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ANI Technologies, the parent company of ride-hailing platform Ola Cabs, has reached an agreement to acquire a 100% stake in FinTech startup Avail Finance.
Lendable, a leading AI-powered consumer finance platform, has raised £210m in a funding round that saw its valuation reach £3.5bn.
Moove, an African mobility FinTech platform, has raised $10m in fresh financing from NBK Capital Partners
Navi Technologies, an Indian FinTech startup offering insurance and loan products, has filed for a $440m IPO.
Acorn, an embedded lending marketplace for home improvement financing, has teamed up with Joist, an EverPro solution, to embed financing offers into the Joist mobile platform.
Stilt, a financial services platform for immigrants, has bagged $14m for its Series A round, alongside the general launch of its new product.
Dutch buy bow, pay later platform in3 has scored $11.1m in fresh funding from Finch Capital.
Milo, a FinTech aimed at transforming how consumers access financial solutions, has scored $17m in its Series A funding round.
India-based FinTech platform Money View has closed its Series D funding round on $75m, which values the business at $625m.
AutoFi, a commerce platform for digital automotive sales and financing, has raised $85m in funding, bringing its valuation to nearly $700m.


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TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – The Florida Lottery (Lottery) announces that Valerie Homer-Faggart, 68, of Spring Hill, claimed the first $5 million top prize from the new GOLD RUSH LIMITED Scratch-Off game at the Lottery’s Tampa District Office. She chose to receive her winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $3,960,000.00.
Homer-Faggart purchased her winning ticket from A to Z Discount Beverage, located at 4060 Deltona Boulevard in Spring Hill. The retailer will receive a $10,000 bonus commission for selling the winning Scratch-Off ticket.
The Lottery’s newest $20 Scratch-Off game, GOLD RUSH LIMITED, features 32 top prizes of $5 million and 100 prizes of $1 million! Additionally, this ticket is filled with over 33,000 prizes of $1,000 to $100,000!
Scratch-Off games are an important part of the Lottery’s portfolio of games, comprising approximately 75 percent of ticket sales and generating more than $1.3 billion for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) in fiscal year 2020-21.
ABOUT THE FLORIDA LOTTERY
The Florida Lottery is responsible for contributing more than $40 billion to enhance education and sending more than 880,000 students to college through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. The Florida Lottery reinvests 99 percent of its revenue back into Florida’s economy through prize payouts, commissions to more than 13,000 Lottery retailers and transfers to education. Since 1988, Florida Lottery games have paid more than $77.6 billion in prizes and made more than 3,000 people millionaires. For more information, please visit www.flalottery.com.

domain: news


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The increasingly high cost of platinum has not significantly affected jewelry demand, according to Johnson Matthey‘s mid-year report. Meanwhile, the palladium jewelry market in the U.S. is “slowly growing,” while jewelry demand in China (palladium’s largest jewelry market) has declined.
Platinum. Global demand for new metal from platinum jewelry manufacturers is expected to fall in 2007 by 1.5 percent to 1.595 million ounces, according to the “Platinum 2007 Interim Review,” released Tuesday by the specialist materials company. This figure does not include finished platinum jewelry imported into the U.S. from overseas manufacturers or the recycling of old jewelry stock in China and Japan.
“Consumer interest in platinum jewelry is still strong the effects of high price is uncertain,” Ellen Zadoff, Johnson Matthey Precious Metals Division North American market research manager, said during a review of the Platinum Group Metals forecast Tuesday in New York City.
In North America, net platinum fabrication demand for jewelry in 2007 is expected to drop by 5,000 ounces to 235,000 ounces, reflecting the high cost of the precious metal—which is currently trading at about $1,400 per ounce, as demand continues to exceed supply, with expectations for further price increases.
The report says this high cost is creating stress on the retail level, particularly with men’s wedding bands. In response, U.S. companies are importing more finished jewelry from lower-cost manufacturing centers, particularly in Asia.
In Japan, jewelry demand for platinum is expected to fall by 55,000 ounces to 305,000 ounces.
In China, demand for platinum for jewelry fabrication is expected to increase by 20,000 ounces to 780,000 ounces based on the strength of country’s economy and a growing consumer appetite for the precious metal.
“China still has a healthy appetite for jewelry, which reflects a healthy economy,” Zadoff said.
Europe is another strong market with platinum jewelry demand expected to grow by 15,000 ounces to 205,000 ounces in 2007, according to the report. The precious metal has retained its popularity in the bridal market.
Palladium. Meanwhile, global demand for new palladium for jewelry manufacturing is expected to fall by 250,000 to 745,000 ounces in 2007.
In China, demand is expected to fall by 260,000 ounces to 500,000 ounces as demand for the metal has been offset by the use of recycled jewelry and the purchase of palladium refined from industrial scrap.
In addition, purity is important in China and much of 950 palladium (95% palladium) jewelry being returned is being reused to create 990 palladium (99% palladium).
Palladium jewelry is also a product that is favored in the smaller cities and rural areas. It has yet to be marketed in China’s largest cities.
“Palladium still hasn’t penetrated the markets of Shanghai and Beijing,” said Timothy Murray, general manager, U.S. Operations, Precious Metals Marketing.
“Growth in consumption for jewelry in China is possible,” Zadoff added. “If recycling drops and marketing increases.”
In North America, palladium demand for jewelry is expected to rise by 10,000 ounces to 50,000 ounces in 2007, according to the report. Men’s wedding rings, right now are the most popular palladium item in the U.S., but manufacturers are starting to churn out variety of designs that include precious gems.
Murray defined the trend toward palladium as “slowly growing.”
In Europe, demand for palladium is expected to rise by 5,000 ounces to 50,000 ounces. Johnson Matthey estimates that about two-thirds of this metal is used as a component in white gold alloys, a market that is growing because of the popularity of white metals in general and European anti-nickel legislation. However, palladium jewelry was introduced to the European market this year, and Johnson Matthey says that if manufacturers follow through, demand for the precious metal should increase.
Supply, demand, price. Global demand for platinum (which is also used for autocatalysts and industrial uses) is forecasted to rise by 195,000 ounces to a record 6.925 million ounces in 2007.
Meanwhile, supply is expected to be lower than in 2006 by 135,000 due to production problems from the main producing regions–South Africa, Russia, and North America. This will result in an expected deficit of 265,000 ounces. Zadoff, citing “strong fundamentals and rising gold prices,” said the price of platinum could be as high as $1,575 during the next six months—particularly if the U.S. dollar continues to slide.
For palladium (which is also used for autocatalysts, dental equipment, and electronics), the story is different. Demand is expected to rise by 135,000 to 6.605 million ounces; while supply should reach 8.32 million ounces in 2007—leaving a surplus of 1.715 million ounces. Johnson Matthey said fund buying could boost the price of palladium to $420 an ounces over the next six months.Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazine
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Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine


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Cloud computing is poised to win the title of most popular, and populist, buzzword of 2009.
Stories by Cara Garretson
In 2008, investments in start-ups that target consumers are expected to remain significantly hotter than those in companies building enterprise wares, as has been the case for the last few years. However, there are a few areas in corporate IT that should see some significant interest, according to Paul Maeder, founding partner with venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners.
Sandisk has announced a pair of USB flash drives designed to offer both security and access speed to business users.
Globalscape on Tuesday announced a module for its file transfer server that lets customers grant business partners temporary access to the server without having to set up FTP accounts.
Few corporations are likely to ban iPods in the workplace, but whether Apple and other manufacturers of MP3 players shoulder some responsibility to add security to their devices -- and how effective that security would be -- is a growing debate.
SonicWall announced Tuesday a new version of the e-mail security gateway software and appliance it acquired upon purchasing MailFrontier earlier this year.
It's time organisations consider switching from best-of-breed to best-of-need products when it comes to security, as vendors realise their offerings are becoming commoditised and start pricing them accordingly.


