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Seoul, Sept. 16 (BNA): Samsung Electronics Co. was the second-largest vendor of earwear products in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market in the second quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, as the South Korean tech firm tries to expand its presence against the industry leader Apple Inc.
Samsung ranked second in the MEA earwear market with a 33 percent share in terms of sold units in the April-June period, according to the market researcher International Data Corp. In terms of sales value, Samsung had a 25.2 percent share, according to South Korean News Agency (Yonhap).
The company posted a strong on-year increase in earwear sales after shipping 98,000 units of the Galaxy Buds Plus wireless earbuds to the region in the second quarter of the year, IDC added.
Apple, however, was the dominant leader in the MEA earwear market, accounting for a 50.3 percent unit share and a 64.3 percent value share in the second quarter of 2020, thanks to the popularity of its AirPods.
IDC said earwear shipments to the MEA market are expected to grow further due to the pandemic-driven stay-at-home trend.
“Consumers are increasingly using earpieces not only to playback audio but also to help increase their productivity,” said Zeynep Kilic, a program manager at the IDC. “The so-called ‘hearables’ category was seemingly resilient to the market-suppressing forces caused by COVID-19 and will be the main driver of total wearables growth in the second half of 2020 and the whole of 2021.”
IDC said shipments of wearable devices across the MEA market declined 2.7 percent on-year to 2 million units in the second quarter of 2020. Of the wearables, wristbands accounted for 46.6 percent of total shipments, followed by earwear products with a 33.3 percent share.


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In China, E-One UK's trade mark portfolio does not include Peppa Pig or class 11 trademarks (for table lamps). On September 30, 2018, E-One UK filed a class 11 trade mark application for the term "PEPPA PIG" (no 33849640). It was, however, under preliminary evaluation and did not become public until September 27, 2019; its implementation in class 11 began in 2020.
As a result, when E-One UK filed a complaint in Shanghai IP Court on September 20, 2019, it had no clear trademark foundation to use against the defendants.
According to Tian Lu, PhD candidate in intellectual property law, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, it has only be recognized now because Entertainment One UK Limited filed a trade mark infringement case to the Shanghai IP Court, which triggered the necessity for the court to evaluate whether or not the trade mark at issue was indeed a well-known mark.
“This shows that collecting and submitting sufficient evidence is of paramount importance in well-known mark-related litigations,” she says. “It is possible to achieve the status of a well-known mark in China for the foreign trade marks. This will reduce the infringements accordingly.”
For anyone waiting for their trademark rights, what can a brand learn from this trademark issue with Peppa Pig?
“For right holders: Being recognised as a well-known mark grants the extended cross-class scope of trade mark protection,” she says. “Meanwhile, let’s not forget the importance of timely filing trade mark applications in those foreign countries where the “first-to-file (trade mark rights)” system operates. Overseas IPR protection should be more proactive. For infringers: This case has a warning effect on infringement.”

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The expectation that any health research on fresh produce consumption will yield a favorable finding tends to dull those findings when they are inevitably published. Guess what? Apples are good for us!
I knew that — of course they are.
The public believes that fruits and vegetables are good for them, so it is not surprising to them that research finding upon research finding reaffirms that conviction. Fiber here, phytochemicals there — it’s all good.
Virtually everything good about increasing fresh produce consumption and the resulting connection to health has been published, from heart health to cancer prevention to weight management.
The challenge for produce marketers is to make those “obvious” findings exciting and life-changing, particularly to folks in Des Moines.
And those who try to grab attention and make news by making surprising or shocking claims about hidden dangers of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables — see the Dirty Dozen list from the Environmental Working Group — should not be allowed to profit.
The strategy of underestimating and insulting the intelligence of the American consumer cannot stand. At least 93% of us agree.
What's your take? Leave a comment and tell us your opinion.


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The UK pet retail chain Pets at Home increased its total group sales by 5.8 per cent year-on-year to GBP 319.4 mio in the last 12 weeks of last year. On a like-for-like basis, group sales increased by 8.7 per cent, and by as much as 28.1 per cent on a two-year basis. In retail, Pets at Home grew by 9.8 per cent.
The company grew particularly strongly in the omnichannel sphere, by 16.7 per cent or 99.3 per cent on a two-year basis. The share of total retail sales thus amounted to 15.9 per cent and increased by one per cent compared to the same period last year. Two years ago, the share was 10.3 per cent in the same period of the last 12 weeks of the year. LFL sales growth for the company's Vet Group was reported by Pets at Home at 4 per cent, with a two-year increase of 23.3 per cent. New client registrations at First Opinion veterinary practices averaged about 9 200 per week in the year to date, compared with around 9 000 in the same period last year.
"We now expect the group's full year adjusted pre-tax profit to be at least GBP 140 mio in 2022," Pets at Home highlighted in its report.
Good prospects for pet stores
Pet stores in the USA will achieve sales of 29.4 bn dollars in 2023, according to a recent report by industry research organisation IBISWorld. The …
The captain disembarks
At the beginning of November last year, Pets at Home announced that CEO Peter Pritchard would step down from his role as chief executive officer and director of the company next summer. He has been with Pets at Home for eleven years. "This follows the successful turnaround of the company in which he developed and implemented the group's strategy in the pet care sphere to achieve the goal of becoming the best pet care company in the world," states Pets at Home in addition. Peter Pritchard will remain in post as CEO until the end of May to oversee the presentation of the group's interim results for 2022 to the investors and to ensure a smooth transition to his successor. The search for a suitable successor among internal and external candidates has now commenced.
New store in Brighton
Two new pet centres (Brighton and Guildford) were added in the last 12 weeks of the year, bringing the total number of sites to 455. In Brighton, the company aims to trial a range of sustainability initiatives, including strategies to increase energy efficiency, reduce waste and save water. A grooming salon is also incorporated into the store. Next spring, a Vets4Pets…


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A $17.3-million deal is the latest acquisition being attributed to Greek-American billionaire Dean Metropoulos, as his family firm buys out a New England confectionery business.
According to NBC, a Connecticut-based branch of Metropoulos’ business put in a strong bid for Necco (aka, the 171-year-old New England Confectionery Co.).
Metropoulos, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $2.6 billion, ventured into this market before with a 2013 purchase of struggling Twinkies maker Hostess.
Necco, which is based near Boston, is known for its Sweethearts candies range which performs strongly around Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.
In 2012, Metropoulos spoke to Greek Reporter about his career. You can see the whole interview below:


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E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin
If you have been to your local grocery store in the last few days you've probably noticed all those empty shells in the grocery aisles. It seems that there are a lot of grocery items that are short supply.
For some insight on the grocery shortages check out this article From NPR By Joe Hernandez: Grocery store shortages are back. Here are some of the reasons why.
If you happen to shop in one of the large megastores like Walmart or Target and wander through the rest of the general merchandise portion of the store you will also notice a number of empty shelves.
There is no doubt, that we are experiencing issues in all those items in the title of this Post.
The grocery issue is most concerning to me. Given the fact that the grocery industry and the food distribution system in this country have been viable for decades and has managed to cope with a seeming unending number of crises, why suddenly are we seeing these empty shelves at the grocery store?
There's no doubt that some of it is due to supply chain issues, the current state of employment in our country, and perhaps to some small degree weather issues.
During your grocery shopping trips, I'm sure you, like everybody else, have noticed that prices are increasing. Everyone seems to be blaming inflation as the as the cause for rising grocery prices.
You may have also noticed that every time these empty shells are restocked the prices are higher.
Here is a look at Grocery sales and profits from the National Grocery Association (nga) Independent Grocers Reach Record Sales and Profits.
If you're like me, I don't normally pay a whole lot of attention to the price when I find a commodity item back in stock in my local grocery store. I just grab it go to the checkout pay the price.
I can't help but wonder if it's just possible that the grocery industry is using shortages and empty shelves to ease these price increases into place.
It wouldn't be the first-time shortages have been used to justify price increases.
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Rumors about the Google Flagship Smartphone are circling around and causing much anticipation among the fans. As a little treat for the mind, the rumor has been disseminated and maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see the Nexus 5 in only a month’s time. The Nexus smartphone, made by LG yet again, is expected to be seen on the 14th of October if the rumors are held to be true. The new phone’s design is said to take its inspiration from the LG G2 with the exception of its diagonal 5 inches display and also the fortunate disappearance of the rear buttons.
Alongside this release, Google is making another surprising launch of its next addition to the Android series of operating systems. Yes we will soon be seeing the 4.4 KitKat and so far no details have been unveiled regarding the newest version of the Google operating system. With a completely new name, no one can be sure of what to expect out of it. For some, the new name is indicating towards a major adjustment and change in the OS while some are still of the view that it might just be another version of the 4.3 with a few new kicks.


