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The cryptocurrency industry can provide people with success, security, and profits, but it cannot promise stability. Most cryptocurrencies are volatile in nature and crash frequently. Even the biggest cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, have had problems, but why exactly is this the case?
Why are cryptocurrencies volatile and what caused them to crash?
Why are cryptocurrencies so volatile?
Cryptocurrencies are virtual assets, the majority of which are not backed by any physical assets or government guarantees. This means that there is no single asset with a consistent value for which the cryptocurrency is supported. The exception to this rule is stablecoins, which are typically backed by traditional tenders or physical assets. But most cryptocurrencies do not fall into this category.
So, if cryptocurrencies are so volatile, what factors will they be affected by?
What causes Cryptos to crash?
A variety of different factors can affect the price of any given cryptocurrency. Let’s look at Bitcoin’s past crashes to understand how the cryptocurrency can be affected in different ways.
Bitcoin has seen reasonable highs and lows since the crypto boom in 2020. Bitcoin has reached new heights, possibly even hitting a price of just under $70,000 by November 2021. But these exponential price rallies don’t tend to last in the crypto industry, and the Bitcoin price started to fall shortly after it reached this peak.
But this price drop continued beyond what was expected in early 2022, falling below $40,000 in January. It is thought that this drop was triggered by rumors that the US would start to more strictly regulate digital assets, which has left many investors cold feet. When a large number of investors decide to sell their cryptocurrencies, the demand decreases and so does the price.
Bitcoin’s price drop became more severe in May 2022, after the stock market crashed and Terra Luna and TerraUSD crashed and lost almost all of their value. To the disappointment of investors around the world, Bitcoin fell below $30,000, causing massive financial losses.
But Bitcoin is no stranger to crashes. Although it is an extremely popular cryptocurrency, its price has been affected by the smallest events. Even Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin caused a massive drop in the market in May 2021.
Of course, the price drop is not exclusive to Bitcoin. All cryptocurrencies that are not tied to traditional assets are subject to a massive drop in value. So, what other factors could be causing this?
What other factors cause crypto crashes?
Cryptocurrency whales can play a big role in the coin’s value state. These are individuals or groups with huge crypto holdings in the millions or billions. When an entity has such a huge holding, selling off large volumes of cryptocurrencies or buying more assets can affect supply/demand dynamics that have a major influence on crypto prices.
Let’s say a crypto whale sells off $100 million worth of Ethereum in one go. This will significantly reduce the demand for ETH and have an impact on the price. Sometimes whale activity causes small drops or long hikes; sometimes, they can cause the whole problem.
In addition, global crises can also cause big waves in the crypto industry. Take for example the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic first took hold, Bitcoin took a pretty big hit, falling from $9,000 to $5,000 in March 2020. Other cryptocurrencies suffered a similar drop. The stock market also suffered a major blow at this time, as businesses around the world had to partially or completely shut down due to closures.
Cryptocurrency crashes can also be caused when decentralized projects fail. Let’s say a crypto lending platform with its own native token has to close down due to low profitability. This will cause an immediate crash in the value of the original token, potentially zero. In addition, changing crypto laws could affect the market as well. For example, if a large country bans cryptocurrency trading or mining, this could cause a market drop.
Cryptocurrencies are naturally volatile and fragile
Because cryptocurrency prices are highly dependent on ever-changing factors, unfortunately no guarantees can be made to investors regarding returns. Risk is often the name of the game in crypto and there really is no telling where the price of a coin will go next.
How Elon Musk caused the price of Dogecoin to skyrocket
https://www.makeuseof.com/why-is-crypto-going-down-what-causes-bitcoin-crash/ Why Is Bitcoin Going Down? What Causes Crypto to Fall in Value?


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Earlier this year, we reported that Ubisoft won’t release a new Assassin’s Creed game this year amid a 30% decline in revenue. However, it seems that a compilation of previous titles from the action-adventure video games franchise is reportedly coming on both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 in the coming months.
French website Gameblog has published promotional material about Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection, a compilation of previous Assassin’s Creed titles featuring Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (with all their respective DLCs) plus animated movies Assassin’s Creed: Lineage and Assassin’s Creed: Embers (via Gamespot).
While Ubisoft has yet to officially announce the bundle, Gameblog also reports that the collection should launch at a €70 (about $78 US) retail price and all games are expected to run at a 1080p resolution and 30 FPS. Assassin’s Creed II, the most critically-acclaimed among these three games is already backward compatible on the Xbox One just like the first opus of the franchise.

domain: news


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BCE Inc. has agreed to buy Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in a friendly deal valued at $3.9 billion.
The deal will add Manitoba's largest phone, internet and wireless company to a Montreal-based telecommunication business that is already the largest telecom company in Canada.
The purchase price includes $3.1 billion for the company, plus BCE will assume $800 million worth of MTS debt.
- Manitoba Telecom Services sells Allstream business for $465M
- MTS unveils $53-million data centre in Winnipeg
- Manitoba Telecom to cut 400 more jobs from Allstream division
BCE is offering $40 per share in cash or equity for the Winnipeg-based company's stock. MTS shareholders can elect to receive either cash or shares in BCE in exchange for handing over their shares in the company.
On the TSX, shares of MTS shot up more than 15 per cent, adding $5.01 to close at $37.85. Shares of BCE slipped 20 cent to end at $58.64.
BCE says it will also have the opportunity to match any superior offer that may come forward.
To help finance the deal — and secure approval for it from regulators who won't want to see wireless competition lessened any more than it is — BCE will sell about a third of MTS's postpaid subscriber base and retail locations to Telus, in a separate transaction.
MTS is currently the largest wireless provider in the province, with 491,017 customers at the end of its last fiscal year. If the deals go through as they are, Bell Canada will increased its share of the wireless market in Manitoba to more than 400,000, with Telus getting a bump-up of about 140,000 paying customers.
The agreement will require various approvals, including from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Competition Bureau and Industry Canada, but is expected to close late this year or early 2017.
Bad news for consumers
At first blush, the deal may not be good news for consumers.
Manitoba and neighbouring Saskatchewan have some of the cheapest cellular plans available in Canada, thanks in large part to major players in the markets there — MTS in Manitoba, and Sasktel in Saskatchewan.
Now that Bell and Telus have effectively chopped up MTS between themselves, competition could be reduced further still, one expert said Monday.
"With MTS out of the way — and Bell and Telus sharing the same wireless network — prices are bound to increase to levels more commonly found in the rest of the country," lawyer Michael Geist wrote in his blog.
With files from The Canadian Press


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We’ve been getting fairly hyped for the Google Pixel Watch, however hopes of a Could 2022 launch may very well be wishful pondering.
To catch you up, the long-rumored Pixel Watch was leaked by Jon Prosser, together with pictures (which have since appeared in different leaks) again in 2021, together with a Could 2022 launch date on the Google I/O press convention.
Prosser himself has now alleged that Google has pushed the discharge date again to October 2022, together with the launch of a flagship Pixel 7 smartphone.
Nevertheless, Prosser has mentioned that Google plans to verify the existence of the Pixel Watch at Google I/O – and we must always get some .rmation about its plans.
Google I/O ’22
From what I perceive, Google will formally be saying the Pixel 6a + “teasing” the Pixel Watch.
Pixel 6a launch (in most markets) pushed to July twenty eighth.
However the larger query is after we will see Put on OS 3.0 – the large replace to the corporate’s smartwatch working system.
That software program, which is anticipated to dramatically enhance on the usual Put on OS expertise, has been promised to launch on the TicWatch Professional 3, Fossil Gen 6 and forthcoming Tag Heuer Related Calibre E4, continues to be lacking in motion, regardless of being unveiled an almost a yr in the past at I/O 2021.
Google has mentioned that it will arrive in “mid to second half of 2022.”
It was assumed by many – together with us – that the software program was being held for a Pixel Watch’s look in Could. But when this was to stretch till October, many of those Put on OS watches will probably be approaching finish of life.
Evaluation: What does all of it imply?
First, it’s necessary to acknowledge that we’re on the earth of leaks and unsubstantiated rumor .. However Prosser does appear to have a great deal with on what’s taking place with Pixel Watch, so it’s price contemplating these developments.
And by way of Put on OS 3.0, Google’s timeframe of 2H 2022 nonetheless stands.
An October smartwatch launch makes whole sense. The Pixel Watch ought to launch with new Pixel smartphones, as a flagship system – and October is a key interval forward of the vacations.
However we can’t fathom Put on OS 3.0 being held till This autumn.
That’s not truthful on those that have purchased smartwatches anticipating to obtain new options. And we really feel for the likes of Mobvoi and Fossil, which might have a era of smartwatches overshadowed by enhancements which can be taking an age to reach.
As ever, watch this house.


