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In July 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced how Facebook plans to make metaverse a reality in the future. On 28th October 2021, he announced that Facebook Inc. would rename itself as Meta Platforms Inc. and Meta in short. The gaming industry is gung-ho about it and is betting big.
According to the market research firm Strategy Analytics Inc., the global metaverse market could grow to $280 Bn. by 2025 from $46 Bn. in 2020. This artefact attempts to provide a glimpse of this technology.
Introduction to Metaverse
There are several schools of thought on what a ‘metaverse’ means. In simple words, it will effectively change the way we communicate and will shape our experiences by merging the physical and the virtual worlds more realistically. At the same time, it will also allow us to port this world across environments, wherever we go. Let us assume I usually work at my office desk on a computer or a laptop. In the metaverse, I could step outside my workplace and continue to work without carrying these gadgets. I could call in my colleague, who would virtually get teleported to where I am, to show the artefacts I have created, seek feedback, bid adieu, and continue with my work.
Metaverse in Action
Metaverse is an environment where one can transport themselves into a virtual world using a VR device or any other emerging mechanisms and carry out specific tasks like attending meetings, playing multiplayer games, engaging and interacting with others, etc.
Consensus 2021, one of the biggest Crypto and Blockchain events related, held in May 2021, hosted half an hour roundtable talks every day using metaverse.
Gaming is one of the pioneer industries of building metaverse alongside crypto, fashion, and Hollywood movie industries. Metaverse has already made rapid strides in many multiplayer games, the most notable ones being Fortnite: Battle Royale, Roblox, and Minecraft. Top players are keen on building inter-operability among these games, like migrating their costumes/avatars from one game to another to elevate the end user’s experience to the next level. Close to 100 companies are creating metaverse ranging from programming engines, hardware interfaces, products, avatars, marketplaces, etc.
Let’s see a couple of more cases to get a better view.
NVIDIA and BMW are building a Factory of the Future, an amalgamation of reality, virtual reality, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI). BMW will replicate virtual operations of its manufacturing plant using this future factory, allowing humans and robots to collaborate.
Nike has already filed for seven trademark applications and is looking to make and sell virtual branded sneakers and apparel. Sotheby had launched a digital art platform and will act as a marketplace to sell Non – Fungible Tokens (NFT).
There are numerous opportunities for all, a few of which are:
- Individuals, groups and organizations can create and sell NFTs
- One can escape into the virtual world, get immersive experiences hitherto seen in dreams and movies
- Get an afterlife/marine world experience from a different perspective
- Flaunt NFTs, attain stardom, grow the network and net worth
- Organizations can mimic real-world assets and processes for an immersive experience and make humans and systems collaborate
- Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) will force more and more organizations to embrace this and provide service opportunities for service providers
- Hardware manufacturers will produce new devices and strategies to make existing devices obsolete
- Devices might become micro/nano and easier to carry
- Introduction of state-of-the-art technologies for better revenue opportunities and business models
- New jobs will get added, and thereby the world economy will grow
- Raise fresh investment avenues to explore
- Organizations can add a new twist to their business and roll out new offerings
It is exciting to note that there are limitless opportunities for individuals and companies to create, access, experience, buy and sell products/services/virtual environments but on the other hand, it comes with its challenges and threats:
- It will be addictive and become quite pervasive. The mental well-being of people needs to be guarded against addiction, and care of the affected who will be unable to distinguish between a real and virtual world
- A lot has to be considered if interoperability must become a reality in terms of persistence across various virtual worlds with real and virtual world interactions
- Many new technologies can spring up, and we will have to catch up by testing multiple devices/applications that provide numerous uses
- Data privacy laws are still an afterthought for any digital transformation undertaken by companies. What sort of policies, within and outside geographical borders, laws would be needed to provide a level playing field
- What sort of regulations would be needed to ensure fairness to all involved and safeguard the environment at the same time
- How to keep consumers continuously educated about the new possibilities
- How to ensure a smooth transition from currently bulky devices owned (by consumers) to probably micro/nano ones that might emerge soon
In short, the metaverse is evolving and providing captivating experiences in various ways. Use cases are getting added daily, and we see many companies joining the bandwagon to be a part of this revolutionary technology both – as a provider and as a consumer. It is a long way before the ecosystem can make the metaverse a thriving reality, and the future seems exciting towards this endeavour. Get ready to wear different virtual avatars, buy an exclusive piece of land on Mars, own crazy NFTs, flaunt stylish dresses, etc., to have the most fulfilling immersive experience!


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Ephemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations
New research shows that the speed of light may not be fixed after all, but rather fluctuates.
A new kind of counting: Scientists develop computer algorithm to solve previously unsolvable counting problems
(PhysOrg.com) -- How many different sudokus are there? How many different ways are there to color in the countries on a map? And how do atoms behave in a solid? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for ...
3D printing 'could herald new industrial revolution'
As potentially game-changing as the steam engine or telegraph were in their day, 3D printing could herald a new industrial revolution, experts say.
Scientist: I'm NOT seeking a mom for a Neanderthal
A prominent genetics expert from Harvard Medical School wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is NOT looking for a woman to bear a Neanderthal baby. Not even an adventurous one.
Snake robot on Mars?
The ESA wants its operations on other planets to have greater mobility and manoeuvrability. SINTEF researchers are looking into whether snake robots could be the answer.
Need muscle for a tough spot? Turn to fat stem cells
(PhysOrg.com) -- Stem cells derived from fat have a surprising trick up their sleeves: Encouraged to develop on a stiff surface, they undergo a remarkable transformation toward becoming mature muscle cells. ...
3Q: Will 3-D printing spark a new wave of innovation?
It may sound like science fiction, but it's anything but. Today, engineers and entrepreneurs can design a product on a computer and, with the help of increasingly accessible 3-D printers, have a prototype ...
Single-track sustainability 'solutions' threaten people and planet
The targets, indicators and approaches being used to pursue progress towards sustainable development at Rio+20 are counter-productive, say scientists in a new paper. Three renowned sustainability institutes -- the STEPS Centre, ...
Controlling cellular function on nano surfaces
EU-funded researchers applied nano-engineering to the creation and control of biological interfaces with natural and novel synthetic functionalities. The ultimate goal is the steering of cell function for ...
Review: Kindle Fire sacrifices to get under $200
The Kindle was always an odd product name. Amazon used a verb to name a thing, raising the question: Kindle what? Now we have the answer: Kindle Fire.
Domestic robots: Harmony on the homefront?
Are robots welcome in our homes? A qualitative study done at EPFL has revealed some interesting possibilities. Only one out of three households thinks automatic vacuum cleaners are worth the investment. The ...
Biodegradable nappies from recycled cardboard
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a process that enables recycled paper and cardboard to be used as a raw material for nonwovens. Hygiene and home care products, such as nappies, sanitary ...

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Tickets for next month's inaugural Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula E Championship electric car racing series (Formula E) are now on sale, with prices at RMB 488 or RMB 688 for the race around Beijing's iconic Bird's Nest National Stadium.
The sBeijing race is set for Saturday, September 13. The new formula car racing series is designed to show that speed isn't solely the province of vehicles that run on gasoline. Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has given the new concept some credence and a bit of publicity by sponsoring his own team.
Slated for 10 races in nine countries, the series will feature the China Racing team with local driver Ma Qinghua. Although batteries for electric super cars are capable of producing speeds to rival their petrol-powered counterparts, current battery technology does not permit them to be sustained for similar durations. As such, Formula E races are only one hour in length to maximize output before running out of juice becomes a problem. A consolation to race fans pining for more may be that they won't need to wear ear protection as they would for a F1 race: the sound of Formula E cars is rated at only 80 decibels as compared to a maximum ear-splitting 140 for the former.
Beijing is an interesting choice as Formula E's first venue. While the government continues to pay lip service to cleaner technologies, Beijing continues to suffer some of the country's worst ongoing pollution; this is in part to blame on private vehicles that became the number one method of conveyance for city residents in 2013. The capital currently limits the first-time purchase of gas-powered, private cars to 20,000 per month but has no limit and seemingly no demand for electric cars, most likely due to an almost total lack of an available electric charging infrastructure.
A current plan to roll out 2,000 electric taxis in nearby Tongzhou is stalling as drivers are reluctant to take on cars that need six hours per day to charge.
Visit the original source and full text: the Beijinger Blog


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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Chip and hardware stocks eked out gains Friday as the broader market was boosted by data on wholesale prices.
For the week, the chip index added 6 percent and the hardware index rose 2.6 percent.
Next week will be an important one -- quarterly reports are expected from companies such as Intel
Also, the chip equipment industry will stage its largest annual trade show: Semicon West. Companies from around the world will converge on San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., for the week-long event.
Concurrent with Semicon, Applied Materials will host an analysts' meeting, as will Lam Research
Most equipment stocks were little changed Friday.
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, reports quarterly results after Tuesday's close. Its main competitor for computer microprocessors, AMD, will report after Wednesday's close.
On Friday morning, Thomas Weisel upgraded Intel to "outperform" from "peer perform" because of growing optimism that a recovery is underway among chip resellers. Shares rose 1.9 percent to $23.34.
Among hardware stocks, Quantum
Computer makers edged higher with Gateway GTW in the lead. The Poway, Calif.-based company added 3.2 percent to $4.15.


