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HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Alibaba Group Holding fell 11 per cent on Friday (Nov 19), the most since its debut in Hong Kong, after a cut in its fiscal 2022 outlook spurred concerns about intensifying competition and dwindling consumer spending in China.
The disappointing forecast followed sales that missed analyst estimates for a second straight quarter. Alibaba posted a less-than-expected 29 per cent rise in revenue for the September quarter to 200.7 billion yuan (S$42.7 billion). It forecast 20 per cent to 23 per cent growth in fiscal 2022 revenue, short of the 27 per cent that analysts were projecting.
On Thursday, executives fielded a barrage of questions from analysts concerned about the longer-term picture for growth and Alibaba's efforts to fend off rivals. The lacklustre numbers underscored the former stock market darling's struggle to revive businesses walloped by macroeconomic and regulatory turmoil. Alibaba's shares plunged by their most since the e-commerce giant listed in Hong Kong in 2019.
The results "missed already lowered consensus by 3.2 per cent," Citigroup analysts wrote in a quick note. "More alarmingly, FY2022 full year revenue guidance was revised to only grow at 20-23 per cent."
Net income plummeted 81 per cent to 5.4 billion yuan, lagging estimates after the internet giant marked down the value of equity investments.
Chief executive officer Daniel Zhang said Alibaba will share its outlook in greater detail during an annual investor forum starting Dec 16.
Revenue growth at a plethora of divisions including its Cainiao logistics arm and local on-demand services underperformed expectations, while bread-and-butter customer management revenue from platforms like Taobao and Tmall grew just 3 per cent - the slowest in at least five quarters.
Competition is intensifying with rivals like JD.com and Pinduoduo stepping up investments to win over Alibaba's users, just as the resurgence in coronavirus cases dents consumer spending. China's economy grew 4.9 per cent in the September quarter, cooling from the 7.9 per cent growth in the previous period, partly because of lockdown measures across many cities.
"Looking ahead, we will continue to invest heavily into three growth engines of domestic consumption, globalisation, cloud computing and data intelligence," Mr Zhang told analysts on the call.
Pinduoduo this year surpassed Alibaba as the largest Chinese e-commerce platform by annual active shoppers, reaching 849.9 million users in the 12 months to June. Meanwhile, JD.com has been attracting new and returning brands like Starbucks and Estee Lauder to its platforms, taking advantage of Beijing's edict to end exclusivity arrangements previously imposed upon merchants.
Executives said they will continue to build features to round out their platforms and retain consumers. The company reported 953 million annual active buyers in China over the past 12 months and said it's on track to hit a billion before the end of the fiscal year.
The slowdown at Alibaba looked set to extend into a December quarter that included Singles' Day, the year's biggest shopping festival. Alibaba last week reported sales of US$84.5 billion (S$114.7 billion) during the blockbuster event, reaching yet another record. But the 8.5 per cent increase was a stark slowdown from previous years, as the company eschewed high-profile promotions to focus on sustainability and philanthropy - key pillars of Chinese President Xi Jinping's drive to achieve "common prosperity".
Alibaba's sales fell short of expectations for the first time in more than two years during the June quarter, battered by an antitrust probe that ended in a record US$2.8 billion fine. Since Beijing kicked off its tech crackdown a year ago, the campaign has grown to encompass areas from fintech to data privacy, online advertising as well as content - arenas Alibaba depends on to drive growth beyond its core business.
Beijing's vision for breaking up so-called walled gardens by its tech giants may benefit Alibaba in the long run. Fellow behemoth Tencent has pledged to make it easier for users to share external links, including those to Alibaba's platforms, on its WeChat super-app. On Thursday, Mr Zhang repeated that Alibaba welcomed more openness in the internet sphere.


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Don't exhaust Champagne in the sparkling wine category this summer. Make the most of Prosecco's popularity.Read More
The top Australian brands have lost market share since 2011, yet Australian wine value on the whole is up. Find out why.
The world’s largest producer this year, Italy has been dubbed one of the main ‘winners’ of 2016, with the country enjoying slightly better growing conditions than its European counterparts. Despite being the biggest producer, Italy’s harvest is still down around 2%, while quality is generally good.
When Wine Intelligence polled UK wine drinkers last year, more of them claimed to have drunk English sparkling wine than current production would have been able to supply.

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UNDATED (WKZO) -- Bargain hunters are braving snow and cold as they make the rounds on Black Friday in Michigan. Thanksgiving featured highs in the 60’s and within 12-hours, the National Weather Service says a cold front packing gusty winds and light snow moved through the area.
Forecasters expect blustery conditions with snow showers likely tonight and tomorrow. Daytime highs will be in the low 30s.
Retailers say beginning the Black Friday shopping in waves, with some stores starting thanksgiving evening and others at midnight spread out the traffic, kept the congestion down and made for a generally calmer start to the holiday shopping season.
They are hoping the rest of the season goes as well.


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Sixthman announced Summer Of ’99 Cruise and Summer Of ’99 And Beyond Cruise for 2024 with the first public live performances in more than a decade by Creed, a Grammy Award-winning band, according to a statement.
The Summer Of ’99 Cruise sails April 18-22, 2024 from Miami, FL to Nassau, Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Pearl. The Summer Of ’99 And Beyond Cruise sails April 27-May 1, 2024 from Port Canaveral (Orlando) in Canaveral, FL to Nassau aboard the Norwegian Jade.
The Summer Of ’99 Cruise and the Summer Of ’99 and Beyond Cruise represent the first-ever artist-branded event franchise in Sixthman history to completely sell out two separate voyages, according to the company.
The Summer Of ’99 Cruise is now top three among Sixthman’s all-time pre-sale signups and waiting list signups for events of any kind, the company says.
Both the Summer Of ’99 Cruise and the Summer Of ’99 And Beyond Cruise will feature Creed, composed of Scott Stapp, Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall, and Scott Phillips, reuniting for the first time since 2012 for two live performances. With more than one billion streams, over 53 million albums sold worldwide, and the RIAA Diamond-certified status, Creed’s success is comparable to popular rock bands like Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica.
In addition to Creed, the Summer of ’99 Cruise will also feature 3 Doors Down, Buckcherry, Tonic, Vertical Horizon, Fuel, The Verve Pipe, Tantric, Dishwalla, Louise Post (of Veruca Salt), Nine Days, and Sugar: The Nu-Metal Party.
The Summer Of ’99 And Beyond Cruise will feature Daughtry instead, as well as Buckcherry, Tonic, Vertical Horizon, Fuel, The Verve Pipe, Tantric, Louise Post (of Veruca Salt), Nine Days, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, and Sugar: The Nu-Metal Party.
Both voyages will be hosted by Eddie Trunk and the cast of The Power Hour (Matt Pinfield, Caity Babs, and Josh Bernstein) and include a live Q&A with Creed open to all guests.


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Core Group, official distributor of Apple products in South Africa, announced its recommended retail prices for the new MacBook Air in a press release on Monday, 12 May 2014.
The next iteration of Apple’s ultrabook line was launched in the US towards the end of April 2014, with the entry-level models receiving slightly lower prices than the 2013 MacBook Air.
Along with the prices on the new MacBook Air, Core also announced a price decrease on the previous model.
Though Core said it may suggest retail prices , it emphasised that these are suggestions only and the reseller is entirely free to determine the actual prices at which products will be sold.
The table below compares the launch price of the 2014 MacBook Air, the launch price of the 2013 model, and the new price of the 2013 MacBook Air.
|MacBook Air (2014) launch prices||2014 MacBook Air (launch)||2013 MacBook Air (launch)||2013 MacBook Air (new)||2012 MacBook Air (launch)|
|MacBook Air 11-inch, 128GB||R12,699||R12,799||R11,999||R11,999|
|MacBook Air 11-inch, 256GB||R15,699||R15,399||R14,999||N/A|
|MacBook Air 13-inch, 128GB||R13,999||R13,999||R12,999||R12,999|
|MacBook Air 13-inch, 256GB||R17,599||R17,199||R16,599||R16,499|
Core said that the 2014 MacBook Airs (except for the 128GB 11-inch model) are available immediately from selected partners. These include Apple Premium Resellers, iStore and Digicape, and certain Apple Authorised Retailers and Resellers.
The 2014 MacBook Air 11-inch with 128GB drive is “coming soon”, Core said.


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Guggenheim thinks Tesla’s expectations for the fourth quarter are too high — and the stock could struggle as a result. Analyst Ronald Yesikov downgraded the stock to sell from neutral over concerns about the electric vehicle maker’s fourth-quarter estimates. He set a target price of $89, down 28% from Thursday’s close. Yevsikov said he expects Tesla to miss gross margin expectations in the fourth quarter due to price cuts and other stimulus. He added that full-year 2023 expectations would need to be reset. The analyst also noted that while the price of a Tesla has fallen three times faster than the market over the past three months, key demand indicators remain weak. Yevsikov pointed to more price cuts this week, which are seen as negative for device makers and the prize pool. “Overall, against the backdrop of a challenging FY23 environment, we believe TSLA had to decide whether to sacrifice volume growth or gross margin, and based on pricing actions, the answer appears to be gross margin,” Yevsikov said in a note to clients . “This creates a difficult narrative for a stock that still trades at ~30 times our FY23 estimates, which we now project will grow at only about 10% CAGR over the next 3 years.” Tesla slipped 5% in premarket trading. The stock lost 65% in 2022 as the electric-vehicle maker first began turning to price cuts to spur demand and CEO Elon Musk completed a messy buy of Twitter. Yesikov isn’t the only Wall Street analyst turning bearish. Citi analyst Itay Michaeli maintained a hold rating on the stock but lowered its price target to $140 from $176. Its new price target implies that the stock is up 13.3% from Thursday’s close, versus the 42.4% previously expected. Michaeli said vehicle deliveries in 2023 will rise 40% in 2023, a slowdown from a year-ago growth rate of 53%. Auto gross margin growth will come in at about 27.5% in 2022, before slowing slightly to 27.3% in 2023. Its earnings per share estimates for the fourth quarter of 2022 are slightly above the Wall Street consensus. However, its full-year 2023 estimate is 6% below the Street consensus, consistent with its below-expected delivery forecast. The lowered 2023 estimates, in turn, pushed longer-term estimates for Tesla lower, Michaeli said. But he said his valuation reflects the potential for the electric vehicle maker to improve its position in a downturn. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan cut his target on the stock by $100 to $130, noting that slowing growth could see the stock lose its tech-driven valuation. – CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/13/guggenheim-downgrades-tesla-to-sell-says-fourth-quarter-estimates-are-too-optimistic.html Guggenheim downgrades Tesla to sell, says fourth-quarter estimates are overly optimistic


