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Barber Vintage Festival underway in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM - AL —
Vintage motorcycles filled Barber Motorsports Park, Saturday, for the Ninth Annual Barber Vintage Festival.
Thousands of bike lovers came out to peruse the history of motorcycles with bikes from more than 17 countries.
There will be on and off-track racing, including stunt shows, during the three day festival.
"It's a very enjoyable event," Wray Goode said. "We enjoy things like this. Vintage motorcycle events, the meeting in Atlanta, the sports cars and historic stuff and we're really into cars and bikes both."
The Barber Motorsports Museum will feature extended hours, special displays and technical seminars for the duration of the Vintage Festival, which ends Sunday night.


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BENGALURU: As China has put breaks on its investment plans in India following stringent FDI norms brought in by the Indian government, investors believe that the start-up ecosystem is seeing a renewed interest from venture capitalists (VC) of North America, Middle-East and Europe.
Silicon valley-based VC firm Accel’s founder partner in India, Prashanth Prakash who also heads Karnataka’s Vision group for start-ups told TNIE in an interaction that the firm is actively seeking start-ups in B2B, consumer goods and agri-tech spaces which have innovations for global markets. Excerpts:
Is the investment market back on track after COVID?
In the early months of Covid pandemic, investors were keenly observing start-ups in terms of their evolution through the crisis. Post August , now we are getting a better sense of what kind of investments will drive in the new normal.
In our portfolio, we saw edtech firms like Vedantu, agri-tech startup, Ninja cart doing well throughout the pandemic. They have been able to weather the storm and come back strongly. Overall there was a six-months lag in the investment market due to the pandemic-led disruption.
Going forward, what kind of firms is Accel looking to invest in?
We are looking for enterprise start-ups (B2B) which are catering to global markets in the wake of accelerated digital adoption during the pandemic.
There is a little bit of shift towards global digital businesses. Investors are looking at product companies from India, but not necessarily catering to the Indian market, but more to the global market. I think those are definitely being favored today.
But, Chinese capital dried up. Wouldn’t that impact the startup ecosystem?
There is a significant increase in investments from North American and Europe into
India and even the Middle East. So I think that there has been good shift in interest from these parts of the world post the government not thinking it is easy to get funds from some of these other countries, but it would be good, if there is access to capital from more countries. The simple answer is, no.
I think these are moves in the right direction... But you also need to ensure that the intent followed by actual action. Overall, the Jan-March FY21 quarter is likely to see a significant jump in investments.

domain: news


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Cam Adair realised his video gaming addiction was out of hand when it drove him to contemplate suicide.
Mr. Adair, a 32-year-old Canadian, went on to start Game Quitters, an online support club for people who are addicted to video games. It presently has over 75,000 members all across the world.
While technology, particularly the internet, has aided in keeping the world operating throughout the coronavirus lockdowns, he claims that it has been difficult for people like him. Gaming addiction is now classified as part of a larger internet addiction by the US National Library of Medicine. “Excessive or poorly regulated preoccupations, impulses, or behaviours related to computer use and internet access that cause impairment or distress,” it says.
While some may argue that it is not as terrible as alcoholism or drug addiction, it may nonetheless be crippling for those who suffer from it. Dr. Andrew Doan, a neurologist and digital addiction expert, feels that the restrictions have aggravated the problem.
A number of tech companies have developed solutions that can be used to ban or limit access to the internet or gaming websites in order to assist in battling internet addiction. One such product is Linewize, which is geared towards youngsters or, more especially, their parents.
Parents and caregivers can use the website and app to remotely control and monitor how much time their children spend on gaming sites or on the internet in general, whether through their children’s smart phones or laptops.
Teodora Pavkvic, a licenced psychologist and digital wellness expert at Linewise in San Diego, believes that young people are particularly prone to overusing the internet. This is something that most parents of teenagers would agree on.
The BetBlocker app, which is available for download for free, can also be used by a person’s spouse, friend, or parents. Users can restrict access to gambling websites for hours, days, or weeks at a time. People can also use the programme to ban other websites, such as those that are related to gaming.
Mr. Garvie, who is based in Edinburgh, says, “This is meant to help users by creating a limit during known periods of vulnerability.”


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The expo be on till March 18
VISAKHAPATNAM: After a long gap, Ashok Book Centre will conduct an exhibition of Penguin Group of Publication for the benefit of bibliophiles of the city from March 8 to 18.
Penguin group includes Penguin India, Penguin UK, Allen Lane, Hamish Hamilton, Lady Bird, Hay House and DK.
Penguin is the only publisher whose authors include who's who of the international personalities including nobel laureates and award winners. Books written by authors include Dr. Abdul Kalam, P. Chidambaram, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sonia Gandhi, N.R. Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani.
Penguin which brought paperback revolution in the world celebrated its 70th year last year.
Ashok Book Store, which was associated with Penguin for over two decades, is holding the exhibition after a gap of 10 years.


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Google has announced a video calling app for Android, the Duo. Many users have not understood the company's strategy with this service, as many other apps, including Hangouts itself, are already doing this. With that in mind, I decided to write this article to share with you my vision about the new app and where Google wants to go with it. Follow me
How do you make a video call to another contact using Android? If you don't have Hangouts installed, I need to look for any apps in the Play Store that have this feature, such as Skype. The trickiest thing, in most cases, is for the other contact to download this new app just to talk to you.
Only in the meantime, besides the internet data that is consumed, many end up giving up on the idea. Hangouts has not become popular with the average user, but has fallen in the business as a powerful tool for team video conferencing. Certainly, Google realized that Hangouts was not unanimous among users of the platform, so decided to offer a solution focused on practicality and aimed at a single target: FaceTime.
Duo will be the opposite of the more popular and affordable FaceTime
Duo is not an app that requires a login or syncs contacts with Google+, but instead the app is a solution for those who want to make a video call simply and intuitively. You may be wondering: What is the use of video calling today? Well, be aware that this feature will soon arrive by the hands of WhatsApp and therefore the popularization of video chats is inevitable.
Thinking about it, Google decided to anticipate launching an app focused on this feature. With Hangouts in mind as a proven less popular option, what other service could Android compete with WhatsApp video calling? Apple, meanwhile, has FaceTime, but Apple's service is as restricted and unpopular as Hangouts today.
I have been an iOS user for years and currently use a Macbook that comes standard with FaceTime installed. I can tell in one hand how many times I called a contact who had an iPhone or Mac to make a video call: twice. Duo has everything to be more popular as the Google app will be available for both Android and iOS.
FaceTime is an application that is doomed to oblivion
Even with the possible popularity of video calls soon, I find it unlikely that Apple will decide to give up FaceTime's exclusivity. In addition to gaining in diversity, the Duo can come with more patronage from manufacturers.
Yes, in a very likely scenario, I can see Samsung, Sony and Motorola embarking the factory Duo on their proprietary interfaces.
Sure, a native app is synonymous with success, but we should consider that Duo can be made available in the midst of the video call boom implemented by WhatsApp. In addition, Google has already signaled that the Duo will not be exclusive to Android N, as the app will be released on dates that differ with the announcement of the final version of the OS. Again, I ask: Where is FaceTime with this?
FaceTime is an application that is doomed to oblivion, just like other apps that have been overshadowed by a very similar factor: over-exclusivity. The Duo will be as handy to use as FaceTime. It has the same goal as the Apple app, but coming at the right time will be embraced by manufacturers and have a range of popularity that FaceTime was never interested in.
And do you think the Google app makes FaceTime even more unpopular? What is your opinion?
(tagsToTranslate) FaceTime (t) Duo (t) Google Duo (t) Apple FaceTime (t) Duo FaceTime


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Serious Growth of Bulgaria’s Foreign Turnover
Wednesday, 12 April 2017
Goods to the overall tune of 3.97 billion euros were exported outside Bulgaria in January and February 2017, or 12.7% more on the same period of 2016, the National Statistical Institute reports, quoted by BNR.
At the same time the size of import has grown by 18.5% to 4. 4 billion euros.
The export for countries outside the EU went up by 20% over the first two months of the year and import grew up by 31%.
These numbers are respectively 7.2% and 16.5% at the trade within the EU.
The February data on the turnover with the EU will be announced to the public in May.
Sofia News Agency


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Details About ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Cut Storylines, and How Hot Benja Sent the Crew Into a Frenzy [Interview]
Posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2021 by Hoai-Tran Bui
Raya and the Last Dragon has been available to Disney+ subscribers (for a fee) for the past two months now, but the Disney fantasy epic finally gets a home video and physical release release this month.
Ahead of the Blu-ray and Digital release, /Film spoke to Raya and the Last Dragon co-director Carlos Lopez Estrada, producer Osnat Shurer, and Head of Story Fawn Veerasunthron about which storylines they cut from the movie, LGBTQ representation, and hot the hotness of Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) sent the crew into a bit of a frenzy. Read our interview below.