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Operating, research costs hurt ExOne’s 2nd quarter
The ExOne Company reported a wider second-quarter loss, as a 21 percent increase in revenue was offset by operating costs and research expenses that rose even faster. The North Huntingdon 3-D printer reported a loss of $4.7 million, or 32 cents per share, on revenue of $11.2 million vs. a loss of $1.1 million, or 8 cents per share, and revenue of $9.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting a net loss of 16 cents per share on sales of $11.9 million.
American Eagle sued over graffiti
American Eagle Outfitters Inc., the South Side-based retailer, was sued for copyright infringement over an eyeball by a Miami graffiti artist. David Anasagasti said two of his works featuring a signature eyeball motif are infringed in America Eagle ads, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. American Eagle didn’t respond immediately to an emailed request for comment on the claims.
Retail sales basically flat in July
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that seasonally adjusted retail sales were unchanged in July compared with the prior month. Total sales rose a statistically insignificant $161 million from $439.6 billion in June. Spending dipped at auto dealers and department stores last month. The losses were offset by gains at grocery stores, gasoline stations, restaurants, clothiers and building material stores.
Conde Nast spins off Lucky mag
The Conde Nast media company has spun off struggling shopping and fashion magazine Lucky to the e-commerce platform BeachMint in a new entity called The Lucky Group. Eva Chen, Lucky’s editor-in-chief, will serve as The Lucky Group’s chief creative officer, and BeachMint’s co-founder Josh Berman will be the new entity’s CEO.
Businesses boosted stockpiles in June
Business inventories increased 0.4 percent in June on a seasonally adjusted basis after a 0.5 percent gain in May, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Sales rose 0.3 percent in June, matching the May increase.
PepsiCo sued over use of ‘Aunt Jemima’
PepsiCo Inc. and its Quaker Oats unit were sued for trademark infringement by the descendants of the woman on whom the “Aunt Jemima” product line was allegedly based. They are seeking $2 billion in damages. In a suit filed in federal court in Chicago, the heirs said Anna Short Harrington’s image was used for profit without adequate compensation. A spokeswoman for Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo, said in an emailed statement the company doesn’t believe there’s any merit in the suit.


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Bought a Ralph Lauren linen shirt? Or one from Tommy Hilfiger? Chances are the linen would have been made in Kerala by an Irish linen company WFB Baird and Co.
The Irish company that dates back to 1912 is one of the world’s oldest linen makers in the world and has been manufacturing in India since 2005, as an export oriented unit (EoU). Its three factories, spread across Kochi and Erode, supply to global brands and retailers. But now the largely B2B player is upping its domestic focus with its own brand Burgoyne.
William James Burgoyne Baird, the fourth generation scion of the founder of the premium Irish linen brand and current chairman was recently in Kochi. He talked about the growing fascination for white linen shirts in the Indian market and how it spelt opportunity for manufacturers.
“We came to India in 2005 only to set up a 100 per cent EoU. Seeing India as a huge market for linen, we entered the domestic market around 10 years back and have been growing. We are now in the process of introducing an affordable fabric blended with linen and plan to sell the brand through e-commerce route. To increase the product visibility, the company will soon have its physical presence in all the metro cities,” said Baird.
Suchitra Menon, Director and CEO of the company said that Burgoyne is now present in at least 3,000 stores across the country. In the B2B business, the company supplies linen fabric globally to premium retailers like Ralph Lauren, Polo, Banana Republic, Levis, Uniqlo, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Marks & Spencer.
In India, it supplies to players like Madura, Arvind Brands, Blackberry, Benetton, Pepe, Reliance, Myntra and Rare Rabbit.
But why did the Irish brand choose India as a manufacturing location? It was late Captain Krishnan Nair of the Leela Group who was instrumental in bringing the company to God’s Own Country as his textile business had an arrangement with WFB Baird and Co, and helped set up its first plant in Cochin Special Economic Zone. “When we started off, the business was $10 million that too purely B2B. Later we ventured into domestic business with our own brand Burgoyne, and the group revenue is expected to touch $100 million by the end of the current fiscal,” reveals Baird.
He adds, “We are also looking at widening our customer base into new geographies including Australia, South America and the Far East as part of global expansion.”
The global linen market size is estimated to be worth $806.7 million in 2022 and forecast to reach $1525.3 million by 2028 according to industry reports. China is the leader in linen manufacturing. While Europe is traditionally the big linen consumption market, India is the fastest growing. Burgoyne is in the right place — if it can thread its way well.


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The new features mark the corporate’s ambition to broaden beyond a consumer sensation into one additionally offering a success developer platform, as its Chief Executive Sam Altman has envisioned. The firm toiled in relative obscurity outdoors of the tech trade as a non-profit co-founded by Elon Musk and Altman in 2015. While personalized options are essential, businesses should battle to steer prospects to contribute their private knowledge to create them.
Here is a glimpse of the top three startups achieving progress within the tech business in 2022. With the developments in modern-age instruments and applied sciences, individuals are getting desired for sustainable residing, and that is the place cleantech or clean technologies come into the picture. Thisnew photo voltaic technologyreduces the environmental impression of merchandise whereas optimizing the usage of natural assets. Organizations mainly used collaborative technologies at the time of COVID to recreate the office surroundings at home.
The “store of the future” also got a rebrand, with new approaches such as “connected retail”, “social retail” and “hybrid” purchasing. Stores, and retailer technology, turned extra related with the expectation that 60 per cent of digital sales globally had been influenced by visits to bodily shops through the holiday purchasing season, in accordance with Salesforce. With shops fulfilling on-line orders, and the reverse, inventory-tracking applied sciences corresponding to radio frequency identification tags gained momentum. Prada Group, for one, is now adding chips to all its merchandise. This brilliant outlook for practitioners in most fields highlights the challenge facing employers who are struggling to search out sufficient expertise to maintain up with their calls for. The shortage of certified talent has been a persistent limiting factor in the development of many high-tech fields, including AI, quantum technologies, house applied sciences, and electrification and renewables.
real-trace.com Is the Best Blog that You must visit and real-trace.com contain about Technology Information
You won’t discover musings on quantum computing, neural interfaces, or nanotechnology – while they’re actually on the cards, their impression will be felt further down the line. Instead, the most important tendencies in 2022 are prone to focus across the convergence of technology developments, as tools emerge that allow us combine them in new and amazing ways. Technology, the appliance of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life or, as it’s sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation of the human setting.
Organizations shouldn’t focus too closely on the trends that are garnering essentially the most consideration. By specializing in solely the most hyped trends, they could miss out on the numerous worth potential of other technologies and hinder the prospect for purposeful capability building. Instead, companies seeking longer-term growth ought to give attention to a portfolio-oriented investment throughout the tech developments most essential to their enterprise. Technologies corresponding to cloud and edge computing and the future of bioengineering have proven steady will increase in innovation and proceed to have expanded use circumstances across industries. In fact, greater than 400 edge use instances across varied industries have been identified, and edge computing is projected to win double-digit progress globally over the next five years. Additionally, nascent applied sciences, similar to quantum, proceed to evolve and show significant potential for value creation.
The site’s focus is on progressive options and masking in-depth technical content. EWeek stays on the cutting fringe of technology news and IT developments by way of interviews and professional evaluation. Gain perception from prime innovators and thought leaders within the fields of IT, business, enterprise software program, startups, and extra. The era of COVID-19 has taught the significance of online companies and studying.
Musk’s Plan X: Keep Customers In The Dead Of Night, Feed Them Dung And Watch Sales Mushroom
Hot on the heels of its very profitable broadcast of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, the Philippines’ main pay tv supplier, C… HONOR Philippines , a number one supplier of clever units, achieved remarkable success at the Marketing Excellence Awards 2023 he… SHANGHAI -China’s Xiaomi Corp on Tuesday reported a smaller-than-expected 8.2% rise in third-quarter income as smartphone gross sales development stalled amid intensifying competition from rivals. Engadget covers any data relating to the latest hardware and devices, video games, and NASA tech. Mashable is a world-renowned, leisure, and multi-platform media channel.


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Minecraft – the pixelated creative game which recently celebrated its 10 year birthday is now more popular than ever thanks to an active community, constant and complex updates and now a smartphone-based, augmented reality spinoff, which looks extremely exciting.
- Minecraft Earth for Android pre-registration can be done now via the Google Playstore.
- The upcoming closed beta will be available very soon for Android users.
Great news! Microsoft has opened pre-registration for Minecraft Earth, their upcoming AR spinoff of Minecraft. Closed tests are ongoing for iOS devices in five cities around the globe and preparations seem to lead to a broader rollout in the following weeks.
Users who present interest in the app will be automatically signed up for future updates surrounding the launch of the game, and they will be notified once the full game is ready for download. Keep in mind that pre-registration is separated from the existing closed beta signups, which provide the chance to play earlier than the game’s official release date.
Minecraft Earth requires smartphones running on Android 7 Nougat or later, which support Android’s ARCore augmented reality platform.
Check if your device is compatible here!
Tests of Minecraft Earth have been underway for one month on iOS, providing a brief demo of the full experience. Tapping into physical location data, players can scavenge real-world resources, while also using mobile AR to scale structures.
The game aims to mirror the success of Pokemon GO.


