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Former Google VP Hugo Barra was a major player in the Android business, but the lure and promise of Chinese phone maker Xiaomi apparently convinced him to make a career change.
Barra left his role at Google last month and is prepping to join Xiaomi in October where he'll be responsible for "international business development and Android strategic partnerships." Xiaomi manufactures Android phones for the Chinese market, and so already had close ties with Google.
While Xiaomi isn't well known today, at least outside of China, Barra aims to change that.
"The aspiration for the … Read more


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Rwandan officials launched the country’s first blood delivery UAV on 14 October. The programme has been in development for some months in conjunction with US drone manufacturer Zipline. The aim is to use the aircraft to deliver blood to hard-to-reach rural hospitals across Rwanda. This system is thought to be the world’s first regular national drone delivery system.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame was present at the launch, even stepping in to release one of the drones from a launch catapult. Initially, the fixed-wing drones will deliver blood to 21 clinics in rural areas.
The UAVs can travel up to 93 miles (150 km) and up to a speed of 62 mph (100 kph), cutting down delivery time significantly in a country that has poor infrastructure in its rural areas. The blood can be requested via text by a health professional and will be delivered to them within half an hour.
“Rwandans have learned to embrace innovation, especially when it is clear that it can help us solve the challenges we face,” said President Kagame. “I hope that this project will inspire more innovation and entrepreneurship in commercially viable technologies in Rwanda.”

domain: news


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Samsung (005930) is expected to take the wraps off its next-generation flagship smartphone in less than three weeks, but details surrounding the upcoming Galaxy S IV continue to trickle out in the meantime. The latest leak came on Friday from MobileFun, which published photos of what it claims to be third-party protective cases built for the Galaxy S IV.
If the case designs do in fact represent the upcoming handset’s actual design, Samsung is seemingly moving away from the smooth, rounded enclosure on the Galaxy S III and back toward a design reminiscent of its Galaxy S II smartphone.
Samsung has gone to great lengths to prevent its flagship devices from leaking in the past, however, making it impossible to know if the design represented by these cases is accurate — while the Galaxy S III was in development last year, Samsung workers tested the device in three different enclosures so that no one would know what shape the phone would take at launch.
The Galaxy S IV is expected to feature a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with full-HD resolution, a 1.9GHz quad-core processor, a 13-megapixel camera and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean when it is released some time in the first half of 2013.
Four photos of the leaked Galaxy S IV cases follow below.


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- Russia's Finance Ministry said Friday that it had sent dollar payments to Citibank for two dollar-denominated bonds.
- Russia had previously sent ruble payments ahead of its April 4 deadline, but those were rejected.
- Rating agency S&P Global downgraded the country's foreign currency payments to "selective default" in early April.
After its ruble payments on two dollar-denominated bonds were blocked earlier this month, Russia's Finance Ministry announced Friday that it sent payments in dollars to Citibank.
The first payment was $564.8 million for a 2022 Eurobond, and the other was a $84.4 million payment on a 2042 bond. Russia had previously attempted to pay in rubles ahead of the April 4 deadline, but they were rejected and the country entered into a 30-day grace period to make the payment in dollars.
Now, if these payments are processed successfully, Russia will meet the deadline of May 4, avoiding a historic default on its foreign-currency debt.
According to the statement, the two foreign bonds are currently processing, though sanctions had held them up for weeks.
Since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Western sanctions have frozen Moscow's foreign currency reserves, and Russia has grown increasingly isolated from global financial markets.
After the rating agency S&P Global downgraded the country's foreign currency payments to a "selective default" earlier in April, Russia's finance minister threatened to take legal action if the nation is forced into a default.
Meanwhile, Russia's five-year default risk has climbed to roughly 88%, ICE Data Services reported. That's up from 24.1% on February 24, when the invasion first began.


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My favorite Swedish furniture retail chain Ikea (did you pick up your back to school items?) has just changed its well known futura font to verdana. But why the sudden typeface change? An Ikea spokeswoman said that the change allows Ikea to use the same font in all countries and with many alphabets therefore making it "more efficient and cost-effective." With customers noticing the change in the new 2010 catalog, thousands took to Twitter to air their frustrations with many saying that they feel betrayed because Ikea is emulating other big box corporations which have ugly, basic fonts.
To keep reading, and to see the font differences closer up, just
What's interesting to note is that Verdana was never intended to be used in print, as Microsoft created it as an easily readable font for the web. What do you think? Do you think Ikea's integrity as a design company is being questioned with this new font change? Do you like the change? Personally, Ikea in Verdana is going to take some getting used to — Futura just suits Ikea and its style. Oh, and if you want to check out the 2010 catalog, you can access it in its entirety online here.


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Hollywood makes secure flash storage look easy. If the bad guy steals a thumb drive, it either blows up or some secret counterintelligence agency marshals the nation's resources in a no-holds-barred data hunt -- most likely with Bruce Willis or Tommy...
Seagate today announced the industry's first 2.5-in enterprise-class drive with 1TB of capacity, or about 60 per cent more could be stored previously.
Solid state drives (SSD) appear to be as <unreliable as traditional hard disks. In fact, they're marginally less reliable: Taken as an average across models, 2.05 percent of SSDs got returned as non-functioning, compared to 1.94 percent of hard di...
Removable media such as CDs, DVDs and USB drives are no longer allowed on classified military computers.
After losing a drawn-out bidding war to Hewlett-Packard to acquire storage vendor 3Par earlier this year, Dell re-opened its coffers in a bid to acquire Compellent Technologies, hoping the company will be the answer to its midrange storage area netwo...
Dell said Thursday it is in advanced talks with storage vendor Compellent Technologies regarding a merger that would call for Dell to pay US$27.50 per share, or roughly $876 million, for the company.
Federal prosecutors Tuesday charged two men with stealing more than $1 million in high-tech equipment from EMC facilities in Massachusetts and North Carolina and trying to sell it over the Internet.
Samsung today announced a new 8GB dual inline memory module (DIMM) that stacks memory chips on top of each other, which increases the density of the memory by 50 per cent compared to conventional DIMM technology.
F5 is making file virtualization more cloud friendly with the introduction of software that translates storage protocols, making it possible to store files in public or private cloud networks using a range of technologies.
Disk storage revenue went up during the third quarter this year as companies invested more money in adding storage capacity to meet the explosion in data growth, IDC said on Thursday.
Toshiba has become the latest storage vendor to build Opal Security Subsystem Class (Opal SSC) specification into its self-encrypting drive (SED) for PCs and laptops, the MKxx61GSYD.
Nothing conjures up images of smoking jackets, pipe aroma, and silicone implants quite like Playboy - which, like every other print magazine, is struggling to stay relevant in the Internet era. Well, Hef and Co. have come up with a revenue booster j...
Seagate Technology has closed off talks on a potential private-equity buyout while saying the hard-disk-drive market has improved.
A federal jury this month awarded awarded a former Seagate Technology engineer $1.9 million, in a wrongful employment case.
Chip maker AMD on Monday reportedly released an open source driver for the first chip in its new Fusion line, giving Linux users a new, open source-friendly hardware choice in the cutting-edge family of processors.
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GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Sept. 14, 1999) — Volvo AB plans to expand its presence in the medium-duty truck market following its acquisition of fellow Swedish truck producer Scania AB.
According to published reports, Volvo executives said Scania would for the first time produce medium-duty trucks, while Volvo would extend its medium-truck alliance with Mitsubishi.
“The combination of Volvo, Mitsubishi, and Scania is the best of all worlds in medium trucks,” Volvo CEO Leif Johansson told the Financial Times. Scania has been considering getting into the medium-truck business for some time. It had previously looked into a joint venture with Volkswagen.
Officials with Volvo Truck North America said it is too early to comment on whether the company would re-enter the medium-duty truck market here.
However, earlier this year Volvo Truck North America CEO Marc Gustafson hinted that the company was strongly considering delivering a mid-range vehicle for North America.
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Amazon is releasing its own TVs with Alexa built in
September 9, 2021 1:12PM PDT
Amazon is releasing its own televisions and they’ll have Alexa built in.
The two new smart TVs will be released as the Fire TV Omni Series and 4-Series.
Amazon is calling these the “first-ever Amazon-built smart TVs,” which may imply that the company made these with the intent of just attaching Alexa to another device.
The smart TVs will enable watchers to use voice features for watching shows and gaming.


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Irish holiday spend back at Celtic Tiger years – report
Households across the country are expected to spend around €6.5bn on holidays this year, a level of expenditure not seen since the Celtic Tiger years, according to a report from the Marketing Institute of Ireland and UCD Smurfit Business School.
The €6bn spent on holidays last year was back to the heady level last seen in 2007, and this year is expected to increase again as overseas trips are up by 7.4pc in 2019.
The figures are based on a sounder footing than at the last economic peak, reflecting a larger working population with good incomes rather than reckless borrowing, according to Mary Lambkin, a Marketing Professor at the UCD Michael Smurfit Business School.
The increase in holiday expenditure comes on the back of a rise in the disposable income of households, which was up 6pc last year.
Unlike during the Celtic Tiger, credit and borrowing are not major contributory factors in recent spending, with the ratio of debt/disposable income of Irish households down from a peak of 215pc in 2012 to 124pc this year, according to the report.
Elsewhere, savings deposits grew by €4bn in 2018, with deposits for a house purchase estimated to be a major factor.
Just under one in three renters and one in ten of all Irish households are saving for a deposit, the report states.
Tom Trainor, CEO of the Marketing Institute of Ireland, said: “The continuing growth in employment and income are leading to improvements in household finances and consumer spending, which continues to grow despite weakened confidence due the uncertainty of the Brexit outcome.”


