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CVS Caremark's (CVS) stock gapped up to a new all-time high after it reported early Wednesday that first-quarter earnings jumped 28%, topping analyst estimates.
The operator of more than 7,400 drugstores nationwide reported earnings of 83 cents per share, beating Wall Street's target by 4 cents.
Sales dipped fractionally to $30.76 billion, besting projections of $30.36 billion amid rising unit sales of generic drugs. It also got a boost from a severe cold and flu seasons that lifted sales at its drugstores.
The revenue drop ended a string of seven quarters of double-digit growth .
But the company raised the low end of its 2013 earnings guidance. Its new full-year guidance is $3.89 to $4, up from $3.86 to $4 earlier. For the current quarter, it sees EPS of 94 cents to 97 cents, topping consensus of 94 cents.
Shares were up 0.8% in afternoon trading in the stock market today.
Its stock sports a 93 IBD Composite Rating, meaning it's recently outperformed 93% of all stocks on key metrics such as sales and profit growth.
During the quarter, the number of CVS' retail pharmacy same-store prescriptions rose 2%.
"The influx of new generic drugs was a key driver of our year-over-year profit growth," CEO Larry Merlo told analysts on a conference call.
Still, same-store pharmacy revenue slid 2.3% as consumers switched to newly available lower-cost generics.
Among the blockbuster drugs getting competition from generics after losing patent protection are Merck's (MRK) asthma drug Singulair and Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMY) blood clot prevention drug Plavix.
Archrival Walgreen (WAG), with more than 8,000 drugstores, fell 0.5%. Walgreen continues to trade near its 52-week high and is extended above 50-day and 200-day averages.
The No. 1 U.S. drugstore chain said in late April it will expand its in-store Take Care clinics to treat some chronic conditions, including diabetes and asthma, amid a possible shortage of doctors as millions get coverage via ObamaCare. The new services at 340 of its clinics are seen as a possible path to higher profits in coming quarters.
Among other drugstore companies, shares of No. 3 publicly traded pharmacy company Rite Aid (RAD) skidded 2.5%.


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SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has stated his desire for a "strategic collaboration" between the Japanese company's chipmaker Arm and South Korean tech powerhouse Samsung.
"I intend to travel to Korea." I'm excited to visit Korea for the first time in three years. "I'd want to discuss a strategic cooperation with Arm and Samsung," Son stated in a statement.
SoftBank gave no other specifics on what a strategic relationship would entail, but it might represent a significant shift in strategy for Son and his vision for Arm.
SoftBank purchased Arm, one of the world's largest chipmakers, in 2016, and Son has since stated that it is critical to the company's long-term ambition as more and more products become internet-connected.
Since then, SoftBank has attempted to sell its arm to chipmaker Nvidia, but the transaction fell through in February.
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Son is now pushing for Arm to be listed publicly, ideally in New York. However, the British government wants Arm to be listed in London.
Following an initial public offering, SoftBank intends to retain a controlling interest in Arm.
According to The Korea Herald, Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong stated on Wednesday that he intends to see Son during his visit to South Korea.
According to The Korea Herald, Lee stated that Son "may come up with such a suggestion" about Arm, but he has "no idea what it is."
Many of the world's smartphone CPUs, including those from Apple and Samsung, are built on Arm's chip design.
Other firms have been reported to be interested in purchasing a share in Arm. Earlier this year, Cristiano Amon, CEO of US chipmaker Qualcomm, stated that the business is "interested in investing" in Arm.
There has also been chatter about a consortium approach in which numerous corporations join together to invest in Arm.
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SoftBank has been pressed to monetize Arm after its main technology investment firm, the Vision Fund, reported record losses in its most recent fiscal year.
To raise funds, SoftBank sold the balance of its entire investment in Uber in the second quarter and reduced its holdings in Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba.

domain: news


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There is good news for the offline retail industry. Shoppers are gradually returning to physical stores and dining outlets, marking a shift from the predominantly online consumer habits of 2020.
Data from Zenreach, marketing software providers for brick-and-mortar businesses, shows that since the start of 2021, in-store consumer visits have been increasing.
In-Store Shopping on the Rise
The data shows that compared to the same time in 2020, in-store visits are up 12.5%. During the first three months of 2021, visits to physical stores have slowly increased by 28.5% since the start of the year.
The research is important for retailers as it uncovers trends emerging as markets begin to open up. Illustrating the regions where in-store shopping is most active could be important to retailers looking to move to more destinations that are showing greater signs of in-store shopping recovery.
The shift back to in-store shopping represents a triumph for the retail industry, which has been a leading casualty of the pandemic.
Retailers Need to Prepare as Consumer Confidence Grows
With physical shopping increasing as consumers grow in confidence, small retailers that are currently operating solely online or closed altogether, may want to prepare their store for reopening. Such preparation might include marketing and promoting the reopening, getting products together to sell in-store, and recruiting staff.
Talking to Small Biz Trends, Megan Wintersteen, Vice President of Zenreach, reiterated the importance of preparing for the uptick in offline shopping:
“The past year has been full of starts and stops, which creates uncertainty and makes it challenging for business owners to understand where the market is headed. However, the positive momentum we’ve seen over the past quarter reflects the pent-up consumer demand and shows that people are anxious to get back to some level of normalcy.
“This should signal to brick-and-mortar businesses that it’s time to start considering what operations look like as we start to transition to a post-COVID world: expanding their hours, bringing back staff, and ultimately picking up their marketing efforts again to work towards bringing back their existing customer base and recruiting new customers, as well,” said Wintersteen.
Top Ten Locations Where In-Store Shopping has Increased the Most
The data also looks at the top ten locations in the United States where consumers are doing most in-store shopping.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has witnessed the greatest increase in in-store visits, up almost 52% since January 1, 2021.
This is followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, where in-store visits are up around 33% since the start of the year. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario has seen a jump of 39% during the last three months.
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford has witnessed a 36% increase in in-store shoppers, followed by Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, which has seen a 35% rise.
The number of in-store visits at Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta has increased by more than 26%. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise has seen as 14% rise. New Orleans-Metairie has experienced almost a 13% rise in the number of people visiting stores since January 1, 2021.
In light of the positive outlook concerning brick-and-mortar consumer habits, retailers should embrace the trend and adequately prepare their offline outlets to cater for the renewed consumer confidence around shopping in stores.
Source: Small Business Trends


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Food and Dining
America runs on Dunkin’, but is it running this Thanksgiving?
The restaurant has three heated igloos which will be open for reservations in one to two weeks.
Holiday music, appearances by Christmas season personalities, and, of course, plenty of festive food will be on offer up and down the Pioneer Valley during the weeks ahead.
The business started as a pop-up, but Devish opened the food truck earlier this year. It immediately gained a loyal following in Worcester and the surrounding area.
The BBQ spot has operated from a roadside trailer in Spencer for the past two summers, but the owners plan to open the new restaurant next month.
Renowned chef, restaurateur and TV personality Tiffani Faison is set to officially open the second location for her nostalgic Tenderoni’s brand pizza parlor and grinder shop this week — and it hopes to be as groovy as its ‘70s and ‘80s vision.
All three local businesses are continuing their traditions of offering a holiday dinner for those who don't have a place to go this year.
Several thousand people turned out to sample food and beverages from across the city. City organizers say they already have their eyes on a date for next year's event.
This list is not scientific, but it is correct.
Dewey's plans to donate 150 meals to the homeless and people in poverty in Springfield.
The deal will last until Dec. 30.
The old-timey pie shop in a former barbershop and general store building is a community favorite in the Florence area of Northampton.


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Last week, a couple of big beer guys—the head brewers of Wonderland Brewing Company and Wynkoop Brewing Company, to be exact—got together to co-create a German style of beer called a Berliner Weiss. The collaborative act is one of many happening across the state this month for the Collaboration Festival, an exposé of more than 20 beers that result from partnerships among breweries throughout the state. The big event, which takes place March 22, is part of the Lovibond Series, a slew of beer-related events and festivals organized by the Colorado Brewers Guild and Imbibe Denver.


