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10 Dec USMCA: Agreement reached on Nafta trade deal replacement
Posted at 17:14h in Supply Chain 0 Comments
USMCA: Agreement reached on Nafta trade deal replacement
The US, Mexico and Canada have finalised a trade deal that will replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
Representatives from the three countries signed the pact in Mexico.
US President Donald Trump also declared victory.
The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will be “the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody – Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions – tremendous support,” he tweeted.


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The latest transformation for Optimus Prime isn’t a bad-ass truck, or motorbike, or even a car. In fact, the upcoming Optimus Prime toy from Toymaker Takara Tomy doesn’t transform into a vehicle at all, instead he transforms into the Original Sony PlayStation. He’s not alone either, as he’ll be joining the Mega Drive Megatron which is set to launch this year.
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Takara Tomy announced the “Optimus Prime featuring Original PlayStation” earlier this week in joint celebration of the 30 year anniversary of Transformers and the 20 year anniversary of the PlayStation brand. Together they came together to make a brand new toy which sees an ordinary looking PlayStation turn into a bad ass fighting robot – every kids dream, right? If you can’t wait until next year, Takara Tomy also has a Mega Drive Megatron toy scheduled for release this year, which I guess you can settle on until they release Optimus Prime.
The company is also manufacturing a series of 1/6 scale toys based on the lineup of PlayStation consoles – from the PlayStation 2, to the PlayStation 4 each of which comes with a range of accessories including memory cards and controllers – at 1/6 scale, of course. This collection has been aptly named the PlayStation History collection. These are also set for release later this year.

domain: news


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Masses of food wasted - 'use by' dates mislead
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of San Francisco Chronicle (SF's leading newspaper)
Posted: October 1st, 2013
Americans throw away 40 percent of the food they buy, often because of misleading expiration dates that have nothing to do with safety, said a study released [on September 18] by Harvard University Law School and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. The report said 90 percent of Americans toss good food into the garbage because they mistakenly think that "sell by," "best before," "use by" or "packed on" dates on food containers indicate safety. One-fifth of consumers, the report said, "always" throw away food based on package dates. In fact, "sell by" dates are used by retailers for inventory control. "Best before" or "use by" dates usually reflect manufacturer estimates of peak quality. While some labels are intended to indicate freshness, none of them reflects edibility or safety, said Ted Labuza, a food science professor at the University of Minnesota who collaborated with the authors. "If food looks rotten and smells bad, throw it away, but just because it reaches a certain date does not mean the food is unsafe," Labuza said. "I don't know of any food poisoning outbreak that came from people eating food that was past its shelf-life date." The report estimated the value of food tossed away at $165 billion a year. Food waste is a big source of greenhouse gases. Wasting food also squanders vast quantities of water, land, fertilizers, petroleum, packaging and other resources that go into producing it. About a quarter of all fresh water used in the United States goes into the making of food that is thrown away, the report said.


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CEO JAYNE Hrdlicka said the business results were driven by strong performance across their portfolio.
“The continued growth of our infant nutrition products was a strong contributor to the results with sales totalling $1.1 billion for the year — an increase of 46.9 per cent on the prior year,” Ms Hrdlicka said.
“This was driven by share gains in China and Australia.
“We achieved pleasing growth in our liquid milk businesses in particular within Australia and the USA –with total fresh milk growth of 22.9 per cent and revenue of $174.9 million across the group.
“We grew sales of other nutritional milk products by 17.3 per cent, delivering total sales of $65.8 million. This was driven by milk powders and supported by new products launched towards the end of FY18 and in the fourth quarter of FY19.”
Australia and New Zealand business revenue was $842.7 million, up 28.3 per cent, and EBITDA of $388.2 million represented an increase of 48.1 per cent.
It had $NZ413.6 million ($A391 million) in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, which was up 46.1 per cent.
Ms Hrdlicka said the company was proud of its results in her first year as chief executive delivering record profit and market share.
Revenue for the 12 months to June 30 jumped 41 per cent to $NZ1.3 billion, with revenue from China and other Asian countries increasing 74 per cent to $NZ405.7 million.
CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said the result was slightly below analysts’ forecasts and noted the stock was close to its record high.
A2 shares are still up more than 30 per cent for the year and trading at 42 times earnings.
Shares of rival infant formula makers Bellamy’s, Bubs Australia and Wattle Health were down between 1.2 and 3.1 per cent at 10.51 am.
A2 said it would exit the United Kingdom liquid milk business because there was more opportunity in greater China and the United States.
US sales grew 160 per cent to $34.6 million, although the segment had a earnings loss of $44 million as A2 invested in distribution and brand awareness.
In China, A2’s earnings were up 52.4 per cent to $123.9 million and A2 said the business was expanding its presence in mother-and-baby stores in the country.
In Australia, A2 said A2 Milk was the fastest-growing fresh milk brand in the country and the leading premium milk brand, holding a record 11.2 per cent market share.
A2’s FY19 results
- Full-year revenue up 41.4 per cent to $NZ1.3 billion ($A1.2 billion).
- Net profit after tax up 47 per cent to $287.7 million ($A272.3 million).


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Jessi Baker, Founder & CEO of Provenance, spoke with Kacey Culliney from Cosmetics Design Europe about the rapid growth in demand for transparency in beauty.
“There’s a lot of beauty brands that know a surprising amount but because they don’t know everything, they’re not being as transparent as they could be. Some beauty brands own farms, production, but they don’t talk about it at all,” she said.
This lack of communication was particularly common amongst luxury beauty brands, she said, perhaps because of entrenched traditions that the consumer should simply trust brands were “doing the right thing”.
“They just don’t talk about it; I think they’re massively missing a trick. Branding is changing. We don’t just believe labels. For me, the future of branding is glass boxes – seeing right in and knowing the values of that brand match your own. There’s a mentality change, consumers are going through that mentality change, but also for brand managers and those who are guardians of the brand.”
“It’s complicated; it’s like taking your clothes off in public. And a lot [of beauty brands] are waiting for perfection which could be an error,” she said.
To read the full article on Cosmetics Design Europe, including an in-depth article with Jessi Baker, click here.


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SOUTH-EAST Asia brims with opportunity for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), as it prowls for fintech startups to invest in via its 20 billion yen (S$242.5 million) Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) fund.
In January, the Japanese financial group launched a new unit, MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), to manage CVC funds that foster strategic partnerships with fintech startups. The 20 billion yen fund, also launched in January, can invest in startups both in Japan and abroad.
With its booming middle class, South-east Asia is a hotbed for innovative fintech startups, said Makoto Shibata, executive fellow of Japan Digital Design, an MUFG subsidiary promoting fintech and innovation within the group.
"Most South-east Asian countries are seeing that the wealth accumulated in the population is increasing - not just the super-rich, but the middle class people are growing their wealth," said Mr Shibata, who spoke to The Business Times at the RISE Corporate Innovation Summit in end-March in Bangkok, Thailand.
"That will create a new opportunity for innovation; for startups to provide support to (customers) in making investment decisions or analysing their financial well-being. I think we would see more players providing additional value in that space."
On the personal finance front, MUIP has already made a bet in its home market. In February, it invested in Japanese fintech Moneytree, which has developed a personal financial management app that aggregates data from users' bank accounts, credit cards, digital money, loyalty points and brokerage accounts.
Moneytree also operates a financial data platform, Moneytree Link, which aggregates financial data for accounting service providers and financial institutions. This ability to serve a real use case with massive data is valuable for MUFG's core businesses, Mr Shibata said.
"Our imagination is limited with these things, but I think new players will come up with more creative ideas to utilise… the customer data with the financial institution, (which) will play a critical role in creating new products and services," he said.
Prior to setting up its own CVC unit, MUFG has made ad-hoc startup investments. But with MUIP in its arsenal now, the company is looking to cast a wide net for good opportunities. For its next move, MUIP is open to investing in startups across the fintech spectrum, as long as they have a substantial business proposition that aligns with MUFG, said Mr Shibata.
Deep-tech startups that may not necessarily specialise in fintech are another possibility, he added, provided that MUFG sees potential synergies. "Emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things or even quantum computing may benefit us in the long run," he said.
He declined to comment specifically on how many investments MUIP could make or how much capital it could deploy in South-east Asia, explaining that it depends on the opportunities that arise.
Nevertheless, he highlighted that MUFG sees many fintechs in this region that are interested to enter Japan -- something that the bank can help with.
Conversely, by working with the startup ecosystem here, MUFG could also help Japanese startups trying to penetrate key markets like Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia, creating a win-win situation.
All things considered, MUFG realises that innovation must be a full-fledged strategy, of which corporate venture is just the proverbial cherry on the cake, Mr Shibata said.
"We've been doing different innovation activities like organising an accelerator programme and hackathons. Also, we've created a global innovation team to cover different areas. We (then) recognise that making investments is also an important part of establishing a good, long-term relationship with startups," he said.
The Business Times is the official Singapore media partner for the RISE Corporate Innovation Summit 2019, which took place on March 28 and 29 in Bangkok, Thailand.