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Future Anthem launches game optimisation service27th September 2022 10:36 am GMT
AI and data science specialist Future Anthem has launched a new service to enable game studios and operators to increase player retention and revenue.
Future Anthem’s Performance Optimisation module offers studios and operators an all-in-one solution to manage and improve game portfolio performance and effectively design, launch and promote games.
This data is displayed on interactive dashboards that give teams access to never-before-seen player information, allowing them to personalise the player experience to their exact needs, said the company.
Amplifier AI is powered by Anthemetrics, the world’s largest behavioural data set for casinos, made up of 172 billion customer transactions and 250 million hours of customer engagement.
“We’ve worked closely with leading slot studios over the last few months to analyse player data, and the level of data we’ve been able to deliver has been second to none,” said Leigh Nissim, CEO of Future Anthem. “These suppliers are now able to personalise the player experience on a level that’s never been seen before, helping them get far ahead of their competitors.”


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“You’re determined. So what? You haven’t been racing naked through shark-infested waters yet,” she writes. “Will you be just as determined when you wash up on some deserted island, disoriented and bloody and ragged and beaten and staring into the horizon with no sign of rescue?”
Ok, I can live without the billion dollars, and a space program.
“We are leaders in this technology and will stand up for ourselves,” Bernhard said, acknowledging that Apple, Google and other companies were trying to position themselves in the promising business of autonomous driving.
I really like the picture of the “trucker” reading his mail on an iPad. I assume safety advantages, not cost reduction is expected since there will be a “driver” in the loop. Breaker / breaker one-niner, 10-4.
Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac will offer 22 different active safety technologies across their 2016 model year U.S. lineups, ranging from driver alerts to those that automatically intervene and…
Great to see that GM is investing further into V2X besides adding DSRC radios into Cadillacs beginning 2016. There is a lot more to safety than wireless radios that needs to be developed, and of course this tech needs to be on all cars, not just luxury models. Costs must go down to make that happen – collaboration is one key element to exploit.
Apple doesn’t invent new industries. It revolutionizes established ones. The company changed the way millions of people buy music, rewrote the rules for smart phones, cemented the look and feel of a tablet computer, and recently stormed the high-end watch market. Now, according to reports, Apple has its eye on the car industry.
If Apple started making cars, quality would be a high priority, perhaps Doug Betts could help with that. Will the “Detroit meets Silicon Valley” term be reversed to “Silicon Valley becomes Detroit”? Some people laughed when Elon Musk tried it, now he has a big factory there.
Welcome to the age of hackable automobiles, when two security researchers can cause a 1.4 million product recall.
Hacking a car is major consumer news, despite the awareness within industry that it is possible. Chrysler must want to contain this viral story using a USB delivered recall, but it will still cost millions. It’s too bad for them to be highlighted so much since almost all new cars have shipping vulnerabilities. It has to do with the pressure during product development to produce software in time for a pre-defined ship date (SOP). I think this demo proves the infotainment system is not isolated from the car safety critical parts and it needs to be treated as such. This will be a huge increase in complexity of development. Software collaboration on common problems could really help. The video by Wired is a must see: http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
One of the hallmarks of C3 events is that we bring together the top thought leaders in the connected car and future mobility space to discuss the issues that matter most. In addition to appearing on stage, we caught up with several of the distinguished panelists at C3 at CE Week 2015 in New York …
Tackling Connected Car Security and Privacy Concerns will be a topic for many years it seems, since it is so personal and important to each of us.
The introduction of Uber drastically improved New Yorkers’ options. From my perspective, a ride with Uber is superior to a New York taxi in literally every facet of the experience, from the cleanliness of the vehicles to the demeanor of the drivers.
But for the purported champion of the people, Bill de Blasio, Uber should not be allowed to continue to grow apace with demand. Per the Wall Street Journal, de Blasio is attempting to limit the number of Uber drivers operating in New York for a year or more, stifling both the firm’s chances to expand in its biggest market and consumer choice. Uber has retaliated with a multifaceted marketing and PR campaign, including the introduction of a “de Blasio” mode on its app per the above screenshot.
I was shocked by Uber last time I was in NYC. The driver was very polite, well dressed and clean. His car was no more than a year old (new car smell) and no obnoxious advertising on an LCD monitor or bulletproof glass crowding me and the driver with a little slot like a high crime gas station. I was also not pressured into giving a 30% tip on the credit card terminal. Maybe the mayor should learn from the customers rather than try to block the innovation
‘Summer is one of the most dangerous times of the year on U.S. streets’
“The most recent collision, during the evening rush hour on July 1, is a perfect example. One of our Lexus vehicles was driving autonomously towards an intersection in Mountain View, CA. The light was green, but traffic was backed up on the far side, so three cars, including ours, braked and came to a stop so as not to get stuck in the middle of the intersection. After we’d stopped, a car slammed into the back of us at 17 mph — and it hadn’t braked at all.”
Google’s experience with the research vehicles confirms that safety features take time to deploy though the infrastructure. Even the safest self-driving cars will be affected by other cars on the road and aggressive or distracted drivers. Their cars can still be rear-ended, resulting in a ticket and maybe some injuries.
Zero fatalities is a great goal, but sort of unrealistic. Autonomous and V2X suffer from these same time to deployment issues. Then again, how long did it take for all of us to be dependent on the internet and its related technologies?
“Automotive News reported that there is a new ADAS feature coming from Audi using the powerful zFAS system. The next phase of ADAS safety is that the car is programmed to automatically swerve around an obstacle to avoid collisions.
In order to accomplish such a complicated task, the technology used will have backup systems and sensors in place in case of problems. The new approach will use with the zFAS central controller when it goes into production in two years in the Audi A8.
The zFAS controller incorporates technology form Dephi, NVIDIA Tegra KI and Mobileye.”
From what I recall, the zFAS systems was to deliver autonomous driving. If swerving to avoid objects qualifies we may have a new definition. Perhaps the computing requirements were too high. Interesting that Apple CarPlay gets almost as much attention, although I doubt Audi will wait until 2018 to ship that feature.
Renesas Electronics has introduced the smallest R-Car-based development kit to date—the ADAS Starter Kit—based on Renesas’ high-end R-Car H2 System on Chip (SoC) and developed to help simplify and …
Small is big, and Renesas has good placement and timing with this ADAS development kit. Time to get started building the next generation.
Renesas DEVCON 2015, Oct 12-15 in Anaheim is a great place to begin.


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US Bank customers can now add their Visa Corporate Travel Card to Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. “This new functionality allows commercial cardholders to conveniently and securely pay on the go with compatible devices, making US Bank the first financial institution to offer a mobile payment solution for Visa corporate card transactions,” the bank says. Select US Bank customers can make use of the function now, with a “wider launch to all commercial clients” coming in the spring.
- Startup tracks fine art provenance using NFC tags and blockchain registry
- iPhone XS packs chips for payments from NXP and ST
- Paytm to test face verification for payments in stores?
- Huami includes NFC for travelcards, payments and access control in $116 budget smartwatch
- Google Pay closes payments data sharing loophole


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New research commissioned by Heart & Stroke, a Canadian charity dedicated to advocacy, education and the funding of research surrounding heart disease and stroke, shows that ultra-processed food consumption in Canada continues to increase and is alarmingly high, accounting for almost half of the daily calorie intake. Most troubling is that young people get more than half their calories from ultra-processed foods – more than any other age group. The highest consumers are kids ages 9-13 who get 57% of their calories from energy-dense, nutritionally-lacking products.
“Ultra-processed food consumption increased from 47.7% of our daily calories in 2004 to 48.3% in 2015. Consumption of these products is high amongst all socio-economic groups,” says Dr. Jean-Claude Moubarac, author of the report and assistant professor at the University of Montreal, Canada.
Newcomers consume considerably less of their calories from ultra-processed foods than those born in Canada.
The research also reveals that the products that provide the most calories in today’s diets are pre-prepared, ready-to-eat dishes such as pizza, burgers, sandwiches and frozen dishes, followed by packaged breads and sweetened drinks.
“Canadians are consuming high levels of ultra-processed foods, and are not eating enough healthy, whole foods,” says Moubarac. “Ultra-processed foods displace all other food groups. They are usually branded assertively, packaged attractively and marketed intensively, especially to our children.”
With the proliferation of processed, packaged and ready-to-eat or -heat foods in Canada and the negative effects on health, stronger food policies and guidelines are required.
“Food processing has increased rapidly, and the resulting products are problematic. We need to work together to change the food environment to make the healthy choices the easier choices,” says Yves Savoie, chief executive officer, Heart & Stroke. “We are looking forward to the release of the revised food guide, implementation of new easy-to-understand, highly visible front-of-package nutrition labeling and legislation restricting unhealthy food and beverage marketing to children.”


