text:
The company has been proclaimed winner of the event’s most hotly contested category and dedicated the award to all its customers and retreader partners in the world.
Rovereto, Italy - With reference to the COVID-19 situation and the associated events taking place, we wish to inform you that our company’s activities in Italy are fundamental to support…
Marangoni Spa and Borrachas Vipal SA announce the definition of a partnership agreement aimed at increasing the synergies and productivity, strengthening the industrial and commercial organisation of both groups.
With immediate effect, the offices of CEO of Marangoni S.p.A. are ad interim held by the Chairman Vittorio Marangoni and the Vice-President Giuseppe Marangoni.
A new historical phase has begun for image promotion and contact with customers: today, the use of digital platforms seems to be much more practical and effective.
Graphene Plus to be developed to further extend sustainable life-cycle of Marangoni retreaded tyres and retreading materials
On 18 April 1968, the plant that now houses the global research centre - in addition to the production area and headquarters of the whole group - was built.
A further generational step in the compounding system will further raise quality standards and production efficiency.
This is revealed by a study carried out by the largest international statistics company (German Statista). The vote expressed by its employees. And yesterday, Vittorio Marangoni was in Rome, in the exclusive circles of Italian companies to present the best practices of the Group.
Another quality test for Marangoni’s products and technologies.


text:
5 biggest privacy challenges companies will face in 2021
After a year defined by unpredictability, it may seem like a waste of time to anticipate what 2021 will bring.
After all, no one could have forecast the total digital revolution that has taken the health care field by storm over the past 10 months or so. In an industry that has traditionally resisted digital innovation, the transition to virtual care and consumer adoption of telehealth, which skyrocketed by 400% in the period between the close of 2019 and April 2020, has surprised even the savviest prognosticators.
You could argue that ten years worth of change has taken place in less than a year, and in many ways, health care is all but unrecognizable from what it was in March 2020.
Already have an account? Sign In Now
Copyright © 2023 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

domain: news


text:
Seven semiconductor companies recently lowered revenue forecasts, providing a clear sign that the downturn in the economy has spread to every nook of the technology industry.
Semiconductors are the guts and brains of cell phones, handheld devices, personal computers, servers and the equipment that powers cross-country networks. The lowered forecasts came from companies that produce chips for gear across the spectrum, from the tiniest devices to the largest piece of Internet equipment.
“Theyre all independent, yet theyre all in the tank at the same time,” said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64, a Saratoga, Calif., research and consulting organization.
For a long time, every time personal computer sales caught a cold, semiconductor companies suffered pneumonia, because their fortunes were tied so closely to that largest market sector. As more chip companies emerged to make integrated circuits for an explosion of new uses, the semiconductor industry hoped to be less prone to boom-or-bust spells.
But almost all the revenue forecasts are negative, even as Wall Street boosts share prices of chip stocks, thinking they cant fall much farther.
Some forecasts say semiconductor companies might rebound by the end of the second quarter. But Brookwood believes so many components are gathering warehouse dust that the slowdown might linger until the end of the year. PC sales are soft and “even routers and switches and Internet plumbing is under pressure. Carriers are saying, Lets step on the brakes until we know whats going on. Its hard to say who is slowing down the most,” he said.
Steve Cullen, director of semiconductor research at Cahners In-Stat, said chipmakers will feel the chill longer than systems makers will. Equipment vendors didnt see the slowdown coming, so they ordered more components from the chip makers than they could put in their systems and sell.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors were at $16.9 billion in January, which was 14 percent more than those of the previous January, but 6 percent less than those of December 2000, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.


text:
The minister stated that his government intends to create 20 lakh jobs in the city over the next five years under the ‘Rozgar (employment) budget.’
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, on March 26, presented a Rs 75,800-crore Budget in the Assembly for the financial year 2022-23.
“Delhi’s economy is recovering gradually from the impact of COVID-19. The Budget allocation for 2022-23 is Rs 75,800 crore,” Sisodia said in his Budget speech in the Assembly.
Delhi govt allocates Rs 800 crore during the financial year 2022-23 for creating jobs
The minister stated that his government intends to create 20 lakh jobs in the city over the next five years under the ‘Rozgar Budget.’
And, to create 20 lakh jobs in the next five years, Sisodia said the government will focus priority sectors like — Retail, Food & beverages, Logistic & Supply Chain, Travel & Tourism, Entertainment, Construction
Real Estate, and Green Energy
“We have a target of expanding the working population in Delhi by creating 20 lakh jobs in the retail sector, food and beverage, logistics, travel and tourism, real estate and green energy,” Sisodia said.
Through 'Rozgaar budget' we aim to generate 20 lakh* more jobs in the next five years: Delhi Finance Minister & Deputy CM Manish Sisodia pic.twitter.com/hQWtBRflO2
— ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2022
Now I want to present the important section of our 'Rozgar Budget' containing 20 lakh new jobs. In this, I will put plans to take the economy of Delhi on the path of progress and generate lakhs of employment opportunities out of this progress.#DelhiBudget2022 pic.twitter.com/WTGrduYLkt
— Office Of Deputy CM of Delhi (@OfficeOfDyCM) March 26, 2022
Manish Sisdia said while about Rs 4,500 crore will be required to create 20 lakh new jobs during the next 5 years, he proposed an outlay of Rs 800 crore during the financial year 2022-23.
Delhi Govt sets aside Rs 100 crore for redevelopment of renowned market places
“We plan to redevelop & transform these iconic markets of Delhi into attractive tourist destinations. For this, we propose 100 crores in the budget. At least 1.5 lakh new job opportunities will be created in next 5 years from within just 5 markets,” said Sisodia.
Sisodia further said, “Shopping festivals will increase the number of tourists by about 4L, which will benefit hotels, restaurants, tourism and other businesses in a big way and overall will have a favorable impact on the lives of 12 lakh people employed in these sectors.”
He also said, “On the lines of Delhi Shopping Festival, another festival is proposed in this budget to increase the business of Delhi’s markets – Delhi Wholesale Shopping Festival.”
For the Delhi Shopping Festival of Delhi Wholesale Shopping Festival, Sisodia proposed Rs 250 crore in this budget.


text:
Published on 20 May 2016 by Elise
We doubt there are many people around who haven’t heard of the Oculus Rift headset (or at least heard about Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, putting up a reputed $2 billion to purchase the rights to the invention) and, in the online casino world, most have heard of SlotsMillion- creators of the World’s first VR Casino. So we were delighted to receive an invite to visit SlotsMillion at their Head Office in Barcelona, with the purpose of trying their VR Casino out for size.
WHO IS CURRENTLY USING VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSETS?
To be blunt, more than you might expect. Latest reports this week have suggested that Virtual Reality Casino headset purchases have reached the 300,000 mark in Europe, with the apparent total number of users stated as sitting close to 1 million worldwide, so a large number of people are clearly not deterred by the $600 price tag attached to products such as Oculus Rift.
WHAT IS OCULUS RIFT?
Creator of the Oculus Rift headset, Palmer Luckey, first started building his prototype aged 17 from his parent’s garage. Fast forward 5 years and the inventor is worth an estimated $700 million, but has still remained true to his roots- living in a shared house with 6 friends in California following the Kickstarter campaign that got his VR headset idea off the ground.
The Oculus Rift headset goes a step further than the 3D experience, instead encapsulating users within a completely immersive, interactive experience. To look at, Oculus Rift resembles giant ski goggles, but they have awesome potential in a variety of industries- with gaming, film and online casino gaming the obvious three choices for exploration by the growing number of VR headset owners.
SLOTSMILLION VIRTUAL REALITY CASINO
Launched in 2015, SlotsMillion Casino turned heads from the second it arrived in the industry. The self-titled ‘first Virtual Reality Casino’, SlotsMillion began doing something that no other casino had done before- as well as running all the regular slots you would expect to see in your common or garden online casino, they also offered 3D slots you could access through your computer and (and this is where it gets innovative) through an Oculus Rift headset.
In the time since their launch a year ago their games selection has exploded to 40 Virtual Reality slots, with the majority coming from Net Entertainment. But they’re far from just a VR Casino! SlotsMillion also offer one of the largest selections of ‘normal’ slot games out there- 1133 at the time of writing, and more are being added on a regular basis.
WHAT DOES THE SLOTSMILLION VR CASINO LOOK LIKE?
We’ll share more once we’ve tested the equipment for ourselves but, from using the demo available on the SlotsMillion site, it is evident that players using the VR Casino can walk into a casino set high up above a fictitious City- looking out across a stunning skyline, there are numerous casino machines to tempt you, a bar to while away a little downtime, and the opportunity to see fellow SlotsMillion VR Casino players doing much of the same.
TESTING THE SLOTSMILLION VIRTUAL REALITY CASINO
In just a few short days, three of us will be jetting off to sunny Spain to meet up with the SlotsMillion team in Barcelona, and we couldn’t be any more excited about the prospect.
The aim is to test out the latest reincarnation of their VR Casino software and return to the office with a ton of info to share with you, our Netentcasino readers. There will be interviews, videos and a ton of virtual reality casino bonus bits for us to tell you about, so keep tabs on our news page over the next couple of weeks!
Read more about SlotsMillion here.