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Report: Major Cleaning Product Makers Withhold Ingredient Information
A new report finds major household cleaning product makers are withholding ingredient information, putting consumers at a disadvantage.
Clean and Healthy New York looked into ingredient disclosure by major cleaning production manufacturers .
The report found that four of the five companies are substantially in compliance with California legal requirements, but none of the companies have incorporated 50% of NYS Best Management Practices.
Clean and Healthy New York Deputy Director Bobbi Wilding:
"We looked at 20 products from five major manufacturers to assess what they're doing to conform with New York State's Best Management Practices and California law when it comes to disclosing ingredients and the hazard that those ingredients might pose. And what we found is that no company has adopted all of the expanded disclosure components that New York has in its Best Management Practices."
Wilding says Seventh Generation and RB (maker of products like Lysol and Easy-Off) scored highest for their levels of disclosure.
"RB has produced an excellent website that provides deatiled information in ways that are very accessible and has adopted a number of key components of the New York Best Management Practices."
According to CHNY, ingredients in cleaning products have long been obscured to consumers. Wilding says chemicals present in some common household cleansers have been found to increase the risk of cancer, asthma, birth defects, and other serious, chronic medical conditions. More notably, the use of cleaning supplies has grown exponentially since the coronavirus outbreak. CHNY found sales of aerosol disinfectants, bath and shower wipes, and multipurpose cleansers have grown by 385%, 180%, and 148%, respectively. She adds it is difficult to tell when companies aren't fully transparent.
CHNY is calling on the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to adopt the Best Management Practices as regulations.
DEC responded to a request for comment by email, saying in part it “will implement cleaning product disclosure requirements for ingredients and other information through regulation. DEC began the process by holding a public meeting, and seeking stakeholder input, on the topic. We are taking input from the public and stakeholders while DEC develops a formal regulatory proposal which is expected to be announced later this year."
Here is a link to CHNY's report. DEC's full statement is below.
"Protecting New Yorkers and the environment from harmful chemicals is of the utmost importance to the state. New York state is leading the nation by requiring manufacturers to disclose information about all of the chemicals that might be found in household cleaning products, including byproducts and other impurities. This initiative will help enhance the state’s understanding of the public’s exposure to chemical hazards.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will implement cleaning product disclosure requirements for ingredients and other information through regulation. DEC began the process by holding a public meeting, and seeking stakeholder input, on the topic. We are taking input from the public and stakeholders while DEC develops a formal regulatory proposal which is expected to be announced later this year. DEC’s regulatory proposal will be made available for public comment."


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12 July 2019, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia - ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise, and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, and Slovakian Mobile Operator SWAN Mobile have jointly conducted the country’s first 5G video call in a major breakthrough for 5G commercialization.
SWAN Mobile and ZTE showcased a variety of industry applications based on 5G in front of reporters and invited guests. The demos were run on a 5G network based on 3GPP R15, using ZTE’s 5G end-to-end solution which consists of wireless access and core network technologies, as well as 5G mobile phones. During the demo, SWAN Mobile’s CTO, Patrik Kollaroci, used ZTE's latest AXON 10 Pro 5G flagship phone to conduct the first 5G video call in the country.
In addition to the 5G video calls, visitors could also experience live demos of 5G peak rates, eight-channel HD video streaming, VR video and drone services. Tested with 60M bandwidth, the peak data rate of 5G single user reached up to 1Gbps, equaling the theoretical value. HD videos were uploaded over 5G networks in real-time by a 360-degree camera drone and downloaded by VR glasses. The result was a clear, smooth multi-channel live video experience, with the demonstrations showcasing the strong performance of the 5G network, featuring high speed and low latency.
"With the issuing of 5G licenses, the 5G era has now arrived in Slovakia. We hope to cooperate with ZTE to provide leading 5G applications and services to Slovakian users as soon as possible," said Roman Vavrik, CEO of SWAN.
ZTE is committed to creating the ultimate experience with simple and intelligent wireless networks for operators in the 5G era, alongside mature end-to-end technology. To date, with the world's first 5G commercial deployment of scale, ZTE has won 25 5G commercial contracts around the world, covering China, Europe, Asia-Pacific, MEA and other major 5G markets, and has cooperated with more than 60 operators around the world. SWAN Mobile and ZTE officially signed its 5G commercial contract on May 31st, 2019.
ZTE is a provider of advanced telecommunications systems, mobile devices, and enterprise technology solutions to consumers, carriers, companies and public sector customers. As part of ZTE’s M-ICT strategy, the company is committed to provide customers with integrated end-to-end innovations to deliver excellence and value as the telecommunications and information technology sectors converge. Listed in the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Shenzhen (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), ZTE’s products and services are sold to over 500 operators in more than 160 countries. ZTE commits 10 per cent of its annual revenue to research and development and has leadership roles in international standard-setting organizations. ZTE is committed to corporate social responsibility and is a member of the UN Global Compact. For more information, please visit www.zte.com.cn.
Tel: +86 755 26775189


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Route 152 one-way traffic control
Gilroy – Nighttime traffic on Highway 152 out of Gilroy will experience one-way traffic as work continues on widening the road between Gilroy Foods and just east of the Llagas Creek bridge. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 10pm to 4am through Wednesday morning as crews will stripe the roadway and install safety barriers.
Flag personnel will alternately direct one-way traffic. Day time traffic will not be impacted.
Gavilan Holiday Marketplace
Gilroy – Holiday shoppers looking for something special and unique are invited to browse the 4th annual Gavilan College Holiday Marketplace Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, from 10am to 2pm. Money raised from the marketplace will benefit Gavilan College student clubs. This event is free and open to the public. Campus parking is 75 cents. There will be musical entertainment during the marketplace, and the Gavilan Cafe will be open, offering a variety of food and beverages.
Details: Vendor Applications are still being accepted. Call 489-6445 or go to www.gavilan.edu/pio.
Alquist plans satellite office
Gilroy – Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) toured Gilroy Monday morning, meeting with school board members and city officials before announcing that she plans to open a satellite office in the Garlic capital.
“We have some places in mind that we’re going to be looking at today,” she told Mayor Al Pinheiro. “We want to work closely with you and work closer to you.”
Rebekah’s hosts dinner
Gilroy – The local nonprofit Rebekah’s Children’s Services will be hosting an auction dinner at Bonfante Gardens’ Snowflake Plaza, 3050 Hecker Pass Hwy (Hwy152), 6 to 10:30pm, on Dec. 2, to benefit program clients.
The $75 traditional holiday dinner includes a stroll through the park to see holiday lights and bid during live and silent auctions.
Guests should dress comfortably for a winter evening at the park.
The plaza is a covered pavilion warmed by heat lamps. Rides and other park attractions will not be operating that evening.
Details: 846-2142 or www.rcskids.org.
Festival of Trees benefit nonprofit
Gilroy – Bonfante Gardens Family Theme Park is known for its world famous Circus Trees, but on Friday, Dec. 2, the non-profit theme park boasts about a different kind of tree – Christmas trees and the spirit of giving. Bonfante Gardens Family Theme Park will host the 3rd annual Festival of Trees Premier Dinner and Live Auction benefiting Rebekah Children’s Services.
The $75 per person auction dinner runs 6 to 10:30pm and includes a traditional holiday dinner buffet with savory side dishes and desserts served inside the park’s majestic Snowflake Palace.
Guests are encouraged to dress comfortably for an outdoor winter evening that also includes an exclusive stroll through the park’s Holiday Lights display. There will be no rides in operation during this event.
Details: www.rcskids.org or call 846-2142.
Join in the Christmas spirit
Gilroy – Come and get in the Christmas spirit at the annual St. Mary School Christmas Boutique, Saturday, Dec 3 from 9am to 7pm.
Browse the handcrafts, jewelry, Christmas decorations, art work and clothing items offered by artisans and retailers from around the South County area.
There will be 35 vendors selling goods at St. Mary School, Cullen Hall, 7900 Church St. Shop for items for yourself or for others.
Enjoy music, food, beverages, along with a benefit drawing.
Send news items to City Editor Robert Airoldi. FAX to 842-2206, mail to Gilroy Dispatch, 6400 Monterey Road, Gilroy, CA 95020, or e-mail [email protected]


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Archive for the ‘equipment’ Category
“No one was injured, at least physically.”
Brian has a great round-up of his recent sojourn to Amish Country to visit with the newly energized New Holland team.
Read the full report here.
I just talked with Steve Wilhelmi, product sales manager at John Deere, about the company’s latest rebate program, GreenFleet.
Unveiled this season, the program offers a rolling 24-month window for purchasing discounts, special financing offers and other benefits if you buy enough green (or gold) equipment.
The biggest change, he told me, was that GreenFleet is open – meaning contractors and dealers both know what the discounts for purchases are ahead of time.
“Our program in the past was not as customer-facing as it is today,” Wilhelmi said. “(With) this program, we’re much more up front with customers on what they’re discount can be. They know what they’re getting … that wasn’t always the case in the past.”
The green glasnost has been a hit with customers (commercial mowers, landscape contractors and the homeowners-with-acreage) as well as dealers, he said. It’s no longer a mystery what the benefits of a purchase will be, which allows better cash management and budget planning.
I’ll have more on this story in an upcoming issue, but in the meantime, check out the program details here.
Earlier this year, we sent Carolyn LaWell, one of our contributing editors, up to Detroit for a few days to get the latest on new technology and options available for work trucks in the landscaping industry. She filed this report for our November edition, and sent along a separate note about how contractors can best work with upfitters to get the most bang for their truck budget.
To completely understand the time and costs involved, consult with an upfitter before buying a cab chassis. The upfitter probably won’t spec the chassis or recommend what manufacturer to buy from, but they can offer advice.
“Since our sales staff works with many customers that have bought different brands of trucks, they may have an idea of what’s working better for some companies than others and what kind of features they have,” says Aaron Breitkreutz, a design drafter for Truck Bodies Equipment International (TBEI), the parent company for brands Crysteel, Ox Bodies, Rugby, DuraClass and J-Craft.
It’s important to go in with an idea of what the truck will be used for and what upgrades are necessary. It’s also important to keep an open mind and ask questions. “The upfitter may have a lot of different options that a normal customer doesn’t know about, but that would work great for them,” he says. “Ask a lot of questions.”
Another consideration is how much time the body might take to design, if necessary, and install. Breitkreutz says it could take at least four weeks for a custom design build and install job. “If they order their equipment from us around the same time they order their truck, it’s probably at our place for a week, a week and a half at the most,” he says.
No matter what, companies looking to purchase cabs with chassis will more than likely need to work with an upfitter.
“Almost all the time, a customer is going to buy a truck and have someone up-fit it for them,” Breitkreutz says. Dealers don’t want to purchase bodies and limit the number of customers that may be interested in the option sitting on the lot. “That’s just the way the economy is now. You don’t see stock trucks just going to a dealership already with a body on it.”


