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Chrysler May Sales Fall 30 Percent
Chrysler may be headed out of bankruptcy, but it’s sales aren’t headed out of double-digit declines any time soon. Chrysler’s best performer? The Challenger, which racked up a meaningless 3696 percent increase over May 2008’s 71 units sold (per Chrysler’s official release). That translates to 2,695 units sold last month. Also, Wrangler topped May ’08 sales by 34 units. 300 was down only 23 percent, Liberty was down only 26 percent and Ram only shed 21 percent. Otherwise, this was pretty much the monthly bloodbath routine. Aspen (-67 percent), Compass (-70 percent), Commander (-54 percent), Dakota (-76 percent), and Durango (-56 percent) all failed to break past triple-digit sales. Everywhere else, now-routine drops of 50-70 percent were the norm.
Here's an interesting perspective from an investment news web site... "Ford(F Quote) sales analyst George Pipas said sales figures may have been distorted by the forced June closures of some Chrysler dealers. "Among terminating dealers, there were some fire sales that were taking place," he said. "Those dealers were highly motivated to get those units off their lot and sold before the deadline."
Down 50% year over year in Canada. Ford is now #2 with a bullet, erm, yes.
Only 30% decline? Who are these people still buying Chryslers? They're probably similar to those who bought Daewoos - whether years ago when they were badged as Daewoos or more recently badged as Chevys.
I am starting to believe that Chrysler will be lucky if they sell a million vehicles this year.


text: Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +0.24% are starting 2020 like they ended 2019, as they rose 2.3% in premarket trading Thursday. Analyst David Wong at Instinet reiterated his buy rating but boosted his stock price target by 45%, to $58 from $40, on expectations the chip maker will continue to strengthen its competitive position in 2020. Wong said he believes AMD will do this through new product introductions, increases in average selling prices, revenue growth and an increase in operating leverage. The chip maker's stock was the S&P 500's SPX, -0.27% best performer last year, with a 2019 gain of 148%, which also led the PHLX Semiconductor Index's SOX, -0.08% components. AMD's stock is on track to open above its Dec. 26 close of $46.63, which was the highest close since June 21, 2000's record close of $47.28.

domain: news


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The NPD Group, the top game-industry research firm released its list of the top 20 PC game titles for the month of February this past week. The month's most popular title was World of Warcraft:...
Hands On with Microsoft's new Comfort Headset
microsoft comfort headset
Windows 10 for phones news
Windows 10 for phones
All the latest on Windows 10
Windows 10 promo
Microsoft updates the Band
Hands On with Microsoft's wireless charging pad, the DT-903
Is Denim available to you yet?
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. has announced plans for the second expansion to World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Unveiled at the company's BlizzCon gaming festival before an audience of more than...


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Join #foodgiving campaign, a program designed to reduce food waste and provide free food for those in need.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 17, 2020 / Cheetah, the wholesale grocery delivery startup, launched community fridges throughout the Bay Area as part of its free #FoodGiving Campaign. The purpose of this social impact effort is to reduce food insecurity during these challenging times, while bringing the people of the Bay Area together. Anyone who is in need is encouraged to take any provisions they need at no cost.
Cheetah is partnering with two local street artists, Juan Lopez and Kristine Brandt, who added their art to the exterior of the first fridges placed this week in two different locations: at CityTeam Oakland on 722 Washington Street, Oakland, CA 94607 and at CityTeam Mayfair on 2008 Kammerer Avenue, San Jose CA 95116. Initially, Cheetah is stocking the fridges with a variety of fresh products from its own warehouse, but the community is encouraged to join this campaign and donate their excess food. Restaurants, especially those that are Cheetah's clients, can also participate and donate food to people in need.
This is a pilot effort, and if proven successful, Cheetah will continue to add more fridges and locations in the upcoming months. Cheetah plans to play an active role in addressing the issues of food waste and food insecurity, especially during COVID-19. Additionally, Cheetah has ensured to follow all CDC guidelines in order to protect the safety of all participants involved with respect to food, hygiene and safety protocols.
“The impact of COVID-19 on our lives is still unfolding, but we already know that many people have lost their jobs and are struggling to put food on the table. In times like this it is our responsibility to support the community. By promoting #FoodGiving and placing community fridges around the Bay Area, we address two important topics: food waste and food insecurity. Cheetah has both food for donation and a fleet of trucks driving around the Bay Area to supply our restaurants and family customers; we will use these trucks to replenish our community fridges a few times per week. We are very excited to support the #FoodGiving movement, and hope to see the Bay Area community joining this campaign” Says Na’ama Moran, co-founder and CEO of Cheetah.
About Cheetah Inc.
Cheetah is an e-commerce platform originally designed for independent restaurants to order wholesale food and supplies for next-day delivery. Due to high consumer demand for groceries and supplies during the COVID-19 crisis, Cheetah has expanded its wholesale services and facilities to give local communities access to the supplies they need. Cheetah offers both home delivery and contact-free pickup; it has turned its refrigerated trucks into mobile fulfillment centers whereby consumers can place their order through the Cheetah mobile app and pick it up from one of 9 contact-free pick up locations in the Bay Area. Founded in 2015 by Na'ama Moran, Christopher Elliott, Alon Har-Tal and Vincent Matranga, the company is financially backed by Eclipse, Floodgate, Hanaco, and ICONIQ Capital with headquarters in San Francisco and offices in Israel. For more information, visit www.gocheetah.com and follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @gocheetah.
351 9th St. Suite 302
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[Ip-health] US Industry IP demands on the TPP negotiations leaked
Judit Rius Sanjuan
judit.rius at keionline.org
Mon Dec 13 10:17:35 PST 2010
US Industry IP demands on the TPP negotiations leaked
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has received a copy of U.S. industry demands on the Intellectual Property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations. A draft letter from US industry to USTR has been leaked and is available here.
The letter was prepared by the Intellectual Property (IP) Task Force of the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP, that represents a cross-sectoral group of US companies and business groups including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The leaked document was written by Anissa Whitten of the MPAA.
According to the letter, Industry is asking the US government for a number of TRIPS plus, WCT plus and ACTA plus provisions:
- To seek the highers possible IP protection from TPP negotiating parties
- To built upon existing FTAs and use the US/Korea Free Trade Agreement as a baseline. Although the letter does not specifically mention the May 10, 2007 compromise that included important public health flexibilities in the US/Peru FTA, US Industry is clearly demanding the US government to reject the compromise as the basis for negotiations.
- To go beyond the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). For instance, it states that the TPP should outlaw camcording in theaters, despite the fact that the ACTA made it optional for countries to have criminal penalties for camcording.
The letter asks the US government to pay special attention to geographical indications, WIPO 1996 Internet Copyright Treaties, patent protection for software, test data protection, pharmaceutical reimbursement policies and IPR enforcement.
The provision on test data protection reads as follows:
Provide Robust and Effective Protection of Innovators’ Data. Innovative industries, including biopharmaceutical and agrochemical companies, expend tremendous effort and resources conducting research to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of their life-saving and life-enhancing inventions. Patent protection, which runs concurrent with data protection, does not protect the effort and investment needed to prove safety and efficacy of these products. Unless the data developed to prove a product’s safety and efficacy is effectively protected, companies are unable to recoup the significant investment required to generate the data and the costs of launching a product. As such, it is critical that the TPP ensure the robust and effective protection of innovators’ data.
With regarding to digital works and the Internet, the paper calls for a definition of commercial scale which is not tied to the profit motive of the infringer:
Commercial scale. The TPP must reflect the reality that right holders are harmed when illegal content is posted to the Internet with or without charge to the downloader and acknowledge harm to the infringed party rather than profit motive or the commercial purpose of the infringer.
The industry wants the aggrement to mandate longer copyright terms:
Extended term of protection for copyrights to match US law. There is an unmistakable global trend toward extending the term of copyright protection. The TPP must reflect this reality, preventing a potential irritant to international trade that results from divergent terms among trading partners.
Relevant to the US consideration of the Hague Convention on the Choice of Court Agreements, and to many consumer protection concerns, the industry calls for the TPP to focus on he role of contracts.
Contractual rights. The TPP should affirm that all right holders are allowed to exercise economic rights in their own names and that any person acquiring or holding such economic rights by virtue of a contract must be able to exercise those rights and enjoy fully the benefits derived from those rights.
The industry wants the TPP to mandate software patents:
The language of the TPP agreement needs to be strengthened to specifically require providing patent protection for computer implemented inventions.
The main area where transparency is mentioned is in connection with the ability of the industry, including large drug companies and other health care providers, to have deeper access to the decision making process of regulators, including regulators who set prices.
The US industry position contrasts the New Zealand government position leaked last week that challenges the overprotection of intellectual property, particularly in the areas of copyright and patents and asks the TPP patent and copyright provisions be no more stringent than existing WTO TRIPS global standards.
For more information on the TPP negotiations, see:
• American University PIJIP website on TPP
• USTR website on TPP
• Public Citizen's web page on TPP
Judit Rius Sanjuan
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
NYC Phone: 212 222 5180
Washington DC Phone: 202 332 2670
More information about the Ip-health


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Munir uz Zaman/AFP
A Bangladeshi child works at an aluminium pot factory in Dhaka on Tuesday. More than 6.3 m children under the age of 14 are working in Bangladesh, according to a Unicef report
Afghan labourer Nayim, 42, works at a leather factory in the Tashqurghan district on the outskirts of Mazar-i-sharif. Animal hide is one of the top exports in Afghanistan, often sent through neighbouring Pakistan to international leather markets worldwide
Workers collect sugar cane at the largest sugar factory in the Central African Republic in Ngakobo, 450km east of the capital Bangui.
Firefighters try to douse a fire at a cotton factory in the northern Indian city of Allahabad on Thursday
An employee of the Seita-Imperial Tobacco plant in Carquefou wears the symbolic cask of comic book hero Asterix during a protest at the entrance of the factory. Imperial Tobacco on Tuesday announced the closure of factories in Britain and France with the loss of 900 jobs.
An Afghan worker prepares candies at a factory in Herat, Afghanistan on Wednesday. The nation’s economy has improved significantly since 2002 due to billions of dollars in international aid and investments.
Neville Williams for the FT
A craftsman inspects a saddle at Brooks Saddle works, Smethwick, Birmingham.
Jean Sebastein Evrard/AFP/Getty Images
A Bodet worker carries a clock at a plant in Trémentines, western France. Bodet has manufactured clocks since 1868 for churches, stations, sports halls and employs 630 workers in France.
Employees work inside a limestone powder factory in an industrial area in Mumbai on Tuesday
Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
An employee works inside an undergarment factory in Kolkata, India.


