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Revuto Issues 10,000 ‘Revulution NFTs,’ Enabling Lifetime Access to Spotify or Netflix
Revuto a Croatian business has launched its first NFT collection, Revulution NFT, which allows owners to get a lifetime membership to Netflix and Spotify. NFT launch on July 11 at 12 PM CET when 10,000 Revulution NFTs will be available for purchase on Revuto's website.
Users will be able to buy the NFTs for $349 using a credit card or cryptocurrency the NFT membership will provide the beared with a strong feeling of ownership.
Revuto CEO and co-founder Vedran Vukman said:
“Based on the feedback we received from our 350,000 active and verified users, we have decided to give the community exactly what they have asked for – a solution that guarantees a stable subscription fee, that they can share with their friends or family members in a simple and straightforward way.” said Revuto CEO and co-founder Vedran Vukman.
Also if customers do not utilize the service they may easily get their money back or even earn by selling the NFTs we want to make it easier for everyone to manage their subscriptions and ultimately make the digital subscription market more fair and equitable.
After unveiling its groundbreaking subscription model last year, Revuto has already garnered over 350,000 registered members.
The idea is to provide the subscriber greater flexibility over how they handle their money in the existing system, subscribers may block snooze or approve payments.
How does it perform?
A Revolution NFT allows trading on crypto exchanges so creating a new secondary market for digital subscriptions.
When a user sells their NFT Revuto deactivates their digital debit card and issues a fresh virtual card to the new users to pay for their Netflix or Spotify subscriptions.
Josipa Maji, creator of Revuto said:
"Our Revulution NFT for Netflix or Spotify is just the start and also an introduction to the subscription NFTs that people will be able to use to pay for any subscription in the world for however long they want"
Furthermore, owners will get discounts when choosing their subscriptions as well as the possibility of giving or selling them to others.


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Can you believe Christmas is just 53 days away.. and the annual lighting of the White House Christmas Tree is just around the corner! The online lottery to see the ceremony on the Ellipse opens up at 12:01AM Friday November 5th. Applications will be accepted until November 7th.
The lighting is on Thursday December 9th.
You can also sign up NOW online for the National Menorah Lighting which happens at 4 p.m. on December 1st, also on the Ellipse

domain: news


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Visa and Nasscom Foundation have jointly announced an initiative to upskill women entrepreneurs with digital skills and financial literacy. Spread across 5 states - Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and West Bengal - this initiative by Visa is part of its global recovery efforts announced last year to elevate 50 million small and micro businesses. The training program is designed to help women from underserved communities build basic digital skills while sharpening business acumen.
With the MSME sector in India hit severely by the pandemic and over 70 percent women entrepreneurs affected, Visa will extend support to, and upskill, these small entrepreneurs across the country with this program. Program partner Nasscom Foundation will work with over 650 women micro-entrepreneurs and train them to go online, rebuild and expand their businesses.
How it works
The program will focus on training impacted entrepreneurs through a blended model.
Online training will be delivered through the DigiSakshar portal and app, and all beneficiaries will receive a mobile phone with one year of internet connectivity to help them access the course curriculum and training.
The offline training component will be conducted by Pollinate Energy India Private Limited where these women entrepreneurs will learn best practices for restarting and scaling their businesses.
It will also equip them with tools to transition their businesses online, manage taxes, make cashless transactions, and claim benefits from pertinent government schemes.
The DigiSakshar portal will facilitate learning through video-based self-learning modules, quizzes, and assessments throughout the program. The course curriculum will be made available in local languages for ease of understanding for the beneficiaries. Post-training, the program will provide funds as stock purchase support to the women entrepreneurs and also facilitate market linkages to help them get started.
Rebuilding microwomen entrepreneurs
TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia for Visa, said, “We hope to help rebuild microwomen enterepreneurs lives and businesses to thrive in the coming years. we hope this will be a transformational journey and create stronger support for these entrepreneurs.”
NASSCOM Foundation is the convener of the program and will undertake its monitoring and evaluation. The Foundation has also designed the program and brought all the partners together.
Nidhi Bhasin, CEO, Nasscom Foundation, said, “Women’s labour force participation has been 18.6 percent for rural and urban India as per the latest PLFS survey (2018). This gap clearly highlights that stimulating women entrepreneurship will be instrumental in achieving India’s vision for inclusive growth and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The COVID -19 pandemic has only intensified this challenge, making it crucial to put women at the backbone of recovery in communities. This calls for building an enabling environment where constraints to women entrepreneurship are actively identified and removed. And that has been our core objective while working on this initiative in partnership with Visa. This capacity building program will equip at least 650 women with skills to restart, rebuild and scale their businesses and become role models in their communities to inspire other women to start their own small-scale enterprises”.


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- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
HomeTown Buffet, Ryan’s owner serves up Chapter 11 bankruptcy
- Staff Kansas City Business Journal
Buffets Inc., which owns seven restaurants in the Kansas City area, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and expects to shutter 81 restaurants throughout the country.
The filing marks the company’s second bankruptcy in four years.
The Eagan, Minn., company runs restaurants under several brand names — locally, HomeTown Buffet and Ryan’s. The HomeTown Buffet restaurants are in Shawnee, Independence and Kansas City. The Ryan’s locations are in Independence, Shawnee, Raymore and Olathe.
Other brands for the company’s 494 restaurants in 38 states include Old Country Buffet, Granny’s Buffet and Fire Mountain.
The underperforming locations to be erased from Buffets’ menu probably will be announced during the next week, a spokesman told the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, an affiliated publication. More could be closed if lease modification efforts fail. There was no word on the number of employees to be affected.
The company’s prior bankruptcy go-round started with a January 2008 filing and was followed by 51 restaurant closings and 2,300 layoffs. At the time, Buffets had 626 locations. It emerged from that bankruptcy in April 2009, having moved $700 million in debt off its plate.
The latest bankruptcy filing was prompted by the recession and by lease restrictions that limited the number of locations Buffets could close in the prior bankruptcy proceedings, the spokesman said.
The company’s latest filing was pre-negotiated; Buffets expects to emerge from bankruptcy in about six months.
Read more from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
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Black Friday is still one day but most retailers start their big sales today. We're linking you to some of the top retailers.
JCPenney opens its doors at 2 p.m. for shoppers to get a jump-start on their holiday shopping.
If you're choosing to stay home with your family instead of battling the crowds, have no fear. Several in-store offers are available online. Plus, new sales are bound to pop-up in preparation for Cyber Monday.
Find more Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday deals here.


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Bittreo software include the ability to connect via API to a host of exchanges.
Bittreo announced it will begin offering its crypto brokerage software in June of this year. Bittreo's new SaaS (Software as a Service) product will greatly simplify the process for anyone starting a retail crypto brokerage, anywhere across the globe.
"This is a game-changer for global crypto adoption. The main obstacles facing the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies are a lack of trust and difficult access. Our physical location where investors can transact face to face with trusted professionals solves both of those problems,” Yum Kasukawa, Co-Founder of Bittreo underlined the benefits of having a physical location.
Kasukawa continues; "By using our software, we can empower entrepreneurs to start their own retail crypto locations, anywhere in the world. We envision thousands of businesses using our software across the globe providing access to a trusted source for cryptocurrency to millions of customers,” Kasukawa added.
Get Lok Sabha 2019 Live Election Results, constituency-wise tally, news, views and analysis
Follow our Lok Sabha Election Result Live Blog here.