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When Dixons Carphone approached the UK Information Commissioner’s Office to report a suspected data breach in June, it was believed that around 1.2 million customers were affected. But with the assistance of the National Cyber Security Centre, investigations have revealed the incident to be ten times worse than thought.
Extensive forensic analysis has found that more than 10 million customer accounts have been compromised. Hackers appear to have accessed a vast amount of personal data including names, postal and delivery addresses and email addresses.
No sign of fraud. Yet.
When speaking to the press, Dixons Carphone management has been keen to stress that there is no sign of sensitive financial data like credit details being stolen. They also point out that there have not been any reports of fraud associated with the hacking as yet.
But with so many customer records having been exposed, there is always a risk that they will be used for fraudulent purposes at some point in the future. It is also important to note that although criminals would prefer to steal credit card details, they can still begin the process of identity theft using names and address data.
The actual hacking took place last year, so it seems unlikely that the criminals plan to use the data they accessed.
100,000 shoppers at risk
Dixons Carphone has also been keen to downplay another aspect of the ongoing data security investigation. A second, possibly unrelated, breach of the corporate payment processing system resulted in more than 5.9 million payment card details being stolen.
Analysis of the breach reveals that the vast majority (5.8m) of the exposed cards are protected by Chip and PIN technologies, making them virtually impossible to clone. A further 105,000 older cards are not as well protected and may still be used fraudulently.
There is also no sign that these card details were successfully exported from the Dixons Carphone systems – just that they have been accessed illegally by an unknown third party.
Will there be a massive GDPR fine?
The General Data Protection Regulation recently came into force, specifying potentially huge fines for any business that fails to properly protect personal information. If the breach is sufficiently extreme, these fines could reach €20m or more.
Because these incidents took place before GDPR came into force, Dixons Carphone are facing a maximum fine of £500,000. Still a significant penalty, but nowhere near as devastating.
I’m a Dixons Carphone customer – am I safe?
Dixons Carphone has made it quite clear that the security failings which led to the breach have now been addressed. They have also added new security measures to further strengthen their defences against future attack.
Will they fall victim to hackers again? It’s hard to know for sure. The embarrassment caused by this incident will help to ensure that Dixons Carphone treat customer data with greater care in future however.
Why not check your own PC security defences now? Download a free trial of Panda Dome to keep the hackers away from your personal data.


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Gaming laptops are getting thinner, but they’re still big and bulky. Alienware’s Concept UFO is something else entirely.
If gamers have always wanted to take their PC gaming experience beyond the desk, there are plenty of gaming laptops, but they too can be quite big. They’re getting slimmer and smaller, and some brands have managed to reduce the thickness and weight considerably, but they’re also still somewhat large for mobility.
However a concept unveiled at CES 2020 could just take mobile PC gaming to a new place, as the company shows off a gadget made to take high-end gaming somewhere new: a portable PC gaming console of sorts.
Built with Intel’s Core processors and equipped with what appears to be an 8 inch touchscreen flanked by controllers on either side, Dell revealed Concept UFO, an idea that could be coming in the very near future. The controllers are detachable, and there’s even a kickstand at the back, plus a 10th generation Intel Core processor, making it a proper computer, yet one that just so happens to halve controllers you can use.
Alienware has reportedly spent months testing the buttons and working on the battery life, but you’ll find WiFi, Bluetooth, and Thunderbolt, because while Alienware’s Concept UFO looks like a big portable gaming system, it’s essentially an Alienware computer made to fit a different purpose.
One thing you won’t find is pricing or availability information about the Alienware Concept UFO. While it offers a glimpse into the ideas Alienware is dabbling in, there’s no expectation of release date or price, so you’ll just have to wait for the moment and hold tight.
Leigh Stark was flown to CES 2020 in Las Vegas, USA as a guest of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).


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Next-Gen Power Cruiser
The first new Ducati Diavel 1260 motorcycle rolled off the production line in Borgo Panigale, Bologna, Italy. The new bikes mark the second generation of the Diavel model.
The entire production team and the company’s CEO Claudio Domenicali were there at the end to celebrate the beginning of its new production. Domenicali gave a short speech to the workers and then it was on to keep rolling these bikes out.
At the heart of the new Diavel 1260 is the Testastretta DVT 1260 with Desmodromic Variable Timing. The V-twin engine comes with a 1,262cc displacement. It makes a whopping 157 hp and 95 lb-ft of torque.
Ducati upgraded the chassis setup to make the bike an even more competent handler. Pair the new chassis with modern electronic features like Bosch Cornering ABS, and you have a true performer with cruiser motorcycle comforts.
Ducati will sell the regular Diavel 1260, which should thrill whoever rides it. That said, the company will also sell a Diavel 1260 S version of the bike. It comes with Öhlins suspension, Ducati Quick Shift up & down Evo system as standard, higher-performing brakes, and dedicated wheels.
Colors for the Diavel 1260 include Sandstone Grey. Colors for the Diavel 1260 S include Sandstone Grey or Thrilling Black & Dark Stealth.
You can expect the Diavel 1260 in dealerships later this year. With Triumph’s new Rocket III power cruiser in the works and looking awesome, Ducati needs the Diavel 1260 to be a killer.


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As of December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially rolled back net neutrality. In a 3-2 vote, the commission approved a proposal to get rid of the net neutrality rules that were put in place by the FCC in 2015.
This means Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Spectrum, Time Warner, and Comcast can manage their networks more aggressively and create preferred fast lanes for content. The vote also means it is more difficult to apply any regulatory pressure to Internet service providers as it removes the Title II classification that served as the basis for net neutrality regulations.
Opponents of the change argue that ISPs are having complete freedom over who gets to see what and when will result in higher costs for both consumers and businesses. The FCC chairman and his supporters say that regulations on the ISPs hamper innovation in the future and the Internet was working fine before the 2015 rules. Consumers didn’t agree with this argument because the overwhelming majority of them opposed the repeal when they were surveyed.
What happens now? This new rule means there are no rules. It is now legal for ISPs to block, throttle, and require paid prioritization for people to access websites they know and love. At this point, we’re trusting our Internet service providers to handle things without oversight. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) however, can still investigate service providers for anti-competitive prices, but there’s a lot of gray areas.
Since the ruling just came down moments ago, it’s too soon to say precisely what will happen for consumers and businesses. It’s a lawsuit that will be filed against the FCC in the coming days. While the commission can change rules and regulations, it is not allowed to do so without good reason. These reasons cannot be arbitrary or purely political. In court, the FCC will have to justify the 2015 rules causing harm to the Internet. The large volume of fake public comments filed with the FCC that will likely be a focus of the lawsuit, too.
The courts can halt the repeal of net neutrality rules, but it may be months before the new regulations are finalized. Internet service providers are probably already making plans to implement new non-neutral services if the FCC wins the court cases. Either way, likely, we won’t see any changes overnight.
What Non-Neutrality Could Look Like
In a non-neutrality scenario, you are Internet service provider is essentially regulating in saying if you want to pay us $50 a month, you can have access to these websites. If you’re going to pay us a little bit more say a $100 a month, you can get access to all of these 2nd tier sites so you can visit and use those services. But if you want to pay $150 a month, you can get access to all websites. This, of course, is just one of the ways a non-neutrality situation can work. There are a bunch of other possibilities. But, the idea is that ISPs can work however they want to. They are not bound by any government rule or regulation that requires them to serve the entire web equally.
What This Means for Small Business Owners
As a small business owner, this means that you may have to pay the Internet service providers a lump sum of money to ensure that your website is served to customers who subscribe to any tier. Those who don’t subscribe to whatever tier your website would be served under would not be able to access it.
With net neutrality, right now, all you have to do is register your domain and host your website. You’re on a technically even field with the major players like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. You get the same access on the ISP level as everyone else. This means there is more demand for competitive Web marketing services because there are many more businesses who need to compete and can compete. As such, there is a much less of inherent advantage for big established and rich players.
If you’re a wealthy website, you have a lot of money and a lot of resources with a lot of influence. You can say you’re not going worry about it because you know that you’ll always be in the lowest tier or what they’re providing for free because you have the money to pay the Internet service to provide. You have the influence to shape government rules and regulations. You can connect with all the different Internet service providers to make sure you’re always accessible.
This is a nightmare scenario for small business owners however because they don’t necessarily have the capital to pay off the ISPs to ensure that they are accessible at any or all levels of what consumers are paying for. It gives the already established big and rich players in the industry a substantial competitive advantage, making it tougher for small businesses to get started and to succeed.
Even still, the major players in the industry, such as Microsoft and Netflix, are speaking out against the repeal of net neutrality.
Brad Smith, Microsoft President, and Chief Legal Officer tweeted:
The open internet benefits consumers, business & the entire economy. That’s jeopardized by the FCC’s elimination of #netneutrality protections today.
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) December 14, 2017
We’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity & civic engagement. This is the beginning of a longer legal battle. Netflix stands w/ innovators, large & small, to oppose this misguided FCC order.
— Netflix US (@netflix) December 14, 2017
This isn’t only about Netflix. Without #NetNeutrality, we would never have been able to grow into the business we have today. There’s a whole future of startups that deserve that chance.
— Netflix US (@netflix) December 14, 2017
Stay tuned, as this will no doubt remain a hot button issue in the weeks and months to come. We stand with net neutrality and believe that no ISP should control what we see, how we see it, and when we see it. Visit Save The Internet to learn more.[faq-page] [qa-schema question=”What Losing Net Neutrality Could Mean for You?” answer=”Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Spectrum, Time Warner, and Comcast can manage their networks more aggressively and create preferred fast lanes for content.”] [/faq-page]