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Are you getting tired of Stormpay's little autosurf business "sleight-of-hand?"
Let's see what these upstanding financial wizards of Never Never land have done in the last month.
First they told everybody they had to use them only as their payment processor or get their accounts frozen.
Then they told everybody it was for their own protection and they were doing it because they had such a great business relationship and didn't want to jeopardize it.
Next thing they did right after everyone complied is shut 'em all down and freeze their accounts because they just found out they were all crooks! (Read their site - they claim they're all ponzi schemes - Hey, just for fun do a Google search on Tymglobal and "free" laptops....)
OK, now they're doing unauthorized chargebacks from members accounts, bank accounts, etc. and everybody out here in the real world is going...
"Where's the money??"
"SHOW ME THE MONEY!"
So... What can you do?
StormPay.com Complaints - this is official!
The Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs and the Better Business Bureau are accepting complaints regarding accounts with StormPay.com.
To file a complaint with the Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs, call 1-800-342-8385 or go to the department's Web site.
Have an official complaint form sent to you by calling 1-800-342-8385 or by writing to The Division of Consumer Affairs, 500 James Robertson Pkwy., Nashville, TN 37243-0600.
StormPay complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau must be in writing and include the following:
Your name, address, and phone number.
Stormpay's name, address, and phone number.
The problem you are having and the resolution you are seeking.
Any paperwork or additional information you have to go along with the complaint.
Complaints may be filed at the website
Here are some excerps with links from the Leaf Chronicle of Clarksville, TN, Stormpay's home town.
Auditors dig into frozen
StormPay accounts Auditors were busy at StormPay.com Friday as investigators try to get to the bottom of a dispute between the Clarksville online pay processor
and a client who operates an "autosurf" Web site.
State agency investigating
StormPay complaints The Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs said Wednesday it is investigating complaints involving StormPay.com, an Internet-based company in Clarksville embroiled in controversy over frozen customer accounts.
StormPay trying to resolve
problem Clarksville-based StormPay.com issued a statement Tuesday night
indicating it and another Internet company are working to resolve business disputes.
StormPay has history with
BBB, Tennessee While the owners of StormPay.com are negotiating a settlement, recent complaints against the Internet-based company on Golf Club Lane are not
the first to surface.
Update on communications
With StormPay Attorneys for LifeClicks, LLC (the owner of 12DailyPro.com) and
StormPay, Inc. Have been communicating to attempt to resolve business disputes between LifeClicks and StormPay. Those discussions have been productive and useful, and are continuing.
BBB issues alert on StormPay The Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee today issued an alert
regarding StormPay.com, an online payment processing business, in response to over 180 complaints filed since the end of January.


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Google hasn’t killed Glass, its controversial Internet-connected eyewear, CEO Eric Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday.
In fact, Google plans to bring out a new version of Glass later this year, he said.
Rumors of its demise seemed to be confirmed in January, when Google abruptly stopped selling the initial version of Glass, shuttered its Explorer program, and moved the project out of the Google X research lab.
Under the reorganization, Tony Fadell, head of Google’s Nest connected home division, began overseeing the strategy of the Glass program, although Ivy Ross remained in charge of daily operations.
That shift in the overall leadership, as well as the end of the original Explorer program, led to speculation that Google was shutting down Glass, but Schmidt told the WSJ that thecompany was simply refocusing its efforts.
Looking Back at Glass
Google first unveiled its smartglasses in 2012, and a year later offered them to so-called Explorers — early adopters who expressed an interest in helping to develop the platform and were willing to payUS$1,500 for a pair. In May of last year, Google briefly began to sell Glass to the public.
During its exploratory phase, Glass triggered a lot of controversy, ranging from a backlash over privacy concerns and socially accepted use to an outright ban issued by the Motion Picture Associationof America over fear the technology could be easily used to pirate movies.
Although the challenges of addressing those problems may not have dealt Glass a deathblow, they won’t easily be met.
“The issues of privacy and security are going to be ongoing issues that we struggle with as an industry and society, but like it or not, cameras are all around us,” said Jim McGregor, principal analyst atTirias Research.
“Products [like Glass] can survive the privacy backlash, especially if they are at price points that a larger segment of the population can afford,” he told TechNewsWorld.
While Google was among the first to introduce a wearable computer with an interface in a pair of glasses, other developers have followed suit. Sony recently unveiled its own take on smartglasses, suggesting that demand for this technology could be growing.
“There is certainly a market for it, but the bigger issue is whether society is ready for this technology,” said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.
“It is akin the drone issue,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The bad part is hyped, but there arelegitimate uses for the technology.”
Google is intrusive, but smartphones are already intrusive.
“At least with the phone, you have to pull it out and people know you are filming,” noted Kay, “but with Google Glass, you might not know you are being filmed — and that is giving people cause for concern.”
Take 2 for Glass
Google’s original strategy for bringing out the device, which was arguably was barely in the beta stage, may not have helped matters.
“Google introduced a public test program, but the effort was very un-Apple like, where the product is polished and refined,” observed Kay.
“Now they have rethought this a bit, and see they need to refine it and put it out as a real product that works,” he suggested.
“We just need to see if Google is going to take this beyond it being a novelty product,” said Susan Schreiner, principal analyst at C4 Trends.
“It remains to be seen what Google will do with version 2.0 and if that can attract an audience,” she told TechNewsWorld.
For that to happen, “Google really needs to make a fully realized product this time,” said Endpoint’s Kay. “If they blow it a second time, people will say they’re done with that.”
Google will continue to face competition from Sony and others, but its’ unclear whether the market for Glass and its ilk is going to be substantial enough to make it worth any of their efforts.
“That is the real question for all the new products, ranging from glasses to smartwatches — not ‘is there a market for them?’ but rather ‘how large is the market?'” noted Tirias’ McGregor.
“There is definitely a market for such products. The glasses can be used for a wide range of industrial and service applications ranging from design to maintenance to emergency services,” he pointed out.
“Some consumers will want them for a variety of uses,” McGregor suggested. “However, none of these are likely to reach the volume of handsets. In fact, they will be lucky to add up to the volume ofhandsets.”


text:
The government has initiated a move to formulate a policy for the capacity-building of leather goods and footwear manufacturers to boost export, reports UNB.
Officials at the Commerce Ministry said they have already drafted a policy taking into consideration the government's vision 2021.
It the policy option, it . . .
Please login for more


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BERLIN (AP) -- German luxury car maker BMW AG says its unit sales were up 10.8 percent on the year in May, driven largely by demand for new models.
The Munich-based automaker, whose brands also include Mini and Rolls-Royce, said Wednesday it sold nearly 120,843 cars worldwide last month.
BMW says the models with the strongest growth in May were the 7 Series, with an increase of 33.6 percent, and the new 5 Series Sedan, which saw an increase of 13.1 percent.
The company aims to sell more than 1.3 million cars worldwide in 2010.
Shares of BMW were up 1.2 percent to euro38.14 ($45.55) in Frankfurt trading.


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Cruise editor Johanna Jainchill is in Finland, touring Royal Caribbean's unfinished Allure of the Seas. Her first dispatch follows.
TURKU, Finland — The 5,400-passenger Allure of the Seas is one month ahead of schedule, officials said Wednesday at the STX Finland shipyard here, where the sister to the Oasis of the Seas is under construction.
During a tour of the Oasis at this time last year, the theater was all scaffolding. Today, the Allure’s theater appeared ready for the cast of Chicago to start rehearsals.
The loft suite one year ago was metal and wires. Today, it was ready, with the bed made and bathroom products on the sink. The cupcake shop was merely a shell one year ago. Today, it was only lacking actual cupcakes.
But don’t expect an early delivery. Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein said that despite the ship being “remarkably ready for delivery” on Oct. 28, the cruise line would not take an even earlier delivery of the vessel. Royal Caribbean has already moved up the Allure’s inaugural cruise twice.
“We looked at further acceleration,” Goldstein said. “The program was so locked in with the arrival and training of the crew and the transatlantic [voyage], and we already sent the invitations out for the South Florida [inaugural] events. We will stick with what we have scheduled.”
Vicki Freed, Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of sales, said the cruise line also considered passengers booked on the Dec. 5 inaugural cruise.
“Royal Caribbean believes in doing the right thing,” she said. “ We didn’t want to interrupt consumers plans to be on the inaugural sailing so close-in.”
Sisko Hellgren, STX’s project manager for the Allure, explained that through the construction of the Oasis, the shipyard learned how it could improve the building process, allowing it to stay on or ahead of schedule the entire time.


