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Along with a redesigned app for Android, is Google planning to introduce a new type of organization for Gmail across all platforms? In a series of leaked screenshots sent to TheNextWeb, we may see a set of five category types embedded within our inboxes to help keep things organized.
Misfit Shine Activity Tracker From IndieGogo Drops Android Support After Months of Delays and Reaching $846,000 Funding Goal
Crowdfunding of new tech products through sites like Kickstarter and indiegogo has become the go-to method for anyone with a brilliant idea, but little cash to get things up and running. We have probably covered dozens of projects over the last couple of years (some good, some not-so-good), as many of these ideas are amazing concepts that have the chance at becoming a reality thanks to enthusiasts like you and I. One of those ideas from the last year was the Misfit Shine, an activity tracker similar to the Nike Fuelband or Fitbit, only it carries a much simpler, minimal-yet-beautiful, and less intrusive design. It won awards at CES, bragged about its awesome mode of syncing, and attracted almost 8,000 backers before closing as one of indiegogo’s most successful campaigns ever with a closing goal of $846,675.
But where it stood out to Android users, was the fact that its creators were willing to support Android from the beginning, something that even Nike wasn’t able to do after leading us on for months. Just before the campaign closed, they went as far as to show off their Android app, or at least the first render of it. This looked to be one of coolest, most attractive, and well-thought-out fitness trackers to date. Well, that was the case until today.
Android Accessory Roundup: zBoost 4G LTE Signal Booster, samDock Cable, Y-Cam HomeMonitor System and More
The accessories industry is very large and continues to grow daily. Couple that with the fact that smartphones are starting to take over the world’s population, leaving you with entire conferences such as CTIA and CES, based solely on consumer items, such as smartphone accessories.
We wanted to try and highlight some of the accessories we have stumbled across in a roundup post, so allow us to introduce the Android Accessory Roundup. We will go over the basic function of the accessory, the pros and cons, the price of said accessory and that’s it. Hopefully this will help some folks find a neat new toy that goes will with their favorite gadget.
After we got our first sighting of Android 4.3 this morning, information continues to flood in. We were able to spot a tweaked UI to the camera in the original set of pictures, but this video gives you almost every little detail that has been changed. The biggest is obviously the change to a settings UI that isn’t covered by your finger.
In the old UI, once you long-pressed in the center of the camera, a ring would appear around the focus with options, many of which couldn’t be seen because your finger was in the way. With this, Google has moved the settings menu to above the circle and builds on top of itself as you enter new menus. If you don’t want to interact with the menu in the middle of the camera UI, you can tap the settings circle in the bottom right, which then pops up settings over top of the shutter button. We’re also noticing a new timer option that I’m not able to find on my Nexus 4 running Android 4.2.
New Gmail App for Android Possibly Spotted in Google I/O Session, Assuming It’s Not Just an Ugly Mock-up
Are you looking at the new UI of a redesigned Gmail app for Android? Possibly. The slide above appeared at the “Structure in Android App Design” session at Google I/O, which was focused on teaching developers how to choose which navigation techniques to use in their complex apps. This was the only look at what could potentially be the new Gmail, but if this is indeed it, there are some things worth talking about.
Over on XDA, a user posted some pictures this morning of a Nexus 4 that was seen at a mobile expo taking place in Thailand. What makes this N4 special is that the device appears to be running a completely new build number, JWR45B. Coupled with the new build is a kernel that was built in May, signs that we could definitely be setting our eyes on Android 4.3.
Within an hour of Google’s announcement at I/O that they would soon sell a special “Nexus experience” edition of the Samsung Galaxy S4, rumors popped up suggesting that HTC would do something similar with the One. And as soon as those rumors surfaced, HTC quickly shot them down, claiming that a “Nexus edition” was not in their plans. Well, here we are a week later, and rumors have once again surfaced surrounding a “Google Edition” of HTC’s popular One device. According to sources who spoke to both Geek.com and Modaco, an announcement is imminent, potentially happening next week.
Heard of Mailbox? It’s an iOS app that was such a massive success as an email replacement at launch, that Dropbox bought it within a couple of months of its existence. Today, the company launched an iPad version of its popular app, but that’s not what Android users care about. In a sitdown with Read Write, Mailbox’s founder Gentry Underwood said that a presence on Android is next on their list of things to do. He wouldn’t specify a time frame, only that it’s on their radar now that the iPad app is out.


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Georgia residents Heidi and Micah Stampley are the founders of Orleans Food Authentic Beignet and Baking Mix. Today, the mix is sold in over 200 Walmart stores across five Southern states thanks to the retailer’s annual “Open Call” event.
According to Heidi, the recipe was created by her husband over two weeks. “It’s just exciting to see your dream actually in a bowl,” she told WSBTV while pouring her mix.
She said they got the opportunity to pitch it to the superstore’s annual “Open Call” which allows entrepreneurs from all over the nation to pitch their ready-made products to Walmart.
The Open Call has existed for a decade and offers small businesses the opportunity of a lifetime. Also, the retail company has pledged to commit an additional $350 billion investment into products “made, grown or assembled in America, supporting creation of over 750,000 U.S. jobs,” according to the company’s website.
Prior to creating their beignet company, the couple operated a Fayette County restaurant which was closed right before the COVID-19 lockdown. Nonetheless, the partners were determined to start another venture.
This led the Louisiana natives to mass-produce the baking mix, which is now sold in 200 stores in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Heidi recalled the moment she walked down the aisle and spotted her product among other brand-name baking items.
“Is this real? Because you’ve been going into Walmart all your life getting Duncan Hines and icing. All these things are there. And then my product is tucked right there in the middle!” Heidi told WSB-TV.

domain: news


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Nationwide Chain Store Pier 1 Announces Permanent Closing
According to a report published by WWLP Channel 22 in Springfield, Pier 1 announced on Tuesday, May 19, that it has filed a motion to close all of their stores across the country.
Pier 1, after filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, had already closed over 400 of their stores nationwide. Their announcement today will impact all of their remaining stores, including their locations in Pittsfield, Amherst and Enfield, Connecticut.
As early as last year, Pier 1 had around 1,000 stores across the US, but due to the significant impact of COVID-19 on an already challenging economic environment, the company made the ultimate decision to shut down.
For more information, head to wwlp.com and get all the details on this late-breaking story.
Here are 50 of your favorite retail chains that no longer exist.


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Spotify defends itself against Taylor Swift's criticism
Spotify's chief executive has defended its business model, saying it has paid out $2bn (£1.2bn) to the music industry to date.
Daniel Ek's lengthy blog post follows a high profile move by pop star Taylor Swift to pull her entire back catalogue from the song-streaming service.
She said she did not believe it "fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators" of songs.
But Mr Ek said Spotify was music's biggest driver of growth.
He noted that 12.5 million of its 50 million active members were paying subscribers, and highlighted that a popular alternative, piracy, did not pay artists at all.
"You can't look at Spotify in isolation - even though Taylor can pull her music off Spotify (where we license and pay for every song we've ever played), her songs are all over services and sites like YouTube and Soundcloud, where people can listen all they want for free," he added.
"To say nothing of the fans who will just turn back to pirate services... and sure enough, if you looked at the top spot on the Pirate Bay last week, there was [Taylor Swift's new album] 1989."
YouTube and Soundcloud do not automatically offer the option to download and listen to music offline, as is the case for the Spotify app's paying subscribers - although there are third-party tools that offer this function.
One expert said the reference to piracy was misleading.
"Spotify has done a fantastic job of giving the music industry's most valuable customers a new way of consuming music that is better value for them than buying downloads," said Mark Mulligan, editor of the Music Industry Blog.
"But I don't think it has done much to compete with piracy to be honest."
Mr Ek aims to demolish three "myths" in his essay:
- That Spotify's "free" service means artists are not paid - he says the free service shares part of its advertising revenues and that 80% of its subscribers started as free users
- That Spotify pays so little per play that no-one can earn a living from it - he says that a track listened to half a million times pays out between $3,000 to $4,000 (£1,890 to £2,520), which was more than other streaming services and radio stations offered
- That Spotify hurts sales of music - he says that downloads are dropping just as quickly in markets where the service does not exist
Despite these arguments, Mr Mulligan suggested that the record labels might press Spotify into accepting a "windowing" model, whereby it would not get new releases from the biggest acts on the day of release, but would have to wait a period of time.
Coldplay has already enforced such an agreement, making Spotify wait four months to get Ghost Stories after the album was released on sale elsewhere.
The film industry already follows a similar practice, with films being shown first at cinemas, then on pay-per-view services, before becoming available to all-you-can-watch services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
"You're not giving your customers a benefit for paying at the moment," Mr Mulligan explained.
He added that Spotify's other major problem was YouTube's plans to begin its own subscription service - YouTube indicated last month that this would offer advertising-free material for a fee.
The Financial Times has also reported that a dispute between YouTube and several independent record labels has now been settled, resolving an issue that had blocked its launch.
"It's the only service that is fully licensed with videos, which is something that Spotify has spoken about for years but has not been able to deliver on yet," Mr Mulligan said.
"And all of Taylor Swift's content is nicely available there.
"What is clear is that it is going to be Spotify's biggest head-on competitor, at least until Apple enters the market with a revamped Beats service."


