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Security Gap Foreshadows Breach Risks as Cloud Adoption Tops 80 Percent
Bitglass, the Next-Gen CASB company, today released the 2018 Cloud Adoption Report, its fourth such study, which examines cloud adoption in more than 135,000 organisations around the globe. The report corroborates what is now broadly apparent – the flexibility, productivity and cost savings benefits of cloud apps have fueled widespread adoption in every industry. Surprisingly, the report finds that the adoption of cloud security technologies lags cloud adoption, leaving many at risk of a data breach.
The report finds that while 81 percent of organisations globally now use cloud apps, just 25 percent of organisations have adopted single sign-on (SSO), which is typically the first, most basic cloud security technology implemented. SSO combined with multi-factor authentication lowers the risk of phishing and password hacks.
“Cloud adoption hits new highs year after year as organisations worldwide have come to trust platforms like Office 365 and AWS, but it is surprising to see that far fewer organisations have invested in basic technologies like SSO to protect their data in the cloud,” said Rich Campagna, CMO, Bitglass. “The disparity suggests that data breaches will continue to plague organisations.”
In addition to tracking SSO usage, Bitglass’ 2018 report reveals adoption rates for a host of different cloud-based tools, including Office 365, G Suite, AWS, Slack, Box, and Salesforce.
- The analysis of more than 135,000 organisations indicates that global cloud adoption has topped 81 percent – a 37 percent increase since 2016 and a 238 percent increase since 2014 when Bitglass produced its first Cloud Adoption Report.
- Just 25 percent of organisations use SSO solutions to authenticate their users. In terms of organization size, large enterprises use SSO more than two times as often as small businesses (44.1 percent compared to 17.9 percent). By industry, education is the leading adopter of SSO at 40.3 percent, while retail (15.9 percent) has one of the lowest SSO adoption rates.
- Office 365 usage surpassed G Suite usage in 2016 and has proceeded to stretch its lead since then. Currently, Microsoft’s offering boasts more than twice as many deployments as Google’s. While G Suite usage has remained steady at 25 percent, Office 365 usage has grown from 34.3 percent in 2016 to 56.3 percent.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) has emerged as the go-to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solution. 13.8 percent of companies worldwide are using AWS with the technology industry leading the way at 21.5 percent adoption.
- In just a few short years, Slack has risen to become one of the most widely adopted cloud applications in the enterprise, in use at a staggering 42.9 percent of enterprises.
Using internally developed technologies, the Bitglass research team scanned the cloud across more than 135,000 companies to identify the cloud services that they use. The analysis included cloud productivity suites like Office 365 and G Suite, messaging apps like Slack to file sync and share apps like Box, as well as single sign-on, a basic cloud security technology.
To view the complete Bitglass 2018 Cloud Adoption Report, visit: https://pages.bitglass.com/FY18BR-CloudAdoption_LP.html
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Claroty’s Team82 researchers announced Thursday the development of a generic bypass of web application firewalls (WAF). Attackers using this technique would be able to bypass the WAF’s protection and use additional vulnerabilities to exfiltrate data. The bypass was found to work against WAFs sold by five vendors, including Palo Alto Networks, Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, F5, and Imperva. All five vendors have been notified and have updated their products to support JSON syntax in their SQL injection inspection process.
Apart from these identified vendors, Claroty believes that other vendors’ products may be affected and that reviews for JSON support should be carried out across organizations. “This is a dangerous bypass, especially as more organizations continue to migrate more business and functionality to the cloud,” Noam Moshe, vulnerability researcher at Claroty, wrote in a company blog post. “IoT and OT processes that are monitored and managed from the cloud may also be impacted by this issue, and organizations should ensure they’re running updated versions of security tools in order to block these bypass attempts.”
Moshe said that the attack technique involves appending JSON syntax to SQL injection payloads that a WAF is unable to parse. “Major WAF vendors lacked JSON support in their products, despite it being supported by most database engines for a decade. Most WAFs will easily detect SQLi attacks, but prepending JSON to SQL syntax left the WAF blind to these attacks,” he added.
Claroty relied on understanding how WAFs identify and flag SQL syntax as malicious, and

domain: news


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Search For "zomato"
Updated : 2 years, 11 months ago IST
New Delhi [India], May 2 (ANI): With the rise in technology there are a lot of Indian startups that have grown in India and are slowly expanding their presence Internationally.
New Delhi [India], April 28 (ANI): The mercury is rising every day and so is the desire to go on a summer vacation. A perfect way to beat the heat is to plan a trip to a cooler place.
New Delhi [India], April 28 (ANI): The mobile industry has boomed since the last two decades and now, owning a smartphone is a default assumption. Whether you own an Android or an iOS phone, every smartphone today is populated by numerous apps to make your life simpler.
New Delhi [India], April 23 (ANI): Working professionals, particularly those living away from home, have a lot on their plate in an effort to strike a balance between their professional and personal life.
Updated : 3 years ago IST
New Delhi [India], Mar 19 (ANI): We're living on 'click of a button.' There is no doubt that technology has greatly impacted our lives and it will grow more in coming years. It has made our lives easier, opened a sea of opportunities with best options to pick and choose and subsequently intr
Updated : 3 years, 1 month ago IST
New Delhi [India], Mar. 2 (ANI): Online restaurant guide and food delivery app Zomato's co-founder Pankaj Chaddah announced his resignation from the company to "move on to something new."
New Delhi [India], Feb 28 (ANI): India's first converged payment solutions company, Razorpay, on Wednesday announced its collaboration with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to help customers make online payments on IRCTC website and mobile app through Unified Payment I
New Delhi [India], Feb 24 (ANI): Holi is right here so is celebration around the festival colors. No matter whether you are planning a big bash or a small get together with friends and family on the eve of Holi, you look out for the places that offer not only good ambiance but also food deal
Hyderabad [India], Feb 21 (ANI-BusinessWireIndia): Hyderabad based digital marketing firm, GenY Medium, has been featured as one of the top '1,000 High-Growth Companies in Asia Pacific' by Financial Times (FT). The list, compiled by FT's research partner Statista, ranks companies according t
New Delhi [India], Feb 20 (ANI-NewsVoir): ixigo, India's leading travel marketplace, has been named the 3rd fastest growing travel and leisure company in Asia-Pacific by Financial Times, UK. FT, along with statistics, market research and business intelligence portal, Statista has recently co
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], Feb. 17 (ANI): Real estate risk assessment platform, Zippserv, on Saturday announced the launch of its one-of-a-kind service, 'PricePoint'.
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
New Delhi [India], Dec 30 (ANI): With New Year just a day away, preparations are in full swing to welcome 2018 on a positive note.


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White Castle might not be the first company that comes to mind when high tech is mentioned, but the restaurant chain found itself in the middle of the patent troll controversy when it started sending menu updates from its headquarters to digital screens in restaurants around the country.
- Surge in cryptocurrency-mining malware heralds bigger problems for CSOs
- Intel touts new Spectre-resistant Cascade Lake chips later this year
- “Truly frightening” IoT security should motivate CSOs to reconsider their endpoint strategies
- Expert confirms AMD chip flaws, reporting firm defends short disclosure
- What is security’s role in digital transformation?


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Microsoft discontinues all Xbox One consoles, Sony PS4 remains in production
The latest generation of home consoles technically arrived in 2020, with the introduction of the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Series X/S, but those consoles are still difficult to actually purchase — thanks, silicon shortage. That isn’t stopping Microsoft from shifting all its resources over to the new consoles, as the company has now revealed it ended production of all last-gen Xbox One consoles.
Microsoft told The Verge in a statement, “To focus on production of Xbox Series X / S, we stopped production for all Xbox One consoles by the end of 2020.” The Xbox One lineup included the Xbox Series X, a higher-end model built for 4K gaming, and the cheaper Xbox Series S. The original Xbox One hardware configuration with a Kinect sensor, as well as a minor revision that removed the Kinect, were both discontinued in 2017.
Even though Microsoft is saying goodbye to its eighth-generation home console, Sony isn’t quite ready to do the same. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Sony planned to end production of the PlayStation 4 in 2021, but with the console’s components in short supply, Sony will build around a million more PS4 consoles this year. However, the PS4 still isn’t immune from stock problems — it’s not available directly from Sony at Amazon, Best Buy, or Target right now. Sony is selling the 1TB PS4 directly on its online store for the launch price of $299.99, so that’s something at least.
Even though the Xbox Series X and S can run all software built for the Xbox One family, so players don’t have to worry about their favorite games being left in the past, the discontinuation is still an important event in the history of every video game console. The Xbox One officially lasted around eight years, which doesn’t quite beat the PlayStation 2’s 12-year run, but is still impressive.