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Apple is well known for performing experiments when it comes to new technology. According to Yuanta Securities analyst Jeff Pu via Taipei Times, Apple is gearing up to work on a new iPhone that will ship with three cameras on the rear. The launch of a new iPhone with a triple lens will be most likely around Q2 2019.
The interesting fact to note is that the forthcoming iPhone will be equipped with 6P lens coupled with 5X zoom and 12MP camera sensor with large f/2.2 aperture. Industry analysts are of the opinion that the iPhone 2019 will feature a camera setup identical to that of the Huawei P20 Pro smartphone.
According to a report published by Patently Apple, the Tim Cook owned company could make use of MLCD+ display manufactured by LG. However, this display is available in LG G7 ThinQ smartphone and it remains to be seen as to whether Apple will adopt the same display technology as done by another competitor.
The forthcoming iPhone will offer improved brightness and color reproduction with better contrast ratio. The reports suggest that the new display technology will offer 1000 nits brightness with 100 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut screen.
If you are unaware, the Huawei P20 Pro ships with a triple lens on the rear comprising of a 40MP RGB sensor, an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom alongside a 20MP monochrome sensor. The iPhone 2019 will offer a capability for 5x optical zoom instead of the conventional 2x zoom.
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Heading into the Independence Day weekend, Sacramento-area motorists
are actually catching a break at the gas pumps.
The average retail price of gasoline in the Sacramento area fell 6.3 cents over the past week to $3.81 a gallon, according to today's weekly report by national price tracker GasBuddy.com, which surveys 720 stations in the area.
According to the GasBuddy survey, Sacramento prices are 17.3 cents higher than a year ago but 7.1 cents lower than a month ago.
Nationally, the average price of gas fell 5.7 cents over the past week to $3.50 a gallon -- 12.9 cents higher than a year ago and down 13.6 cents from last month.
"After an impressive surge abated several weeks ago, we're seeing gasoline prices decline nicely," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. "The national average is likely to continue its decline this week as retail prices catch up to the decrease in wholesale gasoline prices."
(c)2013 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)
Visit The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) at www.sacbee.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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For Sale By:Dealer
Exterior Color: White
Interior Color: Gray
Model: Transit Connect
Trim: AdvanceTrac RSC
Drive Type: No Transmission
Aurora, Illinois, United States
We've heard rumblings of a changing of the guard at Ford, and this live stream from The Blue Oval itself is set to confirm the rumors: Alan Mulally will be succeeded by the automaker's current Chief Operating Officer, Mark Fields.
Mulally, who is 68 years old, has served at the head of Ford for eight years, and his official retirement date will be July 1st, 2014. Fields, who is 53 this year, has been with Ford for 25 years and has been groomed to take the helm from Mulally for the last several of those years.
There's an official press release that you can read, but if you're more of a visual person, you're welcome to watch the live video feed of the announcement down below.
The era of the body-on-frame, fullsize SUV is rapidly vanishing in favor of smaller, unibody crossovers. However, Ford still sees life in the segment with the reveal of the updated 2015 Expedition, now available (solely) with the company's 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6. The new truck will make its public debut at the 2014 DFW Auto Show in Dallas on February 19.
The loss of the previous 5.4-liter V8 in favor of Ford's 3.5-liter, direct-injected, twin-turbocharged V6 engine might rankle some of the Expedition's fans, but Ford claims that the change gives the SUV better fuel economy, more power and increased low-end torque than before. Unfortunately, official engine specifications won't be released until later this year, but Ford says engine output will be similar to the 365 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque that this powerplant produces in other applications. The EcoBoost is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, and the SUV now uses electrically assisted power steering, for an even greater fuel economy advantage. Ford claims this also allows for better maneuverability at low speeds and better feel at high speeds.
Exterior styling is basically unchanged for 2015. The front end has the same three-bar chrome grille and headlight design, but the lower air dam gets added chrome and LED lamps. The rear gets more brightwork on the hatch, and there's a chrome-tipped exhaust pipe. As before, Ford is offering the Expedition in two wheelbase lengths - 119 inches and 131 inches. A new, optional, continuously controlled damping system alters suspension settings constantly based on 46 parameters and offers comfort, normal and sport modes (just like the Expedition's sister, the recently refreshed and decidedly less-attractive Lincoln Navigator).
Ford is recalling certain 2012 Taurus, 2013 Explorer and 2012 Lincoln MKS models over fuel tank concerns. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, vehicles built between July 19, 2011 and March 15, 2012 may have been built with fuel tanks that have a "marginally sealed seam" on the side. Those seams may not provide the strength necessary to protect the tank from rupture during a collision. They may also leak. The recall covers a total of 3,037 vehicles. NHTSA says that leaked fuel, in the presence of an ignition source, could easily cause a fire.
Dealers will inspect the tanks and replace them as need be free of charge. Owners can expect to be notified once the campaign begins on or around April 22, 2013. You can read the full NHTSA recall notice below for more information.


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Looks like we can stop the guessing about the name for the new iPhone expected to be announced by Apple in just a few hours. iPhone 5 has been the favorite among predicted names for the next gen iPhone for sometime and now it’s all but officially confirmed by search results at apple.com itself.
As MacRumors reports searches for ‘iPhone-5’ get several revealing results – most tellingly the one highlighted in my screencap above that looks to be from the Apple PR library and is titled ‘Apple Introduces iPhone 5’.
You can see this for yourself if you do a search for that term at the apple.com site – just don’t forget the hyphen.
Happy iPhone 5 Day folks.
TAGS: Apple, iphone 5, iPhone 5 event, iPhone 5 launch


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The advertisements spring to life with bright colors and smiling, young women, usually Black or Latina, celebrating the arrival of desperately-needed cash. “Cha-ching!” the website of one smartphone app declares, displaying a curly haired mother and child who look to be jumping for joy. “It’s payday all day, everyday.” Funds are available “in minutes” to help pay for groceries, rent and family celebrations without “mandatory fees” or interest, it says.
Another app features a photo array of six female workers and one man laboring in call centers, nursing homes, restaurants and retail. “Pay bills on time, with no late fees, no overdraft fees and no need for payday loans,” it says. A third app, backed by actor Ashton Kutcher and NBA star Kevin Durant, pushes its product with a TikTok video where a young Black woman is approached while walking down the street in jogging shorts. “What if I told you, I could get you some money right now?” she’s asked. Seconds later, when she has it, she exclaims: “Oh my god!”
These apps – EarnIn, Daily Pay, and Brigit – are all examples of a fast growing product called Earned Wage Access, which the U.S. Treasury Department said advanced $9.5 billion to consumers through 56 million transactions in 2020 and continues to grow. Similar to a high-cost payday loan, these apps offer workers emergency cash ahead of proven, upcoming paychecks. Like payday loans, they are disproportionately used by women, especially women of color and single mothers. Unlike traditional payday loans, which are most frequently taken out by the poor, Earned Wage Access “users are college-educated, middle-class, full-time workers,” according to a report by FTI Consulting, which surveyed three companies’ customers. The typical recipient makes $50,700 a year, but is still “living paycheck-to-paycheck,” the firm found. Nearly two-thirds of users were women and half were people of color.
The companies operate in a legal gray area that allows them to function much like a payday lender but without the consumer-protection rules that govern those businesses. The federal government also does not regulate them like banks and their products are largely free from scrutiny under the Truth in Lending Act, thanks to a legal opinion issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during Donald Trump’s presidency. Consumer advocates say while the companies’ claims of “no mandatory fees” and “no interest” may be technically accurate, their true sticker price is high and abuses are rife.
In California, where many of these companies are based, regulators have begun to probe their practices. In March, the state’s consumer protection agency, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, released a report that found Earned Wage Access apps charged the equivalent of an annual average interest rate of between 331% and 334%. The agency reached its conclusion after analyzing data from more than 5 million transactions from seven companies operating in the state. Rather than serving as an occasional stop-gap, the department found workers used them habitually: an average of nine times per quarter, or 36 times a year. The agency has proposed rules that would make California the first state in the nation to regulate the product.
“It’s a trap,” said Melissa Burrola, 46, a single mother of three adult children, who makes $19.50 an hour at a non-profit that provides free food and clothing to the poor in St. Paul, Minnesota. “I just want to get out of it.”
Burrola turned to three different earned wage apps when her car broke down last September, cobbling together $500 for repairs so she could get to work. Each of the apps charged her a fee. One of them, Dave, a Los Angeles-based “neobank” backed by billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, also encouraged her to tip the company on top of a $6.99 fee she paid to get cash instantly. The default tip was set to $6 on a $100 advance.
“People are struggling,” said Andrew Kushner, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy group. “If you get money this week, that’s less money to pay your expenses next week and you’re even worse off because of the fee.”
California’s proposed rules, published in March, would regulate app-based advances as loans and cap the interest rates and fees they could charge at the same levels as other financial products. “We want to be sure we are doing everything we can to make sure people are being treated fairly,” said Suzanne Martindale, who heads the agency’s consumer financial protection division.
Industry strongly opposes California’s proposed rules. EarnIn, which is based in Palo Alto, mounted a social media campaign to encourage its users to email state regulators, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom ahead of a May 17 deadline for public comment.
A message EarnIn suggested its customers send state officials says the app “allows me to manage my finances and helps me avoid having to choose which bills to pay, just because my paycheck hasn’t landed in my account yet… Having access to my money in real-time also saves me from overdrafting and even allows me to proactively put away some money for a rainy day.”
A spokesperson for the consumer agency said it had received thousands of comments on its proposal to regulate cash apps – a torrent compared to the hundreds it typically gets.
At the heart of the debate is the way Earned Wage Access companies generate revenue. Rather than charging interest for money owed, many offer a free version of the app that features financial planning tools but only provide cash advances to customers who pay for a subscription. For example Brigit, the app backed by Kutcher and Durant, charges $9.99 a month for a “plus plan” for people who “need cash ASAP.” Representatives of Brigit did not respond to multiple inquiries.
Others, including EarnIn and Dave, offer free advances for customers who are willing to wait up to three days for a bank transfer but charge a fee to those who want cash immediately. The apps also ask users to pay “tips,” as they would for an Uber driver. Unlike Uber tips, however, those on paycheck advance apps don’t go to a worker. They bolster the company’s bottom line, state regulators note.
California regulators say those tips may not be entirely voluntary. In detailed reasoning published as part of its proposed rules, the state’s financial protection agency said it found many examples of apps setting default tips and “using other user interface elements to make tipping hard to avoid.” Companies also made it difficult to set a $0 tip or did not advertise that a particular payment is optional. There were also examples of apps “disabling a service if a borrower does not tip.. (and) .. claiming that tips are used to help other vulnerable consumers or for charitable contributions.”
“Their whole business model is predicated on this attempt to find a technical loophole in the definition of a loan under California law,” said Kushner of the Center for Responsible Lending.
“It’s dishonest and deceptive,” said Gladys Washington, a 63-year-old in-home caretaker from Philadelphia who gets cash advances from EarnIn multiple times a month. Washington scoffed when told the company was arguing its products could not legally be described as a loan. “If you have to borrow something and have to pay it back, that’s a loan,” she said. “I don’t see how that could be any different.”
Washington said she’s found it difficult, but not impossible, to avoid paying for tips on the EarnIn platform. “You have to hit ‘minus’ over and over again,” she said. Washington said she regularly pays the company’s “Lightning Speed” fee – usually $3.99 per transaction – to get cash immediately rather than wait to get the advance free of charge. “If you need the money now and you have to wait two days otherwise, that’s not free,” she said, rejecting EarnIn’s claim that it charges “no mandatory fees.”
Burrola said she felt pressured to tip. “We really could use a tip for the last time,” read one message from the New York-based app, MoneyLion. It included a photo of a young, redheaded woman holding her hands on her heart.
One time, when she chose not to tip, a picture of a bespectacled African American man appeared on the app. “Looks like we didn’t get a tip last time!” says the text beneath the photo. “We recommend (a) $6 tip.” A MoneyLion spokesperson said the company declined to comment.
Another time, Burrola said, the app Dave told her a tip would help a charity called Feeding America with which Dave has partnered. The frequent fees and the tips cut into Burrola’s upcoming paychecks, leading her to take more advances, incur more fees and fall behind.
“It just kept going,” she said. Eight months later, fees from the apps have compounded her financial troubles and she remains on a hamster wheel of cash advances and charges.
A spokesperson for Dave declined to comment for this story, but noted the company offers fee-free advances to customers willing to wait for the money or have it deposited on a company debit card. The company said tips are entirely voluntary and that any customer who wants a refund need only contact customer service.
Burrola said she was unaware that tips could be refunded. “They sure do not tell you this,” she said.
Women have been more likely than men to use these services in part because they are less likely to have access to bank products, such as home equity loans and credit cards, according to a 2021 research report from Arizent, the publisher of American Banker.
Under the proposed California regulations, tips would be treated as charges under the law, count against maximum fees allowed and subject to strict limits. Even as California looks to impose restrictions, industry-backed legislation has been introduced this year in Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina and Vermont, using model language from the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. The model legislation says a company could be said to not charge mandatory fees and accept tips “as long as the Provider offers the Consumer at least one option of receiving Proceeds at no cost.”
In Arizona, a December 2022 opinion by state attorney general Mark Brnovich determined app-based paycheck advances should not be treated as loans so they were “offered as a no-interest, no-fee” product. Brnovich issued the opinion despite noting that “some EWA products allow a user to pay a fee to expedite access to earned wages and some allow voluntary tipping of the EWA provider.”
DailyPay, the app with the carousel featuring six women and one man, offers its services free to employers but charges workers up to $3.49 a transaction when workers want to be paid early, unless they do so using a DailyPay-sponsored bank account. However, that fee is nowhere to be found on the company’s FAQ page, which tells workers “you can make transfers from your Pay Balance to a bank account or debit card of your choice up to five times a day, and you can transfer up to $1,000 a day.”
A 2021 survey of DailyPay customers, found about two-thirds took cash advances once a week. Another 27 percent did so every two weeks. The same survey found 70 percent were women, a majority had children under 18 and 42 percent were Black or Latino. More than 60 percent were under 40. A spokesperson for DailyPay declined to comment for this story.
California regulators say they are reviewing the mountain of comments they received on the draft rules and hope to finalize regulations by the end of the year. Regardless of which approach they take, the rising cost of living will continue to drive the most financially vulnerable to the apps – a trend some of the companies are banking on.
In a presentation Dave shared with investors for an earnings call in May, company executives described their target market as 37 million Americans who are “financially vulnerable” because their spending outstrips their income, they have minimal savings and frequently overdraft their bank accounts. Another 139 million Americans, the presentation showed, are “financially coping” because they have overdraft “several times a year” and have “insufficient long term savings.” Both these groups are growing in number, the company reported, providing a “large addressable market exhibiting solid growth trajectory.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed screenshot images to the cash app Dave.
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify that some of the messages received by consumer Melissa Burrola came from the cash app MoneyLion