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The FCA has acted to stop a Cypriot based firm, Finteractive Limited (trading as FXVC), from offering high risk contracts for difference (CFDs) to UK investors.
FXVC used a variety of inappropriate techniques, including misleading financial promotions which appeared to offer consumers the opportunity to purchase shares in a well-known company and failed to mention that they were actually promoting CFDs.
Many of the FXVC’s customers were unclear about the nature of the investments that they were being persuaded to make and the risks involved in trading in CFDs. The firm used pressure tactics, described by one customer as 'relentless', to encourage consumers to invest ever increasing sums of money. Some customers were even encouraged to declare they were professional investors despite not meeting the necessary criteria for such categorisation.
The FCA has stopped FXVC conducting any regulated activities in the UK and required the firm to close all trading positions and return the money to customers.
FXVC operates in the UK under the Temporary Permission Regime (TPR) put in place for firms who used to operate in the UK under a passport and who wish to continue to operate here following the UK’s exit from the European Union. These firms operate under the TPR until their application for full authorisation by the FCA can be considered.
July 2021 update
Finteractive Limited has referred this First Supervisory Notice to the Upper Tribunal where each party will present their respective cases. The Tribunal will consider this and either dismiss it or ask the FCA to reconsider and reach a decision in line with the findings of the Tribunal. The Tribunal’s decision will be made public on its website.


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EyeLock LLC, a vendor of iris-based identity authentication solutions and majority owned subsidiary of VOXX International announced Wednesday that it has entered into a license agreement with Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., for Qualcomm Mobile Security.
EyeLock is developing iris authentication solutions that are designed to work with Qualcomm Mobile Security and enable OEMs across the entire IoT spectrum to benefit from one of the most secure iris authentication implementations available.
EyeLock’s proprietary iris authentication technology examines more than 240 unique iris characteristics of each eye and provides a fast, user-friendly experience with a natural sensing distance of approximately 60 cm. The algorithm performance capabilities for speed and accuracy have been tested and validated by Novetta, as unmatched in the market with a false accept rate of 1 in 1.5 million for single eye authentication and a false reject rate of less than 1 percent.
EyeLock has achieved significant technological breakthroughs and solved integration challenges that have historically been a barrier to mass-market adoption of iris authentication for mobile, IoT and other solutions.
Qualcomm Mobile Security is built upon the strength of Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platforms, and is designed to safeguard a device from security threats. Qualcomm Mobile Security authentication framework is engineered to provide multilevel security by combining a hardware-level solution with next-generation software for robust biometrics security.
The latest Qualcomm Mobile Security components include camera security, hardware token and malware protection for the latest security measures.
Snapdragon Mobile Platforms contain Qualcomm Mobile Security, a combination of hardware, software and biometrics technologies that are engineered to help provide additional security features for online banking and payments. These processors are also designed to include hardware-based user authentication, device attestation, and device security for use-cases such as mobile payments, enterprise access, and personal data protection.
“By 2018, most premium and high-tier smartphones released in the world will include biometrics, and this trend will expand in the future to both lower-tier smartphones, connected cameras, and many other IoT devices,” said Sy Choudhury, Senior Director of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Qualcomm Camera Security is designed to provide maximum security for the most personal information – the iris biometric template, the key to all data. We believe the camera security implementation provides a solid foundation for the EyeLock solution and helps accelerate the utilization of iris biometrics.”
“This agreement is a great acknowledgement of the quality and capability of our technology and an indication of the growing demand for increased security and convenience across a slate of connected devices and diverse market segments, including financial services, healthcare, automotive, and consumer products,” said Jim Demitrieus, CEO of EyeLock. “By ensuring that EyeLock’s iris authentication technology works with Qualcomm Mobile Security, we are able to offer the market one of the most advanced security solutions.”
In May, EyeLock announced that it has entered into a partnership with STANLEY Security to deliver EyeLock’s complete suite of hardware and software access control solutions to its broad customer base in North America.
EyeLock has achieved significant technological breakthroughs and solved integration challenges that have historically been a barrier to mass-market adoption of iris authentication technology. In addition, the company’s approach provides maximum flexibility by offering designs that have either on-board or host-based processing and illumination.
EyeLock will continue to work to achieve a breakthrough level of device security and biometric usability for smartphones and the IoT segment-at-large. EyeLock and Qualcomm Technologies recently demonstrated a device at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona that features fast iris recognition at a comfortable arm’s-length distance. The device utilized the Qualcomm Camera Security interface with dedicated processing and encryption to sign, store and execute matching of mathematical templates of an iris biometric.


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Elon Musk wants you to rent his solar roof panels for only $50 a month
If only Tesla leases were this cheap…
It wouldn’t be a new week without Tesla CEO Elon Musk taking to Twitter to launch something or the other. Today, he’s relaunching Tesla’s solar power roof business, with a new rental plan. Residents of six US states will be able to rent full-roof solar panels starting from $50 a month.
That’s a pretty decent deal, as Tesla’s solar panel packages start upwards of $7K.
Tesla has launched a solar panel rental plan
When’s the last time you spent less than that on gas in a year? Even my economical Mazda6 costs us almost three times that on a yearly basis. If you’re in a state with high electricity costs, the added value gets even larger.
- Customers in California, Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Mexico can sign up for the plans
- Rental rates are $50 per month unless you’re in California, where it’ll be $65
- Expansion into Europe should come next year
- In Musk’s own words “it’s like having a money printer on your roof”
With Tesla’s solar power business in the shade of its competitors, this seems like a good way for the company to increase sales. Maybe by the time I buy a house, Tesla will have a similar scheme in my home state…
- A noted Apple analyst expects to see a new Apple Watch this season – yup, another one
- PSA: This simple trick lets you open up the login page of any public WiFi connection
- Spotify’s Premium Family plan is getting parental controls to help block out the swears
- KnowTechie Roundtable: What piece of tech from TV/Film would you like to see in real life?