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BEC: Business confidence is rising
Businesses are “cautiously optimistic” about their prospects, according to a survey carried out late last year by the Bermuda Employers Council.
The BEC yesterday revealed that its Bermuda Business Confidence Survey rose to 71.1 on a 120-point scale, rising significantly from level of 59.2 recorded in 2011.
BEC president Keith Jensen added that the improved confidence of consumers indicated by the Bermuda Omnibus Survey was “the first good economic news in a long time”.
Mr Jensen added that the BEC survey showed that business people felt better about investing in their enterprises.
“A measure of member opinions on conditions for capital investment also showed improvement — from 28 percent (2011) to 43 percent (2012) saying conditions for making major capital investments were somewhat better or about the same as the previous year,” Mr Jensen said.
“Most businesses said they expected their economic well-being for 2013 to be about the same as 2012. However, there was a shift from 21 percent to 31 percent in business opinions, indicating their businesses will better off by the end of 2013.”
The Bermuda Consumer Confidence Index has hit a five-year high, according to the Omnibus Survey, as reported by The Royal Gazette last Friday.
Mr Jensen hoped this would lead to an increase in local spending.
“Consumer confidence can only be sustained if there is real economic improvement,” Mr Jensen said. “Consumer confidence soaring to a five-year high can improve the economy if it translates into action — more purchases of our Island’s goods and services.
“It does not help Bermuda when we travel abroad spending our money overseas. Spending in Bermuda keeps people employed in Bermuda, allows for a wider range of goods being made available, stimulates competition and opens opportunities for investment. All of this helps to pull up the economy.
“The past and current Governments have been well aware that job growth comes from confidence, investment and primarily from jobs created the private sector.
“Continuing payroll tax concessions in the hotel, restaurant and retail industries have contributed significantly to stopping the haemorrhaging of jobs losses over the last four years.”
The BEC also renewed its call for timely economic indicators to be devised and made available for better decision making.
And the employers’ organisation also reiterated its call for the formation of an advisory Economic Forum, whose members are drawn from trade unions, employers and Government.
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The Morning of April 4, 2020, saw poor conformance to the Lockdown rules at Chandranagar in Delhi, where people were seen standing in long queues before a liquor shop – all while ridiculing social distancing norms.
The center recently allowed the opening of wine shops in the country with certain restrictions. However, the move spelled havoc in the capital city which already includes 11 districts marked as Red Zones under it. Within hours of opening, crowds formed a long queue outside the said store while flouting social distancing norms even in the presence of police officials. On being questioned about the callous behavior by the media, one of the men stated, “We are tired of buying liquor in black and if no one is following norms why I should, let all die merrily”.
It is shocking to know that the authorities, on one hand, are doing their best to control the pandemic, while the public on the other is unable to understand the gravity of the situation, as proven by the recent gatherings outside liquor stores.
In addition to Delhi, several cities across the country portrayed a similar picture. In Pune, massive crowds were seen emerging before liquor shops after the Maharashtra government allowed the functioning of standalone Liquor shops on Monday- May 4th2020. Areas in the city such as at Bhandarkar road, Wanawdi, Salunke Vihar, and NIBM road were especially thronged by crowds in the pursuit of buying liquor.
In Karnataka’s Mandya district, police reportedly had to resort lathi-charge to control the crowd gathered outside wine shops. It was even reported that in many areas of Karnataka, people had carried umbrellas, raincoats and were waiting outside liquor stores since as early as 3 am today.
The underlying government order passed on May 1, 2020, clearly states that not more than 5 people should be gathered around the liquor shops but the video clippings coming from various cities and states portray a starkly different reality.
As per the Order, the following activities are allowed under:
- The Movement of transport for activities that are permitted, manufacturing of essential goods like drugs, medical devices, manufacturing of IT hardware, jute industry, construction (if workers residing on-site).
- Standalone shops, shops in the neighborhood, and residential complexes (essential and non-essential items).
- E-commerce activities for essential goods, private offices with 33 percent strength, operations of homes for senior citizens, children, destitute and others, government offices, and emergency, health, sanitation, and security services.
- All industrial and construction activities
- All shops except in shopping malls, all agriculture, animal husbandry, and plantation activities, health services, financial sector including banks, NBFCs, etc.,
- Public utilities, courier and postal services, print, electronic media, IT, ITeS, warehouses services by self-employed persons except for barbers.
OPDs and medical clinics are permitted to operate in red, orange, and green zones with social distancing norms during the lockdown.
Furthermore, those refusing to comply with the lockdown guidelines can be punished with imprisonment for a term extending to one year or with fine, or with both.


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Mecum’s auction will include The “Stockholm Collection” for one thing, which is supposedly kind of a big deal. It includes such juicy motorcycles as the 1939 Crocker Big Tank in our lead image, which will be sold with no reserve (though the estimate is, ahem, $400,000 to 500,000).
Until Indian gets off its butt and builds a modern inline Four, maybe this 1938 Model 438 could keep you amused? Not seeing a price for it, but it’s recently restored and “built to ride,” so maybe more affordable than the Crocker. Or the `51 Vincent Rapide estimated at around $100k.
Sure there’s modern stuff.
This early CB750KO is being sold no reserve, and expected to generate $38 – 50k. The KO as you know, had sandcast engine cases, as Honda didn’t want to invest a lot in manufacturing equipment if the bike turned out to be a flop. It didn’t.
Not modern enough for you?
Maybe this 1988 (first year) Honda RC30 (wow that’ll be 40 years ago in 10 more years) checks your boxes. It’s got 1 “pushing” mile on the odometer. Experts tell us a few no-miles RCs like this have suddenly come to market, following the recent sale of one like it that fetched $90k. Ka-ching! But Mecum estimates this one will go for just $50 to 65k. No reserve.
That’s just four from the Stockholm bunch. In addition to them, Mecum says there’ll be a total of 1,750 bikes going under the gavel.
Meanwhile at the Rio Hotel Casino, Bonham’s will be doing its thing beginning January 24, where Lot 24 is this `93 Ducati Supermono. One of 67 produced, Bonham’s estimates its value at $95 to 125k.
In my price range, I’m interested in this Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon, no reserve, estimated value $3-4000.
Basically, then, you’re looking at one of the, if not the hugest assemblages of cool motorcycles you’ll ever see in one place. And it’s Vegas, too, so you can indulge all your other vices at the same time. I think you can see all the bikes that will be there at these two sites.
It’s probably good to have a plan.
The post Upcoming Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction(s) Will Be A Duesy appeared first on Motorcycle.com.
Source: All Bikes news one


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Online marketplaces Amazon.com Inc., and Walmart Inc.-owned Flipkart saw sales jump 27% from a year ago to $5.7 billion during the festival season’s first sale between Sept. 22-30, consulting firm RedSeer estimated. Traders estimate spending of about 2.5 trillion rupees ($30.2 billion) at stores.
This year’s Diwali, the festival of lights that falls on Oct. 24 and the equivalent of Christmas in the West, will be India’s first season of celebration since the pandemic began without virus-related restrictions. The return of shoppers will serve as a boost to consumption, the backbone of the economy.
Here are four charts that help explain the broader consumption trends:
New vehicle sales jumped 57% from a year ago during the nine-day ‘Navratri’ period that precedes Diwali, data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations show. Sales of two-wheelers in India, an indication of rural demand, grew 3.7% from 2019 levels. Cars and sports utility vehicles sales soared 92% in September from a year earlier, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki saw demand for its cars rise 20% year-on-year, led by its premium offering. “The growth numbers have been uniform in both urban and rural centers,” said Maruti’s Executive Director Shashank Srivastava, with higher interest rates doing little to suppress demand.
As demand for goods rose, businesses ramped up capacity. Total flow of financial resources from banks and non-banks to the commercial sector jumped nearly five-fold to 9.3 trillion rupees between the April-September period, from 1.7 trillion rupees a year ago, according to the Reserve Bank of India. “Non-oil non-gold imports remained resilient, indicating sustained revival in domestic demand.”
Good monsoon rains and the withdrawal of pandemic restrictions accelerated economic activity in agriculture, the services sector, and in small- and medium-enterprises. That was accompanied by a drop in the jobless rate to the lowest in more than four years in September.
The recovery in rural areas is also helping consumer firms to normalize their pricing strategy. Haldiram’s, one of India’s top snack-makers, saw the category ratio between small packs and family packs return to 70:30, “which reflects that rural areas are also buying,” said AK Tyagi, the company’s executive director. “Gift packs are seeing tremendous demand.”
With the economic recovery taking shape and normalizing income levels, Indian households expect to spend more, according to RBI surveys. Much of this spending is to buy essentials, which in recent months have turned costly due to supply side shocks. But overall consumer confidence also remains buoyant, indicating greater willingness for discretionary spending.
“For the first time in three years this festival season is seeing robust demand,” said Gaurav Kapur, chief economist of IndusInd Bank. “Since the start of the year, people are spending on goods and services, mall footfalls are increasing, airline seat occupancy rates have jumped despite high ticket prices.”
Wednesday, 29 Nov, 2023
- For More Capital, Byju’s Must Pass a Tough Test
Top shareholders at Byju’s have demanded the company meet certain conditions before they consider any future capital infusion into the beleaguered edtech firm that is battling a deepening fund crunch, people in the know of the matter said.Virtual Influencers Now Making Real Money? AI, AI, Sir!
As social media influencers, Kyra and Naina have hit the big time. Only thing is, they’re not actually real — not entirely anyway.Titan, Realme, MG Motors and Boat are paying a premium to advertise through 3D-animated humans, or virtual influences, who have become quite the phenomenon on Instagram with views of up to 21 million for their reels.Timing of Burmans’ Open Offer Fishy: Religare Ind Director Ahmed
Hamid Ahmed, an independent member on the Religare Enterprises board, has described the timing of the Burman family open offer to buy more shares as ‘fishy’ in the first such media comments by any of the independent directors at the financial services company the founder-promoters of Dabur are seeking to control.
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Dubai Airports successfully orchestrated a flash mob showcasing the talents of 55 dancers in Terminal 1 on October 26. The project, which also involved DDF and flydubai, was a key element in a promotional campaign designed to heighten awareness for the recently launched DXB Connect, the world’s first Airport Prepaid Mastercard, now on sale at Dubai Duty Free. Not only did it surprise and delight passengers in the airport who witnessed the ‘live’ version, the video has also gone viral via social media.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Get up to 75% discount in Dubai hotels!