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More Americans are checking in on their favorite shows this year, a new report from Nielsen has found.
According to Nielsen, the average American spends 159 hours watching television in the home, along with 4.5 hours of content on the Web. They watch another four hours of video on their mobile devices. Those aged 65 and older spend the most time each month watching "traditional television," tallying nearly 221 hours of total viewership. Kids between the ages of 12 and 17 watch the least amount of television programming each month, viewing just 107 hours of content.
All told, nearly 289 million Americans watched television in the home in the first quarter of 2011, up 0.8 percent compared with the first quarter of 2010.
When it comes to time shifting, the process of watching programs after they've aired live with the help of a recording device like a DVR, people between the ages of 25 and 49 trump all other age groups, spending 14 hours watching time-shifted programming each month. A total of 107 million Americans time-shifted during the last quarter, representing a gain of 13.2 percent, compared with the first quarter of 2010.
Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 spend the most time watching television shows on the Web with nearly 8 hours of total viewership each month. Nielsen said that 142.4 million Americans watched video content on the Web last quarter, up 4.8 percent compared with the first quarter of 2010.
However, mobile-video viewership stole the show in Nielsen's report. The organization said that in the first quarter, 28.5 million Americans watched video on a mobile device, representing a whopping 41 percent gain over the 20 million who did the same in the first quarter of 2010. According to Nielsen, kids between the ages of 12 and 17 were most likely to watch mobile video, tallying nearly 9 hours of viewership each month.
Nielsen's study isn't necessarily breaking any new ground with its revelation on mobile video viewership.
Just yesterday, Epix, a joint venture between Paramount Pictures, MGM, and Lionsgate that offers films through a broadcast channel, video-on-demand, and streaming, found that younger film viewers areto watch movies. In fact, people between that ages of 25 and 34 are 24 percent more likely to watch movies on iPods, and 21 percent more likely to watch films on tablets and smartphones, than those who are 35 to 64.
Nielsen also examined which products Americans currently have running in their homes to help them consume content. According to the company, nearly 100 million Americans had at least one DVD or Blu-ray player in the home during the first quarter, while 43.6 million folks had a DVR. Nielsen found that 75.5 million consumers have an HDTV in the home, and 49.7 million Americans had a video game console.


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The US giant suffered a 5% downturn in its fourth quarter 2015 revenue compared to the previous year. For the whole of the fiscal year, VF's Outdoor and Action Sports segment allowed the group to record a 1% increase,...
GDS has launched its online version, in a manner of speaking. The Düsseldorf footwear trade show announced a collaboration with Berlin virtual marketplace We Want Shoes. The project is simply labelled 'GDS 365'.
The American retailer unveiled plans to open its first flagship store on Mexican soil in Mexico City. It is the brand’s second store in Mexico, while a third shop in Guadalajara is understood to be in the pipeline.
The global footwear market is expected to reach a value of $216 billion by the end of 2019, with leading brands including Adidas, New Balance, Nike, Puma and VF Corp, the parent company of Timberland and The North Face.
The chief executives of seven top clothing companies, including H&M, Gap and Adidas, are calling on governments to agree a strong climate change deal, saying they fear global warming will drive up their costs.
After six years at the Italian luxury lingerie label, the French executive has become President of the Vanity Fair Brands (Perceva) group in Europe, engaged in the distribution of 5 lingerie and swimwear brands.
The US group, owner of Timberland, Vans, 7 for all Mankind, The North Face and Eastpak, closed the quarter with a revenue of nearly $3.613 billion. Sales grew by 3%, equivalent to 8% at a constant exchange rate.
The down jacket brand has announced its very first licence agreement with Italian manufacturer Marcolin for its eyewear line, which was previously produced and distributed in joint-venture with Allison.


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SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine — A decades-old tradition came to an end Monday — a few inches at a time.
The last boat to be launched out of the Ralph W. Stanley Inc. shop on Clark Point Road moved down the old wooden ways Monday, the way it’s been done since Ralph Stanley opened the shop in 1973: with a good deal of elbow grease and some regular grease as well.
With ropes straining, the come-along ratcheting and the wooden cradle creaking along the wooden ways, the boat on the cradle reached the low-tide mud of the Southwest Harbor shore.
Fittingly, the boat being launched was a 40-foot Friendship sloop, the Westwind, which was rebuilt in the shop where the company has built and restored so many of the Friendship sloop design. The project has been directed by Ralph’s son Richard, 47, who has been running the shop since 1986.
Ralph Stanley, who is now 80 years old, has been less and less involved in the day-to-day operations at the shop and will sell his interest in the building to Richard. That sale is expected to take place in the next few days.
Although Ralph Stanley acknowledged it was sad to see the last boat go out of the shop, he was philosophical about it.
“It’s got to happen,” he said. “I can’t build any more, and the taxes are killing us.”
He said he planned to sell the property, including the house he has lived in, but hoped the sale would include a life tenancy provision that would allow him to continue to live there.
Over the years, Stanley and the shop have made a name for themselves.
Stanley has been recognized as one of Maine’s living legends for his lifelong work in wooden boat building and design, and in the 1990s he was honored at the White House as a “national treasure” by former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Maine Gov. Angus King also named Stanley a Maine Boat Builder Laureate by official proclamation.
When the USS Constitution — “Old Ironsides” — was preparing for its 200th anniversary, the crew from Ralph W. Stanley was called in to help determine if it was seaworthy. So Ralph, Richard and his brother-in-law, Tim Goodwin, went to Boston to conduct a survey of the old warship.
“I went all over that ship,” Richard Stanley said. “She was really in good shape. She could have sailed.”
They made some suggestions, although he said he didn’t know what the Navy did with the ship. It did sail again, he added.
Richard grew up around the boatyard in a village that at one time had as many as 14 or so wooden boat builders.
“Back then, you could watch them cut the front end off a sardine carrier; that was really something to watch,” he said. “You could learn quite a lot that way.”
He said he learned by watching his father and the crew at the boat shop. Ralph Stanley was never a teacher, he said.
“He expected you to know how he wanted it done,” he said. “You learn a lot that way, too.”
Richard began working full time at the boatyard after he graduated from the Boat School in 1982. He bought an interest in the business in 1986 and has been running the shop since then.
Richard and his wife, Lorraine, will run the boat shop from leased space in Manset for the time being, although he said he hopes to find land in Southwest Harbor where he can build a new shop.
They plan to continue the family-run business and to build wooden boats using traditional plank on frame techniques. Though he said he may build a few molds and have someone else lay them up with fiberglass to sell as kit boats, Richard Stanley said he doesn’t like to work in fiberglass.
“With fiberglass, you start with a mold and you build the same boat. You can trim it out to make it look different, but it’s the same boat,” he said. “With wood, even if you’re building the same boat, it’s not ever the same. I like to change things.”
Although he said he prefers to build new boats, rebuilds — like the Westwind launched Monday — can present challenges, almost too many challenges. The work on the Westwind, built in Friendship in 1902 by Charles Morse, was a complete rebuild to the demanding requirements to maintain its Class A original status. It was a major job that caused him a few moments of concern, he said.
“There were a few moments when I said, ‘I don’t know about this,’” he said.
But it turned out well in the end, although the boat is far from completed. The crew was waiting Monday morning for the tide to lift the sloop off the cradle. They will tow it to Manset and haul it out to the shop where they will continue to work on the exterior of the boat. Richard said he expects the owners, who purchased the boat 30 years ago, will want to finish the interior themselves.
Richard and Lorraine will take over Ralph W. Stanley Inc. at a time when the shaky economy has hit boat builders just as hard as it has other sectors. That’s caused some concern for both the elder and the younger Stanley.
Ralph Stanley is pleased to be turning the operation over to his son, but, he said, he worries some about the economy.
“This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said, “but now I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. But I think there will always be somebody who wants a wooden boat.”
Richard Stanley, too, is concerned, but optimistic. The phone is ringing a little more and people are coming by a little more often.
“When they get to the price end of it, they disappear like ghosts,” he said. “But it’s been tight before. People will always want to have a boat. There’s a lot of water in this world, and a lot of people will want to have a custom boat, one that no one else has, that is just theirs. That’s what I try to give them.”
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRE
Ralph Stanley watches as the 40-foot Friendship sloop Westwind is lowered toward the water by his son Richard Stanley and Tim Goodwin on Monday. The boat, which was originally built by Charles Morse in 1902, was rebuilt at the Ralph W. Stanley Inc. boat shop in Southwest Harbor. This is the last boat to be refurbished, as the shop will be relocated to Manset.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRE
The 40-foot Friendship sloop Westwind is lowered toward the water by Richard Stanley (left) and Tim Goodwin (right) on Monday.


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Calls to Gumtree to stop advertisements for free pets at Christmas are being ignored by the online marketplace, despite being made aware that free pets are often abandoned in the New Year.
In previous years, more than 300 unwanted pets in Sydney alone were abandoned to the RSPCA in the days following Christmas. The organisation has said that abandoning of animals is a big problem after Christmas. With online marketplaces like Gumtree allowing free animal ads, people may unknowingly hand these pets to animal abusers – and that’s terrifying for animal lovers like Casey Kemp.
Victorian-based petition starter, Casey Kemp, initially started her Change.org petition to stop Gumtree advertising free dogs because many underground dog fighting rings scour these sites for free animals to either use as fighting dogs or live bait. Her petition has already been signed by 190,000 people, making it one of the biggest petitions for Change.org Australia in 2019.
Casey is now calling on Gumtree to urgently stop the ads in the lead up to Christmas.
“Despite Gumtree knowing about this issue and promising to review their policy, they still haven’t removed free animal advertisements,” said Casey.
“With Gumtree offering families the opportunity to give these pets away for free, without proper scrutiny, we are terrified that innocent animals will be handed over to abusers this Christmas season.“
Last week, when Casey urged petition signers to take to Gumtree’s social media with their concerns, the business responded by deleting the posts without any form of response.