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If dealers at this year’s London Art Fair (22-26 January) are anything to go by, the art market is perplexed as to what the new money laundering regulations will mean for day-to-day business. Under the new laws, galleries have to conform to a much higher standard of due diligence in confirming the identity of the client when making a sale of €10,000 or more, including requesting to see documents such as a passport before doing a deal—not, perhaps, easily done in the context of a busy art fair.
The 32nd edition of the fair, at Islington’s Business Design Centre, presented more than 100 mid-market dealers, weighted towards Modern British and contemporary art. Whilst the trade seemed more confident in its approach to the implications of Brexit this year (or at least, less worried), there was confusion as to how the EU’s fifth Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, introduced on 10 January, should be applied.
“We’ve been told to be compliant with regulations that we still don’t have guidelines for,” said one dealer who wished to remain anonymous but admitted to lowering the price of works to sit under the €10,000 value threshold (where the regulations start to apply), to avoid the challenge of deciphering the situation. There were also rumours of an early fair "panic" as to whether scanners were needed to capture buyers’ identification details.
"At this early stage, the lack of guidance is frustrating, and I feel there should be more support to explain the necessary processes,” says Nathan Barker of Jenna Burlingham gallery, which specialises in 20th century British art. “It makes quite an impact on us smaller businesses and shifting the responsibilities on to us without assistance seems a little unreasonable.”
Larger galleries working in higher value items seemed less concerned. “Our clients are attuned to the situation and are happy to work with us in ensuring we have all the information we need for the ‘know your customer’ requirements,” says Lucinda Dalton, the head of sales at Messum's London, which sold Antony Williams’s portrait Emma  for £28,500 on the opening night.
“[The anti-money Laundering Regulations] might well increase admin and make it harder in some instances to strike deals, but it exists to protect us as dealers as well,” says Jamie Anderson, a director in Modern British art at Waterhouse & Dodd, which sold works by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Martyn Brewster. “When working in third-party deals it can be hard to know who individuals are representing, so this may bring some clarity"
Elsewhere, the regulations had seemingly passed dealers by. More than one was unaware of the new regulations and others felt that it did not apply to their transactions as they had "known their customers for years."
Certainly, trade did not appear to be impacted, indeed those buying around the €10,000 mark may have bagged themselves a bargain. Strong sales were reported in the fair’s Platform section which, this year, focused on textiles and featured the notably popular work of UK-based Alice Kettle, whose 11 works were all sold (prices ranging between £3,000 and £25,000). The James Freeman Gallery also appeared to hit the right note, with multiple sales of Dutch photographer Helen van Meene’s portrait of the climate activist Greta Thunberg (priced at £5,500), originally taken for Time Magazine.
Outside the London Art Fair, the statistics on those who listened in to HMRC’s webinar in January shed further light on the trade’s engagement with the new anti-money laundering regulations. Polls taken throughout the online session revealed that 49% of the audience were employed by an art market business, more than 50% had a nominated officer or deputy in the organisation and 71% had not noticed any suspicious activity in the past three months.


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Over the past six months, the cargo turnover of these ports has increased by more than 50 times
The Cabinet of Ministers made a decision to expand the water area of seaports on the Danube. This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, reports Government portal.
It is about the port in Izmail, Reni and the port of Ust-Dunaisk. According to the head of the government, over the past six months, Ukraine managed to increase the cargo turnover of these ports from 30,000 tons per month to 1.7 million tons.
“By more than 50 times. And this is not the limit. We see that there are up to a hundred ships in queues to enter these ports, and therefore we are working to expand their capacity. Today’s decision of the Government is aimed at this. In addition, it will increase the safety of navigation on the Danube, in particular the control and maintenance of declared depths,” noted Denys Shmyhal.
As the Prime Minister noted, the opening of new checkpoints and the expansion of the water area of the Danube ports will contribute to the growth of Ukrainian exports and strengthening of economic stability.
As GMK Center reported earlier, Ukrainian ports of the Danube region according to the results of January-September 2022 from increased transshipment of cargo by 3.5 times compared to the same period in 2021 – to more than 11 million tons. Since the beginning of the war, the Russian Navy has paralyzed commercial shipping in the Black Sea and Azov regions, so the Danube shipping route became an alternative to sea commercial transportation.
Also, at the end of September 2022, Ukrainian Danube Shipping (UDP) reported on the development of new routes for transporting iron ore on the Middle Danube. Earlier, UDP was considering the possibility of cooperation with the largest logistics operators of the Danube. It was about reducing the turnover time of the fleet, increasing the volume of transportation and increasing competitiveness due to cooperation with foreign partners.


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Mar 19, 2015 - American Express is partnering with brands like Macy's, AT&T, ExxonMobil, and Hulu for Plenti, an upcoming loyalty program that works across a variety of stores and payment methods. Comments
Mar 18, 2015 - Reviewing campaigns from Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Walmart, and AT&T, the Mobile Marketing Association measured mobile's impact scientifically, and found that a bigger mobile budget will lead to greater ROI. Comments
Aug 13, 2014 - At the afternoon keynote at ClickZ Live San Francisco on Tuesday, Greg Stuart of the MMA stressed the importance of mobile in the marketing world. Here is a recap of his presentation, including his thoughts on the core components of mobile. Comments
May 20, 2014 - The emotional 2014 Boston Marathon was embraced by brands on Twitter. See how a selection of brands chose to engage with consumers on this day in April. Comments
Sep 6, 2013 - The communications provider has tapped actor Eric Stonestreet to issue weekly challenges that ask fans to share photos and videos. Comments
Jul 30, 2012 - Our industry is full of buzzwords and transmedia is one that has become harder to ignore. Comments
Feb 13, 2012 - More people are watching network programs online. How are you adapting messages to this emerging trend? Comments
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TP-LINK India today announcedthat the company led consumerWLAN market share in Q3 2014, according to the most recent research published by Indian research and advisory firm 6Wresearch, which conducts the research on various aspect and industries. They have a special unit to do research on routers segment and according to the research conducted by them, in their report TP-LINK emerged as market leader in commercial/SOHO router segment in India.
The 6Wresearch Quarterly WLAN Tracker – Q3 2014 Final Release – indicates that TP-LINK India leads its marketplace in market share (measured by units shipped):
- TP-LINK ranks number one in India at 28% market share
- The closest competitor has a 16% market share
- In commercial router segment, WLAN routers captured around 90% share of the market
TP-LINK Gains Market Share in India
TP-LINK Indialeadsthird quarter 2014in consumerworldwideWLAN shipments, with reference topublished 6Wresearch Quarterly WLAN Tracker reports.
According to 6Wresearch, “India’s Commercial and Enterprise Router market reached 1.15 million unit shipments in CY 3Q 2014, registering a YoY growth of around 7%. TP-LINK emerged as the market leader in commercial router segment”.
“We are pleased that 6Wresearch recognizes TP-LINK’s number one position in the consumer WLAN market,” says TP-LINK’s representative, “TP-LINK has always been a committed company, and our aim is to provide our customers with smooth wireless lifestyle at reasonable cost”.
TP-LINK’s quality control is unprecedented andbefore a new product is shipped, it gets tested in 7,000 unique scenarios, and it only takes one failed test to start the entire process all over again.


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Major franchises in Star Wars & Justice League headlined an exciting week in the world of Geek!
There’s a lot you missed in 2 and a half minutes.
Who actually tuned in to watch the football game?!
Star Wars celebrates its 40th anniversary this week, so it seems only fitting that we would get a little treat from that galaxy far, far away and Vanity Fair delivered when they released four brand […]
Fans of Star Wars were teased by Good Morning America over the weekend with the promise of an exciting Star Wars announcement “40 years in the making.”
Leia Organa may still not be an official Disney Princess but she’s just been awarded an even greater title: Disney Legend.
In a surprise to nobody, gaming’s worst kept secret is finally official!
Well whaddya know, Bats? Your good ol’ Uncle J might be making a comeback!