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Hulu, the NBC Universal-News Corp.-backed Web video service, was second only to YouTube in March as a destination for online video in the U.S., according to new data from Nielsen Online.
Nielsen’s analysis of online video viewing habits showed that more than 9.6 billion streams were viewed by an estimated 130 million U.S. Web users in March. In total streams, that figure represented a nearly 9 percent jump over the previous month, and a 39 percent increase over figures released for March 2008.
YouTube, Hulu, and Yahoo were the top three sites for streaming video, serving up more than 6 billion video streams among them.
Despite all this traffic, the advertising business model to support online video remains elusive. Analyst projections remain bullish, but the key players, including YouTube and Hulu are still searching for the magic formula to attract advertising dollars.
Brandweek is a unit of the Nielsen Co.


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I am sure you have all read attention-grabbing news headlines such as these and share the same concerns regarding the future of retail real estate. In this new era of constant access to millions of digital media streams, dramatic headlines cut through the clutter and generate more attention. Drama sells. But despite all the negativity circulating, I am confident that the retail landscape is solid, and the death knell of brick-and-mortar stores is heavily exaggerated.
While there is no question that technology has disrupted the retail business via e-commerce, mobile devices, virtual shopping, etc., physical stores continue to dominate retail sales. Research shows that 78% of consumers prefer to shop in store and spend significantly more per month in a physical store than online. E-commerce, multiple fulfillment options, omnichannel retailing, and other technological advances are improving the brick-and-mortar shopping experience and boosting sales at physical stores.
Even though e-commerce sales are growing significantly (approximately 15% annually), the in-store vs. online struggle is not quite the battle that it is portrayed to be. E-commerce sales—combined with mail-order sales—account for less than 10% of total retail sales. Furthermore, it is estimated that over half of online sales actually go to brick-and-mortar retailers. Consumers are still buying from stores, but now they have more choices to compare prices, make transactions, and receive their goods. Major retailers such as Anthropologie and Nordstrom are effectively leveraging e-commerce sales to grow their business. Anthropologie notes that 36% of its total revenue is earned online and Nordstrom reports 22%. Successful retailers are learning to integrate online sales and omnichannel retailing.
However, in every industry, there will always be winners and losers. Companies must adapt to an evolving business climate. That includes retailers. Competition and shifting customer habits are hurting more merchants than the internet, and innovative new retail concepts are coming to market daily. Unfortunately, corporations like Blockbuster, Sports Authority, and The Limited did not survive the ever-changing retail industry. But on the flipside, stores such as Best Buy, Dollar General, Ross Dress For Less, TJX Cos. (T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods), ULTA Beauty, and countless others—most of which are in Stirling Properties’ portfolio—are all flourishing and rapidly expanding their physical presence. New-to-market retailers like Filson, Iron & Resin, KENZO, and Woolrich are getting in on the action. Even online retail-giant, Amazon, has taken note of the power of physical stores and rolled out brick-and-mortar expansion plans. Many other merchants with digital roots have followed the same path (i.e. “clicks-to-bricks”), such as Warby Parker, Fabletics, and Bonobos.
Similarly, there will be winners and losers as retail real estate investors and owners. Well located, solidly anchored centers are thriving, while Class-B and -C malls and poorly located centers are continually losing national tenants, struggling to fill empty spaces, and downsizing significantly. Some are failing altogether.
The bottom line is that consumer patterns and expectations have shifted. In this so-called “era of the high-maintenance consumer,” they demand value, convenience, multi-channel fulfillment options, and a unique, entertaining experience.
Well-located retail real estate with strong anchors is still a profitable investment option. Net absorption has been high, demand has been exceeding supply, and rents have been rising. Retail is yielding the best 20-year return of any property type due to a combination of strong fundamentals, favorable demographics, limited new supply, and cash flow growth potential. Secondary and tertiary markets are proving to be especially attractive for investors to buy value-add retail opportunities.
Retail real estate is not dying; it’s disrupted. Anyone with any involvement in the industry must embrace this changing landscape to be successful. We will continue to hear negative news and over-exaggerated headlines as the retail race endures, and more stores announce weak sales forecasts and closures. But disruption creates opportunity and a chance for reinvention. At Stirling Properties, we plan to take advantage of these opportunities to re-evaluate and enhance our portfolio and strategic growth plans.
We must ALL adapt and deliver…or get left behind!
Great read. Thanks Marty.
Sent from my iPhone, please excuse any typos.


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With Android gaining focus in the Indian mobile market, it was unlikely that a feature phone from Reliance Jio could be disruptive. While the incumbents kept repeating similar strategies to squeeze profits, they ignored the elephant in the room — 50 crore feature phone users with close to zero disposable income. While telcos kept pushing for 4G adoption through flashy advertisements, and handset makers offered substandard budget Android smartphones, nothing changed the ground reality. Mobile data continues to be relatively expensive, people still complain about mobile internet speeds and affordable Android smartphones remain unreliable.
The Jio Phone with Jio plans could make incumbents go back to the drawing board. Here are nine ways how Reliance Jio could disrupt the market.
1) Free Calls Always: The Jio Phone brings free voice calls to feature phones. With this, the entire Indian mobile user base have the option to never recharge and pay for making voice calls.
2) 50 Crore Additional Mobile Data users: While the Jio Phone will provide access to Jio apps with unlimited data, people will get hooked to using Internet on their phones. This means, Jio Phone has the potential to add up to 50 crore users to the World Wide Web.
3) ‘Smart’ but Not a Smartphone: Jio Phone could add a new segment in the handset market altogether — 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phones which offers basic smartphone features. Domestic handset makers can eye this segment and innovate to bring down costs further.
4) Keep Check on Mobile Bills: With Jio setting a price benchmark for mobile bills, rival telcos would introduce aggressively priced plans to counter Jio. Sachets plans for as little as Rs 23 will make usage more affordable.
5) More Pressure for Telco Rivals: While telcos might ignore feature phone users and push them to adopt 4G, the introduction of Jio Mobile means rival telcos could end up losing their 2G subscriber base significantly, thus impacting its overall numbers. Note that these 2G subscribers using feature phone are the ones who are actually paying for making voice calls and SMS.
6) More Video Consumption: With unlimited data, video consumption in India is poised to grow. Free access to apps like Jio Cinema, Jio TV will make feature phone users watch more videos.
7) Mass Migration from 2G to 4G VoLTE: Jio Phone promises to migrate 2G subscribers (which are the majority in India) to 4G VoLTE at one go. As noted by RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, soon there could be more 4G subscribers in India than 2G users.
8) Disrupt DTH Service Providers: While it may be too early to comment, the Jio Phone could challenge DTH players as well. The Jio Phone even aims to make old CRT TVs smart. User can connect their Jio Phone to TVs to watch live TV through app by paying Rs 309 per month additionally.
9) Cheap Android Phones Need to Get Better: Budget Android smartphones under Rs 5,000 need to get better and more reliable to face the Jio Phone heat. The Jio Phone appears to offer better value for money for people with limited usage and could possibly worry domestic handset players.


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Elite: Dangerous has seen plenty of updates throughout 2015 following its launch at the end of 2014. Frontier Developments has continued to upgrade the virtual reality (VR) compatible space combat experience with new features, fixes and more. One of the biggest updates, set to arrive before the end of the year, is Elite: Dangerous Horizons. Among other aspects, this premium update will add planetary landings to the experience for the first time. Now new screenshots of this upcoming feature have arrived, and can be seen below.
A total of 3 screenshots can be seen below, showcasing new HUD features that will debut when players make their planetary landings. “Your HUD will automatically show and hide certain gauges to keep the information relevant,” the developer noted in this week’s newsletter. “As you approach the planet from a distance, you’ll notice the first new thing on the cockpit display – the altimeter (the single vertical line seen to the right in the screenshot above). The altimeter will show you how close you are to the planet’s surface, and help you control the speed of your approach.”
Elite: Dangerous is currently in an interesting place with its VR support. The title has been supporting the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD) since its Alpha stages, but recently announced that it was halting work on the device while creator Oculus VR continued to iterate on its software development kit (SDK). That said, the Frontier Developments has since announced support for another HMD, the HTC Vive. Support for the device, which works with Valve’s SteamVR system, will be integrated in a free patch arriving this holiday season.
VRFocus will continue to follow Elite: Dangerous closely, reporting back with the latest updates on its progress.


