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It’s almost Olympic time again and soon the International Olympic Committee will again pull out its crying towel and complain about ambush marketing campaigns aimed at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Years ago, as a young man, I bought the sports business propaganda message that “sports are good, sports are pure.”
But very shortly after landing a job with a New York City daily as a sports reporter, before moving on to PR, my opinion of sports changed did as I witnessed unsportsmanlike behavior on all levels of the sports scene – high school, college and the pros.
Also changed was my opinion of the sanctity of sports sponsorships, and when sports became a multi-billion business I saw no problem with ambush marketing. After all, isn’t free enterprise an important part of the American economic system and restraint of trade against the law? I always thought so. But the sports cartels cry “unfair” when a company unleashes an ambush marketing campaign without breaking any laws.
While my approval of ambush marketing continued to grow through the years, the major reason for my unconditional support occurred during the London Olympic Games, when U.S. track and field athletes, sustained by brands that are not official sponsors of the games, protested about the gag rule which prohibited them from mentioning their sponsors.
Because of new restrictions leading up to the games in Russia, it will be more difficult for some athletes to count on sponsorship money than in the past. The SportsBusiness Journal reported in its October 21-27 issue that prior to the Sochi games some associations made its athletes agree not to sign with sponsors in certain categories.
What’s nonsensical is the ban on athletes from promoting their sponsors, unless they are officially sanctioned, despite the fact that many of the athletes competing in the Olympics are supported by brands that are not official sponsors and the Olympics needs these athletes to compete.
Permitting these athletes to promote brands that support them makes sense. Instead of accusing these brands of evil doings the IOC should be thankful that these athletes can train throughout the years between Olympic games. But the IOC claims that ambush marketers that support these athletes are outlaws.
Why should ambush marketers be labeled immoral by sponsors of multi-million dollars sports events and the cartels that control them? It’s ridiculous to claim that ambush marketing is disgraceful considering the totalitarian countries that have been awarded the games and all the alcoholic beverages and junk foods that are accepted as official sponsors.
If the IOC was as pure as the snow it hopes will be present during the Sochi games there might be reasons to take their anti-ambush stance more seriously. But the IOC’s political machine makes those of the Democrats and the Republicans look amateurish.
Another major reason for not supporting the IOC’s ambush marketing policy is because, ever since the successful 1984 Los Angles Olympics, the boys from Lausanne, Switzerland, have become too powerful and delusional, proven by their ridiculous appeals before the United Nations General Assembly asking for an Olympic Truce during their games.
IOC offers up a powerful propaganda tool
The IOC claims that they stand for human rights, but cave when host countries deny those rights to its citizens because, as former IOC president Jacques Rogge said numerous times, the IOC is only a sports organization and cannot control host governments. But by awarding their games to totalitarian countries the IOC knowingly provides a powerful propaganda tool to those governments.
And the IOC’s ludicrous contention that politics has no place in sports, despite the IOC being the most political of any sports organization, was once again proved untrue when President Obama announced that Billie Jean King, Brian Boitano and Caitlin Cahow, three openly gay athletes, would be among those representing the U.S. at Sochi, an obvious slap at Russia’s anti-gay laws (and probably also for Russia giving refuge to secret leaker Edward Snowden).
In addition to the U.S. not having a high-ranking elected official attend the opening ceremonies, an editorial in the Dec. 20 Wall Street Journal said that leaders of France, Germany and Canada are among other countries that plan to stay home instead of attending the ceremonies in Sochi.
Not surprisingly, the United States Olympic Committee, whose team refuses to dip its flag into any other country’s leaders during the opening ceremonies, also places Citius-Altius-Fortius above human rights and warns its athletes about the possible consequences of freedom of expression if they don’t follow the IOC dogma against athletes speaking about issues like Russia’s anti-gay laws during the Sochi games.
Sadly USA TODAY reported on October 1 that at a media event only two U.S. athletes spoke against the anti-gay laws that will be in effect during the Olympic Games that the IOC awarded to Russia. They were figure skater Ashley Wagner and Bodie Miller, the Alpine skier.
Fortunately, companies that are proficient in ambush marketing aren’t cowed by the cartels of the sporting world. And that’s good for commercial competition and what’s good for business competition is good for all Americans, not just the monarchs of the sports realms.
The IOC has no problem about awarding its games to totalitarian governments and countries that practice censorship and enact discrimination laws. Why anyone feels that an organization with such a checkered history deserves special marketing privileges is beyond me.
So, let the marketing campaigns begin and let the most creative and promotional ones be declared the winners.
As long as no laws are broken, ambush marketing is okay with me and let the crying of those being ambushed also begin.
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Arthur Solomon, a former senior VP at Burson-Marsteller, is a frequent contributor to public relations and sports business publications, consults on PR projects and sits on the Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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Julia Gouw, a director at VIZIO Holding Corp (VZIO) recently made a 35,000 share buy to start a new stake in the company. The purchase price came to $735,000.
This marks the first insider buy since the company’s IPO in March. A number of other insiders, from major holders to the company COO to a director, have been selling off their stakes, even as shares have pushed higher.
Shares are up about 14 percent since their IPO price. The consumer electronics goods company is known for TVs, sound bars, speakers, and other products. Demand for those products have held up well during the pandemic era, but some of that demand may taper off in the months ahead with an economic reopening.
- Stock Caught Trading Under Secret Name...
It trades under a secret name... for just under $5.
But thanks to a developing situation that could create nearly 50,000 American jobs and $10 billion in facilities... this may soon be the most talked about stock in America
Action to take: While the share price of the company hasn’t moved quickly since its IPO, it’s started out with a strong uptrend. Consumer demand for electronics is likely to remain strong and steady, making for a reasonable defensive play for investors here.
For investors, shares are a buy up to $25.50. Options have not started trading on the company yet, but are likely to do in the coming weeks. Options traders should look to play a modest uptrend over the next few months.

domain: news


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Facebook has just bought video ad tech startup LiveRail, which connects marketers to publishers on web and mobile to target 7 billion video ads to visitors per month. A source tells us Facebook paid between $400 million and $500 million for LiveRail, but Facebook refused to comment on the terms. [Update 3:30pm PST: Another source now tells us LiveRail sold for $500 million, matching the $400 million to $500 million range I reported earlier.]
Facebook did say it will invest in keeping LiveRail running and is evaluating how to intermingle their data, but it plans to use its data to aid LiveRail with its targeting and vice-versa. The acquisition of the 170-person company could help Facebook own a bigger chunk of video advertising, the fasting growing Internet ad medium.
Founded in 2007, LiveRail’s supply side platform has a large base of customers including Major League Baseball, ABC Family, A&E Networks, Gannett, and Dailymotion. LiveRail provides publishers with video ad targeting tech so they can make money routing messages to customers they’ll be relevant to, and helps marketers connect with sites and apps with open video ad inventory.
LiveRail had raised $12 million from its seed to Series C round, mostly from San Jose’s Pond Ventures. We’ve heard its acquisition price was $400 million to $500 million, which would make it a huge win for Pond. The deal requires Facebook notify FTC and Department Of Justice regulators, but might not necessarily require formal approval. Still, this is no puny acqhire or firesale pick-up. LiveRail was doing well and Facebook had to pony up for it.
In 2013, LiveRail told TechCrunch it was on track for a $100 million revenue year, and had grown revenue 300 percent year-over year. It was apparently considering an IPO in late 2014, but Facebook seems to have provided a better offer. It’s obvious why LiveRail would be scared of going public. Competitors who IPO’d got crushed in the market, as YuMe debuted at $9 and is now at $5.95, while Tremor Media IPO’d at $10 and has sunk to $4.61.
[Update 5:30pm PST: A third source tells us that LiveRail did $60 million in gross revenue (less than the $100 million LiveRail claimed) and $22 million in net revenue in 2013. It was apparently on pace to do $200 million in gross revenue in 2014 and $30 million EBITDA.]
The most important part of LiveRail is its real-time bidding platform that can dynamically assess the open video ad inventory across the publishers it works with, and find its marketer clients the best ad opportunities for their bucks. Its relationships with both marketers and publishers will help Facebook jumpstart its desire to be an ad powerhouse across the web and mobile, not just its own properties.
LiveRail also has its Checkpoint technology for making sure ads for alcohol, tobacco, and other age-limited products don’t get shown to kids. LiveRail’s data management system meanwhile predicts video ad inventory fluctuations to lets ad buyer plan their campaigns, and reports to publishers that sell ad space what kind of content is driving them the highest rates.
Facebook officially launched its Facebook Audience Network mobile ad network in May at f8. This lets mobile apps work with Facebook to target their standard ad units as well as custom native units. Eventually, Facebook Audience Network and LiveRail could potentially work together to bring accurately targeted video ads to all sorts of apps.
On Facebook itself, the company officially launched its 15-second auto-play video ads in March. These are its version of TV commercials, and command high rates. LiveRail could combine its targeting expertise with Facebook’s vast trove of user data to match movie trailers and other video ads with the right viewers.
The social adtech wars are heating up quickly right now. On Monday, Twitter acquired mobile ad retargeting startup Tap Commerce. Earlier this year it bought native ad format innovator Namo Media for around $50 million, and made a huge $350 million buy of mobile ad exchange MoPub for $350 million.
As TV and print budgets shift online, there’s a big battle for client dollars between whoever can target ads best. The LiveRail acquisition will give Facebook a big leg up as television commercials are reimagined for the web. And with any luck, the deal means you’re less likely to see annoying video ads for things you’d never buy.