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To find out how the laptops got this way, the YouTubers also opened the back of the laptops.
In case you are not aware, Apple claims the M2 chipset is a huge upgrade over the previous generation M1 chipset, however, this does not appear to be the case in reality.
Apple's M2 chipset that debuted earlier this month at the WWDC conference appears to have slower SSD read/write speeds than the M1 chip.
A video posted by YouTube user Max Tech claims the 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro powered by the M2 chipset has significantly slower read and write speeds than the previous-generation Apple MacBook Pro with the M1 chip.
The 256GB SSDs were tested with the Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test on both laptops.
The test results showed that the SSD write speed of the M2 chip was 1,463MB/s, while the SSD write speed of the M1 chip was 2,215MB/s.
On the M2 chip, the read speed is only 1,446MB/s, whereas the M1 chip is capable of staggering speeds of 2,900MB/s.
A similar video was posted by YouTuber Created Tech on both laptops. The YouTubers then tried to determine why the M2 chipset's SSD reading and writing speeds are slower than its predecessor.
To do this, the researchers opened the laptops' rear panels to compare the SSDs. Inside the two.
Neither of them found the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 with the M2 chip had more than one NAND flash storage chip, unlike the previous generation model which featured two NAND flash storage chips.
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Samsung at IFA2022 showed the latest Odyssey OLED G8 with a fish screen display and announced that the product will be available in the fourth quarter of this year, the price has not yet been announced.
Samsung combined its OLED and quantum dot technology to create this panel with a 34-inch 21:9 ratio, 1800R curvature, 3440×1440 resolution, and 175Hz maximum refresh rate. In addition, Samsung’s Odyssey OLED display features 10-bit color support, peak brightness of up to 1000 nits and a GtG response time of 0.1 ms.
Samsung says the 34-inch Odyssey OLED G8 is 3.9 mm at its thinnest part and features a metal frame design. In terms of ports, the Odyssey OLED G8 features Micro HDMI (2.1), Mini DP (1.4) and USB-C ports for multiple connections, as well as 5W stereo speakers.
Previously, Alien listed a monitor with the same panel as the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8, model AW3423DW, for an initial $12,999.


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Founder Stories: Bolt
We believe that the adoption of cryptocurrencies and networks will accelerate during the next few years and redefine the ways we engage and transact on the internet. Access Ventures’ Blockchain Initiative aims to identify projects that can achieve or activate near term adoption of the technology and catalyze their development.
One of our portfolio companies, Bolt Labs, is building infrastructure to help bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and everyday transactions by eliminating lag time and high transaction fees while ensuring strong privacy protections.
Next time you make a transaction, think about the data about you, your counterparty, and the transaction that companies can gather. Bolt Labs created zkChannels to enable people to decide for themselves how they share their financial information without having to compromise their privacy by default. We talked to J. Ayo Akinyele, Co-Founder and CEO of Bolt Labs about what his team is doing and why. Here’s what he had to say:
How did Bolt Labs come to be? What was the problem you were trying to solve?
We started Bolt Labs to bring scalability and privacy to public blockchains.
Existing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have scalability and latency problems that limit their use as a medium of exchange (can take up to 1 hour to confirm a transaction on the blockchain). The Lightning Network was designed to address these scalability and latency issues by using the blockchain to escrow funds and resolve disputes while moving the bulk of transactions off-chain. However, the Lightning protocol does not offer privacy by default.
J. Ayo Akinyele, CEO/Cofounder of Bolt Labs
To address this problem, Matthew Green and Ian Miers conceived of a protocol in 2016 that addresses the privacy limitations of Lightning: Blind Off-chain Lightweight Transactions (or BOLT). It offers a strong privacy solution while preserving the efficiency of off-chain payments.
The importance of strong privacy protections to the development and adoption of blockchain technology is not always obvious or intuitive. In fact, the battle against privacy-related protocols has existed since the beginning of the internet era. The HTTPS protocol, for example, is an essential infrastructure that enables secure banking or e-commerce today. Yet as it was being developed in 1995, many overemphasized how the technology-enabled criminal or terrorist activity over the privacy protections for honest customers buying or selling goods online. But just as the HTTPS protocol has proven to be a critical building block for secure internet communication, strong privacy protections are required for cryptocurrencies to be suitable for many use cases.
Fortunately, because early use cases of blockchain tech are financial in nature (versus chat or sharing files on the original internet), the need for privacy is more obvious. Furthermore, as the internet age has matured, we as a society are increasingly aware of the importance of the privacy and ownership of even our personal communication data.
The initial BOLT research was designed for Zcash, but showed significant promise for use across blockchain protocols. Bolt Labs has extended this initial research beyond Zcash to Bitcoin, and our team is working towards a chain-agnostic approach that will bring the benefits of privacy and scalability to blockchains across the ecosystem.
What is zkChannels?
zkChannels extends the initial BOLT research and is a second layer protocol that enables privacy-preserving, off-chain transactions between customers and merchants. The protocol allows customers to transact with a merchant without revealing their identity and allows merchants to securely authenticate customer transactions without needing to “see” their personal identifying data. Our protocol fundamentally decouples the customer’s identity from the service itself.
How did your team come together?
The core team has prior experience working together on cryptographic research projects and security consulting work. The team came together as a result of these connections. For instance, Matthew Green was one of my research advisors at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). I met Colleen Swanson through a colleague and we worked on a few security consulting projects together. I shared the same research lab at JHU with Ian Miers, Gabe Kaptchuk, and Gijs Van Laer. I was introduced to Marcella Hastings through Gabe and recruited Darius Parvin through the Insight SF program.
Designing privacy protocols for real-world usage is incredibly challenging. It requires having applied knowledge and understanding of cryptography. We have assembled a team of experts in cryptography that are passionate about bringing privacy-enhancing technology to the real world.
How will this change the world? What’s the impact?
We envision a future in which our protocol is a core building block for protecting consumers privacy when transacting with digital currencies. As digital payments become commonplace, we imagine that users will be able to use zkChannels to access any online service or paid content without being tracked.
Who are your target users? Who will this affect?
Our technology benefits users that are looking to maintain their privacy online while accessing services or protected web content. These include users of VPN services, cloud compute or storage, and much more.
Cryptocurrency payment processors that adopt zkChannels will be able to forward transactions without collecting data about their users. Finally, zkChannels will also benefit institutional traders that want to trade their cryptocurrency on exchanges without revealing movement patterns to the public.
We envision a future in which our protocol is a core building block for protecting consumers privacy when transacting with digital currencies.
What’s been a key breakthrough to this point?
Our team has developed an off-chain privacy solution based on cutting-edge cryptography research that enables anonymity for public blockchains. The key breakthrough is that we can deploy zkChannels on any Bitcoin-like currency and can extend to smart contract platforms like Tezos as well.
What does the world look like when zkChannels is fully deployed?
With emerging privacy regulations like GDPR in Europe that protect consumers, we believe that zkChannels has the potential to become a new standard for security and privacy in online services. This means that people will be able to use cryptocurrencies as a payment method for accessing services and content without leaking their real-world identities. Services will no longer be able to collect data about the users they serve by default. The same way HTTPS became a standard for private web transactions, zkChannels can become a de facto standard for private blockchain transactions.
What are you most excited about for the future of zkChannels?
Without privacy, a digital society is a surveillance society. We are most excited about how zkChannels empower everyday users to control how they want to share their financial information.
Interested to learn more about Bolt Labs? Check out their portfolio page. You can also view our other Founder Stories here. Visit our portfolio page to see other investments we have made in companies working along the blockchain adoption curve. If you are working to create solutions using blockchain technology, contact us!


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I do know that many of you BlackBerry fans out there cannot wax lyrical enough about the BlackBerry Z10, but since the company is on the verge of a mini revival of sorts, how about hearing word of a possible replacement, or rather, a successor to the recently released BlackBerry Z10? After all, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins did tease the media earlier this year that BlackBerry is working on a new product which he happened to be “really excited about”. Just what could this device be? A new report emerged today that claimed the device which Heins was referencing to would be the BlackBerry A10.
From Z to A, now that would be an interesting twist. I sure as heck hope that BlackBerry would not take the same route that Sony is doing at the moment with their Xperia series, where they have cooked up an alphabet soup of sorts along the way. The BlackBerry A10 could be the upcoming flagship device, where it might see the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 get a bump down to mid-range status eventually. CNEt claims that the BlackBerry A10 will be a full-touch device, which jives with the rumors that this is a Z10 successor. There are also whispers going around that the BlackBerry A10 will be launched during the holiday season via Sprint.