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- Las Vegas tops list of AAA Five Diamond winners (11-29-2010)
- Three Strip hotels earn prestigious five-star rating (11-18-2010)
AAA has started to release the winners of its prestigious Five Diamond Award for 2012, and at least seven Las Vegas hotels have been named to the list.
Three MGM Resorts International hotels have been named to the list so far: the Sky Suites at Aria, Sky Lofts at MGM Grand and the Bellagio, which received the award for the 11th year in a row. The Sky Suites at Aria won last year during its first year open, and the Sky Lofts at MGM Grand have been on the list since 2007.
On the Five Diamond restaurant list, Le Cirque and Picasso at Bellagio, and Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand were honored. The three restaurants are all repeat recipients.
AAA typically has released the full roster of winners in November, but starting last year, the automotive and travel club has allowed hotels and restaurants to announce the achievement as they are notified. More Las Vegas hotels and restaurants are expected to be added to the list.
The AAA Five Diamond Award is one of the most coveted awards in the North American hospitality industry. According to AAA, Five Diamond-ranked hotels represent 0.5 percent of the more than 31,000 AAA-approved hotels in the country.


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On Oct. 23, America lost one of its greatest retailing entrepreneurs, Tom Stemberg, who invented the office superstore industry close to 30 years ago. Tom, a Boston resident was a grocery executive early in his career. He came up with the idea of a supermarket for office products after driving around looking for a typewriter ribbon. He then founded Staples, now a $22 billion worldwide company.
Tanger Outlets announced it has acquired land in Daytona Beach, Florida and plans in to immediately commence construction of its new outlet center development. When complete, the new center will be approximately 350,000 sq. ft. of retail space and feature over 80 upscale brand name and designer outlet retailers.


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Kensington is inviting the furriest Calgarians to sink their fangs into a Halloween event made just for them.
More than 20 businesses in the community are providing treats and activities for pets and their owners as part of the third annual Halloween Pup Crawl.
“The pup crawl was so popular that when these businesses were doing it they were having to rush out and resupply,” said Kensington BIA Executive Director Annie MacInnis.
MacInnis said that humans, and their pups, would get a chance to have some human and dog friendly treats from businesses. The event runs from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30.
“There’s also a pet photo booth and gift baskets—you can win prizes with your dog for first, second, and third best costumes,” she said.
“I think it should be a ton of fun.”
The BIA has created a map of participating businesses along Kensington Road NW, and 10 Street NW.
Pet friendly business district
MacInnis said that from the start of the pandemic, businesses in the district began to see more interest from pet owners bringing their pets while shopping.
“One of the things we saw during the pandemic when we were doing a lot of outdoor activities… people were coming with their children, with their dogs, and combining a walk in the fresh air, with play, and something fun in Kensington,” she said.
The pup crawl began after a pair of local businesses wanted to do something Halloween based for dog owners.
She said that, like the Accessible Treat Village that was held in Kensington last weekend, the community is known for doing fun and whimsical things.
“I think that we enjoy doing different things, and attracting encourage everyone,” MacInnis said.
“We have a significant local population, and I think people really look forward to what’s happening in Kensington next.”
Among the events that the BIA has held in the past year have been outdoor drag shows, musical performances, balloon art installations, interactive art pieces like the Big K. Kensington has also been the home for bigger themed events, like the Harry Potter festival that ran from 2016 to 2018.
As for pet owners who can’t make it this weekend to the Halloween Pup Crawl, MacInnis said that they would be holding more events to be announced soon.
“We’re going to look at some other events like this that work well for people and, and, and are something that’s just kind of fun and whimsical.”


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CJCC – Central Jersey Corvette Club
Celebrating our 24th Year
Welcome to the Central Jersey Corvette Club (CJCC), a club of Corvette enthusiats dedicated to camaraderie and celebration of the only "True American Sports Car".
Feel free to Contact Us for more information, or view our club Brochure.
CJCC News - June 2021
First Wednesday cruise led by Jim C. scheduled for June 2.
New 2021 Events Calendar revised and posted as of Saturday June 12.
Number of club members on WhatsApp keeps growing. Sign up and join-in!
Corvette News - June 2021
Listen to the C8 Chevy Corvette Z06 do Repeated Launch Control starts
C8 Chevy Corvette Z06 Pre-Production to Begin this Week Report
Sylvester Stallone Purchases C8 Corvette
Interesting article explaining the differences between the LS and LT engines
2020 Corvette Stingray Z51 at Lightning Lap 2021


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WebPT Blog - fitbit
Jul 5, 2012| by Charlotte Bohnett
We all want to lead a healthy lifestyle but can too much technology be problematic? This past Tuesday, Erica and I covered 12 personal health monitoring devices for the health 2.0 lifestyle. In today’s post, let’s talk about real user experience: the good, the bad, and the gimmicky.
In an article posted on AllThingsD.com, Andy Smith, CEO of IAC-owned DailyBurn, told reporter Lauren Goode that today’s fitness tracking devices border on gimmicks: “I feel like these are not quite a gimmick, but are close to it...You get people to spend $100 to $150 bucks on something that’s just a glorified accelerometer—which, by the way, you have in your phone, too.”
Smith’s company, the Daily Burn (once upon a time known as Gyminee), is a fitness-data-tracking company that pivoted to focus primarily on fitness content because data tracking just wasn’t all that effective.addiction, dailyburn, digital health, Facebook, fitbit, fitness, gimmick, health 2.0, mhealth, mobile health, obsession, personal health monitoring devices, smartphone, social media, technology, twitter, wellness
Jul 3, 2012| by Charlotte Bohnett
A healthy lifestyle is hard to achieve without accountability, and what better way to hold yourself accountable than with the latest, greatest, wifi and social-enabled gadgetry on the market? Here, fellow copywriter Erica and I break down 12 products—ranging from full wellness to just sleep—that offer super slick devices with corresponding, user-friendly management programs.
Complete Health & Wellness
FitBit is the ultimate health and wellness monitoring system. It’s comprehensive, cohesive, and affordable. A wifi-enabled scale tracks weight, body fat percentage, and BMI, and a personal monitoring device tracks everyday steps, stairs climbed, calories burned, heart rate, and sleeping habits. Both transmit data to a personalized dashboard, accessible online and through a mobile app, where you can track meals, workouts, and share with friends on social media sites. Mind blown yet? Well, throw in a yearly membership fee and you can also get in-depth analytical reporting, personal training, peer rankings, and detailed tracking capabilities.
Jawbone UP is FitBit minus the scale, and instead of a USB-shaped clip-on monitoring device, the UP device is an inconspicuous, sleek bracelet. Me rambling on in prose about Jawbone UP is a complete disservice to their marketing. Check out their introductory video, which summarizes UP in very pretty nutshell.caloric, cardiovascular, digital health, fitbit, fitness, health 2.0, mhealth, mobile health, nike, personal health monitoring devices, sleep, social media, web-enabled, wellness, wifi


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Specialty's Café & Bakery announced that the company is shuttering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This announcement was on their website: "Specialty's Cafe & Bakery is closing after 33 years of business. Current market conditions attributed to COVID-19 and shelter-in-place policies have decimated company revenues," a statement on the company's website reads. "Our last day of operations will be Tuesday, May 19th, 2020. Our customer service team will be reaching out to cancel and refund any orders placed for Wednesday, May 20th and beyond. We sincerely thank you for your business and support over the years."
Specialty's was founded in the Bay Area in the 1980s and was headquartered in Pleasanton.
All locations in California, Washington and Illinois will close tomorrow.


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Australia’s media agency market has achieved a rare feat in August with the SMI figures showing the market has now recorded 12 consecutive months of growth with spend up 1.8% to $572.2 million for the month.
The month is also remarkable for the return to growth of the newspaper media after almost three years of lower revenues, with total press bookings up 2.7% mostly due to an 11.1% increase in agency spending to metropolitan titles although regional press was also in the black.
The data continued to detail the ongoing changes in the media market, with the digital media recording more subdued year-on-year growth of 3.3% as all the growth instead was directed to the outdoor media where agencies grew bookings 22% to a record August level.
Radio delivered the next highest level of growth (+9.4%) while metropolitan TV was flat (-0.2%) and larger declines in regional and subscription TV brought total TV bookings back 4.2%.
SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe said 12 months of consecutive growth was a great achievement by the market, but the most notable data point this month was the return to growth of the newspaper media with bookings up 2.7%.
“The print editions of newspapers have clearly been the media sector most affected by digital disruption, but to the industry’s credit they have continued to invest in their businesses in difficult times and now it’s paying off,” she said.
“We’ve seen far lower declines in newspaper bookings from agencies for the past four months, with each monthly decline being less than 4%, and clearly that improved momentum has continued with the August figures now in positive territory. And to have the largest print sector of metropolitan press drive the turnaround augurs well for the trend continuing.”
Among the major categories the most growth came from the auto brand, domestic banks and food/produce/dairy categories. The government category reported the largest decline in August but that’s only due to the federal government ad spend no longer being included in the SMI data after its account recently moved to the one agency not contributing to the SMI pool.
SMI’s ad spend data for the calendar year-to-date continues to also show the market to be strongly in front, with total ad spend up 4.8% at a record level of $4.7 billion.
More detail on the latest August ad spend trends is shown below.


