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Volvo’s first ever all-electric car, Polestar 2 will start from $59,900. This car will be coming to the US during the fall. One of the best features about the vehicle is that it is a Native Android vehicle. Besides that, it is a five-door electric car. It is supposed to have 408 horsepower and also it will be able to go up to 275 miles before needing a charge.
The Polestar 2 will be sold in all 50 states of the US. The financing details and other details will be announced soon.
Some More Options
Okay, so Volvo Car Group’s car will have some options for customization. For instance, there will be a $5,000 performance pack, $1,200 20-inch alloy wheels and also Nappa leather interior which will cost $4,000. Besides this, someone can also buy the car with metallic paint job. This will cost $1,200.
If you want to buy the car online, you can do it. According to the company, the retail showrooms will be opened in around the second or third quarter of 2020. The showrooms in New York and in the West Coast of the US will be open. More locations will be opened gradually.
Markets where Polestar 2 may be available
The launch version for Polestar 2 was actually going to cost around $63,000. However, the base version will now start from $45,000. Polestar wants to sell their car in many varied markets. For example, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
More about Polestar 2’s star feature
The feature which is making everyone’s hearts pound is that the car will have Android Automotive Operating System. It is a system introduced by Google and Polestar 2 will be the first one to use it. This system will have Android 10. It will offer many features that Google is providing. This system will really make an impact in the market.
The car’s display will look similar to a smartphone’s interface. Previously, some companies did use Android based systems but without the support from Google, it turned out bad. However, Google is all into this industry now. This means that there is more to come and this software could turn out to be really good in the industry.


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Asda has been ‘sold’ by parent Wal-Mart to investment subsidiary Corinth Services in a £6.9bn deal.
The deal, which took place in August, was described as part of a “group restructuring” and means Asda remains under the control of the US retail giant.
Andy Bond – who was already a director of Corinth – has been joined on the investment group’s board by retail director Andy Clarke, the Daily Telegraph reports, as well as a clutch of other Asda directors.
“From 2009 Corinth is the new parent company of Asda Group, having previously been a subsidiary,” a spokesman for Asda said.
“As part of good financial management of our business we will, from time to time, alter that structure as appropriate. Such alterations depend on the a variety of factors, including the cash, debt and interest positions in the various group companies.”
Why Asda rejected launching its own loyalty card scheme (7 November 2009)
Wal-Mart eyes US cities in new growth bid (2 November 2009)

domain: news


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In this month's update, we discuss the new A4-4020 and A4-6420K APUs, AMD's low-power, entry-level Socket FS1b-based platform, and how it will stack up against Intel's counterpart, Bay Trail-D. We also report...
This month was a tidal wave of graphics card releases, including Nvidia's GeForce GTX 750 Ti and 750, based on Maxwell. We also look at the new GeForce GTX Titan Black, the brand new Radeon R9 280, and the...
A premium price for a premium product.
Hello, I was browsing through the windows system informations (Windows 7) and wash shocked to find that I only have 1.49 GB of ram free despite...
A big water block for a big graphics card.
NZXT has announced its cheapest Phantom case yet.
Aerocool has announced two new cases for space-saving builds.
Sadly, it seems we also won't be seeing any 20 nm GPUs from AMD this year either.
Asus' ROG Striker GTX 760 Platinum 4 GB is set to hit shelves soon.
Zalman now has a 240 mm version of the Reserator 3 Max.
New SSDs from Kingston have arrived.
Hooray, a new PSU from Super Flower is about to hit shelves.
VisionTek's CryoVenom R9 290LE has pretty packaging.
Scythe has built a new entry-level CPU cooler.
Lian-Li's PC-V2130 is what most of us would call... big.
Biostar now has three Hi-Fi series motherboards with dual Gigabit Ethernet.
MSI has revealed a whole array of new motherboards.
Gigabyte has bundled a WindForce cooler with one of its GTX Titan Black graphics cards.
If you're having issues with your MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning, this might be worth a read.
There you have it -- tray prices of the Haswell Refresh CPUs from Intel.
EKWB's water block for the GTX 780 (Ti) WindForce 3X from Gigabyte has finally arrived.
Aerocool's new fans come in a variety of colors.
Silverstone's new PSU is fanless, which makes it very likely to also be completely quiet.


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Every entrepreneur is met with challenges in the quest to reaching goals, but pair those obstacles with the struggles that Black female founders face and the impact can be overwhelming. Throw in a global pandemic and success requires an effort that can be nearly unimaginable.
A recent survey of 500 female entrepreneurs discovered that small businesses led by Black women face unique issues. Well over half of those surveyed said they had difficulties finding a mentor and had limited access to resources, while many reported shouldering more than half of the businesses' financial risk while also suffering burnout.
Exhaustion comes as no surprise when support doesn’t align with need. Though women of color now make up more than half of women-owned businesses in the United States, the opportunities for assistance and guidance don’t line up. In fact, women of color receive only 0.2% of venture capitalist funding, according to digitalundivided (2018), ProjectDiane2018: The State of Black Women Founders. Stacy’s Pita-Chips, based here in Plano, recognizes this disparity and created the Stacy’s Rise Project to provide grants and mentorship programs to support this underserved population of female founders. The program expanded this year, in partnership with Hello Alice, to support an additional 15 Black female founders with $150,000 in grants, professional marketing and executive coaching/mentorship.
The winners of this year’s Stacy’s Rise Project were selected based on their commitment to social impact, sustainability and how they meet challenges that face their businesses. Encouraging upward mobility and peer support, this year’s benefits included complimentary membership in The BOSS Network, whose founder, Cameka Smith, specializes in the challenges faced by Black female entrepreneurs. The community of entrepreneurial women promotes conversation and networking among female leaders, providing a like-minded support that was severely lacking until its induction.
Spread throughout the country, the winners represent a wide variety of businesses from incubation and holistic wellness to sweet treats and beauty supplies. Beyond the mentorship, grants and marketing, the diverse group of innovators are featured on the Stacy’s Rise Project website.
As this growing demographic of business owners continues to expand, some areas have proven more supportive than others. Although no D-FW-area applicants were selected as project winners this year, it seems that Texas in general provides many advantages to Black entrepreneurs. Earlier this year, the Lone Star State was listed as the second-best state for Black entrepreneurship, after Georgia. Factors such as financial optimism, government incentives and overall business opportunity were taken into consideration while ranking. The peer-provided support, through groups like The Dallas Fort Worth Minority Supplier Development Council, Women’s Business Council SW, Dallas Blacks in Tech Meetup and the Dallas Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers may also be a factor in why Black business thrives in the area.
Through the Stacy’s Rise Project, the hope is that Black female-led businesses will garner greater access to the tools needed for entrepreneurial success. Founders and appreciators alike are encouraged to participate by visiting the founders' websites and sharing their own stories on social media with #StacysRiseProject.