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Jaguar Land Rover has pumped $40m (€34.6m) into its Jaguar Racing Formula E Championship racing team, according to Jaguar Racing Limited’s company accounts.
The Tata-owned car group’s UK-based subsidiary received $11.1m in a loan from Jaguar Land Rover, while a further $28.9m is repayable on demand.
According to an article on the Forbes business website, Jaguar Racing Formula E team launched in 2016 with funding in the form of a loan and sponsorship from Jaguar Land Rover.
The Jaguar luxury car brand logo is prominent on the side of the car and the spoiler.
A spokesperson for Jaguar Racing told Forbes: “Jaguar has a long-term commitment to Formula E which has now attracted major OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] including Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Mahindra, Nissan and Porsche.
“This commitment has been strengthened by the introduction of the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY series which debuted in December – the world’s first international championship for production-based electric cars.”
The accounts also revealed that team revenue amounted to $12.2m during the financial year.
Read this: ABB adds to fast-growing Formula E revenues


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HomeLifestyleApple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’ winners revealed – these are the best photographs of the year
Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’ winners revealed – these are the best photographs of the year
Apple’s famous Shot on iPhone challenge has returned this year but this time around it comes with a dark twist. For the very first time, the US technology firm wanted users to snap their best images using the clever new Night mode found on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. This automatic camera setting allows these latest flagship devices to shoot stunning photographs at night without the need for a flash.
Thousands of Night mode images were submitted to Apple with the panel of top judges picking their favourite six which will now be featured in a gallery on apple.com on Apple’s Instagram along with being super-sized to appear on giant billboards across the world.
Making the tough choice were Apple’s team of experts which included Malin Fezehai (US), Tyler Mitchell (US), Sarah Lee (UK), Alexvi Li (China), Darren Soh (Singapore), Phil Schiller, Kaiann Drance, Brooks Kraft, Jon McCormack and Arem Duplessis.
With so many images to choose from there were some tough choices to make but here are all the winning images and why each one impressed the judges.
Konstantin Chalabov (Moscow, Russia), iPhone 11 Pro
Speaking about the image, above, from Konstantin Chalabov, Phil Schiller said: “Konstantin’s photo is a super-dramatic image shot with Night mode. It could be the opening shot of a great Cold War spy movie. It challenges us with intriguing questions — ‘Where is the driver? Where are they going? Why stop out here?’ A cool mist permeates the blue Russian hillside and snow-covered ground, framing the lonely vehicle with bright red lights that hint at an unknown danger.”
Andrei Manuilov (Moscow, Russia), iPhone 11 Pro Max
Speaking about the image from Andrei Manuilov, above, Darren Soh said: “An amazingly well-balanced composition that throws so many questions back at the viewer — ‘Where is this? Who lives here?’ — and perhaps the most important — ‘Why is laundry hanging out to dry at night?’ As an architectural photographer, I am drawn by the image’s one point perspective that leads the viewer into the frame, right smack into the hanging pieces of clothing.“
Mitsui Soni (Mumbai, Maharashtra, India), iPhone 11 Pro
Speaking about the image shot by Mitsun Soni, above, judge Arem Duplessis said: “The rich red color of the tree and ground gives this picture an otherworldly quality. Paired with the night sky, it feels like a still from a sci-fi film.”
Rubén P. Bescós (Pamplona, Navarra, Spain), iPhone 11 Pro Max
Speaking about Rubén P. Bescós, above, Apple’s Phil Schiller said: “Photography is the art of light, and Rubén’s photo magically uses light to bring this art installation in Spain to life. The color in this Night mode image is a captivating orange, beautifully framing the band of pilgrims in sharp silhouette. The crackly details on the foreground rocks add to the story of the long and difficult journey ahead for these pilgrims before they reach their holy site.”
Rustam Shagimordanov (Moscow, Russia), iPhone 11
Speaking about the image from Rustam Shagimordanov, above, Kaiann Drance said: “A captivating shot of a winter village by the sea, which must feel cold, yet looks warm with the glow against the rocks and lights inside the red cabins, inviting a story about the people inside.”
Yu “Eric” Zhang (Beijing, China), iPhone 11 Pro Max
Jon McCormack said about the photo from Yu “Eric” Zhang: “This image represents iPhone at its best. Capturing life as it happens, no matter what the light is! The sense of moment, intimacy and place in this image is very good. It really transports the viewer to being right there.”


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BANGKOK -- The marathon auction of fourth-generation mobile spectrums in Thailand, which ended just after midnight on Saturday, sent telecom shares plunging on Monday.
The auction which offered two slots on the 900 MHz band surprised the market as the third largest mobile carrier True Corp. and broadband service provider Jasmine International, a new player in the mobile market, beat its two larger rivals, Advanced Info Service and Total Access Communication.
On the first trading day after the historic auction, investors seem to think that there were no winners in the game. Investors sold down the two winners of the bid, on worries that they will face heavy burdens from the super-high spectrum prices. True and Jasmine won 4G licenses valued at 152.492 billion baht ($4.21 billion) in total.
But the losing bidders also saw share price tumbles as they are seen to lose out on a surge in mobile data usage, given that they are stuck with limited bandwidths. The share prices of all four companies fell to year-lows.
"The price was reasonable," True CEO Supachai Chearavanont told reporters in Bangkok on Monday. "It was such a big chance that comes only once in 20 years and we didn't want to miss it," he said.
True also won the previous auction in November and will have to pay a combined price of 116 billion baht.
Supachai said that the company will not immediately issue shares to raise funds which could dilute the holdings of existing shareholders, but instead will seek bank loans, issue debentures and sell off assets, such as base stations to an infrastructure fund listed on the Thai stock exchange.
Supachai also said that an increase of the 18% stake China Mobile currently owns in the company "is not in the plans for now."
Jasmine International CEO Pete Bodharamik told a separate press conference that he is planning to start 4G services in several months. He also said that there is a "potential foreign partner" but did not disclose the name.
The auction losers were also the biggest losers in Monday's trade.
Shares of Total Access Communication, the second largest mobile carrier operating under the brand name Dtac, nosedived 27%, the largest single-day drop on record, to 27.75 baht. It was the only company not to have won new spectrums in the two recent auctions.
The company has the largest bandwidth among the three major mobile operators of 70 MHz but it has to pay fees based on revenue earned to a state-owned telecom operator.
The 4G spectrums in recent auctions are granted on a 15-18 year basis and do not require fees based on revenue. The next auction in 2018 will also be for licenses.
Industry leader Advanced Info Services' shares fell 19% to 155.5 baht. It had won a 1,800 MHz spectrum in the November auction but decided to quit this time as it thought prices were too high.
"(The) bidding price exceeded the company's expected fair value, therefore we decided to exit the auction," the company said in a statement on Monday. "AIS can allocate the capital to deploy 4G network quickly," it added. The company is the only company that has not been able to launch 4G services among the three major operators due to bandwidth shortage. It is scheduled to start 4G services using the recently acquired in January.
The spectrum prices for the 1,800 MHz auctioned in November shot up to 39.792 billion to 40.986 billion baht and that for the 900 MHz spectrum in the recent auction soared to 75.564 billion and 76.928 billion baht each.
True's shares tumbled 9% to 6.60 baht while Jasmine plunged 23% to 3.70 baht on Monday.


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Update: A spokesperson for Viagogo told Variety: “We are extremely concerned that due to duplicate sales, cancellation of tickets and slow communication from the primary ticket outlet, coupled with enhanced ticket personalisation restrictions, sellers were unable to fulfil their sale resulting in some of our buyers being let down. All buyers impacted will be refunded, however, the overwhelming majority of fans who purchased tickets on viagogo received valid tickets in time for the event. This is a clear example of where ticket personalisation burdens ticket buyers resulting in confusion and poor customer experience. Viagogo’s guarantee protects customers’ purchases in instances like this, ensuring a full refund.”
Eurovision fans have been left crushed after ticket re-selling site Viagogo failed to deliver tickets to the finals, which takes place tonight in Turin, Italy.
Among those left out of pocket was Hila from Israel (she asked that Variety withhold her last name for privacy reasons). She ordered four tickets for her daughter’s bat mitzvah at a cost of almost $5,500 in January as well as booking flights, car hire and a hotel room, which amounted to around $2,000.
“Once I completed the purchase I got a weird ‘confirmation’ mail from Viagogo that I will get tickets at a later stage closer to the release of tickets… so I then realized they sold me something that did not exist,” she said. However, Viagogo kept promising the tickets would be delivered, first on April 23 and then May 6.
However on May 13, one day before the Eurovision final, Hila received an email from Viagogo stating: “We are very sorry to inform you that your seller was not able to provide your tickets as originally ordered. Therefore your transaction has been cancelled and you will be refunded the full purchase amount of €5274.39 [$5,491.35].” Viagogo told Hila, who had already arrived in Italy by that point with her husband and children, it would take up to 10 days to receive the refund.
Similarly, Juan Carlos Orihuela Cuesta from Spain bought tickets from Viagogo in February for himself, his brother and his partner. He was directed to Viagogo after Googling “buy Eurovision tickets” and seeing that top four results were all Viagogo. However alarm bells rang months later when a friend told him that the tickets were only released in April and had sold out within minutes. Cuesta double checked with Viagogo who confirmed he would receive his tickets.
However, on April 24, he received an email from Viagogo saying the seller could not provide the original tickets but they would receive different tickets and a small amount of compensation. Cuesta reluctantly accepted the offer. On May 12, two days before the event, he received a follow-up email saying that no tickets would be provided after all, leaving him “devastated.”
With a hotel room and flights booked, Cuesta fortunately managed to buy tickets for the dress rehearsal on May 14 and intends to watch the finals on a screen in Turin city centre with his partner.
Cuesta and Hila aren’t the only ones furious with Viagogo. A Facebook group titled “Victims of Viagogo” has over 12,000 members from across the world sharing their woes. “I bought 2 tickets to The Eagles at The KFC Yum Center last night,” wrote one fan in Kentucky on May 13. “The tickets were not only no good but to a section that didn’t even exist.”
Another wrote on the same day: “Still waiting for our tickets for PSB in Brussels May 17. Keep getting ‘your tickets are available soon’- emails from Viagogo. Is there any point in waiting?”
In 2018, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Agency upheld a complaint against Viagogo which found that its prices were misleading and that it wrongly described itself as an “official” seller for Ed Sheeran’s 2017 tour. “Because Viagogo was in fact a secondary-ticket outlet, we concluded that the claim was misleading,” the ASA stated.
In the same year, Margot James, then-minister for the U.K.’s digital, culture, media and sport department, reportedly called out the ticket re-seller. According to the BBC, she told Radio 5 live: “Don’t choose Viagogo – they are the worst.”
Switzerland-based Viagogo, which in 2019 bought Stubhub, did not respond to Variety’s queries by press time.
A spokesperson for Eurovision said: “The Eurovision Song Contest does not work with Viagogo. While we are obviously disappointed to hear that any fans of the Contest have been scammed, we make it clear on our ticketing page that tickets can only be resold through the website FanSale.it and resale on any other site is explicitly prohibited.”


