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HTC claims Desire will get Gingerbread by the end of July
not to even expect Gingerbread, then a day later, they recanted and said Gingerbread would be coming to the phone. UK users got their Gingerbread fix at the end of June. Now, HTC has said that testing is finished and the Gingerbread update is almost ready for everyone else, claiming it should be pushed out by the end of July. The only trouble now is seeing what HTC has had to pull out of the ROM, as they have already said that because of memory space concerns, certain apps will be pulled out of the Gingerbread update, but will be available for download later.At first, Desire users were told
Good luck, Desire users! We'll let you know when the update is officially available.


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Pensioners splashed out £319billion, 54 per cent of all consumer spending, in 2018 – and this could increase to £550bn (63p of every pound) by 2040. But retailers have to make town centre shopping easier for older customers by opening more public toilets and offering more seating, among other improvements, according to the International Longevity Centre (ILC) think tank.
Director David Sinclair said: “The demography of the high street customer is ageing, and retailers and planners have long failed to adapt or recognise the diversity of older consumers.
“Older people complain that their needs are ignored. Public toilets have been closed, cafes and shops blare loud music, public spaces and shops rarely have anywhere to sit, and public transport is poor or non-existent.
For our high streets to survive, they must become more inclusive.
“They needn’t just survive – they could thrive, playing a role in tackling loneliness. Inclusive environments are often a cost-effective way to prevent worsening health among an ageing population.”
The ILC points out that the spending power of Greater Manchester households aged 65-plus is increasing by £280million each year.
Making local town centres more appealing to them could boost high street spending by a further £50million annually.
The ILC has launched a two-year project to transform how the retail sector sees and serves older consumers.
In advance of the Second Reading of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill in the House of Commons, the thinktank argues that supporting healthy ageing is key to levelling up.
But in the first half of 2019, 1,234 more high street stores were closed than were opened, according to international tax specialists PwC.
Source: Read Full Article

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The Toyota Land Cruiser Is Being Relaunched, Not Revived
The discontinuation of the Toyota Land Cruiser full-size SUV was a huge surprise for thousands of Toyota fans in America. The Land Cruiser is part of a bygone era that represents a time when the Japanese brand was still making its bones internationally. The Toyota Land Cruiser is an off-roading icon and a fan-favorite SUV. News of its revival may be misleading.
Is the Toyota Land Cruiser coming back?
A new version of the Land Cruiser is coming, but it may not be what you think. News of a possible Land Cruiser return has the internet in an uproar, but is the legendary SUV nameplate actually coming back? Well, yes and no.
Toyota is rolling out a new Land Cruiser SUV. It just isn’t the full-size rugged behemoth that gearheads know and love. This version of the Land Cruiser will be smaller, changing things for consumers.
A new Land Cruiser will likely be much more affordable due to its smaller size. That being said, this huge change takes away some of the excitement of the nameplate’s “return.” Truthfully, the Land Cruiser is being relaunched as a smaller SUV to compete with models like the Ford Bronco (not revived).
The Sequoia and Lexus LX 600 are still the closest things that consumers can get to the OG Land Cruiser that has won the hearts of so many. Before we get into the arrival of the new Land Cruiser, let’s explore why the old one got the boot in the first place.
Why did Toyota discontinue the Land Cruiser for America?
Toyota’s discontinuing the Land Cruiser nameplate following the 2021 model year could confuse some fans, but it isn’t as complicated as you may think. In fact, the last model’s specs are a huge clue as to why the brand no longer makes new Land Cruisers (or at least the Land Cruisers we’re familiar with).
The 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser had a starting price of a whopping $85,665. That’s more than the price of a brand-new 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe High Country (72,900). Toyota’s full-size SUV is unreasonably pricey.
The last Land Cruiser model year gets 13 miles per gallon in the city and 17 miles per gallon on the highway. Its fuel economy is too poor for many drivers. The reason the Land Cruiser is no longer available is because the demand for the SUV dwindled as the needs of consumers evolved. So, the version of the Land Cruiser that was too expensive and thirsty for most drivers had to die.
What to expect from the new Land Cruiser
Based on the teaser image, the new Land Cruiser’s exterior resembles a Lexus GX 460 more than it does its predecessor. While there’s little to no information available on the upcoming SUV, its name reveals plenty.
The new Land Cruiser will likely be a tough off-road SUV that embodies the spirit of the OG model while bringing new technology to the table featured in other new Toyota off-roading models. So, expect all-terrain tires, a suspension upgrade, and skid plates as available features. A cheaper, smaller Land Cruiser is intriguing, but claiming that the Land Cruiser is returning is a bit of a stretch. According to Toyota, the new Land Cruiser is a “legend reborn,” so expectations are high.


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This week, the three nationwide credit reporting agencies announced a join plan to significantly change medical collection debt reporting to support consumers faced with unexpected medical bills. These joint measures will remove nearly 70% of medical collection debt from consumer credit reports. It’s a step they’re taking after months of industry research.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, two-thirds of medical debts are the result of a one-time or short-term medical expense arising from an acute medical need. After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and a detailed review of the prevalence of medical collection debt on credit reports, the credit agencies are making changes to help people to focus on their personal wellbeing and recovery.
Effective July 1, 2022, paid medical collection debt will no longer be included on consumer credit reports. In addition, the time period before unpaid medical collection debt would appear on a consumer’s report will be increased from 6 months to one year, giving consumers more time to work with insurance and/or healthcare providers to address their debt before it is reported on their credit file.
In the first half of 2023, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion will also no longer include medical collection debt under at least $500 on credit reports.
The companies’ CEOs provided a joint statement on the decision to change medical collection debt reporting:
“Medical collections debt often arises from unforeseen medical circumstances. These changes are another step we’re taking together to help people across the United States focus on their financial and personal wellbeing,” said Mark W. Begor, CEO Equifax; Brian Cassin, CEO Experian; and Chris Cartwright, CEO TransUnion.
A February report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that medical debt collections were “less predictive of future payment problems than other debt collections,” such as car loans and mortgages.
The report also said Black, Hispanic and low-income individuals are more likely to have medical debt. Older people and veterans are also heavily impacted, according to the report.
The CFPB wrote that because of this, these groups “may be more heavily impacted by outdated credit models,” therefore affecting their chances of securing housing, car loans and insurance.
Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told CNBC that removing paid medical debt from credit reports could help consumers increase their credit scores, especially for older FICO models that are used for obtaining federally backed mortgages.
“There seems to be an acknowledgment that medical care is essential and should not be penalized by the credit bureaus,” Rossman said.


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Opera, one of the largest web browsers in the world made the announcement on Wednesday that they will be adding a built-in ethereum wallet in the desktop version of their browser. This built-in wallet would support both ether and ethereum-based tokens.
The Oslo-based firm made the announcement have they received an overwhelming response to the private beta for its mobile browser which already has a built-in ethereum wallet.
This is definitely a breath of fresh air for once because we recently saw Google ban decentralized apps from the Chrome Web Store and also the Google Play Store. We also saw Apple banning all the cryptocurrency mining applications from their store as well.
Opera, which is backed by the bitcoin mining giant Bitmain goes the opposite way and introduces a built-in wallet in their browser which not only makes it convenient for people to access their digital asset, it also has the ability to access decentralized apps (dApps) like Augur and CryptoKitties without having to download any extensions.
Charles Hamel, the product lead of Opera Crypto said:
“By adding a crypto wallet directly into the browser, we removed the need for complex extensions or separate apps. Opening up the PC browser to crypto marks Opera’s second step toward making cryptocurrencies and Web 3.0 mainstream.”
To start using the built-in wallet on the desktop version of the browser, the users will first have to download the Opera mobile browser on their Android devices and enable the native cryptocurrency wallet. Then, they can connect it to their PC browser by scanning a QR code.
All the keys to the wallet still remain on the user’s phone, so you will have to use your phone to sign all the payments. Even the transactions that are initiated through the PC browser. And to do that, you can simply use the fingerprint scanner to sign the transactions.
Bitmain Played a Huge Role
It is clear that Bitmain’s $50 million investment to get the controlling stake in Opera is one of the big reasons why Opera is going crypto. It not only makes the web browser more attractive to crypto enthusiasts, it is also moving forward and dominating a space that other browsers are yet to dominate in a major way (by providing support for dApps).


