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As per the latest reports, another new OTT streaming service has entered the fray. The service from Charter Communications will be offered to internet customers of Spectrum who do not subscribe to the video services of Spectrum. TV Essentials from Spectrum will be launching by the end of March and will feature more than sixty live channels, together with access to the on-demand content of the channel for a monthly charge of 14.99 dollars.
“Spectrum TV Essentials is an OTT offering designed to provide Spectrum internet-only customers a new low-price, high-value video option,” said Tom Rutledge, CEO and chairman of Charter in a press release. It is reported that the TV Essentials offering from Charter will be focusing on entertainment, lifestyle, and news. The service will be essentially sports-free. The complete lineup will be offered via the Spectrum TV app on all supported connected devices, including Android and iOS phones, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Kindle Fire, Xbox One, Samsung smart TVs and computers via SpectrumTV.com.
Making use of the app, viewers will be able to browse movies and shows by network or category, make a watch list of content, and set parental controls. It was also reported that Charter will be introducing a new Cloud DVR service on their Spectrum TV app.
While making TV Essentials, Charter made agreements with their programming partners Discovery, Viacom, AMC, A&E and Hallmark. As a result of these agreements, Spectrum TV Essentials will offer the networks like AMC, Animal Planet, A&E, American Heroes Channel, BBC America, AXS TV, BET Jams, BET, BET Her, BET Soul, Cheddar, CLEO TV, Bloomberg, CMT, Comedy Central, CMT Music, Destination America, Discovery Family, Cooking Channel, Discovery Family, DIY, Discovery, Discovery Life, Hallmark Drama, Game Show Network, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, HDNet Movies, Investigation Discovery, HISTORY, Lifetime, IFC, Lifetime, Logo, Lifetime Movie Network, MTV, MTV Live, MTVU, MTV2, MTV Classic, MotorTrend Network, Newsy, Nick Jr., NewsmaxTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Music, OWN, NickToons, Outdoor Channel, OWN, Science Channel, Teen Nick, Paramount Network, Sundance TV, Science Channel, TLC, Teen Nick, TV Land, Travel Channel, VH1, WEtv, The Weather Channel and Viceland.
Spectrum News will be included in the channel lineup offered in Los Angeles, Tampa, New York, Charlotte, Orlando, and many other markets. In addition, Spectrum Originals will also be offered via the service starting from the month of May. In the opinion of many experts in the field, this is the latest effort from the cable industry to hold on to unenthusiastic pay TV subscribers.


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It is also reported that in the first quarter of 2019, Xiaomi TV also dominated the Indian market with a market share of 39%.
Previously, Xiaomi has announced that it would hold a smarter living 2020 event in India on September 17, during which Xiaomi‘s largest smart home product will be launched in the Indian market. As you can see from the trailer, it is probably the 70-inch Redmi TV previously released in the Chinese market. Redmi TV will offer a huge amount of content, and support Mi voice assistant. Alongside the Mi TV, Xiaomi will also launch the long-awaited Mi Band 4 in India on September 17.
Xiaomi has already launched a number of smart home and electronic products in the Indian market such as Xiaomi phones, Mi bands, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric toothbrushes, water purifiers and electric scooters. The popularity of Mi products in India is comparable with that in China.
Starting from February 2018, Xiaomi began to officially launch its TV products in India. In February 2018, the 55-inch 4A Mi TV sold out in just 10 seconds, with 32-inch and 43-inch versions entering market consecutively. On May 17, 2019, the official Weibo account of Mi TV announced that the total shipments of Mi TV in India has reached 2 million. The success is attributable to the affordable price of Xiaomi’s products and Xiaomi‘s cooperation local content providers in India.