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Isle of Wight Foodbank nearly new sale. Left, Ann Moore with Vivien Rockliffe. Photo by Robin Crossley.
A NEARLY new clothes sale has raised more than £700 for the Isle of Wight Foodbank.
Customers flocked to the sale on Saturday, held at the charity's Somerton headquarters, to choose from a selection of nearly new clothes and handmade wooden gifts.
Cakes and hot drinks were provided by Calbourne Classics and Medina Foodservice.
Proceeds from the sale and a raffle, plus donations, totalled £710.49.
Foodbank volunteer Sarah Hamilton said: "The money raised goes towards the cost of running the charity. Our latest statistics show we fed and supported 312 people in October, and more than 3,500 since we began last year.
"The need is growing for our provision across the board. We fed more than 600 people last Christmas so, with the increase we have experienced this year, we are bracing ourselves for the next two months to come."


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Pernod Ricard is delighted to announce the signing of a minority stake investment in Sovereign Brands and its portfolio of fast-growing super premium wine and spirits brands.
Sovereign Brands is a family company founded by brothers Brett and Brian Berish, who are among the industry’s most innovative and creative builders of beverage brands, with a proven history of brand creation.
Since 2000, Sovereign Brands has built a unique portfolio of forward-thinking brands in their respective categories across the world and especially in the world’s leading market, the USA. Sovereign’s most emblematic successes include Luc Belaire, a French sparkling wine, and Bumbu, a range of rum products from the Caribbean. Brazilian gin McQueen and the Violet Fog and Villon, an exquisite French liqueur, are also part of Sovereign’s diverse portfolio.
The two groups will continue to operate independently as the agreement does not provide for changes in Sovereign’s day-to-day operations, management, or distributor network. This investment is a first step of a long term partnership aimed at creating business opportunities between Sovereign Brands and Pernod Ricard in the future, such as exploring potential common industrial and commercial projects.
“Sovereign Brands has demonstrated exceptional innovation and marketing skills. We are thrilled to partner with Brett and Brian Berish, two of the most innovative entrepreneurs of our industry” says Alexandre Ricard, CEO of Pernod Ricard.
Brett Berish, CEO of Sovereign Brands, stated : “Pernod Ricard is at the forefront of our industry for a reason: they are simply the best. We’re beyond excited to work with Alexandre Ricard and his talented team.”
Source: Pernod Ricard


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Atlanta, GA, May 24, 2013 --(PR.com
)-- Tulix Systems, the innovation leader in streaming solutions, CDN services and IPTV CRM applications, today announced the company has released the Google TV application for its long stand client, Caribcast TV. Caribcast is a highly successful aggregator and broadcaster of Caribbean TV via IPTV. The Google TV application is now available for download in the Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/search?q=caribcast).
Dr. Nino Doijashvili made the announcement today from the company’s global headquarters in Atlanta. Dr. Doijashvili said, “Caribcast came to us wishing to reach a larger audience with their unique programming aimed at the Caribbean audience living away from their home. We had already worked with them, placing them in the Roku Channel Store and installing our Billing System to manage their subscription base,” she explained. “Once our Billing-Customer Relationship Management system was ready for Google TV, we quickly went into production for Caribcast.”
The Tulix CRM and billing system works for all content providers who offer their programming to their audience on a subscription basis. It also works seamlessly for content aggregators who are offering multiple channels, tiers and varied pricing based upon which package the subscriber chooses. It will easily work for content providers who offer access to their programming on PC, Mac, multiple mobile devices and platforms as well as Roku, Neo TV, other IPTV systems and now Google TV.
“The solutions provided by Tulix Systems have been innovative, reliable and efficient; this has allowed the team at Caribcast to focus on new content and subscriber acquisition,” stated Tyrone G. Robertson, President and CEO of Caribcast. “We are very excited about the release of the Android/Google TV app and will immediately communicate this to our subscribers,” Robertson also declared.
“Caribcast is one of the first of many of our partners that are making their content available to new audiences through Google TV. We will be announcing our next round of Google TV application release in the next few weeks,” Nino concluded.
About Tulix Systems:
When you think of Tulix Systems, you immediately think of STREAMING. Over the past years, Tulix Systems has grown to become a leader in streaming solutions, CDN services and IPTV Customer Relationship Management and Monetization Applications. Every day, we aspire to be the best streaming service partner in the industry. And in order to that, we are constantly improving our skill sets, our technology and making major upgrades and improvements to our networks.
Combined with high-powered streaming and routing optimization, Tulix Systems CDN Content Streaming Cloud™ services are optimum for live streaming and this quality carries over to all levels including on-demand services. Tulix Systems add-on ancillary services include single stream encoding for multiple devices, time shifting, virtual DVR as well as authorized device application development for PC, iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry, Android and Roku. Tulix Systems CDN services and applications meet the needs of conventional pay-tv operators, virtual multi-service operators and all classes of media companies.
With an over 19 year track record of providing diverse web and hosting solutions, Tulix delivers cost effective and future proof solutions to clients worldwide. At Tulix Systems, performance, quality, ethics and customer satisfaction are the cornerstones of our business practices and philosophy. Tulix can be reached at www.tulix.com and 404-584-5035 x5075.
Caribcast is a broadcaster of Caribbean TV channels via Internet protocol. These channels originate from Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and other Caribbean Islands. Caribcast can be viewed on TVs, PCs and Mobile or Connected devices anywhere in the world where an Internet connection is available. These viewing options are constantly growing and currently include apps for WebTV, Roku, Android and Google TV. Digital advertising opportunities are also available on the Caribcast platforms.
With a vision to become a global leader in Caribbean Media, Caribcast’s mission is to broadcast the best mix of Caribbean TV and video content, while providing superior quality and service. See more at www.caribcast.tv or call 954-839-6600.


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- Tomtom NvSr. Product Manager, present
- Motorola MobilitySW Product Manager, 2011 - 2012
- Westell IncProduct Line Manager, 2007 - 2011
- Copia InternationalDirector of Marketing, 2001 - 2007
- Adc TelecommunicationsSystems Engineer, 1999 - 2001
- University of Illinois @ Urbana-ChampaignElectrical Engineering, 1996 - 2000
- University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignStrategic Technology Management Program, 2007 - 2007
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US: Addition to PepsiAmericas board announced
The company said yesterday (18 December) that Deborah Powell will join the board. Dr Powell is Dean of the Medical School at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
"Deborah is a strategic thinker that brings a distinctively new and different perspective to PepsiAmericas," said company chairman and CEO Robert Pohlad. "Her diverse experiences as both a business and academic leader will make her a significant contributor to the PepsiAmericas' board."
The company also amended its company by-laws yesterday, to provide for the election of directors by a majority vote standard in uncontested elections. In contested elections, the plurality vote standard would remain in place.
PepsiAmericas has operations in 19 US states, Central Europe and the Caribbean.
Coca-Cola's US$4.1bn acquisition of Glacéau gives the company a presence in the growing enhanced waters sector where, writes Annette Farr, the soft drinks giant will be competing not only with smaller...
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PepsiCo has unveiled a cucumber-flavoured variant in Japan....
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Comic-Con HQ Video Streaming ServiceMarch 16th, 2016
Comic-Con International and Lionsgate are launching Comic-Con HQ, a video-on-demand streaming service. A free beta period will be available beginning May 7, i.e. Free Comic Book Day, until sometime in June, when the service goes live.
Comic-Con HQ will feature videos of events that you would otherwise only see if you attended Comic-Con’s annual conventions, including “select panels” and the Eisner Awards. But it will also have original shows and series, including a talk show hosted by Adam Sessler, who according to Variety has signed up to be the executive producer on “comics, science and gaming” programs.
The service will also have reality shows starting with Her Universe, which will be about the contestants of the eponymous clothing line’s fashion show at last year’s SDCC. The service will also air sci-fi and horror TV series and films, as well as sneak previews and special features of upcoming geeky media.
You can sign up for the beta on the Comic-Con HQ website. I’m up for more geeky shows, but I’m more interested in footage from the cons so I hope the service loads up on that. At the very least, I hope it doesn’t devolve into an exclusive hype machine.