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Cardiff, Pembrokeshire and Bridgend Councils have withdrawn beef products supplied by Welsh Bros Foods following reports a sample of its frozen minced beef tested positive for horsemeat.
Cardiff Council said it removed the products from its schools, leisure centres and care homes "as a precaution", which was echoed by both Pembrokeshire and Bridgend Councils.
More top news
Brussels' Zaventem Airport departure hall has reopened to the public, 40 days after twin suicide attacks killed 16 people.
A 21-year-old man accused of planning to travel to Syria and engage in "violent jihad" has appeared in court.
An Australian entrepreneur has publicly identified himself as the inventor of the digital currency Bitcoin.


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Google Unveiled A New Product That Gives Siri Some Serious Competition
Google is stepping up its personal assistant game with a new program called Google Assistant and a product called Google Home.
Both were announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday at a developers conference.
OK, Google, I admit, there are things you do better than Apple -- Google Maps, for instance, and recently, Google keyboard.
But Google hasn't yet been able to top Siri, Apple's popular artificial intelligence personal assistant that comes on every iPhone.
Although Google already has its own Siri-like AI app for Android called Google Now, which users activate with the phrase "OK, Google," so far it has not seen anywhere near the popularity Siri has.
And I know this to be true because only one of my co-workers had even heard of it when I asked.
Today, Google introduced Google Assistant, and it seems like it will have similar capabilities as Google Now, but like, a lot better.
You will apparently still launch the app with the phrase "OK, Google," and then you can carry on conversations with the app without repeating your original question.
Pichai demonstrated by asking Google Assistant,
Who directed 'The Revenant'?
When the program correctly answered with Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Pichai could continue the conversation without restating the director's name.
The product, Google Home, is intended to be a voice-activated version of the personal assistant for people to keep in their homes. It's similar to Amazon's product Echo with Alexa Voice Service.
Basically, Google Home looks like one of those Glade fake candle things, but it talks.
In other words, now the robots are moving into our homes and watching us while we sleep. Yaaaaaaay.
The details of when the new program and product will be released and how much Google Home will cost have not yet been released, but you can sign up for the newsletter on the Google Home website.


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Dr Iain Barton appointed as head of healthcare at Imperial Logistics
March 13, 2018: Imperial Logistics has named Dr. Iain Barton, currently Imperial Logistics%u2019 Healthcare Strategy executive based in Cape Town in South Africa, as executive vice president %u2013 Healthcare.
In this newly created post, Iain will be responsible for identifying and exploiting healthcare opportunities both within Imperial Logistics%u2019 existing geographic structure, and in new markets.
A medical doctor with 10 years%u2019 clinical practice experience and later Ian spent 22 years in developing and implementing best practice supply chains for major healthcare organisations. During that time, he has led the supply chain support of the US government%u2019s PEPFAR (The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), and The Global Fund%u2019s (The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) central procurement for ARVs (anti-retrovirals).
He is the latest addition to the recently introduced global sales structure, headed by Imperial Logistics International chief commercial officer, Sandro Knecht.
Iain co-founded pharmaceutical supply chain specialist PHD, becoming its CEO. He then served as CEO of The RTT Group, orchestrating its unbundling in 2012, when its RTT Medical business was acquired by Imperial Logistics to form Imperial Health Sciences.
Iain has additionally served on the Advisory Boards of Merck For Mothers, SA%u2019s Public Health Enhancement Fund, People That Deliver and The Africa Resource Centre (ARC).
Sandro Knecht said: %u201CThis provides the ideal background for spearheading the expansion and growth of Imperial Logistics%u2019 healthcare operations within and beyond Africa, in line with our overall growth strategy.%u201D
You may also like:-
Prof. Dr Wouter Dewulf and Prof. Dr Roel Gevaers from the University of Antwerp and Pharma.aero’s Frank Van Gelder share their views on how a weak supply chain can destroy the quality of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Dominica is known as the nature island of the Caribbean and its landscape boasts everything from waterfalls to mud ponds, as well as an array of exotic fauna and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Primarily used to carry express cargo on domestic or short-haul routes, the airplane is capable of carrying up to 23.9 tonnes (52,800 pounds) and flying up to 2,000 nautical miles (3,750 kilometers).
The ATR 72-600F will provide cargo operators with advantages of the latest generation market-leading regional turboprop
The weekly frequency is routed Luxembourg-Bangkok-Shenzhen before returning westbound to Luxembourg via Bangkok with an additional stopover in Budapest.
With a focus on regions with long response times, Everdrone expects to reach more than 100,000 residents in 2021 with the service
Historically, this route has seen transit of mangoes, berries, minerals, leather products, veterinary equipment and footwear, and will offer forwarders additional access to Europe.
India’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has witnessed movement of 72000 tonnes of general cargo in the April-August period.
The airline continues to gradually and safely restore its network, delivering on its health and safety promise as it responds to growth in passenger demand across the globe.
All of them are certified by the IATA CEIV Pharma or by the British MHRA, making them benchmark operations in the Swissport network.
The airline’s variety of fuel-efficient efficient aircraft and strategic network management has enabled it to quickly resume flights and expand services in line with passenger demand.
As Boeing's first chief sustainability officer, Raymond will be responsible for further advancing Boeing's approach to sustainability that is focused on environmental, social and governance priorities, stakeholder-oriented reporting and company performance.
Eastern Airlines has roped in Mike Duggan as director of International Cargo Business Development. Duggan will also be responsible to lead and support the carrier’s move into freighter operations.