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All texts by Sam Bishop
Typhoon Studios' alien world can be a scary place, but if you take our advice you should survive (mostly) unscathed.
Magnus talks about the various features of this device, which is competing with some big names in the market.
You only have a few months remaining to issue repairs for your console, following its release in 2006.
Our hardware video series looks at a number of items at once, all of which apply to iPhone users.
There has been a surge of players given the recent outbreak, and we're reminded this is a game and not a scientific resource.
"We had a lot of fun wandering around and exploring this charismatic world's vibrant locations and discovering what they had to offer."
We have a very mysterious video and a website to look at, neither of which give us many clues on what's coming.
A new report claims it's being reimagined in some way, with EA looking to revive an old project.
There are many devs that aren't sure about whether they'll release on this generation or the next, and far less exclusively targeting future hardware.
The former Nintendo of America president revealed during a recent interview that he thrwarted attempts to 'modernise' the logo.


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The Suffolk-based brewer runs approximately 2,700 pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK, and employs around 38,000 people.
Yesterday (19 August) it was announced that a subsidiary of CK Asset Holdings (CKA) will buy the entirety of Greene King’s shares at 850p per share, valuing the UK business at approximately £4.6bn.
CKA’s global portfolio includes London’s Chelsea Waterfront development and 5 Broadgate, the UK headquarters of Swiss bank UBS. The business is chaired by Victor Li and overseen by his father Li Ka-shing, who was ranked 28th in this year’s Forbes Rich List.
CKA believes it can improve the “sustainability, profitability and competitiveness of Greene King” and is banking on pubs remaining “an important part of British culture and the eating and drinking out market in the long run”.
The deal follows a surge in popularity of Greene King’s India pale ale in China after President Xi Jinping was pictured drinking a pint of the beer with David Cameron on his state visit to the UK in 2015.
It is the second time this year a British brewer has been sold to an Asian buyer following the acquisition of Fuller’s by Japanese drinks giant Asahi in July.
Philip Yea, chairman of Greene King, says the board will “unanimously recommend” the deal to shareholders.
"The Greene King board is confident in the long term prospects of the business but believes this offer represents a good opportunity for shareholders to realise value for their investment at an attractive premium, while also ensuring the future success of Greene King for employees, partners, customers and suppliers,” says Yea.
Greene King's brands include the Loch Fyne seafood restaurant chain and Hungry Horse pubs.


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Samsung has announced plans to open a chain of branded storefronts in the US.
The Samsung Experience Shops will be located within Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile venues across the country, giving the firm a larger presence at one of the territory's top tech retailers.
The first mini stores will open for business on Monday (April 4), with a total of 500 expected to be operating at big-box Best Buy stores and all 410 Best Buy Mobile sites by early May.
"Retail is not something you jump into lightly, especially given consumers have been expecting this as a next step for Samsung," Samsung vice president of retail marketing Ketrina Dunagan told CNET.
"Although the carriers and retailers today provide a solid retail experience for our consumers, what we find is a lot of [buyers'] deeper questions just aren't answered."
Samsung is creating a presence in the retail market to coincide with the launch of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone, which arrives on April 26.
Specially-trained Samsung staff will be on hand to liaise with customers at the stores, giving them hands-on demonstrations of the manufacturer's smartphones, tablets, smart television and other products.
Operating standalone retail stores has proven advantageous for Apple in the hardware market, but few other tech manufacturers have chosen to adopt the strategy.
The Samsung Experience Shops will be open at all large-format Best Buy stores in the US by early June.


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Gizmodo may sue police over iPhone 4G raids
The supposed leak of the next generation iPhone is beginning to develop into quite a mess.
After Gizmodo published their exclusive reveal of the new handset that was claimed to have been discovered in a San Jose bar, their editor's home was raided by police and a number of computers were seized.
Gawker media, Gizmodo's parent company, are considering a lawsuit citing a Californian law that protects newsroom services.
If this becomes a criminal investigation Gawker's suit may prove to be invalid as the law only protects against civil suits.


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Based on a recent referendum, Paris, once a pioneer in the adoption of electric scooter services, is set to become the only European capital to ban the ubiquitous devices booked on apps like Lime.
Official results showed that the city's residents were asked to vote for or against the ban on electric scooters in a public consultation organized by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, with nearly 90% of votes cast for the ban.
"We are happy. This is what we have been fighting for more than four years," said Arno Kielbasa, co-founder of the charity Apacauvi, which represents victims of electric scooter accidents.
"All Parisians say they are worried on the sidewalks and nervous when crossing the roads. You have to look everywhere," told Kilbasa, whose wife and young daughter were hit by an electric scooter. "That's why they voted against it."
Operators say they have been unfairly blamed for the often chaotic nature of Paris' streets, with Mayor Hidalgo championing bikes and other zero-emission modes of transportation since she took office in 2014.
Her administration welcomed electric scooter operators with open arms in 2018, but has gradually tightened regulations since then, creating designated parking zones, limiting maximum speed, and restricting the number of operators.
But such measures do not impress residents, who often complain of reckless driving and drunkenness, as well as chaos on the sidewalks.
A series of fatal accidents has also highlighted the dangers of vehicles that can currently be rented by children under the age of 12.
"I am committed to respecting the choice of the voters, pure and simple," Hidalgo told reporters as she voted.
The 63-year-old is now expected not to renew the operating contracts of the city's three operators starting Aug. 31. She said their business model is "expensive - five euros for 10 minutes - it's not very sustainable and, above all, it causes too many accidents."
The consultations will not affect private electric scooters, of which 700,000 were sold nationwide last year, according to Ministry of Transport figures. About 100,000 trips are made every day in France on e-scooters rented in about 200 cities.
'Against the Current'?
The ban is a blow to the finances and reputation of multinational companies and could encourage other cities to follow suit. Montreal decided to ban electric scooters for rental or private use in 2020, while Copenhagen banned rental versions in 2020 before reinstating them a year later with stricter conditions.
Electric scooter companies have backed stricter regulations in France, unveiled by the government last week, that would raise the minimum age to 14 and increase fines for infractions such as riding with a passenger.
Hedi Karam, chief executive of French company Lime, said that Paris was "going against the current" in seeking to ban electric scooter rentals, citing recent decisions to expand them to Washington, New York, Madrid or London. "There is a trend toward these vehicles, and that trend started in Paris, which was a pioneer," he said.
Operators offered free rides to the customers and hired online influencers to try to drum up support from most young users - largely to no avail given the high proportion of older voters on the waiting lists.


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Egypt’s government spending on investments in various fields in the fiscal year 2020/21 is “unprecedented” with an increase of 35%, according to a statement by the ministry of finance.
A total of 280.8 billion Egyptian Pounds ($17.6bn) has been allocated to improve general services and raise standards of living, especially in the poorer areas, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait was quoted as saying in the statement published on the ministry’s website.
Some 225 billion pounds ($13.3bn) is financed by the treasury while the remaining amount of 55.8 billion ($3.3bn) is sourced from various funds, the statement said with no other details.
The increase will “strengthen the economy, raise development figures and offer new jobs especially as the global economy witnesses a slowdown due to the spread of Covid-19,” the statement said.
Last week, Minister Maait said that early indications of the fiscal year 2019/20 show a GDP surplus of 1.8%, less than the targeted 2% due to the effects of the virus.
In April, the World Bank said that Egypt’s growth in Fiscal Year 2018-2019 increased to 5.6% (up from 5.3% the previous year), a rate that was sustained through the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019-2020, according to the bank’s latest Macro Poverty Outlook.
The growth was driven by a “macroeconomic stabilisation program that was largely successful, generating a solid primary budget surplus, reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio, and replenishing reserves. Additionally, the wholesale, retail trade, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors contributed to the increase in growth,” the report said.
The report pointed out however that vulnerabilities persist such as underperformance in exports and foreign direct investment, which may be aggravated by the disruptive repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The recovery should focus on addressing business environment constraints while “enhancing revenue-mobilisation to create the fiscal space needed to invest more in people,” the report added.