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The legal status of cryptocurrency has been and still is very contentious worldwide, with some countries recognizing them as a medium of payment, while in others, mere ownership of crypto is enough to get you to prison. Will the increasing global attention to CBDCs change anything?
Amidst rapid digitization of the world, central banks are making efforts to keep pace. Nevertheless, while Asian countries such as China have been actively developing its Central BankDigital Currencies, Europe has been cautiously exploring it. But now it seems the continent will see its first CBDC as soon as this week.
The Bank of Korea established an advisory group to revise the legislative framework before the launch of the digital won. Despite their CBDC will more resemble a digital version of fiat currency, it is obvious that the existing financial legislation should be adjusted to the circulation of a new digital asset.
Wu Xiaoling, former Vice-President of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and now chairperson of Wudaokou School of Finance at Tsinghua University, has once again praised bitcoin and other altcoins, saying although they have their pros and cons, they play a crucial role in development.
If you ever thought only gold, diamond, or oil were found underneath the ground, you might be wrong in the 21st Century world as recent cases of bitcoin mining have proved that crypto mines equally do well underground. Chinese police have discovered an illegal Bitcoin mining farm beneath a cemetery.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has filed a patent for cross-chain technology that improves the connection between blockchains through domain names. The ‘unified domain name scheme’ has been approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).


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Two security issue so big that both of them getting an own logo? Yes it’s real and the entire world is talking about but now everyone is asking, what can we do about it?
I have to admit this story is really big and it affects everyone and that’s maybe a reason they’re hyped right now. Serious security flaws that could let attackers steal sensitive data, including passwords and banking information, have been found in processors designed by Intel, AMD and ARM.
The flaws, named Meltdown and Spectre, were discovered by security researchers at Google’s Project Zero in conjunction with academic and industry researchers from several countries. They affect virtually every modern computer, including smartphones, tablets and PCs from all vendors and running almost any operating system. Meltdown is “probably one of the worst CPU bugs ever found”, said Daniel Gruss, one of the researchers at Graz University of Technology who discovered the flaw.
Meltdown is currently thought to primarily affect Intel processors manufactured since 1995, excluding the company’s Itanium server chips and Atom processors before 2013. It could allow hackers to bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer’s core memory. Meltdown, therefore, requires a change to the way the operating system handles memory to fix, which initial speed estimates predict could affect the speed of the machine in certain tasks by as much as 30%.
The Spectre flaw affects most modern processors made by a variety of manufacturers, including Intel, AMD and those designed by ARM, and potentially allows hackers to trick otherwise error-free applications into giving up secret information. Spectre is harder for hackers to take advantage of but is also harder to fix and would be a bigger problem in the long-term, according to Gruss.
Intel and ARM insisted that the issue was not a design flaw, although it will require users to download a patch and update their operating system to fix, which Microsoft in the meantime (for Intel CPU’s) rolled out. Other fixes for Apple’s MacOS, Linux, and Android are following. These fixes could slow down some computers, particularly older ones, however Computerbase already did a ‘real world’ benchmark on this and there wasn’t any performance impact noticable.
Spectre is particularly nasty — there’s no real fix for it, and it exploits a fundamental part of how processors work.
Intel is badly hit by Meltdown because its speculative execution methods are fairly aggressive. Specifically, Intel CPUs are allowed to access kernel memory when performing speculative execution, even when the application in question is running in user memory space. The CPU does check to see if an invalid memory access occurs, but it performs the check after speculative execution, not before. Architecturally, these invalid branches never execute — they’re blocked — but it’s possible to read data from affected cache blocks even so.
AMD and ARM appear largely immune to Meltdown, though ARM’s upcoming Cortex-A75 is apparently impacted.
Unlike Meltdown, which impacts mostly Intel CPUs, Spectre’s proof of concept works against everyone, including ARM and AMD. Its attacks are pulled off differently — one variant targets branch prediction — and it’s not clear there are hardware solutions to this class of problems, for anyone.
Google said that exploiting Meltdown and Spectre “has shown to be difficult and limited on the majority of Android devices.” The fixes for ARM chips were part of the Android January 5 security patch level, so Pixel/Nexus users are already safe.
Intel-based Chrome OS devices are already patched, as long as they use versions 3.18 or 4.4 of the Linux kernel. You can check which version your Chromebook has by going to chrome://gpu, then scrolling down to ‘Version Information.’ The kernel version which introduce the fix is 3.18.0 (or higher).
Google notes that the current stable version of Chrome v63+ already includes a feature called Site Isolation, which forces websites to use different address spaces. This can be turned on by switching the #enable-site-per-process flag (copy and paste that link into Chrome’s address bar) to ‘Enabled.’
Google says the feature may have performance issues on Android, and it’s not available at all on Chrome for iOS (because Chrome on iOS uses WKWebView to render pages). Chrome 64, which will be released on January 23, will contain more protection features. A page on the Chromium site includes full details about mitigating possible attack techniques.
The Google Home, Google WiFi, and the various OnHub routers are not affected by the vulnerabilities. Google’s online sites/infrastructure, including Search, YouTube, Blogger, and other services are already protected. Some of Google’s professional/enterprise tools, like e.g. Cloud Datalab and Compute Engine, have been patched but may require an update for end-users.
A demonstration can be found here.
And now — what happens next?
When reached for comment on the matter, Linux creator Linux Torvalds responded with the tact that’s made him legendary.
“I think somebody inside of Intel needs to really take a long hard look at their CPU’s, and actually admit that they have issues instead of writing PR blurbs that say that everything works as designed,” Torvalds writes. “And that really means that all these mitigation patches should be written with ‘not all CPU’s are crap’ in mind. Or is Intel basically saying ‘We are committed to selling you shit forever and ever, and never fixing anything? Because if that’s the case, maybe we should start looking towards the ARM64 people more.”
It does appear, as of this writing, that Intel is disproportionately exposed on these security flaws. While Spectre-style attacks can affect all CPUs, Meltdown is pretty Intel-specific. Thus far, user applications and games don’t seem much impacted, but web servers and potentially other workloads that access kernel memory frequently could run markedly slower once patched.
My point of view
AM I surprised? No not really, I was one of these paranoid tin-foil hats which predicted that hardware based attacks are a more significant attack vector since this isn’t easy or impossible to patch. Of course when I wrote something about this 1995 no one took me serious on this because everyone was believing in the big ones aka Intel and AMD. However I not want to judge anyone here but it’s ridiculous that Intel want to excuse this instead of accepting the truth. I totally understand Linux Torvalds here and this time he got my attention because what he wrote is true.
At the end all you can do is to monitor the entire story, and choose the product which comes with as little as possible cancer, but this also could have one good thing in common we learned (the hard way) a bitter lesson of experience. You have to inspect every new hardware and software very carefully before you can talk about ‘trust’.


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Wallington’s WRG gets behind local producersJune 18 2020
At Wallington’s WRG we feel that during these uncertain times it’s only natural that we look to support local businesses and so one way we can do this is offer local producers a space to sell their produce and goods.
We are all about quality and there are some fantastic local businesses that add great value to our store, such as Lomas Orchards.
As seen in edition 18 of the Bellarine Times the team at Wallington’s WRG have partnered with local producers to support local business by stocking an assortment of fresh produce and handmade goods.
Find out more by clicking the paper below to open the article on the Bellarine times website.


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This week’s annual Media360 event in Brighton, England, drew 180 marketing and media leaders to explore best practices and innovations. The gathering coincides with the 30th anniversary of Haymarket’s MediaWeek, which presents the show.
Among this year’s Media360 highlights:
Lord Michael Dobbs, the executive producer and author of "House Of Cards," credited Netflix's success to the company understanding the changing market. Delivering the keynote speech at Media360, Dobbs said he received the call from Hollywood at a time when the media world was transforming. He said TV broadcasters were under "tremendous pressure" and audiences were fragmenting.
However, the Hollywood producers said they had Kevin Spacey and David Fincher on board, and were looking to run the series on Netflix. Dobbs said: "I wasn’t too sure about that. At the time Netflix was a DVD and video rental operation with just 10 million subscribers. They said, ‘Netflix is changing, it’s looking for a new vision'.
"Netflix knew what was happening and it had the ambition to take those changes. They understood that the consumer and viewer was in charge."
Dan Germain, the head of brand and creative at UK smoothie brand Innocent, denied that it is harder to be "innocent" now it is majority-owned by Coca-Cola. When asked whether the opportunity to remain "innocent" had been compromised by being owned by Coca-Cola, Germain said: "Not in my eyes but it would be for people to decide for themselves."
He continued: "What you expect me to say is, ‘It’s really shit now. They’re evil.' No, they’re a really great investor, we’re growing at a rate of knots. They look at us and think, ‘How did you do that?’ " Coca-Cola took control of Innocent in 2013. It originally bought a minority stake in the company in 2009.
Claire Harrison-Church, vice president for marketing and own brand at Asda, said the US-owned, UK-based supermarket chain wasted money shouting at customers who weren't listening. Harrison-Church said Asda now focuses on what the customer wants, instead of competing with the other major supermarkets.
She said: "We have spent a lot of money shouting at customers and they were becoming tired of it and not listening. Changing our customer offer is a big challenge in the grocery market."
Harrison-Church explained that Asda is now "championing" what is best for its customers, such as offering varifocal lenses at cost and making it easier for customers to pick up their groceries when it is convenient for them.
She also said Asda is making the most of mobile as it is a "big opportunity." The supermarket is targeting different content at people who are in or nearby a particular store.
Katherine Hipwell, Red Bee Media's head of content strategy, and Michael Reeves, its business development director, revealed their seven tips for compelling online video content.
Hipwell told the Brighton audience that video is becoming increasingly important. Last year, the number of videos on Facebook increased fourfold, with a 140 per cent rise in audience reach.
Reeves said: "Audiences are at the heart of everything we do. Consumers should be referred to as audiences, so you create something that audiences want, rather than what you want to tell them."
Claire Hilton, the marketing director for personal and corporate at Barclays, said the company splits different types of editorial opportunities based on the response of speed required: "This allows us to manage resource, priorities and gain the approvals that we need."
In terms of a fast response, Hilton said Barclays put together an article on dos and don’ts for online safety on the same day that a BBC article was published on phishing. She said there are also times when the company can plan to push out content, for example for the launch of the Barclays mobile banking app for the Apple Watch.
Will Butler-Adams, managing director of Brompton Bicycle, said consumers are "bored of all the bullshit" and that his company has succeeded because it was honest with its customers.
Butler-Adams said: "The cool thing about the last ten to 15 years is that it’s entirely changed. You can’t really bullshit any more." Butler-Adams used the example of a TV ad promoting a "pot of cream" with a "big green ball" and a "mumbo jumbo extra ingredient that no one has ever heard of".
He continued: "Some customers buy into that. They buy the green ball and put it on their face. Unfortunately, they’re an ugly hag. They buy the cream and put it on and buy another pot. But after two pots of cream, they’re still an ugly hag."
Alfie Deyes, a YouTube star with 4.2 million followers, said brand link-ups with vloggers do not jeopardize audience figures as long as YouTube stars understand the importance of authenticity.
He said he will not promote a brand if he does not like it because honesty is integral to keep the relationship loyal. Deyes said: "If the brand can make the video for my audience then I will do it. I’m never going to do it for the sake of it, my audience are real engaged viewers and know what’s going on."
Orlando Wood, managing director of market research company BrainJuicer, outlined the psychology behind how human beings react to brands.He said the way that choices are framed affects decision-making. To test out the concept, Wood said, "We put people under time pressure. We give them five seconds to make a choice. What we found is that this predicts decision making in reality much better than giving people time to think too much."
He said Kimberly-Clark brand Andrex had "dramatically" increased its sales by applying that technique when asking people to choose between their products.
Lloyd Embley, the group editor-in-chief at Trinity Mirror, said Mirror Group Newspapers has no plans to put its content behind a paywall. At the Media360 conference in Brighton today, he told Claire Beale, Campaign's global editor-in-chief, that there is no clear business model for a paywall.
He also explained that Mirror.co.uk’s global audience figure of 70 million for May would be vastly different if a paywall was in operation. Embley said that so long as the MailOnline and BBC are in existence, Mirror.co.uk would not be behind a paywall.


