text:
Consumer Crackdown: Cryptocurrency scams skyrocket in 2021
Fraud losses hit 10-year high
InvestigateTV - When Samuel Woody downloaded an app on his phone for business, he never thought he’d be a victim of a scam.
“All I was trying to do was just do a good thing by helping my church,” said Samuel Woody.
Just one day after downloading the app, Woody said he got a call from a third party claiming his account had been hacked. Caught off guard by the call, Woody said he quickly gave the unknown man his personal information.
What he didn’t realize was that he was turning critical financial information over to fraudsters.
“I panicked, naïve to what was going on,” Woody said.
He said the man then convinced him to withdraw $3,800 from two credit union accounts and convert that money into cryptocurrency.
“I got a receipt back and the whole time the manager was telling me I was going to get my money back and I never did,” Woody said.
He eventually learned he wasn’t speaking with a manager at all, he had been scammed. Woody said he then filed complaints with law enforcement, the Better Business Bureau, and federal agencies to try to get his money back. He said while he managed to recover a portion of the funds, it wasn’t nearly enough.
“I was really upset, you know, these guys need to be caught because they can do other people like that,” said Woody.
Woody is not alone. According to the National Consumers League, 2021 was a banner year for scammers. Losses to fraud hit a 10-year high and cryptocurrency-related deals were one of the fastest-growing scams.
“Cryptocurrency is in many ways the holy grail of payment methods if you’re a scammer,” said John Breyault.
Breyault heads up Fraud.org at the National Consumers League. He said scammers prefer cryptocurrency because it’s immediate and not reversible.
Breyault said the NCL wants to strengthen regulations on financial apps and cryptocurrency exchanges to stop fraud.
“I think we’re really reaching a tipping point where regulators here in Washington are starting to wake up to the fact that these new technologies sound great, but fraudsters know how to use them too and it’s costing American consumers billions of dollars,” Breyault said. “Something needs to be done.”
Not only are scammers using cryptocurrency as payment in traditional phishing scams, some also pose as brokers to persuade you to invest.
Experts we spoke with said to protect your money, search online for the company and cryptocurrency name to make sure it’s legit before investing and be careful of guarantees and big promises.
If you’re a victim of a cryptocurrency investment scam, report it to the Federal Trade Commission, the Attorney General’s office, and the Better Business Bureau. Your case could result in legal action. To find a complete list of the top ten scams reported to the National Consumer’s League in 2021, go to Fraud.org.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
Over the past few years, computer maker Acer has acquired a number of smaller companies including Gateway and Packard Bell. But rather than killing off those brand names and combining those companies’ products and technology with its own, Acer has continued to pump out computers under the Gateway and Packard bell brand names.
And that means the creative folks at the company get to come up with as many as three names for any computer they produce.
Case in point: The Acer AspireRevo nettop. This NVIDIA ION-powered desktop was first announced in April. In May, Packard Bell introduced the iMax Mini, which is basically an AspireRevo with the Packard Bell label slapped on the case. And today, Gateway is introducing the QX2800, which is… you guessed it, an AspireRevo with a light coat of Gateway branding.
Like its siblings, the Gateway QX2800 packs a dual core Intel Atom 330 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, 6 USB ports, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 4-in-1 card reader, and up to 2GB of RAM and a hard drive up to 500GB. It also has an HDMI output.

domain: news


text:
China Sets up Centralized Clearing Platform for Online Payments
The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has required all banks and third-party payment institutions to connect to a unified platform by June 30 of 2018 to ensure effective regulation and transaction security.
The new platform, dubbed Nets Union Clearing Corp., is aimed at enhancing supervision of the country’s expanding online payment market. The platform was set up by 45 companies, including the PBOC which own a 12% stake in the platform.
At present, most third-party payment institutions are directly connected with banks for processing online payment transactions. However, according to a document the central bank released Friday, all banks and third-party payment institutions in China, must complete preparation of connecting to the unified platform Nets Union Clearing Corporation (NUCC) before October 15, 2017 and all online payment involved bank accounts will be carried out on the NUCC since June 30, 2018.
China has the largest third-party payment users and transaction volume in the world while the central bank could not have detailed transaction information and capital flow due to the direct payment tools-bank connection which can be taken advantages in money laundry, credit cards cashing out and illicit money transferring. (Source: finance.sina)
Visa Submits Bankcard Clearing Business Application to PBOC
On August 4, international credit card brand Visa Inc. said it had submitted an application to China’s central bank for setting up a bankcard clearing body in China. If the application is approved, it will break the monopoly in a multi-trillion-dollar market foreign firms have been trying to tap for decades.
Bankcard clearing business refers to settling and transferring funds among banks as well as between banks and businesses that accept bankcards, according to the report.
China UnionPay has until now been the only service provider in the country’s domestic bank card clearing market since its establishment in 2002. Foreign rivals such as MasterCard could only handle Chinese travellers’ transactions overseas. The central People’s Bank of China called the move a “the first step towards full opening” of the sector, noting that foreign companies can also apply to enter the sector, which was worth 449.9 trillion yuan ($72.6 trillion) last year.
According to the statement of PBOF, the applicants must, among other things, be incorporated in China and have more than one billion yuan in registered capital. (Source: finance.sina)
Tencent and China Development Bank Sign an Agreement to Collaborate on ‘Internet +’ Strategy
Earlier this month, the China Development Bank and Tencent signed an “Internet +” development financial strategic cooperation agreement. In the future, the two entities will collaborate on “Internet +” “precision” poverty relief, Internet financial innovation, onshore and offshore credit financing, technological and innovative enterprise incubation, information technology applications and other areas.
Recently, China has banned online loans to college students which has been accompanied by outrage over various financial scams.
China Development Bank is a “policy financial institute” under the State Council, and it covers over 90% of the student loans market. This time, Tencent and China Development Bank decide to launch a brand new series of students’ loans services with stronger stringent compliance.
In order to ensure smooth disbursement of State-subsidized student loans and facilitate loan application for college students from poverty-stricken families, the two sides decide to re-formulate the loan process and revise the internal management methods and relevant contracts. With advanced technologies, new application procedure and form for State-Subsidized Student Loans will be developed by the bank and Tencent, as an effort to improve the loan approval efficiency and shorten the disbursement process in China. (Source: 01caijing)
[clickToTweet tweet=”China Development Bank & Tencent sign an ‘Internet +’ development financial strategic cooperation agreement #Fintech” quote=”China Development Bank & Tencent sign an ‘Internet +’ development financial strategic cooperation agreement #Fintech”]
ChinaPnR International Cooperates with South Korean Platform TST to Launch Tuition Payment Service
ChinaPnR International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PnR Data Service, has announced to cooperated with South Korean tuition payment platform TST to launch cross-border tuition payment service for Chinese students.
TST is the largest tuition payment platform in South Korea, founded by Xingyue Group and South Korean payment and settlement company KSNET. So far, several South Korean universities (including Central University, Ewha Womans University, Dongguo University, Chongshi University, Chungbei University, North Korea University, Gwangju Women’s University, Dongxin University and Cottage University) have joined the cooperation.
ChinaPnR, established in 2006, is committed to provide fundamental service packages for new financial industries, covering 50% of P2P lending platforms as well as other new financial institutions such as third-party wealth management and private equity. That helps ChinaPnR create a new financial ecology with its partners. (Source: finance.ifeng)
Chinese P2P lender Dianrong scores $220m funding led by Singapore’s GIC
On August 2, Chinese P2P lending platform Dianrong announced Series D round funding of US$220 million from leading global investment funds. The funding was led by GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, along with CMIG Leasing, Simone Investment Managers, and other institutional and individual investors.
Soul Htite, Founder and CEO of Dianrong, said, Dianrong is humbled and honored to welcome GIC, CMIG Leasing, and Simone Investment Managers, to the Dianrong family. The addition of these distinguished global investors not only validates our past successes, but reinforces the commitment to “The New Finance”, which applies fintech to deliver greater financial freedom to Chinese families and small businesses. This latest capital injection will help Dianrong expand and accelerate these efforts and further drive sustainable and profitable business growth.
Founded in 2012, Dianrong offers loan origination, investment products and marketplace lending solutions. The company claims that it originates US$500 million in loans each month for four million retail lenders.
Last month, it acquired Quark Finance, a Chinese consumer finance and risk management company, to expand its local footprint across China. This March, the start-up also partnered with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. to launch Chained Finance, the first blockchain platform for supply chain finance in China. (Source: finance.sina)
China’s Central Bank to Regulate Rapidly Growing Fintech
In a report released last weekend, the People’s Bank of China said some financial products offered through internet channels by fintech companies are “systemically important” and hence will be included in its macro-prudential assessment or MPA.
The aim is to prevent cyclical risks and cross-market risk transmission, it said. Big players in the third-party payment services market and the peer-to-peer or P2P lending market are likely to be included first.
Previously, only big financial institutions, such as banks, brokerages and insurers, who play leading roles in their respective sectors, were regarded as “systemically important” and were included in the MPA framework. Their debt-to-asset ratio, liquidity, pricing, asset qualities, debt risks and lending policies are assessed by the central bank.
[clickToTweet tweet=”China’s Central Bank to Regulate Rapidly Growing #Fintech” quote=”China’s Central Bank to Regulate Rapidly Growing #Fintech”]
Considering the definition of “systemically important” services and the market size of all fintech businesses, third-party payment services and P2P lenders are most likely to become the first to be regulated under the MPA framework. Meanwhile, the movement of PBOF is a significant sign for the fintech market because regulation indicates recognition of importance, and MPA, a mid-to long-term regulation framework, indicates that short-term risks are well handled. (Source: finance.china)
JD Finance Issues Blockchain based ABS Product to Finance Car Loans
Earlier this year, JD Finance announced to launch a blockchain based assets management system, which would be operated within JD Finance’s Assets Cloud Factory, and consumer finance companies were first to settle in the Assets Cloud Factory. On August 4, JD Finance announced issuance of the first blockchain-based ABS product of car financing in China. Based on IBM Fabric1.0, the product is jointly developed by Credit-first Capital, ZRobot and Goldenstand. The product contains private equity ABS for personal car rental. The adoption of blockchain technology provides operation transparency for the asset, which greatly enhance the efficiency, safety and traceability of the product.
[clickToTweet tweet=”JD Finance Issues #Blockchain based ABS Product to Finance Car Loans” quote=”JD Finance Issues #Blockchain based ABS Product to Finance Car Loans”]
As per the report, blockchain is adopted to solve the trust issue. Features like decentralized storage, asymmetric secret key and consensus algorithm are introduced. JD Finance also test some new features by adding some “adaptive modifications”. Attacks on the network protocol is simulated on the security lab of JD Finance to ensure the safety of the network and the protocol. The consortium blockchain could process up to million TPS scale. Big data and AI technology developed by JD Finance is also integrated in the program. Authority hierarchy and asymmetric encryption are deployed to ensure information security. (Source: finance.ifeng)
WeiyangX is the most influential website focusing on fintech in China. The site covers the latest news, industry data analysis, business practices, and in-depth fintech cases in fintech. WeiyangX is incubated by Fintech Lab. Founded by Tsinghua University’s People’s Bank of China (PBC) School of Finance in 2012, the Fintech Lab is the first and leading research entity dedicated to leading best practices, promoting interdisciplinary innovation, and encouraging entrepreneurship in the field of fintech through scientific research and innovative project incubation.