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HP to stop webOS Smartphone and TouchPad Tablet
Has anyone of you got the webOS devices?, hopes not, HP hasn’t been so pleased with the performance of the devices powered by webOS, you know that HP released the HP TouchPad and other Smartphones with a bigger hope in the Smartphone and tablet battle field, but the devices haven’t got much attention in the crowd of Android and iOS devices. It finally lead the company to stop the support for webOS devices including TouchPad that was released very recently with big hope in the tablet market.
According to HP, the company hasn’t found any remarkable performance in the market with these devices, it means that they haven’t been able to catch up the market share of other competitors or to make its own business share with these devices. HP itself says “The devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets.” After all, HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software.
HP announced the its financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended July 31, the company says that the company will more concentrate on strategic priorities of cloud, solutions and software with an emphasis on enterprise, commercial and government markets. Anyway, we may see the OS in many other devices like printers or entertainment/navigation systems, or get licensed to an interested party, but it is going to be a closed chapter for Smartphones and tablets. by the way, what do you think about the HP’s decision to stop the production of their Smartphones and tablet.


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Livongo Health, a Mountain View, CA-based consumer digital health company, raised $105m in funding.
The round was led by existing investors General Catalyst and international investment company Kinnevik, with participation from existing investors DFJ, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Microsoft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Zaffre Investments, and 7wire Ventures and new investor Echo Health Ventures. In conjunction with the funding, Chris Bischoff, Senior Investment Director for Kinnevik, is joining Livongo’s Board of Directors.
The company will use the funds to accelerate growth, continue to invest in data science, deepen integration with clients and partners, and develop its comprehensive consumer platform.
Led by Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer, Livongo currently offers Livongo for Diabetes and Livongo for Hypertension, which enable members to drive behavior change through the combination of consumer health technology, personalized recommendations, and real-time support at the point of impact.
Powered by advanced data science, the company creates personalized experiences, so they receive the right information, tools, and support, at the right time.
The company also announced a strategic partnership with Oregon-based Cambia Health Solutions – which reaches more than 70 million Americans nationwide – to improve the health of its members, beginning with diabetes.
Livongo and Cambia will also co-develop and market new offerings.


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Gabriel Lim, former personal private secretary to the prime minister, will take up the post from Dec 8.
The announcements were made by Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information.
Koh had been in the post two years. She is credited by the ministry with “focussing [the MDA] on strengthening consumer protection, including safeguards for pay-TV consumers, parental controls of the internet, and launch of the ‘Safer Internet Day’ in Singapore, and [overseeing] the launch of the nation-wide digital TV initiative and spearheaded the Digital TV Assistance Scheme to help needy households manage the switchover to digital TV.”
Koh will be given “another leadership posting in 2015,” the ministry said.


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The Melbourne man had been part of the glamorous fashion world but he decided to throw it all in. No one expected his next move but it’s paid off.
Mike Halligan admits he did the “full Millennial thing” when he threw in his high paying job to look for something with more purpose.
But no one would haven’t have expected his next move – from the general manager of a fashion brand to making dog food.
“I had been working in marketing and at the heart of it I was selling things that people don’t need, it was a fun, easy to buy world,” he told news.com.au.
The 33-year-old wanted to make a difference but it wasn’t until his beloved cocker spaniel called Brandy fell ill that he started to pay more attention to what she was eating.
This was his light bulb moment.
“I looked at dog food and the deeper I got in the more I thought how is the industry operating? It’s unregulated and it’s essentially impossible to know what is in the food,” he said.
“I ended up deciding on putting my energy into making a dog food brand that was worth trusting and transparency-led and health-led.”
He saw the launch of Scratch in 2018, a brand he co-founded and funded with $120,000 from savings as well as some backing from investors.
On the first day, Scratch received 25 orders but the next day only a few trickled in so Mr Halligan realized he was in for a hard slog.
But he had lured his business partner away from a big player in the industry and said it was extremely lucky as there were only five to 10 people in Australia who are experts in pet food and production.
The Melbourne man said a beagle named Snoop, who was owned by his business owner, “thoroughly enjoyed” being one of the main testers of the brand’s food.
It was important for Mr Halligan that Scratch’s food was made in the country from 99 per cent Australian ingredients, using human grade meat, but this meant he had to fight hard to open up a new way of manufacturing, he said.
“When dog food is made what usually happens is a company will go to pet food manufacturer, choose from all the ingredients that everyone else chooses and put a new label on it with a picture of a dog and get a celebrity vet to endorse it, ” he said wryly.
Scratch offers three types of dry dog food – the most popular is the grain-free kangaroo, which Mr Halligan said put them “on the map”.
“It’s the go to for problem child dogs that struggle to eat many foods and that end up with the runs or really itchy skin … It’s fixed the gut health and immune system of dogs that have struggled with food from pet stores,” he said.
“So many dogs had tried 15 to 20 foods and people were looking for that magic fix and that’s how we got our early start. We got a lot of word of mouth that our food was the one that fixed Lassie’s skin issues.”
In fact surfing legend Mick Fanning’s dog Harper had skin issues until she started on Scratch and he has since become an investor in the brand.
The other options available include turkey, lamb and beef or lamb and ancient grains.
The personalized subscription service, which starts from $77, has been used by 10,000 dogs across Australia, according to Mr Halligan.
In the last year, Scratch has sold 160,000 bags of dog food.
The company’s revenue has also doubled in the last year and is expected to tip more than $10 million by the end of this financial year.
But Mr Halligan said it’s not about the money.
Scratch has become the first B Corp Certified dog food company in Australia, where it has committed to producing and delivering ethical dog food that puts dogs and the planet first.
“We are not trying to be the biggest dog food company in Australia,” he noted.
But having an ethical focus was important to Mr Halligan as the company battled with soaring ingredient prices.
He said staff salary increases at a minimum based on the rising cost of living.
“It’s about treating people fairly and … not being a purely for profit business. With a year like last year there were so many cost pressures and if we just worried about profit, we wouldn’t be able to help as many dogs,” he said.
“The cost of ingredients have gone up with the fires and floods and the amount of cost price rises that we have incurred as a result of the changing world could hurt but being a B Corp you have a different set of intensives and alignments.
”We are aligned to look after planet and are donating 2 per cent of our revenue no matter if we are having a good or bad month.”
Sadly, Halligan’s cocker spaniel died a few months before the launch of Scratch but he has been fostering dogs and is on a waitlist for a new puppy.


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Brad Pitt is making a case to continue rosé season on through the winter months with the announcement of his new rosé Champagne.
Dubbed Fleur du Miraval, the Champagne is an extension of Pitt’s popular rosé brand Miraval. (Despite the celebrity backing, Miraval is truly a splendid iteration of Provence rosé, with a curving bottle, an orange-rose hue and a bright acidity of strawberry and lemon.)
The exclusive bottle will hit shelves in the U.S. market on October 15, 2020.
“For me," Pitt explained to People Magazine. "Champagne conjures up feelings of celebration, quality, prestige, and luxury. But rosé Champagne is still relatively unknown. Backed by our success with Miraval in Provence, I wanted us to try to create the defining brand of rosé Champagne, focusing all our efforts on just this one color."
Miraval was born almost a decade ago, when Pitt and Jolie met the Perrins family, an old-school wine making family who cut their teeth in the houses of Châteauneuf-du-Pape before moving their practice to Provence.
The couple fell in love with the Provencal lifestyle, and purchased the Miraval estate for $31 million in 2011 (the Perrins own 50%).
Two years later the Jolie-Pitt tied the knot on the sprawling 1,200 vineyard estate and two years after that, they separated. Despite many rumors crying about the couple’s potential sale of the estate, the duo dubbed Miraval “an investment for the family and the children.” It is still partly owned by both Jolie and Pitt. Pitt reportedly can be spotted working the fields.
Since the brand’s launch, Jolie and Pitt, with the help of the Perrins have conjured Miraval into one of the world’s most popular rose brands.
While breezy Provencal rosé has becoming their calling card, Miraval brought in outside help to produce the Champagne, a new style for the house. In came the Péters family, a famed family of sixth-generation Champagne makers who tend Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in Cotes de Blanc.
Fleur de Miraval will contain a blend of Chardonnay (75) and Pinot Noir (25%) made in the saignée method of Champagne production. It’s five years in the making, with the liquid aging three years on lees in the Peters caves.
“Fleur de Miraval Rosé is the culmination of five years of work, research, and tasting done in the utmost secrecy,” Rodolphe Péters, head of Pierre Péters Champagne said in the press release.
The Champagne’s first run will have just 20,000 bottles and a reported SRP of $390. The liquid is bottled in a black lacquered Champagne bottle with pink rosé coffret packaging.
While Pitt was one of the first celebrity producers to launch a big-name backed wine (or spirit), it’s leading a wave of celebrity booze projects. Now Ryan Reynolds helms Aviation Gin, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson produces tequila. Post Malone makes rose and Cameron Diaz has a wine brand. In the Champagne market, JAY-Z has Ace of Spades and 50 Cent, Chemin du Roi, respectively.
The celebrity spirits market has hit a fever pitch. Diageo PLC purchased George Clooney’s Casamigos for $1 million in 2017, and Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin landed at Diageo at a price tag of $610 million.
But Pitt promises this isn’t another celebrity project. “Above all, it's a wonderful, exceptional estate that I fell in love with, and that I continue to invest in to make it one of the finest estates in Provence,” Pitt said in an interview with People Magazine. “For the wine, I partnered with the Perrin family. They have been winemakers for five generations. Together, we're in it for the long term. It’s not just a passing trend."