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Kesha’s legal battle with producer Dr. Luke is still dragging on to her dismay.
According to Lawyer Herald, Kesha was offered a settlement, but she denied.
Kesha posted a selfie photo and wrote a worrying message on Instagram saying, she received an offer that would resolved her case, Billboard reported. “So. I got offered my freedom IF I were to lie.” The pop singer went on and wrote, “I would have to APOLOGIZE publicly and say that I never got raped. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS behind closed doors. I will not take back the TRUTH. I would rather let the truth ruin my career than lie for a monster ever again.”
Read more here.
The battle between Kesha and Dr. Luke has been dragging on for months, but Kesha refuses to give up.
Among the battle, Dr. Luke’s labe, Kemosabe Records, has been ‘downsizing’. It’s obvious that this ongoing legal battle is taking a toll on Dr. Luke’s wallet. According to Pitchfork, though Dr. Luke’s label is not shutting down all together, they are making cuts in critical departments.
“Kemosabe Records and Sony elected to downsize certain departments,” the statement reads. “Some of those functions will be handled by Sony as part of their joint venture relationship. Kemosabe continues to be fully operational and is excited about its current releases and the upcoming year.”
Musicians have been uploading millions and millions of songs to SoundCloud since its launch in 2007. Those songs have always been available for free — and they’ll remain that way even after Go’s launch — but now, you’ll be able to play SoundCloud tracks right alongside the big hits you’re addicted to. SoundCloud thinks this extensive library is something a lot people are willing to pay for.
SoundCloud thinks this will give them a leg up in the streaming business, but others aren’t so sure. Compared to other subscription-based services, SoundCloud has fewer paid tracks available.
But, according to SoundCloud’s CTO and Co-Founder Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud isn’t trying to compete with Spotity, TIDAL or Apple Music.
Wahlforss isn’t worried about competing with Spotify, at least for now. He’s more focused on the 170 million people who already use SoundCloud every month, and the 12 million so-called “creators”—the musicians and DJs and remixers and cover artists that people listen to every month. Wahlforss loves the idea that those creators can live next to the Beyonces and Biebers of the world. “Not only do we get all of this content from the major labels,” he says, “but on top of that, everything that’s been going on on the platform—the DJing activity, the remixing and mash-uping, cover music, and all that—all of that stuff can live now on the platform side by side with premium content.”
Users aren’t forced to upgrade, as SoundCloud tweeted above, but people are still pretty upset. Not only is there not a lot of artists on SoundCloud that Spotify or Apple Music have, the app is also tricky to use.
@PigsAndPlans seems unnecessary but I'll give it some time to see how it grows
When was the last time you had to rewind your music with a pen or pencil when you wanted to hear a song you really loved on repeat? It’s probably been awhile, hasn’t it? Well, get those pens ready and break out those Walkmans because cassettes are coming back in style!
Yesterday, we explored the world of vinyl and its hipster revival. Today, we’re diving deeper into the nostalgia by taking a look at cassette tapes.
Here’s a fun fact: The best seller on Record Store Day 2015 was a cassette. Metallica’s No Life Til Leather sold nearly 3,000 copies. In recent years, cassettes have even been given their own day to shine. Cassette Store Day launched in 2013, and while it isn’t as popular as its cousin Record Store Day, it’s obvious that there’s a very niche market that still can appreciate the cassette.
In 2014 National Audio Company, one of the largest and busiest cassette manufacturers in the US, produced more than 10 million tapes. In 2015 their duplicated cassette sales increased 31% over 2014. So far in 2016, according to a company spokesperson, they’re well ahead of 2015.
Cassettes are appealing to both consumers and bands for a lot of reasons. Perhaps the top reason is price. Bands that are just starting out can get 50-100 units of cassettes made for $1-$2 per unit. That’s a huge deal when a band is living on Taco Bell and sleeping in their van on tours. In turn, making cheap cassettes mean selling cheap cassettes. Unlike vinyl, which can be anywhere from $15-$30 a record, a typical cassette at a show is around $5.
Websites like Bandcamp allow artists to self-release their music and therefore cut out the middleman. This is a huge deal in the DIY scene that pride themselves on doing it, well, yourself. Pressing vinyl for small artists is unrealistic, but selling their albums on cassette is a lot more doable and therefore generates more revenue for the artist.
@jnartherhults cheap as hell to make, sell them cheap. include a DL code and people will buy just to support the band
There is also the appeal of owning physical media, like we explored yesterday. Being able to unwrap a cassette and pop it in your tape deck and flip it over to side B when side A has run out can be more satisfying than just picking the next album on your Spotify.
While there are a lot of positive memories associated with cassettes, some people prefer they just stay memories. I asked my followers on Twitter what they thought of the cassette revival and here’s their input:
@jnartherhults I understand the return to vinyl for quality. The cassette movement seems purely aesthetic, and that's still okay.
Sure, the sound quality of cassettes is nothing special. It may be based in nostalgic and aesthetic purposes, but that isn’t stopping chart-topping artists from releasing cassettes either. Everyone from Justin Bieber to Kanye West are releasing cassettes these days.
Could this be the end of making a Spotify playlist for your significant other and instead standing outside their window with a boombox playing a cassette tape? Probably not, but who knows…
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently released their 2015 report of Shipment and Revenue Statistics, which breaks down retail revenues of streaming services, physical sales, digital downloads and synth. While sales of physical media did increase, streaming services still came out on top with a 7% revenue jump from 2014 to 2015. The full report can be found here.
The RIAA’s figures revealed that vinyl sales made $416 million, while the combined total ad revenue from streaming sites Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube accounted for only $385 million. The report also detailed that vinyl LP sales rose 32 percent last year and hit their highest total since 1988 at $416 million.
While vinyl never really went away, they’ve been gaining more popularity within the last few years. Almost every show I’ve gone to in the past year, no matter how big or small, has had vinyls for sale at their merch tables. LPs aren’t just for the old-school kids anymore. Artists like Adele, Alabama Shakes, and even the Biebs himself release their albums on vinyl now.
Vinyl is resurgent because it gives a better sound and, with modern music so disposable, it is satisfying to own an actual artifact, says Mark Burgess, who founded Flashback Records, a London record store and small music label, in 1997. “It’s also the ritual of putting the needle on the record and actively listening to the music,” he says.
Options for buying vinyls are anything but limited. Of course, there’s the beloved local record stores (yes, they still exist!). There is also every vinyl fan’s favorite day: Record Store Day, which takes place across the world. Record Store Day was first celebrated in 2008 as a way for independent record stores to spread the good word (and sound) of LPs. For people who prefer to be surprised by their next purchase, there is a monthly subscription service called Vinyl Me, Please, which sends members a LP that was pressed just for Vinyl Me, Please members, so you know you’re getting something special.
LPs do cost significantly more than a month of Spotify or Apple Music (the average vinyl costs anywhere between $20-$30 compared to $10/month of Spotify), but there’s no denying the sound and nostalgia that come along with buying vinyls is unparalleled.
So, which do you prefer: physical media or streaming services? Let me know below!
Sony revealed its new wearable headphones at this year’s SXSW. The headphones, called Concept N, are no doubt the first of their kind. They are worn around the neck have have no wires. The headphones are instead built with multi-directional speaker that project the user’s music upwards towards their ears (though they do come with earbuds, too).
While the headphones do look very futuristic and flashy, as can be seen on Consequence of Sound’s Facebook post, some people are less than impressed.
Oh yeah, the headphones also have a built-in camera and voice control. Users will be able to tell the headphones to open the camera or ask where the nearest coffee shop is. It seems Sony is wanting to follow in the footsteps of Google Glass, but we all know how that turned out.
Interested in getting you hands on a pair? While Sony hasn’t announced an exact launch date or price yet, they’re hoping to start selling Concept N later this year.
It’s that time of year again. This week, people from all across the country grabbed their flower headbands and shorty shorts and flocked to Austin, TX for the annual South By Southwest music and film festival.
SXSW is the first of many Spring/Summer music festivals (dubbed ‘Festival Season’) of the year. To nobody’s surprise, the music lineup of this year’s festival is nothing but the best. SXSW pulls in bands from all over the world, including the UK, Belgium, Mexico… The list goes on.
Here are the highlights of SXSW so far:
Obama skips out on Nancy Reagan’s funeral to attend festival
But, it’s not why you think. Sure, attending a music festival is way less depressing than going to a funeral, but President Obama was scheduled to give a keynote speech on the same day that Reagan was laid to rest. This year was the first time that a president and first lady have attended the music and film festival.
First Lady Michelle Obama also gives keynote Don’t think Michelle Obama is there to party either. The First Lady gave a keynote today, which is all about female empowerment and is related to the Let Girls Learn initiative. The initiative “is a government-wide effort that will leverage the investments we have made and success we have achieved in global primary school, and expand them to help adolescent girls complete their education.”
Vince Staples criticizes Spotify while performing in SXSW’s Spotify House Dissing streaming services is now the cool thing to do, and Spotify has caught flack yet again. This time, from rapper Vince Staples. During his set, Staples stopped and said:
“Shoutout to Spotify,” he said. “Thank you for giving me this check to make up for what you’ve done to me and all my musical friends.” Later, he told the crowd, “listen to your favorite album 1,000, 2,000 times so everybody can get an album sale.”
Jessica Hopper to give talk on music industry Editorial Director at MTV Jessica Hopper is scheduled to give a talk today on the music industry and how to make it a safe place for those of us who aren’t male. Possibly the best thing about SXSW is that not only is a platform for lesser known bands to get themselves out there, it’s also a way to start (or continue) dialog on topics that are important to discuss in the music industry, whether it be race, class, sex, etc.
My @sxsw talk @ 2 re making the music industry an equitable and safe place–roll up and bring someone who wants to be part of solution (1)


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One of the world's most known brands in electric vehicle manufacturing and the Palo Alto-based clean energy company, Tesla, is now facing backlash and heat from the European Safety Assessment for its revolutionary Autopilot systems that lead drivers to lose their attention on the road. The low focus of the drivers attributes to Tesla's Autopilot system that even helps to maintain safety.
Tesla's Autopilot is one of the most advanced systems and features globally, with its ability to commandeer the vehicle on its own, respect traffic regulations, and even sway away other cars and pedestrians on the road.
According to a new study reported by Reuters, the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) invited a United Kindown insurance company, Thatcham Research, to review vehicles' features and technology. The study will then rank the cars and share with the public its systems.
The driving features primarily focus on those that give drivers assistance and inputs, including automated steering, braking, and accelerating. Tesla is, of course, included in the list, with its world-renowned Autopilot that completely takes the entire vehicle away from the hands of the driver.
Matched with a GPS location that the vehicle would go to, toggling Tesla's Autopilot would help the driver arrive at the place and the safety features it brings with it. The European association study pit Tesla against Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, Jaguar, and the others, those with automated driving systems.
Tesla's Autopilot: Highest in Safety, Poor in Drivers' Attention
Europe's NCAP and Thatcham Research ranked Tesla in a low top six position against the other vehicles it went toe-to-toe with in terms of safety. According to the study, Tesla's Autopilot scored only 36 in the assessment of maintaining a driver's focus on the road.
The research holds a significant factor in driver's attention on the road, which is why Tesla, particularly the Model 3, scored poorly against other vehicles. Despite the cars' advanced systems and safety features, ranking the highest among the rest, Tesla still faces a lowballed result from the body.
Tesla's Autopilot, which boasts of promising to take away the vehicle from the driver's hands completely, is what would make the EV's feature its kryptonite. The study aims to see if the car would promote 'co-operative' driving between humans and machines.
Tesla's results fared poorly in the study, trailing behind Renault's 69 score, according to The Drive. Tesla's vehicles limit co-operative driving and drivers' attention while on the road.
Road Safety and Driver's Co-op Experience: Tesla Went Overboard
Despite the low and grueling remarks in the driver's attention category, Tesla resulted in an outstanding 95 and 87 scores for safety backup and vehicle assistance, respectively. Currently, there are no self-driving cars on the streets and market, so co-op driving is a huge factor.
The highest overall score among the list vehicles is Mercedes-Benz's GLE System, which accumulated 174 points in the study. Mercedes' GLE received a whopping 85 points for its driver engagement, pulling it apart from the average 70 points, among others.
This study will now serve as guidance to Tesla in improving its Autopilot system that seemingly went 'overboard,' according to the safety assessment.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Isaiah Alonzo


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Designed to conclusively establish the link between travel and its effect on relationships, education, business and communities, the U.S. Travel Association reports the launch of "Travel Effect," a multiyear, multimillion-dollar advocacy and awareness campaign.
"What we've long known anecdotally, we will now prove through authoritative research: travel has a positive effect on health, relationships, business performance and the well-being of communities," said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.
"Travel Effect will take new research and drive earned media to communicate travel's benefits to the U.S. economy, to local communities, and to good health, strong families and an improved quality of life," Dow said.
At Travel Effect's core are groundbreaking research projects and studies that will demonstrate the benefits travel brings to people's lives, their careers and their communities, Dow says.
Current research underway examines travel's effect on relationships and its power to create lasting memories for children and adults. Additional projects include measuring the bottom-line impact of business travel and the impact of government meetings on government operations, private-sector development and local communities, Dow said.
The campaign will employ both earned and paid media to convey research findings, with an emphasis on social media. Research findings and more information will be available at www.traveleffect.com. Additionally, state and district data that provide key travel impact measurements formerly available on poweroftravel.org will be on the Travel Effect website.
Travel Effect's first research project of 2013, a study on the effect travel has on relationships, will be released in February, U.S. Travel said.