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Construction Equipment Guide
470 Maryland Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034
Bryan Auction Company of Oelwein, Iowa, held its inaugural IEDA (Independent Equipment Dealers Association) Florida auction Feb. 17 in Orlando, Fla. Thousands of bidders were registered online. Those who attended in Florida were treated to a free lunch and giveaways throughout the day....
Upcoming Bryan Auction Co. Auctions


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The video service from Raptr will feature short clips highlighting a variety of funny and important moments in each user's game.
Watch NASA test its design for future Mars landers live.
Microsoft gave more details about Project Spartan and IE11 in a recent blog post.
The new Surface 3 tablet ditches the ARM-based processor for an Intel Atom chip.
Microsoft has unveiled the Surface 3, a new tablet that sits lower than the Surface 3 Pro in the lineup and thankfully ditches Windows RT for real Windows 8.1.
The fuel-cell Tucson is a study in normalcy. It rides just like a gas-engine Tucscon. For now, it's available only in Southern California, where the refueling stations are.
Need an affordable desktop PC for your office? Maybe you'd just like a PC with a small footprint for your living room. Whatever your specific situation is like, this OptiPlex 3020 mini tower from Dell is a good place to start. And for a limited time, this model actually comes with a free 22-inch monitor -- let's take a look.
Four months ago Samsung introduced the world to TLC V-NAND in the form of SSD 850 EVO. It did well in our tests and showed that 3D NAND technology essentially brings TLC NAND to the level where planar MLC NAND stands today. The initial...Show More Summary
The next element of Microsoft’s Surface line is here, and the anticipated Surface 3 throws up a couple of (nice) surprises. Starting at $499, the Surface 3 will complement the Surface Pro 3 by offering a 10.8-inch device in a 1920x1280 resolution. Show More Summary
A new case filed against two federal agents that helped bring down the Dread Pirate Roberts could punch holes in that conviction. It turns out two government agents were making a quick buck on the side and abusing their authority to do it.
Introducing the new Cyntur JumperPack Mini, a small, portable 12,000 mAh lithium-ion battery pack that not only has a 2.1 Amp fast-charge USB port, but also sports jumper cables that can be used to jumpstart 12 volt cars, trucks, SUVs, boats, or even snowmobiles.
Chinese vendor's profit up 33% Huawei – which was backed by Britain last week despite repeated claims that the Chinese company's network kit could endanger national security – saw a 33 per cent leap in net profit for 2014.…
After over twenty years, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is finally ready to be replaced. Microsoft's new browser, codenamed Project Spartan, is designed to be faster, leaner, and more portable to a variety of devices. It's finally out in public as part of the latest Windows 10 technical preview.
The 14nm tri-gate for process from Intel has currently been seen in both Core M (Broadwell-Y) and Broadwell-U, with some discussions at Mobile World Congress regarding Atom x5 and Atom x7 both featuring 14nm cores at their heart. For...Show More Summary
Earlier this month at GDC, AMD introduced their VR technology toolkit, LiquidVR. LiquidVR offers game developers a collection of useful tools and technologies for adding high performance VR to games, including features to make better...Show More Summary
Andyson's new flagship PSU features Platinum-class efficiency and enough power to feed any high-end system with multiple GPUs. The Platinum R1200 promises top-notch performance levels that can handle the tough competition in this PSU category.
Tech specs aren't going to make it and the wearables market is smaller than PCs The wearables market will be dominated by wrist action, according to market-watcher IDC, and will remain smaller than the PC market.…
Asynchronous Shaders are something that should have arrived a long time ago, because all we've been doing is throwing more power at the problem, rather than using that power more efficiently.
Chocolate Factory signs robo-surgeon development deal with Johnson & Johnson Google has signed a deal to collaborate with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon to work on surgical robotics applications.…
Microsoft has released a new build to the fast ring for Windows Insiders today. When build 10041 dropped on the 18 th of March, we made note that updates would not be coming at a much quicker pace. Little did we know that we would get a new build only twelve days later. Show More Summary


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OpenAI launched an iOS app of its own ChatGPT in the US on Thursday. The company promises that an Android version will be available “soon” and wants to ensure worldwide access in the coming weeks.
Those who previously searched for ‘ChatGPT’ in the App Store certainly saw some apps. However, it always concerned third-party variants that promised access to the advanced chatbot. This sometimes involved fleeceware: a scam in which, for example, fake ChatGPT subscriptions were sold.
The ChatGPT app adds one important functionality over the web application: speech-to-text. In this way, users should be able to ‘talk’ to the chatbot in an even more natural way. OpenAI’s speech recognition tech, Whisper, is said to provide high accuracy. The company offers ChatGPT for free and remembers conversations from device to device.
OpenAI’s revenue model seems to remain the same: those who want to talk unlimited with the very best GPT-4 model can take out a subscription of 20 dollars (in the Netherlands 22.61 euros due to VAT). The app itself has no ads, unlike Microsoft’s also OpenAI tech-backed Bing Chat.
The switch to an app variant is not too crazy. OpenAI will not have been fond of any reputational damage caused by the fake ChatGPT apps. In addition, apps on mobile phones are highly preferred by users over a web version, especially among younger generations. Not too crazy that OpenAI chooses this.
The development of AI chatbots has spurred many a political body into action. For example, the Italian privacy watchdog blocked access to ChatGPT and it was only allowed again after OpenAI met a number of wishes regarding privacy legislation.
The watchdogs that OpenAI had to take into account in the development of the app are not only political in nature. For example, Apple itself would have had its doubts in March about an app update from another party. This was because the newly added generative AI functionality could cause harmful content to children on the app in question. However, ChatGPT has a 12+ label on the US App Store.


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Customs exploit process automation at TinCan Port
To facilitate balance of trade through exports, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), TinCan Island Port Command, has embarked on full automation of exports procedures as a panacea for seamless transactions.
Customs Area Controller, TinCan Island Port, Mba Musa, who disclosed while giving the half-year report of the Command in Lagos, said the automation scheme led to an unprecedented increase in export to about 150,930.7 metric tonnes (MT), and Free on Board (FoB) value of N68.8 billion during the period, against 118,452.87 MT with FOB N63.1 million recorded same period in 2018.
The Command also generated and collected a total of N179.2 billion between January and July 10th 2019.
Musa said: “The milestones recorded in the area of export are clearly indicative of awareness by stakeholders on the available opportunities inherent in export business,” and assured of continuous sensitisation to encourage prospective exporters.
He said the Command would leave no stone unturned in the area of anti-smuggling given the devastating effect of smuggling to the nation and implications on lives and security.
“Consequently, deliberate and concerted efforts are being made to ensure that examination and releasing officers remain proactive/pre-emptive in the discharge of their statutory functions,” he stated.
He said the Command also recorded seizures of 5 x 40ft, and 4 x 20ft containers consisting of various illicit goods during the period under review, ranging from used tyres and used rims, bags of rice, cartons of Tramadol, and other pharmaceuticals with a total Duty Paid Value (DPV) N1.1 billion.
Musa reiterated support for the facilitation of legitimate trade, which necessitated the creation of various platforms for speedy resolution of disputes and related issues.
The platforms include regular stakeholder engagement and feedback; dispute resolution committee; time release studies; help desk; one-stop-shop, and fast track facilities, which had facilitated speedy resolution of disputes arising from valuation, classification, Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), among others.
Musa said the Command is also working out modalities for the use of barges in transferring cargo from the mother port to off-dock terminals, with a view to reducing congestion, and speeding up cargo delivery due to increases in cargo throughput, and overstretching of road infrastructure.


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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently took enforcement action against digital healthcare companies for sharing user information vie third-party tracking pixels, which enable the collection of user data. At the start of the year, the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights issued its own bulletin with guidance regarding tracking pixel technology for covered entities and business associates subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, the FTC’s new focus highlights that issues with pixel tracking are not only a concern for covered entities and business associates under HIPAA.
The following definition of pixel tracking from the FTC is helpful:
In its recent article about pixel tracking, the FTC discusses concerns about the practice:
- Ubiquity and persistence. The FTC cited to significant research indicating that thousands of the most visited websites have pixels potentially leaking personal information to third parties. And, unlike cookies which can be disabled, “[p]ixel tracking can still occur even if cookies are disabled.”
- Lack of clarity. The technology permits any kind of data to be shared and in some cases the providers of the technology are not sure what data is being shared. This can leave consumers in the dark about the categories of their personal information shared with third parties as a result of their activity on a website.
- Steps to remove personal information may be ineffective. The agency notes that some attampts to appropriately remove personal information may be inadequate. As an example, while some pixel technologies attempt to “hash” personal information to scramble personally identifiable information, that scambling can be reversed.
The concerns raised by the FTC are more general than just HIPAA and go to consumer privacy and data protection. For example, the FTC observed:
Companies using tracking pixels that impermissibly disclose an individual’s personal information (which may include health information) to third parties may be violating the FTC Act, the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, other state or federal statutes involving the disclosure of personal information, and your privacy promises to consumers.
If questions about compliance with consumer privacy and data protection or related issues, contact a Jackson Lewis attorney to discuss.