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Late July 2020, Democrat and Republican lawmakers confronted Big Tech Chief Executives for wielding their market power to crush competitors, and mine data intrusively, potentially violating privacy laws while accruing sky-high profits during a pandemic. Over the course of six-hours, US congressmen in an anti-trust sub-committee grilled the $4.5 trillion industry’s elite chiefs. The tech sector, it was argued, had become too powerful, wielding its dominance against rivals, occasionally against its very own consumers and now frequently, against democracy itself as algorithms amplified political echo chambers and biases.
“Our goal is (to be) the best, not the most. Apple does not have a dominant share in any market or any product category where we do business” – Tim Cook to US congress
Indeed, the Big Five Tech companies generate $900 billion, rivalling the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of countries like Netherlands and even oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Four out of five of Big Tech companies have achieved trillion-dollar market capitalisations, eclipsing Big Oil and other major industry groups to comprise some of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world.
With the global coronavirus pandemic, these valuations are set to rocket as digital disruption becomes the new normal. But early Thursday morning, 13 August, the Big Tech cash grab grew heated as Epic Games, maker of the popular billion dollar game- Fortnite, provoked a ban from tech giants Apple and Google in apparent violation of respective App store policies concerning in-app transactions, and in response, a lawsuit from the game developer.
These Fortnite skins are typically priced between $13 and $18 and nothing is known about Nike’s revenue split with Epic Games but what is known, is that Big Tech like Apple and Google want their 30% cut of the sale of digital fashion and accessories via in-app transactions.
In normal times, greater technological adoption is the biggest driver of increased revenues. During a pandemic, in-home quarantine has sent the tech sector into overdrive as people were forced to live in a combination of virtual and physical environments. Pre-pandemic, Epic Games banked a cool $3 billion in 2018 on the back of Fortnite, an online survival video game where 100 players fight against each other in player versus player combat to be the last one standing. Fast-paced, action-packed, and not unlike The Hunger Games, it looks like real life is about to mirror the game’s Battle Royale mode as tech conglomerates find new ways to earn a larger slice of the pie for themselves.
It’s not hyperbole either, if the idea of an in-game Travis Scott concert might seem silly, the 12.3 million Fortnite players who attended the extravaganza in game proves that the game is more than virtual.
Fortnite’s app has been downloaded more than 133 million times on iPhones and iPads and brought in roughly $1.2 billion, and Apple has taken $360 million of that revenue as part of its commission – Sensor Tower on how lucrative Fortnite has been for Epic Games and Apple
Fortnite is free to play but makes money selling digital items like virtual clothing or “skins”. Pre-pandemic, Nike’s Jordan brand teamed with the massively popular online game to show off some of the brand’s signature sneakers. The #FortniteXJumpman collaboration saw two new limited edition skins for characters, wearing streetwear icon Nike Air Force 1s in a variety of colours including the signature black and red Chicago Bull’s colour scheme. These Fortnite skins are typically priced between $13 and $18 and nothing is known about Nike’s revenue split with Epic Games but what is known, is that Big Tech like Apple and Google want their 30% cut of the sale via in-app transactions.
It’s hard to imagine but as late as August 2019, many fashion retailer senior executives were still confused as to why anyone would pay real money for virtual garments and accessories. Speaking with CNBC, Scandinavian fashion retailer Carlings approached Virtue, the creative agency owned by Vice media, to do something that would draw people to its website. Virtue pitched an idea inspired by games like ‘Fortnite’ and the concept of “virtual skinning”, arguing that digital clothing was what you’d have on web shops in the near future. Carlings CEO Ronny Mikalsen called it “the strangest meeting of my life. I didn’t understand what they were talking about, making a digital collection … I was like, this can’t be serious.”
Four months later, fashion and cosmetics collaborations have hit the online gaming scene in a big way, looking for new audiences in a US$152 billion market. Earlier this year, Louis Vuitton teamed up with Riot Games to create a series of digital “skins” for characters in League of Legends as well as capsule collections that can be worn in real life.
Louis Vuitton’s capsule collections for League of Legends including clothing and accessories which included a US$5,600 leather jacket designed by Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections Nicolas Ghesquière each item possessed “unique and original references true to the universes of League of Legends.”
According to analytics firm Newzoo, China and the Asia-Pacific market is particularly important – in 2018, China’s online gaming population (which includes mobile gamers) was made up of nearly half a billion players, with women making up more than half of this market. They also forecasted over $40 billion in virtual gaming revenue in China.
The Pandemic makes Digital Disruption the New Normal: Nike, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Valentino are some of the new players
When the global pandemic hit and the subsequent national lockdown measures took place, the virtual environments of these online games became fashion’s new battlegrounds. Free of the COVID-19, masses including A-list celebrities like Chrissy Teigen and Brie Larson have called the online world of Animal Crossing home. Such is the game’s popularity that the Nintendo Switch handheld console on which it is played, has remained sold out since lockdowns began rolling out in March.
Locked in and with no avenues to ‘peacock’ their style, sartorially minded players have taken to designing clothes for their Animal Crossing avatars, recreating high fashion and streetwear looks. At first, a majority of these virtual garments were re-created by virtual wardrobes with the creations on Animal Crossing Fashion Archive, which is run by fashion photographer and visual artist, Kara Chung. Painstakingly, Chung’s Animal Crossing Fashion Archive became a source for players to don the hippest designs from Chanel, Dior, and old Celine.
From virtual rip-offs to collaboration, luxury fashion brands like Marc Jacobs, Valentino and Anna Sui have gotten in on the action, allowing players to dress their characters in any item from Marc Jacobs’ Animal Crossing capsule, or choose from a selection of looks.Valentino also digitised Spring/Summer 2020 and Pre-Fall 2020 collections, players can also don Moncler’s puffer jackets virtually, while these fashion offerings are entirely free, the lawsuit between Fortnite creator Epic Games and Apple and Google, will shape the future of digital luxury fashion.
Fortnite’s in-game clothes have also become a status symbol of sorts among today’s youth. Techspot raised the point that Fortnite is more than a player vs. player competitive title, the game also serves as a digital playground and a place to hang out and socialise with peers. As is the case with real-world playgrounds, Fortnite’s digital space is ripe with bullies. And just like in the real world, one’s outward appearance can be a prime target for teasing: A “default” character outfit can attract bullying, leading many to believe that having individualised in-game costume is a form of “street-cred” among pre-teens and Gen Z. Hence, fashion as a tool for expression is as vital in the virtual world as it is in the real world.
David versus Goliath: Epic Games versus Apple
According to Tech Crunch, Epic Games never had a problem making money. Their first game, Gear of Wars grossed $100 million on a $12 million development budget. But with Fortnite, the company redefined modern gaming by making true cross-platform experiences possible and by pulling in vast amounts of money. Epic Games is privately held and hence keeps its financials closely guarded.
Sensor Tower, a tech blog tracking the global app economy, discerned that players spent an average of $1.23 million per day in the iOS version of Fortnite in 2018, contributing a total of approximately $37 million to the game’s life-to-date gross of more than $385 million. Fortnite’s sixth season began in September 2018, bringing in an estimated $17.6 million in its first week on Apple’s platform, an increase of 41% over the previous week. When player spending surged past the $1 billion mark amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, it was immediately clear to Big Tech what was at stake when Epic Games started encouraging Fortnite’s mobile-app users to pay it directly, rather than through Apple or Google. The companies require that all in-app payments are handled through their eco-systems so they can collect a 30% commission, a policy that has been at the center of antitrust complaints against the companies.
According to Sensor Tower, Fortnite’s app has been downloaded more than 133 million times on iPhones and iPads and brought in roughly $1.2 billion, and Apple has taken $360 million of that revenue as part of its commission, call us cynical, but it’s easy to see why the Cupertino brand wouldn’t give that up without a fight.
It was a war that Epic Games was apparently prepared to wage. Just after the ban, the game developer launched a snarky public relations campaign, lampooning Apple’s famous Orwell 1984 advert from the Cupertino company’s own fight against IBM 36 years ago. This time, it was Fortnite characters who were defying Apple’s totalitarian regime. According to NYT, #FreeFortnite was the top trend on Twitter within hours as Google followed suit and also removed Fortnite from its Android Play app store later that day. That said, the Android eco-system allows for external 3rd party downloads and so, Fortnite still remains available on Android phones, hence the battle between Apple and Epic Games is the one closely watched as it sets a precedent for how brands can potentially interact with their virtual partners for years to come.
Apple has been subject to anti-competitive investigation by European regulators and the US Justice Department over the last few years following complaints from App developers that Apple is taking an unfair cut of their business and in some instances, competing with their apps with its own offerings. Indeed, Apple has a business philosophy of acquiring small companies that can be easily integrated into existing company projects, in some cases, they would buy up a smaller rival of a dominant software developer and then repackage a competing product as their own.
The services business is Apple’s second largest source of revenue after iPhone sales. Given increasingly competition from the likes of Huawei and Samsung, the $51.7 billion iPhone revenue has been under increasing pressure and so the 30% service commission is a vital component of the world’s most valuable company’s profit and growth machine. While it is clear that the $1.58 trillion company is clearly the Goliath in this fight; Epic, a North Carolina company valued at roughly $17 billion and partially owned by the Chinese internet giant Tencent, is no mere David either.
It appears that the strategy is to sacrifice millions of dollars in revenue in a fight that will keep Fortnite off iPhones but alienate Apple’s core consumers since the game still remains available to Android users who can download it outside the official Play store. Fortnite announced more than 350 million registered players in May and if a percentage of those players, suddenly find themselves unable to get updates of their beloved game on iOS, Apple might witness a mass migration to Android devices instead. It’s not just a battle in courts of law but also the court of public opinion.
Epic Games is not the first software company with issues against Apple. Other big players like music streamer Spotify and email app-maker Blix have also made formal complaints to regulators in Europe and the United States.
Beyond how luxury fashion might eventually sell virtual garments in online games like Carlings’ digital collection which starts at $9 for a headband and up to $27 for an oversized shiny nylon puffer jacket, Forbes senior tech contributor John Koetsier also posits that this is also a war for the future of mobile in-app payments: Will the old-school PC-centric model of a company (Apple or Google) selling a device (laptop) which the customer (you) can install any software you want on from any source win, or will the new-school locked-down one-official-place-to-get-software model win? At stake is likely tens of billions in Apple and Google annual revenue.


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You may have heard of the Echo, Amazon’s new “virtual assistant” product/service that was just released. We all know of Siri and Cortana, two other popular AI products released by Apple and Microsoft respectively. In my opinion the Echo is far superior to either. I recently purchased an Echo, a voice activate virtual assistant that does everything from play music and read the news to create to do lists and order products from Amazon. It’s actually a fascinating little device that has dramatic implications for creating “smart homes” and “smart offices.” In this episode of the Future in 5 I talk about the potential impact that the Amazon Echo can have on our personal and work lives.
The post Will Amazon’s Echo Change the World? appeared first on .


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FDA Issues Draft Guidance on New Nutrition Facts Label. announcement of the new Nutrition Facts label requirements last year accused. 5, 2017. Early.Published: June 5, 2017 10:54 a.m. ET. Maria LaMagna covers personal finance for MarketWatch in New.
FDA Puts Brakes on Rule Requiring New 'Nutrition Facts
Labeling NewsThe FDA announced today on its website that it intends to extend the compliance dates for the new nutrition facts label.Food Label News by FoodLabels.com. May 2017. More About Ingredient Labeling: Expanded vs.
FDA approves new peanut allergy food labels | AAP News
New and Improved Nutrition Facts Label - accessKent.comGRAND RAPIDS, Mich-- The FDA has recently come out with a new nutrition food label.September 2017.
Food Labels | Nutrition.govThe US Food and Drug Administration announced new labels for peanut. 2017 Mortgage.
Keep watch for these three new labels on packaged foodsUse this guide to decipher the new Nutrition Facts label and break the code on healthy eating.By: Robert M. Califf, M.D., and Susan Mayne, Ph.D. Today, the FDA has finalized the new Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods with changes that will make it easier.On January 14, 2016 Korean Food and Drug Safety Ministry (MFDS) released a draft amendment to the current nutrition labelling rules, in order to make the food.
New Labels and Tax Take on Thailand’s Junk Food Problem
Help Your Patients Use the Nutrition Facts Label to Cut
Food Label News brings you what matters in food labeling. September 2017. New Nutrition Label Regulations:.
New Food Labeling System Deadline Pushed Back « CBS St. Louis
FDA approves new. and food labels already disclose when they contain it,.With New Food Labels,. the first lady introduced the redesigned label at a White House event.Proposed Food Labels Show How Much Exercise Needed to Burn Off Calories British researchers think new packaging will be more effective than just listing nutritional.
Top Food Trend Predictions for 2017. Well known macro-trends that are staying strong through 2017 include the clean label movement.Last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized a new Nutrition Facts label.FAQ: New Nutrition Facts Label. Under the new labels, food that could be eaten in one sitting should give calorie and nutrition. 2017 WebMD, LLC.
FAQ: New Nutrition Facts Label - WebMD
Wage and Hour - Tenth Circuit Aligns with Cumbie on Tip Credits - In Marlow v.
May 2017) FSANZ sets food labelling standards in the Food Standards Code.