text:
Royal Mail has signed a deal with Beumer Group to design and build the automated parcel sorting system for its new fully automated North West parcel hub in Warrington.
Scheduled for completion in spring 2022, Warrington is the first new automated parcel hubs to be constructed by Royal Mail. Once operational, the hub – which is the size of 4.5 football pitches – will be able to process more than 800,000 parcels per day through the automated parcel sorting system. These parcels will typically comprise items purchased from retailers the evening before, as well as larger parcels more suitable for van delivery… if you’re ears didn’t prick up at this then yes it’s part of Royal Mails modernisation program to enable evening purchases to be processed and delivered the next day.
Close to urban centres like Liverpool and Manchester, and to the warehousing and fulfilment centres of online retailers, the Warrington parcel hub is ideally-situated to support growth in UK e-retail, and the growing demand for next day delivery and the delivery of larger items. It will also significantly increase Royal Mail’s capacity to process parcels at peak volumes. July 2020 ONS data shows that online sales accounted for more than third of all retail sales in the UK. Analysts predict that even as lockdown lifts online sales will continue to account for a significant proportion of sales.
“Royal Mail has played a key role in keeping the UK economy going during the COVID-19 crisis and we want to ensure that we continue to support UK plc as it gets back to business post pandemic. Whilst lockdown is easing, we know that online sales will continue to be the significant part of retail sales and we shall continue to see more parcels pass through our system as a result. Our parcel hubs will ensure that businesses at a local and national level have the parcel delivery capacity they need to meet consumer demands.”
– Simon Barker, National Operations Director, Royal Mail
The Warrington hub will support the development of the Northern Powerhouse by ensuring the region’s businesses have access to a high-quality delivery service to meet consumer demand. It will also add to Royal Mail’s considerable contribution to the regions. Royal Mail employs 20,467 jobs in the North West region.
Work on the second hub, which will be situated at the Daventry International Rail Freight Interchange (DIRFT) in the East Midlands, will commence in August 2020. DIRFT is classed as a nationally-significant infrastructure project and is one of the most successful intermodal logistics parks in the UK. From its location in the logistics ‘golden triangle’, at the heart of the UK’s motorway and rail network, the Hub will have excellent road links to the M1 and M6 motorways, access to the West Coast Main Line, as well as the warehousing and fulfilment centres of online retailers.


text:
Soft drinks brand Vimto is launching its first licensed fudge product: Handmade Vintage Vimto Fudge.
The fudge is blended with Vimto’s secret flavour to create a product intended to bring excitement to the sugar confectionery category.
Available now to independent retailers, the new fudge is packaged in two formats, a luxury carton ideal for sharing and a premium tin for the gifting occasion. To ensure the brand’s flavour remains recognisable, Vimto has teamed up with Gardiners of Scotland, a long-established family-run business that specialises in a wide range of traditional confectionery products.
Helen Hartley, Vimto brand licensing manager, comments: “This is a hugely exciting launch for the brand as it not only propels Vimto into a new sector but allows us to offer a product that will appeal to a broader age range of consumers. Both formats will be available all year round, but have launched just in-time for the Christmas gifting season for those looking to trade-up and purchase more premium confectionery items.
“There is a real and growing demand for traditional sugar confectionery and Vimto Fudge cleverly caters to this, by utilising the brand’s heritage as a familiar flavour consumers will remember from their childhoods. The premium tin can easily be kept once the fudge has been eaten and used as a decorative item or as storage for lovers of all things vintage.”


text:
Once upon a time the prevailing wisdom was that selling food, especially fresh, would never work online. Amazon is setting out to disprove that as it has shown in the US with its takeover of Whole Foods. But the new age of digital grocery could prove highly profitable for smaller, specialist sellers too, especially in Australia’s food-obsessed culture.
While it probably doesn’t trump talking real estate and property prices as our national pastime, our appetite for the culinary arts is perhaps our next biggest shared passion. It wasn’t always so. There was a time in Australia (which many of us remember) when it was still all about meat and three veg, and the height of exotic eating was the local Chinese takeaway joint.
I grew up in the UK and it was similar there, too. And just like the UK, Australia’s food culture blossomed as migrant communities started to introduce us all to a more varied diet. That opened the door to consumers seeing food as more than just the stuff you put in your mouth to keep you going through the day. Why not plantain instead of potato? Why bother with spinach when you can eat kale? If we’re eating out tonight, why don’t we try that Peruvian fusion place?
If you want a perfect case study of how food and beverage culture (because the drink component in all of this is important as well) create business opportunities then look at the proliferation of coffee culture in cities like Melbourne and Sydney. All the coffee we drink requires an industry to service our demand. From beans to baristas, the coffee industry in Australia is now estimated to be worth $8 billion, with an annual growth rate of 7%.
Similar growth is happening in other sectors of what could be called the gourmet food and beverage industry, especially if the offerings are upscale, healthy and organic. That’s what makes Amazon’s recent acquisition of the US supermarket chain Whole Foods so interesting.
Whole Foods has specialised in offering a healthier alternative to regular supermarket grocery shopping. It has grown from its humble origins as a vegetarian food store in Austin, Texas, called SaferWay into a national chain with more than 450 stores across the US and several in the UK and Canada.
Amazon spied an opportunity to expand its physical retail footprint and in the process apply its ecommerce, warehouse and logistics expertise to a business that has the potential to dominate the growing market for healthy and organic foods.
The acquisition of Whole Foods for $US13.7 billion is another step in Jeff Bezos’s masterplan to expand the Amazon empire right into the heart of retail: food and clothes. As far back as 2008, according to Brad Stone’s account in his book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, Bezos was looking at how Amazon could scale to challenge Walmart:
“In order to be a two-hundred-billion-dollar company, we’ve got to learn how to sell clothes and food,” Bezos said frequently to colleagues during this time. That figure was not randomly selected; it referred to the magnitude of Walmart’s sales in the middle years of the decade.
Amazon has already made its mark on Whole Foods, rolling the chain’s offerings into its Prime membership program and cutting prices on many staple items. There’s no doubt as well that Bezos sees the Whole Foods brand of healthy and organic groceries as the way forward for grocery shopping, as wealthier consumers have been moving towards gourmet and healthier eating options over the past decade. Matched with the grocery distribution network AmazonFresh, Whole Foods will be able to take its healthy and organic brand to even more consumers.
This could all sound very frightening for local food retailers, especially as Amazon gears up to fully launch in Australia very soon. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be. As with other sectors, strong specialist retailers and vendors who build loyal communities around their brand can learn to live with the Amazon monster.
From food trucks through to MasterChef, Australia’s foodie obsession is fertile ground for smart and nimble entrepreneurs. Those that can align their gourmet offerings with digital smarts will flourish, while stale offerings that fail to engage online and mobile consumers will wither on the vine.


text:
This is coming a week after her fellow female housemates, Nengi and Dorathy got verified on the platform.
The beautiful single mom and fashion entrepreneur now has nearly 100k followers and will definitely cross the mark soon.
See image below:
For celebrities, getting verified on social media platforms is a huge achievement as its a mark of authenticity, brand and popularity.
Blue ticks also help fans and followers to avoid being swindled or defrauded by fake account operators.


text:
Ross Stores is losing one of its longtime merchandising executives.
The fast-growing off-pricer announced that Bernie Brautigan, president, merchandising of Ross Dress for Less since 2016, is leaving the company. Senior merchant executives under his areas of responsibility will now report to CEO Barbara Rentler.
“Bernie has made numerous valuable contributions over his 16-year career as a merchandising executive at Ross Dress for Less,” Rentler stated. “We have a very talented and long-tenured team of senior merchandising leaders directing a large organization of more than 800 buyers.”
As of January 9, 2020, the company operates 1,550 Ross locations in 39 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam, and 260 dd’s Discounts stores in 19 states.


text:
David Buck, Senior Fellow, Public Health and Inequalities at The King’s Fund, responded to the government’s new measures to tackle childhood obesity
‘These new measures are a significant upgrade on the current childhood obesity plan. The UK is the most obese nation in western Europe so we welcome the target to halve childhood obesity by 2030. The proposals to restrict the advertising of junk food and ban the sale of energy drinks to children signal a bolder and more active approach from the government.
‘The success of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in encouraging manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in soft drinks highlights the important role of government intervention through regulation and taxation as part of an effective strategy to improve the public’s health. Although politicians often balk at the idea of the 'nanny state', there is evidence that this type of approach is often popular with the public.'
New measures announced to halve childhood obesity by 2030


text:
The Stable, a two-year-old Minneapolis consumer marketing agency, is expanding its business and to Seattle, thanks to a $4 million equity infusion by Fargo-based Gen7 Investments.
CEO Chad Hetherington said the 25-person consumer-brand business that works with the likes of Ring, Califia Farms and Gorilla Glue, said the funds will help The Stable "reinvent the traditional broker model by going after new channels of distribution including social and e-commerce."
Said Hetherington: "Our role over the next few years is to position the agency to support our brand partners across all platforms.
"Most brands work through retail and Amazon. The new trend is brands partnering with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter… and to use those platforms to sell to the public. Our role is to play in the space and help those brands be successful [through] cross-platform reprensentation."
Gen7 launched earlier this year with capital from Forum Communications Co, a media company that owns the Fargo Forum and other properties. Gen7 has invested in several fast-growing software companies, and plans to continue diversifying its portfolio.
"We believe that The Stable's business model is uniquely qualified for the changing retail environment, and their rapid growth over the past two years is indicative of the substantial value they provide to the firms they represent," said CEO Bill Marcil Jr of Forum and Gen7. "The opportunity to partner with their team to help facilitate their continued growth is something that we are very excited about."
Hetherington said the company will double its unspecified revenue this year over that of 2016.
The Stable's owners also include Hetherington and three other employee-partners.
Before 2015, Hetherington was head of sales for Quirky. It helps inventors take products to market.


text:
One of iFixit’s staff members was among the lucky few to get one of Valve’s Steam Machine prototypes, so, of course, he let his co-workers completely dismantle it and post photos of the process on the internet.
The result is that we now know that Valve has packed a lot of power into its prototypes, including a 1 terabyte Seagate hybrid SSD, a 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 16 GB of RAM and a Zotac GeForce 780 graphics card, with 3 GB of VRAM. The hard drive and GPU seem easily replaceable, and it’s possible to get at the RAM and processor after taking off a cowling covering the motherboard.
If anyone was looking for proof that Valve isn’t messing around when it comes to building a gaming machine, this is it. The tech specifications on Valve’s box are better than either the PS4 or Xbox One, which will probably be the Steam Box’s closest competitors.
There’s still the outstanding question of how this prototype will translate into a finished Steam Machine. While the prototype is made mostly of off-the-shelf parts, it’s also huge, which could be a problem for people without tons of room next to their televisions or monitors.
It’s also expensive. iFixit clocked the total cost of all the included parts at $1,300. While game console makers have frequently sold their hardware at a loss and made up for it with game sales, it doesn’t seem like Valve could cost this beast at or below $500, which is the current price ceiling for gaming consoles.
Valve said earlier this year that it is working with a number of manufacturers to produce Steam Machines with varying form factors, specifications and price points, so it’s entirely possible this prototype could just be the precursor to a high-end flagship product, and other devices will fill in the middle- and low-end of the Steam Machine lineup.
The company says that it’ll be revealing more information about its plans for the console at CES in January. Meanwhile, impatient and skilled gamers can take a crack at installing Valve’s Steam OS on their own hardware while we wait for production-grade units.


