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In the marketing circles I run in, P&G has long been respected as a company that nurtures the best and brightest marketers. P&G is known for being rigorous in market research to understand the needs, motivations and behaviors of the consumer and to use its findings to build brands, drive consumer engagement and beat the competition. It claims to be the first company “to conduct deliberate, data-based market research with consumers,” in 1924.
As for P&G recently, I was aware that the company hasn’t been doing all that well and as a result, has been fighting with investor Nelson Peltz of Trian Partners, who wants a seat on its board. P&G is determined to keep him off it. The proxy fight has evolved into a battle of dueling reports, with P&G just issuing a 40+ page report in response to Peltz 90+ page report released in September. But then, as with any company’s weak performance and underperforming stock, the blame can be attributed to many issues beyond marketing.
That’s why I was shocked to read this weekend’s Wall Street Journal with an article headlined, “Thrifty Consumer Habits Puzzle P&G.” In it P&G’s CFO Jon Moeller was quoted as saying in a conference call, “We’ve been unable to put our finger on why this has been,” as he reported that organic sales grew only 1% in 1Q2018 quarter, with most of that attributed to emerging markets outside the U.S. Moeller explained consumers are buying at the same levels, but spending less on household staples, to which he said, “I’ve heard theories but nothing to explain the broad slowdown.”
And in another article in the same issue, Stephen Wilmot is quoted, "P&G risks giving the impression that it is losing touch with the U.S. consumer culture.” To which, I say a resounding yes!
How can the world-class marketers at P&G not have clued Moeller in on the shifts in the consumer market? Or maybe more pointedly, how can Moeller not have heard? I spoke to a friend embedded in the P&G corporate culture who told me that Peltz’s report pretty well nailed it. Perhaps Moeller’s cluelessness is due to the atrophied matrix organizational structure that Peltz condemns as being “a web of ‘straight line/dotted line’ reporting relationships that obfuscates ‘ownership’ of decisions and reduces organizational agility.”
What is painfully obvious to me is that Peltz diagnosed accurately P&G’s marketing challenges. He writes:
- Consumer preference is fragmenting, with preference for small & local
- Consumers used to trust big brands; many millennials now distrust big brands and seek out purpose led brands
- Digital ecosystem has leveled playing field, diminishing “moat” of owning shelf space at mass retailers
- Hyper-growth of natural, organic & wellness
Millennials are the future of every consumer-facing company. Given their age, with the leading edge 37 years old this year, and lifestage, starting to establish their own homes, they are disrupting business as usual for a company like P&G which provides products largely aimed at consumers making decisions about brands that fill family household needs.
As millennials have grown up, they have disrupted every industry they’ve touched, including toys, music and fashion. Now they are advancing into the categories on which P&G and so many other CPG companies depend. The painful disruption to the CPG market is coming on fast. For P&G it’s time to forget the old ways of doing business, aimed at the lifestyles and mindsets of the baby boomers, and adapt to the next generation millennials on which the future depends. Let’s look at what this means for P&G in particular, and by extension CPG companies in general.
The mass-market is dead; long live high-end and low-end niches
In today’s incredibly diverse and information-powered consumer culture, the mass market where big brands are intended to fill a huge chunk of consumers’ needs is dead. Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory explains it: “The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.”
And given the growing chasm between the haves and the haves less, i.e. income inequality, those long tails moving from the mainstream mass market are gravitating toward two extremes: the high-end where people are willing to pay a premium for products perceived as special and the low-end where people are primarily driven to pay less for products that they perceive as less important or they simply can’t afford to pay more for.
The result is the consumer market is now shaped like a barbell, with growth and opportunity shifting to one end or the other. Brands that remain in the middle are getting squeezed to death. Jim Blasingame, the Small Business Advocate and fellow Forbes.com contributor, explains:
The Barbell Effect occurs when entrenched, legacy practices are disrupted by forces like new technology, innovations, and shifts in demographic behavior, like when people stop going to malls. Those industry players who fail to adapt to the shift are forced to retreat into the contracting middle, the bar. Those who adapt will prosper in the bell ends, where most customers are going. Remember, the barbell doesn't exist prior to the disruptive pressure -- it's the result, not the cause.
P&G and its legacy brands, like Tide, Pampers, and Crest, prospered in the days before the Long Tail. They were huge mainstream hits back in the day. But as they are getting squeezed in the middle of the barbell, they have tried to shift largely toward the premium end of the barbell with new and improved versions of the brand staples. But the premium end of the barbell is highly niched as well. P&G hasn’t found the hits at that end to make up for the squeeze in the middle or the growing competition of better quality generics at the other.
And let’s face it, it is incredibly hard to get people excited about laundry detergent, oral hygiene or feminine care products, paper towels or dish detergent. Unless you care greatly about these categories or have a special need, the better quality, lower cost generics widely available today will do the trick.
Millennials don’t want their mothers’ or grandmothers’ brands
Millennials have a special relationship with brands. They perceive themselves as special people and want the brands they connect with to understand their special needs. They are skeptical of mass brands with their one-size-fits-all approach because they want brands that fit their individual person, their special “one.” Mass brands like Tide, even packaged in new pod style, may have satisfied their mothers or grandmothers, but those brands aren’t likely to satisfy them.
Push marketing strategies employed by mass brands just don’t work on them either. It’s like two magnets when you try to push the two positive or negative ends together. Millennials are repelled, not attracted, by push marketing. They need to be pulled in and enticed to a brand. Being special people with special needs, they are willing to search out and discover the brands that understand them and meet them at their special point of need.
Peltz is right on the money when he identifies millennials as preferring small and local, purpose-led brands with natural, organic and wellness vibes. They perceive such brands as righteous and good. Mass-marketed brands quite the opposite.
P&G’s competitors such as Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Church & Dwight, have recognized this trend and responded by acquiring smaller brands that fill these new expectations. P&G just keeps on doing the same things it has always done in much the same way, but with rapidly diminishing returns.
Innovative brands marketed in innovative ways is needed now
A new consumer generation requires new products, not just warmed over reboots of existing brands. Peltz really takes P&G to task on its failure to innovate. It’s “innovation machine is broken,” he claims, despite the fact that it spends more each year in research and development than its eight closest competitors combined. Damningly, he asserts that “P&G has not created a meaningful new brand since Swiffer, almost 20 years ago.”
This is inexcusable since with its huge investment in R&D and the relatively easy way to launch and test new product concepts thanks to the internet, P&G ought to be out there every day with some new idea to see if it works. Peltz writes, “The ‘big is beautiful’ model is threatened as the internet and social media eliminate barriers to entry for new brands.” P&G should be the first in line to take advantage of those low barriers to entry, rather than defensively trying to buttress those barriers against the competition. That effort is futile.
P&G should be using its size and muscle to innovate. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Joan Schneider and Julie Hall explain one of the chief reasons “Why Most Product Launches Fail” is that innovating companies can’t scale fast enough to support growth. That should be the least of P&G’s worries. What seems lacking at P&G is the very willingness to try.
In closing, P&G needs to take a lesson from Jeff Bezos in his famous shareholders letter where he explained the difference between baseball and business. To paraphrase, in baseball every time you step up to the plate, you can at most score four points. But “In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs. This long-tailed distribution of returns is why it’s important to be bold. Big winners pay for so many experiments.”
P&G needs to stop looking to the past and look to the future. Millennials are the key. And they won’t find out how to connect with them until they try, really try, to meet them in their special place of need. P&G needs to get swinging.


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Ipswich: Charity shops are hit by late spring
- Credit: Archant
CHARITY shops in the town have been suffering – because of the late arrival of spring.
The prolonged cold weather has left many stores short of stock as people delay their traditional spring clean.
Richard Leeder, manager of the Mind shop in St Matthew’s Street, said: “The turn of the season is usually a fantastic time for us. Ipswich supporters relish the first weeks of sunshine and look to clear out in preparation for warmer months.
“This year it’s a very different story.”
The RSPCA Suffolk East and Ipswich shop moved to its new location in Tacket Street in November last year – and, while business is booming, stocks are low.
Manager Tess Last said: “Now the weather has improved, we’ve got customers coming in, but stocks are rapidly depleting.
“I know the council introducing the recycling bags for textiles hasn’t helped.
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“The people that support the RSPCA do give us very nice things, we just don’t get enough of them.”
The shop, which funds the RSPCA centre in Martlesham, also offers a pick-up service for those unable to drop items off at the shop.
Heather Hammond, manager at the British Heart Foundation shop in Carr Street, said the shop is running low on spring and summer stock.
She said: “You get a bit of snow and a bit of rain and there’s no stock.”
Andrea Dency, manager at Cancer Research UK in Westgate Street, said the lack of donations has more to do with the economic climate.
She said: “We’re really struggling at the moment for quality donated goods.
“I think people are selling it, or making do with what they’ve got because they can’t afford new.
“I get half the donations I used to get four years ago.
“The weather doesn’t help, of course.”
Jason Morris, assistant manager at the British Red Cross shop in Upper Brook Street, added: “We are in a similar position; donations have dropped.
“I think it’s a mix of weather and the economy.”
Martyn Berry at St Elizabeth Hospice in St Matthew’s Street added: “We’re OK at the moment because we’ve got about 15-16 shops countywide, so we share things.
“We don’t get that many donations through the door at this particular shop though.”