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October 20, 2007
SuperValu a Grocerychain loses 10 million dollars to E-Mail scam
When deleting the hundreds of spam mails we get daily I always think who can be stupid enough to fall for such scams, but incidents like these regularly prove me wrong. SuperValu, which bought most of the Albertsons supermarket chain last year has fallen for such a scam as it stands to lose about $10 million it wired to fraudulent bank accounts. It all began when the supermarket chain received two emails from someone purporting to be an American Greetings Corp. employee and another claiming to be with Frito-Lay. Both emails asked them to send money to the company’s new bank accounts. Without confirming on phone or email the smart guys from SuperValu sent $6.5 million and $3.6 million to phony American Greetings and Frito Lay accounts.
Fortunately the FBI was able to capture the money before it was whisked away by the scammers.
According to documents filed in the two forfeiture cases, SuperValu first began wiring payments due to American Greetings into the wrong account on Feb. 28, making a total of nine payments before catching the error on March 6. During that time, more than $6.5 million was wired to HSBC Bank in Miami Beach, Fla., to accounts opened under the names Society Nights Productions, doing business as Perini.
Read the full story at the Idahostatesman.


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Survey: most b-to-b execs feel tablets are important but less than half feel they have the resources to execute a tablet strategy
February 28, 2012 -- A recent survey of 200 ABM members (including CEOs, presidents and those with higher-level digital titles) finds that while increased tablet usage is meaningful to 83 percent of respondents (7 percent say tablets arenít important, 10 percent arenít sure), just 43 percent say they have the understanding and the resources to charge ahead into tablets on their own.
Sixty-percent of respondents say their tablet strategy should be device-agnostic, with 42 percent saying the budget should be between $15,000 and $25,000 annually. Twenty-five percent of respondents say their budget will be more than $25,000 annually, while 8 percent say they would be interested in a one-time fee, even if it exceeds $25,000.
Of those ABM members offering tablet products this year, 53 percent say they will create new content exclusively for tablets, while 40 percent are re-using existing print content (more than 80 percent of respondents say PDFs of existing content arenít sufficient). Another 22 percent are using tablets to support or enhance upcoming print content.
While many consumer-side media companies are willing to pony up for Appleís 30 percent revenue share for iPad apps (while hedging their bets with more publisher-friendly Android revenue shares as well as HTML5 solutions), 63 percent of ABM respondents say itís crucial for the publisher to have control over content, revenue shares and distribution, but arenít sure how they can maintain control over all these aspects. Another 37 percent say having ownership over content, revenue shares and distribution is exactly how they plan to do it.


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AMC TV has revived its popular Mad Men Yourself site to build buzz for the premiere of the series’ fourth season on July 25.
Mad Men Yourself lets users create an avatar in the style of the show’s animated opening sequence. Those avatars can be sent to friends or used as profile pictures on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Deep Focus, a digital agency in New York, helped build the site for AMC.
This year, Mad Men Yourself offers new backgrounds, clothes and accessories for avatars, allowing users to grapple with the same changes in culture and fashion that affect the show’s characters.
Neither the agency nor AMC was able to immediately provide up-to-date statistics, but Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer said at the Social Ad Summit in New York last year that the original site had garnered 1 million unique visitors, 600,000 of whom created avatars. The premiere of the series’ third season last year drew 2.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s not a huge number for a well-known cable series – USA’s Burn Notice averages 6 million viewers, and HBOs True Blood averages 4 million – but the show has won back-to-back Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series and attracts an unusually affluent, well-educated following.
Mad Men Yourself closely resembles 20th Century Fox’s Simpsonize Me, a site that the studio used to promote the opening of The Simpsons Movie in 2007. That site, however, has not been updated since its launch.
Follow Douglas Quenqua on Twitter at @DQuenqua.
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Google's I/O conference commences today, but that's not all that happened this week. Facebook, Apple and Line - and maybe Snapchat? - had updates, as well.
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The electric vehicle (EV) market is rapidly evolving, and car manufacturers globally are investing heavily in the development of affordable and efficient electric vehicles. Skoda-Volkswagen, a major player in the automotive industry, is not lagging behind. The company is actively contemplating launching a sub-20 lakh EV and is potentially considering a collaboration with Indian automobile manufacturer, Mahindra. This move comes as a part of Skoda-Volkswagen’s strategy to tap into the growing demand for electric vehicles in the Indian market while keeping the costs in check.
Advanced Talks with Mahindra for Co-Development of Budget EV: Skoda is believed to be in advanced stages of talks with Mahindra to co-develop a budget electric vehicle based on the MEB21G architecture for both Volkswagen and Skoda. The MEB21G is a modular electric drive matrix platform designed to be flexible and cost-effective. This platform will serve as the basis for a range of electric vehicles and is a key component in Skoda and Volkswagen’s strategy to make EVs more accessible to the general public. The collaboration with Mahindra is expected to leverage the strengths of both companies to develop a budget-friendly EV that does not compromise on quality or performance.
Volkswagen’s Affordable EV, the ID.1: Volkswagen is in the process of developing an affordable electric vehicle, dubbed the ID.1. This new model will be a part of Volkswagen’s ID family of electric vehicles and is expected to be introduced in the future. The ID.1 is anticipated to be a compact car with a practical range, aimed at urban commuters. The development of the ID.1 aligns with Volkswagen’s broader strategy to offer a comprehensive range of electric vehicles that cater to different market segments. Although the launch date and specific details of the ID.1 are yet to be revealed, it is clear that Volkswagen is committed to making electric mobility accessible to a broader audience.
Launch of MEB21G Architecture Based Models Under Rs. 20 Lakh: Both Skoda and Volkswagen are planning to launch models based on the MEB21G architecture with a price tag of well under Rs. 20 lakh. This pricing strategy is designed to make electric vehicles more accessible to the Indian middle class and to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in a price-sensitive market like India. The sub-20 lakh price tag is expected to be a game-changer in the Indian EV market, as it will bring electric mobility within the reach of a larger segment of the population.
Potential collaboration between Skoda-Volkswagen and Mahindra to co-develop a budget-friendly electric vehicle based on the MEB21G architecture is a significant step towards making electric vehicles more accessible to the masses. With the development of the ID.1 and the planned launch of MEB21G architecture-based models at a price tag of under Rs. 20 lakh, Skoda-Volkswagen is poised to make a significant impact on the Indian electric vehicle market. These initiatives are not only essential for the growth of electric mobility in India but are also crucial for addressing environmental concerns and reducing the carbon footprint of the transportation sector.


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During the Xbox One reveal, Microsoft showcased how the new Kinect sensor will be an integral part of the new entertainment expereince for Xbox. Microsoft today revealed a new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will be delivered next year.
“We’re continuing our commitment to equipping businesses and organizations with the latest natural technology from Microsoft so that they, in turn, can develop and deploy innovative touch-free applications for their businesses and customers. A new Kinect for Windows sensor and software development kit (SDK) are core to that commitment,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
The new Kinect sensor features a HD color camera, noise-isolating multi-microphone array that not only filters ambient sound but also recognizes natural speaking voices. The new sensor has an expanded field of view, useful for those in large sized rooms. “The new sensor tracks more points on the human body than previously, including the tip of the hand and thumb, and tracks six skeletons at once,” Microsoft adds.
Microsoft is expected to showcase more about the new Kinect sensor during the Build 2013 developer conference in June.