text:
With the Series G funding, Yuanfudao’s valuation reaches US$7.8 billion
China-based online education unicorn Yuanfudao bagged US$1 billion amid pandemic-induced rapid market growth, according to a company statement on March 31. The Series G funding round was led by Hillhouse Capital and existing investor Tencent Holdings. The current infusion of funds has pushed Yuanfudao’s valuation to $7.8 billion from $3 billion in 2018.
Hong Kong-based Boyu Capital, US-based IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners China, a subsidiary of U.S.-based private equity giant Matrix Partners, also participated in the funding round. Including the latest financing, the startup’s total funding amount stands at around $1.5 billion.
As reported in DealStreetAsia, Yuanfudao Founder and CEO said, “The new investment is our Series G round and some people jokingly asked if we plan to use up all the letters of the alphabet.”
“The new round marks the continuous support and belief we have obtained from the capital market, as well as the arduous and lengthy path an online education company has to take,” he added.
The company operates in the Chinese K12 online education industry and claims to have 400 million users on its platforms. It has developed a series of online education products like the Yuanfudao mobile application, Banma AI Ke (Zebra AI Course), and other homework plans. It also has 11 teaching and curriculum development centres across China.
“Yuanfudao is gradually growing into a brand well known among our student users,” said Li.
In China, the Yuanfudao app ranked first in in-app purchases in the education category between January and mid-March, according to mobile app performance tracker application App Annie.
Earlier in March, Yuanfudao provided seed capital to India-based Pigeon Education which owns online learning platform Oda Class. According to an Oda Class press release, Li said that Yuanfudao saw its own commitment towards growth and development of the education system mirrored in Oda Class.
The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdowns have accelerated tech adoption in a lot of sectors. Elearning is thriving, with more and more students opting for online education amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to CEO Li, “Education was among the industries that people had projected its disruptive change since the dawn of the Internet, but entrepreneurs in the past two decades failed to make it happen.”
According to the ‘China Online Education Industry Report, 2016-2021’ by Research and Markets, China’s online education industry was worth $21.2 billion in 2016 while it is expected to grow to $59.3 billion by 2021. Furthermore, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the online education market in China is expected to reach $99.3 billion in 2023.
Header image: Annie Spratt on Unsplash


text:
(Bloomberg Wirtschaftswoche) – Diana Rivapalacio didn’t expect to be back on the factory floor two weeks after the pandemic broke out.
When the plant in Tijuana in Tokyo SMK Corp. Closed in April 2020, the quality control manager Rivapalacio and the company’s 800 machine operators, inspectors and administrators made their way into uncertainty. But many were back at work that same month.
They owe their quick reopening to the location of their city on the US border. Like many manufacturing companies, SMK avoided a lengthy lockdown by arguing that a tiny product – a location tracker – was essential, Rivapalacio says. It could be used to track shipments of vaccines or medical equipment, SMK told Mexican authorities.
Numerous companies across Tijuana found reasons to stay open. As did much of the rest of Baja California and other northern states, spurred on by US demand for Mexican-made goods that had been boosted by stimulus payments from the Trump and then the Biden administrations. âWe do international business at the border. They depend on us and we depend on them, âsays Rivapalacio. “At first it was a crisis, but everyone has adapted.”
Other parts of Mexico have not been so lucky.
“Every sector is having a very bad time,” says Sergio BaÃ±os, mayor of Pachuca, capital of Hidalgo, a mountainous state near Mexico City where the economy is dominated by wholesale, retail and services. In Pachuca, formal employment declined 12% in the second quarter of this year since early 2020. In Tijuana it increased by 8%.
As Finance Minister Rogelio RamÃrez de la O put it in a recent speech, âthe economic recovery in our regions has been unevenâ. According to Grupo Financiero Banorte, a Mexican bank, by July of this year northwest Mexico had far exceeded its gross domestic product from 2018, the year before the recession. The center of the country, which is significantly more dependent on domestic demand than the north, was more than four percentage points behind the 2018 level.
This is due to President AndrÃ©s Manuel LÃ³pez Obrador’s own policies. Unlike many other leaders, he did not push through significant spending increases to prop up households and businesses during the crisis, arguing that a lower debt burden would help the country recover faster.
Growth along the border is forecast by Bloomberg Economics to drive 5.9% economic growth across Mexico this year, after shrinking 8.2% last year. But the shape of the recovery is the opposite of what LÃ³pez Obrador hoped for when he took office in 2018, pledging to tackle inequality and wean Mexico off its dependence on foreign companies.
The US-China trade war initially seemed to highlight the risks of such reliance on foreign trade as the cost of sourcing foreign supplies rose from 2018, and Shipping caused further price increases in 2021.
However, Tijuana rebounded quickly as some U.S. companies struggling with tangled supply chains relocated their operations to Mexico. North American manufacturers said, “‘We have to change our business because we can’t hold a product worth millions or billions because a component didn’t come from Africa, Asia or Europe,'” said Carlos Higuera, chief executive officer of PCM Corp. ., a Tijuana-based contract manufacturing company.
Thanks to the influx of foreign capital, new factories are being built. According to Edna Patricia HernÃ¡ndez, CEO of Tijuana EDC, a nonprofit that supports international businesses in the city, Tijuanaâs industrial enterprise area has grown the most in at least a decade over the past year.
In Pachuca, the business of JosÃ© Zaragoza’s construction company Cayco ConstrucciÃ³n has decreased by 40% compared to 2019. As the local economy recovers, bills are constantly unpaid due to a lack of liquidity. âWe have few resources, an incomplete workforce or payroll, and we don’t get paid up front to produce or order or move things,â says Zaragoza.
While Tijuana’s involvement in the US helped capitalize on the country’s huge stimulus packages, Pachuca suffered from LÃ³pez Obrador’s decision to become more dependent on domestic demand. Don’t increase expensessays Zaragoza, the head of the local branch of the Canacintra business association. Government incentives have “not solved everything, but definitely helped companies keep their payroll up, maybe not having to close, or maybe maintain their liquidity,” he says.
Hidalgo’s economy has shrunk more than twice as much as Baja California’s last year and will only grow 2.8% in 2021, according to Banorte, while the northern state is expected to grow 8.2%.
At the same time, the poverty rate in Mexico rose by two percentage points to 43.9% from 2018 to 2020. The increase “went hand in hand with the lack of real pandemic-induced economic support for families,” says Ana GutiÃ©rrez, an economist at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, a think tank.
The president’s narrow-minded policies have paid off in other ways. When LÃ³pez Obrador, a populist with left roots, took office, the markets panicked because he feared he might shake the country. Investors are now giving him good marks for financial honesty. Colombia’s credit was cut to scrap by two rating agencies this year, but few analysts see the risk of this happening to Mexico.
LÃ³pez Obrador’s unexpected pragmatic streak saw him too prioritize vaccinations in the north– although far from its voter base – in a hitherto unsuccessful attempt to persuade the US to open the border.
Mexico’s total GDP will at best return to 2018 levels before 2023, according to Banorte economist Delia Paredes. A look at Tijuana’s smaller companies shows that the recovery was not consistent there either.
Local businesses that do not want to export are brought to their knees by supply chain problems and low demand, in part because of the border closure. Juan Carlos PÃ©rez, who has been selling styrofoam containers and paper bags from his warehouse in Tijuana for two decades, says his sales are 70% of normal. Its workforce has shrunk from seven to three.
“We managed to survive because we’ve been in business for years, but those who were just getting started didn’t have the resources to stay open,” he says.
Next read: How Mexico forgot its Covid crisis


text:
May 16, 2011
Win! Court Rejects DirectBuy Class-Action Settlement That Offered Little or No Benefit to the Class
Public Citizen Attorney Ensures Claims of Wronged Consumers Are Not Released for Nothing
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal judge has rejected a proposed settlement of a class action brought against membership-buying service DirectBuy for misrepresenting that members could buy products at cost. Public Citizen represented a class member who objected to the terms of the proposed settlement because it would provide almost no relief to class members but would require them to release a broad range of claims against DirectBuy. In a decision issued today, U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall agreed with the objectors and denied the settling parties’ request for approval of their settlement.
DirectBuy is an Indiana-based company that markets itself as providing its members the opportunity to buy “direct” from manufacturers without hidden fees or markups. The class-action lawsuit alleges that DirectBuy accepts rebates and discounts from manufacturers without passing the savings on to members. Other cases against DirectBuy allege that the company uses high-pressure sales tactics that induce consumers to purchase DirectBuy memberships for as much as $7,000 in some states. Many DirectBuy members are dissatisfied with the service because of the prices and selection that DirectBuy offers and the fees that it charges, which sometimes result in no or minimal savings compared to the prices offered by traditional retailers.
In rejecting the proposed settlement that would have released the claims of more than 836,000 consumers in exchange for an extended DirectBuy membership period, the judge found that the plaintiffs in the case had substantially undervalued the strength of the settled claims and that the relief proposed was meager in light of the potential recovery against DirectBuy. Thus, the court concluded that the settlement was not fair, reasonable or adequate.
“We are pleased that the judge agreed with our argument that the proposed settlement was essentially a coupon of little or no value to the class,” said Michael Kirkpatrick, the Public Citizen attorney representing one of the objecting class members. “Absent class members should not have valuable claims released in exchange for so little.”
Thirty-nine state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of the objectors, arguing that the proposed settlement should be rejected.
Class-action settlements require court approval, Kirkpatrick said. Because the court rejected the proposal, the case will now continue to be litigated.
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.