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Russia’s trade surplus shrank to USD 12.508 billion in June of 2019 from USD 15.201 billion in the corresponding month of the previous year. Exports plunged 10.5 percent from a year earlier to USD 32.476 billion, the third straight monthly decline. Shipments to non-CIS countries dropped 12.2 percent while those to CIS countries edged up 0.7 percent. Imports fell at a softer 5.3 percent to USD 19.968 billion, dragged by lower purchases from non-CIS countries (-6 percent). On the other hand, imports from CIS countries increased 0.7 percent. Considering the second quarter of 2019, the trade surplus narrowed by 16.2 percent to USD 38.036 billion from USD 45.367 billion in the same period a year earlier. Balance of Trade in Russia averaged 9446.60 USD Million from 1997 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 20356 USD Million in January of 2012 and a record low of -203 USD Million in February of 1998.
Balance of Trade in Russia is expected to be 14800.00 USD Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Balance of Trade in Russia to stand at 14400.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Russia Balance of Trade is projected to trend around 18600.00 USD Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.


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Ever since Microsoft announced that “Mango” would actually be Windows Phone 7.5 and a much larger feature update than previously anticipated, we’ve all wondered what Windows Phone owners would have in store when the update is finally released. Steve Ballmer let a few details fly in a speech at the Japanese 2011 Microsoft Developer Forum, saying that the update will include 500 new features. He also advised developers to stick around: tomorrow at the show the company plans to unveil new WP7 devices.
We’ve seen a few previews of what’s to come in Windows Phone 7 over the past couple of months. At the MIX 11 conference, developers showed off enhanced multitasking and hardware access for developers. At the same show, they also previewed developer tools, like private apps and betas. Earlier this month, we learned that Windows Phone 7.5 will also get Bing integration and Windows Live Messenger Support, as well as Facebook and AIM chat, visual voicemail, and support for SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service.
The features list is racking up nicely, but that hardly adds up to 500. It’s likely that a large number of those new features will be tweaks and changes to existing functions branded as new, and minor changes that may be transparent to many users. Ballmer didn’t list any of the new features during his speech, so we’ll have to wait until Microsoft releases more information. He did, however, point out that new Windows Phone 7.5 devices would be available in Japan later this year, which gives us a loose timeframe for when we can expect to see Mango in the wild.
Ballmer also noted that this week would also see the launch of several new Windows Phone 7 devices, and many of them would be on display at the Developer Forum. Mango development tools will also be made available to members of the Windows Phone Developer Program by the end of the week.


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iOS fans who are insanely jealous of Android users because of Google Now may have something to look forward to. A video of what appears to be a commercial for Google Now iOS was posted to YouTube, then immediately pulled. It could be a fake, but Google is not known for keeping their best features to one platform. It makes sense that Google would release Google Now for iOS at some point, assuming Apple allowed it in the app store.
Last year Google introduced voice search on iOS that made Siri look pathetic and slow. Voice search works just as well on the iPhone as it does on Android, but iPhone users never got the full Now experience. It looks like that might change in the near future.


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Google has finally begun to roll out Google+ profiles for brands, but they may not have been worth the wait. I wasn’t able to create a makeshift Google+ Page because “we haven’t finished releasing them to everyone,” but here’s what I’ve been able to gather.
Yes, they’re being called Google+ Pages. Yes, it’s just like how brands’ Facebook profiles are termed Facebook Pages. No, I have no idea why Google didn’t opt for a name not ripped from their biggest social competitor.
It looks like brands will be able to specify whether they belong to one of five categories: local business or place; product or brand; company, institution or organization; arts, entertainment or sports; or other.
Brands will have access to the same, or at least similar, features available to non-business Google+ users — namely Hangouts, Circles and the +1 button — but it’s hard to figure how these features have been business-optimized.
Whether or not Google is saying Hangouts is the most business-friendly feature, the company lists it first in a blog post announcing the rollout as well as on the “Create a Page” page. I couldn’t decipher whether brands will have a limit on how many consumers they can have a Hangout with, but I imagine brands hope there is a Google-imposed limit if only to ensure Hangouts are manageable and to take heat off brands for turning away consumers.
Brands can also segment consumers in Circles, much as I segment friends from family from coworkers. Problem is, how does Google expect a company to segment its thousands or millions of fans (I’m assuming Google will also grab that nomenclature from Facebook)? From what I can tell, Google doesn’t have a mechanism in place for consumers to self-segment. Such a mechanism would seal one area in which Google+ could beat Facebook when it comes to social marketing, if only it existed.
While the +1 button is a close kin of the “like” button, Google is taking an interesting tack in displaying +1s. Unlike how Facebook tallies “likes” according to what is being liked (story, ad, video, etc.), Google will be aggregating all +1s, so that no matter how many times a brand’s ad or a piece of content on its site are individually +1-ed, the +1 counter for each will only display the number of +1s the brand has received in total. The cynic in me says this is Google’s way of masking a meager number of +1s a brand may initially receive as Google+ establishes itself as a social network on par with Facebook. The other part of me says that’s an interesting theory.
But why would a brand want a Google+ Page if they already have a Facebook Page? Umm … that’s for part two?


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— Mitsubishi USA (@mitsucars) March 24, 2016
The day has come: the new Mirage has finally been revealed. The 2017 Mirage G4 will serve as a sedan sibling to the popular Mirage hatchback.
This Mirage sedan will bring a fresh dose of style and environmental consciousness to the Mitsubishi lineup. The G4 will have the same powertrain of the 2017 hatchback, a revised 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine. It will be at the top of its class in combined fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions. The G4’s long wheelbase makes for a spacious interior cabin and trunk.
Tech elements make the new Mirage G4 a standout, too. It will be equipped with available smartphone integrations and support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so you’ll get features usually reserved for higher-priced vehicles in your affordable Mitsubishi.
With the new Mirage, you’ll get everything the hatchback offered with the benefits of a four-door sedan. “The Mirage hatchback and now the Mirage G4 sedan will form a formidable one-two punch in the subcompact segment,” said Don Swearingen, executive vice president of MMNA.
Keep an eye out for the 2017 Mirage G4’s release to check it out for yourself.