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, Georgia’s premier sporting and outdoor destination, will build a five-story, 250-room Westin hotel with a 50,000 square-foot conference center. Construction is slated to begin in the third quarter of 2022, with an opening scheduled for 2024.Foxhall’s plans were unanimously approved by the Douglas County Board of Commissioners.
Proposed Design for the Foxhall Westin Hotel Lobby
Foxhall Resort is owned by the Merrill Trust which is one of the largest privately owned mixed-use master-planned developers in the United States.
Led by President and CEO Harrison Merrill Jr., Foxhall has become a popular Georgia getaway, nestled along a picturesque bend of the Chattahoochee River on a breathtaking 1,100-acreequestrian estate.
“Foxhall Resort has become a global go-to destination for corporate retreats, weddings, outdoor enthusiasts and families seeking fun and adventure just 20 minutes from the Atlanta airport,” said Merrill Jr. “We’re excited to introduce more people to this beautiful land and the outdoor experiences here, and in so doing, to create an economic juggernaut for Douglas County.”
The Westin Resort and Conference Center is anticipated to generate more than 400 jobs and millions of dollars in sales tax revenue and ad valorem taxes for Douglas County and the Douglas County School System over the next 15 years. Together the new Westin and the existing Foxhall Resort are anticipated to attract more than 100,000 people to Douglas County along with an estimated 1,000 corporate events, weddings and social gatherings each year.
“We envision one of the largest economic development corridors in the United States along the South Fulton Parkway between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Foxhall Resort. We’re excited to be at the forefront of that vision,” said Foxhall Resort Founder Harrison Merrill Sr.
The new hotel announcement comes after a banner year for Foxhall Resort. In June 2021, the resort celebrated the grand opening of a fully-appointed clubhouse featuring the Pheasant Blue restaurant and bar, the Flying Fox grab-and-go market and retail shop, additional corporate meeting space and an infinity pool overlooking one of Georgia’s best trophy bass fishing lakes, Lunker Lake. The county also approved additional residences and estate homesites that will be for sale. The sales team is led by Pauline Miller
of Compass Development Marketing Group
“Foxhall Resort quickly is becoming the premier gateway destination in this entire region,” said Asset Manager Paul Breslin of HTL Horwath
From a world class Beretta Trident sporting clay course, to archery, ATV experiences and water sports like kayaking, paddle boarding and trophy fishing, Foxhall Resort is making a name for itself as the ultimate luxury sporting escape. The land features 16 spring-fed lakes and miles of hiking trails. Foxhall is the address for weddings and corporate retreats, offering pristine beauty designed to inspire unplugged restoration.
“Foxhall Resort is the Merrill family’s vision of a resort paradise in metropolitan Atlanta where families and groups can enjoy fantastic outdoor experiences, sporting activities and beauty to create many memories and photographic moments together which will last a lifetime,” added Merrill Sr.
About Foxhall Resort
As much a mindset as it is a resort, Foxhall Resort & Residences rests on an 1,100-acre equestrian estate, along a picturesque bend of the Chattahoochee River. A playground of luxe lodging, refined cuisine and year-round outdoor pursuits, Foxhall Resort is the destination of choice for family and friend getaways, weddings, sporting excursions and corporate retreats. Now, it can be called home with the release of its first residential phase. Conveniently located just 20 minutes from the Atlanta airport, Foxhall Resort is the ideal escape for a day, a weekend, a vacation or a permanent residence. For more information, go to Foxhall Resort
About Merrill Trust
The Merrill family has developed mixed-use and residential projects across the country, from Arizona to Utah to North Carolina and Georgia. Currently the owners and developers of Foxhall Resort, an 1,100-acre equestrian estate along a picturesque bend of the Chattahoochee River, the Merrills are committed to developments that respect the land and uplift the soul.
Read the original article on CityBiz.


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Prior to COVID-19, repair and remodeling expenditures in 2020 were up for the same period in 2019. Then COVID-19 hit hard, with its related impact directly affecting residential construction activity and building products demand.
As more states lift restrictions and the economy reopens, homeowners are reporting higher confidence levels in their financial outlook. According to recent Census survey data from June 4 to 9, 2020, 90% of homeowners surveyed who own their home have high or moderate confidence in their ability to pay next month’s mortgage payment.
In comparison, 87% of homeowners surveyed between April 23 and May 5 felt confident in being able to pay their next mortgage payment. Homeowner confidence levels are increasing as the economy has opened up.
What does this mean for building materials? Homeowners— the final consumers of residential building materials— are gaining confidence in their financial security and can be expected to continue discretionary buying activity or possibly pursue discretionary repair and remodeling (R&R) projects.
Principia will be releasing an updated demand forecast in June 2020, which includes details on repair and remodeling (R&R) demand for building materials. The updated forecast also evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on both new construction and R&R. This information is available to purchase in three product offerings designed to meet your specific needs: Product Demand Snapshot, DemandBuilder®, and BuilderSeries®.
Contact Principia today for more information about these products and which option best suits your needs for market intelligence.


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Wendy's sued over beverage contract
A major franchisee has filed suit against Wendy's International, alleging the company violated its contract by dictating its soft-drink-syrup supplier, inflating the syrup's cost and then using the proceeds to support a national advertising campaign.
DavCo Restaurants Inc., a Maryland company that owns 160 Wendy's restaurants, contends that Wendy's required franchisees to buy only Coca-Cola products, set a price higher than market value for those products and used the funds for advertising.
Dave Norman, DavCo's chief financial officer, said his company believes its agreement with Wendy's allows DavCo to suggest alternate suppliers. Further, Norman said, Wendy's didn't give DavCo a credit against its required contribution to the national advertising campaign. Both constituted breaches of the franchise agreement, he said.
Norman said he could not provide details of the alleged price inflation and money diversion because of a confidentiality agreement with Wendy's.
The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Columbus, seeks $2 million, which DavCo said is the amount it wasn't credited for contributing to the advertising campaign.
Wendy's disputes the allegations.
"The lawsuit is totally without merit, and we intend to vigorously defend our company on behalf of the entire Wendy's system," said Denny Lynch, a Wendy's spokesman.
An industry observer says the single-supplier arrangement is common.
It's typically in the company's best interest to use a single supplier, said Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president for WD Partners, a Dublin retail consulting firm. That's because a supplier usually will provide a better deal if its brand is the only one used.
And the larger the restaurant chain, the better volume discount it can receive if dealing with a single supplier, Lombardi said.
Wendy's contract with Coke began in 1998 and continues to at least 2013, Norman said. Wendy's franchisees with contracts that predated the 1998 agreement were allowed to honor those contracts until they expired, Norman said.
DavCo's contract predates the 1998 agreement and expires in December, prompting the lawsuit. DavCo spent more than a year in discussions with Wendy's, but was unable to reach an agreement.
There's a "very significant difference" between the cost of products in Wendy's contract with Coke and the price an open bidding process would bring, Norman said.
DavCo alleges that forcing franchisees to pay a price higher than market value puts them at a disadvantage with their competitors, he said.
The suit asks the court to force Wendy's to approve Pepsi as a supplier, if it meets Wendy's standards. Although DavCo always has used Coke products in its restaurants, Norman said the move would give other franchisees the option to serve Pepsi products, forcing Coke to lower the price negotiated with Wendy's.
Hundreds of Wendy's restaurants still serve Pepsi products because their contracts were negotiated before the arrangement with Coke, Norman said. Once those contracts expire, the restaurants will have to serve Coke products.
The litigation comes as Wendy's explores options for its future. It formed a special committee to determine ways to boost the company's stock price, and it is evaluating options that include a possible sale.
Wendy's stock closed yesterday at $34.27, unchanged from the day before.