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The Broadband Forum has announced that six G.Fast products have completed its certification program, as the broadband technology gets set for commercial rollout.
BT Chief Executive Gavin Patterson lamented the increase in uncertainty that Brexit and the UK General Election result was causing around R&D collaboration with Europe, as the company’s research team announced it had hit a new FTTP speed record.
MásMóvil has signed a wide-ranging deal with Ericsson that sees the vendor provide the Spanish operator with a wide range of services including enterprise billing and FTTH.
By Todd Mersch, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at XCellAir
The CEO of Altice has said fibre is the future as the operator acquired exclusive broadcasting rights to UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football.
Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said fewer UK premises than expected will be connected to faster broadband technology this year, as he revealed the company’s European operating income suffered in Q1.
Virgin Media, Tesco Mobile and BT top customer satisfaction rankings across broadband, mobile and landline respectively, according to new Ofcom figures.
Fibre broadband deployments in the UK could be boosted if lawmakers continue to commit to attracting low-skilled workers, the government has been told.
Ofcom may introduce wholesale price caps on BT as part of new measures to promote competition in the UK’s broadband market.
Virgin Media has suspended four employees as it grapples with the fall-out from misreporting of its Project Lightning broadband rollout.
Bouygues Telecom has signed a deal to start providing a FTTH service in partnership with Altitude Infrastructure.
FTTB provider SIRO is offering free gigabit connectivity to businesses in Ireland as part of a new initiative to boost competitiveness outside the country’s big cities.
Virgin Media has revamped its bundles and made broadband speeds of 100MBps the minimum that customers will receive.
BT has won deals to supply a range of services to Michelin and the Co-operative Group, it has revealed.
Telekom Austria said it had reached speeds of 10GBps on a copper cable as it looks to boost the performance of its broadband network.
Vodafone has signed a five-year deal to access Telefónica's fibre optic network in Spain.
FTTH is redefining how Proximus is selling services to enterprises, its CTO says, as the Belgium-based operator embarks on a decade-long deployment of the technology.
Mark Collins, Co-Founder and Director of Strategy & Public Affairs of CityFibre, discusses fibre regulation, Openreach and why Sky quit its joint venture in York
Why do we need fibre? The Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council attempted to provide an answer at its annual conference last week.
The FTTH Council has revealed that it would cost €156 billion to make FTTH technology reach 100 percent of homes in Europe, as the number of subscribers grew 33 percent in the 12 months to September 2016.
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One could suspect it, Elon Musk confirmed it: Tesla will increase the price of its Cybertruck, which should also make concessions in terms of its technical specifications.
In 2019, Tesla announced the launch of the Cybertruck, an all-terrain electric pickup with a futuristic design. But the production of the vehicle has been delayed, has been pushed back several times, and the first deliveries are not expected to take place before the summer of 2023.
This August 4, 2022, was organized on Cyber Roundup, an annual meeting with Tesla investors and shareholders. During this meeting, Elon Musk shared very bad news for those who were planning to buy a Cybertruck. The boss of Tesla has indeed informed that the technical data sheet and the price of the vehicle will be modified compared to the announcements made in 2019. And this will of course not be to the benefit of consumers.
Tesla Cybertruck: price up and technical sheet at a discount
“Cybertruck pricing was unveiled in 2019, and the reservation was $99. A lot has changed since then, so specs and prices will be different. I hate to give out some kind of little bad news, but I think there was no way to anticipate inflation and the various issues we went through”commented Elon Musk in front of the audience of shareholders.
This communication only formalizes what we could already suspect. In the last quarter of 2021, Tesla quietly removed Cybertruck pricing and specifications from its website, hinting at changes to come. For now, we do not know what order these changes will be. Elon Musk was content to assure that the electric pickup will remain “a damn nice machine”.
As for the release date of the vehicle, the contractor confirmed that he is aiming for mid-2023. “We will install the production equipment, and the tooling from the next two months”, he said. He expects mass production to begin in the middle of next year. However, it is likely that the United States will be served first and that Europe will have to be more patient, despite the opening of the Gigafactory in Berlin at the start of the year.


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China's Internet companies have witnessed a 20% average correction since early March.
"Investor sentiment and asset allocation/sector rotation likely the main triggers," commented J.P. Morgan analysts Alex Yao and Yong Wang in a research note published today. But the fundamentals have not changed, which creates buying opportunities, they added.
Among these stocks, J.P. Morgan's top picks are Tencent (0700.HK), Baidu (BIDU), Qihoo 360 (QIHU), YY (YY), Soufun (SFUN) and Sina (SINA).
J.P. Morgan likes Tencent because of WeChat and its mobile game revenue potential. Here are the analysts:
We believe Tencent has largely accomplished the transition of user activity shift from PC to mobile, thanks to the ramping up of Weixin and Mobile QQ.
Mobile games delivered Rmb600MM in revenue in the first full quarter of operation in 4Q13, and we believe there is potential upside to mobile game revenue in 1Q14 and FY14.
After the pull-back, Tencent shares are trading at 22x FY15E earnings, with an FY15E-FY17E earnings CAGR of 23%, as per our estimates.
Baidu is investing heavily this year, possibly causing the negative sentiments:
Baidu is heading in the right direction to build a solid and scalable eco-system on mobile internet and such an eco-system should lead to more sustainable earnings growth in the longer term.
We expect margins to start to recover in 2015 on potential scaleback of spending and top-line leverage.
Baidu shares are trading at 18x FY15E earnings, with an FY15-FY17E earnings CAGR of 30%, as per our estimates.
Qihoo's search revenue market share is a lot smaller than its search traffic share, giving it more opportunities to make money:
We believe Qihoo has been gradually unleashing the monetization potential of the large traffic platforms it formed across PC and mobile.
On the mobile side, we view Qihoo as one of the key beneficiaries of the fast growing mobile gaming market, given its well-established mobile platform and strong distribution power. We believe Qihoo's search traffic as significantly under-monetized and expect monetization to pick up into 2H14, driven by improving infrastructure and expanding advertiser base.
Qihoo has been more disciplined in investment than its peers, which should help sustain its margins in 2014. Qihoo shares are trading at 24x FY15E earnings, with an FY15-FY17E earnings CAGR of 42%, as per our estimates.
YY's new initiatives are interesting:
YY's earnings growth in 2014 will continue to be driven by its legacy businesses, web game, and YY music (27% and 55% of total revenue in 4Q13, respectively). However, we expect it will gradually shift to relatively new initiatives in the next two to three years, such as game broadcasting, MMO/mobile game publishing, and online education.
Moreover, we do not expect the investment in new initiatives to put significant pressure on margins in 2014 as the increase investment will be in a controlled manner, according to management. YY shares are trading at 20x FY15E earnings, with an FY15E-FY17E earnings CAGR of 33%, as per our estimates.
Soufun's shares are linked to China's property market, but it is more acyclical:
The sell-off of Soufun also partly factored in investors' concerns about recent weak transaction volumes of China property market, on top of the overall weakness of the China internet space, in our view. However, Soufun's operating history has proved its business to be counter-cyclical and resilient in times of an uncertain market environment.
In an earlier blog today, Credit Suisse observes the three stocks above, Qihoo, YY and Soufun, were the only ones among the large Chinese Internet companies that have not suffered consensus earnings downgrades this year.
And Sina is just too cheap:
On top of the sector-wide pull-back, the weakness of Sina's share price also reflected investors' concerns about the value proposition to consumers as well as the IPO valuation of Weibo, in our view. The concerns about Weibo losing relevance for Chinese consumers due to the rising of Weixin have been a key overhang on the share price performance of Sina.
We see Sina's share price as significantly under valued at the current level. The latest filing of Weibo indicates a valuation of US$3.5B to US$3.9B, with Sina's holding in Weibo decreasing to 56.9% post Weibo IPO. The mid-point of Weibo's valuation range, or US$3.7B, is 28% lower than our valuation of US$5.1B (based on 43x FY15E earnings with an FY15E-17E earnings CAGR of 61%). Even if we assume a US$3.7B valuation for Weibo and Sina's stake at 56.9% post Weibo IPO, we derive a valuation for Sina of US$5.2B, or US$71 per share, representing 25% upside from the last closing price of US$56.85.


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Despite its reputation for complexity, Big Data will create a simpler marketplace in the decades to come, Mathew said.
"When you look at this trend that's happening for the next 25 years around data and analytics there's going to be more information in the hands of users," Mathew said. "You want to be able to have an environment where the foundations for how trading platforms, for instance, are built, are simpler, more easily understandable."
Read MoreWhat is big data?
Alteryx Analytics provides blending and analytics to more than 500 customers including Ford and McDonald's. Mathew said the company seeks to eliminate the perception that Big Data analytics requires a deep programming background. For example, an energy company looking to buy or sell oil can at once consider multiple factors across the market, and generate a trade based on the outcome.