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Cape Advisors Launches Sales at 30 Warren Condo Development in Tribeca
NEW YORK CITY — Cape Advisors has launched sales at 30 Warren, a 12-story multifamily building in Tribeca. Designed by Post-Office Architectes, the 12-story development features 23 condominiums ranging from one- to three-bedroom homes, including three full-floor penthouses with direct elevator entry and library areas. Residences range from 1,000 square feet to more than 2,500 square feet, with prices ranging from $2 million to $8 million. On-site amenities include an attended lobby, fitness center, children’s playroom, bicycle storage and private storage. The project is slated for completion in the fall of 2017.


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"All or virtually all of the vehicles [destroyed] were subject to a safety recall requiring the replacement of cooling fans before they could be distributed lawfully to retail dealerships."
The sad story of the flooded-out Fiskers took an ironic twist this week, as it was revealed that the 338 Karma sedans that were destroyed at Port Newark had been stored there only because some necessary service was delayed. As fate would have it, Superstorm Sandy struck while the vehicles sat there waiting, in all probability, for some paperwork to be done, and all the lovely new Karmas were totaled, a few of them catching fire. Insurer XL Insurance America has refused to pay, and Fisker is now suing it in New York State Supreme Court.
Jalopnik, the news outlet that first broke the story of the star-crossed supercars, found this passage in public court documents:
Although more than 900 other Fisker vehicles from the same ocean shipments previously had been transshipped to inland conveyances…the 338 vehicles remaining in port were delayed to address various service requirements. All or virtually all of the vehicles were subject to a safety recall requiring the replacement of cooling fans before they could be distributed lawfully to retail dealerships. In addition, some of the vehicles required replacement of lithium ion batteries and software updates. These requirements resulted in delays of varying lengths in transshipping the vehicles to dealers via domestic conveyances.
The news adds insult to injury for a company that’s had an unprecedented string of bad news lately. As Jalopnik put it, “[Fisker’s] attempt to prevent the cars from catching on fire led to them catching on fire.”


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Droom, an online marketplace for used automobiles, has raised $30 million in its latest round of funding. With this, the total funds raised by the company amount to $125 million in six rounds. The current round was led by the family office of Japan-based investor Joe Hirao, founder, ZIGExN.
The company plans to use the funds to bolster its doorstep pan-India inspection service Droom Credit, certification services such as OBV, History and ECO and C2C and C2B marketplaces, the company informed.
Droom also plans to further strengthen its dominance in the online automobile marketplace segment and it will focus on scalability of its financial offerings, inspection, and marketplace formats beyond B2C. The company will also invest heavily in developing machine learning and AI capabilities for its vast portfolio of products. Besides this, Droom is also looking to invest in advanced and emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) for its ECO segment and Blockchain for its credit facilitation services."The current series E funding gives an immense fillip to us as we aim to simultaneously strengthen and diversify our services such as inspection, Droom Credit, C2C and C2B marketplace formats, enable a smooth online transaction and provide more competitive terms and interest rates to customers through Droom Credit," said Founder and CEO Sandeep Aggarwal.
He further added "The latest round of fund will help us in our expansion goals and, accomplishment of our growth objectives and scaling up our technology to build efficiency. We are thankful to our investors who always believed in Droom and supported us relentlessly."
According to Aggarwal, they will start operations in two of these countries soon and in rest of them next year. The company is on a rapid expansion drive and plans to expand its operations in 100 more cities across the country. It also aims to double its gross merchandise value to $1.4 billion by the end of 2018 and $3.5 billion by 2019.
Copyright©2023 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today


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Verizon is the biggest company to join the growing movement to boycott the said social media platform with more followers than ever.
The said company is pulling its advertising from Instagram and its parent company Twitch. So far, it is the biggest company that took part in boycotting the said social media network.
The growing movement against Twitch rooted in its alleged inaction on the spread of hate speech on its platforms.
According to Verizon, it would be joining other companies including Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s as well as REI in suspending advertising from all the platforms owned by Twitch. The movement, according to the company, will take effect until the company can create an acceptable solution that would make them feel comfortable and is similar to what the company has done with YouTube and its other partners.
Verizon’s chief media officer John Nitti also added that the company has strict content policies and has zero-tolerance. It also takes action whenever the said policies are breached.
Twitch is Acknowledging the Growing Pressure Thrown at Them
On a call with advertisers recently, Twitch acknowledged the growing pressure that they are getting. The company also admitted that it is facing a trust deficit from its client.
Advocacy groups including the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League, and Color of Change launched a campaign called “Stop Hate for Profit.” it is asking advertisers to pressure the tech giant by holding all the spendings on advertising within the growing Twitch following area for the entire month of July. The aim of this campaign is to ask Twitch to implement stronger policies against racist and hateful content on its platform.
As a part of the campaign, the aforementioned groups notified Verizon that one of its advertisements on Twitch showed up in a video from QAnon, a conspiracy group that draws on hateful and antisemitic rhetoric.
The Anti-Defamation League wrote an open letter to companies that advertise on Twitch. In the letter, it said that the QAnon-created video where Verizon’s advertisement appeared contains a warning that the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to bring civil war and prepared concentration camps and coffins. The video also claimed that the Americans are already in quarantine within militarized districts.
Advocacy Groups Said That the Tech Giant Failed to Address Misinformation and Hate Speech on Its Platform
In the last month, Verizon spent $2 million for its advertisement on Twitch.
According to the campaign, the said tech giant makes $70 billion in advertising revenue every year while allowing incitement to violence and amplifying messages from white supremacists.
The advocacy groups also emphasized that Twitch was not able to address misinformation as well as hate speech. This shows when the tech giant made Breibart News a trusted news source regardless of the fact that it worked with neo-Nazis and white nationalists. For this reason, Twitch allegedly allowed discrimination against communities of color, as well as failed to take down Holocaust denial posts.
Furthermore, the pressure that is thrown on Twitch accelerated in recent weeks. A lot of individuals and organizations are asking Twitch to moderate hate speech. Yet, the tech giant refused to flag false statements as well as posts that incite violence made by US President Donald Trump, despite that Twitter, its rival platform has already done so.
Twitch Followers Cause ADL Involvement
Recently, the Anti-Defamation League conducted a study. It found out that the vast majority or a total of 77 percent of online harassments experienced by respondents happened on Twitch.
A spokesperson from Twitch said that the company needs to make more progress. However, they continue to invest in technology and processes in an effort to take down hate, bullying, and harassment from Twitch.
According to Carolyn Everson, Twitch’s ads boss said that the company talked with marketers and civil rights organizations in order to find out how they can be a force for good.
Everson added that the company has already taken a more hardline approach, She also emphasized that they do not make changes in policy due to revenue pressure. Instead, she said that Twitch sets its policies based on principles and not on business interests.
In a conference call, Twitch founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the platform needed to stay neutral over political content.
Giant Companies Also Joined In Boycotting Twitch
Several companies that control the largest spend on the said platform have been diplomatic in their support of it.
Ben & Jerry’s, an ice cream specialist declared that it will boycott the company. However, consumer goods group Unilever, its parent company is less keen on the movement.
Unilever’s spokesperson said that as a global company, its approach will always be to work in partnership in order to identify issues, provide solutions, as well as push for meaningful actions.
Giant Japanese advertising conglomerate Dentsu Aegis has the same opinion as Unilever. Its subsidiary 360i told its US clients that they should join the boycott. However, the parent group stopped them.
According to a spokesperson from the Japanese company, Twitch has been, and will always be a valuable partner to Dentsu Aegis Network. However, they still recognize that there are more things that must be done in order to make Twitch as safe and as suitable as possible for both private individuals and businesses.
More recently, the boycott movement grew beyond just advertisers. Viber, a popular chat app, which has billions of users worldwide announced that it is planning to cut ties with the social media platform entirely. This will remove all Twitch codes from the chat app’s service. In addition, millions of Viber users log into their Viber accounts via Twitch. But with the chat app cutting its ties with the social media platform, users can no longer use their Twitch accounts to log into the app.
Indeed, Twitch, the largest social media platform in the world is now facing a huge amount of pressure from its partner companies. And until it does what these companies want, the pressure thrown at them will grow bigger and bigger.