domain: news


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What is Facebook’s new scam-busting service?
In the UK, there is a very popular consumer advice website called MoneySavingExpert. Its founder, Martin Lewis, started the website to offer UK consumers independent advice on the best utility deals and how to cut household bills. Since then, both the website and Martin have grown in influence and are considered ‘consumer champions’.
Why is this relevant to Facebook’s scam-busting service? Well, the two are closely entwined. Martin is the key driver behind the new service after his name and image were used on fake Facebook adverts to coax users into investing in questionable schemes.
Martin was taking Facebook to court when he agreed to drop the legal action if Facebook agreed to launch the tool and donate £3m to fund an anti-scam program in partnership with the UK’s citizen advice.
Facebook’s new tool
Facebook users in the UK will now be able to click the three dots in the top corner of every advert to report a scam. On top of the usual options, such as an explanation of why you’re seeing a particular advertisement, users can ‘send a detailed scam report’ after choosing ‘report ad’ and selecting ‘misleading or scam ad’ as the reason. From here, Facebook has employed a specially-trained team to investigate and shut down false advertisements.
The tool – and dedicated team – are unique to the UK but there’s no reason why the service won’t be rolled out elsewhere in the future.
What roles does Citizens Advice UK play?
Citizen’s Advice is the benefactor of the £3m funding and as a result will provide one-to-one help online, on the phone or in person for people worried they’re being scammed and those who have already lost money. It will also undertake scams prevention work to identify, tackle and raise awareness of online scams in the UK.
The advice bureau expects to help up to 20,000 people in the first year of the service.
We hope you found this post useful. If you enjoyed reading this one, you might find the following helpful too:
- How to spot an Instagram Money Flipping Scam
- Spotting Email Scams
- How to spot and avoid online charity scams
- Black Friday scams and six ways to protect yourself


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E Ink Holdings, a company with a Cambridge history and some of the technology behind Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader, said Friday it has agreed to buy 82.7 percent of the shares in SiPix Technology Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary SiPix Imaging Inc., a maker of electronic paper displays with facilities in California and Taiwan.
E Holdings said its board has approved an amount of about $50 million to purchase up to 100 percent of SiPix’s shares. The exact amount of the purchase won’t be known until the transaction is completed.
The combined company will offer a vast portfolio of ePaper products that will allow it to expand its existing markets and diversify into newer applications, said Taiwan-based E Ink in a press release.
E Ink started as a spin-off from MIT’s Media Lab. In 2009, it was purchased by a Taiwanese display maker Prime View International. After the transaction closed, Prime View changed its name to E Ink Holdings. E Ink technology is used in many e-readers, including the Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook line. The company has roughly 250 employees in Massachusetts.
In a statement Friday about his company’s proposed purchase of SPix stock shares, E Ink Holdings chairman Scott Liu said: “E Ink is committed to growing the ePaper market and the purchase of SiPix shares is part of our long term growth strategy. Our goal is ‘E Ink On Every Smart Surface’ and we are continuing to make investments in technologies that will open new markets for our ePaper displays.”


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Intelligrated to double HQ, add 200 jobs in Mason
Intelligrated Inc. plans to add 200 new jobs and double the size of its headquarters in Mason, pending approval of a $15 million incentive package from the city and the state of Ohio.
Company officials made the announcement with Ohio Gov. John Kasich in Mason on Monday afternoon.
Intelligrated is a manufacturer of automated material-handling systems. The expansion announcement comes two years after a 2009 announcement that it was adding 267 jobs and adding a plant in West Chester.
The latest incentives are likely to include an extension of Intelligrated’s existing job-creation tax credit, state and local loans, property-tax abatement and a state grant.
The company said it will add 200 technical and engineering positions in research and development, system design and customer service. It will also construct a facility of between 60,000 and 90,000 square feet in Mason to support its growth. Construction plans are still being finalized.
Intelligrated provides material-handling solutions for the warehousing, distribution, consumer product manufacturing, and post and parcel markets. Key Intelligrated customers in Ohio include Anheuser-Busch, Procter & Gamble, Luxottica, the Limited and the U.S. Postal Service.
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Trusted cannabis brand High Times announced today that it will become the first ever stock offering to accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Its current equity-crowdfunding process, under Regulation A+, has already begun the process of bringing in cryptocurrencies.
According to High Times CEO Adam Levin, the addition of cryptocurrencies as an option is to enable a much broader group of investors worldwide.
“High Times has been at the forefront of popular culture for more than four decades,” Levin said. “Now we’re taking another step into the future, not only as one of the first cannabis-related brands to go public on the Nasdaq but also as the first to allow Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of our public capital raise.”
High Times filed its latest Reg. A report—detailing almost $29 million in reduction of negative equity, significant decreases in operating losses, and a debt reduction—with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.
The currency of the future
Cryptocurrency, essentially strongly-encrypted digital currency that operates outside of a central bank, has been the subject of heavy discussion over the years. Bitcoin started the idea off in 2009 and ever since has been the leading cryptocurrency by a longshot. As of today, there


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Shimla’s fascination , baljees restaurants shut by workers strike !
Shimla : One of the most popular eating places on Shimla’s mall street , the Fascination and Baljees restaurants are closed due to a strike call by staff of the twin restaurants for the past couple of days .
Sources say the strike is likely to continue for long and the doors of these restaurants could remain shut for some time .
Not only locals but tourists in high numbers visit these two restaurants .
It isn’t clear what the issue of contention is between the restaurant staff and the management .


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South Korea set to prohibit Google and Apple from mandating software developers to use their payment systems, thus denying them from taking commissions on in-app purchases. The first major economy to impose such restrictions on the tech titans.
On Tuesday, the parliament’s legislative and judiciary committee is anticipated to pass an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, dubbed the “Anti-Google bill, ” targeting app store providers with dominating market positions.
If the committee approves the bill, it will submit to a final vote on Wednesday. Since mid-last year, South Korean lawmakers have pressed the subject of the commission structure. Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Inc and Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Both businesses have been chastised worldwide for requiring software developers who use their app stores to use proprietary in-app payment systems that collect commissions of up to 30% on in-app sales. Google has been pressuring app developers to use its payment system for gaming applications. It wants to expand this approach to other apps like music or webtoon, said Kwon Se-Hwa, the Korea Internet Corporations Association general manager. This nonprofit group represents Korean IT enterprises.
If the new bill becomes law, developers will have the option of using alternative, independent payment systems, Kwon explained.
Digital Markets Act
Last year, the European Union introduced the Digital Markets Act, which targeted app store commissions. The laws intended to harm giant corporations, but some European politicians want to tighten them to target American technology behemoths explicitly.
Earlier this month, in the United States, a bipartisan trio of senators filed a bill that would rein in app stores run by firms with too much market domination, such as Apple and Google. According to a government study published last year, Google Play Store earned about 6 trillion won ($5.29 billion) in revenue in South Korea, the home market of Android phone maker Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF) Co Ltd.
Commissions from in-app purchases are a significant portion of Apple’s $53.8 billion services business and a considerable burden for some app developers.
Google bans 8 ‘deceptive’ crypto apps
Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has removed eight reportedly fraudulent mobile apps from its Play Store, which were duping cryptocurrency enthusiasts by demanding fees for a bogus cloud mining service.
Fraudulent mobile applications have become a popular means of misleading naive users with a high success rate. Trend Micro’s most recent investigation uncovered eight Android applications that were abusing cryptocurrency consumers by demanding a monthly charge under the guise of running a legitimate cloud mining business.


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Balancing Act: Joseph Studios’ CEO Weighs AI’s Pros, Cons, and Impact in Magazine Exclusive
Atlanta, GA – Joseph Studios founder and CEO Daniel Klein recently sat down with Authority Magazine for an exclusive discussion about the game-changing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in today’s digital marketing world. The conversation, steered by executive coach Cynthia Corsetti, explored how AI is not just a buzzword but a major player in reshaping businesses today.
Drawing from his rich experience in corporate and intelligence sectors, Klein explained AI’s journey from a buzzword to a key business strategy tool. He spoke about AI’s dual role — as both a growth driver and a challenge — in today’s fast-paced business world.
“It was a great privilege to speak with Cynthia Corsetti at Authority Magazine. Sharing our insights and experiences with a platform that elevates industry dialogues is always an enriching experience,” Klein said. “This conversation was a fantastic opportunity to discuss the evolving role of AI in digital marketing and how we’re harnessing this technology at Joseph Studios to drive innovation and success for our clients.”
The interview emphasized the need for businesses to evolve with AI, blending its efficiency with human creativity to navigate the digital landscape successfully. Klein’s own path to leading Joseph Studios is a mix of military precision and strategic corporate savvy, shaping the company’s approach to using AI for smarter digital marketing.
The interview also touched on AI’s ethical side, advocating for data privacy and algorithm fairness. Klein’s vision extends to promoting global digital literacy, equipping everyone with tech skills for a brighter future.
Joseph Studios combines creativity with solid analytics, boosting client engagement and ROI. Preparing for an AI-driven future, the agency focuses on education in AI and data analytics, ensuring its team stays on top of emerging tech — an approach underscored by this interview.
Read the full interview here.
About Daniel Klein
Daniel Klein is the founder and CEO of Joseph Studios. His intelligence, corporate, and digital marketing experience spans 15 years. Formerly, he supported National and US/Partner Clients. In his role at Joseph Studios, he ensures brand and client growth for clients via excellent digital marketing. To learn more about Joseph Studios’ innovative approaches and Daniel Klein’s insights on AI in digital marketing, follow Joseph Studios on LinkedIn and YouTube or visit the Joseph Studios website.
About Joseph Studios
Joseph Studios stands at the forefront of organic digital marketing. The company’s unique approach pairs cutting-edge technology with the firm’s proprietary Deep Insight® methodology, and the team’s expertise in market research, intelligence and analysis, customer profiling, writing, and design creates and implements an effective marketing strategy for businesses in a rapidly evolving digital world.
Learn more at www.josephstudios.net.