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HTC Wildfire Launching on All Carriers in US
HTC has announced that the HTC Wildfire. it will be launching in the US on multiple North American carriers. The launch will be held sometime in the forth quarter of this year. which is any time from now.
On the back of the Wildfire is a 5 megapixel camera. For the connectivity it has Wireless 802.11b/g. It runs the Android 2.1 operating system.
we know the release date , we do not have any details on pricing just yet. We expect that closer to launch time the carriers will start to announced pricing and pre-ordering details.


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The nation's second largest bookstore chain is going out of business. Borders began liquidation of their remaining 399 stores Friday, with the process set for completion by the end of September. The end of Borders means the chain's 10,700 employees will lose their jobs.
After 18 weeks and four days, the NFL lockout officially ended on July 25, as the owners and players agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement. It's all sunshine and daisies again for football fans across the country who feared the season might be canceled.
A Civil Rights activist and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee told a group of UNO students Friday she was skeptical of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests.


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The special board committee, including directors Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm and Linda Johnson Rice, hadn't reached any conclusions about "the advisability or feasibility" of a transaction and that it could consider alternatives, Tesla said Tuesday. Shareholders would also have to vote on a transaction, lawyers and advisors said.
That's another complicating factor, lawyers said. There's no guarantee that enough shareholders will agree or that enough will want to sell their shares at Musk's suggested $420 price to get Tesla's shareholder count low enough to deregister the shares. Whiston estimates about 40 percent of the shareholders might take the money, and that would cost about $28.7 billion.
Depending on state law, he'd have to get a super majority of shareholders (in Delaware, it's 90 percent) to be able to squeeze out any holdouts, lawyers said. But Musk has said there will be no forced sales.
Its biggest investors, aside from Musk himself, are mutual funds and money managers in addition to China's Tencent and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. Collectively this group holds about 66 percent of the shares. About 17 percent are owned by investors who are too small (either in the amount of Tesla they own or the size of their portfolios) to have to report their stakes. Musk has said he believes two-thirds of Tesla's shareholders will stick with it as a private company.
The deal could turn out to be as unique as the collection of space transportation, electric automobile, high-speed transportation and solar power generation projects Musk has cobbled together in his business empire.
"There is a recipe for going private, but like everything else, Elon Musk does it his own way," said Barry Genkin, a partner at law firm Blank Rome. "He hasn't put any meat on the bones and everyone is scratching their heads about what he means."


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Men’s Wearhouse is upping the ante.
This story first appeared in the May 5, 2014 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.
The men’s specialty-store chain will introduce a limited-edition collection from designer Joseph Abboud for fall. The higher-priced offering from the company’s chief creative officer will consist of tailored clothing as well as other select items including shirts, leather jackets, sweaters, neckwear, scarves, gloves and shoes. The line will be called Joseph Abboud Collection and will be marketed through a new Joseph Abboud Web site that is expected to be launched around Oct. 1. It will not be sold in the Men’s Wearhouse stores, which carry the more moderately priced Joseph Abboud Heritage line.
Tailored clothing will be a hallmark of the Joseph Abboud Collection and it will be manufactured at the company’s New Bedford, Mass., factory.
“There will only be 48 to 60 of each piece, and I’m going to sign each one,” Abboud said. “And then we won’t make them again.”
The suits will sell for $695 and up; most of the Joseph Abboud product sold at Men’s Wearhouse retail stores sells for around $495. The limited-edition product will use all Italian fabrics and the first season will sport the signature Joseph Abboud color palette of browns, olives, birch, stone and russets.
“This is the start of building a real Joseph Abboud business,” the designer said. “We’ve never been able to do this before and this is a chance to reestablish the true DNA of the Joseph Abboud brand.”
At the same time, the company is adding made-to-measure shops at all of its stores for fall.
Last week, Men’s Wearhouse executives and board members hosted an event at the newly opened Madison Avenue flagship in New York centered around made-to-measure. Board members, including Allen Questrom, were fitted for suits that will be produced at the Massachusetts factory.
“By September 1, all of the Men’s Wearhouse stores will have Joseph Abboud made-to-measure,” Abboud said. The initial product offering will retail for $595 to $795 and more luxurious fabrics will eventually be added, bringing retail prices to $1,095 and up. “That’s a pretty good price for made-to-measure suits made in America from Italian fabrics,” Abboud said.
When Men’s Wearhouse acquired JA Holding, which owned the Joseph Abboud brand, in July for $97.5 million, the deal included the factory in Massachusetts. At the time of the purchase, the facility employed about 450 people. That number has since jumped to 600, according to Anthony Sapienza, the former president and chief executive officer of JA Holding, who now runs the factory for Men’s Wearhouse.
At the time of the purchase, Doug Ewert, president and ceo of Men’s Wearhouse, said the company was mulling going into the lucrative made-to-measure business and considered the factory one of the prime assets of the acquisition. The company also projected that the Joseph Abboud label could become a $300 million business within two years.
Last week, Ewert told WWD: “We are focused on growing our business by leveraging best-in-class people, processes and products. With Joseph Abboud, we are bringing together a best-in-class American men’s wear designer, a best-in-class high-quality American tailored clothing-production shop delivering best-in-class speed to market, and the best-in-class customer experience through our teams of store-based wardrobe consultants and tailors.”
Asked if these steps were the precursor to eventually opening stand-alone Joseph Abboud stores, Ewert responded: “One step at a time.”


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Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has filed a civil lawsuit in Denver District Court against debt collection company United Credit Recovery of Florida, as well as two Westminster-based debt collection companies, GTF Services and Standley & Associates.
The lawsuit (download here) alleges that the companies used fraudulent bank documents in an attempt to collect on outstanding debts, and engaged in deceptive trade practices.
Also named in the lawsuit is Florida resident Leonard Potillo, 48, the principal and director of Sanford, Fla.-based United Credit Recovery (UCR).
“UCR faked bank officer signatures on documents to orchestrate a debt-for-sale scheme from which they handsomely profited,” Suthers said. “The scheme involved thousands of individual accounts totaling tens of millions of dollars.”
According to the complaint, UCR purchased consumer debt from Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB), and then used account information provided by the banks to create hundreds of thousands of fake affidavits purporting to describe and to verify debt owed by consumers.
Suthers alleges that UCR profited by using the fake affidavits in collecting on the debt and in reselling debt to third-party debt collectors.
In addition, UCR allegedly sold accounts of Colorado consumers to other agencies and distributed the falsely created affidavits to those agencies, according to Suthers.
GTF, one such agency, is alleged to have used the affidavits through the debt-collection law firm Standley & Associates, who filed the affidavits in more than 300 debt collection lawsuits against consumers in Colorado, according to the complaint.
The allegedly fabricated affidavits have assisted in the collection of money from Colorado consumers by being filed in court as evidence of the amount owed and by being presented as validation of the debt directly to Colorado consumers.
The complaint was filed pursuant to the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and the Colorado Fair Debt Collection Practices Act with the Denver County District Court.
The complaint asks the court to "completely compensate" all of the consumers allegedly harmed by the defendants.


