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Squanch Games has announced a new upcoming DLC for its first person shooter, though details on what it will entail are scant.
High on Life was one of the bigger surprises to release in 2022, with Squanch Games’ humorous first person shooter not only being received well by its players, but also finding a great deal of success. That there’s demand for more of the same is no surprise, and more of the same is exactly what Squanch Games looks set to deliver.
At the recent Xbox Games Showcase Extended presentation, the developer unveiled High on Knife, an upcoming DLC for High on Life. Details on the expansion are scant for now, so we don’t really know what to expect yet, but the trailer, brief as it is, hints at new weapons, new enemies, a foreboding new location, and more. Check out the announcement below.
High on Life is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC, and is also available via Game Pass. It has seen over 7.5 million players as of April.


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That "other South Korean electronics company," aka LG Electronics, reported its fiscal Q1 2013 earnings this week, and, well, they weren't very good. Samsung, whose earnings we expect to report on very early tomorrow morning, will on the other hand be reporting an entirely different financial scenario - one of health, wealth and generally enormous well-being. It's definitely a tale of two different companies this year.
The worst of the financial news for LG is that fiscal Q1 2013 net profit slumped an overwhelming 91 percent from a year earlier. This caught many analysts by surprise. LG was expected to post a net profit of 235.8 billion won ($212.2 million) according to consensus analyst estimates. LG didn't quite get there, instead reporting net profit of only 22 billion won ($19.8 million), as compared to 247.5 billion won ($222.7 million) a year earlier. Operating profit fell 13 percent to 349 billion won from 402 billion won a year earlier. Overall revenue did rise 6.8 percent to 14.1 trillion won from 13.2 trillion won.
The company's first-quarter operating margin from its home-appliance unit fell to 3.6 percent from 5.7 percent a year earlier. That said, LG's mobile business operating margin did manage to rise to 4.1 percent from 1.4 percent a year earlier. LG managed to ship 10.3 million smartphones during the quarter, an encouraging sign, and projects that shipments this year will reach at 45 million units.
The company certainly has some solid phones in hand that should help put some truth to the claim, and some of which are able to match Samsung's coolest new Galaxy S4 features - such as eye tracking. LG's flagship is the Optimus G Pro, which will be built in two sizes - a 5-inch display version that will target Japan, and a slightly larger 5.5-inch display version that will ship everywhere else, including North America. Half an inch may not sound like much but it adds to the size overall in tangible ways. The Optimus G Pro is shown below.
The new smartphone will deliver on a 1,920 x 1,080 HD display, along with a solid screen resolution of 400 ppi. A Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.7 GHz powers Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. and NFC capability is provided. The Optimus G Pro also sports a 13 megapixel camera, along with a front facing 2.1 megapixel. The battery is removable and also hefty at 3,140 mAh.
Regardless of the Optimus G Pro's capabilities, LG knows it will likely need to do more for the mobile group to drive revenue growth. Can it? That is exactly what Yoon Bu-hyun, vice president of LG's global mobile business looks to have up his sleeve. He noted that the company will work closely with its partner LG Display to introduce a smartphone with a flexible OLED screen in Q4 2013. LG has certainly made a great deal of progress on its flexible display technology and we believe it has the ability to deliver some sort of flexible smartphone.
But what are the odds that LG can actually deliver a true flexible smartphone by Q4 2013? And what, exactly, does "flexible" mean here? Does it mean a device with perhaps slightly rounded screen edges? Technically that would qualify, though of course that isn't what the consumer world at large would take to mean "flexible." Most consumers will translate "flexible" into "bendable," and that is not where the world will be any time soon. Still, a device with a rounded edges screen may be enough of a differentiator to significantly boost LG's 2013 holiday buying season sales.
Samsung of course has its own flexible OLED technology - dubbed Youm - in hand, though there are currently no indications that the company would deliver any devices utilizing it in 2013. If LG can really beat Samsung to the punch this year on the flexible display front, it would likely spur revenue growth.
We look forward to seeing if such a beast is indeed just around the "bend."
TechZone360 Senior Editor
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Bangalore-based online retailer Flipkart announced on Wednesday its entry into the eBook category market with its digital store Flyte.
According to the Flipkart, the Flyte store has an initial collection of over 1 lakh books starting from as little as ₹30. Readers can purchase and download the books from the e-showroom using their mobile devices.
"We have a growing, tech-savvy reader base that is constantly on the go -- and they are looking for options to buy and read their favorite books on their mobile devices instantly," said Sameer Nigam, VP-digital at Flipkart.com, at the launch event.
The books purchased from the eBook showroom can be read using the Flyte app which is currently available on devices using Android operating system. The Flyte app is available for download at Google Play store for Android users.
Flipkart said that the app for Windows 8 will be rolled out sometime soon.
Flyte offers features like free samples of each book on the website or mobile app, the ability to read each eBook on up to six devices, sync reading location, an app that allows users to purchase, download and read eBooks from the store. The digital service also lists around 4,000 free titles which can be used to test the app. Sync reading location will allow readers to exit a book on a particular device and continue reading from the same point in another device.
Flipkart, a company founded by young entrepreneurs Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, initially started as online retailer for books and later expended to electronic goods and a variety of other products. The company had also launched a digital music store earlier in February.


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Will Apple envy wreck Samsung?
Samsung wants to be like Apple. But to do that, it needs to dump Android -- and that's not a good idea.
Computerworld - Samsung is tired of watching Apple run away with most of the money in mobile. Now, the Korean giant is making a big play to become like Apple -- a company that makes not only the hardware, but also the software and the store where you buy stuff.
Samsung also wants to be like Google and make money from mobile advertising.
In order to own the software platform that powers its phones, Samsung needs to drop Android. But can Samsung pull this off without wrecking a good thing?
Samsung's big play in Silicon Valley
Samsung this week announced something called the Open Innovation Center, which is located in two places -- Silicon Valley and New York City.
The purpose of the center, headed by former Google executive David Eun, is to enable Samsung to benefit from software innovation. The organization will act as an incubator, providing salaries and benefits to entrepreneurs while they semi-autonomously create new ideas within the company. It will also act as a venture capitalist, investing in outside startups and organizing software-company acquisitions for Samsung.
Samsung hopes the Open Innovation Center will accelerate the growth of the app ecosystem for its new Android replacement, called Tizen.
It's not complicated. Samsung wants to transition from a hardware company to a company more like Apple -- one that makes money from hardware, software, apps, services and advertising.
Here comes Tizen
Samsung is working with Intel to develop a Linux-based operating system called Tizen. The software is designed to power smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and even in-car devices.
It's a direct competitor with, and alternative to, Google's Android platform.
The first demonstration of Tizen running on actual Samsung hardware is expected to take place at Mobile World Congress this month in Barcelona, where I'm currently located and awaiting the big show.
(Tizen software has previously been seen only on "reference" hardware distributed to developers so they could build apps for it.)
It's not clear whether the Mobile World Congress demonstrations will be open to the public and the press, or if they'll be held behind closed doors for select partners only.
Samsung phones running Tizen are expected to hit the market by the end of the year.
It's not just about Tizen or smartphones
Samsung is by far the leading seller of television sets in the United States. Many of those TVs run Google TV software, which is based on Android and Google's Chrome browser.
Samsung is also the maker of some Chromebooks -- laptops that run a variant of the Chrome browser as a kind of operating system.
Tizen is designed to run on all these platforms.
Eun announced very clearly this week that Samsung's intention is to build a software ecosystem where TVs, laptops, tablets and smartphones all connect with one another seamlessly and easily, as Apple devices are supposed to do.
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Dell’s New Angle: Every New Mobile Company Needs Enterprise
Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) made a brief foray into the smartphone business – releasing the Venue Pro, a handset powered by Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows mobile operating platform, in December 2010 and the Venue, powered by Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, in 2011. But those devices were not popular with carriers or customers, and the PC maker announced it would cease manufacturing both devices in March of last year.
At the time, the company said that its decision did not mean that it was exiting the U.S. smartphone market, and company spokeswoman Ellen Murphy told PCMag that Dell would launch more smartphones in the United States by the end of 2012. Of course, those new smartphones never came, and Dell spent much of the past eight months caught up in an identity crisis as company founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell battled activist investor Carl Icahn for control over the company’s future.
The main point of contention between Mr. Dell and Icahn was whether Dell would remain publicly traded or go private in leveraged buyout deal. Underlying the go-private debate were two equally important questions: the PC maker’s value and its future business. Mr. Dell proposed in early February to take the PC-maker completely private so that the transformation of its core business from personal computers to enterprise services could take place away from the pressure of Wall Street.
In comparison, Icahn argued that the strategy would unfairly eliminate the opportunity for shareholders to profit from any future improvement in Dell’s performance. His proposal would have left a portion of the company public and keep Dell largely a PC company.
To the special committee of the company’s board of directors that deal “dramatically elevate [the] risk profile and uncertainty for existing Dell shareholders” and to Mr. Dell, it would add substantial debt, decrease financial flexibility, and “hurt the company’s ability to weather an economic or business downturn.”
The question of smartphones was never an issue. Now that the major question about Dell’s future has been solved — shareholders voted Thursday to approve Mr. Dell’s $24.9 billion or $13.75-per-share privatization bid — the discussion can be devoted to what will happen once the privatization transaction has been completed. “Once the deal is consummated, they can move on and close some of the large infrastructure deals they’ve been working on. I do think there’s been a bit of a pause,” Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross told Reuters.
Currently, Dell’s future is intermediately tied to PCs with more than 50 percent of its revenue generated from that sector. To realign itself in the post-iPad world, there were two different paths the company could follow: smartphones or enterprise. As the company CEO made clear in an interview with CNBC on Friday, returning to the smartphone business is not on his agenda.
“We’re not getting in the mobile phone business,” he said. But that does not mean the soon-to-be-privately-held company is not looking to profit off the mobile market. “Every time a new mobile company gets born, they need servers and infrastructure and storage,” Mr. Dell told CNBC. “Companies need to protect and secure their data on these mobile devices.”
The very public fight for control of Dell’s future that Icahn waged against Mr. Dell brought the personal computer maker’s need to transform itself into the glaring spotlight. The company’s most-recently reported quarterly results, which included a 72 percent drop in net income — and IDC’s expectations for a 10 percent drop in annual PC shipments for 2013 — only added to that spotlight. Even so, the company still plans to invest in both the personal computer and tablet markets, Mr. Dell said in a conference call following the shareholder vote.
Despite his commitment to building Dell into an industry-leading provider of entrprise services, in the mold of IBM (NYSE:IBM), end-user computing, which includes devices like PCs and tablets, will remain an important focus for the company, as Mr. Dell told reporters on the call. He did not elaborate on the subject or take further questions, Reuters reported.
With the vote completed, the company’s internal transformation is expected to quicken. “We still have a long way to go and many challenges to meet,” the company founder said, according to the publication. “But under a new private company structure, we will have the flexibility to accelerate our strategy and pursue both organic and inorganic investment without the scrutiny, quarterly targets and other limitations of operating as a public company.”
In the past quarter, the company’s evolving strategy began to show after the shock of the 72 percent slide in quarterly earnings abated. While revenue increased modestly from the previous year, that increase came at a cost.
To grab market share from competitors Lenovo (LNVGY.PK) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), the company significantly discounted its PCs — a move that boosted sales but cut into margins and earnings.With EBITA of $3.6 billion in the last quarter, Dell can use that cash to invest in the other side its business, the enterprise service side, which like PCs is a low-cost, low-margin business.
What remains to be seen is whether Dell can build its enterprise service business big enough and fast enough to be competitive. Some analysts believe it might be too late to grab market share from HP and IBM. Of course, with the collapsing PC market, Dell had little choice.