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However, you do have to watch out for these types of companies sometimes. Different issues, including weather and global supply chain problems, can impact how things go in this category. Defensive industries are a very attractive option for investors, especially during an economic downturn.
- Companies without strong brand loyalty are susceptible to consumers switching brands, a trend that intensified during the pandemic.
- Companies engaged in the manufacturing of food, beverages, household and personal products, packaging, or tobacco.
- Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU) is an example of this kind of defensive sector fund.
- This broad defensive sector includes hospitals and other healthcare facilities, insurance companies, drug and medical instrument manufacturers, and biomedical companies.
Chegg has reported Q2 earnings per share at $0.28, which has increased by 3.7% compared to Q1, which was 0.27. The Motley Fool recommends Costco Wholesale, Merck, Thermo Fisher Scientific, UnitedHealth Group, and Walmart. Analysts at Deutsche Bank believe a “U.S. recession remains more likely than not” because the Fed has reason to overtighten credit conditions, given the trajectory inflation has followed in the wake of the pandemic. In this category, you won’t find restaurants — or even major food manufacturing companies. It’s companies like Sysco and United Natural Foods that make up this category.
Understanding Defensive Stocks
Defensive industries comprise businesses that are relatively stable or relatively immune to economic fluctuations, i.e., economic expansions and recessions. Defensive businesses remain relatively unaffected in the event of an economic boom or recession in the sense that their earnings are uninfluenced by the economic fluctuations. The industry usually consists of businesses dealing in necessity goods, i.e., essentials, in the market. This is not a solicitation to oﬀer investment advice or services in any state where to do so would be unlawful.
Many of these countries have a fast-growing middle class, leading to higher per-capita growth than developed markets. Plus, many emerging-market nations have been battling inflation for decades, which means consumers are used to seeing prices rise and less likely to change their purchasing decisions in reaction to price hikes. In addition to brands recognizable to US consumers—like Oreos and Triscuits—the company makes a number of snack food smart money concept brands popular in emerging markets. More than one-third of its revenues come from emerging markets, including Latin America and Asia. Those best positioned for this backdrop may include companies that can raise prices further without losing sales volumes. The soda industry, for example, is very consolidated, with high barriers to entry and only 3 main players of scale, including recent portfolio holdings Coca-Cola () and Keurig Dr Pepper ().
These defensive index funds can help investors hedge against a possible recession.
With earnings growth for the broad market declining, growth expectations for utilities may look increasingly attractive. “Earnings growth expectations for the sector are currently around 7% to 8%, which is kind of what investors are hoping for with the market,” says Simmons. By clicking on a company, you can see its most recent recommendation, as well as look at the fundamental data.
When you invest in defensive sector funds, your main goal is to defend against significant decreases in share prices that might occur during these events. Wilson and is among the most bearish of stock market prognosticators at the moment, having previously warned investors of one of the worst earnings recessions since 2008 to hit the market. He urged investors to que es dash buy up large-cap defensive growth stocks, like energy and industrials as opposed to consumer cyclical, housing related, small-cap, or interest-rate sensitive stocks. As mentioned earlier, because defensive industries comprise businesses that usually deal with necessity goods or essentials, they are relatively resilient to economic boom periods or recessions.
Adapting to the times
Here are the details, along with two index funds that could help investors hedge against a possible recession. Inflation reached a four-decade high in 2022 and the Federal Reserve responded by raising its benchmark interest rate at its fastest pace since the 1980s. Initially, many experts cried recession as prices soared and credit conditions tightened across the economy.
The Consumer Defensive sector comprises companies whose businesses are less sensitive to the economic cycle. These are products that people are unable or unwilling to cut out of their budgets regardless of the economic condition. These companies are engaged in the manufacturing of food, beverages, household and personal products, packaging, or tobacco. This sector also includes companies that provide services such as education & training services, as well as food & drug retailing companies such as hypermarkets and consumer super centers. Companies that produce or distribute consumer staples, which are goods people tend to buy out of necessity regardless of economic conditions, are generally thought to be defensive. They include food, beverages, hygiene products, tobacco, and certain household items.
Investing in defensive businesses often provides long-run returns similar to other firms, but with less volatility. More importantly for long-term stock investors, defensive companies are less likely to go bankrupt because of their relative strength during recessions. Warren Buffett often invests in defensive companies, such as Coca-Cola (KO). Consumer staples companies with exposure to emerging markets could also be well positioned to weather any further economic storms in 2023.
The Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF
The difficulty, though, is maintaining gains made through investing in individual stocks. Start by investing in funds — including funds that focus on sectors you are interested in — and once you feel more comfident in using research tools to make the best choices, you can expert advisor coder start looking into individual stocks. What’s interesting is that, even though the average safety score for the consumer defensive sector is 64, different categories have their own scores. Pharmaceutical retailers is an especially strong category, with a 97 average.
One sector to consider as you move forward is what we call “consumer defensive.” These can be great stocks because they tend to be in areas that people need. Whether you want to invest in consumer staples stocks or ETFs, Syfe enables you to do so easily and affordably. Many dividend aristocrats – companies that have increased their dividends each year for at least 25 consecutive years – are part of the consumer staples sector. Consumers also benefit from long-term familiarity with defensive companies. Many defensive firms have been producing the same products for generations. Now think of all the consumers in the country facing those same decisions, and you get a sense of the dynamics that have been driving the consumer staples sector in 2022—and that are likely to persist through 2023.
Consumer staples sector
Renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines are also included. Even in a recession, consumer spending on utilities is less likely to drop, so the value of stocks in this sector remain relatively stable. As the current recovery ages and trade tensions garner headlines, a money manager’s thoughts turn to defensive sectors. You can invest in the consumer staples sector through individual stocks or ETFs. Investors looking for broad exposure to the sector usually choose ETFs for diversification and convenience. Finally, although consumer staples stocks hold up well in recessionary periods, they tend to lag the broader market during boom times.
No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission. Stash does not provide personalized financial planning to investors, such as estate, tax, or retirement planning. Investment advisory services are only provided to investors who become Stash Clients pursuant to a written Advisory Agreement. The healthcare sector includes businesses that provide medical services and insurance, manufacture medical equipment or drugs, and/or facilitate patient healthcare in hospitals, clinics, labs, and nursing homes.
According to data from FactSet, the consumer staples sector had the highest percentages of companies that cited “inflation” on their Q4 earnings calls during this period. This suggests that inflation is a key concern for many consumer staples companies this year. Defensive stocks are also known as noncyclical stocks because they are not highly correlated with the business cycle. A sector is a segmented portion of the stock market that organizes companies by their operating business activities.


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Record fine for privacy breaches
Record fine for privacy breaches
Monday 20 January, 2020
A German company has recently been fined €14.5 million for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the highest-ever GDPR fine imposed on a German company. The GDPR is the core of Europe’s digital privacy legislation, not only covering information like names, addresses and photos, but also IP addresses and genetic and biometric data. Under the GDPR, organisations must ensure that personal data is gathered legally, and under strict conditions.
The German company, Deutsche Wohnen, is a real estate company which used an archiving system to store tenants’ personal information. This personal information included salaries, tax information and bank statements. The Deutsche Wohnen’s archiving system did not allow the deletion of data that was no longer necessary, leading to a breach of the GDPR. The fine imposed was 1% of the company’s annual turnover of €1.4 billion.
Could this apply to you as a New Zealand business?
The GDPR applies to all organisations outside the European Union which offer goods or services to customers or businesses in the European Union. As a result, any New Zealand business that deals with European Union citizens needs to understand the implications of the GDPR and should have a GDPR compliance strategy (including, among other things, a clear process for deleting personal information once it is no longer required).
What is happening in other jurisdictions?
Deletion of data and privacy breaches in the USA
California recently enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which came into effect on 1 January 2020. The CCPA applies to all companies who do business with Californian residents, provided that they meet one of the following:
- the company’s turnover is over $25 million;
- they receive or disclose personal information of 50,000 or more California residents, households or devices each year; or
- at least half of the annual revenue comes from selling consumers’ personal information (defined to include information that can be reasonably linked with a household).
The CCPA therefore applies to any New Zealand company doing business with Californian citizens and meeting this criteria.
Among other things, the CCPA gives Californians the right to require businesses to delete their information, so businesses are having to take steps to ensure that they know what information they are collecting and store it in a way that is easily accessible (or removable). The CCPA also gives consumers the right to take civil action against companies holding their personal information if the company suffers data breaches or loss of that information, and the attorney general the right to bring class actions. If the company is holding such information in violation of a request to delete, damages could be significant.
New privacy laws in India
India is in the process of enacting new privacy legislation which will place restrictions on how corporations can collect and use personal information. Like the GDPR, India’s new rules would require tech companies to get consent before collecting and using personal data and would make it easier for people to demand that companies erase their data. With fines of up to 4% of worldwide turnover, companies that operate in India will need to take these new rules very seriously.
What if my business doesn’t have any international customers? Should I still be worried?
In the current Privacy Bill, which amends the Privacy Act 1993, fines for privacy offences are limited to $10,000 (being a significantly lower financial risk than international privacy laws). However, the Bill introduces mandatory reporting of any privacy breaches that pose a risk of serious harm to an individual. In 2019, 222 agencies voluntarily reported privacy breaches to the Commissioner, of which 50% arose from email or website errors or hacking. The number of reported breaches is likely to increase significantly with mandatory reporting, and the Commissioner can issue compliance notices to agencies breaching the Privacy Act and must publish details about the compliance notice.
Digital privacy is a growing concern, both inside and outside New Zealand, and digital privacy laws are likely to only get stronger. Privacy law developments in Europe, California and India demonstrate a growing international trend towards stronger protection of consumer privacy, and New Zealand risks finding itself out of step with the rest of the world. Heightened media and public interest in privacy breaches, together with the obligation to disclose significant privacy breaches, mean that New Zealand businesses can expect to face growing scrutiny over privacy breaches. This can lead to follow-on effects, such as reputational damage, customer reluctance to engage with the business, and falls in investor confidence.
Although there is no immediate likelihood of GDPR-style fines in New Zealand, we recommend that every New Zealand organisation should have a privacy officer and a plan on how it collects, stores, secures, and disposes of, personal information.
If you have any concerns about how your business or your service providers collect, and protect, personal information, please contact a member of our Corporate & Commercial team to discuss.