text:
|Bid||171.81 x 400|
|Ask||171.87 x 300|
|Day's Range||164.42 - 172.12|
|52 Week Range||98.00 - 172.12|
|PE Ratio (TTM)||59.74|
|Forward Dividend & Yield||0.00 (0.00%)|
|1y Target Est||N/A|
Adobe is hosting its Max conference this week -- and as usual, it's using the event to show off some of its latest experiments.
Almost exactly a year ago, Adobe launched Project Felix, its 3D compositing tool for designers who want to combine their 2D images with 3D assets.
Adobe is using its annual MAX conference to launch a number of new features that are especially interesting to enterprises today.
Its a red day for the market, but one stock bucking that trend is Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). While I’m not one to usually chase rallies, I think ADBE stock is in the middle of a secular bull run. As the company has successfully transitioned to a cloud and subscription service-based business model, ADBE stock has taken off.
Solid performance in cloud subscriptions as well as software license order entry drives SAP SE (SAP)'s third-quarter fiscal 2017 results year over year. The company's full-year guidance is increased.
Adobe Systems stock jumped to a record high on Thursday in the wake of the company's bullish 2018 forecast issued late Wednesday.
Shares of Adobe Systems (ADBE) were up more than 10% in morning trading Thursday after the company felt a bullish reaction to several key announcements at its annual Adobe MAX user conference.
Adobe Systems Inc. stock hit record highs in Thursday's session, after the software company provided preliminary forecasts for its 2018 fiscal year Wednesday afternoon. At its annual Adobe Max conference ...
The Halftime Report traders give you their final trades on four big movers: Apple, Brighthouse Financial, United Continental & Adobe.


text:
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) — China and Africa have maintained robust economic and trade cooperation, despite COVID-19, as their bilateral trade has set a record high in the January-September period.
Trade between China and Africa rose 38.2 percent year on year to 185.2 billion U.S. dollars in the January-September period, reaching the highest level in history for the same period, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said Wednesday.
China’s direct investment in Africa hit 2.59 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months, up 9.9 percent, year on year. The growth rate is 3 percentage points higher than China’s overall outbound investment, Qian said, adding that the growth rate outperformed the pre-pandemic level in the same period of 2019.
Chinese enterprises signed 53.5 billion U.S. dollars in new contracts in Africa in the period, up 22.2 percent year on year, with a turnover of 26.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.6 percent year on year.
These figures fully demonstrated the confidence of Chinese enterprises in Africa’s future development, Qian said.
The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) takes place in Senegal at the end of November.
Against the backdrop of COVID-19, the 55 FOCAC members will gather again, which shows the strong willingness of China and Africa to deepen cooperation, Qian said. Qian believes the conference will boost the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and chart the course for sustainable and high-quality development of China-Africa cooperation. He also said it would play a positive role in building a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.
China has maintained its position as Africa’s largest trade partner for 12 years straight. The bilateral trade defied pandemic pressure to hit 187 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
Ever since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, trade between China and Africa and China’s direct investment in Africa have increased 20 and 100 times, respectively, said Xu Bu, president of the China Institute of International Studies, at a forum in October.
China-Africa trade is generally balanced from a long-term perspective. Since 2000, China has imported 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars of goods from Africa and exported 1.27 trillion U.S. dollars of goods to Africa, Qian said.
Regarding sustainable development, Qian said China is ready to strengthen policy coordination with Africa. China would boost green, low-carbon, and clean energy cooperation and conduct technology exchanges to support Africa in enhancing its capacity to adapt to climate change and achieve sustainable development. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)


text:
There's no better First Client than the First Lady.
At the Celebration of Design event at the White House on Wednesday, Michelle Obama was outfitted in an inky blue dress by a designer no one had ever heard of. The figure-flattering frock, selected by the FLOTUS herself, was designed by Fashion Institute of Technology junior Natalya Koval.
The 29-year-old Koval was picked out of 26 FIT students competing in a challenge to dress a celebrity — without knowing they were creating a dress for Obama.
"They said it should not be too revealing but not too conservative, not too short but not too long," Koval tells The News about the dream assignment, noting that while she didn't know who the dress was for, she was already channeling the First Lady of Fashion. "I had Mrs. Obama in mind as my inspiration."
Koval decided to go with a modern silhouette, a sleeveless design in luxe crepe silk and hammered satin with a sexy racerback and full circle skirt. And, she says, since she was already checking out photos of the First Lady for research, she knew which body parts to accentuate.
"I definitely wanted to show her arms and her shoulders," she says of the FLOTUS' famous biceps.
After a panel of judges from the White House and FIT reviewed the submissions, the dress was produced at designer Lela Rose's Manhattan atelier with fabric purchased in the Garment District. The dress, now hanging in Mrs. O's closet, took nearly three months to complete.
The big reveal took place Tuesday at the White House, where designers like Obama favorites Naeem Khan, Tracy Reese and Prabal Gurung joined together with top editors Anna Wintour and Eva Chen to hold a fashion education event.
"When it comes to the fashion industry," Obama said in prepared remarks, "so often people think it's all about catwalks and red carpets and 'who wore it best,' and whether some famous person wore the right belt with the right shoes."
Instead, Obama said, she wanted to focus on the people who actually make a living designing clothes.
For Koval, however, it was also about sitting at the cool girls' table.
"I had the honor of being at the same table as Anna Wintour and Mrs. Obama," Koval gushes. "So many people complimented me, saying Mrs. Obama looks so graceful, so beautiful."
And when it was finally her turn to pose alongside her client, Obama turned to her and said, "Job well done, babe."
Koval has a year and a half to go before completing her BFA at FIT, hoping to concentrate on sportswear. But for now, as she told the First Lady, she can cross one American dream off her list.
"I cannot top that," says Koval. "It's the cherry on the top of the cake."


text:
AUSTIN, Texas – Gov. Greg Abbott is encouraging Texans to participate in Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28.
In a video released Tuesday, Abbott urges Texans to shop small, shop local and help support businesses in their community throughout the holiday season — whether safely in-person or online.
“As our state responds to COVID-19, these businesses need our support more than ever. That’s why I encourage all Texans to join me in celebrating and supporting our entrepreneurs and small businesses on Saturday, November 28th, and throughout the holiday season,” Abbott said in the video.
When shopping in-person, Texans are urged to protect themselves and loved ones from the spread of COVID-19 by wearing a face covering, frequently sanitizing their hands and social distancing.
You can view the video below:


text:
'iPhone 8' Still Expected to Launch in September in Limited Quantities
Apple's widely rumored high-end iPhone with a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge OLED display will launch in September, although the majority of stock may not be available until later in the fourth quarter, according to the latest research from Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis, Christopher Hemmelgarn, Thomas O'Malley, and Jerry Zhang.
The prediction suggests that Apple's tenth-anniversary iPhone, which has been variously dubbed the iPhone 8, iPhone X, iPhone Pro, or iPhone Edition, will still be available in limited quantities in September. However, shipping estimates could slip to several weeks out just minutes after pre-orders begin.
What do you think Apple's rumored "special edition" iPhone will be called? Tweet us your own ideas. — MacRumors.com (@MacRumors) March 18, 2017
An excerpt from the Barclays research note obtained by MacRumors:
Suppliers generally had good things to say about the upcoming iPhone 8 launch (for our purposes iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone Pro) as new features drive a more complicated manufacturing process and higher ASPs. We now believe that all three devices will feature wireless charging and will all be launched in the normal September timeframe, although the majority of iPhone Pro volumes may not be available until Q4.
Barclays contradicts a recent report that claimed the 5.8-inch iPhone will be announced alongside updated 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models, or the so-called iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, but might not go on sale until much later.
By the sounds of it, availability of Apple's first iPhone with an OLED display could be similar to the iPhone 7 Plus in Jet Black, which was virtually nowhere to be found through the holiday shopping season last year. When an Apple Store or reseller happened to get a few Jet Black models in stock, they sold out almost instantly.
The analysts, citing information from Apple's supply chain following a trip to Asia earlier this month, also reiterated their expectations for the 5.8-inch iPhone. Many of its predictions echo those already made by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a respectable track record at revealing Apple's plans.
Barclays said the phone will feature a 5.8-inch display with 5.15 inches of usable screen, as Kuo said. It expects Touch ID to be embedded in the display, and the remaining space could be for virtual buttons. It believes the device will have wireless charging, but wireless charging accessories will be sold separately.
It said the 5.8-inch iPhone's stacked logic board design will provide more space for a larger battery and other components, as Kuo previously said. Other features Barclays expects include a front-facing 3D sensor module, the same dual camera setup as the iPhone 7 Plus, and a film-based Force Touch solution.