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Ubisoft says the activation-limiting DRM in Anno 2070 works exactly like it’s supposed to, and has also changed it so now it works differently.
Ubisoft’s latest DRM fiasco came to light last week when Guru3D discovered that swapping video cards in a PC, which it was doing as part of a video card performance roundup, triggered the Anno 2070 activation limit counter. With only three activations to play with, it meant that a PC upgrade or two could render the game useless without intervention from Ubi’s customer support department.
It was a ridiculous misapplication of the system, but Ubisoft told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that the DRM was actually working exactly as it was intended. “While it’s correct that copies of Anno include three activations and that changing hardware may trigger the need for reactivation, the vast majority of Anno customers never encounter this scenario,” the company said “On the rare occasion when a customer does need additional activations, Ubisoft customer service is available to quickly resolve the situation, and we encourage those customers to contact us directly so that we can ensure they are able to continue to enjoy their game.”
As RPS points out, the Anno 2070 DRM, called “Tages,” doesn’t offer the deactivation option that’s common in similar system used by other companies. Instead, uninstalling the game leaves behind a config file that future installs will use to recognize the game as legit, which is fine as long as you don’t reformat your PC, suffer a major drive crash or do anything else that results in the loss or corruption of data – or, of course, make any sort of significant upgrades to your rig.
Today, however, the team from Ubisoft Blue Byte, the studio that created the game, dropped a line to Guru3D saying that video cards have been removed from the DRM equation. “Just wanted to let you know that we now remove the graphics hardware from the hash used to identify the PC,” it wrote. “That means everyone should now be able to switch the GFX as many times as he/she wants.”
That’s all very well and good, and props to Blue Byte for quickly correcting a pretty egregious flaw in the machinery, but let’s be honest here. This isn’t Ubisoft changing its ways, this is Ubisoft doing a little spot cleaning in reaction to another PR debacle. It’s good news for Anno fans, but as far as Ubisoft’s overall [and still terrible] DRM policies go, it doesn’t mean a thing.


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Each year what holds the excitement high for bike lovers is the new launch and the opportunity to ride these bikes, says Peter Salzano a popular sports blogger and a bike lover. The previous year has been a little heartbreaking for bike manufactures as well as for bike lovers. As the manufacturer had to hold their new launch due to the pandemic when the sales dropped as the customers were unable to take the bikes on road as per the restrictions.
But now when things are back to normal the year 2021 will be fully occupied by the new launch for some most awaited bikes. To keep your excitement high here is a list of bikes shared by Peter J Salzano that can be expected to be launched this year 2021:
- Harley-Davidson Custom 1250
The bike is planned to be launched in 2021 and the attractive part of this bike is its 1250cc engine. Harley-Davidson custom 1250 prototype has several styling elements like HD Fat Bob, like the sleek headlamp and high- mounted shotgun exhaust.
The expectation is very high for this bike and so are the looks attractive as well. The final launch date is yet not announced but let’s hope that it will possibly be 2021.
- Honda CB100X
Honda is now developing a sport-tourer that uses the new 1,084cc parallel-twin after the 2020 CRF1100L, and most recently, the CMX1100. Although there is no hint about the looks of the bike, being a new project of Honda the expectations are high, as the range of the CB1100X seems to be too amazing.
Again we have no idea about the launch date, but even if the bike is launched this year it will probably be till the end of the year.
- Kawasaki KLR650 Descendant
Another big name in the list of new bike launches 2021 is Kawasaki KLR650 Descendant. As per the announcement by Kawasaki, there are almost six new models that it would unveil in 2020. But only five bikes were debuted in 2020, but the company announced that two more bikes will be unveiled in 2021 in the first quarter.
The bike lovers can expect the launch of another KLX green rank this year.
- Triumph Speed Triple 1160
As per the news, the Triumph Speed Triple 1160 bike with a bigger new 1.160cc engine is on the list of new launches this year. The performance expectations shall remain high and if we talk about the looks of the bike, they are comparatively more attractive and classy.
- Other Expect Bike Launch in the year 2021:
- Yamaha FZ750 Revival
- Yamaha YZF-R25M
- Husqvarna 901 Svartpilen
- Honda CRF850L Africa Twin
- Honda CBR600RR-R
- KTM 1290 Super Duke RR
These are some expected bike launches for this year 2021, some might get delayed or may arrive before the launch date. Peter J Salzano says each bike that is planned to be launched is the advanced and better version of the previous one, as a bike lover do analysis and share your reviews related to the bikes launched this year.