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Brace yourself for some more Chinese invasion in the Indian mobile market. A new Chinese smartphone brand called Topwise Communication is going to enter the Indian market soon and they want to launch a new Dual Rear Camera mobile called as “Comio S1″.
Economic Times reported the entry of the company Topwise in the Indian market back in April 2017, when the Topwise Communication appointed Mr. Sanjay Kalirona as CEO and Director for Indian operations.
The Topwise Communication is the parent company and they have a handset brand called as Comio which will be launched in India. As reported by Digit India Topwise was the original designer and manufacturer (ODM) for Micromax earlier and used to make smartphones for the brand. Now they have stopped making the mobiles for Micromax and taking cues from iVoomi, Xiaomi, Oppo and several other Chinese manufacturers want to set up their own shop in the Indian market.
ODM – is a company which design and manufacture products for another brand and allow it to rebrand and sell.
More Chinese Mobile Brands to launch in India – In this report, we shared how more Chinese brands are going to enter the Indian market, including iVoomi, Tecno, LePhone and inFinix to name a few.
Topwise Communications was founded in June 2005 and is now a 12 years old company. TopWise Communication is one of the biggest ODMs in China and is among top three printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers in the homeland.
Coming to the Comio S1 Dual Camera Smartphone Launch In India
The Comio S1 comes with a metallic design and houses dual rear cameras. The smartphone comes with Dual rear speakers and is powered by the MediaTek Quad-Core processor. There is 2 GB of ram and the smartphone comes with 16 GB of internal storage which can be further expanded to 32 GB using the micro-sd card slot.
The Comio S1 looks really similar to the Comio A8 which the company recently launched in China for a price tag of 899 Yuan or Rs. 9,000.
The Comio S1 comes with a 5. 0 Inch Display with HD (1280*720) pixels resolution and offers 283 PPi. The smartphone comes with minimal amount of bloatware and will run on the Android Nougat 7.0 OS along with the Comio UI 2.1.
Comio is promising faster Android updates for the device and it already comes with a June security patch update. The device also comes with 360 Security and Anti Theft software for enhanced protection and safety.
The device comes with 2700 mAH capacity battery and offers all day battery life. The smartphone is expected to be priced below Rs. 10,000 and the Topwise is expected to launch 3-4 more smartphones along with the Comio S1. More details for the Comio S1 will come once the device launches in the Indian market.
These are early details and we will get to know the complete specs and details of Comio S1 when the company decides to launch the devices in India.
It is likely that the launch may happen in August or September 2017 as the company is expanding it’s tie up with new distributors and retailers to launch the new “Comio Brand”.
It will not be an online only model but Topwise will expand the sales and distribution network in traditional retail similar to the Tecno brand.
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The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.
What’s Buzzing Today: Reactions to 2016 Topps Transcendent Collection, a loaded USA Baseball case, an oldschool National Treasures NFL case, the WWE Slam Crate and scouting the Black November deals.
Plenty has changed in the sports card world in the last decade and BlowoutTV had a group break on Monday afternoon that proved it.
The break was a case of 2006 National Treasures football cards — a case that was made by a company that no longer exists but a lineage that continues today with Panini America.
Getting in on the break wasn’t bad — a four-box case ran just over $100 for two teams per spot — and it reinforced the notion that old wax can still pack surprises no matter what changes in the hobby.
In fact, the final card in the final box was of a Hall of Famer — a 1/1 autograph of a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.


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Sling TV from DISH Network may be adding access to over-the-air channels with a new AirTV box. It is reported that AirTV will tune to local broadcast channels and stream them to devices that have the Sling TV app. Supposed plans for the product emerged as the White House backed a proposal from the Federal Communications Commission to open up set-top boxes to more competition.
The AirTV box has apparently been developed by EchoStar, a sister company to DISH Network, based on its Slingbox technology. Slingbox was originally developed by Sling Media to relay video to remote devices. EchoStar acquired the company in 2007.
DISH Network adopted the Sling brand for its SlingTV online television service, which launched in February 2015. A year later it was reported that Sling TV had around 600,000 subscribers. That was not enough to prevent DISH losing 81,000 subscribers overall in 2015, ending the year with 13.90 million.
SlingTV offers streaming packages that include some local channels but negotiating rights for channels in every market has proved problematic for companies aiming to offer online television services in the United States. So far it seems to have defeated companies like Google and Apple.
Receiving locally broadcast free-to-air channels through an antenna could potentially enable SlingTV to incorporate them without negotiating rights or paying retransmission fees.
That could upset some broadcasters, although DISH may be used to that. Its commercial skipping Hopper digital video recorder was the subject of legal action from broadcast networks. Dish settled the suits through commercial negotiations over channel carriage agreements.
Interestingly, a company called Channel Master already offers a digital video recorder that connects to a television antenna, including a flat indoor device. That box also happens to be made by EchoStar and it happens to integrate with Sling TV to offer an additional line-up of pay channels available online by subscription.
The concept of streaming local channels as an online service was popularised by Aereo, which used a central array of micro antennae to receive over the air channels. That initiative was effectively shut down by legal action. The Supreme Court held that the service was effectively operating as cable system.
AirTV appears to avoid the issue of looking like a cable system by using a normal antenna at the home. That still presents a practical challenge for people who seem strangely unaware that they can still receive over the air television through an antenna.
The legality of redistributing channels received in this way remains unclear. Sling Media managed to get away with it but possibly only because broadcasters and networks did not wish to set a legal precedent of fair use if they were unsuccessful in challenging its legality.
A move to open up the cable box market has received support from President Obama. He has called on the Federal Communications Commission to open up set-top cable boxes to competition, as part of a wider move to promote innovation and address anticompetitive conduct.
In February, Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, tabled proposals to open up pay-television services to smart televisions and tablets. Pay-television providers, including DISH Network, immediately opposed the move.
The Future of TV Coalition suggested that the White House is pandering to companies like Google. It said: “The Google proposal the White House endorsed today will box consumers into yesterday’s technology and impede the innovation consumers so desperately want.”
It is unusual but not unprecedented for the President to comment on pending proposals from the FCC, an independent agency. He previously backed proposals for net neutrality.
He may be one of the most powerful people in the world, but nearing the end of his term of office, it seems unlikely that even the President of the United States can do much to open the pay-television box.
Whether AirTV will succeed in bringing broadcast channels to broadband networks without retransmission consent and consequent fees is another matter.


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The NAGA Group AG is a German FinTech company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with over 150 employees. Today, they officially announced their Token Sale to launch the NAGA Coin (NGC) and create the first Blockchain-based ecosystem for decentralized trading, investing and education in financial markets, virtual goods, and cryptocurrencies.
[Note: This is a press release.]
Who is The NAGA Group AG?
After performing one of the fastest IPOs and being listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on July 10th 2017, The NAGA Group AG saw a share price increase of 400% in less than 3 months, The NAGA Group AG (ISIN: DE000A161NR7) is currently offering two platforms based around the trading of financial instruments and virtual items. Founded with the mission to make financial transactions in stocks, cryptocurrencies and the gaming market more transparent, secure and accessible to everyone, the NAGA team stands for disruptive and innovative solutions in the online trading and gaming world.
NAGA’s first venture is an online trading platform and social network for traders called SwipeStox (iOS | Android apps), which has been in operation since early 2015. The SwipeStox trading platform is home to thousands of registered users and facilitates several thousand transactions each …
Read more –> click here all content is copyright Bitcoinist.
Need Bitcoin marketing and PR? Bitcoin PR Buzz has been proudly serving the PR and marketing needs of Bitcoin and digital currency tech start-ups for over 2 years. Get your own professional Bitcoin or cryptocurrency press release CLICK HERE..
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Source: Komodo news feed


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We haven’t seen Gran Turismo Sport since Polyphony announced it at Paris Games Week last fall. Come next week however, that is set to change. Scheduled for May 19 at 10:45 AM PT, the unveiling stream will include a new trailer, along with the pre-release test races for the game’s two championships.
The footage and championships will be part of a two-day London event. There will even be a trophy ceremony for the winners of the test races. Taking to the PlayStation Blog, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi revealed there will also be a world first 9 full-scale Vision GT Cars and 2 ¼ size models present at the event.
For the latest Gran Turismo, developer Polyphony Digital is teaming with the FIA, International Automobile Federation, to hold two in game championships. Running at the same time, players can represent their country by racing in the Nations Cup, or support a manufacturer in the Manufacturer Fan Cup. The idea is that winners will actually be included in trophy ceremonies alongside real-world drivers.
All the action kicks off with the new trailer on May 19 at 10:45 AM PT. The test races will follow, starting at 11:00, and then the trophy ceremony at 12:30.
As we learn more about Gran Turismo Sport, you’ll find it all right here on Gamespresso.