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The aluminum sector is one of the first victims of the sharp rise in energy prices in Europe, where the first foundry closures have been announced. And more will follow, impacting other metals producers in other parts of the world.
Posted at 9:00 am
“The crisis is completely changing the game in the industry,” said Jean Simard, president and CEO of the Canadian Aluminum Association, which brings together Canadian producers Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Alouette, who account for 5% of world production.
Corresponding FinancialTimes London, High energy prices have already forced European companies to cut aluminum and zinc production by 50%. Aluminum-intensive industries such as aerospace and automotive will therefore have to resort to imports.
On this side of the Atlantic, Québec’s aluminum sector is unlikely to benefit from the misfortune of European producers. On the one hand, the energy crisis will plunge the European economies into recession, which will reduce global demand for aluminum, explains Jean Simard.
On the other hand, Quebec’s aluminum smelters, which produce 90% of Canada’s metal, are already operating at full capacity and their export opportunities to Europe are limited.
We might be tempted to think that this will create opportunity [pour les alumineries québécoises]but that is not the case.
Jean Simard, President and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada
Aluminum smelters in Quebec are already producing at 93% of their capacity. Companies are already doing everything they can to maximize their production with the energy available to them.
Last year, Alcoa invested $63 million to increase production at its Deschambault plant, and Rio Tinto increased production at its Arvida plant in Saguenay by 25,000 tons per year.
The next investments to significantly increase production in Quebec, according to Jean Simard, are linked to the new low-carbon production technology currently being developed in Saguenay.
Therefore, if Europe plunges into a deep recession and China, grappling with drought problems reducing its aluminum production capacity, absorbs Russian aluminum hit by international sanctions, the impact of this upheaval in Quebec’s aluminum industry should be limited.
“We must not lose sight of the fact that the North American market is the most important market for us,” stresses Jean Simard.
Most of the aluminum produced in Québec, more than 80%, is exported to the American market, where demand is undiminished. On the contrary, it could even increase with the plan recently passed by the Biden administrationAnti-Inflation Actwhich envisages massive investments in green energies.
“I see that as positive” for the aluminum sector in Canada, says Jean Simard.
As they await the potential fallout from the Biden plan, aluminum producers in Canada are reaping the gains fueled by the metal’s high price in the international market.
For the first half of 2022, Rio Tinto reported $1.5 billion in profits in its aluminum sector, up 68% from the same period last year.
Alcoa reports that its net income grew in the past two quarters to more than $1 billion in 2022 from $484 million last year.
- Aluminum price reached $4000 per ton in March 2022 after Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, a ton of metal has traded between US$2350 and US$2450.


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IBM sales slide again...Mobilegeddon is here...SAP gains on weak euro...and more tech news.
IBM reported a 12 per cent drop in revenue for the last quarter despite a big boost from its new z13 mainframe, which went on sale last month.
Is Nokia scheming to move back into phones?... Antitrust lawyers frowning at Comcast plan... IBM's Chinese partnership raises eyebrows... and more tech news.
WikiLeaks publishes stolen Sony info... IBM opens up threat data... China suspends rule on foreign IT vendors... and more tech news
IBM has joined an increasing number of vendors who are pushing for real-time cybersecurity information sharing among private and public organizations, researchers and other network defenders.
Former Office chief returns to Microsoft... Turing manuscript fetches $1 million... Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia talking merger... and more tech news.
The health information your Apple Watch collects could eventually end up in IBM's Watson cloud computing platform, where medical researchers and doctors can tap it in the course of their work.
IBM and Fujifilm have figured out how to fit 220TB of data on a standard-size tape that fits in your hand, flexing the technology's strengths as a long-term storage medium.
Chip could make smartphones into 3D scanners...US, IBM surge in mobile patents...Roku gets voice upgrade... and more tech news.
The U.S. widened its lead in mobile patents last year and IBM took the top spot in new patents granted in that space, according to a report this week that analyzed data from both the U.S. and Europe.
A combination of new malware and old-fashioned social engineering has been used to rob companies of more than US$1 million, according to a new study from IBM.
Uber poaches Facebook security chief... Your next PC could take mobile payments... EU investigates Apple's streaming music plans... and more tech news
Google has tried it with Inbox, Microsoft handed Outlook Web App users Delve and now, with Verse, IBM is giving webmail a fresh look as it teaches its venerable Domino mail server new tricks.
An enterprise mobility partnership between Apple and IBM has yielded more iPhone and iPad apps, including the first ones for the health care industry and industrial production management.
Over 100,000 devices have a misconfigured service called multicast DNS that accepts requests from the Internet and can potentially be abused to amplify distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
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text:
A quote from the article:
The lock makers say they can’t respond to the issues Tobias is raising until he tells them exactly how his attacks work. But before he’s willing to give them the details, Tobias has insisted the makers agree to fix the vulnerable locks retroactively with no cost to customers who have already purchased them. Something they refuse.
It got me thinking - I've never heard of anyone doing this in the software world. For those who just have a website, I suppose this kind of threat isn't too big a deal. Most reasonable software vendors provide patching on an ongoing basis, but for those who don't, is anyone aware of any cases like this? A researcher requiring the vendor to promise to fix the product before they disclose the defect?


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Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, April 14, 2004
- VIRUS — W32.Gaobot.ZX, a variant of W32.Gaobot.SY, spreads across Windows systems through ineffectively protected network shares. The worm virus attempts to disable security and antivirus software processes, then compromises security allowing would-be attackers access over an IRC channel. The most effective defense is up-to-date antivirus software and the consistent use of complex passwords composed of letters and numbers. More information can be found at www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.gaobot.zx.html.
- SCAM — A sophisticated new turn on the Nigerian money laundering e-mail scam is proliferating. People with expensive items for sale online have been contacted by an international customer who sends a cashier's check for thousands more than the requested amount, with instructions to send the overage to an international shipping company handling the transfer of goods. Once the shipping company is paid, the customer backs out of the arrangement. Inevitably, the victim's bank discovers the cashier's check is a forgery. More information can be found at www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Nigerian/nigerian_auction_scams.htm.
Source: Crimes of Persuasion


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NEW DELHI: HSBC Bank, in its latest report, has upgraded India’s GDP growth forecast for financial year 2021-22 to 11.2 per cent, expecting the economy to completely rebound to levels seen in the pre-Covid period.
“By some measures, industrial activity is only a few percentage points below its pre-pandemic peak. Mobility, too, has largely recovered, which should help spur services demand, which is still 25 per cent below pre-pandemic level, in the coming months,” the HSBC report said.
The report adds that the pick up in business activity coupled with a steady fall in Covid cases should aid a faster economic recovery across Asia, and expects almost all economies in the region to reach their pre-pandemic level by the end of 2021, with the exception of Japan and Thailand.
“The only exceptions are Japan and Thailand (next year), and the Philippines (beyond 2022). Encouragingly, we expect the rebound to have legs: growth in 2022 is likely to remain robust, still exceeding its pace in 2019, in all Asian markets, except for mainland China, Taiwan, and Vietnam,” wrote Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC.
The report has also lowered the inflation target for India, despite rising crude oil and auto fuel prices. The report lowered the consumer price inflation (CPI) forecast for 2021 to 4.9 per cent and to 4.7 per cent for 2022.
Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index eased to 4.06 per cent in January—a 16-month low. Inflation had peaked to an over six-year high of 7.61 per cent in October. Inflation has fallen mainly on account of food inflation, which almost halved to 1.89 per cent in January compared to 3.41 per cent recorded during the previous month.


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Stocks rose as investors considered the speed at which the Federal Reserve would move to lift interest rates, and awaited more earnings from major companies. Here’s what we’re watching in Thursday’s trading:
- Intel’s earnings fell last quarter as the company ramped up spending on new facilities and products, part of Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger’s efforts to revive the semiconductor giant’s fortunes.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric-car maker won’t introduce new models this year, as it bets on increasing deliveries over diversifying its product offerings in the face of ongoing supply-chain disruptions.
- Apparel company Levi Strauss said it expects higher revenue in 2022 than the previous year and reported higher profit in the fourth quarter.
- Whirlpool said that washing machines, refrigerators and other appliances are likely to remain hard to get this year as Covid-19 infections continue to fuel supply chain problems.
- Digital lending company LendingClub gave 2022 earnings guidance lower than analysts expected.
- Teradyne’s first-quarter financial guidance fell short of Wall Street projections.
- Las Vegas Sands reported lower losses but a slight decline in revenue in the fourth quarter.
- Xilinx said its board approved a special dividend that will only be payable if the company’s previously announced merger with Advanced Micro Devices isn’t closed by the record date of the dividend.
- Blackstone’s net income nearly doubled in the fourth quarter thanks to strong investment performance in some of its biggest businesses, as the largest private-equity firm by assets raked in more cash than in any other period in its history.
- Fast-food company McDonald’s reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that missed expectations.
- Mastercard logged greater earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter, boosted by strong spending trends.
- Shares of Block fell after a Bloomberg report said Apple is planning a service that will let retailers accept payments on iPhones without the need for extra hardware.
- Sherwin-Williams reported a fourth-quarter earnings miss and full-year earnings guidance below Street expectations.
- Earnings are due after the market close from Apple, Robinhood Markets, Mondelez International and Visa.
Chart of the Day
- Give priority to sustainability, however, and investors will be left in a difficult position: assuming the shift away from fossil fuels happens, they have the choice of making a difference, or making more profit.
Write to Caitlin Ostroff at email@example.com
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Travelodge profits soar amid talk of a potential £1bn float
TRAVELODGE reported a surge in full-year profits yesterday, raising prospects that a £1bn flotation could be on the cards.
The budget hotel chain underwent a painful debt restructuring in 2012 that handed control to its US lenders – Avenue Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management and Goldman Sachs.
Under leisure industry veteran Peter Gowers, who was brought in in 2013 to lead a turnaround, Travelodge has seen a bounce back in sales after spending £100m revamping its rooms and launching new hotels. It has enjoyed a surge in business customers, particularly.
The group said underlying profits jumped 63.5 per cent to £66.2m for the year to 31 December. Sales were up 14.9 per cent to £497.2m while revenue per available room (revpar) rose 16.8 per cent to £34.24.
Gowers told BBC Radio 5 that its owners “were not natural long-term holders of the business”. They are reportedly examining options for the group.