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The American brand of plant-based fish and seafood Good Catch enters the Ukrainian market. The first product presented in Ukraine will be plant-based fish cakes.
This was reported by the company West Mills that has become the official distributor of Good Catch in Ukraine.
Good Catch products can be tasted in more than 20 restaurants in the country, including:
- Eco Buffet;
- Gremio Grill;
- Green whale;
- Sky Garden;
- Ketchup Room;
- Avocado Cafe;
- Orang Utan;
- Green 13 Yizha;
- Beyond Meat;
- Om Nom Nom;
- True cafe;
- Chill Out Vegan;
The company has noted that plant-based fish is a safe, healthy and tasty alternative. It is free of mercury, antibiotics and microplastics and is free of offensive odor. In addition, it reduces the number of environmental problems that arise from overfishing.
However, it is not yet known whether Good Catch products will reach supermarkets.
Context. The global industry of plant-based substitute for meat in 2020 reached a volume of $20.7 billion. Such data of the research company Euromonitor International was presented by the TV channel CNBC. Specialists expect that the market will continue to grow and will reach $23.2 billion by 2024.
Manufacturers of substitutes for animal products (alternative protein), that are used in food, clothing, cosmetics, and chemicals, in the first half of 2020 raised $1.5 billion in investments.


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Axiom Communications hired by IFRA UK
The appointment coincides with a rebranding of the association, formerly named The British Fragrance Association. IFRA United Kingdom, is the leading trade body representing UK manufacturers and suppliers of fragrances.
Jo Jacobius, managing director of Axiom Communications, said: “IFRA United Kingdom represents 98 per cent of the UK’s fragrance manufacturing market. The role these companies play is important as fragrances contribute significantly to our enjoyment of the products we use or experience every day.


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Prepare your appetite for the first-ever Memorial City Restaurants Weeks, allowing diners and restaurants to give back to the Memorial Hermann Foundation.
All throughout March 2020, a dozen restaurants will offer deals on exquisite dishes along with the option to donate anywhere between $3 and $7 per meal. MetroNational, the development company behind restaurant weeks, has offered a 50 percent match of all donated funds.


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Could we have finally caught a glimpse of the real Samsung Galaxy S3? According to the video that hit the web today, it is the real deal. Along with all of that excitement, the RAZR and the RAZR MAXX are starting to receive some soak test action, which means owners of the device could be seeing an update heading for their devices pretty soon. To top it all off, we reviewed the HTC One X and the One S, so be sure to check those out.
Have a safe and fun-filled weekend, everybody!


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Valentine’s Day has limited appeal in the UK, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), but spending was expected to rise by double digits among those planning to buy gifts this year.
According to a January 2017 poll of more than 2,000 adults in the UK by Opinium Research LLP for PwC , 52% of respondents didn’t plan to buy a gift for their loved one this Valentine’s Day. Moreover, 48% didn’t even expect to buy a card.
However, those who did plan to spend on Valentine’s Day gifts said they would shell out more than they did last year. The average amount respondents planned to spend was £29.89 ($40.34), up 12% from £26.69 ($36.02) in 2016.
Males planned to spend more than females—£39.70 ($53.58) vs. £20.42 ($27.56)—the study found. PwC calculates that a total of £458.7 million ($619.1 million) will be spent on Valentine’s Day in the UK this year.
PwC’s estimate would see spending in 2017 outpace the 2% rise Mintel estimated UK consumers would spend on Valentine’s Day gifts in 2016, even if the total value of 2017 spending was well below the £470 million ($718.3 million) Mintel forecast for last year.
Value aside, spending was more likely to occur at physical stores than online, according to PwC’s study. “For Valentine’s Day purchases, consumers do still seem to prefer the high street experience to shopping online,” said Madeleine Thomson, retail and consumer leader at PwC. “Our survey reveals that 49% of people who plan to buy something for Valentine’s Day plan to do so in-store, compared to 30% on laptop or desktop.”
That spending could look different than the traditional flowers and chocolate, however. Nearly three in 10 respondents (29%) said they would prefer a gift related to travel or leisure. Approximately a fifth (21%) of respondents said they were most likely to give small, personal gifts, such as handmade items.
Search stats from Google also hint at the ever-evolving state of Valentine’s Day in the UK. In 2016, there were 2.5 times more Google UK search queries looking for gifts for “him/boyfriend/husband” than for “her/girlfriend/wife,” according to the company. However, searches for gifts for girls were rising nearly nine times faster than gifts for guys in the run-up to this year’s holiday.
Alternatives to Valentine’s Day were rising too, according to Google, with interest in the likes of Galentine’s Day (an idea promulgated by the US TV series “Parks and Recreation” and held on February 13) and Singles Awareness Day (held on February 15) increasing by as much as 44% compared with 2016.


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Expert Weighs in on Amazon Prime’s Pricing Problem
When Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) recently shared its plans to possibly raise the price of its popular Prime membership program, many analysts grimaced. A membership currently costs $79 dollars a year, and although many Amazon customers have hopped on board as of late, not all analysts and investors have been convinced that Amazon will continue to maintain all of its current members if the company bumps the program’s rates up $20 to $40, potentially alienating some customers. The concern is that Prime users won’t renew their membership if Amazon goes ahead with the price hike, but according to Rafi Mohammed, a pricing-strategy consultant, Amazon’s Prime program has other issues to deal with, too — and its pricing strategy is just one of its problems.
According to Market Watch, Mohammed believes that Amazon needs to rethink the structure of its Prime program and unbundle some of its more miscellaneous features. The consultant suggests that Amazon get rid of the video-streaming and Kindle digital-book borrowing services it currently offers its Prime members, and Mohammed also believes that Amazon should consider restructuring Prime with different pricing levels so customers can choose what level of service they want to pay for. He says executives should look at the varying price levels cellphone companies offer as guidance.
Many cell phone companies offer different membership deals that appeal to consumers’ varying usage levels, and Mohammed believes that Amazon’s Prime service could benefit from that strategy. He explains, via Market Watch, “The key lesson in pricing for any company is to understand that customers are different. There’s so much more to pricing instead of a simple two-lever, up-and-down strategy. There’s a lot of ways you can slice that pricing. Let people self-select the shipping and pricing option. The notion of offering customer choices is something that becomes standard in all industries. Most companies should offer good, better, and best prices.”
Mohammed has a point. While some Amazon customers take full advantage of the program’s benefits and shop online exclusively from Amazon.com, the increased price of a Prime membership might not be worth it for those consumers who only benefit from Prime every now and again. They are the customers that Amazon is at risk of losing, but if the e-commerce giant could somehow come out with a new Prime package that offers lower prices and a diluted set of Prime perks, they might be more inclined to stay. Even Mohammed said he was not sure if he’d continue paying for his Prime membership because he doesn’t use it enough to justify the price hike.
As for the programs that the consultant believes should be cut from the Prime program, Amazon’s video-streaming and Kindle digital-book borrowing services should be the first to go, says Muhammed. According to Market Watch, he says “it’s just not intuitive” to offer those services under the Prime umbrella, and there is no proof that existing members currently take advantage of the features. If the increasing cost of offering those services is leading to Amazon’s price hike, they’re not worth it to many users.
So, it’ll be interesting to see if Amazon actually listens to the consultant’s advice, or whether CEO Jeff Bezos goes ahead with his own plans. Though the e-commerce company currently seems stuck in a sticky situation with the future of Prime, if we know anything about Bezos, it’s that the executive knows what he’s doing, and he’ll likely find his way out of this risky position, too.