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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Finally Unleashed
After the blowing-up of Note 7 last year, Samsung unleashes Galaxy Note 8 on Wednesday, with the hopes of burying its “explosive” predecessor in the past, or completely erase it from users’ memories, by offering a truckload of things phone users can do with its latest Note unit.
The new Samsung phone was launched at the firm’s Samsung Unpacked event in New York. There have been leaks and speculations about the features of the new Samsung phone circulating around the smartphone users’ crowd, and the specs and features have been finally confirmed in the said event.
Features and Specs
The phone sports a 6.3-inch, 2960x1440 nearly bezel-free infinity display screen, which makes it an inch larger than an iPhone 7 Plus, and essentially similar to the Galaxy S8 Plus, another widely bought Samsung phone. It runs Samsung Exynos 8895 processor, along with 6 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of internal storage, and there’s also an SD card slot built in it. It also scores Mobile HDR Premium support, like the Galaxy S8 series, which gives it an HD TV quality. It has Samsung’s now-standard Always-On functionality.
Moreover, it features a multitasking mode that allows users to use two apps at a time. It can also be turned into a computer with monitor, keyboard, and mouse support since it can be used with Samsung’s DeX accessory.
Note 8’s operating system is Android 7.1.1 Nougat, and it sports quite plenty of biometric security options, such as fingerprint scanner, iris scanner, and facial recognition.
A very material difference between Note 8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus is the stylus. The new stylus is said to have more sensitivity and a slightly finer tip, which goes well with the phone’s larger screen. It also features a load of productivity tools—anything from screen drawing and instant translation to animated gif and emoji creation.
The back of the phone also received a significant change, as Samsung decided to give the phone a dual-sensor camera—a feature which rivals like LG, Huawei, and Apple have already equipped their various phones with.
Both sensors are 12 megapixels (one with a telephoto lens, and the other with a regular lens), and for the first time in the market, both sensors use optical image stabilization (OIS), which is designed to remove blur and camera shake.
Ben Wood, the head of research at CSS Insight, suggested that although Samsung took one step ahead of Apple by blessing both of its Note 8’s dual-sensor with image stabilization, he didn’t see any indications that Samsung plans to support augmented reality feature, a prominent feature he expects on the next iPhone that Apple is expected to release in September.
It also brags a new Live Focus feature which enables selective blur during or after capturing photos.
The battery, which has been the primary problem in last year’s Note 7 debacle, is rated at 3,300mAh, and supports both wireless and fast-wired charging using a type C USB. The battery is said to have gone through internal and external testing, along with some work by Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL), an American safety consulting and certification company.
Sajeev Jesudas, UL’s president, said that Note 8 passed a “rigorous series of device and battery safety compatibility test protocols.”
South Korea’s Samsung hopes that Galaxy Note 8‘s launch can make buyers and would-be buyers forget last year’s Note 7 explosive debacle, which ended in a wholesale recall of the said model and made users disappointed.
Samsung mobile’s president, DJ Koh, stated that the firm appreciates “the relentless passion of the Note community,” and labeled them as the company’s constant inspiration.
“The Galaxy Note 8 lets people do things they never thought were possible,” Koh added.
“It’s a testament to Samsung’s stubbornness and determination that the launch of the Note 8 cements its position as the leading Android smartphone maker, drawing a clear line under the Note 7 problems,” Ben Wood said.
The new phone is available for pre-order from today, and it reportedly costs £869. Shipping will be on September 15.
Wood spoke of the timing of Note 8’s launch, and suggested that by launching the model now, Samsung will get the oxygen of publicity ahead of Apple’s iPhone 8 release.
“Samsung will be hoping that a trio of competitive high-end products – the Note 8, S8 and S8+ -- will appeal to anyone looking for a new Android phone. Furthermore, these devices are certainly good enough to turn the heads of a few iPhone owners who fancy trying a different device,” Wood added.
You got to be always informed and well equipped with the knowledge you need about business and the market. Our website does the highest quality news reporting to keep you updated about the latest happenings in the world of business. Check us out at bworldfinance.news


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Down 30% in ad revenue, G/O Media weathers the storm with a new CRO
G/O Media — parent company of brands including Deadspin, Jezebel and Gizmodo — expects a 30% decrease in its total advertising revenue during the second quarter. Like other publishers, G/O has made cutbacks, laying off 14 staffers (about 3% of staff) in April.
The crisis hit at an inopportune time for G/O, fresh off a mass defection of staff at Deadspin last November that led to G/O’s editorial union asking for CEO Jim Spanfeller’s ouster in a letter sent to G/O’s private equity owners in January.
Now, G/O is projecting an image of stability, with Deadspin under a new editor-in-chief Eric Barrow and editorial director Jim Rich. It has a full-time staff of 10 in addition to some freelancers — down from the more than 20 staffers it had back in October.
Spanfeller has also brought in a new chief revenue officer, former Bleacher Report svp of ad sales Brian Kelly.
Traffic to Deadspin has steadily been increasing since February when it had 717,000 unique visitors, to more than 1.9 million unique visitors in April, according to Comscore. However, year over year, traffic is down almost 85%, with Comscore reporting that the site had 13.8 million unique visitors in April 2019.
“We relaunched Deadspin for appropriate reasons and had already started hiring the staff, but it basically restarted right when sports stopped,” said Spanfeller.
The company’s other brands have seen a general decline in traffic from last year to this year, with its largest property Gizmodo having about a 58% drop in unique visitors from approximately 28 million April 2019 to 11.6 million in April 2020, according to Comscore. During that same period, Comscore also reported that Jezebel dropped from 8.9 million unique visitors to 4.2 million (a 52% decrease) and Lifehacker went from 12.5 million unique visitors to 9.5 million (a 24% decrease).
Spanfeller said he sees a comeback in the making as activity slows picks up as the U.S. economy begins the process of reopening.
“One of the reasons that we pulled the trigger on bringing Brian on board is we’re seeing light on the horizon,” said Spanfeller, adding that RFPs and conversations with clients have been gradually increasing back to what they were before the pandemic.
Kelly said that he is joining the team with a level of optimism for selling the brands, regardless of advertising being down. This is because 50% of G/O Media’s total traffic is direct, which he said proves a true affinity for the brands.
Spanfeller added that this direct audience has also enabled the company over the past three to six months to start preparing for the end of the third party cookie by building profiles of first party users. But it has also allowed his team to implement a series of popup surveys across the company’s sites over the past few weeks to learn what audiences want from advertisers in this moment.
From that, Spanfeller said they received thousands of responses, which they’ve shared back with advertisers to help inform potential campaigns.
“I can’t guarantee that we’re going to see brightening spots in June and then an explosion into Q3. I can hope that, but there is still a lot to be determined. Emblematic of that are the events of the past week or so,” said Spanfeller.
Similar to how he said his team saw brands stop spending on advertising during the outbreak of coronavirus, many brands that were just finding their footing are now facing the instinct again to go quiet to see how the situation unfolds.
To help offset some of the advertising declines, Spanfeller said that its ecommerce business, which usually brings in half of the revenue that advertising brings in, has been holding steady throughout the pandemic, helping the company “weather the storm.”
As for future growth, Spanfeller said that immediately the goal is to get “our house in order as it relates to the pandemic and revenue streams,” but beyond that, he is very focused on potential mergers and acquisitions, not just in the verticals the company is already in, but potentially expanding into new spaces. “We’re definitely keeping an eye on the marketplace to see what’s out there,” he said.
Pinterest testing new co-sold, revenue-share ad model for publishers with Tastemade
Currently in an experimental phase, Tastemade is the first publisher to sign on and the brand that is funding this ad experiment is corn chip snack Fritos.
As publishers clean up automated supply chains, education-title Chegg cut ad resellers and saw no negative impact on revenue
"We were told as publishers that resellers were so important, but no [publisher] has communicated to me they removed resellers and lost X% lift."
Member ExclusiveThe Facebook ad boycott could help publishers swing the pendulum back to context
Publishers have a golden opportunity to shift thinking around the role context, broadly defined, should play in advertising.
SponsoredFour ways to adapt to the changing publisher ecosystem in 2020
By Neal Sinno, general manager Americas at GeoEdge For marketers, 2020 started out with so much promise — but this changed rapidly as the industry faced a global epidemic head-on. Not only did our own daily routines come to a screeching halt, for many of us our professional lives did as well. Almost as quickly […]
Patagonia: Boycotting Facebook ads will lead to an ‘even more thoughtful approach’ to its ad buying
Patagonia has pulled all paid ads from Facebook and Instagram until at least the end of July. The boycott will extend if the advertiser has seen three specific changes to how the social network handles hate speech.
How Substack has spawned a new class of newsletter entrepreneurs
As the media ecosystem contracts amid coronavirus, Substack has been thrust into an uncomfortable role — that of a savior.


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- OnePlus 6T will allegedly be launched in India on October 17
- This could be global unveiling of the smartphone
- OnePlus 6T might sport a triple rear camera setup
OnePlus 6T is doing the rounds on the rumour mill quite frequently these days, with the launch expected in the next few weeks. An interesting piece of information has now surfaced online, showing an alleged invite for the India launch of the OnePlus 6T slated for October 17. Curiously, this invite has appeared on a Chinese social media website and not India, so it may well mean that the OnePlus 6T India launch could be the global unveiling of the smartphone. The invite shows off the new tagline “Unlock The Speed” most likely pointing towards the presence of an in-display fingerprint sensor. New renders of the upcoming flagship are also out that reveal a third camera sensor at the back, a departure from the dual rear camera setup of the OnePlus 6.
The leak comes to us courtesy a user on Chinese social media website Weibo, as reported by WCCFTech. Interestingly, the October 17 date coincides with the date mentioned in the screenshot officially shared by OnePlus with CNET. Apart from the launch date, country, and tagline, the invite gives out no other details around the OnePlus 6T.
The same user has also released two new press renders that show a third camera sensor on the phone’s back. This sensor is slightly separated from the other two sensors, leading us to believe that the OnePlus 6T TV ad in India shows Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan hiding the third sensor in the brief reveal. This is in line with previous leaks suggesting a triple camera setup on the smartphone, which was contradicted by noted tipster Roland Quandt, who said OnePlus will stick to the dual camera setup for its next flagship.
However, as there is no official confirmation on the same, it is advisable to take this piece of information with a pinch of salt. OnePlus might not look to radically change the design considering that this is a mid-year “T” upgrade for its flagship range. Apart from the triple camera setup, a waterdrop-style notch is seen on the front with an in-display fingerprint sensor, as confirmed by OnePlus.
As per what OnePlus has teased, the OnePlus 6T will not sport a 3.5mm headphone jack and instead will come bundled with a pair of USB Type-C earphones. Keeping in mind previous trends, the OnePlus 6T will most likely borrow a Snapdragon 845 SoC and RAM quantity of up to 8GB RAM from the OnePlus 6. It is expected to run Android 9.0 Pie out-of-the-box.
As for pricing, back in August this year a report had suggested that the OnePlus 6T would continue the higher price trend and sport a price tag of $550 in the US, slight uptick from the OnePlus 6’s base price. OnePlus 6T price in India is not known yet, but it will be exclusive to Amazon India as per a teaser on the e-tailer’s website.