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The major U.S. index futures squandered early gains and were moving to the downside following the release of the August inflation report.
On Monday, U.S. stocks advanced for a fourth straight session, with the major averages settling at two-week highs. The market witnessed across-the-board strength, as evidenced by positive closes by all S&P sector indexes. Energy, IT, communication and consumer discretionary stocks saw particular strength.
“The stock market liked the news that Russian troops are retreating in Ukraine as special forces are recapturing towns,” said hedge fund manager Louis Navellier. Some market experts attributed the move to the market discounting a lower inflation rate.
|S&P 500 Index||+1.06%||4,110.41|
Here’s a peek into index futures trading:
|Nasdaq 100 Futures||-1.45%|
|S&P 500 Futures||-2.18%|
In premarket trading on Tuesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was rising 0.54% to $413.19 and the Invesco QQQ TrustQQQ was moving up 0.51% to $312.33, according to Benzinga Pro data.
On the economic front, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the consumer price inflation report for August showing an 8.3% annual rate of change in the headline inflation. Economists, on average, expected a downtick in the annual rate of the consumer price index to 8.1% from 8.5% in July. Sell-side firms' had estimated range between 7.9% and 8.3%.
The month-over-month change of 0.1% belied expectations of Credit Suisse, which was bracing for a 0.2% month-over-month drop in the consumer price index. The monthly rate of core inflation came in at 0.6%, more than the expected 0.2% increase, and on a year-over-year basis, the core reading rose a more than expected 6.3%.
Stocks In Focus
- Peloton Interactive, Inc. PTON stock is moving lower following the news of the departure of its co-founders.
- Oracle Corporation ORCL shares are advancing despite its first-quarter earnings trailing estimates.
- Twitter, Inc. TWTR shares are on investors' radar as the company’s shareholders vote on the proposal to be bought by Elon Musk.
Commodity, Global Markets:
Crude oil futures gave back their Asian session gains and are up only modestly.
The U.S. dollar has firmed up against its major counterparts amid the inflation report, as traders construed the data as supportive of a more aggressive monetary stance by the Federal Reserve.
Asian stocks showed tentativeness on Tuesday as traders preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the U.S. inflation data. Most major averages from the region closed modestly to moderately higher, although the Hong Kong, Malaysian, and New Zealand markets ended in the red.
The European markets sustained their gains amid the release of the U.S. inflatiion report.
© 2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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But not every automaker got crushed.
Every month in 2017, auto industry data providers have given dismal forecasts of auto sales. And every month, these forecasts weren’t nearly dismal enough. On July 27, Kelley Blue Book forecast that total new vehicle sales in July would fall 5.7% year-over-year. It would be the worst year-over-year decline this year. But it wasn’t nearly bad enough.
Instead, what we got…
Oh, if you see words like “plunge,” “plummet,” or “collapse” a lot, it’s because that’s the kind of numbers some automakers reported today.
- Total new vehicle sales fell 7.0% year-over-year to 1.415 million, according to Autodata. This is the number of vehicles sold and delivered by dealers to their customers, or delivered by automakers directly to large fleet customers.
- It was the seventh month in a row of year-over-year declines.
- Year-to-date, total new vehicle sales are down 2.9%.
- Car sales plunged 13.8% to 525,020 vehicles. They’re down 11.7% year-to-date.
- Truck sales – which include pickups, SUVs, compact SUVs, and vans – had been booming as Americans are shifting from cars to trucks. They accounted for 63.3% of total retail sales, the highest ever for any July, and the 13th month in a row above 60%. But even these erstwhile booming truck sales fell 2.5% from a year ago to 890,119 vehicles.
- The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of sales fell to 16.7 million, the fifth month in a row under 17 million, and down from 17.8 million in July 2016.
- The average new vehicle sold to retail customers had spent 72 days on the lot, according to J. D. Power, the highest since July 2009 during the collapse of the auto industry.
- Loans of 84 months and longer accounted for more than 6% of retail sales for the first time ever.
No, automakers didn’t “slash” fleet sales
Some automakers like to claim they’re backing off low-margin fleet sales. The media hype this up — “carmakers slash rental fleet sales,” is how Reuters explained the July sales swoon. But automakers are not slashing any kind of sales. They’re trying to get what they can. Otherwise they’d have to close even more plants and lay off even more people.
But rental car companies are over-fleeted. Rideshare companies are eating into their markets and are demolishing them in the business travel segment. Rental car companies are adjusting by whittling down their orders for new vehicles. Fleet sales have dropped not because automakers “slashed” them, but because rental car companies are in a pickle and cut their orders.
General Motors got sucker-punched.
GM’s total sales plunged 15.5% year-over-year to 225,911 vehicles. Kelley Blue Book had courageously forecast a plunge of 9.1%, but it wasn’t nearly dismal enough. They’re now down 3.9% so far this year.
- By brand: Chevrolet sales plunged -15.3% (151,502 units), GMC -7.3% (47,412 units), Buick a catastrophic -30.5% (15,966 units), and Cadillac -21.7% (11,227 units).
- Trucks sales plunged 10.5% year-over-year, but remain up 3.0% year-do-date.
- Car sales collapsed 31.5% to just 43,089 vehicles. They’re down 20.2% year-to-date. Of GM’s total sales, only 19% are car sales. This is why GM is weighing killing six car models, shuttering plants, and laying off more people.
- Retail sales plunged 14.4% to 202,220 vehicles. GM has already cut production, closed plants, and laid people off to deal with its horrendous inventory levels. Nevertheless, it finished July with 104 days’ supply on dealer lots. For some car models it has well over 200 days’ supply.
Ford didn’t get crushed quite this badly.
Total sales fell 7.4% to 199,318 vehicles and are down 4.3% year to date. By brand: Ford -7.7% (191,337 units) and Lincoln -2.5% (8,875 units).
- Car sales plunged 19.4% to 48,259 vehicles and are down 20.1% this year.
- Truck sales fell 2.8% to 151,059, with SUV sales up 2.2% to 71,067 units and pickup sales down 7.1% to 80,886 units. The F-series truck is the best-selling vehicle in the US. That its year-over-year sales are dropping like this is not a propitious sign. Year-to-date, truck sales remain up a dwindling 2.1%.
- Ford ended the month with 66 days’ supply on dealer lots, just above what is considered the upper limit of healthy (60 days).
Fiat-Chrysler gives up on cars.
FCA total sales dropped 10.5% to 161,477 and are down 7.2% for the year so far.
- Car sales plunged 17.7% to 19,400 and are down 23.3% year-to-date. FCA’s cars almost don’t matter anymore. As of this year, none of them will be made in the US. Of FCA’s total sales in the US, cars account for only 12%, the lowest of any automaker.
- Truck sales plunged 9.4% to 142,068 and are down 4.2% for the year.
Winners & mostly losers among other major automakers.
Toyota was the second largest auto seller overall, barely behind GM and comfortably ahead of Ford. Total sales rose 3.6% to 222,057 but remained down 2.5% for the year.
- Toyota car sales plunged 11.5% to 90,257. But note: Toyota sold over twice as many cars as GM and nearly twice as many as Ford.
- Toyota truck sales jumped 17.4% to 131,800 and are a up 7.7% year to date. Doing something right in a tough climate.
Honda total sales inched down 1.2% for the month to 150,980 and 0.2% for the year.
- Car sales rose 1.9% for the month to 76,468. That was down 5.4% for the year. But it was the second highest total behind Toyota, and 77% ahead of GM’s car sales.
- Truck sales fell 4.2% for the month to 74,512 but are up 5.3% for the year.
Nissan total sales fell 3.2% for the month to 128,295, but are up 1.9% for the year.
- Car sales plunged 11.2% to 60,496 and are down 11.5% year-to-date, behind Toyota and Honda but 40% ahead of GM.
- Truck sales rose 5.3% to 67,799 and are up 18.3% year-to-date. Not everything is getting crushed. But wait…
Hyundai Motor Group, oh my!
The conglomerate includes Hyundai and Kia. While Kia is experiencing a decline near industry average, Hyundai is spiraling down in an amazing manner.
Hyundai total sales plummeted 27.9% in July to 54,063, by far the steepest crash of the major automakers. Year-to-date, sales are down 10.8%, also the worst of any major automaker.
- Car sales collapsed an apocalyptic 43.2% to just 30,057. They better come out with some great new models and lower price points ASAP.
- Truck sales – all SUVs – rose 8.8% to 24,000. A small consolation.
It has gotten so bad at Hyundai that Kia, the smaller sister of Hyundai, outsold it, with total sales dropping only 5.9% to 56,403, beating Hyundai’s total sales by 2,340 vehicles. They’re down 9.3% so far this year.
Kia’s car sales rose 2.3% to 37,800, but its truck sales plunged an eye-popping 19.2% to 18,600 vehicles and are down 18.8% year-to-date – in truck-loving America!
The Germans are going cold:
Volkswagen Group sales (Audi, Volkswagen, Bentley, and Lamborghini) fell 2.6% to 46,148 vehicles. The only brand with sales gains was Audi, up 2.5%. But the group’s year-to-date sales rose 5.6%.
Daimler sales plunged 10.7% to 28,849 vehicles and are down 2.3% year-to-date.
BMW sales (includes BMW, Mini, Rolls Royce) plunged 13.6% to 26,463 and are down 5.3% year-to-date. In July, only Rolls was up (yup, soaring 33% to a whopping 100 cars).
A special note about Tesla.
Tesla’s numbers don’t matter because they’re too small. In July, according to Autodata estimates, Tesla sold 3,130 vehicles in the US, down 5.2% from a year ago.
Tesla has a market share of 0.2% in the US, below Porsche (0.3%) and way below GM (16.0%). Yet Tesla, which burns with blinding speed the cash investors feed it during its capital-raising efforts, has a market capitalization of $52.5 billion, higher than GM’s ($50.6 billion) and Ford’s ($43.6 billion). Which tells you just how nuts this stock market has gotten.
It’s not like automakers didn’t try.
They doused the market with the highest incentives for any July ever. According to J. D. Power, average incentive spending through July 27 reached $3,876 per new vehicle sold, up 7.8% from the prior record set in July 2016. For cars, it jumped to $4,174! And incentives as a percentage of MSRP reached 10.8%.
It’s a sign of tougher times to come when sales drop 7% despite record incentive spending – a combination that has been going on all year – and when car sales plunge nearly 14% despite even higher incentive spending.
Some automakers and car production are sinking deeper into Carmageddon. But no one does it faster Hyundai, not only in the US, its second largest market, but also in China, its largest market. In how much trouble is it? Read… Hyundai-Kia Brutally Crushed in China, Mauled in the US
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CBS CEO: ‘We Want a Healthy Netflix’6 Dec, 2011 By: Erik Gruenwedel
CBS CEO Les Moonves Dec. 6 said a healthy and robust Netflix is vital to deriving incremental license revenue from the emerging subscription video-on-demand channel.
Speaking Dec. 6 at the USB 39th annual Global Technology and Communications conference in New York, Moonves said recent streaming deals with Netflix have driven bottom line growth for the network.
CBS this year also secured streaming deals with Amazon Prime, coupled with a digital distribution pact with Hulu Plus for repurposed content from The CW, in which CBS owns a 50% stake.
“Obviously, we want a healthy Netflix,” Moonves said. “All the conversation about whether Netflix was friend or foe, from our point of view they have become much more of a friend than foe. And we’re rooting for them.”
The CEO said he sees unlimited incremental revenue through Netflix and other SVOD services, adding that Netflix’s expansion into Latin America, Canada and the United Kingdom next year are a good thing.
“We hope their business thrives,” Moonves said.
Indeed, Netflix will spend upwards of $2 billion on content acquistions in 2012, CEO Reed Hastings said during a separate keynote.
When asked if he was concerned about a slowdown in sub growth at Netflix, which could put the brakes on the license agreement cash cow, Moonves said he wasn’t.
“Maybe they’ve slowed down their desire to go further [than Latin America and the United Kingdom] until some of these things come to fruition,” Moonves said. “We’re very excited about Netflix in Canada and the U.K.”