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Mass multiplayer online games appear to be in decline, with World of Warcraft subscriptions down ten per cent, titles like Star Trek Online adopting the free-to-play model and the kid-friendly Lego Universe shutting up shop completely.
During Activision Blizzard's investor call yesterday, the company announced WoW subscriptions had fallen to 10.3 million, down from the 11.4 million users playing the game in March 2011, WoW Insider reports.
While Blizzard insists most of the loss came from Asian countries, it declined to provide a subscriber forecast. A sign that the future might not be looking so bright? WoW's next expansion pack, Mists of Pandaria, is on the way soon, so the figures could creep up again.
Yet the masses appear reluctant to pay to play, especially when there are so many free offerings around. One of WoW's MMO challengers, Star Trek Online, is adopting a free-to-play model, which will kick off on 17 January 2012.
As reported by IGN, developer Cyptic's Stephen D'Angelo said: "We tried to make it free-to-play at the original launch, but our publisher [Atari] didn't want us doing that, so we didn't."
The developer has since found players don't like paying for content and it has had to revisit the economy of the game, making it harder to acquire the high-end loot and in-game perks in order to keep people interested.
In these grim economic times, people are certainly weary of reaching into their pockets, even when it comes to keeping their children entertained. This is epitomised by the death of a more kiddy-centric MMO, Lego Universe, which has announced it will close its doors on 31 January 2012.
Those who have already subscribed beyond this date will be offered refunds and the final month of the game free. But if a mega franchise like Lego can't pull enough numbers in to make its game financially viable, it doesn't look good for the others out there.
It'll be interesting to see whether Star Wars: The Old Republic, will indeed be the WOW killer it once proclaimed to be. Perhaps it won't be lightsabres that bring an end to the Warcraft dominance after all, though. ®


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University College London (UCL) has announced that it will offer a two-week certificate course in Chinese Intellectual Property Law running during September 17-28, 2007.
The course will provide an overview of the the new range of IP laws recently introduced in China. According to UCL, this new set of laws "not only affects new technologies and products introduced by Chinese industry, but it also affects the opportunities and risks borne by foreign corporations which wish to introduce products and technology into and conduct business in China."
The course, devised and supervised by Professors Sir Hugh Laddie (UCL) and David Llewelyn (King's College London), is therefore of particular interest to in-house lawyers from companies that conduct business in China, or European IP professionals who advise such companies.
For more information, please visit the UCL website.


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Accept all major payment modes and upgrade your customer experience
Make online payments faster, simpler and error-free.
Sell in-store and online seamlessly
By Sunil Param | September 26, 2019
Sunil Param is the Head of Content and Communications at Pine Labs.
Read more about author
The rise of India's consumer market has meant that the retail sector has now emerged as one of the strongest pillars of the Indian economy. In fact, India is currently the third-largest consumer market in the world behind the United States and China. Consumer spending in India is expected to grow from the present $1.5 trillion to approximately $6 trillion by 2030, as per a World Economic Forum (WEF) report.
Several factors such as the advent of technology, rising income levels, the rise of a young and aspirational middle class, allowing FDI in single-brand retail, and the explosion in the e-commerce sector have contributed to the meteoric rise of the retail sector in India. A recent report by Deloitte and Retailer's Association of India (RAI) indicates that the retail sector is fast-emerging as one of the largest sectors in India and may touch Rs. 80 trillion in 2020 from the current Rs. 50 trillion.
One of the biggest difficulties faced by merchants is the timely availability of working capital. Traditionally, retail businesses require much more working capital in comparison to other industries. This is especially true during the festive and holiday season where there is intense competition in acquiring new customers.
Merchants need working capital for several reasons and some of these include:
With Diwali fast approaching, working capital is the firework that merchants need to boost their Sales. Having said that, there are several roadblocks that merchants face while arranging working capital.
Few of the challenges faced by retail merchants in procuring working capital include:
At Pine Labs, we are committed to empower our merchants to help them grow their business. We understand that timely credit can give the much-needed push to help merchants with their business growth. Through the Pine Labs Capital offering, merchants can avail quick and easy collateral-free loans. You can receive funds in your bank account within 48-72 hours of loan approval. If you are looking to make the most of the all-important festive season that requires rolling out heavy discounts for customer acquisition, reach out to us and know more about Pine Labs Capital.
By Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs | on November 30, 2023
By Pine Labs | on June 23, 2022


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T-Series is about to unseat PewDiePie as the king of YouTube video. It is riding the incredible surge in mobile viewing in India.
T-Series poised to become the biggest YouTube channel
PewDiePie – aka Felix Kjellberg – has run the largest channel on YouTube for several years. However, that could soon change as a new channel called T-Series is on a growth trajectory that will carry it passed PewDiePie within the next month.
YouTube star PewDiePie reigns supreme on the platform and currently has 69,679,563 channel subscribers. What’s more, according to Tubular Labs data, the channel is still growing, adding 863,000 subscribers in the last month. PewDiePie is barely ahead of its nearest competitor T-Series, which has 69,022,421 subscribers. However, T-Series is growing much faster than PewDiePie, adding 4.2 million subscribers in the last month. If these growth rates keep up, T-Series will have 76 million subscribers and PewDiePie 72 million by the end of the year.
So, what is T- Series and why is it growing so fast?
T- Series is an Indian music record label and film production company. It is leveraging its huge trove of Bollywood music videos to populate its channel on YouTube. The channel is already the largest as measured by views and will soon be the largest by subscribers. T-Series also owns many other popular YouTube channels, such as T-Series Tamil, T-Series Telugu, and Bollywood Classics.
The success of T-Series on YouTube illustrates the growing popularity of online video in India.
The rise of the Indian mobile video market
Here at nScreenMedia, we have been tracking the rise of smartphones in developing countries, including India. The explosive growth of the market continues. The Asian subcontinent already has over 337 . For many, mobile is the primary method by which they access the internet. Young Indians spend more than 28 hours a week on their smartphone, with much of that time spent watching video. Little wonder that online video viewing is seeing massive growth.
In 2017, the Indian online video industry generated $340 million. Media Partners Asia forecasts that by 2022 the Indian online video industry is expected to generate nearly 5-times as much, or $1.6 billion. Indian’s have an appetite for binge-watching online videos as well. According to Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, “Indians are the biggest binge watchers on the platform in the world.” According to PwC, the country is set to make it into the top-10 OTT video markets in the world in four years.
With so much opportunity why are some companies succeeding more than others?
The keys to winning in the Indian market
With so many eyeballs turning to mobile video, there is a huge demand for new original and regional content. Currently, most creators in India aren’t meeting that demand. T-Series, on the other hand, is one of the few creators that can deliver. The music label is constantly releasing new content, releasing videos in a variety of regional languages every day. Other Indian creators are also stepping up to challenge, including Zee TV, and YRF. Moreover, as they step up their production, they can quickly gain enormous popularity on YouTube through mobile devices.
The most successful channels understand the demographics and regions of their markets. They are also able to ramp up production to satisfy those markets. T-Series is the perfect example. It is a large content company at the top of its game and understands how to leverage that content to reach large audiences through YouTube. T-Series’ channels capture the culture of the massively popular modern Bollywood industry while making it easy to view by smartphone users.
Currently, a quarter of the Indian population owns a smartphone, but by 2022 more than a third will have one. Any content company wishing to capitalize on the boom in Indian mobile viewing need look no further than T-Series to see how it’s done.