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Brookeville, MD, January 27, 2013 --(PR.com
)-- The Montgomery County graphic design firm, Quinter Design, www.QuinterDesign.com, is among the top businesses and organizations in Maryland, according to The Gazette of Politics and Business.
In its fifth year, The Gazette’s program honors the top 53 businesses and organizations based on noteworthy innovations in service, community outreach and positive workplace environment. Quinter Design is ranked No. 21 on the list; the rankings were announced at a recent awards ceremony.
“Wow, we are thrilled, surprised, proud and humbled to know our work and company are so highly regarded,” says Robyn Quinter, President and Founder. “Quinter Design is a small, family-run business that creates big results. We say we’re on a mission to rid the world of unattractive and ineffective marketing materials, and it’s great to know we’re among the ‘cream of the crop.’ This acknowledgment from the business community and The Gazette is really special.”
The P&B Exceptional 53 also included Quinter Design clients: Kendall Capital, Manna Food Center and Olney Theatre Center. “We are in good company,” says Quinter. “For several years, our firm has helped clients compile top notch applications for the Gazette’s competition, and every one of those clients has been honored.”
For nearly 20 years, Brookeville-based Quinter Design has offered three core services to companies of all sizes, non-profit organizations and government agencies: 1) innovative, creative graphic design for print and web; 2) on-target publicity services and media relations; and 3) custom design and production of trade show displays, posters, banners and large format printed projects.
Quinter Design was recognized for its innovative ideas to generate growth despite the lean economic times of the past three years. The firm expanded its publicity services, refined its promotional materials, and cross-marketed its three core services in Bundles of [Promotional] Joy, combining publicity services, custom-designed trade show display items and companion printed materials at prices significantly lower than purchasing the same materials and services individually
The firm’s commitment to pro bono service and volunteer work also was cited by The Gazette. Several area non-profit organizations have benefited from the firm’s generosity, including Manna Food Center, the Olney Farmers Market and Threshold Services. Robyn and John co-chair the Olney Chamber of Commerce’s annual signature event, Community Night, a business showcase attracting 3,000+ attendees. Robyn serves as President of the Board of MCF (Maryland Coalition of Families for Children’s Mental Health), a statewide advocacy group, and John serves on the Board of Directors of Montgomery Alliance for Community Giving.
“To make the 53 list is a great accomplishment,” says Trina Lapier, Publisher of The Gazette of Politics and Business. “This year’s list features Maryland companies that have had success in a wide variety of fields, and each company deserved recognition of its accomplishments.” Quinter Design is among the Exceptional 53 profiled in a special section of the Oct. 26 edition.
Read by more than 20,000 business and political professionals, The Gazette of Politics and Business is part of the Community Newspaper Group of Post-Newsweek Media, Inc. Its weekly newspapers have been published in the Maryland suburbs for more than 50 years and are recognized leaders in providing local news and community resources.
For more information on Quinter Design, call 301-924-4654 or visit www.quinterdesign.com


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WPP AUNZ agencies 1 Kent Street, Hogarth and MediaCom, along with creative consultant Simon Collins, today launched a remarkably simple and thereby powerful campaign to motivate people to vote in favour of marriage equality in Australia's upcoming postal survey.
Clearly planned well in advance of the survey becoming official yesterday, the campaign, for an organisation called YES Equality Campaign, is smartly constructed to model the exact action people have to take if...
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Following the release of Apple’s M1 chip, AJA has been working hard behind closed doors – developing software that’s compatible with the powerful new technology
compatibility. To this end, both of these software releases come with support for the aforementioned Apple M1 chip – as well as enhanced audio, broadcast, production and post workflows. “As the demand for video continues to grow across industries, professionals in broadcast, production, post and AV need this ability to leverage the latest technology – like that of the incredibly powerful Apple M1 chip,” AJA president Nick Rashby comments. Harnessing the power and cost-effectiveness that comes with Apple M1 systems, the updates make them highly functional for I/O tasks. Not to mention the
arlier this year, Apple released its much-anticipated M1 chip. Having received rave reviews for performance and efficiency, it marks the company’s first transition
TURNING TO NVIDIA
News also came from AJA of its SDK support for the NVIDIA Jetson platform for edge AI and the NVIDIA Clara AGX developer kit – providing real-time artificial intelligence and imaging for medical devices. With AJA’s KONA and Corvid solutions, OEM developers can develop robust AI, video imaging and streaming systems; supporting 8K and 4K video capture, plus playback for applications in healthcare, broadcast, virtual production – and much more.
from Intel chips – used since 2006. As a result, there has been a global race across multiple industries to integrate the chip into their technical systems. Within the broadcasting realm, AJA Video Systems is one of the first companies to do so. Rolling out its Desktop Software v16.1 for its KONA, Io and T-TAP Pro products – alongside AJA SDK v16.1 for Developer Partners – it’s a big step towards broadening system
continuing existing support for Intel-based systems from Apple and Windows, Linux Ubuntu and Linux CentOS systems. On top of this, the latest software update continues the expansion of options available in AJA’s MultiChannel Config, enabling 12G-/6G -SDI input support – and extended audio support for products using Telestream Wirecast. AJA’s Control Panel also sees an upgrade, with additional GUI feedback for situations where “auto” has resulted in signal modification – in turn to make it easier for creatives and technicians to understand results. “AJA Desktop Software v16.1 brings KONA, Io and T-TAP Pro users new features aimed at streamlining creative workflows, while AJA SDK v16.1 includes enhancements to open up a host of opportunities for Developer partners,” concludes Rashby.
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Article by Rob Stummer, Asia Pacific CEO at SYSPRO
The Australian Government is unlocking the potential for the manufacturing sector to deliver for the future of our nation with the $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI). It will be a key driver of our economic recovery and future resilience.
The rationale is that despite our world-class skills and incredible natural assets, Australian manufacturers need to scale up in priority areas of strategic importance that provide good returns.
The National Manufacturing Priorities
The MMI will provide co?funding for large manufacturing projects that have broad benefits across the sectors named the ‘National Manufacturing Priorities’. To super-charge Australian manufacturing it will focus on areas of strategic importance, including:
- Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing
- Food and Beverage
- Medical Products
- Recycling and Clean Energy
Transformative investments in manufacturing technologies
Australia needs to be recognised as a high-quality and sustainable manufacturing nation. With our Government supporting transformative investments in manufacturing technologies and processes, there is so much opportunity to invest in smart factory technologies. Digital transformation should now be a key priority for all manufacturing businesses as it leads to enhanced productivity, safety and quality outcomes.
In addition to the funding already announced for the MMI, the government is investing more than $475 million to drive industry growth and scientific development. The new funding includes $117.8 million over the next four years to deliver Australia’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan, as part of the government’s Digital Economy Strategy.
Inspired by the success of the UK’s national network of large-scale manufacturing accelerators like the Industry Catapult centres, Flinders University has established Australia’s first industrial-scale “Factory of the Future” facility – Line Zero at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide, a former car factory, where the Chrysler Valiant and Mitsubishi 380 sedans were manufactured.
The Line Zero facility demonstrates the transformative potential of advanced manufacturing technologies when they are implemented in a human-centred way. The factory cleverly combines research and development with skills training. Initiatives like the Factory of the Future will accelerate our push to modernise Australian manufacturing, in line with the industry powerhouses like Germany and the UK.
Real time reporting and visibility of processes
The reality is that manufacturers have reached an inflection point, where digital transformation is now vital for them to remain competitive during our economic recovery.
Achieving intelligent interconnectivity between automation, digitisation and data analytics in manufacturing operations will drive transformative change in manufacturing in Australia. Our manufacturers should fully embrace interconnected manufacturing by digitally transforming their operational processes.
Automatically connecting with machines to read real-time data without manual inputs will drive efficiency and transparency to manage operational performance better. This will help to increase productivity, minimise loss and lower production costs.
Ensuring full interconnectivity between all equipment and machines to digitise their factories will enable Australian manufacturers to provide real time reporting and visibility of processes, so they can measure performance in real time via their ERP system.
The next logical step for manufacturers to optimise operations is to implement a Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) system integrated within your ERP solution to ensure the effective execution of manufacturing operations to help improve efficiency.
Utilising MOM, manufacturers will have a single source of data and full visibility of production. Besides providing an equipment status, employee performance and job status, data is digital and can be analysed to provide a predictive function to improve factory performance.
Securing Australia’s future with manufacturing
If we get the investments right over the next few years, Australia’s manufacturing sector can deliver world class products, incorporate the best technology and provide the high paying and secure jobs our manufacturing industry and country needs.
For too long we have attempted to be all things to all people. We cannot do everything, but we can punch above our weight in those sectors where we have an edge over our foreign competitors.
Australia has been phenomenally successful in sectors like mining and agriculture because of the competitive strength of our natural resources sector internationally. Our food manufacturers are helping farmers achieve more value from their produce by enhancing efficiency through better food processing techniques that extend nutritional value and shelf life of goods.
Manufacturing companies are more likely to grow and attract investment when there are fewer barriers and they are supported by a thriving business environment. With the government focusing its investment on projects that will create collaborative environments, encourage the market to invest and partner with business, research organisations as well as governments.
Manufacturing is critical to a modern Australian economy. It is a vital part of Australia’s economic recovery. Manufacturing is key to almost every supply chain and adds value across all sectors. The vision is for Australia to be recognised as a high-quality and sustainable manufacturing nation that clearly focuses on its six key national manufacturing priorities that supports a strong, modern and resilient economy for all Australians.