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With easy access to social media, shoppers are increasingly aware of — and vocal about — cultural appropriation, derogatory messaging and insensitive references.
Every once in a while, tucked into the stream of speedily made garments rushed into stores, designs with shockingly bad taste stand out: a shirt comparing women to dogs at Topman, symbols of the Holocaust on a top at Zara, a slogan that trivializes sexual consent on a piece at Forever 21, or words like “slave” and “slut” used as decorative details on T-shirts at ASOS and Missguided.
Brands, even as they offer mea culpas, rarely explain how such blunders come to pass. But problematic designs seem to repeatedly slip past layers of buyers, designers, stylists, marketers and managers before being caught by consumers.
Retail experts blame a heated competitive environment, where companies, many of them based in Europe, are spread thin trying to cater to a global customer base that is easily bored, is demanding and can buy almost anything via e-commerce. Many brands develop a cavalier attitude: Churn out products now, ask forgiveness later.
But with easy access to social media, shoppers are increasingly aware of — and vocal about — cultural appropriation, derogatory messaging and insensitive references. In response, several retailers say that they are beefing up the approval process for designs and investing in digital screening technologies.
Still, distasteful designs will probably continue sneaking onto store shelves. Industry experts said cultural-awareness training and virtual-sampling techniques that run spot checks on products can only go so far in a business marked by fast-shifting trends and high employee turnover.
Earlier this year, H&M, one of the largest clothing retailers in the world and a repeat offender, was taken to task over a children’s hoodie emblazoned with the phrase “coolest monkey in the jungle” and modeled in marketing materials by a young black boy. The description, which has been used to dehumanize black people, set off protests at South African stores that left mannequins toppled and racks overturned.
In the aftermath, H&M chose a lawyer and company insider, Annie Wu, to lead a new four-person team at its Stockholm headquarters focused on global diversity and inclusiveness.
“We want to be held accountable,” she said this week in her first interview since taking the job.
“We didn’t recognize that in this now new age of transparency,” she added, “what the brand stands for is super important to people.”
Fast-fashion companies, which specialize in low-priced, quickly produced clothing and have grown faster than the apparel industry as a whole for years, are under pressure to be more prolific and provocative as they sell across more borders.
H&M, which added 479 stores last year, now has more than 4,000 stores in dozens of countries. Inditex, the enormous parent company behind Zara, has more than 7,500 stores in 94 countries.
Zara said it produces 20,000 designs each year, 98 percent of them created in-house, all sent through multiple reviews before being offered for sale. But some of the outsourced designs have proved problematic.
When fashion is contracted out, “there’s a lot less control, a lot less oversight and involvement from the company along every step of the process,” said Felipe Caro, a business professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has spent years studying Zara.
Last year, critics complained that images of frogs on a Zara skirt resembled a cartoon character called Pepe, which was designated a hate symbol of the alt-right by the Anti-Defamation League.
The skirt was designed by an independent Spanish artist based in London. In a statement at the time, he said that the frogs had “no connection at all with anything related to hate, violence or discrimination.”
Ricardo Cavolo, another artist who designed for the same collection, said in an email that the design process “was pretty fast.” He spent two days at Zara’s headquarters in Spain, creating paintings on denim that the company then reproduced without making any suggestions or changes, he said.
Supply-chain experts urge more careful, decentralized vetting procedures that send designs through a central checkpoint at headquarters and also past gatekeepers in the country of sale.
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A few months ago, during a long day spent styling and photographing products for H&M’s website, no one on the Stockholm set appeared to raise concerns about one more item to process, the hoodie with the offensive message, according to a person familiar with the shoot.
Critics said the garment might have been flagged if H&M’s team was more diverse.
“It’s so easy to avoid this kind of controversy,” said Angel Sinclair, the founder of the advocacy group Models of Diversity. “If you care about being culturally sensitive, just be more culturally inclusive of talent and managers in the business.”
H&M has more than 100,000 workers worldwide.
But the fashion giant’s board is entirely white. And retail experts said that much of the creative process takes place in and around its European home office, handled by young employees who are often oblivious to societal sensitivities in markets oceans away.
Wu, who reports directly to H&M’s chief executive, Karl-Johan Persson, said she did not know the ethnic or racial backgrounds of the employees and contractors involved with the monkey hoodie. But an internal investigation of the incident — which she declined to discuss in detail — showed “how important awareness-raising is generally,” she said.
Several companies have pledged to diversify hiring, retool corporate guidelines and initiate other measures to prevent mistakes from going out the door.
Zara now uses an algorithm created to scan designs for insensitive or offensive features. In 2016, it hired a committee of diversity officers. Diversity and inclusion training has become mandatory for all new employees.
At H&M, Wu said she was organizing workshops to help employees recognize unconscious bias and was also reaching out to anti-racism groups and other organizations. In North America, H&M is planning to hire a New York-based diversity manager.
Wu’s first two months on the job have yielded commitment from executives but, so far, few specific measures. She acknowledged that raising awareness is not “the Band-Aid” that can fix all of H&M’s problems.
“We are a very large corporation, and mistakes do happen,” she said. “It starts with us scrutinizing all of these different processes.”


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FIFA 19 has removed Christiano Ronaldo from the cover of the game. Due to the latest rape accusations, famous footballer has been removed from the FIFA 19 cover. EA SPORTS FIFA Twitter page has revealed the new cover and changed all the covers online in an instant. The new cover features Kevin de Bruyne, Neymar Jr, and Paulo Dybala.
Christiano Ronaldo cover removed from FIFA 19 due to rape accusations
In September 2018, American citizen Kathryn Mayorga, claimed famous Juventus player Christiano Ronaldo forcibly violated her in Las Vegas. After this news players attorneys revealed many contradictions to substain this issue. While there is still many speculations about this issue, Electronic Arts took the short way and changed FIFA 19’s cover to avoid media backlash. The new cover has already taken place and expected to also replace in game cover.
FIFA 19 has been released on September 28,2018 and available for PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Xbox.


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Lowe’s to Fund Expansion
Mooresville, N.C., Home improvement retailer Lowe’s has announced that it will invest about $150 million to expand its distribution network and improve its ability to supply stores.
. A new regional distribution center in Lebanon, Ore., will be built, and the company has announced plans to expand three existing centers in Valdosta, Ga., Statesville, N.C., and North Vernon, Ind.
The retailer’s expansion also includes opening 150 new stores in fiscal 2005 and up to 160 stores in fiscal 2006. Lowe’s distribution network currently includes 11 regional distribution centers nationwide.
Dick’s Connects With AT&T
Pittsburgh, Dick’s Sporting Goods will install an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VIN) designed to integrate all retail stores, corporate offices and distribution centers. The system will be provided by AT&T. “Knowing that our data is secure enables us to focus on our core mission,” said Linda Walker, VP of infrastructure and security for Dick’s. Dick’s has 239 locations and had sales of $2.1 billion in 2004.


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South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. will enter the competitive market for portable media devices in the U.S. in April with three products all of which play video and one of which can directly record video, the company said Wednesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The players include the PM70, a portable media center device with a 30GB hard-disk drive and video recording capability, the hard-disk drive-based JM53 player and the flash-media based FM30 player. All three support MPEG4 video and several different audio playback formats. The PM70 will record MPEG4 video directly from a composite video input, said LG.
By entering the market, which is dominated by Apple and its iPod line of players, LG hopes it can win market share by emphasizing the player’s support for a range of formats. iPods use Apple’s proprietary DRM (digital rights management) system, FairPlay.
“There is a high-end segment of the iPod market that doesn’t want to be locked in [to a particular format],” said Bob Perry, vice president of consumer electronics sales and marketing for LG’s North American unit. “Once people pay for their video they want the flexibility to move their media around.”
LG’s devices will likely be based on Microsoft Corp.’s Janus DRM system and they are currently undergoing certification for the “Plays for sure” label. Perry said the LG is committed to leaving control of content in the hands of consumers and that it would look to add other DRM systems to the players should that make sense.
“LG is better positioned than some smaller companies like Creative [to compete in the portable media device market],” said Richard Doherty, research director of The Envisioneering Group. The ability to record video directly into a device has been very successful for companies like Archos Inc., he noted.
The PM70 runs the second version of Microsoft’s Portable Media Center operating system and has a 4.3-inch wide-screen display. In addition to video recording, it also has a video-out so it can be hooked up to a television. It will cost $549. The JM53 has an 8GB hard-disk drive and will cost $299 and the FM30 has 1GB of flash memory and will cost $199.


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Battle over Malloy's executive orders continues in court
Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed the legislation allowing home and daycare workers to collectively bargain into law on May 14, but the court battle over his two executive orders that set the law in motion continues.
Three lawsuits have been filed and consolidated in Superior Court alleging the governor overstepped his authority in issuing orders that the plaintiffs say amounts to the forced unionization of the groups.
Malloy's executive orders created a pathway for the workers to form a union and both groups of workers have since voted to do so.


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Facebook Launches Social VR Platform
VR is nothing new to most of us as several big-name companies such as Google and Samsung have already invested billions of dollars in it. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, acquired Oculus over 3 years ago and finally has something to show for in the realm of virtual reality.
Very recently, Facebook launched Space: an app that lets up to four friends log into their Facebook accounts and join a “space” and chat, draw, watch videos, make calls on Messenger and of course, take VR selfies. Since they just launched the Beta version, the interface seems pretty basic and is focused on giving users a fun experience at the moment. The coolest and probably the most impressive of the all the features is the integration with Messenger that allows user to make a phone call to the real world from virtual reality and vice versa.
The only big downside at the moment is that the app is only available on Oculus Rift + Touch but it will soon be launching in other VR platforms.
Since the product is still in the demo phase, it is too soon to say how big of an impact the app will make but it most definitely indicates a trend into the future.
And… That’s it!


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US stocks traded higher today, led by tech shares. US manufacturing production rose by 1.0% m/m in August, less than forecasted. In relation to US-China trade talks, WTO stated that American tariffs on Chinese goods violated international rules, further complicating the relationship between the biggest trading partners. The dollar strengthened to 93.122, and the yield on 10yr US Treasury rose to 0.6821%. The Yuan climbed to the highest level of 6.77 since May 2019 on the back of positive retail sales data in August; the index grew 0.5% y/y – for the first time this year, and the unemployment rate in China has dropped from 5.7% in July to 5.6% in August.
Activity on the LME was mixed today with zinc and tin closing higher. Lead was subject to strong selling pressure, falling below the key support level of $1,910.00/t and closing at $1,908/t. Aluminium prices were softer, closing at $1,789.50/t. Nickel gave back its recent gains, closing on the back foot at $15,198/t; cash to 3-month spread widened into -$55.00/t. Similarly, copper broke support $6,780/t as copper stockpiles rose the most in 3 months in August, closing at $6,761.50/t. Zinc, the best-performing base metal this quarter, edged higher to test $2,540/t, before closing lower at $2,496.50/t. Tin prices were higher on the day, closing at $18,209/t.
Oil futures rose after the economic data from China and the US sparked confidence in the markets. At the time of writing, WTI and Brent trade at $37.84/bl and $40.15/bl respectively. Precious metals erased gains on a positive economic outlook and a rising dollar, with gold and silver trading up to $1,953.07/oz and $27.15/oz respectively.