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Out-Law News | 29 Feb 2012 | 3:43 pm | 4 min. read
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has written to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the identification of websites, asking it to withdraw the availability of .bank and .fin generic 'top level' domains (gTLDs) which it is currently inviting applications for.
Last summer directors at ICANN voted to increase the number of gTLDs from the current number of 22. Top-level domains are the suffixes to addresses and include familiar address endings such as .com, .org and .net. The first round of applications for the new gTLDs opened in January and will close in April. An ICANN spokesperson told Out-Law.com last year that it will cost $185,000 (£114,000) to apply for new web address endings and that companies must demonstrate that they have a legitimate claim to the name they are applying for.
Andrea Enria, chair of the EBA, said the regulator is concerned that consumers could be exposed to financial scams as a result of the two suffixes being made available.
"[The EBA Board of Supervisors] has come to the conclusion that there are many supervisory concerns surrounding the operation of the proposed TLDs by the ICANN, relating mostly to the great potential, according to the EBA view, for misuse by unscrupulous individuals, and that, therefore, any plans for their operation should ideally be discontinued," Enria said in a letter (2-page / 117KB PDF) to ICANN earlier this month.
Enria said that consumers could think that websites registered with .bank or .fin domains have been endorsed by financial regulators when they may not be.
"The potential for consumers of financial services to over-rely on what might be perceived as 'regulatory endorsement' of the companies operating under such TLDs is immense, and the risk for new types of fraud and 'phishing' can be enormous," Enria said.
"The same can be said of the danger for confusion regarding the operation of legitimate websites by 'true' financial institutions and regulated entities. This could lead to the need for them to establish costly and complex legal or commercial initiatives in order to safeguard their trademarks from frauds and abuses," she said.
In a separate published opinion (3-page / 167KB PDF) the EBA also outlined concerns about the difficulty in establishing whether websites rooted at .bank fall within the existing regulatory framework because of the fact the domain is "not lined to a specific country, to a specific supervisor or to a specific regulatory framework".
"Customers might have problems in assessing whether they are transacting with a bank with physical presence in their own or in other countries (EU or elsewhere) or whether they are dealing with an intermediary and where that intermediary is located," the opinion said.
The EBA said that if there was a "process for registration and control" that meant that only "authorised financial institutions" could register domain names anchored at '.bank' and '.fin' then such a regime "could be allowed".
However, because there have not been identified benefits of enabling .bank and .fin domains to exist, the potential effect on consumers, the potential use of the domains by companies across the world and unresolved "technical details" the concerns of the EBA cannot be addressed, it said.
In her letter Enria said that if ICANN does decide to allow applications for web addresses rooted at .bank and .fin then it should, "as a minimum required action," issue a "public consumer alert, warning them of the risks of these new TLD conventions and the need to be pro-active in checking that the websites used are indeed the sites of regulated entites". The EBA opinion made clear that the regulatory authority itself will be issuing such warnings to consumers.
The first round of applications for new gTLDs is open until 12 April. Applicants have to complete a form containing 50 questions before their request is scrutinised in an evaluation process. ICANN has said previously that potentially "thousands" of new gTLDs could be introduced by the start of next year.
ICANN has said it wants to "unleash the global human imagination" by extending the number of top level domains.
In a blog posted in December ICANN senior vice present Kurt Pritz said that the new registry system for gTLDs would "have even greater safeguards than the TLD registries that exist today and will include enhanced protections for trademark holders". He said "the new environment will sharply reduce the need for defensive registrations".
A spokesman for ICANN told Out-Law.com that he was aware of two applicants that are competing to act as domain name registrar for the .bank domain.
BITS, which is the technology policy arm of The Financial Services Roundtable (TFSRT), has applied for the .bank domain. TFSRT is made up of 100 of the largest financial services companies in the US.
Last year Craig Schwartz of BITS told The Register news website that only financial services companies would be allowed to register domain names rooted at .bank if BITS were approved as the .bank domain registrar.
"Ensuring sub-domains are given only to qualified candidates, that leads to a more secure space from the get-go," Schwartz said, according to The Register's report.
BITS face competition from a company called Domain Security which, according to its website, "will create .SECURE and .BANK to fight phishing and other fraudulent activities". The company also claims that it owns the .bank trade mark in the US.
"Currently most banks spend a huge amount of time, money and effort contesting trade mark disputes over domain names registered at traditional domains such as .com, .net and .org," Gillian Anderson, expert in trade mark law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said.
"This problem will continue, and significantly grow with the creation of the new .bank gTLD, unless domain name registrars are required to impose closer controls over who can register web addresses under the new generic top level domain regime," Anderson said.


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Download full report with analyst certification and important disclosures
Nov 27 2017, 12:00 GMT
Today’s CSO data show that average weekly earnings were up 1.7% in the year to Q3. Despite the rapid fall in unemployment, wage pressures remain modest in the Irish economy – indicative of the slack still remaining in the labour market. Nonetheless, there are pockets of stronger growth – public sector wages are now growing at 2.7% and parts of the private sector are growing at 4-6%.


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Retro Studios, the workforce behind Metroid Prime and the 2 Donkey Kong Nation Returns video games, has made a giant rent as it really works on Metroid Prime 4. VGC has introduced that the studio has introduced on Bharathwaj Nandakumar, a long-time Activision veteran who has labored on the Name of Obligation: Black Ops sequence.
In line with VGC, Nandakumar was most lately credited as lead engineer on Black Ops 4. Throughout the previous decade, he has labored on the entire sequence. He was reportedly introduced into the Nintendo-owned studio again in April, but it surely’s solely being reported on now.
Retro Studios is engaged on Metroid Prime 4, however this was not at all times the case. In truth, the sport was being labored on by one other workforce till early 2019, when improvement was restarted with the unique trilogy developer on the helm.
Since then, it has been reported that about half the Metroid Prime three workforce remains to be on the studio, and that the director of Donkey Kong Nation: Tropical Freeze was additionally working there once more after a stint at Tremendous Fortunate’s Story developer Playful Corp.
It isn’t really clear whether or not Nandakumar is engaged on Metroid Prime 4, as we’re undecided if Retro Studios is engaged on one other sport. The brand new Metroid Prime was introduced at E3 2017, however no gameplay footage has been proven from any iteration of the sport as of but.
Hopefully we’ll see one thing of the sport soon–the final Metroid Prime sport was the underwhelming Metroid Prime: Federation Pressure for the 3DS in 2016.


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For the low, low price of $17,600 (as of this afternoon), you can share some rarefied air with Stephen Hawking.
An eBay auction
is selling a "seat" on the legendary physicist's flight on Zero-Gravity Corporation's
727 aircraft, G-Force One, which flies parabolic arcs to create the feeling of weightlessness at the top of the arc. Hawking is scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center on 26 April.
Proceeds of the auction will go to the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation
, which works with seriously ill children. The bidding ends on 26 March.
You can get a taste of what the 90-minute trip might be like in this news clip
by Central Florida News 13. This flight is run by the same company that will offer the Hawking flight.
This may not be the place to explain to Hawking that great new theory you've been working on. People have been known to get sick on rides like this. NASA's version was nicknamed the Vomit Comet
. Not to worry, the auction winner will also get to attend a dinner and lecture with Hawking.
There are expected to be about 35 people on the Hawking flight, which could only last one to five parabolas, but the auction winner will get another training flight beforehand (sans Hawking) where they will get to do about 10 parabolas.Kelly Young, Online reporter (Image: StephenHawking.com)
Labels: eBay, Hawking, parabolic flight, zero-g