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BERLIN -- The Germans are so strong on their family values they want the state to enforce them. They're debating now whether shops should be shuttered on Sunday by law. It's a burning issue in coffee shops, on the street and in the newspapers, hotter than whether Angela Merkel should send more troops to Afghanistan.
Germany's highest court has ruled that keeping Sunday a day of rest benefits everyone, like it or not. So buying a head of lettuce, repairing a bike or purchasing a pair of shoes is not for Sunday. The ruling is especially disappointing to Berlin shopkeepers who find flexible Sunday hours particularly profitable.
Most clergymen, eager to reach the multitudes (the more parishioners in the pews, the louder the hymns), have greeted the ruling with enthusiasm if not awe. The initial complaint against extended Sunday hours was filed by leaders of both Protestant and Catholic churches, who argued that a clause in the German constitution supports the day of rest as important to "spiritual elevation." The labor unions pushed for Sunday as a family day that even atheists could enjoy. Under the ruling, shops will no longer enjoy Berlin's expansive policy of staying open 10 Sundays a year, including the four consecutive Sundays before Christmas, although it did not completely overturn the principle for some Sunday openings. Curbs on hours are expected in other cities, too.
Fortunately for the thousands of tourists who flock to Germany from all over the continent for the traditional Christmas markets, the new regulations aren't effective this Christmas season -- and they can visit retail shops on Sunday, too. More than 2,500 such markets have opened across Germany this year, and shoppers are expected to leave a lot of Euros behind. A typical shopper to a Christmas market spends about 30 Euros, almost $50, and if my own haul of scarves, toys and jewelry is typical, that's a modest estimate.
Dozens of little wooden huts, or stalls decorated with tiny, twinkling Christmas lights, typically stand in neat rows on town squares and plazas. They're tucked into alleys, courtyards and side streets, traditionally offering wooden toys, tree ornaments, nativity scenes and an enormous array of holiday food: gingerbread in Munich, figurines fashioned of dried plums in Frankfurt and stollen, a Christmas cake, in Dresden. It's even possible occasionally to find a hand crafted Hanukkah menorah.


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Cash-strapped Americans — even those who lost their jobs — can’t expect to catch a break on their credit report if they miss a loan, rent or mortgage payment because of the coronavirus pandemic, a new report said Tuesday.
The powerful financial industry successfully lobbied Congress to reject a moratorium on recording missed and late payments on credit reports during the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The sector’s success in persuading lawmakers to drop the protections for consumers sparked fears that people who lose their livelihoods through no fault of their own will see their credit scores plunge, making it harder if not impossible for them to get credit in the future.
Lawmakers told the paper that legislation that would have stopped credit bureaus from reporting negative credit information for four months was shelved in the frenzy of special interest lobbying before the $2 trillion bill was passed last week.
Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Brian Schatz of Hawaii pledged to keep fighting for the moratorium proposal.
“While our bill didn’t make it into the final package, this issue isn’t going away,” Brown wrote on Twitter.
“I’ll keep fighting with @brianschatz to make sure families don’t take an unfair hit to their credit during this crisis.”
The National Consumer Law Center said trusting creditors to help consumers was a fantasy that was “just not acceptable.”
But the industry insisted that it already had sufficient measures to protect people’s credit rating during disasters, and argued that incomplete reporting could create headaches for banks, credit card companies and other lenders.
Before the vote on the package, Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, had removed the Democrats’ proposal and replaced it with language that leaves it up to creditors to help consumers.
An individual’s three-digit credit score determines whether they can get credit cards, loans and mortgages and what interest rate they would pay.
The score is calculated by factoring in payment history, the amount of outstanding debt, length of credit history and other information.
Creditors said they would use a natural-disaster code during the pandemic for missing or late payments, and tell lenders that the borrower wasn’t to blame so credit scores wouldn’t be negatively affected.
“Reporting negative information with a code doesn’t work because that negative information is still in the system,” Ed Mierzwinski, who oversees the federal consumer program for PIRG, a consumer advocacy group, told the Journal.
“We are bracing for a flood of late and missed payments because of the crisis. The only way to truly help people is to shut off the spigot of negative information from the credit bureaus.”
Brown and Schatz introduced their proposed moratorium on March 18.
On March 21, the US Chamber of Commerce and associations repping banks, financial services companies and credit unions delivered a letter to Senate and House leadership assuring them that they don’t need to step in.
“As you consider options to protect consumers from harm, please be aware that blanket suppression of all adverse information in credit reports could disrupt consumer access to credit in the future,” the letter said.
But Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, scoffed at that argument.
“Where is the political willpower to protect consumers? This is one of the few things that the federal government can do to truly help people that doesn’t cost the federal government any money,” Wu said.


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- Family Zone has secured a long-awaited U.S. patent for its cloud-based cyber safety technology
- The company first applied for the patent in 2013
- The software allows users to monitor internet usage on several devices through cloud-based software, meaning it can be installed on any device or network
- Family Zone shares are currently up 20 per cent from their last closing price, now trading for $0.27 each
Family Zone shares reached a 2019 high of $0.28 each this morning after the company secured a long-awaited U.S. patent.
The patent protects Family Zone’s cyber safety Device Management System in the U.S. market with Family Zone first applying for the patent in March 2013.
However, the implications of this patent are no small deal for Family Zone. The intellectual property protected by the new award relates to the company’s device management system which it describes as its “Universal Cyber Safety Platform”.
This now-patented system is Family Zone’s flagship technology, which allows users to monitor internet usage on several devices through cloud-based software. The access policies to monitor or limit internet usage can be installed on end-user devices, in mobile networks or in network gateways.
According to Family Zone, this new patent is a “significant milestone” for the company. The company says not only does the patent protect its technology from potential U.S. competitors, but it also validates the uniqueness of Family Zone’s platform approach to cyber safety.
The company says the parental controls market is worth roughly $100 billion with less than 5 per cent penetration, and the new patent is key to unlocking the global potential of this market.
This new patent is the latest in a string of good reports from Family Zone. In June, Family Zone landed partnerships with Google, Noel Leeming, and Telkomsel Indonesia, and launched its “game changing” SpotShield product at the 2019 EduTech convention.
The company aims to keep establishing a strong presence in the education market by allowing schools and parents to apply their own sets of rules and standards across any network or device.
Family Zone shares are currently up 20 per cent from their last closing price, now trading for $0.27 each in a $54.17 million market cap.


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Researchers from the School of Biosciences have been awarded funding of over £300, 000 from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to develop a new approach to using fruit waste to create new healthy foods, while reducing food waste and carbon emissions.
Through the ‘Upcycled Food: Getting the Goodness out of Kent Cherries’ project, Dr Marina Ezcurra and Dr Jenny Tullet will collaborate with Michael Dallaway, owner of Kent cherry grower Rent a cherry tree, to determine the health benefits of a variety of Kent cherry products and develop new foods from cherry waste.
As cherries are primarily sold as high-class fresh fruit, those that are bruised, soft or discoloured are often deemed unfit to sell by supermarkets. The project aims to reduce ‘waste cherries’ which are currently sent to landfill, negatively impacting productivity, carbon emissions and sustainability.
With Kent being the largest cherry producer in the UK, this project will lead the way in creating a more sustainable and innovative cherry industry. It will provide Michael and other local growers with strong scientific knowledge on their products, helping local businesses capitalise on a growing consumer demand for healthy and sustainable products. Findings from the project will provide a major opportunity for local growers to expand by targeting a wider customer-base.
More information about the UKRI funding programme can be found here.


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Lawsuit filed against Pizza Hut franchisees over delivery driver paySTAFF REPORT
July 25. 2014 9:59PM
KANSAS CITY — A federal lawsuit has been filed against Capital Pizza Huts Inc., franchisees of nearly 90 Pizza Hut restaurants in seven states, including New Hampshire, for failing to pay minimum wage to their delivery drivers, a law firm said Friday.
“The suit alleges that Capital Pizza is violating federal wage and hour laws by failing to adequately reimburse their drivers for their automobile expenses, resulting in unreimbursed business expenses that reduce pizza delivery drivers’ net wages below minimum wage,” according to a statement from the Missouri law firm of Paul McInnes LLP. The St. Louis law firm of Weinhaus & Potashnick also is involved in the case.The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Colorado.
Capital Pizza didn’t immediately respond with a comment Friday.The statement said a similar suit is pending against the corporate Pizza Hut stores owned by YUM Brands Inc. in federal court in Colorado. About 6,000 Pizza Hut delivery drivers have joined that case.