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Fears of a marked slowdown in the British economy in the run-up to the EU referendum appeared to be overdone.
New data shows output between April and June rose by 0.6% against an expectation of 0.4%.
The GDP figure, which equates to an annual growth of 2.2%, was welcomed among analysts and other analysts.
The markets responded positively with the FTSE 100 index closing up 0.39% or 26.4 points at 6,750.43 after touching 6,757.96, its highest since last August. It is up more than 16% from its post-Brexit slump.
However, a CBI survey revealed that retailers suffered their sharpest fall in sales in four years, raising doubts about the ability of consumers to stave off a Brexit recession.
It said sales fell sharply between 28 June and 14 July and retailers cut orders with suppliers by the most since the 2008-09 financial crisis.
Commenting on the ONS figures, Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, described the data as “the best out-turn for four quarters”. However, he cautioned that the softening could be still to come.
“GDP growth in Q2 looks likely to represent one last hurrah for the economy before it enters a softer and more turbulent period,” he said. “The lack of momentum as the economy entered Q3 means that the chances of a negative reading for the current quarter are relatively high.
“However, our view remains that the extent to which the economy will slow in the second half of the year has been overplayed and that the UK may avoid a technical recession.”
Joe Grice, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics, said “any uncertainties in the run-up to the referendum seem to have had a limited effect”.
He added that “very few” respondents to the ONS survey cited Brexit uncertainty as having had an impact on their business.
GDP was boosted by strong retail figures and manufacturing, especially cars and pharmaceuticals. Agriculture and construction were both marginally down, but they are smaller sectors of the economy, so their impact was lower.
It’s worth pointing out that these growth figures run to the end of June and thus only include one week of post-Brexit activity.
Ben Brettell, of Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “It’s always difficult to tell where you’re going by looking in the rear-view mirror. Today’s GDP figures can’t be taken as evidence of the current climate.
“However, what they do show is an absence of pre-Brexit concerns, meaning that if the forecast downturn does materialise, at least we start from a position of relative strength.”
Mr Brettell warned that gloomy sentiment can make a recession a self-fulfilling prophecy, but he said the data showed that things might not turn out as bad as the doom-mongers predicted before the vote.
GSK’s investment in the UK, announced today along with encouraging figures from housebuilder Taylor Wimpey will help reinforce a view that Britain can avoid a severe setback from the Brexit vote.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said: “Britain is open for business – as we enter a period of adjustment, I’m confident we have the tools to manage the challenges ahead.”


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South Koreans are huge beer drinkers, usually pairing the drink with a plate of fried chicken. Up until recently, Japanese brands like Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo were popular choices, but tastes are changing amid rising tensions between the neighbouring countries.
According to Bloomberg, South Korea imported $78.3 million worth of Japanese beer last year. But there’s been a drop this year. In August, only $223,000 worth of Japanese beer made it to South Korea. This is a 97 percent drop from the $7.57 million recorded at the same time last year. In July, the drop was recorded at 94.9 percent compared to last year.
Korean supermarkets and convenience stores have stopped selling Japanese beer and haven’t placed more orders since August, Reuters reported. This is part of a larger boycott on popular Japanese products like ramen and seasoning sauces brought by a trade war between the two countries.
It started in July when Japan announced that it would tighten control over materials that are fundamental to the production of semiconductors in Korea. This affects the production of South Korean tech giants such as Samsung.
On August 2, Japan also removed South Korea from its “white list,” which gave the latter preferential treatment when it comes to trade.
This spells trouble for Japanese beer companies. Asahi Group Holdings, for example, said in early August that their profits have taken a hit. They’ve even lowered their forecast for this year’s profits. This could prove to be beneficial for rival beer companies, including those that manufacture Korean brands like Hite.


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The finding marks a steep increase from the last poll in November. Fifty-one companies cited U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic policies as the main cause for concern in the latest survey, compared with 27 in the previous survey.
The Trump administration has increasingly veered toward protectionism in recent months and imposed hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from European Union countries, Canada and Mexico in June.
The survey also found that many companies are bracing for possible fallout from ongoing U.S.-China friction over a slew of trade issues, including intellectual property, with no immediate prospects of ironing out their differences over the subjects.
One respondent said it will have a “significant impact” on its business prospects, while 16 companies replied that they will be impacted “somewhat.”
Twenty-four businesses said that they “may be impacted.”
Hideki Kobori, president of Asahi Kasei Corp., a manufacturer of chemical products, noted that blowback will be inevitable since China is his company’s key production center of electronic materials.
“If the U.S.-China trade row becomes full blown, its impact, though indirect, will be extensive.”
Hitoshi Ochi, president of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp., echoed similar concerns.
“It is less likely that our company will be directly hit, in light of items imposed with high tariffs,” he said. “But we are concerned that the trade tiff could dampen people’s appetite for consumption.”
The Asahi Shimbun conducts a survey of 100 major companies in various sectors twice a year by primarily interviewing their top executives to gauge economic trends. The latest survey was carried out between May 28 and June 8.
The assessment cited by most, or 84 companies, was that the economy is “expanding slowly,” which was down by four from the last survey.
The number of businesses that replied that the economy is at a standstill rose to 12, up by four.
Only two companies gave an assessment that the economy is “expanding,” the same as the previous poll.
Although the government’s revised figures showed the economy in real terms contracted by 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018 from the previous quarter, the first contraction in nine quarters, many companies view it is a temporary deceleration.
Takeshi Niinami, president of beverage maker Suntory Holdings Ltd., painted a positive picture of the economy.
“Personal consumption is not going strong now, but I have gotten an impression that it is growing,” he said. “Visitors to Japan are spending generously and investment in Japan is expanding.”
(This article was written by Takeho Morita and Miho Tanaka.)


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Atomos Awarded Innovation of the Year 2022
Atomos has won an innovation award by the Lucie Foundation for its 8K Atomos Sapphire 8K Global Shutter Sensor. The Lucie Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports photographers and the technology they use.
The full frame sensor’s use of a global shutter at up to 8K DCI with 60fps means that fast moving content such as sports footage is not distorted by the rolling shutter phenomenon. Atomos is offering the sensor to other camera makers after five years of development.


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Apple Inc’s billion-dollar investment in Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, is huge – not in terms of the dollar value, which stands as the second biggest investment by Apple after the company bought Beats Electronics for $3 billion, but in terms of setting the future path for Apple.
Apple today is not the same as the Apple of the 00s. For the first time in Apple’s history, iPhone sales dropped – during the second quarter of 2016. In Q2-2016 iPhone sales was down by 16.3% compared to the same period last year. There has been no pathbreaking product from Apple for some time now, and most of their products launched after Steve Jobs’ untimely exit were incremental additions.
Even the mobile phone market is not as the same as before. The prolific growth the industry witnessed in the last ten years is not something that can go on forever. At this point of penetration that the mobile industry has reached, it’s only a matter of time before the only new phones sold will be to people who are upgrading or changing brands.
Apple has been approaching that point with every passing day. The Chinese market for iPhone has helped the company immensely but that, too, cannot last forever – as the recent slump has shown. To add insult to injury, India dealt a heavy blow with a blunt instrument (probably an iPhone) to Apple’s plan of flooding the country with refurbished phones. It would have made iPhones more affordable to the average Indian, but the government wasn’t having any of it.
So, it’s clear Apple has been searching for revenue drivers that can help the company move forward – and the Didi Chuxing investment is a loud and clear announcement from Apple that the company is hunting for such drivers. Though the investment looks like Apple wanted to get its hands on the ride-sharing market and thereby compete with Uber, Didi offers plenty more to the Cupertino-based giant.
The Real Apple They’re After
Didi Chuxing has nearly 300 million users and 14 million drivers – a huge data mine for a company like Apple. The partnership with Didi Chuxing will allow Apple to exploit its strengths in the mobile ecosystem, but outside the devices segment.
For example, Apple maps could someday become the de facto source for ride sharing companies, while Apple Pay could become the preferred payment system to help make the ride happen. At the same time, iOS apps can seamlessly integrate into that ecosystem to facilitate even more benefits to users and providers alike. As a result, this will push a huge amount of data back to Apple for further application.
As of now, Apple has not made their intentions with automobiles public – as is their habit with iPhone launches. However, this acquisition could be their point of entry into the massive driverless car market of the future. Didi Chuxing could well be the first date in Apple’s highly speculated marriage with the automobile industry.