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US study recommends eating two bananas a dayResearchers from the United States conducted a series of experiments, and concluded in the end that one of the essential foodstuffs of the people must be bananas. Scientists recommend to eat bananas daily: these fruits, according to them, can greatly improve health.
The authors of a new study have come to believe that it is useful to eat two bananas a day.
“For those who are on a diet or lead an active lifestyle bananas are indispensable: it is relatively low-calorie source of nutrients, provides satiety for a few hours and promotes the production of endorphins that cause a feeling of pleasure and a rush of energy,” – said the scientists.
According to experts, bananas are rich in fiber and vitamins, particularly vitamin B6, which regulates the level of glucose in the blood. Also, bananas contain carotene, which positively affects the health of hair, nails and skin. The combination of carotene and vitamin B in this fruit is estimated by scientists as a powerful composition with a preventive effect against cancer cells.
They added that eating bananas can also protect women from headaches and migraines, and also serves as a prevention of insomnia.
Publication date: 7/20/2017
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This issue has never really been a priority in CupertinoAt least that's how Apple representatives have made it known since time immemorial, but of course, good old Steve Jobs laughed and a lot about digital pencils and now they offer you one with the screen-printed apple for around € 100.
However, Apple has always had its strong point in the ecosystem for the gallery, those of us who have a complete Apple suite know it well. Now is when apparently from Cupertino they are getting down to work to at least unify the way applications work between iOS and macOS.
This is how in the latest Bloomberg report they have been able to access confidential information about how Apple is working to unify the applications in all its systems. More specifically, it is being forged since the last WWDC17 and even has its own code name: «Marzipan». This is how in the future it is assumed that simply writing the code of an application could work correctly and similarly on both the iPhone and the Mac and on the iPad ... wouldn't you like it? Of course, this has many strengths, but we have no doubt that the big loser in this battle for continuity would be macOS.
By this we mean that the iPhone and iPad sell much more than the Mac, so the developers will be very clear about it, we better work well on iOS, we will see about macOS. And this is how the performance that macOS is capable of offering us can be wasted.
Apparently we will be able to see the first glimpses of what the «Marzipan» project would be during WWDC18, and a victim would be charged to begin with, the macOS app store would eventually disappear to give rise to a unified store for its platforms.


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The State of Grays Harbor, an event presented by Greater Grays Harbor Inc., will take place June 7 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen.
This annual event gives community members an in-depth view of the economic performance of the county. It will present findings from the 2019 Grays Harbor Economic Vitality Index – which shows trend data and highlights of the economic sectors and activity in the county. In addition, this year’s guest speakers will feature Washington Retail Association President and CEO Reneé Sunde and Mark Johnson, Washington Retail Association senior VP of policy and government Affairs
The cost to attend is $25 for Greater Grays Harbor Inc. members, $35 for non-members or reservations made after May 30. To reserve, you can reach Greater Grays Harbor Inc. at 360-532-7888 or email Candie@graysharbor.org.
The event is sponsored by Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council.


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I’m in Jozi at the moment preparing for 3 nights of Whisky Live where I’ll be at the Glen Grant stand. Now I’ve been very fortunate to have enjoyed the Glen Grant 50 at the Distillery. A new expression from the last year that Glen Grant used peated malt, has been released. Have a look at the press release below. And please, if you happen to find a bottle, come visit me;)
“Glen Grant®most premium ever whisky, Glen Grant Fiodh, launched in Singapore for DFS Group’s Masters of Wine & Spirit
To mark its participation at the DFS Group’s fifth Master of Wines and Spirits retail event in Singapore in November, Glen Grant® has created a special 10-piece collection of a single malt whisky of outstanding quality and rarity.
Together with DFS, Glen Grant launches a new collection that pays tribute to the journey of…
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HP Has Options in Wake of Oracle's Itanium Move: Forrester
title=A Ripple Effect in the Industry} Oracle's decision will have a ripple effect in the industry, Fichera said. For Intel, it will be more of a nuisance-a loss of some credibility for Itanium, though Oracle was the third top-tier software maker, behind Red Hat and Microsoft, to abandon the platform, and "only a token loss of revenue." Microsoft could profit by promoting its SQL server as a solid database alternative. IBM also could be helped, again by pushing its Power-based servers running AIX as an alternative to HP-UX, and by promoting its DB2 database on AIX. However, Fichera also said that given IBM's competition with Oracle on servers, Big Blue could find itself the next target of Oracle's aggressive competitive nature."We should note that this does not equate to either wholesale abandonment of HP platforms or an immediate dip in revenue," he said. "Oracle versions tend to live for years after their successors are announced, so many HP customers with current Oracle versions (which Oracle will continue to support on HP-UX/Itanium) will still buy additional capacity for years after the next non-Itanium versions are introduced." Fichera said HP does have the options of bring HP-UX to x86-based systems and putting x86 chips into such high-end Itanium systems as Superdome, something the company has been reluctant to do. Still, Oracle's move may force the issue. Still, businesses running HP's Itanium system shouldn't feel any impact in the short-term, he said. "From a customer perspective, there is no real need to consider abandoning a strategic HP relationship," Fichera said. "The company has a good track record in bridging generations of hardware for its HP-UX users, and there is no reason to think that the transition to an x86 system would be different-current Itanium customers should expect multiple years of parallel availability, and HP has said they will support Itanium systems for at least a decade."
Meanwhile, HP-UX customers will see their options shrink and their budgets grow, whether going the expensive route of migrating from an Oracle database or having to prematurely refresh their systems for need of a newer version of Oracle on Unix, which would make Oracle's Sun SPARC-based hardware platform a viable option, Fichera said. He estimated that up to half of HP's Itanium-based Superdome systems run Oracle.


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Telecom Lead Asia: Mobile messaging service KakaoTalk,
which has acquired a user base of 55 million since its launch in March 2010, is
about to move into gaming. Its creator, Kakao, plans to launch the tentatively
titled Game Center service on July 30, 2012, and the move is likely to be a
The company recently launched its virtual currency,
Choco, and Ovum expects it to pursue a free-to-play (F2P) business model in
which digital item sales will be the main revenue stream.
The Game Center will compete with mobile carriers’
services, iOS and Android application stores, and existing game portals in the
rapidly developing Korean game market. Korean MNOs have been largely
dis-intermediated from the Korean mobile game market in the post-smartphone
gaming market. Carriers are now looking to exploit new 4G mobile networks as
they seek to re-establish themselves in the mobile gaming space. LG U+ is taking
an especially innovative approach, having recently launched the C-games cloud
When the Game Center launches it will be easy for Kakao
to bring it to users’ attention and to tempt them to try the new service.
Companies such as China’s Tencent have had success with this strategy of
gaining scale and loyalty through a core messaging service, and then using that
messaging service to promote new services that generate higher revenues.
Capturing users’ attention is only the first step towards
monetization, but it is a crucial one. KakaoTalk’s users have already
demonstrated that they will spend money within the service, and sales of
premium emoticons generate revenues of up to USD$87,000 (KRW 100 million) per
day. Emoticons may remain a significant revenue stream, but mobile gaming’s
broader appeal and larger monetization potential should soon dwarf emoticon
Of all the Korean MNOs, LG U+ has so far taken the most
innovative approach to LTE gaming, and on July 18, 2012, it launched the C-games
cloud gaming service. The company sees cloud gaming as an effective way to
bring high-quality, processing-intensive gaming experiences to almost any
mobile device without the need for large initial game downloads, as the game
content is streamed from the nearest server to the user’s device.
SK Telecom and KT will no doubt be watching LG U+’s cloud
service very closely. If the initial signs for LG U+ are positive, Ovum
believes all three carriers could be operating cloud gaming services in the
near future. Although the potential to launch cloud gaming services is not
limited to MNOs, superior network expertise and the ability to offer special
data allowance plans catering to cloud gamers could help carriers to
differentiate themselves from their OTT competitors.
Consumer Telecoms, Ovum


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Raseedi, an Egyptian startup, has raised $850,000 in pre-Series-A funding from Samurai Incubate. The investor is an EU-based investor. Other investors include 500 Global, EFG–EV and Falak Startups. Raseedi was founded in 2018 by Samuel Samy and Ahmed Atalla. It receives more than 10 million visits per month and phone calls via its dialer app.
Raseedi, the voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP), app is seeking to use a unique approach to onboarding millions of Egyptians who are underbanked to the fintech boom. Customers can save money by using the app, which offers cheaper calls and data-saving tips. Raseedi averages 120 visits per month from normal users, while top users receive 1,000 visits per month. This makes it easy to introduce customers to advance credit and payments. Organic App communication and upselling enabled payment volumes to increase five times per month, while 5,000 advance credits were issued within a few months.
The app was launched by Ahmed Atalla in 2013. Raseedi’s CEO, Raseedi, notes that the company has been focused on the masses since its inception. He also pointed out that users now have the option to call at lower rates, pay their telecom/utility bill while receiving advanced telecom credit, pay friends/contacts, borrow from others, and receive cash loan guarantees from members of the community.
Samuel Samy is the company’s COO and head for the product. He revealed that the company operates as a lean startup, where they only spend on people and tech and never on assets or operations. Everything happens on the app from payments to communication to getting instant advance credit. Its goal is to increase its app’s traction to more than 100 million users per month, from the 1 million currently active users.