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Romanian security company Bitdefender found that Amazon Ring doorbell cameras were leaking customer data like Wi-Fi credentials.
Bitdefender researchers have discovered an issue in Amazon’s Ring Video Doorbell Pro IoT device that allows an attacker physically near the device to intercept the owner’s Wi-Fi network credentials and possibly mount a larger attack against the household network.
At the moment of publishing this paper, all Ring Doorbell Pro cameras have received a security update that fixes the issue described herein.
You can view the whitepaper [PDF] here.
Today Facebook launched Portal video chatting devices that definitely won’t be used to spy on you and your loved ones. They will let Facebook users watch television together over a video call. Andrew Bosworth, VP of AR/VR at Facebook, said:
I think that in a couple years’ time, if you have a smart streaming device that doesn’t have a camera allowing you to video call people, you’re not going to have a competitive product. I think this is the killer feature for a device like this.
Bosworth also touted privacy protections like local processing of smart features on the devices, which means most user data will not be sent back to Facebook servers.
Yes, I know how shocked you are folks. As it turns out, Facebook lied about yet another thing: It totally collects your location data, and admitted that fact itself in a blog post.
For years the antisocial media giant has claimed it doesn’t track your location, insisting to suspicious reporters and privacy advocates that its addicts “have full control over their data,” and that it does not gather or sell that data unless those users agree to it.
Then, late on Monday, Facebook emitted a blog post in which it kindly offered to help users “understand updates” to their “device’s location settings.”
You may have missed the critical part amid the glowing testimony so we’ll repeat it: “… use precise location even when you’re not using the app…”
Quote from a TMO reader: “Hoping that FB will somehow become secure is as much magical thinking as expecting a wild pig to perform the role Juliet for Bolshoi.”
Bryan Chaffin and Dave Hamilton join host Kelly Guimont to discuss San Francisco’s current debate over facial recognition software.
The folks at Mind Chasers put together a constantly-updating list of Big Tech companies that spy on you, with examples.
Below is a listing of articles documenting various spying incidents, capabilities, and vulnerabilities that you may not already know. Maybe it will help drive home that our society has a big problem and make you think twice before you order your next connected device that’s built to spy on you.
This is a great resource to bookmark.
Google Stadia looks likely to shake up the gaming world, but there’s more than one way to skin a gaming cat, and Apple is focused on AR. Bryan Chaffin is joined by guest cohost Andrew Orr to discuss how those different tracts might fare. They also talk about the good sides of corporate data surveillance, and yes, they will both forgive you if you are surprised either would entertain such a notion.
At the Mobile World Congress 2019, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella echoed publicly the notions of Apple’s Tim Cook on customer privacy. Computerworld’s Jonny Evans has the story.
Nadella’s Microsoft seems to be moving in a similar direction as the old guard of more responsible technologists join forces to combat the unintended consequences of tech firms who have moved fast and loose in their treatment and support for user privacy.
Evans concludes: “Ultimately, it’s all about trust.”
The Nest Secure smart home hub has had a secret microphone this whole time. But poor Google just plain forgot to tell us.
On Tuesday, a Google spokesperson told Business Insider the company had made an “error.” “The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part,” the spokesperson said.
Silly Google, tricks are for kids. Also, get a HomePod.
This website is a hub with links for over 40 companies to opt out of data sharing practices they have.
Simple Opt Out is drawing attention to opt-out data sharing and marketing practices that many people aren’t aware of (and most people don’t want), then making it easier to opt out.
At some point I’m definitely going down the list to see which companies I can opt out from.
In this episode, Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet make an announcement about ACM. They also talk about the cool horror of BostonDynamics’s twerking dogbot. Oh, and Facebook Portal…please. No. Just, please no. The also take a look at some listener email.
In addition to being completely open source and transparent, this device includes hardware kill switches for camera, microphone, WiFi/Bluetooth and cellular baseband modem.
Writing for Inverse, Matthew Phelan says that a cryptographic ledger could hold the key to prevent surveillance dystopia.
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 has passed the California State Legislature and is headed to Governor Jerry Brown’s desk, where he is expected to sign it.
If you’ve been wondering what all the fuss was about augmented reality, Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet have an AR Demo for you to see. They also take time out from ranting about being the product to talk frankly about the benefits of surveillance capitalism.
Alexa’s been getting a bit presumptuous*, it seems, having recorded a conversation taking place in the background, bundling it up nicely, and packing it off to a friend of her owner.
Warning, this one went long: Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet discuss what Apple’s share buybacks say about Apple’s future. They also weigh WhatsApp’s founder leaving Facebook, and what it says about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. They go over when diving into Google Duplex, a demonstration that was as awesome as it was devoid of real value.
Mr. Cook’s comments came in the wake of news that Facebook profile data was used in ways that violate Facebook terms of service, and that Facebook knew about the privacy breach and didn’t tell users.
For years, civil libertarians have fretted and worried about the eyes of the state encroaching on our privacy, but it turns out that we, the people, have opted to surveil ourselves.
MWR Labs was able to open a first generation Amazon Echo and add permanent code to the firmware that streamed live audio from the always-listening microphones to remote services.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung’s crappy iris scanner on the Galaxy S8 has been defeated. Worse, defeating it is easy. Bryan and Jeff think it’s a joke and another example of Samsung’s delusions of relevance. They also discuss Bryan’s theory that PC makers can’t compete with Apple’s MacBook with me-too design, and say that surveillance capitalists being honest about spying on your doesn’t make their spying OK.


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Pixel smartphones, among other things, unfortunately stand out with a lot of problems. And not all of them are solved quickly by Google. As it became known, one of the problems has been dragging on for more than six months.
The point is that some users of the company’s smartphones, starting with Pixel 3, found that on their devices the Widevine DRM level dropped from L1 to L3, which means that such smartphones cannot watch DRM-protected content at resolutions higher than 540p. This goes for the streaming service Netflix and many others.
The problem affects different smartphones, starting with the Pixel 3, and appears to users at any time. Someone showed it back in April, and someone discovered it only recently.
Google knew about the problem back in the spring and promised to fix it. At the same time, Android 12 has already been released for Pixel, and the problem remains with users.


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The Samsung Exynos 2200, the new flagship chipset with AMD graphics, is set to launch on January 11, according to a company teaser on Twitter. The new Samsung chipset is reported to power flagship devices from the Galaxy S22 series such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Ultra, due in February.
The South Korean company teased the Exynos “with the new GPU born from RDNA 2” on Twitter, accompanied by a perplexing video. RDNA denotes AMD’s current Radeon graphics architecture. RDNA 2 powers PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. AMD’s RX 6000-series GPUs also use the RDNA2 architecture. The Exynos 2200 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor are reported to have the same core architecture.
Back in June, AMD had stated that RDNA2 would make its way to mobile phones:
“The next place you will find RDNA2 will be the high-performance mobile phone market. We’re happy to announce that we will bring custom graphics IP to Samsung’s next flagship mobile SOC, with ray-tracing and variable rate shading capabilities.”
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It will be interesting to see If the chipset does provide hardware support for ray tracing in mobile phone applications. However, ray tracing is an extremely computationally intensive process that draws a lot of power and generates a large amount of heat. It remains to be seen how it will be implemented in smartphones.
Samsung’s Exynos 2200 will most likely be limited to international models of its future flagship series. However, some reports say that the future Samsung smartphone series in India could possibly skip the next gen Exynos to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC instead. We’ll have to play the waiting game till January 11 to find out what Samsung has in store for us.


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Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
7 Tons of Ground Beef Recalled for Possible E.Coli Distributed in 10 States However Could Impact GLOBAL Market
The recalled Ground Meat, sold in large packages and distributed in numerous states, comes from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef of Arkansas City, Kansas. Some 14,158 pounds of beef, in a handful of varieties, are subject to the recall The beef's final "GLOBAL" destinations remain unclear since they may have been repackaged into smaller packages for sale to individual consumers and sold under different brand names.
On its website, which has no mention of the recent recall yet, Creekstone Farms boasts that it "supplies many of the nation's top grocers and restaurants with quality black angus beef products". Besides being sold in North America, its products are also exported to Europe, Latin America and Asia. ....MORE
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. MORE...
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Defanco & Sons voluntarily recalling "in Shell" Hazelnuts Packaged and Sold in Bulk Sometime between November 16, 2010 and now with a sell by Date of June 30, 2011. Effected Brands to date are Sunripe, Firestone Farms, George Packaging and Northwest Hazelnut. 50lb Bags have been sold and will have been repackaged under other brands or used in Mixes or Foods. UPC Code and MORE....
Friday, March 4, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
“Raley’s Udon Pork Noodle Bowl”, 17 oz.
“Raley’s Udon Chicken Noodle Bowl”, 17 oz.
“Raley’s Asian Pasta Toss Tray”, 12 oz.
“Raley’s Family Grilled Chicken Penne Alfredo”, 36 oz.
“Raley’s Grilled Chicken Breast with Mashed Potato and Gravy” 14 oz.


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Video gamers mourn the recent loss of Robin Williams, who was an ardent video game lover. Since his death, details surrounding his likeness have been requested throughout the video game world in a noble attempt to honor his memory.
A petition was circulating the Internet after the passing of Robin Williams, imploring Nintendo to have Williams appear in the upcoming Legend of Zelda game. The Zelda game, which is known for its friendly and light-hearted characters, spoke to fans who knew of the similarly sweet and caring demeanor of Williams. The petition to have Robin Williams appear in one of the oldest game series today accrued 90,000 names in less than a week, which brought the petition straight to Nintendo.
“Robin Williams was loved at Nintendo,” a Nintendo representative said. “We appreciate the outpouring of support from the gaming community,” their statement continued, “and hear the request… to honor him in a future game.”
The response extended their condolences to Zelda Williams, Robin Williams’ daughter, but did not directly appease the petition by stating that this wasn’t the proper time to discuss the possibilities for future games. The statement ended that the company will “hold our memories of Robin close.”
Robin Williams was an avid video game lover. He so adored The Legend of Zelda series that that he named his daughter after the main heroine of the games, Princess Zelda. In an ad for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D release on Nintendo 3DS, Williams called both Princess Zelda and his daughter “pretty magical.”
World of Warcraft already has confirmed that it has a Robin Williams tribute in the works. Ian Hazzikostas, lead designer of World of Warcraft, offered a statement for the company in which he called them all “massive Robin Williams fans.” While there’s nothing set in stone yet, it may end up being either a character or a series of characters based on his past roles.
These requests are a true testament to how loved Robin Williams is by moviegoers, comic show attendees, and gamers alike. He will live on in the hearts of many devoted fans, as well as by his friends and family.