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Former Waitrose marketing director Christian Cull has been appointed to the newly created role of director of customer communications at BSkyB. He will take up the position on 1 March and will take responsibility for a range of BSkyB's customer communications initiatives, including Sky's customer magazines, loyalty programmes, promotional and advocacy activities and relevant media relations.
New GSK director
GlaxoSmithKline has appointed Dr Stephanie Burns as a non-executive director. Burns is chairman, president and chief executive officer of silicone-based technology company Dow Corning Corporation, and will join GSK's board with immediate effect.
REL commercial chief
Former Sainsbury's business unit director for impulse and grocery Laurence Clube has become REL Field Marketing's new commercial director. The appointment was a significant coup for the UK field marketing agency and further evidence of its increasing stature, claimed REL.
Info security head
International marketing consultancy Dunnhumby has appointed Andrew Hamilton as group head of information security. Hamilton is responsible for the development and management of a global security programme across the company. Its clients include Tesco, Unilever and Coca-Cola.
Fridjhon goes global
South Africa's most-published wine writer, Michael Fridjhon, has been appointed the International Wine Challenge's first global co-chairman. He joins the IWC's four other chairmen in London later this year for the organisation's 24th annual competition.


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“Everything was neon and ugly. Color combinations were the worst. Fashion was weird, music was over-digitized, and it was an awesome time to be alive,” say the event organizers at the Detroit Shipping Co. food hall. Honestly, compared to how the third decade of the 21st century is shaping up — a pandemic, recession, global supply chain crisis, civil unrest, increasingly severe weather events caused by climate change, the Metaverse — we wouldn’t mind going back to simpler times.
And brunch. Detroit Shipping Co. is serving up a taste of both with its latest installment of its monthly brunch series, which features brunch specials from Coop, Bangkok 96, and Momo Cha, along with popular cocktails from the ’80s and a soundtrack of pop hits courtesy of DJ Intense. Cowabunga.
From noon-3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 16 at the Detroit Shipping Co., 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; detroitshippingcompany.com. Admission is free.


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Logos has expanded to Vietnam, bringing in an unnamed capital partner to establish a $350m (€293m) logistics platform.
Logos’s managing director, Stephen Hawkins, said the Logos Vietnam Logistics Venture would focus on developing its own assets, but was also open to acquiring completed, core assets.
The Logos team had assembled a pipeline of sites, he said. “We are close to making some acquisitions, and these will be developed and held in the vehicle.”
With deals “currently on the table”, Hawkins told IPE Real Assets he expected the fund to achieve its initial target of assembling a $350m portfolio within a couple of years.
The focus would be on the key markets of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang.
Hawkins said Logos had established its South East Asia business in 2016 and was operating in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. It was now looking to other markets, including Vietnam.
IPE Real Assets understands that the new capital partner is based in Asia, and has existing investments in Vietnam with other managers.
In Vietnam, Logos would initially focus on its first joint venture, but this partnership was not an exclusive relationship, and, over time, Logos expected to grow its presence with other partners.
Trent Iliffe, Logos managing director and co-CEO, said the move into Vietnam marked an important step in Logos’ regional growth strategy.
Growth in demand for logistics facilities was in part driven by the US-China trade war, decentralisation of supply chains and a natural evolution of the market, he said.
To read the digital edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.


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Official DIHEF Community for Women and Young Girls
baitron has not received any gifts yet
RAPT Touch, an Alternative Touch Screen Technology Leader, will showcase the latest Interactive Flat Panel technology for educational markets at BETT 2018 (UK Education and Training Technology Showcase). RAPT and Partners Present Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Whiteboard Preview and Other Classroom Applications on 75 "Interactive Flatbed and Announce a New Interactive Flatbed Project for the Education Market at BETT.…Continue
DRAM serious shortage of supply, Samsung next 3% next year, the price hike 3% to 5%, SK Hynix next quarter will also be about 5% price rise, the global DRAM prices rose for seven consecutive quarters, is the longest history of the longest.
Interpretation of the industry, Samsung, Hynix next quarter prices firm attitude, equal to declare to the world, Korean firms decided to maintain the stability of the DRAM price determination to eliminate the outside world that the two Korean…Continue
December 6, NAND Flash controller chipset and its major shareholders and long-term partners Kingston Technology jointly announced that it will launch a full range of products for high-speed, high-capacity PCIe interface SSD to accelerate the SSD into the new generation of high-speed PCIe, the expansion of new Market map.
Group said that since 2012, Kingston PATA, SATA, PCIe and other more than ten SSD control chip solutions, accumulated to date, total supply of Kingston's SSD control…Continue
According to the latest statistics released by the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI) yesterday (5), the global shipment of semiconductor equipment reached 14.33 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter, a 2% increase over the second quarter and a record high, up sharply from the same period of last year 30%. It is noteworthy that South Korea benefited from the memory plant to accelerate 3D NAND capacity building, ranking the world's largest equipment market for two…Continue


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China allows foreign equities to have 100pct stake in online data processing and transaction processing biz
BEIJING, June 19 (Greenpost) — China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released a circular on Friday that foreign equities could have 100 percent stake in the country’s online data processing and transaction processing business (operating e-commerce).
The move signals that the Chinese government has gradually lifted its restrictions on foreign equities’ access to the e-commerce sector, which can help create a competitive environment for the business and promote its development.
Online data processing and transaction processing business is one of the value-added telecom businesses, which need a business license granted by the government.
In January 2015, MIIT decided to allow foreign equities to have 100 percent stake in the online data processing and transaction processing business in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ). (Edited by Zhang Yuan, firstname.lastname@example.org)
Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson


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Friday 19 April 2013
Analyst firm IDC has predicted continued growth in business analytics services spending over the next five years.
In its newly published worldwide business analytics services outlook, the company forecast a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3 per cent for the market segment.
Total spending should reach $70.8 billion (£92.5 billion) by 2016, IDC claimed.
Mukesh Dialani, research director for worldwide business process outsourcing and engineering services at the firm, said IT services providers are leveraging their business analytics solutions and experience to assist their customers with their efforts to find key insights into organisational performance.
"These include industry-specific and functional resources, infrastructure, and knowledge of best business practice industry performance metrics," he stated.
According to IDC, a lack of internal analytics resources, the fast pace of innovation, and the desire to demonstrate an increased number of transformative use cases will persuade firms to increase investment in this area.
To find out more about Microsoft range of business intelligence and analytics solutions, click here.


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‘GamesMaster’ Officially Revived On E4 & YouTube
Back in February, we revealed that E4 was looking at bringing back the classic gaming show ‘GamesMaster‘. Today the channel has confirmed they have revived the series, but also that it will premiere on their YouTube channel before a linear broadcast on E4.
It’s been off-air for 23 years, but the iconic series is set to make a return to E4 later this year, in partnership with Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook. The series will see celebrities, gaming stars and super fans all take part in challenges, races and epic fights. Through virtual battles across a range of games, the competitors will try everything in their power to claim a legendary Golden Joystick Trophy. But whilst they play, they’ll be watched over by the all-knowing GamesMaster, famously portrayed in the original by Sir Patrick Moore.
”GamesMaster was a household name back in the ’90s and this new revamped version for social and E4 retains the elements that made this show so special, whilst also bringing it bang up to date, improving game quality and bringing in fresh and current names to tackle the trickiest GamesMaster challenges yet,” commented Sacha Khari, Head of Digital Commissioning at Channel 4.
‘GamesMaster’ launched back in January 1992 and was hosted by Dominik Diamond for most of its seven series. The show was the first British series dedicated to gaming and across the run, became a cultural phenomenon, and featured a number of celebrity guests, with names such as Ian Wright and Zoe Ball, alongside avid gaming members of the public. Interesting side note – one of those avid gamers was a young Simon Amstell as a hopeful contestant!
This new E4 Digital Original Commission co-produced by Barcroft TV, a Future PLC company and Alaska TV, the 3×60’ series will premiere on E4’s YouTube before a linear TX on E4. It is the first fully cross-platform branded entertainment deal of this type from 4Studio.
“I grew up watching GamesMaster and feel a real sense of pride and responsibility in bringing this groundbreaking brand back to life,” adds John Farrar, Executive Producer from Barcroft Studios. “We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with Channel 4, Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook and Alaska TV on this cross-platform, social-first proposition. Although the games have changed, the energy, mayhem and punk spirit of the original show will be unmistakably the same.”
That partnership with Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook means, of course, that the VR headset will feature in some of the games on the show.
“GamesMaster is a show with cult status among the gaming community, so we’re really excited to be partnering with Channel 4 to combine that great gaming heritage with the fully immersive VR gameplay offered by Oculus Quest 2 from Facebook,” said Aaron Hoffman, Head of International Marketing, Facebook Reality Labs. “By authentically embedding Quest 2 gameplay directly into the show, viewers and contestants will be exposed to an unrivalled VR gaming experience. We hope that diehard fans of the series will enjoy it and look forward to a whole new generation of fans discovering it.”
One thing missing from the announcement is who will take the place of the GamesMaster, now that Sir Patrick Moore is sadly no longer with us. Various suggestions online have included original host Dominik Diamond taking the spot, which would be a nice nod to the original show. Patrick Stewart also seems like a popular suggestion. Dara O Briain, an avid gamer, would be a solid choice and has… how do I put this… an appropriately shaped rotund head for the role.
‘GamesMaster‘ does not yet have a premiere date, but all episodes will premiere on E4’s YouTube, followed by a linear play on E4 when it does land. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add it via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.