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Indian origin entrepreneur’s startup HighRadius is the latest unicorn in the US
HighRadiushas raised $125 million in a series B round of funding from ICONIQ Capital.
- The startup is founded by Indian
entrepreneurSashi Narahari and also has offices in Hyderabad, London and Amsterdam.
treasury managementplatform helps companies optimize their working capital.
AdvertisementHouston-based startup HighRadius is the latest US startup to become a
The AI-based startup raised $125 million in a series B round of funding from ICONIQ Capital, along with participation from Susquehanna Growth Equity and Citi Ventures.
The startup is founded by Indian entrepreneur Sashi Narahari and has offices in Hyderabad, London and Amsterdam.
“ICONIQ combines patient capital with a long-term vision of investing in category-defining businesses, and the firm has worked with some of the world’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. We are building HighRadius into a self-sustaining, long-term category leader,” said Narahari.
HighRadius’ treasury management platform helps companies optimize their working capital. They have 400 clients including over 200 of the Forbes Global 2000. Some of its clients are General Electric, Hindustan Unilever, Loreal, P&G, Sony, Reebok among others.
Through its technology platform, HighRadius offers Rivana – an AI engine with machine learning which automates tasks and provides insights.
It also has an AI-powered cash forecasting which takes in data such as bank statement inflows/outflows, sales orders/customers invoices, purchase orders/vendor invoices and expense reimbursements.
The company will use the latest funds for platform development and to enter new markets.
“The HighRadius platform is game-changing for CFOs and finance departments, and the company has earned tremendous customer loyalty by enabling receivables and treasury teams to perform more efficiently and effectively, and by delivering mission-critical ROI,” said Will Griffith, partner at ICONIQ Capital.
This Indian unicorn lists out five questions startups should ask themselves before they go global
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The most ticketed car in America is
The Subaru WRX may be an all-wheel drive sport-compact, but the drivers of this car are either driving too fast, or having difficulty parking: It receives the most violations of any vehicle.
More than one-in-three drivers of the Subaru WRX has had a recent traffic violation, according to data on 526 models from more than 557,000 recent customers released by Insurance.com, a car insurance comparison website. Making it three times to the Top 20 most ticketed cars, the Scion was the car brand with the most violations.
t’s no surprise that the list includes other sporty cars like the Mitsubishi 3000 GT and Scion FR-S, says Des Toups, managing editor of Insurance.com, but it also name-checks the hybrid Toyota TM, +1.82% Prius C, three sport-utility vehicles and even the now-defunct Mercury T
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Mumbai (Maharashtra)[India], January 22 (ANI/Digpu): Adorableness Palace which is India’s arch retail cast for all beautycosmetic needs and salon/spa able articles in Mumbai is gearing up for a able backlash with its flagship adorableness accident – Salon Fest and will be hosting itfrom 25th – 30th January, 2021.
Beauty Palace, will clearly banderole off the blithe division with the fourth copy of its Salon Fest, from January 25th to the 30th, however, for the aboriginal time ever, the auction will additionally be hosted online with its online partnerSalontrix.com which has partnered with Salon Fest and will be presenting a curated area of adorableness and corrective and salon/spa able articles on the online advanced -across Pan India.
Customers will be able to account massive offers upto 60 per cent off on all their admired adorableness and corrective brands and salon/spa able products.
Commenting on the event, Rayed Merchant, Director, Adorableness Palace said, “Salon Fest has become one of India’s best accessible auction accident for the salon and spa industry as able-bodied as for our B2C customers. This year marks the fourth copy of Salon Fest and we are focused on authoritative it the better and best one yet. The accident of Salon Fest is an compassionate of the barter assurance and ability that Adorableness Palace has in India.”He added, “We are afterward all the protocols of Covid-19 and ensuring assurance of our barter beyond our retail food during the fest, appropriately we accept got our online accomplice – Salontrix.com which will additionally host these agnate offers beyond Pan India for all our customers. Thanks to the months of alertness with our cast ally we are able to actualize different offerings for our customers. Considering the auction will affection absurd deals beyond 30,000 of articles in all categories from over 6000 brands, our aim is to accord our consumers annihilation beneath than 6 canicule to boutique to their hearts content, appropriately our tech and acumen teams will ensure a seamless arcade acquaintance online and offline, which absolutely will contentment our customers”.
The year 2019 gave a acceleration to the demands for salon/spa appliance by Adorableness Palace afterwards it won the accolade of ‘Best Salon/Spa Appliance Supplier of The Year’ which additionally gave them a ability packet appulse during Salon Fest and saw consumer’s traveling from beyond cities to Mumbai to be a allotment of the festival. About due to assertive biking restriction, Adorableness Palace has ensured that its outstation consumers can account the aforementioned offersdiscounts with its online accomplice Salontrix.com.
The auction includes adorableness brands beyond makeup, skincare, fragrances,hair care, beard accoutrement and accessories, nails, salon and spa appliance and able accoutrement and accessories, anatomy affliction and abounding more. Premium brands like Lakme, Color Bar, Faces, Manish Malhotra, Revolution are alms up to 50 per cent off, while Ikonic, Cadiveu, Biosoft, Depot, Proarte, Lotus, LA Girl, Skin Titan, Shahnaz Hussain, Phy, Plum, Wet n Wild, Gorgeous Girland abounding new brands on lath are accommodating with unmissable offers.
Apart from the agitative offers, consumers will additionally be accepting a adventitious to win abounding agitative prizes – instore, and additionally win allowance bassinet in advantageous draw arrangement based on their purchases.
Customers can boutique beyond a ambit of categories during this six-day continued arcade festival.
This adventure is provided by Digpu. ANI will not be amenable in any way for the agreeable of this article. (ANI/Digpu)
Salon Tables For Sale – salon tables for sale
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Level-5 has announced that a new Professor Layton game is in the works and it’s called The Mask of Miracles.
It’s due next fall in Japan, and is part two in the latest trilogy, following the events in The Specter’s Flute which took place three years before The Curious Village.
While this is great news for Layton aficionados, all it does is make us a very sad panda because the second game was just released this year outside of Japan.
Come on with it.
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Citi joins the Pays
Citi is going the Chase Pay route with mobile payments, introducing its own standalone digital wallet app, Citi Pay.
Citi Pay will be available to customers for online and in-app purchases, thanks to a partnership with MasterCard and its Masterpass service.
Android device users also will have the ability to make in-store purchases via NFC at contactless point-of-sale terminals. Citi Pay is not available as an iOS app, however.
The Citi Pay in-store payment feature will roll out later this year to customers in Australia, Singapore and Mexico. The bank will launch Citi Pay in the U.S. in early 2017 with online, in-app and proximity mobile payments, according to a press release.
Citi expects to add more markets at a later time.
"Whether it is online, on a phone, or at a store, we want Citi customers to have seamless, convenient and fast payment options wherever they go," Barry Rodrigues, head of global digital payments at Citi, said in a statement. "With more than 100 million customers in the fastest-growing cities in 19 countries, Citi is uniquely positioned to accelerate payment innovation on a global scale. With Citi Pay, we are offering our customers flexibility wherever and whenever they choose to make purchases."
To make purchases through the new Citi Pay wallet, Citi customers use the same ID and password they're already using to access PC-based online banking. This capability is facilitated by Masterpass integration, which also will allow accountholders to use Citi Pay at hundreds of thousands of merchants across 33 countries at launch.
Citi’s decision to launch a standalone app will continue to spark debate about what works best for banks; a separate app that sits alongside the mobile banking app, or an NFC-based mobile payments feature within a mobile banking app.
Most industry observers Mobile Payments Today has spoken with in the past have said that an enhanced mobile banking app makes more sense.
"In the short term, maybe they sit side by side and maybe there's going to be a little bit of redundancy," Daniel Van Dyke, a mobile research specialist at Javelin Strategy & Research, told Mobile Payments Today earlier this year. "But long-term, I think the trajectory is an integrated mobile app where purchases at the point of sale are just one function of many within a mobile banking app."
Earlier this year MasterCard made it easier for banks to add a payments component to their Android mobile banking app when the network rolled out support via Masterpass of NFC-enabled mobile payments on compatible Android devices.
At the time, MasterCard said this new capability was intended to give banks a say with their own mobile payment product.
"We have a very conscious strategy that banks should be into Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay because we think certain customer segments have a natural affinity for those digital brands and we want our cards to be used there," James Anderson, group executive for platforms in MasterCard's emerging payments division, told Mobile Payments Today at the time of the Masterpass announcement. "We also think the banks need their own digital offerings. We think the banks have the assets to differentiate their offerings and, frankly, we think they have an imperative to have their own offerings because they need to maintain relevance with their cardholders."
Will Hernandez Will Hernandez has 14 years of experience ranging from newspapers to wire services and trade publications. Before becoming Editor of MobilePaymentsToday.com, he spent two years as the content manager for PaymentsJournal.com, a leading payments industry news aggregator and information hub published by Mercator Advisory Group. Will spent four years covering the payments industry as an associate editor for multiple publications in SourceMedia's Payments Group based in Chicago.


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A market barometer brings us this week's Marketplace Money buzzword: Alcoa
Alcoa is the world's top producer of aluminum products. It's also the first blue-chip company to announce its earnings every quarter, so many analysts use it to predict whether earnings season will be bleak and arctic or sunshine and rainbows.
Alcoa's earnings report came out this week, and though profits were up more than 60 percent, sales didn't meet Wall Street expectations.
Along with similarly cloudy reports from companies like Lucent, it was enough to make some analysts break out the umbrellas and prepare for a downpour.