text:
Luxury hotel Rixos Marina Abu Dhabi will open in the capital this year. Located at Abu Dhabi Breakwater and housed in a giant pink-arched skyscraper that towers over the island, the new Rixos hotel will welcome guests from October. The hotel’s all-inclusive concept will start in 2023, an Accor spokesperson has confirmed
Set to open in August 2022, the hotly-anticipated Rixos Marina Abu Dhabi is an iconic architectural landmark overlooking sparkling waters and a sandy shoreline.
Rixos Premium Dubai continues a solid performance reporting an increase of reservations in June with a postitive outlook into July.
Rixos Premium Dubai underlines its commitment to the wellbeing of staff members throughout the year with several initiatives aimed at their happiness and welfare during the month of May, which is internationally recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month.
Accor is accelerating its expansion in the all-inclusive market with the launch of its multi-branded All-Inclusive Collection, which aims to build upon the success of the Rixos brand.
Breaking Travel News has been taking a look at Rixos The Palm Dubai Hotel & Suites this week, here offering readers a chance to explore the property in partnership with sister company Virtual World
Rixos The Palm Dubai Hotel & Suites is something of a trailblazer in the United Arab Emirates, bringing an all-inclusive product to a market that had previously lacked such an offering. Here Breaking Travel News chats to general manager, Murat Zorlu, to find out more
Situated on the Palm Jumeirah, one of the largest man-made islands in the world, Rixos the Palm Dubai Hotel & Suites is a welcoming respite from the hustle and bustle of the metropolis. Here Breaking Travel News calls in to find out more
The company will upgrade and restyle the Makarem Annakheel Village, transforming it into a full-fledged tourist resort with a five-star luxury hotel, water park, swimming pools and villas.
Holidaymakers can indulge in an elegant array of 410 suites and villas, with the smallest suite flaunting a 53 meter-squared space, from March 15th.


text:
China is making more aggressive steps to make its currency more international and plans are afoot to expand the liberalisation of yuan in foreign trade, according to an online report by People’s Daily.
"All the 11 provinces and cities that are not on the list of the trial project of cross-border yuan trade settlement will be included in this proposed expansion. In addition, the capital account could also be liberalized further," the report said, quoting an unidentified source.
In fact, the expansion of the project has been set as one of the major tasks on the agenda of the People's Bank of China for 2011.
Eight overseas financial institutions are given access to China's inter-bank bond market recently. Analysts say that initiative will facilitate the business of cross-border yuan trade settlement.
According to the central bank's latest report on the international financial market in 2010, banks made more than 500 billion yuan of cross-border RMB trade settlement in 2010, accounting for 2% of China's total foreign trade value that year and about 48 times the amount in 2009.
China launched the pilot project of yuan cross-border trade settlement in five cities in April 2009, namely Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan, and then extended it to 20 provinces and cities in July of the same year. At the same time, the overseas areas that are included in the projects expanded from China's Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR and the ASEAN countries to all its trading partners.
By the end of December 2010, 67,724 enterprises had made trade deals with yuan settlement, compared with only 365 in 2009. By February 2011, 724.9 billion yuan of trade had been settled in RMB, which was 201 times as the amount of 2009.
As the major holder and dealer of RMB account, Chinese banks are playing the leading role in the RMB clearance business. By 2010, more than half of the cross-border yuan trade settlement was handled by Bank of China, followed by the 25% by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, 15% by China Construction Bank (CCB) and the 8% by Agricultural Bank of China (ABC).
Currently, cross-border yuan trade settlement is conducted either by the overseas branches of Bank of China, which is the exclusive yuan clearance bank in Hong Kong and Macao authorized by the central bank, or via overseas banks' RMB clearance accounts set up in correspondent banks on the Chinese mainland.
Competition for the business is increasing with foreign banks also keen on making their presence felt on this market. International banks, like HSBC and Bank of America, have already dominated the business in the neighbouring markets like Japan. Standard Chartered are stepping up the promotion of its role in this business in South Eastern Asia. And Hang Seng Bank's cross-border RMB trade settlement deals surged 12 times than that prior to the expansion of the trail project to more than 35 billion yuan by the end of 2010. – Source: People’s Daily


text:
New York—Frank Boulben, CMO at telecommunications and wireless company BlackBerry, was recognized Wednesday by the Business Marketing Association of New York City as its Communicator of the Year, in recognition of his work to refocus the brand and turn around its smartphone business.
BlackBerry's CMO since June 2012, Boulben has worked to reposition the company, formerly known as Research in Motion, as the purveyor of phones for the “productivity user,” and spearheaded the rollout of ads in support of the company's new Z lineup of smartphones with touch interfaces.
“It all started with our culture and establishing clearly our vision and mission,” Boulben said. He said the company's value proposition is summed up now by the acronym BOLD, standing for brave, open, lean and dependable. “We had an iconic brand, but it was getting diluted,” he said. “We put the BlackBerry brand back at the center and renamed the company.”
Boulben also has worked to centralize the marketing function—marketing was previously handled by separate international regions and messages were becoming increasingly fragmented, he said—and added the Net Promoter score as a gauge of customer satisfaction.
The company's new Z10 smartphone with a touch interface was introduced this year with a “Keep Moving” campaign, kicked off with a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl in February. A more advanced Z30 model was introduced Wednesday. The company also announced Wednesday that its popular BBM messaging system is now available for Android and Apple phones.
Agencies working on the BlackBerry campaigns have included Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO for creative and brand efforts; Publicis Groupe for digital efforts; Proximity for customer relationship marketing; Publicis' Phonevalley for mobile initiatives; Brodeur Partners for public relations; and Edelman for social media.
“Everything was about showing what the new device could do, instead of just telling,” Boulben said. “That included a seeding program, giving Fortune 500 CEOs new BlackBerry devices and providing demos for them, so they could see for themselves the new features.”
BMA New York's Communicator of the Year award, now in its 51st year, is presented in recognition of outstanding b-to-b marketing communications.


text:
“You’re taking something that people have used for years, if not decades, and putting it off-limits.”
Why you ought to take that Zumper survey with a shaker of salt.
The Business Improvement District designation is meant to improve, for a price.
She’s formally advising Greenhouse Ventures, a Philadelphia startup that trains and invests in cannabis businesses.
More than 100 Comcast technicians are combing through Philly daily looking to replace and hide wires per its franchise agreement with the city.
Lots of people wear Warby, and it’s got a ton of fans — but also a ton of detractors. TBH, its PR strategy is fairly… short-sighted.
31 million travelers. Almost half have at least an hour’s layover. It’s a captive market — there are big challenges, but a much bigger upside.
When the Piazza opened in 2009, 37 stores, offices and restaurants filled its confines. Only four of them are still around.
Dubbed “the nation’s only startup pitch competition and music festival,” the RECESS Music + Ideas Festival is coming to Philly today.
The green stuff is officially legal for medicinal purposes. And entrepreneurs know it can bring them some serious green, too.


text:
Baxter International ($BAX) has initiated a worldwide recall of three lots of sodium chloride as well as one of highly concentrated potassium chloride, the company announced today. The recall of the saline comes even as hospitals for months have been facing a shortage of the essential product.
The intravenous (IV) solutions are being recalled to the hospital level after four customers complained that they found bags that contained particulate matter, which has been an ongoing problem for Baxter IV products. The notice of the recall issued by the FDA says there have been no adverse reactions reported so far. But there are risks if someone gets a solution with particulates in it. During a March recall of a single lot of a dialysis product in which mold was found, the drugmaker acknowledged that there had been reports of reactions after patients received the solution.
Baxter spokesman John O'Malley said in a statement today that, "The products affected by this recall are smaller volume IV solutions, not the large volume containers that have seen the greatest constraint in supply in the U.S. As such there should be no impact in Baxter's continuing effort to meet patient and customer needs for 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection. Specific to the smaller volume IV solutions that are being recalled, replacement product is available for order." He said the four lots were recalled from Chile, Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.S.
The severe saline shortage materialized after some product recalls last year and then a surge of use during the last flu season. It has forced producers to sometimes to limit shipments and many U.S. hospitals to rethink their use to make sure they can maintain supplies of the essential treatment. It is a product that the U.S. system turns to millions of times a week.
The FDA has been working with the three U.S. manufacturers, Baxter, Hospira ($HSP) and B. Braun Medical, to boost their U.S. production and even allowed the import of product from two European plants that were not approved to ship saline to the U.S. In March, the FDA temporarily approved a Fresenius Kabi plant in Norway to ship to the U.S. and a couple of weeks later made the same concession for a Baxter plant in Spain. Even with those additional supplies, the shortage has not yet been resolved.
- read the recall notice


text:
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how App Store fortunes are made. We've posted already about the almost overnight success of Draw Something, an app that has picked up over 30 million downloads and even beaten Zynga at its own game on Facebook. And because everyone knows that Zynga has plenty of cash and just needs as many users as it can get, the check has apparently been written: The company is expected to announce the acquisition of Draw Something's developer, OMGPOP, at a press conference happening in just a bit later on today. All Things Digital says it has indeed been confirmed.
OMGPOP has a few different titles out, as well as a New York-based team of about 40 people. But what Zynga is really after here is the audience -- its games are social, so the more people playing them the better, and with the overnight audience of Draw Something, Zynga can promote its other games quite a bit.
As for OMGPOP, my guess is that the company hasn't had too much success on the App Store until now, and basically decided to get on the money train while it's still in the station. Zynga's known for swooping in fast on deals like this -- if things had gone the other way, and OMGPOP had decided to hold out and try to really monetize the app on their own, odds are we would have seen Zynga try to take advantage of Draw Something's popularity anyway.
At any rate, congrats to the OMGPOP team. Plenty of Draw Something players are groaning on Twitter, and lots of them are hoping that Zynga doesn't ruin what's still a pretty good and clean experience. But you never know -- with Zynga's resources, maybe Draw Something will turn into something even better yet.