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Worker bees aren’t the only ones testing out unusual seating arrangements. (See: The Science of Who Sits Where at Work.)
Executives are getting in on the fun, too, shunning private offices, sitting next to new neighbors and, in some cases, dispensing with desks altogether.
At Julep Beauty Inc., a beauty brand based in Seattle, the company’s top two leaders gravitate toward a new group of employees every four to six months. They currently sit with the finance group. Next up is customer acquisition.
The arrangement gives chief executive Jane Park and chief operating officer Kate MacDonald a peek into the day-to-day happenings of various arms of the business.
“You know that show Undercover Boss? It’s like that, but every day,” says Park.
Park and MacDonald instituted the rotating policy about a year ago, after moving into a newer, bigger office space that made them feel less connected to staff due to its size.
Park says workers get to know the company’s leaders as “human beings” by working alongside them.
Keep reading after the jump…


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To be completely honest, I started this column expecting it to be an Ello postmortem. After a mass exodus from Facebook led by drag queens frustrated over Facebook’s real name policy, Ello, the little social media platform that could (or couldn’t) seemed to have faded from the public eye amidst reports that spammers were taking over and real accounts were lapsing into inactivity.
Imagine my surprise when I found the ad-free social network not just alive, but growing. Here are four cool ways that Ello evolved when you and I weren’t looking:
Ello Has Raised $5.5 Million in Venture Capital
When Ello first appeared, plenty of commentators asked (rightly) how a social media platform with no ads could hope to make enough money to sustain itself. Ello’s founders responded to that criticism by raising $5.5 million in venture capital last month. Their biggest investor is the Foundry Group from Boulder, CO.
"We're strong supporters of the Ello team's unique vision for the business,” Foundry managing director Seth Levine wrote on the company blog. “It's important that we state this clearly, since there are bound to be people who view this financing with skepticism. Foundry Group is completely supportive of the Ello mission. We'll either build a business that doesn't rely on third party advertising or the selling of user data or we won't build a business."
Ello cofounder Paul Budnitz is similarly staunch in his assertion that Ello will remain what it claims to be, and even told the Burlington Free Press that he turned down larger investments to retain the platform’s integrity.
The Financial Community is Booming
Finance reporter Joseph Weisenthal was between jobs last month when he decided to start broadcasting his thoughts about an earnings announcement from King Digital on Ello. His unusual use of the platform drew in finance reporters and bloggers from Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Financial Times, and Economist.
According to a recent Nieman lab report, these journalists are using the platform to share news, post commentary, upload graphs, and engage with each other. The birth of Ello’s financial sector marks a sharp departure from its usual demographic, which had been ruled by designers and artists until now.
“We’ve been waiting for something like this to happen,” Ello Cofounder Todd Berger told Betabeat. “It’s a little humorous that it’s the financial community that embraced it first, but it makes sense for guys to be highly focused on efficiency would jump on a platform that’s highly easy to use.”
Ello is Actually Brand-friendly
When Ello first staked out its territory as the Land of the Ad-Free, many marketers were left wondering if it was a social taboo to set foot in Ello’s hallowed webspace. Sonos made headlines by being one of the first companies to adopt, then seems to have gotten cold feet and posted nothing.
But after a period of uncertainty, Budnitz said that brands are “totally welcome,” but there won’t be any way for them to pay for ads or promote their own posts. According to creative director and designer Greg Foley, this limitation could actually push brands to be more creative and engaging. “It's so personal that I've got to wonder, if I were a brand and I wanted to engage on this, it'd have to be in a really unique and personal and ultimately fun way, and not selling at all." he told Fashionista.com.
Budnitz agreed. "You're paying for people to see things they wouldn't organically want to see, so their interest level is fairly low,” he said. “If you put up stuff that people are really interested in, you can gain a relatively large following fairly fast."
A Fake Art Show Turned Out Kind of Awesome
When I was still using Ello actively in October, I saw an update that sent my social-media loving heart aflutter. Klaus Biesenbach, the director and Chief Curator of MoMA PS1 in New York City was accepting submissions for an art show cultivated and shared exclusively on social media.
Ello is a platform built on anonymity, but the story seemed to check out. The profile picture was even the same one used on Biesenbach’s Twitter page. Incredibly creative works of art flooded in from all corners of Ello, all tagged with the @klausbiesenbach handle. The art explosion lasted for about a week before Biesenbach’s page vanished, and Ello developer Justin Gitlin announced that the page had been a hoax.
But erasing @klausbiesenbach didn’t erase the tsunami of art generated. Participating artists gained levels of exposure and engagement that should have been nearly impossible to cultivate on a beta site that doesn’t have a search function yet. The artists who posted may have lost their chance at MoMA-recognition, but they gained membership to a gifted community of content creators.
If you’ve already joined Ello, it might be time to dust off that old account and poke around. It’s still too soon to say if Budnitz’s unusual strategies will sink or swim, but there’s still plenty to explore in the meantime.


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Wodonga is finally joining cities around the world and offering free city-wide Wi-Fi. At least that’s the aim, at the moment it’s in early stages of the build, with only 1 tower online. Announced in January, Sydney-based internet service provider myKP will provide “up to 100 megabits per second...
- Aussie Director reviews the new Canon EOS R5, 8K video eats 10GB every 30 seconds July 12, 2020
- Nissan Ariya EV crossover is ready to go from concept to reality this week July 12, 2020
- GoPro Hero8 gets new webcam feature, Mac for now, Windows is coming July 12, 2020
- Elon Musk confident Tesla will reach ‘basic’ Level 5 autonomy by end of 2020 July 9, 2020
- Telstra supporting Melbourne-based customers during Coronavirus lockdown with free data July 8, 2020


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Real-time marketing driving up conversion rates - studyby
Real-time marketing efforts are paying off, having induced a 26% rise in conversion rates, it’s been reported.
The Real-Time Marketing Report, which was put together by Monetate and Econsultancy, revealed that responsive, real-time marketing is well worth its salt, although many companies are still finding it a challenge to use it to their best advantage.
This may, in part, be due to its growing sophistication. The traditional concept of time is only a small part of what this marketing technique has become; the study found that it now encompasses weather, transactional, location, behavioural and device-type data.
The results of the survey, which involved 900 global marketers from both internal departments and external agencies, revealed the benefits of this marketing technique go beyond just conversion rates, too. Other reported advantages included: improved customer experience, found by 84% of companies and 82% of agencies; higher customer retention, experienced by 47% of companies and 46% of agencies; and healthier brand perception, which was recognised by 34% of companies and 29% of agencies.
“Thanks to the mobile revolution, the amount of data now available to businesses has increased exponentially," said John Healy, chief operating officer at Monetate, "and what we have previously known as ‘real-time marketing’ is rapidly evolving beyond social to include the full range of channels available to digital marketers. Real-time marketing means not selling to customers, but serving customers – providing moments of convenience, surprise and delight that create a bond between a brand and a person, anytime, anywhere.”
However, some marketers are still struggling to generate the best possible results from real-time techniques – 67% of respondents put this down to lack of the right technology. David Brussin, CEO and co-founder of Monetate, stressed the importance of investing in the complete package. “Marketers – from the CMO to the brand manager, and everywhere in between - are trying to accomplish a transformation in 2014,” he said. “They need to constantly learn about their customers every week, day, and minute, and then instantly act on those learnings. None of this is possible without the tools that find and combine relevant data and then make it instantly actionable.”


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Close to 120,000 units of virtual currency bitcoin worth about $72 million (£54 million) was robbed from the exchange platform Bitfinex in Hong Kong, rattling the global bitcoin community in the second-largest security infraction ever of such an exchange. Bitfinex is the world’s largest dollar-based exchange for bitcoin, and is known in the virtual currency community for having deep liquidity in the U.S. dollar/bitcoin currency pair. Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex, told Reuters that 119,756 bitcoin had been robbed from client’s accounts and that the exchange had not yet decided how to address customer deficits.
The company said it had reported the theft to law enforcement and was cooperating with top blockchain analytic companies to track the stolen coins. Last year, Bitfinex announced a tie-up with Palo Alto-based BitGo, which uses multiple-signature security to store user deposits online, allowing for faster withdrawals. The security breach comes two months after Bitfinex was ordered to pay a $75,000 fine by the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission in part for offering illegal off-exchange financed commodity transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Bitcoin plunged just over 23 percent on the following Tuesday after the news broke. On Wednesday it was up 1 percent at $545.20 <BTC=BTSP> on the BitStamp platform. Tackett added that the breach did not expose any weaknesses in the security of a blockchain, the technology that generates and processes bitcoin, a web-based crypto currency that can move across the world anonymously without the need for a central authority. A bitcoin expert said the scandal highlighted the risks of companies using cryptography for their ledgers. The volume of bitcoin stolen amounts to about 0.75 percent of all bitcoin in circulation. It is not yet clear whether the theft was an inside job or whether hackers were able to gain access to the system externally. Bitfinex suspended trading on Tuesday after it discovered the breach. It said on its website that it was investigating and cooperating with the authorities. The security breach is the latest scandal to hit Hong Kong’s bitcoin market after MyCoin became embroiled in a scam last year that media estimated could have duped investors of up to $387 million. The bitcoin trading company closed after the public embarrassment.


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Warren Buffett, the Omaha billionaire investor who has the ear of President Barack Obama, said the U.S. economy is improving, but that the financial price of the stimulus and other big spending bills are looming as a new threat.
Elizabeth Blackwell writes in TheStreet.com that Americans might have cut back on frothy cappuccino drinks, but coffee consumption has remained remarkably stable in the past year. That’s good news for the companies fighting for their share of the caffeine-addicted public.
Banks across the nation made fewer business loans in the second quarter, largely because of weaker loan demand and deteriorating creditworthiness, according to a quarterly Federal Reserve survey of senior loan officers released on Monday.
Adam Sichko of The Business Review (Albany) reports that Timothy McCann has six business plans ready to go to expand his dry cleaning company, and there’s one factor dictating when he will carry them out. “The recession’s length in New York impacts where and when we decide to start new things,” said McCann, co-owner of Loudonville-based Best Cleaners.
Tim McLaughlin reports in the Boston Business Journal that delinquencies in Citizens Financial Group’s home equity and mortgage portfolio are steadily rising, forcing the parent of Citizens Bank to pump a significant amount of money into operations that manage problem debts.
Fast Company Magazine reports that GoMobo, the latest option in ordering and receiving food as quickly as possible, lets users order and pay for fast food via text, allowing them to pick up their order without the hassle of a line.
“Today’s consumers have more mature tastes than ever before,” Chancey says. “When they want a fast, easy meal, they don’t feel limited to burger and fries anymore. They’re choosing brands like Subway with healthier options, and the moves by Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks mean Americans might finally be catching up with the rest of the world in terms of embracing cafe culture.”
Ninety-eight of the nation’s 100 largest labor markets lost jobs between the midpoints of 2008 and 2009, according to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The biggest losses occurred in the nation’s three largest markets — New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago — each of which lost in excess of 200,000 jobs from June 2008 to the same month this year.
Emily Maltby reports at CNNMoney that struggling small businesses got their first shot at debt relief this week, through a long-anticipated emergency loans program. The Small Business Administration says that in the first week of the program, which kicked off last Monday, lenders approved 72 loans totaling $2.4 million. While the SBA is pleased with the numbers, business owners who have been waiting months for the loans remain discouraged.


