text:
Volvo news and updates keep you informed, amused, and in the know.
NHTSA Awards 11 Volvo Models a 5-Star Safety Rating for 2021
Eleven 2021 Volvo car models have earned five stars, the highest possible safety rating, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s New Car Assessment Program. Here are the award winners:
- 2021 Volvo S60 T5
- 2021 Volvo S60 T6 AWD
- 2021 Volvo V60 T5
- 2021 Volvo XC40 T5 AWD
- 2021 Volvo V60 T5 AWD Cross Country
- 2021 Volvo XC40 T4
- 2021 Volvo XC60 T5 / T5 AWD
- 2021 Volvo XC60 T6 AWD
- 2021 Volvo XC90 T5 / T5 AWD
- 2021 Volvo XC90 T6 AWD
- 2021 Volvo XC90 Recharge T8 eAWD
Volvo has a stellar history as a leader in passenger vehicle safety innovation. In 1959 the company introduced the three-point safety belt, one of the most important safety innovation ever invented. Since then Volvo has introduced many more world firsts in safety, including the rearward-facing child seat, the Side Impact Protection System (SIPS), the inflatable curtain, roll stability control, and many more. Research shows these innovations have saved more than one million lives.
Volvo News or Wishful Thinking?
Rumor has it that Volvo is preparing to launch two new crossovers, according to dealers who spoke on the condition of anonymity with Automotive News. The two new crossovers – the XC100 and C40 – will grow the automaker’s lineup with two innovative vehicles.
The XC100 will give Volvo a luxury flagship SUV while the C40, a coupe-style version of the XC40 crossover, will give the brand a modern update for younger buyers. Sounds like a good plan, but we’ll have to wait and see if these new models make the cut.
Not So Fast!
Volvo recently announces it will go ahead with plans to introduce an electronic speed limiter across its model range. First announced in early 2019, the limiter will cap the top speed of Volvos on at 180 kph (approximately 112 mph). The innovation will be implemented on all models beginning with the 2021 catalog.
112 mph is well above the legal speed limit for most public roads around the globe, though it will put a damper on Volvo fans who enjoy track days or high-speed jaunts on Germany’s Autobahns. The limiter won’t be implemented on models from Volvo’s sister brand Polestar for now.
The 2020 Volvo S60 Looks Like a Million Bucks (But costs a lot less!)
Redesigned for 2019, the 2020 Volvo S60 rolled into the new decade with a swagger. From the sophisticated style and advanced safety to the intuitive onboard technology and surprising base price, the 2020 S60 ushered in a model that could finally compete in the luxury mid-size sedan arena.
With a base price starting at only $37,000, Volvo lovers now have an affordable option that competes with the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and other long-time favorites. With a TCC Rating of 7.3 out of 10 the 2020 Volvo S60 gets it right with gorgeous design, impressive handling, and highly-useful technology.
in other volvo news…
Check out the mystery of the odd Saffron V70 R. You’ll either love it or hate it, but it sure gets attention.
In the popular TV series, The Simpsons, Bart’s school principal drives a Volvo—but can you figure out which model it is?
scot850 » https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94553#p550083
“Ahem, I have a similar issue of getting under my cars. My chest appears to have slipped downwards and joined with my waist moving upwards. My solution is to build a very expensive garage and put a hoist in it (hopefully!!).”


text:
Over 150 US-based corporations have laid off over 37,000 folks in 2022, a report by VCO confirmed. Most layoffs had been reported in June with 75 US-based tech corporations shedding its staffers.
This affected nearly each tech firm from startups like Robinhood, Gemini, On Deck and Hopin to the ‘massive names’ like Tesla, Netflix, Twitter, Meta and others.
In accordance with Crunchbase, solely 9% of tech-workers are feeling safe about their jobs in August. That is in stark distinction to the 80% workers who felt safe, in March.
So, what occurred in 5 months?
Most massive tech corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft and others both laid off a few of its employees or hinted at possible job cuts in close to future.
High 30 corporations lose $4.3 trillion in 6 months
The market capitalisation of prime 30 expertise corporations dropped $4.3 trillion within the 6 months interval from January 1 to June 1, 2022.
These 30 corporations make up lion’s share of the general tech market worth.
The general market lack of globally listed tech market amounted to at the very least $5-6 trillion. Out of this, prime 30 corporations make up $4.3 trillion, the VCO report confirmed.
In actual fact, Apple and Microsoft alone contribute round $1 trillion of this market worth decline.
For China-based tech corporations, the losses had been estimated to be greater than $2 trillion in worth because the selloff started since late 2020 and early 2021 on account of closely regulated atmosphere.
Excessive-growth and megacap corporations have powered the US inventory marketplace for the previous decade, however elevating of rates of interest by the US Federal Reserve to fight decades-high inflation in addition to a latest sharp rally within the greenback have taken a toll on the shares.
In April, tech shares on Nasdaq 100 fell amid mounting dangers from hovering Treasury yields and hawkish commentary from the Federal Reserve.
Consequently, over $1 trillion in market worth was erased from the tech-heavy benchmark in 5 buying and selling classes.
In January, a whopping $3 trillion was worn out by the point the rout bottomed out, whereas February and March had been comparatively higher, seeing selloffs of $1.7 trillion and $1.5 trillion, respectively. Firms within the index have a mixed market worth of $16.9 trillion, led by Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.
On this yr, until Might 2022, the tech-heavy S&P 500 has misplaced just below one-fifth of its worth. Among the many worst-hit have been Amazon.com (-36%), Tesla (-38%), Meta (-45%), Zoom (-44%), and Shopify (-76%). As an entire, venture-backed corporations which have gone public in the course of the pandemic are down 48%.
Microsoft began, others adopted
Microsoft: Satya Nadella-owned Microsoft was the primary Massive-Tech firm to announce layoffs. In accordance with stories, it affected practically 1% of its 1,80,000-strong workforce throughout its places of work and product divisions.
Netflix: Streaming large Netflix let go of about 450 workers between Might and June this yr. With recurring loss in subscriber depend, weakened share costs and large drop in income, the corporate was pressured to chop prices with the intention to sort out its mounting hurdles.
Tesla: In June, Tesla shut off its San Matteo workplace, shedding 229 of its workers from the “reasonably low-skilled, low-wage” autopilot division. This incident occurred following stories claiming that Musk had a “super-bad feeling concerning the economic system” and was decided to let go of atleast 10% of Tesla’s workers.
Apple: Few days again, the iPhone maker laid off nealry 100 of its contract-based recruiters s ‘a part of a push to scale back its hiring and spending.’
Google: After 2 consecutive quarters of weaker-than-expected earnings, Google warned workers of “dire penalties” except issues began trying up within the subsequent quarter. Having already prolonged its hiring freeze this month, and with the added stress of top-executives at Google not denying the potential for layoffs, workers are nervous for his or her jobs.
Twitter: Amid the entire ‘Elon Musk saga’, Twitter laid off round 100 workers to chop extreme prices. It additionally laid off 30% of its expertise acquisition group amid mounting challenges.
What’s the state of affairs of IT corporations in India
The VCO report mentioned that greater than 12,000 workers working at tech startups in India have misplaced their jobs in 2022.
Up to now few months, edtech corporations like Byju’s, Unacademy have laid off staff.
Whereas highest layoffs had been reported by Unacademy (1,150), Byju’s let go of 550 of its staff. Vedantu was was not far behind at 624.
In the meantime, Ola laid off practically 500 of its employees, MFine lower 600 jobs, and Cars24 reported 600 job cuts.
All layoffs had been attributed to funds drying up following financial coverage tightening by international central banks and correction in fairness markets.
Why corporations are choosing job cuts
* Financial downturn: Excessive inflation, slowing financial exercise and rising rates of interest because of the continued Russia-Ukraine conflict has massively affected macroeconomic actions throughout the globe. With costs of key commodoties rising, economies are feeling the pinch. Most are in a dilemma, whether or not to go for development or curb inflation.
* Value discount: As talked about above, rising inflation and a risk of recession powered by underperformance within the first quarter has pushed tech corporations to look deep into their spendings and take obligatory choices to chop prices and cut back bills. Most corporations are reeling below the burden of excessive enter prices because of provide chain disruptions owing to the Ukraine conflict.
* Acknowledging redundancies: A part of chopping price has been recognising departments and positions which have began turning into redundant and offering recurring decrease return – majorly contains HR, gross sales and recruitment.
* Growing productiveness: As seen within the case of Google, tech corporations, having fallen brief on their expectations within the Q1 outcomes, have amped up the need to extend worker productiveness with the intention to keep forward of the ‘economic system meltdown’ curve and to make up for the underwhelming outcomes of the earlier quarter.
* Crypto winter: Crypto corporations have additionally taken a success and have needed to layoff their workers (Eg: Coinbase has laid off over 1,100 folks in 2022). With large uncertainty over the way forward for this sector, aided by the destructive sentiment round digital foreign money (referred to as ‘crypto winter’), crypto alternate corporations have needed to reimagine their development plans and cut back main prices.