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This article was published on ptonline.com
Within the last five years, I have blogged about two university teams—Harvard University’s Wyss Institute and the U.K.’s University of Nottingham—that have been working on the production of chitosan, a man-made bioplastic derived from the organic compound chitin, which is extracted from the shells of crustaceans like shrimp and lobster. Now, a team from Montreal’s McGill University has joined the ‘club’.
According to Audrey Moore, an associate professor of chemistry at McGill, it has been typically difficult to make chitosan durable or in mass quantities. This team’s ‘breakthrough’ patented process, however, involves making chitosan with a longer molecular chains, which makes it more robust.
This team primarily has been working with shrimp shells, which they grind into a fine powder. “Globally, every year we generate six to eight million tonnes of these kind of crustaceous waste, and we’re not using it for anything, really,” said Moore. She noted that the potential applications include straws, disposable cutlery, single-use plastic bags, food packaging and even materials for 3D printing.
However, the team is also looking into higher-end applications like biomedical applications. Their current focus: making the substance even more malleable before attempting to get it to market.
This article was published on ptonline.com and written by LILLI MANOLIS SHERMAN


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Berlin held Excellence in iGaming exhibition on the 18th – 20th of October which is one of the most important events for gamers. The said event called together more than 1500 gaming experts from 83 countries as well as 30 thousand of guests. This year’s event was divided into three different zones: Intersellar 2026, Mission Control 2016 and Capsule. Among the most disputable topics of discussion on iGaming exhibition were bitcoin and crypto-currency as well as active debates between different representatives of different branches of the iGaming industry.
Consequently, Slotegrator company couldn’t miss out on Excellence in iGaming 2016. Denis Dzubenko, feed-reader’s brand-manager shares his impressions regarding the exhibition:
“It was an impressive event starting from the entrance to the exhibition up to all the night events. Display - items stands grabbed attention due to their brightness and experts surprised the audience with their awareness, knowledge and readiness to answer any questions. It’s always a great pleasure to communicate with a competent person and, which is even more important, who has a profound understanding of the gambling industry. This exhibition opened new horizons and possibilities for expanding the range of the offered assortment and broadening the circle of valuable contacts. We were more than happy to take part in this event”.
The event was also visited by feed-reader’s partners such as NetEnt, Endorphina, GameArt, iSoftBet, Microgaming, Habanero. Developers introduced new slots and some of them amazed the audience within their presentations on stands.
Endorphina crew treated the audience and guests with space food while Microgaming provider of top decisions for online casinos organized an entire micro bar where guests wined and dined with cocktails, hot dogs and had a possibility to converse with the best company’s experts.
One could meet NetEnt representatives in a separate meeting room or around their stands while having a cup of sweet-scented coffee. Provider’s stands were also equipped with already existing games available for trying as well as latest updates from the developer.
One of the most jaw-dropping stands belonged to GameArt visually resembling a flat screen with rolling multicolored spinners. In the same way the eye-grabbing Dragon King game was attracting crowds of admirers.
Habanero Systems, Slotegrator’s new partner introduced a new cozy meeting room where it is more than comfortable to talk business.
Flick through our photo report to set eyes on the way one of the most ambitious gambling event was held.


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The Perils of Unlicensed Hair Stylists
Have you ever checked the license of the person styling your hair? Maybe it's time you started.
On Thursday, "Early Show" Consumer Correspondent Susan Koeppen shared her startling investigation into the salon industry.
Much More Consumer News from Susan
Susan's Twitter page
Koeppen reported that last year alone, the Better Business Bureau received more than 2,400 complaints about hair stylists about everything, from bad cuts to severe scalp burns. Even people inside the salon industry admit there's a problem with unlicensed stylists.
Hair is big business in the U.S. Americans spend $39.8 billion at salons every year.


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Start digging around for examples of extremely old PCs running on modern versions of Windows, and you’ll find some amazing feats of longevity.
ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes once marveled at how a PC from 2008 ran Windows 10 without issue. PCWorld’s Gordon Mah Ung installed Windows 10 on a Dell Dimension desktop from 2006 and described it as “super-smooth” and “surprisingly responsive.” Users on sites such as TenForums have gone back even further, having success with Windows 10 on Pentium 4-powered desktops from 2004.
All of which may explain the shock that ensued when Microsoft announced its system requirements for Windows 11, which launches at the end of this year. Microsoft says it’s only confident that certain newer Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm chips can meet all of those requirements, which means PCs from mid-2017 or earlier may not get the upgrade.
Microsoft says that Windows 11’s strict requirements are necessary to cut down on security issues and glitches. But in slaying those two classic Windows demons, it’s also ending a record of longterm support that has typically been one of Windows’ defining strengths.
Stricter-than-ever hardware requirements
The remarkable thing about Windows is that its hardware requirements have barely changed over the past 14 years. From Windows Vista through Windows 10, Microsoft has demanded a meager 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM (though the company did double its required storage from 16 GB to 32 GB in Windows 10). Running Windows on a PC with those minimum specs wouldn’t always yield the greatest experience, but Microsoft wouldn’t stop you from trying.
Windows 11 demands a greater amount of storage and RAM—64 GB and 4 GB, respectively—but the real sticking point has to do with processors and security features such as Trusted Platform Module 2.0 support.
Microsoft’s Windows 11 requirements could cut off some PCs that are less than five years old.
The Verge’s Tom Warren also speculates that Spectre and Meltdown, a pair of infamous vulnerabilities that affected two decades’ worth of computer chips, might also explain the decision; Intel didn’t start implementing hardware fixes until 2018 with some of its 8th-generation processors.
Tying new security requirements to new versions of Windows isn’t without precedent. Starting with Windows 8 in 2012, Microsoft has required a processor feature called NX bit, which prevents attackers from executing malware through a portion of a system’s memory.
But at that point, NX bit had already been shopping on most processors released in the last eight years. By comparison, Microsoft’s Windows 11 requirements could cut off some PCs that are less than five years old. Even those whose hardware is capable of running Windows 11 may need to do some tweaking: On my desktop, which has a two-year-old AMD Ryzen 5 processor, I had to tinker with command-line and BIOS settings before Microsoft’s Health Check app gave me the all clear for Windows 11.
At the same time, Microsoft is giving PC owners less time to either upgrade or replace their current hardware. Although Windows 10 arrived in 2015, users of Windows 8.1 still have until January 2023 before Microsoft cuts off support. Before that, Microsoft gave seven years of additional support to Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP users after launching major upgrades. With the launch of Windows 11, Microsoft says that it’s cutting that grace period down to just four years.
The disposable age
Until now, the software upgradability of Windows PCs has been a welcome exception in an era when tech seems designed for disposability.
With new Macs, software support tends to last between five to eight years. The 2012 launch of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, for instance, cut off all pre-2007 Macs, while the first version of OS X in 2001 required a Power Mac G3 from at least 1997.
Google’s Chromebooks originally had a support lifespan of just five years as well, and even now Google only guarantees eight years of updates. Given that many Chromebooks remain on sale for years after launch, customers can easily buy devices that are just two or three years away from their expiration dates.
Smartphones, meanwhile, have even shorter lifespans. Android phone makers often abandon their hardware after a couple of years, and while Apple does a much better job supporting iPhones over the long term, it’s only now starting to support devices for more than five years. (The forthcoming iOS 15 update with support phones as old as the iPhone SE and iPhone 6s from 2016.)
Having an up-to-date device isn’t just about getting new features. It’s also important for receiving critical security fixes and support from third-party apps. Windows has traditionally allowed users to enjoy those benefits for a decade or more, and even if those users decided to buy new hardware, they could still sell, donate, or hand down their older machines knowing they’d continue to be supported.
With Windows 11, all of that will get harder to do. The upgrade will require much newer hardware compared to previous versions, and those who continue to use Windows 10–by necessity or choice—will have less time before that version stops receiving any updates at all, including critical security fixes.
Perhaps Microsoft didn’t get enough credit for going against the trend of disposable devices in the past. But now that it’s on the verge of discarding that legacy, it’s certainly deserving of criticism.