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Icahn takes to the airwaves
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- Erik Siemers
- Business Journal staff writer
(Page 2 of 2)
Mentor, for its part, issued a statement this afternoon, defending the company’s performance, pledging to “evaluate and consider qualified (board) nominees.”
The company said that its share price has outperformed its peers by growing 150 percent in the past two years — 70 percent alone in the previous year — while doubling its annual earnings last year.
The company won’t issue full fiscal 2011 results until March 3, but earnings guidance issued in November projected profits would rise another 40 percent.
“Mentor Graphics’ board and management team are focused on delivering shareholder value and we have a proven track record of growing our earnings and share price,” Mentor spokesman Ry Schwark said in a prepared statement.
Drapkin, however, argued on CNBC that the only reason Mentor’s shares have risen in the past year is because of investors like Casablanca and Icahn buying up shares because they view it as an underperformer.
Icahn alone forked over some $146 million between April and August to accumulate 14.7 percent of the company’s shares.
Clearly, this could all be rhetoric, serving as a preamble to a vicious proxy fight.
Icahn’s bluster about seeing the company sold or merged and Mentor’s alleged gamesmanship in scheduling its shareholder meeting are the boardroom equivalent to pawns shifting on a chess board.
If there’s a commonality among all proxy battles, it’s this:
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A report of Atlus CEO Naoto Hiraoka teasing unannounced projects in a Dengeki PlayStation Vol. 606 interview was posted earlier, and the full interview has now surfaced via the Japanese PlayStation Blog.
Some of the information from the interview which revolves around the recently released Odin Sphere Leifthrasir and Atlus as a company:
Atlus and Vanillaware
- Naoto Hiraoka goes over the details of the relationship between Atlus and Vanillaware, which started in 1997 with Princess Crown and Odin Sphere being the first Vanillaware title Atlus published in 2007. An in-depth article about this relationship, which Hiraoka goes over in the interview, was posted recently.
- Both Atlus and Vanillaware follow the philosophy that it is better to sell 300,000 copies of a game that 90% of players enjoy, compared to selling 3 million copies of a game that only 50% of the players are satisfied with.
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
- The development of Odin Sphere Leifthrasir started around Winter 2013, around the time when Atlus’ ownership changed.
- Atlus originally sought a follow-up to Kamitani’s Dragon’s Crown, but instead the title that started floating around was Odin Sphere. It was fitting since it was the very first Vanillaware game and one published by Atlus, so the idea for a recreation of the game went through.
- The original plan was for the game to essentially be a glorified port, however that changed to a remake of the entire game with the development resources being available to support it.
- Hiraoka confirms that Odin Sphere Leifthrasir will be released in Europe in Q2 2016.
- 2015 was a meaningful year with Persona 4: Dancing All Night, the Spike Chunsoft partnership for Etrian Mystery Dungeon, etc.
- Led by Odin Sphere Leifthrasir on January 14, 2016 is scheduled to have a large number of titles released. Persona 5 is set for summer, and Atlus has several unannounced games in development. This year is set to be a gathering of Atlus’ popular series.
- The overseas market is becoming more important to Atlus’ business strategy, and they’ve been wanting to make sure that the global audience receives the same information.
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir released in Japan on January 14, 2016 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The RPG remake has also been confirmed for a North American release on June 7, 2016, and a European release date in Q2 2016.


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Samsung Galaxy devices had already been known for their world-changing innovations like edge screen, fingerprint , IRIS scanner to name a few. A recent launch of Galaxy S8 has taken the world by surprise with its great capabilities and functionalities. We can already see Galaxy S9 Edge making people online excited.
The next Galaxy would be the greatest smartphone till time and we have some special news about it exclusively for you about the device.
Galaxy S9 Edge – The smartphone of the future would be coming with the specs never seen before along with Galaxy hit features and most loved curved screen(edge).
Samsung Galaxy S9 Rumors, Specs, Features, Preorder, Release Date Info
Even before the commencement of sale of Galaxy S8 rumors for Samsung Galaxy S9 has started.
The next Galaxy S9 Edge is expected to be coming in two models like Galaxy S8 with similar screen sizes of 5.7 inches for Galaxy S9 Edge and 6.2 for Galaxy S9 plus.
Galaxy S9 edge rumors are that the working on the next flagship is 6 months ahead and Samsung is giving more attention to product quality.
A report of The Bell says that the debacle of galaxy Note 7 last year is a reason for an early start to leave no unsolved issues.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 edge recent launch has set a high bar for the Galaxy S9 edge.No official date has been announced but the 9th segment of most liked galaxy series is expected to be launched in mid quarters of 2018 along with Galaxy S9.
As Galaxy’s have always been most awaited phones because of their great features and innovations the Galaxy S9 edge. Galaxy S9 edge would be having 3D touch, fast charging along with wireless charging.
The device would be capable of taking professional pictures and videos with its 30MP 4k camera at 30fps!
- Galaxy S9 edge: 5.8-inch OLED
- Galaxy S9 edge Plus: 6.2-inch OLED
The device would be having dual lens camera setup in both front and back.
- Primary: 30MP-megapixel
- Secondary: 12MP-megapixel
The device is expected to have 5000 mAh built-in battery.
Which would be the biggest for the smartphones of similar category.
It’s expected to come in four colours.
- Black, Blue, white and gold.
Processor & Storage
- The device is expected to have 5 GHz processor supported by Snapdragon 835 chip-set and Adreno 540 GPU along with 6GB RAM.
- Galaxy S9 may have 128GB internal memory which could be expanded using micro-SD
- Android 8.0 yet to be announced
- NFC and MST for Samsung Pay
- IP68 water and dust resistant
- Latest Bluetooth version
- Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac
GALAXY S9 Edge Price
Samsung Galaxy S9 edge being a high-end smartphone and also the galaxy flagfish along with powerful processor and RAM, waterproof body, impressive camera and many other distinct features is expected to have a high price range.
The price of the new galaxy is expected to be in a range of $890 to $950 in the international market and INR 59000 to INR 64000 in the Indian market for 128GB model.
Samsung galaxy edge would The device if comes as with expected design and specs would be giving great competition to other high-end devices and brands. The major competitor of the phone would be Apple’s iphone7,iphone7 plus,iphone8 and many others.


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Yesterday, we spotted a report on a French site that said Asus was about to introduce a new version of its popular Eee PC sub-notebook with a larger display. As it turns out, Asus did in fact unveil the machine at CeBIT. The new laptop is dubbed the Eee PC 900, and the folks at Engadget have gotten up close and personal with it at Asus' CeBIT booth.
The gadget site has a whole gallery of photos of the new Eee PC, including shots that depict the system running Windows XP. The new notebook has an 8.9" display with a 1024 x 600 resolution that looks noticeably roomier in both Windows XP and Linux than the current Eee's 7" 800 x 480 display. The new Eee also seems to have a larger track pad than its predecessor, which should make dragging around the cursor on the larger display easier.
The larger display and higher resolution should take care of one of the chief criticisms of the Eee, which is that its small display size that forces users to do a significant amount of scrolling to surf the Internet or read long documents. Although that didn't stop us from giving the Eee PC 700 our Editor's Choice Award, some reviewers were more negative—including Wall Street Journal technology correspondent Walt Mossberg, who said the device was "too cramped."
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Mumbai: NFTs have revolutionised the internet market, ushering in a new budding world of creator empowerment.
MUMBAI: As we move towards a content-based economy, the question of ownership has taken centre-stage.
MUMBAI: Two of India’s biggest broadcasters Star India and Zee Network and industry association News Broadcasters Ass
NEW DELHI: Noting that creating awareness about Intellectual Property Rights can help in tackling piracy, the Cell fo
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is expected to issue a consultation paper on the right of owners
NEW DELHI: A video contest for consumer awareness of the ‘Jago Grahak Jago’ multimedia campaign has been announced by
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There’s a new jailbreak for countless apples iphone, and also Apple can not spot it A new jailbreak launched by a security scientist Friday apparently affects all iOS devices with Apple’s A5 to A11 chips. That extends iOS gadgets from the iPhone 4S, launched in 2011, to the iPhone X, released in 2017. The jailbreak makes use of a brand-new make use of called checkm8, according to CNET sis site ZDNet, and benefits from a bootrom susceptability to offer owners complete control over their iPhones.
The researcher that found the make use of goes by the take care of axi0mX and explained the jailbreak as permanent and unpatchable. Jailbreaking an apple iphone lets individuals tailor their iOS devices and also run unsupported applications. Apple claims these hacks, or ” unapproved adjustments to iOS,” can cause security susceptabilities as well as points like tool accidents as well as data loss. Most jailbreaks make use of vulnerabilities in Apple iOS software program, according to ZDNet, yet a bootrom exploit targets a safety and security flaw in code that operates on iOS gadgets throughout boot up.
Fixing this sort of make use of would certainly need physical adjustments to an iPhone’s chips, according to ZDNet. The jailbreak reportedly does not service Apple’s most recent A12 and A13 chips, meaning the iPhone XS as well as iPhone 11 lineups aren’t influenced. Axi0mX additionally told ZDNet that there are still kinks to be straightened out on some older gadgets. CNET wasn’t able to independently validate the jailbreak. New jailbreak tool works with Apple’s just-released iOS 15 A brand-new device by hacking team Unc0ver can jailbreak iOS 15, the just-released version of Apple’s mobile operating system, Wired reported.
The team claims the jailbreak, which services iOS 11 and greater, is improved a zero-day vulnerability, doesn’t drain pipes a tool’s battery life, and you could try here also doesn’t influence making use of Apple solutions or weaken the iOS sandbox protection, according to Wired. Unc0ver’s lead designer informed Wired the jailbreak adds exemptions to existing policies, and also “enables reading brand-new jailbreak files as well as parts of the filesystem which contain no customer information.” The jailbreak tool is not open source, as well as the team didn’t claim which vulnerability in iOS it manipulated to develop the device.
Jailbreaking provides a individual more control over a device’s OS, enabling modification as well as the setup of applications that Apple would certainly otherwise limit. It additionally can be used by would-be aggressors to jeopardize a tool’s security.