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Comparatively stronger exports to China, as my fellow blogger Paul Hodges points out on his Chemicals & Economy blog, is also evidence that this is happening.
This is understandable given that by some estimates as many as 30m migrant workers have lost their jobs.
But there is a threat of deflation being exported if all these finished goods end up flooding overseas markets. In such an event, petrochemical pricing can surely only head in one direction.
It is time to think hard about your business, plan for the worst and hope for something slightly better.


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Government has refused to ban importation of vegetables by big retail shops.
Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Joseph Mwanamvekha told Parliament that government can only impose punitive taxes on imported vegetables.
Ntcheu North Member of Parliament (MP) Assani Lipande of Democratic Progressive Party asked government to ban importation of the farm produce such as tomatoes and Irish potatoes to allow local farmers sell their produce to big shops.
But Mwanamvekha who was responding on behalf of Minister of Trade Henry Mussa said other countries will ban Malawian products if importing vegetables was to be prohibited in the country due to trade agreements.
“But we can still achieve the same objective by putting other measures including value added tax [VAT] and non-tariff barriers,” he said.
His response attracted comments from other legislators who supported Lipande’s idea.
Mzimba Solora MP Jacob Hara of Malawi Congress Party questioned why Malawi has policies that favour foreign markets arguing that buyers in Malawi should not shun local products because of trade agreements.
“The US [United States of America] is affiliated to regional integration but does not import clothing from China. Countries like South Africa do not import cars from Japan,” he said.
People’s Party’s Ralph Jooma who is MP for Mangochi Monkey Bay said government should empower farmers and ensure that buyers have markets in rural areas.
Malawi has bilateral trade agreements with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.


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Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, pictured on September 13, 2018.
Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Amazon shares were down a shrimp at the market beginning after it reported its first $100 billion quarter on the relief of a right holiday season and pandemic making an try surge. Amazon’s “other” category, which is basically selling, brought in $7.9 billion in earnings for the quarter. That’s an amplify of 64% from a year ago.
In the meantime, Alphabet saw its shares up extra than 6% after the market beginning. The firm’s earnings grew 23% on an annualized foundation within the quarter, exhibiting Google’s selling industry is recuperating neatly after a substantial slowdown within the second quarter of final year.
Amazon’s chief monetary officer, Brian Olsavsky, talked about the firm saw a recovery in ad use because the year advanced. He moreover talked about the resolution to transfer Top Day to the final quarter carried “pretty an extraordinarily good deal of clicks and eyeballs into Q4.”
Olsavsky added Amazon has considered success with a “deep finding out mannequin to command extra connected subsidized products.”
“We’re bettering the relevancy of ads confirmed on the product part pages the total time, and now we comprise considered like a flash adoption of video ingenious structure for subsidized manufacturers,” he talked about.
Right here’s what analysts had to insist about Amazon’s selling industry:
- JPMorgan analysts talked about Amazon’s selling and AWS corporations are high-rising earnings streams and the tremendous segments.
- Barclays analysts talked about Amazon continues to clutch market portion from the ad industry, a theme that seems more seemingly to continue this year. An ad-buyer gaze from Cowen final month likewise talked about Amazon may be the leading market portion gainer among principal digital ads corporations in 2021 and 2022. The gaze used to be per responses from 52 senior U.S. ad customers in December who signify $15B in U.S. ad use.
- Deutsche Bank analysts imagine ad energy will continue, especially as some of Amazon’s selling peers brace for upcoming Apple privateness adjustments that will impact their corporations. “We request the momentum in selling to continue, and medium term we moreover look doable upside stemming from IDFA adjustments, as we imagine that AMZN may well be very neatly positioned to high-tail out the adjustments as a result of the transparency of its attribution and total high intent of platform purchases,” they talked about in a present to customers.
- Pivotal Research analysts talked about there will be limits to Amazon’s ad load internal subsidized search, and talked about they’re pondering about retail deceleration.
- Baird analysts talked about Google will be helping Amazon’s competitors encroach on Amazon’s territory with original choices. “Google is the leading facilitator of paid search selling, which is the major sales channel for pretty an extraordinarily good deal of Amazon’s competitors,” they wrote. “Whereas Amazon is moreover one amongst Google’s biggest customers, Google moreover permits its competitors. More now no longer too lengthy ago Google has moreover created selling products that relief physical retail outlets to leverage their proximity to customers and the provision of their products.”
Google’s ad earnings for the fourth quarter used to be $46.20 billion, up 22% from $37.93 billion within the an identical quarter final year. That used to be proof of a rebound from the onset of the Covid pandemic, when advertisers pulled relief on spending and precipitated an 8% annualized topple in ad earnings and Google’s first ever year-on-year earnings decline.
YouTube ads, which delivered $6.89 billion in Q4, showed a 46% soar from this time final year when it earned $4.72 billion. It moreover saw a soar in viewers and longer time spent staring at videos, executives talked about.
Right here’s what analysts talked about about Google’s ad industry:
- Bernstein talked about Google’s result used to be “a print for the ages.” They wrote that YouTube “seems to comprise broken by” because it grew faster than final quarter and faster than any rate over the final three years. Google Community moreover “beaten Avenue and our expectations” led by mobile advertisers on AdMob, Bernstein analysts talked about, which they suspect used to be an effort to transfer use some distance from Apple, the set privateness adjustments are arriving rapidly. Whereas shuttle “showed some indicators of recovery,” they argued it remains a catalyst for Google when there’s an eventual re-beginning.
YouTube moreover saw persevered energy of recount-response ad bucks, whereas tag selling saw a right rebound within the quarter, executives talked about. Google has been building up recount-response products on YouTube, in conjunction with “shoppable” ads that consist of product imagery.
- Morgan Stanley analysts talked about YouTube is “arguably basically the most undervalued ad platform in our set.” “Continued energy in recount response (DR) and the branded ad market recovery drove the expansion,” they wrote. “This makes us bullish about YouTube into ’21 as we imagine its DR product materially improved all by ’20…which blended with a stronger branded ad setting positions it for 40%+ earnings development.”
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
Nominations are beginning for the 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50, a listing of private beginning-usausing breakthrough skills to changed into the following skills of considerable public corporations. Submit by Friday, Feb. 12, at 3 pm EST.


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Many familiar faces make an appearance on Wealth-X’s list of the billionaires who made the most money this year.
Businessmen like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who have dominated wealth rankings for years, continued to add billions of dollars to their already sizable fortunes.
Here’s the full list, ranked by billions made from January 1 to December 11, 2013:
10. Carl Icahn made $US7.2 billion
The corporate raider had a big year after bets on Netflix and Herbalife yielded Icahn Capital Management $US800 million and $US500 million profits, respectively. He tweeted his thanks to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Kevin Spacey, star of the streaming service’s hit show, “House of Cards.”
9. Lui Chee Woo made $US8.3 billion
The founder of Galaxy Entertainment Group became Asia’s second-richest man in 2013 as gambling revenue grew at a record pace in Macau. Lui is looking to expand his flagship casino in the city’s Cotai area, which is known by many as the Asian version of the Las Vegas Strip.
8. Larry Page made $US9.3 billion
Google’s co-founder and CEO made $US3 billion in 24 hours when Google stocks hit an all-time high in October, breaking $US1,000 for the first time. Android became the world’s most popular operating system, running on 43% of the globe’s smartphones.
7. Sergey Brin made $US9.3 billion
Brin, Google co-founder and head of special projects with Google X, made $US2.9 billion in the October stock surge. As of December 11, Brin is worth an estimated $US30 billion, a 4.8% per cent increase over the year.
6. Masayoshi Son made $US10.3 billion
The founder of Softbank, Asia’s top Internet and telecommunications corporation, lost $US70 billion in the dotcom crash, but he’s surging back in a big way. The purchase of Sprint and a large investment in Finnish game-maker Supercell are highlights in a year that saw Son’s personal net worth more than double, growing from $US8.8 billion to $US19.1 billion.
5. Mark Zuckerberg made $US10.5 billion
4. Jeff Bezos made $US11.3 billion
The founder and CEO of Amazon, which made $17.1 billion in net sales in the third quarter, raised some eyebrows when he bought the Washington Post for $US250 million this summer.
3. Sheldon Adelson made $US11.4 billion
According to Wealth-X, the casino mogul’s personal net worth grew to an estimated $US35.3 billion this year thanks to profits from his gambling properties in Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore.
2. Bill Gates made $US11.5 billion
The world’s wealthiest man ended the year with a personal net worth of $US72.6 billion, up nearly 19% from $US61.1 billion in 2012.
1. Warren Buffett made $US12.7 billion
Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO personally made about $US37 million a day in 2013, a year that saw the company’s acquisition of Heinz and Nevada’s NV Energy.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
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The range of vendors and exhibitors was also impressive—from numerous animal rights organizations, vegan bakers and food purveyors, cruelty-free jewelry, makeup, and fashion, organic produce, book sellers, animal sanctuaries, and too many more to mention.
|Throngs of attendees at the 2013 Worcester VegFest, which took place at the Worcester Airport.|
|More and more and more people!|
Was it overwhelming at time to try to navigate such large crowds? Sure. But what a great problem to have. Clearly, the people of central Massachusetts are hungry to learn about and practice a meat-free lifestyle, and on Sunday, April 14, they were able to do just that.
|Brittany Davis and Pete Degraaf wait as Tiffany Cheng, who runs a catering business, Duck Yao, fills a plate for them at Worcester VegFest on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of the Telegram & Gazette.)|