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Enterprise Bank & Trust is one of many local banks that has revamped their online platforms, or are in the process of doing so, in order to better serve their customers and small business owners. Enterprise will introduce an upgrade to its mobile app this fall, currently available on iPhone but will add Android compatibility, in addition to redesigning its website for mobile devices in August.
“We’ve overhauled the site to give it a cleaner look, less cluttered and easier to navigate,” said Jerry Mueller, senior vice president of marketing for Enterprise Financial Services Corp., parent company of Enterprise Bank & Trust, which has $3.2 billion in assets. “We have 1,500 customers using the iPhone app, and that number has increased by 23 percent since the website was redesigned.”
Enterprise’s site was redesigned to increase usability on tablets and smartphones while keeping the same functionality, he said. Mueller declined to disclose how much Enterprise invested in the upgrades. Enterprise’s current mobile app has been on the market for about a year, Mueller said, and the fall upgrade will add remote deposits, wire transfers and enhanced security. The app is free to download, and standard fees apply for wire transfers, Mueller said.
Enterprise’s move to upgrade its online platforms is representative of a growing trend. A recent national survey by Fundtech, a New Jersey-based financial technology company, found some 60 percent of banks are seeing increased demand for new services from small businesses, with 38 percent saying that developing or expanding mobile banking services is a top priority. Locally, banks are looking to meet this demand by upgrading some of their existing tech options and introducing new ones.
“As far as the technology portion (of small business banking), we’ve definitely seen an uptick” in demand for more web-based platforms, said Benjamin Kelley, vice president and district sales manager for small business banking for U.S. Bank. “I don’t have exact numbers, but I will tell you that as a part of the suite of products we sell, that conversation comes up as far as how it integrates and what accessibility we have.”
Mobile and online technologies have been “an equalizer for banks our size,” said Terry Grzina, head of retail banking and operations for First National Bank of St. Louis. “We do see this as critically important for the future. At one time the very large banks could offer products and services we couldn’t. (Mobile and online platforms have) kind of leveled the playing field for us. We have the products and services the customer wants, but we’re still a local bank with local decision-making.” First National Bank of St. Louis has $1.4 billion in assets.
To take advantage of this demand, U.S. Bank introduced an app in the spring called DepositPoint that allows customers to deposit a check via a scanner, all-in-one printer, iPad, iPhone and Android by taking a picture of the check with the device’s camera. There is no charge to download the app, though there is a 50-cent charge for each check deposited.
First National Bank’s Grzina and Cynthia Tetrault, manager of online services for Commerce Bank in St. Louis, both said their banks are currently working to develop e-deposit technology.
Locally, Kelley said U.S. Bank has seen an increase in interest in its SinglePoint online suite. The suite offers small business services like “positive pay,” which allows business owners to approve checks before they clear, and multiple access levels for different levels of employees, among other features. SinglePoint Mobile is now available, which can be accessed by entering a URL into the phone’s browser. While SinglePoint has been available for several years, Kelley said he has seen demand for it increase, though the bank declined to release usage numbers. U.S. Bank is part of U.S. Bancorp, which has $353 billion in assets.
At some point next year, Commerce Bank will release a new online platform offering a richer user interface that’s easier to navigate from mobile devices as well, according to Tetrault. She said costs for the new platform weren’t available for release, and since it’s still in the design phase, specific features of the new platform haven’t been finalized. Commerce Bank is the main subsidiary of Commerce Bancshares, which has total assets of $20.6 billion.


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"The Advertiser did not provide a response"
Honey Birdette - the sex shop masquerading as a lingerie shop in your local shopping centre - has breached Ad Standards three times in February alone.
Honey Birdette no longer bothers to respond to any correspondence relating to consumer complaints.
Each Ad Standards document shown below concludes with the following:
The advertiser has not provided a response to the Panel's determination. Ad Standards will continue to work with the advertiser and other industry bodies regarding this issue of non-compliance.
Collective Shout is interested to know what work is being done and with who it is being done in relation to the issue of non-compliance.
Case Report - Honey Birdette "Saskia"
Sexual assault survivor calls out Honey Birdette advertising - "A form of pornography"
In an article published in the Stirling Times a sexual assault survivor has spoken out against Honey Birdette’s shop front advertising for objectifying women and harming children who are exposed to it. The woman - also an advocate for other survivors of sexual assault - said Honey Birdette’s advertising is a form of pornography and shouldn't be allowed in shopping centres. See article here.


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Taking what she says will be her last lap at Frankfurter Buchmesse, Anne-Solange Noble announces her retirement.
Trade visitors and exhibitors at Frankfurter Buchmesse spoke of the importance of supporting trade shows and doing business in person.
Long under-appreciated in the French book business, literary agents are making headway in rights and representation. A new report looks at their gains.
Planning to publish up to 20 books per year, Marie-Pierre Gracedieu leaves Paris to establish a new press called Le Bruit du Monde.
Under extended COVID-19 restrictions, French publishing companies grapple with salary and payment schedules, book release timing, and digital options.
Devoted to contemporary literature, the trio of publishers behind Paris’ Goutte d’Or are the team bringing out ‘Journal de L.’–a diary of Nabokov’s Lolita.
Sharjah collaborates with Conakry, Guinea—the 2017 World Book Capital—to restore the city’s Djibril Tamsir Niane Library. And Kalimat is in production with its Gallimard translation exchange.
In a publishing exchange agreement, the UAE’s Kalimat Group begins a French-and-Arabic partnership with France’s éditions Gallimard.
Selling well in France, controversial François Mitterand books, love letters for the former president’s mistress, are on offer to international publishers.
London Book Fair-bound publishers and agents from several regions of the world share their latest rights deals and highlights from their spring lists.