text:
With giants such as Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft in its corner, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) has released the 1.0 version of AV1, a next-gen, royalty-free codec that claims to have a 30% bit-rate efficiency edge over current-gen technologies like VP9 and HEVC.
The consortium is releasing AV1 in the hopes that it will deliver improved bandwidth efficiencies amid the move to video formats with more pixels (like 4K and 8K), better pixels (High Dynamic Range and Wide Color Gamut), as well as the emergence of 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) apps and services that need to be smooth and are poised to ratchet up bit rate requirements on TV screens, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Though AV1, which is also claimed to have a 65% bandwidth savings over AVC/H.264, could eventually find itself a home inside set-top boxes and, perhaps even further out broadcast TV signals, it’s expected to initially find adoption on web browsers and other types of OTT streaming devices.
“Video is changing the way the internet is evolving,” Gabe Frost, the executive director and a founding board member of AOMedia and a principal engineering manager for Microsoft’s operating systems group, said in an interview.
Another chief aim for AV1 and its royalty-free model is to eliminate some of the pricing uncertainty that has enveloped codecs like HEVC, which has been saddled by multiple patent pools and little in the way of uniformity on rates.
The current codec market is “gummed up” due to the cost uncertainty, Frost said, and has likewise caused friction between technology innovators that those that want to charge for patented technologies that can help them.
AOMedia, launched in 2015, was formed with the core idea that the underlying video codec technology had become a commodity, and that a royalty-free model represented the best path forward.
“We all use it; it all gets baked into silicon,” Frost said.
The plan with AV1 then focused on how a new approach, despite being royalty-free, could still “create a viable business model to move the industry forward, with some certainty around the costs of producing these codecs,” he explained.
While that idea was spawned by early meetings with Microsoft and Google, it later expanded to include several other in the ecosystem, including chipmakers, distributors, web services companies and video equipment makers, that would be willing to provide their intellectual property under the royalty-free model.
Examples of founding members of AOMedia include Amazon, Apple, ARM, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix and Nvidia. Promoter members include Adobe, CableLabs, Bitmovin, Hulu, Vidyo, and Broadcom, among others.
Frost said every member company of AOMedia signs an agreement that licenses the essential technology that’s used in the final AV1 codec on a royalty-free basis. And those that implement it likewise sign a cross-patent license agreement that says they’re free to use AV1 at no cost, but that if they hold any essential patents, those are licensed to other AOMedia members on a royalty-free basis.
“We wanted to make sure we had a licensing infrastructure set up where we could create a durable, royalty-free ecosystem,” Frost said, noting that companies with patents used for codecs such as HEVC and H.264 are free to license those same patents under other terms, such as those that are governed by AV1.
The hope is that the model will accelerate the adoption cycle of AV1 and spark advancements across software, silicon, devices and connectivity and push the market forward for all stakeholders.
“Royalty-free doesn’t mean that people aren’t making money off the technology,” Frost said.
As for near-term expectations, Frost said desktop browsers will start to support AV1 later this year, and see it start to show up on devices such as gaming consoles towards the end of 2018 or into 2019.
In a presentation about today’s release, AOMedia noted that AV1 would be “coming to a screen near you,” with examples that included Twitch, Facebook, Android, Amazon Prime Video, Chromebook, Chrome, Google Play, Netflix, Windows, Xbox One, Daydream (Google’s VR platform), Skype, and YouTube.
“It will be 2020 when we see it available on all new silicon that comes out,” Frost predicted.
Michelle Abraham, senior analyst, media and communications at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the buy-in among a wide number of companies and players gives AV1 a “good opportunity” to make waves in the video codec market.
She sees its greatest opportunity coming from video streaming and OTT, but doesn’t expect to see it widely used by broadcasters, who typically go with technologies that are tied to international standards bodies.
There’s also a question about whether the latency requirements of broadcasters will be suited to AV1, at least in its initial release.
AV1 will be getting some play at next month’s NAB show in Las Vegas, including demos on April 10 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Upper Hall Destination NXT Stage.
A panel is also slated for April 11 starting at 3:20 p.m. at the North Hall (N257) that will feature Microsoft’s Gabe Frost, Google’s Matt Frost, Intel’s Zach Hamm, Bitmovin’s Stefan Lederer, Microsoft’s David Rudin, and Netflix’s Mark Watson.
The smarter way to stay on top of the multichannel video marketplace. Sign up below.


text:
Kabbage, an online lender operated by American Express, has published its periodic Small Business Recovery Report – its 7th installment. The survey queried 550 small business leaders which indicate that year-over-year revenue, between July 2021 and July 2022, almost doubled (87%) while profits remained flat.
Brett Sussman, Vice President Head of Sales & Marketing, Kabbage, claims that small businesses are not only surviving but flourishing even during historically high inflation and hiring challenges.
Survey data indicates that overall profits among US small businesses have slightly declined by 4% from July 2021 and July 2022. The data shows small businesses continue to anticipate future economic obstacles as 75% of respondents report feeling impacted by inflationary pressures and 56% expect pressures to last at least a year until the summer of 2023.
The report shares:
- 37% stated they plan to raise prices,
- 22% aim to negotiate better deals with suppliers
- 22% are cutting lower margin products and services from their offerings
- 33% of small businesses plan to prioritize customer relations and strengthen customer loyalty to help increase future revenue.
Small businesses are also adapting to the WFH movement by offering hybrid options. 49% of small businesses have started offering flexible work options to stay competitive in the labor market with hybrid work (27%) being the most popular option.
The top two areas where SMEs are prioritizing effort are digital transformation (41%) and digital marketing (47%)
While all of this displays small business resilience the economy is shifting rapidly as the US Federal Reserve battles the current administration as fiscal policy is at odds with monetary policy causing more problems. Inflation, once described as transitory, can no longer be ignored and the Fed has declared a need to stomp on inflation regardless of the impact it will have on the economy. The next Small Business Recovery Report will be far gloomier (and Kabbage should remove the term recovery).


text:
Curious has rebranded The Smithfield Show, the agricultural and business event held at Earls Court Exhibition centre every two years. The work will be applied across show literature, a website, advertising, banners and signage.
This year’s exhibition features a wheelchair that can climb stairs, a language-translating earpiece and a brand identity for Wales.
A new fundraising book features contributions from Manchester creatives including Peter Saville and Malcolm Garrett, which have been inspired by Tony Walsh’s poem This is the Place.
As Design Manchester celebrates its fifth birthday, we pick out our top exhibitions to catch at the festival, including a tribute to the book covers of Mancunian literary legend Anthony
Atlas has created the branding for the new fashion label, which will also be contributed to by other industrial and product designers.


text:
By Steve Waters
The 42nd Palm Beach International Boat Show is the ideal venue for people looking to buy a boat, update one they currently own with the latest in electronics, engines and other marine equipment, or simply see the boating industry’s newest products.
The show is March 21-24 along Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach and features more than 800 boats and marine accessories worth more than $1.2 billion.
“One of the things I like most about the Palm Beach show is it’s not Miami,” said Michael Brown, the president of Dusky Marine in Dania Beach, noting that frequent Interstate 95 shutdowns going south affect his employees and visitors trying to get to Miami Beach. “The traffic to the Palm Beach show moves from either direction.
“The show is very easy to get to and the parking is easy.”
Dusky has exhibited at the show for more than 20 years. Brown said Palm Beach is the company’s most profitable show, coming as it does after the Fort Lauderdale show in the fall and Miami’s in February.
“It’s always been my best show, because it’s the end of the boat show year,” he said. “Plus everything is outside and it attracts my kind of customers. They can drink a beer and not worry about spilling it as they walk around.”
The vessels on display on land and in the water range from 8-foot inflatables to new and used superyachts of nearly 300 feet.
The luxurious yachts, which are lined up side by side along floating docks, are impressive to look at, but you need to be a serious buyer to get invited aboard. Companies such as Galati Yacht Sales have a variety of makes and models at the show, including Viking yachts, Princess yachts, Prestige yachts and Vahalla center consoles.
Edmiston will have its Helios 2 and A2 for sale at the show. The Helios 2 is a 168-foot Palmer Johnson that was built in 2002 and refitted in 2023. It has five cabins that can accommodate 10 guests and it has a range of 4,000 nautical miles cruising at 12 knots. The price is $15.9 million.
The A2 is a 154-foot Feadship that was launched in 1983 and refitted two years ago. It has room for 12 guests and is priced at $16.9 million.
Fishing boats are plentiful at the show. Dusky Marine is known for its rugged center consoles and will have several on display on land. Regulator, Grady-White, Pursuit and other popular builders of center console fishing boats also will have several models at the show. If your boat needs new outboard motors, the newest and biggest engines will be on display.
If you get hungry, dozens of food concessions offer a variety of dining choices, from seafood to tacos and burgers, as well as vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free items. The show also offers free how-to fishing seminars as well as educational sessions on issues within the yachting industry.
There are five show entrances, from Lakeview Avenue at the southern end to the entrance at the northern end of Flagler Drive. Show hours are noon-7 p.m. March 21, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. March 22 and 23, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 24.
Tickets for the show are digital and can be purchased online at pbboatshow.com. Active military and veterans can attend the show for free on March 24.
A one-day Windward VIP ticket, $390, allows entry into the show one hour early March 22-24 and includes access to the Windward VIP Club at the Lakeside Pavilion on Flagler Drive, which features an open bar and gourmet food.
The show offers convenient, affordable parking in a number of municipal garages and private lots, with free trolley transportation.
If You Go
What: Palm Beach International Boat Show
When: March 21-24
Where: Along Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach
Admission: Adults, $33; ages 6-15, $17
Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
PEFC UK is partnering with EDGE London to promote the use of responsibly sourced wood products at every stage of a building project.
Architects, designers and other construction professionals specifying materials for construction projects, are increasingly turning to timber as a key element of the building design. Specifiers and buyers choosing PEFC-certified wood products can be assured that they have been sourced responsibly, with the long-term future of healthy forests in mind.
PEFC and EDGE also share a commitment to a strong circular economy – crucial if we are to meet 2050 net zero carbon targets. While timber is a naturally circular product that can easily be recycled and reused, it’s important that buyers choose timber products made from materials that have been sourced from forests that meet internationally recognised standards of legality and sustainability, certified by a global forestry certification programme such as PEFC.