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Chairman Louis Schweitzer says he expects Renault to retain the lead in its alliance with Nissan, even though its Japanese partner is recovering fast.
Renault acquired a 37 percent stake in near-bankrupt Nissan in March 1999. It put Carlos Ghosn, one of its star executives, in charge of turning round the ailing company.
Two years later, analysts expect Nissan to post a profit of some 2.3 billion euros for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2000. Moreover, its stock market value is worth twice that of Renault - about 27.3 billion euros compared with 14.4 billion euros for Renault. This has led some analysts to wonder how long Renault will be the dominant partner within the alliance.
The 1999 accord allows Nissan to take a stake in Renault. But Schweitzer said that will not be considered as long as Nissan's debt remains high. Nissan's automotive debt last September stood at roughly 11.5 billion euros. Nissan aims to cut its debt in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2003.
'To consider a cross-shareholding, you need a sound balance sheet,' Schweitzer said. 'As long as Nissan's debt remains at those levels, a cross-shareholding is not on the agenda.'
Even when Nissan's debt problem has been solved, Schweitzer said he 'does not envisage' Nissan ever raising its holding in Renault to the level of Renault's stake in Nissan. Schweitzer added he does not see Renault reducing its own stake in Nissan.
Under the accord, Renault cannot raise its stake in Nissan to more than 39.9 percent until 2003, when it can boost it to 44.4 percent. It can exercise this option at a set price of 400 yen (3.6 euros). Nissan shares are currently trading at about 750 yen.
At the Geneva auto show, Ghosn agreed Nissan was not out of trouble yet. 'We're still in a delicate situation,' he said. But Nissan's European operations, which currently post a substantial loss, should be back to profitability in fiscal year 2001, he said.
Asked how he saw Nissan's alliance with Renault evolving, he said that 'a group is a successful alliance.'
As for Renault's own E4.8-billion debt, Schweitzer said it was not preventing the company from making the strategic investments it needs. Still, the company has said it will focus this year on organic growth, suggesting it will avoid large acquisitions for now.
Regarding the health of the European car market, Schweitzer said he expects it will be a little better than in 2000 and a little weaker than in 1999, a record year. Renault sales, he said, will take off in the second quarter. Renault's objective, he said, is to raise its market share in western Europe above the 11 percent reached in 2000.
Schweitzer said initial public reaction to the Laguna II has been excellent. The new upper-medium model went on sale in late January.


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Shares of Wayfair are sliding by more than 15% after the discount furniture retailer said it’s axing 870 jobs or 5% of its workforce, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing.
The Boston-based retailer said the cuts were part of its previously announced efforts to manage its growing expenses.
About 10% of the eliminated positions are coming from its corporate headquarters while Wayfair is also “in the process of making substantial reductions in its third party labor costs,” according to the filing.
The layoffs will cost Wayfair between $30 and $40 million in severance and benefits packages, the company said.
Known for its deep discounts, including promotions touting up to 70% off on all items on its website including rugs, lamps and couches, Wayfair posted a wider loss than Wall Street expected in its second quarter.
“For the last couple of years, we have indicated that Wayfair should now be at the scale to drive both growth and consistent profitability,” co-founder and chief executive, Niraj Shah said in a statement earlier this month. “The first half of this year has admittedly been less robust than expected, but let me be very clear that our intention is unchanged. We are laser focused on quickly getting back to this goal.”
On an Aug. 4 earnings call, Shah said the company’s “mass customers are being more deliberate about where their discretionary dollars are going, as prices at the gas station and grocery store eat up a greater share of wallet.”
“For the past few months, we have also seen many of those discretionary dollars flow away from goods to services, especially travel as a slow to start spring turned quickly into summer,” Shah added.
Orders per customer fell 6% in the the quarter ended June 30 while revenues fell 15% to $3.3 billion.


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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Soft Drinks Market 2020-2024
LONDON--(HAIXUNPRESS)--The global soft drinks market size is poised to grow by USD 216.74 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 5% throughout the forecast period, according to the latest report by Technavio. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The product innovations as one of the major factors driving the growth of the soft drinks market. Market players are focusing on enhancing their sales volume by launching new products with better formulation, ingredients, and packaging. They are also introducing products with added benefits for people concerned about their health and wellness. For instance, Coldpress launched two new low-calorie cold-pressed juices, which are said to have no more than 65 calories in a 150 ml bottle. These factors will boost the market growth.
Innovative Marketing Campaigns will be a Key Market Trend
Innovative marketing campaigns is one of the key trends that will influence market growth. Players such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are revamping their marketing strategies to counter the decreasing sales of carbonated soft drinks globally. For instance, in April 2018, Coca-Cola launched a new marketing campaign under the banner "We Do" in the UK. This campaign included billboard advertisements and social media campaigns with catchy slogans. Also, in March 2018, PepsiCo launched a new marketing campaign in India, which featured a television commercial and outdoor advertisements that highlighted the new packaging of PepsiCo and drew a relation between friendship and food. Thus, the introduction of new marketing and advertising campaigns by players will drive the growth of the global soft drinks market during the forecast period.
Soft Drinks Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights
Five Forces Analysis
Market Segmentation by Product
Market Segmentation by Functional Properties
Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio’s report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio’s comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.
overseas press release：https://haixunpr.org/
Social media marketing：https://haixunpr.com/


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Just as the new Asus Padfone mini was officially unveiled last week, a benchmark test from AnTuTu suggests that yet another Asus Padfone is headed our way in 2014.
Currently refered to as the Asus Padfone X, it was spotted with specifications including a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with the Adreno 300 series GPU, Android 4.4, a FHD 1920 x 1200 display, and 2GB of RAM.
Good specs for 2013, and not bad specs for a tablet in early 2014 either, so the remaining descicive factors will be price and features.
Also, we should expect Asus to be very active as a tablet manufacturer in 2014, so it looks like we are going to see a lot of different Asus tablets being unveiled throughout 2014, which Acer will try to match to some extent, something the BBC report suggests as well.
– Tom Bowen


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Technomic: Consumers’ palates are expanding
American consumers are getting their food from a broader range of retail and foodservice outlets, but they seem to be more brand loyal to restaurant chains than to supermarket chains, according to a new Technomic report.
According to Technomic’s “2010 Restaurants & Retail Report: Segmenting the Food & Beverage Consumer,” consumers typically visit supermarkets about once a week. In its survey of 2,000 consumers, Technomic also found that most consumers do not prefer a particular supermarket. Kroger is the traditional supermarket chain that shoppers visit most but was the primary supermarket brand for only 15 percent of survey respondents.
Sam’s Club was selected as the warehouse club that consumers visit most, and Trader Joe’s was picked as the natural food supermarket they frequent most.
“In the down economy, retailers gained a larger share of the foodservice market, but in order to keep that as the economic picture improves, they need to respond to consumers as effectively as restaurants have,” said Darren Tristano, executive VP of Technomic in Chicago. Restaurants have responded to consumers’ wants by offering organic, local, additive-free and humanely-sourced foods, he added.
Fast-casual restaurants are the fastest growing restaurant segment, and consumers prefer Panera Bread, Boston Market and Panda Express. Those who frequent these higher-end fast-food restaurants shop at a variety of food stores, but primarily traditional supermarkets, convenience stores and mass merchandisers.
“With such a diverse group of innovative operators leading the segment, growth of fast-casual restaurants has helped diversify consumers’ palettes and increase their awareness of new flavor profiles and food types,” said Erik Thoresen, director of research and consulting for Technomic. “Retailers can share in this trend by offering a complimentary assortment of items, particularly food and beverages that align with specific cuisine types and ethnic flavor profiles.”
For example, retailers can offer more seafood items such as fish tacos, which “combine an emerging ethnic positioning with a seafood item,” said Thoresen. “Trial of these types of items at restaurants helps seafood items [for] retailers, because it reduces some of the barriers that consumers might foresee when experimenting with a new seafood item at home.”
Although no particular upscale restaurant chain stood out in the survey results, McCormick & Schmick’s was a popular brand with consumers. Survey respondents also said they like to eat at Ruth’s Chris, Benihana and Morton’s.All Retail & Foodservice stories >


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By Lou Mastria
The following post is another part of our DAA Summit 2014 coverage series.
Whether at home or in the car, or at play or at work, consumers are more connected than ever before. Between smartphones, e-readers, laptops and tablets, consumers are communicating, and accessing and sharing information, using multiple platforms and devices -- and they are doing it quickly and easily.
This new menu of options presents great opportunities for those in the digital advertising space, yet it also poses a challenge for online advertisers seeking to maximize their value to consumers while also allowing for transparency and choice.
This was the context for just one of the topics of discussion at our recent Digital Advertising Alliance annual summit: Innovation and consumer value by leveraging transparency and control in online advertising across screens. At a session titled, “Meeting the Multi-Platform Challenge: Creating Transparency and Choice Tools for Users Wherever They Connect,” a dynamic panel of experts including Chris Babel, chief executive officer with TrustArc; James Lamberti, vice president & general manager with AdTruth, a part of Experian, and; Ho shin, general counsel with Millennial Media – tackled questions around how digital advertisers can continue to meet consumer’s needs in a multi-platform environment while creating transparency and choice tools that meet users’ privacy expectations where they are. The panel was moderated by Dick O’Brien, executive vice president, government relations with 4A’s.
The overall discussion centered on the fact that advertisers must recognize the need to better understand the multi-platform environment and be proactive by developing and utilizing tools to better serve the needs of consumers. Some of the important questions addressed by the panel included what the multiplatform environment means for the industry, and how advertisers can better leverage innovative tools to meet their business and brand needs while giving customers exactly the transparency and choice they look for.
One important point underscored by all the speakers was that advertisers must let consumers know that they are in control. It is particularly important that a consumer’s choice to opt-out of advertising is respected and recognized, particularly in the many platforms where consumers are consuming content.
The discussion also emphasized the importance of creating balance—recognizing that consumers do want interest-based advertising but they also want advertisers to honor their privacy and right to choose.