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Jump to content
SAN JOSE, Calif. – December 15, 2011 – Drobo, makers of award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today announced that its customers have now deployed over 200,000 Drobo storage systems, and that its new Drobo B1200i has garnered both industry awards and new customer momentum. The company also announced thatfor the first time and buoyed by the new B1200iover half of its revenue is attributed to Drobo products designed specifically for business.
“I’d really like to thank our customers and partners,” said Tom Buiocchi, CEO at Drobo. “We are poised to enter 2012 as a vastly improved and transformed company with over half our revenue from business products, exciting new data tiering technology, a breakthrough new platform in the B1200i and fantastic new partnerships.”
Recent achievements and milestones include:
“Our business customers want sophisticated storage services but aren’t willing to pay big enterprise prices,” said Wade Yeaman, CEO of Fluid-Consulting. “Drobo's business products deliver affordable performance that optimizes our remote backup and Recovery as a Service (RaaS) offerings, which have proven to be very popular with our small and medium company customer base. We're very pleased to be a partner in Drobo's continued success.”
Drobo makes award-winning data storage products for small and medium businesses and individual professionals that provide an unprecedented combination of sophisticated data protection and management features, affordable capacity, and ease-of-use. Based on the patented and proven BeyondRAID™ technology, Drobo’s ability to deliver “Big Storage in a Small Box” creates the best storage experience ever for hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses and individual professionals worldwide, who use it to support their file backup and media archiving, server virtualization and email application needs. To learn more, visit www.drobo.com or follow us on Twitter @drobo.
Drobo, DroboPro, DroboElite, BeyondRAID, and Smart Volumes are trademarks of Drobo, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Kulesa Faul for Drobo


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Shutterstock is set to acquire 3D-render stock agency TurboSquid for $75 million dollars, investing in a future where photos aren’t necessarily captured with a camera. TurboSquid’s value appears to have soared amid the COVID-19 outbreak, as traditional photography was hampered by stay-at-home orders.
Shutterstock’s acquisition is one that brings in both talent and intellectual property and adds more than two million customers to Shutterstock, making it the largest marketplace by revenue for 3D graphics, beating out Adobe. Getty, Shutterstock’s largest image competitor, does not offer 3D assets at all.
3D modeling has not only become easier thanks to software like Blender or Zbrush, but it’s also becoming more realistic. While much of TurboSquid’s library is full of assets that are very clearly computer-generated, there are many assets that look incredibly realistic. The existence of such models should come as no surprise, as companies like Ikea have been using 3D models for advertising images for some time.
“The growth of 3D, AR and VR content and the potential to engage consumers with this disruptive technology is at an all-time high,” Shutterstock’s CEO Stan Pavlovsky says. “And TurboSquid’s industry-leading platform allows us to make the distribution of 3D accessible to Shutterstock’s community of creators and marketers across video, gaming, e-commerce, and beyond.”
While speculation, ShutterStock’s acquisition timing may very well be linked to the difficulty companies may be having in acquiring new imagery for advertising. What was once a more fringe-level area of content creation is now sitting center stage as many advertisers may turn to 3D modeling as an alternative to photography which has been challenging to set up thanks to the spread of COVID-19. 3D models can be made without needing full studio sets and multiple people, making them arguably more agile and less expensive in comparison. So while the use of 3D models is a tried-and-true method for retailers like Ikea, the pandemic has forced other companies who normally would not have dipped their toes into the 3D modeling space to give it a shot.
Regardless of the reason, Shutterstock’s investment in this sector signals that the stock image giant believes that photography won’t always involve cameras.
3D rendered scenes are yet to be a dominant portion of commercial imagery, but time will tell if that changes. It’s also possible that 3D models will work in tandem with photographers to create full scenes.
As reported by DPReview, despite the many advantages of using 3D assets, there are some downsides. A stock photo is ready to use as soon as it is downloaded, while 3D assets need to be assembled into a final image which can be extremely expensive. So while time and effort may be saved in the creation of the asset, that advantage may grow slimmer as editing time increases.


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Electronic Arts’ “Madden NFL 09” was the best-selling console game in the third quarter in the world’s top three gaming markets, according to data from Japan’s Enterbrain.
The title sold just under 3 million copies between July and September to easily beat second-placed “Wii Fit,” which sold a little under 2.1 million copies, said Enterbrain.
The ranking is compiled from Enterbrain’s own point-of-sales data from Japan and similar data from NPD Group in the U.S. and GfK Chart-Track in the U.K.
But whereas Nintendo’s Wii Fit sold well in all three regions the success of Madden was due almost solely to sales in the U.S. The game sold just 1,000 copies in Japan and 35,000 copies in the U.K.
In third place was “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” from Lucas Arts with sales of 1.74 million copies and in fourth place, based solely on Japanese sales, was Nintendo’s “Pocket Monsters Platinum” with sales of 1.48 million copies. The game was not available in the U.S. or U.K. during the period.


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Despite widespread relief over Jeremy Hunt “freezing” alcohol duty in his Autumn Statement last week, the next few months will be like walking a tightrope for many pubs and restaurants.
January and February are invariably the slowest months for the hospitality sector as consumers wrestle with the bills for their December spending and venture out less in the coldest time of the year.
The number of pubs closing in England and Wales rose sharply in the first half of 2023 to 383, almost matching the total for the whole of 2022, when 386 sites were lost, more than two per day.
Worse still, an average of five restaurants closed each day in the first three months of this year, with 569 businesses filing for insolvency in the first quarter, marking the highest rate of British restaurant closures in a decade.
Those trends are continuing as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tacitly recognised in last week’s Autumn Statement when he said: “I know that for many people going to the pub has become more expensive….So I have decided to freeze all alcohol duty until August 1st next year.”
Drinks company shares duly rose in response.
All hospitality businesses are hoping for a buoyant December because despite what Hunt announced last week, the fight for survival will continue throughout 2024, largely because what he gave with one hand, he quietly took back with the other.
Welcome as it is, the excise duty freeze until August is just that, a postponement in increases, not a permanent halt. Legislation exists for regular increases.
The extension of the 75% discount on business rates to small retail hospitality outlets until 1 April 2025 will mean the average pub not having to pay an extra £12,800 next year.
Again it is a temporary measure that will “help the most vulnerable keep the lights on”, according to Kate Nicholls of UK Hospitality.
But with standard rates rising by 6.4% next year, businesses comprising almost two-thirds of the sector still face a £150m increase.
“This,” she said, “will only put more pressure on consumer prices and inflation, at a time when businesses are still grappling with high costs of energy, food, drink and wages.”
Despite Hunt’s boast that inflation is falling rapidly, food price inflation, including supplies to hospitality outlets, still rose by 10.1% in October.
A recent survey for BIdfoods found that 83% of UK adults have less disposable income due to the cost-of-living crisis, and half are spending less on eating out than they did in 2022.
Just as the global drinks groups are finding themselves less able to impose price rises than they were in 2022, so pubs and restaurants are finding it increasingly problematic to protect their slim margins by passing on the costs of inflation to customers.
Add to that the extra £1.02 per hour on the adult rate of the national minimum wage from April. It might sound insignificant, but for a full-time employee it equates to an extra annual cost of almost £2,000 for each member of staff.
Energy prices have been sliding this year, but independent forecasters predict that they will be rising again after Christmas and there is no government assistance for businesses.
On the rosier side, the size of the UK hospitality market is predicted to grow at a compound annual rate of 2.53% by 2028, but much of that increase will come in the later years as Hunt’s estimated growth in the economy and personal wealth flow through.
In the short-term, however, businesses will continue to feel a considerable pinch as consumers rein in their spending.
Hunt calculated that his headline two-percentage point cut in National Insurance contributions from the start of January will give an average worker earning £35,400 a tax cut of more than £450 a year.
To that add the growth rate in average weekly earnings, which has been close to 8% for several months now, close to the highest rate on record.
So the impression is of the government easing the pressure on purses and pockets.
True it may have eased the pain of the highest combined tax rates on record but because Hunt left income tax thresholds frozen until 2026 at the earliest ever more people will be drawn into paying tax with more than 1 in 5 workers paying the 40% higher rate next year.
Consumer spending has also been negatively affected by the soaring cost of housing.
Earlier this year the Bank of England calculated that its interest rate increases would mean almost a million UK homeowners paying at least £500 more a month to cover mortgage payments by the end of 2026.
Interest rates have been trimmed since then but as fixed rate deals expire homeowners face hefty cuts in their disposable income, reducing the amount available for eating out or visiting the pub.
Much the same is true in the market for privately rented homes.
And the average household is predicted to pay an extra £100 in energy costs next year.
GfK’s UK consumer confidence rebounded in early November to minus 24. That was the sharpest rise since April but still a heavily negative figure.
While all five components of the index rose throughout November, they all remain in negative territory, and have not recovered from the surge in inflation over the past two years.
All the signs point to a very difficult winter and spring for hospitality.
This article was originally published by the drinks business and has been shared with permission.