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The good folks over at the Humble Bundle are back again, this time launching the Humble Mobile Bundle 7, offering six games, with the promise of more to come, for one low-low price.
If you don’t want to pay much at all, you can grab The Tiny Bang Story, Color Zen Premium and Heroes of Loot, or if you pay above the average price, which at this stage stands at US$3.90, you can grab Kingdom Rush Frontiers, Horn and Sorcery! as well as any more games that will be added to the bundle in the future.
As usual you can split your payment between three parties – the Humble Bundle folks, the Developers of the games, or two charities, which after a brief departure last month is back to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Child’s Play Charity.
Don’t forget to grab the Humble Bundle Android app which recently came out of Beta with a new design, to manage all your current and previous Humble Bundle purchases – including eBooks and Audio. Head on over to the Humble Bundle Mobile website to check it out.


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For years, the entire digital advertising ecosystem has been built on the third-party cookie. Cookies enabled marketers to do everything from targeting consumers to measuring the results of their campaigns – but as we all know, cookies are on their way out.
Already today, cookies aren’t available in the bid stream 65% of the time. Though we’re still months away from their official demise, cookies are currently limited to a single browser in one corner of the programmatic ecosystem.
This means marketers need a new way to reach audiences and understand the impact of their efforts – and they need it now.
“Now that cookies are going away, marketers have no ability to serve addressable or targeted advertising, and they have no ability to track whether that advertising performed,” said Chris Vanderhook, Viant COO and co-founder.
That is, until Viant’s World Without Cookies Software release.
“It’s a huge upgrade,” Vanderhook said.
Learn more about World Without Cookies, and how the recent release is helping marketers reach real consumers, not proxies, in the video below.


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If you haven’t heard from HTC in a while, don’t you worry. The company isn’t out of the game, at least not yet. It may not have any new phone of note to announce but it has recently dropped word and hints that it’s still pretty much alive, even going as far promising another niche blockchain phone. But even as it does that, it has seemingly retreated from some key Chinese stores, casting doubt on its long-term survival.
HTC has been mostly silent about Android 9.0 Pie updates for its phones, which is a bit odd considering how close it was to Google. Last March, it promised that the updates for its two latest flagship phones will start in the second quarter of the year. Now it’s providing more definite dates, with the U11 getting the update this month and the U11+ and U12+ going gold in June.
That isn’t what’s keeping HTC busy, supposedly. While it has yet to launch a new flagship phone, it did have a new phone last year. That was the Exodus 1, a phone focuses intently on the whole blockchain movement. It admittedly serves a very niche audience but HTC apparently sees a future in it, enough to have a mid-range Exodus 1s in the works.
The phone, which is expected to cost no more than $300 at most, will supposedly be a full node in a blockchain network. That would, however, require hundreds of gigabytes of space so only a partial version of the blockchain will be stored on the phone itself while full thing will have to be stored on a microSD card.
HTC seems to believe that there is a market for this “Web 3.0” phone even while it struggles to secure its footing in the regular smartphone market. The company has reportedly pulled out its products from some of the major online stores in China, including Tmall and JD.com. While the company explains that its phones are still available in retail stores, it definitely doesn’t bode well for a company that was once one of the giants of the smartphone market.


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“Dear Lord be with me as I try to explain to my mother how to switch from the DVR to the DVD on her new TV – ON THE PHONE.” That Twitter moment from my friend PR friend in Detroit, Lisa Dilg said it all: It’s out with the old toys – and it’s amazing what has become obsolete, but it’s more amazing where the new toys are going!
The Huffington Post recently had a great list of products that have become obsolete in the past decade. What they missed is what is coming next. Inspired by that article, reader posts, and Twitter comments, here are the old toys that are going away, and where their evolution is leading:
Landline Phones. More people are dropping their copper-connected phones for their more flexible mobile devices. The big buzzword for 2010 in the Telecom sector is Unified Communications, or “UC.” Cisco Unified Communications and Microsoft Office Communicator will go a long way to replacing phones in offices. Costs are reduced by connecting calls over the Internet and by replacing telephone hardware with “softphones” that live on your computer’s desktop. Features and software can seamlessly be upgraded during off-hours.
Fax Machines. Unless you still don’t trust an encrypted e-mail or need to send documents to a college financial aid office, these puppies are gone. Forty years ago, fax machines were free-standing in weather offices to receive those big weather maps. Later they become the desktop screechers that we learned to love. OK, not love. In fact, this may be the only item on the list I won’t miss.
People Buying 200+ Books per Year. Amazon this week announced that it sold more Kindle books than physical books – a first. Kindle is the Amazon-created 10 ounce, Wi-Fi connected tablet-like device that can hold more than 1,500 books. The larger model holds more than 3,500 books. More likely than not, this is a midpoint in the evolution of electronic books as the publishing industry evolves. When you think more colleges are starting to use computer-based “virtual” books, there may be no stopping this slow-moving wave.
Film Cameras. Thanks to the digital revolution, more than 200 of my photos have been printed around the world, but more have been seen online, thanks to the blogs that post them. Lower priced cameras with better results are creating a new generation of photographers and photojournalists – for better or for worse. The move to digital video will continue as the networking giant Cisco has purchased the popular SNAP video camera brand. That could make the end game interesting and wireless, but an amazing still photo will always stop us in our tracks, even if it was taken on a video camera.
Classified Ads and job postings in newspapers are really gone now, both replaced with online services. The future promises the ability to better target the needs of item sellers with seekers and job hunters with hiring companies. Both will see a way to reduce cost and improve efficiency. However, how you advertise this will change dramatically and is still evolving. More importantly, how you brand yourself online will be of key importance.
CD Stores. A decade ago, there were records and CDs. Today, more music is downloaded from iTunes, eMusic or Rhapsody, or it’s just listened to on Pandora, GrooveShark, Slacker, Last.fm or any other music sites. Most smart phones can stream the radio live – and that means it’s easy to get your perfect music for your mood from your phone anytime, anyplace.
While we’re at it, your local video store will become any-movie-on-demand over your computer within the next five years. Wireless solutions will move the video through the air to your screen, so don’t get the cables just yet.
Yellow Pages and White Pages. I don’t use them. Please stop dropping them off at my house.
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and Thesauri in Book Form. Yes, thesauri, according to m-w.com (Merriam-Webster online search). Now with Google starting its own dictionary to add to its vast library of online books, my guess is you will see this evolving sooner rather than later. Of concern may be, like the newspaper industry, how to continue to make the other sites profitable if Google is giving away the goods.
3 Pound Cell Phones. You can still get a 3-pound pizza, but those old 3-pound cell phones are gone. Just ten years ago, they looked so cool. And they didn’t even text.
Lists of Products That Became Obsolete in the Last Decade. At least for another ten years, this too, will be obsolete.