text:
Home Tags MasterCard
Despite its cooperation with the authorities and Mastercard, the complaint states, “Mastercard terminated Loyal Bank’s license in May 2018, thereby driving Loyal Bank straight into liquidation.”
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in Tarrytown was the top-rated Westchester firm, while XPO Logistics of Greenwich was the highest-ranked Fairfield County operation.
Mastercard's Cheryl Guerin stated that "unconditional acceptance" was a corporate key value.
RPW Group has added another property to its portfolio: 100 Manhattanville Road in Purchase. Robert P. Weisz, president and CEO of RPW Group, told the...
Invoke the prefix “crypto” to most people, and negative thoughts are likely to follow; after all, dictionary.com defines the term as a noun meaning...
"We want to be a force for change to help address and alleviate unnecessary pain points," Mastercard's Randall Tucker said.
IBM led the way in Westchester, while Charter Communications was the top-ranked firm in Fairfield County.
“Consumer expectations are changing rapidly and as a result we must keep pace,” said Mastercard executive Amnah Ajmal.
"We see Transactis as strengthening our support of the bill payments space," said Mastercard executive Colleen Taylor.
The Purchase-based company reported sales up 5.1 percent this holiday season from last, reaching $850 billion.
The Armonk company’s new ranking was reflective of its 4 percent revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2017, the first increase after 22 consecutive quarters of decline.
IBM, ITT, PepsiCo, and the New York Power Authority were also cited as among the nation's best employers. Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to compile the lists
The Purchase-based payments company will add Brighterion’s Smart Agent technology to its suite of security products already using artificial intelligence.


text:
In a quote to make decentralized money (DeFi) more available to its customers, significant United States crypto exchange coinbase states it is making it possible for individuals in 70 countries to acquire a DeFi yield item utilizing their DAI crypto holdings.
The exchange is making DeFi “extra customer pleasant and available,” as “eligible users will currently have the ability to access the attractive yields of DeFi from the convenience of their coinbase account with just a few taps as well as without the network charges,” the exchange said in a statement.
Adding that, “Starting today, you’ll be able to make DeFi produce on Dai, a stablecoin that is made to be secured to the United States Buck.”
Coinbase says that the latest launch marks just the start of its international expansion into DeFi, and the exchange will certainly proceed “to discover means” to enable customers to make use of “a larger variety of possessions as well as a majority of DeFi procedures.”
The list of the 70 nations in which coinbase’s clients will be allowed to purchase the DeFi yield product consists of the UK, Germany and Spain, yet not the US, according to the exchange.
Coinbase states that when its customers opt in to gain a DeFi yield, their DAI will be deposited right into Compound Money (COMPENSATION), one of the major DeFi procedures.
The used yearly portion return (APY) “differs based on the rates from compound as well as will instantly update to show changes out there.
Substance’s prices are variable as an instance, during the month of October, the APY for supplying DAI changed between 2.83% and also 5.39%,” the declaration said.
The newest growth comes after, previously this year, American regulatory authorities ditched coinbase’s strategies to supply lend, another interest generating item, to its consumers.
Read More: The Crypto Exposure is being Sought by Broader Range of Institutions Beyond Just Bitcoin & Coinbase
Last September, the United States Securities Exchange Compensation (SEC) threatened to file a claim against the exchange if coinbase enabled its customers to invest in lend which was to offer a 4% return, Bloomberg reports.
Alesia Haas, chief financial police officer at coinbase, claimed in a congressional testament last Wednesday that the firm still does “not have quality on why our item had not been allowed to proceed.”
Find out more about how coinbase to press trading fees in the middle of climbing competitors. Coinbase obtains BRD to ‘Bring Decentralization’ to more individuals. BRD Skyrockets 724%, Adidas originals and coinbase strike partnership.
Yet maintain details obscure coinbase users sharing crypto profiles, ETFs in US and India. More news related to United States court hints internal revenue service may have actually gone against coinbase user’s privacy rights in tax audit.
Busy day for Journal as it announces crypto debit card, NFT, coinbase, and FTX news.
Read More: Even The Crypto, DeFi, NFT; Metaverse Plunge are Taken by This Hydraulics Firm


text:
When Chili’s Grill & Bar opened its Waco restaurant in 1992 on North Valley Mills Drive at Bosque Boulevard, it created waiting lists and long lines that made it one of the most successful unveilings in the history of the chain now owned by Brinker International.
But times change, so the Chili’s in Parkdale shopping center will close March 28, giving way to the new Chili’s in South Waco that will open April 4.
Corporate officials reportedly debated whether to leave both locations open, at least long enough to determine whether the new one would “cannibalize” its 23-year-old counterpart. But a manager of the Chili’s in Parkdale confirmed Thursday that the 5,000-square-foot restaurant there would end its run as the new one begins to welcome guests.
Manager Aaron Lincoln said the 40 employees already employed by Chili’s will relocate, and hiring soon will begin to fill another 15 to 20 positions.
“I have mixed reactions to the decision, but it was made pretty clear this one would not stay open,” Lincoln said. “Some of my customers are saying they now will have to travel farther to eat at Chili’s, while others are saying the new one is more convenient. This one is more than 20 years old and is a little dated.”
Lincoln said he expects the new 6,000-square-foot restaurant to attract more traffic from Interstate 35 and Baylor University.
“Before and after big football games, we get a lot of customers from the university, but not necessarily during the week,” Lincoln said.
He added that the Chili’s that shares a shopping center with Hobby Lobby, Drug Emporium and Dickey’s Barbecue Pit has seen a slight decline in overall traffic.
Don Shows, who works in Chili’s construction department, said Waco’s new eatery will seat 247 people, including those who want a place at the bar.
“The seating will have spring cushions, and should be more comfortable than the flat hard pads of the old place. We also will have nice lighting schemes, new finishes inside and outside, and an exterior that features stone, tile and brick,” Shows said. “But the menu everybody is familiar with remains the same.”
The chain offers an array of soups and sandwiches, burgers, steaks, seafood, appertizers and desserts — which can be ordered from tablets placed on customers’ tables.
Waco real estate agent Pat Farrar, who is pursuing a new lessee for the Chili’s in Parkdale, said he began receiving inquiries almost as soon as Chili’s announced it was building another location. He said the Chili’s lease with Parkdale does not expire until July 2017.
“I sure hope we find a new tenant before then; it would get Chili’s off the hook,” said Farrar, who acknowledged he was somewhat surprised Brinker International decided to pull the plug on its North Waco site with more than a year on the lease. He said he thought Chili’s would have time to test the viability of both markets.
Shows, with Brinker International, said he does not know all the details of the decision to close the existing Chili’s before its lease expired.
“I believe the thinking was that the part of town nearest the interstate was hustling and bustling a little more than the other,” he said by phone.
But he said he also had the impression that the location at Bosque Boulevard and Valley Mills Drive does satisfactory business.
Zoe’s Kitchen represents the latest addition, having opened about four months ago, assistant manager Amy Collins said.
“We’ve been extremely busy, and I’m not anticipating any loss of business when Chili’s arrives. We’re totally different concepts,” said Collins, who helps oversee a restaurant specializing in Mediterranean-style cuisine that includes Greek salads, flatbread sandwiches and kabobs.
Collins said she had heard that the Chili’s across town was closing, adding she really was not surprised by that decision.
“It’s been there a long time,” said Collins, 34. “I remember going there when I was in high school, and the last time I was there was about a week ago.”
Brad Davis, a commercial real estate agent not involved in the Chili’s transaction, said he thinks the chain is making a mistake by closing its Parkdale site.
“I think it would be better for them to leave both of them open, see how the new one affected the old one,” he said. “I do think Parkdale is a good site. The shopping center changed hands last year, and the new people have put some money into it.
“Far North Valley Mills Drive, between Lake Air Drive and Bosque Boulevard, has seen a lot of redevelopment in recent years. If you’re talking about the other side of Bosque, you lose some momentum, but inside Bosque, I would test the waters if I were Chili’s.”
At North Valley Mills and Lake Air drives, a development has emerged that includes a new Whataburger restaurant and a Sprint store. At Valley Mills and Wooded Acres drives, meanwhile, a retail strip called Lakewood Center has seen the arrival of an Aldi’s grocery store, Smashburger, Mama Fu’s Asian House and Fantastic Sams.
Mike Meadows, another commercial agent not involved in the Chili’s maneuvering, said he would not second-guess the chain’s moves.
“They have been in business a long time, and I’m sure they know exactly what their goals are, and have made the moves to accomplish those goals,” he said. “I do like the market they are moving out of; it remains strong and viable. But I-35 obviously is also healthy and viable.”
California-based Rexco Development now owns the Chili’s building at Parkdale, while Georgia-based Core Property Capital owns the balance of the center.


text:
Brothers attend grand opening of new hair salon in their former Littleport home
- Credit: Archant
Ness & Ems Unisex Hair & Beauty Salon opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday in Granby Street, Littleport.
The completely revamped premises, for the last few years an angling requisites cum pet shop, now has a luxurious interior worthy of a Mayfair hairdressers and beauty salon.
Originally it was home to the famous Colebys.
Sid and Margaret turned their massive 16-room family home into a barber’s and tobacconist’s. The name over the entrance to the shop was ASG Coleby & Son. And wanting to be part of such a historic occasion, as its virtual reopening, the Coleby brothers Jake and Harry turned up to lend their support to the new proprietors, Vanessa Vince and her daughters, Lisa and Emma.
“They have done such a good job in here, and it is great that they have retained the business our parents once had,” said a rather overwhelmed 70 year old Harry Coleby, who flatly refused to have one of those personal hair removing treatments that the salon was offering on the day.
Vanessa Vince felt it was the right time to move on from their old premises in Globe Lane they’d worked in for 14 years.
On the day they opened the state of the art premises, a delighted Vanessa told the Ely Standard, “We like to think that we provide a different experience from any other hairdressers with the various beauty treatments we have on offer. We know that our clients will leave feeling good and that not only will our old customers continue to come to us but we look forward to welcoming new ones too.”