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The latest Verizon Minimum Advertised Price document has been uncovered by Droid Life, revealing on-contract pricing for the next generation of Motorola's tablets, the Droid Xyboard. The name isn't explicit, though — it's referred to as the "Motorola Tablet," suggesting that either one of the companies has had a moment of clarity or that the new brand is still being kept under wraps. Prices start at $429.99 for the 16GB 8(ish)-inch Media Edition, going all the way up to $729.99 for the 10-inch 64GB version of the tablet. The fact that you're tied into a contract means that these devices are likely to be at least 3G, though you'll have to pay a minimum of $30 a month for one of Verizon's data plans. The Xyboard's apparently set to launch on December 8th — the same date we expect to see Verizon introduce the Galaxy Nexus — so it's shaping up to be a busy day for Big Red.
Also shown in the document is a price cut for the original Xoom LTE, which should be dropping to $199.99 on contract from this Thursday. The price looks set to stick until at least March next year, so it's not just a Black Friday special, indicating that Verizon will be using the first-generation Xoom as an entry-level tablet.


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The founder and chief executive of GoPro — who graduated from UC San Diego — created rugged cameras and mounts that allow people to film what it’s like to plunge to Earth from the edge of space, sense how huge waves crash on surfers and see the icy slopes that skiers navigate as they rocket down a mountain.
GoPro turned the action camera market — which didn’t exist a decade ago — into a nearly $1 billion business. It has grown fast at a time when digital camera sales overall are in steep decline. Its brand is synonymous with action cameras — the Kleenex of the category. And GoPros aren’t just for extreme sports athletes or thrill seekers. Everyday folks are strapping them on to record family trips, hikes in the woods and other not-so-dangerous adventures in their lives.
Now, however, the company is attempting a harder trick — garnering the same level of enthusiasm from investors that it has achieved with consumers.
GoPro went public Thursday in the largest consumer electronics IPO since 1997 — the year Woodman received his visual arts degree from UCSD.
The company raised $427 million in the stock sale. Shares opened at $24 — the high end of its projected price range. They ended the week up 49 percent at $35.76 — valuing the company at nearly $3 billion.
The IPO made Woodman, who owns nearly 48 percent of the company’s shares, a billionaire. It also provided a nice payday for some of Woodman’s UCSD classmates and surfing buddies who joined the company early on. He met his wife, Jill, at UCSD, and she was the company’s second employee. The first was Neil Dana, a 1996 UCSD graduate and Woodman’s college roommate. Woodman’s parents and siblings became millionaires with GoPro’s IPO.
Woodman returned to UCSD this month to receive an award during alumni week. And there was plenty of hero worship on display as the boyish 39-year-old made his way around campus. When Woodman walked into an auditorium to speak, the audience broke into loud applause as monopod-mounted GoPro cameras popped up like periscopes. Woodman carried a GoPro himself and led the audience in the company’s trademark “GO... PRO” cheer — a staple at trade shows that makes GoPro’s booth sometimes sound like a pub during a World Cup match.
A student asked Woodman what it was like to be a billionaire. Was it different from being a millionaire?
Woodman — who later said he didn’t like his answer — gave perhaps a prophetic response nonetheless now that GoPro is public. “I have a lot of work to do,” he said, “to make sure it stays that way.”
In 2006, GoPro had just eight employees. Today it has 500. Revenue nearly doubled each of the past three years, reaching $986 million in 2013. The company is profitable, netting $61 million last year.
GoPro’s growth bucks the downward spiral in the digital camera market, which is getting killed by smartphones.
“We have seen this really severe rate of decline in the camcorder market, and GoPro has been able to grow their market share, grow their average selling price and grow their revenue,” said Ben Arnold, an analyst with industry research firm NPD Group. “This is really an atypical phenomenon for a company to be going so against the trend in their market.”
For Woodman, GoPro’s success stems from the fact that it’s selling more than a $200 to $400 compact waterproof camera. It’s selling a new experience.
Before GoPro, surfers or mountain bikers couldn’t get action shots unless they had a heavy-duty camera and someone else to take the images.


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(Editor’s note: Jordan on Business is a new weekly column focusing on business, development and workplace issues in New Jersey. Click here for his archive.)
United Airlines in October was the first domestic carrier to test a digital health pass for international travelers just as the race to vaccinate Americans against COVID was heating up.
The world’s No. 2 airline then took the odd step of allowing four major competitors to roll out similar smart phone-based applications before launching its Travel Ready Center, a platform that allows passengers to post, verify and display COVID test documents.
The 14-week hesitation by United, which fashions itself as the industry leader in COVID travel safety innovations, illustrates the airline’s concern about nudging customers toward a politically tricky two-tier system for the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
United’s development of its heath pass also opened the door for other industries to consider mandatory digital COVID testing and vaccination documents – known as vaccine passports – that raise worrisome legal, moral and ethical questions.
Robert Einhorn, a United spokesman, declined comment about any unintended effects. “We have nothing further to add,” he said, referring to a February news release announcing the airline’s Travel Ready Center, which allows travelers to review domestic and international travel requirements and upload personal COVID data.
Rutgers University Business School Professor Wayne Eastman said pressure to broaden the use of digital health passes would intensify as companies market secure digital wallets that could develop into a universal standard for people to store proof of their COVID status and quickly produce it.
“It is understandable they would want to set up some kind of system, but, when you do that, you create real concerns about a two-tier system in which some people are locked out,” Eastman said.
Digital health passports are potentially intrusive. They also create a divide between front-line workers, those with preexisting medical conditions and older Americans who are receiving vaccines and millennials who may not qualify until later this year when supplies and access to shots expand. More disturbing, though, is the fact that digital passports represent another barrier for the poor and people of color who lag nationwide in vaccinations against COVID.
Despite the misgivings, others view health passes as a fast-track back to normalcy, particularly in industries such as airlines that have been hamstrung the past year.
“This issue is extremely divisive. It’s really a no-win,” said Christopher Elliott, a syndicated consumer columnist who operates a non-profit consumer advocacy group.
“I talk to frequent travelers, both business and leisure travelers, every day, and there really is no consensus,” he said. “Some really feel we should be doing domestic testing.” Other travelers, he said, even favor limiting travel across state lines without a COVID test or vaccination.
United, like other domestic carriers, posts regulations required by each state where it flies. All international travelers, per U.S. law, must produce proof of a negative COVID test or documentation of recovery. For many destinations, proof of vaccination will not be enough.
“The real barrier is going to be who has the $100 for a test. You still have to show a negative test even if you’ve had the vaccine,” said Elliott, explaining there isn’t enough capacity to test every passenger, especially during the upcoming summer vacation season.
“That’s going to price people out of the travel industry and that’s what the airlines want to avoid,” he said.
United’s health platform is similar to one it initially tested, CommonPass, technology developed by the Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum. It informs international travelers of measures required at their destinations and allows them to make appointments online at 15,000 test sites around the world. Passengers can upload their COVID test results and United staff verifies them before check in.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), whose 290 members represent 85% of global air travel, is marketing a similar digital health pass system to facilitate international travel. Most countries around the world require a mandatory negative COVID test result for all incoming passengers, taken no more than 72 hours before departure.
United opposes COVID testing for domestic air travelers. The airline is a member of IATA, which flatly opposes mandatory COVID vaccination for travelers.
“We don’t support making vaccination a condition of air travel,” said IATA spokesman Perry Flint, who said travel has still not returned even to half its pre-pandemic level. “Governments will make decisions and we’ll have to work within them.”
Some travel companies already demand proof of vaccination before making travel reservations, such as Saga Cruises, a United Kingdom company, which is at the leading edge of the emerging trend. Qantas, an Australian airline, also announced that all passengers later this year must prove they are vaccinated against COVID before they board flights.
Health passes are not new. The Yellow Card, or Carte Jaune, issued by the World Health Organization in 2005, is an official record that some countries require for entrance. It documents vaccinations against diseases ranging from cholera to yellow fever.
The digital passports are simply an electronic version of the old standard card stock.
George E. Jordan writes a weekly column on business and development in New Jersey. He may be reached at [email protected]


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It's unlikely that supermarket executives haven't considered procuring foods that aren't genetically modified.
The stance against food products containing GMOs is growing every year, with more consumers advocating for healthier, more natural edible goods. However, farms, ranchers and other participants in the food industry who produce such items are, in many ways, hard to come by.
That's when the "relationship" part of strategic sourcing comes into play. For example, say a group of purchasing officers working at a national grocery store chain is tasked with connecting the brand to organic growers and livestock raisers. Reaching out to journalists who have a vested interest in the food industry, regional supermarket managers and even competitors will help them develop a network of sources they can tap into to procure the kind of items health-conscious consumers are looking for.
Paying attention to representation
One factor grocers pay attention to when purchasing foods that contain GMOs are the labels and packaging manufacturers use. Depending on the audiences supermarket chains are targeting, procuring items that notify consumers of the presence of GMOs may cause some shoppers to shy away.
However, pro-GMO advocates, such as Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, have asserted that some public policies mislead consumers into thinking GMOs are detrimental to their health. According to The Associated Press, Vermont recently passed a law that would require food producers to label foods containing GMOs if they choose to sell in the state. The law will take effect in mid-2016 in the event legislative challenges against the mandate are unsuccessful.
Out of legal boundaries
What about the restaurant chains that serve food derived from GMOs to customers? Advocates against GMOs are publicly asking major food service companies to take responsibility, "do the right thing" and procure goods that are devoid of GMOs entirely.
Tom Karst, a contributor to The Packer, acknowledged an open letter written by Organic Consumers Association International Director Ronnie Cummins to McDonald's CEO Donald Thompson asking him to "reject a GMO potato newly approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)." Cummins acknowledged a statement made by a McDonald's spokesman who maintained that McDonald's does not source GMO potatoes, asserting that the chain "does not go far enough."
"It's true that you do not currently source GMO potatoes," wrote Thompson. "But that would be true for any restaurant or other buyer, because there are no GMO potatoes available yet to purchase."
Whether McDonald's will diverge from its sourcing practices depends on the sentiments of its customers.