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With these staggering statistics, we wondered, “Have they actually done it?” It turns out that, yes indeed, they have.
Once an idea found only in futuristic movies, the self-driving car is a reality. In fact, Google has already clocked more than one million miles testing their prototypes. Safety drivers aboard the self-driving vehicles are testing on the streets of Mountain View, California and will start testing in Austin, Texas this month. In addition to Google, Mercedes, BMW and Tesla are also working on self-driving vehicles.
With manufacturers working day and night to bring self-driving cars to the general public, we found ourselves asking the question, “How will car design change with self driving cars?”
As we pondered this question, our minds wandered and became filled with futuristic, ultra-modern looking vehicles. But, could car design take such a drastic change?
Look Backward to Look Forward
Let’s look back at the first cars. They were basically just horseless carriages. They didn’t take on a completely unique look. They closely resembled the horse-drawn carriage. One morphed into the other without taking on a vastly different look.
If we look at history and remember that the horse-drawn carriage turned into the horseless carriage or car without much change in appearance, we can gather that perhaps in the beginning the self-driving car will closely resemble the cars of today, but deeper into the future they will drastically change their look.
After all, the car of today looks nothing like the horseless carriage of days past. So, as the horseless carriage look disappeared, we might gather that so too will the vehicle we know today.
Explosion of New Form
David Levinson, a civil engineering professor at the University of Minnesota, thinks we’ll see a Cambrian explosion (as relatively short evolutionary event) of new vehicle forms that are designed for specific tasks.
He says today’s drivers want bigger, safer cars as well as taller cars so the driver can see further. Self-driving cars, he says will be smaller because since there is no driver, there’s no need for the humans inside to purchase a taller car just to see further ahead. He thinks that cars will be more specialized, and narrower cars are more feasible.
Consider one of Google’s prototypes – it’s a lighter looking, much smaller car than what’s on the road today. Referred to as a “neighborhood” car, it is designed for slow speeds and driving short distances.
The reason for smaller self-driving cars? They cause less damage when they hit something!
Is Cute Appealing?
Looking like an oversized marshmallow, there are certainly some people who will find Google’s self-driving car cute. But, will everyone appreciate its design?
Google designed the cars to look adorable in the hopes that people would find them less frightening and friendlier. They also used a bit of psychology. As humans, we intuitively treat “cute” objects with care and caution. They hope regular drivers will treat their prototype the same way.
Mercedes Dives In
Earlier we mentioned that the look of most self-driving cars will evolve over time. Well, Mercedes decided to skip a few steps.
According to a Mercedes board member, “The car is growing beyond its role as a mere means of transport and will ultimately become a mobile living space.”
They took their design cues from the future. The inside is quite appealing as it looks more like a board room or waiting area than a car. It’s equipped with many of the comforts of home and would certainly make long trips delightful.
As for the outside, which some have likened to a bull terrier - you’ll have to decide if it’s appealing or unappealing for yourself.
Will self-driving cars have unappealing design? As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We bet as the designs of these cars evolve over the next ten years, you’ll find one that suits your lifestyle perfectly.
Lastly, where is Apple in this race? Code-named Project Titan, insiders say indeed they are in the race. We can only imagine how they’ll incorporate their iOS system as well as the iPhone and the iPad into their design, but we’re sure the Apple self-driving car will be as sleek, well-defined and user friendly as their other products.
What do you think of the self-driving car? Have you seen any test models? Would you drive one? Share your comments below!


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There was a 77 percent increase in payment redirection scams in Australia last year with businesses losing $277 million according to the latest Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report.
And it was small and micro-businesses which were the hardest hit.
The Targeting Scams report compiles data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks and money remitters, and other government agencies and it showed that in 2021 payment redirection scams, also known as business email compromise, were the most financially damaging scams for Australian businesses.
In a payment redirection scam, scammers impersonate a business or its employees via email and request an upcoming payment be redirected to a fraudulent account.
ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said the most common contact method scammers used against businesses was email.
“This is not surprising given the prevalence of payment redirection scams,” he said.
“We would like to see overseas initiatives such as confirmation of payee implemented in Australia, where banks automatically check to see if account name and account numbers match. We believe it may reduce the losses to scams that we are seeing,” Mr. Keogh said.
Based on Scamwatch data alone, false billing scams, which include payment redirection scams, had the highest losses with $6.7 million.
Businesses that are the victims of cybercrime, such as payment redirection scams or ransomware, should report the incident to ReportCyber as soon as possible. ReportCyber is run by the Australian Cyber Security Centre and passes reports to law enforcement agencies for assessment and intelligence purposes.
Reports to Scamwatch also show Australian farm businesses lost over $1.5 million last year to scammers who targeted the agricultural sector. The most common scam targeting farmers involved the sale of tractors and other farm machinery, with losses of $1.4 million in 2021.
“Scammers targeted farmers looking online for a good deal on tractors and farm machinery by setting up fake websites and advertising on legitimate platforms,” Mr. Keogh said.
“It is so important for businesses to be alert to scams, and to do some extra checks so you can be confident you know who you’re dealing with.”
The Scamwatch website provides a range of resources to help businesses avoid scams. Businesses that have been scammed should contact their bank as soon as possible.
The ACCC encourages businesses to make a report on the Scamwatch website. The Small Business Information Network also provides details about new or updated resources, enforcement action, changes to Australia’s competition and consumer laws, events, surveys, and scams relevant to the small business sector.
This was posted from the official page of the Institute of Public Accountants last 8 July 2022 by Keeli Cambourne.


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Gulf Craft has released the product video of its latest superyacht, the Majesty 140. At 43m this masterpiece boasts a number of features such as the expansive beach club, two aft balconies on the main deck and a waterfall cascading from the hardtop into the jacuzzi located on the sun deck. She was officially launched at the 2018 Dubai International Boat Show.
The Majesty 140 is created by Gulf Craft’s very own Design Studio. This project has redefined the meaning of superyacht by setting new standards in onboard space and entertainment features. WATCH the latest product video of the Majesty 140:


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Pet shops will be banned from selling puppies under tough new rules to prevent so-called “puppy farming”.
Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, wants to restrict the sale of puppies to licensed breeders and animal rehoming charities only.
Mr Gove said he wanted to introduce a ban on third-party sales of puppies “to do everything we can to make sure the nation’s much loved pets get the right start in life”.
It follows warnings of a “puppy trade crisis” from the RSPCA.
In December Mr Gove said he would make sure a puppy’s mother was present when they are sold, but on Wednesday he went further with a call for evidence on several proposed new measures.
They include banning licensed sellers from dealing with puppies and kittens under the age of eight weeks; introducing compulsory licensing for breeders who sell puppies, which they must have bred themselves, and requiring puppy sales to be completed in the presence of the new owner, preventing online sales.
The legislation is an attempt to regulate animal rights and prevent unhealthy breeding.
Mr Gove wants to stamp out the sale of dogs with severe genetic disorders such as hip dysplasia, urinary bladder stones or epilepsy.
New legislation would also protect young and weak puppies from premature death caused by removal from their mothers at too young an age.
Mr Gove said the move was “a further step to raise the bar on animal welfare standards”.
The Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs is also introducing mandatory CCTV in all slaughterhouses and increasing maximum prison sentences tenfold for animal abusers, Mr Gove added.
Chris Wainwright, RSPCA Deputy Chief Executive, said: “We have always said that an end to third party sales alone would not be enough to end the puppy trade crisis and we are pleased that this is being looked at alongside enhanced licensing conditions for breeders which will come into force later this year.”
Dogs Trust, a rehoming organisation, has expressed concerns that “anyone can set themselves up as one [Rehoming Organisations]” exposing the current relaxed laws around animal protection.


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The brand on the gas pump doesn't mean as much as many drivers think. Luckily, that's often good news when it comes to gasoline quality.
I've had a few emails about the quality of gas at Kroger, Costco or Walmart. Those companies, obviously, don't have refineries and buy their fuel from large suppliers that also supply name-brand stations.
The supply matrix
The world of pump gas is composed of refiners who create it, jobbers who often distribute it and retailers who sell it to you. That matrix makes a complicated path from refiner to pump, especially when you consider that the local gas station exists as much to capture minimart sales and branded gas card transactions as to sell what comes out of the pump.
The list of California's biggest refineries isn't even close to a match for every brand of gas station out there: A few refiners supply a lot of stations.
Tesoro is a huge supplier with some branded stations, but it also supplies gas to Shell, ARCO, USA Gasoline and ExxonMobil, which you may be surprised to see has no refinery on the CA Energy list. And Chevron is absolutely huge in California, so how much do you want to bet there's Chevron gas in some non-Chevron pumps?
Pick a solid retailer
Back in the '80s, 60 Minutes blew the lid off the leaking gas station story, uncovering a huge number of seeping underground storage tanks at local gas stations around the country that were polluting groundwater while introducing water and sediment into your car's fuel system.
As a result, the EPA was given new legal authority and gas stations got dug up. In 1990 there were 67,000 known leaking gas station tanks around the country, a number that was reduced to just 7,300 25 years later. Still, there are about 620,000 gas station tanks around the country today and recent numbers from the state of Georgia show that 63 percent of its stations had some kind of UST leak and that the top contamination was water found in gasoline.
If you've noticed a local station was shut down recently for a tank replacement dig, that's a good sign they are now selling gas without water and dirt contamination.
A lot of vendors sell gas that adheres to the Top Tier certification, which AAA has found to be of meaningfully better quality, not just a marketing program.
Top Tier has a higher level of detergents than what the EPA requires, regardless of fuel grade. Detergent claims have been gasoline marketing B.S. forever, but they are arguably more important today as direct injection technology has lead to a more reports of engine valve fouling.