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‘Fake meat’ is at the center of food fight in Missouri
Don’t call it meat if it doesn’t come from livestock or poultry, a new Missouri law says.
The state law that went into effect Tuesday prohibits food companies from marketing products that are not “derived from harvested production livestock or poultry” as meat. And violators could receive a fine of up to $1,000 and spend up to a year in jail.
The law would apply to meat substitutes such as soy-based, plant-based meat, which have become increasingly popular in recent years, and also “clean” meat, which is produced by growing and multiplying cells in a lab and is close to hitting the consumer market.
The new measure is drawing backlash from a range of organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Good Food Institute and the company that produces Tofurky. The groups immediately filed a legal challenge in federal court saying the state law attempts to “stifle the growing grocery category of plant-based meat.”
“As more and more consumers are making the conscious choice to remove animals from their plates, Missouri is putting its thumb on the scale to unfairly benefit the meat industry and silence alternative producers,” Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement. “This law violates various constitutional principles, including free speech — which should be a concern for everyone, regardless of diet.”
But to the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, which supported the bill, the issue is “all about marketing with integrity.”
“MCA will not stand for laboratory grown food or plant based meat alternatives to be marketed as something it’s not,” the association said on its website regarding its legislative priorities for the year.
Meat-substitute supporters claim their companies have never violated regulations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the Federal Trade Commission that prohibit the misrepresentation of food products.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office said the state is ready to enforce the law, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“The attorney general’s office will carefully review all referrals from the Department of Agriculture and will take legal action as appropriate under the circumstances to protect Missouri consumers,” spokeswoman Mary Compton told the Post-Dispatch newspaper, which is also a CNN affiliate.


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KIRIU USA is now making 3.6 million brake rotors a year, something which is forcing the Bowling Green auto-industry supplier to expand.
So the company will spend about $10 million to bring in new equipment for two new production lines and to add onto its existing building on Mitch McConnell Way, according to company President and CEO Mark Kimura.
At a groundbreaking for the project Thursday, Kimura said the addition should be complete by the time the company has its 10th anniversary in Bowling Green in the fall.
Now KIRIU has 115 employees and is in the process of hiring 10 to 15 more employees to handle the increased demand for production that is a result of new auto customers.
KIRIU currently provides 100 percent of Nissan and 90 percent of Subaru rotor demands in the U.S. It also supplies General Motors and Honda.
It’s now KIRIU’s goal to move from the No. 2 brake rotor manufacturer to the No. 1 spot.
Kimura said the company is exploring the possibility of seeking state tax credits for the project.
D. Gaines Penn, chairman of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, said this project, though small in overall added employment, still contributes to the larger economic development picture.
“If you take this project ... along with all of the others that we have had, we are on track to have a really good year in terms of economic development,” Penn said.
This is the fourth economic development announcement the chamber has participated in this year. In all, companies will invest $18.5 million and create 191 jobs. Those companies include Taggart Solar in Edmonson County, 30 jobs; Holley Performance Products, 136 jobs; and Yahagi America Molding in Edmonson County, five to 10 jobs.
The KIRIU expansion will have an additional $1.75 million economic impact, with an additional $409,000 in household income and $112,000 in local tax revenues once the project is complete, according to a chamber news release.
As the company has grown, so have the Japanese cherry trees that Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon had planted in the company’s honor, Kimura said.


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Shweet.com now on AOL Music!
Shweet and AOL have teamed up again for a brand new campaign on AOL Music, which you can find here. This follows a series of launches with our wonderful partners at AOL, including our deployments on Cambio.com and Spinner.ca and our launch of the MyNXNE app in June for the NXNE music festival. This time, there’s a special twist: a huge Canada-wide contest for high-school students in...
Invite your pals to Shweet.com!
We’ve just made it even easier for new visitors to try out Shweet™. First-time visitors can now share videos on Facebook or Twitter without having to create a Shweet account right away. After they’ve racked up some points, they can decide whether they want to create a full Shweet account and start buying tickets for prizes. They’ll see why we say the Shweet is Sharing With...


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Online melee action title Chivalry 2 has passed one million units sold since launching on June 8, 2021, according to publisher Tripwire Presents and developer torn Banner Studios.
Developer Torn Banner Studios and publisher Tripwire Presents with their retail publishing partner Deep Silver have proudly announced that the award-winning multiplayer hit, Chivalry 2 has sold over one million units worldwide since launching on June 8, 2021.
The publisher also confirm via the press release that this incredible sales milestone marks the first million-unit selling title for Tripwire Presents, and takes the throne as developer Torn Banner’s fastest-selling title, ever.
"Despite just launching in June, over a million people across five platforms have already played Chivalry 2, which tells us how much more potential the game has to grow," said Steve Piggott, President of Torn Banner Studios.
This news follows the release of the House Galencourt update, the first in a series of planned free content updates, introducing two new maps, a brand-new 3-versus-3 gameplay mode, the return of the popular arrow camera feature from the original Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, over 60 customization options, and more.
Additionally, we also got some in-game statistics. The Chivalry 2 community has been active and growing following the title’s launch, with over 8 million hours of playtime logged and over 420 million combatants killed in battle.
To date the most popular subclass amongst players is the Officer and the most popular weapon is, of course, the mighty Messer.
Chivalry 2 is available now on PC via Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.


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New hotel announced for Benidorm
Not fearing the effects of Brexit the Poseidón Hotel Group has announced plans to build a new 350 room hotel in Benidorm.
The 25-floor hotel will be built behind the Poseidón Playa with construction set to begin in 2021 and an opening scheduled to coincide with the 2023 summer season.
The Poseidón Hotel Group already has 8 hotels in Benidorm and others throughout the region that employ 450 people.
The estimated cost for the new hotel is around 100,000€ per room and will go ahead despite the uncertainty surrounding the UK leaving Europe.


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Houston is most mobile-savvy shopping city
November 21, 2012
Mentioning the city of Houston conjures up images of oil wells, cowboy hats and … mobile shopping?
For the second straight year Houston has claimed the No. 1 spot on the Interactive Advertising Bureau's U.S. Mobile Shopping Savvy Cities Index, which the IAB says is due to the city's mobile shopping versatility and dexterity.
The rankings are determined by mobile usage patterns and the frequency of use among mobile shoppers in major U.S. cities. For the purposes of the index "mobile shopping" is defined as making purchases using a phone or tablet, and also using mobile devices to research products that are later bought at brick-and-mortar locations.
Houston is followed on the list by three West Coast cities–Seattle-Tacoma, San Francisco and Los Angeles–with the highest-ranking East Coast market, New York, rounding out the top five.
In order, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston and Philadelphia came in Nos. 6-10, with Washington, D.C., Detroit, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Phoenix and Minneapolis-St. Paul making up the rest of the top 15.
The mobile shopping index is part of IAB and Prosper Mobile Insights' second annual mobile shoppers study. More findings from the study can been found by clicking here.
Tags: houston, iab, interactive advertising bureau, los angeles, Minneapolis St, mobile, mobile devices, mobile shopping, Mobile Shopping Savvy Cities Index, research, Seattle Tacoma, shopping, study, top mobile shopping cities, Washington, West Coast
Nikki Finke may have a new purpose in 2015
Tell us, what was the big story of 2014?
Facebook: ‘Thrones’ was the year’s top show
Final tally: 190 new magazines launched in 2014
No duPont Awards for broadcast networks
Sony: We’ll be releasing ‘The Interview.’ Really.
The year that was: 2014 by the numbers
An up and down year for broadcast
The buzziest new cable shows of 2015
Our OOH outlook: More connectivity
Our newspaper outlook: Not good
Our magazine outlook: More upheaval
The ad outlook for 2015: Pretty decent
- Helen Prokos becomes group creative director at Publicis Hawkeye
- James Florez becomes Dallas GM at Allison+Partners
- Robyn Hurd, Michael Oesterlin and Lorenzo Bertolotti join A+E
- Nate Lanxon becomes senior editor at Bloomberg Media
- Marian Bull becomes associate digital editor at Saveur
- Byron Pitts becomes co-anchor at ABC's 'Nightline'
- Annie Wersching joins CW's 'The Vampire Diaries'
- Daniel Wu joins the cast of AMC's 'Badlands'
- Ashley Tisdale guesting on ABC Family's 'Young & Hungry'
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Media buyer opening in Memphis
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Needed: Digital media coordinator in Roswell, Ga.
Media buyer/digital strategist job in Cedar Falls, Iowa
Broadcast media buyer wanted in Denver