text:
Inter-states Travel Ban Crippling Hotels, Other Businesses, Proprietors Cry Out
Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
Hotels proprietors in the country under the aegis of Nigeria Hotels Association have decried the continuous inter states travel ban imposed by the federal government to contain the spread of coronavirus, saying it has crippled their hotels and other businesses.
National president of the association, Eze Patrick Anyanwu, while addressing journalists at a press conference held at Zaranda Hotel, Bauchi, yesterday said, they had recorded huge losses since the imposition of the travel ban.
He noted that 95 per cent of their customers were travellers, who come from other states, lamenting also that many hotels had resorted to borrowing money from banks for the maintenance of the facilities and staff salaries.
Anyanwu, who stated that hotels contribute immensely to national development especially, through provision of jobs to numerous citizens, urged the federal government to include them among the beneficiaries of the Covid-19 palliatives to save their businesses from collapse.
“Above all, the request of our financial palliative through the umbrella of Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN) as a special intervention is hereby being stressed again.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform the federal government that the hospitality industry is very important in this country. We are the ones accommodating your visitors coming into the country from all over the world. We are contributing immensely to the economy of this country.”
According to the hotel proprietors, if markets and places of worship, which could gather people could be opened, the federal government should also lift inter states ban, assuring government that the hotels would comply with the Covid-19 safety protocols.


text:
The emergence of internet has, in the recent time, seen the growth of online media. Most of the operators of this online media platform, who are a one-man or a group of two or three, rely heavily on the website of traditional media outfits to pick their news in disregard to attribution or copyright.
They record high traffic because of their linkage with other social media platforms – Facebook, Linkdin, etc.
An individual who likes the page will be triggerd by the moment the online platform posts a news story. Much of the stories online are aggregated from traditional media, which is the primary and perhaps the major source of their news.
With this aggregated content, operators of online platforms enjoy followers most of whom are brief readers. In turn, advertisers are quickly attracted to the platforms with high traffic in the quest for deeper engagement with consumers. “Advertisers fight for the banner at the top of the page, believing it to be the prime spot,” according to a source.
Already, there is growing reliance on internet for news source in various climes, which is assisting to cause a decline in newspaper readership and subsequently declining profits.
With online platform reliance on traditional media for content, which drives traffic and advertisement, some of these platforms therefore rake in huge sums of money without recourse to the major sources of their news. An average top banner in an online platform costs between N500,000 to N1 million for a month placement, while placement of advert on top side costs about N500,000 a month.
In his write-up in Marketing Magazine UK, Stephen Maher, chairman of #IPASocialWorks UK, discusses that social media is ever powerful and ever growing in influence in the lives of all brands – in their customer service, in their source of rich insight and in their marketing. But he says: “We hear about likes and retweets and views as evidence of success, but how often do we hear about social’s impact on revenues and business value and on ROI?”
According to him, the rigour and forensics that rightly determine the marketing investment decisions and returns for today’s brands are not always applied so intensively to social media campaigns, and this will get more difficult as social dominates.
There are already concerns in the media that the online platforms are riding on the greate efforts of print media to thrive without acknowledging the source(s) of their stories. An online media platform recently acknowledged plagiarising, citing ignorance but apologised with a promise to attribute the source of its stories.
In Nigeria, it has not been much of legal battle between the online platforms and print media organisations whose published materials are taken and re-published online, but the media organisations may adopt strategies that would make it difficult to assess their online materials without paying for it.


text:
SmartGuy® introduces Free Phone App
In an effort to continue to help small businesses owners thrive in an otherwise difficult economy, SmartGuy® (www.SmartGuy.com) has developed and released a free phone app for both Android and IOS users that allows its members to easily send and receive referrals at the touch of a button.
Already growing in over 20,000 cities, SmartGuy® aligns hundreds of quality businesses together within their city in exclusive automatic business referral networks and now turns their phone into an ongoing customer-generating machine!
SmartGuy® is an exclusive business referral network that connects up to 1500 businesses, one per category, in an exclusive referral network and then promotes them to the public. For more information, watch their 2-minute overview: www.SmartGuyVideo.com


text:
The Xbox One will reportedly be launching without the headset adapter that supports current-generation and at least some upcoming third-party headsets, according to recent reports from multiple sources.
Current-generation headsets will not be compatible by default with the Xbox One due to the fact that the new headset plugs into the new controller by way of USB port which the current version does not use.
In order to make old headsets compatible with new controllers, Microsoft needed to come up with an adapter – especially since there fan outcry for them to do just that.
Unfortunately for those people, Microsoft apparently just couldn’t get the adapter ready to go in time. Third-party headset provider Turtle Beach said in a press release, picked up by CVG that regarding its upcoming XO Four and XO Seven headsets, neither would be available until at some point early extra year because it won’t be until then that Microsoft releases the adapter.
“The Xbox One headset adapter, being built by Microsoft and provided to Turtle Beach for inclusion with new gaming headsets, will not be available until early 2014,” according to the press release from Turtle Beach.
Before you let the news get you too fired up, this actually means very little if you’re just looking to chat with your friends online using the mic; the new controller and its new headset will be included with the new Xbox 360, so you will immediately have that as an option.
The only concern with headsets at launch is that some third-party offerings may not be available. So far, the only headset manufacturer to announce delays on upcoming headsets is Turtle Beach – it isn’t clear if other manufacturers will be hit with the same roadblock.
Does the lack of a headset adapter at launch impact you? For what reason would you need to use your old Xbox 360 headset?


text:
Orbitz LLC, an online travel services exchange, is establishing its corporate headquarters at 200 S. Wacker Drive.
Orbitz signs permanent HQ lease
The exchange, formed by a consortium of the world's largest airlines, already worked from temporary offices in the building and has signed a lease for 45,000 square feet. CEO Jeffrey Katz had considered moving the firm to Los Angeles last year, but dropped those plans at the urging of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Pam McDonough, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs.
A spokesman for the city's Planning Department said the city provided no financial assistance to the deep-pocketed venture, which is scheduled to launch its online travel search service in June.
New York-based Insignia/ESG broker Tony Karmin represented Orbitz.


text:
While we've covered Apple's flirtation with automobiles before, late Friday conclusive evidence emerged that the smartphone giant is building an autonomous vehicle. Documents leaked to British newspaper The Guardian show more proof the company has quietly been staffing a team of engineers, car designers and battery experts to work on a car-related special project, which looks almost certainly to be a full-on car.
This confirms earlier job postings by the Cupertino, California, based company for automotive engineers and its recent interest in BMW. Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the German automaker earlier this year regarding a possible partnership, though in reality the Apple entourage may have just been kicking the tires while trying to pick up manufacturing tips.
BMW was reported to have been very careful about what they said and what facilities they allowed Apple to see, fearing the company would simply steal its manufacturing techniques.
While most of Friday's story has been known for some time, it did contain the new revelation that Apple has signed a deal with GoMentum Station, a former naval base 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, which is outfitted with a network of roads and highways over its vast 2,100 acre parcel of land.
The facility can be used for only one thing: testing a self-driving car.
The complex is typically Apple: Super secret. Using the facility means the company avoids having to disclose information to any municipal government, which is what rival Google has had to do with the city of Mountain View, where it is testing its own fleet of autonomous vehicles.
The secret initiative is codenamed Project Titan within Apple, and is likely to hit the market in five years or so. While Google has reportedly commissioned over 100 prototypes, as we covered here, Apple has also been creating prototypes of its own that are further along than anyone anticipated.
The prototypes are so advanced that the company may be able to begin testing them as early as next year. It’s not yet known whether the vehicles will be entirely self driving or whether it will, as most analysts assume, be a hybrid containing a steering wheel as well as a self driving mode.
The most fascinating part of the new report is that, as we reported here, Apple's number one iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, has been working on electric vehicle manufacturing for some time now. The company is, in fact, now a major car rental and car manufacturing company within China and is expanding rapidly.
This means that Apple, now in the advanced stages of creating a self driving vehicle would have a long-trusted manufacturing partner ready, willing and able to produce a vehicle at a moment's notice.
Such news is likely to strike fear in the hearts of established automakers in Detroit and Germany, as two of the biggest brands in the world - Apple and Google - now have their sights firmly set on the automotive industry.


text:
Following a 38-percent drop in revenue in the past quarter caused largely by store closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nike sales bounced back in the quarter ended August 31, the first of Nike’s fiscal year 2021. While overall sales for the sportswear giant were still down 1 percent compared to the same period last year, sales were up nearly 70 percent compared to the three months ended May 31.
Liquidity moves markets!Follow the money. Find the profits!
The better-than-expected results were largely driven by Nike’s direct-to-consumer business, which saw sales increase by 12 percent year-over-year to $3.7 billion, and specifically by the company’s booming online sales, which were up 82 percent over the same period last year.
The latest results are just a continuation of a longer-term trend that sees Nike, like other industry heavyweights, cut out the middle man and move more and more towards selling directly to consumers, at the expense of traditional retailers. As the following chart shows, the percentage of direct-to-consumer sales in total Nike brand sales more than doubled over the past decade, climbing from 15 percent in 2010 to 35 percent in fiscal year 2020, which ended May 31. In the meantime, direct-to-consumer sales grew nearly five-fold in absolute terms, from $2.5 billion in 2010 to $12.4 billion in 2020.
This chart shows direct-to-consumer sales as a percentage of total Nike brand revenue.
Wall Street Examiner Disclosure: Lee Adler, The Wall Street Examiner reposts third party content with the permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in these reposts are not those of the Wall Street Examiner or Lee Adler, unless authored by me, under my byline. I curate posts here on the basis of whether they represent an interesting and logical point of view, that may or may not agree with my own views. Some of the content includes the original publisher's promotional messages. No endorsement of such content is either expressed or implied by posting the content. All items published here are matters of information and opinion, and are neither intended as, nor should you construe it as, individual investment advice. Do your own due diligence when considering the offerings of information providers, or considering any investment.