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May 25, 2017 – The role of chief revenue officer (CRO) has changed dramatically over the last several years. CROs are quickly becoming mission-critical innovators for companies that look to dominate a market first and fastest, according to recruiters. The demand for these financial leaders is growing and executive search firms have been busy filling these roles.
The latest: Acertitude placed Reza Ghorieshi as CRO of Indigo Energy, a wholesale provider of petroleum products and renewable-fuel solutions based in Gainesville, GA. Rick DeRose, Acertitude founder and managing partner, led the search along with partner Tom Dougherty.
This position, which reports directly to the CEO, is pivotal in driving revenue growth and executing the company’s strategic plan. Mr. Ghorieshi’s responsibilities involve leading the formation of a sales and marketing team, reinventing and optimizing revenue and lead-generation processes, and creating a technology-optimized customer experience.
Identifying the Right Leader
“Indigo is on a dynamic growth path and has an even brighter future ahead with Reza,” said Mr. DeRose. “Our goal was to identify and attract a high-caliber executive who could break new ground for the sales and marketing organizations and flourish in their entrepreneurial culture. The Indigo leadership team’s approach in hiring an executive who builds the capabilities of tomorrow is a game changer.”
John Mansfield, chief executive officer of Indigo Energy, was likewise impressed. “Reza’s mastery around global sales and technology, coupled with his forward-thinking ideas, will be instrumental to our long-term transformation,” he said.
Chief Revenue Officer Recruitment Trends
Top drawer CROs have been seen mostly in start-ups and smaller businesses to keep an eye on the bottom line while the rest of the C-level team expand key partnerships, look for growth opportunities or source funding. That’s changing as larger businesses now view the CRO post as an essential, long term role ….. Here’s some further reading from Hunt Scanlon Media.
Why Chief Revenue Officers Are Rising In Influence
The role of chief revenue officers had changed dramatically over the course of the last several years, and they are quickly becoming mission-critical innovators for companies that look to dominate a market first and fastest.
Most recently, Mr. Ghorieshi was the global vice president, software sales and presales, for NCR Corporation, where he developed and executed their global sales strategy. Previously, he was vice president, software sales Americas. Before NCR, he held various sales roles with IBM. He is credited with driving both NCR’s and IBM’s global transformations from hardware-centric to software- and consulting-led enterprises. Mr. Ghorieshi was also the founder and architect of two software firms.
“Whether driving through a significant business transformation to realize new opportunities, like Indigo, or a digital transformation to reveal better customer experiences, homing in on the right leadership is critical,” said Mr. DeRose. “We are seeing two hiring trends continue to dominate in 2017. Companies across the board are increasingly turning to their chief revenue officer to ramp up their growth trajectory and seeking individuals who are resourceful, tech-savvy, and embrace change.”
Acertitude is a sister company of O’Neill Consulting Group and Technology Executive Group. It specializes in recruiting senior executives for a number of sectors, including consumer, industrial, private equity, professional services, technology, telecommunications & media, healthcare & life sciences and non-profit & foundations. Its consultants work from offices in Boston, Dallas, London, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, Raleigh, Shanghai, Tampa and Washington, D.C.
Mr. DeRose has a strong track record of recruiting successful sales, marketing and strategy talent for businesses that are growing rapidly and driving transformative change. He offers proven expertise in telecommunications, technology, private equity, and professional services.
Mr. Dougherty applies 33 years of global leadership experience to his role as partner. He brings demonstrated proficiency in industrial, aerospace, and engineering sectors, and an extraordinary familiarity with international business to his client partnerships.
Recruiting Chief Revenue Officers
Hunt Scanlon Media has reported on a number of search firms tracking down chief revenue officers for their clients. Here’s a look at searches either underway or recently completed:
McDermott & Bull recruited Mollie Hunter as chief revenue officer with Ease, a leading provider of process performance solutions. The search was led by partner Craig Lipus, principal consultant Garrett Lipus, senior recruiting associate Tara Steven, and recruiting associate Chris Pring. Ms. Hunter has over thirty years of software sales experience.
Ross & Company has placed Tom McNamara as chief revenue officer of Apixio, a data science company focused on healthcare. Managing partner Jim O’Sullivan led the assignment. Mr. McNamara has 25 years of experience building successful sales organizations for healthcare technology and analytics companies.
ON Partners has placed Bob Laskey as chief revenue officer of IT services firm Taos, a provider of infrastructure, software development, engineering, cloud, and project management services. As chief revenue officer, Mr. Laskey imports best practices from a variety of large tech company experiences to help Taos scale to the next level of services and geographic expansion.
Polachi Inc. has placed Cindy Brown as chief revenue officer of ViralGains, a leader in consumer-centric video distribution. As CRO, Ms. Brown will be responsible for driving ViralGains’ business in the $16 billion online video advertising market. She brings an extremely strong and diverse background to her role.
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media


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Samsung’s latest foldable phones have already received the June 2022 security patch, so the company is now turning its attention to the older models. As a result, the original Galaxy Z Flip is now the latest Samsung phone to receive the June update.
The original Galaxy Z — model number SM-F700F — is enjoying the latest firmware update in Europe. More specifically, the June 2022 security patch is rolling out in Italy and has firmware number F700FXXU8GVF3. The new security patch fixes issues concerning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the QR Code scanner, and more.
Judging by the firmware number, the update could also include other improvements aside from better security. However, Samsung hasn’t updated its firmware tracker yet, and in all fairness, the company’s changelogs are often borderline useless.
Back to the main topic, Galaxy Z Flip customers in Italy — and soon other markets — can download the new June 2022 firmware update when notified or by opening the Settings app on their Samsung phones, accessing “Software update,” and tapping “Download and install.”
Galaxy Z Flip users in eligible markets can also obtain the latest firmware by downloading the files from our website and installing the update manually using a PC.
Join SamMobile’s Telegram group and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get instant news updates and in-depth reviews of Samsung devices. You can also subscribe to get updates from us on Google News and follow us on Twitter.


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With a white Christmas far from certain, one determined Windsor resident decided to bring the snow to him.
Frantic shoppers filed in and out of Devonshire Mall looking for last minutes gifts for husbands, wives, children and extended families. Some left empty-handed but many were able to find a gift or two and cross it off their holiday list.
You just knew the snow was coming! Send your winter weather pictures to The Hub.
Time was restaurants along with many other businesses closed for Christmas. No more, says Steve Meehan, chef of Grill 55 at the Holiday Inn & Suites Ambassador Bridge, 1855 Huron Church Rd.
WINDSOR, Ont. -- Wet weather may wash away any chance for Windsorites to enjoy a white Christmas.
After the strong response from last week’s food feature about local pizza, here’s a selection of still more area pizza places based on five different categories.