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Google recently rolled out an update for the Google app. The update reportedly caused severe battery draining and overheating issues for some Pixel users. These issues were mostly reported by Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series users. Users posted about their concerns and discussed the issues on online public forums. This is similar to an earlier Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro bug back in December last year, which made the models deliver weaker haptic feedback. The company then paused the update and rolled out a patch to fix the bugs.
According to a 9to5Google report, the company confirmed to them that the battery draining and overheating was caused by a “backend change” within the Google app, which has ended up affecting a “subset of Android devices.”
The tech giant added that it rolled out a fix to the bug shortly after taking note of the problems users were facing. Google claims that impacted users should see their Pixel handsets return to normal behaviour immediately. The fix is a server side update, and does not require any installation of a software update, the company confirmed.
Meanwhile, Google is also introducing two new image search features to combat the spread of misinformation, particularly now that artificial intelligence techniques have made the fabrication of photorealistic fakes easy and accessible.
The first new feature provides information such as when an image or similar ones were originally indexed by Google, where they first appeared, and where else they’ve appeared online. This feature is called ‘About this image.’ With this feature, Google believes, the viewers will be able to identify the original source while contextualising an image.
Google also said it will label every AI-generated image made by its tools as such, and it is collaborating with other websites and services to ensure that the same markup is applied to the files they distribute. Google has on board Midjourney and Shutterstock, and its objective is to guarantee that all AI material that shows up on search results is labelled as such.


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Drug gangs in the United States are moving to new markets, with the help of Chinese factories. Their new target is counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and their new victims are the vulnerable: cancer patients, the elderly, hospitalized children, and folks who otherwise can’t afford medication.
Criminal organizations are being drawn to the allure of the new market, which brings less legal risk and higher profits than illicit drugs. Chinese companies, meanwhile, are operating with little oversight and outside the reach of U.S. law.
“Not only do Chinese chemical companies sell precursor materials to the Mexican cartels and synthetic drugs directly to the European and American markets over the Internet, but are also actively involved in cloned pharmaceuticals production,” said Robert Bunker, adjunct professor at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, in an email.
Cases of smugglers trafficking fake medicine are growing more common. In early October, three Texas residents were indicted for allegedly trying to smuggle at least 30 shipments of fake pharmaceutical drugs—close to 100,000 pills—into the United States from China.
The smugglers allegedly told U.S. Customs the boxes were “gifts” and “toys.” Inside, however, were fake versions of drugs including Xanax, Valium, Sibutramine, Cialis, Viagra, and Ambien. The drug containers had fake labels so buyers wouldn’t know the difference.
“This indictment of the three east Texas residents is a clear case of the forces of dark globalization at work,” said Bunker.
The market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals is booming, with sales estimated between $23 billion and $24 billion a year, according to MarketWatch, which notes close to 8 percent of the drugs are illegally smuggled or purchased by Americans.
“We’ve seen some of these organizations that used to traffic in cocaine, for example, or marijuana turn to this and it’s fast money and it’s easy,” Bruce Foucart, special agent in charge at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told MarketWatch.
“The bottom line is that people believe they know what they’re purchasing, but they don’t know what they’re gonna get,” Foucart said.
A Corrupt System
The growing problem of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs was given a full subsection in the 2014 report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The annual report on threats from China and recommendations for Congress warns that Chinese pharmaceutical companies are operating with little regulation and few inspections, and are pirating U.S. medicine for profit.
While Chinese officials said the problem was going away, evidence shows the problem is only growing, according to the report.
“China is ‘the largest manufacturer of fake drugs in the world,” said Roger Bate, a counterfeit drug expert and visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, according to the report, which notes 79 percent of counterfeit pharmaceuticals seized in the United States by 2008 were shipped from China.
Part of the problem stems from China’s massive and growing drug industry. It has close to 4,000 manufacturers, 400,000 retail pharmacy shops, and 29,000 firms involved in shipping medical products.
“Since most suppliers in China sell to other businesses downstream instead of directly to the consumer, they are easily missed by regulators,” the report states.
Adding to the problem, it states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only three drug inspectors in all of China—only two are full-time. The problem stems from the Chinese regime refusing to grant the FDA additional visas for inspectors.
Inside China, the Chinese Communist Party also does little to keep pharmaceutical companies in check. The report states “China’s ability to regulate its own producers is hampered by bureaucratic infighting between the [Chinese FDA] and other central government agencies, as well as excessive decentralization of regulatory responsibilities to local governments.”
The lack of oversight gives rise to many problems. Some Chinese factories mislabel their products, the report states, such as saying “Made in India” instead of “Made in China,” to avoid detection.
Many other Chinese chemical companies run “gray markets,” which are common practice among Chinese factories. According to the report, chemical producers in China that are licensed to supply ingredients to foreign firms are producing products for other companies by day, then running their own productions of the same products by night.
The combined effect of poor oversight, corrupt business practices, and the allure of a profitable market is already affecting U.S. consumers—sometimes with deadly effect.
At least 81 Americans died between January 2007 and May 2008 from contaminated heparin, a blood-thinning agent. The heparin was sold by a U.S. company, but an investigation found a Chinese company in its supply chain had intentionally replaced an ingredient with a counterfeit substitute to cut costs.
The heparin case “had a huge impact on the product in the United States,” said Eric Yeh, a pharmaceutical science professor at Long Island University, in a phone interview.
Altering ingredients in pharmaceuticals is a risky endeavor. Yeh said, “Even a one-milligram difference can have a huge effect.”
Yeh said that even if consumers are buying legal drugs from approved companies, but are going through sources outside the United States such as Canada or Mexico, the products can differ wildly.
“Each country has different regulations, so the manufacturing process might not be the same,” he said, noting this can affect the dosage.
The problem is even larger with counterfeit pharmaceuticals, which often have ingredients replaced with cheaper alternatives. “They may not have any active ingredients,” Yeh said. “And in the worse case, it may even use harmful material.”
China is the primary source for pharmaceutical drug ingredients in the United States, yet lack of oversight in China is endangering the entire drug market.
According to the Security Review Commission report, 70 percent of pharmaceutical executives said in 2007 that China was their main source for ingredients, and China remains the “leading source of U.S. imports of vitamins, antibiotics, and nonprescription painkillers, such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin.”
The Chinese Communist Party, meanwhile, has impeded U.S. attempts to ensure the safety of its drugs and ingredients.
U.S. Congress tried fixing the problem of China’s counterfeit market for pharmaceuticals by passing bills, such as the FDA Safety and Innovation Act (2012) to help the FDA monitor drug safety, yet it accomplished little due to the Chinese regime’s restrictions on inspectors.
When FDA inspectors attempted to inspect Chinese factories following the poisonous heparin case, according to the China Security Review Commission report, the Chinese regime “refused the FDA access to two upstream consolidators.”
“Chinese authorities acknowledged that heparin produced in China contained harmful ingredients but never accepted that the contaminated drug caused the deaths” associated with the drug, states the report.
It adds that while the U.S. company, Baxter, received hundreds of lawsuits, “China’s heparin exporters appear to have recovered quickly from the scandal.”
Cases don’t end at heparin, either. Common tainted drugs are “lifestyle products,” such as Viagra and weight-loss pills. According to the report, a Texas emergency room doctor nearly died in 2009 after taking fake Chinese weight-loss pills he bought from eBay.
When the FDA investigated the tainted weight-loss pills, they traced them to a Chinese national, Shengyang Zhou, which was selling the drugs in the United States by using a middleman. The report states he made millions of dollars selling counterfeit drugs, which he manufactured in a small factory in Southwest China.
Zhou was also taking frequent trips to the United States, where he was purchasing real drugs that he then used as templates to make his counterfeits back in China.
Bunker said, regarding China’s system for producing counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs, “These nefarious practices are only tolerated in that country because of collusion between the Chinese Party elites and organized criminal groups who mutually profit from this sinister relationship.”