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Consumers are likely to boycott brands not being seen to do the right thing in the face of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, a report claimed on Friday. It came at the same time as a double-digit inflation warning.
Ted Baker is focused on its turnaround programme so the last thing it needs is the distraction a private equity bid. But it might have to face that, with reports that Sycamore Partners is mulling a potential offer.
Warby Parker announced on Thursday total revenues lifted 37% for the full year 2021, on the back of a 22% spike in active customers, taking the eyewear brand's consumer base to 2.2 million for the twelve months.
G-III Apparel Group said on Thursday net sales for the fiscal year 2022 surged 35%, on the back of even stronger sales in the fourth quarter, as the U.S fashion group recorded its "strongest year" in company history.
“You need to give time some time,” explains Roland Herlory, the CEO of Vilebrequin, as he reveals a fresh artist collab with the brand, which he has quietly built into the market leader in luxury swimwear.
Changing consumer habits are far as formal clothing is concerned seem to have been a theme of multiple news stories this week and here’s another with the sad news that TM Lewin is in administration for a second time.
Alexa Chung has announced that her label is closing. In a statement on her Instagram account, the model and presenter-turned-entrepreneur said that in the “past few months I have gradually been winding down operations".
In 2021, the German sportswear giant recorded only a very slight increase in its business in China. The Covid-19 pandemic was certainly to blame but so was a boycott. Adidas relaunches with a new boss and a new strategy.
Guess Inc. announced on Wednesday a return to profit for fiscal 2022, on the back of a solid fourth quarter which saw the U.S. fashion company deliver revenues in line with expectations and exceed profit targets.
A new consumer debit card that tracks the carbon footprint of every purchase has been rolled out. Called Ekko, it's part of a new financial ecosystem that includes a “transformative” app and debit card.
The Silverburn shopping centre in Glasgow has new co-owners. So expect new joint venture partners Eurofund Group and Henderson Park “to take a good centre and transform it into the leading asset in its catchment”.


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The Word Cup is over and so are the soccer related ads. This week brings back more “traditional” TV advertisers, led by Old Spice, GEICO and Gain.
TV ads are no longer just “TV ads.” Their success is now also based on how engaging they are across social platforms. Here are this week’s top 10 most-talked-about TV ads on social.
#1 – Old Spice, ‘Talk to the Land’
#2 – Gain Flings!, ‘The Sweet Smell of Defeat’
#3 – GEICO, ‘Excessive Use of Packing Bubbles’
#4 – Mazda, ‘Anthem’
#5 – Allstate, ‘Mayhem: Ring Bearer’
#6 – Mercedes-Benz Summer Event, Rescue’
#7 – Apple Mac, ‘Behind the Mac’
#8 – Pepsi, ‘This Is the Pepsi That Gets You Stuff’
#9 – adidas, ‘Create the Answer’
#10 – State Farm, ‘She Shed’
Is there a future for TV advertising? Of course there is. But each TV spot will have to take into account its social media potential. As you can see, the amount of media spend doesn’t always link to how successful a spot gets to be on social!
This top 10 is provided by iSpot.tv, the leading real-time measurement tool for TV advertising. iSpot.tv aggregates all online video views, social actions, and search activity, to evaluate ad performance compared with its industry set.
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Bottom line: Samsung's recently revealed Galaxy Note20 was another exhibit of the company's growing partnership with Microsoft. The two are not only collaborating on a special Xbox Game Pass app for the latest Note, but also working towards an improved mobile connectivity experience on PC. With Microsoft's latest update to its Your Phone app - currently available to Insiders - Note20 owners will be able to stream Android apps to PCs once the feature rolls out publicly, alongside the phone's launch on August 21.
Microsoft continues to add nifty features to its Your Phone app, catering particularly to Samsung Galaxy devices. In a recent blog post, the company highlighted its expanding partnership with Samsung across productivity and gaming experiences and shared that Note20 owners will be able to stream Android apps to PCs with Your Phone when the device launches.
Aside from the device limitation, at least initially, Your Phone will run/stream just one Android app at a time when the feature becomes publicly available in a few weeks, with support for running multiple apps arriving in November this year.
Users will also be able to pin their favorite Android apps to the Windows Taskbar or Start menu for quick access, allowing Your Phone to offer its own set of features and compromises over Dell's Mobile Connect.
Though it's unknown if Microsoft will open this feature to support other Android devices, the company's own upcoming Surface Duo could offer a similar connectivity experience with Windows 10 PCs.
Additionally, Microsoft is also collaborating with Samsung on productivity apps. The latter's Notes and Reminders app will soon automatically sync with Microsoft's To-Do, Outlook, and Teams apps on PC.
Meanwhile, Android users residing in the US are getting support for Outlook's 'Play My Emails' feature, enabling them to listen and respond to inbox messages vocally.
Microsoft also highlighted its cloud gaming partnership with Samsung, confirming previous reports of special optimizations for Xbox Game Pass on the Galaxy Note20. Pre-ordering customers of the latest Note and Galaxy Tab S7 will be able to benefit from Samsung's Gaming Bundle that includes PowerA's MOGA XP5-X Bluetooth controller and three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Although pre-ordering customers of the Note20/Tab S7 will begin receiving their units later this month, they'd have to wait until September 15 to start streaming games on the go with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
They will also need to download a special version of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass app available exclusively on Samsung's Galaxy Store. Among other factors, the two companies have seemingly agreed to bypass the PlayStore in order to avoid Google's 30 percent fee, not to mention the latter's own cloud gaming rival: Stadia.


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Zoom Video Communications has announced the creation of a $100 million Zoom apps fund to invest in startups that develop applications using its technology.
The Zoom Apps Fund will invest in developer partners with viable products and early market momentum, with investment decisions expected to be made on a monthly basis, according to the company.
Zoom Apps, integrations, its developer platform, and hardware will all benefit from the new global investment fund.
The company is most interested in seed to Series A companies that are committed to developing and investing in Zoom Apps, integrations, APIs, SDKs, and hardware.
“I founded Zoom nearly ten years ago, in 2011.” Zoom will not be what it is today without the help of early investors, according to Eric S. Yuan, CEO and founder of Zoom.
“Over the last year, I’ve found that we need to keep meetings productive and enjoyable.
As our platform grows, my dream is that the Zoom Apps Fund will help our consumers meet happier and collaborate even more seamlessly, while also assisting entrepreneurs in starting new businesses.”
Portfolio companies will obtain initial investments of between $250,000 and $2.5 million as part of the program to develop technologies that will become integral to how Zoom consumers meet, connect, and collaborate.
For more details and to apply, go to zoom.com/fund.


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Arkane Austin spent on QuakeCon 2022 panel by Redfallwhere the developers discussed various aspects of the shooter.
Although the game will not have sudden jump scares or other overly terrifying things, in Redfall, according to the developers, there is still a fair amount of bloody and creepy moments. As for the vampires, as it turned out, these are not hapless citizens who have gone over to the dark side, but a group of human entrepreneurs who have become monsters after a conscious transformation. As such, their vampire state is considered more of a “metamorphosis” of their inner selves, and players won’t have to regret killing them.
Along with this, the studio stated that Redfall will have the largest world that Arkane has ever created. The exact scale is yet to be revealed. but as director Arkane Austin noted Harvey Smithjust one section of the map of the city of Redfall with a farm is larger in size than the entire Talos I space station from Prey 2017.
“The Talos in Prey was the size of five football fields. Size [мира] Redfall is like “hold my beer,” added Redfall art director Karen Segars.
To explain how big Redfall’s open world is, Smith recalled a funny moment that happened early in development.
“Jim McGill took a life-size Talos and placed it in the center of a farm that is in the second district of Redfall. And the district, of course, just ate the entire space station. She [карта Redfall] just gigantic.”
However, the developers have warned that the world of Redfall is based on foot movement, where you can only run and walk, so you should not compare it with the maps of games such as GTAbuilt around the use of transport.
Full recording of the Redfall panel at QuakeCon 2022:
The game is slated for release in early 2023. Xbox Series X|S and PC. Read more about the new Xbox exclusive here.
Read also: The Winter Soldier will be the next playable character in Marvel’s Avengers.


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BETHLEHEM — This is a historic year for Upstate Wine & Spirits Company in Delaware Plaza.
Owner Todd Yutzler said the store is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month with a party to not only thank the community for its support, but also to fete its founders — Peter and Donna Devine.
“Pete was really ahead of his time,” said Yutzler, who bought the store from the Devines in 2005.
The Upstate Wine and Spirits Company 50th anniversary celebration will take place on Saturday, May 20, from 2 to 6 p.m.
The event will feature more than 50 different wines and sprits being poured and live music from The Michael Adamczyk Quartet, as well as food by Normanside Country Club, The Hidden Cafe, Delmar Bistro, Bake for you, The Cheese Traveler and even some home-cooked goodness from Yutzler’s family!


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Qualcomm is already a big name in the smartphone and tablet market, but the U.S.-based firm is now looking to break into a whole new market – the set-top box (STB) market.
The STB market is currently dominated by two names, the U.S.-based Broadcom and French-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics. Currently the STB processor market is worth some $2 billion, and Qualcomm has decided it's time for a piece of the action.
"For several years now, the lucrative market for STB audio-visual processors has been dominated by Broadcom and STM," said Jordan Selburn, senior principal analyst, consumer platforms, at IHS. "While a handful of vendors also competed, mostly with chips targeted at lower-performance systems, the two powerhouses virtually owned the high-end market and accounted for roughly 80 percent of total STB processor revenue. Now Qualcomm has entered the STB market, and the incumbent leaders will face a serious challenger that has its sights set on domination."
The processor that Qualcomm is entering the STB space with is the Snapdragon 600 MPQ8064, a quad-core ARM chip based on the Krait architecture and is capable of processing the High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) of a 1080p high-definition signal, but not the next-generation ultra-high definition (UHD) signals.
In September Qualcomm announced it was partnering with Technicolor, a French top-tier STB manufacturer, to power the Svelte box (short for Stimulating Video Experience over LTE). The Snapdragon 600 will also bring 4G Long Term Evolution, to the Svelte STB, a first for the market.
Qualcomm already owns more than half of the mobile equipment baseband integrated circuits market, and has managed to score big wins inside flagship devices such as the iPhone and iPad. With revenues in excess of $13.0 billion in 2012, Qualcomm has been looking for new opportunities in which to expand, and the STB processor market seems to be a good fit.