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The Taco Emoji Is Here -- and Taco Bell's Social Campaign Helps You Celebrate
Tweet a Taco, Get a Reward
Nov 10, 2015
Taco Bell has finally released its Taco Emoji after a year-long campaign to bring it to life -- and it's rewarding fans with a fun social campaign.
In the campaign, by Deutsch L.A., Taco Bell started a Change.org petition in November 2014 asking the Unicode Consortium to "release a taco emoji into the wild." Fans amassed nearly 33,000 signatures and now Taco Bell has launched a social campaign around the launch. With the Taco Emoji Engine, developed by Deutsch on Twitter, people can tweet @tacobell with a taco emoji plus any other emoji, and they'll instantly receive a unique photo, gif, or illustration in response. Here's one example of when tacos meet fashion, and another showing what happens when they meet apples.


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CORINTH, Miss. (AP) — Ayrshire Electronics, a full-service electronics manufacturing company, has announced an expansion at its factory in Corinth, Mississippi.
The company, in a news release Monday, says the project represents a $100,000 corporate investment and will create 25 new jobs.
In 2008, Ayrshire acquired the former ACT Electronics' Corinth plant after ACT announced plans to close it. Ayrshire retained all of ACT's full-time employees. Monday's announcement marks the company's third expansion in Corinth in the past six years.
Louisville, Kentucky-based Ayrshire Electronics is a manufacturer of printed circuit board assemblies and other products.
State officials say the Mississippi Development Authority provided $117,000 for infrastructure improvements to the building and parking lot owned by Alcorn County. Alcorn County provided $13,026 in matching funds.


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DRAGONS’ Den star Amy Wordsworth was told her business was “too small” to invest in on the show – but now it’s worth £2 million.
The business woman – who is founder of baby bath and shower products Good Bubble – starred on the thirteenth series of the BBC programme back in 2016.
In her pitch the budding entrepreneur explained that she created Good Bubble because she felt there was a a gap in the market for naturally-derived bath products.
She explained over the last two years she had sold £3,500 worth of her 400ml bubble bath bottle via one of the UK’s leading online retailers Ocado.
Amy also revealed her plans to use the money that the Dragons would give to her to launch her products overseas.
However, not all of them were impressed with her pitch.
Touker told Amy that he thought her business was “too small” and Peter thought that her business idea wasn’t finished yet, so didn’t want to invest.
Sarah thought that she had “hardly sold anything” on the online supermarket site Ocado.
And Nick was left scratching his head over why Amy wanted the money for an international expansion when she hadn’t “really done anything in the UK yet”, so decided to opt out.
However, Deborah saw some potential, but was worried about how the product looked and wanted to change it.
Despite not being a fan of the branding, she offered Amy her asking price, but said she wanted 40 per cent of the business.
Since becoming business partners, Good Bubble has become a hugely sucessful brand which is now available at other popular retailers such as Superdrug, Holland and Barret and Boots.
Speaking about why she decided to invest in Amy’s business, Deborah previously said: “The natural formulations and the fun element were a big part of Good Bubble’s appeal.
“For me, it’s also as much about the people as it is the products. I was quickly impressed by Amy’s level of research and knowledge of her market.
“The energetic passion with which she has built the brand coupled with how she carried herself in the Den, and came back fighting from a tricky moment cinched it for me.”
- Dragons’ Den is available to watch on BBC iPlayer


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It’s a pretty bold headline, but it’s supported by industry numbers regarding aggregate optical bandwidth shipped. It’s yet another data point that demonstrates the health of the Fibre Channel industry and counters the misguided perception that “Fibre Channel is dead”.
LightCounting is a seven year old market research company focused on the in-depth study of high speed interconnects for the datacom, telecom, and consumer communications markets. Their unique research includes coverage of the number and type of fiber optic transceivers sold throughout the world.
According to LightCounting’s recent report, “Optical Communications Market Forecast: Do Not Give up on the Optical Networking Industry” released in June 2012, Fibre Channel shipped more than 84 Petabits/second (that’s a million Gigabits/second) of optical bandwidth in 2011 – more than any other networking protocol (Ethernet bandwidth was just under 73 Petabits/second). Optical bandwidth is defined as the number of fiber optic modules or transceivers sold in a year multiplied by the speed of those transceivers.
In 2011, Fibre Channel sold over 11.7 million (M) SFP+ with 7.7M of those supporting 8 Gbps Fibre Channel (8GFC). Ethernet was the next leading protocol that shipped 17.8M transceivers with 11.8M supporting Gigabit Ethernet. Because Fibre Channel sold more transceivers at higher speeds, the optical bandwidth of Fibre Channel transceivers surpassed that of Ethernet transceivers by 16%.
While the majority of the Fibre Channel transceivers were 8GFC, 16 Gbps Fibre Channel (16GFC) transceivers saw a jump in shipments of over 3800% as 16GFC started shipping in volume. According to the report, shipments of 16GFC modules were over 156,000 in 2011 and are expected to continue their meteoric rise by climbing 268% in 2012. Because of the dominance of 8GFC and the surge of 16GFC, Fibre Channel is expected to ship more optical bandwidth than Ethernet in 2012 as well.
While most people correctly perceive Ethernet as the dominant networking technology, over 95% of its bandwidth is copper-based as opposed to fiber-based. The combination of high speed and high percentage of optical ports enabled Fibre Channel to ship more optical bandwidth than Ethernet.
The founder of LightCounting, Vladimir Kozlov explained, “While Fibre Channel is not generally known to most consumers, it continues to shine in the data center in terms of fiber optic bandwidth. For all seven years that LightCounting has collected data, Fibre Channel has shipped more optical bandwidth than any other technology. While most servers are connected via 1GbE copper, Fibre Channel connectivity to servers and storage is primarily optical. If you see a fiber optic cable coming out of a server, it’s probably Fibre Channel.”


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India is taking the well-trodden path to digital transformation with an eye on the prize: a US$1 trillion economy by 2022.
In this grand vision of a digital future, the government is eyeing 5 billion connected IoT ecosystem where “everything that can connect, will be connected.”
“[The Internet of Things] IoT will see seamless connectivity move beyond smartphones and gadgets - to connect billions of devices, vehicles, household appliances, monitors and sensors,” a report by The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham) and EY noted.
“Smart and intelligent automation will redefine life in the hyper-connected world. This new system of sensors and networks is emerging as a major innovation that will be deeply embedded in all aspects of the city, its functions and society at large,” it added.
The report, “Propelling India to a trillion dollar digital economy: Implementation roadmap to NDCP 2018,” outlines the “interventions and medium- to long-term endeavors required to implement the vision and strategy of this transformative policy.”
NDCP 2018 is India’s National Digital Communications Policy launched in 2018.
Currently, the report noted that of India’s 1.3 billion people, 460 million are online. It is currently the second top smartphone market, next to China.
To maximize this potential, India has been ramping up its strategy of making India “digital,” starting off with the recognition in 2017 that internet access as a basic fundamental right for all Indians in 2017.
“While this was a step in the right direction, nearly 65 percent of Indians are still offline, outlining the potential of connecting the underserved,” the Assocham-EY report observed.
Hence, the NDCP 2018 seeks to dramatically improve connectivity across the country by 2022. The targets: at least 50 Mbps universal broadband connectivity, 50 percent of households with fixed broadband access, 10 million public wifi hotspots, and 5 billion connected IoT ecosystem.
With this, India sees that the “emergence of new technologies – Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) – are set to catalyze connectivity beyond recognition.”
“IoT will see seamless connectivity move beyond smartphones and gadgets - to connect billions of devices, vehicles, household appliances, monitors and sensors. Smart and intelligent automation will redefine life in the hyper-connected world. This new system of sensors and networks is emerging as a major innovation that will be deeply embedded in all aspects of the city, its functions and society at large,” the report noted.
IoT is seen to have expanded uses in industries such as healthcare (remote monitoring, telemedicine, and remote surgery), agriculture (monitoring crop yields, rainfall, soil, etc. and environmental control), power and utilities (smart meter, smart grid, facilities and equipment management), logistics (fleet, navigation and fuel management), financial service (remote sales management and mobile point of sales), and automotive (infotainment and positioning services, in-car emergency systems, and emote diagnostics).
Admittedly, massive investments are required to achieve these 2022 goals.
The report noted that as per estimates, US$60 billion of capital expenditure over the next five to six years is required to deploy services.
EY believes that India should aim for a gigabit society, and an interplay of fixed and mobile technologies will be critical to meet the goals of 2022.
“The real opportunity is to look beyond technology, and find ways to give people the ability to positively impact their families, organizations and communities. At the back of this, India has the potential to unlock a trillion dollar digital economy by 2022 and lead the Fourth Industrial revolution,” concluded Prashant Singhal, Emerging Markets TMT Leader, EY.