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UAE gold sales down 10pc in Oct
Abu Dhabi, November 7, 2010
Retail gold sales volumes in Dubai and Abu Dhabi fell by around 10 percent on the year in October as high gold prices deterred consumers despite the Indian festive season, retailers said on Sunday.
'Ahead of Indian festival of Diwali demand is usually strong but this year prices are just too out of reach for a lot of people...we saw a drop of around 10 per cent in volumes,' said Tushar Patni, director of Ajanta Jewellers, one of the largest retailers in the emirate capital of Abu Dhabi.
Spot gold hit a record high above $1,397 an ounce, then slipped back to $1,393.15. Investors often buy the metal as an inflation hedge and alternative to the dollar when the US currency weakens.
'When things are not going well in the festive seasons you can only imagine what will happen a few months from now because there is no sign that the prices will come down,' said a retailer in Dubai's old gold souk.
As cash-strapped consumers struggled to purchase gold this time of year, demand for silver coins was seen to be higher, said Pradeep Unni, senior analyst and trader at Richcomm Global Services in Dubai.
'Unlike the last year, there was an increasing demand for silver coins this year because gold is getting too expensive,' said Unni.
There are no official monthly figures in the United Arab Emirates, and views gathered by Reuters are anecdotal from traders at the gold souks.
Overall, retail gold demand volume in the Middle East during the second quarter of the year was mixed, with Saudi recording a 5 percent rise on the year, while the UAE fell by 15 per cent, according to a report by the World Gold Council (WGC).
Gold demand in Saudi was driven by strong domestic consumption, and UAE demand had tailed off in response to high prices during the second quarter, the WGC report added.-Reuters
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New information is revealing that Elon Musk still has the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on his behind acting like Twitter police over his tweets about Tesla.
Tesla, Elon Musk, and the SEC
Musk and the SEC have had a few run-ins with each other, and it was rarely with a good outcome.
Most famously, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk over his infamous “funding secured” comment regarding his failed attempt to take Tesla private back in 2018.
The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) judged that Musk exaggerated when saying that the funding was “secured”:
Musk went on a campaign against the SEC, calling them names and claiming that they were working for people shorting the electric automaker.
Tesla and Musk ended up reaching a settlement with the SEC.
As part of the settlement, Musk agreed to step down from the role of Chairman of the board, and both Tesla and Musk had to each pay $20 million fines.
The CEO presumably didn’t want Tesla to have to pay for his issue with the SEC, and while he couldn’t directly pay for Tesla’s part of the fine, he decided to buy $20 million worth of shares from Tesla.
That way, he sort of indirectly ended up paying for Tesla’s fine – though he also ended up with ~71,000 additional Tesla shares in the process.
As we previously reported, Musk ended up actually making money from the settlement due to Tesla’s stock price surging last year.
Another part of the settlement was that Musk and Tesla had to agree for the former to have his tweets reviewed by the latter’s legal department if they are materials to the company.
SEC is now Twitter Police
Despite the settlement, Musk didn’t change his use of his popular Twitter account with over 56 million followers and as remained defiant when it comes to the SEC.
He nor Tesla ever disclosed any issue with the SEC regarding the Twitter stipulation in the settlement, but a new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that the government is not happy with Musk’s use of the social media platform.
The publication uncovered correspondence from the SEC to Tesla about the issue via a federal Freedom of Information Act request:
“In correspondence sent to Tesla in 2019 and 2020, the SEC said tweets Mr. Musk wrote about Tesla’s solar roof production volumes and its stock price hadn’t undergone the required preapproval by Tesla’s lawyers. The communications, which haven’t been previously reported, spotlight the running tension between the nation’s top corporate regulator and Mr. Musk, who publicly mocked the SEC even after settling fraud claims with the agency.”
The SEC had issues with tweets that Musk made about a production target for the Tesla solar roof tiles and about Tesla’s stock being “too high”, according to Musk.
They asked Tesla for records regarding the tweets being approved, which the automaker admitted that they didn’t have.
Again, the SEC asked Tesla to enforce the stipulation in the settlement:
“The SEC told Tesla in May 2020 that the company had failed “to enforce these procedures and controls despite repeated violations by Mr. Musk.” The letter, signed by Steven Buchholz, a senior SEC official in its San Francisco office, added: “Tesla has abdicated the duties required of it by the court’s order.”
Back in 2019, the SEC did try to have Musk held in contempt over the settlement, but a judge instead had them clarify the scope of tweets that should be submitted for approval.
The agency seemingly hasn’t tried to go through the courts again to enforce the Twitter policing issue despite claiming that some tweets should have been reviewed by Tesla.
Isn’t it kind of crazy that the SEC is acting as some sort of Twitter police?
Let me be clear, I’ll be the first to admit that Elon tweeted a few things that he probably shouldn’t have, but does it require having federal lawyers investigate them?
If he was outright lying sure, but if he is sharing some aspirational goals, let’s just take them with a grain of salt and be done with it. Otherwise, you are going to have to charge every optimistic CEOs in the world.
Also, if the fear is that Elon is pumping TSLA, why did they also have a problem with him saying that the stock was “too high”, which caused it to crash?
If Elon was using Twitter to pump Tesla’s stock, he is doing a poor job at it in my opinion.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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In celebration of International Workers Day – Strippers United and PeepMe are excited to announce they are joining forces to build the first-ever sex worker-owned and operated Platform Cooperative exclusively for adult creators.
We believe the path to economic liberation begins with community ownership and governance of our marketplaces.
At the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people out of work, there was a rush towards online platforms like OnlyFans, Manyvids, Patreon etc. Many of these sites began aggressively marketing towards creators outside of sex work; comedians, musicians, fitness instructors, yogis, etc. – which sent up red flags for workers across the adult industry. “Excuse me, ma’am? This is a Baskin Robbins, not a FroYo….” Others implemented harsher policies and restrictions regarding adult content resulting in the mass de-platforming of adult creators.
Adult creators are crucial to a thriving internet culture yet are always the first to get the boot.
The systems where owners harm workers in pursuit of profit are firmly in place – As sex workers, we are no stranger to these (systems), and because of the nature of OUR industry – we run an inherently higher risk of being abused within these systems. The only chance we have in surviving this is to take matters into our own hands.
We deserve a voice in the platforms that profit from us.
On this International Workers Day – we are rising up. Workers not having a voice in decision-making or power ends where cooperation begins. Owners extracting rent off the backs of sex workers and hoarding it at the top level – instead of distributing it among the workers – is a tale as old as time. And it furthers the abuse and oppression. We the workers should benefit the most. Period.
The future of sex work is cooperativism.
The cooperative model has been used by grocery stores, utilities, and other major companies/brands; so too can the adult industry operate as a user/employee-owned and operated cooperative. International Workers Day is about the workers taking matters into their own hands, protecting ourselves, our work, and preventing further exploitation within the industry. Applying a cooperative model ensures that our creators have a voice in everything we do – and that the creators who give our platform life, benefit the most from the profit of their creations.
When a system utterly fails us, it is up to us to fix it.
Together we are united for these common goals.
We are a Celebration of Adult Creators
We are committed to Economic Justice
We believe All Sex Work is Real Work
We believe Cooperativsm is the Future of the Adult Industry


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The EU's top farm official is asking German farmers to stop sending her milk in the post. The agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has been sent 10,000 litres of milk by farmers angry at an EU plan to raise quotas that may cut prices, said her spokesman, Michael Mann, yesterday.
Most of the milk was sent by regular mail and comes in Tetra Paks, he said, adding that much of it had gone off. "We are conscious of concerns but we don't think it's a good idea, and they should send it to a good cause." Fischer Boel told farmers on Monday that she was happy to talk to them directly to find a solution to their grievances. "If you would like to keep on sending milk, I can suggest that it would be better put to a good use in your local area," she said.
German farmers went on strike in May, refusing to deliver milk to dairies in protest at low prices in the shops. Global milk prices have soared on growing demand for milk powder from emerging economies such as China, raising prices for cheese and ice-cream. But farmers say this has not meant more money for them. EU farm ministers agreed to raise yearly milk quotas by 2% from April.
Fischer Boel has suggested EU nations scrap quotas by 2015 to end rules that don't link output to prices or subsidies.


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We are proud to announce that Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank serving over 110 million customers, has launched their new digital platform based on Backbase technology. As part of the project, Sberbank migrated 83 websites into one single customer experience.
“The new platform makes the interaction with the site for our customers much more convenient,” says Nikita Volkov, Senior Vice President of Sberbank. “And by providing personalized offers that may interest users, we can improve the efficiency of our digital cross- and up-sell campaigns.”
The project to revamp Sberbank.com started in summer 2014 and was ready for testing in December that year. Since going live, the online results grew by 3.5, not a small number given that Sberbank ranks as the 15th largest website in Russia based on traffic.
This increase in performance is mostly due to the fact that since the introduction of Backbase CXP, the marketing and business teams at Sberbank can now control their online marketing and online sales campaigns directly, without the need for IT support, being directly in control over their own digital strategy and increasing the time-to-market of new products, services and promotions.
- Sberbank has 110+ million customers
- 70% of the Russian population banks with Sberbank
- Active in 22 countries
- 3rd largest bank in Europe
- Merged 83 siloed websites/platforms into one customer experience platform based on Backbase CXP
- Will roll-out Backbase as their new omni-channel delivery platform (marketing site, internet banking, tablet/mobile banking, kiosks/ATM, social)
- After launch, Sberbank increased online sales performance 3.5 times by utilizing Backbase’s targeting and campaign tools, now available to Sberbanks business team, without IT dependency.


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Bigfoot ski resort developer Ron McHaffie fined $2.6 M for fraud
Ron McHaffie, 62, convinced 30 investors to put a total of $642,960 into the proposed Bigfoot Resort.
A B.C. man has been ordered to pay $2.6 million by a B.C. Securities Commission panel for duping people into investing in a ski resort that was never built.
The BCSC launched its investigation after CBC News revealed that Ronald Stephen McHaffie, 62, convinced 30 investors to put a total of $642,960 into the proposed Bigfoot Resort, despite having never been registered to sell securities in B.C.
In a statement issued on Friday, the commission said Bigfoot was incorporated in B.C. in 2003 to purportedly develop a recreation and ski area near Jones Lake, B.C. between Hope and Chilliwack, but never filed a prospectus.
"The panel found that, through the sale of shares in Bigfoot, McHaffie committed a fraud.
"In that regard, McHaffie made false statements to entice investors, such as telling them that their investment would be used for expenses related to getting Bigfoot publicly listed, and that construction or completion of the ski resort was imminent."
The panel's findings went on:
"These statements were false, as McHaffie used investor funds to pay for personal expenses, including gas, restaurants, groceries and retail purchases, not for expenditures related to taking Bigfoot public.
"Furthermore, although Bigfoot’s ski resort proposal was rejected by the provincial government in September 2010, McHaffie continued to raise a total of $111,070 from investors after that date.
"The panel found that Bigfoot’s distribution of shares to 27 of the 30 investors for proceeds of $621,960 contravened the prospectus requirements in the Securities Act.
"The panel found that McHaffie also contravened the Act because, as a director of Bigfoot, he authorized, permitted and acquiesced in the company’s contravention."
Living in a trailer park
Last year, CBC News tracked down McHaffie and found him in a run-down trailer park in Princeton, three hours northeast of Vancouver, where he claimed he was recovering from an illness.
At the time, McHaffie told CBC News he raised as much as $2 million from investors, But despite the numerous scenic photos, maps, graphs and reports supplied on the project's website, the money contributed by investors apparently vanished.
According to the website, the resort would offer "unparalleled" alpine skiing, mountain biking, snowmobiling, trail riding, fishing, camping, boating, canoeing, rock climbing, a golf course, conference facilities and a spa.


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Recently launched, a new video on demand (VoD) service called ONTAPtv.com is revolutionising the way we consume our entertainment. Developing the name and brand DNA from scratch, Brand inc Creative Group helped birth the company that is taking South Africa by storm.
Approached by PCCW, a global communications company, the agency was tasked with developing a name, brand and strategy for the company that would operate along the same lines as the largest pay-TV operator in Hong Kong, NowTV.
“This was a big deal for us, as we were being given the opportunity to birth what will no doubt become a household name in the near future,” says Brand inc MD, Chris Heaton.
After conducting a comprehensive audit of local and global competitors, a dynamic strategy was developed that defined the brand DNA, generated name options, designed the identity and positioned the new company as the next best thing when it comes to unlimited digital entertainment.
“It was critical that we found the sweet spot between relevance, authority and differentiation to make this brand standout,” adds Heaton. “This took us on quite a journey, but ultimately to the pinnacle of our strategy which was that this new company was going to supply epic entertainment, anytime, anywhere – and so OntapTV.com was born.”
Registered in multiple countries around the world, OntapTV is to be a global service that will be marketed internationally. Offering “a la carte VoD” in the country, the company includes a free service for users to try out, containing several movies and first episodes of TV shows. South Africans are currently enjoying an explosion of VoD services including ShowMax and soon to be launched Netflix.
“OntapTV has its work cut out for it over the next few months due to the explosion of competitors in the market, but we are confident that it will become one of the go to suppliers of digital content to the African continent and other countries around the world,” says Heaton.