text:
Gary Horwitz, Head of Retail at Lendlease said the partnership is testament to the vision that is being created for the waterfront dining precinct at Barangaroo: “When Lendlease was approached by the Noma team, we knew it was the perfect fit; René’s strong affinity to sustainability is aligned with our aspirations for Barangaroo. We are delighted to partner with Noma and Tourism Australia to celebrate the best of Australian produce and enhance Barangaroo’s position on the global food map.”
Noma Australia will be located in the acclaimed Anadara building at the Barangaroo precinct, which is set to become Australia’s landmark future food and beverage destination. The location was selected for its synergy to Noma in Copenhagen, which is also on the water and strongly connected to the sea.
As a vital part of Noma’s research in the lead up to the restaurant opening, René and his team have already embarked on several Australia-wide visits to meet with producers, local communities, farmers and chefs, and explore the diverse landscape and multi-faceted culture of the country. Tourism Australia is supporting these important research trips, and providing assistance with travel and marketing.
Noma Australia will launch in January 2016 and will open for lunch and dinner five days per week.
Bookings for the restaurant will open later this year. Further details about registering interest and bookings can be found at www.noma.dk/australia
More information about Barangaroo can be found at www.thestreetsofbarangaroo.com


text:
Barbie Announces ‘Role Models’ Series Featuring Tessa Virtue
In celebration of Barbie’s 60th anniversary and International Women’s Day, a “Role Model” series of dolls is being released, and one of them is Canadian – Tessa Virtue!
I’ve been wanting to share this news forever!@Barbie’s 60th anniversary #YouCanBeAnything campaign is honouring #MoreRoleModels in their continued commitment to #CloseTheDreamGap-SO EXCITED & HONOURED to be part of it.
Here is some Other Women Featured
Yara Shahidi – Actress, model and Activist (USA)
Naomi Osaka – Tennis Player (USA)
Adwoa Aboah, Activist and Supermodel (UK)
Kristina Vogel – Cycling Champion (Germany)
Dipa Karmakar – Gymnastics Champion (India)


text:
Millennials as a U.S. generation are the same size as the Baby Boomer generation and almost twice the size of Generation X. These younger shoppers will achieve a spending power of an estimated $2.45 trillion in 2015. They are also a huge force in the workplace.
Fiercely independent at an early age, this is the first generation to have grown up with technology as a pacifier. The most racially diverse generation, they see one world, one community.
Research confirms that Millennials march to a different tune. One that is creating great challenges for grocers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers as both sellers and employers. Unlike previous generations, Millennials are blurring lines that didn’t exist a generation ago about where they shop — and the rules for work and play.
The U.S. Millennial generation
1. TECHNOLOGY — A 5TH SENSE FOR MILLENNIALS.
Millennials are almost constantly engaged with technology — to the point of distraction. They usually have more than one form of technology within arm’s reach. One-third of Millennials would forgo a higher salary to work at a company without limits to technology access, and 56 percent won’t accept a job where access to social media is prohibited at work. One statistic stands out in offering perspective on the importance of technology to Millennials — about 50 percent would give up their sense of smell before they’d give up access to technology. How does this interrelationship with technology affect their shopping habits?
Impact: “Research shows when it comes to shopping, Millennials want seamless transitions between in-store, online, mobile shopping and order online/pick-up-at- store transactions,” said Richard Spoon, ArchPoint Consulting CEO. “They’re looking for digital synergy in their modes of shopping.” Millennials are more than twice as likely as others to use the Internet to create grocery lists. In store, 61 percent of smart phone owners use their phones to compare prices while shopping. More than half also use a phone to find coupons, access their shopping list and find recipes.
2. DO YOU “LIKE” ME?
Millennials look for community. Being a part of something larger is inherent in their approach to life. Being loved by many is a driving factor for most Millennials. The average number of friends in a Millennial’s Facebook network is more than 300 as compared to about 85 for Baby Boomers.
Impact: They make decisions they believe their friends will think important. Nearly three-quarter of Millennials believe they influence or inspire the purchases of their peers and those in other generations.
Millennial primary grocery shoppers are 80 percent more likely to like a brand that uses social media and 40 percent more likely to check out a brand they like on Facebook or Twitter. More than half of teen girls say when they discover a new brand or trend they tell a best friend or sister with about 80 percent preferring texting or phone calls to spread the word. Millennials don’t like to shop alone and often bring another adult along on most outings. Millennial men do more shopping than in previous generations, and they prefer company for bigger food buying expeditions with 56 percent taking along a companion when they purchase 16 or more items.
3. MILLENNIALS SEEK TRUTH.
They actively cull through the noise to find the truth. Millennials have grown up in a time when information is abundant, but truth is rare. If you are caught trying to deceive them or not telling the truth, they will not knowingly do business with you again — and will likely tell many, if not all, of their “friends”. (They are major believers in social justice and want companies they support to have a record of and continue “doing the right thing,” as defined by their community.) Authenticity is critical for the brand.
Impact: Truth is defined by the communities they’re in. It’s not an underpinning principle. Baby Boomers determine truth based on what they perceive as right or wrong. Right or wrong shifts based on perceptions of Millennials’ community more so than historical principles. They investigate companies and products and then develop trust. “Instead of peer pressure, Millennials buy based on peer trust,” Bradley Nix, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Black Pearl Intelligence, said. Black Pearl Intelligence creates actionable insights and strategies for major brands based on proprietary scientific methodology that quantifies social media trends.
Millennials make smart purchases by tapping into the insights of shoppers who have made similar purchases. User generated content on company websites influences more than 80 percent of millennial purchases. Overall, the influence of new media on millennial shoppers is two to three times higher than on the average shopper. For Millennials, change is a constant.
4. MILLENNIALS FUSE WORK AND PLAY.
Millennials believe they’re entitled to play (or shop) part of the day during work and largely understand the need for work, occasionally, to interfere with their play. In a study by MTV, 70 percent of Millennials believe they should have “me” time at work — compared to 39 percent of Boomers. Their philosophy is, “If the work gets done, why should it matter?”
Impact: Employers and those selling to Millennials must understand how to strike a happy medium with Millennials. Employers might designate one day a week, companywide, as meeting free and create a more creative, flexible work environment. Grocers and consumer packaged products manufacturers must understand the diverse Millennial market segments and their needs for convenience and value. “As an industry, we’ve got to recognize that Millennials have blurred the lines between conventional channels. Now, more than ever is the time to study ways to augment store offerings and give Millennials a reason to return,” said Jesse Edelman, ArchPoint COO.
In 2012 Black Pearl Intelligence conducted focus groups on convenience stores with Millennials and found they prefer highly organized, aesthetically pleasing stores where they can quickly find products and leave whether they come in at 4 p.m. or 4 a.m. As one Millennial said, “I have my credit card and everything set up so I can scan and go, and I want the cashier to be as organized as I am.”
5. THE GREAT RECESSION SHIFTED MILLENNIALS’ EXPECTATIONS.
Millennials finished/are finishing their education only to enter the worst economy in decades. The combination of their financial commitments, lackluster global economy, layoffs and corporate downsizing combine to create huge distractions even for the employed. The road ahead is grim as the youth unemployment rate continues to lead all other segments and is climbing. The unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds in January 2013 was 13.1 percent. For December 2012 it was 11.5 percent, while the unemployment rate in November 2012 was 10.9 percent.
Up to 46 percent took a lower-paying job and are often too economically stressed out to fully focus on their work. 24 percent of Millennials fear losing their job — versus 9 percent of Baby Boomers. For many, pay scales lag, playing havoc on productivity. Nearly 50 percent of Millennials say that owning their own business is a top life goal.
Impact: Millennials need constant reinforcement. 80 percent of Millennial employees want recognition and feedback regularly, and 50 percent want it at least once a week. They like immediate feedback to see if they are doing a good job and how they can improve. That instant feedback loop — think video games — applies equally with their connection to the products they buy. Research shows that tiny, regular rewards make a big difference at work and in all other dimensions of their lives.
6. HEALTHY IS A MUST.
Millennials plan for and believe they want the healthiest option — almost every time. In one study, more than half of Millennials ranked the purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables extremely or somewhat important as compared to 45 percent of Baby Boomers. For fresh meat and seafood, 48 percent of Millennials considered those purchases important versus 41 percent of Baby Boomers. Other studies indicate younger shoppers are willing to pay more for the healthier, specialty and ethnic foods that they prize.
“Millennials love to share their passions, their favorite foods and other products online,” Suchi Gopal, chief science officer and owner of Chatmine Technologies, whose integrated data mining system supports quantifiable insights into consumer behaviors. “They will also use social media to spread the word about negative experiences. Companies need to strategically manage the dialogue with consumers before the conversation gets away from them.”
Impact: Every product has to clearly communicate health benefits good and bad, and every product line needs a healthy option. On a practical level regarding employees, keep in mind Millennials’ passion for healthy when ordering lunches or rewards.
7. BRANDS MATTER, BUT NOT IN ALL CATEGORIES.
Millennials are brand loyal in the categories that matter to them — especially food they believe is healthy and personal hygiene options. More than 60 percent of Millennials say they don’t focus on brands but on price. That compares with just 46 percent of Baby Boomers. “A Millennial’s concept of brand loyalty is conditional,” Nix said. “If your brand isn’t on the mark all time, picky Millennials will go elsewhere.” Some categories with high brand loyalty include yogurt, shampoo and for those with children — laundry detergent.
Impact: Does your product or service matter to Millennials? If it doesn’t, your brand value will erode — and they’ll base their decision solely on price. Plus performance.
8. IT’S ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE.
Millennials are consumers, but they are more interested in buying experiences than previous generations. Only 3 percent think advertising is boring, and 80 percent want brands to entertain them — with the ability to co-create products and services as the most popular way. They want the ability to participate in customizing products and want their shopping experiences to entertain and delight.
Impact: Very few companies can afford to be in all the places where Millennials consume information. It’s cost prohibitive. A scattershot approach in a multimedia age is highly wasteful. A better idea is to laser target to ensure hitting the bull’s-eye. Be sure to include Millennials as part of the social media and shopping experience. Don’t forget about traditional media, specifically television. More than half of Millennials indicate TV is the first way they hear about products and services. “Consider cooking shows with online blogs and in-store kiosks and demonstrations,” said Spoon. “Surround Millennials on all fronts with the information, connectivity and authentic experiences they crave through packaging, products and promotions. Allow Millennials to express themselves and put their stamp upon the product within the boundaries of their price/value needs.”