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Influencers and Instagram are like Pete Davidson and BDE, or the Kardashian-Jenners and drama—one doesn’t seem to exist without the other. It’s common sense: You want to make money for creating content? You better start investing all of your time in perfectly curating your Insta feed, using the right hashtags, DMing brands 24/7 and engaging just the right amount with other accounts. Sounds exhausting, right?
Many influencers are taking a step back from the platform, whether it’s ending their paid partnerships or deleting their account entirely. Remember when celebrities would quit Instagram as a publicity stunt? (Throwback to when Taylor Swift wiped her feed clean before her iconic Reputation era.) Now, it’s a real thing. “As the years have gone on and Instagram has changed, it's feeling less and less like it's a good fit for me personally and from a business perspective,” influencer and blogger Jess Ann Kirby—who has 137K followers on Insta—told Buzzfeed News. “Financially, it's incredibly rewarding, but it's gotten to the point where it's starting to feel like it's not worth it anymore.” There are many factors at play. Instagram has been under fire for censoring women’s bodies, specifically anyone who isn’t thin, white and cisgender—and having damaging effects on young women and girls’ mental health. Plus, it can feel almost impossible to keep up with the constantly changing algorithm (the once photo-based app is now heavily pushing Reels which caused a lot of creators to pivot their content). Maybe this played a part in Facebook’s terrible earnings this past quarter and drop in valuation?
For a majority of influencers, Instagram is their main revenue stream, so leaving the app can lead to financial uncertainty. “I want to have control over my business. I don't want Instagram to have control over it,” adds Kirby. Another influencer described posting content to Instagram like running a rat race and compared finding success on the app to gambling—sounds like a recipe for burnout to us. With TikTok’s ability to make brands and creators go viral overnight to the indie app, 28 Row, which is connecting college women for business opportunities and emotional support, influencers no longer need to jump through Instagram’s hoops to find prosperity, success, and community.


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Bottom line: Huge publicity around the new Shanghai Disneyland ensures it will rapidly become a major new profit center after it opens in June, but will also expose Disney to a wide range of mini scandals like one involving its high food prices.
The hype is rapidly building as Disney (NYSE: DIS) gets set to launch its first theme park in more than a decade, attracting droves of visitors and also the first of what are likely to be many mini-scandals involving the $5.5 billion Shanghai resort. Leading the headlines is word that nearly 1 million people have already flocked to the areas outside the official park just to catch a glimpse of China’s first Disneyland from the outside.
The park has also been admitting smaller numbers of guests on a trial basis to sample the rides and other attractions in the run-up to the official June 16 opening. Some of those got indigestion from the high prices for food at restaurants in the park, leading to a mini-firestorm of criticism that Disney has quickly tried to control.
Prices were always going to be a sensitive issue with the newest Disneyland in Shanghai, since China easily has the lowest income levels of any of the 6 destinations that are home to the prestigious resorts worldwide. By comparison, residents from the other locations in the US, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong all boast incomes that are many times higher than the average Chinese who usually earns less than the equivalent of $1,000 a month.
In a nod to that fact, Disney has been making big efforts to point out that its gate price of 370 yuan, or about $57, is the lowest for all Disney parks around the world. (English article) That’s well below the $69 adult ticket price for Hong Kong and about $100 for the US, though it’s just slightly lower than Tokyo. (previous post)
Chinese seem to have accepted the relatively high ticket prices, which would cost an average family of 3 about 1,000 yuan, or probably a fifth or more of the monthly salary for many. But some early visitors got a new round of sticker shock when they went to eat at some restaurants inside the park, and complained that the cheapest price for an average meal was around 70 yuan. (English article; Chinese article) By comparison, a comparable meal at an average KFC (NYSE: YUM), McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) or other local fast-food restaurant in China costs about half that amount.
Crisis PR Management
Disney has tried to defuse this first mini-scandal by pointing out that it did extensive research before setting its food prices, and also added that a wide range of dining choices are available and visitors can also bring their own packaged food into the park. I do expect this particular bit of negative news will blow over quickly, though we can probably also expect more similar “scandals” throughout the year.
One of those negative stories could be a boom in ticket scalping, since Disney disclosed that all tickets for the park are sold out through mid August. I expect that most tickets will sell out months in advance in the first year or two after the park opens, and that a sizable number of those will end up in the hands of scalpers that are a familiar part of the Chinese retailing landscape.
Taming those scalpers will be just one of the many tasks for Disney, which will also have to tame the huge crowds that are likely to flood not only to the park but also the hotel, retail and restaurant complexes surrounding it. Disney officials revealed that 960,000 people flocked to those adjacent areas in the first 23 days after they opened to the public, even though many shops and restaurants have yet to open. The crowds reached a peak on the May 1 public holiday, when 110,000 people came out on a single day to gawk.
All of this shows that Disney is doing quite well in generating the publicity it will need to make the park extremely popular and a major profit center for its theme park division. But such big success also has its drawbacks, since small issues like high-priced restaurants get magnified by media looking for any sensational Disney story they can find.
- Leisure: Scalpers, Stars Flock to Shanghai Disney Ticket Launch
- ENTERTAINMENT: Shanghai Disneyland Prices Tickets, Battles Scalpers
- ENTERTAINMENT: Wanda Eyes Disney with $3.3 Bln Europark
- Today’s top stories
(NOT FOR REPUBLICATION)


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When freshman Charissa Thompson was in fifth grade, she really wanted to buy a Vera Bradley backpack on Black Friday. She had saved her money all year and waited outside of Dillard’s for three hours to get her backpack. When they opened the doors, she sprinted inside, even shoving someone in the rush. Thompson had even gone to Dillard’s the day before to hide the backpack so that she could secure it before anyone else got to it.
“It wasn’t worth the amount I had to wait for it, I never use the backpack anymore,” Thompson said.
Black Friday shopping can be hectic, with all the pushing and shoving and long lines. One trend is to skip the stores and shop online instead. Out of 39 people surveyed, 55 percent said they would shop online this Black Friday.
With the increase in technology coming out, shopping online has become more accessible. According to statista.com, 44 percent of teens prefer using Amazon rather over other online retailer. In the school survey, 83 percent of them said that they use Amazon.
History teacher Erin Foley travelled to Russia this summer, and she was worried that there wouldn’t be certain things there that Americans are already used to. So she went to Amazon and typed in “travel a..” and let Amazon fill it in for her. She ended up buying clothes hangers, a clothesline, a hot water heater, and a coffee press.
“I was the hero in numerous occasions, because people were getting sick and needed hot water, I was able to make hot coffee every morning, and I used the clothesline to dry my clothes since the hotel didn’t have a dryer,” Foley said.
With the rise of online retailers like Amazon, retail stores across the nation have closed. Many of the biggest brands that were popular several years ago, such as Macy’s, Claire’s, and Kmart have been forced to close down some of their stores after losing revenue to online retail. According to Fung Global Retail and Technology, in 2017 alone, over 6,700 stores made plans to close their doors.
“After the Macy’s closed at the Oviedo mall last year, I have no reason to go there anymore. The mall has lost its popularity because they don’t have the high quality stores like the Altamonte or Seminole Towne Center Mall,” Thompson said.
The U.S. Bureau of the Census states that online retail makes up about 9.4 percent of all sales in the retail industry, compared to less than one percent at the end of 1999. In 2017, the revenue made from online e-commerce was $446.8 million, and that number is expected to increase. The most sold items over the internet include electronics, appliances, media, sporting, and hobby goods, according to BI Intelligence.
However, even with the rise of online retail, there are still problems that need to be fixed, especially with clothing. Many people refuse to buy clothing online because of the level of uncertainty that comes with it. Sometimes, the size is not correct, being either way too big or way too small, or what actually comes in does not look like what the picture online showed at all. Not only does this happen with clothing, but it also happens with other items like accessories online. Sophomore Mizbah Ateeq has had trouble with an online purchase.
“I once ordered a necklace online and when it came, it looked nothing like what I expected it to. It looked so much better online and it felt like I was being ripped off,” Ateeq said.
Buying things in-store allows for people to be able to try on clothes and see how something actually looks in real life, rather than looking at an image on the internet. However, many teenagers use a combination of both. In fact, 48 percent of people said that they prefer shopping both online and in-store.
“If you have a lot of time and you’re looking for something special, in store is better because you can try things on and see how it looks in person. However, online shopping is easier, more convenient and usually cheaper,” sophomore Meg Carlson said.


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Rothenberg Ventures will provide funding to startups developing virtual reality and other next-generation technologies.
The budget-friendly Redmi 2 Prime is the Chinese company's first mobile phone made in India, its largest market outside of China.
The company gives shareholders even more to be happy about with a dividend increase and new funds to buy back shares.
The ride-sharing service faces a new round of allegations, and now has been blacklisted by the Delhi government, which says Uber was misleading customers.
The would-be automaker's path highlights the untested (and weird) waters of the new era in crowdfunding.
Commentary: Pope Francis isn't a fan of unfettered capitalism, but that doesn't mean capitalists won't capitalize on his visit.
The CNET News team ventured out this summer to see how the world's innovation hot spots compared with the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's what we learned during Road Trip 2015.
The media giant's focus on fledgling startups comes as US companies increasingly play the role of venture capitalists.
Stop using the surgical maneuver of placing your cursor just after the first letter in a word to replace it with a capital letter and instead use iOS 8's text predictions.
The famously youth-focused tech industry has written big checks recently to companies built around the problems of aging.