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Just as Apple and Google have their versions of digital wallets, Samsung has announced their own Samsung Wallet platform. It is built on Samsung’s Knox security platform and allows users to organize digital keys, boarding passes, identification cards and more. Samsung had a wallet long back to store coupons, gift cards, loyalty cards, boarding passes and membership numbers, but it was shut down in 2015.
Samsung Wallet will serve as a one-stop app for storing and accessing payment cards, loyalty and membership cards and more. The Samsung Pass app has been integrated into it, which allows users to store passwords and quickly log into apps and services, too.
The app will support official IDs, such as mobile driving licences and student IDs later in the year, and with the integration of SmartThings, users can easily add digital home keys to conveniently lock and unlock their doors. Samsung Wallet will also support digital automobile keys on select BMW, Genesis and Hyundai models.
Lastly, Samsung has partnered with Korean Air to allow storing Korean Air boarding passes directly on the app.
For security, it will be protected using their Knox security platform, offering fingerprint recognition and encryption. It also supports their embedded Secure Element technology to protect against digital and physical hacking.
Samsung Wallet will first be available in 6 countries – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.
Commenting on the announcement, Jeanie Han, EVP and Head of Digital Life, MX Business at Samsung Electronics said:
Samsung Wallet is bringing a new level of everyday convenience to mobile devices with a totally safe and secure environment for storing digital keys, cards and more. As part of our ongoing commitment to open ecosystems, we will continue to expand on the capabilities of Samsung Wallet by working closely with our trusted partners and developers


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Chocolate Lounge to open soon in Asheville
(Asheville Citizen-Times) The heart of Asheville is about to be a hub for chocolate, with a seven-flavor hot chocolate dispenser and a chocolate bar library. Jael and Dan Rattigan, owners of the French Broad Chocolate Lounge since 2006, will open their new 4,200 square-foot chocolate boutique and lounge Nov. 28 at 10 Pack Square. The original Lexington Avenue Lounge will hold its last service Nov. 22, according to Jael Rattigan, who owns the growing chocolate business with her husband Dan Rattigan. The Rattigans do not know what will take over the 10 S. Lexington building.
Read the full story HERE>


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Sept. 11, 2012 — -- Over the past weekend Tyler, 26, was preparing for the week ahead. He sold his iPhone 4 in anticipation of the new iPhone 5 Apple is expected to announce Wednesday. He'll be using an old Nokia 6010 phone until the new phone goes on sale.
And Tyler is surely not the only one who has had the foresight to get rid of his iPhone, which may look outdated after Apple's announcement.
In the last 30 days, Gazelle, a site that buys people's used gadgets, has received 1.2 million iPhone offers. That means it provided price quotes for 1.2 million iPhones out there.
"This is the biggest anticipated launch in a long time. People know it is coming and it's been a very busy time for us," Anthony Scarsella, Gazelle's Chief Gadget Officer, told ABC News.
Gazelle allows people to get a quote for their current iPhone. Once users get the quote they can decide if they want to sell their phone to the company. The Boston-based company provides a shipping label and box. When it receives the phone it wipes the data from it and resells it on eBay, Overstock, or to other resellers.
And it is certainly a good time to be in the iPhone buying business right now, says Scarsella. "The numbers keep on rising and we expect tomorrow to be the highest volume day. The volume has already been five times what we saw last year."
That is, of course, related to the rumors that the iPhone 5 will be one of Apple's biggest phone upgrades. The phone is expected to have a larger screen, LTE, a faster processor, and a new dock connector. Check out our guide to the rumors here.
Other sites like Glyde, which offers a peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling, have seen a similar uptick in people coming to sell iPhones. According to the company, iPhone 4S inquiries have been up over 700 percent in the last two weeks.
Glyde's rolled out an iPhone Upgrade Tool, which people can use to determine the value of their used device. They also offer a set price on iPhones. Right now Gylde is paying $403.75 for the iPhone 4S 64GB in good condition, which it claims is higher than the competitors.
Amazon also offers a Trade-In site. Gazelle offers 30-day windows, which allow people to lock in a sell price for their phones and hold on to their phones until the new one is out. Many have already locked in their sell prices on the site and plan to ship when they get their new iPhone 5s in hand. Glyde requires you send the phone within a week of selling.
People like Tyler have decided to sell their iPhones on their own through Craigslist or eBay and then use an older phone for the time being.
No matter where you sell, those who watch gadget prices say that as we get closer and closer to Apple's event, current iPhones will be worth a lot less. "Once Tim Cook gets on stage, we can expect prices to steadily decline," Scarsella said.


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Trusted legal advisors worldwide
Morse’s Jon Gworek Participates in NVCA Industry Standard Model Legal Documents Updates
4 September 2020
The NVCA recently announced the release of the latest version of the NVCA model venture capital documents. The effort was led by the NVCA General Counsel Advisory Board, including Morse Corporate Partner Jon Gworek.
Read more here
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Cognizant announced a 41.8% increase in its net profit for the June quarter to $ 512 million (around 3,801.7 crore), and said it plans to hire around a lakh this year as the IT major seeks to stop the high attrition rates in the company.
The US-based company, which posted net income of $ 361 million in the June 2020 quarter, also raised its revenue growth forecast for fiscal 2021 to 10.2-11.2 for cent (9-10 percent in constant currency) thanks to a strong reservation. momentum.
Cognizant’s revenue increased 14.6% (12% in constant currencies) to $ 4.6 billion in the quarter under review, from $ 4 billion a year earlier. This figure is higher than the company’s forecast of revenue growth of 10.5-11.5% for the June 2021 quarter.
Cognizant – which has around 2 lakh of employees based in India – monitors the January-December fiscal year.
âWe had a solid second quarter. Through targeted investments, we have shifted our portfolio to faster growing market segments while expanding our capabilities and partnerships to help clients build modern businesses. I see a stronger, more competitive Cognizant emerging, with dynamic business growth, âsaid Brian Humphries, CEO of Cognizant.
“Cognizant is optimistic about the industry and its prospects within it,” he added.
The company said it expects its third-quarter revenue to be between $ 4.69 billion and $ 4.74 billion, a growth of 10.6 to 11.6 percent (10 to 11% in constant currency).
The turnover for the year 2021 is expected to be between 18.4 and 18.5 billion dollars, which translates into growth of 10.2 to 11.2% (9 to 10% in constant currency) . He had previously guided revenue growth of 7-9% for 2021 ($ 17.8-18.1 billion).
âThe first second quarter results exceeded our expectations, driven by improved demand for our services and our digital revenue momentum, and we increased our revenue growth for the year 2021 to 10.2-11.2%, âsaid Jan Siegmund, Chief Financial Officer of Cognizant.
âTo meet the strong demand for customer services, Cognizant has continued to develop its recruiting capabilities and invest in its staff,â added Siegmund.
In a call to investors, Humphries said that given the strong demand on its bullish outlook in the industry, the company has committed to “significantly” increase its workforce in the coming quarters.
“However, this macro demand environment also created an imbalance between supply and demand in key skills and significantly increased attrition in industry … Voluntary attrition in the second quarter reached 29% over on an annualized basis or 18% on a rolling 12-month basis, “he said.
Cognizant’s attrition metric captures the entire enterprise, including interns and enterprises across IT departments and BPO. The company had over 3 lakh of employees at the end of the June quarter.
âIn this context, we continue to take a series of measures to reduce attrition, including compensation adjustments, job rotations, retraining and promotions and a host of associated engagement activities … close 100,000 associates, âsaid Humphries.
In addition, Cognizant plans to welcome approximately 30,000 new graduates in 2021 and to make 45,000 offers to new graduates in India for integration in 2022.
The senior manager noted that attrition is mostly at the more junior levels of the organization or the middle levels in India, but it is also a global phenomenon.
âThis truly is one of the hottest markets that we have seen or that our team has seen in the last 10+ years. So we all face itâ¦ annual merit based increases have been announced. here for the last few weeks, they come into effect on October 1. This is in addition to a whole host of ad hoc measures that we have implemented over the past year: off-cycle increases, promotions, dollars. retention, âhe said.
Humphries added that the company has announced in recent months a change to quarterly promotion cycles for billable resources as well as accelerated job rotations and retraining initiatives across the organization. He noted that bookings growth accelerated to 12% year-on-year in the second quarter, and that its orders-to-billing ratio is now 1.2 on a rolling 12-month basis.
âThe qualified pipeline is growing significantly, and our success rates are also up to date since the start of the year, which positions us well for the continued momentum in reservations. Digital revenue growth accelerated to 20% year over year during the quarter, âhe added.
Since 2019, the company has invested more than $ 2 billion in mergers and acquisitions to accelerate its digital capabilities.
âThese investments have changed Cognizant’s growth profile by shifting our business to higher growth categories and reducing our exposure to non-digital categories which have declined in recent years,â said Humphries.


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By The Daily Sun
Nepal and China have launched a programme to offer free training to up to 200 tourism entrepreneurs in Mandarin to attract more foreign visitors from China, reports PTI.
Chinese ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong on Thursday inaugurated a new batch of tourism entrepreneurs who will be trained in the Chinese language in Kathmandu.
Read the full article.
11/29/2017Localization in Translation: Before, Now, and Then or Why You Need it Today
11/28/2017Language, Diversity, and Orientalism in the Iberian Peninsula
10/9/2017Localization and translation: The biggest mistakes you’re probably making (webinar)
Association of Language Companies | 9707 Key West Avenue, Suite 100, Rockville, MD 20850


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Posted by Dale Buss on December 17, 2012 09:01 AM
Toyota sets to reclaim world sales crown as GMand Volkswagen vie for No. 2 and hints at elimination of Matrix model.
Domino's Pizza founder sues over Obamacare contraception coverage mandate.
McDonald's tries to get franchisees to stay open on Christmas.
Akamai taps co-founder as new CEO.
Burger King works with franchisee to expand in Mexico.
Chobani nears openingof huge new factory in Idaho.
Cosi uses pop-up unit in Chicago to test growth ideas.
Cox cable TV guide offers personalized recommendations in U.S. first.
Discover Communications makes key European deals.
Facebook counts on big deal with Walmart.Continue reading...
Posted by Dale Buss on December 23, 2011 08:55 AM
Gap, J.Crew and other retailers slash prices, as stores try to thwart price apps, and tweak websites to spur sales.
A&W is sold by Yum! Brands to A Great American Brand.
Absolut celebrates 30 years of gay ads.
Adidas pursues church for trademark infringement; church asks Derrick Rose to intercede.
Akamai purchases cloud rival.
Apple isn't expected to produce a smaller iPad, although fuel-cell MacBooks are rumored. Apple's online sales also exceed Walmart.com results.
AT&T's $1.93 billion deal for Qualcomm's airwaves approved.
Bebe expands with wedding collection.
Best Buy criticized for not fulfilling some holiday online orders.
BT's long-running family campaign in the UK ends its run.
Burberry, Forever 21 and Zara score on Facebook.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on February 4, 2011 03:00 PM
It’s official. Internet Protocol version 4, or IPv4, which accommodates 4.3 billion addresses is dead, swept aside by the web's gatekeepers for IPv6.
"This is one of the most important days in the history of the Internet. A pool of more than 4 billion Internet addresses has just been emptied this morning," said Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN at a press conference (above) yesterday.
"There are now 2 billion people who connect to the Internet. We've got 6 billion people in the world who want to connect themselves and their devices. That is simply not possible with IPv4. It's just not doable," added Olaf Kolkman, chairman of the Internet Architecture Board. "The business impact if you don't make the transition is the next 2 or 3 billion customers will run IPv6 only and will not be able to do business with you."Continue reading...