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September 10, 2014 - Industry News
Love’s Truck Tire Care is now available at more than 200 of the company’s travel stops across the U.S.
Tags: Love's Travel Stops, Maintenance, Truckstops, Tires, Aftermarket
January 15, 2014 - Industry News
Love’s Travel Stops is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014. Founder and executive chairman Tom Love announced the company would undergo a record year of building.
Tags: Anniversary, Love's Travel Stops
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The expert, Mark Betner from CITGO, will answer your questions
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Opti-Cast Brake Drum Made for Light and Medium Duty
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In what has to be a record take-down of a questionable piece of marketing, Square Enix pulled a Facebook app promoting Hitman Absolution two hours after it was deployed after a scathing report from Rock, Paper, Shotgun. The company later apologized for the app. The trouble began after RPS wrote about how "Hire Hitman" app allowed users to target and assassinate their Facebook friends, complete with death threats to your intended target.
Just a year after it launched, Zynga has pulled the plug on the follow-up to one of the games that made it a household name among Facebook users. According to this The Escapist report, Zynga will shut down Mafia Wars 2 at the end of this year. In a message to players posted on Facebook, Zynga announced that Mafia Wars 2 will shut down.
Online retailer Amazon has apologized to UK customers who purchased a premium Wii U bundle but didn't get a copy of the game Nintendo Land. The retailer blamed supplier error for the omission of the game and said that the error only affected a small number of customers.
"It's been brought to our attention that a small number of orders for this item may have been delivered without the advertised game, Nintendo Land, due to supplier error," an email to customers confirmed.
According to this Reddit thread Sega has been forcing YouTube users to remove videos relating to the Sega Saturn hit strategy RPG Shining Force III. Many are speculating that Sega is doing this to prepare for the launch of a new PSP installment in the Shining series, Shining Ark, which will launch in Japan in February.
Gree apologized today for how it handled the closure of OpenFeint - announced earlier this week. The company also said that it was sorry for putting developers that used the technology in a tough situation. Speaking to PocketGamer, SVP of marketing and developer relations Eros Resmini said that it had originally planned to give developers a full year to migrate to a new platform, but did not elaborate why it decided to pull the plug now. The planned shutdown was announced earlier in the year.
In Episode 29 of the Super Podcast Action Committee hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss the shaky launch of the Wii U console over the weekend, Sony perma-bans for PS3 'hackers,' and the good and bad side of Electronic Arts. It's a show to remember unless you stopped that Wii U firmware update - then it's a painful reminder that getting your brand new console 'bricked' kind of sucks! Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 29 (1 hour, 19 minutes) 73 MB.
Earlier this year it was rumored that gaming and geek culture network G4 would be changing its format to support the "GQ" demographic, and that much of its most popular programming would either be reformatted or discontinued. Today we learn that it looks like its most popular programs will face the latter and not the former. Polygon is reporting that the network's two most popular shows have been cancelled.
It looks like Sony has decided that it will no longer support Stanford University's Folding@home distributed computing project via PlayStation 3. According to a post in the European PlayStation Blog, Sony will kill the ability for current and future PS3 owners to contribute part of the CPU power to the project with the next firmware update scheduled to go live sometime later this month. Sony didn't really give a reason why they have decided to do this...
Earlier this week we reported that Foxconn - the company that helps build many of the products that are popular in the West from companies like Apple, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft and Nintendo - reported that it found underage interns working in one of its plants in Yantai, China. Today we have learned that that plant is responsible for assembling Nintendo products.
A judge in the United Kingdom has delivered a stinging rebuke of Apple, ordering the company to run ads publicly apologizing to Samsung. This ruling comes after the same judge ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy line of tablets does not infringe on Apple iPad patents. While Apple has better luck in other regions with its patent lawsuits, the UK seems to have dealt the company the most embarrassing of blows.
Ilyes 'Stephano' Satouri, a 19-year old French professional StarCraft II player found himself at the business end of a half-month suspension after joking over Battle.net during a professional competition that he had had sex with a 14-year-old girl. Stephano's comments earned him a suspension without pay for the month of October, according to a GameSpot report.
When Nintendo first started advertising the newest Mario game for the Wii U - Super Mario Bros U - it claimed that the game was capable of being displayed in 1080p. It turns out that that little advertising bullet point isn't true, and now Nintendo is pulling the claim for any advertising related to the game.
A message on the game's official website stated:
"Experience Mario like never before... in full 1080p HD, only on the Wii U console!"
Here's an entry in the epilogue for OnLive - or at least what used to be OnLive - before it was sold to a holding company owned by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Gary Lauder. According to a report in the Mercury News, the cloud-based gaming service was sold to Lauder for a little under $5 million USD. Lauder reportedly paid $4.8 million for OnLive as part of an insolvency process this summer.
Microsoft has added a single line to its "Game Content Usage Rules" (found over in the community section of Xbox.com) that restricts gamers from earning money from videos that contain footage of Microsoft games like... every Halo game every made (thanks Rpad.tv). So if you are one of those YouTube stars with a large following that may have benefited from ad dollars, the party seems to be officially over for you...
Some players are claiming the newest Borderlands 2's character, Gaige is erasing their "Badass stats." The download, which also requires a patch to play seems to be affecting players on Xbox 360 and PC. The problem seems to be a repeat of an earlier issue some fans had with the game wiping out their progress.
On the heels of Zynga lowering its outlook for the third-quarter and several research firms downgrading its stock, there's even more bad news for the publicly-traded social game developer and publisher. According to this GamesBeat report, Omgpop founders and Words With Friends co-creators have left Zynga. Paul and David Bettner, the creators of the enormously successful Words With Friends game for mobile and Facebook and other Zynga With Friends titles, announced their departure.
Baird Equity Research has downgraded social game developer and publisher Zynga after the company said that it expected a massive loss in the third quarter that ended on September 30. The company said that it now expects to report a $90 - $150 million loss for quarter. Zynga blamed the new numbers on "weakness of certain games" and an impairment charge of $85 million to $95 million related to its purchase of Draw Something developer OMGPOP.
Following up on yesterday's accusation by an employee that social game developer Kixeye engaged in "institutional racism," four employees have been fired today. The accusations were made by an unnamed contractor who wrote a blog post under the name of Qu33riousity. He claimed yesterday that he was the victim of racial discrimination and has also seen it directed at others.
Social game company Kixeye finds itself embroiled in an allegation of institutional racism this morning after an employee going by the handle "Qu33riousity" detailed multiple instances of discrimination against Kixeye's African American employees in a blog post. That blog post has since been removed, but not before he was told that he was being "too sensitive" and that the comments were "just jokes."
As is usually the case with UK paper The Daily Mail, they have taken a new study from the University of Pittsburgh about the relationship between sleep and insulin production and turned it into a commentary on how games are bad. In their headline they proclaim "Staying up all night playing video games 'puts teenagers at greater risk of diabetes.'" The horror.
Characterizing EA's legal counsel as "passive aggressive," this Games Industry International report details how one of the world's largest publishers keeps former employees from sharing trade secrets with new employers. The report uses correspondence from Electronic Arts to ex-employee Ben Cousins, who served as the company's general manager for its Easy Studio.
According to a report on TechCrunch, Zynga has lost another high profile executive. This time out it is chief security officer Nils Puhlmann, who resigned from the company this week. Puhlmann was responsible for managing all security risks for the company. Prior to joining Zynga Puhlmann co-founded Cloud Security Alliance. Prior to that he worked for such companies as Qualys, Electronic Arts, Robert Half International, Mindjet Corp, Adobe Systems and Nortel Networks.
While other retailers are loudly proclaiming that they are offering pre-orders for Nintendo's Wii U, one online retailer seems to be thumbing its nose at Nintendo's latest console and the consumers who might want to lock a purchase down early. Amazon is telling customers that pre-orders for the Wii U are "not available at Amazon.com at this time," and are providing no explanation why.
Variety reports that G4TV owners NBC Universal are going to revamp the popular tech and geek culture channel to be more "GQ," catering to the "modern male." Details on the revamp, set to happen in early 2013, have not been revealed, and many in the gaming, geek and technology culture of the internet are concerned that NBCU will dump the decent programming G4TV offers such as extensive event coverage. G4TV has always had a strong presence at events like Comic-Con, E3, and GDC.
If you're a video game tester and you act like a dumb ass (allegedly) you'll probably get fired. Just ask 20-something Blake Marsh, who decided to try a little political comedy with a dash of misogyny and hate on his Facebook page. It's too bad for Marsh that his bosses at Eidos Montreal weren't laughing when they found out.
Following a failed assassination attempt by suspect Richard Bain on the newly-elected Quebec premier-designate Pauline Marois that saw one person killed and another severely injured, Marsh decided to make light of the crime:
Cloud-based gaming subscription service company OnLive announced this evening that its founder and CEO Steve Perlman is leaving the company. In a press release issued by the company it was announced that Perlman was leaving to work on "other projects," and that lead investor Gary Lauder would be taking over as the company’s new chairman. Charlie Jablonski, the Vice President of Operations, will serve as the company's COO and acting CEO.