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After five months of struggling to stay afloat in the quicksand of a debt crisis, Greece has finally asked the European Union and the IMF to throw it a lifeline.
Global News Journal
If Europe’s lobbying register is correct, oil giants like Shell and BP are spending just a few hundred thousand euros a year on EU lobbying, sums that are dwarfed by the millions they spend across the Atlantic.
The so-called “vertical restraints block-exemption regulation”, unveiled on Tuesday, set down new guidelines for online retailers who don’t operate a ‘bricks-and-mortar’ outlet. In doing so, it sought to resolve a debate that has been going on for years between luxury brand retailers such as Gucci and Chanel and discounters who sell big-name brands more cheaply from warehouses over the Internet.
It was no great surprise that the managing director of the International Monetary Fund looked perplexed when asked during a visit to Brussels to comment on proposals to create a European monetary fund.
As the new European Union executive prepares to debate fresh policy proposals which might unblock the stalemate over approving genetically modified crops for feed, processing or cultivation, there are few signs that Europe’s fears over what some have termed “Frankenstein foods” are easing.
Every new year brings resolutions, and the European Parliament is no exception.
Often derided as a multi-lingual talking shop, the institution is feeling newly invigorated by some fresh faces and by the European Union’s Lisbon reform treaty, which came into force late last year and gives the 736-member parliament more say in drafting laws and acting as a check on legislation.
So there’s no question Greece has work to do to improve its bookkeeping.
Not only must it get spending in check, but it needs to be a bit more honest about where its finances stand in the first place. After all, it’s not often an EU country says one month that its budget deficit is a little over three percent of GDP and admits a few weeks later that, oh dear, it’s actually nearer 13 percent.


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By Christina Lee Knauss
Images of packed container ships waiting for weeks to get into ports on the West Coast have been in the news for the past few months, highlighting an issue that is reaching into nearly every industry and home in the U.S.: a massive supply chain crunch as the Christmas holiday nears.
A multitude of factors is causing the supply chain issues. U.S. consumers are buying goods at record levels, many of them produced overseas. The continuing pandemic has resulted in employee shortages and slowdowns at many overseas factories, creating longer wait times for shipments of everything from consumer goods to products needed by manufacturers, high tech industries and other sectors.
Finally, when the goods do get here, ports on the West Coast are backed up because of a shortage of longshoremen to unload the ships and an even more drastic shortage of available trucks and drivers to transport the shipments.
The East Coast, South Carolina included, isn’t seeing the kind of backups being experienced at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., but the effects are being felt here as well, according to those involved with shipping and transportation in the state.
Imports to the Port of Charleston were up 12% year-over-year in October as the port continues to take in more retail goods than ever before, according to Liz Crumley, manager of corporate communications for the South Carolina Ports Authority. Recent reports show that furniture imports into Charleston are up 55% year over year, and SC Ports has handled record cargo volumes – both imports and exports combined – for the past eight months.
Crumley said the dramatic increase in workload at the port hasn’t caused any severe backups, largely because of a $2 billion investment in infrastructure in recent years that increased capacity. Some examples include modernization efforts to enable the Wando Welch Terminal to handle more cargo and bigger ships and the expansion of Inland Port Greer, which is served by rail.
Charleston also has the advantage of being the only port in the U.S. with new terminal capacity, added with the opening of phase one of the Leatherman Terminal in 2021. The expansion added more than 700,000 TEUs of capacity — a measure of volume in units of 20-foot-long shipping containers — as well as an additional berth that can accommodate mega container ships.
With forecasts showing that consumer demand is likely to remain strong for months, the Charleston port is likely to continue to see record volumes, especially retail. That amount will increase even more when Walmart opens a nearly 3-million-square-foot import distribution center in Ridgeville in early 2022, a project expected to create 1,000 jobs and boost import volumes at the port by 5%.
While things at the port are moving smoothly for the most part, another industry that works hand-in-hand with the import industry is facing the brunt of the supply chain crunch.
Trucking – the industry responsible for getting two-thirds of the country’s freight to where it needs to go – is facing the worst driver shortage on record, according to statistics released by the American Trucking Association. The country currently has a shortage of about 80,000 truck drivers, a figure that has increased about 30% from before the pandemic.
The shortage is caused by an increase in the number of trucker retirements as well as a significant number of drivers who have left the nationwide fleet for other careers. Safety and salary concerns and the long stretches away from home that come with a lot of commercial trucking jobs are keeping many potential employees away, industry leaders say.
“Every sector of the economy is different, but the constant is the truck and the driver,” said J. Richards Todd, president and CEO of the South Carolina Trucking Association. “When we are short drivers, plus technicians and component parts to keep them running, that equates to a shortage of trucking capacity. Our economy is absolutely truck-dependent, and that will not change.”
Leaders at Forward Air, one of the largest trucking companies transporting freight from the Charleston port, would like to grow its presence in the Charleston area because of the smooth operations at the port, but the driver shortage is preventing desired expansion, according to CEO Thomas Schmitt.
As a result, the company is doing everything possible to attract new drivers and keep its current ones, including forming a 12-member Drivers’ Board which meets quarterly to address the concerns of the company’s drivers.
“We’re doing everything we can to be more creative and safely onboard more employees, but I’m afraid the war for talent is going to be a long war, and it’s not going to get easier any time soon,” Schmitt said.
Trucking, like other industries, is finding that a hands-on approach can work to attract employees. The industry in South Carolina, through the Associated Industries of South Carolina Foundation, has formed a workforce development program called Be Pro Be Proud to draw high school students and other job seekers to trucking and other skilled professions.
The SCTA has provided a tractor and custom-built trailer fitted with virtual reality stations and simulators representing the different skilled trades involved in the trucking industry. The mobile workshop travels to high schools, tech schools and other job development facilities around the state to promote the careers, and is often booked more than a year out.
Todd said the SCTA is also working to help build a high school curriculum that could be called CDL Prep, with coursework that would help prepare students for the trucking industry before they turn 18.
“If this is a career they want to pursue, we want them to get a head start,” he said.
Getting young people excited about the trucking industry is one of the primary goals of Tra Williams, CEO of Fleetforce Truck Driving School, which currently operates in Florida. Williams said he also hopes to open Fleetforce’s first school in South Carolina in the Charleston area by 2022.
“The main challenge for the industry is to remove the stigma that being a professional driver is a low-skill, low-education and low-wage opportunity,” Williams said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. The demand for experienced professional drives cannot be overstated.”


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Ukrainian export prices are up by $15-40, Russian – by $25-30.
In January Ukraine produced 1720 thousand tons of pig iron, down by 3%, or by 54 thousand tons, MoM.
Metinvest SMC, Metinvest Group’s wholesale and retail sales channel in Ukraine, opened a new warehouse to hold a buffer stock of pipe products and a retail metal center.
Energomashstpetsstal (EMSS) will produce a large batch of billets for three European companies. The total weight of the billets will reach3875.6 tons.
The pretax losses of Ukrainian metal companies (negative financial results from ordinary activities before taxation) rose by 84.4%, to UAH 22.5 billion, from UAH 12.2 billion as of the end of 2014, according to preliminary data.
In January Ukraine produced 6612 thousand tons of iron ore and iron ore concentrate, up by 7%, or by 431 thousand tons, MoM.
In January Ukrainian ferroalloy companies produced 82.6 thousand tons of ferroalloys, down by 0.5% YoY.
Euroasian Economic Commission has informed of the prolongation of the antidumping investigation of hot-rolled carbon and alloyed steel rods, produced in Ukraine and exported to the Customs Union.
In January Ukrainian metal companies produced 1.87 million tons of carbon steel, down by 25.2% YoY.
In January Dneprospetsstal electrometallurgical works (Zaporozhye) produced 15.76 million tons of steel, down by 10.6% MoM.
In January Ukraine imported $37.42 million worth of coke with exports on the level of $1.74 million.
In 2014 Ukraine imported 1.14 million tons of rolled metal as opposed to 1.69 million tons in 2013 (68%).
In January Ukraine exported $66.91 million worth of steel pipes, with exports on the level of $5.09 million.
In 2014 Ukrainian metal companies exported 24.3 million tons of metal products, down by 7.6% YoY, worth $12.6 billion, down by 11.3% YoY.
In January Ukraine imported $12.09 million worth of manganese ore, while exports totaled $0.09 million.
In January Ukraine exported $206.53 million worth of iron ore, with imports totaling $14.77 million.
In January Ukraine exported $158.82 million worth of long rolled products, while imports reached $7.34 million.
Ukrainian government has shortened the list of metal wares the export and import of which has to be licensed.