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DeGeorge: Just say no to new supermarket
I am writing to applaud the Hopedale zoning board for taking the time to investigate the impact of the suggested supermarket on South Main Street to their town. I live in an abutting neighborhood in Milford where the new development will literally be in our backyards.
My entire neighborhood attended the meeting Tuesday night (April 6) for the Milford (Planning) Board and not only were our concerns ignored, but a vote to approve the zoning change was taken without any thought to the impact to our town, the taxpayer and neighbors. Patrick Kennelly was the only board member that realized how negative this development will be and voted against it.
When our neighborhood was built 19 years ago, that property was residentially zoned. Apparently over time, parts of it became commercially zoned without our knowledge. The zoning has flip-flopped over time to accommodate the needs of different developers that eventually backed out.
Do we really need another supermarket in this town? The surrounding towns that do not have such large development are that way for a reason. They are not jumping at every project just for the extra tax dollars at the expense of the integrity of their town.
Do we really need any more traffic in that area of town? Try pulling out of a side street in that area, especially on the weekends, and imagine a supermarket added to the mix. Not to mention the constant noise and the 18-wheelers that will be delivering goods to the store all night. I do not care to hear the rumble of trucks in my sleep. Although the plans call for the loading docks to be placed in the rear of the store, they still have to rumble down South Main Street and pass right behind our houses to get to the rear of the store.
How about the two large vacant eyesores in town that can certainly accommodate a supermarket? I am talking about the former Imperial Chevrolet property and the former IRA Toyota property.
The legal representative for the supermarket tried to show that the building is split evenly in both towns to create equity in the taxes paid to both towns. This is untrue for these reasons. The traffic light and entrance to the new shopping center will be in Milford. It will be Milford that maintains that traffic light. It is the Milford Highway Department that will maintain and plow the roads, and it is the Milford fire, police and ambulance that will be called in the event of an emergency. It will be the Milford taxpayer footing the bill. The buffer zone between the development and the closest Hopedale residents is 200 feet, while the buffer zone to the Milford residents, my neighborhood, is a mere 75 feet.
Although this development will have a much lesser effect on Hopedale, they are intelligent enough to realize it needs a much harder look, while Milford, which has much more at stake, votes for approval without much discussion.
In closing I would like to say that if this was going to be in the backyard of any member of the (Planning) Board that voted so quickly on Tuesday evening, I guarantee a different outcome!


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The Christmas industry is worth $3.2 trillion,” says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing Inventions. "This industry has increased over the last five years as Christmas has become more commercialized...
Miami, FL (PRWEB) September 09, 2016
World Patent Marketing, a vertically integrated manufacturer and engineer of patented products, introduces Guardian Angel, a Christmas invention that will help save lives.
“The Christmas industry is worth $3.2 trillion,” says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing Inventions. "This industry has increased over the last five years as Christmas has become more commercialized and is being celebrated by more and more non-Christians."
“Christmas is a happy time for all, so it’s especially tragic when anything unfortunate happens,” says Jerry Shapiro, Director of Manufacturing and World Patent Marketing. “Faulty Christmas lights sometimes cause Christmas tree fires, which can bring disaster to a family. This Christmas invention helps to protect people from this danger.”
Guardian Angel is a Christmas invention that protects families from Christmas tree fires. Trees that have too many decorations are often in danger of catching fire due to the amount of heat being placed around a highly flammable object. This can be very dangerous, especially since Christmas often brings families together. The Guardian Angel is capable of detecting fire, which sets off an alarm. This alarm will alert families to the danger as soon as it occurs and give them time to evacuate before the fire gets out of control. The Guardian Angel will protect families and save lives.
"Every holiday season, countless homes are destroyed and families’ lives changed because of a Christmas tree fire,” says inventor Matthew L. “The Guardian Angel provides an added level of safety to the home during the holidays. By placing the Guardian Angel atop a Christmas tree, it will be closest in proximity to the source, providing earlier warning to occupants and allowing them more valuable time to respond to a fire emergency.”
Guardian Angel is a Christmas invention that alerts people when there is a Christmas tree fire. This will help save lives by allowing people enough time to escape before the fire spreads.
ABOUT WORLD PATENT MARKETING
World Patent Marketing is always looking for new cool invention ideas. The company provides invention services and is one of the only patent companies that engineers and manufactures its own products. The company is broken into six operating divisions:
Patent Assistance and Research * Prototypes and Manufacturing * Distribution and Retail * Digital Marketing and Social Media * Direct Response TV and Internet Video Production * Patent Licensing & Investments
As a global leader in the patent invention services industry, World Patent Marketing is by your side every step of the way, utilizing its capital and experience to guide the invention process towards a successful product launch so you can be one of the next World Patent Marketing Success Stories.
World Patent Marketing Reviews enjoy an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (World Patent Marketing BBB) and has earned five-star ratings from Google and consumer review sites such as Consumer Affairs, Trustpilot, Shopper Approved, Customer Lobby, ResellerRatings, My3Cents and World Patent Marketing Glassdoor.
The CEO of World Patent Marketing, Scott Cooper, is also a Director of The Cooper Idea Foundation is the founder of the New York Inventors Exchange and has also been a proud member of the National Association of Manufacturers, Duns and Bradstreet, the US Chamber of Commerce, the South Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and the Society of Plastics Engineers.
Those who are wondering how hard is it to get a patent or how much does it cost to patent an idea, should contact the invention marketing experts.
World Patent Marketing credits its invention success to it's powerful and influential advisory board and its controversial “shock content” approach to invention marketing. According to Scott J. Cooper, the CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing, “complaints from competitors are just part of the World Patent Marketing cost of doing business.”
To submit invention ideas, contact World Patent Marketing at (888) 926-8174. Corporate headquarters located at 1680 Meridian Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33139.


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Indians have not been shy about going all out during the festive season, especially when it comes to the sugar binge.
On Wednesday, health and fitness app HealthifyMe revealed that Indians gorge themselves the most on sweets for Dhanteras, Diwali and Bhai Dooj. Overall sugar consumption hit a record high this year of 32% during the holiday season. Daily workouts saw a 32% drop on the app.
The study also showed that men needed more sugar than women. Sugar consumption increased by 38% among men during the holiday week, while it was 25% among women.
Too much sugar consumption and a lack of exercise were the main reasons why men gained more weight than women in a week. While men weighed an average of 1.7 kg more, women gained 1.28 kg during the week of Diwali.
“ Back to recommendation stories
Across India, the sugar rush peaked in Pune, where individuals saw a 46% spike during the festive week. It is closely followed by Bengaluru (34%), Hyderabad (34%) and Chennai (33%) who consumed too many sweets and desserts.
In Delhi and Kolkata, consumption of sweets increased by 30% and 27%, respectively. Mumbai residents managed to control their sugar cravings with an increase of only 20%.
However, sugar was not solely responsible for a spike in caloric intake. While the Mumbaikars may have controlled their sugar cravings, their overall food consumption saw a peak increase. The neighbors of Pune gained 2.4 kg on average over the week. Maharashtrians were followed by Delhites and Hyderabadis who gained 1.5kg and 1.2kg in weight respectively. The South showed much better resolve, with the Bangalorians and Chennaites gaining just 0.9kg on average over the week.
Kaju katli and gulab jamun dominated the hearts of people in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune at that time. Besides these Indian sweets, the Punekars and Mumbaikars gorged on shankarpali (sweet donuts), karanji (also called gujiya in the North) and besan ladoo (made from gram flour), while the Chennaites stuffed with Mysore pak. For the people of Delhi, kheer was one of their guilty pleasures and the people of Kolkata had squishy Bengali sweets like sandesh, rosogulla and kadam kheer to satiate their sweet cravings.
After letting their hair down during the festive season, the Indians began their detox journey. Average sugar consumption decreased by 30% between October 28 and November 3. There was also a 12% increase in physical activity among individuals to get back in shape. The average weight loss recorded in the ten days post-Diwali is 1.2 kg. While women lost 1.1 kg, men managed to lose 1.4 kg on average. The most popular workouts are running, leg swings, static shoulder stretches, and stepping.
Indians have also become more mindful of clean and healthy food. The most consumed healthy foods are boiled eggs, idli and oats. Water consumption has also increased by 13% on average.
For the study, the company consolidated data from the app between October 22 and October 27. The society studied the eating and exercise habits of more than 5,000 Indians to understand the impact the week-long festivities had on people’s health.
Manage your high cholesterol better: consume curds, nuts and oats every day
Better manage high cholesterol with curds, nuts and oats
Did you know that abnormal cholesterol levels cause a third of heart disease worldwide? According to the World Health Organization, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) — also known as high cholesterol — should be kept below 100 mg/dL. If it breaks above the 129 mark, it may be cause for concern.
#Diwali #men #gained #weight #women #HealthifyMe #study #finds