text:
A few days ago we at HolyTransaction decided to allow you to store a new digital currency on our platform, by creating a Gamecredits wallet.
Gamecredit is a new payment gateway for the gaming industry that aims at avoid limitations and challenges linked to the traditional payment solutions.
This digital currency is backed by its blockchain (proof of work), providing gamers and gaming companies with a variety of unique benefits such as:
With a genesis block created back in 2014, Gamecredits was developed by a team of developers and game lovers that launched their innovative payment solution in the popular game called Fragoria, a 8 million player RPG (Role-Playing Game) designed by Datcroft Games.
The VP of Development at GameCredits and owner of Datcroft Games, Sergey Sholom explained:
“As a Game developer I experience many problems with traditional payment methods. These problems include chargebacks/fraud, payment processing periods, and consumer deposit limits”.
In fact, traditional payment methods often take a few days to process transactions and your deposit limits can be very low.
GameCredits allow you to process payments in minutes and give players higher purchasing power, so you can enjoy transferability and control over cash flows.
Also, according to the recent article published by Forbes you can read here, Gamecredits could be able to popularize cryptocurrencies all around the world.
In the next future, Gamecredits will also launch a new mobile store, or a blockchain based mobile game platform where you will find over 300 games from 150 different game developers. This app will be available in early second quarter 2017, as revealed in a press release.
As I said, HolyTransaction is very proud to include this new digital currency among its multicurrency wallet.
From now on, in fact, you can store your Gamecredits on our platform.
Just like Bitcoin and our other digital currencies, you can now:
So, HolyTransaction multicurrency wallet can now support: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Dash, Tether, Blackcoin and the recent added Gamecredits and Faircoin.
Open your Gamecredits wallet by clicking here.
Once you successfully enter, if you can’t see the newest Gamecredits wallet, you just need to click on the “wheel” button you find at the top right of the main page. You can find the “wheel” button to select the wallets you want to see in the main page.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.


text:
Kerzner Group, the international developer and operator of destination resorts, has launched iKonnect, Unily's new mobile-first experience app. The app is designed for easy use at over 15,000 workplaces, in an attempt to improve internal company communications, especially regarding members staff who don’t typically operate a computer in their day-to-day work.
Unily, the renowned employee experience platform, came up with the iKonnect app to hasten its innovative offerings for workplace communication. The situation at Kerzner, where nearly 70% of its mammoth workforce are frontline workers lacking computer access, presented a substantial challenge to effective internal communication. Unily's new mobile-first app has been built to bridge that gap and enhance employee engagement at all levels.
Paired with dynamic features, such as automatic language translation and a global search tool, iKonnect aims at providing personalised employee experiences, focusing on improving resource accessibility and productivity. CEO of Kerzner International, Philippe Zuber, outlined, "At Kerzner, we are continuously innovating to meet and exceed not only our guests expectations but also our colleagues' expectations. It's no coincidence that the advancements we have seen in our colleagues' emotional engagement have happened in parallel with the evolution of our digital employee experience platform and our partnership with Unily."
With the implementation of Unily's iKonnect solution, Kerzner has revolutionised its communication landscape, transforming it into a dynamic, personalized platform. Its features are powered by AI, enabling quick navigation through company repositories and providing workforce-specific information, eradicating the barriers to effective communication and enhancing company culture.
The impact of the new mobile-first solution has been significant, as Chris Ciauri, CEO of Unily, explains: "We are incredibly proud of our partnership with Kerzner. Our powerful mobile-first platform enables one of the biggest luxury resort operators to unite, inform, and support its predominantly frontline workforce. We’re excited to be a part of Kerzner’s journey in architecting a workplace experience that is dedicated to attracting, retaining, and developing the best talent that allows them to remain at the top of their game."
The introduction of iKonnect seems to have been well received with over 70% of employees already adopting the new system, giving real-time access to crucial company updates and knowledge, right from their mobile devices. The improved internal communications system is an important steps towards guaranteeing frontline workers are well-informed, supported, and connected, regardless of their location.
Unily is a employee experience platform used by enterprises with their employees, and is positioned by Gartner as a Leader in its 2023 Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions. Enterprises around the globe, including CVS Health, Johnson & Johnson, The Estee Lauder Companies, Shell, Wipro, and many more rely on Unily's AI-enhanced SaaS technology to transform their employee engagement and alignment effectively and create exceptional employee experiences.


text:
In September and October, only 10,743 homes were sold in Beijing, down 46 percent from a year ago. New home sales in the first ten months totaled 69,079 units, down 17.8 percent year-on-year, while second-hand home sales dropped 35.8 percent to 101,188 units, according to bjfdc.gov.cn.
According to the Centaline Property Agency, a supply of 9,152 new homes in October has added Beijing's total house supply to 118,000 units, a new high since June 2009.
It would take 22 months to consume the inventory even if there were no new supply, said the agency.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
22 Months of Inventory in Beijing
Home price-cuts get steeper, more extensive in China


text:
Holt’s Café’s 2015 summer menu is being served. See the highlights here.
Danielle Job, manager and chef of Holt’s Café, didn’t hesitate when we asked her to give us the highlight of her summer menu that launched today.
“The Mango Chicken Tartine,” she exclaimed. “We’re really proud of that one because it was a customer recommendation. We used to have a mango chicken salad, and a gentleman who ordered it called us over and made the suggestion. We tried it as a special and it was delicious.”
“It’s great being able to tell a returning customer that one of their ideas made it onto the menu,” said Danielle. “The Tourtière we served at Christmas came from a regular, and people loved it.”
The Holt’s Café Mango Chicken Sandwich isn’t the only exclusive-to-Edmonton choice on the summer menu. Holt’s Café kitchens across the country know about Danielle’s Eggs Benny with smoked salmon (and the hollandaise sauce she makes fresh in the mornings).
Other exclusive-to-Edmonton highlights on the summer menu include a new Veggie Burger made from quinoa and beets, and a Chorizo Hash Skillet with shredded potatoes, fresh herbs and two poached eggs.
Big plans for the fall
By September, Holt’s Café will be ready to cater and Danielle can’t wait to get it going.
“People who work in the tower have been asking me since I got here two years ago,” said Danielle. I’m happy to finally be doing it.”
She even put an ad campaign together for the new service. “We’ve never advertised before, so we’ll see how we do.” Look for the ads in the Manulife Place elevators.
Danielle Job studied culinary arts at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), then started her career on the Lancaster Park military base. After stints in a few other kitchens, she came to the Holt’s Café at Manulife Place in 2013.


text:
"Can synthetic beef satisfy the world's growing hunger for meat?" The Guardian takes a look.
Here's an investigation that shows a trick the meat industry already pulls off. They take scraps of meat and with a meat glue, bring it all together and sell it as cuts of steak. We have enough artificial stuff happening to our meat already, humans should get back to natural meat, not get more synthetic.
There are a lot of people who would give up real meat for synthetic meat the moment there is a viable substitute.
@Jasmin_Violette but I'll immediately drop real meat when quality synthetic meat comes on market. Until then I do free range/cage free.


text:
4-5 trillion? (Trillion? Just how many zeros is that?) That's the number of nondegradable plastic bags used worldwide annually, according to this article in Wednesday's Chron.
Of that 4-5 trillion, 80 million plastic shopping bags are distributed in San Francisco each year. Those numbers are one doozy of a wake-up call. We've felt a little guilty about using plastic shopping bags for our garbage and cat litter, and plastic newspaper bags when we walk our dog. Now we feel really guilty, and we're totally behind the groundbreaking legislation -- San Francisco leads the way again! -- outlawing plastic bags at supermarkets in about six months and chain pharmacies in a year.
We can easily use paper bags for garbage. And we could also order biodegradable bags to use for our dog (like these).
Image: Deanne Fitzmaurice


text:
Google has launched a big campaign about October 4th. It is expected to tell the world about its own phone and seems to be super serious about selling it big.
https://madeby.google.com/ shows a animated transition from search bar to a mobile phone and site is collecting email addresses to notify about October 4th.
Google is pushing a kicking tagline “Made by Google” and it is advertising it aggressively. The company did not do such heavy advertisement campaign for its phone brand “Nexus” and it is believed that nexus may well be replaced by “Pixel“.
Nexus phones were never able to sell big and could not gain popularity as Samsung or Huawei brands. There are reports of boot loop problem in the phones after upgrading to Android 7.0.
Apple created a big hype about September 7th and it was not a disappointment by any means, will Google be able to meet expectations with the hype it is creating for October the 4th?


text:
Tech breakthrough: Omni-ID takes patented passive RFID to harsh environments
Omni-ID was spun off last year from defense and security technology supplier QinetiQ to commercialize patented technology for high-performance, passive UHF RFID solutions in harsh environments. The company is involved in numerous pilots, including one with Metro Group , a diversified retail and wholesale/cash-and-carry corporation based in Germany, for a cold storage facility; and Honda in the U.K., for automotive parts. Omni-ID also partners with IBM, Alien Technology, Impinj, and Motorola.
One of the big challenges with RFID is working in harsh environments involving liquids and metals, which detunes tags and compromises the read, says Tom Pavela, CEO and president of Omni-ID. “There are ways of getting around that, many involving larger form factors or more fabrication with materials, which drives up the cost for the end user. Our technology makes the passive UHF tags work very well in such environments, and is cost-efficient.”
Price-point was one of the reasons Omni-ID targeted the passive RFID market.
“We believed the biggest opportunity was in passive,” says Pavela, citing environments where metal and liquids are prevalent. One of the key industry sectors Omni-ID targets is data centers, he adds, “where we’ve seen a lot of traction because of the nature of the high-value, high-risk assets. We’ve completed a pilot with Metro Group in one of its large cold storage facilities, where there’s a lot of metal with racks and forklifts. Metro Group wanted to track material inside its distribution center with a high-performance tag at reasonable cost.”
Under such conditions, Omni-ID tags provide 99.99-percent read accuracy and reliability. Its tags have a small footprint and can be placed on virtually any surface. Applications in information technology, telecommunications, industrial and retail industries are on tap.


