make the subject of a game’s relative quality a [...]
Across every genre of entertainment there are specific titles or releases that become synonymous with failure, that in the eyes of fans and critics alike embody the worst that the genre has to offer. They become the universal butt of any joke in that medium, the yardstick against which every other poorly-received release is measured. [...]
Over recent years there has been a shift in the focus of the gaming industry towards online multiplayer as a gaming model. Indeed, the biggest sellers of this generation of titles have been primarily online competitive titles, such as Halo 4 & Call of Duty. Over this time there has developed a very distinct separation [...]


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Have you ever wished you could wander around the terrifying, monster-infested alternate dimension of Netflix’s hit series “Stranger Things”? Now you can! The streaming entertainment service and Fever, an event listings platform, have teamed up to create “Stranger Things: The Experience.”
The pop-up will arrive in New York City and San Francisco (more cities to be announced) in spring 2022 and will feature custom, plot-driven adventures with “mind-blowing audiovisual effects” through the show’s iconic venues, like the Upside Down and Hawkins Laboratory. Themed menus, games and exclusive merchandise will be available at locations from the show like Scoops Ahoy and Palace Arcade.
The show about a group of pre-teens, one with supernatural powers, fighting monsters, government conspiracies and puberty was an immediate hit when it debuted in 2016. “Stranger Things” premiered fortuitously at the beginning of a wave of ‘80s nostalgia in pop culture, and all three seasons have consistently topped Netflix’s show charts.
Netflix hasn’t announced the premiere date for season four, but most fan-site estimates place it around the first half of 2022—perfectly aligning with “Stranger Things: The Experience.”
“We know our 'Stranger Things' fans will embrace the chance to be the heroes of the story, working alongside Eleven, Mike and the rest of the gang to escape the evil threatening to consume Hawkins,” said Greg Lombardo, Head of Experiences at Netflix, in a statement. “As Dustin would say, ‘It’s time for a curiosity voyage—so bring your paddles to travel!’”
Tickets for “Stranger Things: The Experience” will be available for $54 starting Thursday, July 8 on the installation’s site.
Netflix and Fever have previously collaborated on last year’s "Stranger Things Drive-Into" experience in Los Angeles, which consistently sold out and welcomed over 300,000 guests over the course of a seven month run. Netflix also teamed with Baskin Robbins for a Scoops Ahoy installation in 2019 ahead of the show’s season 3 premiere.


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MarketWatch is reporting that Virgin Mobile will announce that it will be offering the Apple iPhone, possibly as soon as July 1st.
The information comes from nebulous "people familiar with the company's plan's" making it more rumor than fact at this point. Still it seems creditable following the recent announcement that prepaid regional operator Cricket will begin selling Apple's iconic phone June 22nd. The Cricket launch signals that Apple is now willing to let the iPhone be sold as a prepaid device in the USA so I suspect we will see a flood of prepaid iPhone announcements in the coming months.
MarketWatch did not provide any information of the iPhone and plan pricing on Virgin Mobile but it's likely to be similar to Cricket's pricing of $499.99 for the 16 GB iPhone 4S and $399.99 for the 8GB iPhone 4.


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Goody Two Shoes Reopens in Harrisburg
A few months after closing, shoe store Goody Two Shoes is back in business under new ownership.
Goody Two Shoes officially reopened Thursday at the same location, 201 Milledge Rd. The new owner, Freda Keck, officially took over as owner of Goody Two Shoes on Monday.
“Wayne and Dotty (McGaha) are just very near and dear to me,” Keck said of the former owners, who owned the Harrisburg business for 34 years. “I worked here on and off for about fifteen years. When they had their going-out-of-business sale…I couldn’t say no.”
While Keck made changes to the interior and exterior of the store, the brands, prices and services remain the same, she said. The store sells a wide variety of quality shoe brands for discounted prices.
“I think really what makes it special and so unique is our customers,” Keck said. “We get our shoes from departments stores…so you’re able to get really nice brands…for a fraction of what they would cost in department stores.”
Goody Two Shoes is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.