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Paul Carroll has just posted a full review of the new released Sony A9 (B&H/ Adorama/ Amazon) at the DxOMark. With the 24.2Mp full-frame CMOS sensor delivering outstanding overall performance, Sony A9 achieves a overall score of 92 points, even better than Canon EOS-1D X Mark II and Nikon D5. Continue reading
The upcoming Canon EOS 6D Mark II is coming near! According to the latest rumors from CR3, this new camera will use a brand new 26MP full frame CMOS sensor. This means the whole 6D series DSLR cameras have their own sensor. Canon EOS 6D Mark II is expected to be announced on June 29 and start shipping in early August.
Sony A7 III is coming near. According to the latest rumors form SAR, Sony A7 III will be announced this fall (sometimes between October-November). Continue reading
Nikon D7500 (Amazon/ Adorama/ B&H) is the latest Nikon’s APS-C DSLR, while Canon EOS 80D (Amazon/ Adorama/ B&H/ eBay) is also Canon’s latest flagship. So, which is better? Dpreview compared sensor, screen, shooting, 4k video and autofocus of these two cameras and made such a conclusion: Continue reading
2017 Father’s Day is coming near. Are you looking for the best gifts for your Dad? Here are some great camera and lens deals from online stores.
Sony has just released a new firmware update for six E-mount cameras including Sony A9 overheating indicator improvement and the Star Eater fix. See the details below: Continue reading
Olympus E-M10 mark III is coming near. According to the latest rumors from FT3, Olympus E-M10 mark III will have a 20Mps sensor and 4K video!


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Last night, Square Enix re-uploaded the FFXIV 1.0 cinematic to its Final Fantasy XIV YouTube channel. But why? Could it be that with Endwalker early access starting later this week, the publisher wishes to remind people of what came before for nostalgia’s sake as we get ready to wrap up the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga?
Back in September of 2010, Square Enix’s long-awaited MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, launched to anything but rave reviews. The game had several issues that plagued it and yet, the game had a following that spent hours upon hours playing the game. Two weeks ago, Bungie’s highly anticipated game, Destiny, launched to a mixed reception. While playing


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Millennial Media shares fall 19 percent on acquisition, earnings news
By By Scott Dance and The Baltimore Sun
Aug 14, 2013 at 6:02 PM
Shares of Millennial Media lost 19 percent of their value in trading Wednesday on news that the Canton mobile advertising company would buy a competitor mostly in exchange for stock, and that its losses widened in the second quarter.
The stock closed at $6.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, down $1.60 from the previous day's close. The acquisition and earnings were announced after the market closed Tuesday.
Millennial plans to acquire Boston-based rival Jumptap for more than $200 million, with the privately held company's shareholders receiving 24.6 million shares of Millennial along with $12 million in cash. Millennial officials said the deal would make its share of the market for advertising on smartphones and mobile friendly websites rival that of Google.
In the second quarter, Millennial's revenue grew 45 percent to $57 million compared with the same quarter of 2012, but its losses widened from $2.2 million to $3.1 million.
Millennial has grown from a startup out of a local incubator to go public in March 2012, but shares have slumped since that initial public offering, priced at $25 per share. Wall Street analysts have shown dissatisfaction with the company's growth.


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It appears to be a slow day for news about Minnesota companies, so we’re leading with “breaking news” about Italian Turkey Sausage Pizza. That’s one of the recipes you’ll find on Jennie-O Turkey‘s new redesigned website. The Willmar-based turkey processor says the site has a robust recipe section, which lets users search, rate and share their favorites.
Here’s another counterintuitive guy trend — like pink shirts a few years ago — that I think I’ll sit out for now, too: Regis is opening a line of upscale salons for men, the Star Tribune’s Jackie Crosby reports today. Apparently, there’s a lot of men out there who are sick of being “butchered in a barbershop” and are willing to pay big bucks for things like highlights, scalp massages and brow waxing. Raze for Men opens Friday in Minnetonka. Haircuts start at $25.
Imation has unveiled a portable hard drive that lets travelers carry the entire contents of their computer in a back pocket. The Essential TravelDrive is being sold under the Memorex brand and starts at around $90. The slim, 2.5-inch-tall storage device is designed to fit easily in a pocketbook or purse and comes in sizes that can hold 160, 250 or 320 gigs of data.
Do you have an inside scoop or news tip about a Minnesota company? Spotted something interesting in your RSS reader? Drop Business Agenda a note at dhaugen [at] minnpost [dot] com.


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It’s been a year since the so-called faster EMV burst on the scene at some grocery stores on the West Coast, and so far officials at the chain that owns the two store brands involved in that launch couldn’t be more pleased with how the technology has smoothed out EMV’s rough edges for customers.
“It’s awesome,” says Katie MacDonald, director of marketing at Portland, Ore.-based New Seasons Market. “It’s easier than swiping your card.”
Last summer, New Seasons was the first U.S. merchant to run new code from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. that allows cardholders to insert and remove an EMV chip card in the space of about three seconds. Since then, technical improvements have shaved that time down to one second or less.
Ever since retailers and processors began installing EMV-enabled point-of-sale terminals in stores in earnest about two years ago, consumers and merchants have complained about how long EMV transactions take. Various authorities have timed the interval between insertion and removal of a chip card at 10 seconds or more.
That lag time has soured consumers on EMV and disturbed merchants, who worry about transaction abandonment, longer checkout lines, and lost sales. Last fall, merchant processor and point-of-sale provider Cayan issued an estimate that EMV transaction time across all U.S. merchants was totaling 116 million hours per year.
But now New Seasons says chip transactions at 24 stores in Oregon and California operated by New Seasons and its New Leaf Community Markets unit are blinding fast by comparison with typical times. The card “barely leaves your fingertips,” says MacDonald.
What’s really going on is more a matter of perception than anything else. With the faster EMV technology, which goes by names like Quick Chip, from Visa, and M/Chip Fast, from Mastercard, consumers can insert their card at any time during the transaction. But while the transaction seems faster to the cardholder, the total roundtrip from merchant to processor to issuer and back to merchant is little affected. “When the transaction is completed and when the consumer can put her card back in her wallet are two different things,” says Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Princeton, N.J.-based Secure Technology Alliance.
Quick Chip and its variants have dramatically speeded up the time the card has to spend in the terminal by bypassing authorization and messaging routines that were necessary in Europe, where EMV originated and where offline authorization was common.
Now, at least 42,000 U.S. merchants are running Quick Chip technology, up from around 10,000 early in the year, according to Stephanie Ericksen, vice president of global risk products at Visa. The exact number is hard to pin down, she says, because an accurate total depends on timely reporting from all value-added resellers and other installers.
In May, a San Francisco developer called Index, whose terminal software had already trimmed Quick Chip times from 4.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds, introduced the 1-second product now running in New Seasons’ stores. MacDonald says the biggest benefit to her company has been happier customers. The checkout, she says, “is such a central touchpoint” that adopting even faster Quick Chip software was a “no-brainer.”
A standout benefit, she adds, is that there are now fewer customers leaving their cards in the terminal. That’s an issue that had created major headaches for the New Seasons stores. “We hate it when they leave their cards,” MacDonald says.


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Just days after announcing its streaming music service, Apple is being investigated for signs of potential anti-competitive action over its negotiations with the music industry.
The investigation, by the New York attorney general’s office and its counterpart in Connecticut, is looking at whether music labels colluded over the tech group’s new streaming service, Apple Music, which was announced on Monday, or were pressured into favouring it.
The investigation came to light when the New York attorney general released a letter from Universal Music Group which said that it had no agreements with Apple or companies such as Sony Music and Warner Music that would impede the availability of free or ad-supported services, or prevent it from licensing its recorded music to any streaming service.
Universal Music also said it offers limited exclusive content to some music streaming services where such exclusivity is not part of an agreement to restrict competition.
“We understand that the investigation concerns whether participants in the music industry are seeking to act collusively to restrain competition among music streaming services, in particular, by working together to suppress the availability to consumers of free, advertising-supported, on-demand music streaming or similar services, such as those offered by Spotify and YouTube,” said Universal’s head antitrust lawyer, Eric J. Stock, in the letter.
“This letter is part of an investigation of the music streaming business, an industry in which competition has recently led to new and different ways for consumers to listen to music,” said Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for the New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.
“To preserve these benefits, it’s important to ensure that the market continues to develop free from collusion and other anticompetitive practices.”
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the investigation. The Connecticut attorney general, George Jepsen, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The American investigation follows a similar pre-emptive search by European authorities in early June, before the music service was even officially announced. The Financial Times reported that several labels and digital music companies had been contacted by the European Commission ahead of the launch.
Apple Music is a $9.99 (£6.50)-a-month streaming service that has been tipped to alter the dynamics of how consumers listen to music as the industry grapples with a decline in downloads and attempts to figure out new ways to get people to pay for songs.