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Volkswagen Id3 Ev Delay Software Vw Herbert Diess. It may have to push off the launch date because of “massive” id3 software issues. According to the volkswagen group.
Versions of the id 3 will now ship in september with unfinished software. Vw plans to show the production version of the id buzz on march 9. Vw says software glitches on new id3 ev will not affect sales launch.
Diess Later Commented In His Post With Some New Details About Musk’s Volkswagen Id.3 Test Drive.
According to the volkswagen group. Volkswagen <vowg_p.de> replaced herbert diess as chief executive of the vw brand on monday and installed chief operating officer ralf brandstaetter to lead cost cutting efforts at. Software has been a sore point for vw in recent times, with issues relating to the id.3's infotainment delaying its launch.
Volkswagen Group Ceo Herbert Diess, Answering Questions From The General Public In An Online.
The volkswagen group plans to sell some 22 million evs worldwide by 2028, thus helping evs make the breakthrough. German authorities have indicted current vw ceo herbert diess, vw. February 16, 2022 02:43 pm.
(Diess Is Still Leading The Larger Volkswagen Group.) Diess Was Also Reportedly Removed From The Ceo Position Because Of Troubles With The Launch Of The New Golf,.
Vw plans to show the production version of the id buzz on march 9. Vw ceo, hebert diess, announced on his personal linkedin profile that. They say it was developed “too hastily”.
Vw Says Software Glitches On New Id3 Ev Will Not Affect Sales Launch.
It may have to push off the launch date because of “massive” id3 software issues. Volkswagen (vowg_p.de) head herbert diess on sunday said autonomous cars, not electric vehicles, were the real gamechanger for the auto industry, which is facing the end of combustion engines in. That being said, summer is a reasonably vague date.
The Problems Are Said To Involve The Basic Architecture Of The Id3’S Software According To Vw Engineers Speaking To Germany’s Manager Magazin.
How volkswagen can reinvent itself as an ev company, with ceo herbert diess a new electric microbus offers a glimpse at the future. Be surprising if vw substantially delayed the release of. For volkswagen, it is still such an event that herbert diess had to take an id.5 to learn the main changes the new software generation ids 3.0 offers.


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New season lambs on Masterton’s Chamberlain Rd on Wednesday. PHOTO/STEVE RENDLE
Record high lamb prices have farmers licking their lips but Federated Farmers Wairarapa president William Beetham is wary of what the future will hold for the prices of new season lambs next year.
But he said the real concern was farmers’ attitudes towards marketing their stock.
The lamb schedule has reached record highs in recent months, but the schedule’s value was not a fair reflection of the export market value of the meat, he said.
Lamb processors continued to pay top dollar for lambs, however Beetham questioned how long that would last.
Processors’ ever-tightening margins might limit just how much higher prices could go, according to Rabobank’s latest Agribusiness Monthly report.
New season lambs traditionally come on the market in November and December, but Beetham was more concerned about what the prices would be during the first months of next year.
“Processors may have to pull back the schedule to try and gain bigger margins in the summer when there is a larger flow of stock. This would be to try and recoup any losses they incur now.
“This could put a lot of the lamb prices next summer at risk.”
Farmgate lambs weighing 17.5kg are fetching $143.50 a head, up from $119 at the same time last year, according to last week’s AgriHQ’s North Island schedule.
Lambs weighing 19kg are fetching $155.80 a head, up from $129.20 last year.
When lamb prices reached this level, farmers tended to think about the money on the day, rather than making marketing decisions based on what could be positive long-term effects for their businesses and the industry, Beetham said.
The fluctuations in prices were playing out in a more extreme way than the industry had seen in the past, he said.
“We have got to look back over the last 10 months when the store lamb price was down as low as $1.80 per kg, now that’s sitting at $4.20 per kg.
“The last time we saw high prices like this, we saw massive inventories of lamb and then we saw a massive market crash,” he said.
Beetham is involved in a producer group that works with store and finishing farmers who agree on secured lines of lambs ahead of time with prices already agreed.
He said this was a way that farmers could become more connected with the market and reduce risk in their business.
“This is the idea of changing the way we think to prevent these big fluctuations in prices, which don’t reflect the value in the market.”
Beetham said this had been an industry concern for the past decade.
These price increases in the lamb schedule could drive consumers away from buying the high-value protein, Beetham said.
PGG Wrightson area livestock manager Steve Wilkinson agreed that while the outlook for the new season was looking positive, there was a lot to happen between now and then.
“[Farmers] don’t want a situation where the price goes too high now and then losses have to be recouped when they are marketing their own lambs,” he said.


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Thankfully, included in the list are some big name services including:
- Amazon Instant Video
- Hulu Plus
- NBA Game Time
- NHL GameCenter LIVE
- Redbox Instant by Verizon
So. Much. Tech.
Some of the biggest names in tech are coming to TNW Conference in Amsterdam this May.
The PS4, and these services on it, will be available from November 15 in the US and will be available from November 29 in the UK – although we’re yet to hear which services will be supported in other regions from launch day. Japan and some other countries will have to wait until February 2014 to get their hands on the console.
Featured Image Credit: Playstation/Flickr


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THE winner of last year's fashion designer award has been employed by Fiji's Mark One Apparel as a cadet manager.
Andrew Powell, who rose to fame during The Fiji Fashion Week last year, was offered a job with the manufacturing business which would enhance his manufacturing skills.
Mark One Apparel director and chairman of Fiji Fashion Week council Mark Halabe said Mr Powell was offered the job based on his level of skills and talents.
"We simply believe in him," said Mr Halabe.
"He is a talented emerging designer and this job would further uplift his skills," he said.
Mr Halabe said a fully-fledged designer had designing skills but with that, must have other skills such as manufacturing.
The appointment of Mr Powell to be part of the manufacturing business played a huge role in reviving Fiji's garment industry.
"We need about a hundred like Andrew," said Mr Halabe.
"We need people who know about designing and about manufacturing."
Mr Halabe said the company believed in the new emerging star and his talents and abilities which would be fruitful for the manufacturing business and Mr Powell himself.


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RAM has announced a new medium-sized electric pickup truck
Ram is preparing dealers for the fact that in the near future a mid-size electric car will appear in the lineup. According to Automotive News, the company showed dealers its ideas for a mid-size pickup concept at a meeting in Las Vegas. The new concept is apparently very similar to the full-size 1500 “Revolution” concept that Ram first unveiled at the CES technology show in January.
One of the dealers that own Daytona Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram and Maserati-Alfa Romeo in Daytona (Daytona Beach, Fla.) explained to Automotive News that Stellantis officials unveiled 30 new products for several brands during the meeting. The meeting was apparently the first of its kind in eight years for the retailer, which worked with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before it was merged with PSA Group to form Stellantis.
In January, Ram unveiled the full-size 1500 “Revolution” concept. The design was inventive and innovative, with an easily configurable interior and folding third-row seats. But when the production version was introduced a month later, many of the interesting features shown in the concept disappeared.
The new mid-size pickup EV will most likely be well received by potential buyers. Small and midsize trucks from other manufacturers have sold in large numbers in recent years, and Ram can make up for the 11-plus years since the Dakota was discontinued.


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General Motors News
News on General Motors (Ticker: GM) continually updated from thousands of sources around the net.
10 hrs ago | The Columbus Dispatch
The first U.S.-built Chevrolet Cruze, a replacement for the Cobalt, rolled off the assembly line in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2010.
Trending on the Topix Network
Volkswagen AG forecast its sales in China will increase 10 percent or more in 2014, signaling the German automaker will outsell General Motors Co.
Shanghai GM , General Motors' joint-venture partner in China , has officially unveiled a pair of new entries for Chevrolet in the People's Republic.
Workers carry out a final inspection of a Saturn Ion at a GM plant in 2004. The model is at the center of a new safety recall over power steering problems.
Government documents show that General Motors waited years to recall nearly 335,000 Saturn Ions for power steering failures despite getting thousands of consumer complaints and warranty repair claims.
General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler formally unveiled seven new or significantly redesigned vehicles during four elaborate press conferences for the 2014 New York International Auto Show.
Under current law are free to ignore recall notices if they choose, and would still have been free to continue driving.
It was the “black box” in Brooke Melton's 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt that pointed an independent engineer to a defective ignition switch as the cause of her fatal crash four years ago.
The 21st Century recipe for economic success features thriving metropolitan areas as a key ingredient.
What the heck is going on with the automotive industry? It seems as though not a day passes without another massive recall announcement.
The Detroit Three used the 2014 New York International Auto Show to unveil two vehicle types: Performance and small cars.
Chipotle is raising prices across its menu of Mexican-style food for the first time in three years, after a surge in beef and avocado prices lifted food costs in the first quarter.
The $6.5 million work will renovate all seven residence halls at IMSA's campus, Gov. Pat Quinn said Thursday in announcing the project.
Timing is everything. Consider, if you will, the story of Mary Barra, the first female chief executive of General Motors , who in less than a month went from pioneer to punching bag.
Once you're logged in, at the top of each article, video or slideshow you will see a list of your Facebook friends who recently visited Choose to share stories you'e read with your friends or turn sharing OFF to keep your reading experience anonymous .
The 2014 New York Auto Show is one of the industry's biggest opportunities to show off, and judging by Tuesday's press preview, automakers definitely put their eye candy on display Ford made a bold move in redesigning the top-selling car in the world with the 2015 Focus and celebrated a half-century of Mustangs by putting one on top of the Empire ... (more)