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For sale: Steve McQueen's 1967 Ferrari
The red 1967 sports car is expected to fetch millions at auction.
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In an announcement released earlier this week, Volkswagen revealed that the company will be undertaking a new safety initiative which aims to virtually eliminate all forms of traffic accidents and the fatalities that are sometimes associated with these horrible events.
Following numerous teases and spy photos, Volkswagen has officially unveiled the 2015 Volkswagen Golf R which aims to reward buyers of this hardcore hatchback with more power, refinement, and technology when it makes its official debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
Following the path forged by its predecessors the 360 Challenge Stradale and the iconic 430 Scuderia, the company revealed the 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale which not only serves as the definite successor to the fore-mentioned models, but also pushes the 458’s limits into new levels of performance and technology especially against similar models from Lamborghini and other rivals.
Designed to serve as an entry level model below the GLK crossover while also sharing roots with the CLA sedan, Mercedes-Benz has officially unveiled the production version of the 2015 GLA-Class ahead of its formal debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Following through on its intent to bring the 500 Cattiva concept to production, Fiat has released new information and photos of the production version which will make its official debut at the 2013 Concorso Italiano in Monterey California which is set to take place this weekend.
Signaling that the official debut of the radical BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car is only a month away, BMW has released several new photographs of the upcoming plug-in hybrid in action as well as detailed technical data which provides a compelling glimpse into the inner workings of this unique vehicle and showcases its technical innovations before its official debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.


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Tech forecasting is a perilous endeavor. No one wants to be a false prophet with a prediction so immediate that it can be easily proven incorrect in short order, but long-term predictions can be even harder. And yet even though people know predictions can be a waste of time, they still want to know: What’s next? Wishy-washy tech timelines only makes prognostication more difficult, as entrepreneurs and researchers stumble around in the dense fog of developing prototypes, performing clinical trials, courting investors, and other time-consuming steps required for marketable innovation. It’s easy to hit a wall at any point in the process, causing delays or even the termination of a project.
Slate has noticed a wily hedging mechanism among Silicon Valley soothsayers to circumvent these uncertainties—make predictions for “five to 10 years out.” It hits that sweet spot: just close enough that people can begin to taste it, but just far enough away that (almost) no one is going to call you out if it doesn’t become true. A review of press releases and tech articles stretching back to the 1990s finds that these Goldilocks forecasts are abundant. We’ve compiled a list of 81 predictions for innovations coming in “five to 10 years” to illustrate the cliché.
While the sample size is admittedly too small to make any definitive conclusions, there are a few trends that stood out in the data. One of our most striking findings is that scalability is a common trap. Many a tech oracle seems to conflate the invention of a device with its widespread adoption. For instance, virtual reality has indeed been packaged as a consumer product, as many people have anticipated. But the cost is prohibitive for most people: An Oculus Rift headset costs about $360.
And some predictions did eventually become true, just not in the manner that people expected. A particularly poignant piece in Wired from 1997 reads, in part: “Skorman says that in the next five to ten years technology will allow film fans to download movies instantly, directly into their TV or PC screens.” So far, so good, right? But then it continues: “And you can bet Reel.com will be one of the first video-on-demand outlets at the starting gate.” Oops.
Take a look at our list of “five to 10 year” predictions below. Each includes the publication (or company press release) from which it came, the person who made the prediction (sometimes a journalist, sometimes a person quoted in the piece), the date it was made, and the prediction itself.


text: A Mumbai District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission recently imposed over ₹35,000 costs on a store of ESBEDA, a premium leather accessories selling company, for charging ₹20 for a carry bag over and above the price paid by a customer for an item purchased from the store. [Rima Chawla v. Manager, ESBEDA showroom, Phoenix marketcity].The complainant, Reema Chawla, stated in her complaint that she had purchased a bag worth ₹1,690 from the ESBEDA showroom in Phoenix market city, Mumbai. While she was making payment for the bag, the billing executive illegally charged ₹20 for the carry bag which was branded with the company's logo for advertisement. Chawla informed the executive that it was unfair trade practice to charge a customer for a carry bag for carrying products purchased from their store, but the executive did not budge. Chawla then sent a legal notice to the store demanding a refund, and received a reply from the company asking for details of the purchase and invoice bills. After providing them with details, Chawla received no response.She then filed a complaint with the Bandra District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission under the Consumer Protection Act. .Her complaint emphasized that being a seller, the company was duty bound to provide basic accessories like carry bags free of cost for carrying products purchased from their own stores. "It is highly unprofessional and deficient towards the consumers to charge for the bags which are branded and used for the respondent (ESBEDA) branding & advertisement purpose," her complaint filed through Advocate Prashant Nayak stated.She claimed an amount of ₹1,50,020 as collective compensation against deficiency in services, compensation for mental agony, torture and litigation expenses along with a refund of cost of the carry bag..Despite notice, ESBEDA store manager refused to remain present even through their representatives before the consumer forum, and hence Bench comprising of chairman RG Wankhade and member SV Kalaal proceeded to decide the matter ex-parte.The Commission observed that the act of charging extra for a carry bag and not giving it free of cost despite the carry bag displaying the branding of the company for their publicity and advertisement, amounted to an unfair trade practice. In view of this, the Commission deemed it fit to direct the company to deposit some amount towards consumer welfare funds..Accordingly, the district forum passed the following order:The act of not providing a carry bag free of cost to its customer, and instead charging ₹20 extra amounted to deficiency of service and unfair trade practice. The store was asked to make the following payments:- refund Chawla ₹20 paid for the carry bag;- pay her ₹3,000 towards litigation expenses accrued and ₹10,000 as compensation towards mental agony caused;- deposit ₹25,000 with the consumer welfare fund..All payments have to be made within 30 days failing which Chawla was granted liberty to move the Commission with a fresh complaint.


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DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - Two companies are teaming up to surprise a South Florida military family with free food for a year.
Publix and Eckrich invited veteran Joshua Basarab and his family to the supermarket in Doral for what they thought was a one-time shopping spree.
They soon learned at checkout that the shopping spree will continue for a whole year. Once the gift was revealed, the family was overwhelmed with joy.
Publix officials said they were happy to help. “To give them this surprise and have them shopping in our store, and then to tell them they don’t have to worry about groceries for a year, it just means the world to us,” said Nicole Krauss with Publix Supermarkets.
The helping hand has taken a weight off of the Basarab family. “It means less worries, it means everything,” said Kathi Basarab. “You don’t have to worry about what tomorrow brings.”
The family of football fans also received tickets to this week’s University of Miami game.
Copyright 2018 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Last we heard Maemo 5 was used on the Nokia N900 Internet tablet, but it turns out that we’ll also see a Maemo smartphone at Nokia World 2009, that debuts next week. The info comes via Reuters, so it’s more than a mere rumour.
Also, we remind you that Nokia recently announced its first mini laptop, Nokia Booklet 3G, yet another reason to take part in the Nokia World 2009 event, where it’ll be showcased. Back to the upcoming Maemo handset, this could finally be Nokia’s top product to compete with the iPhone, since the N97 didn’t perform that well against Apple’s hit.
One thing is certain: Maemo is more flexible than Symbian and the future could see Nokia focusing on Symbian for its lower end phones, while Maemo runs on high end devices.
[via Unwired View]


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Modifier headquartered in Yorkshire Twisted, known for its extensive experience modifying Land Rover Defenders, has revealed its plans to alter a Suzuki Jimny.
It looks just like this: a brand-new VW T7 Multivan with some all-terrain accessories.
The newest essential gadget from Mercedes-Benz has been unveiled to assist G-Class owners in keeping their 4x4s warm during these chilly, gloomy months.
The ideal supercar for the current world is soon to be released by Lamborghini.
This is not your typical Ford Bronco, as the image and perhaps the headline may have hinted.
Russell Built is back with a new product that has sparked our attention.
The first 'Dark Horse' 6x6 construction from Apocalypse Manufacturing is up for auction.
Hyundai has unveiled the 'Beast,' a new version of its famous and extremely practical Tucson family SUV.
The Shelby American version of the current Ford F-150 Raptor has been revealed, with increased power and aggression.
A large brush bar, several skid plates, and enhanced suspension components are all included.