text:
California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra and local and state watchdogs are investigating whether Amazon has taken all the necessary safety measures to protect its workers from the coronavirus pandemic, a court filing revealed.
Chiyomi Brent, a picker in an Amazon grocery warehouse accused Jeff Bezos’ company of not doing enough to ensure its staff’s safety. According to her, Amazon did not provide enough sanitizing equipment and failed to secure social distancing.
Brent claimed that Amazon had put its workers at ”needless risk.” In his words, the employees had to share equipment such as freezer suits
However, a California state judge in San Francisco declined to temporarily shut down the warehouse, as requested by the picker. According to the judge, Brent had failed to prove the risk of imminent harm. The court transferred the case to the government investigators.
While the Amazon’s white-collar workers are working remotely, the virus has spread quickly through clusters of employees at factories and warehouses across the country due to lack of social distancing.
Amazon’s shipping centers reported outbreaks, including one in the Pocono Mountains and another one in Oregon. By May, eight Amazon warehouse workers lost their lives to the novel virus.
In April, New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to the company stating that it may have violated safety standards and workplace practices during the pandemic.
The letter came out after Amazon terminated three opponents of the company’s pandemic response, and workers took part in a nationwide sick-out. The employees said that Amazon did not provide enough face masks for everyone, did not implement regular temperature checks and has declined to give workers paid sick leave.
Amazon has declined to announce publicly the numbers of the COVID-19 infections. However, the workers started tracking themselves using a tool from the advocacy group United for Respect. According to this data, there have been more than 80 reports of COVID-19 positive cases in California since March.
In a statement last month, an Amazon spokesperson said he was unaware of any COVID-19 positive cases at the California facility. In addition to that, the company argued in court papers that it had taken all the prescribed government measures to combat the virus, including disinfection, face masks, and social distancing.
What do you think? Do you believe Amazon’s statement that it had done everything to protect its workers from the novel virus?


text:
At FrontierView, our research, data, and insights cover over 200 markets to guide your business through your exit from the pandemic in your most important markets. Our in-depth coverage across the Middle East and North Africa is built to help you feel confident in your strategic decisions. Read our latest analysis on Pakistan, Iraq, and Morocco below.
Pakistan’s economy will recovery slowly after the shock of COVID-19, and not see substantial growth until 2022. However, we expect that economic growth will rebound next year as global demand improves and the funding from the IMF’s bailout stabilizes the domestic economy. Headline inflation is expected to remain high through this year, with restricted agriculture production and fuel price hikes keeping costs high. This will not deter the manufacturing sector, which will continue to recoup its losses from 2020 on the back of base effects.
Iraq’s economy could take until the end of 2023 to recover to 2019 levels. Dinar’s devaluation was a preemptive move to ease the financial pressure from the oil shock, but the move weighs on consumption and will intensify inflationary pressures this year. Borrowing costs will likely grow as US dollars become more costly to banks, and credit transfers are witnessing the longest declining period since 2016.
Morocco’s consumer spending was structurally harmed by the pandemic. Consumer spending’s recovery will be delayed as household confidence remains fragile ahead of real income uncertainties and COVID-19 created long-lasting damage to employment. EU reliance will be Morocco’s Achilles’ heel this year as Morocco’s key source of tourists comes from the EU and private demand will be weighed down by big-ticket-item experts from Europe.
At FrontierView, our mission is to help our clients grow and win in their most important markets. We provide the research, data, and insights you need to outperform the competition. Our customizable market intelligence turns information into real-time insights that you can act on with confidence. For full access to our offerings, start your free trial today and download our complimentary mobile app, available on iOS and Android.


text:
INNOVATIONS INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS WITH SNIBBE INTERACTIVE FOR INTERACTIVE RETAIL TOOLS LOUISVILLE, KY – Innovations International, LLC has entered into a strategic partnership with Snibbe Interactive to co-develop retail sales solutions that are consumer interactive, immersive, intuitive and engaging. The initial video demo of the systems that are in development was unveiled at the Spring High Point Market.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The value of U.S. imports of both wool and man made fiber carpets and rugs rose a robust13.5% in 2011 compared to 2010, according to recently released figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration office of Textiles and Apparel.
ORIENTAL RUG RETAILERS OF AMERICA SETS EDUCATIONAL EVENTS FOR JULY ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL RUG MARKET
ATLANTA – The Oriental Rug Retailers of America has scheduled a series of educational events for the Atlanta International Rug Market, Thursday, July 12 through Sunday, July 15, 2012 at AmericasMart Atlanta. The Certified Rug Appraiser examination will also be held during the market.
GARY CRUZ STUDIO TO INTRODUCE NEW RUG COLLECTION AT 2012 NYICS
Gary Cruz Studio Veracruz rug
NEW YORK – Gary Cruz Studio will introduce its new Viva Mexico collection during the New York International Carpet Show (NYICS) Sept. 9 to 11 at 7 West 34th Street, here. Entry is free for interior designers and architects. NYICS is an ASID Industry Partner.
SHANGHAI, CHINA – The Spring Domotex Asia/Chinafloor hosted 1,112 exhibitors and 39,856 visitors from 92 countries. The record-setting event, which ran March 27 to 29, 2012 covered a total of 1.3 million sq. ft. of exhibit area.
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE FAIR IS BRANDING OP FOR LUXURY RUG MAKERS
Michael Mandapati of Warp & Weft is a long-time proponent of the ICFF show. "It's always been a good branding opportunity for us," he said.
By Lissa Wyman
NEW YORK -- From crystal-encrusted plumbing fixtures to creamy wool and silk rugs, The International Contemporary Furniture Fair, held here May 18 to 21, is the place where makers of luxury home furnishings go to meet designers and architects.
SHAW FLOORS LAUNCHES PINTEREST PRESENCE DALTON, GA – Shaw Floors has launched its official presence on Pinterest, an online community that allows users to save photos by “pinning” them to theme boards that are shared with other users of the site.
SAFAVIEH THOM FILICIA RUG TO APPEAR IN NY DECORATOR SHOW HOUSE Designer Thom Filicia with Wellwood design hemp and jute rug for Safavieh.
PORT WASHINGTON, NY –Celebrity interior designer Thom Filicia is on the roster of talents selected to participate in the 2012 Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Decorator Show House. Filicia will incorporate his licensed products in the space, including a new eco-friendly hemp and jute rug from the Thom Filicia Home collection for Safavieh.
AMER RUGS RECEIVES BEST 2012 CATALOG AWARD BY GRAPHIC DESIGN USA MAGAZINE
Amer Rugs 2012 Catalog Cover
NORCROSS, GA – Amer Rugs received the best 2012 Catalog Award presented by Graphic Design USA magazine in the category of American In-house Design. Graphic Design USA receives more than 4,000 entries for this category each year.
CHATALBASH LAUNCHES NEW WOOL FOR REPAIR OF ORIENTAL RUGS
NEW YORK -- Chatalbash by Costikyan has launched a new line of wool for repairing Oriental rugs. Chatalbash Persian three-ply wool has been designed as a replacement for Paternayan Persian three-ply wool. That company has recently ceased operations after 80 years in the business.
SAFAVIEH FACEBOOK CONTEST FOR THOM FILICIA SHOWHOUSE ROOM IS COMPANY'S MOST SUCCESSFUL
Safavieh rug designed by Thom Filicia was the focal point of the Filicia room at the annual Designer Show House to benefit the Kip's Bay Boys & Girls' Club. Safavieh conducted a Facebook contest to build excitement for the collection and the event. | Hand-knotted in India, The hemp and jute rug has a suggested retail price of $1,199 in 6x9 size.
NEW YORK -- Nearly 100 consumers vied to win a free Thom Filicia rug in Safavieh's Facebook contest tied to the annual New York City Kip's Bay Designer Show House. The giveaway contest, Safavieh’s third on Facebook since January, was by far the company’s most successful, according to Jonathon Yaraghi, general manager of Safavieh's furniture division.


text:
Talisha and Monica, Marriott Stanton South Beach, Miami
A happy, sleepy family. A canoodling couple. A sexy, leggy model. A beaming sports star.
Typical ad campaign for a hotel company? Yes — except for the LGBT twist Marriott International is celebrating in its new #LoveTravels initiative, just launched in Washington, D.C.
For the acronym averse, LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. And for those not in the know, June is traditionally known as Pride Month, in which a majority of the world’s gay population whoops it up in parades and festivals to commemorate the anniversary of NYC’s Stonewall Riots, which kicked off the modern gay rights movement on June 27, 1969.
Geena Rocero, The Lexington NYC, Autograph Collection
Photographer Braden Summers pinged the radar of Marriott thanks to the success of a previous travel-focused series, All Love Is Equal, in which intimate gay and lesbian moments were captured across the globe from the UK and France to India, Lebanon, and Brazil. Whereas that series used models, his sumptuous new portraits showcase real couples, a multi-culti mix of folks buzzing about the brand’s hotels, in moments both lively and romantic.
Contemporary gay heroes are featured, like Brooklyn Nets center Jason Collins (cited as the first openly gay player on a major American sports team) and Geena Rocero (a transgender fashion model and activist), as well as everyday people such as Talisha Padgett-Matthews, a recently married Marriott associate (go ahead, buy her something nice).
Jason Collins, The Carlton Hotel, NYC
Portraits are displayed on giant building wraps at five hotels throughout our nation’s capital — just in time for Capital Pride this past weekend — display ads in cities around the country, and in an online portrait gallery. A social media component encourages everyone who loves love to tweet or Instagram with the #LoveTravels hashtag.
Tosh and Carmine, The Carlton Hotel, NYC
“Summers’ unique ability to capture romantic and touching images of LGBT individuals, couples and families perfectly conveys the company’s commitment to make everyone feel comfortable being who they are everywhere they travel,” says Verona Carter, Marriott’s global director of PR, “from the low-end Residence Inn, to the middle-market flagship brands, to the high-end Ritz-Carlton.”
In other words: Sure it’s a marketing ploy to tap into the estimated $181 billion LGBT travel market, but it’s also a powerful message of inclusion. For every same-sex marriage win (thanks, Wisconsin!) there seems to be a human rights loss (especially for women; we’re looking at you, Brunei).
So this June — and well into the months after — we’re happy to give kudos to a multi-national hotel brand stepping up to say: welcome, each and every one.
The Marriott #LoveTravels campaign continues through November. Click through for behind-the-scenes videos and photos as well as more info on Marriott’s LGBT deals and initiatives.
Amy and Laura, Renaissance New York Hotel 57
Chad, Scott, Lucas and Olivia, Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Central Park
Prior to joining Yahoo Travel as a contributing editor, Justin Ocean spent years gallivanting the world for Out magazine and OutTraveler.com. He’s still a gay.