domain: news


text:
Opinion: Knee-jerk responses to the power outages won’t solve Texas’ reliability problem
Consumer protections, local utility upgrades and natural gas availability should be key considerations for lawmakers and regulators.
As Texas digs itself out of the five-layer electricity mess triggered by last month’s freezing weather, we must consider long-term ways to fix our electric grid.
While there are some immediate ways that we can begin to strengthen reliability, we are seeing knee-jerk responses that aren’t likely to be helpful and could waste the opportunity to make real improvements to our system.
The debacle started when heavy ice caused tree branches to short into local utility distribution lines, triggering local outages. Then came bitterly cold weather that drove up electricity demand to record levels while also causing a record number of insufficiently winterized power plants to trip off-line.
With a shortage of supply, the Texas grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, had no choice but to force local utilities to cut power to their customers. Making the situation worse, the power affected water systems.
Extreme cold events rarely occur in our region, but Texans remember a similar disruption in 2011. Many are asking why the lessons from past failures were not codified into effective, mandatory winterization practices instead of only recommended actions. Colder regions elsewhere in the world ensure that their natural gas, coal, nuclear, wind and solar farms are resilient to stretches of extreme cold.
Consumer protection, education and better retail rate transparency should be a focus of the Public Utility Commission. Retail electric provider Griddy has been dropped from the ERCOT wholesale market after the retailer faced the prospect of sending painfully high bills to customers who chose its variable rate plan. Unlike most electricity retailers, Griddy linked its retail price per kilowatt hour to the sometimes wildly volatile real-time wholesale energy price. The majority of time, this plan offered very low retail prices. However, when wholesale prices rose to the market cap of $9,000 per megawatt hour and stayed there for days, Griddy customers weren’t protected.
Further, the PUC and ERCOT should examine its pricing mechanism designed to incentivize more power generation. By adjusting the market to hit the $9,000/MWH cap at a time when many power plants couldn’t operate because of the freeze, regulators ended up boosting prices without boosting the supply of power. If bankruptcy filings are any indication, Texas could face a financial tsunami.
David Tuttle is a research associate in the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.


text:
Here are some of the top customer service trends for 2011, according to some people who get paid to think up this stuff: If your looking for other information please check out www.kmggold.com
1. Social media will play a bigger role. Barry Moltz, who compiles these lists each year, notes that tweeting or posting on Facebook often gets consumers quicker resolutions to their issues than calling the customer service number. And, uh, this isn’t going to revert back in the other direction.
2. “Pricing pandemonium.” With consumers able to whip out their cell phones, scan a bar code and price shop (for example), businesses will continue to look for innovative sales techniques. According to trendwatching.com, stores will increasingly use flash sales (short-timed discounts), group buying (one-day ‘buy-ins’ on Groupon, and others), and point-of-sale discounts via social media like Twitter.
3. Company cultures will become more distinctive. Some of the most successful retailers have a distinct image and identity. Companies will work to align all their employees with the vision, mission, and brand of the company, so that that image and experience will be consistent to consumers, according to Bruce Temkin.
4. In-sourcing will grow. Yes, all those service calls routed to India might be decreasing soon, according to Customer 1, as companies realize that customers like having their problems solved by people who aren’t halfway around the world and whose accents they can readily understand.
5. Customers helping customers. Customer 1 also predicts that “customer communities,” the kind where you ask a question about a product online and other consumers answer it, will grow, and that companies will encourage them because it makes their job easier, and it costs them nothing.
6. More self-service. You can now check yourself in at an airline and out at a supermarket. Also you can do-it-yourself at some auto-rental companies and buy electronics at vending machines. Look for more and more self-service kiosks and the like in 2011, says Barry Moltz.
7. Customer service organizations are going to get way more personal. “Organizations will investigate methods to recommend agent ‘next-best actions’ during the service resolution process which include if and when to offer cross-sell and upsell products or service,” according to Kate Leggett at Forrester. Leggett also predicts an increase in real-time analytics to help with organization’s match-making skills, in order to better pair agents with customers.
8. Companies will continue to expand and analyze the data they collect on you in their ongoing attempts to cater to and anticipate, your every need.
9. Customer Service Will Continue to Grow In the Cloud. William Band over at CustomerThink predicts that 2011 will better recognize the significance and advantages of offering a cloud-based customer support solution. “SaaS has unique characteristics that require new ways of thinking about vendor selection, contracting, risk tolerance, and organizational skill set requirements,” Band says.
10. Support Agents Will Learn From Customers. Looking at voice of the customer trends, Jeffrey Henning says that more companies will be publishing personalized customer feedback and hierarchical reports individualized to a particular agent-customer interaction so that they can learn from specific customers.
Please visit www.kmggold.com


text:
Move over Pepsi, Budweiser and Coca-Cola.
Such national brands, known for big-budget, attention-grabbing advertisements during the Super Bowl, will share the stage this year with regional advertisers looking to make a splash in a more targeted, lower-cost way.
M&T Bank will use the biggest broadcast event of the year to launch a new marketing campaign, "Understanding What's Important," in Baltimore. The series of TV spots will feature bank customers' unscripted accounts of what matters in their lives, including the owner of a Rosedale manufacturing business who makes an emotional tribute to a disabled worker.
Eat24, a restaurant delivery website based in Silicon Valley, also will target Baltimore, plus four other cities, as it goes for exposure with its "Hangry" TV ad. The spot stars rapper Snoop Dogg narrating as comedian Gilbert Gottfried yells at a jar of pickles and mistakes a goldfish for sushi before Eat24 comes to the rescue.
"The Super Bowl is the biggest stage for TV advertising," said Amir Eisenstein, Eat24's chief marketing officer. "We're in a place that we can do it, and we decided to go for it. It was always a dream from the beginning to make it to the Super Bowl, and we finally made it."
Regional players make up about half the advertisers that bought time Sunday evening on WBAL-TV, the NBC affiliate broadcasting the match-up between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, said Dan Joerres, WBAL-TV general manager. Many are automotive, retail, banking and fast-food businesses.
"The show itself has sold very well this year, and that's no surprise," Joerres said. "Live events in local television have become the most sought-after product we have. … The [creativity] that comes out of local customers is typically something that's unique and new to the market, and they use the Super Bowl as a platform to reach the most people they possibly can in one fell swoop. This will be the largest ratings a live event will deliver all year long."
MedStar Health will air two 30-second TV spots focused on the Columbia-based health system's brand, one in Baltimore and another in Washington. The spots, appearing before the game, are part of a multimedia campaign launched in December. MedStar's ads have been featured during the Grammy Awards, the Golden Globes, NFL playoff games and other programs, said Debra A. Schindler, a MedStar spokeswoman.
Ads for Hair Cuttery, a regional chain based in Northern Virginia, will appear pregame in some markets and postgame in others, and will use an existing campaign to promote the brand.
"They are a mass audience brand, and this is an opportunity to reach a mass audience in one shot," said Howe Burch, president of Baltimore-based TBC advertising, the hair salon chain's ad firm.
While Super Bowl ads cost about 10 times more than regular-season ads — an estimated $4.5 million for a 30-second national commercial — local ads fall well below that and vary by market. Joerres declined to discuss rates for local Super Bowl ads. According to one industry estimate, a local 30-second spot shown during the game in Baltimore costs about $65,000.
Local ads are typically shown during breaks at halftime and other times during the game, when networks allow local carriers to run a "pod" of advertising, Burch said.
"In-game is very expensive, but you can buy shoulder programming, which still will deliver ratings significantly higher than a traditional pre-game show on any other Sunday," he said.
The benefits can be substantial, Burch said.
"You're reaching a lot of people at one time," he said. "You would have to buy many spots in many, many programs to reach that … audience. It's a showcase event."
But local ads need to be as effective or even more so than those of national brands, said Helayne Spivak, director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Brandcenter. Otherwise, she said, they risk getting lost in the shuffle.
"The audience is looking for the same things: It's got to cut through, it's got to compete … or you are the first trip to the bathroom," Spivak said. "If you're going to be in that kind of competition ... you better be the shortest person on the basketball team who really knows how to dunk."
M&T will debut its ads before, during and after Sunday's game. Besides Baltimore, the ads will be shown in Salisbury, Washington and markets in Pennsylvania and New York.
A pregame ad stars Wink Mather, president and owner of window and door manufacturer Acadia Windows in Rosedale, talking about his employee, Jessica Markle, who is seated next to him. Markle, who has a developmental disability and also is blind, has worked on the company's assembly line for a decade along with several other disabled workers hired through ARC of Northern Chesapeake.
"What's important to me, and Jess' dad helped remind me of that — the first year that Jess worked for us, one of the best moments of their life was when Jess got her first paycheck, and they went out to dinner, and this young lady paid for it," Mather says during the commerical as he chokes up. "That's what's important."
Mather said in an interview that when his company's longtime bank asked him to participate, he had no idea what he would be asked or talk about or even that Markle would appear too.
Markle's story illustrates his company's "never settle" culture, he said. He said that while Acadia had hired other disabled workers, he initially was concerned about safety because of Markle's blindness. But his employee team leaders reminded him to "never settle" and convinced him they could make it work. And it has.
"Jess is phenomenal," he said. "She completes her tasks correctly and works very steady and produces the volume that we need to produce on a daily basis."
M&T built its campaign around its longtime slogan, "Understanding what's important," said Betsey Locke, group vice president for advertising, promotions and sponsorships, who said launching during Super Bowl is a "great way to connect with audiences. People have made ad watching a pastime."
The Evening Sun
Augie Chiasera, regional president for M&T, said he hears from business and individual customers and "the stories are so compelling. The campaign … gives us a chance to share some of the more compelling stories with the wider community."
Nearly 70 percent of all Baltimore area households will likely watch Sunday's game, the same as last year, said Jim Crowley, a senior vice president and media director at Buffalo-based ad firm Crowley Webb, which worked on the M&T campaign.
Baltimore was targeted by Eat24 because it was one of the website's first East Coast cities and is among its top 10 strongest markets.
"Naturally, the cost is different, that goes without saying," Eisenstein said. "It's more about the targeting, spending the money right and not just going all over. In our marketing efforts, we try and focus our efforts and get the best bang for our buck."
See the M&T ad
Check out M&T Bank's "Understanding What's Important" ad at http://youtu.be/Nnj4qA5nr0E


text:
Will a dual-mode phone do it for Clear? Clearwire is planning to introduce by summer a dual-mode phone that will work on both its WiMAX network and on its parent Sprint’s 3G network.
That Clearwire plans to introduce such a phone is well-known, but the timing has been in question. The report that Clearwire will debut a dual-mode phone in the summer was from Forbes.
Prior to its initial rollout of commercial WiMAX service just over a year ago, Clearwire had referred to such a phone, but none has yet to materialize.
At the time, Nokia had signaled that it might make such a phone, but then it decided against.
HTC has since introduced one of the first dual-mode mobile devices that works on both WiMAX (4G) and 3G networks, but the 3G technology it chose to integrate was GSM, not the CDMA that Sprint’s (and Verizon’s) network is based on.
Rumors about the phone for the Clear network are specific: It is said it will be a touchscreen phone running Google’s Android operating system and designed by HTC.
Pundits seem to be of two minds about the necessity for Clearwire of introducing such a device. On the one hand, some analysts believe that with WiMAX covering a small fraction of potential users thus far, it might be too early to justify the introduction. The flip side of the argument is Clear might become more popular if the company and its partners – including Sprint, Comcast and Time Warner Cable – could offer mobile phone service in the same package with wireless data access.
Clearwire is set to roll out WiMAX in Houston in the next few weeks, with Boston, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., coming by the end of the year.
Forbes quoted Paget Alves, Sprint’s president of business markets, saying that businesses and government agencies – not just consumers – will likely adopt Sprint’s 4G phone when it debuts.