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Winter is on the way out, but financial analysts see a big year ahead for Canada Goose.
The luxury down coat brand went public in March and analysts from Wells Fargo and Instinet launched their coverage of the company with positive, albeit differing, views and expectations.
Wells Fargo analyst Ike Boruchow sees Canada Goose as a likely success story in a struggling retail environment, and expects its stock to outperform over the year. The bank said shares of the brand should hit between 25 and 26 Canadian dollars, or $18.74 and $19.49. It’s is currently trading at around $16.80.
“In a world of retail consolidation, overdistributed brands and diminishing margin stories across the retail space, we view [Canada Goose] as a rare find — an upwardly trending brand, with meaningful opportunities for top-line growth and margin runway,” Boruchow said in a research note.
While Boruchow likes seeing continued growth in its core North American market, his positive outlook for Canada Goose lies in the company’s “meaningful international opportunity.” He said the firm’s online and wholesale European strategy is in very early stages and growth possibilities in Asia are “virtually untapped.”
“The ongoing steady growth in their core domestic market, combined with a ramp overseas should enable [Canada Goose] to nearly triple revenues over time — from just $380 million today to close to $1 billion,” Boruchow said.
The wider struggles in retail will likely keep investors wary of the brand in the beginning, the analyst noted, considering some “mismanaged attempts at expansion” by other brands. Boruchow admitted that the success of Canada Goose hinges on execution in the coming months.
“Management is undertaking a difficult challenge [with] the attempt to buck the retail trend and maintain their core competency despite growth forays into new channels, geographies and product categories,” he added.
Instinet’s Simeon Siegel agreed that Canada Goose has a lot of room for expansion and “multiple avenues for growth,” but tempered his hope for the brand with a neutral rating, saying its current $1.35 billion market valuation is already reflecting an upside of these factors.
Siegel also noted possible risk factors for the brand, including any shift in customer perception as Canada Goose grows, seasonal volatility and the likelihood that the company “may not [be] able to continue to grow at its historical rate, which could lead to margin pressure” and earnings misses.
Nevertheless, he said the brand should see double-digit sales growth “for the foreseeable future” with wholesale and direct-to-consumer growth, expanding into new markets and the creation of new product categories, including non-winter items.
Non-parka products currently make up between 10 percent and 30 percent of Canada Goose’s online sales, Siegel said, and the brand is set to launch a knitwear line for fall 2018.
For More Financial Coverage, See:


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Today marked the very first performance of the all-new Christmas Tree of Life Awakenings as part of the holiday season offerings at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. There are two projection shows and we captured their debut performance for you!
Mike is the owner and writer for BlogMickey.com. Visiting the parks daily allows him to keep up with the latest Disney news, reviews, and photos from around the Disney Parks
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BUDDING business people have been given the chance to set up stalls at local markets.
Kirklees Council has offered a week of free “taster stalls” at Huddersfield, Holmfirth and Dewsbury open markets for local people running their own start-ups – often from home.
The move is part of the national Love Your Market campaign, an initiative which came about when retail guru Mary Portas was commissioned by the Government to come up with proposals to revitalising town and city centre trading.
Her report made particular reference to the role of markets as an important element of a town’s retail mix and a way of providing opportunities for start-up businesses to get their products out to the public.
The first day of the taster stalls trial saw eight businesses take up space at the open market in Huddersfield.
Stalls are also running at Holmfirth and Dewsbury markets.
The budding tycoons at Huddersfield include Claire Simpson, who makes handmade gemstone jewellery and soaps; Sophie Bebb, who sells ethical products including gifts, toys, books and trinkets; Deborah Hyde, who makes cupcakes; Kate Akerman, of pork pies business Porkshire and Christine Osbourne, who sells travel products such as laundry and toilet bags, luggage tags and parasols.
Also taking part were Emily Hall, who makes and sells jewellery and pocket watches; Susan Bailey selling kitchen knives, kitchen storage blocks and knife sharpeners and Lisa Wilson, who sells baby and nursery equipment.
Taking part at Dewsbury during the week will be Parkash Kumar, who sells cosmetics and Jane Hanson, who sells greetings cards.
Robyn Pogson, who sells handmade cards and small fabric gifts will be trading at Huddersfield while Nicola Grice, who sells handmade gifts will be at both Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
Clr Peter McBride, Kirklees cabinet member for regeneration, said: “We have attracted a good range of goods to bring some new products to the markets and also give shoppers some more choice of products.
“I am pleased to see so many local people getting involved – and there are more stalls still being booked.
“If you have an idea or have been making some products at home, this is really an ideal chance to see what the public think and have a risk-free go at running a stall.”
To book a free stall email email@example.com or call 01484 223730 and ask for a booking form.


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Rowling’s writing continues to raise fantastical funds
A handwritten prequel to the Harry Potter novels which raised £25,000 for charity at an invitation-only auction will be used to raise further philanthropic funds, the buyer has said.
Speaking to Bloomberg News, Hira Digpal, president of Tokyo-based investment-banking consulting company Red-33, and the new owner of J.K. Rowling's handwritten 800-word short story, said he faxed a letter to Rowling's publisher asking for the author's co-operation to use the story in a way that would raise more money for charity. He declined to give Bloomberg details of the proposal.
Rowling's contribution was the last lot in the auction of works written on blank sheets of A5 card, called "What's Your Story?'' The 13 ‘storycards’ sold were written by illustrious authors, including Doris Lessing, Tom Stoppard, Sebastian Faulks, Richard Ford and Nick Hornby.
Waterstone’s, the bookseller, hosted the sale attended by 100 guests and the £47,150 raised in total will go to English PEN and Dyslexia Action.
All the ‘storycards’ were sold without reserves and buyers paid no auction-house fees.
Amazon.com Inc. paid a record £1.95m at auction in December for Rowling's handwritten volume “The Tales of Beedle the Bard'' at a Sotheby's charity sale in London.
J.K. Rowling’s philanthropy was featured in Philanthropy UK’s recently published Women & Philanthropy report.


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The Pixel phone series is a testament to that, the pinnacle of Google's ambitions to date. Apple shipped almost 14 million units in the company's first year, but that was ten years ago when there were fewer smartphones on the market.
According to a recent tweet from Francisco Jeronimo, research director at IDC, Google Pixel shipments doubled to 3.9 million units in 2017. This will surely be welcome news for Google as it continues to grow the Pixel brand. That means Apple needed 4.6 days to sell 3.9 million iPhones - mind you, these aren't iPhone X units, as Apple did not divulge the actual split for the period. In addition, there are 499 Apple Stores spread out in 22 countries, while Google relies on occasional pop-ups and its online Google Store, with no constant physical retail presence.
One thing that's clearly impacting sales is distribution.More news: Congratulation! India has won the series 4-1
We're using Apple as an example not just because the two companies are frequent rivals, but also because Apple offers the closest product lineup to Google, with only a handful of high-end models.
Google managed to double the number of Pixel devices it shipped in 2017. That said, the company is quickly picking up ground with its Pixel lineup, with sales in the past year doubling.
This is the second time Google has acquired a smartphone manufacturer. Google's cheapest phone is last year's Pixel 1, which got a $100 price drop when the Pixel 2 came out and is technically for sale for $549 (although it's still sold out). There is a partnership this year with Verizon and more visible marketing, but it seems this hasn't translated into massive sales.


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The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vinatex) has reported that total export earnings of the garment and textile sector in the first quarter reached nearly 8.7 billion USD, up 11.31 ...
VCN - With positive signs on orders from the beginning of the year, export activities of the textile and garment industry in 2019 are expected to be quite positive.
Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) set the industry development target this year for export turnover at US$40 billion, which would mark a 10.8 per cent year-on-year increase.
The garment textile sector has grossed over 36 billion USD in export turnover this year
Japanese firms are scaling up investment into Vietnam textile and garment sector to take advantage of the huge market potential and Vietnam new generation free trade agreements
India is one of the major material suppliers of Vietnam garment and textile sector but trade value between the two sides remains modest
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There’s something especially irritating to drive by a business park or shopping center in the rain and see the automated sprinklers working away like it was a sunny August day.
But officials with a Florida-based company say plans are under way to prevent that at a number of its properties, including shopping centers in Concord, Pleasant Hill, El Cerrito and Emeryville.
Regency Centers, a developer and owner of grocery-anchored and community shopping centers, has launched an outdoor water conservation initiative. Work is being completed now on the installation of “smart” irrigation controllers at some of its shopping centers in California, Colorado, Oregon, Arizona and Washington.
Mark Peternell, vice president of sustainability for Regency, says the company expects to save more than 42 million gallons of water each year, providing a substantial saving in both water and money.
The company, Peternell says, decided about a year ago to go green with their properties. That means, he says, building new shopping and business centers to LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system), but when it comes to existing properties, it can be difficult to make green renovations.
But one area that could be impacted at those existing properties, Peternell says, was in improving landscape irrigation systems and introducing conservation methods.
“The ‘smart’ irrigation controllers are a proven technology,” Peternell says, “and we’re really excited about it.”
The controllers are used to regulate water use based on plant and soil type, slope, and sunlight as well as the weather conditions. Information is relayed to the controllers via a satellite feed from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Savings for Regency Centers are expected not only from reduced water bills but also by avoiding sewer overcharges and landscape replacement, Peternell says. Depending on the success of the pilot program, he says the systems will be expanded to the rest of the company’s 443-properties.
The pilot project involves 36 properties including Powell Street Plaza in Emeryville, Clayton Valley Shopping Center in Concord, El Cerrito Plaza and Pleasant Hill Shopping Center.
Regency is among 21 companies partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Net-Zero Commercial Building Initiative to advance adoption of conservation technologies and show measurable utility savings in their buildings.
Landscape irrigation at businesses and homes, are the biggest users of urban water, and experts estimated that we tend to overwater by up to 300 percent. California has been flirting with drought conditions for the past few years, which has led water utilities to increase rates and, in some cases, impose water restrictions.
Peternell says Regency hopes its “greengenuity” initiative will help demonstrate that water conservation works and encourage others to adopt it.
Reach Joan Morris at 925-977-8479 or jmorris@bay areanewsgroup.com.