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Google I/O 2018 keynote: Sundar Pichai talks emojis, AI advances and more
Google CEO Sundar Pichai started off the 2018 developer fest on a rather cheesy note! He spoke about fixing bugs in things that matter such as the burger emoji and floating foam on beer mug emoji! And, Artificial Intelligence had to be on top of things. Google aims to open AI centres around the world, and utilise machine learning for revolutionising healthcare. Listen-in.


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Greg Albright reflects on how things started out for residential solar power, where they are now, and where they’re going.
Recently, Greg Albright, the president of solar installation company Freedom Forever, was driving through the city of Riverside in Southern California when he suddenly realized he was passing by the very first home he had installed solar energy on just ten years ago. Struck with nostalgia, Albright stopped his car and rang the doorbell.
“I simply introduced myself and asked how their system was working for them,” Albright told CEO Magazine. “Of course, they didn’t know who I was, but their solar was working great. When I got into the industry a decade ago, I started out in sales for a small company called Solar Plus. It’s interesting to think about how things started out, where we are now, and where we’re going.”
Freedom Forever is a solar installation company that provides Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) for its independent dealer partners which include some of the most successful solar sales companies in the industry. Since its foundation in 2011, Freedom Forever has grown to service California, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, and Nevada out of six large, regional installation hubs.
Over the course of those eight years, Freedom has gone from a scrappy start-up—in the words of Greg Albright—to one of the fastest growing companies in the solar industry. In 2018, the company saw its revenues nearly double to $100 million from the previous year, and they continue to outpace themselves quarter after quarter on revenues. “I immediately gravitated towards solar because it was improving lives by helping people to save money, and it was good for the environment,” Albright said on his passion for the solar energy business. “It truly is the future.”
The energy of the future, today
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), 10.6 GW of solar power was installed in the US in 2018, representing an average annual growth rate of 50% over the past ten years. This positive impact on the environment has been significant—according to the SEIA, solar generation offsets more than 73 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year, which is equivalent to taking 15.6 million cars off the road or planting nearly 1.2 billion trees.
Freedom Forever delivers a solar solution to homeowners with flexible financing, backed by a unique 25-year production guarantee. “Our 25-year production guarantee provides the ultimate peace-of-mind for homeowners who may otherwise be reluctant to make a big investment,” Albright said. “Furthermore, solar gives them the opportunity to save on energy costs and increase the value of their home by as much as $15,000. With careful planning, a home solar panel system is an investment that can pay dividends for decades to come.”
Freedom Forever is currently growing at a rapid pace as evident by its #135 ranking on the 2018 Inc. 500 list compiled by Inc.com—Freedom’s third year being featured among the fastest growing companies in the US. At the root of its success, Albright believes that Freedom houses some of the most forward-thinking professionals in the solar energy industry. Yet he insisted that the company’s key goal is sustaining such growth while maintaining its already considerable reputation for quality customer care.
“With fast growth comes great responsibility—we’re staying laser-focused on positive, sustainable cash flow so that we remain financially healthy for the long run,” Albright elaborated. “This is a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve built a foundation of culture and systems that allow us to provide outstanding care and service no matter how large we grow. It’s the people and processes that make it all come together.”
Albright described how Freedom Forever scours the marketplace to ensure that the company is procuring the best materials at a reasonable price for its customers and stressed he is extremely proud of the way the company operates transparently with its partners.
“It’s tough to predict market trends given the diversity of materials we purchase and the current trend of global trade issues,” he explained. “However, this has forced us to be nimbler, more resourceful, and more flexible. We set up our independent authorized dealer partners for success with a premium offering and flexible financing options at the best rates.
“It’s a very open relationship and there are obviously multiple suppliers and distributors that want to work with us because we’ve grown so well. But it’s imperative that we make sure we’re partnering with the right people. We have multiple players that are a part of each deal. So, collaboratively, all of us need to work together to ensure that we’re the most efficient and the lowest cost that we can be. All of us need to do a better job of streamlining so that we can reduce our cost to the customer, and ultimately put up more solar and help to combat climate change.”


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So you finally hit the shops and cafes after weeks of lockdown. After disinfecting your hands, following the arrows around the shop or to your table, taking care to avoid others where possible...
Jessica Vredenburg and Megan Phillips 24 Jul 2020
The results of the second annual BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Global Retail Brands have been revealed. The research shows that the world's most valuable retail brands are worth $339 billion more...
14 May 2019
LONDON, UK: Despite economic pressures still affecting the global economy consumers across the world are continuing to spend money on eating out and as a result the food service industry is set to grow by a whopping $114 billion in just three years finds Datamonitor.
Published by Datamonitor 26 Aug 2010


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Salisbury Poultry invests in ex-First Milk plant
Salisbury Poultry has invested in a new processing site
Salisbury Poultry is pumping GBP10m (US$15.3m) into building a poultry processing plant at an ex-First Milk site.
The plans for the Wrexham plant were approved earlier this week by the Wrexham County Borough Council planning committee.
Salisbury Poultry has said it will work with government and other local agencies in a bid to recruit from disadvantaged parts of the area, as well as providing opportunities to those who lost their jobs with the closure of First Milk.
"We are delighted to have the support and approval of the council to go ahead with this major project that will bring a GBP10m investment and 150-plus jobs to Wrexham and the surrounding area, as well as more jobs in the supply chain that will be needed to support our venture," said Stephen Hammond, commercial director of Salisbury Poultry.
The site, which will process up to 122 tonnes of poultry for retail customers, is expected to open within 12 to 18 months following enhancements and the installation of necessary equipment.
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Blue Life Hub at AquaFarm The importance of information and the transfer of best practices in aquaculture and the blue economy – AquaFarm, an international exhibition and conference on aquaculture, algoculture and the fishing industry scheduled for 15 and 16 February 2023 at Pordenone Fiere, will be the setting for the event “Blue Life Hub – Mediterranean Continent. The importance of information and the transfer of best practices in aquaculture and the blue economy”. Blue Life Hub is the new online Blue Economy newspaper, entirely in English, which aims to build a bridge of information and knowledge between the countries of the Mediterranean basin.
The event is scheduled for 16 February at 15:00 at the Hurban Farm Arena – Hall 4. The aim of the meeting is to understand why Blue Life Hub represents an opportunity for inclusion, collaboration and growth for aquaculture and the blue economy. The round table, moderated by Mariella Ballatore, founder and CEO of Pesceinrete, will be attended by leading representatives of the sector, including Giuseppe Palma, President of Assoittica, Giuseppe Serrini, CEO of Skretting Italia, Libero Dipaola, administrator of L’Avannotteria di Petrosino, Marco Pedol, Senior Advisor for ESG & Sustainability, and Orazio Albano, founder of Blue Life Hub.
The speakers will address topics crucial to the sustainable development of aquaculture and the blue economy, such as the fish supply chain, fry production, fish supply chain standards at the Mediterranean level, and information sharing that looks to the future of aquaculture.
By definition, the Blue Economy aims to exploit the economic opportunities offered by the sea and the oceans, while at the same time protecting and conserving marine ecosystems and ensuring sustainable fishing and farming.
The event is a unique opportunity to learn about and discuss the advances and opportunities offered by the blue economy, as well as to share best practices and work together for a sustainable future.
For more information email firstname.lastname@example.org or email@example.com.
Blue Life Hub at AquaFarm The importance of information and transfer of best practices in aquaculture and the blue economy