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Kia Quoris UAE launch is expected in November this year.
The rear-wheel drive luxury sedan is expected to be on sale in GCC markets from November.
As revealed at Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa at the Oman launch, the Quoris is expected to have a 3.8L V6 engine, offering 268 HP.
This is a direct challenge for other models in the large sedan segment, particularly Toyota Aurion V6 2012, Honda Accord V6 2012 and Nissan Altima 2013 V6 among others.
Luxury and comfort will be a major theme of this model, already images of a highly enhanced interior have been circulating in the international media. Here are a couple of such images that rival the likes of Toyota Camry 2012 and other 3.5L V6 models:
The real competition will be on value for money, resale value and comfort options offered by each as they seek to gain market share in the Middle East North Africa region.
Watch this space for more.


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Commenting on today’s trading and the second half of October’s performance, Gorilla Trades strategist Ken Berman said:
Although from a statistical standpoint, October is the most volatile month of the year, the second half of the month is usually bullish and this year, stocks closely followed the seasonal patterns. The major indices sold off hard in the first few days of October, amid a surge in volatility, but, the second half of the month was clearly positive for stocks and global risk assets. The de-escalation of the trade war with China, the subsiding risk of no-deal Brexit, the much-better-than-expected corporate earnings all boosted investor sentiment, and while the global economy remains fragile, the stocks are also helped by the easing cycle of the major global central banks. The month ended with the Fed’s third rate cut in a row, and while the consumer economy showed a few signs of weakening ahead of the key holiday season, stocks remain bullish both short- and long-term.
Almost all of the key sectors gained ground in October, with only the defensive utilities pulling back slightly following two wildly bullish months. The healthcare sector was buoyed by the a string of great quarterly reports in the second half of the month, but tech stocks financials, industrials, and services also contributed to the broad rally. Financials hit their highest levels in over a year, thanks to the rising Treasury yields and the bullish earnings, pushing the S&P 500 to a new all-time high. Consumer goods and materials lagged the broader market, as the weaker-than-expected retail sales figures and the sluggish energy market weighed on the sectors.
We saw stronger divergences at the level of individual stocks, in comparison to the key sectors, due mostly to the ongoing earnings season. While, in general, corporations outperformed analyst expectations, there were a few notable negative outliers as well. McDonald's (MCD, -5.8%), Twitter (TWTR, -25.5%) Coca Cola (KO, -1.1%), and Texas Instruments (TXN,-8.4%) were among them, while IBM (IBM, -5.8%) continued to struggle in the third quarter. It's harder to choose from the plenty of bullish surprises, but Bank of America (BAC, +11.2%), General Electric (GE, +16.2), JP Morgan (JPM, +8.2%), United Health (UNH, +16.5%), and Intel (INTC, +10.7%) all greatly contributed to the rally.
After months of significant divergences between the smaller and the more valuable companies, the capitalization groups had a more balanced October. The bullish trend in Treasury yields led to some rebalancing in favor of the smaller issues, as the low interest rates tend to favor larger companies. That said, nano-caps (-0.4%) and micro-caps (+0.3) trod water, performing weaker-than-average, but small-caps (+5.3%) led the way higher in the second half of the month, boosting the key breadth measures. Mega-caps (+5.2%) remained very strong too, thanks to their solid earnings, while mid-caps (3.8%) also had a decent October, which could be the basis of a broad year-end rally in equities.
October kicked off in a decisively bearish fashion, in terms of economic releases, which added to the selling pressure of the first few sessions of the month. While the key indicators were mixed, later on, the majority of the more forward-looking measures were weak, which could mean that economic activity will be weaker in the coming months.
Bull market in second half of October
The ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs both missed by a wide margin, with the former dipping below 50 for the second month in a row, and the Producer Price Index (PPI), the Consumer Price Index (CPI), retail sales, industrial production, durable goods orders, and the CB consumer confidence number also provided bearish surprises. On the other hand, the first reading of the third-quarter GDP was much better-than-expected, the government jobs report was solid, and the housing market sent mixed signals, at worst.
Even though most of the key third-quarter earnings are already out, there will still be interesting reports coming out in the first week of the month. With Black Friday and the holiday season around the corner, the key consumer-related economic releases will be under scrutiny, especially in light of the recent deterioration in the forward-looking data. Bulls hope that the 'phase one' trade deal with China will be finalized in the first half of the month, and barring an unforeseen shock, the major indices could all hit new all-time highs. The last couple of months of the year are statistically favorable for stocks, and since technicals and earnings continue to be positive across the board, bulls might be able to ride out the soft economic patch without a major pullback. Stay tuned!
Key economic releases in November:
1st November (Fri.): ISM manufacturing PMI, government jobs report
5th November (Tue.): ISM non-manufacturing PMI
8th November (Fri.): Michigan consumer sentiment
13th November (Wed.): CPI index
14th November (Thu.): PPI Index
15th November (Fri.): Retail sales
19th November (Tue.): Building permits, housing starts
20th November (Wed.): FOMC meeting minutes
21st November (Wed.): Philly Fed Index
26th November (Tue.): CB consumer confidence
27th November (Wed.): Durable goods orders, Core PCE Price Index, personal spending, Chicago PMI


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This NJ Popeyes Was Really Serving 24k Gold Chicken Wings
*Cues Bruno Mars - 24k Magic*
Customers we're feeling "bad & boujee" at this NJ Popeyes yesterday.
That's because they were serving up boneless chicken wings dipped in champagne and coated in 24-karat gold batter to celebrate the opening of their 3,000th restaurant.
"We wanted to share this celebration with our fans, so our chefs cooked up something extra special for them," Popeyes president Alex Santoro, said in a statement according to USA TODAY. "It's a fun way for guests to celebrate this milestone right along with us."
According to nj.com, "The chicken is first hand-battered with champagne and then fried before being tossed with 24-karat gold flakes."
I really, really wished I could have tasted this. So Jell!


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BBC one’s £1.2 m “re-brand”
To help it stand out from the plethora of digital channels fighting for attention in the UK, television channel BBC1 has just spent £1.2 million on eight new "idents": the 10 second clips that link programmes. These have a consistent circular design, including hippos swimming and surfers filmed in Mexico. The other big change is that the logo will now have, wait for it, a lower case "o" to replace the "O" in One. So that’s BBC one. Not BBC One. According to the head of marketing this "re-brand" will present "a warmer, friendlier feel".
This comes across as "image wrapper" branding, working on the outer presentation of the brand, rather than the fundamentals of the product. What’s more, the identity change is so minor that the you wonder if anyone apart from the BBC will notice (admittedly, its hard to change such an iconic brand too much).
To make things worse, the timing of the launch of the new idents and logo came on the same day as the announcement of a further 108 job cuts, bringing the total to 428. A spokesperson from the broadcasting union summed up the re-branding perfectly: "The money spent on the new idents could have paid for at least 30 staff to help maintain programme standards. It is the quality of the programmes that keeps the license payers watching, not the new channel idents".
The new idents do look spectacular, and I for one prefer them versus the previous lot, but the change would have been much more effective if it had been accompanies with some more "sausage" i.e. an announcement about innovation and investment in programming.
5-minute workout: are your comms. and brand identity efforts supporting real product improvement, or are they just image wrapper branding?


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A new bill proposed by California State Senator Ben Allen would prohibit canna-businesses from advertising their products via branded clothing. Senate Bill 162 would specifically "prohibit medical cannabis and non–medical marijuana licensees from advertising [or] using branded merchandise.” The bill would prevent state cannabis license holders from advertising “medical cannabis or medical cannabis products through the use of branded merchandise, including, but not limited to, clothing, hats, or other merchandise with the name or logo of the product."
The bill would also limit television advertising to ensure that cannabis products are not being marketed to minors. Television ads for cannabis products would be restricted to times when "71.6 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older,” and online advertisers would be required to verify that those viewing their ads are 21 or older as well. However, the bill does clarify that it would not interfere with nonprofit or “noncommercial” free speech.
Officials from the American Academy of Pediatrics, California, wrote to Allen to express their support for the bill. They wrote that the bill “would ensure that children and youth are exposed to a minimal amount of marijuana advertising by assuring that no marijuana products could be marketed through branded merchandise. This would help protect children from the dangerous health effects of marijuana use in a manner consistent with tobacco regulations."
Cannabis advocates have spoken out against the bill, arguing that it will interfere with small businesses. "To ban small businesses from advertising, marketing and branding is ridiculous," said Adam Spiker, executive director of the Southern California Coalition, the largest canna-business trade group in Los Angeles. "The bill would materially hamstring small business owners' ability to grow in the land of opportunity. We are firmly against it, and will work to ensure lawmakers are aware of the harmful ramifications it would have."
"At a time when we are aggressively working to combat the misinformation and damage caused by the outdated Reefer Madness mentality, it would be a misguided mistake to ban cannabis small business owners from advertising and branding," said Ryan Jennemann, co-founder of California cultivator THC Design. "The proposed legislation would irreversibly harm the responsible efforts being made to re-educate and arm the public with the facts about cannabis, a plant less harmful than alcohol and tobacco. This concrete roadblock would only make it nearly impossible to arm patients with truth and must be stopped."