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Zenith Electronics Corp., unable to hold the line against falling consumer electronics prices, said Monday it will cut its salaried-labor costs through early retirements and selected layoffs and pay freezes.
The Glenview company didn`t disclose a target for reducing salaried employees, which number about 6,000. Zenith spokesman John Taylor said about 650 employees, including about 500 in the Chicago area, would be eligible for the voluntary retirement program. Those employees work in Zenith`s consumer products, picture tube, cable products and related operations.
Taylor said layoffs and pay freezes would be confined to the consumer electronics and picture-tube segments. The number of layoffs and the breadth of the pay freezes would depend upon the success of the early-retirement program, he said.
Zenith said its fast-growing computer business is shielded from the job-and cost-cutting program.
The company said the program would result in a charge against earnings in the third quarter, but wouldn`t estimate the size of the charge or whether a net loss for the period would result.
Some analysts had reduced their estimates of Zenith`s third-quarter results before news of the charge. Last week, Robert Johnson, of the Rotan Mosle Inc. investment firm in Houston, cut his estimate for the third period to break-even from 20 cents a share, citing weaker-than-anticipated results for consumer electronics as the Christmas buying season approaches.
In the 1986 third period, Zenith earned $3.9 million, or 17 cents a share, on revenues of $513.8 million.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Zenith stock Monday closed up 12 cents a share at $26.62.
In a letter Monday to salaried employees, Jerry K. Pearlman, Zenith chairman and president, wrote:
''Consumer products operating results have come under extreme pressure in the last few weeks. Our current cost reductions are not keeping pace with the lower (television and videocassette recorder) selling prices in the marketplace.
''We have to act now to reduce costs and return our consumer products business to profitability.''
Taylor said that Zenith has been forced to follow the price-cutting of others in color TVs and VCRs. He said Zenith has reduced prices ''almost across the board'' on TV sets introduced only last August, primarily in response to competition from Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers.
Because their currencies are essentially pegged to the U.S. dollar, Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers haven`t been as hurt by the decline in the dollar`s value as have their Japanese rivals.
Price-cutting has been more severe for VCRs, with inventories of that product still bloated by high shipments from the Far East earlier this year.
Pearlman told employees that, to cut costs, Zenith also will restructure some consumer products departments and reduce its reliance on outside vendors for goods and services.
Taylor said Zenith isn`t planning to reduce hourly employment unless there is a significant decline in manufacturing volume.
Zenith was granted concessions this year from union workers at its tube plant in Chicago and its TV final assembly plant in Springfield, Mo. Zenith said it needed to reduce costs to survive against ''cutthroat foreign competition.''
Zenith will be the last U.S. company to manufacture TV sets when General Electric Co. completes the sale of its consumer electronics business to Thomson S.A. of France.
Taylor said that for a Zenith employee to be eligible for the early-retirement program his or her age and years with the company must add up to at least 75, or the employee must be 60 years old and have worked at least five years for Zenith.


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The BMW Group debuted the series version of its electric vehicle, the BMW i3, simultaneously in New York, London and Beijing on Monday, July 29.
“Innovation drives change. The i3 is more than just a car. It’s a revolutionary step towards sustainable mobility. It is purpose-built around an electric power train to serve the needs of our megacity customers,” said chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Norbert Reithofer, at the world premiere in New York on Monday.
The BMW i3 – the BMW Group’s first pure electric series-produced model – has the same sporting genes as every BMW and is characterised by sheer driving pleasure, says the company.
Sustainability is a priority throughout the entire BMW i3 value chain: “The BMW i3 sets a new benchmark for sustainable mobility in all stages of development and production, as well as aftersales,” said Friedrich Eichiner, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Finance, at the unveiling of the BMW i3 in Beijing.
According to BMW, the global market for electric vehicles is showing positive development: After almost 93,000 electric vehicles were registered worldwide last year, a total of 150,000 units is already forecast for the current year.
Covering diverse segments of activity, RMN News Service discusses the burning issues that have immediate impact on various governments, businesses, and the lives of commoners.
Raman Media Network (RMN) Company is a leading integrated technology media and entertainment company. It is working in diversified content creation, management, and distribution businesses on a global scale.


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Lawfare No Bull
Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before Senate Commerce Committee
The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security held testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, focusing on the potential harms posed to children by social media platforms. Haugen released tens of thousands of pages of leaked internal documents, which she contends show how Facebook has been negligent toward the harm it causes. The hearing covered Facebook’s research into the impacts of its apps on young audiences and its handling of data of children and other users.


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A Maine Wal-Mart employee who took up two parking spots with a regular-sized car was given a lesson.
Matthew Mills shared a photo of the bad parking job to Facebook, at the Wal-Mart in Biddeford, Maine, which shows the car has been boxed in with shopping carts.
"This guy got a lesson in parking Hahah biddo walmart," Mills captioned the photo.
Many comments on the photo supported the unknown person who created the shopping cart barricade.
"The person deserves a high five for doing that," a comment read.
"This is f***ing awesome," another user said.
One comment expressed a wish that the person had gone a step further and zip tied the carts together.
"Omg...I've so wanted to do this to a few idiots that park in multiple spots. Whoever did do this deserves a reward for creativity," another commenter said.
Others suggested the driver could not see the yellow line separating the parking spots because of snow, which had melted by the time Mills snapped the photo.
According to a friend of the driver, she did not park in two spots on purpose.
"[She] came into work and slid into her spot because of an icy spot and couldn't park straight and then someone rudely put carts around her car," he told WMTW.
Mills told KTRK the parking spots were designated for handicapped parking, adding that he has been told the story of why the woman parked in two spots.
Mills' photo of the trapped car has been shared thousands of times online.
In a similar incident in Clifton, New York, when the driver of a Corvette decided to take up two parking spots, another driver took action, but not using shopping carts.
Kyle DeMattia was headed to a Red Robin restaurant when he spotted the white Corvette taking up two spaces in the nearly full parking lot.
"I was like, come on man, are you serious, three spots from the door. So we pulled up, jumped out, we got people walking by laughing, having a good time," DeMattia told WABC.
He decided to park his muddy Jeep right up next to the Corvette, and then watched the owner's reaction from inside the restaurant when he returned to his vehicle.
"He was shocked to see the big muddy Jeep next to his shiny Corvette. You see him looking for dings. For anybody with a sports car, you should park away from the entrance," DeMattia said.


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Thailand and Hungary to collectively discover blockchain tech
The monetary expertise associations for Thailand and Hungary have signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to assist the introduction of blockchain expertise to their respective monetary sectors.
The MOU, signed by the Thai Fintech Affiliation (TFA) and the Hungarian Blockchain Coalition on Oct. 25, will see the 2 associations “share experiences, finest practices and discover areas doubtlessly helpful for direct cooperation,” in accordance with a Fb post by the Embassy of Hungary in Bangkok.
TFA president Chonladet Khemarattana mentioned that e-commerce, cell funds, and digital currencies are rising quickly in Thailand and that worldwide cooperation is required to additional develop native monetary expertise, according to an Oct. 29 report from the Bangkok Put up.
He additionally claimed 20% of the world’s crypto holders are in Thailand, the nation positioned eighth on the 2022 World Crypto Adoption Index released in September by analytics agency Chainalysis and crypto funds firm TripleA estimates nearly 6.5% of the inhabitants owns cryptocurrency,
The Hungarian Blockchain Coalition was collectively created by the nation’s Ministry of Innovation and Know-how and the Nationwide Information and Financial system Information Centre in March 2022, whereas the Thai Fintech Affiliation is a non-profit based in 2016 with the intention of representing the native monetary expertise business together with cryptocurrency exchanges.
The pact comes as Thailand’s central financial institution, together with a few of the nation’s business banks, had been concerned within the testing of a cross-border wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) transaction platform utilizing distributed ledger expertise in September.
The Financial institution of Thailand additionally introduced in August it was seeking to start a pilot of a retail CBDC by the tip of 2022 at a restricted scale within the personal sector amongst roughly 10,000 customers. It will check the digital foreign money utilizing “cash-like actions” corresponding to paying for items or companies.
Associated: Crypto exchange Bitkub targeted by Thai SEC with wash trading claims
In the meantime, Thailand’s Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) has enacted some restrictions on crypto this 12 months, with it banning the use of cryptocurrencies for payments in March saying they “may have an effect on the soundness of the monetary system.”
The regulator can also be cracking down on crypto lending platforms with the SEC planning to prohibit crypto exchanges from offering or supporting digital asset depository companies.
Hungary seemingly takes an identical laborious stance on cryptocurrencies, in February the governor of the Hungarian Nationwide Financial institution, György Matolcsy, wished a blanket ban on all crypto trading and mining throughout the European Union saying it “serviced unlawful actions” and was “speculative.”