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BT has given 58,000 workers a £1,500 pay rise that it says is its biggest award in two decades, despite its largest union rejecting the deal and saying it intends to ballot members over strike action.
Last week BT had a £1,200 pay rise offer rejected by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, with union bosses describing it as “insulting” and a “relative pay cut” as soaring inflation fuels a cost of living crisis.
On Thursday, the union rejected the improved award and said that it would now immediately prepare for a statutory industrial action ballot.
BT said the flat-rate pay rise – mostly benefiting its lowest-paid staff – worked out as a rise of between 3% and 8%. It has been backdated to 1 April to coincide with households being hit by multiple price increases, from council tax and VAT on hospitality to broadband and phone bills, and will cost BT about £90m.
“While we have continued to extend and strengthen our networks to support the country’s recovery, the pandemic has hit our financial performance, like that of most companies,” said Philip Jansen, the chief executive of BT. “We know that the cost of living continues to rise and by making this award we’re ensuring that our lower-paid workers will benefit most and as soon as possible.”
Companies across the UK are holding talks over pay amid rising inflation. On Thursday the supermarket Tesco announced the second pay rise for shop and warehouse workers in a year.
On Friday, Sainsbury’s is expected to raise pay for workers in its supermarkets and Argos stores in outer London by 55p an hour so that they will receive the London living wage of £11.05.
The improvement makes Sainsbury’s the first supermarket group to pay all its workers above the independently verified living wage after pressure from investors. Sainsbury’s staff in inner London already receive £11.05 an hour after a pay rise last month while those outside the capital receive at least £10 an hour, slightly above the living wage target.
The staff receiving the pay rise at BT are mainly those who work at its retail stores, engineers who work at its Openreach subsidiary, and call centre employees, all of whom are based in the UK.
BT said talks with Prospect, the union that represents manager-level staff among the 42,000 who have not received a pay award, would commence soon. About 83,000 of BT’s total 100,000 workforce are based in the UK.
Last year BT awarded 59,000 frontline workers a special bonus of £1,500 in recognition of their work during the coronavirus pandemic. This comprised a £1,000 cash bonus and £500 in shares, which will be awarded after three years as part of the employee share scheme.
The bonus award cost BT about £110m, and the company said the payments represented about 5% of the average employee’s salary.
Tesco said on Thursday it was investing £200m to raise its minimum hourly rate of pay by 5.8% to £10.10 from 24 July 2022, the biggest single-year investment in hourly pay for shop and warehouse workers at the UK’s largest supermarket chain in at least a decade.
Under the deal agreed with the Usdaw union, some shopping delivery drivers, who currently receive £9.55 an hour, will receive an extra 90p an hour from 1 May, taking their hourly rate to £11.00 from 24 July 2022.
The latest pay rise at Tesco comes only seven months after it increased wages for its lowest-paid workers by 2.7% to £9.55 an hour.
The new deal has been agreed after Tesco became the lowest-paying supermarket in the UK, with Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl all offering £10 an hour or more, while Asda began paying £9.66 an hour from this month.
Businesses are being forced to push through significant pay increases as workers struggle with heavy inflation on the cost of living, and there is heavy competition for suitable staff.


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With the debut of Quibi, the short form categories at the Emmys may never be the same. The launch of the mobile streaming service hasn’t exactly been smooth: There were early questions about its business plan and whether consumers would want to pay for such content when free platforms including YouTube exist, subscriptions have already…
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Ever since the mid-nineties when e-commerce was invented, online businesses have had to live and breathe by the use of keywords. But if current trends are any indication, keywords may lose their power in visual industries, such as fashion and home décor.
Pinterest's CEO, Ben Silbermann, recently remarked that, “The future of search will be about pictures rather than keywords. The numbers are certainly there to support the theory.
On Silberman’s own platform, over 600 million visual searches are conducted each month. According to MarketWatch, 62% of Millennial and Generation Z customers want visual search more than any other new technology. And a Gartner study notes that early adopters who build in visual search will see a 30% increase in digital commerce revenue.
Amazon Gets Visual
Earlier this month, Amazon announced its sizable investment in visual search, which gives users the ability to search by picture. Through this new feature called “StyleSnap” on the Alexa app, users can replicate their favorite fashion simply by uploading a photo and letting artificial intelligence technology deliver the most relevant products to their search.
This news follows a trend that has been a long time in the making. And of course, Pinterest which rolled out its visual search feature back in 2015, has been capitalizing on this computer-vision technology for some time by attracting users and providing an excellent user experience.
"I think the retail industry is aware that customer experience is the golden ticket,” says Lihi Pinto Fryman, CMO of Syte, a visual search technology company. “I believe Amazon adopting visual search reinforces the fact that visual AI, and within that visual search, is a necessity in building a holistic omni-channel experience for online retail."
Amazon is certainly the trendsetter for e-commerce businesses and the company’s move to implement visual search into its retail experience may just begin to eliminate keywords in the retail industry all together.
Amazon doesn’t have the monopoly on visual search. Many global retailers are already starting to see the strong effects of the new medium on their customer conversions.
For example, Syte’s partner, BooHoo, reported an 85% conversion rate for customers that used Camera Search versus those who did not; Forever 21 instituted visual search and within one month, saw a 20% increase in average purchase value; and Tommy Hilfiger’s use of visual search nearly doubled average time spent on site, as well as engagement with additional fashion show-related content.
These strong upticks in conversion all boil down to user experience according to Pinto Fryman. Customers have to think harder and get creative with keywords in order to describe what they want, when a picture does the work for them.
“For home decor and fashion, keyword searches have always been the best we had, but it was never natural,” says Fryman. “You know what you like because you're drawn to the look, but chances are you don't have the vernacular needed to properly express yourself. But by simply uploading an image of what you want, you're taken straight to the most relevant products, it's the ultimate user experience.”
The Future Of E-commerce
Jeff Bezos said about optimizing the user experience in general that customers are divinely discontent. “Their expectations are never static – they go up.” And this is an important fact.
The easier it is for customers to use visual search, the harder it will be for them to go back to keywords. As e-commerce businesses, retail-related or otherwise, look to the future, visual search will need to play a key role in the user experience.


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A federal judge in California has for the second time thrown out a lawsuit that accused UCLA of violating copyright law by streaming videos online for student use.
Judge Consuelo B. Marshall of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles had previously dismissed the lawsuit in October 2011, but she allowed the plaintiffs, Ambrose Video Publishing Inc. and the Association for Information Media and Equipment, a trade group, to file a second amended complaint. In a ruling issued last Tuesday, she rejected the second amended complaint.
The plaintiffs contended that UCLA had acted illegally in copying DVD’s of Shakespeare plays acquired from Ambrose and streaming them online for faculty and students to use in courses. UCLA argued that streaming the videos was permissible under the fair-use principle, which can allow reproductions for teaching, and the Teach Act, which allows limited use of copyrighted materials for online education.
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Let's not kid ourselves, you've tried to use Snapchat's lenses on your dog before. Even if you've managed to make it work, Snapchat hasn't technically dog-friendly at the time. After adding lenses for cats last month, Snapchat announced that its camera will recognize dog faces just like it does humans. That means you can spend the holidays snapping better pictures of your family's pooch with animated pizza or reindeer antlers on its head.
The initial launch will have a handful of pup-friendly lenses and Snapchat promises more will be on the way in the near future. The dog lenses are just the latest extension of the company's improving object recognition. Last year Snapchat introduced filters that could identify food, sports equipment and pets and provide custom overlays based on what was in the frame.


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SINGAPORE--Motorola announced Thursday the Asian launch of its enterprise mobile messaging tool--a move which an analyst said could pose a challenge to rival Research In Motion (RIM).
Dubbed Good Mobile Messaging 5 (Good 5), the messaging service has been available to customers in the United States for seven years but was never launched in the Asian region. Motorola acquired the technology from its purchase of Good Technology in November 2006.
Neil Hooper, vice president of global sales for Motorola's Good Technology group, said in an interview that to date, users have only been able to use the service here by buying it directly from resellers in the United States. Motorola spent the last six months discussing and training 1,000 resellers in the Asia-Pacific region, who will make the mobile messaging service available in early-April, Hooper said.
In Singapore, Good 5 will be launched through local telco SingTel, and regional distributor Ingram Micro Asia. Hooper declined to provide further details on other telcos the company is working with in the region.
Taking on BlackBerry
Shalini Verma, IDC Asia-Pacific communications research manager, said Good's security portfolio could pose a challenge for RIM's popular BlackBerry service.
"[RIM] will get questions from corporations on how they can compete on the security front, and they will have to furnish CIOs with that information," said Verma, in an interview with ZDNet Asia.
Hooper said he is confident on battling the BlackBerry-maker on two fronts: being device-agnostic and more focused on security. "We are focused on the financial services vertical, because that has traditionally been the most security-conscious industry," he said.
Because RIM's services are tied to its proprietary handsets, Hooper said this may be prohibitive to companies that want to choose different models to keep costs down.
Verma noted that for Motorola is in a better position to capture other verticals outside the financial sector after the Good acquisition, since the company can now leverage the latter's reseller and channel partner network.
However, she said, RIM might have already preempted the impending competition. She added that the BlackBerry maker had been expanding its application support and roping in more developers via its BlackBerry Alliance Program.
Verma said: "They know it's not just an e-mail game but also [about] mobile applications, and they're moving in that direction."
According to figures from Gartner, RIM captured 18.1 percent of the global PDA market in May 2007, shipping over 20 million BlackBerry smartphones since its launch.
Hooper said Motorola has expanded its local sales and support teams for Good, as well as setting up a dedicated engineering team. Most of its new headcount this year will be concentrated in Asia, said Hooper, adding that this includes the transfer of senior Good management from the United States to this region.
He did not say how big the Good team is in the region, but said the company is still looking to hire.
Motorola also made "significant investment" in enabling double-byte support, said Hooper. Double-byte capability allows devices to read and write in script languages, such as Chinese and Japanese.
Good 5 will be available in the region through resellers and some carriers, and will be supported by handsets including Motorola, HTC, Palm and Samsung.