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HSBC Holdings plc (HSBC – Free Report) and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS – Free Report) are progressing toward the launch of their digital banking platforms to meet customer demand, as the preference for digitalization and online banking is increasing rapidly. The news was reported by Reuters.
HSBC’s new digital banking platform, HSBC Kinetic, has been developed for small businesses. It is still in the beta testing phase and its launch is expected to take place in the first half of 2020.
Royal Bank of Scotland’s standalone digital consumer banking platform is called Bo and it is expected to launch later this month.
Bo is likely to have features such as user budgeting, and saving and spend analysis, which will target users with less than $128 in savings. However, HSBC Kinetic aims to connect small businesses with mobile-based banking solutions, including a current account, overdraft, and spending and cash flow management analytics.
Notably, HSBC Kinetic, which was developed by nearly 150 staff in London, was previously known internally as Project Iceberg.
HSBC’s head of U.K. small business banking, Peter McIntyre, said that the company is hoping that hundreds of thousands of customers will sign up for HSBC Kinetic. Moreover, the bank plans to roll the Kinetic tool to other countries it operates in.
Moreover, despite the ongoing economic uncertainty in the U.K., McIntyre remains confident regarding the launch of Kinetic. He…


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Next shares up 9% on day
Shares in Next surged as much as nine percent on Wednesday amid rumours that current trading was going well, investors and analysts said. The stock rose 33p or 6.5% - having hit 554- 1/2p - with 3.5 million shares changing hands by that time.
Next shares have underperformed the market by 26.8% and the sector by 18.5% in the last month, and are trading around 12-month lows. 'There are rumours floating about that trading is not going as badly at Next as it is elsewhere,' said one retail analyst at a major European fund manager.
Next's Finance Director David Keens said: 'I have not heard the rumour.'
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The future is here. Microsoft just announced a new coffee-table shaped computer that utilizes a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a shiny black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. They will use five cameras mounted beneath the screen that can sense nearby objects and feature
touch-screen technology so people sitting around the table can play with music, photos, movies, and more.
These tabletop PCs could replace computer games in bars, clubs, restaurants and gaming rooms. The machines are set to arrive in November in T-Mobile USA stores and properties owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.
Priced at $5,000 to $10,000 per unit, these are not cheap. But then again, furniture rarely is.


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El Grocer, the UAE-based on-demand grocery delivery app has seen daily downloads increase 10 times in recent months, compared to January-February 2020. The brand has seen an incredible increase in the number of orders. Currently, El Grocer is focused on building resilience for the future, widen partnerships and expanding into other markets.
“The COVID-19 crisis has brought the whole e-commerce industry into the spotlight. Even after the pandemic is over, online shopping will continue to be part of a consumer’s day-to-day life,” observes Nader Amiri, founder, El Grocer. “It took food delivery platforms almost a decade to reach where they are today. In our case, the growth rate has accelerated; food and grocery delivery platforms will see rapid growth in the two-three years.”
“New habits have formed, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Online shopping has become a part of day-to-day life; it is a necessity now, not a luxury. However, it is difficult to predict how much of these online buying habits will stick. From the early adopters to early majority, we are still talking about single-digit online penetration rates. In some cases, it might go up to low double-digit. Overall, in the UAE, the online penetration rate is around 5-6%. A lot of businesses are considering going online. Many new users are getting online daily. The number of people shopping online, and the penetration rate will increase. There might be some changes in cart size and frequency, and as such online shopping will accelerate.”
“We started collaborating with more and more home-grown speciality brands since last year. We have signed up with local butcheries, speciality grocery stores like 1004 Gourmet,” Amiri shares. “Many predominately home-grown B2B brands – like Bread & Co. – are also interested to partner with us given the current situation and their need to reach consumers.”
“We have always offered same-day delivery timelines within two-three hours. Amidst the current situation, depending on the store and our increased delivery strength by three times, we have been able to maintain same-day delivery in most cases, with some spilling over to the next day. And for some extremely busy stores, the delivery timeline has gone up ranging between two days and a week,” Amiri states.
Being agile to take decisions
“Like many other businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic caught us by surprise,” Amiri admits. “On noticing early trends, around online shopping behaviour, we had to quickly take some business-critical decisions around hiring more people to be able to meet the demand surge.”
“With every passing week, we had to add tweaks; basically, be on our feet for the entire month of March. From early-April, things started settling down as we pre-planned for the next two-three months. We made some crucial decisions around recruiting more people – in picking, delivery and customer service roles – and tweak some of our technology applications in the background,” he adds.


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Hollywood is finding itself in a bit of a jam. By and large, it wants to get television shows out onto the Web, giving people who spend most of their time watching video on PCs — legally and illegally — another option to find their content. Thus we have Hulu, TV.com, SouthParkStudios, and the ability to watch full episodes on most network sites.
But it’s becoming increasingly clear that the entertainment biz is not ready for consumers to get Web video on their televisions. Because that would undermine the current business model that brings in billions in cable and satellite subscription revenues, along with the higher ad rates they get per program on TV vs the Web.
That’s why Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes, for instance, is pushing his plan to restrict Web TV shows to consumers who are cable or satellite subscribers or pay a separate subscription fee — Specifically to cut off the people who are using video game consoles or set top boxes or the increasing number of Internet-enabled TVs to watch Hulu et al from the living room.
Technology, however, has a way of undermining Hollywood’s business models. The music biz learned that the hard way from Napster and various P2P networks and now it’s TV’s turn.
The latest scuffle comes over Boxee (pictured left), the Web app that access all the major video websites from one interface, making it incredibly easy to get any TV show that’s online, on-demand, on a TV screen. You don’t have to worry about typing in URLs, which of course can be a pain in the living room.
No surprise then, as CNET News and others are reporting, that Hulu, and its network owners NBC and Fox, are trying to box out Boxee. First Hulu was directly integrated into Boxee. Then Hulu put a stop to that. So Boxee started tapping directly into Hulu’s RSS feed, publicly available information that anyone with an RSS reader can use to figure out what’s on the site and link directly to it. The Hulu found a way to block its RSS feed from Boxee on Friday. And on Saturday Boxee found another workaround. And so the dance continues.
As Boxee explains on its corporate blog, it’s such a mess that there’s a separate status bar on the program that indicates whether Hulu is working at the moment.
Say what you will about Hollywood and its “old media” ways, but the folks who run Hulu have to know that this struggle can only be temporary. When there’s a will on the Internet, there’s usually a way. Networks can make it more difficult to access Web video on TVs for short periods of time, but they can’t prevent Boxee and the many other companies out there from making it possible if enough users want it. Which means, whether via Bewkes’ plan or something else, they’re going to have to come up with a business model for Web video in the living room that’s attractive enough to consumers they won’t flee to illegal options, but doesn’t destroy the economics of TV production, which a straight translation of Hulu as it currently stands would do.


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Teagasc’s national beef conference will be a virtual event this year, following recent updated guidelines from the government relating to Covid-19.
A spokesperson for Teagasc confirmed that the event, which will take pace in December – dates still to be confirmed – will now be a virtual one. Earlier this week, it announced that its dairy conference, which takes place next week, will be virtual also.
“The other main event that we were planning, which will now be a virtual event instead of an in-person conference, is the national beef conference. The details for it are still being worked out,” the spokesperson told Agriland.
The 2020 instalment was also a virtual affair with a live, hour-long, interactive webinar taking place over two evenings in early December.
Details of the 2021 virtual event, when finalised, will be published to Teagasc’s website.
Dairy conference goes virtual
Commenting on the change to the dairy conference earlier this week, head of dairy knowledge transfer in Teagasc, Dr. Joe Patton said:
“The year, 2021, has been a mixed one for dairy farmers on the whole. Broadly, it has been positive in relation to both weather conditions and milk price.
“However, there have been plenty of stressors to contend with such as ongoing concerns around Covid-19, the increased focus on dairy farming’s position in the climate debate, and of course a sharp rise in input prices.
“Teagasc is keenly aware of the potential implications of these factors for farm practices and profitability. We hope that the conference will offer an opportunity for constructive discussion of the issues.”


text: So part of the deal of Qualcomm's nearly $20 million settlement with Broadcom over ongoing patent concerns was that Broadcom would continue to work on getting an injunction against offending products. Qualcomm tried to -- or at least claimed that it was trying to -- whip up a "workaround" that would allow it to continue to serve up chipsets that sidestepped Broadcom's intellectual property. Turns out that Broadcom thinks the supposed workaround is a bunch of hooey, though, and has gone back to the US International Trade Commission with its claim. The ITC in turn has referred the case to an administrative law judge for handling, which means that this thing could be dragging out for a little while yet. There's no telling what'll ultimately become of these chipsets or the future of Qualcomm's product roadmap after it plays out, but Verizon's got to be thinking that its decision to cough up cash on its own behalf is paying for itself over and over again right about now.