text:
30 July 2012
Channel 4's Paraic O'Brien meets AbFab duo Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders who break some Olympic rules while holding the torch.....
Ads by Google
How to wash 'dry-clean-only' clothes at home
10 new jewellery designers to know
21 things you probably didn't know about Anna Wintour
Miranda Kerr: everyone's cup of tea?
Riccardo Tisci defends Kim Kardashian’s Met Ball dress


text:
Apr 17, 2019 (Euclid Infotech Ltd via COMTEX) -- Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday won a major victory in settling its wide-ranging legal dispute with Apple Inc, signing a six-year patent license deal and a supply agreement that could pave the way to getting its modem chips back in the iPhone, which featured only Intel Corp chips last year.
The settlement also includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm, but the companies did not disclose the amount.
Shares of Qualcomm jumped 22 per cent in late afternoon trading, their biggest gain in more than 19 years. Apple stock was up marginally.
The settlement followed two years of legal conflict between the two companies and came as an opening arguments took place at a trial in federal court in San Diego.


text:
It's been one of the major talking points concerning Far Cry 4: not only can you ride elephants, but you can use them to kill things. The nature doco voiceover guy in this trailer claims the humble elephant has "the destructive power of a true war machine," which is not the way I imagine elephants would like to be seen. But you know, who cares what elephants think.
Far Cry 4
Ubisoft showed some new footage of Far Cry 4 at Gamescom 2014, highlighting the world of Kyrat that players will explore. The new trailer looks at three distinctly different areas from the game, from jungle wildlands to snowy mountaintops and a spiritual retreat.
Far Cry 4 doesn't include playable female characters, but Ubisoft, according to Creative Director Alex Hutchinson, has made a point of ensuring that women fill many prominent roles in the game, including among its primary antagonists. "They're everywhere," he said, "just like life."
Evan and Wes are back from E3, joining Tyler and Cory to discuss the best games they saw. The list goes Far Cry 4, No Man's Sky, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassin's Creed Unity, Evolve, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Oculus Rift DK2, and a game designed just for Evan, Rainbow Six Siege. Read up on all of them in our Best of E3 Awards.
We made it. E3 2014 is over, and we survived the onslaught of Mario and Nathan Drake and Master Chief, pushing our way past the console exclusives to find the best PC games hidden within the massive LA convention center. Surprisingly, the search wasn't too hard. We saw and played more amazing PC games than we expected, from promising indies to big-budget stunners. It wasn't easy to narrow down our best-in-show, but here it is: our list of the 10 best PC games of E3 2014.
In my mind's eye, every hero in every Far Cry game from now until the end of time will be a meathead in a Hawaiian shirt. You might envision him differently. You might even envision him as a her, and if so you'll be probably less than thrilled to find out that you came tantalizingly close to actually playing Far Cry 4 that way, before "workload issues" brought it all to a halt.
Ubisoft kicked off its E3 2014 press conference with the first five minutes of the upcoming Far Cry 4, and then showed us some of its new cooperative action in a lengthy gameplay video. We've played it, and PC Gamer Editor-in-chief Evan Lahti spoke to Ubisoft's Alex Hutchinson at the event about what the developer is adding to its successful FPS formula.
The second thing everyone no doubt thought about after Far Cry 4 was announced (the first was "Oh, cool! What the flying hell is that villain wearing?") was if there'd be a Blood Dragon-like spin-off to follow. Last night, I sat down with Far Cry 4's creative director Alex Hutchinson and asked if that would be the case. Rather than getting a no comment, he gave positive signs that something 'outlandish' could be in the offing.
We got a Far Cry 4 cinematic trailer via the first five minutes of the game earlier today at Ubisoft's conference, and at Sony's conference just now, Ubisoft showed off some proper gameplay footage—which includes co-op. Assassin's Creed Unity, The Division: I'll go out on a limb and say there's a trend here.
Ubisoft began its 2014 E3 press conference with the opening cinematic to Far Cry 4, a lengthy, sweary introduction to the sharp-dressed, short-tempered villain known as Pagan Min. The cinematic represents the first five minutes of the game, according to Ubisoft.
Between Microsoft and EA we're well into E3 2014's trailer assault by now, but wait, there's more! Ubi always put on an odd show, but it'll worth enduring the onstage awkwardness if we get another good look at Assassin's Creed: Unity and its four-player co-op mode. We're expecting Far Cry 4 to break cover as well, and Ubisoft also showed its promising apocalyptic survival shooter, The Division, at the Microsoft conference. There may also be some breakdancing and a cabaret of some description, because Ubisoft. Prepare thyself.
It took me a moment to register that this was real—largely thanks to that audacious suit—but Ubisoft have officially announced Far Cry 4. It's coming to PC, current and last-gen consoles, is due out November this year, and will take place in an entirely new setting in the Himalayas. Don't worry: I've checked, and they do have tigers there.
Expected sequels to popular games often begin their public lives as tiny echoes awash in the din of our media age. Far Cry 4 seems to be following this familiar pattern, with an Ubisoft Shanghai game designer listing—and then removing—a reference to the sequel from his LinkedIn resume, according to a report at Joystiq.
Far Cry 4 might have been inadvertently outed by Drive/Only God Forgives composer Cliff Martinez. In an interview with the site Lost In The Multiplex, Martinez mentions that his future projects include a "video game called Far Cry 4". Somebody has since broken into that interview, stolen the relevant admission, and sped away into the night like Ryan Gosling in a puffy jacket. Unfortunately for the would-be word robbers, the internet has a built-in time travel machine.


text:
Londoners consume 7.7 billion bottles of water every year – they represent 10% of all litter in the Thames and contribute to ocean pollution.
Public awareness of the issue was increasing and Borough Market decided to introduce drinking fountains and phase out the sale of bottled water within six months. The move to become plastic free was a first for a UK market.
The aim of our communications campaign was to demonstrate that putting the environment ahead of profit does not have to be difficult or expensive, and encourage others to follow suit.
Insights and Approach
Our PR strategy and outreach targeted the public, encouraging use of drinking fountains as an alternative to buying single use bottles when visiting the Market.
We also wanted to reach large businesses in London and throughout the UK which had the potential to have a big impact on the environment by following suit.
With various retailers and manufacturers keen to declare their efforts to tackle the plastic issue, it was important to set this move in the context of the Market’s wider sustainability credentials. We demonstrated that this was not greenwash, but part of an ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility.
We provided media with strong imagery to support the story.
Media outreach was supported by a social media campaign using #BoroughFountains, which extended reach through the sharing of articles and pictures. A bright and engaging visual identity was developed for the fountains including posters, floor vinyl, and reusable water bottles.
Barley’s PR outreach achieved 107 pieces of coverage, with 372 million opportunities to see/hear.
National coverage included The Guardian, Mail Online, i, The Sun, Telegraph, Metro, Huffington Post, Refinery 29 and BBC.
London coverage included Evening Standard, City A.M., BBC Radio London, BBC London, ITV London and London Live.
The campaign had an overwhelmingly positive reception on social media, including 30,000 shares of The Guardian article and 66,000 views of the BBC London video on Facebook.
Since the phase out, the fountains are being used by an average of 6,000 people per week. Sales of bottled water have been stopped.
After the launch, Borough Market was continually referenced in articles as an example to follow.
The Market was also cited as leading the way in one of four key European trends to follow for 2018 by Mintel.
Subsequent announcements by the Mayor of London, UK Government, and Network Rail to introduce more public drinking fountains have all referenced Borough Market’s lead.
We continued to receive media requests for comment and interviews almost a year after the launch.
pieces of coverage
opportunities to see/hear
shares of The Guardian article on social media
views of the BBC London video on Facebook
users per week


text:
Estée Lauder announced a partnership with the country’s first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman on Thursday (September 2). The 23-year-old signed a three-year partnership with the beauty brand, representing the first integrated deal by Estée Lauder and The Estée Lauder Companies to celebrate the next generation of leaders.
Gorman will represent Estée Lauder as the first Global Changemaker. She will appear in the company’s brand campaigns debuting in Spring 2020.
“I am so proud to announce my partnership with one of the most iconic beauty brands in the world @esteelauder to bring a new voice to beauty as their first-ever Global Changemaker,” Gordon shared on Instagram. “I will also work with @esteelaudercompanies to inspire change, beginning with founding WRITING CHANGE, a new philanthropic initiative of The Estée Lauder Companies.”
The Estée Lauder Companies will contribute over $3 million to support literacy initiatives through Writing Change. This project is designed to “advance literacy as a pathway to equality, access, and social change.”
View this post on Instagram
Amanda Gorman Inks Deal With Estée Lauder
Although this is Gorman’s first multi-year partnership contract with a publicly-traded company, she isn’t new to the world of brand deals.
Following Amanda Gorman’s rise to stardom at U.S. President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the endorsement contracts started piling up. The 23-year-old signed a contract with IMG Models but turned down $17 million in advertising deals.
“I didn’t really look at the details because if you see something and it says a million dollars, you’re going to rationalize why that makes sense,” Gorman told Vogue after turning down a major deal. “I have to be conscious of taking commissions that speak to me.”
The Harvard grad has confirmed that she’s looking forward to her new opportunity with Estée Lauder.
“Together we will advance equality and social impact through supporting literacy globally,” Gorman shared on social media. “I can’t wait for us to get started!”