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Chromebooks get a lot of attention from educational institutions, but Microsoft wants to make sure its Surface Pro 3 isn’t left out of the mix. This morning the company has announced a discount on both its new slate and the Type Cover keyboards for educational institutions.
The 10-percent discount falls under the Surface for Education Program, and is available to institutions in the US, UK, and Canada. Under it, schools can get the Surface Pro 3 64GB with a Type Cover for $839 USD rather than $929 USD, for example. The products have to be purchased through Microsoft’s Authorized Device Resellers.
In this case, Microsoft clarifies that an educational institution is an accredited entity that solely educates enrolled students. In order to get the discount, these organizations must order at least five devices, as well.
Microsoft has hailed its tablet as a good choice for schools, saying that it already enjoys a fair bit of popularity amongst such users. The company says that the Surface Pro 3 is Common Core compliant, which allows the device to be used for things like Smarter Balanced state assessments and administering PARCC.


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Shangri-La to open 11 mainland hotels
Luxury hotelier Shangri-La Asia will open 11 hotels on the mainland in the next three years, including two scheduled to open this year.
The company also plans to add seven hotels internationally over the same period, including in Turkey and France.
The company said sales last year rose 21 per cent to US$1.91 billion. However, net profit fell 12 per cent to US$253 million in the year to December, from US$287 million a year ago.
It said the profit fall was mainly due to red ink at its Paris hotel, which was in its first year of operations, and a poor performance from its Tokyo hotel after Japan's deadly earthquake and tsunami in March last year.
'Following the earthquake we had to close for four weeks,' chief financial officer Madhu Rao said.
The Tokyo hotel lost US$19.8 million last year, and was expected to lose money this year, but Rao said it would not be 'in the magnitude that we saw in 2011'.
The company's sales on the mainland last year rose to US$844 million from US$713.2 million, and Hong Kong sales rose to US$260 million from US$221.6 million.
'The mainland China segment continued to be the key profit contributor for the group's investment properties portfolio,' the company said.
The company also owns and operates hotels in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Executive director Greg Dogan said there was reason for cautious optimism in Japan despite the impact of the earthquake and nuclear crisis at Fukushima.
'The domestic [Japanese] market has definitely picked up and we've seen a lot of movement there,' Dogan said. 'We are seeing a lot of investors going back into Japan.'
Average room rates at group hotels in Hong Kong, including the flagship Shangri-La hotels in Admiralty and Tsim Sha Tsui, rose 16 per cent to US$327 per room last year, and the occupancy rate rose to 80 per cent, from 74 per cent in 2010.
The overall average daily rate for a room with the group was US$182, compared with US$158 in 2010.
On the mainland, the group operated 30 hotels as of last December. The two to be added this year would be in Qufu in Shandong province, and Yangzhou in Jiangsu province. Rao said that the group had been expanding into smaller cities on the mainland in recent years.
Industry researcher CIConsulting said in a report on China's hotel sector that between this year and 2016 that demand for rooms would continue to grow, powered by increasing tourism.
But it said the core had shifted from large cities to second and third-tier ones.
'We have grown into the third-tier cities,' Rao said, adding that hotels in cities like Wenzhou and Harbin were doing well.
'Rising incomes, an increase in domestic travel in mainland China and regional travel in Asia are expected to sustain gradual improvements in the operating performance of the group's hotels,' the company said.
Shangri-La is part of the Kerry Group, which publishes the South China Morning Post.


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DmC: Devil May Cry has been given a new gameplay trailer by Capcom.
The latest trailer shows off the game's combat and platform gameplay in what is thought to be a secret bonus area.
Announced at last year's Tokyo Game Show, DmC: Devil May Cry reboots the franchise, shifting the setting to a parallel Devil May Cry universe.
Developed by Ninja Theory, the team behind Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, the game features a younger, grittier version of Dante, who enters the ever-changing Limbo City on a mission of revenge.
DmC: Devil May Cry is due to be released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2012.


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Conducted by 'MyVoucherCodes', a website described as a "well-known gaming and sex authority," we have now come to learn that PC gamers are apprently much better in bed than those who prefer consoles.
Comparing the numbers, this poll saw 54% of PC enthusiasts gather a 'good' rating, followed by 22% rated as excellent. Close behind was Xbox gamers who ranked 47% in the 'good department', followed by a dismal 3% 'excellent' rating for PlayStation users. Besides an all-round rating of proficiency in the bedroom, 11% of respondents reported that they wished for less sex and more game time.
In other interesting news, the poll returned a 20% rating of dissatisfaction with bedroom performance overall, showing that while PC gamers might be better, apparently many still suck.
With the release of Star Wars: Battlefront later this week, we're being told that the $50 season pass being made available will include 16 new mutliplayer maps released throughout 2016.
Battlefront will launch with 12 maps, with the four expansion packs included in the season pass to provide 16 new maps, starting in "early" 2016. There will also be 20 "new pieces of galactic tech" which will arrive in the form of new weapons, vehicles and Star Cards. Additionally, we'll see four new heroes and villains, as well as four new game modes.
Purchasing the $50 season pass for Star Wars: Battlefront will see you receive access to each expansion two weeks earlier, as well as a "shoot first" emote. The problem is, early word on Battlefront is that it's not that great - which is not what gamers want to hear with so many other games being released all in the same month.
Activision is pushing out a new update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which is a patch aimed at providing better performance. The new patch weighs in at 520MB. It was only last week that we reported that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 made $550 million in its first 72 hours.
Treyarch and Activision haven't been advertising the 520MB patch through the usual COD general community channels, so there's no patch notes other than a brief Steam Community note saying that it has "bug fixes and performance improvements". There are some gamers who are still having issues getting Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 to run well on their systems, so here's hoping this patch fixes that.
Blizzard finally released the third instalment of StarCraft II, on the same day as the release of Fallout 4, with StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void selling 1 million units in the first 48 hours.
It might not be the same $400 million that Halo 5 did in its first week or the huge $550 million that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 did in its first 72 hours, but it's still big news for StarCraft II gamers. The official StarCraft Twitter page thanked its fans, saying "Thanks for making the launch of #LotV a success! We'll see you in the Koprulu Sector, Commanders!"
The week of gaming isn't over just yet, so while we might have StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, Fallout 4, Halo 5, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, we're only days away from the release of Star Wars Battlefront and Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. Oh my.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 might have made a huge $550 million in its first 72 hours on sale, but 91% of gamers in the UK decided to buy it for their consoles, instead of gaming PCs. But how's the PC performance side of things going?
According to DSOGaming's performance analysis of Black Ops 3 on the PC, the game scales well on older CPUs with the site simulating dual- and quad-core CPUs for their testing. The site said: "Call of Duty: Black Ops III scales amazingly well on more than four CPU cores, something that did impress us. However, the game was running with constant 60fps even on our simulated dual-core system. Truth be told, those seeking for constant a 120fps will have to rely on a really high-end CPU and an SLI configuration, but we're pretty sure that most will be happy with a constant 60fps experience".
DSOGaming notes that Black Ops 3 is described as a "GPU bound title" and in order to max out the in-game settings for 1080p with 100% resolution scaling, players will "need NVIDIA's top of the line GPU", the GeForce GTX 980 Ti. The site said in order to play the game maxed out at 1080p with their GTX 690 at a constant 60FPS, they needed to drop down most of the settings to High.
If you've been part of the huge $400 million in first-week sales of Halo 5, you're going to enjoy the news of the first big patch to arrive from 343 Industries.
The first patch is dropping next week and has been dubbed "Battle of Shadow and Light", which will introduce 16-player Big Team Battles where vehicles are a center point of the match. If you've wanted to smash your enemies and friends with a Warthog, while they come speeding towards you in one too, this patch is for you.
There will be new armor, weapons and vehicle sets with the patch for Halo 5: Guardians, so you shouldn't be bored of the Xbox One exclusive for a little while at least.
Some gamers have been playing Star Wars: Battlefront over the last few days, with Jason Evangelho from Forbes saying that after playing Battlefront, he "walked away disappointed and discontent".
After around 10 hours with the game, Evangelho said: "That sobering truth is that there simply isn't enough content or variety here to justify a $60 purchase". Now that's a huge statement for one of the biggest game releases of the year, but it seems like this is the word on the street for Star Wars Battlefront. After I saw Evangelho's comments, I dug a bit deeper and looked at the review on VideoGamer.com, which mirrored his thoughts on the game.
VideoGamer.com says "Give it a few hours, however, and the allure of this spectacle begins to fade. Soon, you're left to reckon with the fact that while Battlefront excels in making real those dreams of fighting Darth Vader on Hoth, it doesn't nail the rather more prosaic elements of first person shooters".
Following the announcement of StarCraft II's recent betting and match fixing scandal, Police information has now surfaced with a little more detail on exactly what went on behind the scenes.
Following the arrests of professional StarCraft II gamers 'BBoongBBoong' and 'YoDa', plus Team Prime head coach 'Gerrard', official information has pinpointed that this coach spent almost $50,000 on illegal betting and gambling ventures.
Announced just before her loss in a ring down under, EA SPORTS issued a press release stating that Ronda Rousey will be featured on the front cover of UFC 2, set for release in spring 2016.
Rousey stated that "EA Sports is a cultural barometer to know what's going on in sports at the moment." Mentioning that she is a gamer herself, Rousey added that "it's pretty surreal to be on the cover of the game and to have a woman on the cover of a UFC game shows a lot of progress. I'm really happy to be involved with it."
Featuring five new games modes which include KO Mode, UFC Ultimate Team and more, more information on this game and its purchase information can be found here.
Brian Krzanich will be taking some time out of his busy schedule to play a little League of Legends "ARAM" game mode at the SAP Center in San Jose, happening as part of a charity side-event being held at the Intel Extreme Masters tournament.
Said to be kicking off in front of 7,500 live spectators, Michal Blicharz, VP of Pro Gaming at ESL, has labeled this as a brave move. He said in a recent press release that Krzanich will be going on stage and is "willing to showcase his skills to a very demanding audience of over a hundred thousand people," commenting on the fact that it will also be live streamed.
The money donated to charity will be based on completing in-game objectives and tasks, set to happen from 6 p.m PT on Saturday, November 21.