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In her ruling, Judge Cote said, “Apple chose to join forces with the publisher defendants to raise e-book prices and equipped them with the means to do so. Without Apple’s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did.”
Head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Bill Baer, said in a statement, “This result is a victory for millions of consumers who choose to read books electronically. This decision by the court is a critical step in undoing the harm caused by Apple's illegal actions.”
Apple will appeal the ruling.
Apple spokesman, Tom Neumayr, said, “Apple did not conspire to fix e-book pricing. When we introduced the iBookstore in 2010, we gave customers more choice, injecting much needed innovation and competition into the market, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro partner, Steve Berman, said, “It exposes Apple to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, which is what we’ll ask for.”
“Evidence in the case included emails from Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs to News Corp executive James Murdoch that the government said reflected Jobs’ desire to boost prices and “create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99,” Reuters reports.
Judge Cote said, “Apple's efforts to explain away Jobs's remarks have been futile.”
What do you make of the verdict? Let us know what you think through a comment.
Click here to get more deals on the Apple iPad 4G White.


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SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper says retail theft in the county is out of control and that his deputies' hands are tied when it comes to holding brazen and repeat shoplifters responsible.
In a coordinated crackdown, the sheriff's office organized the department's first-ever major retail theft sting. They sent 50 deputies undercover for one week in "Operation Bad Elf" targeting 12 major retailers in the county like Target, Walmart, Ulta and Walgreens.
"We're tired of it, the public is tired of it, this is a big issue," said Cooper at a media conference Tuesday announcing the results of the sting.
Those deputies said the thing that shocked them most from the undercover operation was the sheer volume of how much was being stolen daily.
"The amount of theft that goes on day in and day out was eye-opening," said Sgt. Tiffany Pfau, who helped organize the operation.
The sting brought 285 theft arrests over seven days.
"Think about how many places we weren't and how much thievery was going on that night, those seven nights. A lot," Sheriff Cooper said.
Of those arrests, only 52 people were actually booked into jail. The other 233 individuals were just given tickets.
Sheriff Cooper says it is the perfect example of what he calls bad legislation in California, which he argues emboldens people to rob retailers daily.
"These people just go out and steal, not because of need, [but] because they can and they won't get in trouble," he said.
Other statistics from the week-long operation found that only about 20% of the people arrested were homeless, but more than 60% of the people they arrested had been cited for stealing before.
Additionally, 99% of those arrested were acting alone, not as part of some organized crime group.
Sacramento shoppers were glad to hear of the crackdown.
"I think it's amazing. I think it's long overdue," said Sacramento Target shopper, Janice Van Dyck. "I'm glad it's being addressed. It's affecting the people that are working hard."
She and other shoppers have noticed how rampant theft has caused them to pay higher prices and see everyday items secured behind locked plexiglass at their favorite stores.
"You have to call someone to even get deodorant out. It impacts us. I would buy more but because of that, I don't," Van Dyck said.
Cooper argues it is not just an inconvenience.
"This is a safety issue for residents. It's a quality of life issue," said Cooper, who added that several of the shoplifting suspects were armed when arrested.
The sheriff, arguing that state law reform is needed.
"Retailers are part of the problem. They have a hands-off policy. They underreport or don't report at all," Cooper said.
He shared harsh words Tuesday for California's major retailers and called out the California Retailer's Association (CRA), accusing both of not doing enough to stop this problem.
"They're more concerned about their image than doing what's right for their customers and employees. Shame on them. Shame on them," Cooper said. "Because they all talk about, 'Hey, losses are staggering. We are concerned about employee safety.' Well, what the hell are you doing? A long time ago, they stopped and confronted people. Somewhere along the way, they stopped doing that."
In response to this criticism, the CRA told CBS13 it is committed to working with stakeholders to find solutions to retail theft.
"This includes supporting an initiative to reform Proposition 47 and continuing our partnership with the Governor's Administration, the Legislature, and the newly appointed Assembly Select Committee on Retail Theft. This issue is too important to the safety of our employees, our customers, and the communities in which we operate to not find effective solutions," the CRA told CBS13 in a statement.
Cooper is calling on corporate giants to get behind a ballot initiative reforming California's Proposition 47, which was passed by voters nearly a decade ago.
The bill bumped the felony threshold for theft up from $400 to $950 and made it so repeated thefts cannot combine to reach felony status.
"To change that, it has to go back to the voters," said Cooper, arguing this needs to be a ballot initiative in the November election.
He challenges California's major retailers and the CRA to make it happen.
Sheriff Cooper says that while this was the department's first major sting operation for retail theft, it won't be the last.
for more features.


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Tree.com Inc. (TREE) Director Steven Ozonian Sells 3,000 Shares
Tree.com Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE) Director Steven Ozonian sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.85, for a total transaction of $305,550.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,975,482.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.
Tree.com Inc. (NASDAQ:TREE) traded up 1.00% during trading on Wednesday, hitting $106.55. 51,651 shares of the stock were exchanged. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $89.44 and its 200-day moving average is $91.10. The company has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.22 and a beta of 1.36. Tree.com Inc. has a one year low of $52.11 and a one year high of $112.00.
Tree.com (NASDAQ:TREE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 27th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.04. The company earned $94.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $97.43 million. Tree.com had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 26.82%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Tree.com Inc. will post $3.20 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Compass Point upped their price target on shares of Tree.com from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 29th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Tree.com from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 2nd. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Tree.com from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 29th. RBC Capital Markets reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Tree.com in a research report on Thursday, July 28th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of Tree.com from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.99.
Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA boosted its stake in Tree.com by 121.9% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 2,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Tree.com by 5.6% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Societe Generale bought a new stake in Tree.com during the second quarter worth about $247,000. Capstone Asset Management Co. boosted its stake in Tree.com by 21.1% in the second quarter. Capstone Asset Management Co. now owns 4,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $420,000 after buying an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in Tree.com by 4.5% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 8,304 shares of the company’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.77% of the company’s stock.
WARNING: “Tree.com Inc. (TREE) Director Steven Ozonian Sells 3,000 Shares” was reported by The Cerbat Gem and is the sole property of of The Cerbat Gem. If you are reading this news story on another website, it was illegally stolen and republished in violation of US and international trademark and copyright legislation. The original version of this news story can be accessed at https://www.thecerbatgem.com/2016/11/23/tree-com-inc-tree-director-steven-ozonian-sells-3000-shares.html.
Tree.com Company Profile
LendingTree, Inc (LendingTree), formerly Tree.com, Inc, is engaged in operating an online loan marketplace for consumers. The Company offers a range of loan types and other credit-based offerings for its consumers. The Company operates through Lending activities segment. The Company’s online marketplace provides consumers with access to product offerings from various lenders, which it refers to as Network Lenders, including mortgage loans, home equity, reverse mortgage, auto loans, credit cards, personal loans, student loans and small business loans, and other related offerings.
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Students enrolled for degree studies in Accounting, Biological Sciences, Criminology, Information Technology, Logistics and Supply Chain, Retail Business Management, Food Sciences and Agricultural Sciences can apply
for funding between Thursday, 1 February and Saturday, 30 April.
Shoprite says the comprehensive bursary covers tuition and accommodation. Employment after graduation is guaranteed, giving beneficiaries a seamless entry into the business and allowing them to learn from the industry's top talent, experts and mentors.
In addition, bursary holders receive a monthly grocery allowance and enjoy access to the Shoprite Employee Wellness programme.
According to Shoprite, in the last financial year, the group invested R14.9-million in its bursary programme, which funded 200 students.
The group adds that the retailer is the largest private-sector employer in South Africa and one of the top graduate employers in the country. In 2023, for the third consecutive year, the retailer was awarded the Gradstar Students’ Choice Award for Employer of Choice
in the retail sector.
"As a leader in retail innovation, the company provides fertile ground for young talent to grow and thrive. Our bursaries are aligned to critical skills in the business and our commitment to uplifting the lives of young people by providing them with an entryway into highly skilled roles," says Leigh Adams, head of talent and learning solutions at the group.
Harry Makobe, a 23-year-old from Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion, received funding for the final year of his B-Com supply chain management degree at the University of Pretoria. The group also funded his post-graduate degree and absorbed him into the supply chain graduate programme in 2023. He was later appointed as store replenishment analyst, according to the group.
"This is a full-circle moment for me because I started working as a merchandiser in retail when I was 15 years old during the school holidays. The best thing about the bursary is that you are guaranteed a job, and the graduate programme ensures you have the skill and the confidence to make an impactful contribution in your field," says Makobe.
The group says that Rachel-Leigh Audier, a 25-year-old from Germiston in Gauteng, is on her way to becoming a chartered accountant after the group funded her bachelor of accounting degree and post-graduate studies at the University of Johannesburg.
"I am in my third year of training and couldn't have asked for a better place to learn and grow. I've been exposed to various parts of the business and acquired skills that could be applied well into the future, which is aligned with the new SAICA CA2025 programme," Audier concludes.
*Image courtesy of contributor


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The most creative mind at Nintendo has announced that he is working on a brand-new IP for Nintendo's tablet-based console.
In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu (via Kotaku), Shigeru Miyamoto teased this new project, saying, "With Mario Kart 8 coming out in the Spring of next year, we'll have a good selection [of Wii U games] available, so I'm thinking isn't it about time we release a new franchise?"
The interviewer followed up by asking, "A new franchise! Would that a be brand new title that you would be working on?" to which Miyamoto replied, "I can't talk too much detail right now, but I will say that this new title has been keeping me busy lately."
Are you psyched for a completely new franchise from the mind of Miyamoto? Could it be the Wii U's saving grace? Let us know in the comments below.