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AMD losses top $3bn in 2008
Present "crummy," future "murky"
AMD has released its financial report for the fourth quarter of 2008, along with totals for the full year. The numbers aren't pretty, but the company seems reasonably confident about its future.
That confidence was expressed during a conference call this afternoon with analysts and journalists - though the company's president and CEO Dirk Meyer referred to uncertain product demand as "the real wild card" when forecasting 2009 and his multi-hatted EVP, COO, CAO, and acting CFO Robert Rivet referred to the future as "murky."
Meyer and Rivet avoided most hard numbers when describing the company's prospects for 2009, but they offered a guardedly optimistic goal of reaching a $1.3bn break-even point at the end of Q2.
A lot of work will need to be done to make 2009 an improvement over 2008. Last year, today's report revealed, AMD had a net loss of $3.098bn on revenues of $5.808bn. While falling into a $3.098bn hole must be painful, AMD is better off than it was in 2007, when it lost $3.379bn on revenues of $5.858bn.
The fourth quarter of 2008 was particularly bad. AMD lost $1.424bn in Q4, a period that Meyer described as "usually the year's strongest quarter." Still, that's an improvement over the same quarter in 2007, when the net loss was $1.772bn.
Naturally, Meyer blamed those loses on "the Q4 meltdown," which caused microprocessor sales to be "down across the board."
Meyer said that the company is responding to the fiscal strain by being "laser-focused" on "preserving and generating cash" as well as "protecting current investment." Rivet added that AMD plans to "hold our roadmap intact and service our customers."
45nm on track
Part of holding that roadmap intact will be making no changes in the company's efforts to move a majority of its products to a 45nm process in the current quarter and to continue development of a 32nm process.
The continued move to 45nm will not only help keep AMD competitive with Chipzilla. It will provide a direct financial boost as well. Moving to 45nm lowers costs.
AMD's manufacturing arm is being drastically slowed in order to keep inventory levels low - so much so that for the immediate future, "factory utilization will be crummy" because "we're slowing everything down pretty considerably."
Also shrinking will be pay stubs. AMD recently announced a "temporary" comprehensive salary-reduction plan.
Meyer said that "In Q1, our server business will be our strong suit," but it looks like laptop-chip sales have yet to bottomed out. The notebook supply chain is a long one and orders from Asian laptop makers may not yet reflect the crunch.
After Rivet said that there's been a "massive inventory correction in the fourth quarter," he asked rhetorically, "Is it done? We don't feel like it's done in the notebook space." To shrink inventories, Meyer said, "We're manufacturing below our shipment level."
When asked if the recent changes in Washington will affect those plans, Meyer said that there will be "no new closing conditions as a result of the change in administration." (In a related development, AMD today claimed that Intel is trying to sow "uncertainty" to delay or scuttle the deal.)
Finally, when asked for specific numbers on the company's planned - hoped for? - resurrection, Meyer admitted that "its awfully tough to forecast," because demand is "the real wild card."
As Rivet put it, "the current environment is pretty murky" and "It's an appropriate time to be cautious because the outlook is so murky."
Our dictionary defines murky as "dark and gloomy."
Seems about right. ®


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Egypt.travel awarded as one of the best stands at FITUR 2017
The International Tourism Fair, FITUR 2017 again distinguished the most notable participants through its competition for the best stands. One of the awards was won by the Egyptian Tourism Office, which uses the .travel domain for its official site egypt.travel.
The stands were evaluated according to the criteria of Professionalism (suitability of the stand to the marketing needs of each product); Communication / Promotion (stand identification with image and product) and Design (evaluation of the degree of originality and innovation).
Egypt wanted to show in this latest edition of FITUR that it is fighting to revive its tourism industry. The Egyptian Tourism Minister, Mohamed Yehia Rashed, explained that the Government has invested in security and has created a financial fund to recover the tourism sector.


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Antitrust actions state-of-the-art previous 7 days by the European Union may well derail a expense-chopping approach applied by company know-how chiefs to buy bundles of cloud and computer software instruments from the exact same seller at a price reduction, market experts say.
The Digital Markets Act, one particular of two guidelines approved by EU lawmakers final Tuesday, seeks to stop tech giants from utilizing their dimension and current market clout to continue to keep customers on their digital platforms, facts applications or suites of small business applications, they say.
Main information officers and other company tech leaders ordinarily desire to blend and match software equipment from a range of tech vendors. Nevertheless typically they can cut charges by aligning a lot of their IT programs to a one cloud provider’s on-line apps and companies, said
a senior analyst at investigation firm Business Know-how Investigation.
At the pretty least, he said, the technique avoids the complexity of integrating program instruments from various suppliers: “This new EU regulation problems some of that streamlining,” mentioned Mr. Brabham.
Due to the fact most organizations have shifted to the cloud, full offers of organization application resources presented by cloud-industry entrance-runners like
are especially attractive, he mentioned. A lot of of the package deal deals can contain cloud infrastructure and applications that never often functionality effectively with competitors’ choices.
In the enterprise cloud industry, Microsoft is drawing distinct consideration from European regulators more than the dominance of its Windows working program and Workplace productiveness apps.
director of the Schumpeter Challenge on Opposition Coverage at the Details Technologies and Innovation Basis, a Washington-based mostly tech coverage team, said European watchdogs could now deem that technique anticompetitive. The group’s board contains officials from Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Mr. Portuese mentioned the plan amounts to a “regulatory assault on the incredibly process of vertical integration and solutions diversification by a handful of big gatekeepers.”
CIO Advisory Associate at
a world management consulting company, mentioned blocking big tech firms from providing preferential cure on their platforms to their possess software applications removes “one of the major benefits of launching a tech system.”
Compliance with the new measures—violations can carry fines of up to 20% of a tech company’s annual earth-extensive revenue—will very likely demand major financial commitment by tech companies, Ms. Ebert claimed. She said it might also direct to unique solution sets for company customers in the European marketplace, prices that are most likely to be passed along to consumers.
Ms. Ebert expects enforcement of the new procedures to direct to protracted authorized battles with unsure results for the European Commission. “This means that CIOs might not have to adjust a great deal of their procedures in the extended time period,” she reported.
Most CIOs have taken a hybrid or multi-cloud approach to cloud computing, which has pressured large cloud sellers to offer you techniques that function with each other in order to get to a larger sized pool of consumers, stated
president and principal analyst at IT consulting organization Pund-IT Inc.
“So much as seller lock-in and bundled applications go, it seriously is dependent on irrespective of whether a vendor’s methods create or act as an impediment to consumers operating with the sellers they choose,” Mr. King stated. If very little else, he claimed, European regulators will now be able to “scrutinize distributors that aren’t so cooperative.”
CIO strategic adviser at Los Angeles-centered advisory company AVOA, mentioned the EU regulations replicate several of the exact same worries as antitrust laws in the U.S.
U.S. lawmakers from each big events have introduced expenditures with steps aimed at reining in tech companies, this sort of as barring them from utilizing their platforms to advertise their very own goods and companies more than people of opponents. A different proposed invoice would power the break up of part of Google’s marketing organization, which not long ago prompted the corporation to suggest splitting off components of its enterprise into a independent company.
In the quick-time period, Mr. Crawford claimed, the new EU regulations would not have substantially of an impact on international CIOs, even though “regulators require to carefully contemplate the entire consequences ahead of enacting.”
Produce to Angus Loten at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8