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Five years since being founded, Seoul-based health care startup Vuno is now betting big on an initial public offering.
The loss-making company is pinning its hopes on a turnaround, as it has managed to launch products designed to streamline the workflow of radiologists and expects a sharp hike in revenue from client hospitals starting late next year, its founder said in an interview with The Investor.
“Until last year, I was not sure of the marketability of products we have developed,” Vuno CSO Kim Hyun-jun said. “But now I’m sure our balance sheet will improve, because Vuno’s income from purchase agreements with hospitals this year will be reflected after a year.”
The confidence of the Korean equivalent to San Francisco-based Enlitic was based on its own deep-learning engine called Vuno Net.
Vuno CSO Kim Hyun-jun
Vuno Net honed its artificial intelligence technology, by collecting and analyzing de-identified patient data from hospitals. Vuno will match Vuno Net’s interpretation of a scanned medical image with the actual status of a patient -- normal or abnormal -- so that the engine will be able to tell without human assistance if the finding translates into abnormality.
Repeating the process, Vuno Net has been able to come up with its own diagnosis based on its vast database, to the degree that the products using the engine can help radiologists and play a supplementary role in physicians’ medical decision-making. The solutions have been showcased in annual meetings of the Radiological Society of North America.
This gave birth to four commercial products selling in some 50 hospitals in Korea. Of them, BoneAge and Chest X-ray helps radiologists in hospitals assess bone age and detect abnormalities in chest radiographs. DeepBrain allows radiologists to catch neurodegenerative disease, while Medical ASR automates transcription of voice-recorded medical reports with speech recognition technology.
“Now that the AI engine is full-fledged, we are able to implement the technology for different types of diseases. All we do is to apply a different user interface,” Kim said.
Moreover, the startup is eyeing the launch of more clinical trial-stage software. These include a screening solution detecting fundus abnormalities and conditions in pulmonary nodule.
“At Vuno’s nascent stage, all we had was the deep-learning technology, and the question was which field it could be applied,” said Kim, one of the three Vuno co-founders who were all research staff members of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.
“What we were looking at was how significant the impact of our technology could be. We concluded the impact would be large when applied to the medical field.”
The conservative field of medicine rather made room for trailblazing the new market, so that the startup could be the first mover in the domestic market, he added.
Efforts of the startup have been combined with the government support to steer clear of legal uncertainties and to encourage listings of innovative companies that are in the red.
Kim recalled hurdles it had to face in its maiden voyage, due to the void of state guidelines for licensing AI-powered health care products.
What cleared the hurdles was the push for innovation by Korea’s Office for Government Policy Coordination – at the Prime Minister’s Office. The office urged the Korea Food and Drug Administration to come up with guidelines to grant a license to AI health care products. As a result, new guidelines were announced in November 2017.
Under the guidelines, Vuno’s first product BoneAge became eligible for domestic sales in May 2018, for the first time in the nation.
“It took three years for BoneAge to gain state approval after we first developed the product,” Kim said. “Afterward, it takes up to one year to go through clinical trials before the launch.”
Vuno CSO Kim Hyun-jun (left) and CFO Lee Sang-jin
Logging 2.6 billion won ($2.2 million) net loss in 2018, due in part to heavy spending on payroll, Vuno was assured of fundraising through a forthcoming pre-IPO round and an IPO, a year after it raised a latest 11.7 billion won series B round in October 2018.
According to its listing plan, Vuno pseeks to go public on the Korea Exchange’s development board Kosdaq as a technology growth company. Under the abridged listing policy, companies meeting technological standards by tech credit bureaus are eligible to go public regardless of their financial performance. It has selected Mirae Asset Daewoo and Samsung Securities as IPO underwriters.
“Our business model is already here, and we are ready to go public with the tech achievements so far,” Vuno CFO Lee Sang-jin said. “The upshot in costs does not simply go nowhere, because we are bearing fruits from our spending in research and development.”
The proceeds will be used to commercialize products that Vuno expects to pass clinical trials, Lee added.
By Son Ji-hyoung (firstname.lastname@example.org)


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ALROSA sells diamonds worth $14.8 mln through auctions
MOSCOW, May 3 (PRIME) -- Russian diamond mining giant ALROSA has raised U.S. $14.8 million from the sales of 10.8 carats worth of diamonds at auctions in Vladivostok from April 16 through April 27, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
УWeТve invited 86 companies from main regions of trade in rough and polished diamonds to participate in the auction, including companies from Hong Kong, Israel, India, and Belgium; 33 companies were announced winners on several positions. The trade showed good results that confirmed high demand for diamonds of this size category,Ф the company said citing Yevgeny Agureyev, head of United Selling Organization (USO) of ALROSA.
ALROSAТs sales company sold 101 diamonds with the total weight of 1,751.1 carats.


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Twenty LED lighting products have been banned or recalled in the European Union so far this year due to risks of electric shock or fire.
There are suggestions that this amount items identified is only the tip of the iceberg.
Finland, spotted more than a third of the dangerous LED products dealt with in the whole of Europe – even though the country is home to barely one per cent of the EU’s population.
The products affected included floodlights, retrofit lamps, linear fittings and torches. Most were made in China. In the majority of cases the products were ordered to be recalled and withdrawn from sale.
The worst hit brand was China’s Jiage, which has had two of its LED torch products banned in Hungary because they could cause electric shocks, burns or fire.
Even some well-known brands such as Philips, Sylvania and LED Hut have voluntarily recalled LED products on sale in the UK and Spain in the last few months due to safety fears.
Web Design Northampton by New Edge
Ⓒ Copyright Electrical Testers 2021


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There’s no doubt in my mind that a Fortnite silenced shotgun would be a huge cause of controversy within the game’s community, with some being excited for a stealthy, close-quarters option, and others absolutely hating the idea. In every shooter that I play, shotguns get a lot of hate. This is mostly due to their one-hit kill potential, which doesn’t allow much opportunity for a counter-attack. Combine this style of play with the ability to suppress those shots, and you’ve got a recipe for a hell of a lot of complaints. So, is a Fortnite silenced shotgun coming to the game? And if so, will it be balanced? Here’s what we know!
Fortnite Silenced Shotgun: Is a Suppressed Shotgun Coming to Fortnite?
While the potential of a Fortnite silenced shotgun coming to the game may be a popular talking point right now, there is actually no official word on whether or not such a weapon is coming to the game. With a suppressed assault rifle having been recently added, it’s certainly possible that silent variants of other guns could also be in the works. With that said, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the existing shotguns, and so the addition of a suppressed version could be unwise and anger the community.
What Is the Fortnite Silenced Shotgun Release Date?
As mentioned above, there isn’t yet a Fortnite silenced shotgun release date as it hasn’t even been confirmed to be in existence. Images of the silenced shotgun have been created by eager fans, as you can see by the example below.
Of course, it’s possible that a Fortnite silenced shotgun release date will eventually roll around. Epic Games is always working on new weapons to add to the game, as well as reimagined versions of existing guns. If such a weapon is going to be added, expect to hear about it first on the “Coming soon” section of the News tabs. We’ll then see it added within the next few patches.


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You wouldn’t expect the video business to take lessons in innovation from a company that makes low-cost mixing consoles. But, in the case of the Mackie DL1608, it probably should.
RedShark is the first online publication that has as part of its core philosophy the idea that technology is doubling in capability every year or so. There's nothing new about this idea. Moore's law was built around it in 1965, and Raymond Kurzweil wrote his seminal work on the exponential growth of technology "The Singularity is Near" in 2005 - and it is still uncannily accurate in predicting trends.
At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Imagination Technologies, creators of the PowerVR GPU used in the iPhone and other mobile devices, demonstrated a mobile graphics design with 192 processing cores
We're not sure what's going on here, or why. We don't think this is the answer to starvation and conflict in the world, and it's not going to going cause a massive rift in the spacetime continuum.
Tuesday's announcements from Apple ranged far beyond the long mooted iPad mini and, for the content creation community, a stunning update for the all-in-one iMac desktop and a 13-inch Retina Macbook. K. Stewart reports.
All you need is an iPhone, some tape, some luggage - and an airport terminal...
Good news for RED shooters with an iOS device: a just-released app helps users learn the RED camera menu from their iPhones and iPads.