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Siemens Communications and Etisalat partner for future overseas expansion projects
Siemens Communications, one of the world’s largest communications providers, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Etisalat to support the UAE operator in its continuing international expansion strategy.
The signing of the MOU represents a landmark development in cooperation between the two companies. Under the agreement, Etisalat will consider Siemens Communications to be one of its preferred suppliers for the entire scope of communication technologies.
By choosing Siemens as one of its partners, Etisalat is able to strengthen its position by consistently working with a supplier that has a proven track record of technology expertise, regional reach and superior products. Additionally, Siemens Communications shares Etisalat’s vision to make leading-edge technology and ground-breaking products available to all, by developing telecommunications infrastructures across the Middle East and Africa.
“Etisalat’s continued rapid growth overseas can be attributed to the company’s respected brand, ability to understand customer needs and delivery of the right technology solutions to meet these needs,” said Soenke Peters, VP Siemens Communications Mobile Networks Middle East.
“A committed expansion strategy is essential to meeting these needs as today, Middle East businesses and consumers expect the very latest technology and are no longer content to follow behind developments in Europe, the USA and Japan.
“Like Etisalat, Siemens Communications is a company driven by innovation and dedicated to making technology available to all, making this extension of our cooperation a logical step for both companies,” concluded Peters.
Through the combination of in-depth local knowledge, global expertise and pioneering technology, Siemens Communications has been a key player in the development of mobile telecommunications infrastructures in the Gulf, Levant, Yemen and Pakistan. In particular, the company has strongly supported local operators’ regional expansion plans, working in partnership with them to increase business efficiency and facilitate the introduction of innovative third generation products and services to consumers in the Middle East.
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Gadgets Boost Olympic Performance — LegallyBy Jose Fermoso
Speedo LZR Suit
Technology has helped push the boundaries of athletic achievement since the first time a caveman selected a lightweight birch branch for his spear instead of the usual heavy oaken staff. This year's Olympic Games will be no different, with swimmers, cyclists and even gymnasts making the most of tech -- and legal -- performance enhancements.
While many of the items on this list will be limited to Olympic athletes only, many others will be available for purchase by anyone, even if you don't have the cutting-edge training of Dara Torres. Just as NASA's space program led to Tang and other wonders, the innovations created for these Olympics may eventually end up somewhere in your house.
Left: Humans are too flawed for perfect swimming (not even Michael Phelps could beat a Great White in a sprint), but Speedo's LZR suit is the closest we'll get to swimming like the fishes.
Designed in conjunction with NASA scientists, the suit uses ultrasonically bonded seams (instead of stitches), low-drag panels and a mix of polyurethane layers to create the fastest suit ever, reaching previously unattainable levels of buoyancy and slipperiness.
But according to the top U.S. swimmers, the key lies in the groin. It has a rigid, girdle-style structure that positions the swimmer's body in an optimal position. That means no more hip/leg misalignments and less lower-body fatigue. It's estimated to give its wearers a two to five percent advantage, more than enough to make the difference between a bronze medal and a gold one.
Rival suit companies protested the LZR's innovations, but they couldn't come up with an adequate replacement. Even Nike is allowing its sponsored swimmers to wear it in Beijing.
Photo: Associated Press/Kathy Willens


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1976 / 8月
The foreign trade of the Republic of China has improved in 1976. It amounted to US$7,142.7 million January through June, according to customs reports. This figure showed an increase of US$1,998 million, 38 per cent over that of the same period of last year. The total of exports against imports showed a surplus of US$125.7 million. According to the foreign exchange statistics of the Central Bank of China, which are figured on a different basis from that of customs reports, the ROC has a favorable trade balance of US$469.5 million.
According to customs estimates, the exports for July were more than US$800 million, an increase of US$180 million or 30% over those of June, 1976. Based on the current situation, the estimate of the total ROC foreign trade for 1976 has been raised from the original target of US$13,500 million to US$15,000 million. The favorable trade balance is estimated at US$300 million. Meanwhile, as the foreign trade has turned for the better, the volume of cargo loading and unloading at the airports and seaports of Taiwan increased between 39.96% and 54.67% over the same period of 1975. The foreign trade is closely related to the domestic economic growth. The government and the industry continue to work for further development. They are confident of their economic future.
Customs inspection of export products
Signing contract with overseas companies
Exhibition of domestic products
Exhibition abroad of products made in ROC
Transporting export products
Loading Boeing 707 cargo plane
Cargoes destined for overseas
Container vessel being unloaded and loaded


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AMD HAS LAUNCHED what it claims is "the world's fastest and most powerful graphics card", the Radeon R9 295X2, which has been designed for "ultra-enthusiasts" engaged in high-speed PC gaming at 4K resolution.
The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 joins two Radeon R9 Series GPUs in one graphics card using AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.
Touted as an "industry first", AMD's new graphics card boasts a closed-loop, pre-assembled and maintenance-free liquid cooling system.
"Developed jointly with Asetek, users can expect cool temperatures, quiet operation and consistent performance from the Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card right out of the box," AMD said.
Due to the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, the Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card enables gamers to experience high-performance video games with Mantle, a tool for alleviating CPU bottlenecks, such as API overhead and inefficient multi-threading.
Mantle, which is basically AMD's answer to Directx, allows systems with entry-level, midrange or otherwise modestly-priced processors to see improvements in graphics processing performance.
Running at 11.5 TFLOPS, the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 has 5,632 stream processors with 8GB of memory and two 512bit memory interfaces.
"A new level of audio immersion is made possible by AMD Trueaudio technology, which brings surround sound to any stereo headset," AMD said. "With a dedicated audio processor on the GPUs, the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card delivers a richer and deeply immersive soundscape."
The card also offers AMD's Eyefinity multi-monitor technology.
The Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card will be available later this month at a starting price of $1,499, about £900.
Last month, Nvidia launched what it called the "most powerful graphics card ever", the Geforce GTX Titan Z, a graphics card built around two Kepler GPUs and 12GB of dedicated frame buffer memory, engineered for next generation 4K displays and multi-monitor gaming.
Expected to arrive sometime in April, the Geforce GTX Titan Z GPU has 5,760 cores, 12GB of memory and eight TFLOPS performance. Unlike traditional dual-GPU cards, its twin GPUs are tuned to run at the same clock speed with dynamic power balancing, so neither GPU creates a performance bottleneck. µ
Plus, it's goodbye to Device Assist
Vulnerabilities in the iOS sandbox thankfully found by the good guys
Data watchdog will make sure firm is being fully transparent about the controversial move
Chinese firm reportedly forces staff to do 82 hours of overtime a month


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The U.S. economy hasn’t exactly fallen into a rut, but the U.S. may have just suffered its biggest hiccup since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in early 2020.
Gross domestic product, the sum of everything that goes on in the economy, likely grew in the third quarter at the slowest pace in a year and half, Wall Street predicts. Third quarter GDP data will be released next Thursday.
The nation’s economic growth is expected to be cut by more than half to a 3.1% annualized pace in the period covering July through September, according to economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. expanded at a 6.7% annualized clip in the second quarter.
Other economic fortune tellers say even slower growth is in the cards. IHS Markit, the gold standard among Wall Street
forecasters, estimates GDP is on track to grow just 1.5%.
The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast is even weaker: 0.5%.
The big story was the surge in coronavirus cases tied to the delta variant during the third quarter.
Toward the end of the summer Americans went out less and traveled less to avoid catching the virus. That meant reduced spending at hotels, restaurants, theaters, vacation resorts and the like.
The result: Consumer spending, the biggest engine of the economy, may have grown a tepid 1% or less.
By contrast, spending soared by a 12% annual rate in the spring and 11.4% in the first three months of the year.
The delta variant wasn’t the only source of reduced spending. Massive government stimulus provided by the federal government had mostly dried up by the end of the third quarter. Huge stimulus payments to individuals and families boosted spending earlier in the year.
Even when consumers wanted to spend more, they sometimes couldn’t find enough products to buy because of persistent labor and supply shortages that are afflicting the economy.
Case in point: New cars and trucks.
A global shortage of computer chips has slowed production and sent prices soaring to record highs, as the U.S. experiences its worst bout of inflation in 30 years. Falling auto sales is another big contributor to reduced consumer spending.
“Delta, fiscal stimulus fading and supply constraints likely restrained U.S. GDP,” economists at TD said in note to clients.
Other factors that suppressed growth over the summer were record international trade deficits and flatlining home sales. Builders also can’t construct enough houses because of labor and material shortages.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel, however. The economy appeared to perk up in the first month of the fourth quarter as delta faded and Americans went back to their spending ways.
Economists predict GDP will accelerate to 4.8% in the final three months of the year.
“There are all sorts of worries about inflation, supply chain snafus and labor shortages, but the economy continues to chug along quite solidly,” said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.
The recovery would be even faster, they say, if the labor shortages and supply bottlenecks eased soon. Yet those problems are expected to fester well into 2022.


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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) has announced that they are planning to include credit services in Brazil.
Credit services in Brazil
Jack Ma the executive chairman of the company announced the news during Wednesday’s edition of the O Estado de S. Paulo. The e-commerce giant introduced a credit line in China to take care of finances on its website. Ma said, “We want to invest in e-commerce, logistics and inclusive financing.”
the executive however did not give more information about the type of credit operation the company is planning to introduce in Brazil.
The operation in Brazil commenced in 2014 but they experienced challenges on the logistics as well as the monitoring of product authenticity on their website. The executive acknowledged the errors and they reported they are working on improving the situation. According to Ma, the company has a business-to-customer and a business-business type of operations in Brazil. Representatives from the company were not available to confirm Ma’s remarks which he stated on Tuesday at the United nations in Geneva.
Introduction of credit services by the company
The finance arm in Alibaba launched the credit system in China amid efforts by the government to increase financing to small businesses and the consumers. They project labeled ‘Sesame Credit Management’ marked the most recent development in the financial services by the company.
The policy makers were hoping to enhance the flow of credit to privately owned firms which are the major contributors to economic growth in China as well as job opportunities.
Sesame Credit is mainly focused on those with little credit history and may have never obtained any bank loans or even applied for a credit card. However, these people should be active internet users and often shop online, e-pay in time their utility bills, have been using their phone numbers for a long time and have a reliable residential status.
Other players in the market
Alibaba is among 10 other companies which have obtained approval to have privately owned banks aimed at the smaller borrowers. Other companies include rivals such as Tencent and even Fosum International.