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With drivers experiencing the dramatic increase in prices at gas pumps, a Jacksonville dealership is seeing an increased demand for electric and hybrid vehicles.
Robert Cook is the general sales manager at Jenkins Hyundai of Jacksonville. He said the demand for electric and hybrid vehicles is so high that it’s hard to keep those vehicles on the lot.
“With the gas prices now more than $4 a gallon for regular and premium close to $5, we’ve had a 60 to 70% increase in EV cars and hybrids,” Cook said.
As of Wednesday, there were no new or used hybrid vehicles on the lot. And the recently released all-electric Hyundai Ionic 5 didn’t last long on the lot.
“We had seven of them drop last week, and they’re all gone,” Cook said.
Notably, dealerships across the nation have been dealing with issues when it comes to meeting consumer demand due to the semiconductor shortage.
At the Hyundai dealership Wednesday, there appeared to be more used than new vehicles on the lot. A new shipment had also just arrived, but none of those vehicles were hybrid or electric.
Cook says people are calling the front desk and asking what’s available and how long it will be before new inventory of EVs and hybrids arrive. It’s now at the point where potential buyers are being asked to pre-order the vehicles so when a shipment of new inventory arrives at the lot, the pre-ordered vehicle is already marked as sold.
Cook says his sales team also calls other Hyundai dealerships within a 500-mile radius to see if they have any extra EVs or hybrids they could be delivered to the lot for customers who don’t want to pre-order.
In the end, Cook says, people either want better gas mileage if they’re paying as much as they are at the pump, or they want to avoid the pump altogether.


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SINGAPORE, Nov. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 31, 2018, when the whole blockchain industry was celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Bitcoin Whitepaper, global gold industry blockchain alliance Goldlinks announced the signing of strategic partnerships with BUMO, a leading international commercial public blockchain platform, and Bizkey, the blockchain-based Asian smart POS terminal and an offline payment system using digital currencies, expanding the company's business ecosystem. With the partnerships, Goldlinks has established a presence across the entire industry chain from the support for the underlying technology infrastructure to application scenarios and settlement channels when the digital currency is used to complete a transaction. The date of the announcement was chosen as a way to pay homage to Satoshi Nakamoto, the developer of Bitcoin.
Furthermore, Bizkey is launching 'Token Day' in Singapore from October 31st to November 18th. Token Day is a campaign to familiarize the public with cryptocurrency in a retail setting. During this period, 30 retailers clustered around Chinatown in Singapore will accept various cryptocurrencies as payment. Sebastian Seow, co-founder of Goldlinks, was invited to attend the launch ceremony of the event.
During the event, the two companies said that they plan to further deepen their cooperation and knowledge-sharing in various areas, including applications for digital currencies and offline payment. Bizkey will support gold-backed digital currency GGC (Global Gold Cash) issued by Goldlinks as a terminal payment tool in daily consumption scenarios. This also means that the gold-backed digital currency will use Bizkey as its settlement entry to fully open the C-terminal payment channel.
Bizkey is a mobile payment solution provider of digital currencies that furnishes users with offline retail payment solutions. It allows merchants to accept crypto currencies seamlessly with point-of-sale(POS) devices. The Token Days event is intended to encourage consumers purchasing and spending with crypto.
GGC, issued by Goldlinks, is a blockchain-based, gold-pegged digital currency. The third-party gold custody and third-party independent audit system guarantee full authenticity and security of its underlying asset. The stability and scarcity of gold determines its stable price. Compared to other digital currencies with violent fluctuations in prices, GGC, which is pegged to the stable price of gold, will be better accepted as a payment tool.
Prior, GGC was already being used by many multinational trade companies to finalize international trade settlements. Reuters earlier released a news article, in which it reported that a South Korea-based company had received GGC as a form of payment then exchanged the digital currency for a batch of gold bars from Brink's, the world's largest cash and precious goods management company. As a groundbreaking and more efficient international trade settlement tool, GGC has gradually played an increasingly significant role in the real economy.
In the future, GGC plans to collaborate with Bizkey and other strategic partners to apply GGC in a growing number of daily consumption scenarios, offering a more efficient, convenient and safe payment tool for consumers worldwide.


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Developers showing that city's retail sector still has the beat
- Tricia Lynn Silva
Katy, Texas-based Academy Sports & Outdoors has begun construction on its eighth location in the Alamo City.
The store, which will measure just under 80,000 square feet, will serve as the anchor for phase two of the Potranco Village Shopping Center -- a new retail development by Barshop & Oles Co.
Academy purchased a little over 9 acres within the development for its new store, according to Wade McGinnis, a principal with Barshop & Oles Co.
McGinnis also announced that his firm will build an additional 35,000 square feet of multitenant retail space as part of phase two of Potranco Village. Construction is set to begin mid-summer, he adds.
At build-out, Potranco Village will bring some 200,000 square feet of new retail development to a 32-acre tract of land at the northeast corner of Potranco Road and Loop 1604 in far West San Antonio.
Phase one of the center, which measures 34,000 square feet, came online last year and is fully leased, McGinnis says.
Academy is slated to open for business at Potranco Village this fall, McGinnis adds. The multitenant spaces in phase two are to be turned over to tenants in early 2009, with retailers slated to be up and running that spring.
The retailer joins a growing list of category leaders that have made their way to the far West Side -- a slate that also includes big names like Wal-Mart Supercenter, Kohl's, and H-E-B Plus!
Academy's commitment to Potranco Village "further proves up the far West trade area of San Antonio," McGinnis adds.
Nationally, the retail industry has seen some turbulent times as of late.
But in San Antonio, developers are still forging ahead with new projects.
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Volkswagen Internal Audit may have provided warning signs on emissions tests as early as 2007
Volkswagen shares have been rocked recently and investors have been fleeing after it emerged that the global leader in the Automotive sector has been using technology in their diesel cars which helps them reduce their emission levels when tested.
Bosch- a leading partner of the the firm apparently warned VW to only use the technology internally and that it was not for actual use in retail cars according to news websites suce as Arstechnica.com
VW admitted after conducting Internal Audits that they believe over 11 million vehicles are currently affected by the technology.
With the previous CEO recently resigning due to the scandal emerging, and the ex Porsche CEO now taking the helm as the new Chief of the troubled company, Mueller has vowed to enhance the effectiveness of the company’s corporate governance and how reports from internal audits are used to ensure the business is operating in accordance with the highest compliance standards.
As a result of the internal audit, VW has announced they will set aside over 7 billion US dollars to cover costs and damages associated with the callbacks on the vehicles which are mainly based in the US.
Investors in VW shares have seen up to 40% decreases in asset values as a result of the rigging scandal being publicised. Friday seen the shares close in the region of 107 EUR where only a number of weeks ago they traded at 167 euro prior to the news breaking.
In 2010 Toyota, another leader in the auto sector suffered a similar fate and their shares took over 2 years to finally bottom out.
For the best Internal Audit, IT Audit and compliance jobs across Europe, contact Audit International 0041 4350 83095.
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