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Pokémon seems to have gotten a bit of a resurgence over the past few years. While true fans have long kept up with the latest Pokémon games and movies, it really hit the mainstream again with Pokémon Go, and now it’s set to do the same with the release of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.
In celebration of the new movie, Google is releasing a Pokémon: Detective Pikachu Playmoji pack — which includes Detective Pikachu, Charizard, Jigglypuff, and Mr. Mime — many of the most important and cutest characters from the movie.
“Now you can partner up with Detective Pikachu, Charizard, Jigglypuff, and Mr. Mime to create action-packed scenes in the real world. All you have to do is point your camera and drop one of the Playmoji (or all four) into a scene to bring them to life in your photos and videos,” Google said in a blog post.
The Playmoji are animated and look mostly like they will in the film — adding to a sense of realism to them. Thanks to the motion tracking in Google’s ARCore, the characters can move around your environment.
If you’re unfamiliar with Playmoji, they’re primarily augmented reality characters and objects that you can experience through the Google Pixel camera or Google Lens app. With Playmoji, you can interact with the characters themselves, or take photos and videos with them. Popular Playmoji that we have seen so far include the likes of Childish Gambino, and Google even partnered up with Marvel Studios for Playmoji of Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and the other Avengers. For Valentine’s Day, Google released a pack of “Playground: Love” Playmoji, which included love notes, hearts, and more.
In general, the Google Pixel camera has been hailed as one of the best around, thanks largely to the incredibly smart artificial intelligence under the hood. The camera offers features like the newly released Night Sight, which can smartly brighten up poorly lit photos. While other flagship phones offer multiple cameras to get these features, the Google Pixel series is able to accomplish it with only one lens thanks to its machine learning.
- No, you really don’t need Google Assistant on your smartwatch
- I’m excited for the Google Pixel Fold, and you should be too
- Wear OS 4 is coming to your smartwatch this year — here’s what’s new
- Your next Samsung phone might ditch Google Search for Bing
- Pixel Watch update brings a much-requested Apple Watch feature


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In an update to its website travel advisory posted January 19, 2022, Norwegian Cruise Line has canceled further voyages for both the Norwegian Jewel and Pride of America cruise ships. This extends the pause in operations for Norwegian Jewel through the March 20, 2022 sailing, and voyages aboard Pride of America are now canceled through and including the April 2, 2022 sailing.
Norwegian Jewel Sailing Canceled
Guests booked aboard the March 20, 2022 sailing of the Jewel-class Norwegian Jewel will be disappointed to learn that their cruise has now been canceled. That voyage was to have been a 9-day roundtrip sailing from Panama City, Panama, visiting Costa Rica, Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, and Colombia.
This cancelation is described as due to revitalization of the cruise ship, but details of that project have not been released or clarified.
Guests are understandably upset, as this cancelation comes the day after final payment for that sailing was due. While cruise lines often need to make sailing adjustments at the last minute, the timing of this announcement seems unclear.
Booked passengers will receive full refunds back to their original form of payment. If a future cruise credit (FCC) was used for the booking, that FCC will be returned to guests’ Latitudes account.
Pride of America Suspension Continues
Norwegian Cruise Line has also canceled further voyages aboard Pride of America, which was slated to resume her Hawaiian cruises on February 26. Now, Pride of America cruises through and including embarkation on April 2, 2022, have been canceled.
The 80,439-gross-ton Pride of America was slated to have begun its inter-island Hawaii itineraries on March 5. The ship typically offers 7-night round-trip voyages from Honolulu, calling on various ports around the islands to give passengers a true Hawaiian experience.
Now, Pride of America will not resume sailing until its scheduled April 9, 2022 departure.
This further suspension is likely due to ongoing health and safety restrictions in Hawaii that make it challenging to accommodate cruise travelers, especially those arriving from international flights. In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases have risen sharply in Hawaii, and local restrictions are strictly enforced to protect residents.
Pride of America was scheduled to have restarted sailings this month, but that restart has now been pushed back twice and guests will have to continue to wait before setting sail around the Hawaiian islands. As with booked passengers on other impacted sailings, full refunds will be issued back to the original form of payment.
What Norwegian Ships Are Sailing?
Norwegian Cruise Line has announced a wide range of canceled sailings in recent days, with 13 ships in their 17-ship fleet currently impacted by prior suspensions or new cancelations. The only Norwegian ships currently operating are:
- Norwegian Bliss offering 5- and 7-night Mexico cruises from Los Angeles
- Norwegian Encore sailing 7-night Caribbean itineraries from Miami
- Norwegian Epic offering 7-night Caribbean sailings from San Juan
- Norwegian Gem sailing 7- and 10-night Caribbean cruises from New York
While only these four ships are currently sailing, several more ships are scheduled to restart operations within the next few days, including Norwegian Breakaway from New Orleans, Norwegian Escape from Port Canaveral, Norwegian Dawn from Tampa, and Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Getaway, both from Miami.
Whether these ships do actually set sail or further cruises may be canceled is unknown, but passengers are advised to remain flexible in their travel plans and stay in contact with their travel advisors or Norwegian Cruise Line in case of additional changes.


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Tesla is about to start Model Y production – Tesla’s most popular vehicle, at Gigafactory Texas in Austin anytime soon, and according to Elon Musk, his company would invest over $10 billion in Gigafactory Texas and employ 20,000 workers.
The vehicles Tesla is currently selling in the US are produced at its Fremont factory in California, where approximately 500,000 electric vehicles are made in a year. At its full capacity, the Gigafactory Texas is expected to produce even more cars, double what the Fremont factory makes.
The new factory is a key element in Tesla’s growth strategy in the US and now the automaker sells its cars in the US with delivery timelines of nearly 12 months for some of its models.
Elon Musk said via Twitter that ‘Giga Texas is a $10B+ investment over time, generating at least 20k direct & 100k indirect jobs.’
Of course, the investment will be worthwhile once the company starts Cybertruck and Tesla Semi production at the new factory.
In November, Tesla was confirming its plan to open a new factory to build battery manufacturing equipment in Canada.
The automaker has released a unique look into its expanding presence in Canada, where the company is planning to work on “machines that build the machine.” Back in 2019, Tesla obtained Canada-based Hibar, which produces pumps used in fast-speed battery equipment that the company is advancing for its new 4680 cells. The new factory will produce battery manufacturing equipment in Markham, Ontario.


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Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) is leading the effort to develop Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure for Karnataka’s capital city with an announcement that plans to launch 11 fast-charging stations for the city’s EVs.
This comes as welcome news for Bangalore, one of the largest cities in India. Amid deteriorating air quality, the presence of EV charging infrastructure could help encourage citizens to switch out their fossil-fueled vehicles for non-polluting and cleaner EVs.
A BESCOM official confirmed to Mercom that the distribution company will be developing 11 EV charging stations in Bangalore. As announced previously by Karnataka Power Minister D.K. Shivakumar, the first EV charging station is expected to be launched by February 15, 2018.
The BESCOM official added that the 11 charging stations are only the first in a broader program. As the use of EVs increases, BESCOM plans to add more charging stations in a phased manner to meet growing demand. BESCOM itself will add to this demand by procuring its own EVs and will start by procuring 100 EVs for now.
“Even we (BESCOM) want new avenues of revenue generation. The government has proposed the FAME program and NEMMP. Under these programs, by 2030, EVs will be the most common method to commute. So why not begin now?” the official told Mercom.
The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) program was announced by the Karnataka government in January 2018. Under it, the state plans to procure 640 EVs, including electric buses, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers.
Karnataka is already known for being the first Indian state to launch a specific EV policy. Through the procurement, the state government has further demonstrated its resolve to move toward clean mobility and reduce carbon emissions.
Recently, Mercom reported that the Maharashtra state government cabinet has also given its nod to the state’s Electric Vehicle Policy 2018. The policy aims at creating an enabling environment for the manufacture of 500,000 EVs in Maharashtra within the next five years.
Meanwhile, the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) was launched by the Government of India in 2013 to promote hybrids and EVs. After years of relative inaction on the plan, the EV sector now appears to be gaining momentum.
BESCOM’s EV charging station program will help the DISCOM to be ready when the expected growth in EV adoption takes hold in Karnataka’s capital city.
“We are the electricity supplier to Bangalore, it makes more sense for us to be directly involved in the EV charging business, rather than just supplying power to a vendor,” the official added.
When asked about the charge that will be levied on consumers who use the infrastructure, the BESCOM official said that no decision has been reached yet. “This matter is under consideration by KERC upon our (BESCOM) behest. Once the KERC provides us with guidance, we will make the tariff announcements,” he said.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Saumy is a senior staff reporter with MercomIndia.com covering business and energy news since 2016. Prior to Mercom, Saumy was a copy editor at Thomson Reuters. Saumy earned his Bachelors Degree in Journalism & Mass Communication from the Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University. More articles from Saumy Prateek.