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Ocala has been mentioned repeatedly as a potential site for one of Florida’s new inland ports.
There was little discussion Tuesday evening by the Ocala City Council before it voted to spend $150,000 to have a study done on the feasibility of the city becoming one of Florida’s designated inland ports. There didn’t need to be any discussion, really, because pursuing an inland port is a no-brainer.
Ocala has been mentioned repeatedly as a potential site for one of Florida’s new inland ports. The city already has written agreements with the ports of Tampa and Jacksonville to receive shipped goods should it eventually be designated an inland port by the state.
And it is a good candidate. It comes down to three words — location, location, location.
As we have often pointed out, and everyone knows, Ocala is ideally located for logistics and distribution operations. It sits almost dead center between Tampa and Jacksonville, Miami and Atlanta, and also sits strategically distanced from The Villages, Gainesville and Daytona Beach.
On top of its central proximity to so many markets, Ocala also has an enviable and expansive transportation mix of highways, rail and air. That it also has plenty of ready-to-go industrial sites adjacent to that transportation infrastructure is a huge selling point.
The state’s willingness to put up $100,000 to go along with the city’s $150,000 to study the feasibility of the concept would suggest it believes Ocala has potential to become one of its inland ports, officially known as an Intermodal Logistics Centers.
Of course, jobs are what it is all about. Florida’s inland ports are expected to have huge job-creation potential for two reasons. First, as transportation costs continue to escalate, more and more distribution sites will be built to serve smaller regional locales rather than multi-state areas. Second, the reconstructed Panama Canal is expected to create a veritable flood of imports as the new supertankers that go through the canal will bring more and more goods to the eastern seaboard, with Florida the closest U.S. port-of-call.
What is envisioned of the inland ports is, once products or parts are off-loaded from ships, they will be sent by rail and truck to the inland ports where they will be sorted for regional distribution or, in some cases, product parts will have to be assembled and then sent to retailers. In other words, the inland ports present significant job creation potential both in distribution and manufacturing.
Conducting a study by no means indicates Ocala is a lock to land this prized designation. Yet, it is an important first step and clear recognition that our community has critical components — namely, proximity and transportation — that the state recognizes.
Landing the inland port designation should be a priority for the city and the local economic development apparatus, led by the Chamber and Economic Partnership. It’s a no-brainer.


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Google is never short of innovation, no matter it is the mobile platform or mobile hardware. This is the main reason why Pixel has been a top draw amongst the premium smartphone users. The good news is Pixel 4 has been announced, and we expect it to be launched soon. However, we will definitely give some details about the specifications as well as looks at Pixel 4. Pixel is a flagship phone and is the best bet for those people who are looking for Android-based smartphones. We have got the first glimpse of Pixel 4, and we can tell that if you are a Pixel fan, then this phone has got some surprising punch for you. Firstly, the new Pixel phone is going to be Pixel 4XL. To your surprise, the old ugly notch which was there in the old model of Pixel has been removed now. In place of that, there is a dual selfie camera that is placed inside a small hole-punch notch, that is actually located on the right side of the display. So, this is going to the first change in design in the new Pixel. There are some small indents, located on the upper edge as well as the lower edge. Another notable change which we find in the new Pixel is, the rear fingerprint sensor is missing. Hence, in all probability, the fingerprint sensor will be embedded under the screen.
When we look at the rear side of the phone, we feel that the phone is going to have a dual camera setup, although we are not sure. But looking at the placement of the camera, we definitely feel that there is going to be two lenses at least. The camera setup almost mimics the rear camera of Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. Somewhat we feel that Pixel 4 has been early to be released since it has been only a few days that Pixel 3 has been released. But undoubted Google has definitely made some notable revamp on Pixel 3, and that is why it is eager to launch Pixel 4. It should be noted that Pixel 3 was not that successful in the market, like other models of Pixel. Hence, Google simply doesn’t want to lose out its market share and has come up with Pixel 4.
There is no date, which has been announced for the launched of Pixel 4. However, have seen all the launches of Pixel has got a set pattern, and we expect that for Pixel 4, the same pattern will be followed. Considering this, we speculate that Google Pixel 4 will be launched in the month of October, this year. From the sources we hear, that Pixel 4 will be launched at a price tag of Rs. 72,000 in India, for a 64 GB option. We hear that there will be a 32 GB option as well, which will be launched with a price tag of Rs. 55,000. Currently, Pixel 3 model with 64 GB memory costs around Rs. 66,000. From the price point of view, definitely, Pixel is going to be pricey. But, that is not surprising at all, since Pixel phone were always pricey, and neither Google ever projected it as a budget phone. But, one thing is sure, that with this price you get a phone with good build quality.
There are strong rumors that Pixel 4 will be able to accommodate two physical SIMs. If this happens, then this would mean that Google has moved ahead from its one SIM models. Today, when most of the phones have two SIMs, one SIM models don’t make any impact on the consumers, barring Apple. However, we know that Apple has its own fan, and definitely, they are going to accept one SIM phone models if it is Apple. Till Pixel 3, there was only one SIM slot, and the user has the option to go for an option eSIM if he wants another SIM for his mobile. But, as with the case of eSIM, both the physical SIM as well as the eSIM cannot be used together, and only one can be used at a time.
The battery of Pixel 3 was definitely disappointing. It seems Google has worked on this and has provided a better battery in Pixel 4. Pixel 3 battery simply lacked the power, but it is rumored that Pixel 4 has got a powerful battery, and even with full usage it is going to last for 20 hours. From a source, we learn that the battery power is going to be the same as Samsung Galaxy S9.
Just like Pixel 3 XL, even this mobile will have an edge to edge display. Edge to Edge display has been one of the most notable features of Pixel 3, and we definitely expected Google to retain it in Pixel 4. Pixel 4 is going to be a notch-less as well as bezel-less phones. This is again a one step ahead from Pixel 3. Another hot rumor about Pixel 4 is, it might have a 256 GB memory. This was again much required, in absence of removable storage. In terms of connectivity, Google seems to have decided to introduce 5G with Pixel 4. Most of the premium phones are being launched with the 5G option, and Google has made it clear that it doesn’t want to stay behind in this competition. It is expected that 5G networks will be launched in different countries, later this year. The rest of the specification remains the same for this phone. It could be said that Pixel 4 is an improved version of Pixel 3. Google has carefully worked on the shortcomings of Pixel 3, and removed them in Pixel 4.
If you are looking to buy a premium phone like Pixel 3 or Pixel 4, you can get it at the best price if you check for mobile phone online offers. Check for the latest mobile phones online, and get them at the best price.