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Tallahassee Printer Closing
One of Tallahassee’s oldest businesses is calling it quits. The Rose Printing Company will soon shut its doors forever.
At its height, the full-service printer at the corner of Jackson Bluff Road and Mabry Street employed more than 200 people. It could produce virtually any kind of printed material on its multiple presses. But in recent months, printing orders have dried up and the company, founded in 1932, has been auctioning off its assets. One of the last truckload of presses drove off Thursday morning. A thirty-year veteran employee, who didn’t want to give her name, said that she and a handful of others had decided to, in her words, “go down with the ship.” They didn’t know exactly when that might be, but guessed it would be soon.


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The “How do I eat?” discussion has become increasingly combative and confusing. Do you give up carbs, or fat, or both? Do you go vegan or paleo?
No. You eat like a Greek, or like a Greek used to eat: a piece of fish with a lentil salad, some greens with olive oil and a glass of wine. It’s not onerous. In fact, it’s delicious.
The value of this kind of diet (“diet” in the original, Latin sense of the word diaeta, a way of living) has once again been confirmed in a study from Spain involving thousands of participants and published in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine. So compelling were the results that the research was halted early because it was believed that the control group was being unfairly deprived of its benefits.
Let’s cut to the chase: The diet that seems so valuable is our old friend the “Mediterranean” diet (not that many Mediterraneans actually eat this way). It’s as straightforward as it is un-American: low in red meat, low in sugar and hyperprocessed carbs, low in junk. High in just about everything else — healthful fat (especially olive oil), vegetables, fruits, legumes and what the people who designed the diet determined to be beneficial animal products —or at least less-harmful — in this case fish, eggs and low-fat dairy.
This is real food, delicious food, mostly easy-to-make food. You can eat this way without guilt. Unless you’re committed to a diet big on junk and red meat, or you don’t like to cook, there is little downside.
Recently Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, who’s been studying the Mediterranean diet for decades, said: “We have so many types of evidence that this kind of eating works, but the weight of evidence is important, and this adds a big stone to that weight.”
Some flaws in study
As encouraging as the study is, the research was far from perfect, and it would be ridiculous to say that it represents The Answer.
For one thing, the control group was supposedly on a low-fat diet, but didn’t necessarily stick to it; in the end, it wasn’t a low-fat diet at all. And the study did not show reversal of heart disease, as was widely reported. As far as I can tell, it basically showed a decrease in the rate of some cardiovascular diseases in people at risk, when compared with those at risk who ate typically lousy diets.
In short, as Dr. Dean Ornish said, “It’s clearly better than a horrible diet, which is what most people eat.” Ornish, who has devised a low-fat diet that has been demonstrated to reverse heart disease, said that “the most responsible conclusion from this study would be, ‘We found a significant reduction in stroke in those consuming a Mediterranean diet high in omega-3 fatty acids, when compared to those who were not making significant changes in their diet.’ ”
Exactly. And that’s good news, because it might encourage some of the majority of people who are not making significant changes in their diet. Most Americans eat so badly that even a modest change in the direction of this diet is likely to be of benefit. That was the revelation of the Mediterranean style of eating when it came to public notice a generation ago. (Next year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Nancy Harmon Jenkins’ “Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.”)
Nothing new …
What’s new is all the junk that been injected into our foods and our diet since the end of World War II. What’s not new is that eating real food is good for you.
You could say that the Mediterranean diet prohibits nothing that was recognized as food by your great-grandmother. Whole, minimally processed foods of almost any type can be included in a sound diet. Period.
This probably means you should think about salads or rice and beans for lunch. It probably means that breakfast should be oatmeal or fruit salad — or eggs, which were unrestricted in this study — because you’re probably not going to whip up a Japanese breakfast. Snacks should be nuts or fruit or more vegetables or beans.
And it probably means you should take control over dinner. So you’re looking at a vegetable dish or two, some legumes and a piece of fish, all cooked in or dressed with olive oil, and maybe a little bit of bread (preferably whole grain).
For dessert, fruit, or at least a dessert based on fruit or nuts or both. (The researchers had their subjects steer clear of what they called “industrial desserts,” and one might just as well take that a step further and say “steer clear of industrial food.”) Good chocolate, by the way, appears to be just fine.
As does wine: The study’s participants were allowed seven glasses a week. Though red wine has a substance called resveratrol that seems to protect against cardiovascular disease, I have a hard time believing you must drink wine to be healthy. (I have an equally hard time limiting myself to a glass a day.) I started a similar regimen to the one just described a few years ago, and by every measure my health improved.
So start with what we imagine that diet to have been, and adjust it so that it includes more legumes, less red meat and dairy and more olive oil and more fish.
Healthful food is delicious food, traditional food, real food. There is nothing new here. Eat real food, watch it on the animal products and — even if you’re a few pounds overweight — you’ll improve the chances of your living a healthy life into what might actually be your golden years. And they’ll be delicious.


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The distribution rights of S S Rajamouli’s Baahubali are being sold out as hot cakes. Noted distributor turned producer and close friend of Rajamouli, Sai Korrapati has bagged the distribution rights of entire Karnataka state.
He will distribute the Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam versions in the entire state of Karnataka. The big budget flick is already gearing up for a huge release on July 10th, and post production formalities have picked up speed. Keep watching this space on more updates on Baahubali.
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Helicopter engine manufacturer Turbomeca, a Safran company, delivered 984 engines last year and repaired an additional 1,499, resulting in an 8-percent increase in revenues over 2012, chairman and CEO Olivier Andriès reported yesterday at Heli-Expo. He singled out the agreement to supply Arrius 2R engines for Bell Helicopter’s 505 Jet Ranger X, announced at last year’s Paris Air Show, as a milestone for both companies, and an indication of growth to come. “In 75 years of history, the two leading companies the helicopter world had never, ever partnered before.”
Andriès said Turbomeca will focus on four “strategic axes” going forward: enlarging its portfolio of OEM customers, continuing to develop new engines and variants, bolstering its position in emerging markets and developing customer loyalty through aftermarket support programs. The company’s policy of investing 15 percent of revenues in R&D will also help reach its goal, he said, noting 10 new engine projects are currently in progress, and Turbomeca will focus on wringing more power out of existing engine models while working to decrease fuel consumption and emissions and increasing reliability.
Meanwhile, the Arriel family of engines, in the 500- to 1,000-shp range, has now passed 40 million flight hours of operation. In the Ardiden 3 family, Turbomeca has delivered the first Ardiden 3G engines to Russian Helicopters for its Ka-62, and the new Arrano, designed for 1,000- to 2,000-shp applications, had its first bench run earlier this month.
Efforts to increase customer loyalty will include working on TBO extensions of 10 to 20 percent, tripling the number of certified service centers in the next decade, and introducing a new customer service portal, called Boost. Developed with IBM, the portal will enable customers to keep electronic engine logbooks, have access to all engine documents electronically and even configure their engines on the Web.


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New Mexico’s first recreational marijuana consumption lounge opened in Las Cruces near the border with El Paso, Texas, according to media reports.
“This is really groundbreaking not only for us, but for the state of New Mexico. We’re putting cannabis on the map,” Sol Cannabis co-founder Kwame Ponshock told El Paso TV station KFOX.
Sol Cannabis’ recreational marijuana store and consumption area is well-positioned to take advantage of the expected influx of shoppers crossing the border from Texas, which has only a limited medical marijuana industry.
Ponshock told KFOX that he wanted to create a cannabis-friendly “refuge” for his customers and the public.
The consumption area was busy Saturday when filmed by the television station.
New Mexico lawmakers added medical marijuana consumption areas to the MMJ law in 2019, according to the NM Political Report.
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But MMJ regulators said the concept didn’t take off then in part because the coronavirus pandemic hit soon after, in early 2020.
While New Mexico’s adult-use marijuana law allows cannabis consumption areas, it’s unclear how many municipalities will embrace the concept.