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In his latest National Day Rally speech, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong contrasted Singaporeans’ highly connected lifestyle and digital literacy with their slowness in adopting digital payment. The concept of making transactions with your mobile phone has been around for many years and has been successfully implemented in countries much larger than Singapore.
Mr. Lee pointed out that the country has a natural advantage in that it is compact and highly connected. With the highest smartphone penetration rate in the world, why is Singapore still lagging behind?
Cash may be considered king, but there is a cost to handling it — from the time taken to count it, to store it securely, and then finally banking it. Going cashless makes business operations simpler and easier, allowing business owners to save precious time and money.
Without being able to make payments to merchants, users cannot go completely mobile. Having to switch between mobile and cash for different kinds of payments means users still have to carry around their wallets anyway. This incomplete ecosystem makes it really inconvenient for users to make the switch to mobile payments.
Mobile payments are already wildly successful in China
Denizens of most major Chinese cities have already been paying with digital wallets for more than three years.
In 2014 for Chinese New Year, WeChat introduced a feature for distributing virtual red envelopes, modeled after the Chinese tradition of exchanging packets of money among friends and family members during holidays. A month after its launch, WeChat Pay’s user base expanded from 30 million to 100 million users.
Right after the introduction of the red envelope on WeChat, both WeChat and Alipay invested millions to expand the usage of mobile wallets across the nation. On 8th Aug 2015, Tencent initiated the historic 8.8 Cashless Day, with the participation of more than 100,000 merchants across China. In 2016, the event grew exponentially to include more than 700,000 merchants.
To replicate China’s success requires investment from both regulators and private companies
In the private sector, two IT giants, Alibaba and Tencent, invested millions of dollars to promote their mobile wallet solutions. At the same time, China also saw a huge demand for mobile wallets from business owners. Although China is known for its huge population, labor costs were increasing rapidly. As a result, business owners in China have adopted new technologies to deal with this reality, and payments are an important piece of the puzzle. Furthermore, because of the ease and ubiquity of mobile payments, the biggest beneficiaries have been small businesses, the hawkers, vendors and street food peddlers, not just the established restaurants, hotels and banks
Finally, smartphone penetration has reached 80% in China’s major cities. Compared to credit cards, mobile wallets are more accessible to customers, and wide adoption from merchants of all sizes made it the obvious choice for a large majority of the population.
In the public sector, People’s Bank of China (PBC), the regulator of monetary policy in China, has the control over all financial institutions, including WeChat Pay and Alipay. The PBC’s establishment of a clearinghouse for mobile payment service providers made it convenient and enabled its widespread adoption.
The Chinese government has been efficient in promoting new technologies, but so too is the Singapore government. Although Singapore is a smaller market, it still has many of the conditions that make it favorable for a mobile payments revolution.
The Singapore government is finally building the regulatory infrastructure, and MAS will make it happen by year’s end
Recognizing that having too many different payment schemes and systems in Singapore is impeding progress and confusing consumers, PM Lee said that the industry should “simplify and integrate” during his 2017 national day rally.
Within a month, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) established the SGQR (Singapore QR) Taskforce, aiming to have a standardized solution to accept both domestic and international payments in place by the end of 2017. This will bring about many impactful changes in financial institutions and with merchants within the next 6 months.
Before 2017 is over, Singapore will have a common QR code, allowing consumers to pay electronically anywhere by scanning a QR code with their smartphones. After that, as long as they have the right services, it is only a matter of time before Singaporeans form a new habit of making mobile payments.
Instead of having so many e-payment players, it is far better to shoot for compatibility of these systems
Since 2015, FOMO Pay has been working to build online/offline QR code payment partnerships with merchants in Singapore, and FOLAH is striving to be the app that will condense that work into a seamless mobile payment experience for Singaporeans. FOLAH combines different payment methods into a single QR Code that the merchant can display in physical stores. To make payment, customers scan a QR code and enter the amount due to the merchant.
With more than 1,000 merchant partners in Singapore and many brands already using their mobile payment services, FOMO Pay’s FOLAH wants Singaporeans to finally be able to leave their wallets at home. Currently, FOMO Pay provides payment channels for Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, and an array of other Chinese e-wallets.
FOMO Pay has established itself as one of the most promising fintech startups of the year. It’s been selected as one of the top 100 Asian Companies by publications such as E27 and Red Herring Asia, and named one of the Top 8 startups under DBS’ FinTech Accelerator Program.
PayNow, Singapore’s only other mobile payment system so far, will face difficulties integrating merchant transactions because of the need to get participating banks to agree on terms for settlement. FOLAH will simply integrate PayNow as one of FOLAH’s payment method so that users can have the complete experience they need. With the knowledge & technical expertise to replicate China’s success with mobile payments, FOLAH promises to bring more convenience to both consumer and merchants to Singapore and the region.
As smartphone penetration continues to increase, the adoption of mobile payments is inevitable, in Singapore as well as the rest of Southeast Asia.


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Ecolab’s Shield Medicare division has added a new trigger to its SteriShield delivery system
A new trigger has been added to Shield Medicare's SteriShield delivery system
Ecolab’s Shield Medicare division has added a new trigger to its SteriShield delivery system. Shield Medicare’s 10-year-old SteriShield delivery system pioneered the use of a closed trigger spray system, whereby air cannot enter the bottle and the contents remain sterile throughout use.The latest development from the Farnham, Surrey, UK-based company incorporates a new user-friendly trigger, which includes a variable nozzle, a broad spray pattern, a rapid-return trigger and a more ergonomic, easy-to-clean shroud.
As the system is dependent on every component, the new combination of parts has undergone full in-depth validation, including vacuum and particulate testing to prove that the new trigger and bottle combination creates and maintains a closed system for a minimum of three months.


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Comparitech is warning of another scam targeting novice bitcoin users. The scam targets those looking for a tutorial on Bitcoin mixing. This is a process that helps users break the traceable link between blockchain and their Bitcoins.
At the heart of this scam is a tutorial on Darknet Markets. In itself, Comparitech says that the tutorial is valid and not the actual problem. The issue is two links that they say are phishing links. Adding to the danger for users is that they are warned to be careful of links. They are then directed at another Darknet Markets page. However, that page also points users to the same location as the phishing links.
What is particularly interesting here is that this is not a case of malvertising on the page. Nor does it appear to be a case of the tutorial being hacked. This is evident by the use of a separate reference page that also points users to the fake locations.
The phishing links will worry the two sites whose details are being used by the scammers. Both Helix and Bitcoin Blender are reputable sites. According to Comparitech, the fake sites are very well done with little to give them away. This suggests a lot of planning and it is likely that there are links to the fake sites on other pages. The amount of effort seems excessive in order to target novice bitcoin users through a single tutorial.
What is not clear from the Comparitech coverage is what action Helix and Bitcoin Blender are taking to protect their names.
What is Bitcoin Mixing?
Bitcoin Mixing, otherwise known as bitcoin tumbling or laundering is about breaking the link between blockchain and bitcoins. While many think that cryptocurrencies are anonymous that is far from the case. Their link to blockchain means that it is possible to track coins. Over the last few months there have been a number of cases of bitcoins paid for ransomware being tracked.
There are many reasons for wanting to break the link. The illegal ones are fairly obvious such as being able to dispose of ransom payments or buying illegal goods without being traced. However, there are also a number of good reasons for breaking the anonymity and some depend on where you live.
Comparitech gives four examples of good reasons why people would want to do bitcoin mixing. They are:
- To make an anonymous purchase, such as a VPN subscription, without giving up identifying payment details or allowing ecommerce companies to sell your purchase history to advertising networks
- To make an anonymous donation, such as to a charity, nonprofit, or person in need
- Hiding money in an account during economic turmoil when assets are in danger of being seized by a corrupt government, such as the current situation in Venezuela
- If you unknowingly receive bitcoins that have been tainted, mixing them can make the bitcoin usable again. For example, Coinbase has rejected bitcoins awarded from gambling sites.
Why does this matter?
The incredible rise in value of cryptocurrencies over recent years has attracted a lot of people. Some of these are speculators, some are criminals but there are also a lot of people interested in the promise of anonymous currencies. As shown in the four legitimate reasons for wanting to make bitcoin anonymous, this is a growing area of interest.
The problem here is that in order to get information on how to do much of this people are being directed to the Dark Net. This is where they are often stumbling around in the dark (no pun intended). They have no understanding of what to be aware of and often little awareness of how to protect themselves.
One solution, of course, would be to see more bitcoin tutorials published on mainstream sites. However, law enforcement agencies would see any tutorial that made it easy to add anonymity to cryptocurrencies as suspicious.
If you are a novice user looking to understand more about the working of bitcoin and making it anonymous be careful. Do not just check links once, check them several times. Ask other people with experience of the Dark Net what sites can be trusted. Look for information on scams before taking chances. With a single bitcoin now worth more than $4,500 there are plenty of people who will be quick to steal them.