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Industry trade bodies, including the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB); Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG); Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec); the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), have signed an open letter to ministers, warning them that the EC's proposals to clamp down on data violations would hamper growth of the digital industry in the UK.
It claims that the proposals risk "chilling the evolution of business models" and will put "significant burdens" on existing businesses, in the form of "unnecessary and burdensome red tape."
"We strongly believe the responsible use of data can bring significant benefits to consumers, to business, to government and the public sector, and to the UK economy as a whole, " they write.
They argue the "restrictive and prescriptive regime" for the use of this data being proposed, risks "denying small businesses and retailers the revenue they require to support, drive and develop their activities."
The letter cites a recent report from the Boston Consulting Group, which shows the UK is the world's leading "internet economy", with those businesses that engage in online marketing, sales and interactions standing to gain the most.
The letter, which is addressed to Ed Vaizey MP, minister for culture, communications and creative Industries, Lord McNally, minister of state, and Mark Prisk MP, minister for small business and enterprise, points to the prime minister's comments earlier this year, describing "small businesses and entrepreneurs" as "the lifeblood of the British economy"".
It also pointed out that the UK is a net exporter of ecommerce goods and services, exporting £2.80 for every £1 imported.
The letter said that the proposals would have "the opposite effect".
It said: "Many of the world’s greatest innovations come from lone entrepreneurs operating out of spare bedrooms and borrowed office space.
"They can only become commercial successes because of a policy and business environment that ensures low barriers to market entry, enables them to ‘scale up’, and allows them to challenge established businesses," they wrote.
Jeff Lynn, chairman, Coadec and one of the signatories of the letter, said separately the proposals will put UK entrepreneurs and startups at "a real competitive disadvantage" to US digital businesses.
"They are already struggling with the significant burden of the new regulations on Cookies, and it will be even more difficult for anybody to build the next Twitter or Facebook within Europe with these types of enforcements," he said.
Nick Stringer, director of regulatory affairs at the IAB, said that the EC's data protection reforms threaten the UK’s position as the world’s leading digital economy and will "throttle" the European Commission’s Digital Agenda.
The letter in full:
"The European Commission has published proposals to reform data protection law across Europe. We welcome the aims of the proposals: to update the law to make it more relevant to the digital world in which we now live and work; and to streamline the law to make it easier to do business across EU markets.
"These issues are not just important for the growing numbers of small and medium-sized businesses that are key to the growth of the UK's digital economy.
"In January this year, the prime minister described small businesses and entrepreneurs as 'the lifeblood of the British economy', helping support growth, employment and innovation.
"In September 2011, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills also highlighted the crucial role of technology in that growth, saying that 'long-term investment in our economic strengths, and being at the forefront of technological development, are essential if we are to achieve sustainable and balanced growth'. We agree.
"Many of the world's greatest innovations come from lone entrepreneurs operating out of spare bedrooms and borrowed office space. They can only become commercial successes because of a policy and business environment that ensures low barriers to market entry, enables them to 'scale up', and allows them to challenge established businesses.
"The result has been good news for competition, good news for British business and good news for the consumer.
"According to a recent report for the Boston Consulting Group, the UK is the world's leading 'internet economy' with those businesses that engage in online marketing, sales and interactions standing to gain the most.
"We are also currently a net exporter of ecommerce goods and services, exporting £2.80 for every £1 imported.
"However, we believe the new proposals may have the opposite effect. We strongly believe the responsible use of data can bring significant benefits to consumers, to business, to government and the public sector, and to the UK economy as a whole.
"A more restrictive and prescriptive regime for the use of this data, as is being proposed, risks denying small businesses and retailers the revenue they require to support, drive and develop their activities.
"But – importantly - the proposals do not just risk chilling the evolution of business models. They would also place significant burdens on existing businesses, in the form of unnecessary and burdensome red tape.
"Rather than saving businesses money we believe that the proposals will make it more difficult to do business in the UK and across international borders.
"This is particularly at a time when many small digital businesses are already grappling with the implementation of the revised ePrivacy Directive.
"For example: a survey of British Businesses has shown that 87% will not be able to meet the EC's proposed rule on data breaches, and that 72% of businesses have said the rules would result in over-disclosure."


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The 2014 Toyota Corolla Altis is coming soon. The US and European version of the car have been unveiled already, and while there will be some differences, the Thai version will be more or less following the European model in terms of design and specification.
For that reason, we will focus on the European model here.
The 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid sounds reasonably compelling. But despite the promise of improved fuel consumption with a price of just shy of 1.1 million baht, the Civic Hybrid may not be as economically viable as we would be lead to believe.
This week I took the Civic Hybrid for a drive and would like to share my thoughts with perspective buyers.
There are literally a handful of mainstream manufacturers in Thailand. Some of the blame for this situation lies with the high levels of tax that forms a barrier to entry for new brands unwilling to invest heavily in manufacturing bases here in Thailand. But, while tax has something to do with it, I believe it is also true to say that the average Thai car owner is very conservative.
Chevrolet is to unveil the all-new Chevrolet TrailBlazer in Thailand tomorrow, March 21st. The launch will be broadcast online and the launch event pre-empts the Bangkok International Motor Show which kicks off next week.
Although the image above would make it seem like there is still some mystery about the look of the new SUV, much of the mystery is already spoiled by previous unveils of pre-production version of the new Trailblazer, and what we already know of the new Colorado on which the Trailblazer is based, and which is already on sale.
So rather than waiting for tomorrow's launch, let's look at what we already know.
GS Thailand, has developed a new battery which is aimed squarely at the new eco-car market.
Of course, these batteries are probably not all that special if you are used to living in a part of the world where virtually all batteries are modern, and maintenance free. And if you are like me, battery technology probably won't be getting you too excited. However, the effort from GS is appreciated and worth a mention.
Proposed changes to vehicle tax rates to be based on CO2 emissions are being met with some degree of reservation by the Thai auto industry, ever keen to hammer out the best possible deal.
Will the squeaky wheel get the kick or the oil? Who's crying like the biggest baby? Read on...
With the 2011 Bangkok International Motor Show just weeks away, Chevrolet has released a teaser image of its forthcoming Colorado pickup truck. The truck will be previewed at the Bangkok show, but in preproduction form.
The decision by GM to use the 32nd Bangkok International Motor Show to take the wraps off the new design is hardly surprising. One tonne pickup trucks are very popular in Thailand, and in 2010 over 40% of all vehicles sold in the kingdom were in this category.
Thailand is set to be the third country to produce the Prius hybrid. Starting next month, the Prius will join the Cmary Hybrid on Toyota's Gateway facility production line.
For hybrid vehicles to have any chance of success in Thailand pricing needs to be competitive. Toyota's decision to produce the Prius locally should help, and since the units built in Thailand will be for the domestic and local market, perhaps there is some room for Toyota to shave a few baht off the price when deciding the equipment levels that will be offered on the standard model.
Ford has taken the wraps off its all-new 2012 Ranger at the Australian International Motor Show. The truck was developed at Ford's facility in Melbourne, Australia, and shares its platform with the all-new Mazda BT-50. Both models should be arriving in Thailand next year, and both will be built at the Ford/Mazda facility in Rayong, Thailand.
For this post I'm going to focus on the details for the Ford Ranger, and although the BT-50 will most likely have a few unique tricks, the majority of details are shared between the two sisters. Just to take a moment to comment on the obvious difference between the two, which is in the looks department. Ford's new Ranger is handsome looking and has stuck to a tried and tested truck look which clearly doesn't take any chances. With the BT-50, Mazda have clearly taken a few chances, and the result is something you will probably either love or hate it. I know I have no love for it at all!


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David Hathaway Transport increased profits by more than 52% before it was acquired by Kinaxia last year, recently published results show. The Bristol-based transport, storage and haulage contractor made a pre-tax profit of £688,000 in the year ending 31 May 2019, compared with £451,000 the year before. Turnover also rose by 11% to £15.6m during the period. The company said the increase in sales revenues was due in the main to new business in its existing customer base. Read more […]
UK Mail has revealed a pre-tax profit of £12.9m for the 12-months ended 31 March, down 19.5% on the previous year mainly due to a £2.2m hit from closure of four depots. Group turnover for the year was up by 8.4% to £429m, however, when adjusted for the increase in Royal Mail prices implemented on 6 May 2011, revenue increased by just 3.2%. The company says the results reflect UK Mail’s resilience during a year of tough trading in markets […]
Panther Warehousing has completed a management buyout (MBO), backed by private equity firm Lloyds Development Capital (LDC).
Bartrums has posted a combined turnover of £26.7m for its road services and haulage and storage arms, down on the previous year’s results, but pre-tax profit showed an improvement.