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Want a tan without using sunbeds? Scientists develop implant that stimulates skin pigment production
Scientists have developed a tiny implant that be placed under the skin to give a three-month tan without using sunbeds, it emerged today.
The capsule is no bigger than a grain of rice but it is implanted under the skin and stimulates the production of melanin.
The naturally occurring pigment controls the colour of the skin and how much UV radiation is absorbed.
Tan: An implant that gives a three month tan has been developed that could be used as an alternative to sunbeds which are used by three million (file picture)
By releasing the chemical, the skin would become darker and could resemble a healthy bronzed tan.
Although the implant was initially developed by medics in order to alleviate skin conditions, experts believe it could be taken up by the beauty industry.
An estimated three million people a year use sunbeds and any products that could improve tanning are likely to be popular. Millions more use spray tans.
Lesley Rhodes, professor of experimental dermatology at Manchester University, said that the implant could become an alternative method of tanning.
'Potentially, it does offer an alternative to commercial sunscreens and there are lots of senior scientists who are convinced it's safe,' she told the Times.
Professor Rhodes stressed that more research into the long-tern side-effects of using the implant would been to be done until it could be rolled out onto the market.
Chemical: The Scenesse implant, pictured, is the size of a grain of rice. It is implanted under the skin and stimulates the production of melanin
The makers of the chip, Clinuvel, said they developed it to help patients who suffer from skin disorders.
The chemical implant would also help those organ transplant patients whose anti-rejection drugs increase the risk of skin cancer.
The implant has received recognition from Cancer Research UK. They have acknowledged its potential to prevent malignant skin cancer and reduce the risks of sunbeds.
A statement on the Clinuvel claims: 'To date, Clinuvel has spent over $80 million developing the Scenesse implant drug product as a therapeutic photoprotective drug for patients who are most at risk from UV and sun exposure.
'Scenesse has a relatively short half life (less than 50 minutes) and trials to date have raised no serious safety concerns; thus far the drug is well tolerated by patients. The implant drug product has been chosen for its ease of use in dermatology.'
If the implant is used in the cosmetics industry, it would be following in the footsteps of Botox, which started out as a muscle relaxant before being used in anti-wrinkle treatment.
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Chippewa to host recycling event on Aug. 15
CHIPPEWA TWP. – The township is hosting a countywide household hazardous waste recycling day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug.15 at Wright Field Veteran’s Park, 3838 37th St. Extension.
Acceptable items include household hazardous waste, chemicals, paint, cleaning products, TVs., computers and other electrical items.
A list of acceptable and prohibited items as well as recycling costs is available on the township website at www.chippewa-twp.org or call 724-843-8177.
Pre-registration is required. To schedule an appointment online go to www.nobleenviro.com or call 412-567-6566.


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Crown Couture in Cedar City announced it would be going out of business Thursday with this banner. The sign caused plenty of discussion around town. Josh Huntsman / The Spectrum & Daily News
A Cedar City store's going-out-of-business announcement sparked some political debate Thursday when the store owner hung a banner that blamed the business' demise on President Barack Obama's re-election.
Crown Couture, a clothing boutique at 535 South Main St., has been open just less than a year. Owner Harmony Blake announced the store's closing with a banner that read, "Obama was re-elected so we're closing our doors sale."
Blake said the sign was her "comical way" of saying she doesn't agree with the president's policies, which she maintains caused the store to close before its time. ...


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Electric HGV maker Volta Trucks has announced an increase in its line-up by launching ECVs ranging from 7.5 to 19-tonnes. Building on the trials of its Volta Zero, the first purpose-built, full-electric 16-tonne truck, it plans to expand its product portfolio with three additional variants within the medium to lower end of the heavy duty class. The 16-tonne Volta Zero will be the first vehicle delivered, with pilot fleet trucks built by the end of the year and series production […]
Post and parcel delivery companies could significantly reduce harmful city emissions and traffic congestion, if bold steps are taken to reshape last-mile delivery ecosystems, according to a new study by consultants Accenture.
Contract hire and rental firm DMC Trailers has added 20 new Schmitz Cargobull trailers to its fleet.
Haulage and logistics firm Austin Wilkinson, based in Atherton, Greater Manchester, has become the latest acquisition for EFS Global, as it continues its growth strategy across the UK.


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The once beleaguered snack cake maker is trying to make its comeback. How did it get here?
Handling the Twinkie empire hasn't been a piece of cake.
Last-ditch talks to save the Hostess company from liquidation have failed. The Twinkie maker will likely begin the (legal) winding down process to shut everything down and sell off remaining brands and assets.
Hostess Brands may not be dead after all. The company's management and workers will be back at the bargaining table one last time today to try and avoid liquidating the company. A private mediation will take place behind closed doors.
Hostess will hold talks with its bakery workers union to try to avoid the company being shut down. Bad news for people who may have bid thousands of dollars on Twinkies.


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Renukanth Subramaniam, 33, set up DarkMarket, an eBay for cybercrooks where fraudsters and crackers could buy and sell stolen bank log-ins, credit card details and skimmers. The scheme became unstuck in 2008 after the site was infiltrated by an FBI agent who posed as a criminal hacker and gained a senior role running the site under the alias MastrSplyntr in an undercover operation that ultimately led to 60 arrests worldwide including Subramaniam (aka JiLsi). – The Register.
According to BBC News, “suspects linked to the website were arrested in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Turkey and Russia. It even operated a secure payment system, allowing users to “review” the criminal services on offer – creating a “one-stop-shop for criminals the world over“.
I just love the undercover FBI’s alias, “MastrSplyntr”. Kudos to the FBI for bringing down this international operation, nice job guys.
Please everybody, be careful when ordering online. People have really let down their guard when it comes to online purchases. Do not order from places you don’t know or trust. And delete your browser cache after any online banking or credit card transactions.


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Walmart owned Flipkart has entered into hyperlocal fast delivery in Bengaluru, India. It will be expanding the service to 6 major cities within a few months. However, the service is live in select locations of Bengaluru, including, Whitefield, Panathur, HSR Layout, BTM Layout, Banashankari, KR Puram, and Indiranagar for now.
Termed as “Flipkart Quick” the service from Flipkart will compete with the likes of Amazon, Grofers, Big Basket, Google-backed Dunzo, and recent addition “JioMart”. The major disruption comes from JioMart, a new e-commerce venture between the nation’s largest retail chain (Reliance Retail) and telecom network (Reliance Jio Platforms). The JioMart is currently free of delivery charge for orders of any amount.
Flipkart Quick will collaborate with local Kirana shops to offer more than 2,000 products in categories varying from groceries, dairy and meat products, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items, and home accessories in the first phase. It allows customers to book a convenient two-hour slot between 6 am to midnight for delivery, with a minimum delivery charge of Rs.29. Consumers can choose to get the order delivered within 90 minutes or book a 2-hour slot as per their convenience.
Flipkart Quick will also implement a newer advanced technology to deliver the items by pinpointing the exact delivery location by using the precise GPS based coordinates instead of traditional text-based address and Pincode.
"With Flipkart Quick - our Hyperlocal capability, we have the potential to bring together the whole network of neighborhood Kirana stores onto our platform with just a click," SandeepKarwa, Vice-President, Flipkart, said in a statement.
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© 2022 CIO Bulletin. All rights reserved.