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Over the previous months, LG G4 owners from all over the world have complained about a mysterious bootloop issue that affects the smartphone. For seemingly no reason, the LG G4 will reboot at random times and then get stuck in a bootloop with no fix.
The LG G4 is one of the best Android smartphones of 2015, and users aren't giving up on it that easily. A petition has been recently formed, composed of LG G4 owners affected by the problem, to force the company to acknowledge the problem and to provide free replacements for the defective units.
The petition, which was created by Santiago Archila, claims that the bootloop problem potentially affects all LG G4 devices, and is not specific to certain carrier-branded versions or regional models. Archila added that LG's response regarding the matter has so far been unacceptable, as the company has not handled the problem consistently. Some users have had their smartphones replaced, while others were told that the model number of their LG G4 is not eligible for any replacements or repairs.
Complaints regarding the issue could be seen around the Internet since September last year, with the issue first thought to only affect the early models of the LG G4. The issue was initially flagged as a motherboard problem on certain variants, but even newer models of the smartphone have been affected by the bootloop issue with no solution in sight.
It took a while, but LG has finally admitted that the LG G4's bootloop issue is a hardware defect, after Android Authority picked up the story on the problem and confronted the company regarding it.
In addition to LG acknowledging the problem, the company said it will be repairing the affected devices, stating that the source of the bootloop problem is loose contact between some of the handset's internal components. The company also confirmed that the previous attempts to solve the issue failed because of misdiagnosis, leading to wrong parts undergoing replacement.
LG said customers experiencing the bootloop issue should contact the local carrier from where the LG G4 was acquired or a local LG service center for repairs under full warranty. For customers who purchased their LG G4 from non-carrier retail outlets, they should reach out to an LG service center, though warranty conditions will be different in such cases.
"LG Electronics is committed to providing the highest standards of product quality and customer service and apologizes for the inconvenience caused to some of our customers who initially received incorrect diagnoses," the company said.


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You can now get the Simpsons on your iPad:
In a development that would make even Comic Book Guy proud, digital comic book platform comiXology is teaming up with Matt Groening’s Bongo Comics to bring America’s favorite family to the iPad. The partners announced the Simpsons Comics app for iOS, available today, at a panel at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con.
The iOS app is a free download for the iPad and the iPhone and will launch with a selection of digital versions of both recent and classic Bongo titles like Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson and Radioactive Man. ComiXology will also give away a digital copy of Simpsons Comics #100 on its website for a limited time to mark the release of the app.


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Social media users have reacted to the news of US-based Nigerian rapper, King Joel, splashing millions of naira on an exotic and luxurious automobile.
King Joel bought himself a brand-new Ferrari worth 135 million naira a few days after gifting Mothers 2.5million off his recent Mother’s Day giveaway and took to his Instagram page to announce the arrival of his new whip.
However, some Nigerians have reservations about this achievement chalked by him and they have raised questions about the source of his income and how he got the money to purchase such an expensive car considering the fact that he is not popular in Nigeria and even in the United States.
See photos of his convertible ride below;
See comments from IG users below;
Na where gangan Una Dey see this money from, it’s can’t be the same hard labor we’re all doing
This caption has its agenda but just so you know
It’s his money he can do whatever he wants to do with it
Iro Paro for iro…..na rent no dey fool us bro we dey do am well for abroad all this Celeb na una go put our generation for debt
This is what we are talking about! Be a giver for more blessings!
Where una dey see this money? abi am i at the wrong side of the world
God bless him. Congratulation go reach our parents too amen
Ok where una dey see this money ? I think say all of us broke nah
Artist that is not known in abroad or Nigeria but rich. Scammers.


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PETALING JAYA: Retailers are upset that the economic stimulus package announced on Friday did not address the issues of business sustainability and employment security.
The Malaysia Retailers Association (MRA) said while a temporary lifeline had been extended to the B40 and some M40 group, the government should step in and help businesses by funding workers’ wages.
“Many countries around the world are supporting businesses by subsidising employers with their workers’ salaries and wages.
“Singapore is funding 75% of the workers’ wages and the United Kingdom 80% so that they are still on the payroll while being told not to come to the office.
“The Malaysian government should do the same and fund 80% of the monthly salary of employees during the movement control order (MCO) period, to be capped at RM1,500 per month, which is the median wage of our country.
“It should be made available to all companies regardless of size and with minimal qualifying conditions, ” it said in a statement on Saturday (March 28).
It stressed that was important to save jobs.
With the extension of the MCO to April 14, MRA said the government should consider the difficulties of businesses, particularly in the retail sector, small-medium enterprises and companies that were providing employment to six million people.
Many companies were not able to operate and had zero sales revenue, but still had to cover fixed running costs like rent, utilities and workers’ salaries and wages.
“Some of our members experienced a 90% drop in sales revenue due to the lockdown, while some of them are expecting a near-total loss in business.
“How are businesses, big or small going to survive?” it asked.
It said the government should have “encouraged” instead of making it compulsory for employers to pay full workers’ salaries during the MCO period.
MRA said discretionary power should be given to the employer depending on their ability to pay.
On top of the measures announced in the economic stimulus package, MRA called for some tweaks to help businesses, including halting Socso contribution for six months from April and exempting the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) contribution for a year instead of six months.
It also called for the deferment of income tax installment for all companies for six months and the waiver of assessment and quit rent for commercial properties for six months.
MRA also said the government should offer a 30% discount on electricity bill for commercial users for six months beginning April.
“It is important to save lives, and we also need to save jobs by saving businesses and companies. Help them with cash flow and costs.
“We appeal to the government to show that you are behind us, the businesses.
"Otherwise, many are on the verge of closing down, ” it added.
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Faced with the possibility that 20 million customers in the U.S. could soon be left without telecommunications services, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may allow a Baby Bell telephone company to acquire ailing long-distance and Internet service provider WorldCom Inc.
In an article in Monday's Wall Street Journal, FCC Chairman Michael Powell describes the communications industry as in a state of "utter crisis," and says his commission could allow one of the Baby Bell companies to take over WorldCom. The telecommunications giant is on the brink of bankruptcy, fueled by its recent disclosure of nearly US$4 billion in accounting discrepancies that spurred government investigations. The FCC would consider such a deal if a Bell company were to propose one, Powell said. Baby Bells are the regional local telephone providers formed by the breakup of AT&T Corp.
"There's been a lot written and said in the last couple weeks (about the effects) of the demise of WorldCom, especially for Internet traffic and e-mail. If that's a real concern, I would think that the government would move heaven and earth to allow a financially viable company to take over WorldCom ... to keep that Internet traffic flowing," said Rick Brecher, an attorney with law firm Greenberg Traurig in Washington, D.C., who follows the telecommunications industry.
Allowing such a merger would be viewed as a significant departure for the FCC, since its regulations related to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have been designed to promote competition to Baby Bells, not consolidation.
An FCC spokesman confirmed that Powell's quotes in The Wall Street Journal article were accurate, but stressed that the chairman answered a speculative question with speculation. The commission isn't currently considering such approval, the spokesman said.
The FCC has the authority to approve or deny proposed mergers in the telecommunications industry, so any Baby Bell looking to snap up WorldCom would need to go through the approval process and prove to the commission that the merger is in the public interest, the spokesman said. Any such acquisition proposal would not be guaranteed regulatory approval, Powell cautioned in the article.
There are other regulatory hurdles that Bell companies must pass to provide long-distance service. Under current telecommunications law, Baby Bell companies cannot provide long-distance services in their regions unless they have passed the FCC's criteria for opening their own local networks to competition. Referred to as Section 271, this requirement forces Baby Bells to provide competitors such as startup local phone companies and long-distance providers fair access to their local telephone infrastructures before they can launch long-distance services in their regions.
Currently, none of the Baby Bell companies have met the Section 271 requirements in all of the states in their regions, Brecher said, but a few Bells are coming close.
One consumer advocacy group spoke out against Powell's comments, saying that allowing a Bell company to acquire WorldCom would be a blow to competition.
The FCC "should ensure that the lucrative area of advanced telecommunications services, including high-speed Internet, is open to all competitors on a nondiscriminatory basis," said Mark Cooper, Director of Research with the Consumer Federation of America. "Chairman Powell's march toward unregulated monopoly will certainly not serve (the) consumer well."