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Let's face it. As inhabitants of the Northeastern region, we loooove ourselves some Wawa. How did we feel when we found out in mid-December that they had sustained a massive data breach? We'll be the first to admit: our feelings were a little hurt, but did that stop us from getting ourselves a hoagie? Nope.
Since Pennsylvania-based Wawa is so near and dear to all of us, we wanted to take a moment to break down the Wawa Data breach. How did it happen? How were people affected and what's going on with it now? Read on to find out.
The convenience store chain Wawa announced that they had sustained a data breach to its payment card processing system which could potentially have affected customers who used its 850 stores nationwide. It was announced on Monday, January 27, 2020 that the first batch of stolen credit card data was being sold on the dark web – specifically at a popular fraud marketplace known as Joker’s Stash. The stolen data is being called BIGBADABOOM-III and may contain cardholder data from not only the United States, but also from Latin American countries, Europe and numerous Asian countries. The exposed data includes both debit and credit card numbers, cardholder names, and card expiration dates. Wawa has stated that the breach did not expose any PIN information or CVV records.
While many have probably heard of this story in the news, what they might not have heard is what the rest of this article details: how the breach occurred in the first place. Wawa discovered the intrusion on December 10 and had it contained by December 12, however, the alarming fact here is that it is very likely that the malware that caused the breach had likely been installed for months prior to Wawa’s discovery of it. It is speculated that the breach was likely to have occurred on or around March 4, 2019. The card-information stealing malware was installed on both its in-store payment processing systems as well as its fuel dispensers.
Anyone thinking to themselves at this very moment, why or how could Wawa let this happen? One would expect that company with such high visibility and such a loyal customer base would exercise more stringent security precautions due to the nature of the data that they handle; however, it appears that somehow cybercriminals were able to remotely install a malicious point-of-sale malware on Wawa’s payment processing systems. The malware is capable of copying data that is stored within the magnetic stripe of a credit card in order to create counterfeit credit cards with the stolen data.
Your next question might be, did Wawa have any type of red flags/warnings that they ignored? To us, it seems to be an all too classic tale in the aftermath of data breaches – often times, uncovered that the company who suffered the breach has deliberately ignored some type of warning or severely overlooked a critical security component that could have stopped the potential attack or minimized its overall impact. Was this the case with Wawa? The only finger that is being pointed at this moment is that Wawa may have been negligent in its full transition to chip-based card readers, as initially mandated by The Group of Twenty (G20).
In summary, it is clear to us that something was obviously awry with Wawa’s security strategy. It is very alarming that malware that is speculated to have been installed went undetected for close to eight months.
Is this a sign of a very sneaky malware author...or is it a sign of a lack of a defense in depth security strategy on Wawa’s part? It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out in the future and if any additional information will develop on the specific malware.
If you have any questions about a solid defense in depth strategy for your website or your overall business needs, feel free to contact us for a free initial consultation where we will work with you to understand the current state of your company's security strategy as well as assist you in identifying potentially vulnerable areas that you might've overlooked.
The data from this article is a summary of an article originally written by Krebs on Security


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Google has announced recently that YouTube has just gotten a new look on mobile devices. The major update has already been released for Android with iOS devices scheduled to get their version soon.
The YouTube app has now been split into 3 sections. The Home section will represent the starting point for new users and many veterans of the platform alike. Here you will be able to see the most popular videos from your region as well as recommendations based on your previous history.
The Subscriptions tab allows you to view all of the channels you have subscribed to so far as well as their latest content. Users can tap on the Bell icon to receive automatic notifications whenever a new video is released by the respective channel, even if the YouTube App is not open.
The last part is the Account section, which allows you to manage everything from uploaded videos to your playlists. This new overall layout should make much more sense to newcomers and be easier to navigate.
The site has also added official support for vertical videos which are popular amongst mobile users. Besides that, it is now possible to use advanced editing tools on videos entirely from the YouTube app.
This update comes as no surprise considering Google’s last quarterly earnings call. During that event, the tech giant has announced that YouTube has surpassed most major TV cable companies in views, and this was mostly due to mobile users.
Over 50% of the video-platform’s views are made on mobile devices, so it makes sense that YouTube wants to increase its functionality in this field. With this move, it is likely that the company will consolidate its hold on the market, now competing directly over views with apps like Snapchat that have supported vertical videos for a long time.
Facebook has recently made known that it plans to enter the market of ad-based video sharing, but if it does not move quickly it could find a too well entrenched YouTube. Google has already announced that further updates are going to come for mobile functionality.
Image Source: www.gizbot.com


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This is higher than the original offer, which proposed that each share was bought for $120 (£93), valuing Tiffany’s overall business at $14.5bn (£11.3bn).
LVMH said the acquisition will transform its watches and jewellery division, which includes Bulgari, TAG Heuer and Hublot, and “strengthen” its overall position in the jewellery sector, as well as boost its presence in the United States.
It said that the addition of Tiffany would also “complement” its 75 other houses, which include Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Christian Dior and Givenchy. This agreement marks the biggest takeover yet for the world’s largest luxury goods brand.
The move was approved by the board of directors for both companies, and the transaction is expected to be finalised by mid-2020. Approval from Tiffany’s shareholders and regulatory bodies is still required.
Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to welcome Tiffany, a company with an unparalleled heritage and unique position in the global jewellery world, to the LVMH family.
“We have an immense respect and admiration for Tiffany and intend to develop this jewel with the same dedication and commitment that we have applied to each and every one of our Maisons.”
He added: “We will be proud to have Tiffany sit alongside our iconic brands and look forward to ensuring that Tiffany continues to thrive for centuries to come.”
Roger N. Farah, chairman of the board of directors at Tiffany, said: “Following a strategic review that included a thoughtful internal process and expert external advice, the board has concluded that this transaction with LVMH provides an exciting path forward with a group that appreciates and will invest in Tiffany’s unique assets and strong human capital, while delivering a compelling price with value certainty to our shareholders.”
CEO of Tiffany, Alessandro Bogliolo, added: “Tiffany has been focused on executing on our key strategic priorities to drive sustainable long-term growth.
“This transaction, which occurs at a time of internal transformation for our legendary brand, will provide further support, resources and momentum for those priorities as we evolve towards becoming The Next Generation Luxury Jeweller.”
He added: “As part of the LVMH group, Tiffany will reach new heights, capitalizing on its remarkable internal expertise, unparalleled craftsmanship and strong cultural values.”
Founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany, Tiffany and Co. has over 300 stores worldwide, and employs more than 14,000 workers. The brand is famed for its diamond engagement rings, and gained worldwide popularity after the release of the 1961 film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’.


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HBM - a major player in the field of test and measurement - has launched its new dedicated production and logistics facility, which is based at its Darmstadt headquarters, in Germany.
Due for completion at the end of 2017, the transparent design of the new production and logistics centre has been carefully selected to reflect the key core values of HBM; precision, innovation and reliability.
To mark the opening of the new facility, a HBM time capsule was buried at a traditional foundation stone laying ceremony, which was attended by local dignitaries, HBM employees and executive leadership. Containing a HBM load cell, daily newspaper and a HBM company brochure, the capsule was lowered into the ground by the Mayor of Darmstadt, Jochen Partsch, to celebrate the launch of the building.
Emphasising its commitment towards its headquarters in Darmstadt and setting the course for future growth, Karl-Heinz Pohlmann, Vice President Supply Chain at HBM explains its reasons behind the new investment. "By creating 6,000 square meters of extra space for the production of heavy-duty and torque sensors, we will be able to create the prerequisites for efficient logistics and modern office space with close links to production".
Situated in the 'City of Science', home of many scientific institutions, universities and high-technology companies, the new HBM Production and Logistics Centre in Darmstadt, which employs over 750 members of staff, is also connected to a number of major roads, which means that parts can be quickly and expediently distributed.
Founded in 1950, HBM is the technology and market leader in the field of test and measurement. With its headquarters based in Darmstadt, HBM is a global technology company with production, development and distribution companies in over 30 countries throughout the world.


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Presto is now available on Sony’s PS3 and PS4 consoles as Sony kicks off 20th anniversary Playstation celebrations and Presto gets set to air new content.
Sony and Microsoft have announced Netflix now works on their consoles, with Microsoft also announcing its Digital TV Tuner goes on sale tomorrow, 25 March 2015.
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Welcome to the Canadian Consumer Rewards Coalition
The CCRC fights on behalf of Canadian consumers, defending their hard-earned points and rewards.
Join the movement standing up for Canadian consumers.
Canadians have already added their names.
Millions of Canadians use reward-based credit cards to collect points they can exchange for cash back, gas, groceries, and flights.
The CCRC defends the interests of Canadian consumers – ensuring the rewards they’ve rightfully earned are protected, and preserving their ability to earn future rewards.
Delta Air Lines' modifications to its SkyMiles frequent-flyer program underscore the critical role such reward programs play in consumers' choices and loyalty. The initial overhaul, which pivoted towards favouring monetary spending over flights taken or miles flown,...
The volume and value of cash transactions have significantly decreased over the years, according to the Bank of Canada. Instead, many Canadians prefer to pay for everyday purchases with credit cards, allowing them to earn cashback rewards and take advantage of other...


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The creator of the first and most valued cryptocurrency has been awarded many titles, thanks to the impact of his groundbreaking digital asset. Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity is still unknown and has been debated amongst cryptocurrency users for years, has been praised for inventing a new system of wealth storage that doesn’t only prioritize transparency […]
On December 31, 2020, a new report was published that studies Satoshi Nakamoto’s writing style, the creator’s use of expressions, and spelling. The new examination shows Satoshi’s spelling and American and British wording indicates it was very inconsistent and littered with misspellings as well. The research suggests the inconsistencies might have been done purposefully and […]
The post New Report Studies Satoshi Nakamoto’s Inconsistent British and American Writing Techniques appeared first on Bitcoin News.