text:
- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Tumblr
Spotify acquired the audiobook distribution platform Findaway for €117 million, or roughly $122 million at the time of the deal, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Stockholm-based audio giant first announced it was purchasing the platform, which offers full-service and self-service production for audiobooks, last November. At the time, Spotify’s chief research and development officer, Gustav Söderström, said the deal would “accelerate Spotify’s presence in the audiobook space and will help us more quickly meet that ambition.”
The deal closed on June 15, according to the filing, and Spotify incurred €5 million in acquisition costs. The filing also disclosed that Spotify paid €83 million for the podcast analytic firms Podsights and Chartable in February and €91 million for the AI voice startup Sonantic on July 11.
Spotify first began testing out its audiobook strategy in early 2021 with the release of nine exclusive audiobook recordings with talent like Cynthia Erivo, Forest Whitaker, David Dobrik and Audra McDonald reading a collection of literary classics like Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
On Wednesday, Spotify reported having 188 million paying subscribers during the second quarter. Ad revenue during Q2 increased by 31 percent to €360 million, or roughly $365 million, and represented 13 percent of Spotify’s total revenue.
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day


text:
July 29, 2011 — The global semiconductor industry will grow only 5% in 2011, not 10%, according to updated figures from IC Insights’ Mid-Year Update to The McClean Report. The 2011 IC market is being forecast down from 10% to 4%. A bright spot? The optoelectronics, sensors and discretes (OSD) market should remain at 10% growth.
IC Insights blames weak macro-economic conditions in H1 2011 for the downgraded forecast (see the table for specific economic "headwinds"). Quarterly worldwide economic growth slowed significantly in H1 2011 as compared to 2010, having an impact on electronics and semiconductor http://www.electroiq.com/semiconductors.html industries. The combined effect of the debt ceiling standoff in the US and European debt crises should lessen in H2 2011, IC Insights expects.
|Table. Economic conditions in 2011 and consequences. SOURCE: IC Insights 2011.|
|Unrest in the Middle East (Arab Spring)||Higher cost of oil|
|March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami||Weak Japan IC market in Q2 2011 and supply chain disruptions across the electronics industry.|
|Natural disasters strike the US (tornados, floods, wildfires)||Disruptions in local economies; a hit to US GDP growth|
|European and US debt crises||High levels of consumer/business uncertainty|
Overall, the quarterly worldwide GDP growth figures have been on a fairly steep decline since reaching a very strong level of 4.6% in 2Q10. In fact, the 2Q11 worldwide GDP growth estimate of 3.1% is 33% lower as compared to the level registered one year earlier in 2Q10. Moreover, the 3.1% figure for 2Q11 is only 0.6 points above the global recession mark of 2.5% growth.
IC Insights expects 2H11 worldwide GDP growth to be better than H1. Japan’s GDP should be bolstered by post-earthquake investment and re-building efforts. Falling gasoline prices should boost the US economy, along with post-earthquake automotive boost, and increased capital spending under tax breaks. The brighter H2 should drive a moderately better H2 semiconductor market, as compared to the first half.
IC Insights’ 2011 Mid-Year Update is included as part of the new "Half-Year" subscription to The McClean Report and to full-year 2011 McClean Report subscribers. View http://www.icinsights.com/services/mcclean-report/ for more information.


text:
DP World's TURN8 Seed Accelerator initiative, a unique collaboration between enterprise and innovators that encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, brought 10 winning startups and relevant industry investors under one roof at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Dubai this week.
The Demo Day is held at the end of each round of TURN8, now in its third round with more than double the number of entrepreneurs making it through to the final stage compared to previous editions. This signals a positive and upward trend for the programme's success in fulfilling its aim to inject entrepreneurial know-how into the region and accelerate commercialise-able ‘ideas to market.' Among the innovative start-up ideas presented before more than 100 investors, is s-Mart, an intuitive retail business software that transforms any public screen and digital display into a touch sensitive shopping terminal; LoadMe, an online market place for freight exchange tailored for the Middle East allows transporters to connect with load owners in real-time; and Fhab is a social network that lets users share real emotions through selfie videos. Fhab's algorithm uses emotion data to allow advertisers to target audiences based on emotion.
The event marks the culmination of the entrepreneurs' journey over the last four months in developing their business plans, with the aim of sourcing seed funding from prospective backers in the investment community.
DP World Chairman, HE Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, said, "This event underlines our commitment to support and encourage the development of a culture of innovation and enterprise with Dubai as the hub for such activities.
"DP World supports this initiative in the firm belief that this nation continues to be a place that nurtures and encourages fresh ideas as it was for our founding fathers. We are on a path to be a world leader in building a smart society where we use technology, innovation and enterprise to drive our ambitions and achieve our goals. As a company we also believe in adopting the latest technologies to boost efficiency and enhance our services with smart processes in order to increase our customers' competitiveness and lower supply chain costs.
"With the UAE as the host of Expo 2020 in Dubai we believe the marketplace offers many opportunities for inventions that support local economic drivers like trade and logistics, the retail industry, travel & leisure, entertainment, health and education. We wish all the entrepreneurs the very best." A key note speaker at the event, BP Ventures Managing Director, Issam Dairanieh, said, "Technology is at the heart of everything we do and our screening process for new ideas is very detailed and comprehensive. My advice to entrepreneurs is to be very clear on what the market needs and also on what they expect from investors. Investors such as big companies that might take an idea to the commercial market also need to be patient as projects can take longer and require more funding than first anticipated." The event was followed by the launch of round four of the programme, which will begin once again with an online and event-based international scouting campaign, followed by a 120-day funded ‘rapid fire' incubator programme aimed at turning early-stage ideas into investor grade prototypes.


text:
Moosejaw CMO Dan Pingree will lead a session titled “Driving A Decent Specialty Approach At The World’s Largest Retailer (While Still Remaining Well-Coiffed)” at Retail TouchPoints Live! @ RetailX next week. During the session, Pingree will reveal how the brand has stayed true to its roots while also leveraging the benefits and opportunities presented by selling products on one of the world’s largest online platforms.
Retail TouchPoints Senior Editor Glenn Taylor caught up with Pingree ahead of the event to get a quick preview of the session. Pingree revealed:
Check out the full video above to learn more about Pingree’s inspirations and experiences as a member of the retail industry. And don’t forget to register for Retail TouchPoints Live! @ RetailX to get a front row seat during his session on Wednesday, June 26!