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India’s video-on-demand market could grow to $5 billion by 2023 from $500 million last year, estimates researcher Boston Consulting Group.
I look forward to working with Bhavish and the team at Ola Electric, towards their bold vision for the future of mobility," said Arun Sarin.
B2B tech startups have more than tripled (from 900 to 3200+) since 2014. This can largely be attributed to the spurt in the need for digital transformation of enterprises, financial institutions, hospitals, government, SMEs, etc.
An unanticipated contender on the list is Indian Space Research Organisation, in 10th place, one of the few Indian workplaces on the list, and the only entrant from the public sector.
According to IIT placement sources, some companies offering Rs 25 lakh-plus packages include Salesforce, Sprinklr, Samsung, Cisco, Amazon and Flipkart
Companies have realised that ease of mobility is one of the factors key to attracting and retaining talent. Reducing travel time and making the commute more comfortable leads to better productivity and quality of life
A look at the top stories in the past 24 hours and its potential implication
Cisco India, which is few months away from achieving its $2 billion India business target, is also aggressively looking at more collaborations and investments in and acquisitions of technology startups.
Former Cisco CEO John Chambers has been bullish on Indian startups for some time now and in June announced that Cisco had committed about $70 million to invest in new businesses in India.


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|By PR Newswire||
|February 18, 2013 12:00 PM EST||
CHESTER, England, February 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
- Motorists could each save £300 a year by switching
- Seven million drivers stay loyal to their existing provider at renewal time and two million can't be bothered to shop around
- Seven per cent of motorists will buy a new car this March
British motorists are burning over £2 billion as a nation by staying loyal to their existing car insurance provider. By sticking with an existing provider at renewal time and not shopping around for a better deal, drivers could be throwing away £300 each, says MoneySupermarket.com.
With the new '13' plate car registrations released next week, research has found seven million motorists (19 per cent) automatically renew their car insurance with their existing provider. 11 per cent don't think they could save money, and worryingly a further six per cent, or two million drivers, just can't be bothered to shop around for a better deal
On average motorists remain faithful to their existing provider for 2.7 years, with the over 55's being the most loyal group sticking by their insurer for an average of 3.5 years. London drivers are the most apathetic of all the regions, staying loyal for 3.6 years. The most active and savvy switchers at renewal time are living in the Yorkshire and Humber area who tend to remain with their provider for 1.8 years on average.
Pete Harrison, car insurance expert atMoneySupermarket, said: "At a time when it's pretty tough out there for motorists, it's a shame to see so many drivers surrender so easily to their insurance provider's renewal quote instead of taking action and saving cash. Motorists don't even need to 'drive' a hard bargain; on average there's £300 cash up for grabs to those who don't just accept the renewal price generated by their car insurance provider.
"No matter where you live or how old you are, it's vital to do your homework at renewal time, as searching for a better deal doesn't cost you anything and there is much to gain. It takes about five minutes to check if there is a cheaper policy out there to suit your individual needs."
BRITS DRIVING A NEW CAR FROM THE FORECOURT
Despite the nation burning cash at renewal time, seven per cent of motorists are on the lookout for a new set of wheels this March, with four per cent saying they will buy a new car with the '13' plate. Over a quarter of those surveyed (27 per cent) would like a new car but can't afford it. Interestingly, two per cent of drivers say they are superstitious and don't want a '13' number plate.
Notes to editors:
Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 2,003 UK adults aged 18+ from 8th to 11th of February 2013. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria.
Average saving of £300 with MoneySupermarket.com when shopping for car insurance. Based on online independent research by Consumer Intelligence during November 2012.
According to the ONS there are 49,969,000 adults (18+) in the United Kingdom in 2012. According to the research 74 per cent of UK adults (18+) drive some form of vehicle, therefore there are approximately 36,977,060 (37 million adult drivers) in the United Kingdom.
19 per cent of respondents automatically renew their car insurance with their existing provider. 19 per cent of 36,977,060 drivers = 7,025,641 drivers
7,025,641 x £300 = £2,107,692,420 (£2.1 billion)
Six per cent of respondents automatically renew their car insurance because they can't be bothered to shop around. Six per cent of 36,977,060 = 2,218,624 or 2.2 million drivers
MoneySupermarket.com compares (at 30th Jan 2013)
- 134 car insurance brands and 97 home insurance brands
- 9 broadband providers and 20 energy providers
- 31 unsecured loan and 5 secured loan providers
- 62 mortgage lenders and 27 credit card providers
- 62 savings providers and 37 current account providers.
- Over 630,000 mobile phone deals
We help our customers to save money on all of their household bills by providing a free, easy to use online service so they can compare a wide range of products in one place and find the product most suited to their needs. Our size means we are able to offer our customers exclusive, market-leading deals, including some they can't even get direct from providers.
By having considerable volumes of informed customers actively looking for products and ready to purchase, we offer our providers an efficient and cost effective customer acquisition solution across all of our channels. This enables our providers to target their marketing spend in an effective and completely measurable way.
Our revenue comes predominantly from fees paid to us by product providers when a customer clicks through to their website and actually applies for or purchases a product. It is a success based marketing fee.
Our customer commitment
- We make it easy to find the brands you expect to see
- We strive to ensure a product cannot be found cheaper by going direct
- We let you remain in control of your personal data
- We are independent and impartial
- We make it easy to switch and save
- We strive to always show the most competitive product available
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Many small restaurants closing, chains are surviving and delivery services skyrocket
VANCOUVER — In spite of required restaurant closures and social distancing being used to curb the rise of COVID-19, prepared food is finding its way onto the plates of eaters everywhere. How? The rise of the delivery app.
With the recent increase in the popularity of app services such as DoorDash, Postamates and Uber Eats, delivery of just about any restaurant still open for take-out is more than possible, it’s easier than ever.
“We have stayed significantly busy just from all the local support that we’re getting,” said Makana de Best, general manager at Heathen Brewing’s Feral Public House. “When we first got the news that we were gonna have to close we kind of looked at it as, ‘We’ll stay open so we can be relevant in the community and be here for the community, but we’re not going to have really high expectations.’ We’ve been way busier than we anticipated.”
Essentially, apps like these work very similarly to Uber or Lyft. Users put in their location and pay for the meal as well as tip the driver in the app. Approved applicants are given the interface of a driver and when an order comes in within their current location they are dispatched to pick it up from the restaurant.
The only catch is that the system now in place may be too late to benefit small businesses as much as it will large chains. Many Clark County restaurants, such as The Mighty Bowl or Laughing Planet, have already had to close their locations until further notice. Others, like Feral Public House, have had to face the layoffs of much of their staff.
The hope of many in the industry is that delivery will help sustain them, and when the proverbial smoke clears, they can rehire and re-stabilize.
“When you’re in a small business, you really are kind of like a family,” de Best said. “It’s been stressful as a manager thinking like, ‘Oh my gosh, people can file for unemployment, but how long is it taking because everyone is filing for unemployment? Is everybody okay?’ Not being able to see everybody and talk to them, I’ve been trying to contact everybody as much as I can just to check in.”
Federal and state government, as well as Clark County Public Health (CCPH) are on board with the current model of take-out and delivery drivers. CCPH recently posted some best practices for ordering delivery on their Facebook page. Some tips include:
- Place orders online or by phone, if possible, rather than going into the restaurant
- Ask if the restaurant offers curbside pick-up, so you don’t have to enter the restaurant to get your food
- If placing an order in-person or picking up food to go, make sure you keep at least 6 feet between yourself and others in the food establishment. Leave as soon as you receive your order; don’t congregate
“There is currently no evidence that COVID-19 has spread through food or food packaging,” the post reads.
In light of the pandemic, delivery service providers, like DoorDash and Uber Eats, have waived delivery fees. Usually when using one of these services, one would have to pay for the meal, the delivery, taxes and fees, and the driver’s tip. For the foreseeable future certain platforms have simply made delivery free. Other services, like Square’s CashApp allow users to add an additional discount when ordering from DoorDash and paying with the CashApp card.
In some cases the sheer amount of app-placed orders rivals that of regular pre-COVID-19 business. At Hula Boy charbroil restaurant in east Vancouver, so many delivery drivers have shown up at once, management has had to make sure they were distanced and sanitize many surfaces afterward.
“Our DoorDash deliveries are increasing. We have stacks and stacks of boxes, we have so many delivery guys at the same time,” said Madison Wood, the office manager at Hula Boy. “We just can’t have people standing in our restaurant because we’re taking all the health precautions. It’s kind of crazy, but it’s awesome.”
When such rushes occur, typically at lunch and dinner, CCPH and the restaurants are recommending drivers and those picking up take-out, call on arrival and ask for curbside delivery or wait in their vehicles.
“Support small businesses. If their doors are open, help them out. You can buy gift cards if you want, take-out or DoorDash or whatever it is,” Wood said. “We have a lot of customers that we appreciate because they’ve been with us for 20 odd years, and we want to keep them and keep our doors open. We want to pay our employees. We’ve had our employees, some of them over 14 years. We’re not going to lose them to this.”
Many restaurants report that one of the best ways they have received big chunks of business is through catering orders or group lunch orders. Especially in downtown Vancouver where there are still several ‘essential’ businesses operating, these orders have been common, de Best said. At Feral Public House, the working crew has actually ordered lunch from another restaurant several times too, she said.
Those shuttling the food, the delivery drivers, are more and more made up of those whose jobs were not ‘essential,’ or who have been laid off elsewhere.
“It’s been very interesting. I have been taking extra precaution just because I’m dealing with the general public,” said Devin McFeron, a hairstylist at Finesse Beauty Bar in Battle Ground who is currently driving for Uber Eats. “Saturdays tend to be a little bit more busy for me at least, I’ve made most of my money on Saturdays.”
McFeron explained how she has been wearing gloves, using disinfectant wipes and making sure to have as little close interaction with people as possible to keep herself and those she’s delivering to, safe. While Uber Eats and others do not require this, it is recommended in the app.
She also mentioned that many of the orders she receives have been for larger chain restaurants.
“I have done some smaller businesses, and it’s crazy how quiet they are. You walk in and they hear the door open. I noticed the chains have more workers. I try and stay in the Hazel Dell area, or I’ll do 164th and 192nd area, and there’s only very specific small businesses in those areas,” Mcferon said. “I have noticed it just being a lot harder on small businesses, for sure, but at least this is a way they can still kind of make money.”
With President Donald Trump extending social distancing guidelines through the end of April, the light at the end of the tunnel for many small restaurants seems to be a moving target. At Feral Pub, de Best explained the struggle as the staff braced for the initial two weeks of closure with resolve, but as it grew to more than six weeks, they became weary of the effects.
“I’m just hoping that this doesn’t ruin small businesses in Vancouver,” de Best said. “I think Clark County is really cool because it has so many small local businesses, and you don’t really get that in a lot of places anymore. There are chains that will be totally fine after this, whether that’s like chain restaurants, chain stores, but downtown Vancouver and Vancouver as a whole has so much cool, small, locally owned businesses that I hope can thrive after this is all done.”