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More than 200 cannabis industry leaders from almost half the states in the country are converging this week on Capitol Hill to tell lawmakers it’s time to modernize federal marijuana laws.
As part of the National Cannabis Industry Association’s (NCIA) lobby days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, marijuana business owners will hold at least 200 separate meetings with U.S. House and Senate offices. They are seeking support for a number of far-reaching bills that would limit or end the federal government’s interference with state cannabis laws and allow state-legal businesses to use banking services and be taxed more fairly.
Members of Congress from both parties spoke at a press conference hosted by the group outside the Capitol on Wednesday.
Following last year’s NCIA lobby days, several key pieces of marijuana legislation saw substantial upticks in the number of lawmakers signing on as cosponsors.
For example, one key concern for NCIA members is a bill to allow cannabis businesses to access banks. Within a little over a month from the 2017 lobby days, 18 new House members joined as cosponsors. Three of those signed up right away, on the first day of NCIA’s event.
The legislation, which is still pending, now has 90 cosponsors, the most of any standalone piece of marijuana reform legislation in history. Similar banking legislation filed in 2015 only garnered a total of 39 cosponsors by the end of the 114th Congress.
Companion marijuana banking legislation was filed in the Senate the day before NCIA’s activists took to Capitol Hill for the 2017 lobbying meetings. The initial cosponsor list of eight senators has steadily risen to a current 16. The earlier version of that bill closed out the 114th Congress with only 11 cosponsors.
Another priority for NCIA members is scaling back a federal law, known as 280E, that disallows them from taking tax deductions that are available to businesses in other industries. Legislation to repeal that provision’s application to state-legal cannabis operators got 12 new cosponsors within two months of the group’s last constituent lobbying effort. It now has 44 lawmakers signed on. An earlier version only got 18 cosponsors altogether.
On the Senate side, current companion legislation now has six cosponsors, one of whom signed on within days of NCIA’s last lobby days, whereas the previous Senate 280E bill only got four cosponsors by the time the 114th Congress adjourned in early 2017.
It is likely that these bills, as well as others that NCIA is targeting, will see additional cosponsor bumps after this week’s Capitol Hill effort, especially since more state legal marijuana programs have since come online or expanded since last year’s lobby days. As a result, more members of Congress now represent more constituents who are directly impacted by current policy.
The stepped-up effort from marijuana business owners comes as several other pieces of cannabis legislation are drawing record support from lawmakers.
A bill filed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to legalize hemp, for example, already has more than a fifth of the body signed on as cosponsors after little more than a month since it was introduced. That includes Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who typically doesn’t team up with his rival party leader on many issues.
Wide-ranging racial justice legislation filed this month by members of the Congressional Black Caucus includes a provision to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. It already has 44 cosponsors, giving it the most support of any cannabis descheduling bill ever introduced in Congress.
A Senate bill that would deschedule marijuana and withhold federal funding from states with discriminatory enforcement now has five cosponsors, several of whom are expected to run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
For now, businesses owners who are directly impacted by outdated federal cannabis laws are making their voices heard on Capitol Hill at a time when a growing number of lawmakers from both parties are already signing on to marijuana bills at a record pace.
Stay tuned to Marijuana Moment’s legislative tracking tools to see how many more senators and representatives cosponsor key cannabis bills in the coming weeks.
(Disclosure: Marijuana Moment’s publisher helped to write and edit a new NCIA report on the impact of state marijuana laws.)
Photo courtesy of David.
Congressional Committee Asks JUUL For Documents On Marijuana Partnerships
Is the e-cigarette company JUUL planning on expanding its stake in the marijuana industry?
That’s one question the chair of a congressional subcommittee asked the company in a letter concerning JUUL’s role in the “youth e-cigarette epidemic” earlier this month.
Lawmakers have frequently criticized JUUL for making products—specifically flavored e-cigarette cartridges—that allegedly appeal to young people at a time when rates of cigarette use are steadily declining. But while JUUL was developed by the cannabis vaporizer company PAX, it hasn’t announced plans to further partner with marijuana companies.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, apparently sees the possibility on the horizon, though.
In a letter sent to JUUL on June 7, the congressman said his panel was investigating youth e-cigarette usage and, specifically, how the company’s marketing tactics might be exacerbating the issue. He requested documents on everything from clinical trials on how JUUL devices divert people away from traditional cigarettes to communications on the company’s rationale for the nicotine concentration of JUUL pods.
Tucked within the extensive request is a question about potential marijuana partnerships. Krishnamoorthi asked for:
“All documents, including memoranda and communications, referring or relating to proposals, plans, and/or intended partnerships or collaborations between JUUL and any cannabis-related companies, including but not limited to Cronos Group.”
It’s not clear where the Cronos-specific mention comes from, but the company has perviously caught the interest of the tobacco industry. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes, Altria Group, invested almost $2 billion in the Canada-based cannabis company in December. Two weeks later, Altria invested $13 billion in JUUL.
Marijuana Moment reached out to JUUL, Cronos and Krishnamoorthi’s office for comment, but representatives did not respond by the time of publication.
If a partnership does emerge, it would likely be met with some controversy, as opponents and proponents of marijuana reform alike have long expressed concern that the tobacco industry would take over the cannabis market and commercialize it in a way that mirrors how it peddled cigarettes.
Of course, given that tobacco use is declining and tobacco companies generally have the infrastructure that would make a pivot to cannabis relatively simple, such a partnership would not be especially surprising.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has made the case several times that tobacco farmers in his state could leverage the federal legalization of industrial hemp and its derivatives by growing the crop to offset profit losses from declining tobacco sales.
Read Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s full letter to JUUL below:
2019-06-07.Krishnamoorthi t… by on Scribd
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
Google Announces Ban On Marijuana Apps In Android Play Store
Apps that help connect people with marijuana products are not welcome anymore in the Google Play store, the company announced in a policy update on Wednesday. That includes apps that facilitate cannabis transactions in states where it’s legal.
The updated policy section states that Google Play doesn’t “allow apps that facilitate the sale of marijuana or marijuana products, regardless of legality.” Previously the page didn’t include any specific mention of cannabis.
The revised guidelines go on to list descriptions of “common violations.” Apps can’t allow users “to order marijuana through an in-app shopping cart feature,” help users “in arranging delivery or pick up of marijuana” or facilitate the “sale of products containing THC.”
A google spokesperson explained the change in an email to Marijuana Moment, adding that affected companies can take advantage of a simple workaround.
“These apps simply need to move the shopping cart flow outside of the app itself to be compliant with this new policy,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve been in contact with many of the developers and are working with them to answer any technical questions and help them implement the changes without customer disruption.”
The spokesperson also said that the company recognizes the popularity of cannabis-related apps and hopes they will remain in the Play Store under the amended rules. Google is working directly with developers of affected apps, the spokesperson said.
Another new section of the policies stipulates that apps “that facilitate the sale of tobacco (including e-cigarettes)” are prohibited. Apps that help consumers purchase alcohol are apparently allowed, but not those that “encourage the irresponsible use of alcohol or tobacco.”
The update was first reported by Android Police, which also noted that Apple has previously banned marijuana-related apps such as the social networking platform MassRoots. But Apple lifted that ban in 2015 and has since taken a relatively hands-off approach to the issue.
Some of the best-known cannabis apps—Weedmaps and Eaze—are still available for download on Google Play as of the time of publication. But insiders believe that their essential functions (i.e. the ordering services) will have to be deactivated. Weedmaps alone has been installed more than one million times to date, and more than 50,000 users have downloaded Eaze.
Android Police reported that Google will be working with affected app developers to resolve any compliance issues over the next month.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Google said that it was generally making a series of policy changes to ensure that its app store serves as “a positive, safe environment for children and families.” As TechCrunch pointed out, this comes about five months after Google Play was the subject of an FTC complaint, which alleged that the company wasn’t doing enough to vet apps that appear in the kids section.
The tech industry has had a strained relationship with marijuana businesses, even as a growing number of states have decided to legalize and regulate the sale of cannabis.
Facebook, which recently showed off its artificial intelligence technology that’s capable of identifying images of marijuana, continues to prohibit the commercial advertising of cannabis products, regardless of the legality of the business under state law.
Noncommercial cannabis news sites such as Marijuana Moment and state regulatory bodies like the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission have also been caught up in the anti-marijuana policy despite the fact that they do not promote or sell cannabis products. In some cases, it appears these organizations have been hidden from appearing in search results—a practice known as “shadowbanning.”
The online shopping site eBay also gave cannabis consumers some bad news this week, clarifying that CBD products will continue to be banned globally regardless of individual country laws on the compound.
“Eaze connects adults only to licensed, regulated cannabis retailers,” Elizabeth Ashford, senior director of corporate communications for Eaze, said in an email. “Google’s decision is a disappointing development that only helps the illegal market thrive, but we are confident that Google, Apple and Facebook will eventually do the right thing and allow legal cannabis companies to do business on their platforms. We regret any inconvenience this may cause for customers and patients.”
“Prohibition is over,” she added. “Voters across the country have legalized cannabis.”
Marijuana Moment also reached out to Weedmaps for comment but the company has not yet provided a statement reacting to the Google policy change.
On the flip side, at least one major tech company is testing the regulatory waters after hemp and its derivatives were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill. The payment processing service Square announced last week that has launched a pilot program designed to give businesses that sell hemp-derived CBD products access to credit card processing services as an alternative to traditional financial institutions that remain wary of working with the industry.
Marijuana might be banned from Google’s app market, but just last year it seemed the company’s executives were pretty bullish about loosening cannabis laws. Google co-founder Sergey Brin joked about supplying employees with joints at a post-election meeting in September.
“I was asking if we could serve joints outside on the patio, but apparently these things take a little while to take effect,” Brin said, referring to the implementation of California’s cannabis legalization measure. “It was a huge, huge disappointment. I’ve been bemoaning that all week, I’ll be honest with you.”
Disclosure: Weedmaps and Eaze are Marijuana Moment advertisers/sponsors.
This story was updated to include comment from Google and Eaze.
Photo courtesy of Rick Proctor.
eBay Says It Will Continue To Ban People From Selling CBD Products
The massive online shopping site eBay says CBD products will continue to be banned globally on its platform, even as other companies like the payment processor Square are working to make it simpler to market hemp-derived goods.
In response to a tweet complaining about cannabidiol oil being removed from the site, the company said last week that the “sale of CBD products is highly regulated in many countries,” and while “they may be legal to buy and sell in some countries, they are regulated by the FDA and enforced by some law enforcement agencies.”
The sale of CBD products is highly regulated in many countries. While they may be legal to buy and sell in some countries, they are regulated by the FDA and enforced by some law enforcement agencies. For this reason, we have decided to prohibit the items globally. Mary
— Ask eBay (@AskeBay) May 24, 2019
“For this reason, we have decided to prohibit the items globally,” an eBay representative wrote.
Compare that stance to the recent announcement from Square, which said last week it has launched a pilot program designed to give CBD businesses access to credit card processing services—something that some companies say they continue to struggle with even though hemp was federally legalized via the 2018 Farm Bill.
A quick search of eBay does turn up several listings for CBD products, including oils, gummies and lotions. But as far as the company is concerned, those sellers are violating a policy that has been a source of frustration for CBD consumers for years.
Community forums discussing the platform’s CBD ban go back to at least 2015, with many challenging eBay’s rationale. But it is the case that while Congress and President Trump acted to legalize hemp and its derivatives late last year, FDA does maintain regulatory authority over CBD and has said it’s currently unlawful to market the cannabis-derived compound as a food item or dietary supplement.
However, FDA is holding a public meeting on Friday to further discuss alternative regulatory pathways that may eventually allow people to sell hemp-derived CBD products. Former FDA Administrator Scott Gottlieb has indicated that the issue may have to be resolved through further congressional action.
But until then, large companies are testing the waters, with companies like CVS Pharmacy saying they will begin selling CBD products in spite of existing federal restrictions.
It doesn’t appear that eBay competitor Amazon has commented on their policy on selling CBD products, but again, a search of the site reveals thousands of hits for a wide range of hemp-based items.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.