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The Indian smartphone market is a booming atmosphere. Evolutions occur here on a daily basis, and the trends observed up until now in 2014 do hint at bigger and better things to come in the future – be it in the form of sheer processing capability, to increased memory capacity, to better camera sensors and improved multimedia features: smartphones in India are truly upping their game.
Smartphones In India – Upping Their Game
Now, let’s deviate from all the technical aspects for a bit, and focus on the major manufacturers. We have the usual suspects – Samsung, Apple, Sony, HTC, LG, Nokia and Blackberry. They’ve been around for a very long time, and have a popular consumer base in India, as is the case in most countries nowadays.
We also have indigenous players – Micromax, Karbonn, Xolo, Lava and Spice being the more popular ones; but if one were to delve deeper, a few more company names would pop up. The major USP of these OEMs is their ability to deliver decent specs at an extremely low price point – making them (especially Micromax) the undoubted consumer favourite in India.
But besides these two factions, another small group can be observed. Albeit inconspicuous in an environment teeming with global as well as indigenous manufacturers, this group has started making its presence felt in the last couple of months.
I’m talking about Chinese smartphone manufacturers.
Lenovo, Huawei, Gionee and Oppo have already started paving a way for themselves in the Indian market. The former two have been around for quite a while now, with Lenovo establishing itself as a computer / laptop company primarily, and then introducing phones. Huawei has also made its mark by going head to head against the indigenous companies, by providing great features at affordable prices.
To be honest, Lenovo and Huawei phones don’t generally “stand out” in a place where other companies – especially the indigenous ones – have established themselves well. The factor of brand loyalty comes into play here, with a majority of the consumers opting for the more recognised companies which offer the same features at a similar price point.
Gionee and Oppo offer much more advanced features – targeting the consumer group that is hungry for high end specs. With pricing done competitively, it boils down to a matter of choice for the Indian masses.
So what’s the big deal?
Here’s what I’m really, really, excited about. Xiaomi and OnePlus.
First up, we have Xiaomi. Although it isn’t a popular brand name yet in India or the US, it is heralded as China’s very own Apple – with an impressive level of technological innovation. And by observing their Mi3 – a phone that is soon to be released in India – one can’t help but really fall in love with the kind of technology Xiaomi offers at such a low price point.
A majority of the Indians look at the ’value-for-money’ factor in their smartphones, and Xiaomi delivers on this factor with ease.
OnePlus has been doing the rounds of the Internet for quite some while now, with their device – the OnePlus One being claimed to be a flagship killer. And with the specs being offered at the particular price point, very few would disagree. With a top of the line Snapdragon processor, great camera features, a vivid display and memory capacities that threaten to knock most phones out of the park – the OnePlus One has certainly caught the attention of all the tech fanatics out there.
A major factor against OnePlus is undoubtedly, their logistics. With such abundant features and capabilities, one would expect OnePlus to go for aggressive marketing and partnerships with major retails stores. However, that is not the case (until recently), and the One mainly depends on an ‘invite’ system for people to own it.
Although OnePlus hasn’t been officially announced to make an appearance in India, with Xiaomi already on the verge of making an entry into the Indian market, we might just see OnePlus making its Indian debut in the coming future.
Smartphones in India: The hurdles for these companies.
These phones come with a plethora of features at a very affordable price point – good enough to woo the average Indian consumer. However, that being said, Chinese smartphone manufacturers will have to face some hurdles.
Firstly, there’s the competition from the global companies like Samsung, HTC and Sony. These manufacturers have established themselves well with the Indian audience, with elegant and world class phones with excellent customer support. After sales service goes a long way in bringing about brand loyalty, and in this regard, these companies fit the bill perfectly.
Secondly, there’s the indigenous crowd. Micromax for one has tasted immense popularity among the Indian masses. At a particular price bracket, the average consumers would prefer Micromax over a hitherto unknown Chinese manufacturer – regardless of the specs provided.
And finally, the smaller Chinese phone companies already existing in India have been associated with poor guarantee and questionable lifetime. In fact, the term “China phone” in India automatically brings about an image of a flashy device with pathetic quality, zero after sales support and no reliability.
The NEED OF THE HOUR for Chinese manufacturers of Smartphones in India
Two words – effective marketing.
These companies already have excellent hardware and software specifications in their devices. When aided with a marketing strategy that aims at primarily reducing the inhibitions of the Indian populace towards Chinese phones, they will help in developing a consumer base which would in turn help promote their devices in the country – for the features first, then the company name.
The Chinese companies could use popular social media platforms to strengthen their base. They could also piggy back on major online retail firms that would have consumers viewing their products for what they are and what they have, as opposed to which company is delivering it.
Personally, I am looking forward to Chinese OEMs bringing their devices into the smartphone fray in India. It would compel other manufacturers to raise the bar in their devices, which would in turn bring about improved technology reaching the hands of the consumers.
So to all the Chinese companies making their presence felt, Nǐ hǎo, and all the very best!


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Vietnam Art Books -- Calendars display VN's creativity
Calendars display VN's creativity
The collection, known as Five Seasons, has been published by the Khai Tri Company and features a series of more than 500 photos and pictures from artists and photographers around the country.
The exhibit covers a wide range of topics including well-known local landscapes, traditional architecture, fashion, daily living, people with disabilities and war.
"Some of calendars of the Five Seasons exhibit are creating quite an impression among customers," said one buyer in HCM City.
"I am interested in photos and pictures of war.These calendars make me appreciate and love my peaceful life and give me a deeper respect for the people who devoted themselves to the country’s independence," he added.
After working hard for five years, Dong and his 13 students collected and printed hundreds of pictures and, using graphic design techniques, weaved them into a calendar series.
"Half of our collection is stored on the computer, allowing customers to easily view the calendars before choosing their favourite," he said.
"A year has four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. We gave our collection the name of Five Seasons because we’ve added another season for our customers – a season of youth and creation," he explained.
Dong said that publishing calendars had been a lucrative business for many years, but book shops and stationery outlets are now experiencing a decline in sales.
"HCM City calendar manufacturers and retailers are faced with a drop in customers. The current market is making many producers feel nervous," he said.
But with his new calendar collection, Dong believes many customers will be able to find a favourite to decorate their home in the new year.
Organised by the Viet Nam Fine Arts Association, the Viet Nam Photographic Artists Association and the HCM City Fine Arts Association, the Five Seasons is currently showing at the HCM City Fine Arts Gallery at 97A Pho Duc Chinh in District 1.
The exhibition will be held from October 12-16 at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc – Ba Dinh District in Ha Noi.
Reprinted with permission from VietNam News Agency.
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Oct 20, 2020|
Young Merchant Weathers COVID-19 Crisis with the Help of JD
by Martin Li
In late January, as Hubei province faced widespread lockdowns due to COVID-19, a 34-year-old merchant named Xiang Chao saw a massive drop in sales on his JD store.
Xiang, who is a former swineherd, sells regional specialties including cured meat produced in Laifeng County of Enshi City in Hubei province. After joining JD’s ecommerce platform, it took only two years for Xiang to grow the store from annual sales of RMB 100,000 yuan to 15 million yuan.
However, Xiang’s streak of success came to a sudden halt when the pandemic accelerated.
“I thought the first half of this year was hopeless,” Xiang said. The first two months of this year saw almost zero orders in his store.
At the end of March, Xiang received call from JD’s Song Xuehui, who supports operation of specialty stores including Xiang’s. Song recommended Xiang take part in a promotion campaign to support merchants and brands in Hubei, and he agreed.
Xiang’s products were given high exposure during the campaign, which lasted more than one month and ultimately brought sales of 1.4 million yuan to his store. Many buyers posted encouraging messages to Xiang online.
“I saw he was relieved from worries and gained more confidence after the campaign,” said Song.
Xiang continues to embrace e-commerce solutions to boost business. He livestreams on JD for six hours every day, and aims to sell two million yuan of products during the upcoming Singles Day(November 11th ) shopping festival on JD.
He spends between 2-3% of sales on advertising on JD, which he said can generate higher sales than other platforms. At the suggestion of the JD team, Xiang always combines advertising with discount campaigns on JD.
As a result of this support from JD, his store’s sales exceeded RMB 10 million yuan on JD in the first nine months of the year, despite next to no sales in the first few months—and are expected to reach RMB 15 million yuan by the end of the year.


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NEW YORK (AP) — Apple says that some celebrity accounts were deliberately targeted and hacked, leading to the posting of nude photos online.
The company says its investigation found that individual accounts had been compromised. It says there wasn't a general breach involving its systems, including the iCloud and Find my iPhone services.
©2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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An article out of Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reveals that Toshiba, Sony and IBM may give consumers a peak at their new high-tech Cell microprocessor as early as the end of 2005.
According to the article, mass production of the chip will begin next year with the possibility for appearances in actual products in the latter half of 2005. Previously, the companies had announced mass production for the end of 2005.
Unlike most semiconductors present in today's computers, cell phones and other home electronics goods, which make use of a 130 nanometer production process, the Cell makes use of a 65 nanometer process. This allows for a number of speed and cost improvements for the chips.
Toshiba is currently assembling a production line for the Cell into which it has invested 200 billion yen. The Yomiuri reveals that Sony, in addition to investments in its own manufacturing line, is also planning on investing in the Toshiba line.
The newspaper speculates that the Cell will be used in a variety of products aside from the next generation PlayStation, including DVD recorders, digital televisions and so-called "net home appliances" that will include refrigerators and air conditioners. As it's possible that your first encounter with the Cell won't be in the PS3, talk of the Cell being used in products by the end of 2005 says nothing solid about the PS3's arrival.
Stay tuned for more as we learn it.