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The cost of contactless: Will demise of cash cost us all dear?
As more and more of us use cards to pay for everyday goods and services, what are the real implications? Mark Andrews investigates.
The turnstiles to public toilets are not normally a bellwether for the economy, but could the ones in Bridgnorth be a pointer to the future?
The lavatories in the town's Listley Street have been the subject of some debate in the past few weeks, following the decision to make them accessible only by contactless debit card.
"I find it absolutely incredible Bridgnorth Town Council expects members of the public to use a contactless payment card to make the miniscule amount of 20p," says tourist Godfrey Burley, in town to see the Cliff Railway.
For its part, the town council says a spate of vandal attacks and thefts from the coin box on the door left it with little choice. But it is an example of how we are moving, slowly, but surely towards a cashless society.
In 1985, cash changed hands in 87 per cent of all transactions. Today the figure is just 40 per cent. The figure is expected to fall to 18 per cent by 2027.
It is hardly a new trend. Restaurants in the UK began recognising the Diner's Club credit card as early as 1953, and 10 years later American Express came to these shore, although the cost of subscription made this very much a niche service.
It was the launch of the more affordable Barclaycard in 1966, followed by Access in 1972 which brought card payments into the mainstream. But while these grew in popularity, they were still limited by the fact that they needed required human intervention to provide a payment slip and check the signature.
However, the arrival of chip-and-pin cards in 2003, followed by contactless payment in 2007, has made it possible for cashless payments on everything from petrol and parking to, well public toilets. It is reported that last year 3.4 million people across the UK used cash just once a month or less.
Even the Church of England has got on board. Lichfield recently launched a trial where hand-held card machines were passed around in lieu of the collection plate, although many will find it strange to see this during the traditional offertory hymn. Church chiefs introduced the scheme after collections were hit by fewer people carrying cash with them.
Shropshire Star comment:
Reverend Jim Trood, rector at St Matthews Church in Walsall, one of the parishes taking part, said: “One of the older members at our church said he thought it was great, commenting it was so much easier than having to find the right money to put on the collection plate.”
But what are the real implications as we head towards a cashless society?
It is not hard to see why many businesses would favour such a move. For shopkeepers, it would render the daily trip to the bank obsolete, ending the need for staff to walk across town with a briefcase stuffed with money. Wages clerks would not need to spend ages counting and bagging up money. And, as has proved the case in Bridgnorth, it would end once and for all the problem of thieves and vandals breaking into coin operated machinery to steal a bit of petty cash.
From a government perspective, the end of cash would put a stop to 'cash in hand' tax avoidance, and also make it much more difficult to offload stolen goods.
But there is another side to all this, as residents a few miles up the road in Much Wenlock will testify. Last month the town became a cash desert when its last remaining bank – and with it the cashpoint machine – closed.
The town's mayor, Councillor Graham Edgcumbe Venning observed: "We now have no bank, no ATM and no building society.
"The problem is that the the broadband around here is not very good. If the broadband fails, traders can't use their card machines, and if customers can't take out cash, that's a huge problem."
At the moment the town with no cashpoint is thankfully a rare occurrence, but all the signs are it will become an increasing problem across the country as the use of cash declines. Figures released by cashpoint operator Link showed that 1,300 machines were closed in the five months until the end of July, the first decline in more than 20 years. And there are fears that it is the poor and the elderly who will be hit hardest.
Gareth Shaw of consumer organisation Which? says: “Free-to-use cashpoints are disappearing across the country and the spike in the rate of closures for supposedly protected machines in remote and rural locations is particularly concerning.
“Millions of people are still reliant on cash in the UK and our research has shown the less well-off and older generations are most at risk of suffering financial and social exclusion through the double blow of ATM and bank branch closures."
Mr Shaw is calling for the Payment Systems Regulator to intervene.
"The consequences of inaction for consumers and businesses affected by these changes are potentially dire,” he added.
As alluded to by the Much Wenlock's mayor, the demise of cash will leave us very much at the mercy of technology. In June services from Visa, American Express and Mastercard went down with technical issues, highlighting the risk of relying on a single form of technology.
"When the trolley came around on the train and the card payment wasn't working, the only people who could eat were those with cash," one sceptical banker noted.
It is also worth remembering that banks do not work for nothing, and that every time you swipe your contactless card or punch in your chip-and-pin number, you will be paying for the privilege one way or another. The card providers make their money by charging a commission every time you make a payment, and while the money may not come directly from your bank account, the business you are dealing with will need to pass on the cost one way or another.
But there is also a darker problem. Last year there were 467,000 incidents of contactless card fraud, with £27 being stolen every minute.
The Bank of England's chief cashier Victoria Cleland says she has heard of instances of money being "taken off contactless when you walk past something".
She does not use contactless payments herself.


text:
Qualcomm might not continue to supply chips
Apple (AAPL) has plans to replace Qualcomm (QCOM) as its modem chips supplier for its upcoming iPhones, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities and reported in 9to5Mac. Apple is instead planning to use wireless chips from Intel (INTC) exclusively for its upcoming iPhone models, which are expected to launch this year.
Apple to use Intel chips
Qualcomm chips are used in high-end smartphones such as Samsung’s (SSNLF) Galaxy, and Google’s (GOOGL) Pixel. Apple has been using Qualcomm wireless or cellular chips for its iPhones until last year when the relationship between Apple and Qualcomm soured after Apple accused Qualcomm of overcharging for its chips. Apple then refused to pay Qualcomm a rebate of about $1 billion. Since then, Apple has been looking for another supplier to offset the higher input costs of its iPhones.
According to analysts at KGI Securities, Intel’s modem chips are not only cheaper than Qualcomm’s but also Apple’s. According to Reuters, citing Nomura analyst Romit Shah, Apple is expected to save more than $100 million in the next iPhone cycle by moving to less expensive Intel modem chips.
Intel started supplying modem chips to Apple on the release of its iPhone 7 in September 2016. Analysts also anticipate that Apple could source all its thin modems from Intel, which is currently supplied by Qualcomm, according to Nomura’s brokerage firm Instinet.
However, according to some sector analysts, iPhones with Qualcomm chips have performed better than models running on Intel chips. Also, Intel might not be able to offer 5G (fifth-generation) services that are as good as Qualcomm’s networking. So there might be a chance that Apple could return to Qualcomm chips, although everything is uncertain at the moment.


text: We can’t abide phablets. Not the devices themselves – with voice calls easily handled using headphones or headsets, the idea of smartphones with five or even six-inch screens clearly makes sense for a growing number of people. It’s the name: ‘phablets’. Awful. The campaign to rebrand these devices as ‘bigphones’ starts (and probably ends) here. Still, some serious stats on the demand for these devices have been published by analyst IHS iSuppli, claiming that ph**let shipments will reach 60.4m units in 2013, rising to 146m by 2016. Meanwhile, the success of Apple’s iPad mini, Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire is seeing the tablet market nudge downwards towards smaller seven-inch screens (Smablets? No.) making for an intriguing convergence in the year ahead.


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Big tech companies are culling employees in an effort to cut costs
Amazon's reported layoffs would be the largest job cut in the company's history. But it's the timing of the move that especially surprised analysts. Not only did the e-commerce juggernaut recently more than double its cap compensation for tech workers due to the "particularly competitive labor market," it also tends to value stability in the lead-up to the holiday season.
But with the threat of a looming recession, many large tech companies have been forced to streamline operations. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees last Wednesday that he had anticipated sustained revenue growth and significantly increased the company’s investments following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Meta reported a second straight decline in its third-quarter earnings in October — and forecasted another drop for the fourth quarter as well.
Other tech giants are facing similar issues and are either freezing hiring or slashing staff in an effort to cut costs. Twitter is estimated to have laid off half its workforce, while Apple and Amazon have paused hiring for many roles.
Kayes notes some of these companies may have previously over-hired due to aggressive growth expectations that “never materialized.” Big tech saw soaring profits over the past decade, but high inflation, interest rate hikes and recession fears may have cooled demand among customers this year.
"I think it's a turning point in the growth of the tech industry,” says Kayes. “The expectations for growth in many of these tech stocks — Metaverse, social media — were just sky high. And now those expectations are really coming back to Earth."
The combined value of mega-cap tech companies tumbled by a whopping $4 trillion in 2022, according to Bank of America.
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What does this mean for the U.S. economy?
Kayes doesn’t believe that the layoffs and slow growth in big tech are necessarily pointing toward a recession — but adds that if there is an economic downturn, it might not be reflected in the labor market.
“Some would suggest that tech is going to be the first domino to fall and that's going to be representative of the broader economy,” Kayes says. “I tend to think that the economy is going to very easily absorb these jobs.”
He points out that the labor market is still strong — the latest government data shows the U.S. added 261,000 jobs in October — and there are plenty of openings for laid-off tech workers to apply to.
However, he also believes the market could be shifting gears, with higher demand for manufacturing. Manufacturing grew by 32,000 jobs last month — and now provides 137,000 more jobs than it did before the pandemic.
“There have been several chip manufacturers that have announced very large investments in the United States. That's gonna be 50,000 to 60,000 jobs over the next five to 10 years.”
IBM and Micron both announced multi-billion dollar investments in manufacturing this year. The former plans to develop and manufacture semiconductors, mainframe technology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and the latter has pledged up to $100 billion to chip manufacturing in New York.
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While the attention-grabber for HMD Global’s MWC 2023 announcements is the repairable Nokia G22, the brand also unveiled two new entry-level models with the C22 and C32.
Common between both phones is that they have a 6.5-inch HD+ display with a notch for an 8-megapixel selfie shooter, UC9863A processors, fingerprint scanners, a 5000mAh battery that’s rated for up to 3 days thanks to AI-powered battery-saving management, 10w charging, and an IP52 rating. Both phones come with Android 13 out of the box, and HMD Global commits to two years of security updates.
The C22 is the more basic of the two, sporting a plastic back panel, up to 3GB RAM, up to 64GB internal storage, a dual-rear camera setup that’s led by a 13-megapixel camera, and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.
The C32, on the other hand, steps things up by having a glass back, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, up to 4GB RAM, up to 128GB internal storage, and a triple rear camera setup that’s led by a 50-megapixel main camera–a first for the C-series.
The Nokia C32 starts at 129 Euros(~Php 8k), while the C22 starts at 109 Euros(~Php 6.5k). The former’s pricing is interesting, as it’s rare to see a budget phone that actually features a glass back.