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Google has detailed an upgrade to Google Play Services — version 4.1 — that should bring us a lot of good stuff. For starters, Google has made a turn-by-turn multiplayer framework for developers who want to make TBT multiplayer games. This is something that has been much needed from the start, with games like Magic 2014 dumping multiplayer due to lack of proper support.
Also in this version is a developer preview for the new Google Drive APIs, so apps can tap into your Drive storage and seamlessly load and save files. This’ll be great for third-party file managers or any app that wants to utilize Google Drive for long-term storage.
Rounding out the list of changes are new Google Mobile Ads SDK APIs for those using DoubleClick and Search Ads, as well as the ability to have Google+ posts autocomplete and suggest recipients from your Gmail contacts, device contacts and your friends on Google+. It should be rolling out as a background upgrade to everyone over the course of the next few weeks. If you’re a developer, be sure to check out the source link for more information.
[via Android Developers]


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DailyRootz! 06/11/12 Sponsored By Swappa! - Jun 11,2012
Summary: Unofficial AOKP releases everywhere! The AT&T HTC One X, Asus tf300t Transformer, Samsung T-Mobile Hercules, Samsung Galaxy TAB, Acer Iconia A200, Droid Vigor, and many many more devices have unofficial AOKP builds going. Remember, RootzWiki, myself, Team Kang, or your mom aren't responsible for what you do with your device... you are. Head over to the AOKP forums and see if your device is supported! http://goo.gl/5daGT According to the NQ Mobile Security Research Center (NQMSRC), there is new malware threat impacting Android device users. The malware, known as DDSpy, disguises itself as Gmail and then steals a user's personal information. http://goo.gl/Nzflf Weve been doing a whole lot of speculation regarding a Google/ASUS branded tablet, which will be aimed at the budget consumer, and bring a stock Android experience to the masses. Now, an ASUS representative at Computex has let slip the first semi-official word that this device does indeed exist, and that well be seeing it unveiled very soon. Stay tuned to your Rootz channel for all the details. http://goo.gl/B2N9k Thanks to Swappa for sponsoring today's podcast, check them out at www.swappa.com for the very best way to buy or sell gently used Android devices.


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At age 17, Paul Molyneaux left home and got a job in commercial fishing. By the late 1980s, he was running a fish processing plant for the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Eastport, Maine, on Cobscook Bay. That was about the same time there was a sudden push to do salmon farming in the bay.
In a recent interview with Dr. Mercola, Molyneaux said:
“The way the promoters—at the time, a company called Ocean Products—sold it to us was [by] saying, ‘You can become farmers of the sea. You can start giving back to the ocean.’ We bought it hook, line and sinker … Last summer, there were about six of us standing on the dock in Eastport, saying, ‘Geez, we thought this was going to be great.'”
It wasn’t great. Local fisheries dwindled. In the late 1990s, infectious salmon anemia virus spread like wildfire among the salmon pens in Cobscook Bay, wiping out the fishery as 2 million fish had to be discarded overnight.
Molyneaux, author of “Swimming in Circles: “Aquaculture and the End of Wild Oceans,” says one of the best things consumers can do is locate a local community-supported fishery.
“What I would say to consumers is, ‘If you want to eat healthy, expect to pay more.’ You’re better off to pay $15 per pound for a Bristol Bay sockeye than $7 per pound for a Chilean farmed salmon. You’re better off eating one meal of sockeye than two meals of farmed fish.”
You can also buy wild-caught fish online. Scroll to the end of this article for a list of online sources of wild-caught fish.
Meanwhile, two companies are trying to build huge land-based salmon farms on the Penobscott Bay, in Maine. One of those farms, proposed by Norway-based Nordic Aquafarms, would clear 40 acres of forest to build what amounts to an experimental project—there are currently no salmon farms of this size in operation anywhere in the world. OCA is working with Local Citizens for Smart Growth to try to prevent the projects from going forward.


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The Miami Heat unveiled a fresh, new look that was popular among fans.
Very limited quantities of the trophy gold jerseys were available for purchase at midnight on Thursday, but adult sizes sold out in minutes according to several Twitter users.
The only remaining jerseys available are in youth sizes.
Limited quantities will be available at Miami Heat stores at the AmericanAirlines Arena, Dolphin Mall, Pembroke Lakes Mall and Miami International Airport on Thursday.
Only 6,031 jerseys were made to represent the sum of the three years they won the championship.


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Mars Petcare is set to help grow the pet oral care category with the launch of new Pedigree® Dentastix® Chewy Chunx, available in stores now. Pedigree Dentastix aims to entice new shoppers to the category through a new bitesize format, giving pet owners more freedom to build vital oral care into their existing routine.
Pedigree Dentastix Chewy Chunx helps prevent plaque build-up throughout the day and will launch in chicken and beef flavours, with mini or maxi options for smaller or larger dogs. Retailers can capitalise on consumer demand for tasty bitesize products to help owners bond with their pets, and the new product also provides the added benefit of helping to prevent plaque build-up.
The bite-size Chewy Chunx can be offered to dogs multiple times a day and contain less than 3% fat, with 15kcal per treat and no artificial flavours or added sugars.
Arthur Renault, marketing portfolio director at Mars Petcare, commented: “We are extremely passionate about providing pet owners with new products which help them care for their dogs and know a one size fits all approach doesn’t work. By extending our Pedigree Dentastix range with bitesize Chewy Chunx, we are offering more ways for owners to add to their pet’s oral care routine aiming to attract new shoppers through an innovative proposition from a brand people know and trust.”
“Over the last 12 weeks, as inevitably owners have spent more time at home with their dogs, we have seen Pedigree Dentastix grow +10.3% versus this time last year. This is a trend we hope to see continue and that represents a fantastic opportunity for retailers to capitalise on demand by adding exciting new products to the much loved Dentastix range.”
The product will carry an RSP of £1.65, and the launch will be supported with social media activation and TV.
PEDIGREE DENTASTIX Chewy Chunx Mini Chicken 5-14kg (68g) – RSP £1.65
PEDIGREE DENTASTIX Chewy Chunx Mini Beef5-14kg (68g) – RSP £1.65
PEDIGREE DENTASTIX Chewy Chunx Maxi Chicken +15kg (68g) – RSP £1.65
PEDIGREE DENTASTIX Chewy Chunx Maxi Beef +15kg (68g) – RSP £1.65


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This post was updated at 4:14 p.m. ET. It’s being called Stagefright, and it affects versions 2.2 Froyo and newer of the OS.
There’s a lot of Nexus rumours floating about, and with two phones rumoured to be launching it’s no wonder. Google has had months to write a patch and already had one ready when the bug was announced, but as expected, getting the patch through manufacturers and carriers was complicated and hard.
Black Hat 2015 For those of you anxious about the Stagefright flaw in Android, be reassured, a patch will be coming down the line in the next few days.
During the process, however, the user is completely vulnerable to whatever very bad security flaw is making the rounds because the carrier has to ensure that whatever terrible bloatware they’ve bundled in with Android devices isn’t rendered inoperable by a bug fix. This indicates that the code running on your device hasn’t been changed or corrupted and it comes from a trusted source. It’s the software version of open heart surgery.
We are working with carriers and device vendors to design solutions to protect users that do not now have Zimperium zIPS on their phones.
Clearly there’s a difference of opinion.
It’s the simplicity of Stagefright’s attack that has caused Google and Samsung to spring into an action that should have been taken long ago.
Are you a Nexus owner?
Google said that they have contacted and passed on the solution for the bug that was found in their operating systems to other mobile manufacturers. Fortunately, it looks like Android device makers aren’t asleep at the wheel.
– Sony: Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z4, Xperia Z3 Compact.
The first of these updates has already started and aims to fix the Stagefright security issue.
Nexus 5 2013 is made by LG Electronics and has been well-loved and accepted by many Android users. “It now exists. This is really a watershed moment for us as an industry”. But whether they act on that information is not in Google’s hands. It’s just that the company will get the update rolled out sometime this week.
Bryan Glancey, a security researcher with Optio Labs, used to work for Samsung.
“Device fragmentation is not the only challenge that developers face when building for Android, as the operating system itself is extremely fragmented”, the firm said.
Now Google’s Android partners including Samsung, LG, Motorola need to follow to implement a similar regular updating process to make sure Android is save for its customers. An attacker needs only to know the victim’s phone number.