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Canon Communications to Launch Process Technology Expo West in 2009
August 1, 2008
3 Min Read
As a follow-up to this year’s highly successful PTXi (Process Technology Expo International) show at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, producer Canon Communications has announced that next year it will launch a western regional edition—PTX (Process Technology Expo) West. The new event takes place April 21-23, 2009 in Southern California’s Anaheim Convention Center.
PTXi attracted 5000 senior processing managers from all 50 states and 41 countries to its 400-company exposition. “Exhibitors reported a robust event where thousands of senior production executives representing the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical sectors traveled from local facilities as well as unusually long distances to specify and purchase new process equipment and automation technology,” said Canon’s director of sales Joshua Dome. “Sixty-two percent of exhibitors reported taking requests for proposals during the show for specific projects and the average dollar value for these quotes was well over $800,000. The success of the show was really a testimony to the strength and growth of these sectors–especially food manufacturing.” PTXi is a biennial show and as such will next be held in 2010.
PTX West came at the request of major exhibitors seeking a single industry forum to take place during the off year to the international event. "The need for a single biennial regional process technology show has been determined by the Process Equipment Manufacturers' Association (PEMA) and Canon after an extensive two-year study," stated the PEMA Leadership Team. "Canon has proven it can deliver a highly qualified audience and is one of the best event marketers in the business. PEMA is the preeminent association for manufacturers of process equipment. Therefore, Canon and PEMA have joined expertise and encourage suppliers and buyers to support the Powder Bulk Solids/PTX West Show."
Leading exhibitors who’ve already confirmed their participation in PTX West include American Process Systems, Fenwal Protection Systems, Gardner Denver, General Kinematics, Hapman, Jenike & Johanson, Microtrac, Minox/Elcan, Prater-Sterling, Rapat Corp., and REMBE.
The new event is ideally positioned to deliver the west coast’s key process industries of food, chemical, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The location makes travel from Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, and the entire western U.S., convenient and accessible to international attendees from Central America and Asia. “With visitors from 41 countries, yet nearly half of the attendees coming from the five states that comprise the contiguous central region, PTXi demonstrated both the global and local pull of a strong process technology show," said Canon's marketing director Dan Cutrone. "We are excited about recreating this same dynamic at PTX West but obviously with a greater western region contingent."
PTX/Powder & Bulk Solids events are the only ones in North America uniquely dedicated to showcasing process equipment, automation, and quality technology to process manufacturers. PTX West will include 200 leading exhibitors and feature a comprehensive conference agenda. Part of the event will be a new co-located show–-FoodProcess-–positioned to serve the western region’s $84 billion food process industry sector.
Canon Communications LLC, a portfolio company of Apprise Media LLC, is the leading publisher, trade show producer, and digital media company for the world’s $3 trillion advanced, technology-based manufacturing industry, including medical device, packaging, design engineering, process technology, automated assembly, electronics, quality control, and plastics processing.
Further information about Canon’s business-to-business publications, trade shows, and digital media is available at www.cancom.com.
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Jeff Benjamin, chief creative officer of Tombras, said incidents like the MSCHF stunt can forge the character of a brand, and provide an opportunity to influence perception of it in a way that other forms of media cannot.
“I think that a lot of times, it’s how a brand behaves that determines its fame,” he said. “The most famous brands in the world are not famous just because of their ads; in fact, most of the time, they are more famous for the way they behave than the way they act. That’s the philosophy that we're taking into this relationship.”
Subway gave Tombras a set of broad marching orders but latitude in how it could approach them. “They planted a seed of what they’d been exploring internally but they want us to explore that across different platforms,” Butturini said, noting that Subway’s response to one stimulus on TikTok may not resemble how its Twitter feed would respond.
“A brand, just like a person, doesn’t show up the same way in every situation. So there are going to be times that we lean more into humor,” Butturini said. “There are going to be times where we’ll be more food-forward. That’s what we're figuring out now. How does Subway show up, and what is our voice across different platforms and at different moments?”
Subway's social character will take on a role akin to a “player-coach” who is helpful and authoritative when need be, but also playful and competitive, said Benjamin. It's a stance that reflects the brand’s long alignment with athletes and sports leagues. Subway is an official NFL sponsor, rides with Nascar's Kevin Harvick, and got its Refresh campaign off the ground behind celebrity endorsements from athletes like Tom Brady.
From a fifth-floor war room at Tombras’ Knoxville, Tennessee headquarters, about 25 social brand managers in stadium-style seating monitor Google trends, news feeds and Twitter on large screens, and scheme on Slack to craft where and how their brands can participate, Butturini said. An on-site content studio can get to work immediately on creative assets to accompany those engagements.
Social campaigns are able to bring urgency and direction to the brand's message. "I think the challenge for us is how you create some momentum, and do it in a way where there’s direction to it, so that we’re building something," said Benjamin.
A current promotion indicative of the brand’s social direction is the “Subway Vault,” or a series of sandwiches created by athletes and available only to users who order them on the Subway app. The brand launched the Vault as part of the Super Bowl Experience earlier this month in Los Angeles, showcasing sandwiches created to the tastes of NFL stars Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and Trevor Lawrence.


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Northern Europe online travel agency group Etraveli has found itself with a new owner, just 18 months after being snapped up by ProSiebenSat1.
The German television and entertainment giant has sold the business to private equity business CVC for €508 million.
The deal marks a major windfall for ProSiebenSat1 after buying the group in October 2015 in a transaction that supposedly valued ETravel in the region of €235 million.
ProSiebenSat1 has been reviewing its travel division for a number of months and the fate of fellow brands Weg and Ferien has yet to be determined, the company says in a statement.
They were bought in October 2013 for an undisclosed fee.
Christof Wahl, member of the executive board and group chief operating officer at ProSiebenSat1, says:
"The outstanding growth that Etraveli has achieved together with ProSiebenSat.1 in just a year and a half proves that our value enhancing investment strategy is a success.
"With CVC Capital Partners as a new investor, they will have a strong partner to continue their successful development."
CVC has previously invested in the Stella Group.
Lorne Somerville, partner and head of TMT at CVC, says:
"The online travel sector is dynamic and fast-growing, and Etraveli is a clear front-runner due to its data-driven approach and highly scalable business model."
Proper to joining ProSiebenSat1, Etraveli's previous owner was Segluah, a private equity company in the Nordic region.
eTraveli was formed in 2007 and now counts 12 different brands in its portfolio including Seat24, GoToGate, BudJet, Charter and GoLeif.
The company bought one of the forerunners of the independent online travel agency movement in Sweden, Travelstart (separate from the South African OTA of the same name), in January 2010.
ETraveli CEO Mathias Hedlund says the new ownership will support the "next chapter in our ambition to offer cheaper flight tickets to travelers around the world".


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40 startups to launch at DEMO Africa 2012
BUSINESS| Sept. 28, 2012, 11:54 a.m.
After more than four months of work, the DEMO team has released the shortlist of 40 demonstrators to launch at the first ever DEMO Africa Conference taking place in Nairobi, Kenya next month. The 40 finalists have gone through three rigorous vetting processes with a final adjudication by a pan-African panel of judges including entrepreneurs, venture capital investors, and academics.
“This has been a very enriching exercise seeing the quality of innovation coming out of Africa,” said Harry Hare, Executive Producer, DEMO Africa, when announcing the names of the final 40.
Several DEMO Africa innovation tours have been held over the last few months to encourage participation from technology startups from as many countries as possible. A total of 500 applications were processed, which were then shortlisted to 150 two weeks ago and then down to the final 40. “It’s been a great pleasure working with this group of entrepreneurs. We congratulate the ones that have made it through to the final round and trust they will put their best foot forward in Nairobi. Now is the time to celebrate innovators from across the continent,” said Ben White, Founder, VC4Africa.
The 40 finalists cover five categories – Social Media, Cloud Services, Mobile, Consumer and Enterprise Technologies. Applicants from South Africa and Kenya make up a big chunk of the final 40, with Ghana and Nigeria coming in a close second. Other countries represented included Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
“Many entrepreneurs did not make the final cut despite having excellent ventures. We wish we could launch all of them at DEMO Africa, but that’s practically not possible,” said Hare. “We will, however, engage all of them and see how to assist them through the partnerships we have created to move their businesses to the next level”.
Dele Akinsade, Developer and Platform Lead, Microsoft West, East, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, says “The success of a startup hangs on its ability to monetize ideas as quickly as possible and until now, African entrepreneurs have had limited opportunities to attract investors. DEMO Africa will see 40 talented entrepreneurs get the level of global exposure their ideas deserve – and we can’t wait to see the results”.
The judges included Martin Butler, Senior Lecturer, University of Stellenbosch; Anthony Stonefield, Head of Ecosystem, Nokia; Toby Shapshak, Editor, Stuff Magazine South Africa; Paul Nguru, CEO, PN Consultancy; Stephen Gugu, Director, Viktoria Solutions; Erik Hersman, Founder, Ushahidi/iHub; Eric Osaikwan, CEO, Research Africa; Tomi Davis, CEO, Technovision; and Brian Longwe, DEMO Africa.
DEMO Africa is the flagship initiative of the Liberating Innovation in Opportunity Nations in Africa (LIONS@frica) Partnership and includes DEMO, Microsoft, InfoDEV, Nokia and US Department of State. The first ever Pan African technology launch pad and will be hosted by African eDevelopment Resource Centre and CIO East Africa under the auspices of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication. The DEMO Africa event will be at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, 24th to 26th October 2012 and will attract venture capitalists, angel investors, investment fund managers tech buyers, entrepreneurs, innovation supporters and media.
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The delicious outrage of the loss of Tastespotting continues, bringing thousands of readers to my blog to read the old post about the stalker, in search of possible reasons for their sudden loss and hoping to find a replacement. Copy cats have sprung up, you can see the comments section of my last Tastespotting post for that.
And now, young web entrepreneur Jean Aw of NotCot has spoken again by updating the Tastespotting website and by revealing her latest enterprise, Liqurious - a Tastespotting for cocktails. Bring it on! www.liqurious.com
Tastespotting.com UPDATE 19 June 2008:
In trying to resolve this situation, TasteSpotting.com is in the process of having a new owner. She would like you to know that "we're just marinating a bit longer, but tastespotting will be back shortly...
(Update - TasteSpotting is up and running again)