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Get the latest design news direct to your inbox!
The highly anticipated Symfonisk collection, a result of the collaboration between IKEA and Sonos, will arrive in Australia on 27 September 2019.
In its latest collaboration, this time with Michael Anastassiades, Danish sound brand Bang & Olufsen has created a minimalist and unique product. We chat with B&O’s senior go-to-market manager Anders Buchman.
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Under its laidback exterior, well-acted SF mystery Emergence delights in constantly yanking the rug out from under your feet.
Capsule hotels are becoming more popular among young travellers in major European cities, where traditional accommodations can be very expensive.
If you lead a healthy lifestyle, there is no reason why you cannot indulge in a daily cup of coffee, or two.
Consumers are more likely to make environmentally friendly purchases in 2020, and this is true of many fields including fashion.
Imagine a town with fewer than 1,000 people but 15 bookshops! A bookworm's paradise indeed.
SneakerLAH, said to be Malaysia's biggest sneaker event, was held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre and drew large crowds of shoe fans over the weekend.
Food columnist Chris Chan examines the different types of laksa like curry laksa, laksa Johor and assam laksa as well as different kinds of laksa leaves.
In recognition of its ongoing commitment in helping children lead stronger, brighter and healthier lives, Scott’s was awarded the Bronze Award in the health category at the 2019 Putra Brand Awards.
The jackfruit is a worldwide hit, particularly with those looking for meat substitutes. Curious Cook columnist Chris Chan explores the evolution of the fruit, and compares it to the durian too.
Models will be running from show to show during the Spring/Summer 2020 fashion weeks. Here are three upcoming faces who are expected to shine.


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A brick-and-mortar powerhouse like grocery giant Kroger might not appreciate being called a “legacy” enterprise, but that’s the reality IFTTT is pitching as it tries to turn its popular-but-geeky internet switchboard service into a viable business.
IFTTT, which launched in 2011, can connect products that aren’t designed to work together. You might use the service to automatically log Spotify songs in a Google Drive spreadsheet, sync your Instagram photos to Dropbox, or change the color of your smart light bulbs if it’s going to rain that day. (Its name is an acronym for “if this, than that,” a nod to the kinds of conditional statements used by programmers.)
While IFTTT’s service is free to 14 million registered users, for the past two years the company has charged businesses to join the platform and list connections (or “applets”) inside their own apps. Now, IFTTT is raising $24 million to hire more people, including a larger sales team, as it tries to rope in larger firms that aren’t tech businesses at their core. If a company such as Kroger or Target wanted to take on Amazon’s in-home delivery service, for instance, it might use IFTTT to link up with existing smart locks and security cameras for opening the door and ensuring a safe drop-off.
“We’re really trying solve what I think is the biggest problem in relation to all of these legacy, existing businesses: being forced to change their relationship with their customer, their business model, and what it is they’re known for,” says Linden Tibbets, IFTTT’s cofounder and CEO.
“A Little Bit More Like Amazon”
Despite its obvious usefulness and loyal cadre of fans, IFTTT has struggled for years to land on a business plan. The last time the company raised money–a $30 million Series B round in 2014–it was positioning itself as an “operating system” for myriad connected devices, especially in smart homes. The idea was to appeal directly to consumers, and Tibbets had floated the possibility of selling premium subscriptions to power users.
That approach never materialized, as Tibbets and company realized IFTTT’s customers should actually be the hardware and software makers connecting to the service, rather than the consumers who depend on those connections. The motto he’s been using for the past couple years is “PayPal for access,” describing a kind of trustworthy liaison between disparate products.
Tibbets stresses that IFTTT isn’t looking to help companies launch their own online services. But as more companies take technology seriously, IFTTT wants to help them connect with the vast array of online services that already exist. Although I’m the one who brings up Kroger during an interview, he doesn’t hesitate to describe how IFTTT might allow the grocery giant to “behave a little bit more like Amazon,” using in-home deliveries as a hypothetical example.
“Imagine if Kroger had all the skills and all the connections that a user or consumer might find valuable, and they can make that offering to their users–that’s what IFTTT is building,” Tibbets says.
Automotive companies are another example. By working with IFTTT, carmakers could offer drivers more connected features, such as being able to check their schedule, get media recommendations, and manage their smart homes from the road. (BMW is an early partner, with IFTTT providing dashboard information and using vehicle data for reminders and notifications.) While Apple, Google, and Amazon all provide similar automotive features via offerings such as CarPlay and Android Auto, car manufacturers are wary of ceding too much of the experience to tech giants. IFTTT wants to provide the same sort of connections to other services that a big tech company might offer, but in a way that keeps automakers in control.
“Automotive servicification is creating a perfect storm of challenges: self driving, ride sharing, and AI-based assistants,” Tibbets says. “I have a huge amount of empathy for the businesses faced with these challenges. They certainly don’t want to become just an Alexa [device] on wheels.”
IFTTT’s newfound focus might be reflected in its latest batch of investors. The $24 million round is being led by Salesforce Ventures–which boasts of being “100% invested in enterprise cloud companies“–with participation from IBM, Chamberlain Group, and Fenox Venture Capital.
“We continue to believe everything we’re doing is foundational layers toward what we’ll eventually become,” Tibbets says. “Your applets, your ability to create those applets–that stuff’s not going anywhere.”
Other startups have built automation services similar to IFTTT since it launched in 2011, but none are pursuing quite the same strategy. Zapier is more of an internal workflow tool for businesses, and has become profitable with the kind of premium subscription model that IFTTT shied away from. Stringify focuses on home automation for consumers, and was acquired by Comcast last September. In a sense, IFTTT is somewhere in the middle, pitching itself to businesses as a consumer-facing brand that they can hook into.
IFTTT’s major challenges, then, are more about execution than competition. Some of the possibilities Tibbets describes, like building a home delivery system on Kroger’s behalf, can’t be done today. Currently, IFTTT only has the building blocks, and Tibbets says you have to “squint your eyes” to see the full-on integrations that his company now wants to build.
To that end, IFTTT recently hired its second and third salespeople, and Tibbets says the company’s headcount could double from the current 30 employees. And while he doesn’t rule out an acquisition by the right company, he says IFTTT has “plenty of time” to control its own destiny.
“A lot of what we’ve done over the years,” he says, “has really been about building a foundation for this opportunity.”


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Next Destiny Expansion ‘The Taken King’ will Reportedly Cost a Whopping $40
Leaked marketing materials obtained by Kotaku have seemingly outed Destiny‘s next expansion, reportedly revealing that it will open up a brand new subclass for each of the game’s three classes.
The expansion, allegedly titled The Taken King, will apparently be released on September 15th and will feature the typical selection of Strikes, story missions and PvP arenas as featured in the game’s previous two expansions.
Kotaku also reports that The Taken King will feature a new raid that will see players battling against Oryx, father of Crota, the boss in Destiny’s first expansion The Dark Below.
However, there is one catch: the DLC will allegedly cost a whopping $40. We don’t know what The Taken King could possibly include to warrant that incredibly high asking price, but it’d have to be something special. While many felt that the game’s last expansion The House of Wolves greatly improved the game, $40 is an awful lot to ask for DLC even if it does make some major changes to the title. Many complained that, at $19.99 each, Destiny‘s previous expansions were too expensive, so Bungie announcing a $40 price point for The Taken King presumably wouldn’t go down too well, either.
Though Bungie declined to comment on whether or not this rumor has any truth behind it, we should find out much more at E3 next week. For the sake of Bungie’s PR team, we hope that the price is lower than has been suggested.


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El Salvador firms seek business in Guatemala
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
A group of 15 Salvadoran companies will hold talks with Guatemalan businesses Wednesday in order to establish short and long term business ties.
The group of companies, led by El Salvador's trade promotion agency Proesa, includes food, manufacturing and services companies.
During their stay, each company will meet with at least eight Guatemalan import firms.
Source (in Spanish): El Periódico