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Electric vehicles are hardly a new concept. But Germany, for one, still lags behind in getting more on the road. How are other European countries doing? Our reporters found out, on an all-electric roadtrip from the Mediterranean to the North Sea.
A fresh study by a German automotive research center has shown that Norway and China remain at the forefront of nations facilitating e-car market penetration. Germany is catching up only slowly.
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has said he doesn't understand why domestic carmakers have been so slow to invest in the development and production of electric cars. He called it a big strategic mistake.
German automakers Daimler and BMW have agreed to merge their transportation services businesses. The move will expand their offerings in car sharing, ride-hailing apps and systems for parking and charging electric cars.
The future of Europe's carmakers depends on reliable supplies of cheap lithium-ion cells, a key component of e-car batteries. But such cells are nearly all made in Asia. Does Europe need its own Li-ion cell supply?
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By Andrea Tolu
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020—in the words of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development— “it placed unprecedented stresses on food supply chains, with bottlenecks in farm labour, processing, transport and logistics.”
More than three years later, the pandemic has officially ended, but the stress test for the food supply chain is still underway. The war between Ukraine and Russia—two of the largest exporters of wheat and sunflower oil—and the increasingly severe consequences of climate change have hindered the return to normality for food manufacturers, forcing them to deal with scarcity and increased price volatility of commodities, higher energy costs, and lower crop yields.
This complex scenario is having an impact on food safety too. One direct consequence of the shortage of certain commodities is a higher risk of food fraud.
If commodities are scarce, their price will go up, creating an opportunity on the market for cheaper adulterated products,” said Rob Kooijmans, CEO of the Food Strategy Institute, a consultancy firm that helps food manufacturers with quality, safety, change management, and strategy. Food fraud can easily become a serious food safety issue. For example, there have been more cases of sunflower oil being adulterated with mineral oil and high levels of pesticides.”
More than three years later, the pandemic has officially ended, but the stress test for the food supply chain is still underway.
Increase the frequency of onsite audits and testing
As Kooijmans explains, auditing suppliers in person is the first step to reducing the risk of food fraud. In a global market, however, onsite audits might not always be possible, and even if an audit goes well today, there’s no guarantee that the supplier won’t commit fraud tomorrow. The only failsafe method is testing.
“Have independent surveyors test your shipment,” Kooijmans said. “For instance, if you buy a 20-ton truck of sunflower oil, the surveyor will take a sample from the truck, seal the shipment, and send you a picture of the seal with the number. If, by the time the shipment arrives, the test was negative and the seal is still intact and has the same number, then you can accept it.”
“If it’s an entire shipload, you could stipulate in the contract that you’re going to test it before it’s gone through customs. If you find any issues you will send it back, and the supplier will bear the cost. Such a term, however, might be more difficult to negotiate.”
Extreme weather’s impact on pathogen risk
Increasing temperatures and extreme weather are also having consequences for food safety.
“In 2021, the summer was very hot in Canada and the U.S., but very rainy in Europe, while in 2022 it was the other way round,” said Kooijmans. “Whenever there’s a wet summer during harvesting, especially of wheat and corn, there’s a much higher risk of growth of Aspergillus moulds. Some of these moulds create aflatoxin, which is toxic and carcinogenic, and cannot be killed by cooking.”
Farmers are aware of this phenomenon and will increase the frequency of aflatoxin testing following wet harvests. The problem, however, is that it’s very difficult to have statistically valid aflatoxin test results in large lots.
“Aflatoxin in grains is present in small spots. When you have the content of a 20-ton or even a 100-ton silo ready to be shipped, you might take 100 samples in different areas and find no aflatoxin, although it’s probably there,” Koojimans said. “In normal dry conditions, however, its incidence is around 1%, which is very low. In humid conditions, it would be much higher. However, even if you take 200 samples, you might still find nothing.”
Since testing will only protect you so far against aflatoxin contamination, another way to enhance detection is to use optical sorting systems that allow you to inspect the entire lot and detect the colour difference of contaminated grains.
Other ways to minimize aflatoxin exposure include postharvest techniques such as ammonification, hydrated oxides, and the use of biological methods such as Aflasafe.
Specific risks aside, food businesses can protect themselves from uncontrollable global events by being more aware of what is happening around them.
Monitor Recall Databases
“You should already be following your national recall database regularly, or using a tool like Horizon Scan so that you understand what is happening in the global market.,” says Kooijmans.
“For example, if you buy wheat in the U.S. and you know that the weather during the summer was humid, you can start asking your supplier how they’re managing the risk of aflatoxin contamination: are they doing more tests, or do they also use an optical shorting system?” Kooijmans said.
Building Diversity in the Supply Chain
Another effective practice to build resilience in food safety programs is the diversification of suppliers.
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Even in normal times, you should start looking for a dual or even a triple point of supply in order to spread the risk. It will cost you a little bit extra, but it can save the day for you when an emergency strikes.”
About the author:
Andrea Tolu is a freelance writer who works with companies in the food and hospitality industries. Other than food safety, he writes regularly about food regulations, ingredients, and restaurant technology.


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(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Published: Tue 5 Dec 2023, 6:00 AM
Last updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023, 7:29 AM
Demand for Palestinian keffiyeh is increasing in the UAE as more and more residents are using them to express solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing Israeli attack on Gaza that killed more than 15,500 people.
The black-and-white chequered scarf that is traditionally worn around the neck or head evolved into a powerful symbol of Palestinian nationalism during the revolt in 1936–1939. Once associated with cultural heritage, the keffiyeh has become a symbol of solidarity to the Palestinian cause.
Local markets have witnessed a surge in demand for the traditional scarf.“We have seen a sharp rise in the sales of keffiyeh and products in that print,” said Abdul Haleem, a salesperson at a local store in Deira.
Local markets have witnessed a surge in demand for the traditional keffiyeh since the recent Israeli attack on Gaza.
“It was always in demand. But now people are buying it to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause,” he added.
Many stores across the Deira market have stocked these scarves, and the traders said that people from many neighbouring and African countries are buying them wholesale to resell back home.“It is a powerful display of solidarity,” said Ashif, another vendor in Deira market.
"There are many ways to wear scarves. Some tie it on their heads, some wear it around their necks, and women usually wear it over their shirts,” added Ashif.
The prices of these scarves start at Dh25 in retail.“The prices depend on the quality of the product and the most expensive one we have is for Dh250,” said Ashif.
It is not only the scarves that are in demand. There are many products in the Palestinian traditional keffiyeh prints. Vendors have responded to the increased demand by expanding their inventory of Palestinian goods. These include key chains, mugs, and the traditional Arabic shawl with Keffiyeh prints.
"These shawls are highly in demand. We have been receiving heavy orders since last month. Many different designs are visible in the market. For now, we have over seven designs with us,” said Abdul Badi, a local vendor at the Deira souk.
Look away from Gaza, but only so you can look back
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Watch: UAE field hospital in Gaza starts treating patients
Israel orders more evacuations but Palestinians are running out of places to go
Each shawl costs about Dh20 in retail.“However, if people want to buy in wholesale, it's Dh160 for a dozen,” said Badi.
Bags with Keffiyeh design are also in demand. Germine, owner of Bubbly Thread, said that she started these print bags in April and since the war broke out, the demand has been increased.
“I make the bags myself. And currently, I am receiving orders every day,” said Germine.
"I really don't have time even to receive calls. I am packed with orders. People are buying it to support the Palestinians,” said Germine.
Shawls, bags and other products with keffiyeh design also are high in demand, according to traders. Buying olives, oil to support the cause
It is not just the Keffiyeh-designed products. Palestinian olive oil, olives and clothes are also in great demand.
"I wanted to show my support for the people of Gaza, and wearing T-shirts with Palestinian slogans is a meaningful way to do that. It's a small gesture, but it carries a powerful message," said Aisha Ahmed, a Dubai resident spotted at a bus stop.
A salesperson at a popular supermarket in Dubai said that he noticed many residents asking for olive oil from Palestine.“We stock Palestinian olive oil every day. It is in high demand. People ask us about products from Palestine. It's a form of showing support,” he added.“Palestinian olives were always in demand. And currently, we are running out of stock.”
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Category: Agriculture & Food
Getting some extra omega-3 fatty acids in your diet will soon be easier with enriched eggs developed through a collaboration between the University of Adelaide and South Australian egg producer Solar Eggs.
Discarded potato peelings and pulp created by potato product manufacturers could soon be turned into a Premium South Australian Vodka.
Gluten-free bread products are often considered inferior in texture and taste compared to regular bread, but that is set to change with Riviera Bakery partnering with the University of Adelaide
Food production and processing is going through its biggest transformation since the industrial revolution.
Remarkable Adelaide research is developing innovative image-analysis technology to dramatically accelerate identification of robust crop varieties capable of producing higher yields in harsh, climate-change-affected conditions.
Research at Adelaide is revealing critical consumer and alternative-production insights to guide Australian winemakers in the search for increased sales and new markets.
A research team from the Centre for Global Food & Resources is leading a major international collaborative project to help West Javan and North Sumatran dairy farmers significantly increase the quantity and quality of the milk they produce—and achieve sustainable growth.
We are embracing external collaboration to ensure our food-related investigations meet real world needs and deliver a smooth, lab-to-plate transition of benefits.
Adelaide researchers are working to arrest a worrying global decline in populations of the insects we rely on to pollinate many of our food crops – and sustain industries worth billions.
One of Australian native food’s best-kept, and most nutritious, secrets is now an important step closer to large-scale commercial viability, thanks to research undertaken at the University of Adelaide.
Research shows efforts to educate Australian women on their nutritional needs during and after pregnancy—and provide clear instructions regarding the correct and safe use of infant formula—are falling dangerously short.
State-of-the-art DNA tracking methods developed at the University of Adelaide are set to help fibre, food and plant oil producers and processors verify their products’ source of origin—and support authorities fighting fraud.
With countless factors – including many ethical – influencing modern-day Australians’ food choices, ongoing research into how and why we reach our decisions is providing invaluable intelligence for local food producers and policymakers.
Influencing far more than just our energy levels and waistlines, complex carbohydrates are one of the most important building blocks of existence—and we are a global leader in their investigation.
A premium apple sprit made from leftover cider pulp is the goal of this collaboration between the Hills Cider Company and the University of Adelaide.
Helping our wine industry modulate flavour and alcohol levels in the face of climate and market change
Informing our wine industry’s growth strategies through a world-first database of global wine grape production
Partnering with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to enhance the agriculture and health of Australia and China
Not all almonds are the same, in fact our research has shown that some taste better than others and can be grown easier and with less risk of disease
The barley varieties developed by the University’s Barley Breeding Program account for approximately half of Australia’s barley production. Associate Professor Jason Eglinton leads the Program.


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Using a plant in Janesville, WI as a launching pad, Prent Corp. now manufactures in six other locations, including China, Malaysia, Denmark and Singapore. With sales well above $200 million annually, it may be the world's largest custom thermoformer of rigid plastic packaging for the medical, electronics and consumer markets.
In an interview with PlasticsToday.com, CEO Joseph T. Pregont said that Prent will open a new plant in Costa Rica; is in the process of doubling the size of the plant in Malaysia; and will "definitely" open new plants in the next few years.
More details about future expansion plans are proprietary at the privately held company, which interestingly has fueled its growth organically. No outside venture funds are involved....