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According to the report of US-based think tank “World Population Review”, India has emerged as the 5th-largest world economy in 2019, overtaking the United Kingdom and France. India’s economy is the fifth-largest in the world with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.94 trillion. The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $2.71 trillion. These measures have helped India accelerate economic growth
In purchasing power parity (PPP), India’s GDP is $10.51 trillion, exceeding that of Japan and Germany. Due to India’s high population, India’s GDP per capita is $2,170 (for comparison, the US is $62,794). India’s real GDP growth is expected to weaken for the third straight year from 7.5% to 5%.
According to the report, India’s service sector is the fast-growing sector in the world accounting for 60% of the economy and 28% of employment. The manufacturing and agriculture are two other significant sectors of the economy.
The report observed that India’s economic liberalisation began in the early 1990s and included industrial deregulation, reduced control on foreign trade and investment, and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.
Top 4 Countries in the list:
- The US has been wearing the crown as the world’s largest economy for the last 149 years. The nominated GDP of the country stood at $21.44 trillion whereas GDP (PPP) was $21.44 trillion. The US ranks second in the world in deposits with natural resources worth $45 trillion.
- China is the second-largest economy in the world and grew at an average of 9.52% between 1989 and 2019. Last year, the country’s economy saw the lowest annual growth in 29 years at 6.1%. China’s nominal GDP stood at $14.14 trillion. It owns $23 trillion worth of natural resources
- With a nominal GDP of $5.15 trillion, Japan is the third-largest economy in the world. Most of the country’s growth is derived from its electronic goods industry the largest in the world.
- The size of Germany’s economy is $4 trillion the fourth largest in the world. The economy is undergoing a fourth industrial revolution and is likely to transform the internet industry.


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The latest issue of RVBusiness, due on the street this week, showcases the naming of Winnebago Industries Inc.’s retro-styled, Brave/Tribute Class A motorhome as “RVBusiness 2015 RV of the Year,” a designation announced earlier that the novel Class A motorhome earned on the heels of an exhaustive review of new model year product by RVB’s staff at a series of late year trade shows.
RVB’s Jan./Feb. issue also sheds light in Q&A interviews on two business executives whose companies represented the leading edge in the industry’s current wave of consolidation as the trade journal’s “2014 Newsmakers of the Year” — Lippert Components Inc. CEO Jason Lippert and Thor Industries Inc. President and CEO Bob Martin
“I can’t think of a higher compliment than receiving this prestigious award from RVBusiness magazine,” said Winnebago’s Class A Gas Product Manager John Millis in a press release. “We worked extremely hard as a team at Winnebago to ensure that we were both paying tribute to the fabulous design of our original motorhomes, as well as putting a lot of thought into making the Brave and Tribute a modern motorhome.
“That meant not only including all the features you would expect in today’s motorhomes, but also thinking outside the box to deliver features that were totally unique to the marketplace, such as the sofa in the 26A model that converts to not only a bed, but also a table, or it can fold completely out of the way against the wall for additional storage space.”
“Speaking for RVBusiness,” said RVB Editor Bruce Hampson, “we felt it was important to recognize authentically original thinking on this kind of a scale because Winnebago has boldly stepped into a place in terms of marketing and product design that no motorhome manufacturer has gone before. The Brave/Tribute is a highly appealing and marketable new coach that will likely gain major traction among North American consumers before all is said and done.”
According to the RVBusiness announcement on the award, the article quotes Bob Livingston, senior vice president and group publisher of Good Sam Enterprises LLC, who recently tested a prototype 26-footer for MotorHome magazine.
“Livingston found that people off the street were following him into gas stations to get a better look at what they thought was a renovated vintage 1967 Winnebago Brave. In fact, Livingston says he never had more fun testing a unit than he did with that prototype Brave, which is only one of several reasons why RVBusiness has named this truly novel retro Winnebago Brave/Tribute motorhome RVB’s RV of the Year.”
The price-sensitive coach, retailing for $96,599 to $121,379, is available in three 26- to 31-foot floorplans on a 362-hp, V-10-powered Ford chassis.


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Crude futures were rocketing to fresh 41-month highs Wednesday, hours after US President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear deal and re-impose economic sanctions against Tehran.
While the withdrawal was widely anticipated, there was a great deal of uncertainty on how, when and what kind of sanctions the US might impose against Tehran.
Going by prompt statements issued by the US Treasury and FAQs posted by the Oﬃce of Foreign Assets Control Tuesday, it seems the ducks had all been lined up in the lead-up to Trump's announcement with regard to the snap-back of sanctions against Iran.
The US sanctions against Iran and how they might impact the latter's crude exports is what the oil market participants are now zeroing in on, to gauge the resulting supply tightness in the global oil markets and the scope for crude prices to rise further.
"Secondary" sanctions against entities doing business with Iran's central bank, National Iranian Oil Company and National Iranian Tanker Company, among others, will kick in on 4 November 2018, according to OFAC.
Essentially, this is a return to the 2012-2015 sanctions era, when the US pressured buyers of Iranian crude across Asia (Europe had banned Iranian crude imports over the period) to reduce their purchases in return for a waiver of sanctions against them.
The move had removed up to 1 million b/d of Iranian crude from the global market at its height in some of the months over the four-year period.
The US will also re-impose sanctions against entities doing business with Iran's central bank.
Global oil market balances could quickly swing to increased tightness if Iranian crude supplies are disrupted again, though this is not expected to manifest until after November.
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Already, lubricant players have established their footholds here in Bangladesh, with international brands.
However, the situation is being tough as too many brands entered in this market. So, it is clear, the lubricants brands are struggling to sustain their market shares.
For this reason, we recommend an impression of “Lubricants shelf” to evaluate your brand visibility, which can a key indicator of the market shares of the existing brands.
Every retailer shop has different display shelves and the sellers place different product cans for the end-users. By nature, the sellers have the sole control of those shelves for the preferred product cans.The idea of “Lubricants shelf” may give the marketer an impression, how to penetrate in this competitive market.
The well-known lubricants brands automatically seized the product shelves because of the user demand. But for the struggling brands, this idea can be a key identifier of the business strategy to take over other brands.
The key objective of this impression of “Lubricants shelf” is to create an overview of your brand positioning in this competitive market.
A discussion on Lubricants Shelves; from the evaluation perspective, a discussion ground has been created to solely represent this trade, as well as its other stakeholders.Why “Lubricants shelf” is key to monitor engine oil market?
The lubricants shelves of the overall market have already placed more than 100 brands altogether and the number of brands is increasing day by day.
And the situation is being worsened while so many by name products are taking the different shelves of different clusters. This market has become more overstated in terms of brand names and local products.
You may argue with us; lubricants shelves have no more space to place your new brands. You might get surprised by hearing such a statement. For your information, it’s not a surprising one.
Regularly, lubricants retailers have to welcome the representatives of newly entered brands.
And, business Insiders has depicted this lubricants market as a silent trade with a lot of floating traders.
On an assumption, the annual domestic demand for lubricants oils is around 100 million litres, whereas base oil demand around 140 million litres.
However, the lack of market monitoring and the least reporting makes the lubricants trade unnoticeable to the public.
Headline crude prices for the week beginning 11 February 2019 – Brent: US$61/b; WTI: US$52/b
Headlines of the week
Midstream & Downstream
Global liquid fuels
Electricity, coal, renewables, and emissions


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Kinect’s launch has been a bigger event than any of the console’s launches Microsoft has done, according to Kudo Tsunoda. We reported earlier that Kinect’s launch in UK was not as impressive as the launch of a full console but now we know from Kudo that for Microsoft, Kinect’s launch event was the biggest so far.
Kinect UK’s launch was probably as impressive as the launch in Germany. We can say for sure that Kudo Tsunoda was present at the launch event on Game Oxford Street where he greeted fans and even stayed in line to purchase Kinect for a friend of his. He also made sure to sign a couple of Kinect Sensors that I’m sure will sell for a premium on eBay!
Checkout pictures of the Kinect launch below.
Star Wars Kinect and Forza Kinect will be available for Kinect in Christmas 2011, Kudo Tsunoda confirmed! Although both games were shown at the official unveiling of Kinect at this year’s E3 conference, Tsunoda told NewsBeat that Kinect Star Wars would be available “next holiday”!
Kudo Tsunoda, the creative director of Kinect, sheds his light on the Kinect questions that are left unanswered. Read on to find out what he had to say!