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The Belgian gaming sector is fully developing and some players are facing significant advancement. However, finding local investors is not easy. British Hero Capital jumps into the hole. It invests $ 2.2 million in Happy Volcano in Leuven.
“The European gaming sector is severely underfunded compared to the US and Asia, while there is a lot of talent here,” explains Samuel Costello, an expert at Hiro Capital in London. The mutual fund is still young and has been active for a year and a half, but the founders have a lot of experience. One of them is Ian Livingston, who has founded pioneering companies such as Games Workshop (“Warhammer”) and Eidos (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”).
The timing is right for the box. The pandemic has given the gaming sector a record year in 2020. The trend of allowing simple but social “us” games to be run more intensively on different types of devices has helped find new audiences.
The European gaming sector is critically underfunded compared to the United States and Asia, which has a lot of talent here.
The lack of funding in Europe certainly also applies to Belgium, where more than 100 companies are active in the sector. Hiro Capital encourages Belgian gaming companies to present their projects. The fund invested only $ 2.2 million in Happy Volcano in Leuven.
Happy Volcano was founded by Jeroen Janssen, Peter Mason, and David Prinsmill. It started as a shared passion for games. In 2014, hours later, they start working together on the first iOS game, “Lava Fever”, in which you have to sacrifice yourself in a volcano – “Happy Volcano” – to save your people.
“The game was a commercial failure,” admits Jansen, CEO of Happy Volcano. We had no experience at all with how to market a game. But it proved that we can make and release a game together.
In a next game, The Almost Gone, they teamed up with Brussels author Joost Vandecasteele. The game makers won three awards with it. The money came from the Dutch fund and from the gaming division of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF). To do this, the trio had to create a company in 2015: Happy Volcano. We were still working after hours. It took until June of last year before the game was released, Janssen says.
You Suck at Parking – Trailer (PC & Console)
In 2017, the trio decided to work full time at the studio, which has now grown to eight employees. The studio builds sites and games for clients, but also works hard on its own game “You Suck at Parking”, “Maybe the only racing game you can win by quitting smoking.”
Happy Volcano in Hero Capital
Toy company Happy Volcano was founded in 2015 by Jeroen Janssen, Peter Maasen and David Prinsmel. Located in Leuven. The team of eight is looking for reinforcements, and there are three job vacancies on site. Turnover amounted to 350,000 euros. The company makes video games as well as websites and short games for clients. After investing $ 2.2 million from Hiro Capital, the focus turns to its special game “You Suck at Parking”.
Hiro Capital is a Luxembourg / London venture capital fund targeting European, British and North American innovators in games, esports, broadcasting and digital sports technology. It has a capital of 100 million euros and is involved in 12 companies. The fund was established in 2019 by Ian Livingston, Alvarez Locke and Freeman Sherry. They have a lot of experience in games, technology and e-commerce.
Happy Volcano presented “You Suck at Parking” at an event from Hiro Capital. “I did it out of interest and experience,” says Janssen. The next day it turned out that the investment company wanted to be part of the story. You didn’t even look at our business people. Janssen says she focuses on the product and the team.
We were not looking for money. We were profitable since the first year. With Hiro’s money, we can now focus on making our own games. Access to their expertise and network is invaluable to us.
Happy Volcano is not only looking abroad for capital and expertise, but also for talent. Especially in this area that there is mutual competition in this sector. Thanks to its remote working experience in the pandemic, Happy Volcano feels ready to become a “distributed team” with employees who can also be overseas.
Hiro Capital is also sniffing out other gaming companies. The Fund will attend the session next Wednesday The Big Score is dedicated to games, Organized by the Network Foundation | Startups.be Scale-Ups.eu.
Ghent Triangle Factory is one of the 8 Belgian game companies that offers promotions. Its turnover was 1.6 million euros last year. For 90 percent, this came from virtual reality (VR), both from apps and training. More than half of this money comes from companies, including a number of multinational companies.
The studio recently introduced a promising consumer virtual reality game, Hyper Dash. This illustrious multiplayer shooter has been in the official store of the popular Quest 2 headphones since last week, and has won a lot of praise from users. In the Discord messaging service, Hyper Dash already has a community of around 11,000 people who are also organizing competitions.
Triangle Factory CEO and founder, Timothy Vanherberghen, has the same approach as fellow Janssen from Happy Volcano: Investing is beneficial, but it is fundamentally about the investor’s experience and their network.
Vanherberghen and Janssen see his games getting a lot of updates. This lends itself to the “games as a service” concept, as gamers continue to be amazed at the new developments. Support from experienced investors is an asset.
It makes sense for Anglo-Saxon funds to appear. “Nearly 40 years of experience has been built in the UK and US,” says Janssen. But gaming companies are still hoping to offer local investment. The sector has long called for a tax shelter, which is an investor-friendly tax system that film and television products have been using for the past 17 years.
“Travel specialist. Typical social media scholar. Friend of animals everywhere. Freelance zombie ninja. Twitter buff.”


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Minister Vandal announces federal funding to help Saskatchewan businesses innovate and grow
Federal funding of almost $26 million through PrairiesCan will advance new technologies, help grow businesses and create jobs
June 29, 2022 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan)
Saskatchewan businesses are significant contributions in all sectors of the economy, both locally and on a global scale. The Government of Canada celebrates the innovation and hard work of Saskatchewan enterprises, and is proud to assist them flourish and succeed.
Today, the Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister for PrairiesCan, announced a federal investment of almost $26 million to help 11 innovative businesses across Saskatchewan access the resources needed to expand, improve operations, and create good paying jobs for Canadians. These organizations impact many industries in Saskatchewan, including advanced manufacturing, digital technology, agriculture and agri-food production, and health and safety.
Projects funded today are supported under the Business Scale-up and Productivity (BSP) stream of the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation (REGI) program, and the Jobs and Growth Fund (JGF). Both programs are delivered on the Prairies by PrairiesCan.
The total federal investment of $25,933,033 supports the Saskatchewan economy and is expected to create over 500 jobs, of which more than half will be for highly qualified personnel. This work is expected to result in over $470 million in revenue growth, including over $290 million in export sales.
“To succeed in the new global economy businesses need to commercialize their cutting-edge products and services to accelerate growth and create new markets. When those promising businesses need that extra help to achieve success, our government will be there to help. Saskatchewan’s economy is strong, and the businesses supported today are just a few examples of what makes Saskatchewan a great place to invest, do business, and grow.”
– The Honourable Daniel Vandal, Minister for PrairiesCan
“Saskatchewan is a great place to live and work. Biktrix is thankful to our government for helping us scale our business by investing in us. PrairiesCan investment will help Biktrix catapult our growth by hiring more qualified staff and generating more economic impact through local and export sales.”
– Roshan Thomas, CEO and Founder, Biktrix Enterprises Inc.
"Coconut Software helps financial institutions make it easier for their customers and members to access services. Coconut is proud to partner with PrairiesCan to provide our solutions to even more communities and continue on our mission of making banking easier for everyone. With the help of the JGF funding, we'll be able to accelerate export sales, expand our team across Canada, and drive economic growth.”
– Matt Petrow, CFO, Coconut Software Corporation
PrairiesCan is the department that diversifies the economy across the Canadian Prairies. PrairiesCan leads in building a strong, competitive Canadian economy by supporting business, innovation and community economic development unique to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The Business Scale-up and Productivity program supports high-growth businesses that are scaling up and producing innovative goods, services, or technologies. Funding is interest-free and repayable.
The Jobs and Growth Fund helps job creators and the organizations that support them future-proof their businesses, build resiliency, and prepare for growth. Funding is interest-free and repayable.
Office of the Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister for PrairiesCan, and Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
Prairies Economic Development Canada
Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-9378
TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired): 1-877-303-3388
- Date modified:


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Paris Baguette to expand into Middle East, Africa
简介South Korean bakery giant SPC Group's flagship bakery chain Paris Baguette will make its first ...
South Korean bakery giant SPC Group's flagship bakery chain Paris Baguette will make its first inroad into the Middle Eastern and African market as a part of its efforts to tap into the global halal food market worth some $2 trillion in value, said SPC Group, Monday.
SPC Group said it signed a memorandum of understanding with a United Arab Emirates-based conglomerate Galadari Brothers Group on Sunday to establish a joint venture by 2024. Galadari Brothers Group currently operates businesses in diverse sectors internationally, including media, automobile, travel and food and beverage business.
"The halal market is a market of great strategic importance to Paris Baguette's global business, and we will accelerate expansion of our business overseas by closely cooperating and initiating bold investments with Galadari Brothers Group,” said SPC Group President Hur Jin-soo.
Under the deal, which was inked during SPC’s participation in the delegation accompanying President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to the Middle East, Paris Baguette will foray into 12 countries in the Middle Eastern and African market. The countries under consideration so far include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
"We are happy to be working jointly with Paris Baguette, which is already successfully operated in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia. We expect Galadari Brothers Groups’ operational capabilities, market influence and Paris Baguette's excellent products and global brand power to create synergy,” said Mohammed Galadari, CEO of Galadari Brothers Group, during the signing ceremony for the memorandum.
SPC Group will supply products to the Paris Baguette outlets in the new markets by producing necessary goods from its Malaysia Johor Bahru Plant, SPC Group's halal-certified production base scheduled for completion next year.
In June last year, SPC set up a joint venture with Malaysian food company Berjaya Food, in a bid to use Malaysia as a strategic production and logistics base for the Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern market. Once the construction of the factory is complete, the 12,900-square-meter facility will allow for efficient transport of SPC’s goods, according to the company.
Starting with China in 2004, Paris Baguette has steadily expanded its business by entering the global market and has established its presence in 10 countries including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Paris Baguette, which recently opened its 500th global outlet on Sunday in Singapore, saw its global sales exceed 600 billion won ($443 million) last year, seeing some 39 percent on-year increase compared to 430 billion won in annual sales posted in 2021, according to SPC Group.
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[Herald Review] '12.12: The Day' avoids usual pitfalls of historical films
정청래, 가결파 징계에 "신상필벌은 당연…잠시 미뤄둔 것"
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- Heritage expert You Hong
- After 13 years, Naver's 'OnStage' music show bids farewell
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- 이상민 “민주당 지도부 아무도 연락 없어, 어느 정도 마음 정했다”
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- 송영길 “비례정당 출마 검토”…조국과 연대 가능성도 시사
- US set to deploy B
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- Container shipping costs for US west coast rise 7 pct in October


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by Anton Shilov
08/24/2010 | 09:20 PM
At present Apple iPad generally commands the market of consumer tablets simply due to the fact that it is the only one on the market and many early adopters have no choice. But after the dust settles, the market share of iPad could drop to 20% - 30%, according to the chairman of Acer Group, one of the world's largest PC makers.
JT Wang said in an interview with Chinese-language news-paper Economic Daily News (excepts from which were translated by DigiTimes web-site) that Google Android platform needed some time to develop in order to address the market of slates. Given the fact that there are tens of companies that support Android, there will be loads of various tablets and smartphones with different design, feature-set and pricing and it will be tough for Apple to compete against all of them.
In fact, even 20% - 30% global slate market share seems to be too optimistic for Apple iPad after Android, MeeGo, webOS and Windows-based tablets become widespread. As practice shows, Apple can only compete for small, yet rapid growing, fractions of the markets. The company's share on mobile phone and PC markets is in low single-digits and the only space it enjoys very high adoption rate is digital media players with its iPod.
Earlier this year the head of ARM Holdings, the company that develops processor architectures for mobile phones, slates and other low-power devices predicted that ARM would be found in 50% of such products, whereas the rest would be x86-powered. The statement means that ARM-based Apple iPad's eventual tablet market share can be much lower than 20% or even 10%.
Acer itself plans to release a Google Android-based tablet late in 2010 or early in 2010.


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Mac OS X has been one of the most popular choices among tech savvies. However, one question always pops in mind: does Mac need antivirus or is it immune to such threats? As you may have realized by now, there is no straightforward answer to such a question. Instead, the truth lies somewhere in the […]
You have purchased a MacBook Air and you are so proud of it, but after a while you notice suspicious details and you realize that it has been hacked. What to do in situations like these? Well, it can be really irritating to find out that your privacy has been breached.
Internet threats have been on the rise and therefore it is imperative that you come up with efficient ways to protect your device from harm. Mac users have got quite a few different methods, which will help them out towards enhancing their overall online security.
MacKeeper, a brand known for forcefully showcasing hostile to malware to Mac clients, has uncovered record subtle elements of 13 million clients. The spilled record subtle elements were found by security specialist Chris Vickery, who reported the issue to MacKeeper’s German proprietor, Kromtech, posting points of interest of his finding on Reddit on Sunday.


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Amancio Ortega Founder of Zara overtakes Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man
So who doesn’t love Zara or at least own a few clothing from the fashion store. It is no wonder Amancio Ortega founder of Zara overtakes Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man. Read more below.
The Spanish founder of the Zara fashion chain overtook Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man. Amancio Ortega’s personal fortune increased by $1.7billion this week to $79.5billion – taking the Inditex owner past the Microsoft co-founder’s estimated $78.5billion.
The self-made billionaire, 80, was born the son of a railway worker in La Coruña and left school at 13years of age to work in a clothing shop. He founded Zara from his living room with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera before launching the Inditex fashion group, of which he is the chairman.
According to Forbes, experts in estimating the bank balances of the world’s wealthiest, Mr Ortega’s fortune overtook that of Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Wednesday and Thursday this week, before fluctuating share prices pushed it back into second place. Apparently, this was not Mr Ortega’s first time at the top of the list. In October 2015, he was the world’s wealthiest man for a few hours.
Compared to the other world’s richest people, he has chosen to keep a very low profile, avoiding interviews and media appearances. The son of a railway worker, born in 1936, just before the outbreak of Spain’s civil war. The family struggled to make ends meet, and now he is one of the world’s richest men in the world and his daughter Marta is expected to take over the business.
Marta, 31, has undergone training at the firm, including stacking shelves when she was younger. Despite rumours that she is due to succeed her father, Inditex – parent company to Zara, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear – will not confirm her as successor.
Mr Gates famously said: “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point.”
He has donated up to $28 billion through his charitable foundation in 2013. Mr Gates’ three children will only inherit “a minuscule portion” of his wealth, reported to be in the region of $10 million each, in order to ensure they “find their own way” in life. He joins a number of wealthy figures who have once said their children will not inherit majority of their fortunes, including;Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Sting and Nigella Lawson.


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Rummage sale held on Saturday
MARQUETTE – A rummage sale will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church, 120 N. Front St., Marquette.
All proceeds will be used to fund the senior high youth group’s summer mission trip. Items include designer clothes, jewelry, exercise equipment, snowblowers, furniture, tools, kitchen items and collectibles. Food will be available in the food court.


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US shopping giant Amazon.com has fired its first shot at the supermarket sector by launching its pantry food and drink category on its Australian website that will give consumers access to more than 400 brands.
Investors aren’t fazed with the share price of Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) jumping 0.7% to $27.99 although Coles owner Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) slipped 0.6% into the red to $47.26 when the S&P/ASX 200 (Index:^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) index lost 0.3% in morning trade.
I am not surprised that the market is overlooking this development as Amazon Australia is a slow-moving beast. The range is fairly limited and the pricing doesn’t scream of value – at least not yet.
This essentially describes the first 10 months of Amazon Australia’s existence although it is finally addressing the issue of price and range in the more established product category.
I suspect it will take another 6 to 12-months before Amazon.com poses a real threat to Woolies, Coles or the independent grocery network under the Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) umbrella.
Morgan Stanley compared 10 food and drink items sold on Amazon and found that only one to be cheaper than Woolies while two items were more expensive and the rest of the seven were the same price.
But the price differences on the three items were very significant. The cheaper Amazon item was 22% below Woolies but the other two more expensive items cost between 100% and 20% more.
However, it’s not so straightforward to make direct comparisons between Amazon and Woolies as Amazon tends to sell in bulk (multipacks). Selling in bulk suits the online delivery channel better due to courier costs.
The brands sold by Amazon include several household names like Arnott’s, Milo, Uncle Tobys, Masterfoods, Oreo, Powerade, and M&Ms.
“We think it’s interesting that leading global FMCG brands like Coca-Cola, Nestle, Mars, Arnotts, and Mondelez along with leading Australian brand Sanitarium have elected to use Amazon to distribute their products,” said Morgan Stanley.
“If the largest suppliers in Australia are willing to use Amazon, then why wouldn’t more follow? We think it’s an emerging issue that confronts the Australian supermarkets.”
There’s speculation that it’s only a matter of time before Amazon moves into fresh food as well given that it’s already doing that in the US through its acquisition of Whole Foods.
It’s good news to our local incumbents that they have time to plan and react – particularly for Coles as it prepares to start life standing on its own two feet as Wesfarmers is spinning-off the business into a newly listed entity.
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Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Wesfarmers Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.