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Heat lowers apple quality in California
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The quality of some California apples are taking a hit this year, because of a very hot summer.
Some farmers say, although production was on par with previous years, some of their apple crops were not shipped due to quality issues. They said sustained temperatures throughout the summer are to blame.
ag report, apple, ag watch
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Younger demographic driving huge innovation in low/no alcohol drinks
ACROSS the on-trade the soft drinks market is now outperforming all others – including wine, cider and beer.
The latest research into the burgeoning business of non-alcoholic beverages has found that ‘dry’ pub visits are more common than ever, with soft drinks making up 25% of on-trade sales, generating value in the region of £4.6 billion, up 2.7% year-on-year.
But this rising tide may not lift all boats – the mainstream brands which have long dominated designated drivers’ nights out are now squarely in the sights of the sugar tax, and the field is wide open to soft drinks with ‘wellness’ credentials and ‘adult’ flavours.
‘A healthy future for soft drinks’ is the latest report from Can Makers, the trade body representing UK drinks can manufacturers, where chairman Simon Gresty hailed the current atmosphere of ‘vibrant innovation’ in the soft drinks sector.
“An increasingly high percentage of consumers are actively reducing their alcohol consumption and the trend is mirrored in the on-trade, where research shows that 29% of adult pub visits today are ‘dry’,” he said.
“The fact is that people still want to socialise and enjoy a great tasting drink, just not necessarily an alcoholic one. We are seeing many brands striving to create a premium position in the market to differentiate more effectively.”
Gresty added that the change was largely being driven by younger consumers, more than a quarter of whom are now teetotal. It was, he said, a marketing opportunity which must now sit alongside environmental sustainability in the game-plan of every aspirant brand.
Riding on the crest of this soft drink tsunami, the energy drink market is becoming increasingly sophisticated, replacing the oomph of plain old glucose and caffeine with ingredients that can be presented as more refined antidotes to tiredness.
Tenzing is one such brand deliberately positioning away from the sector’s pioneers. Founder Huib van Bockel knows the territory well, having launched Tenzing after a career in marketing at Red Bull UK.
Huib maintains that mainstream energy and soft drinks are bound into out-dated formulations: “We know so much more about nutrition now. We just approached it in the simplest way. We found a respectable doctor specialised in sports nutrition and asked, if we were to create the best possible energising drink now, what ingredients would it have?”
More concerned with health than energy, Nix & Kix comes to market as ‘all-natural, low calorie, no added sugar and vegan’.
The brand focuses on cayenne as an ingredient to add a zing of flavour and a health-giving proposition.
Co-founder Kerstin Robinson said: “Cayenne helps to boost your metabolism and has also been proven to increase endorphin levels in the body, which is the hormone that makes you feel happy.”
Fellow Nix and Kix founder, Julia Kessler, explained: “Whenever we went out with the purpose of not drinking, we ended up drinking something like white wine spritzer, because for us it was healthier than any of the options available.
“When you don’t want to drink you don’t want to have something like cranberry juice, you want something which is still cool and exciting. We were determined to find a non-alcoholic alternative that was healthy but still excited the taste buds.”
Paddy Cavanagh-Butler, founder of premium adult soft drink company, Punchy, was more blunt: “The soft drinks category is still dominated by mass-market commodity brands that contain ingredients that are bad for you and packaged in materials that are bad for the environment.
“Brands will have to innovate or get left behind. There are also many more brands entering the market and, inevitably, there can only be so many winners and losers. Strap yourself in!”


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Modern cyber attacks are getting harder to prevent. Cyber criminals have a well-stocked arsenal of attack tools and countless techniques for staying hidden. Hacks, social engineering attacks and malware were three of the top four tactics used in data breaches in 2019, according to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. The continued growth of 5G, cloud computing and Internet of Things deployments means more devices, data and assets for attackers to target.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but when it comes to cyber security, it could be worth a whole lot more. The average cost of a data breach is nearly $3.9 million—a tough bill to swallow. Unfortunately, many response plans are failing: The average time to identify and contain a breach is 280 days, enough time for a breach to wreak some serious havoc.


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Unsurprisingly we’ve been Mobile World Congress obsessed this week, with myself and Vincent jetting off to vaguely-sunny Barcelona to see what’s new in the world of mobile devices. Whether a sign of a tighter consumer purse or a slowing in development, there were fewer big-hit devices than perhaps we expected, but Palm still made a strong showing with their Pre, while HTC caused ripples with both the Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2 as well as the Android-based Magic.
We were also quite taken with Nokia’s imagery-obsessed N86 8MP, while the Sony Ericsson Idouobviously struck a chord with readers as our live demo video views shot through the roof. Meanwhile Samsung brought some AMOLED-display beauties to the show, the UltraTOUCH, Omnia HD and, somewhat less impressive, BEAT DJ.
The strong showing from Android never arrived, with only the HTC Magic for Vodafone promising to be anything more than vaporware. NVIDIA did drag along the latest in their reference design series, a $99 MID with 1080p output and a port of Android, but it’s still far from retail-ready. In fact the biggest platform news came from Microsoft, who launched Windows Mobile 6.5.
There’s much more Mobile World Congress news than I can cover here, so for all the details hit the MWC 2009 tag. Of course, the world doesn’t stop just because mobile vendors are crowing, so we’ve also looked at the Gateway FX6800-05, the company’s stonking Core i7 gaming PC, and the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE, with its claims of massive battery life.


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FIA, RM Sotheby’s auction to benefit COVID relief fund exceeds $1 million – The ClassicCars.com Journal
The FIA charity auction to benefit international pandemic relief efforts, held on RM Sotheby’s Online Only platform, roared past $1 million for 95 automotive collector items and VIP experiences.
Many of the auction items, donated to the FIA Foundation by members of the automotive and motorsports communities, sold well above their expected values, with proceeds going to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies global response to COVID-19 in the internet sale organized by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) and RM Sotheby’s.
The #RaceAgainstCOVID auction, which ended last weekend, achieved a total of 845,472 British pounds ($1,057,984). That will be added to an FIA Foundation donation of €1 million ($1.13 million) that’s being made separately.


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Almost 12 years after it began, the supply chain program Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is yet to convince everyone it is worth the effort. The benefits fall short of what some expect of a program that can require $50,000 in IT and database upgrades.
The belated arrival of an FDA supply chain pilot scheme could increase the attractiveness of the investment though. C-TPAT is supposed to streamline the process of shipping items into the U.S., but the FDA and 13 other regulatory agencies have the power to hold up the release of imports. Biopharma firms know that after spending $50,000 on IT and database improvements--which is just one part of the required investment--their imports could still be delayed by the FDA. An FDA pilot project first proposed in January 2009 could ensure these companies imports are expedited.
Companies signing up to the pilot project must show FDA they meet certain criteria, after which the regulator will speed clearance of their imports. One of the criteria is having a secure supply chain that is validated to Tier II or III of C-TPAT. This shows the FDA that a company has invested to beef up its IT and other aspects of supply chain security, making it a suitable candidate for expedited clearance. FDA is looking for 100 such companies to sign up to its pilot project. Knowing these companies meet certain standards will free up FDA resources to inspect higher-risk importers.
FDA first issued a release about the program in 2009, and followed this up last summer with a posting in the Federal Register, Regulatory Focus reports. The agency will only begin accepting applications from the middle of next month though. Assuming this process goes smoothly, FDA plans to start the two-year pilot project in February 2014.