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Apple says it doesn’t share Safari browsing data with Tencent or Google
Apple said it safeguards people’s information in its own systems and never shares it with third-party players.
After media reports surfaced that Apple is sending iOS users' data via its Safari browser to Google and the Chinese tech company Tencent, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker refuted such reports, saying it safeguards people's information in its own systems and never shares it with third-party players.
A report in reclaimthenet.org stated that "Apple, which often positions itself as a champion of privacy and human rights, may be sending some IP addresses from users of its Safari browser on iOS to Chinese conglomerate Tencent -- a company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party".
The report focused on Apple's "fraudulent website warning" system which is built into Apple's Safari web browser to warn people when they visit sites that are harmful and can trick users into sharing login passwords for banks, email and social media.
"Before visiting a website, Safari may send information calculated from the website address to Google Safe Browsing and Tencent Safe Browsing to check if the website is fraudulent. These browsing providers may also log your IP address,' read the information on Apple's "Safari & Privacy" section.
It's unclear when Apple started allowing Tencent and Google to log some user IP addresses, but one Twitter user reported the change in Safari happened as early as the iOS 12.2 beta in February 2019, said the report.
In a statement, the company said it actually doesn't send information to Google or Tencent.
"Instead, it receives a list of bad websites from both companies and then uses it to protect people as they surf the web. Apple sometimes obscures the information about the website people visit if it requests more information to check if a questionable website is malicious," CNET reported on Monday, citing Apple's statement.
For people concerned about their privacy, the service can be turned off in Safari preferences on the iPhone or Mac.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he believes privacy is "ingrained in the Constitution," but that he's worried about how third-party companies have worked to collect information on us.
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Major payment services provider Visa has shaken up the world of crypto after announcing that it will be allowing users of its debit cards to convert their cryptocurrency into local fiat currency for use in their regular day-to-day transactions.
Relatively few vendors accept cryptocurrency as payment, so it typically has to be converted into fiat currency like the euro or dollar for use in real-world transactions.
This conversion and withdrawal to a recognised bank or payment provider can take a few days, severely limiting the usefulness of crypto for daily expenses.
Visa’s partnership with Transak, a leading infrastructure povidr fo crypto and NFTs, promises to fix this problem by making cryptocurrency more liquid than ever.
“Many consumers need a fast, secure and compliant way to exit the crypto market — a fitting tribute to the liquid nature of cryptocurrencies,” said Transak in a statement.
Sami Start, the company’s co-founder and CEO, remarked, “We believe this partnership is an inflection point for Web3 as a whole. Now, millions across the globe have a straightforward way to cash out their digital asset holdings to their local currency in real-time and intuitively.
“They no longer have to walk the treacherous path of compliance uncertainty or face risks of fraud.”
The speed of Visa’s system is a big attraction, allowing money to be transferred in around 30 minutes or less in most instances – a major upgrade over the existing ways of converting crypto into local currencies, which can take days.
And it’s not only Bitcoin and Ethereum either – Transak supports over 40 cryptocurrencies, and is already integrated into many of the leading crypto exchanges and wallets, putting crypto-to-fiat conversion at the fingertips of millions of users globally
“By enabling real-time card withdrawals through Visa Direct, Transak is delivering a faster, simpler and more connected experience for its users — making it easier to convert crypto balances into fiat, which can be spent at the more than 130 million merchant locations where Visa is accepted,” said Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, North America Head of Visa Direct and Global Ecosystem Readiness.
Mark Grech, an emerging tech consultant, welcomed the news on LinkedIn, describing it as a “game-changing move” that marks “a significant step towards the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, making it easier for users around the globe to access and utilise their crypto assets in real-world transactions.”
He continued: “As we witness this groundbreaking integration, it’s clear that the future of finance is evolving rapidly, and the collaboration between traditional financial institutions and the crypto space is becoming increasingly symbiotic.”
Calamatta Cuschieri’s Moneybase Business aims to streamline financial processes, and offer a personalised easily accessible, automated service driven by client-needs
Projections were published on Tuesday as part of the European Commission’s 2024 winter economic forecast
One year post its Voluntary Occupational Pension Scheme launch, BOV remains committed to being an employer of choice


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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Move over Apple (AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. (AAPL) Report TV and Google (GOOG) - Get Alphabet Inc. Class C Report Chromecast. Wednesday, Amazon (AMZN) - Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report announced that it is releasing its own streaming media device: Fire TV, for $99 -- shipping starts today. The device, which operates on an Android-based system and supports Netflix (NFLX) - Get Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) Report as well as Hulu, is going to be a game changer. Why? Because TV is the missing piece of Amazon's puzzle.
Amazon knows how to build an ecosystem. Much like Apple's integration of services across its devices, Amazon has done the same thing. Amazon has its CloudDrive service, a cloud music player called CloudPlayer, a cloud based photo service called CloudDrive Photos and Amazon Prime. And it's secure. Amazon Web services even hosts Netflix. Essentially, Amazon has been positioning itself as a one-stop shop for all your personal and technology needs. Offering its own streaming device is really more of a way to avoid sending loyal customers elsewhere, and Amazon customers are extremely loyal.
Just look at Kindle. "28% of Amazon.com customers own a Kindle Fire, while 21% own a Kindle e-Reader," said Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). "Interestingly, 9% of Amazon.com customers own both devices, suggesting how well Amazon has done to drive sales of what amounts to a portal to Amazon.com."
More importantly, Amazon Kindle customers spend money.
Lowitz continues, "We estimate that Amazon Kindle device owners spend approximately $1,233 per year, compared to $790 per year for other customers. They do so because Kindle device owners buy over 50% more frequently than other customers."
Crowded market? Yes and no.
The streaming video entertainment market may be crowded, but that is really only at first glance. Amazon video services have, until Wednesday, only been available through gaming systems, like Playstation and Wii, Roku devices, and select Blu-ray players and smart televisions. This limits availability to consumers considerably.
Amazon instant video is not supported on Apple TV, Google Chromecast or the once popular TiVo -- devices that together make up nearly two-thirds of the streaming device market in the U.S. In other words, Amazon's share of streaming viewership has been limited to roughly one-third of the market. Offering its own device means that the company gets to keep more of its revenue.
Fire TV costs the same $99 as Apple TV. Chromecast costs $35. Competitor Roku recently announced its own streaming device, selling for $49.99.
Amazon is a service company. It is great at providing devices that enable it to sell more products. Now that Amazon is developing its own original series, why wouldn't the company get in on offering its own streaming device? It's a no-brainer.
At the time of publication the author had no position in any of the stocks mentioned.
This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.


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The boss of the Co-op hailed a deal to supply the Nisa convenience store chain last year for delivering a dramatic boost to its food business.
The Co-operative bought Nisa's wholesale business last year for £143m to supply some 4,000 stores across the UK with products including its own branded lines.
Steve Murrells, chief executive, said the Nisa wholesale business had been a "game-changer in expanding our food footprint".
Co-op said revenue rose 14pc to £10.2bn, while pre-tax profits “exceeded expectations”, soaring 27pc to £93m.
Like-for-like food sales rose 4.4pc in the year to January, giving the company five years of continuous growth.
Mr Murrells said the Coop had recently stopped...
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Realme has launched Realme Watch S and Realme Watch S Pro.
Realme Watch S Series Launches in India: Realme has launched Realme Watch S and Realme Watch S Pro. Both of these features like heart rate monitoring and sleep monitoring are available. Realme Watch S Pro will get 14 days of battery life. The company has also announced that the Reality Link app is now available for iOS users as well.
The price of Realme Watch S Pro in India has been kept at Rs 9,999. It will be available through Reality.com, Flipkart and offline stores. Its first cell will be on December 29 at 12 noon.
On the other hand, the price of Realme Watch S is Rs 4,999. It can also be purchased through Reality.com, Flipkart and offline stores. The first cell will be held on December 28 at 12 noon. There is also a Realme Watch S Master Edition, which costs Rs 5,999.
Realme Watch S Pro-specifications
Realme Watch S Pro has a 1.39-inch circular AMOLED display. It has 2.5D Corning Glass Protection. The device also has 5ATM water resistance rating, swimming mode, dual processor, stainless steel case, dual satellite GPS, blood oxygen and heart rate monitor. According to the company, users will get 14 days of battery life.
The smartwatch will support 15 sports modes, in which running, walking, cycling, spinning. Hiking, swimming, basketball, yoga, cricket, free workouts are included. The person will get access to more than 100 watch faces. Support for 24-hour heart rate monitoring will be available in the watch. If your heart rate is too high or too low, you get an alert. It detects blood oxygen level. It also supports sleep monitoring, step monitoring.
Reality claims that a person can check almost all app notifications on the watch. Music player or camera can be controlled with Realme Watch S Pro. With this, the user can also reject the call, but cannot answer using it.
Realme Watch S-Specifications
Realme Watch S will get a 1.3-inch touchscreen. Corning Gorilla Glass will be protected in the panel. The device has 16 sports modes, IP68 water resistance rating, more than 100 watch face, heart rate and blood oxygen OS monitor. According to the company, it will get up to 15 days of battery life. With this smartwatch, users will be able to check the weather, phone notifications and other common things.