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Ethereum was first conceived in 2013 by its founder, Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum whitepaper described the blockchain as an evolution of Bitcoin’s, enabling not only payments but “smart contracts” too. Ethereum is closing out 2020 in emphatic style with a pointy rally above $730 following an equally spectacular run by Bitcoin final week. These value ranges for Ethereum have not been seen since a fleeting second in May 2018, which ended with the collapse of a large speculative bubble. Our latest report covered regulatory milestones with banks greenlit for stablecoin use, adopted by upward value action. Over the previous week, extra promising news within the crypto banking and regulatory sectors has emerged, portray a constructive image for ETH bulls.
Trade in style currency pairs and CFDs with Enhanced Execution and no restrictions on stop and restrict orders. Gold has, for years, been thought of a safe haven and a hedge against inflation and fiat – qualities that Bitcoin now portrays. Mainstream adoption of Bitcoin brought on the December 2017 peak of just below $20,000. But as main regulatory our bodies sought to impose strict guidelines governing the space, the crypto party has confronted challenging occasions. The genesis of Bitcoin came through the 2008 international monetary disaster, and initially, crypto was touted as the way forward for cash, primarily as an alternative to fiat. This foreign money calculator is offered in the hope that will probably be helpful, however WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Enter the quantity to be transformed in the field to the left of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin SV goals to deliver stability and achieve scalability, one thing that the original BTC blockchain has struggled to attain. Hive is a social blockchain based mostly on Graphene that laucnhed in March 2020. Stakenet is an open-source platform that’s Lightning Network-readywith its native cryptocurrency – XSN. ZEC is a privateness focused digital asset that giver customers the power to decide on between sending public or non-public transactions. WAVES is a cryptocurrency that is designed to cater to builders. VideoCoin is a cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. The asset is rewarded to producers and shoppers of internet-based mostly video content.
What Is The Worth Of Bitcoin?
Even so, the rally was enough to continue the upward trend, reaching $5,000 in September before dropping again to $three,000 and rebounding by mid-October. There was some trading stabilization in January 2014, with the value staying about $920. When Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy safety in February, one other Bitcoin crash occurred. Between Feb. four and sixteen, it declined about seventy one p.c from $911 to $260.
More and extra public firms are now investing in bitcoin. This gradual reduction was encoded into the network by creator Satoshi Nakamoto, who designed it this way to mimic the method of extracting actual gold — easier at first, but tougher with time. They are rewarded with bitcoins, more https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD/ of that are created each ten minutes. Bitcoin continues to trade near its all-time high reached this month. Its value is now around US $34,000 — up about seventy seven% over the previous month and 305% over the past yr. The integrity and chronological order of the blockchain is enforced with cryptography.
- Over time, the currency gained wider publicity—both good and dangerous.
- More retailers opened as much as utilizing bitcoin in 2012 and 2013.
- The change misplaced around 850,000 bitcoins, although some of them have since been discovered.
- However, federal authorities shut down the Silk Road website, which used bitcoins for black market transactions, in October 2013.
- But accusations of fraud surrounded the exchange when it closed down in 2014.
- The forex relies upon a blockchain that accommodates a public ledger of all of the transactions within the bitcoin community.
By December, Bitcoin was on track to hit its all-time excessive due to a dramatic and regular increase in value. On Dec. 17, 2017, it reached $19,783.21, the all-time excessive that has but to be damaged. Unfortunately, that prime was followed by a drop of about 30 %, with a market correction that introduced it right down to under $11 ,000. The value did recover, reaching $sixteen,000 again on Dec. 27. Summer of 2017 noticed Bitcoin reaching a brand new all-time excessive. In May, it hit $2,000 for the primary time ever, and just some weeks later, it was already over $three,000. Unsurprisingly, every new milestone was adopted by a quick drop in value and other turbulence.
As Bitcoins Value Whipsaws, Whats Its Value?
Indeed, just a few weeks later, the worth of bitcoin fell quickly, crashing all the best way down below $7,000 by April 2018 and beneath $three,500 by November 2018. The first transaction happened between Nakamoto and an early adopter of bitcoin in January 2009. The first actual-world transaction occurred in 2010 when a bitcoin miner purchased two pizzas from a Papa John’s in Florida for 10,000 bitcoins. Launched in 2009, the worth of one bitcoin remained a couple of dollars for its first few years. Bitcoin is the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency in the world. Learn extra about Bitcoin the expertise and bitcoin the foreign btc to usd money by visiting ourBitcoin academic page. CoinGecko offers a fundamental analysis of the crypto market. In addition to tracking worth, volume and market capitalization, CoinGecko tracks community growth, open-supply code growth, major events and on-chain metrics. This can happen if the project fails, a important software bug is found, or there are newer more innovative digital currencies that would take over its place. If you recall Bitcoin was price nearly $20,000 in 16th December 2017.
They are in favor of smaller bitcoin blocks, which they say are much less vulnerable to hacking. On the other facet are the miners, who need to enhance the dimensions of blocks to make the network faster and more scalable. Unlike US dollars, whose buying power the Fed can dilute by printing more bucks, there merely will not be more bitcoin obtainable sooner or later. That has worried some skeptics, as it means a hack might be catastrophic in wiping out people’s bitcoin wallets, with much less hope for reimbursement. Every four years, the variety of bitcoins launched relative to the earlier cycle gets cut in half, as does the reward to miners for locating new blocks. (The reward proper now is 12.5 bitcoins.) As a end result, the number of bitcoins in circulation will approach 21 million, however never hit it.
In addition to archiving transactions, every new ledger replace creates some newly-minted Bitcoins. The bid price is the worth at which patrons are prepared to buy Bitcoin, and the ask value is the worth at which sellers are keen to sell Bitcoin. A trade only occurs, thereby changing the value of Bitcoin, when these costs overlap. The price of Bitcoin is determined by how little sellers are willing to cost and how much buyers are prepared to pay . When these prices overlap, a trade happens representing the present value at which Bitcoin is changing hands. 2017 was an excellent bitcoin to dollar 12 months for Bitcoin worth-clever, but the bullish price action went parabolic in the previous few months of the year. Between November 1 and December 17, Bitcoin’s worth skyrocketed from $6,600 to its All Time High of over $20,000 — a more than thrice enhance. Contrary to the previous year, 2018 saw a prolonged bear bias for the most important cryptocurrency. However, following the closure of a ten-month long value wedge, Bitcoin fell from as a lot as $6,seven hundred to below $3,seven-hundred inside the single month of November.
Get a 3-minute daily cryptocurrency publication with a abstract of worth motion, together with the three biggest tales in cryptocurrency. Enter an quantity on the right-hand enter subject, to see the equivalent amount in Bitcoin on the left. See the Bitcoin exchange price i.e. the current worth of 1 bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto invented ‘‘Nakamoto Consensus’ and added the feature http://bitcoin.com/ to Bitcoin’s protocol. Nakamoto Consensus represents the most important technological breakthrough that stemmed from the invention of Bitcoin. This is considered an excellent innovation as a result of it solved the ‘double-spending’ problem that was inherent to all previous types of digital forex. And it did so without requiring any trusted third events.
Voila, in minutes now you can purchase as much as five totally different cryptocurrencies from the Coinbase cellular app. Coinbase additionally sends you a confirmation email every time you complete a transaction, so check your inbox to confirm your buy or sale went by way of. The firm also has its personal standalone Coinbase Wallet app for Ethereum, which helps you to maintain coins bought and bought on the Coinbase exchange and other ERC20 tokens. Coinbase Wallet can be a DApp browser for interacting with decentralized Ethereum-based functions. Just faucet over to the Accounts tab and check out the balances in your respective wallets. On the affirmation page before you purchase, you may see the flat $1.99 or $2.99 Coinbase conversion payment for any purchase of lower than $200. For larger purchases, the company takes a variable percentage depending on the nation. Congratulations, you’re formally a cryptocurrency owner. We solely bought a fraction of an quantity for the needs of this story however you are eligible to buy as much as your financial institution will enable per week.
How many millionaires are Bitcoins?
As of now, there are 17,971 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.
Service on the network just isn’t restricted by instances, time zones, financial institution holidays – there are no interruptions, and value may be despatched and received inside minutes at any time. Bitcoin’s price plunges once more, persevering with a fast drop in December 2017, and resulting in yet more speculation of a everlasting bubble burst. It’s been speculated that this fall was due to the launch of a Bitcoin futures market. Bitcoin’s price recovers to $770 in June 2016, ending rumors of the forex being lifeless – for some https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-faces-further-losses-before-rally-restarts-say-analysts time. Bitcoin went public in 2009, and folks start “mining” new units of foreign money by operating special network nodes known as mining nodes. Bitcoin has a robust use case as an alternative choice to authorities-backed fiat foreign money when it comes to making digital payments. E-commerce merchants usually accept Bitcoin as well as currencies like the US dollar, and you should use Bitcoin to put money into gold and silver.
That crash was made up for by a rally in October and November of that year. By early October, Bitcoin was at about $one hundred, and it hit $195 by the top of the month. In November alone, Bitcoin had an unbelievable rally, going from $200 to greater than $1,a hundred and twenty. The causes of this rally were pretty obvious to most individuals, as more miners and exchanges have been supporting Bitcoin.
Customizable Buying And Selling Terminal
Bitcoin’s most original benefit comes from the fact that it was the very first cryptocurrency to seem available on the market. Just two months later, on January three, 2009, Nakamoto mined the primary block on the Bitcoin network, often known as the genesis block, thus launching the world’s first cryptocurrency. Some concepts for a similar sort of a decentralized digital foreign money precede BTC, however Bitcoin holds the distinction of being the first-ever cryptocurrency to come into precise use. The top exchanges for trading in Bitcoin are at present Binance, Huobi Global, ZG.com, BitZ, and OKEx. You can find others listed on our crypto exchanges page. The way forward for bitcoin and bitcoin’s price remains unsure.
What will bitcoin be worth in 2020?
Bitcoin Price Prediction 2020
Bitcoin price could reach as high as $20,000 before the end of the year, or as high as $16,000 if it can’t get all the way to $20,000. Interestingly, Bitcoin has been heavily correlated with the S&P 500 in 2020, so its future could very much depend on the stock market.
But in 17th December 2018, the value of Bitcoin was at its low of about $three,200. Bitcoin is a highly unstable asset class and requires a excessive threat urge for food. In order to follow the actual time of when the halving will take place, you can bookmark the CoinGecko’s bitcoin halvingpage. Alice should broadcast her transaction to the network that she intends to ship $1 to Bob in equal quantity of bitcoin. How would the system have the ability to determine that she has sufficient bitcoin to execute the transaction and likewise to make sure she doesn’t https://beaxy.com/ double spend that same amount. Since there isn’t a central determine like a bank to confirm the transactions and maintain the ledger, a duplicate of the ledger is distributed across Bitcoin nodes. A node is a piece of software that anybody can download and run to take part in the community. With that, everyone has a copy of how a lot steadiness Alice and Bob has, and there might be no dispute of fund stability. It has a circulating supply of 19 Million BTC cash and a max supply of 21 Million.
In the fall of 2017, the price of bitcoin started to rise. In October of that year, the worth broke via $5,000 and doubled once more in November to $10,000. Then, on December 17, the value https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-faces-further-losses-before-rally-restarts-say-analysts of 1 bitcoin reached $19,783. Several commentators and critics referred to as this a worth bubble, lots of whom made comparisons to the Dutch Tulipmania of the seventeenth century.
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We advocate trying out cheaper alternate options like TransferWise. Your cash is always transformed at the real change fee; making them up to 8x cheaper than your bank. PwC refers back to the US member firm or certainly one of its subsidiaries or affiliates, and will typically refer to the PwC community. Any blockchain answer, no matter how prescient, is only pretty much as good as its execution. This is where PwC excels—by providing proven experience in managing advanced implementation applications from start to end.
Also, with provide of Bitcoin ruled by rules, the laws of provide and demand don’t supply as they would for many different investments. No one can create extra Bitcoin just because the price is excessive, however, provide can’t be withdrawn to prop up the price if it’s low. Part of the problem with Bitcoin is termed reflexivity. It’s a forex, if everybody needs a forex, then it has worth. That’s part of the story as to why the U.S. dollar has typically been a better investment over time than the Zimbabwean dollar. Neither currency has something backing it, however the reputation of the U.S. dollar reinforces its value. Nakamoto’s audacious experiment in digital currency is working as meant. And what actually deserves consideration now is what this means for our digital, bodily and social futures. Other DApps embrace decentralised monetary tools for prediction markets, cryptocurrency borrowing and lending, investing and crowd-funding. Therefore, huge surges and falls in worth sometimes mirror altering demand circumstances, such as a growing number of new institutional buyers.
As an asset that’s neither tangible nor productive, bitcoin poses a bit of a puzzle. It is true that in an era of massive central financial institution balance sheet growth and exploding public debt ranges there’s a slight but serious risk that fiat currencies may expertise a sharp decline in value. Basically, the longer Bitcoin lasts, having not been hacked and remaining useful, so our confidence within the foreign money might improve. Again, like reflexivity, it shows us just why volatility is high with Bitcoin, if it’s surging that’s a cause for optimism, if it’s falling that’s a reason for pessimism.