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Blackpink’s Rosé is the New Global Face of Yves Saint Laurent
Blackpink is no longer just in your area. They’re increasingly in every area. Rosé, was today made the new global face of Yves Saint Laurent (YVS).
After assisting Lady Gaga on the Chromatica standout track “Sour Candy,” the K-pop girl group officially kicked of a new album era of their own with the music video for new single “How You Like That.”
A candy-colored fantasy with more visual set-ups than an entire TRL countdown, the video racked up 82.4 million views in its first 24 hours of release. It smashed the record for most single-day views previously set by BTS and Halsey’s “Boy With Luv.” In fact, Blackpink actually took the record back, previously holding it with their own “Kill This Love” before the BTS track. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise though, considering the band is the most subscribed-to musical group on YouTube.
Of course, K-pop bands and their devoted fans breaking various internet milestones (or messing with Presidential campaign rallies) is nothing new at this point, so perhaps the bigger indication that Blackpink is taking center stage is the fact that one member, Rosé, was today made the new global face of Parisian fashion house Yves Saint Laurent (YVS).
Read more: Wana know the newest Korean Celeb’s Fashion Trend check out Korean Fashion
In a black and white campaign video shot by photographer David Sims, Rosé wears a black lace mini-dress from creative director Anthony Vacarello’s fall 2020 collection. The New Zealand-born musician is also now prominently featured on the brand’s website as well.
YSL and Vacarello have long taken an interest in Rosé in particular. She made her front row debut at YSL’s spring show last year, and again popped up in the audience for their most recent show in March.
“I still can’t believe that I’m a global ambassador, representing a brand that I’ve thought was really cool for a long time,” the singer told Elle Korea according to a fan site. “It’s an honor. I also got close to creative director Antony Vaccarello, and I’m learning a lot from his creativity, expertise, and humanity. It’s amazing to be able to work with such a wonderful person.”
Rosé is not the only member to score a major fashion endorsement this month. Just last week, her bandmate Lisa, the most followed member on Instagram, was revealed as one of the star of Celine’s latest campaign shot by artistic director Hedi Slimane.
In case you’re wondering, the two remaining bandmates also have major fashion relationships of their own. Jennie is an ambassador for Chanel, while Jisoo has a similar relationship with Dior Beauty. They’re all booked, busy, and well-outfitted.
While many brands may strike up partnerships with K-pop stars to bust their presence in Southeast Asia, its notable that Rosé and Lisa are fronting worldwide campaigns. Former 2NE1 member CL had previously served as the face of New York label Alexander Wang, but this seems to be one the biggest global gigs yet for a K-pop entertainer at a legacy French house.
If you want to update the newest stories, info about Koreans celebrities please check out Xenews.net for more.
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President Joe Biden’s green agenda for the auto industry is set to shift billions in wealth away from American workers to multinational corporations, a new report from the United Auto Workers (UAW) details.
As part of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, automakers producing Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the batteries needed to power them could soon see a windfall of $220 billion by 2031 in the form of taxpayer-funded subsidies.
The subsidies are a result of a provision in the law that allows automakers to take advantage of tax credits so long as their EVs and batteries are primarily sourced in the United States and manufactured in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico.
The plan, though, is set to transfer billions in wealth straight into the pockets of multinational corporations — effectively an industry-wide bailout at the expense of taxpayers.
In the UAW report, the labor union looks at General Motors (GM) and LG’s EV battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio, known as Ultium Cells, which replaced GM’s old vehicle assembly plant.
While workers at the former plant earned up to $30 an hour, the UAW notes that workers at the Ultium Cells plant are earning about $16.50 an hour with a raise to $20 an hour after seven years. This suggests a 45 percent drop in wages for auto workers in Lordstown.
“We cannot allow a race to the bottom for America’s working families,” the report states. “The UAW fully supports the transition to a more climate-friendly auto industry, and we are convinced that it can be done without making workers pay the price.”
At the same time, GM and LG — through the Ultium Cells plant, alone — could rake in more than $1 billion annually in subsidies via Biden’s EV tax credits.
The UAW is worried the Biden subsidies will “be used to supercharge corporate profits” while slashing wages for workers.
“… there is a real danger that hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars will subsidize an EV industry that underpays and endangers workers,” the report states.
As Breitbart News reported, the UAW is withholding an endorsement for Biden as the administration has yet to follow through on commitments that auto workers will not have their wages cut if their manufacturing jobs are transitioned to green energy jobs.
For years, Breitbart News has detailed how a publicly funded transition from combustion engines to EVs has the potential to eliminate millions of American auto jobs and leave auto workers with drastically cut wages.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow him on Twitter here.
Read the full article here


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Happy first birthday, Bing. You have come a long way since June 3, 2009!
“You’ve successfully gained significant market share in a year – from 8 percent in May 2009 to 11.8 percent in April 2010, according to comScore. And you’ve introduced cool features like Bing Travel, Bing Shopping and the Silverlight-powered version of Bing Maps. People love your big home-page photos. So, for your first birthday, Google is giving you the best kind of present : Imitation.”
This is interesting, considering how proud Google is of its simple, white, plain home page. Remember, just six months ago Google introduced an even simpler home page, the extra buttons and options fading in.
Now, Google has gone in the other direction. It is rolling out the new feature to all users over the next few days
Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, asked Google’s Marissa Mayer whether her company was copying Bing.
“The real motivation for this had to do with iGoogle,” said Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience. “Some users really prefer the classic look but want a small amount of personalization, so this is a happy medium in between.”


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While Search Engine Company Google has been having a virtual reality headset on the market for a number of years, basically it is a piece of cardboard. However, the company has now unveiled a new headset known as DayDream View. This is more than a mere piece of card. Rather, it is almost similar to Gear VR headset by Samsung. A difference is that instead of being made of plastic, it is made using a fabric that appears more like sportswear.
This $79 Headset is quite different from other headsets found on the market due to its fabric interior. Its design is meant to be more user-friendly and comfortable. However, it is not clear whether the fabric aesthetic is an endorsement for the headset reference design. This is considering the fact that the Daydream headset by Xiaomi is just as design-oriented and soft. The difference between the DayDream View VR Headset and Samsung’s Gear VR is notable. Samsung’s headset requires the user to slot it into the phone using the phone’s data port. Google has opted to keep its headset as simple as possible with no use of any embedded controls or sensors. It connects to the phone wirelessly.
The DayDream View VR Headset is equipped with a small remote control that works in a manner similar to the Nintendo Wii’s remote sticks. It is capable of tracking motion control, and can be used for gameplay and navigation. There are sensors in the remote that respond to the way the user moves. According to Google, it is precise to the extent that someone can write using it.
Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL will be compatible smartphones
The company says that the Daydream View is lighter by 30% when compared to similar handsets. Of course, for it to work, a Smartphone will still be needed. There is no doubt that the user will pair it with one of Google’s two new Pixel phones. There will be a quite a number of apps that are compatible with the DayDream View VR Headset as well. The first time that the Google announced the platform was back in May at its I/O developer conference.
The platform is optimized to operate on several Android Smartphones, including those from companies such as Huawei, HTC and Samsung. All in all, Google has pointed out that the first devices to be optimized will be its new Pixel phones. The headset will be available in three colors: snow, crimson and slate, and will be launched in November.


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'Hubb excels at delivering distinctive online experiences marketers' value' - B2B Marketing Events Management Solutions, Q1 2021 Report
VANCOUVER, WA – DECEMBER 1, 2020 -- Hubb, a leading virtual, hybrid, and in-person event software platform, today announced that Forrester rated the Hubb Management Platform as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™:: B2B Marketing Events Management Solution, Q1 2021. Forrester evaluated 14 platforms based on 28 criteria, scoring their current offering, strategy, and market presence. Hubb received the highest scores possible in the category vision, and partner and community ecosystem criteria, along with the top score in the audience engagement and interaction criterion.
According to the Forrester report, "Today, Hubb is a solid fit for midmarket companies with teams wanting innovative ways to digitally engage buyers and large enterprise companies looking to expand a growing events portfolio." The report also finds "Hubb excels at delivering distinctive online experiences marketers' value."
"Our vision is to elevate event planning, create a platform that advances events, and fuel companies' and associations' ability to engage with their audiences," said Allie Magyar, CEO of Hubb. "The pandemic forced many event organizers to reimagine their virtual strategy to drive audience engagement and adopt newer technologies and strategies. Hubb is at the forefront and excited to continue to innovate on how people experience events."
Hubb is designed as a single platform that manages virtual, in-person, and hybrid environments. The platform provides both immersive attendee experiences and robust back-end management tools. Hubb's technology enables meeting planners to bulletproof their event strategy and easily pivot from onsite to online with the press of a button. The Hubb platform allows organizations to create custom, immersive experiences that bring their brand to life.
Hubb is re-inventing the way the world experiences events. The Hubb Platform creates virtual, onsite and hybrid events that bring brands to life. We help drive business growth by streamlining time consuming processes, mining profitable insights, boosting engagement and improving ROE. By collecting, managing and marketing event data more efficiently, Hubb powers high-impact, immersive and personalized experiences for attendees, speakers, sponsors and even your executives. Built by event-management veterans for event professionals, the Hubb Platform gives event planners unprecedented control and agility to create experiential designs that bring their brand to life. For more information, visit www.hubb.me.


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Grassroots cancels Connect Show and goes digital
The June show will be replaced with a collaborative digital program
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Grassroots Outdoor Alliance’s Connect Show will not go on as planned this spring, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The show was scheduled to go down June 12-15 in Knoxville, Tennessee, one week ahead of Outdoor Retailer, which has not yet announced a cancellation.
Instead, Grassroots has created a three-part “collaborative digital framework” to facilitate the spring buying process. “By announcing this change now, our hope is that we will give all of our members and partners as much time as possible to work toward this common goal,” said Rich Hill, president of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. “We are creating a transparent, easily accessible process that can be shared with all independent specialty retail stores [not just Grassroots members] to help everyone get through this challenging season.”
Grassroots, the organization dedicated to the health and growth of outdoor specialty retail, has 75 retail members and 66 vendor partners. The twice annual show is unique in the trade show landscape, as it’s all about order-writing. Booths are small, pipe and drape affairs. Grassroots manages the schedules of everyone who attends, matching up retailers and vendors for appointments, and incentivizing retailers who pack their schedules with meetings.
“As each day passes, we’re all becoming more aware of the challenges created by COVID-19. Part of that learning has been accepting the massive scope of it all, and part of it has been realizing the time we’re going to need to get back to ‘business as usual,’” reads a letter that went out to the Grassroots community last week.
What will the digital Connect Show look like?
Grassroots says they are building a collaborative digital framework to support the spring buying cycle throughout the month of June. Much like the live Connect Shows, the digital process is anticipated to include a central schedule that buyers and vendors follow and a community gathering point which will share best practices on digital workbooks, video line showings, available services, and other common needs.
Grassroots expects the digital Connect process to include three phases: an information and material gathering phase, an online meeting phase, and a follow up phase. For each of these three components, Grassroots anticipates facilitating key meetings, recommending best practices, and providing needed tools. For both retailers and vendors, Grassroots will be creating a “road map” that details key elements needed for a familiar, common structure.
Grassroots was well-positioned to begin to transfer to a digital Connect Show: Just over a year ago, it began a push towards digital workbooks, not only as a way to eliminate a whole lot of paper, but to streamline the buying process. In November 2019, Grassroots continued to expand the digital program with more tools and how-to videos, which was well-received by members.
Read more: the press release from Grassroots
“By making the digital Connect process as consistent as possible for buyers, the focus of the conversation can be on great products and programs,” said Hill. “With a digital Connect, we’re not trying to recreate the wheel. We’re just hoping to assemble a bunch of new wheels so that everybody can keep moving forward.”