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|By PR Newswire||
|January 4, 2013 08:59 PM EST||
COSTA MESA, Calif., Jan. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai returns to the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 8-11, 2013 (North Hall, booth #315) to debut and showcase a number of new vehicle technologies. Along with demonstrations of its Blue Link® telematics and infotainment platform, Hyundai will again preview its next-generation concepts and future infotainment systems for the tech-savvy CES crowd.
Hyundai will display working versions of future vehicle infotainment systems and voice-recognition technology incorporating features enabled by several technology partners, including:
- Eyes Free mode: Hyundai will integrate Siri, the intelligent assistant that helps drivers get things done just by asking, and the much-anticipated Eyes Free mode into its vehicles. Through the vehicle's infotainment system, drivers with a compatible iPhone* running iOS 6 can direct Siri to perform a number of tasks while they safely keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. To further minimize distraction, Siri takes hands-free functionality even further with an Eyes Free mode which enables drivers to interact with their iPhone using nothing more than their voice while keeping the device's screen from lighting up.
- Dragon Drive: Developed by Nuance, Dragon Drive is an automotive-grade voice services platform for the connected car that enables drivers to speak naturally and conversationally with in-car systems. Drivers can simply dictate messages, search for their favorite music, find real-time weather and even ask directions to their favorite restaurant – in the car or in the cloud. With its extensive experience in the automotive industry, Nuance is working with Hyundai to integrate Dragon Drive into its future vehicle infotainment systems.
- Mobile High-Definition Link: MHL technology delivers 1080p60 uncompressed video with up to eight channels of digital audio from a mobile device to a dashboard display, all while charging the device. With MHL technology, Hyundai is able to integrate mobile devices into the car infotainment experience by enabling consumers to display apps and other content from the road. The MHL ecosystem is continuing to grow with an installed base of more than 220 million products and has fast become the de facto standard for smartphones.
- Next-Generation Hardware: Hyundai will feature the latest hardware with high resolution, multi-touch displays, Bluetooth® 3.0 and Wi-Fi/3G connectivity options with user-centric interface design. Drivers will be able to access connectivity features such as web browsing, mobile hot-spot, and media streaming through the support of DLNA and Mirror Link and Aha by HARMAN. These next-generation systems will also showcase popular entertainment features like Pandora®, HD Radio® and SIRIUSXM®.
* Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad (3rd and 4th generations), iPad mini and iPod touch (5th generation), and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area. Cellular data charges may apply.
Hyundai Reception at CES
Last week, Hyundai announced plans to integrate Google Maps APIs, including Send to Car, Point of Interest Search and Local Search by Voice, in to its Blue Link telematics platform. Representatives from both companies will be at the Hyundai Blue Link exhibit on January 10th at 11 A.M. PST for info and photo opportunities. Media and show goers are invited to stop by.
Blue Link Telematics
Following its debut at CES in 2011, Blue Link continues to be the centerpiece of Hyundai's commitment to global leadership in vehicle infotainment and telematics. The upcoming CES show will provide show goers a preview of the next evolution of Blue Link. "We've made great progress on Blue Link since its launch two years ago thanks to valuable feedback from our owners and enthusiasts like the ones attending CES," said Michael Deitz, senior group manager of Connected Car at Hyundai Motor America. "We're excited to be back at CES to demonstrate where we're headed with the Blue Link platform."
Future Automotive Technology
Each year, CES serves as the home for the most innovative and ground-breaking technology demonstrations. Following the theme, Hyundai will feature concepts and live demonstrations of future automotive technologies shown throughout the display and in its HND-6 concept vehicle. Visitors will be able to explore the future of automotive technology and how it affects vehicle interior design and safety.
HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA
Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through more than 820 dealerships nationwide. All Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes the 5-year/60,000-mile fully transferable new vehicle warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty, and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance.
For more details on Hyundai Assurance, please visit www.HyundaiAssurance.com
SOURCE Hyundai Motor America
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Aug. 31, 2015 09:00 PM EDT Reads: 362
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Our vote for counterintuitive news of the weekend has to go to this: Facebook is making itself available to users who want to access it via the TOR network.
TOR, which stands for the The Onion Ring, is a sophisticated but relatively simple way of trying to mask your online activity. By bouncing internet traffic randomly between servers, it hides the IP address of the original user (ie you) when requesting web pages and the like. Developed by the US and designed to help activists in repressive regimes, TOR has also become popular with privacy advocates. It’s also used to facilitate sales of illegal goods by protecting buyer and merchants’ identities at darknet sites like Silk Road 2.0.
One thing it’s not generally used for is Facebook. Aside from the clash of principles – TOR is about hiding who you are, Facebook is about surrendering privacy to the Zuckergods – there’s also a safety and security problem for TOR users. TOR is only as safe as you machine – the network can protect you so far, but logging into Facebook will identify you when you visit any other site with a Like button on. So your IP address is hidden, but your browser is shouting your real identity out to the world regardless.
Some believe that Facebook’s site, https://faceboocorewwwi.onion, is a ruse designed for exactly that purpose – to identify activists. There may, however, be method in the madness. It may – and that’s a big may – enable people living in countries where Facebook is banned or traffic to Facebook monitored – access the social network without revealing that their doing so to authorities.
Of course, in those same countries using TOR is a pretty big red flag for drawing attention to yourself, so who knows?
According to Facebook’s Alec Muffett, writing at the firm’s Protect the Graph page, TOR’s IP bouncing has historically presented problems with verifying a user’s location. Facebook uses this partly to learn more about you and partly to pick up when an account gets hacked. If you live in South Africa and someone is trying to access your account from Russia, Facebook won’t let them until they pass additional security checks.
This is why Facebook had previously blocked traffic originating from TOR to its servers. NoTOR requests now connect directly to the datacentre bypassing some of the security measures.
“The Facebook onion address connects you to Facebook’s Core WWW Infrastructure,” says Muffett of the new TOR link, “Check the URL again, you’ll see what we did there – and it reflects one benefit of accessing Facebook this way: that it provides end-to-end communication, from your browser directly into a Facebook datacentre.”
If anyone can enlighten us as to how that mitigates the previous problem we’d love to know. One potential new issue is that the TOR login is more likely to be used by people who have access to stolen credentials, who can now bypass security checks and protect their own backtraced IP, isn’t it?[Via – The Next Web, Image – Protect the Graph/Facebook]


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Fuel prices in the UK increased sharply in the Month of August, for the first time since the start of the year.
Prices for both petrol and diesel increased drastically despite close scrutiny of fuel prices at a time when the country is facing a high cost of living.
According to the motoring organization, RAC, motorists in the UK were hit by one of the sharpest jumps in fuel prices in more than two decades in August 2023.
The average cost of filling a tank increased by roughly £4 ($5.05) (KSh733) in August, with unleaded petrol rising by almost 7 pence a liter and diesel by 8 pence, the RAC said in a statement.
The increase could have been even higher if major retailers had not allowed margins to return to normal levels.
According to RAC Fuel Watch, the prices could have been set higher by retailers and filling stations.
“Fortunately for drivers, they have clearly been influenced by the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation as, all of a sudden, margins are once again closer to their longer-term averages,” drivers’ spokesman Simon Williams told news reporters.
The sudden increase in fuel prices shocked drivers who were looking back to lower fuel last summer.
The cost per barrel of oil rose $12 (KSh1759.20) between the start of July and the end of August, a move attributed to OPEC producer nations reducing supply.
RAC fuel watch suggested that the fuel prices were influenced by several factors including the Chinese economy and the end of the US summer driving season.