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Attorney General Hardy Myers today announced that hundreds of Oregonians will receive restitution under a $34 million agreement between sweepstakes giant, Publishers Clearing House (PCH), and 26 states. A consent judgment to be signed by one of the nation's largest magazine subscription sellers will resolve a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Department of Justice against PCH in January 2000. The judgment must still be approved by Marion County Circuit Court.
"PCH willfully misled Oregon consumers in its sweepstakes in order to convince them that buying products and ordering subscriptions were required to enter or would enhance their chances of winning," Myers said. "In this groundbreaking agreement, PCH will be held accountable for years of filling Oregonians' mailboxes with false promises of becoming wealthy."
The agreement includes $19 million in restitution with more than $436,000 to be shared by Oregon victims. "This settlement requires PCH to fast-track the restitution distribution due to large numbers of elderly victims," Myers said.
PCH also will pay a total of $14 million to the participating states to cover litigation and settlement-related costs and $l million in civil penalties.
Oregon and the 25 other states involved in today's settlement had rejected an earlier, multi-state agreement reached last summer with PCH and 24 states and the District of Columbia. The three-year, multi-state investigation and prosecution of PCH will conclude with 20 of the 26 states ending litigation and four closing active investigations. Oregon's history with PCH includes an earlier prosecution resulting in a 1992 settlement.
Under today's agreement, PCH will make significant and permanent reforms in the way it conducts its future sweepstakes. PCH is prohibited from making any false statements, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. The agreement includes strict prohibitions against misleading or deceptive statements or omissions and stops PCH from discriminating between consumers who order product and those who do not by requiring the use of one sweepstakes entry form for all participants.
The settlement also includes increased safeguards to protect the most vulnerable PCH customers that may continue to be confused about whether buying products has any impact on their chances of winning.
For the first time in any settlement agreement, PCH acknowledges the harm caused by its past deceptive practices and apologizes for it.
The Oregon Department of Justice, over the last three years, has filed court settlements with other sweepstakes companies including American Express Publishing Company, U.S. Sales Corporation (United States Purchasing Exchange), Reader's Digest, Time, Inc. using the name of Guaranteed & Bonded, American Family Publishers and Seta Corporation.
A settlement administrator, in the next several weeks, will contact Oregon consumers eligible for restitution. Consumers wanting more information on sweepstakes and contests may call the Attorney General's consumer hotline at (503) 378-4320 (Salem area only), (503) 229-5576 (Portland area only) or toll-free at 1-877-877-9392. Details also are online at www.doj.state.or.us.
(Note: News releases from the Attorney General are currently being provided to the news media and other interested parties by fax, email and direct mail. Please either call me at the number listed above or email me at email@example.com with your preference(s) as we update our mailing lists.
Jan Margosian, (503) 947-4333 (media line only) firstname.lastname@example.org


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STORE giant Tesco has aband-oned plans to build a superm-arket on the edge of Kendal town centre.
The chain’s decision to pull out of the Canal Head regeneration project has prompted a new planning application for a Sainsbury’s store at Kendal Rugby Club’s Shap Road ground.
Tesco’s decision follows an announcement earlier this year that it would cut back on build
On Friday, developer Morbaine, which has retained options on the rugby club site, signed a new deal with Sainsbury’s for a food-only supermarket which, if approved by South Lakeland District Council, would create 400 jobs.
Approval would also mean Kendal Rugby Club would finally be able to move to a new ground at Strawberry Fields, off Oxen-holme Road, which already has planning approval for purpose-built sports facilities.
Club chairman Dr Steve Green said he was ‘optimistic’, but also cautious as there had been ‘too many false dawns’ already.
A spokesman for Morbaine said it had submitted a revised plan-ning application for the rugby ground after becoming convin-ced a rival plan for a supermarket at Canal Head would not now go ahead.
The new Sainsbury’s would be smaller than the store proposed in previous applications, and would no longer include non-food retail space. It is the third planning bid Morbaine has subm-itted for the Shap Road site.
Previous outline applications have been turned down at appeal. The first was refused because of off-site highway concerns, although the government inspector was otherwise happy with the proposal.
The second application, which was supported by council planning officers, was refused because of the inspector’s Canal Head preference, even though no application for that develop-ment had ever been submitted.
In a covering letter with its new application, Morbaine says: “We understand that the Canal Head site is no longer available for retail development and evidence to this effect will be forthcoming in due course.”
The new proposal for Shap Road allows for 502 customer park- ing spaces and access for the store service yard via Mint Bridge Road. A six-pump filling station and jet wash at the south-east corner of the site is also proposed.
A spokesman for Mealbank Properties, owner of the Goodacre industrial site and one of the companies behind Canal Road regeneration, confirmed that Tesco was not proceeding with an application. Mealbank was now pursuing its own plans for their site, he said.
A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We have now exchanged contracts with the developer and we’re committed to supporting the application through the planning process. The 50,000sq ft store, which would create up to 400 new full and part-time jobs and offer the full range of Sainsbury’s products, would increase shopping choice in the town and help to retain shoppers in Kendal.”
The Sainsbury’s plan is set to be considered at either the end of January, or mid-February.