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What now seems like an endless stream of production problems for the Chevrolet Corvette C8 will continue for at least one more week. The production halt announced on January 29 and initially planned for just a week will be extended until February 16, the automaker has just confirmed.
GM Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Communications Manager, Rachel Bagshaw, told GM Authority the production of the supercar won’t be restarted at the plant until next Monday. The shutdown is caused by unspecified supply chain issues that are reportedly not related to the global microchip shortage, affecting virtually the entire industry from budget brands to premium marques.
In late January, General Motors announced that “supply chain, manufacturing and engineering teams are working closely with our supply base to mitigate any further impact on production.” At the time, the automaker seemed positive it’ll manage the problem quickly and will resume production on Monday, February 8.
The production of the new Corvette hasn’t been running smoothly ever since the C8’s launch in late 2019. An UAW strike first delayed the production start. A few months later, the coronavirus pandemic shut down factories worldwide and delayed the new Corvette’s rollout. It seems that production won't continue without interruptions during 2021, at least in the early months.
save over $3,400 on average off MSRP* on a new Chevrolet Corvette
The Corvette C8 is entering the new model year without major changes. Under the hood is the same naturally-aspirated V8 engine and even the price remains unchanged - the 1LT entry-level trim level starts at $59,995, including a $1,095 destination freight charge. Later this year, the Corvette Z06 should finally join the range.


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The number of UK exporters increased slightly in May 2022 according to the latest Exporter Monitor by Coriolis Technologies and The Institute of Export & International Trade (IOE&IT). However, this overall growth masks a revenue crisis for micro, small and medium-sized exporters.
Our data suggest that in May 2022 the number of companies exporting from the UK increased by 1%, employment in UK exporting firms by 4% and revenues over all by 3%. However, this increase in revenues was accounted for entirely by higher revenues for the largest businesses. It obscures the fact that micro, small and medium-sized companies all showed drops in revenues compared to last month, of 4%, 6% and 1% respectively.
Last month’s drop in exporter employment and revenues appears, as predicted, to have transferred into the supply chains where smaller and more vulnerable businesses are more prevalent. As the cost-of-living rises, and as exporter revenues decline amongst the nation’s smallest businesses, this will inevitably impact a number of small businesses and how many people they employ. The outlook suggests that this increase will soften into June, given the weaker revenues and an overall pattern over the course of the last year of declining exporter numbers, exporter revenues and exporter employment, it suggests that the full effects of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine crisis and Brexit still have to work through the UK trade system.


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Travelodge Announces it’s Expanding its Coastal Network
by Traveleads | July 23, 2019 | Latest News On The Ground
Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel brand celebrates 20 years of trading at UK seaside resorts this summer. The hotel chain opened its first seaside hotel in Brighton in 1999 and has opened its 36th seaside resort hotel at Rhyl beach. The hotel chain currently operates 585 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain.
To mark this 20 year milestone anniversary, Travelodge, who operates 584 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain – today announces it is looking to grow its coastal hotel network with a further 26 properties in seaside resorts and coastal towns in the British Isles. This programme will offer the growing leisure traveller market more choice, greater value coastal holiday destinations and support local coastal economies with their regeneration plans.
This coastal expansion programme would represent an investment of approximately £165 million for third party investors and would create around 650 new jobs.
The development target stretches across the entire UK – below are the 26 seaside resorts and coastal towns where Travelodge is looking to open a hotel:
Aberystwyth – Bognor Regis – Bournemouth- Bude – Canterbury / Whistable – Deal / Sandwich – Eastbourne – Falmouth – Folkestone – Guernsey – Hove – Jersey – Lerwick – Looe / Fowey – Lowestoft – Newquay – Oban – Penarth – Penzance – Pwllheli – Shoreham-by-Sea – St Ives – Tenby – Truro – Western Super Mare – Weymouth
Tony O’Brien, Travelodge UK development director, said: ” We are seeing the rebirth of British seaside resorts and coastal towns as a result of Britons changing holiday habits.
“We are becoming a strong staycation nation that likes to take lots of short breaks throughout the year rather than a traditional two-week block holiday.
“To support this growing trend, we are looking to enter new markets and extend our network of coastal location hotels so that we can offer more choice and greater value to the modern leisure traveller.”
This year, is set to be the strongest year for holidaying at home, according to the Travelodge 2019 Holiday Index. This summer, 69% of us are taking their annual summer holiday in the UK – this is an increase of 12% (57%) from 2018 with the average holiday being a week. Collectively Britons will boost the UK economy by £40 billion this year by holidaying on British shores this summer.
To check availability, or to book your stay with Travelodge, please contact your Traveleads Consultant.
For new customers, please contact email@example.com to find out more about the many ways Traveleads can reduce your travel costs without compromising on service or quality.


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Broadcom buys VMware in a billionaire deal
Despite the rising inflation and a general discouragement in the market, Broadcom continues to invest in big tech buyouts. Its latest deal with VMware solidifies the company’s intention to expand in the cloud business.
by Aline Barbosa
The software maker spent $61 billion on the acquisition. Learn more below.
Despite a turbulent environment of economic uncertainty, Broadcom just finalized one of the biggest deals of 2022. The chip and software maker acquired the cloud technology firm VMware for $61 billion. The deal comes just a few weeks after Elon Musk – the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX – offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Broadcom’s new deal is the second in value this year. The number one spot so far belongs to Microsoft’s $68 billion acquisition of Activision, responsible for popular games like Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
These mighty buyouts come at a time of increased anxiety due to the conflict in Europe and issues with the global supply chain. The ongoing rise in consumer prices also has the potential to slow down business and consumer activity.
However, it is that uncertainty that created many new opportunities for big companies like Broadcom. This year alone, Broadcom stocks have dropped over 26%. Last week, social media companies also had close to $130 billion erased from the market because of the rising inquiries about advertising expenses. With the current value of tech companies going down, more billionaire deals could be on the way. That is because, at least for now, more and more targeted companies appear to be somewhat cheaper.
Broadcom has been one of the most aggressive buyers so far. Hock Tan, the company’s CEO, has made some big acquisitions recently. In 2018, Broadcom bought CA Technologies for close to $19 billion. In 2019, the company acquired Symantec for almost $11 billion as well.
Broadcom’s future with VMware
Broadcom’s intention is to establish a strong foundation in the cloud market. VMware possesses a technology that lets big corporations blend internal company networks with public cloud access. Not only that, but VMware also has a close relation with almost every large cloud company and providers. That includes major names like Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Tom Krause, president of Broadcom addressed the importance of the buyout in a statement released last Thursday. In it, Krause noted that Broadcom’s infrastructure and VMware’s platform covered different, but equally important enterprise needs. The combined efforts of both companies will allow them to serve these enterprises in a more secure and effective way.
Once the transaction is over, the Broadcom Software Group should rebrand and operate entirely as VMware. The deal, which consists of cash and stocks, also encompasses a $8 billion net debt from VMware. VMware shareholders have the option to receive shares of Broadcom common stock (0.2520) or $142.50 in cash per VMware share.
The deal includes a safety provision for VMware. The “go-shop” measure allows the company to receive, evaluate and negotiate with other companies that offer an alternative proposal for another month and a half. To help with the acquisition, Broadcom obtained a debt financing of $32 billion from a consortium of banks.
Broadcom Inc. shareholders will then own 88% of VMware, while VMware shareholders should remain with 12% of the combined firm. Boards from both companies have approved the transaction, and it should be completed by Broadcom next fiscal year. However, it still needs approval from VMware shareholders.
To learn more about the current state of the economy, follow the link below.
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What’s new in Conan Exiles since the devs announced a console price hike, a scale-back in launch features, and its actual launch date (May 8th of next year)? Oh, nothing much, just a whole ‘nother patch. In fact, update 32 rolled out this past Wednesday, the last stable one expected prior to the holiday.
“This update adds the weapon, tool and armor modification system, new dynamic weather, two new armor sets (Zamorian and Aquilonian), new thrall capturing tools, new weapons, new building pieces (ladders, folks!!), and the long-awaited sickle,” writes Funcom. “It lets you harvest a metric butt-tonne of Plant Fiber!” That was followed by a rollback and bugfix when items began disappearing thanks to an overzealous item purge script. Oops.
Funcom says it’s further working on the user interface, new clan and attributes panels, patch stability, double-jump, character animations and movement, target-locking, lighting shader bugs, voice chat, and of course, the new combat system. There’s also been movement on the console nudity front, which is a sentence I just typed. I’ll let the team explain:
“Since launch we’ve been getting a lot of questions from console players with regards to nudity. When we first launched in Xbox Game Preview the idea was to release a nudity patch that players in certain territories could download for free to unlock the full nudity option. Other players would be limited to partial nudity. Said nudity patch has been unavailable since launch due to a last-minute issue with the Xbox Store. All territories have therefore been limited to partial nudity. Microsoft was investigating a solution to the issue and have come up with something that will allow us to roll out full nudity on consoles where the game’s rating allows for it. Full nudity will be made available on consoles on launch day, May 8th. We’ll have more information on how players will be able to access the full nudity option on launch day.”