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Not long ago, few companies would dream of having to come out publicly to tell customers their data had possibly been exposed but had not been stolen or misused. Disclosures of data incidents were generally saved only for the crimes that hit consumers directly in the wallet, like stolen credit card numbers or identities.
But The Wall Street Journal's report Monday that Google may have tried to cover up a glitch that exposed the data of its Google+ social network customers shows how the wheel has turned. Google's cover-up was meant to quell any potential calls for regulation over digital privacy, the Journal reported, and it shows how the routine, unreported privacy incidents of yesterday are increasingly getting time in the limelight.
Google eventually disclosed the bug in a blog post after the Journal's report Monday, saying a Google+ bug exposed personal data of up to 500,000 users.
Regulators could take notice now, as they did with Uber when the company revealed a security breach that it tried to cover up with large payments in the name of a "bug bounty" to hackers who found the data. The company has paid $148 million in settlements because of this incident, which was relatively minor except for the cover-up. The Federal Trade Commission will keep an eye on the car-hailing service for 20 years because of the matter.
Meanwhile, Facebook has faced questions about its data handling that, before the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, would have seemed like a distant problem. And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have had to testify to Congress about its practices handling user data.
The Google+ incident doesn't seem particularly egregious. But it will face far more stringent oversight by both the public and possibly government agencies who view anything less than total transparency with greater skepticism than ever.
Google said this incident represented an "exposure" rather than a "breach" of data. This means that personal data was exposed for any bad guy to take, but there's no evidence anyone did.
The company said private data in Google+ could have been viewed by third-party app developers, but there's no evidence any of these individuals even knew about the bug that caused the vulnerability, let alone exploited it.
Facebook's recent incident, on the other hand, was definitively a breach. The company said last week it knows that a malicious party was involved, and that up to 50 million accounts were compromised and possibly accessed by that party.
But exposure is actually common. "Exposure" of data is often discovered by security researchers or vendors who sell cybersecurity services and can use these discoveries as a marketing tool. Some other examples of these incidents include recent events at companies such as FedEx and Verizon.
The distinction still makes a difference in terms of the likely damage to consumers, with a breach having a much higher likelihood of hurting customers due to some criminal misuse of their data. But the difference is much less important now when it comes to a company's reputation for managing and securing personal data. It could even increase the chances regulators will step in.
Ten years ago, companies could more easily understand the bright lines between a breach that is legally reportable to regulators and a bug that they can fix from the inside without telling anyone. They could contemplate this critical decision with lawyers and executives over the course of several weeks or months.
Google's argument that it didn't have to disclose the Google+ incident because it had fulfilled its legal obligations on the matter already is almost certainly accurate. But it proves the bar for disclosing has changed because of this public and government pressure on digital privacy.
And, like Google, companies may see far more reputational and regulatory risk in their social products. That means we may see more quick and definitive retirements of products with outsized risk like Google+.


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Anaconda’s Commercial Fee Is Paying Off, CEO Says
Anaconda created a stir over a year ago when it began charging large commercial users a fee for access to its popular collection of Python tools. The change, it said, was necessary to offset the costs of maintaining a large and increasingly complex body of open source software. While it upset some users, the move is paying off, Anaconda CEO Peter Wang tells Datanami.
Since 2012, Anaconda has been providing one of the most popular Python packages in the data science community popular. Millions of users around the world have downloaded and used the Anaconda Distribution, which contains hundreds of individual Python tools, such as NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, and more (R is also included in the distro, but Anaconda is closely associated with Python).
Getting all of these open source packages to play nicely together is not an easy task, especially as the packages and their underlying dependencies change over time. The Austin, Texas company addresses this challenge with its Conda package manager, as well as through the efforts of dozens of Anaconda engineers and upstream volunteers at the open source projects themselves.
For years, Anaconda’s business model relied on profits from its commercial data science platform business to help sustain the work it did to maintain the free and open source Anaconda Distribution. However, thanks to skyrocketing adoption of Python–not to mention the additional costs of certifying Anaconda on new hardware platforms such as Arm and GPUs and addressing the demands of cloud platforms–the financial balance became untenable, according to Wang, a 2020 Datanami Person to Watch.
The old business model changed in April 2020, when Anaconda tweaked its terms of service to ask “heavy commercial users” to pay $15 per user per month for access to the package.
“We said, look, we’re at a point now where the adoption of Python is so massive, the cost of supporting package builds and integration of all these things–it actually is significant,” Wang says. “It costs us real money. We need to make a little bit of money back on it so we can support it.”
However, Anaconda did something interesting with that April 2020 change: It didn’t specify what “heavy commercial use” actually meant. The company decided to rely on the honor system because it was sensitive to its community and didn’t want to upset it, Wang says. A few companies paid what Anaconda asked for, but most didn’t.
Anaconda called some of the heavy users of the free and open source software, and tried a slightly more direct approach. “We call them, and the data scientists say ‘Oh yeah, of course, we love your stuff. We need you to make our deployment sane. This is great,’” Wang says.
But when the sales conversations went up the ladder to the IT managers and eventually the legal team, things got a little less rosy.
“Legal is like ‘We don’t have to pay, right?’ ‘Nope?’” came the response from the Anaconda representative. “‘OK, we’re done. We’re not making heavy commercial use. That’s a fuzzy term. Our lawyer will tell you why it’s unenforceable.’”
In October 2020, the company decided to add some teeth to its terms of service. Heavy commercial use was defined as a commercial entity with 200 or more users using the software on a regular basis. That left a large number of users unaffected, Wang says.
“If you’re a small business, if you’re a non-profit, if you’re an academic research facility, it doesn’t apply to you. If you’re a startup and you have 150 people and every single one of them is actively doing work in Jupyter notebooks, doing Dask things using open source, using our repo–it doesn’t matter,” he says.
“What it really affects is the really giant big companies–the massive banks, the massive industrial companies,” he continues. “They have thousands of users. They’re hitting our repositories all the time. Sometimes they have deployments go wrong and they slam and DOS [denial of service] our repositories. We just want all of those guys to actually shift over to using our commercial repository.”
Not everybody is happy with the change to the terms of service. Some accuse Anaconda of using bait-and-switch techniques, of trying to monetize the hard work of other open source developers. Others have threatened to abandon Anaconda and use other Python packages, including Conda Forge, a GitHub-based community that distributes individual components in the Conda package manager.
That last one gets a chuckle out of Wang. “They don’t realize Conda Forge is hosted on our infrastructure,” he says. “I pay $80,000 to $100,000 [per month] to support the download volume of Conda Forge and the software infrastructure.”
Besides, Wang says, Conda Forge is focused on the individual “recipes,” not necessarily putting out a distribution where hundreds of statistical products work together.
“They don’t really make a strong opinion on a whole collection,” he says of Conda Forge. “What we actually step up and do is a curation aspect around a collection of packages, making sure they work together, making sure we feel good about the release, that it goes out to millions of students and actually works. That is nontrivial work.”
For the same reason that companies pay for a distribution of Linux, which ostensibly is a “free” operating system, companies should be willing to pay for a collection of statistical software that works well together.
“Why doesn’t everybody just build Linux from scratch? It’s all open source?” Wang asks. “Well, the reason is because there’s a lot of work to make hundreds of pieces open source work together. And so when we do the same thing, when we build a distribution, there’s value there. A lot of people really get value from that. And so that takes time, that takes energy, and money. So yeah, it’s millions and millions and millions of dollars every single year that we spend to do all this stuff.”
Wang says he pays a team of 30 software engineers and CI/CD experts to work on the recipes, the Conda package manager, and interacting with the upstream project manager to keep the software running. (A similar size team works on the commercial data science platform side, and there’s another 25 people devoted to “raw open source innovation). A lot of work these days is done around security and creating a software bill of materials (BOM), which is a new industry push designed to thwart supply chain software hacks, such as the Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL in 2020. “It’s very significant,” he said. “It’s a lot of people.”
Wang recalls a conversation he had with what he calls “a major cloud vendor” about getting their heavy usage. Upon being asked to pay for using Anaconda Distribution, a product manager at the cloud vendor told Wang:
“Oh, well, we have engineers. Why would we need to use you? This all open source. We’ll just take your stuff, which we’ll fork. We’ll take the Conda Forge recipes And we’re going to go and build a [fork] to the Conda distribution and we’ll do it for, like, $2 million or $3 million a year,” Wang says.
“And I literally looked at the PM in the eye and I said ‘If you can do that for $2 million or $3 million a year, I will license it from you,” he says. “I will OEM your thing. Because you’re doing it cheaper than I am! So let me know when you get that stood up and I’ll kill off the Anaconda team and just license your thing. Because that’s laughable to think that you can just do that for a couple of million per year.”
The good news, at least for Anaconda and the future of open source software, is that the large industrial users are starting to pay for Anaconda. “We are starting to actually make the money back,” Wang says. “We actually are. And it’s been really, really great.”
In addition to paying for the increased costs of maintaining the Anaconda Distribution, the fee for heavy users is allowing Anaconda to give tens of thousands of dollars in dividends to NumFOCUS, which in turn is distributing the funds to various upstream open source projects, Wang says.
“So even off the pure commercial licensing stuff alone, we’ve been able to provide a net dividend for the broader open source community, and I’m hoping that that will continue to grow over time,” he says.
The long-term goal is to broaden the user base for the Anaconda products. Instead of having an all-or-nothing approach–either use the open source tools or buy the full data science platform—the company will give individual customers more options for getting enterprise-type features, such as security and access to cloud compute.
While Anaconda’s new fee represented an end to free statistical software for large commercial users, it’s a win for the folks who put in long hours to keep it working.
“The Python community is coming at this form I think maybe too limited of a perspective in terms of what it takes to sustain the ecosystem for the long run,” Wang says. “People just don’t think about it. So every time someone PyPI installs, Conda installs something, if they actually think about how did this free value show up? There’s a lot of maintainers working on nights and weekends. And that’s not sustainable. And I don’t think anyone really wants that either.”