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A new study reveals that half of Americans see battery-electric vehicles as a solution to climate change. However, it also highlights the need for the charging infrastructure to expand. The study, which was conducted by Ipsos and EVBox, shows that current and potential EV drivers see climate change as an important part of their purchase decision and the solution to cutting emissions. They also believe that the government should play an active role in environmental protection by giving incentives to buy EVs like tax credits or helping companies that are actively reducing their impact. However, consumers are split on whether the government should do one or the other.
The Biden administration’s commitment to clean energy has also made prospective EV buyers more likely to buy an electrified vehicle. Part of the clean energy push includes restoring the $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases and expanding tax incentives for clean energy. This initiative targets highly educated people under 55 regardless of gender. Up front cost is the second factor that keeps consumers from buying EVs with 49 percent of potential drivers citing it as a key factor.
According to the study, the biggest barrier appears to be charging infrastructure and price. Although nearly 3 in 4 current EV drivers would opt for another and 4 in 10 U.S. citizens would pick an EV, the lack of infrastructure remains the main barrier with 50 percent of current EV drivers citing it as an issue. Among the general population, 67 percent point out that uncertainty finding a charging station is their biggest worry and think they won’t be able to access one whenever they need it.
The majority of EV owners charge at home at 73 percent. However, when they do need to plug in elsewhere, 39 percent say they’ve dealt with problems when using public chargers. Issues range from the vehicle not being compatible with the charger to finicky apps and broken chargers. Many workplaces also don’t have enough charging stations, which the study points out could make a company more attractive, especially if it has sustainability goals and allows its employees to charge for free.
Ipsos and EVBox’s findings conclude that more charging stations would make more consumers consider EVs in the future especially near highways and at service stops and fuel stations. About 46 percent of the general population would consider an EV if there were more AC chargers while another 50 percent would do so if extra DC fast chargers were built. Among potential EV buyers, their willingness to buy an electrified vehicle increased 71 percent more likely with more AC chargers built and by 79 percent if the DC fast chargers were more accessible.
The biggest take-away from this study is that charging remains the biggest hurdle followed by price. Infrastructure is one of the key pillars to electrification. Consumers would be more willing to switch if they can conveniently plug their car in whenever they need to.


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This is Money
Banks, Telcos, FinTechs to achieve financial inclusion target through collaboration
by CALEB OJEWALE
December 1, 2017 | 2:38 pm| | | Start Conversation
Financial inclusion has been a goal that the financial services community in Nigeria has worked assiduously to achieve for about a decade, as a way of ensuring that the unbanked populace is no longer excluded from the many benefits of being captured in the system.
At the Committee of eBusiness Industry Heads (CeBIH) retreat which held in Abeokuta last week, collaboration was the key word as banks, Telcos, and FinTech operators noted that effective progress will be achievable by complementing one another in the value chain, and not as a competition or threat.
“I think we are more optimistic than ever before that the FSS 20:2020 objective will ultimately be achieved,” Dele Adeyinka, chairman of CeBIH told BusinessDay. “We are down to the 42 percent threshold right now and our plan is to drive it down to 20 percent as per the target, and we have two to three years to achieve this”.
According to Adeyinka, this will be done through a combination of strategies, and coming up with product offerings that will digitize and liberate consumers from going to physical locations. There will also be solutions and offerings that will not just depend on internet but also USSD offerings that will allow people without smart phones to perform transactions without walking into a bank. And of course, the agent banking will have to be expanded, using all of these combinations, to achieve the FSS 20:2020 goal.
Ronke Kuye, founder, Payment Card Advisory Services Limited also noted that “a lot has been done in achieving financial inclusion, and particularly now, more is being done than before.”
Kuye highlighted the importance of collaboration across sectors, saying “Telcos cannot do it alone, neither can the financial institutions. There are the Fintechs as well who will like to play in that space and they also need to collaborate as they don’t have the capacity of either banks or Telcos.”
In 2014, the Access to Financial Service Survey revealed that 36.9 million of Nigerian adults representing 39.5 percent of the adult population are excluded from financial services. In the 2016 survey, 40.1 million Nigerian adults, representing 41.6 percent of the adult population were financially excluded.
Bridging the gap started, more or less in 2007, when the Central Bank of Nigeria launched the Payment Systems Vision 2020 which identified series of recommendations to increase the resilience of the payments system infrastructure and work-streams to encourage the usage of electronic payment methods were inaugurated. The objectives of the vision are varied. The CBN and the Payment community sought to use the framework of the vision as a strong catalyst for the adoption of electronic payments, particularly in eight industry verticals identified as offering particular opportunities for adoption of electronic payments. The overall objective was to use this approach to drive adoption thus increase the pace of financial inclusion in the country.
However, exactly ten years after the launch of this initiative, even with the incursion of Fintech and other payment facilitators into the payment equation in Nigeria, a significant number of eligible Nigerians are still outside the payment and banking system.
Financial inclusion, a social phenomenon that affects more than 2 billion individuals globally, is defined as the lack of access to financial services using the bank account as a proxy. Since the evolution of mobile communications systems and the high penetration rates amongst the underserved, financial inclusion rates have grown with the evolution of mobile money systems. Hence, as opposed to the ownership of a bank account, individuals that own and operate mobile wallets are also considered as financially included.
A major deterrent for many unbanked people is the cost of using the formal financial systems. The under banked individuals nonetheless do conduct transactions, typically using cash. Their reluctance to using formal financial services offered by incumbent financial institutions such as banks include cost of account maintenance and transactions, distance to financial service points (FSPs), lack of trust in financial institutions, inability to meet the requirements of the financial institutions etc.
Nonetheless, these underserved utilize informal and more expensive financial service providers for group savings and credit. Another inclusion constraint is their lack of government-issued or recognized identity documents required for mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) or Customer Due Diligence (CDD) protocols. This is often the case with displaced persons (refugees) in temporary camps/settlements.
Finally, cash-based transactions that leave no footprint dominate the commercial world of under-banked and unbanked individuals and small businesses. The unrecorded nature of cash transactions reduces access to affordable credit from formal institutions that rely on risk-based credit scoring.
As explained by Ayekina, CeBIH’s chairman, the “take away from the retreat is that we need to reach out to the financially excluded, be with them, understand their thought process and design products and offerings that will meet their needs where they are. Allowing them to feel our presence and when this is done, with us also understanding how they do things, then it becomes easier to bring them into the net.”
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Recently, statistics compiled by email security vendor Vade Secure indicate that PayPal has replaced Microsoft as the most abused brand by phishers. In the report, Vade Secure shows that “After five quarters, PayPal has become the first brand other than Microsoft to claim the number one spot in the rankings. In Q3 2019, Vade’s AI engine detected 16,547 unique PayPal phishing URLs for an average of nearly 180 per day. This represents a 69.6 percent YoY increase. Impersonating PayPal, which had more than 286 million active user accounts in Q2, is clearly a highly profitable practice for cybercriminals, with no letup in sight.”
Criminals have also used Office 365 files and SharePoint documents, generated legitimate notifications from Microsoft’s online productivity suite, and then provided victims with links to phishing pages.
From the quarterly statistics released by Vade Secure, Microsoft has consistently ranked first, but in the last three quarters of 2019, the frequency of using paypal has risen sharply. At present, phishing and other cyber attacks are still a growing problem. According to the FBI, the total cost of all victims last year was about $1.2 billion.


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Argentina's peso has plunged more than 26.5 per cent, after the country's new government floated the currency as part of a range of free-market reforms aimed at revitalising the stagnant economy.
It was the sharpest one-day devaluation in decades. The big winners were farmers in the sprawling Pampas grains belt who will start getting paid in stronger US export dollars, while average consumers risk seeing their purchasing power fall.
The peso opened at 14.00 per US dollar and closed at 13.38. Less than 24 hours before, in announcing the new policy, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said 14.2 per dollar was a reasonable expectation for the post-devaluation peso.
The central bank issued a statement saying it did not intervene in the foreign exchange market to support the peso on Thursday, the first day of its new "dirty float" policy under which the bank may buy pesos if the currency weakens too much.
Mauricio Macri was elected president last month after promising free-market solutions to Argentina's long list of economic woes. Thursday was the first test of his policies.
His predecessor, two-term President Cristina Fernandez, believed in heavy state control of the economy.
"This is part and parcel of the much-needed reality check that Argentina is getting with its new president," said Charlie Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital.
"Large devaluations tend to be pretty disruptive and negative for gross domestic product in the short-term, but much more helpful in the long-term," Robertson added.
Indeed, Argentines could get hit by higher inflation before Macri's policies achieve their goal of revitalising the economy. The opposition, loyal to Fernandez, warned the devaluation would dilute wages. Unions were already set to demand raises in line with inflation expectations of about 30 per cent next year.
The price of many goods in Argentina are set according to the peso's value against the dollar. Supermarket prices shot up in early December in anticipation of the devaluation.


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Sony on its official blog on Monday detailed the new 'Xperia Themes' feature aiming more unique experiences for users. The company also said that it will gradually roll out the feature in a new Android 4.3 and higher update.
"New native Sony feature that will allow you to skin your Xperia smartphone in a number of creative styles" said Sony in its blog.
The new native feature 'Xperia Themes' allows users to skin their Xperia smartphones and tablets with "up to 280 assets", including the various lock screen, navigation bar, icon, folder, slider, and even checkbox options. The company says that a number of customizable elements will be even higher in the future.
The new feature integration for themes according to the company is simpler than the additional third party launchers. Sony says Xperia Themes have been seamlessly integrated in the device for a better experience.The new feature uses themes that are already available via Google Play. Compatible themes can be seen by pressing the plus sign in the top right corner of the Xperia Themes menu. There are currently over 20 different Xperia Themes for users to choose from, and Sony also promises to add more themes through its Sony Select app and the Google Play store.


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Sales triple at net firm Baltimore
Third-quarter revenues more than tripled at Baltimore Technologies and the Irish internet security company said new products and integration of recent acquisitions would drive growth.
Sales totalled £20.1m in the three months to end-September, up 215% from the year-earlier quarter and 24% higher than in the preceding quarter. Pretax losses widened to £18.4m from £8.5m a year earlier, but the loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation narrowed to £7m from £8.7m.
'Integration of our recent acquisitions is under way and we look forward to launching exciting new products that will continue to drive revenue growth into the future,' said chief executive Fran Rooney.
Shares in the company, also listed in New York, were ahead 2p at 517p by midday.
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