text:
Moscow, Russia – 1st November 2016 – Colliers International has been instructed by Stockmann Group as exclusive advisor to investigate a possible disposal of the freehold interest in Nevsky Center located in the heart of Saint Petersburg.
Moscow, October 18, 2016 – Falling vacancy caused by banking institutions occupying large office facilities for their own use
Moscow, 8 September 2016. – The investment company O1 Properties, one of the largest owners of A-class office property in Moscow, has agreed a long-term lease with the IT-company Odin. The contract covers 3135 sq. m over 3 floors of building 18 in the Bolshevik cultural and business center. Odin moved into its new A-class office in July 2016. The consultant for the transaction was Colliers International.
Moscow, August 11, 2016 – International consulting company Colliers International continues to strengthen the its Retail Property Department and announces the appointment of Irina Tsarkova as Associate Director of the department in St. Petersburg.
Moscow, August 2, 2016 – Eldorado has leased 4,000 m2 of warehouse space at Logopark Troitskiy in St. Petersburg. The consultant of the transaction was Colliers International.
Moscow, July 27, 2016 – International consulting company Colliers International announces key appointments in its retail property line of business. Dina Postolenko has been appointed executive director of Retail Property Department in Moscow.
Moscow, July 27, 2016 – Colliers International has analysed the impact of the mass recall of bank licenses by Bank of Russia in the street retail sector. Because of the regulation, 517 bank branches have closed in Moscow, which is 17% of the total amount of bank branches within the Moscow street retail market. Given that the average bank branch size is 150-200 m2, this means 70,000-100,000 m2 of vacated space.
Moscow, July 26, 2016 – International consulting company Colliers International and REGIONS-Management (part of the REGIONS Group) have signed a partnership agreement under wich Colliers International will render services to secure tenants for the existing regional shopping centre chain June. Brokerage will be carried out jointly with the property owner's team.
Anna Nikandrova was appointed head of the property management department at Colliers International Russia on July 20, 2016. In addition to implementing all of the company's commercial real estate projects, Anna will comprehensively manage and coordinate the property management business line at Colliers International Russia. The commercial real estate team at Colliers International Russia will also continue working under her supervision.
Moscow, March 28, 2016 – Colliers International Group Inc, a leader in the global real estate market, continues to strengthen the team at its Russian office and announces the appointment of Vera Zimenkova to the position of regional director of the department of corporate solutions and office real estate.
Moscow - The property investment company Sponda Plc is selling the Solnechniy I shopping centre situated in Moscow to LLC IT Development at a price of approximatelyUSD 11 million, corresponding to the property's fair value at the end of June.
Москва, July 6, 2016 – International consulting company Colliers International continues to strengthen its team in Russia and announces the appointment of Alexander Kulagin as associate director of the office real estate department.
Moscow, June 24, 2016 - In a referendum in the UK, supporters of the country's exit from the European Union have won, breaking the barrier of 16.7 million votes. The decision on independence could lead to a 15% drop in premium-class housing prices, experts from the international consulting company Colliers International say.
Moscow, June 23, 2016 – Fashion operators opened the most new stores in high-quality shopping centres (accounting for 59% of retail space) in H1 2016. Entertainment operators were in second place with a share of 18%, mainly accounted for by the opening of Kidzania family entertainment centre, with an area of 10,000 m2 in Aviapark shopping mall. Hobby goods were in third place (6%). Fashion operators had the highest number of openings in leading shopping centres (54 stores) and food service companies were in second place (12 new sales points), according to the international consultancy Colliers International.
Moscow, May 10, 2016 – More than 40 food service businesses of different types opened in Q1 2016 in Moscow’s Central District, compared to only 23 conceptual cafes and restaurants opened in the same district in Q1 2015. At the same time, two-thirds of new openings were individual concepts rather than branches of chains, according to a report by the international consulting company Colliers International.
Moscow, 21 April 2016 – The size of office space lease and sale transactions in Moscow involving foreign companies decreased from 40% to 20% in Q1 2016 compared to Q4 2015. Although foreign companies continue to sign new deals, they are choosing smaller offices and re-negotiating current leases to decrease the amount of occupied space, according to a report by the international consulting company Colliers international.
TORONTO, February 26, 2016 - Colliers International Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CIGI, TSX:CIG), a global leader in commercial real estate services, today announced the acquisition of WPM Groep NV (“WPM”), Netherland’s leading property and asset management company. Once combined with Colliers International’s existing operations, the new merged business will be one of the leading players in the Netherlands with five additional offices in Hertogenbosch, Nieuwegein, Amsterdam, Barendrecht and Apeldoorn. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Colliers International has entered into a contract to manage the marketing of the Columbus shopping and leisure centre. The scope of services is marketing management and promotion of the mall. The term of contract is two years with the possibility of extension. Colliers International started work on the project on February 14, 2016. Colliers International has been brokering the project since 2014.
Toronto, Feb. 11, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colliers International Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CIGI) (TSX:CIG) today announced record fourth quarter and yearend operating and financial results for the year ended December 31, 2015. All amounts are in US dollars
Moscow, February 3, 2016 - International consulting company Colliers International announces the appointment of Ekaterina Fonareva as head of the residential real estate department at Colliers International Moscow. This appointment reflects Colliers International’s initiative to continue strengthening its position in the residential real estate market. Colliers will work with projects on an exclusive basis and will participate in the completion of premises from the initial stages. An integrated approach will create the most sought-after product on the market and offer maximum yields for developers.
Moscow, January 26, 2016 – In 2015, the amount of investment in offices in Russia amounted to $1.107 billion, resulting in an increase from 21% to 37% in the share of this sector in total transactions. Quality office assets with long-term leases are rather predictable and less subject to volatility in times of crisis, which contributes to the successful completion of investment transactions. A total of about $3 billion was invested in commercial real estate, which is a ten-year low, according to report by international consulting company Colliers International.
Moscow, January 19, 2016 – Total completions of retail space in the Moscow Region in 2015 amounted to 620,000 m2. No major shopping mall construction was launched and some projects were halted at the stage of excavation. This is due to the fact that developers often prefer not to start new projects in anticipation of increasing availability of bank financing and the revival of the retail market. Large-scale shopping centres that opened in 2016 may be among the last for the next few years, and in 2017-2018, the market expects a shortage of new retail space, according to a report by Colliers International.
Moscow, January 18, 2016 – Margarita Aristarkhova was appointed regional director of the property management department at Colliers International Russia in January 2016. In the new position, she will manage the entire property management business at Colliers International Russia.
Regional Marketing & PR Director
Direct: +7 495 258 5151
PR Director | Marketing & PR Department
PR Manager | Marketing & PR Department
Mobile: +7 926 174 02 64
Fill out this short form and we'll connect you right away.
Data for your saved properties is currently unavailable, please check back again later.
Select properties to email by checking or unchecking each property to the left.
One or more errors were found with the information you entered into the form. Please correct the information and submit again.
Your message has been sent successfully.
Sorry, there was an error in submitting your email. Please try again later or contact the site administrators if the problem persists
You have no saved properties. Click the 'save' button associated with a property listing to see it displayed here.
The saved properties feature requires cookies to function. Please enable cookies and refresh the page to use this feature.


text:
If BJP had its way, PoP idols would be allowed; BMC issues instructions to assistant civic chiefs on ensuring idols are made with eco-friendly materials
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation wants household idols to be made of shadu (clay) or other eco-friendly materials. File pic/Pradeep Dhivar
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would like to allow Ganesh idols made from Plaster of Paris (PoP) this year, but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is firm on its decision of allowing only eco-friendly idols. On Monday, the BMC administration forwarded a letter to all assistant municipal commissioners (AMCs) to follow orders on ensuring eco-friendly Ganesh idols.
In a meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on May 17, it was decided that all household Ganesh idols will be made of only eco-friendly materials like shadu (clay). On Monday, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ramakant Birdar issued a departmental circular to AMCs of all wards saying household Ganesh idols should be up to 4 feet high and it is mandatory that household idols are made of shadu or other eco-friendly materials. The circular also says it is mandatory to immerse all household Ganesh idols in artificial ponds.
Civic teams to inspect
According to the circular, BMC has made it mandatory for idol makers to paint a green circle behind eco-friendly idols and a red circle behind PoP idols. Ward level teams will also visit all sculptors’ workshops and stockists’ places to make sure the diktat is being followed. BMC will also provide free space to sculptors making idols with environment-friendly materials on a ‘first come, first served’ basis on a trial basis this year. Shadu will also be made available free of cost as per availability.
While seeking permission for their workshops or stores, sculptors and stockists should submit an undertaking to the BMC that they will make and store idols made of clay or eco-friendly material. It is also mandatory for idol makers who use eco-friendly materials to put up a board with the content—‘eco-friendly idols available here’. BMC has also made it mandatory for sculptors and stockists to submit information to it on the number of idols they make or store for the Ganesh Utsav, and how many of them are up to 4 feet. How many idols are made with Shadu or eco-friendly materials and how many idols are of PoP.
BJP supports PoP idols
BJP leader advocate Ashish Shelar had opposed eco-friendly idols. In a meeting with idol makers on May 17, he expressed support to PoP idols. He claimed banning idols of PoP is not in public interest or in the interest of Maharashtra, or of the country. Even after BMC’s circular Shelar said their demand to allow PoP Ganesh idols stays. In May 2020, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued detailed guidelines banning PoP idols, which are said to be the cause of pollution in water bodies. The BMC has decided to completely ban PoP idols from next year.
Permitted length of household Ganesh idols


text:
Most of us are probably focused on using micro blogging site Twitter to make money for ourselves. But is Twitter making money for itself? Twitter has become a veritable cultural phenomenon and one of the most talked about social internet companies. As Tod Maffin points out in his Techvibes blog “This Is How Twitter Will Die. (And, thus, live forever.), Twitter has in an essence become so much bigger than itself that it could be drowning in its own ubiquity. Twitter execs are fast trying to catch up and make some business sense out of it all before it slips away from their fingers completely. Curious minds have long questioned how Twitter will go about it considering the fact that twitter does not charge you for its service. It is apparently a question that the founders have been asking themselves more of late.
Reuters reports that at a news conference in Tel Aviv this week, Twitter co-founder Stone said Twitter is interested in making acquisitions and promised that twitter will start making money in 2010. “That is something we are definitely interested in,” he said. “We made an acquisition last year that turned out to be an outstandingly good decision.”
The acquisition he is talking about is Summize that Twitter acquired in 2008. Summize is a nifty search engine that monitors the twitter stream for the hottest and latest on a particular subject. This has given rise to an opportunity for contextual advertising next to the pages that show these search results. But Twitter management has been quite vociferous about vehemently rejecting the idea of going prime time with selling ads like Google’s ad sense. Twitter seems queasy about in- your- face kind of advertising and potentially risk losing its organic charm that has made it so popular in the first place. Some have suggested that Twitter would make a better “relationship tool” than a “marketing tool”. Many companies have had successful Twitter promotional programs such as coupon code offers, discounts via twitter etc. Others have used it to aggregate customer feedback. This seems to be more in tune with where Twitter is heading and intending to leverage. According to Stone, Twitter is looking at “nontraditional” advertising and he thinks “everyone’s going to love it. It’s going to be amazing.” It certainly would be interesting to see what exactly they would be charging for this in-direct commercial access.
Apart from considering acquisitions, Twitter has been making several moves of late that signal a maturing of their business model. Twitter received a new round of funding in September from investors such as mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and private equity firm Insight Venture Partners that have spurred speculations about initial public offering or even sale. It is also partnering itself with some of the best in the business -recently forged deals with Microsoft and Google to allow access for its real-time content and teamed up with social network site LinkedIn earlier in November. Then there also have been several SMS deals such as with Canada’s Bell Mobility. Once Twitter’s free SMS tweeting proved too expensive a service for the company to sustain, it entered into revenue sharing partnerships with strategic mobile operators to make it work. It is still apparently a work in progress around the globe. There are many other complications that Twitter still has to iron out. Harnessing a substantial user base that choose to enter the site through third party services like Twitterific would be one such. What’s ironic is that Twitter has given away way too many things for free such as APIs that third parties use to provide their clients access to Twitter. So will Twitter decide to start charging them now? Or will it get creative and come up with specialized synced up hardware, an apps store perhaps?
There is certainly immense business potential there and a valuable chunk of audience that could be pulled in. It would be a pity if Twitter cannot in some way make business sense of its own enviable success.


text:
Right in the middle of the busy holiday period, Microsoft has stepped up to offer Windows Phone owners an extra bit of cheer. No doubt to account for the many photos and videos WP users will be uploading over the next few weeks, the Redmond company sent out emails allowing owners to activate 20GB of free SkyDrive storage. Your device running out of storage? This is the perfect gift to not only mitigate that issue, but also encourage users to start taking advantage of Microsoft’s cloud storage service.
Microsoft is distributing some holiday cheer to Windows Phone owners today with an email inviting them to activate a bonus 20GB of SkyDrive storage. The bump in cloud storage will be active for a year and users are given until the end of January to claim their slice of it. SkyDrive has grown increasingly important for Microsoft, particularly with the changes introduced in Windows 8.1, and the company is already giving away a generous 200GB allowance for two years with every purchase of Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 tablets. Extending the bonus storage offers to the rest of its ecosystem makes commercial sense for Microsoft — insofar as it encourages more people to use its services more often — while also endearing the company to its loyal user base.