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By Lee Bullen
A former barista has told how she creates stunning artistic images in the frothy milk topping her latte coffee.
New Zealand-based artist Huyen Phan, 26, discovered her talent while she was working at a coffee shop in Auckland.
Now Huyen wants to open a school to teach other coffee lovers how to express themselves.
Huyen – originally comes from Vinh, in Vietnam – said she first started creating ‘latte art’ three years ago when she was a full-time barista.
Now solely working with coffee as an artistic hobby, Huyen shares images of her coffee creations on Instagram and TikTok where she has around 70,000 followers.
She told Zenger News: “I started doing latte art three years ago. I used to work full-time as a barista and cafe manager.
“At the moment, I am working as Assistant Operation Manager for the ESS Compass group at Devonport Naval Base (on Auckland’s North Shore in New Zealand) so I am just making coffee and doing latte art as a hobby.
“I sometimes get a lot of requests from people to produce specific design like cats, dogs, couples, parents, and lots of other designs.”
She added: “The time it takes to produce each design varies, but one thing is for sure, the coffee is still hot after finishing the design.”
Huyen told Zenger News: “I love doing latte art as I like painting as well. I just like art in all aspects of my life, even cooking.
“My very first design that became popular was when I worked at the Monsieur Madame Cafe & Restaurant in Mount Eden (Auckland) and I got to meet a lot of elderly couples.
“I just admired their love and I started making designs about them.
“That’s why you see a lot of couples in my coffee designs. I also use food coloring for my latte art.”
As well as producing art in her coffee, Huyen said she has plans to launch her own training course on making the perfect cup of Joe and topping it off with an artistic flourish.
She said: “At the moment, I plan to start a class and teach others how to make coffee and latte art.
“It would be useful for students who want to work in a coffee shop. The problem is, most cafe owners only look for experienced baristas.
Huyen added: “When I was a student, I struggled to find a place to work so I would like to offer this to other students so they don’t have the same teething problems I did.”
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ASSOCIATION of Master Baker, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has held its first carnival, where producers of bread displayed varieties for customers.
Mr Abdulraheem Is Chairman, Association of Abuja Master Baker, while speaking with journalists, said he was at the peak of happiness seen such carnival materialised
The carnival is tagged,” provides an opportunity for a long term sustainable solution to bakery industry challenges.”
He expressed satisfaction for the level of turnout of members, saying “because of what I am seeing displayed here today, I am satisfied for the first time.”
The Chairman said the first edition of the carnival did not come easy, stressing that despite all odds, he was happy the carnival sailed through.
“When you are making plans, you are bound to face challenges and issues, thinking it’s not possible but we all stood up and today it’s a reality,” he said.
He said the idea behind the carnival was to unite members in order to get their products at the lower cost, adding that everybody that had to do with production of bread was at the carnival.
Speaking on the high rise in the prices of bread, he said the raw materials used in producing bread had increased astronomically.
According to him, the sugar I bought at N29,000 a week ago now cost N31,000 in the market, so if you don’t go to market you will not know the prices have increased.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
On the new CBN policy regarding weekly withdrawal, he said though it would affect businesses but said it was a laudable move, because it would encourage cashless policy and the use of e-naira wallet.
“Government has its own understanding, I think they want to do cashless policy where you won’t have to carry too much cash which is better.
This according to him, would bring about easy business and it would reduce the number of dirty money in circulation.
Mrs Bukola Adewumi, the Chief Executive Officer, Nextar Bread, commended the organiser, stressing that this would further help to unite members in a bid to fight a common course.
Some of the bread on display include: Chico, Zuma, Oak, Jethro ,Lims, Mabu bread among others.


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GM, Mercedes, DS, China, Korea, BYD.
GM shuts down Bolt plant: As inventories swell, GM has halted the lines in Michigan, where the Chevy Bolt and Sonic are made. While the carmaker claims the shutdown was temporary and down solely to slow Sonic sales, there is an oversupply of its EV as well. Still the Bolt is only available in some states before a nationwide roll-out in August. At the same time, only a few Ampera-e have been allocated to Europe – too few maybe but it is impossible to simply rebrand the Bolt for Opel due to specific parts suppliers cannot deliver quickly enough.
S-Class facelift: Mercedes unveils its latest luxury flagship that now includes 48-Volt tech and a plug-in hybrid variant with a bigger battery at 13.3 kWh for a range of 50 km. The 7.2 kW on-board charger and a new wallbox promise faster charging but the S-Class PHEV won’t be available at on-sale this fall.
DS electric SUV by 2019: PSA fledgling DS prepares to fly solo and revealed a second model to follow the DS7 Crossback PHEV. Next up will be a compact SUV comes 2019 and it will also incorporate an all-electric variant. Two years later anoter SUV is to join the club, this time as a standalone hybrid.
German “Extrawurst”? Beijing might make an exception for German carmakers regarding China’s EV sales quota, WiWo reports after speaking to the German embassy in the Chinese capital. They revealed, there would be “a satisfactory solution” but how that could look like or, what that actually means or, if it will also apply to other countries has not been said. Only recently, OEM associations from the four biggest car nations had turned to Beijing begging for mercy so they could pollute the planet a little longer.
wiwo.de (in German)
Korea grants special treatment to Tesla as Seoul wants to open its subsidies from September to include the Californian EV maker. Its models had been excluded before because Korean regulation limits incentives to electric vehicles that take less than ten hours to charge.
Dreaming ever bigger: BYD is about to expand again further with the extension of its production facility in Lancaster, California set for completion next month. The plant will then be able to produce 1,500 electric heavy-duty vehicles, i.e. buses as well as trucks, a year with its 700 employees.
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The key to dealership success hinges more than ever on maintaining and enhancing relationships with customers who you might see only once a year, Paul Everitt, Chief Executive at SMMT, told delegates at the SMMT International Automotive Summit.
Paul was joined on a panel by Vertu Motors’ CEO Robert Forrester and Chris Mason, Managing Director of the OFT-approved provider of industry codes of practice, Motor Codes, who both talked about tackling often unfounded, public scepticism, the importance of personalised service, transparency and online consumer interaction.
As Chris pointed out, it’s important for the automotive retail industry as a whole to help guide consumers to the right garages and the weight of personal recommendation should not be ignored – 73% would choose a garage based on the say so of friends and family. Motor Codes collects feedback from customers of its network and shows in excess of 40,000 customer reviews of garages on its postcode-driven garage finder.
Reflecting statistics outlined earlier in the day by Google, the increasing use of search engines by motorists researching dealer services and reliance on the opinion of other customers was evident in that Motor Codes projects in excess of one million views its network profile pages in the coming year – a significant business proposition and a measure of the use of online retail recommendation tools.
Echoing the need to focus on the personal touch, Robert Forrester reminded delegates not to forget the basics. Yes, to convert owners of older cars, margins have to be sacrificed in favour of volume – price is critical – but, ultimately, if a customer doesn’t feel trust, doesn’t receive a valet for their car when they were expecting one, they’re lost to the competition. With 35,000 Vertu customers committed to paying for their service by direct debit, the personal touch is clearly paying off.
Click through for more news from the 2012 SMMT International Automotive Summit.