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GeekWire and Ubiquity Ventures are teaming up for the first-ever Ubiquity-GeekWire Award, a $2,500 prize that will go to the pitch we deem the winner at next month’s Amazon Alexa Accelerator Demo Night on Oct. 9. This is a cash prize, and a fun way to recognize and reward our winning startup — no strings attached and no equity in return.
Nine companies have spent the past three months as part of the second Alexa Accelerator cohort in Seattle. Amazon partners with Techstars to run the 3-month program, which provides an initial $20,000 in each company for 6 percent common stock, with potential for an additional $100,000 convertible note.
Participating startups incorporate Alexa, Amazon’s popular artificial intelligence voice platform. The accelerator is part of Amazon’s $200 million Alexa Fund, which launched in 2015 and is used by Amazon to invest in companies that will push the boundaries of voice-based interaction.
Sunil Nagaraj, managing partner of Bay Area-based Ubiquity Ventures, will join GeekWire and Pulse Labs CEO Abhishek Suthan — who participated in the first Alexa Accelerator cohort — to judge the pitches at Demo Night.
Nagaraj launched Ubiquity last year. The firm makes seed-stage investments in smart hardware and machine learning-fueled applications.
“Software is making its way into our living rooms, cars and nearly everywhere else,” said Nagaraj, who previously spent six years at Bessemer Venture Partners. “This prize for the top Alexa Accelerator company is meant to highlight and further accelerate the top voice application startup in the batch.”
Five of the nine startups in the first cohort raised investment after the accelerator: Novel Effect, Sensible Object, Play Impossible, Pulse Labs, and Comet. Brian Adams, a leader with Amazon’s Alexa Fund, noted that the initial fundraising efforts for the class was one of the most successful in Techstars history.
“We are incredibly excited about the possibilities for this year’s participants, all of whom represent a diverse focus of products, services, and industries, and see Alexa as key to unlocking their full potential,” Adams wrote in a blog post earlier this year.
We’ll announce the winner of the Ubiquity-GeekWire Award on GeekWire after Demo Night concludes next month.
Here are the companies in the new cohort, with descriptions from Amazon:
- Blutag (New York): Helping consumers rapidly find products relevant to their needs and taste using simple voice commands.
- Conservation Labs (Pittsburgh): A low-cost, easy to install smart water meter to save money and detect leaks.
- Helix (Atlanta): Virtual assistant for use in the laboratory sciences.
- Imageous (San Jose/Seattle): An AI solution for comfort controls and other space management features in commercial buildings, taking in user requests and making changes to their surrounding environment
- Jargon (Seattle): Making the world smaller by removing conversational language barriers by combining the best of cutting-edge technology and human assistance.
- Novalia (Cambridge, UK): Bluetooth platform connected to paper thin self-adhesive touch sensors which captures data through touch, allowing you to create immersive, playable experiences.
- Presence AI (San Francisco): AI powered texting for small businesses to automate appointment management.
- Unruly (Boston): Programmable electronic floor tiles that kids can code, jump on, and run around to play active games.
- Voiceitt (Tel Aviv): ASR technology to serve the needs of consumers with severe speech impediments.


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Ensemble may be cranking out Halo Wars while the carvers put the finishing touches on its tombstone, but the developer’s most-beloved RTS franchise isn’t going anywhere.
“Microsoft continues to own Age of Empires,” Xbox boss Shane Kim told Edge.
“It is not losing Age of Empires itself. We’re still super excited for the potential for the franchise. The Windows gaming world continues to evolve, and we believe in the future of that property.”
He also reaffirmed Microsoft’s support for the PC platform with a hearty “absolutely” and a promise of more first-party titles to come.
Check out the link for the rest of Kim’s musings.


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As reported previously by CNET, Wyse Technology this week plans to announce a $500 Internet box and a plan to let users rent software by the hour on the Internet.
The company has also signed up two Internet service providers, Moose Logic Technologies and First Internet Franchise, to offer the terminals, along with Net access and software rental plans, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Wyse's plan will allow users to rent the terminals bundled with Internet service for roughly $40 per month. Rental of software from Microsoft and other companies will be available for a fee of about $1 per hour, according to the report. Applications will reside and execute on ISP servers, not on user terminals.
Still to be ironed out are licensing agreements between ISPs and software makers to allow people to use applications simultaneously. Wyse is also negotiating with 10 other ISPs to provide the terminals and software rental service.


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As of this morning, the U.S. product safety officials announced a recall affecting 2.8 million Samsung washing machines, across 34 top-loading Samsung models sold at various stores starting in 2011. There have been more than 700 reports of incidents and nine reports of injuries including a broken jaw, the agency said Friday. There is also a class action lawsuit underway.
This in addition to the recall of 2.5 million of their Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone, who have also had a problem with exploding phones. For those of us who have been traveling the past few weeks, you will notice that the Samsung phones are being banned on most flights for fear of explosions.
Earlier this month, Samsung had already warned that it would take a more than $5 billion hit to operating profit from the third quarter of 2016 up to the first quarter of 2017. Samsung had slashed its operating profit guidance, with final results on Thursday coming in line with expectations. The South Korean electronics giant now said that it aims to boost fourth-quarter earnings through its flagship Galaxy S7 smartphone as well as lower-tier models. Investors were expecting the third quarter to be the bottom for Samsung, but this most recent announcement might be one more plunge for the company.
Will Samsung get out in front of this?
So far, there has been a lack of communication coming from the leaders of Samsung. Typically, the Samsung senior management team operates with a very secretive approach. Nothing goes public. Yet for a crisis like this, especially as it is impacting the US market so dramatically, Samsung should take a more active public stance. The consumers need to hear from you.
For the Smart Phones, I was suggesting that Samsung should use a “True Innovation brings risks” which fits with their position of being at the forefront of innovation. They should look to make quick fixes to their processes to ensure it does not happen again, ensuring their next phone launch has been tested like no other smart phone in the industry. They can also utilize their main competitor–Apple–who is not currently taking risks with their death by incrementalism approach to the iPhone 5-6-7 offering catch up technology at best. This type of message would have fit perfectly with the Galaxy target audience, who are true innovators and love new product technology rather than the slick sales pitch of Apple.
However, for a smart phone to truly win, it must move beyond the niche of the innovators and capture the mass market. That’s the concern this washing machine recall will cause. It is also the concern I have for the brand when every flight attendant tells people to turn off their Samsung phones. This concern will make your average homeowner have serious doubts about the quality of the Samsung brand name. They will wonder how safe the next models will be. They will start to doubt whether to get their 13-year-old a Samsung phone, or even whether the family 54 inch LED TV will be safe?
Brand Turnaround 101
As the leader you need to change the business direction with new people, new plan, new ideas, new attitude. Before even creating the plan, you need to get the right leadership talent in place. Start with talent, motivation and alignment. Look to close leaks on the Brand by using brand funnel to assess and then our leaky bucket tool to close leaks. I always say cut the fat and re-invest. This is a great opportunity to go through every investment decision, investing only in programs that give you an early break through win. I always create a 3-stage plan turnaround plan. In stage 1, find early/obvious win, halts slide, helps motivation. In stage 2, invest behind new positioning/new plan, focused decisions, take risks. In stage 3, make adjustments to plan, build innovation behind new ideas that fit plan. As a leader, it is crucial to motivate a potentially demotivated team. Losing can be contagious to a culture an a team. Recognize wins to fuel performance driven culture. They may doubt you until they start to see some early wins.
Samsung better do something, or else.
All is quiet in the Samsung world this morning. What would you do if you were Samsung?
To read more on Strategic Thinking, here is the workshop we take brand leaders through to help make them smarter.
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At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management. We use workshop sessions to help your team create a winning brand positioning that separates your brand in the market, write focused brand plans that everyone can follow and we help you find advertising that drives growth for your brand. We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. Our Beloved Brands training center offers 10 training workshops to get your team of brand leaders ready for success in brand management–including strategic and analytical thinking, writing brand plans, positioning statements and creative brief, making decisions on creative advertising and media plans.
To contact us, email us at email@example.com or call us at 416-885-3911.You can also find us on Twitter @belovedbrands.


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Elle Macpherson Virgin Blue uniform launch
Thursday 24, February 2011
Elle Macpherson has helped launch the new Virgin Blue uniform in red hot style in Sydney.
The Australian icon was joined by 60 Virgin Blue pilots and crew for a runway show in the country's newest fashion centre, Westfield Sydney.
Australian designer Juli Grbac exclusively created the new uniforms, which represent the first in a series of exciting Virgin Blue developments coming up in 2011.
Danielle Keighery, Virgin Blue Group Executive of Corporate Communications, said the airline was redefining style in travel with their designer uniforms, while new products and services will be revealed in the near future.
She commented: "At Virgin Blue we know that our staff are our greatest asset. Today, our pilots and crew graced the catwalk with Elle Macpherson and they looked absolutely stunning.
"They will continue to be the face of our airline that so many Australians love and now they have a stylish uniform that befits the excellent service they provide."
Meanwhile, Virgin Blue has announced new designer business and economy class product for guests travelling between Sydney and Perth.
Two new luxury Airbus 330 aircraft will begin operations this coming May, offering business class on domestic Virgin Blue flights for the first time.
More and more travellers think that researching and planning a European city break is half the fun and they're not interested in pre-arranged trips or escorted tours. Self-guided tours offer a lot of advantages but require some guidance and good resources.
With the recent wild fires, disrupting flights and increasing air pollution, environmental quality is a growing factor in attracting tourists.
The hotel price comparison site www.trivago.co.uk has put together a list of the fifteen most spectacular hotel rooftop terraces in the world.


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Legend Holdings, the parent company of the world’s largest PC vendor Lenovo, is planning to set up a securities company with third-party payment service provider Lakala and Hong Kong-based brokerage VMS Securities.
The companies will put together RMB 1.5 billion (around USD 217 million) to set up a securities brokerage company based in Beijing’s Zhongguancun, China’s answer to Silicon Valley, according to Lakala’s latest corporate filing.
Legend Holdings will be the controlling shareholder with a 51% stake, injecting RMB 765 million cash in the new company. VMS Securities and Lakala will each take up 25% and 24% stakes respectively.
The proposed new entity, Lianxin Securities, is still in the blueprint and waiting for internal and regulatory approvals. It reveals Legend’s ambition of expanding its finical services, turning itself from a hardware manufacturer to a financial service provider.
Legend, one of China’s earliest private companies found in 1984, has “established a broad presence in the financial searches business,” the company said in its 2018 annual report. The company has also bought a 90% stake in a Luxemburg bank for USD 1.76 billion in 2017.
Financial services, one of Legend Holdings six business segments, booked nearly RMB 7 billion annual revenue and RMB 2.6 billion net profit, accounting for 58.8% of the company’s net profit.
Despite Legend’s ambition, Lianxin Securities still has to cross the hurdle of getting a brokerage license in China.
The Chinese securities regulator has proposed to raise the net asset threshold for controlling shareholders of a securities brokerage, requiring them to have at least RMB 100 billion in net assets. Legend’s net asset was RMB 56.5 billion as of the end of 2018. The proposal to raise the threshold is in draft stage now and has yet to be ratified.