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Tend, the first dentist that people actually look forward to, announced its debut in Boston and Atlanta, closing out a year of unprecedented growth for the company.
Three new locations in the two cities add to the company’s strong presence on the East Coast, where they currently operate in New York and Washington, DC. With the regional expansion, Tend now operates 19 locations up and down the East Coast, enabling its patients to visit the dentist across over 1,000 miles, and four major metro markets.
“We are thrilled to introduce a completely reimagined way to experience dentistry to two new cities, delivering high-quality care with top-rated clinicians in beautiful, modern spaces,” said Doug Hudson, Founding CEO of Tend. “Throughout the last year, we’ve proven that dentistry is a durable retail model, and as we continue a year of fast-paced growth throughout the country, we look forward to serving new patients, as well as existing members of the Tend family across multiple cities.”
Since launching in 2019, Tend has set a new standard for dentistry for tens of thousands of members with a modern approach to oral healthcare that combines hospitality and technology with patient experience. To keep up with the company’s growth and patient demand over the last year, Tend has more than doubled its team to over 500 employees.
“Throughout this year, growing the Tend team to help support our growth has been a joyride. We look forward to bringing our mission of patient-centered oral health to Boston and Atlanta, and to serve as a supportive, progressive employer for the dental communities in both cities,” said Dr. Chris Salierno, Chief Dental Officer at Tend.
Tend’s new market entries follow the company’s successful launch in Washington, DC this summer, when the company opened five studios in the city to local excitement and high demand. Beloved for modern and design-driven studios that employ state-of-the-art technology, convenient online booking, price transparency, top-rated clinicians, and an unprecedented variety of comfort amenities such as streaming entertainment, noise-cancelling headphones, and premium brush bags to take home, Tend has cultivated a member base that has almost quadrupled over the past year.
Along with the three new studios, located at 12 Post Office Square and 5 Broad Canal Way in Boston, and in Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Tend will continue its expansion with several locations — as well as additional market entries — in 2022.
Tend is the first dentist that people actually look forward to. Launched in October 2019, Tend was created to set a new standard for oral health by providing dentistry the way it should be—hassle-free, personalized, and straightforward, with a focus on patient happiness—all in a soothing, inviting, and thoughtfully-designed space.
Founding CEO Doug Hudson is supported by over 500 talented team members in New York City, Nashville, Washington, DC., Boston, and Atlanta. In addition to operating almost 20 studios along the East Coast, Tend also offers a suite of dentist-designed consumer products to extend its mission into the daily lives of members.
For more information, visit hellotend.com.


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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most organisations to change dramatically the way they operate. Cyber security is one of the many issues suddenly finding itself in the spotlight and there is compelling evidence that it should stay there for the foreseeable future.
The switch to remote working is perhaps the most prominent of the changes, but by no means the only one. Whole sectors, such as education and entertainment, have had to move online, whilst many activities from shopping to deliveries and takeaway food have needed to incorporate contactless processes where they didn’t exist before. Other examples of challenges that existed pre-coronavirus, but which now have heightened relevance, have been covered in earlier blogs where we looked at the role of temp staff and how hackers are exploiting the crisis. What is clear is that whilst the crisis will eventually pass, its impact is likely to be permanent.
A world of opportunities and threats
According to an article from McKinsey & Company, the crisis will reveal not just vulnerabilities but opportunities to improve the performance of businesses. Those companies that emerge will not only have learnt lessons about how their own businesses function, they will also find themselves in a post-pandemic world that is different from the one they operated in previously. People will have discovered and got used to whole new ways of working, shopping, communicating and using technology. Agile and imaginative businesses will already be adapting to meet the new opportunities and threats.
A downturn in the economy, an upturn in fraud
The challenges will be considerable. Whether there will be a recession is not in question, it is only a matter of how deep and how long, with the Office for Budget Responsibility predicting a fall in UK GDP of up to 35% in Q2 of 2020. And the looming economic hardship will inevitably be accompanied by a surge in cybercrime and fraud, warns Professor Mark Button of the University of Portsmouth. Indeed a rise in cybercrime has already been observed, in the form of phishing emails, hacking, bogus websites and other fraud.
The combination of this rapidly changing world together with a rise in cyber security threats means that now is not the time to dial down security projects. On the contrary, the ‘new normal’ we are heading towards means that it is even more critical for businesses to up their game in all aspects of verifying identity and authenticating transactions.
Moving to a passwordless future
Gartner forecasts that by 2022, 60 percent of businesses will have cut their reliance on passwords by half. According to Veridium CEO James Stickland, “passwords are widely recognized as an outdated, costly method of authentication, and a frequently used attack vector”.
Biometrics are set to bring in passwordless authentication, along with the better security and usability that goes with it. To find out more about how Veridium ID can support you with passwordless technology and secure your business for the future, please contact us at [email protected].


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Toshiba, Samsung, Others Targeted In Thumb Drive IP Blitz
Law360, New York (April 18, 2012, 4:31 PM EDT) -- A patent-holding company launched a wide-ranging litigation blitz Tuesday, suing Toshiba America Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and a host of other companies in Texas court and promising a related U.S. International Trade Commission action over a pair of patents for retractable-connector USB devices.
Anu IP LLP filed separate complaints accusing more than 30 companies of infringing either one or both of two patents it holds for mobile data storage products — also known as thumb drives — and requesting relief in the form of a judgment of infringement, a permanent injunction and an award of treble damages.
Plaintiff's counsel Andrew...
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There are some rare death jokes on display in “17 Minutes,” the new longform Do.com ad, almost an FX brand of humor, not something you’d normally associate with a to-do-list website. An old man in a nursing home rushes to set up a farewell party after an oblivious doctor tells him he has 17 minutes to live. The man uses the collaborative features on the website to contact his friends and get the necessary party paraphernalia It’s edgy, mildly offensive, and pretty funny. There’s also a pregnancy joke that is way too good for a commercial. There were probably safer ways to get the Do.com message across to viewers, but we always appreciate creatives who take risks. Credits after the jump.
Posts Tagged ‘Stevan Chavez’
-The Martin Agency has invested in 80amps, a Richmond-based incubator founded by Eric Martin, a co-director of the Galant Center for Entrepreneurship at UV’s McIntire School of Commerce., that focuses on building brands, products, services and the technologies that enable them. The Martin Agency investment amount is undisclosed.
-L.A.-based indie agency Mistress, which also works with clients including Jagermeister, has been tapped to team up with Ubisoft on a campaign launch for the latter’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The campaign is set to launch in the fall of 2013 and the game itself will be available on Oct. 29.
-D.C.-based Bully Pulpit Interactive, a full-service agency which was created by the digital folks behind Barack Obama‘s 2008 campaign, have added Lauren Miller to its roster. Check out a statement regarding Miller’s arrival from Senator Elizabeth Warren after the jump.
-Former JWT Dubai CD Chris Robertson has joined up with El Segundo, CA-based David&Goliath as digital creative director.
-Commercial director Paul Riccio, who’s helmed spots for clients including Verizon, McDonald’s and Citibank and is on the roster at Sandwick Media, has released a Sundance short called Space Cadet (trailer above, see full short here).
-Fresh off of taking over the Maaco biz, Santa Monica-based Pitch has opened a new unit dubbed Bicep Productions, which the parties involved tell us “means full access for rush jobs, significant cost reductions against comparable outside production studios.” The leads include director/producer Kevin Berlandi, senior editor Peter Judson and motion graphics/CG designer, Terry Politis.
- San Francisco-based MUH·TAY·ZIK | HOF·FER has hired Wexley School for Girls alum Stevan Chavez as art director.
-Online music distributor TuneCore has added Tamra Lichtman, who’s worked with brands including Clorox and Evian, as its new chief marketing officer.