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By Daniel Lanyon on Friday 9 December 2016
Research by Aldemore Bank suggests small and mid-sized companies in the UK are on the whole bullish on their prospects for growth next year.
More than four in five small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are expecting their revenues to grow or remain the same in 2017, according to a survey by the challenger bank Aldemore.
The firm’s research, which included a survey of more than 1000 SMEs in the UK, found that despite likely economic headwinds, four in five (82 per cent) of SMEs are confident about their business performance going into 2017, either expecting their revenues to grow or remain constant during the next 12 months.
When questioned on the ongoing process of the UK leaving the European Union, a majority of SMEs said they do not expect Brexit to negatively impact their business, with two thirds (66 per cent) stating that it will either have a positive impact or no impact on their company.
Of those SMEs which export to the EU, most said they do not expect Brexit to negatively affect their business either, with 56 per cent stating they expect it to have either no impact or a positive impact on their company.
Of the 26 per cent of business owners who did anticipate a negative impact from Brexit, two-thirds are most concerned about the economic uncertainty caused by the decision and 43 per cent are also worried that UK taxes may rise as a consequence.
Carl D’Ammassa, Aldermore’s group managing director, says that despite the mixed economic news following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, SMEs remain very much focussed on growth over the coming year.
“Companies are clearly still thinking about new ways to drive their growth and as our research shows entering new markets as well as launching new products and services are high on SMEs’ agendas. This would indicate a continuing confidence in the UK economy over the next 12 months,” he said.
“Such business expansion is often underpinned by external funding or investment, and it is therefore crucial that companies can access the capital they need to realise their growth ambitions. Some SMEs will tap into their operating surpluses or personal savings but we are hoping to do more to educate businesses about other more bespoke, flexible and often cheaper options available such as asset finance and invoice finance,” he added.
Expectations vary by sector, with almost half (46 per cent) of SMEs in the hospitality and leisure sectors expecting revenues to increase. In contrast, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of legal services firms predict that their revenues will decrease in the next 12 months.
Two-fifths (39 per cent) of businesses expecting to grow in the coming 12 months will do so by launching new products and services, while three in ten (30 per cent) intend to enter new markets.
One fifth of SMEs (20 per cent) are planning to expand by enhancing their technology, and a similar number (19 per cent) are doing so by investing additional capital into their business. 16 per cent will recruit new staff to boost production.


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With LBS startups and the art of “checking in” still evolving as a brand new concept, some are already speculating that an entirely new breed of location-based social networking will replace it, effectively making the concept as we know it all but obsolete.
Though that may sound over the top, it’s exactly the opinion of Mark Cuban, who recently posted on his blog about a new company he’s just invested in that’s building the “next generation” of LBS social networking. The idea is centered around facial recognition and real-time video imagery of specific locations, so instead of checking in, the next iteration of LBS apps would already know you’re there.
“I just invested in a company that takes video of an area and can tell you exactly how many people are in the capture area at any given time,” said Cuban in his post. “It’s great for traffic patterns, security, and much more. We are posting cameras in certain environments where anonymity is required, and we don’t and won’t capture faces or anything that could identify an individual. We will simply provide incredibly accurate traffic information and patterns. A great application with great opportunity.”
Details are obviously scant, as the name of the startup in question wasn’t even divulged, but the concept is intriguing nonetheless. The most interesting, in my opinion, was this statement;
“Of course there would have to be ‘opt out’ mechanisms. Of course there would be a battle over whether or not a store or venue should be ‘opt in’ vs. automated recognition, but that’s not a software issue,” he explains. “The reality is that its solves ‘the path of least resistance’ issue with check-ins for location-based software. Individuals never do any of the work. The store/host recognizes you are there and rewards you for allowing your identity and information to be captured and linked. If Amazon can ‘welcome us back’ and offer us personalized specials, why shouldn’t brick and mortar establishments?”
We’ll have to keep our eyes on this one. As Cuban puts it, “location check-in is so 2010.”


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Open and Shut: Welcome La Terrine, Bye-Bye Broadway
by Avi - January 25, 2010 at 9:10 am -
This week, open and shut features more than a dozen items, as new businesses start to flood into the Upper West Side. Look out for new baby stores, steakhouses, Mexican restaurants and cupcake shops. And the neighborhood is about to get a newly renovated library. Does it mean the recession is over? Maybe not. A few businesses also shut their doors in recent weeks.
For years this space at the corner of 73rd Street and Columbus Avenue held La Belle Epoque Posters, then it was briefly the New Jersey Department of Tourism’s Upper West Side branch. Now a tableware and linens shop called La Terrine will be opening there. The company imports linens from Italy, Portugal and France.
After promising to sell meat to Upper West Siders for months, the Upper East Side butcher has finally opened its doors on 87th and Amsterdam next to Popover’s. How does some “dirty brisket” sound? (via the New York Times)
The steakhouse is opening up on 88th Street and Broadway in the old Aix/Bloomingdale Road spot. There’s already one in Forest Hills, and it got a so-so review from a local blogger there. (Eater via Eating in Translation)
Noche Mexicana II
Noche Mexicana, the restaurant at 852 Amsterdam Avenue at 102nd Street, saw an opportunity when a 99-cent store closed at 842 Amsterdam just down the block on 101st, so it snapped up the location. It plans to open a new restaurant, serving burgers, chili, fish dishes and other fare within the next two months, an employee tells us. Both restaurants will be open for a while, though La Noche will probably close the 12nd street location eventually and move entirely into the new place.
The falafel chain is expected to arrive soon on 111th and Broadway, at the site of the former Empanada Joe’s. (Eating in Translation)
The beauty store expects to a new location in Columbus Square around 97th Street in April. (image and info via The Shophound)
The baby products store has leased a new store on the ground floor of The Harrison apartment building, on Amsterdam between 76th and 77th Streets.
The cupcake and baked goods emporium has also leased a new store on the ground floor of The Harrison, on Amsterdam between 76th and 77th Streets. It already has a location just a block away.
The East Side bakery chain is opening a spot on 76th and Amsterdam. The cafe will have a wood-burning oven and serve foccacia, among other items.
St. Agnes Library
The library at 444 Amsterdam Avenue between 81st and 82nd Streets will open on Feb. 11 after a major renovation. The reopening is open to the public. Get there at 11 a.m. and get readin’. (image via NYPL)
Broadway Hotel & Hostel
The hostel on 101st Street and Broadway is closed “temporarily” by order of the city, according to the hotel’s website. A tipster tells us the Department of Buildings shut the hotel down for safety reasons. An employee says the hotel is renovating and plans to reopen.
The shoe store at Broadway just off 72nd Street has closed its doors, though it still has a location on Spring Street (via Racked)
The stationary and gift store on 94th and Broadway has closed (via MyUpperWest)
The frozen yogurt-gelato store couldn’t afford the rent and taxes on Broadway between 82nd and 83rd Streets and had to shut its doors. (via West Side Spirit)


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Ericsson in talks to buy Microsoft's TV software unit: Report
Ericsson is in talks to buy Microsoft Corp's IPTV business, which makes software used by phone companies such as AT&T to deliver television over the Internet.
Stockholm: Ericsson is in talks to buy Microsoft Corp's IPTV business, which makes software used by phone companies such as AT&T to deliver television over the Internet, Bloomberg reported, quoting people with knowledge of the matter.
Bloomberg said the transaction could be announced as soon as the coming few weeks. Both Microsoft and Ericsson declined to comment on the report.
Internet protocol television (IPTV) uses the same technology that powers the Internet to transmit multimedia content over telecom and cable networks.
Ericsson, the largest maker of wireless networks, wants to cater to phone companies that are competing with cable, satellite and web-based media providers.
Microsoft, the biggest software maker, intends to focus on delivering TV through its Xbox games console, a person familiar with the plans told Bloomberg.
Microsoft's website says its Mediaroom IPTV platform is offered by more than 40 of the world's leading operators, delivering services to more than eleven million households.
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