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Big Amazon affiliate commission rate cuts among latest program changes - Marketing Land Your privacy means the.
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 13: U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions at a news conference about ... [+] the.
According to a study by eBiz Facts, it still remains a profitable career for freelance developers to earn the.
Are you a health or beauty business owner and thinking about obtaining financing? If yes, then you’re more likely.
Localytics is thrilled to announce that we have been included on Built in Boston’s 100 Best Places to Work.
Pinterest is now the third largest social media platform in the United States, a position which it’s expected to.
Although my last conversation took place at the end of 2019, it’s a perfect way to start the.
Americans of all ages tend to now use social media daily, but platform preferences vary significantly among the various.
The move, media analysts say, marks a new chapter in the relationship between news outlets and the behemoth tech.


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I said in May I had my doubts about the bike hire scheme for central Melbourne.
Well, it’s been announced that the RACV will run it, and it’ll involve 600 bikes across 50 sites in the City of Melbourne.
There’s some irony to RACV running a bike hire scheme. I guess it’s another thing to help them look green while they continue lobbying for motorways — thus their claims to be a ”mobility” group – not just an automobile group.
And how will the bike hire scheme get around the legal requirement to wear a helmet while cycling?
It won’t. You’ll have to bring your own. — But Melburnians and visitors will have to provide their own protective headgear as none will be available and cycling without a helmet incurs a fine of $58. — Herald Sun.
Which means Gordon Oakley’s claim of it being an opportunity for “those visiting our beautiful city to explore it by bike” is a crock. Unless tourists (who are not bringing their own bikes) are going start bringing helmets along.
Jeez. I thought this scheme would have problems enough, but who is going to bring their own helmet? It’s like having to take your own steering wheel to hire a car.
I reckon this pretty much condemns it to failure. At a cost of $5 million, it looks like it’s going to be (as Bicycle Victoria’s Harry Barber predicted) $8000 bikes sitting by the side of the road.
Meanwhile, people (like me) who want to cycle more still won’t because of a lack of bike lanes and other safety measures.
(By the way, I love The Age’s description of the RACV man taking the bicycle away in a taxi — sounds like Ben Elton’s Gridlock yet again.)


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Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of iOS 11 to Developers, Removes iCloud Messages for Now
Apple today seeded the fifth beta of iOS 11 to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the fourth beta and two months after introducing the new update at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Registered developers can download the fifth iOS 11 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed.
According to Apple's release notes, in the fifth beta, iCloud Messages has been removed. Apple plans to reintroduce it in a future update to iOS 11. Today's beta fixes AirPlay, and tapping the AirPlay button in videos that are not full screen will no longer crash some apps. There's also a fix for a Calendar bug that could cause crashes when dragging items into the Calendar app, and FaceTime Live Photos is now an option that's enabled by default.
Favorites that were added to the Health app in iOS 11 beta 4 or earlier are no longer available, with Apple having restored Favorites that were selected prior to iOS 11.
iOS 11 introduces significant design changes, including a customizable Control Center and a new Lock screen that's been merged with the Notification Center. Peer-to-peer Apple Pay payments are coming in the Messages app, which is also gaining a new App Drawer, and there's a Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that's meant to help drivers stay focused on the road. Siri, Photos, the Camera app, and more are also gaining new features and refinements.
ARKit for developers will bring a range of new augmented reality apps and games to iOS devices, while a Core ML SDK has the potential to let developers build smarter apps. iOS 11 is also the biggest update ever for the iPad, with a new Dock that introduces much improved multitasking, a Files app for better managing files, improved Apple Pencil support, a revamped App Switcher, and a system-wide drag and drop feature.
iOS 11 is available for both registered developers and public beta testers and will see another month of testing ahead of a prospective September release date alongside new iPhones.
For complete details on all of the new features included in iOS 11, make sure to check out our extensive iOS 11 roundup.


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TOKYO -- Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido has put a twist on advertising for China's largest shopping event of the year through an online tool usually associated with social media influencers.
More than 400,000 viewers tuned in to Shiseido's livestream Tuesday from its Tokyo headquarters and a studio in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The company has been livestreaming almost every day since late October, when marketing campaigns for China's Singles Day sale -- held every year on Nov. 11 -- kicked into full gear.
"This is the first stream from Japan and from China," one excited viewer commented.
But unlike typical livestreaming campaigns, Shiseido is relying on its own employees instead of social media influencers to promote the company's products.
"In Japan, advertising is usually done by influencers," said marketing manager Michiko Kitahara, who appeared in Tuesday's stream. "But things have come full circle in China, and more people there are interested in what the manufacturer is saying."
By speaking directly to customers, Shiseido hopes to foster greater interest in its brands and the company itself. Kitahara herself discussed makeup trends in Japan and Shiseido's commitment to its products on the Tuesday stream.
"The more bare-faced look is popular in Tokyo right now. I recommend our Maquillage line, which is great at controlling shine," she said.
Shiseido offers products from over 30 of its brands for Singles Day.
"We aim to double companywide sales across Tmall and Tmall Global from last year's Singles Day," said Kosuke Koyanagi, manager at Shiseido China.
Makeup demand has flagged in Japan as more people wear masks to avoid the coronavirus. Shiseido is eager to tap the Chinese market to plug the hole and to drive future growth.


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Tata Motors bares plan to manufacture jeepney
Tata Motors Limited of India and local partner Pilipinas Taj Autogroup Inc. plan to establish a vehicle assembly plant in the Philippines within the next three years to become a major player in the jeepney modernization program.
Pilipinas Taj president Jon Fernandez said the two companies were finalizing a plan that would involve bringing cab chassis and engines from India and assembling the body in the Philippines.
“The platform cab and chassis will come from Tata Motors in India, then we as distributor here in the Philippines will co-project this with a body maker. This is where local content will be coming in and for the rest of the parts,” Fernandez said.
The government’s seven-year jeepney modernization program aims to replace 250,000 aging and diesel-fed jeepneys with electric vehicles.
Tata Motors head of commercial operations Rudrarup Maitra said the Indian automotive company was looking at spending more than the required investment of $8 million for jeepney manufacturing. Fernandez said Pilipinas Taj was already looking for a manufacturing site.
Tata came up with two jeepney prototypes--a smaller model with nine to 22 seats and the bigger model capable of ferrying 22 to 30 passengers.
“Both can be designed using our platform cab and chassis,” said Fernandez.
Tata Motors currently has 11 commercial models and four passenger car models in its Philippine lineup.
“They will all migrate to Euro 4 by 2018. And there will be other models that will be added over and above the 15 models. Since India is a right-hand drive market, we’re catching up on the models. We have an edge in passenger cars because they are diesel-powered,” Maiter said.
All Tata vehicles are currently imported as completely built-up units from India. Maitra said despite being slapped duties of 20 percent for commercial vehicles and 30 percent for passengers cars, the brand remained one of the most competitively-priced automotive brands in the Philippines.
“Tata keeps looking at ways to make owning a Tata vehicle more affordable to consumers. We’re hoping that the Asean-India free trade agreement will help lower the price even more. We’re hoping to reach that 40-percent local content requirement by Asean so we can further reduce our pricing,” he said.
Under the Asean Economic Community, trade among Asean members is duty-free. Tata sees this as an opportunity to increase sales and reduce prices once its Thailand and Vietnam facilities hit 40-percent in terms of local content for the Tata models they are producing.
Tata’s facility in Thailand focuses on manufacturing vehicles that are Euro 4 compliant for the right-hand market. Vietnam produces Tata trucks.
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