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Amazon.com has outgrown Seattle.
The e-commerce giant, which employs about 40,000 people in the city after a hiring boom and urban build-out with little precedent in modern American history, is searching for a second home.
In an early morning news release Thursday, the company announced it was seeking to place a second headquarters somewhere in North America. The online retailer said it plans to spend upward of $5 billion on the new corporate campus, which could eventually house as many as 50,000 employees.
The new headquarters will “be a full equal” to Amazon’s Seattle home, chief executive Jeff Bezos said. “We’re excited to find a second home.”
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Amazon plans to hire new executives and groups to locate in that headquarters, and also give senior leaders the option of placing teams in one or both headquarters. Employees currently working in Seattle, Amazon said, may have an opportunity to choose to work from the new headquarters.
Plans for a new headquarters, which Amazon is calling HQ2, seems to chart expectations for more rapid growth at a company that was already likely the second largest employer in the U.S.
After sealing the $13.5 billion purchase of Austin-based Whole Foods Market and its 87,000 employees last month, the combined workforce likely totaled 469,000, trailing only Wal-Mart and its 2.3 million employees.
About 40,000 Amazonians work across 8.1 million square feet of office space in the company’s sprawling Seattle campus, and Amazon is on track to grow that physical footprint by half in the next five years.
The public search for a new headquarters will likely spark a bidding war among states and cities eager for a piece of one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Leaders of Fort Worth and Dallas said they expect North Texas to make a pitch.
An eight-page request for proposal Amazon posted online Thursday said incentives offered to offset building and operating costs “will be significant factors in the decision-making process.”
Dallas-Fort Worth is typically in the running for corporate relocations and Amazon has built a strong presence in the region. It operates fulfillment centers in Haslet, Fort Worth, Coppell and Dallas, as well as facilities to serve its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery business.
Fort Worth already has a business relationships with Amazon and the city’s economic development team is always working to try to attact new operations, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said. Also, Alliance Airport, with a newly expanded runway that can transport fully-loaded cargo planes to Asia, could be a selling point for Amazon.
“We’d love to have them,” Price said. “We’d love to have another headquarters.”
Related stories from Fort Worth Star Telegram
Packages of goodies given to companies that promise jobs have come a long way since Chicago snagged Boeing’s headquarters from Seattle in 2001 with tax breaks worth up to $60 million.
During Boeing’s headquarters search, the company considered several sites in the Metroplex as the region’s leaders pitched the benefits of locating in North Texas. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings expects the region to do the same for Amazon.
“Amazon, obviously, is the best of the best and we want to make sure that we show well first as a region,” Rawlings said, noting that Amazon may have specific real estate requirements that might eliminate some North Texas cities.
When General Electric agreed to move its headquarters from suburban Connecticut to Boston last year, the pot was sweetened by up to $145 million in incentives.
And subsidies to keep or expand manufacturing work in states have added up to billions in tax breaks for the likes of aluminum maker Alcoa, General Motors and Intel and to Boeing Washington state for a commitment to build the 777x airliner.
Measured by expected direct employment, Amazon’s scale dwarfs those projects.
The company listed other criteria on its wish list, including an urban or suburban core in a metropolitan area with more than a million people, a highly educated workforce and a “stable and business-friendly environment.”
Amazon isn’t picky about whether to build or buy. It said it would field proposals for sites that include 500,000 square feet of space in the first phase, or new construction on a plot of 100 acres or more. Plans may eventually incorporate up to 8 million square feet of office space.
Speed appears to be a priority. The company asked interested municipalities to offer their best guess at the timeline Amazon could expect for permitting and other considerations to be completed as part of the proposals it is requesting by Oct. 19.
Amazon expects to announce a decision next year, and start work on the first phase of a new campus by 2019.
“We encourage cities to think big and be creative,” the company said.
Staff writer Andrea Ahles contributed to this report.


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MARTHA’S SURPRISE: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia on Tuesday reported that advertising revenue in publishing was up 6 percent (excluding Blueprint) in the second quarter versus last year, but guidance for the third quarter isn’t as rosy. Wenda Harris Millard, president of media and co-chief executive officer, said during the company’s quarterly earnings call that publishing revenue is expected to be down in the midteens during the third quarter, compared with the same period 12 months ago. Overall revenue for the publishing segment was down 2.5 percent in the second quarter, to $46.3 million, because of an increase at Martha Stewart Living offset by the loss of Blueprint. The division also includes its book operations. Categories that helped increase ad growth at the company during the second quarter included apparel and financial services, which is surprising, given that those are two sectors being squeezed at other titles.
Newly appointed executive chairman Charles Koppelman said the company just started rolling out magazines overseas, beginning with international editions of Martha Stewart Living and Everyday Food, but he declined to provide more details. Living had a drop in ad pages, although ad revenues were up 8 percent, and circulation was down about 10 percent. Internet revenues were $3.2 million for the quarter, compared with $2.5 million during the same period last year. Total group revenues for the quarter rose 5 percent to $77.1 million. Net income was $328,000 compared with a net loss of $6.7 million last year. — Amy Wicks
COULDN’T HE JUST MAIL IT?: Relatedly, the heroine of “Emma’s Table,” a novel by New York Times etiquette columnist Philip Galanes to be published this week, is a sixtysomething who “parlayed a small career as an interior decorator into an enormous one as a media darling….Her allure had always been easy to see: she was just like you, only better — which was somewhat at odds with the latest feather in her cap, a conviction for tax evasion and lying under oath, complete with a stay in the federal pen.”
Don’t worry, it’s not line-for-line Martha — Emma is described as “a regal brunette.”
The novel is not to be confused with the crop of “assistant lit” of recent years: Galanes doesn’t know Stewart, hasn’t worked for her and didn’t do any research on her. He did, however, have an epiphany watching Stewart on TV at the height of the legal troubles that led to her serving five months in prison. Galanes’ first novel had just been published, and it felt anticlimatic. “I was having a loser-to-loser identification with her,” Galanes told WWD. “She mentioned Nelson Mandela. I thought, has she just compared her shifty stock deal to Nelson Mandela? That’s exactly right. We have to do whatever we have to do when we get the huge hit in the stomach or the bash in the head.”
Inspired by “a character who was so high and so low,” Galanes (also an entertainment lawyer who dabbles in interior design) started writing. These days, he said, “we’re desperate to get the book into her hands. All I want to do is take her out to lunch to see the book. I would just want to thank her, because I think she helped me work through one of my own issues by imagining an interior life for her that is entirely a fabrication.” The dream site would be The Four Seasons — “Probably the one time I could get a good table” — but Galanes may not want to hold his breath for Stewart’s company. A spokeswoman for her declined comment. — Irin Carmon
ROCKING ON: You know fashion week is just around the corner when Condé Nast’s annual Fashion Rocks supplement begins to arrive in mailboxes. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Condé Nast Media Group program that includes the annual magazine, concert and television special. The magazine, helmed by editorial director Anna Wintour and editor in chief Jonathan Van Meter, today begins its rollout with subscriber copies of Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Glamour, Details and 11 other Condé Nast titles. Justin Timberlake is this year’s cover model. The pop star, actor and fashion designer wore a tuxedo jacket from his own line, William Rast, in the photo by Craig McDean. Other musicians profiled and photographed in the issue include Beyoncé Knowles, shot by Jean-Baptiste Mondino; Mariah Carey and Dhani Harrison by Steven Meisel; Usher and the Black Eyed Peas by Norman Jean Roy; Steve Coogan by Anton Corbijn; Mark Ronson by Terry Richardson, and London rock band The Kills by Annie Leibovitz. Martin Schoeller snapped Keith Urban and Zooey Deschanel, and André 3000 discusses his new clothing line, Benjamin Bixby, in a four-page spread shot by David Vasiljevic. While Citi, Cover Girl, Chevrolet, Nivea, Kohl’s and Verizon all packed multiple pages of advertising in the issue, Richard Beckman, president of Condé Nast Media Group, said ad pages were flat with last year’s edition. The 170-page magazine is a precursor to the Fashion Rocks concert Sept. 5 at Radio City Music Hall, which airs on CBS four days later. — Stephanie D. Smith
MAD FOR THE SHOW: Break out those girdles and high heels — that fashion trendsetting show “Mad Men” appears to be a bigger hit so far in its second season. Approximately $8 million was spent this summer promoting the show’s second season, an investment that led to a record number of viewers for its season two premiere on Sunday. The Emmy-nominated drama raked in an average of 2.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, which is more than double the 915,000 viewers the show averaged during its first season. “Mad Men” had only one sponsor on Sunday, BMW, and the automaker is also the sole sponsor of its Web site, although Target is also an advertiser on the program.
On the fashion front, AMC worked with Bloomingdale’s in June to present the iconic fashions from the show in store windows, in advance of the premiere. The marketing hype is undoubtedly helping along sales of the perfectly timed release of the first-season DVD, which is a number-four bestseller on Amazon.com and number three on the Barnes & Noble Web site. And the buzz is spilling into the pages of countless magazines, including the cover of Entertainment Weekly and Best Life, which has lead actor Jon Hamm on its September cover wearing Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers. — A.W.