text:
VARCIS Capital has announces the launch of the world’s first Asia-focused Sports Technology Investment and Advisory House.
Headquartered in Hong Kong and with imminent leadership announcements to be made in China and Australia, VARCIS has a vision to be the world’s most important Sports Technology and Human Performance platform in Asia.
“Varcis Capital and our partners are committed to the intersection of Sports and Technology in Asia – specifically Sport, Fitness, Health, Medical, Wellness, eSports and Human Performance – making direct investments and transaction advice to companies,” said Mr. Phillip King, Founder and Managing Partner of Varcis Capital.
“The first problem with the global landscape is the majority of Venture Capital for the Sports Technology industry is American centric which represents only 5% of the world’s human population — Asia has 62% of the world’s population (4.7 billion people) and home to fastest-markets growing at 20% CAGR at the intersection of sports, fitness, health, wellness and technology.”
Varcis Capital has created a world-class leadership team, combining elite sports experience, investment management and brand licensing, venture growth research and transaction advice in Asia.
The Varcis Investment Division will write Seed and Series A cheques of between $500,000 – $5,000,000, states a Press release.
The Varcis Transactional Team will provide expertise – from M&A, IPO and Due Diligence advice, technical expertise and brand distribution licensing – to fast-track companies looking to expand, create and monetize sports in Asia.
Global Ecosystem, Partnerships, Research-focus and Results
The VARCIS global partner network has access to tens of thousands of sports teams, leagues and organizations in Asia and internationally – as well as the world’s leading sports entrepreneurs and exciting young companies.
Key geographic focus markets include – China, Australia, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines and Korea and all 48 countries across the Asia region.
Varcis will establish physical offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Melbourne in 2020.


text:
Drivers contend that Uber is lightly regulated and is n enjoying a free ride, which puts their financial livelihoods in jeopardy.
The protest noise -- so far - -is sweet music to Uber’s ears as it reported an 850 percent increase in UK sign-ups, according to today’s New York Times. In a deft move to cash-in on the traffic mess, Uber is offering a discount to consumers.
Uber indeed faces thorny issues concerning safety, regulation and price-gouging allegations that must be dealt with if it expects to live-up to that heady market valuation.
Its success will undoubtedly trigger a flood of competitors into the ride-sharing category, which will force it to trim fares.
For now, however, Uber is riding high, thanks to the embattled taxi drivers who are trying to fend off the march of technological progress.


text:
Pre-tax profits declined to pounds 35.5m from pounds 45m a year earlier, on turnover marginally ahead at pounds 255m, as shares declined 16p to 463p. The drop would have been even greater but for a pounds 7.5m exceptional gain on the sale of a stake in Carlton Communications during the year.
But Stephen Grabiner, managing director, said the company "had turned the corner" and that the current year would see a marked improvement.
Conrad Black, the company's Canadian chairman, added: "1995 was a year of unrelenting challenge for the Telegraph but, at the end of it, the company emerged fitter and stronger."
Analysts supported the company's upbeat message on current trading, pointing to the improving profit trend quarter to quarter in 1995. From a low point of just pounds 500,000 in the third quarter, pre-tax profits hit more than pounds 9m in the final three months of the year, up from pounds 2.4m in the comparable period in 1994.
Mr Grabiner said he expected the newsprint price increases of the past 18 months had reached their height, and that further rises were unlikely. At the same time, the cover price war launch in 1993 by Rupert Murdoch's News International is all but over, he said.
He expected that newspapers would siphon some of the increased revenues from higher cover prices into bigger promotional budgets. "The price war is becoming a promotion and marketing war," he said.
Advertising at the start of the year showed a mixed picture with classified and financial recovering strongly but display well down year on year.Reuse content


text:
The weary American consumer is creating major challenges for retailers. Two pieces of evidence: 1) declining retail sales and 2) declining open rates rates for e-mail. An article appearing online at The New York Times reports that retail sales in October experienced the largest monthly drop ever. It is feared that the 2.8% drop from September and 4.1% drop from last October are not the last dips to be felt in retail sales. Despite retailers' best efforts to attract customers with promotions and incentives, consumer response may be soft for the near future.
If the bleak sales picture is not enough bad news for retailers, another study shows that a promotion tactic often used by retailers, e-mail, is less effective with consumers these days. Research by MailerMailer found that the open rate for consumer e-mails dropped from 16.1% in the first half of 2007 to 13.2% in the same period in 2008. Consumers that are being cautious at best or have less money to spend appear less interested in opening e-mails from marketers because it means they may have to decide whether to spend money they may or may not have!
The decline in e-mail open rates should hardly discourage marketers. E-mail is a very cost effective medium to use, and permission-based e-mail campaigns still are based on customers' desires to have a relationship with a company from which they have consented to receive e-mail communications. It does mean that the relevance of every message sent to customers must be evaluated in an effort to make it worth consumers' time and effort to open marketing e-mail messages.
Labels: E-Mail Marketing, Retailing


text:
Capcom's PSP entry in the Monster Hunter series has been one of the system's biggest success stories, with over 400,000 copies sold in Japan since its December release. The powers that be over at Capcom's Osaka home office have apparently taken notice, and now it seems that PSP owners can expect a sequel.
Series producer Tsuyoshi Tanaka, speaking at a Tokyo event held in commemoration of the completion of Monster Hunter 2 (due for PS2 release in Japan on 2/16) revealed that while the next numbered Monster Hunter game will likely appear on a next generation console, prior to that, Capcom hopes to release a new entry for the PSP. As one might expect, details were not provided.
Tanaka also admitted that it might be difficult to release a new numbered entry in the Monster Hunter series around this time next year. However, he pointed out that Monster Hunter 2 was created with the hope that players would be able to get in over 500 hours of play time, which would presumably last for many months. And if a new PSP entry joins in on the fun, we won't be complaining too much.


text:
Junko Yoshida, EETimes
1/16/2015 03:00 PM EST
LAS VEGAS — Shifting sands in China’s mobile market are likely to affect the leaders in the U.S. chip industry -- such as Qualcomm and Broadcom – much faster than previously expected, according to several sources who attended the International Consumer Electronics Show last week.
Among big changes in the works are China Mobile’s shift in procurement policy from five-mode smartphones to three-mode models, and big plans among Chinese apps processor vendors to embrace connectivity (WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy).
Click here to read more ...


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Emerging Tech award winners honored
Send this to a friend
The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal's 2008 Emerging Tech award winners were named Thursday night at the Computer History Museum.
The winners were chosen from a record number of nominations, showing the depth of the valley's innovation even during rough economic times.
"Among the things we considered in this year's nominees include the potential viability of the company and the 'wow' factor that clearly sets something apart," said Publisher James MacGregor. "We were ultimately looking for companies that could completely change technology in their sectors, not just advance it a step or two."
The winners and finalists named at the awards event are:
Finalist: SecureBox keeps your cargo in ship shape
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
- Most popular
- Primary Data emerges from stealth at Demo with Woz on board
- It's official: Costco coming to south San Jose
- Exclusive: Peter Pau, Vallco's new owner, opens up
- Here's what actually happened during Tesla's factory pause
- Developer tips hand on big LinkedIn lease in Mountain View
- San Jose developer aims to build mixed-use downtown project
- Honored medical inventor, investor Fogarty on continued success at 80
- 10 startups that are punching way above their weight class
- Steak n' Shake coming to Campbell, first in NorCal
- Federal Realty starting $120M office project at Santana Row this week
Executive Director, California Citizen Schools | Redwood City, CA
National Sales Manager The Business Journals | San Francisco, CA
Dean of the Leavey School of Business Santa Clara University | Santa Clara, CA
Bookkeeper H&R Block Corporate | Watsonville, CA
AVP Loan Operations Manager Technology Credit Union | San Jose, CA


text:
As women’s empowerment gains more visibility as a part of the global development agenda, companies are realizing that working with women-owned businesses pays off.
Pfizer has discovered that working with women-owned businesses both benefits its business and helps achieve its goals of empowering women, said Adele Gulfo, president of Pfizer Latin America.
Since being a founding member of WEConnect in 2009 Pfizer has diversified its supply chain and now works with more than 175 women-owned businesses, she said. WEConnect International is a corporate-led non-profit that certifies women-owned businesses around the world.
“When women are financially empowered they use that money to enhance communities,” Gulfo said, adding that eventually their efforts translate into helping whole countries.
Gulfo said that WEConnect helps give women the skills to compete and work with global multinational companies, like Pfizer.
Last month Pfizer joined WEConnect, Vital Voices and a group of other partners to commit to increasing corporate member spending on women-owned businesses outside the U.S. by at least $1.5 billion by 2018 to and others committed to working through WEConnect to put in place metrics to help ensure a good standard among women-owned businesses.
Join Devex , the largest online community for international development, to network with peers, discover talent and forge new partnerships – it’s free! Then sign up for the Devex Impact newsletter to receive cutting-edge news and analysis every month on the intersection of business and development.
As a Devex Impact associate editor, Adva leads coverage of the intersection of business and international development. From partnerships to trade and social entrepreneurship to impact investing, she enjoys exploring the role the private sector and private capital play in development. Previously, she has worked as a reporter at newspapers in both the U.S. and South Africa. Most recently, she has been ghostwriting a memoir for a former child slave and NGO founder in Ghana.
Subscribe to Devex Newswire
Top international development headlines emailed to you every day