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Even With Mass Retail Industry Layoffs, Retailers Should Improve Hiring and Retention Strategies
Talks of an impending recession have been looming the past year, and several industries have been experiencing sales dips, including the retail industry. The demand for retail and ecommerce products that spiked during COVID and more recently during the 2022 holiday season is hitting a lull now, with department stores like Nordstrom experiencing declining retail sales of 3.5 percent the last part of 2022 versus 2021. As a result, retailers are being more cognizant of spending, hitting retail industry layoffs hard early in 2023 with large year-over-year increases from 2022.
Just how hard are they hitting layoffs? Well, retail industry layoffs are only second to the tech industry in number for January 2023, cutting 13,000 jobs, which amounts to a whopping 3,225 percent increase year-over-year, according to a report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Plans for hiring seem meager at most, with retailers stating they plan to hire only 615 employees, a sharp drop from the 5,901 in January 2022.
How are retailers’ faring with their talent pools as retail industry layoffs continue and they simultaneously struggle to retain quality workers? April Sabral, President and Founder of retailu, shares her thoughts on the current wave of retail industry layoffs and what needs to be done to better hire and retain talent amidst the layoffs.
“Even though we may be hearing retail layoffs are up year-over-year, it’s relevant to where we were last year. This time last year, stores were struggling to stay open with spikes in COVID, along with coming out of a tough season on hiring. So, if we’re considering layoffs in comparison, this does make sense, but it doesn’t give an overall substantial view on the retail industry at large.
The struggle to find retail workers is real, and if you’re not transforming your recruitment approach and trying in other ways to incentivize young people to join the industry, things that will inspire this generation to work in retail is safety and support. I’m seeing a trend on gathering retail field leadership teams together for the first time in three years to invest in their training, and I’m a big believer in training and development as a retail operations leader for over three decades.
Exit interviews from previous employees that I had read were always talking about leaving because of two top reasons. The person that they work for, career planning and training and developing them, they want to be confident and successful in what they’re doing. So, I don’t believe that this has really changed, but I do believe the lack of tolerance for poor leadership has meaning that if the manager does not know how to create a positive workplace, staff just won’t stay anymore. Young people will not stay.
And now with social media, brands need to work even harder at their brand culture to attract workers. I hear the struggles from many leaders in my retail networks, but then I see the other side of the coin where stores are fully staffed, and it comes back to what I just shared.
I do think the struggle will continue. And if you don’t look at your leadership practices, benefits, programs, and pay, then, you know what, this could be a problem that you continue to face. Like I said, young people want to have their opinion heard and they have a lack of tolerance for anything else. Do I believe that we’re going to continue? Yes. But do I believe we can change it? One hundred percent.”
Article written by Cara Schildmeyer.
Stenograph’s MAXScribe™ to Become the Primary Software for Key College Digital Reporting Program
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., March 20, 2023 (Newswire.com) – Stenograph®, LLC announces a partnership with Key College to further its support of court reporter education. Key College has named Stenograph’s digital court reporting software, MAXScribe, the primary software of its Digital Court Reporting Certificate Program. To help prepare students for AAERT Certifications such as CER, CET, and CDR, […]
Marketing Professionals Say AI Influencers are Here to Stay
Let’s talk about AI influencers. You may have heard about Miquela Sousa, the 19-year-old Brazilian-American model and definitely not a real human getting ‘hacked’ in 2018 by a pro-Trump Influencer. No? What about Maybelline unveiling ‘May’, its own digital influencer created to sell mascara? Like it or not, AI influencers, or more concretely, animated […]
The Food Industry’s Understaffing Problem: A Positive Change for Employees and Customers
The food industry is known for its fast-paced, high-stress environment. However, in recent times, the food industry’s understaffing problem has made things much more challenging! The food industry is feeling the pinch of understaffing, with over 60% of establishments admitting they are struggling to recruit enough employees. In spite of that, this challenge has […]


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Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST) reported a troubling double-miss on sales and earnings this week, and the fintech’s stock has suffered as a result.
The artificial lending start-up is going through a period of slowing sales growth and loan originations, which resulted in a severe deterioration of Upstart Holdings’ financial metrics. The fourth quarter forecast is nothing short of disastrous.
If the investment case for Upstart Holdings didn’t die before the third-quarter earnings report, it certainly did now.
Huge Double-Miss On Sales And Earnings
Upstart Holdings missed earnings by a wide margin in the second quarter of this year due to a slowdown in its core business of personal loan origination.
This week, the fintech released its Q3’22 results, and Upstart Holdings missed on sales and earnings by even greater margins than in the previous quarter. The AI-powered lending startup reported a 24-cent loss per share, which was significantly higher than the 8-cent loss per share predicted by analysts.
Upstart Holdings also disappointed investors by reporting third-quarter sales of only $157.2 million, when the market expected $169.4 million.
The double-miss highlighted that the fintech’s business model is undergoing a painful transition period, which has resulted in a decline in all of Upstart Holdings’ profit metrics. The transition is primarily marked by a significant slowdown in the fintech’s loan originations, which has resulted in significantly slower sales growth.
Sales at the AI lending company fell 31% YoY in Q3’22 as the environment for personal loan originations deteriorated throughout the quarter. In Q3’22, Upstart Holdings generated only $157.2 million in sales, well below its guidance of $170 million.
Upstart Holdings also reported significantly lower profit figures across the board, from operating income to adjusted earnings per share. One of the most compelling reasons to invest in Upstart Holdings in the past was the fintech’s ability to generate profitable growth. Unfortunately, with losses increasing in Q3’22, this reason can no longer be used to justify purchasing the fintech’s stock.
Very Disappointing Guidance
The worst part of Upstart Holdings’ Q3’22 earnings presentation was the forecast for the fourth quarter, which predicts even lower sales.
The fintech anticipates sales of $125-145 million, representing a QoQ decline of at least 8% due to a slowing economy and softer investor demand for loans.
Upstart Holdings’ fourth-quarter guidance implies a 56% YoY decrease in sales compared to the previous quarter. Furthermore, Upstart Holdings anticipates a $40 million loss in adjusted net income in the fourth quarter.
Sales Estimates May Still Be Too High
The market anticipates $860.1 million in sales this year and less than 1% YoY sales growth next year. As a result, sales growth has essentially ceased, and the fintech no longer provides investors with profitable growth.
Furthermore, if interest rates rise and investment demand for personal loans remains weak, those estimates may still be too high.
Upstart Holdings trades at 1.5 times sales, but the fintech is no longer profitable and continues to lose money, which is unlikely to change in the near term. The sales trajectory is also deeply concerning, which is why UPST is likely to set new lows in the coming weeks.
Why Upstart Holdings Could See A Higher Valuation
Higher interest rate costs have slowed demand and originations for personal loans at Upstart Holdings. To tip the scales in favor of the fintech, the central bank would need to slow its rate hikes and reduce interest rate uncertainty.
There is little hope for Upstart Holdings to grow into a higher valuation as long as loan originations do not recover. Furthermore, as interest rates rise, there is a greater likelihood that loan defaults will rise, making it even more difficult for Upstart Holdings to find investors for its loans.
Upstart Holdings’ Q3’22 earnings presentation, in particular the outlook for Q4’22, was a disaster. Clearly, the fintech sees no short-term improvement in its business trajectory, which unfortunately points to origination weakness and valuation losses in the future.
The forecast for Q4’22 implies an 8% QoQ drop in sales, and Upstart Holdings no longer checks the box for profitable growth. Because the valuation multiple remains high, investors have few reasons to invest here.


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As a leader in organic ingredients, High Quality Organics makes a point to attend BioFach in Nuremberg, Germany every year. BioFach is the largest organic tradeshow in the world, with over 48,000 attendees from 130 different countries and 2,325 exhibitors. This year, our European team showcased some of our top-selling superfoods maca root, kale powder, turmeric, quinoa and yerba mate while members of our North American team walked the show, met with suppliers and took in the trends that are taking shape in the European market. Below are the top trends our team saw at the show.
Superfoods – This area of the food industry appears to be constantly evolving. This year our team saw a lot of maca, kale, turmeric (known as curcumen in Europe) and baobab in everything from smoothies to energy bars.
How are these superfoods being used? You can learn all about organic maca root in our product highlight sheet here. Organic kale powder is a versatile superfood being used in smoothies, baked goods and snack foods while turmeric is expanding its reach into teas, rice dishes, smoothies and juices. If you’re interested in purchasing bulk supplies of organic maca, kale and turmeric powder, you can contact a HQO sales representative at 775-971-8550 or email us.
Coconut – Coconut water took North America by storm a few years ago, growing 50% between 2013-2015, and while the growth of coconut water has slowed, it’s still showing double digit increases year over year. At the same time, other coconut-based products (oil, flakes, sugar) are making a stronger presence in the marketplace. During the show, our team saw several uses of coconut products in a wide variety of food products.
Biodynamic & Demeter Certified – This was the number one trend our CEO, Raju Boligala, noted at BioFach. All of us at HQO were stumped. We knew about biodynamic but had never heard of Demeter. Low and behold it’s the oldest ecological certification in the world! You can learn more about biodynamic agriculture and Demeter certified product in our latest video here.
Plant-Based Proteins – While only 6% of Americans claim to be vegan and 7% claim to be vegetarian, over 36% of Americans prefer to use plant-based alternatives when it comes to animal products. Additional research shows anywhere from 26%-41% of people are consuming less animal products than they did a year ago. So, what does that mean for the food industry? Consumers are seeking out more plant-based food solutions, especially when it comes to protein. At BioFach, our team noticed a significant amount of hemp seeds, quinoa and chia seeds in a variety of foods, especially baked goods.
Digestion-Focused Foods – More and more people are learning that the health of our body is largely related to the health of our gut. Probiotics, yogurt and kefir have, as a result, seen significant growth in recent years. (Probiotic supplements grew 30% year over year in 2013 according to Eric Pierce of New Hope Media.) Other products that encourage digestion or are anti-inflammatory have also been growing. Two very popular items noted at BioFach were ginger-based a turmeric-based drinks. Ginger, long known to aid in digestion, has been available in tea form for some time. However, we’re seeing it pop up in more beverages like fresh-pressed juice and smoothie mixes. As noted above, turmeric-based juices and smoothies were also seen in abundance.
Ready-To-Eat Organic Shelf-Stable Meals – More and more consumers are demanding convenient foods that are equally nutritious. Millennials are driving this need and food companies in Europe are answering with shelf-stable meals that are certified organic. Our team saw several new products throughout BioFach.
Organic Cotton Clothes – While it still remains a small segment of the organic industry, organic textiles growing. In fact, the Organic Trade Association’s 2016 Industry Survey notes that organic fiber (mainly cotton) is the fastest growing portion of the non-food segment and its expected to grow even faster in 2016, at roughly 16%. During BioFach, Our team witnessed many organic cotton clothing products and noted they definitely had more of a presence than years past.
Were you or members or your company in attendance at BioFach this year? If so, what trends did you see?