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One of the harder moments in adulthood comes at the realization that you’re getting older. It doesn’t fully sink in, however, until that exact moment when you look in the bathroom mirror and start to see your hair thinning. You are losing a little bit of yourself with every strand. Every memory of combing your […]
The news about testosterone changes so quickly that just reading about it could give you whiplash. On one hand, testosterone increases sex drive and muscle growth. That’s good. On the other hand, it’s associated with hair loss and increased risk of prostate cancer. That’s bad. Now new research is looking at testosterone as a way […]
Amid all the controversy about the US Preventative Task Force recommending against routine, life-saving prostate cancer screening, a new study just came out indicating that the less hair a man has on his head, the more likely he is to have prostate cancer. Don’t panic–one doesn’t necessarily cause the other, but they could be related.
Read a slightly longer piece on the Talking About Men’s Health blog here.
Just about every guy whose hair isn’t as thick (or as present) as it was a decade or two ago has thought about hair transplants. We watch those late-night infomercials on the Bosley Method or Hair Club for Men and think about making the call.
The traditional source of transplanted hair is the back of the head, where the hair is thickest. But a new study published in the Archives of Dermatology has found that leg hair (or even hair from the chest, back, or beard) might be a better option. For some reason, the study didn’t look at transplanting pubic hair.


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Starbucks on Monday accused the federal labor council that oversees union elections in its U.S. cafes of misconduct and requested that elections be suspended nationwide pending the result of an investigation.
The Nationwide Labor Relations Board and the Staff United union didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The espresso chain stated NLRB brokers allegedly helped Staff United win elections by manipulating the voting course of after which teamed as much as cowl up the habits, the corporate stated in a letter to NLRB chairman Lauren
McFerran and Normal Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, in response to a replica seen by Reuters.
A yr in the past, there have been no union-owned Starbucks shops in the US. Now staff at 216 cafes have voted to hitch the union, whereas staff at 46 have voted in opposition to unions.
Starbucks Corp’s allegations come amid rising industrial motion amongst US retailers, together with Amazon.com Inc, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, Lululemon Athletica Inc and grocer Dealer Joe’s.
Based on Starbucks, the alleged misconduct came about throughout a union election in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, however it’s believed to have taken place in different areas as properly.
“If the NLRB doesn’t reply by investigating and remediating these sorts of actions, we miss out on how the board of administrators can symbolize itself as a impartial physique that adjudicates unfair labor disputes – and elections – in a good, honest and equitable method, with out look of impropriety,” Starbucks stated in its letter.


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Achievements have been a main stay for Xbox games for more than ten years, since the days of the Xbox 360. While other gaming platforms like PlayStation and Steam have copied the similar concept of awarding points to players for completing certain objectives in games, the original Xbox achievement system has gone largely unchanged, until now. According to a recent interview on Windows Central, there are some big changes coming to Xbox Live’s achievements.
During the interview, Xbox Platform Vice President Mike Ybarra said Microsoft was working an something that “fundamentally changes the concept” of Xbox Achievements:
We are working towards a bigger, more meaningful change about somebody’s gaming accomplishments in history, as a gamer on Xbox. We can do a lot more to reflect and let people show their gaming history and their status.
Its unclear what exactly Microsoft has planned for Xbox Achievements, but it is clear that they aim to better reflect gamers’ progress and game history. The way Achievements work now, players complete certain objectives and are rewarded a certain amount of points to add to their Gamerscore. Usually, if an objective is much more difficult to complete or requires more time to reach, its worth even more points, thus raising your Gamerscore even higher.
From what Ybarra said during the interview, it seems Microsoft is looking into making the Gamerscore reflect not only the amount of time and effort players put into their games, but also which games individuals prefer to play the most. Maybe Microsoft will add a timeline of players’ game stats and biggest victories alongside the usual Gamerscore.
Until Microsoft officially announces what these “fundamental changes” will be, all we can do is speculate and wait.


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Interested in learning what's next for the gaming industry? Join gaming executives to discuss emerging parts of the industry this October at GamesBeat Summit Next. Learn more.
Virtual reality has a bright future, but for the present the consumer VR market is puttering along. Rikard Steiber, senior vice president of VR at HTC and president of the Viveport store, is one of the true believers.
He said in a recent talk at the XRDC event that the company continues to invest in the VR ecosystem, from an investment in developer awards to the evolution of the platform to accommodate future hardware improvements. Steiber believes that subscriptions to content in the Viveport store will help developers monetize and encourage the growth of the consumer VR market.
His company also continues to be generous in sharing app store proceeds with developers, and it sees growth in VR happening. Today, the company released a premium update for its Ready Player One: Oasis VR experience.
But HTC faces some stiff competition from Facebook’s Oculus VR division, which is launching the wireless Oculus Quest stand-alone VR headset in the spring of 2019. HTC has to be prepared to improve its platform and provide six-degrees-of-freedom hand controllers with a standalone headset — or risk losing its VR fans to Oculus.
I caught up with Steiber at the XRDC event on VR and AR in San Francisco last week.
Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
GamesBeat: You announced that you’re doing developer awards?
Rikard Steiber: It’s been a year since we were last here. A few people were asking, what about the momentum? What’s happening in the industry in general? I talked about how, in April of last year, we launched subscription. I showed what our revenues have been. We’ve been trying to make the platform better. We have three times more content now and 100,000 transactions per month. What does that boil down to? I showed a graph where, from April to last month, we’ve had six and a half times the revenue. I showed how subscription is the lion’s share of that.
With so much content now, customers can’t buy everything. Subscription becomes an easy way to try many more things that you probably wouldn’t buy otherwise. That’s where we’ve seen the growth. We’re inviting the developer community to see this as a strategy that can complement their paid download strategy. As you know, if you’re not in the top 100 apps on the leading platforms, you’re not getting a lot of love. As your sales go down, you can put the app in subscription and have a second run. We had the developers of The Wizards try going both inside and outside subscription, and they found that it doesn’t cannibalize. We’ve also seen that subscribers actually spend, at least with us, 15 percent more on paid downloads. It’s very much incremental.
Of course, we’re giving 100 percent rev share for subscription in Q4, which is the most important quarter. In addition, we’ve also said that we’re opening up to Oculus as well, to reach more of the audience. We’re trying to help developers to publish everywhere, but if they publish with us, we’ll help them out and they can keep 100 percent of the rev share.
That’s chapter one. For the developer awards, which we’re super excited about, we’re focusing on entertainment, as well as arts and culture. We’re going to make a comeback on arcade and put in extra effort there. That will be very important. Today we’re reaching hundreds of locations. We have commercial licenses for more than 900 applications, so we can offer them to arcades. But what we want to do, especially for the five or 10 percent of those apps that are truly relevant in an arcade context, is make sure we have unique experiences. There might be an extra level, or a way to use a PP gun or a haptic suit. You have something unique for those locations. We’re looking at how we can make a comeback together with developers to have more unique content, and also make sure that the platform is even better.
The Viveport developer awards will give away up to $500,000, and of course we’ll be giving them preferential treatment as far as equipment, developer videos, marketing. As I told them, it’s not about the money. It’s also about the fame and the glory. [Laughs] Which I think is important, for them to get recognized. Especially if you’re an indie studio, getting some extra attention for your next project.
GamesBeat: When will that take place?
Steiber: We’re starting out in November and it’s going through February. It’s open to both Vive and Oculus Rift titles that are in subscription. We’re pushing hard for subscription. We’re going to announce the winners at GDC. We’re asking people to go to their developer console now, publish if they haven’t done so already, and then sign up next week.
We think that subscription is a good complement to the other established stores for the platforms. We can differentiate on the business model. It helps the developer, but it also helps consumers to discover much more VR, to be much more active than they might otherwise be.
GamesBeat: How is what you do different from typical app store merchandising?
Steiber: What’s exciting is that we promote them. Of course, we have featuring in the store, and in the arcade store. But the other thing we do—did you see the developer stories? Essentially what we do, we write blogs about them and make videos about them. We push them on social. We do paid media. We have a one-to-one relationship with most of our customers. We do one-to-one marketing for them. We try to get them into programs where they get 100 percent rev share.
The other thing that’s very important is we protect their content. If we don’t sell anything, it doesn’t cost anything. We try to make it easy for them to publish – it’s only an incremental effort to publish on one more platform. It should be worth it. Hopefully then, if we’re able to cover the main PC platforms, it will be.
The other thing I think is interesting is the notion of 6DOF. For the all-in-one platform – you may have heard some of this from China – for a truly immersive experience, for both enterprise and developers, you need to have not only a 6DOF headset, but also controllers you can interact with. Most of them are six-three today. On the Wave platform, we have six products that are launched, but another few are coming. Those partners, the developers, want to have six-six capabilities, in the headset and the controllers.