text:
PayPal has extended help for Ukrainian citizens by facilitating receiving of payments from overseas while Russia has continued attacks on the country for the third month in a row. Fees have been simultaneously waved on transactions from PayPal accounts to debit or credit cards.
Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and since then about 3 million citizens have fled and taken refuge in neighboring countries.
Alternative executive director for PayPal in Ukraine said while addressing the IMF that the move will facilitate the Ukrainian refugees to receive funds from family members and friends from across the world and the accounts can be used for social payments transfer by governments.
Vladyslav Rashkovan further said the Ukrainian officials demanded such expanded services after Russia annexed Crimea in 2015.
Even though the fees have been waived, it is to note that fees charged by the bank or card issuer of the customers will be applicable as well as the exchange rates.
PayPal currently has shut down operations in Russia. Many multinational tech and financial companies have simultaneously suspended services following the country's invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the company said customers transferring money from PayPal Wallet to MasterCard or Visa credit or debit card will find the fund available in associated currency with the card. Ukrainians can send and receive in USDs, Canadian dollars, euros and British pounds.
In 1998 Confinity was started with Peter Thiel and about a year later the name was changed to X.com. It was renamed PayPal in 2000. It is a multinational fintech company that supports online money transfers. It became a public company in 2002 and later in the same year was owned by eBay. In 2015, it again became an independent company.


text:
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has become the world’s richest man with a fortune of 188.5 Billion USD. Previously this spot was held by the founder of Amazon.Inc Jeff Bezos.
The news of Musk’s upgrade was published by BBC on Thursday, January 7th. “He takes the top spot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had held it since 2017” the news network reported. Elon Musk is widely known for his electric cars company ‘Tesla’ and Space Exploration Venture ‘SpaceX’. Crypto community applauded the news as Musk is often called ‘Crypto-Friendly Billionaire‘. According to last known facts, he owns 0.25 BTC.
Freely Subscribe for Our Crypto Trading Bot Here
Tesla stocks have skyrocketed in value over the past few years as people have become more inclined towards buying electric cars. On Wednesday, the price of stocks hit 700 billion USD for the first time in history. Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined. Elon Musk holds 20% shares in this company. Subsequently, he amassed enough wealth to take the position of world’s richest man.
Mr Musk gave a classic ‘careless billionaire-style’ reaction to the news.
Elon Musk & Crypto:
The Tesla CEO is famous in the crypto community. He often makes comments about Bitcoin and altcoins. In December 2020 during the BTC bull run, Elon remarked,
Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money.
Moreover, the former company of Elon, Paypal also supporting the crypto transaction. Hence, Musk becoming the richest man means we will see an increase in people’s interest in cryptocurrency. If the most wealthy person is holding BTC, everyone would like to do that too.
Note: To learn more about crypto trading, trading exchanges and trading bots, visit our blog page.


text:
Egypt's interim government unveiled its second stimulus package on Monday (February 10), which will inject 33.9 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.87 billion) into the economy, with most of that money coming from aid pledged by the UAE.
UAE's leading telecom operator Etisalat has launched two new mobile data packages for high data users.
Users with either voice data only SIMs can now take advantage of a completely unlimited mobile data package for Dh999 ($272
Lebanon's central bank said a planned stimulus package for 2014 will offer around $800 million of incentives to support the country's economy, hit by war in neighbouring Syria and political turmoil at home.
The programme w
The UAE will dedicate part of its $4.9 billion aid package to Egypt to build 25 wheat silos, each with a capacity of 60,000 tonnes, an Egyptian diplomat said on Sunday.
"The silos will have a total capacity of 1.5 million ton
Egypt plans a second stimulus package worth billions of dollars early next year, its trade and industry minister said, as the government works to give people jobs and put money in their pockets during a tough political transition.
Qatar Airways Holidays, the leisure division of Qatar Airways, has unveiled their top 20 packages for the upcoming Eid Al Fitr holidays across destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Customers can book online at
Car rental and leasing services provider, Hertz and Emirates airlines have launched summer packages for UAE-based customers to top holiday destinations.
The ‘Fly & Drive’ packages combine air-fare and car rental pa
UAE's integrated telecommunications service provider du has launched its new roaming data daily bundle, 'Pay as you Go' to help customers manage their data spending while travelling abroad.
For Dh50 ($13.6) per day, Pa
Kenya Airways, the national airline of the country, has introduced an all-inclusive holiday package to climb the Kilimanjaro, starting at Dh6,670 ($1,816.20) per person.
The seven nights/eight days package is inclusive of return a


text:
Xiaomi put Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 rumors to rest today after they announced together with a little teaser poster that they will unveil the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 on June 25th.
And in the process Xiaomi released a neat teaser poster that coincides with the 2018 football World Cup, where the Xiaomi mascot has player shirt number 4, while passing a new Xiaomi tablet on each side on the way into the football field.
The funny teaser poster also specifies that the new Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 tablet is a an 8-inch tablet with a Full HD display.
In April, some journalistic efforts concluded that the a firmware preview of the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 may have revealed that the new Xiaomi tablet for the 2018-2019 model year could sport a 6000 mAh battery, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, a 5MP front camera and 13MP rear camera, running Android 8.1 with MIUI 9
The predecessor, Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 was launched in April last year, and it may be that it shares the general specs with successor.
– Tom Bowen


text:
For the sixth year in a row, the Ford EcoBoost 1.0-litre engine has won the International Engine of the Year award for the best engine under 1.0-litre.
This means, the compact and powerful three-cylinder petrol engine remains undefeated in its category since launch in 2012.
Continuing to dominate its segment, the judges praised the engine’s combination of performance, fuel-efficiency, and technology.
The 1.0-litre EcoBoost has now won 10 International Engine of the Year awards including overall winner a record three times, and “Best Newcomer”.
“Our 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine has been a game-changer, setting the benchmark for compact, fuel-efficient engines with sophisticated EcoBoost turbocharging, direct fuel injection and Twin-Independent Variable Camshaft Timing technologies,” said Joe Bakaj, vice president, Product Development, Ford of Europe.
“Even with 10 International Engine of the Year awards under our belt, we’re still finding ways to push back the boundaries of powertrain engineering, and deliver even more benefit to our customers from this acclaimed small engine,” he adds.
The frugal three-cylinder 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine was named “Best Engine Under 1.0-litre” by a panel of 58 automotive journalists, from 31 countries.
This year, the sub-1.0-litre award category featured 35 engines, nine more than in the 1.0-litre EcoBoost’s debut year.
“The baby Ford EcoBoost engine is still the best 1.0-litre, three-cylinder design around, despite newer powertrains arriving on the scene,” said Dean Slavnich, co-chairman of the 19th International Engine of the Year awards held in Stuttgart, Germany, and editor-in-chief of Engine Technology International magazine.
“Even more impressive is that it is the first-ever powertrain to secure its class title every year it has been nominated.”
Ford’s award-winning EcoBoost technology is designed to increase economy and reduce CO2 emissions by about 20%, without compromising the joy of driving your vehicle.
The 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine featuring cylinder deactivation technology will from early 2018 deliver reduced running costs for customers by automatically stopping one of the engine’s cylinders when full capacity is not needed, such as when coasting or cruising with light demand on the engine.
Ford now offers new Ford vehicles with 100 PS, 125 PS and 140 PS, Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine available in the Fiesta, EcoSport and Focus.
Contact your closest Ford Dealer to book a test drive today.
This article was published in partnership with Ford.


text:
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Innovative Stuff: DIY Magazines!
With daily "surround-sound" news that magazines (and photo magazines) are going out of business, or are looking for buyers as in the case of American Photo and its siblings, I thought this article as published in the New York Times is timely.
The giant Hewlett-Packard is hoping to make publishing a magazine easier and more accessible to everyone with a new on-line service called MagCloud. HP hopes that it'll be as simple and as common as "running photocopies at the local copy shop".
MagCloud is said to cost 20 cents a page, paid only when a customer orders a copy, and its HP parent seeks to turn it into a publishing’s equivalent of YouTube. I'm seeing it more a magazine equivalent to Blurb and the other on-demand book publishers.
Whether this service will pick up real big-time steam in this economic environment or not is open to question, but if anyone is keen to publish a photography magazine, and perhaps even sell some issues, here's your chance.