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The year 2019 was one of the worst for India’s auto sector, with a general slowdown putting the brakes on sales. All eyes are now on India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman and her second Union Budget to be presented on 1 February 2020.
Will there be some respite for carmakers? Will prices come down after the Union Budget? Will consumer sentiment improve and buyers have more money in their pockets after the Budget? Here’s a look at some of the Budget 2020 expectations from India’s automakers.
Electric Vehicle Focus
Automakers have sought measures like a reduction in GST (goods and services tax) and removing import duty on lithium-ion batteries (to boost electric vehicle sales).
Carmakers who are offering electric vehicles already are upbeat about the government’s announcements. However, they feel that more work needs to be done to promote electric vehicle (EV) adoption in India not only in public transport but amongst private customers as well.
"“We hope the government provides the right policy, incentives, and charging infrastructure to put more EVs on the road. It should also look at providing incentives to stakeholders for sourcing critical raw materials for EV battery manufacturing in India.”" - Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commercial Officer, MG Motor India
Companies feel this will enable a strong EV-centric ecosystem and will be beneficial for the long-term growth of this space.
However, demand is likely to be weak in the coming months for new cars owing to the shift to Bharat Stage 6 emission norms (BS-VI), which will increase the prices of all new vehicles, across the board.
“The government should also look at offsetting the increase in GST costs due to the recently-introduced BS-VI norms to stimulate market demand for ICE vehicles,” says Gupta of MG Motor India.
The Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM) also sees demand dropping in the next few months.
"“From April 1 after implementation BS-VI norms the cost of cars will increase and that will lead to a decline in demand. We want the government to lower GST so that auto sales does not get affected.”" - Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM
SIAM also sees prices of commercial vehicles going up between 8 to 10 percent because of BS-VI emission norms, especially for diesel vehicles because of the more expensive emission control systems that will be used.
Industry experts say that automakers are expecting the government to reduce GST from 28 percent to 18 percent on some categories of vehicles. However, with GST being a key revenue earner for the government, they aren’t quite optimistic about this, considering the last time around the government did not change GST slabs for cars.
Besides that carmakers are also hoping the government comes out with an incentive-based scrapping policy. This will get old vehicles off the road and encourage buyers to pick up new ones (boosting demand), while offering some monetary incentives.
Automakers have collectively proposed a 50 percent reduction in GST, registration and road tax for those who scrap their old cars for a new one.
Watch this space for more expectations from the industry in the coming days.
. Read more on Car and Bike by The Quint.RSS & BJP’s Nehru-Netaji ‘Cosplay’: Irony Dies a Thousand DeathsBudget 2020: Will There Be Respite For The Auto Industry? . Read more on Car and Bike by The Quint.


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Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting CHNEWS to 80360, or email
Nominate your favourite small business urges Skipton MP Julian Smith
8:00am Monday 21st October 2013 in News
A list of nominated businesses will be compiled ahead of Small Business Saturday – December 7 – where the work done by small firms across the UK will be celebrated.
The campaign is being backed by Prime Minister David Cameron who said: “Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, providing nearly half of all private sector jobs. Since 2010 we’ve seen over 300,000 of them start up.”
Mr Smith added: “Yorkshire is one of the most entrepreneurial parts of the country and it is those people who are starting or growing a business who are driving Britain’s recovery. It is important we celebrate those small businesses and thank everyone who is creating jobs and taking a risk to support our economy. So, if you know of a great entrepreneur or great business in your area, let us know.”
Nominations can be made at yourfavouritesmallbusiness.com.


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Meta, the parent company for social media giant Facebook, dove into the metaverse and other fledgling Web3 concepts late last year. While some of its products are yet to pick up steam, its non-fungible token (NFT) offering and metaverse are taking shape.
However, the company appears to have hit a major snag this week after it revealed plans to monetise its metaverse app.
High Fees For An Upcoming Product
On Monday, Meta announced that it would open Horizon Worlds – its virtual reality and metaverse platform – to a handful of creators to sell digital items and other collectibles. In a blog post, the holding company confirmed that the testing phase would open the door to a much larger rollout as it continues to build an all-inclusive metaverse.
While progress on its grand ambition is impressive, investors and users quickly caught one distressing detail – Met’s pricing structure for the new product. As the blog post confirmed, Meta plans to take up to 47.5% off each transaction.
A breakdown of Meta’s proposed pricing plan shows that the company plans to take 30% of the price of every item sold in Horizon Worlds via its Oculus virtual reality platform. The remaining 17.5% will go to the Meta App Store. This is even more than Apple’s massive App Store fee, which stands at 30%. It is also much more than most NFT enthusiasts are accustomed to paying.
For reference, OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace globally, takes just a 2.5% cut from each NFT sale – while the token’s creators take fees varying between 2.5% and 7.5%.
Blowing The Competition Out Of The Water
Of course, it is worth noting that the items Meta plans to offer aren’t pure-play NFTs. Horizon Worlds (formerly known as Facebook Horizon) is a virtual reality online video game that allows people to build and explore virtual ecosystems. So the items that will be for sale are more kin to animation and skins available in top gaming titles like Apex Legends and Fortnite.
Regardless, Meta wants to build a virtual world that competes with Decentraland and The Sandbox platforms. These platforms already sell real-world items as NFTs, and Meta’s pricing structure for Horizon Worlds looks like a sign of what is to come when the platform integrates NFTs fully.
The company’s released pricing structure already angered several members of NFT Twitter, with one person tweeting, “The future of work is giving Meta 47.5% of your salary, apparently.”
Open Or Close?
While the social media giant’s fees seem exorbitant, there’s also an argument about the future of the metaverse – which Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg believes we could all live in at some point.
A metaverse is a digital world frequented by many people. However, as the trend grows, many ask whether metaverses should be closed or opened. A closed metaverse is run by a central entity that owns all assets in the metaverse. An open metaverse allows people to buy and own items as NFTs and exchange them for cryptocurrencies.
The Sandbox, currently one of the crypto industry’s standards for the metaverse, allows people to buy virtual blocks of property and use them as physical property. Creators can also make in-world items and sell them for SAND tokens, which they can exchange for other assets and make money.
It doesn’t necessarily seem like Meta has plans to build an open metaverse. The company would most likely control everything that happens in its universe. But its planned 47.5% fee for sales has rubbed many the wrong way.


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The world’s biggest automaker has turned its attention to the ride-sharing market and has announced a partnership with Uber.
After General Motors announced it had teamed up with Lyft at the beginning of the year in a $500-million deal, many were left wondering what GM knew and the rest of the automotive giants didn’t. GM’s massive cash injection and Lyft’s strategy focuses on driverless cars for the future.
It took five months for the rest of the industry to catch up and Toyota has now chosen its ridesharing company. Toyota announced that its partnership with Uber was one of understanding and exploration, commonly known as a memorandum of understanding, and there’ll be trials and tests in different countries where ridesharing has proven popular.
Toyota’s senior managing officer, Shigeki Tomoyama, said in a joint statement: “Through this collaboration with Uber, we would like to explore new ways of delivering secure, convenient and attractive mobility services to customers.”
TMC made the investment in Uber from its Mirai Creation division, but no actual amount was announced.
There’ll be a big focus on leasing deals which will allow drivers to use Toyota’s vehicles and their earnings as Uber drivers will cover their payments. Toyota and Uber are also looking at in-car applications as well as a program to purchase vehicles directly.
Uber chief business officer Emil Michael said: “Toyotas are among the most popular cars on the Uber platform worldwide and we look forward to collaborating with Toyota in many ways in the future.
In the South African market, the Toyota Corolla Quest is a hot favourite among Uber drivers thanks to a sterling reputation for reliability and great cabin space. It was recently updated, which you can read about here.


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Should smartphones with OLED displays really take off, Apple won't be short on suppliers as another company is reportedly betting big on producing the high-end displays.
Electronics giant LG is reportedly investing a whopping $3.56 billion into one of its factories to produce OLED smartphone screens with hopes of becoming a secondary supplier for Apple, sources familiar with the matter tell ET News.
The investment is said to shift focus from producing OLED panels for TVs to producing ones intended for smartphones, suggesting a rise in demand for OLED displays.
It also could mean Apple intends to become a major customer for the display technology for the foreseeable future.
- Find this month's best iPhone deals
OLED-ing the pack
While Apple has yet to confirm the iPhone 8 will use any kind of OLED display, rumor upon rumor has the company ditching flat LCD screens and using a curved OLED display similar to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus.
- Redemption time: Everything to know about the Samsung Galaxy Note 8
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March 28, 2024 – Culemborg, the Netherlands – As it continues to expand its distribution network in the Middle East, Newland EMEA recently announced a new distribution partnership with Redington, unlocking new business opportunities in the region for both companies.
Redington is a leading IT technology solutions provider across information technology, mobility, telecom, cloud, lifestyle and solar verticals. It has a footprint across 38 markets, including 60 subsidiary offices. With over 290 plus brand associations and 39,500+ channel partners, it is transforming the distribution and supply chain ecosystem through synergy between innovation and technology adoption.
Founded in The Netherlands in 2009, Newland EMEA continues to expand in the market. Providing scanning solutions in over 60 countries across the region, Newland EMEA is a leading player in the auto-id industry and sets out to make scanning solutions available and accessible to businesses of all sizes.
The partnership underlines both companies’ mission to expand in the region and help businesses accelerate their operations with an eye on teamwork, a customer-first approach and reliability. Redington’s solutions, services, and local partner networks will help organizations leverage Newland EMEA’s scanning and mobility solutions in digitizing their operations.
Roberto Schiavo, Vice President of Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa states: “We’re excited to enter the new year with a new partnership that allows us to broaden our brand visibility while helping more organizations use our reliable solutions for faster business operations. We believe the partnership with Redington, who prioritize people over products and have the local expertise we need, was the next logical step in our strategy to bring our solutions closer to end-users and to make their daily tasks easier, faster, and more intuitive.”
Mr. Jeetendra Berry, President, End Point Solutions Group shares his view on the partnership: “"Collaborating with Newland EMEA opens doors to an extensive array of dependable scanning and mobility solutions tailored for our channel partners. Amidst the challenges of digitization and technological advancements, our partnership ensures that our channel partners receive access to a diverse portfolio of intuitive solutions. This not only simplifies adoption but also enhances our ability to serve our customers effectively."
The partnership marks an important milestone for Newland EMEA to expand business in a key region and to offer accessible scanning solutions throughout the EMEA region.
For further information on Newland EMEA, please visit: www.newland-id.com
Stacie Adams, Marketing Director, Newland EMEA
Tel: +31 (0) 345 87 00 33
Newland EMEA (Newland Europe BV), founded in 2009, sets out to make daily tasks easier, faster, and more intuitive. As a leading player in the AIDC industry, Newland EMEA makes scanning solutions available to businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Equipped with a truly comprehensive barcode scanning portfolio consisting of stationary, handheld, wearable, mobile computer, micro kiosk, IVD scanners, and OEM scan engines, the scanning solution manufacturer works together with partners, distributors, and resellers in the region to provide intuitive data capture technology in a complex business landscape. It’s simplicity through efficiency.
See more information about Newland EMEA on their website https://www.newland-id.com/.