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Moser Baer Solar Ltd. (MBSL), one of the largest integrated solar PV manufacturers and a subsidiary of Moser Baer India Ltd., has crossed more than ` 100 crore PV module sales in the highly competitive Japan market during April-December 2013. MBSL has been exporting solar PV modules to Japan for last 4 years, and the volume of shipments has increased significantly in last 9 months. Japan’s solar market is growing exponentially, driven by their focus on using renewable energy.
Vivek Chaturvedi, Chief Marketing Officer, Moser Baer Solar, said, “Japan traditionally is amongst the world’s most quality conscious markets, and we are proud to have established an Indian brand in high technology space here. This reiterates India’s capability to develop, manufacture and deliver world-class products across categories globally. The opportunity is big, and we look forward to further our commitments in Japan’s journey toward promoting clean energy. A strong quality focus, and our understanding of Japan market sensitivities in general and Japan solar PV business in specific has resulted in this significant growth in shipments.”
The earliest installation in Japan using Moser Baer Solar PV Modules is now almost 3-year olds, performing at consistently better levels than estimated by the owners. Moser Baer Solar Elite PV Modules are already popular with Japan’s biggest solar EPC companies and developers.
Company becomes the first and only high-end technology brand from India to achieve this significant mark in during Apr- Dec 2013
It is amongst the first of the few non Japanese companies to have products certified by extremely stringent JET under JIS Q8901 and JET PVm certification


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Dollar-for-dollar, weed is now more popular than alcohol in the state of Massachusetts, outpacing it in sales.
January 28, 2022
Cannabis is now a billion-dollar industry in the Grand Canyon State of Arizona.
January 24, 2022
The record-breaking revenue in Colorado is collected from the state sales tax, cannabis retail sales tax and retail cannabis excise tax.
January 17, 2022
Here’s where Guaranteed Basic Income and adult-use cannabis taxes intersect.
December 28, 2021


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The Coronavirus crisis has severely hit the Indian economy which was already under a severe slowdown. Sectors like automobiles, pharma, electronics, and chemicals are facing shortage of raw materials and essential components which gets manufactured in China. The Chemical & Petrochemical Industry has been among Hubei's pillar industries, contributing much to China's chemical exports which is suffering due to the closure of factories there. India’s dependency on China for chemicals across the value chain for broad categories ranges between 10 and 40%. With the rapid COVID 19 outbreak, there has been a significant void in the supply and demand chain in India which is impacting India’s growth story at a larger extend.
India’s manufacturing sector is highly dependent on its Chinese counterparts for the supply of essential raw materials and components. With China still facing the brunt of Covid 19, it is impacting India extensively. But having said that, in order to bridge the gap and cut down the shortage of raw materials, India is on the track to become a self-sufficient nation with comparatively less dependency on other countries for import and export. There is a wide range of opportunities for domestic manufacturers to explore along with the government’s support to make India least dependent on other countries.
We at Indian Chemical Council believe that the Indian chemical sector needs to be future-ready for situations like these and there is a need to strengthen India's domestic chemical production base, which is the backbone of India's industrial and agricultural development. The chemical industry needs to better its feedstock allocation policy, government investments in chemical clusters across the country, easier access to capital due to its capital intensive nature, and simpler pollution compliance laws. Policies favoring the chemical sector will give a fillip to all industries dependent on this industry, from Led lights to electronics, from EVs to apparels, thereby giving a boost to the entire Indian economy.


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Hearst’s Troy Young: Half our content will be video soon
Hearst Magazines has some of the most storied brands in the magazine business, from Cosmopolitan to Esquire. Right now, video is a sidelight, accounting for about 10-15 percent of its content. But in a few years time, video should be half of output, said Troy Young, global president for digital at Hearst Magazines.
“The challenge for video is there’s not a clear monetization flywheel,” Young said in this week’s episode of the Digiday Podcast. “In the content business, you get paid for it and you make more content. In the digital video business, there is not a monetization model that is a clear provider of income versus video resources.”
“The whole industry is in search of something that will replace cable as a way to monetize video,” he added.
Below are highlights, edited for clarity, of the conversation.
Separating digital and magazine teams is critical
“The mode of content creation in the traditional world is very different from digital. How we think of a personal relationship with an audience, the tone of the editorial, the way we think about the edit process, the way we think about young editorial content — everything was different. That separation, by aligning all our resources around a digital objective, was really useful in accelerating the growth of our business.”
Change in legacy media requires a ‘multi-stakeholder culture’
“The legacy of technology innovation within these traditional media companies is not deep. Building that competency in the organization and broadening what has been the historical bifurcation of these organizations between product and edit to include a larger group of stakeholders, like technology, product and audience in addition to content and video to create a multi-stakeholder culture was really important.”
Centralized news desks need balance with brand differentiation
“To me, it’s how are we fast and relevant. The second dimension is how are we loyal to the idea of our brands. The brand is an organizing principle for a group of people who are loyal to us. It’s really important that an editor is not obliged to take that content but really thinks through how that content fits into their overall strategy. But being relevant and first on certain things is really important. So how do you organize yourself efficiently to do that? “
Content creators are getting more power
“We’re in a period of distribution strength, but we’re watching it shift. The communication tech and products that drive these horizontal social networking applications are commoditizing, and content never gets commoditized. Snapchat disrupted the system because they said they want to have a great media product and want to work closely with brands to create a great media product, with a better ad product and curated. It’s not algorithmically driven in a feed. My take is content always gets half.“
More in Future of TV
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Future of TV Briefing: Ad buyers, sellers ‘don’t anticipate a major currency shift’ in this year’s upfront
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at the measurement currency outlook for this year’s TV and streaming ad upfront market.


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By now you’ve heard that Verizon is scooping up AOL for $4.4 billion in a bid to beef up its content smorgasbord and its mobile and video advertising reach.
Yes, you read the purchase price right. And, no, it’s not an Antiques Roadshow record.
Today’s top telecom giant is indeed buying the dial-up darling of yesteryear for quite a steal of a deal -- $50 bucks a share. When you consider the astronomical sums several of the hottest tech startups are now valued at, AOL’s acquisition price tag looks a little like yard sale chump change. Ouch.
Latest valuation: $50 billion
Latest valuation: $45 billion
Xiaomi is China’s top smartphone distributor and the world’s third largest. The Beijing-based company, founded in 2010 by eight entrepreneurs, designs, builds and sells a vast variety of consumer electronics and apps.
Latest valuation: $15 billion
Snapchat, based out of Venice, Calif., is an ephemeral photo- and video-messaging app and social networking service co-founded by former college friends Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown. Millions upon millions of photos and videos are shared using the app throughout the world every day.
Latest valuation: $12 billion
Latest valuation: $11 billion
Latest valuation: $10 billion going on $20 billion
Airbnb, a Y Combinator-launched startup, is a home rental startup based out of San Francisco. Much to the ire of corporate hotel chains it recently eclipsed in total available rooms, the company has quickly grown from a fledgling crash pad app to an astoundingly popular, one million-room-plus accommodations service. The platform hooks users up with all kinds of places to sleep, from average and swanky apartments, to deluxe and barebones yurts, to hippie-chic converted barns and everything in between. Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia founded Airbnb in 2008. Despite an unending stream of rental disaster stories contributing to a pretty rough go of publicity lately, investors certainly don’t seem spooked. The company is reportedly raising a massive new funding round that will send its valuation to $20 billion.
Latest valuation: $10 billion
One of the many successful tech firms to emerge from prominent Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, Dropbox is a San Francisco-based cloud file storage and client software provider. Founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowski in 2007, the company recently elbowed into the corporate productivity product market, more aggressively gunning for rivals Google and Microsoft.
Latest valuation: $5 billion going on $8.4 billion
Latest valuation: $6 billion
Square is San Francisco-based a financial services startup that offers mobile payment solutions to businesses of all sizes, from mom-and-pop shops to large chain stores. Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, Square’s two most popular products are Square Reader, a credit card reader for mobile devices, and Square Register, an app that works with Square reader to transform smartphones and tablets into mobile points of sale.
Latest valuation: $4.5 billion
Human resources software startup Zenefits broke into the coveted billion-dollar valuation “unicorn” club last week on the heels of a $500 million funding round. The epic cash injection arrives just two years after Parker Conrad founded the San Francisco-based company. Launched in 2013, Zenefits provides owners of small and mid-sized businesses with software to fulfill their human resources needs, health insurance and payroll products included.


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A look around the business world, and in Stark County …
Marketing research firm Millward Brown put together its annual BrandZ ranking list based on the value of companies. The list was published by Time Magazine. Apple dropped from No. 1 a year ago and watched Google gain the top spot. However, Apple is back on top, followed by Google.
The rankings aren’t based on company value. This is brand value. Millward uses a mix of market data and consumer surveys to put a figure out what portion of a company’s value is a credit to its brand name.
The top five brand values are:
1. Apple, $247 billion, up 67 percent from last year’s $148 billion
2. Google, $173 billion, up 9 percent from last year’s $158 billion
3. Microsoft, $116 billion, up from $90 billion last year
4. IBM, $94 billion, down from $108 billion a year ago
5. Visa, $92 billion, up from $79 billion
6. AT&T, $89 billion, an increase from last year’s $78 billion
7. Verizon, $86 billion
8. Coca-Cola, $84 billion
The Canton Brewing Company has had its “speakeasy” area in the basement open for some time, but the full brewery will open June 10 with a full liquor license and restaurant. The company recently hired 25 new employees, who started this week in training.
Leichtman Research Group announced results of a study that shows 56 percent of U.S. homes have a TV connected to the Internet. That’s up from 44 percent in 2013. That’s good news for folks with “smart TVs” because with more than half of the households in the country capable of receiving content streamed over the Internet, cable companies will soon feel a pinch to provide better service. Want to scare your cable provider into a good deal? Tell them you’re canceling service for streaming Internet service.