text:
Daily Mail to launch Australian edition
The Editor of British tabloid the Daily Mail online joins RN Breakfast to discuss the planned Australian launch in 2014.
The Daily Mail Online claims to be the world's most highly read English language newspaper website, with 57 million monthly unique visitors globally -- including one million in Australia.
The group's foray into Australia follows the launch of the Guardian's Australian website six months ago.
- Martin Clarke
- Publisher and Chief Editor of the Mail Online
- Sheryle Bagwell, Business Editor


text:
All-new 2017 Ford GT Concept — New 600 Horsepower Supercar
Ford today unveiled the all-new GT, an ultra-high-performance supercar that serves as a technology showcase for top EcoBoost performance, aerodynamics and lightweight carbon fiber construction.
The GT is one of more than 12 new Ford Performance vehicles coming by 2020. It joins Focus RS, F-150 Raptor, Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT350R in the growing Ford Performance lineup.
Beginning production late next year, the GT hits the road in select global markets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ford GT race cars placing 1-2-3 at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“As we at Ford drive innovation into every part of our business, it’s worth remembering that our first innovation as a company was not in a laboratory, but on the racetrack,” said Mark Fields, Ford president and chief executive officer, referring to Henry Ford’s win of a 1901 car race that inspired financial backers to invest in his company. “We are passionate about innovation through performance and creating vehicles that make people’s hearts pound.”
The all-new GT supercar features rear-wheel drive, a mid-mounted engine, and a sleek, aerodynamic, two-door coupe body shell. It is propelled by the most powerful EcoBoost production engine ever – a next-generation twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6 producing more than 600 horsepower.
Thursday, August 28, 2014World premiere: Please welcome the...
Browse the latest new cars
Discover the latest new cars
The world’s most popular roadster, the Mazda MX-5, has a whole new look. After 25 years and over 947,00 sales worldwide, the new fourth-generation 2014 Mazda MX-5 (known as the Mazda Miata in the US) has finally been revealed. The MX-5 is one of Mazda’s most iconic models
MINI SuperleggeraTM Vision
Only 500 serialized 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C Launch Edition coupes will be available through 86 Alfa Romeo dealerships (Four in Canada) this summer with a Canadian MSRP of $75,995; followed by the standard Alfa Romeo 4C coupe arriving in the fall with a Canadian MSRP of $61,995.
The centrepiece of the Mercedes-AMG GT, the new 4.0-litre V8 biturbo, responds instantly with extreme power right from low revs and delivers outstanding performance.
The new BMW X4 is based on the technical blueprint of the BMW X3, but displays a sporting character very much its own and takes dynamics to another new level. That much is clear when you view the new model head-on. The look & feel is similar with BMW X6
The Alfa Romeo has become synonymous with style. Many people crave the look of an Alfa. However, this car is not a one trick pony. It performs as well as it looks. For many, they feel that they have to compromise style over speed. With an Alfa, this is simply not the case.
Months of speculation ended today after Volvo Cars unveiled its all-new Volvo XC90, delivering on its promise to introduce a visually striking, premium quality seven-seat SUV with world leading safety features, new powertrain technologies, an unrivalled combination of power and fuel efficiency and a superlative interior finish.
5-liter supercharged V8 engine and will reach 60 mph in 4.0 seconds, and a top speed of 186 mph (electronically limited)2. The F-TYPE S Coupe and F-TYPE Coupe are powered by 3-liter supercharged V6 engines in 380hp and 340hp forms respectively, giving 0-60 mph in 4.8/5.1 seconds and top speeds of 171/161 mph2.
The F-TYPE Coupe visual message is defined by three key ‘heart lines’, that visual message beginning with the formidable grille. It is from the twin ‘shark gill’ openings that sit either side of the grille that the essential first heart line – which mirrors the design of the F-TYPE Convertible – flows and begins to take shape. Running up through the headlamp, and accentuated by the LED ‘J blade’ signature running lamps, the line then arcs up over the front wheel arch before dropping elegantly as it runs through the door, washing out into the muscular rear haunch.
The second heart line begins at the rear edge of the door, swelling outwards and upwards to create a visually strong wheel arch, emphasizing the car’s rear-wheel drive layout, before dropping vertically through the tail lamp ...
Auto Mechanic Advice
Advice from experienced mechanics from several fields!
Auto Speed Market is a car blog with the latest automotive, F1 and car news. Auto Speed Market is trying to provide extra information to car enthusiasts, will be presenting new cars and concepts, prices and statistics of the automotive world. Auto Speed Market also offer tips for buying a new car or second hand vehicle.


text:
As the launch date of the Apple Music on June 30 is nearing, Google is also getting aggressive to sell to the users on the Google Play Music service. The firm has launched a free, ad-backed tier that provides curated playlists designed to accompany the moments of everyday life.
It is not new to see handpicked stations. Google brought them to the paying subscribers of its Play Music services in 2014 after acquirig Songza. Now, everyone in U.S. can listen to the curated playlists on both web and Android.
Google has also stuck with playlists as it is an easier approach for the firm to free music in comparison to Spotify. The free half of Spotify has received harsh criticism from the musicians who feel that the firm underpays the artists. This is where Google is confident as it can avoid this by taking the music radio route and the licensing agreements assure a big selection at the time of launch.
If you can stream a band’s music with Google’s subscription music service, these tracks will be a part of the radio that is now free.
Talking of the difference between Spotify and Google services, it is not possible to control the songs that will be played in the latter. A team of music experts at Google have assembled the curated playlists. The firm shares the “humans over algorithms” technique that Apple Music and Jimmy Iovine have been pushing. Whenever you choose a mood, decade, genre or activity based playlist, you can hear a track that was person programmed.
The free service loses out on many features that the premium subscribers get and it also handcuffs the users with restrictions. The free users can use only six skips per hour that has become standard in the industry lately. The users can pause tracks, but they cannot rewind or scrub through the songs even to know what the next track is. The premium users of Google Play Music are said to have complete control over playlists and that they can edit, manipulate, rename and save them for offline playback.
The free users of the service will get a playlist similar to the radio stations and it cannot be customized. An addition is that the free tier users can listen to the music streams at a speed of 320 kbps, if their data connection supports the same.
Google is not doing something that is as ambitious as Apple’s second attempt at music radio. There are no live 24×7 broadcasts or renowned DJs who introduce you to new artists. People still use Songza only for a single reason, and it is because the playlists are quite excellent.
The Google app is quite polished and better to use expect for the ads. It would be great as a soundtrack for gym or work commute. Google hopes that it will be sufficient to convince people to use the paid service. Subscribing will let users to listen without any interruptions, take the playlists offline and start streaming any song in the catalog of Google Play Music with 30 million tracks instantly, similar to Apple and Spotify.
As of now, Google has not revealed the number of subscribers it has as it is not close to that of Spotify. The Google music ecosystem has started looking more compelling similar to the Apple.


text:
Do you want all eyes in the room focused strictly on you? Do you want vague potential health benefits? Well, … Continued
A treasure trove of historical evidence finds that the fish your grand-dad claimed was "this big" may well have been
Stay tuned for next week's earth-shaking study: obesity linked to weight gain
A new report has people insisting the LHC's miniscule black holes might be more dangerous than previously believed
Twenty-six things we loved, hated and just couldn't avert our eyes from at this year's Consumer Electronics Show
Corporate responsibility looms large at this year's show, but protesters insist more companies need more proactive electronics recycling policies
A rash of long-promised products finally debut at this year's CES. Was it worth the wait?
One phone to rule them all. A new product promises to turn your smartphone into a universal remote that controls everything from your computer to your garage door
A promising new piece of software beams your computer to the big screen in seconds, no cables necessary
Hands-on with Japan's cutest do-gooder 'bot
Like science, tech, and DIY projects?
Sign up to receive Popular Science's emails and get the highlights.


text:
Home Tags REV Group
REV Group announced its multi-year agreement with Consus Global.
E-ONE, a subsidiary of REV Group, Inc. and a leading manufacturer of fire apparatus, announced the expansion into Tennessee of its dealer Safe Industries.
ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Joliet Refinery will add a Ferrara Inferno® Industrial Super Pumper® to its fleet.
The new apparatus, an Inferno with an MVP extruded aluminum body, will replace the department’s current rescue/pumper.
E-ONE® announced the delivery of four E-ONE Custom Cyclone® Pumpers to the Sarasota County Fire Department in Sarasota, Florida.
Spartan Emergency Response® introduces Smart Reach™ Multi-Stance™, the patented new Smeal® ladder and outrigger control system.
The Getzville (NY) Fire Company has selected Spartan Emergency Response and Colden Enterprises to provide three Spartan Custom Pumpers.
REV Group’s Apparatus and Technology Conference, a three-day virtual event, kicked off today.
Ferrara Fire Apparatus announced the delivery of a Ferrara HD-77TM ladder to the Santa Fe Fire Department.