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Will RDR create an ‘advice gap’?
- 9 March 2012
The Financial Services Consumer Panel recently responded to the attempt to establish a high level principle in the Financial Services Bill that consumers are responsible for their decisions. Adam Phillips, Chair of the Consumer Panel, commented: "Clearly consumers need to act sensibly when making decisions about financial services. However, all too often the products they are being sold are so complex and the risks involved so obscure that it is impossible for them to make reasoned decisions.
"This is why the Panel believes that the new Financial Conduct Authority should be able to make rules to impose fiduciary responsibilities on the industry. This would ensure that consumers could be confident that the firms would act responsibly and treat them fairly."
Complexity has undoubtedly contributed to many financial scandals in the past and Phillips is not the first to draw attention to the problem. Adair Turner gives his views in a speech at Mansion House:
- An end in sight for PPI calls as financial watchdog sets 2018 complaints deadline
- Leading trade body calls for single rate of tax relief on pensions at 25% or 33% as current system "benefits the rich"
- Bank account review - Which? calls for compensation for customers suffering poor service
- Avoid a Hallowe'en horror by remembering to switch energy deals warns Gocompare
- Why the price of oil has “changed for a generation”
- Virgin to offer half price refund for West Coast trains more than half an hour late
- Lloyds shares to be offered to the public at a discount
- Confidence in house price growth remains robust despite the threat of higher interest rates
- Employers attack training levy as 'little more than a tax on business'
- Pensions tax relief consultation: “Constant change can be detrimental”


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After today's update, PUBG is expected to improve its gameplay and experience that players had over the past period. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has surpassed 3 million players on Microsoft's home console after recently launching for the system back in December.
The company is also continuing to hire, especially when it comes to excelled network engineers, who they say is in short supply outside of South Korea.
Enhanced server performance while parachuting. Microsoft had announced at E3 a year ago that the game would be making its way to Xbox One through the Xbox Game Preview program.
Furthermore, a new controller preset is being added to the game, as it will support holding LT to aim down sights and LB to use 3rd person perspective. Though by default, aiming is mapped in two stages to the left trigger, this update offers the option of aiming down sights with "LT", while third-person aiming is activated by pressing "LB".
A message from Bluehole Inc. confirms: "As part of that update, we have chose to include some additional performance and gameplay improvements, as well as a new controller option".
Future updates will bring additional game optimization and a new map called Miramar.
Dropping objects causes the player to switch weapons.
User is unable to switch grenade types when tapping right on the D-Pad.
It looks like netting PUBG, aka Player Unknown's Battlegrounds has already been a massive success for the Xbox platform. After installing, all changes in the above changelog will be applied. Make sure to drop into the comments with your thoughts.
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There’s lots of money to be made in mobile apps, but these apps still have a ways to go to hit their fiscal peak. Today, about 80% of apps are free, and mobile phone users will download more than eight billion applications this year, raising spending in app stores to $6.2 billion, according to a new Gartner report.
Worldwide mobile application stores’ download revenue exceeded $4.2 billion in 2009 and will grow to $29.5 billion by the end of 2013.While advertising revenue in those apps is expected to generate just $.6 billion worldwide this year, the report predicts that advertising-sponsored mobile applications will generate almost 25 per cent of mobile application stores revenue by 2013 (view report release).
“As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner, in the report’s release. “Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.”
Average smartphone users will become less tech-savvy as smartphones come down in price to have a mass market appeal and these users will be more reluctant to pay for applications, according to the research firm. The company said early smartphone owners were more willing to pay for mobile applications and trusted the billing system.
The app downloads show now signs of stopping, says the Garnter report, with more than 21 billion downloads of mobile apps by 2013. Earlier this month, Apple alone marked 3 billion downloads since its App store opened 18 months ago. The Cupertino, Calif. company is earning $2.4 billion a year from the mobile apps, according to one estimate.


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After Sony released their sales projections for the current year, it looks as though they have succumb to the same realization most owners of the Vita have already reached; it looks like it’s time to give up on the Vita. As reported by CVG, Sony released that their sales projects for the rest of the fiscal year that runs through March of 2014, and their portable sales projections between the PSP and Vita are coming in right around 5 million units world wide. It’s a sad truth, but if Sony isn’t projecting solid figures, then they obviously know something we don’t. Gamers have been curious if this would be the case with the Vita, as the lack of games produced for the system have been either ports or HD remastered titles, providing new experiences that can’t be had else where few and far between. It looks like the writing has been on the wall and Sony is taking notice.
It’s really unfortunate, as the Vita is the portable system that everyone wanted, providing gamers with everything that they have in a home console, minus an extra set of triggers. However, since its release the system has struggled to garner interest as the library of titles has been slow progressing and limited in the array. Times don’t seem to be getting any better either, there have been a limited number of titles that have been announced this year and don’t seem to be increasing either with the projections that have been set forth. Had they seen heavy blockbuster titles on the horizon there would be a strong likelihood that Sony would have foreseen better totals in their future.
Not only the games, but the rumored cross functionality between the PlayStation 4 and the Vita being strong may not be as prevalent as one had been led to believe. There are a ton of things that Sony could do between the two systems, much like what was rumored for the PSP and the PlayStation 3 upon the home consoles arrival on the market. Instead, Sony squandered a perfect opportunity to create another dimension to gaming and it doesn’t look like they plan to take advantage of it now with the Vita and PS4 either.
Sony has to realize that this is their baby, the Vita is their system. They must show the kind of support and effort that they have put forth on the PlayStation 3 of late. That is what brought it up to top, selling more system during this generation in terms of total number of consoles sold across the world, than any other. It wasn’t as much the third party support, but the first party titles that separated it from the competition. It will take the same for the Vita, until other publishers and developers notice that the Vita is here to stay. With the latest numbers coming down from the top though, it looks like Sony doesn’t have any plans for supporting the portable that could have been. They are doing nothing, and if that doesn’t portray that they are giving up on the system, than I don’t know what does.


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Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2008
|Net sales were 747.8 billion yen, down 6.0% compared to the same period last year. Amidst a challenging environment including the appreciation of the yen and skyrocketing costs for raw materials, as well as declines in prices for digital products and electronic devices, Sharp’s main devices such as LCDs and solar cells generally continued to sell well. However, net sales were affected by the loss on fluctuations in exchange rates of 34.8 billion yen and by a decrease in sales of mobile phones and wireless PDAs of 79.5 billion yen compared to the same period in the previous year, reflecting the impact of a sluggish Japanese domestic mobile phone market.
Operating income was 36.4 billion yen, down 13.8% compared to the same period last year.
Net income was 24.8 billion yen, up 2.8% compared to the same period last year. Despite posting the loss on valuation of inventory for prior periods in conjunction with revisions to Japanese accounting standards, we posted the gain on sales of stocks of subsidiaries and affiliates resulting from a transfer of stock in Sharp Finance Corporation, leading to the improved net income.


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The demise of mom and pop shops
By Kevin Dwyer
Sun Business Editor
or decades, mom and pop retailers have been the foundation upon which local and regional economies are built.
Sadly, in Kitsap County and other areas of the state and across the country that trend is changing some would say for the worse.
In the past few months, a number of locally owned retail businesses have closed their doors or announced plans to do so in the near future.
There are lots of reasons for the demise of mom and pop retailers: increased competition from major retailers in Silverdale and Seattle, a preference for a simpler lifestyle, and for some, pure economics.
The latest casualty is the Bremerton Hallmark shop at 331 Pacific Ave. that has been run by the McBride family in two different locations in the downtown core for 28 years.
The McBrides, who operate five other Hallmark outlets located in East Bremerton, Silverdale, Poulsbo and Bainbridge Island, will close the downtown Bremerton store June 14 and hold a party on that day to thank their longtime customers.
Owner Virginia "Ginny" McBride said most of the 2,300-square-foot store's inventory will be transferred to the family's other shops and its two fulltime employees will be absorbed into the other stores as well. The McBrides will hold a special sale on June 20 and 21 to sell off items they don't plan on relocating to the other stores.
"Because we're Bremerton residents and feel loyal and responsible to Bremerton, we stayed longer (at the downtown location) than good business sense should have allowed," said McBride. "It's not financially viable."
Added son Scott McBride, who serves as the small chain's chief financial officer: "It was time, without a doubt" to close the store. "We couldn't keep it up to the standards we wanted ... the look, the lease-hold improvements, the technology.
Virginia and Duey McBride started their regional Hallmark chain in Bremerton in 1968 in a storefront at 133 Pacific Ave.
They moved operations to their present location in 1979.
"Downtown was a vibrant place then. Penney's had just moved in (on the block bounded by Pacific, Second and Burwell) and Bremer's Department Store moved in ... we go way back."
But the gradual deterioration of downtown Bremerton's central business district in the late 1980s and 1990s, following the development of the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale, forced the McBrides to look hard at the financial fitness of their downtown store.
"The rest of the county around Bremerton is just booming," said Virginia. "Our other stores are doing great."
She said if revitalization plans for the downtown district come to fruition, the family would return to Bremerton "in a minute to be part of the resurgence."
In the meantime, Virginia McBride added, "the reality of the current circumstance dictates that the store be closed. This announcement is made with mixed emotions, gladness for the great start in business that it gave us and sadness that it is now ending."
Staff photo by Bruce Moyer
Saying goodbye to 'yesterday': Mary Ann Harris, left, gets a hug from her daughter, Monica, during the auctioning of her business inventory at Yesterday's Emporium and Dinner Theater in downtown Bremerton last week.