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As China headed into a weekend of speeches celebrating its 10 years as an official member of the global trade community, the rest of the world might have wanted to contemplate the exported US$49 microwave oven and the imported US$85,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of China’s joining the WTO — a membership that helped turn China into the world’s biggest economy after the US. Companies and consumers worldwide have benefited from China’s emergence as a top trading partner. And yet, because of special breaks and loopholes China got when it joined the WTO, it still shields its domestic markets from foreign competition much more than any other big nation.
Consider that US$49 microwave oven and US$85,000 Jeep.
Microwave oven prices have plunged in the West over the past decade, largely because China has combined inexpensive labor, excellent infrastructure and heavy factory investment to produce the ovens and a wide range of other consumer goods for export, making creature comforts more affordable to customers around the world. And WTO rules against protectionism have made it difficult for countries in the West to limit China’s sixfold surge in exports during those 10 years, even as the Chinese flood of products has forced factory closings and layoffs elsewhere.
However, price tags on imported cars at dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities signal how China has continued to protect its home market under the special terms of the WTO agreement it negotiated before joining the trade group.
In the US, prices for a Detroit-made Jeep Grand Cherokee start at US$27,490. However, in China, after tariffs and other protective fees, it sells for US$85,000 or more in China. (It’s no surprise that Chrysler has sold fewer than 2,500 of them so far this year in China.)
Foreign trading partners often chafe at the way China uses the WTO rules to its advantage.
The Chinese economy’s “spectacular rise would not have been possible without the open global trading system that China was able to benefit from during the past 10 years,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in an e-mail.
“At the same time, China is having to increasingly recognize and respect not only the legal responsibilities it now faces as a member of a global rules-based body, but also the WTO “spirit” of promoting open markets and nondiscriminatory principles,” he said.
Chinese officials have been effusive in the run-up to their WTO anniversary.
“We believe that our 10-year arrangement has been successful — the results of the past 10 years are welcome and a valuable inspiration,” Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Yu Jianhua (俞建華) said at a news conference last month in Beijing.
The roots of China’s economic model trace to the singular terms under which the nation joined the WTO, which now has 153 members.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WTO was established in 1995 as the successor to an international framework called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade — GATT, as it was known — that had been mapped out in the early years after World War II.
After negotiating for 15 years to be admitted to GATT and then to the WTO, China was finally let in after agreeing to accept the WTO’s broad free-trade rules. However, as all new members do, Beijing also had to negotiate a lengthy document, known as an accession agreement. It spelled out thousands of details tailored to the specifics of the economy of China, which back then was still very much a developing country.


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It’s looks like we have to still wait a few more years at least according to Paul Peng AUO vice president. OLED TV panels won’t be feasible in cost. While the technology has been getting cheaper and more efficient as of late, Paul Peng says that the production costs are still too high and yield rates too low for large OLED TVs to be feasible for commercial use any time before 2014.
On July 29, 2011
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Frost & Sullivan recognizes AMD for best practices in growth strategy, implementation excellence, brand strength, product quality, and technology differentiation
Chelmsford, MA, December 11, 2018––AMD Global Telemedicine Inc. (AMD), the leading developer of telehealth solutions for healthcare organizations around the world, has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan analyst and research firm, with the 2018 North American Telemedicine Market Leadership Award. The award is presented to AMD for best practices in growth strategy, implementation excellence, brand strength, product quality, and technology differentiation.
“AMD Global Telemedicine has performed in an exemplary manner to become a market-leading provider of innovative healthcare technology that will take telemedicine to the next level,” commented Victor Camlek, Principal Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “As an industry front-runner in developing an impressive portfolio of telemedicine-enabling solutions around the world, AMD has also demonstrated a willingness to partner with other healthcare technology companies to develop exciting new capabilities that will make telemedicine more widespread than ever before.”
“Success does not come overnight,” commented Eric Bacon, President of AMD Global Telemedicine. “We are proud to have been in the industry for over two decades and have successfully built a brand that organizations know they can trust and rely on. The team here at AMD is committed to finding new ways to help our customers deliver care through telehealth technology solutions.”
Frost & Sullivan recognizes companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. Download the full industry report by Frost & Sullivan here.
About AMD Global Telemedicine, Inc.
AMD Global Telemedicine (AMD) creates telehealth solutions that empower healthcare organizations to deliver care through digital technology. AMD embraces change and listens to our customers to provide personalized telehealth solutions that connect patients with remote healthcare providers, regardless of location, circumstance, or time. Since 1991, AMD has delivered Telemedicine Encounter Management Solutions (TEMS®) to over 10,000 patient end-points in more than 98 countries.
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+1 (978) 937-9021 x316


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A recent CNN article highlights the ongoing investigation into the recall of a massive 9 million pounds of tainted meat by the Rancho Feeding Corporation earlier this year, one of the largest meat recalls in recent years.
Claiming that the meat may have come from "diseased and unsound" animals who weren't properly inspected, the USDA ordered its removal from commerce.
According to the article, "Investigators now believe that Rancho was buying diseased dairy cows and processing them when government inspectors weren't there. After the cows were killed, employees would hide the warning signs of cancer by trimming off diseased parts, using a fake stamp of approval or even replacing the heads of sick cows with ones from healthy animals. It's unclear which employees were involved, officials said."
Lost your appetite? Maybe it's time to move toward a vegetarian diet. Leaving animals off our plates isn't just a good way to prevent foodborne illness; it spares countless animals a lifetime of suffering.
For delicious recipes and helpful tips, check out ChooseVeg.com.
Meat Recall Investigation: Employees Hid Evidence of Cancer in Cows
by - May 8, 2014


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Apple CEO Tim Cook’s cash bonus rose 40% last year to $10.7 million, Apple said Tuesday in its annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cook also received a $3 million salary, $470,246 in security costs, and $432,564 for air travel. All in all, Cook’s 2020 pay, excluding vested shares, totaled $14.8 million.
In addition to his compensation, Mr. Cook had a total of $281.9 million in restricted stock that vested during the year. Those shares were a core part of Mr. Cook’s long-term incentive package that was awarded in 2011 when he became CEO. The decade-long plan’s final tranche vests later this year.
In September, Apple’s board awarded a new long-term equity plan to Mr. Cook with shares that vest from 2023 through 2025, giving him incentive to stay on as CEO through that period. Mr. Cook, 60 years old, joined Apple in 1998.
MacDailyNews Take: $296.7 million/year is $810,656/day, $33,777/hour (every hour of the day and night, not just work hours), $563/minute (every minute), and $9.38/second (every second). In the time it took most of you to read this post to the bottom, Tim Cook received over $2,250.00 in compensation.
CEO compensation, along with that of most of upper management, is obviously out of whack, not just for Tim Cook and Apple, but in general. However, in order to retain quality people, companies have to compete on the field of play as it is. What to do?
It’s easy to understand why critics focus on the gaudy awards of cash and stock that executives take home. And, yes, it’s hard to deny that some bosses get paid a lot more than they deserve. But the structure of compensation is ultimately a lot more important than its level, because it gets to the heart of how managers run companies and create value for shareholders…
There are creative ways — yet simple and easy to implement — to tie executives’ fortunes to the long-term health of their companies. Tying bosses’ pay to the levels of debt at the business, for instance, will dissuade them from taking risks that might alienate creditors. Preventing executives from selling company stock until several years after it’s granted will give them a powerful incentive to think long term. And updating the compensation package to reflect changing conditions in the market and the company will ensure that managers’ interests are always aligned with those of the company and its shareholders.


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Not that libertarians are wielding much influence over U.S. trade policy these days, or are likely to in the foreseeable future. After all, how many politicians in either party, much less voters, have much interest in analysts that urge the United States to practice one-way free trade – dropping its trade barriers even though competitor economies keep theirs towering?
But it’s always useful to be reminded about the lengths to which these trade extremists will go to make their case, and a great example of such “trade derangement syndrome” has just been provided by Colin Grabow of the Cato Institute.
In a recent op-ed, Grabow asked “what would happen if, due to rising tariffs, Apple decided to end the production of iPhones in China and move production in the United States.” His answer?
“True enough, jobs would be created, but at substantial cost. Before a single iPhone could be made, billions would have to be devoted to building new factories. Further billions would have to be spent attracting workers in a low-unemployment economy with much higher wages than those found in China. Time would be needed to train these workers as well as develop the associated ecosystem of suppliers.”
In other words, lots of new jobs and factories in the United States. The horror! And – even worse? – major efforts would be needed to teach valuable new skills to many American workers.
Since free lunches are indeed difficult to find in economic theory and reality, Grabow then rightly proceeds to ask how the necessary expenses could be financed. All the answers he provides make a reasonable case that, at least in the short term, the costs would exceed the benefits. But his list of Apple’s funding options – which features raising prices, which would decrease sales and productivity for an entire economy deprived of many of the company’s miraculous devices; cutting R&D spending, which would threaten the firm’s competitiveness and ultimately its ability to generate any of its high-pay American jobs; and absorbing the costs of the tariffs, which would lower investable profits and dividends, and hurt shareholders by cutting the stock price – is missing one stratagem that should be glaringly obvious today.
That funding option? Borrow the money. And P.S. – it’s an approach that Apple (and many other businesses) have been using a lot lately because interest rates have been so low for so long. According to this recent report, the company has “become one of the largest bond issuers in the market, with dozens of bond offerings. These large bond issues and other short-term debt offerings have brought Apple’s total debt to almost $100 billion as of the end of 2017.”
And although no outsiders should pretend that they know exactly how much cash a company should hold at any given time, it’s noteworthy that Apple’s current stash isn’t exactly negligible. As of mid-year, it topped $240 billion.
Grabow is correct in pointing to the difficulties of moving big supply chains in the first place. But the challenge is hardly impossible, especially when important national governments say “Jump!” In fact, in response to India’s demands, Apple itself has promised to start helping the country set up just an iPhone manufacturing complex in return for permission to establish Apple retail stores in the country and access its (potentially) huge market in the most profitable way. The United States, of course, has a large market, too, and the skill levels and other pieces of industrial infrastructure are much greater than those current in India.
In fact, this Cato analyst’s arguments against tariffs on Apple are so transparently flimsy that they indicate that he and his Institute aren’t mainly concerned that such trade curbs won’t help strengthen the American economy. They’re mainly concerned that they will.