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A new Overwatch comic featuring Doomfist and the known Talon operatives was recently released. The comic features the characters in a covert operation that progresses Overwatch’s story. More than the operation, the Talon characters seem to wear costumes that could become skins in the next Overwatch event.
As seen in the Overwatch Masquerade comic, Doomfist meets up with his old Talon allies, launches assassination operations, and assembles Talon figureheads to “prepare for war”. During these operations, playable Talon agents, namely, Doomfist, Reaper, Widowmaker, and Sombra, were seen in different costumes through the 12-page comic. Potentially, Blizzard Entertainment can include these costumes in the next Overwatch event.
So far, Doomfist wore two costumes. Doomfist wore a full, two-piece suit and a festive blue attire which looks similar to what an old French aristocrat noble wears.
Meanwhile, Reaper seems to have a red outfit with an actual skull head, which could be his actual face. Widowmaker and Sombra also wore a formal dress during Doomfist’s meeting with Maximilien. Lastly, Sombra is also shown wearing a jester outfit as she took out guards watching the cameras. All of these costumes could look interesting once they’ve been implemented in-game.
So far, Blizzard Entertainment has yet to announce a new event. However, Overwatch has previously released comics to tease upcoming events or to supplement the event with its canon story.
For now, we’ll have to wait until the developers announce the next event. The previous event was the Overwatch anniversary event that ran through May and June. Leaks say that the next event would be Summer Games 2017 but no official hints about the sporty event have come out yet.
The next major release in Overwatch would be Doomfist’s inclusion on the live servers this coming July 27. As of now, no events were announced along with his release. Stay updated with more Overwatch news here on The BitBag.


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Tessian of London has raised $13 million in venture capital as the UK-based company seeks to automate the problem of enterprise email security.
Tessian was once known as CheckRecipient and uses machine learning to discover and fix misaddressed emails, a seemingly mundane hiccup that in fact causes big security headaches for companies when sensitive information falls into the wrong hands.
In a statement, Tessian said that demand for its product is high, particularly when the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office receives more security incident reports about misaddressed emails than any other type of security issue. And new European privacy rules could result in hefty fines for such mistakes.
Tessian CEO and co-founder Tim Sadler said: "Companies should make addressing this risk a top security priority. It’s human nature to fear scary things like hackers or malware, but we often don’t think twice about the dangers behind something as familiar and ingrained as sending an email. In reality that’s where an overwhelming threat lies.”
Tessian’s machine intelligence technology scours corporate email networks to analyse common patterns and detect anomalies. If it detects something unusual in an email someone is trying to send, it will send a warning suggesting the user check the contents.
The latest round of funding was led by Balderton Capital and included participation from previous investors Accel, Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane, LocalGlobe, Winton Ventures and Walking Ventures.
The company raised a seed round last year and now has 50 employees. According to a press release, its annual recurring revenue has grown 400 percent in the previous 12 months. In addition to investing in product development, the company plans to use the latest funding to expand its marketing and sales divisions.


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The European Union may begin banning banks and cryptocurrency suppliers from providing companies associated to privateness cash resembling Monero, Sprint, and Zcash. The announcement adopted a leaked draft of a cash laundering invoice earlier than the EU legislators.
EU may ban privateness cash
Officers from Czech are chairing the discussions associated to this invoice. If this invoice is handed, it might be the newest transfer that undermines the usage of privateness cash. These cash have grow to be well-liked technique of fee amid robust regulatory legal guidelines over the summer time.
A part of the invoice says that crypto asset service suppliers, monetary and credit score establishments could be barred from utilizing cash that promote privateness. CoinDesk obtained a draft of the invoice.
Whereas chatting with Coindesk, a diplomat from the EU mentioned that the invoice would decrease the chance coming from cryptocurrency property which were created to keep away from traceability. Privateness cash stop the traceability of transactions on the blockchain.
The proposal by Czech is a response to international locations negotiating the invoice’s contents. The European Fee handed the Anti-Cash Laundering Regulation in July 2021. The regulation was a part of a broader proposal looking for to ban giant money transactions whereas paving the best way for creating a brand new anti-money laundering company.
Czech proposes that crypto asset service suppliers be required to confirm the identification of consumers even when transactions are under 1000 euros. It additionally needs a probe to be carried out on giant transactions.
This proposal will be sure that crypto asset service suppliers have a stricter regulatory framework than banks. Within the conventional banking sector, due diligence solely applies to giant funds. Nevertheless, within the crypto area, there are considerations that crypto transactions may very well be break up into smaller transactions.
Crypto corporations conducting enterprise exterior the EU should additionally affirm licensing and be sure that they’ve the suitable cash laundering checks in place. The AMLA will focus on the vetting course of.
The amendments to this invoice additionally handle cash laundering schemes inside the metaverse, decentralized finance, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The invoice must be voted upon by the Council and the European Parliament for it to be handed into legislation.
If this invoice is handed, it would be a part of the numerous payments that the EU is passing to fight on-line anonymity. In line with regulators, nameless transactions can be utilized to evade sanctions, launder felony proceeds, or finance terrorism.
The battle over privateness cash
Nameless crypto transactions have been a contentious concern for international regulators. In August, the US Treasury sanctioned Twister Money, a crypto mixer instrument. The instrument is believed for use by North Korean hackers to launder funds stolen from cryptocurrency protocols.
The EU has additionally agreed on the Markets in Crypto Property regulation (MiCA) legislation that has but to be handed. This legislation will stop cryptocurrency exchanges from supporting privateness cash except the holders of the cash have been recognized. Comparable guidelines additionally suggest further checks when transferring funds associated to privateness cash.
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One of the three major automotive manufacturers in Pakistan, Honda Atlas has been around for nearly 3 decades now and is considered as a significant player in automotive industry. Honda Atlas is has sold a reasonable number of reliable and likable vehicles in Pakistan, and have established their place in the psyches of the Pakistani purchasers as one of the most alluring automakers.
During the current year, among the mid-level market Honda has observed its edge somewhat scaled down, as its sales are dropped enormously by 63% as reported by PakWheels. It was also reported that the sales are dropped due to the current COVID-19 crisis, rupee devaluation, high taxes and new rivals. Honda’s generosity is by all accounts in extreme peril, with the expanding rivalry because of the appearance of new rivals like Hyundai, Kia and a couple of others. But the biggest reason behind this sales-plunge is old models, especially in case of City.
Honda Atlas introduced last generation of City back in 2010, which was its fifth generation. They haven’t upgraded City’s generation since then. Even our neighbors, India has seventh generation of City, which was launched last month.
According to PakWheels, Honda Atlas has confirmed that new generations of City and Civic will launch next year in Pakistan and they are hoping that these new cars will bring their sales back on tracks, which are going down massively. Civic will be upgraded to eleventh generation while City will be upgraded to sixth generation, which was long due for the local market.
Honda City needed an upgrade in its generations for a very long time as the current fifth generation was made obsolete all over the world in 2014 which had chassis mode GM2/GM3.
In regional and international market, the 5th generation was replaced by 6th in 2014 which has chassis code GM4/GM5/GM6/GM9. The various chassis code is for the fact that the same generation model is known with different names in different markets or with some different technicalities under the skin. Honda City in our region/ ASEAN is known as GM6 and it came in 2014 and remained till 2019.
Honda Atlas had imported a sixth generation City according to the reports from Thailand, in a Complete Built-up Unit (CBU) form. The City featured an L15Z engine which is a 1.5 liter 4-cylinder petrol engine which is also featured in modern City in Pakistani automobile market. The main aim for the import of City was to perform test runs on the Pakistani Roads.
However, Honda Atlas is launching a new generation (sixth) of City in Pakistan which was replaced with seventh generation all over the international market last year.
Alongside rest of the world, Pakistan has the latest tenth generation of Civic, which was launched late in 2016. For ages now Honda continues its one generation for five years, therefore this generation is ought to be end in 2021.
As per reports from Pakistani automobile platform PakWheels, Honda Atlas is planning to introduce next generation of Civic next year to regain their dominance in Pakistani market.
The tenth generation was a complete change from the previous ones. Its type-R was recently released. It was liked due to its sporty look with different notable features. Its interior and exterior were completely different from previous models. It came with a 1.8L i-v-tec engine, which churns out 140 horsepower and 1.5L DOHC turbocharged producing 173 horsepower with a CVT transmission.
Any information regarding the specs, features or price of the new City and Civic is not out yet, but it’s expected that City will cost nearly PKR 2,500,000/-, whereas all the other information will be revealed in ending months of 2020.
In the end it is necessary to mention that this update both a happy and a sad news for purchasers of Honda because in light of the fact that on one hand Pakistan is getting new generations, while on the other hand, in case of City, it will be an internationally obsolete generation. It is also pertinent to mention that City has been the main bread and butter of Honda in Pakistan; still the company has not upgraded it as per global trend. Meanwhile, next generation of Civic next year will be a great addition in local market. We have to wait and see, whether, Honda will give these new cars to Pakistan or not.