text:
Casinos can reopen tomorrow. Gov. Reeves announced that after discussions with the Mississippi Gaming Commission Casinos can open tomorrow, May 21st at 8.am. Among the new rules, properties are limited to 50% occupancy, stringent hygiene protocols are in place, and guests must be screened about their health before entry.
Pearl River Resort and Bok Homa properties will not open this week. William Johnson, President and CEO of Pearl River Resorts said in a public statement, “as eager as we are to welcome back our associates and guests, we think it prudent to wait a while longer. We have robust protocols in place that include everything from strict safety and sanitation measures to installation of new top-of-the line cleaning technology. When we reopen, it will be with the confidence that the time is right for the safety of our associates, guests and tribal members. We encourage everyone to take care and be safe.”
Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben said “because the safety and health of our associates and guests are of the utmost importance to us, we are not opening Pearl River Resort and Bok Homa at this time. To ensure our associates and guests return to the safest facility possible, a thorough reopening plan is in place that includes safety measures and additional equipment. We know our associates are ready to return to work and our wonderful guests are ready to come back to the Pearl River Resort and Bok Homa Casino experience they know and love. And we look forward to welcoming everyone back soon!”


text:
BoE 'printing money' plan can be reversed
The Bank of England today delivers a stark warning that its strategy of 'printing money' to lift the economy will eventually have to be reversed to keep the lid on inflation.
Charles Bean: The BoE man says plan can be reversed to halt
Writing in the Daily Mail, Deputy Governor Charlie Bean says the Bank will 'easily' be able to prevent a new bout of runaway price rises by reselling the assets it plans to buy with the fresh cash.
'As the economy recovers, so we will probably need to remove some of the extra money in order to ensure that inflation does not pick up too much,' he says.
The Bank's 'quantitative easing' strategy, unveiled last week, is necessary to tackle a 'particularly nasty recession', according to Mr Bean.
By pumping at least £75bn of newly minted money into the economy, the Bank should ensure Britain enjoys a recovery 'sooner rather than later,' he writes.
The Bank last week slashed rates to an historic low of 0.5% and announced an unprecedented programme to pump extra cash into the economy.
It will create new money and use it to buy bonds - a kind of debt - from banks and other financial institutions. The hope is that firms will use this extra money to lend to businesses and families, tackling the credit drought that is bringing the economy to its knees.
Mr Bean writes: 'In normal times an injection of extra money of this magnitude might be expected to lead to too much money and spending in the economy and a rise in inflation.
'But right now, there is not enough money and spending in the economy and that is what we need to rectify.'
Mr Bean's comments come as the British Chambers of Commerce sounds the alert over the 'unacceptably large' Government borrowing.
In the firing line: Unemployment advice
In its quarterly economic forecast, it predicts total government borrowing will increase to £143bn in 2009/10 and £158bn in 2010/11.
'These figures signal a very serious budgetary position, which will have to be addressed vigorously as soon as the present recession ends,' it says.
The UK's production of goods and services looks set for a larger decline than in the 1990s downturn. The forecasts show negative Gross Domestic Product growth of 2.8% in 2009, much worse than the 2.2% negative 2009 growth indicated in its January forecast.
The BCC also predicts that in the second half of 2010 UK unemployment will rise to a peak of 3.2m or just over 10% of the workforce.
Most watched Money videos
- The stunning new Aston Martin Vantage AMR with a manual gearbox
- £70million of rare supercars and classics to descend on London
- Legendary car designer Gordon Murray introduces new T.50 supercar
- Highways England explains why drivers should not ignore Red X
- Mazda 3 scores highest adult occupant protection score ever
- MINI celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Italian Job
- Supermodel David Gandy with newly restored classic Jaguar XK120
- Nissan unveils Britain's first battery-powered ice cream van
- Sadiq Khan Mayor of London launches the LCV a new electric van
- Richard Farleigh reveals how he chooses shares to invest in
- The solar car that is powered using energy from the sun
- What next for Neil Woodford and his investors?


text:
After the excitement of the holidays is over, it’s normal to feel underwhelmed returning to the daily grind, especially with several months of cold winter weather ahead of us. But some people feel more than a post-holiday letdown. For people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the change of seasons brings a change of mood.
Ron Gladbach was careful. As a longtime farmer and someone with a family history of skin cancer, he knew he was at high risk. He often checked his skin for signs of cancer, focusing on areas frequently exposed to the sun, like his face and ears.
Boone Hospital Center WELLAWARE offers a variety of group exercise classes, including yoga and Zumba. Each class is adaptable to all levels of interest, age, ability and vocation.
Have you ever noticed how each holiday, year round, has its own iconic sweet treat? Halloween has candy corns, Easter has Peeps, Christmas has candy canes and not to be left out of the festivities, Valentine’s Day has Sweetheart candies.
The 2013 flu season has begun, and while it is still early in the season, cases have already been reported in the U.S. Winter gatherings can bring together people who are vulnerable to the cold & flu virus.
Down in his basement workshop, Russ Haerer holds his latest project. It’s a dovetail joint for a cabinet drawer.
It looks beautiful — but Russ isn’t satisfied.
Fat is a nutrient necessary for your health. However, they often get a bad rap.
Like any food in our diet, making the right choice when picking fats can make all the difference. Adding healthy fats to your diet can offer health-protective benefits. Consider adding these fats — in moderation — to your diet.
More than a million Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer each year. As you head out into the sunlight, remember that although the sun’s rays might feel good on your skin, it is important to wear sunscreen to protect your skin from potential damage.
The finale event for the 2013 Kids on Track program will be Thursday, August 8 at the Gordon Shelter at Stephens Lake Park.
Read the latest issue of My Boone Health Magazine
Get a free subscription
Have a story about your experience at Boone Hospital Center? Share it.


text:
According to their official Twitterer, Christchurch-based Telecom New Zealand is in negotiations with Apple to get the third generation iPhone (as opposed to iPhone 3G). Currently Vodafone is the only mobile company to carry the device on the island nation of 4 million potential customers.
BTW Telecom New Zealand, the first rule of getting the iPhone is that you don’t talk about getting the iPhone.
Update: The New Zealand Herald has more:
Telecom is in negotiations to sell Apple’s iPhone, says the telco’s retail boss Alan Gourdie.
It announced the handset and plan line-up for its new high-speed 3G ‘XT’ network this morning, and Gourdie admitted that the iPhone may be in the pipeline for Telecom customers.
"We don’t have the iPhone at launch," he said, "but we are in deep discussion with Apple."
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


text:
Everyone is familiar with the phrase, “What goes up must come down!”
Check it out:
Grain prices seem to be following this old axiom, with substantial questions remaining of “how far down?” For U.S. animal product consumption the phrase could be reversed, “What goes down must come up!”
How much did meat consumption “go down?” In 2007, meat consumption per person in the U.S. was 219 pounds for the big four of beef, pork, chicken, and turkey. Current USDA estimates for this year are down to 199 pounds per person, nearly a ten percent decrease in seven years. Out of the 20 pound total reduction, beef was down 11 pounds, pork was down five pounds, and chicken and turkey were down about two pounds each. In percentage terms consumption of beef has been down 17 percent, followed by 10 percent for both pork and turkey and a more modest three percent for chicken.


text:
Ricoh Innovations Corporation, a subsidiary of the electronics giant that specializes in everything from computer software to cameras, announced on Wednesday a rebrand of Ricoh Tours, its virtual tour solution for real estate agents.
The rebrand includes a new name, Ricoh360 Tours, and the release of two new features that allow users to create teams and automatically crop 3D videos to create 2D photos.
“Ricoh Tours, the industry’s only complete and affordable 360 virtual tour solution under one brand, today announced the company’s rebranding as Ricoh360 Tours to further expand globally,” the announcement read. “Last year, RICOH Tours realized it was time to branch out and leverage its unique offering of both 360-degree cameras and virtual tour software into countries outside of North America.”
“[The] new brand reflects the company’s commitment to bring speed, features and [while reaching] together for [its] customers and partners,” it added.
Ricoh Tours started in 2018 after Ricoh Innovations Corporation noticed its Ricoh Theta camera was a popular pick for real estate agents and professionals. For $45 per month, agents with a Ricoh Theta camera could quickly create 3D tours using the Ricoh Tours app on iOS and Android.
“We got feedback from the market showing that they want better software that it is specifically built for real estate agents,” Ricoh Tours Business Lead Kay Iwaisako told Inman in 2018. “So that’s what we did.”
Since then, Ricoh has released a handful of updates, including a new, flagship Ricoh Theta camera that records in 4K and the ability to create immersive listing videos for agent banner advertising campaigns. The new features released today build on previous updates by allowing agents to manually and automatically crop 3D videos to create 2D stills for marketing and MLS listings.
“With auto-cropping users have the ability to allow the Richo360 Tours AI-based image processing technology to generate the best 2D stills automatically from every 360 image in a virtual tour ready for publishing to an MLS,” the company explained in a press release.
The second update allows users to create teams, so fellow brokers and agents in a brokerage can quickly access tours and have a digital business card displayed throughout the video.
“Teams are a great way to manage all of the properties under one agency in a central place,” the announcement added. “Team members have their own business card that is displayed in their tour and each team member will have their own profile photo.”
Current users have access to both new features for the original monthly subscription price of $45, while new subscribers must choose Ricoh360 Tours’ $80 standard subscription, which includes two additional members. For larger teams, users must pay an additional $20 per month per member.


text:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 01/18/2018
DSCC Shows 2017 Display Equipment Market Rose 30% to a Record High $25B; 2018 Expected to Fall 9% on Samsung Delays with 2019 Expected to Rise 10% to a New Record High
Austin, TX -
Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) has released the latest issue of its Quarterly Display Capex and Equipment Service which tracks the display equipment market for 40 segments by
- Equipment supplier
- Panel manufacturer
- Frontplane technology
- Backplane technology
- Generation (backplane and frontplane size)
- Bookings basis
- Billings basis
- Quarterly basis
- Annual basis
Highlights of the report include:
- 2017 was a record year for the display equipment market, with revenues up 30% to a record high $24.7B as shown in Figure 1. Capital-intensive OLED fabs drove the spending up 143% to a record $15.5B or 63% of display equipment spending, up from 34% as shown in Figure 2. LCD fab spending was down 27% to $9.2B and a 37% share, down from 66%. Samsung Display was the largest customer on 54% growth to over $7.5B or a 31% share of display equipment spending. Samsung’s share of OLED equipment spending was 48%. BOE was the 2nd largest display equipment customer on 229% growth to $6B and a 24% share. China was the #1 region in 2017 with a 51% share of spending compared with Korea at 42% as shown in Figure 3. 6G was the dominant glass size with a 55% share, up from 52%.
- In 2018, display equipment spending is expected to fall 9% to $22.5B, although equipment bookings are expected to rise 5% to a record $24.8B as 2019 spending is expected to rise Y/Y. OLED spending is expected to fall 11% in 2018 with LCD spending down 6%. Driving the decline in OLEDs is slower than expected capacity growth at Samsung’s next fab for many different reasons with Samsung’s equipment spending expected to drop by 64% in 2018. BOE is expected to replace Samsung as the #1 display equipment customer in 2018 with its spending rising 12% to nearly $6.7B and its share reaching 30%. LG Display is expected to be the #2 customer in 2018 with a 15% share. The LCD share of spending will rise slightly from 37% to 39% as the 10.5G share of equipment spending rises to 22%. China’s share of 2018 display equipment spending is expected to reach 78% in 2018 on a 37% increase in spending fueled by government subsidies to support LCD TV and OLED smartphone manufacturing goals. 2018 is expected to be the first year where China leads in OLED spending with a 64% to 36% advantage over Korea.
- 2019 looks to be a record year with BOE, China Star, LG Display and Samsung all spending at least $3.6B on display equipment. Equipment revenues are expected to rise 10% to a record $24.8B with OLED spending up 8% and LCD spending up 14%. 2019 is expected to be a record year for display equipment spending targeting both smartphones and TVs with LG Display projected to lead in spending. China’s share is expected to fall to 66% with Korea’s share rising to 27%. China will continue to lead in OLED spending with a 64% to 33% advantage over Korea, however, Samsung will return to the top position in OLED equipment spending with a 24% share compared to BOE at 17% and LG Display at 16%.
According to DSCC Founder and CEO Ross Young, “2017 – 2019 represents an unprecedented $72B of equipment spending on display capacity fueled by capital intensive OLED fabs targeting smartphones and TVs and 10.5G LCD fabs targeting the 65” and larger TV market. This level of spending would not have been possible without Chinese government subsidies enabling their suppliers to compete more aggressively on cost and scale with Korean suppliers Samsung and LG. Consumers will benefit from all of this capacity which will drive down costs and prices. This report does an excellent job of quantifying spending and capacity growth and identifying which equipment companies are most likely to benefit by quantifying current and future market share and revenues by equipment supplier.”
For more information on DSCC’s Display Capex and Equipment Service which tracks fab schedules, equipment spending, capacity growth, technical trends, design wins, equipment awards and supplier financial analysis, please contact email@example.com or (832) 451- 4909.
Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) was formed by experienced display market analysts from throughout the display supply chain and delivers valuable insights through consulting, syndicated reports and events. The company has offices in the US, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the UK. DSCC is on the web at www.displaysupplychain.com and can be reached in the US at firstname.lastname@example.org.


text:
China’s Growth Rate: How bad is 6%?
China’s Growth Rate: How bad is 6%?
As you might have heard the economic growth of China is slowly stagnating. Where China’s growth rate used to be around 10% in 2011, the current growth rate is at 6.3% in 2019. China has the 21st highest economic growth rate in the world. 6% might not sound like a lot, and 21st highest also does not sound very high. However, China has one of the largest economies in the world, and reaching a growth rate of 6% is quite an achievement considering this factor.
Many people think that the slowing growth rate of China’s economy is a bad thing, however nothing could be less true. Currently, China is still developing and evolving its economy. Sectors which are important for future growth are outperforming the national growth rate. For example, the entertainment sector has a compound annual growth rate of 8.3%, which is expected to continue until 2020. Furthermore, the robotics sector is even more impressive with an expected compound annual growth rate of 25% until 2024. China is shifting away from the older growth drivers like manufacturing and moving up on the global value and industrial chain. This means that even though the growth is stagnating, the quality of the growth is increasing and becoming more sustainable for a future perspective.
Chinese Service sector
The largest sector and the main driver of the economy is the Chinese service industry. The service sector contributed to 51.6% of national GDP and accounts for 44.9% of total employment.
One of the recent drivers of the service industry is the delivery service, which saw a year on year growth of 7.6% in 2017. The cause of the large size of the delivery sector, is that in China an ordering culture has arisen. People order everything online from furniture to groceries. In the first half of 2019 the online retail sales increased by more than 16% compared to the year before. In 2018 over 50 billion parcels were delivered China’s express delivery sector, which is an 26.6% increase compared to 2017. China’s growth rate in the express delivery sector has continued at this rate during 2019.
Moreover, the user base of food delivery services is around 360 million, which is almost a quarter of the entire population of China. There are two million food deliveries daily in Beijing only, and Beijing is only the 5th province in terms of the demand of food delivery!
Chinese entertainment sectors
The entertainment sector is constantly growing, especially with the new and developed 5G network coming out. Internet is becoming faster for more and more people, meaning that for many it will be easier to stream music and movies, download e-books, play video games, etc. Unexpectedly, this part of the entertainment sector is growing at an exceptional rate.
Another reason for growth in the entertainment sector is the movement of people that move back from Tier 1 to Tier 2 cities. This movement is driven by the fact that people in Tier 1 cities experience quite a lot of work stress, competitiveness and that the cost in these cities are higher than they are in Tier 2 cities. People living in Tier 2 cities have more leisure time and more disposable income, which in turn means that they are spending more money on entertainment.
Streaming videos and playing mobile video games
Out of all different markets in the entertainment sector, the streaming services and mobile video game industries are the leaders of growth.
The streaming services are a big part of the entertainment sector and one of the most popular things that people use their mobile phones for at any time. People watch series and movies at any point in time, while standing in the subway, at the gym, or just at home. There are two types of streaming services paid and unpaid. Where most people in the West are familiar with Netflix and Youtube. The biggest platforms in China are Baidu’s iQiyi, Tencent Video and Alibaba’s Youku.
China has the biggest mobile video game market in the world, and this is the thing that most younger people spend their time on entertainment wise. This Chinese market contributed 28% of the global mobile gaming revenue in 2017. Another part of the video game market is the Virtual Reality sector in which China also sees a large growth. Currently, China has the second largest VR market in the world. However, with a growth rate of 34% annually it is the fastest growing VR market in the world. With the release of 5G the market is only projected to attract even more users, and is expected to become the largest quite quickly. More on the gaming industry in China here.
Another sector which is doing very well and is projected to do even better in the future is the robotics sector in China. The Chinese Robotics sector currently has a growth rate of more than 20%. Furthermore, the Chinese robotics market has been the world largest for seven years straight. It is expected that China’s growth rate in this sector will even increase to 33% in the coming years.
One of the reasons for the growth of the robotics sector is the 10-year plan called “Made in China 2025”, this plan has as a goal to make China a self-sustainable country. Moreover, to increase the power China has in the manufacturing market on a global scale. One of the reasons that robotics is an important part of this plan is because of the automation of factories, cities and houses which will require robotics to succeed.
The China’s growth rate might be slowly stalling, however there are many sectors which do not experience this. These sectors mostly have in common that they are related to internet or automation. Both trends are driven by individuals, companies, and the government alike and are very future oriented.
If you want more information on China’s growth rate, the future growth sectors in China, or if you want to have your article featured on our website?
Feel free to contact us by clicking the link, or by sending an email to firstname.lastname@example.org!
This article was written by Koen Bolland, who contributed as an intern at our Beijing office.


text:
Ludacris has raised money with the support of celebrities ranging from Fergie, India Arie, Jazze Pha, & others in ATL for the youth and to help fund HIV/AIDS research.
The event “Benefit for the Ludacris Foundation at Ralph Lauren,” which was a private affair, brought out a number of celebrities ranging from Fergie, India Arie, Jazze Pha, amongst others at Atlanta’s Lenox Square Mall.
The event which was hosted by Ludacris, singer Ciara and Disturbing Tha Peace Records CEO Chaka Zulu turned out better than expected according to Zulu. Reportedly Fergie was the life of the party, who posed endlessly with other celebrities as they got their shopping and mingle on. Those who bought items during the event, 15% percent of all items sold went to the foundation.
During the event, Ludacris announced that this was the largest turnout in the event’s three-years. Last year the event reportedly raised more than $200,000 for the organization.
One day prior, Ludacris raised money for aids at the grand opening of his new restaurant Straits Atlanta. The private dinner offered high-priced dining at $100 per plate to help fund HIV/AIDS research.
In other news, Ludacris is preparing for the release of his upcoming album “Theater of the Mind,” which is expected to release in August.


text: This day a year ago was hell for many residents of Sturgeons Falls. On July 14th, 2016 a fire in the downtown destroyed several businesses and quite a few apartments. Don’s Butcher Shop was one of the businesses destroyed in the fire. Owner Don Leblanc says he knew he would re-open, it was just a matter of where and when. Leblanc says what made his decision to re-open easier was the entire community plus the Nipissing First Nation were behind him. The new and improved Don’s Butcher Shop has now been re-opened for about a month.