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More and more of us today use digital tools to spend, save, manage, and invest our money. Eight in ten Americans used a fintech product in 2022, and 93 percent of us say we benefit from these services, according to The Harris Poll. Fintech products save time and money and make financial services work for everyone, everywhere.
This National Consumer Protection Week, learn how popular financial technology companies embed consumer protections into their products, helping protect our money and financial information.
- Safeguarding Privacy and Consumer Financial Data. Proper use of consumer financial data is a foundational principle for financial technology companies. Consumers increasingly want more control over how their information is being used, with 76 percent revealing that they have more trust in financial companies that clearly state their privacy practices, according to The Harris Poll. FTA members are leading the way in calling for a higher bar. Our recent privacy principles highlight our commitments: FTA members believe in plain language and transparency, the ability for a consumer to opt-out, the right to delete, and the consumer’s ability to control their personal financial data.
- Staying Safe Online and Combatting Fraud: Responsible fintech companies take fraud seriously and invest consistently in keeping platforms safe. FTA members engage in ongoing education on their apps and websites to help consumers identify and avoid scams. They embed enhanced layers of fraud prevention measures, including strong authentication and authorization techniques, robust partnerships with banks and processors, and data-driven measures to prevent fraud.
- Zero-to-Low Interest and No Hidden Fees with Buy Now Pay Later. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) lets consumers pay for small-dollar purchases in four installments with zero to low interest. This allows consumers responsible access to valued products and services. BNPL companies protect consumers from accumulating debt by pausing access to the product if they miss a payment. BNPL companies rely on merchant partnerships, not consumer fees, for revenue, so there are no hidden costs and no compounding interest. As a result, people who use BNPL like and trust the service, according to Morning Consult, and turn to it to manage their cash flow responsibly.
- Earned Wage Access: A Critical Alternative to High-Cost Lending. Earned Wage Access (EWA) allows people access to their already earned wages before their next scheduled paycheck. This alternative helps them smooth out cash flow between payroll cycles that can be as infrequent as monthly. FTA’s EWA providers do not charge interest, giving people a safe alternative to manage their cash flow and weather short-term financial shocks such as a medical bill or car emergency. Without this option, nearly half of consumers would struggle to pay bills on time, and many Americans would be forced to turn to high-cost payday lenders or face overdraft fees, according to FTI Consulting.
Want to learn more about how financial technology companies protect consumers and offer flexible, lower-cost financial products? Read FTA’s Just the Facts on Buy Now Pay Later and Earned Wage Access, and check out our Privacy Principles for the Future of Finance.


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New Tegra K1 chip demoed running Unreal 3 engine on Android
CES 2014 is officially off and running and NVIDIA are the first company to unveil their latest technological marvel. They've revealed their very latest mobile SoC (system on a chip) which promises to take mobile gaming to a whole new level.
Nvidia's fifth-generation Tegra K1 comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit variants both of which have the same 192 core GPU. That's a big step up from the 72-core Tegra 4 GPU and NVIDIA are claiming that the new Tegra K1 chip offers the same graphics performance as the XBOX 360 and PS3.
“We’ve brought the heart of GeForce and the soul of Tesla to mobile computing." commented NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang who introduced the new Tegra K1.
The 32-bit processor is a quad-core Cortex A15 which can be clocked at up to 2.3GHz, while the 64-bit variant uses two dual-core Denver CPU based on the ARM V8 platform that can be clocked up to 2.5GHz.
NVIDIA demoed the new 64-bit Tegra K1 chip running on the Android platform. It's the first time a 64-bit chip has been shown running on the Android platform and the showcase, conducted on the Unreal 3 engine, was hugely impressive. See it for yourself below.
The 32-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 will hit the market in the first half of 2014, but we'll have to wait until the second half of the year for the beastly 64-bit version.
CES 2014 doesn't officially begin until tomorrow and we're expecting a whole host of other high-end 64-bit mobile chips to unveiled. You can get a full idea of what to expect from the event in our CES 2014 Preview.
©Copyright 2017 www.3G.co.uk - All Rights Reserved