text:
MILAN — Apparel interlinings manufacturer Chargeurs PCC has been providing structure, literally, to fashion for more than half a century. Now, the company is ready to scale up the business via sustainable luxury fashion, acquisitions and services.
Much of Chargeurs’ strength has laid in the company’s ability to evolve and adjust, and to sense where the market was headed, for example, fashion’s embrace of stretch fabrics for enhanced practicality.
“We’ve always pioneered and championed innovation,” said Gianluca Tanzi, Chargeurs PCC’s chairman and chief executive officer, referencing the warp knit weft insert conceived more than 50 years ago in partnership with loom maker Karl Mayer.
“The second driver of growth is that we’ve grown into a multinational company with widespread distribution. We develop a global collection aimed at all clients across regions,” he said, highlighting that Chargeurs PCC has 30 regional offices.
In 2022, the company posted 220 million euros in sales, up 33.4 percent versus the previous year.
Sustaining momentum is Tanzi’s main task going forward.
The company generates the bulk of its revenues in the U.S., followed by France and Italy, where the luxury industry is overperforming and beating other segments.
Its global presence has come in handy to tap into emerging markets, too, including Colombia and Perú, currently go-to manufacturing hubs for garment-makers in the American continent. Plus, the company has leaned into its expertise to serve nascent luxury fashion businesses, including in Asia, where it is courting local designers.
“In addition to growing our market share and opening new markets, Turkey and Mexico currently being the ones on our radar, we believe that we should be able to sell products from different categories to our existing clients,” Tanzi said.
The executive is confident that the company’s diversification — for instance it also owns the Senfa enterprise located in France’s Alsace region that specializes in coatings — will help Chargeurs exploit new business avenues and simultaneously bank on “cross-selling.”
Its wide-ranging products includes interlinings weighing around half an ounce that are particularly useful for tulle gowns, but also linings and paddings.
The latter category includes the trademarked Nativa woolen stuffing, a luxurious alternative to man-made fibers and down typically employed for puffers.
Through its a Nativa product, Chargeurs forged ties with Gucci, inking a four-year, renewable partnership for the supply of the trademarked blockchain-backed woolen padding sourced from regenerative agriculture farms.
The product was developed and distributed through the company’s Chargeurs Luxury Fibers division and includes 100 percent woolen paddings, as well as a soon-to-launch product blending of 50 percent Thindown and 50 percent wool, both partially recycled.
The executive noted that the company generates 30 percent of its overall revenues from sustainable products.
“We are most dedicated to clients operating in the luxury segment,” he said, noting how premium companies are also a driver in research and development. Case in point, the Zero-Water interlinings dyed with a waterless formula were the result of couture clients upping the ante on their sustainability requests.
With R&D centers spread across production sites and three Innovation Studios strategically located in Milan, Paris and New York, key cities for the fashion business, Tanzi highlighted the company’s speed in developing new solutions.
Counting 7,000 clients overall, including European and U.S. designer brands and haute couture houses, the company sees further growth opportunities in the M&A space.
Chargeurs PCC is part of France-based Chargeurs, a holding company publicly listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, and its current composition is the result of acquisitions made over the years, of Péronne, France-based Lainière de Picardie in 1972, and PCC in 2018.
“We are always very attentive to opportunities and our goal is to grow both organically and by way of M&A activities geared at acquiring know-how and markets where we are lagging behind,” he said.
He dodged questions about whether the company has already spotted an acquisition target, beyond saying the team is carefully assessing a few businesses.


text:
WhatsApp isn’t actually deleting the messages you send to the archive, according to a security researcher.
On Apple devices the app stores a “forensic trace” of all chats, be them “deleted, cleared, or archived,” according to The Telegraph.
This means that instead of disappearing from the device as you’d expect, a trace of the chat remains in the phone. And that trace could be reconstructed into its “original form” by someone with access to the device.
It would be reasonable for WhatsApp users to expect message history to disappear from a phone when a conversation is deleted, especially given WhatsApp’s focus on privacy and security: the app recently introduced end-to-end encryption.
But instead of properly deleting messages, the app retains a memory of chats that could be recovered using forensic tools by law enforcement or anyone else with access to the device.
“Simply preserving deleted data on a secure device is not usually a significant issue, but when that data comes off the device as freely as WhatsApp’s database does, it poses rather a serious risk to privacy,” said an expert.
On your iPhone or iPad, WhatsApp’s data is stored in an unencrypted form. Although the messaging service now uses end-to-end encryption, that only applies to data that is traveling between devices so that messages can’t be intercepted and read.
That data, including the traces of deleted conversations, is automatically backed up to iCloud, whether or not iCloud sync is enabled, which is also not encrypted and could therefore be read by a third party.


text:
Popular jewellers starts its closing down sales drive
Popular local jewellers, Stephen Diggle Jewellers, based in High Street, Oakham has announced that it will close its doors for the last time this Christmas, as Elaine Diggle gets set for retirement.
Elaine said: “We have no children to leave the store to, so we have to clear all our stock by holding a massive closing down sale. There will be many hundreds of thousands of pounds of stunning fine jewellery for sale, all at 50 per cent off.”
The Stephen Diggle Jewellers’ Oakham store closing-down sale started on Saturday (September 16)at 10am.
Stephen Diggle Jewellers opened in September 1994. The store, now run primarily by Elaine, was a joint venture for the husband and wife who are both passionate about jewellery design. After 23 years of successful trading the couple has made the difficult decision to close their Oakham store, which holds many happy memories as the location of their first business venture.
Elaine added: “We both have a background in jewellery design and manufacture. Stephen spent many years working in a jewellery workshop and subsequently as a jewellery buyer for a large chain of stores. I had moved into teaching art and design; but we both dreamed of running our own jewellery business.”
Fast-forward a few years and Stephen set up a small workshop in the spare room, and started making jewellery stock. Stephen said: “We decided to look for a shop and Oakham was the perfect town for us.”
The shop was previously another jewellers called Gayton’s and its owners Roy and Muriel Gayton were “hugely supportive”, as were the community of Rutland who the pair thanked.


text:
The GameCube may not have been very successful in terms of sales, but it was actually home to many amazing first-hand titles. To this day, many of them are still essentially locked to the same Nintendo platform. This includes games like Eternal Darkness, F-Zero GX, and even third-party hits like Sega’s Phantasy Star Online.
If you’ve given up hope of the GameCube library coming back to a Nintendo platform soon, you needn’t worry, as there are other ways to relive the glory days of the fancy purple system. Video game developer and YouTuber Modern Vintage Gamer recently took a look at Dolphin’s “massive update” (version 1.1.2) on Xbox Series X|S, including the new interface while showcasing series like Metroid Prime.
This latest update gives the GameCube and Wii emulator a full user interface on Microsoft console hardware, making it easier than ever to set up and play. Basically, you no longer have to configure Dolphin settings on a PC and then copy them to the system. According to some of the patch notes, there is now a “full settings menu for graphics and settings” and the GameCube controller defaults have also been fixed.
There’s even the ability to enable the GameCube’s broadband adapter to play online games like PSO, you can activate cheats, and resolutions can now be increased up to 5K (5120x 4224), with additional graphics settings on offer. MVG sums it up by saying it’s an “awesome” update for Dolphin on Xbox.


text:
New iPhone SE comes with surprisingly low price
Starting at $399, the second generation iPhone SE is a great budget alternative to company's higher end modelsEuropost
In the midst of the pandemic, Apple has unveiled a brand new smartphone, a new entry-level iPhone SE with pricing that should tempt anyone considering a budget-friendly Android phone from China.
Companies like Samsung and OnePlus have recently launched pricey flagships that are very, very good, but also very, very expensive. That’s a tough sell anytime, but especially during a pandemic. And even though smartphone is still a necessity, buyers now have another option - the outstandingly affordable iPhone SE. With an aluminium design and a home button that doubles as a fingerprint reader, you could mistake it for the older iPhone 8 at first glance.
But Apple has completely updated the hardware on the inside, adding the same A13 Bionic processor that delivers faster speeds on the iPhone 11, alongside a better camera and IP67 waterproofing.
While the new iPhone SE was originally expected to launch around now, market analysts were uncertain what impact coronavirus would have on Apple's supply chain. Some analysts doubted whether Chinese producers such as Foxconn would be able to produce new iPhone models in sufficiently large quantities under the given circumstances. However, the companies now say they have been able to produce enough devices to cope with large demand.
Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the new iPhone SE is its price, which is unusually aggressive for a luxury brand like Apple. The new phone is undercutting Apple's own iPhone 8 with low pricing of $399in the US €479 in Europe with 64 GB memory. Hell, Apple even did the right thing with storage: offering a humane 64GB at the base level and making the 128GB model only $50 more.
Unlike on the newest iPhones, the SE won't let you unlock the device with Apple's FaceID, and you'll still have to put your fingerprint on the sensor to unlock with TouchID.


text:
News that the government is axing grants for rail freight has been greeted with dismay and anger by industry groups.
Freight Facilities Grants were first introduced in 1974 and have played an important role in funding rail infrastructure projects that enable goods to be moved from road to rail.
Maggie Simpson, policy manager at the Rail Freight Group, said: “This government has previously stated its commitment to reducing UK carbon emissions and supporting smaller businesses to invest. This decision makes a mockery of those promises.”
And Christopher Snelling, the Freight Transport Association’s head of global supply chain policy, said: “Failing to fund modal shift is effectively a failure to invest in a more carbon-efficient, let alone more cost-effective, supply chain. All three major parties at Westminster have previously spoken of a commitment to greener transport choices, with warm words about the importance of rail freight. Sadly, this announcement suggests that warm words is all they were.
“While revenue support grants remain, the loss of the facilities grant will make it less desirable and more cost prohibitive to invest in the sort of machinery and technology, like cranes and other freight handling equipment, needed to make rail and water borne freight a reality for companies currently focusing solely on road freight.”
The Rail Freight Group said it would now be seeking urgent talks with the DfT to determine a way forwards for its members.
The Scottish government has also set out plans to cut rail freight grants, although it appears that the issue might be looked at again.


text:
onions wrote: BrickSith206 wrote:
I'm just surprised that TRU would pair LEGO with Hasbro product considering the two companies are not the best of friends. For those that don't know, hasbro sued Lego claiming the rights to "star wArs action figures" and the ability to sell those individually. The decision in that suit is why Lego sells their "action figures
" as "magnet sets."
I don't think TRU cares.
A statement I agree with. However, there is another part of the equation, and that's TLG. I would think LEGO would need to sign off on said promotion considering the promotion involves another brand, especially having personally seen their joint marketing agreements for resellers. I seriously doubt TLG would let another toy brand piggyback on their brand's success.
It would be the first time I have ever seen a "buy this lego set, and get this other non-lego toy free" type of campaign.
Of course, all this is merely speculation until the ads make it out.