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Up to 150,000 auto workers could walk out this week in a strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
In addition to concerns over pay, workers are worried about what electric vehicles mean for their future.
NPR’s Camila Domonoske
reports on how the transition to electric vehicles has many autoworkers concerned about their job security.
And Senior White House Correspondent Tamara Keith
reports on why the UAW hasn’t endorsed President Biden for re-election in 2024.
Email us at firstname.lastname@example.org


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In the last week of August, 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") and the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") officially published their final rules concerning consumer notification of breaches of protected health information ("PHI"). Congress mandated that both rules be issued under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ("HITECH") Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The HITECH Act expanded the reach of the health data breach notification rules to personal health record (PHR) vendors and entities that market devices that allow consumers to upload their own health information. Some examples of these types of devices are body composition analyzers, blood pressure cuffs and pedometers. This marks the first time that federal medical privacy regulations have been applied to organizations that are not "covered entities" or their business associates, and also marks the first time that HHS and the FTC have been directed by Congress to engage in coordinated rulemaking.
Click here to read a Client Advisory by Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge regarding the new health data breach notification rules.


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Stock Alert: McCormick Touchs New High; Co. Sees Increased Demand For Products
(RTTNews) - Shares of spice maker McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MKC) are climbing more than 3% Thursday morning and touched a new high of $174.76.
Wednesday, the company reportedly said it was seeing increased demand for its products in China as home cooking is still popular and expects to stay for some more time.
McCormick stock is currently trading at $174.58. It has gained more than 50% in less than two months.


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Israeli flavor and fragrance company Frutarom has announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art plant opening in Johannesburg, South Africa as part of its growth strategy in emerging markets.
The center will house operations for research and development, innovation, laboratories, sales and marketing and production and is seen as a reinforcement of the company’s current operations in South Africa, which has seen it deepen its activities in sub-Saharan countries (Kenya, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Congo) in recent years.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony for the plant, Frutarom President and CEO Ori Yehudai said, “Frutarom sees Africa as being a major growth engine for its activity. We intend to leverage our development and production capabilities in South Africa for the local South African market and also as a regional innovation center for the entire continent. Africa continues enjoying a growth rate of over 5 per cent a year. The rapid urbanization process and expanding middle class are leading to a rise in food and beverage consumption, resulting in growing demand for flavors and specialty fine ingredients. This economic environment provides a suitable basis of activity for Frutarom, which views the emerging markets overall, and in Africa especially, as one of its main growth engines.”
Indeed, the company has invested heavily in the market over recent years where in 2013 it acquired South African flavors company JannDeRee and also American company Hagelin, which has extensive activity in the South African market. In 2015 the company acquired Indian flavors and fragrances company Sonarome with activity in over 20 African countries.
Darrell Grey, Managing Director, Frutarom South Africa said,”South Africa remains a key country for foreign investment and we believe Africa will play a vital role in the medium to long term future of the food and beverage industry at large. The shift in mind set across the continent to move from a trading to manufacturing economy bodes well for Africa’s future.”


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RTE could earn as much as euro 1.6 million in advertising revenue from the three Irish World Cup games in Japan, according to media sources.
The state broadcaster will charge euro 20,000 for a 30 second ad slot during live coverage of the games. An extra euro 4,000 will get advertisers the top spot, the first ad during each commercial break.
According to a cost-per-viewer ratio, this price makes commercials more expensive than ad time during the U.S. Super Bowl. Audience viewing figures will be tough to gauge, as the first game, at 7:30 a.m. Irish time will see most viewers at home, whereas the other two games will be midweek during lunch hour and after.
If Ireland qualifies for the next round, analysts expect the euro 20,000 price to be hiked.


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The cancelled release of The Interview and a trail of leaked emails between executives and movie stars threw an unwelcome spotlight on Sony Pictures. The giant corporation it is part of has suffered no less of a testing time.
Sony produces everything from batteries to Bowie, straddling technology hardware, music and movies like no other business. The Japanese company is big, with all the ingredients to take advantage of media convergence, but it is not always successful. It seems to be perpetually restructuring itself, trying to reduce costs and battling with a powerful array of competitors: Microsoft, Warner Bros and Apple.
Over the past few years, movies have been a bright spot for it. The company has benefited from the revival of the Spider-Man and James Bond franchises. The music arm has also done well, relying on two men: Simon Cowell and the late Michael Jackson. Sony half-owns Syco, the production company behind The X Factor and Got Talent brands, and also owns Jackson’s back catalogue. There is a similar success story in games consoles, where the PlayStation 4 strongly outsold Microsoft’s Xbox One and the pair marginalised Nintendo.
However, the division that generated the most profit last year is the one that few associate with Sony in Europe – its banking and insurance arm, which mainly operates in Japan.
Its mere existence is a clue to Sony’s sprawl. Founded in Tokyo in 1946, the company grew to become a world leader in media and consumer electronics, famous for the Sony Walkman and some of the earliest mobile phones. But that didn’t stop it struggling with new realities when faster-moving rivals moved into its territory.
No wonder that an outsider to Japan, the Welsh-born Sir Howard Stringer, was appointed to lead a shake-up. He was partially successful, somehow keeping up with a punishing travel schedule that saw him split his time between Tokyo, New York and, every so often, the family home in Oxfordshire.
Sir Howard championed a “four-screen” strategy, arguing that Sony could lead the technology pack by producing everything from smartphones to tablets to personal computers and TVs.
Soon after he stepped down two years ago, the strategy changed. Spooked by a credit rating cut to junk status, Sony moved quickly, selling its Vaio laptop division and spinning off its Bravia TV-making arm, which had been squeezed by rivals Samsung and LG and unprofitable for a decade.
Sony’s president and chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, intent on reducing its 141,000-strong workforce, also flagged that the group would post a net loss for the second year running.
His desire for change is worth noting, as Sony’s movie-making bosses reel from being hacked by outsiders. The next threat to them could be characterised as the enemy within. Part of Mr Hirai’s plan to get Sony into shape is to slash $300m (£190m) of costs from the movie division by the end of next year. Could cyber terrorists ever hope to wreak such devastation?
Telecoms mergers? We might have to get down an all fours
You have to wonder whether Gavin Patterson, the BT chief executive, will be quite so effective in the auction of Premier League rights next spring as he was at playing rival mobile networks O2 and EE off against each other. Now that BT has linked arms with EE – a £12.5bn move that recreates the giant it used to be – the question is how will the competition react?
At a telecoms industry drinks party this week to mark the departure of a long server – one who remembers when a little company called Vodafone was spun out of Racal Electronics – people were eyeing each other nervously, wondering who will be working for whom this time next year.
Now it has been jilted at the altar, O2 is in play. It could be an interesting prospect for Sky, which has always insisted it didn’t need a mobile network, but the £10bn price tag might be too much for Hutchison Whampoa, whose Three network bought O2 in Ireland last year. Vodafone buying out broadband provider TalkTalk makes sense, but a bolder deal would be for it to join forces with Virgin Media’s owner, Liberty, to pair mobile and cable assets across Europe.
Of course, all this activity is predicated on the coming of “quad play” – the idea that consumers are itching to buy their landline, broadband, pay-TV and mobile package all from the same supplier.
It sounds a great idea, and if these new corporate titans can tie up customers in this way, the chances are they will never leave. But look at the numbers from Virgin Media, Britain’s first quad player: after eight years, only 17 per cent of its customers buy all four services from the business.
That is academic for Sharon White, newly announced as the next chief of the telecoms regulator Ofcom, for whom life amid all these takeovers will get very interesting.
How to cultivate a business contact: work at Christmas
An old friend was rejoicing over how well a foreign contract was going when I met him for a Christmas drink this week. The reason the relationship had got off to such a good start a year ago is that, bored of spending time with his family on Christmas Day, he was idly scrolling through messages on his smartphone and responded to an email from the client.
With a work ethic like that on the laziest afternoon of the year, they couldn’t refuse.Reuse content


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Posted by Elizabeth Olmsted on November 1, 2011
While we U.S.-based folk may not be concerned about calling plans and smartphone addicts across the pond, we can certainly learn a lot from UK statistics. Econsultancy, thankfully, shared them with us. Today, they reported that 70 percent of surveyed companies had not optimized their websites for the mobile phone. While it seems like a strikingly high number at first glance, a second pass with the glasses on reveals that this figure includes companies that have created dedicated mobile sites. But here is the debate: Can your site be optimized without a separate mobile site? Apple, the enchantress of design-technology fusion, shows us that this can be done. The question is, what will work for your e-commerce plan?
Read the full article at econsultancy.com/blog.
Walmart, a leader in innovation? Apparently! The giant retailer’s computer-centric research group, @WalMartLabs, is developing a new type of spur-of-the-moment social network. Using their mobile phones, consumers shopping in a store can connect with other in-store shoppers to get opinions from those in near proximity at that exact moment.
Read the full article at internetretailer.com.
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