text:
New attack on bank website
FRAUDSTERS have launched a new, more sophisticated, attempt to trick NatWest customers into handing over their online banking passwords, This Is Money has learned.
Customers have received emails claiming to be from firstname.lastname@example.org called a 'NatWest Bank Security Update'. The message asked customers to reactivate their accounts and gave a direct internet link to a page identical to the bank's online service.
The attempt was more sophisticated than previous scams on other banks where links went through to websites with little resemblance to the genuine sites.
NatWest said its online banking service was shut at 3am on Monday and rebooted nine hours later. Shutting the site effectively closed the bogus site which was mimicking it. A spokeswoman confirmed that the criminals would have been able to 'catch' the passwords of anyone who entered details.
'We are working with the National Crime Sqaud on this matter,' she said. 'But we can confirm that not one of our customers has lost money thanks to the fixes we have put in place.'
The latest attack follows a wave of fraud attempts in October. Customers of Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HBOS' Halifax and Royal Bank of Scotland's NatWest, were all asked for personal information.
The scam, known as 'phishing' has also hit banks in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Europe in the past year.
Most watched Money videos
- The stunning new Aston Martin Vantage AMR with a manual gearbox
- McLaren's new GT sports car costs £163K with top speed of 203mph
- Trucker making mobile card payment among 3,000 caught by HGV supercabs
- Invest in the world's best companies to beat inflation
- Mazda 3 scores highest adult occupant protection score ever
- Rolls-Royce unveils £44,000 champagne chest for its luxurious cars
- Researchers show impact autonomous cars will have on traffic
- Brand new 'James Bond' Aston Martin costs a hefty £300,007
- Investing Show: Can UK shares shake off the Brexit hangover?
- Richard Farleigh gives a few tips on investing in the stock market
- Is President Trump's trade war a threat to UK investors?
- Supermodel David Gandy with newly restored classic Jaguar XK120


text:
Geek circles were sent into a frenzy with the report of Walt Disney being in negotiations to acquire various entertainment divisions and properties of 21st Century Fox. And though the House of Mouse has many reasons for this purchase, one reason stands out to many comic book fans.
In the wake of this news going public, Wall Street Journal is stating a reason for this purchase is to secure the rights of Marvel properties that Fox has the rights to like the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.
The report states that buying Fox will bring Disney a significant asset that will make it a more formidable competitor in TV and film. Under a deal that dates back to the 1990s, Fox controls big- and small-screen rights to Marvel’s X-Men and characters who have appeared in the comic books and Fantastic Four.
But getting two of the popular properties under the Studios banner was but one of the reasons driving the negotiations, according to the report, as Disney wants to compete with Netflix in the streaming game.
Disney has announced its plans to launch 2 different streaming services. One will be an ESPN-branded service offering coverage of sports, and the other will offer television shows and movies produced by Disney.
Though Disney has a deal to stream their movies on Netflix, it expires in 2018 and the company does not plan on renewing it and opts instead to use their own service and compete with Netflix.
But one area where they have trouble is in the television offerings. Netflix is seen more as a threat with the investment into original series and now that shows like Stranger Things and Making a Murderer have become successful, it is more of a challenge.
The report states that sources familiar with negotiations say that talks have stopped and they are not sure if they will be picked up again. And even if they do, nothing shall be finalized until a deal is agreed to and ink on the contracts is dry.


text:
just-food authors and correspondents
Articles by Katie Smith
Retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico, known locally as Walmex, has blamed higher expenses and a shift in the timing of Easter for a 4.5% drop in first-quarter profits.
US retailer Target Corp has become the latest retailer to cut jobs, with the announcement it is laying off around 475 employees globally.
Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, has recorded a 38% jump in third-quarter turnover.
Reliance Retail, the retail arm of industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries, has recorded a 41% hike in first-half turnover.
Wal-Mart Stores is to buy out Indian venture partner Bharti Enterprises, ending the speculation over the future of the business.
Shares in Family Dollar Stores fell today (9 October) after the US discounter reported flat underlying sales.
US discounter Dollar General posted a "solid" performance during its second quarter, with both net profit and sales growing on the back of increased traffic in its stores.
Finnish food group Raisio is looking to expand the presence of its Benecol brand in emerging markets, with South America and Asia at the forefront. The company today (4 September) launched its Benecol yoghurt drinks in Hong Kong. Katie Smith spoke to Mikko Laavainen, vice president of Raisio's licensed brands, who outlined the group's mid- to long-term growth strategy for the Benecol business.
German dairy giant Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller has acquired the UK operations of Austrian rival Nom, as it looks to expand its presence in the country's private label yoghurt market.
German food company Odenwald Früchte has said it is looking for further opportunities to strengthen its business, following the acquisition of dairy brands Mark Brandenburg and Milchreiter from FrieslandCampina.
- Work on sugar could stir more clean-label concerns
- Rise of prepared foods in US grocers - analysis
- Are consumers getting tired of consuming?
- Hershey results, outlook, M&A - the top takeaways
- How are brands organising for e-commerce?
- Nestle, R&R Ice Cream finalise joint venture plans
- Fazer buys European biscuit brands from Mondelez
- Hershey buys company behind BarkThins brand
- Mondelez sees stronger margins, LFL growth
- Pinnacle Foods names Mondelez's Mark Clouse CEO


text:
Elon Musk already has a plan if Big Tech overlords attempt to stifle his vision for Twitter.
Musk indicated that he’ll move to manufacture his own smartphone if companies such as Apple and Google move to purge Twitter from their respective app stores.
Musk said as such in a Friday tweet responding to conservative commentator Liz Wheeler.
I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
Big Tech overlords have barred platforms from download on their public app stores before.
Some removals have been all but blatantly connected to content censorship policies and political considerations.
Parler was yanked from both Apple and Google’s app stores after the Jan. 6, 2021 disturbance, only to return for download at a subsequent date.
Other apps, such as Gab, have never been approved for download on the app stores of the Big Tech companies.
Musk’s initiative to bolster free speech protections at Twitter and restore accounts of some users suspended from the service has raised concerns that Big Tech could clamp down on Twitter’s app store status.
The app remains available for download on both the iPhone and Google’s Android phone.
A phone independent of Big Tech control would preclude such backhanded attempts at censorship by these companies.
One of Musk’s followers even suggested a potential name for the product, calling it the “EPhone.”
The Ephone!!!!! Do I get royalties for this?!😂😂
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) November 25, 2022
Musk, ever the technologist, is arguably in a unique position to create a smartphone independent of Big Tech influence.
Musk’s extensive background in both technology and manufacturing would instantly give the project the attention of major investors and his peers in the tech world.
In any event, it’s hard to imagine Apple and Google daring to purge Musk’s Twitter from the internet, considering the possible consequences.
Should Musk create a new phone free of the censorious tyranny of Big Tech, both legacy tech companies would stand to lose massive portions of their current market share.
While such a prospect is likely enough to prevent the tech companies from even attempting a de facto internet assassination, it’d be interesting to see how far the “EPhone” would get if its creation became a reality.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.


text:
By The Nation
In his recently-published interview with Yahoo Finance, Ren said that the company’s two smartphone brands, Huawei and Honor, will in 2019 record an increase of 30 per cent from its total shipments of 206 million last year.
His prediction is based on figures from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech’s survey conducted in China. In addition, the survey showed that Huawei’s two phone brands now account for 46.1 per cent of the Chinese market share in the second quarter, confirming its leading position in the domestic market.
“We expect the total shipment of smartphones to reach 270 million units,” Ren said.
“If US companies were to stop supplying us altogether, our production would not stop for a single day in the future. Rather, we would ramp up production. There’s no lethal risk that threatens Huawei’s survival at all,” he insisted.


text:
Yesterday, one of the greatest media corporations, Netflix, had its turn to report on quarterly performance.
It is worth noting that one of the key indicators, EPS, turned out to be worse that had been forecast for the company. The actual value is 2.97 while the forecast was 3.14.
And this contrasts with the overall good reporting of American companies for the second quarter.
However, there are two obvious benefits for Netflix’s quotes (NFLX).
The first benefit is that, as was spotted a long time ago, if a strong company releases a “slightly” bad report, this plays out as a supportive factor and pushes the company’s quotes up. A back inside reaction, so to say.
The second benefit is that, given the current uncertainty in anticipation of possible lockdowns, companies like Netflix are growing since consumers are staying at home and using their services.
To sum up, we should be waiting for the price to grow up to $580 per share.


text:
HUDSON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mobile health technology company UTM:Healthcare has released My MedCheck, a free smartphone app that can help consumers track key medical indicators of serious respiratory infections such as COVID-19.
The My MedCheck app seamlessly connects with certain Bluetooth-enabled digital thermometers and pulse oximeters, automatically reading body temperature and oxygen saturation data from the digital devices and interfacing with the Apple Health app for iPhones and the Google Fit app for Android-powered smartphones.
“While our company is known for its app-based remote patient monitoring solutions used by physicians and health systems to track the vital signs of patients in their homes, we created this free app to put a similar resource in the hands of everyday people,” said Seth Lachterman, partner and co-founder of UTM:Healthcare. “Fever and low oxygen saturation levels are often associated with COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, and My MedCheck is designed to help users keep track of those stats and stay healthy during this pandemic.”
Consumers without access to Bluetooth-enabled devices can manually enter their body temperature and blood oxygen saturation measurements into the My MedCheck app. The data is stored securely on the user’s smartphone, not on a cloud server database, to ensure privacy that is consistent with HIPAA guidelines.
While My MedCheck allows consumers to easily monitor their temperature and blood oxygen saturation levels, the data should be shared with a medical professional as part of an integrated health and wellness plan.
Consumers can download the My MedCheck app from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play app store. More health metrics are expected to be added in future app updates.
UTM:Healthcare, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of UThisMe, LLC (YouThisMe), which developed UTM:RPM, a simple, secure remote patient monitoring system that allows patients to remain in their homes while giving providers essential information for managing chronic conditions and avoiding hospital readmissions. For more information, visit www.utmhealthcare.com.