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What can brands expect from former deputies who rose through the ranks of the industry and have taken the reins from predecessors with bigger personalities and more power?
A new editor-in-chief at Vogue China, expected to be announced any day now, is just the latest in a string of new editors appointed to China’s most important fashion titles in recent years.
They take the reins from a powerful cohort of long-standing editors: women like Su Mang, Shaway Yeh and Xiao Xue, who are credited with building China’s fashion media culture from the ground up over a period of several decades.
News of Angelica Cheung’s departure from Vogue China late last year after almost 16 years in the top job marked the end of that era. Her successor will not only inherit the highest-profile fashion media job in the world’s largest fashion market, but they will also do so at a time when the role of traditional media seems to have reached a tipping point in China.
“Angelica was the queen and I don’t think there will be another queen who has the same power. That doesn’t exist anymore,” said Lily Chou, who herself is the editor-in-chief of Shanghai-based independent fashion and art bi-annual Rouge Fashion Book and part of a dynamic young generation contributing niche points of view to China’s modern fashion publishing conversation.
Chou is one of many who see this as the end of a golden age of powerful fashion editors. Three years ago, the concentration of power the three editors had consolidated was viewed as a potential threat. Publishing companies had to consider whether the personal brands of chief editors outshined the titles they represented. Today, they are gone and many in China would struggle to name-check their successors.
“[Cheung and Elle China founding editor] Xiao Xue created something; they created it, the next generation are just inheriting it, so their job is to keep that well-oiled machine running and deal with the challenges that will come along the way,” Chou said.
This shift seems a natural part of the evolution of China’s fashion media, which rose with astronomical speed in its early years, only to correct course just as quickly to face up to the digital revolution that threatens its existence. Indeed, staying afloat is a tough enough job for any fashion magazine today.
Though China’s fashion magazine market has remained somewhat resilient when compared with its counterparts in other countries, it is subject to the same broader social and technological factors that have disrupted the traditional media industry elsewhere. In some ways, these changes have been even more dramatic in China, where digitisation has been so enthusiastically embraced.
Reflecting on the “drastic” disruptions to China’s media industry over the past decade, Tommy Tse, assistant professor in media and culture at The University of Hong Kong’s Department of Sociology, explained that there has been a discernible effect on brands. “The impact of not only digitisation but also platformisation, [means] we [are witnessing] key changes in Chinese fashion and luxury consumption practices,” he explained.
The entire fashion journey, in other words, from inspiration to consumer purchase, is now performed online in China, with advertising budgets for print campaigns shrinking as brands need to spend more and more money converting readers online via expensive marketing investments on Chinese social media platforms, such as WeChat and Xiaohongshu, as well as e-commerce platforms, such as Tmall.
So, who are the editors now charged with fending off competition from increasingly influential KOLs (key opinion leaders) and other digital-first content publishers, now seeing the industry through this period of disruption?
The Ultimate Insiders
An oft-told story claims that founding editor, Su Mang, and long-time fashion director, Sha Xiaoli, pulled together the first editorial team of Harper’s Bazaar China in under ten days.
The first issue of the magazine was released in November 2001, and from that time, up until Su’s departure from the title in 2018, Sha Xiaoli was a loyal lieutenant and the logical choice to succeed Su.
Following Su’s decision to leave the magazine, Sha stepped into the joint roles of editor-in-chief and general manager, where she has cut a noticeably lower-profile figure than Su, formerly a regular feature of television interviews and red carpet appearances, known for being outspoken and occasionally controversial.
Sha may be less outspoken than her predecessor, and she is quick to acknowledge the challenges digital competition presents legacy fashion media brands rooted in print. But she maintains that this also presents an opportunity.
“We can use this bigger [digital] platform to reach more readers and educate them from zero about trends in fashion, culture, art and design,” she told BoF, adding that the size of China’s market means there are still opportunities that remain untapped, with many consumers working their way into the middle class requiring the kind of mass-market fashion and luxury lifestyle education provided by major fashion titles.
“I believe we will always have a print version of Harper’s Bazaar. It has value as something you can own or keep, but the magazine of the future needs to be more inspiring than a useful shopping guide,” she said.
Like Sha, Xue Jian, who is also known by the English name Nicole Xue, was a long-time deputy before nabbing the top job at Elle China in 2019. Xue succeeded Xiao Xue, whom she had worked with since Xiao Xue first joined the publication in 2006 (Xue Jian joined the title a year earlier, in 2005).
The newly minted editor at Modern Weekly Style, Duscher Tang, also spent years working his way up the ranks of the Modern Media publishing group in the years Shaway Yeh, group style editorial director and editorial director for Modern Weekly, built the latter into a unique and acclaimed Chinese fashion and lifestyle publication with a progressive, edgy lens.
Tang left Modern Media for stints at local editions of T Magazine and WSJ Magazine before returning to Modern Weekly and taking over as chief editor in 2020.
The appointments of long-time fashion media insiders to top roles have established a path to the top of the masthead, one that makes Condé Nast China’s search for a new editor (one that has reportedly focused outside the beltway of Chinese fashion publishing, and even perhaps outside Mainland China itself) so interesting, if conjecture regarding candidates for the job, such as Australian-born influencer Margaret Zhang and Malaysian national Wish Teoh (a former employee of both Vogue China and Numero China), is to be believed.
New Era, New Skill Set
China’s original generation of powerhouse fashion editors didn’t work their way up the ladder to their top jobs — largely because there was no ladder to speak of when they were starting out in fashion magazine publishing. Angelica Cheung, for example, initially embarked on a business career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before pivoting to publishing.
What these editors did share was an intimate understanding of Mainland China and its potential to become the preeminent market for luxury and fashion.
Tommy Tse says the importance of this local experience and deep level of familiarity with the local industry should not be underestimated.
“Knowing the mainland culture and lifestyle, having a good level of social, cultural and symbolic capital, and understanding what the political boundaries are, are all, of course, important for a mainland fashion media leader to survive and thrive,” Tse explained.
However, Tse added a caveat. Local knowledge is not the only asset important for editors stepping into the shoes of China’s iconic first generation. In fact, Tse says, a legacy mindset is likely to be as much of a hindrance in today’s environment as a lack of familiarity with the local market.
“Being too familiar with and ingrained in how the fashion system worked in the past sometimes may hinder one to change and embrace new challenges too,” he said.
Just as important will be skills such as understanding algorithms, machine learning and consumer data, “a sharp eye for interpreting the new generation’s cultural and aesthetic preferences without simply imposing irrelevant, unrelatable styles and not just uncreatively following the mass trends,” Tse explained.
Indeed, this new generation of editors, including whoever takes over from Cheung at Vogue China, will need an armoury of weapons to overcome the challenges facing the fashion media at this time of great upheaval.
Business of Fashion, 2021


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Documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration state BMW discovered a potential issue in late January 2013. A BMW endurance riding test showed a loose locking bolt on the company’s proprietary telelever front fork, with the torque determined to be below spec. Subsequent tests in January and Februrary revealed the extent of bolt loosening – concluding that “an insufficient seal between the locking bolt and fork tube would cause the bolt to loosen over time.”
A voluntary recall was issued in February, with all the potentially affected units (535) in hold at a BMW North America facility. However, inventory records indicate 15 units may have been shipped to dealers that did not undergo the internal inspection and repair – prompting the current recall.
BMW will notify owners, with dealers inspecting and fixing the locking bolt issue free of charge. If it is determined that the fork tube has loosened, the tube and locking bolt will also be replaced. GS owners can contact BMW at 1-800-525-7417 or email at CustomerRelations@bmwusa.com for more details.
This recall is the first for the 2013 GS in the U.S., but the new bike has already faced two further recalls in Canada. The first was for a potential transmission oil leak at the output shaft, from the oil pressure being too high. The second issue regarded the Automatic Stability Control (ASC) system not reactivating after off-road use in the “Enduro-Pro” mode.


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Pakistan fines paint manufacturer for RPM
Pakistan’s competition commission has fined a paint manufacturer five million Pakistani rupees (€35,000) for resale price maintenance after reducing the penalty based on commitments the company offered.
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Last September we used Purchase Intent data to predict that the iPhone X and iPhone 8 combo announced last fall would do very well for the company. That was with the stock in the $150's. Turns out we got it right. Sales have been awesome and the stock has rallied 20% since.
So what do we expect for Apple headed into this week's earnings call?
Quick answer -- it doesn't matter.
At least not to us. Here's why:
That's a chart of LikeFolio Purchase Intent over the past 6 years (through last September).
Every September, we see these mentions spike in a big way during Apple's keynote event. That's when consumers make up their mind about whether or not the next iPhone (and associated components) will be in their budgets or on their Christmas lists.
The relative size of these spikes has been an incredible predictor of AAPL stock over the following 9 months (through July of the following year). You can see that play out in the chart above, with the disappointing iPhone 6s year being followed up with the only real decline in AAPL stock in recent memory.
Take the stock price up to the current $190 after that last spike from Sept 2017 and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Another predictive Purchase Intent Spike that played out all the way through July of the following year.
And that's where we're at now. The end of July -- ready for an earnings report that quite frankly, doesn't matter to us at all.
Because for us, and Apple, it's all about the September keynote.
So instead of obsessing over the sales numbers released this week, we'll be sitting back, enjoying the past 9 months of gains, and getting our members ready to react to biggest predictor of AAPL stock we've found --- coming to an Opportunity Alert near you in September.


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Designer News is where the design community meets.
6 years ago from Conlin "Wuz" Durbin, f-f-frontend @ lessonly.com
We recently launched a website for our new agency service, Byfrost Bridge. We help early stage startups get a website that will help them get users. We think of these sites as a Zero-to-One. I'd love any feedback you have!
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