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A health expert explained that spending too much time grooming could spell bad news for your health. Dr James Hamblin explained there’s a difference between cleanliness behaviour, which is more about personal and aesthetic preferences, and hygiene behaviours, which tend to be public health related.
In an interview with The Aspen Institute published on YouTube, the doctor said: “Those are actually pretty straightforward. When it comes to our daily rituals, you brush your teeth and that will prevent you from getting infections in your oral cavity.
“And you wash your hands and that will prevent you from seeding infection to your respiratory tract. Outside of that, most of the cleanliness behaviours… go together and signal… that you’re probably not carrying germs on your hands.
“But they don’t actually have anything to do with health. We see products in pharmacies and think they have this sort of health halo but they really are a preference.”
According to his calculations, if you spend half an hour showering and applying products every day, you will spend more than two years on grooming-related activities over the course of your lifetime. Worryingly, this could be harmful to your health.
READ MORE Over 750,000 Britons guilty of shower practice which could cause sight loss
In his book Clean: The New Science of Skin, Dr Hamblin explained that your skin is the first line of defence against diseases, meaning it already knows how to protect itself. The organisms and bacteria that live on your skin play an important role in your health.
However, the more you try to eliminate them, the more vulnerable you could become, according to the expert. This could have an impact on health problems like allergies to nuts, for example.
The doctor claimed that conditions like allergic rhinitis, asthma and eczema could be provoked by excessive use of antibacterial soap. However, other grooming products like shampoo, shower gel, and deodorants could also be to blame.
Over 750,000 Britons guilty of shower practice which could cause sight loss[WARNING]
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If you’re worried about what will become of your odour after ditching these personal hygiene staples, Dr Hamblin explained that first and foremost humans are animals, and animals smell. He said: “We think that body odour is a given, but this too is an invention.
“Our feet ‘smell’ thanks to bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, which has powerful antifungal properties. Marketers convinced the public that everyone should buy lots of soap.
“Capitalism doesn’t sell anything as effective as status. Soap has contaminated the general consciousness.”
While the doctor shared there’s nothing wrong with investing time and money in skincare and cleaning products, he suggested you could be “perfectly healthy in a medical way” and do radically less. “I don’t mean to say that one way is better or worse,” he added.
Instead of spending loads of money on grooming himself, the doctor keeps clean and healthy by using water to rinse off. That’s how the expert managed those five years without a shower.
However, he also suggested that rigorous hand washing with antibacterial soap, especially in the light of Covid, remains crucial. He told Australian morning talk show Today Extra: “That is very important.”
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“The future for our African continent is bright. It is now time for our country, South Africa, to reclaim our place as an attractive tourism and business events destination,” these were the sentiments of the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Fish Mahlalela at his post-budget vote industry engagement on Thursday, 26 May 2022.
Held at the Century City Convention Centre in Cape Town, the engagement brought together captains of the business events industry to continue collaborations which will see this sector once again contribute fully to not only the economy but to showcase the work that is being done by the business events sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on tourism, with the African business events industry declining from 13,6 billion US dollars in 2019 and contracted to 3.1 billion US dollars in 2020. It is anticipated that the region will reach pre-pandemic figures by 2024.
“The move by our President to lift the National State of Disaster in April this year allows the tourism sector to once again contribute fully and meaningfully towards the South African economy and towards job creation. The easing of restrictions on gatherings has already shown to have a positive impact on business events and will provide great reprieve for the South African tourism sector and in turn, the economy,” says Mahlalela.
South African Tourism’s Chief Convention Bureau Officer, Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo emphasised the role of collaborating as a sector as she believes that the business events industry will be the one to reignite the real recovery – and be able to fill up the conference rooms again and bring people to our shores.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it increasingly important for us as a sector to work together, we will continue to work with the industry to actively seek to develop leads for future business events to ensure that South Africa develops and maintains a bid pipeline for continued growth of the event sector,” says Kotze-Nhlapo.
This stakeholder engagement also showcased some of the work that is being done by the business events industry to ensure a sector recovery which is inclusive. One such project is the RISE project, which is championed by the South African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) and aimed at providing practical events, hospitality, and tourism-related skills training for members of the community who have been placed into a position where they are unable to further their education. The programme allows the participants to gainfully participate in the tourism sector.
“This is a project aimed at utilising the business events industry as a catalyst for social upliftment and in turn providing capacity building and skills transfer for community growth within the identified rural areas,” says SAACI CEO, Glenton de Kock.
Deputy Minister Mahlalela concluded by pledging the government’s continuous commitment to growing the business events industry and is steadfast in its efforts and investment to this sector.


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We looked closely at the Hub SmartThings Samsung and we have “played” a bit’.
We have also taken a close look at the license plate automation and Samsung SmartThings the stand of the two companies at CES 2015, and we have seen the level of integration between the present devices and sensors for home automation and our smartphones. If the Internet of Things and home automation have this, then Samsung is well on its way. The sensors know that we are at home and that we left, and the home acts accordingly for what concerns the safety and environmental control. You can literally chat with our house – and has interesting things to say!
SmartThings for home automation at CES 2015, after Kicktarter, the acquisition of Samsung changes the future
The first fruits of the acquisition of SmartThings by Samsung have been unveiled by the Korean at CES 2015 in Las Vegas with the newest version of the Hub, the device for home automation launched in August 2013 after a very successful campaign on Kickstarter.
The new SmartThings Hub, you see it in the picture, pointing to functionality: the processor is more powerful than ever before and now also integrates a battery that will prove crucial in the event of a blackout, as well as a cellular connection that will allow the same to operate in the absence fixed connection.
The processor can allow you to run applications locally without the obligation to lean on others in the network, while the built-in battery and the phone will connect to the Hub to continue operating even in front of a power outage.
Many innovations also in terms of sensors, whose dimensions have been reduced by about 66%, boosted in terms of quality of materials. This applies to SmartSense Presence, SmartSense Motion and Multi SmartSense. Improvements also links with third-party devices, starting with support for native hue of Philips, Honeywell thermostats and cameras Netgear.
The other big news is represented by SmartThings Premium, the subscription service that will, among other things, to send text messages or make calls to a series of phone numbers in case of problems or emergencies, from floods to fires, passing for loss or intrusion.
SmartThings Premium, arriving in North America in April, will also include the ability to automatically save on physical media all recordings of the video surveillance system.


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For the second year running, Marshall’s Yard shopping complex and Gainsborough Trinity Football Club have joined together to celebrate town businesses.
Richard Kane, Trinity chairman, said: “We are extremely excited to host the DN21 Awards for the businesses in the town and have been overwhelmed by the response. We received more than 100 entries and the calibre was extremely high, making this a difficult task for our judges.”
Ten awards will be given out in total at the event on Thursday, June 2, which is due to be held at The Blues Club.
Over the past two months, businesses have been nominating themselves for the awards.
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The finalists are as follows;
Customer Service Team of the Year 2016 - Sponsored by Gainsborough Town Council: Emmalooos; Barnes Jewellers; M&S Simply Food; Laura Ashley; The Body Shop and Boots.
Community Engagement Award 2016 - Sponsored by Pygott & Crone: Acis Group; Riverside Training; Lincolnshire Electrical Wholesalers; 6c’s Mechanical Services; The Darron Childs Practice and Sills & Betteridge.
Green Business of the Year 2016 - Sponsored by Waste Cost Reduction Services: M&S Simply Food; Gainsborough Furniture & Resource Centre; Elite Pest Control and Stanley Hunt Jewellers.
Independent Retailer of the Year 2016 - Sponsored by West Lindsey District Council: Cute Cups; Stanley Hunt Jewellers; Browns Department Store; Jasmine Tree; Pink Pamper and Horsley’s.
Business of the Year 2016 - Sponsored by HSBC: Lincolnshire Electrical Wholesalers; AMP Rose; Elite Signs; Kal Group and SEO Traffic Lab.
Business Person of the Year 2016 - Sponsored by Horsley’s: Richard Hill of SEO Traffic Lab; Andrew Johnson of Lincolnshire Electrical Wholesalers; Pauline Arnold of M&S Simply Food and Wendy Stephenson of Browns Department Store.
Shining Star Individual Award 2016 - Sponsored by EDF Energy: Charlotte Thorpe of Bella Fiore; Helen Stocks of Boots; Kerry Eaton of Sills & Betteridge and Maggie Brown of McDonalds.
Best New Business 2016 - Sponsored by Wright Vigar: Blush Venue Decor; Drumbeat Marketing UK; Fun Printz and Parr Contracting.
Social Media Award 2016 - Sponsored by MMC: Vertical Fitness & Vertical Joy; Fun Printz; Stanley Hunt Jewellers and Jasmine Tree.
In addition to these nine awards, the public have been invited to vote for their ‘Retailer of the Year’, sponsored by Martin & Co, by giving their vote to the store who they feel deserves to win.
Independent judges Ian Green, relationships manager for HSBC, and Bernadette Rushton, Rotherham Borough Council retail investment manager and Association of Town Centre Management regional chairman, will now carry out mystery shopping exercises and interviews to determine the winners.
Alison Hall, Marshall’s Yard centre manager, said: “We are excited about holding these awards again this year, joining up with the whole town.
“The businesses which have been shortlisted are delighted with the news.
“There is a real buzz of excitement in Gainsborough at the moment.”


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GORDMANS INVITES FORT SCOTT COMMUNITY TO GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION
Retailer to Donate $1,000 to Fort Scott High School
FORT SCOTT, Kan. (March 18, 2019) – Home décor retailer Gordmans, a division of Stage Stores, will debut a new department store in Fort Scott with a Grand Opening Celebration beginning with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 20 at 2400 S. Main Street. Gordmans offers bigger deals and smaller prices every day.
The new Fort Scott store is part of an exciting Gordmans Grand Opening Tour Celebration, which includes 38 brand new Gordmans stores opening this March across the country, and 67 current Gordmans stores joining in to celebrate Gordmans’ growth. In addition, Stage Stores plans to open an additional 36 new Gordmans stores in Summer 2019, which will total 141 Gordmans by end of 2019. Gordmans offers incredible deals on name brand merchandise and trend-right home décor, making the retailer a treasure trove of fun and unique finds.
At the Fort Scott Gordmans Grand Opening Celebration, guests will enjoy:
- Free Gift Plus Shopping Cards: The first 100 guests in line at the Grand Opening Celebration will receive a free gift and an opportunity to win a $50 gift card or $5 shopping card.
- Rewards Galore: Gordmans guests who enroll in Style Circle Rewards will enjoy incredible payback rewards, double-double points, a birthday gift and more.
- Gordmans Credit Card Savings: Gordmans’ guests who apply and are approved for a Gordmans credit card will receive 20 percent off their first day’s purchases.
In addition, as part of Gordmans’ commitment to Fort Scott, the retailer will donate $1,000 to Fort Scott High School.
Interview opportunities with Gordmans’ store manager will be available during the event and upon request (subject to availability).
Gordmans’ Fort Scott Store Details:
2400 S. Main Street
Fort Scott, KS 66701
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Participants:
- Melinda Goff, Store Manager, Gordmans
- Jeanie Parker, Mayor, City of Fort Scott
- Roberta Lewis, Student Council Sponsor, Fort Scott High School
About Stage Stores
Stage Stores, Inc. is a leading retailer of trend-right, name-brand values for apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear and home goods. At the end of March 2019, the Company will operate in 42 states through 690 BEALLS, GOODY’S, PALAIS ROYAL, PEEBLES, and STAGE specialty department stores and 105 GORDMANS off-price stores, as well as an e-commerce website at www.stage.com.