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Conagra Brands Inc. announced the appointment of Chaly Jo Moyen as chief strategy officer and president of foodservice and international.
In the newly created post, Moyen will play a central role executing and sustaining the Conagra’s strategic initiatives. She will also be responsible for the company’s international business segment. Additionally, she will oversee Conagra’s foodservice division, which supplies restaurants, retailers and convenience services, among other commercial customers.
Moyen worked at Coca-Cola Co. for 15 years. She was most recently senior vice president of strategy, decision science and insights for Coca-Cola North America.


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Apple is reportedly looking to expand its array of live sports on Apple TV+ by acquiring rights to stream Premier League football in the UK.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, over the weekend, Apple plans to enter the bidding when rights come up for grabs once again in 2025.
While that’s still a couple of years away, the erstwhile source of right wing propaganda reckons Apple plans to rival Sky and BT in an effort that “would transform the way the top flight is broadcast in this country.”
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The report says the tender process for the next round of rights will start later this year, with Apple planning on matching what Sky and BT put down every season. However, in our opinion, it’s more likely Apple bids for the limited streaming rights currently possessed by Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon gets 20 games per season, or two match days, between 2022 and 2025. This has been quite revolutionary in terms of enabling UK viewers to watch every game, even if it kicks off at 3:00pm on a Saturday, a time previously blacked out.
The Premier League rights package went for £4.8 billion in 2021, covering 2022 to 2025. Amazon is believed to have paid around £100 million for those 20 games a season, so Apple would presumably have to top that in order to gain the rights in 2025.
If Apple had bolder ambitions, such as supplanting Sky Sports – which has held the majority of the rights for 30 years – it would probably involve paying upward of £4 billion. Cash-rich Apple certainly has those resources, but whether it would allocate such sums on Premier League football, which it could only show in a single country, remains to be seen.
Given the company’s strategy to date has involved being able to show Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in multiple Apple TV+ territories, we find this even more unlikely. Should BT and Sky be worried? Probably not, but Amazon perhaps should be.


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Amazon has increased its average starting wage to $18 per hour and plans to hire more than 125,000 warehouse and transportation workers in the United States.
The world’s largest online retailer also said that it would pay a signing-on bonus of $3,000 in some locations, while the hourly rate could go up to $22.50.
Amazon was among the first retailers to set a $15-an-hour minimum wage in 2018 and in May it said that it would pay about $17 an hour, on average.
The company is hiring to run the 100 logistics facilities that it will launch this month in America, on top of the more than 250 that were opened earlier in the year. The additional staffing will help the rollout of one-day delivery


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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of GameStop (GME) were plunging 13.29% to $20.43 in early-morning trading on Wednesday after slashing its full-year outlook and warning that third-quarter results will likely miss estimates.
"Our expectation was that the new titles released in October would provide a catalyst for new software sales, but despite gaining market share, the titles underperformed our forecasted sales," CEO Paul Raines said in a statement.
The video game retailer now expects to report 2016 earnings between $3.65 and $3.80 per share, down from between $3.90 and $4.05 per share.
Same-store sales are projected to be down between 9.5% and 6.5% year-over-year vs. past expectations of a drop between 4.5% and 1.5%.
The FactSet consensus is for earnings of $4.01 per share and a same-store sales decline of 3.2% for the year.
For the third quarter, GameStop anticipates earnings between 45 cents and 49 cents per share on revenue of roughly $2.00 billion, according to a company statement. This would result in a same-store sales decline between 7% and 6%, the company said.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet are modeling earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $2.09 billion for the quarter. Wall Street is looking for same-store sales to be down 0.9%.
GameStop will report third-quarter results after the market close on November 22.
(GameStop stock is held in the Dividend Stock Advisor portfolio. See all of the holdings with a free trial.)
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates the stock as a "hold" with a ratings score of C+.
GameStop's strengths such as its growth in earnings per share, reasonable valuation levels and expanding profit margins are countered by weaknesses including weak operating cash flow, a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and disappointing return on equity.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: GME
TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this article's author.


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In a bizarre incident occurring in Canada on September 17th, a Tesla Model S driver was caught sleeping while his car was running at high speed using the Autopilot mode. The police officer caught the car speeding, and a complaint came in, which suggested that the vehicle was not ‘in human control’ and the front row seats were completely reclined. This incident was reported near the town of Pokona, Alberta, Canada. The driver was charged with speeding and dangerous driving. Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time a Tesla driver was caught sleeping while the car was being driven on Autopilot mode, and it sheds light over the use of this driver assist feature by Tesla.
Tesla Driver Caught “Asleep” With Autopilot At 150 km/hr, Police Are Charging Him Criminally
Technology has taken over the automobile industry, and many companies are bringing AI (artificial intelligence) into their vehicles, integrating it into the infotainment system, driver-assist features, and whatnot. Tesla has been one of the major contributors to this transition, and their use of OTA (over-the-air) updates has been lauded by many experts. Through these updates, Tesla has managed to keep all their recently-sold vehicles up to date with the new technology that they are developing, like performance boosts, and particularly, the driver-assist features.
The California-based company has a number of driver-assist features running in their cars, out of which the most integral is the Autopilot system. Tesla has installed this feature in all their models, with an eye on the future of autonomous driving. The Autopilot system is capable of reaching a level of full self-driving capability, with a number of sensors such as cameras, ultrasonic, and radar constantly capturing data from the street across a 360-degree view.
With features such as Navigate (gliding across slow-moving traffic), Autosteer+ (navigating along tighter and more complex roads), and Smart Summon (drives the car out of the garage towards the driveway), they have built a robust driver-assist system. The Autopilot also has the self-driving capability, but Tesla has clearly mentioned that the driver should have their hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road at all times to take control of the car at the appropriate time. Despite this, many drivers tend to ignore this and continue to consider the Autopilot as a fully autonomous driving program, taking the technology for granted.
Tesla made it clear that having their vehicles on Autopilot mode does not allow the drivers to stop paying attention on the road. With many drivers not complying with this, they brought in the ‘Autopilot Nag’ update, which includes a pressure sensor placed inside the steering wheel, which will be able to detect whether or not the driver has his hands on the steering wheel, and if not, it will alert the driver about the same. There were many hacks for this update, as an ‘Autopilot Buddy’ was brought in by retail vendors, which acted as dead weight on the steering wheel, activating the sensor without the driver having to put his hands on the wheel. This ‘Buddy’ was shut down by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but that did not stop them. The product was reintroduced into the market, this time as a mobile holder, trying to get a way around the Autopilot Nag.
Reactions to the latest incident
The Autopilot is a suite of driver-assist features and not an autonomous driving program. It has a level 2 self-driving capability, which, according to the regulations, requires the driver to have their complete focus on the road, ready to take control of the vehicle in case something goes wrong. Due to the fact that there have been not many incidents of self-driving systems failing in Teslas recently, the drivers have been less cautious, and more trusting in Tesla’s technology. In this case, the Canadian police reported strange behavior from the vehicle:
Alberta RCMP received a complaint of a car speeding on Hwy 2 near #Ponoka. The car appeared to be self-driving, travelling over 140 km/h with both front seats completely reclined & occupants appeared to be asleep. The driver received a Dangerous Driving charge & summons for court pic.twitter.com/tr0RohJDH1
— RCMP Alberta (@RCMPAlberta) September 17, 2020
“After the responding Officer activated emergency lights on their vehicle, the Tesla automatically began to accelerate. The Officer was able to obtain radar readings on the vehicle, confirming that it had automatically accelerated up to exactly 150 km/h.”
150 kmph is the maximum speed at which you can drive your Tesla in the Autopilot mode. The Tesla technology is more than capable of navigating through traffic, even at that high a speed, without any human intervention. But that does not mean you should do so. It might have been a case where the driver set the vehicle at that speed, and due to a leading car moving away, the Tesla accelerated up to its maximum capability on its own. The police report suggests that during this accelerating period, the front row seats were reclined fully, making it seem like the driver was sleeping. Driving at a speed that high, not only without hands on the wheel but also with your seat fully reclined, is most definitely a case of dangerous driving, especially when your automaker specifically advises you not to do so. It seems like the charges made on the driver are absolutely justified.


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The South Dakota State Fair announced its first concert on Wednesday.
Alabama will perform in Huron on Friday, August 29.
Pre-sale on tickets will begin June 9 for backrest holders. Friends of the Fair ticket sales start on June 12 and general public ticket sales will begin June 16.
The 2014 State Fair starts Thursday, August 28 with the last day being Monday, September 1.