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While there is a highly dedicated community of consumers who still prefers physical media many are making the shift towards digital media. This new age of entertainment is being ushered in by companies like Netflix who offer a large library of movies and TV shows to stream from the cloud. As you’re sure to know just about every set-top box or Internet connected television comes with built-in Netflix compatibility now a days but one set-top box that was missing the feature is none other than the Boxee Box.
We’ve told you in the past that the folks behind the Boxee Box were working feverishly to get Netflix out and it seems today the fruit of their efforts has been released. That’s right, Netflix streaming is now officially available on the Boxee Box.
To grab the update you don’t need to do much of anything as the device will be updated automatically within the next 24 hours. If you’re impatient, however, you can perform a manual update now and you should see the new feature appear.
Has anyone tried out Netflix streaming on the Boxee Box? If so, how is it?


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TOKYO (AFP) - Spending by Japanese families increased in February for the first time in six months, government data showed Tuesday (March 29), but analysts said the rare good news for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to be short-lived.
Abe came to power in December 2012 vowing to rejuvenate the world's third-largest economy by ending deflation - a debilitating decline in consumer prices that has suppressed spending for years.
But the prime minister's eponymous "Abenomics" policies, which include the Bank of Japan buying massive amounts of government bonds and introducing a negative interest rate, have so far failed to achieve his goals.
Japanese household spending rose 1.2 per cent in February from the same month last year, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry data showed, the first gain since August.
The result surprised economists who had foreseen a 1.9 per cent decline. according to a Bloomberg market forecast.
Economists, however, likely overlooked the positive effect of the extra day in February due to Leap Year, said Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
"The economy overall is levelling out," he told AFP.
The government last week said that Japanese consumer inflation remained stuck at zero in February for the second straight month as falling energy prices and a higher yen driving down the cost of other imports continued to weigh on consumer prices.
Also weighing on the economy are government plans to again raise the consumption tax from the current eight percent to 10 percent next year.
Powerful government finance mandarins say Japan needs the extra revenue to tackle the mounting national debts as the country ages and its population declines.
Going ahead with the plan is seen as likely to send the economy further into the doldrums, as did the last increase in April 2014.
Now, influential voices including Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, who both visited Japan this month, have urged Abe to postpone the increase.
Separate economic data released on Tuesday showed Japan's jobless rate came in at 3.3 per cent in February, slightly worse from 3.2 per cent in the previous month.


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New Delhi : Automakers began the new financial year on a strong note led by market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) which posted a better-than expected rise in sales in April.
Home-grown companies Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors also reported robust double digit sales growth during the month while Hyundai clocked a single-digit growth during the period. However, Ford posted a single-digit fall in sales in the month.
MSI, the country’s largest carmaker, reported a 14.4 per cent increase in total sales at 1,72,986 units in April against 1,51,215 units in the year-ago month. Its domestic sales stood at 1,64,978 units, up 14.2 per cent from 1,44,492 units last year.
Sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, witnessed a 2.8 per cent decline to 37,794 units in the month from 38,897 units last year, MSI said.
Sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Dzire and Baleno jumped by 31.8 per cent to 83,834 units in April as against 63,584 units in the year-ago month.
Mahindra & Mahindra reported a 19.34 per cent increase in its sales in the domestic market at 45,217 units last month as against 37,889 units in the same period of last year.
“After a good FY18, we have had a strong start to FY19… The company has achieved good growth both in the personal and commercial vehicle segments,” M&M President, Automotive Sector, Rajan Wadhera, said.
Similarly, Tata Motors reported a 34 per cent jump in passenger vehicle sales at 17,235 units in April as compared to 12,827 units last year.
“While there were challenges in market, strong demand for new generation products like Tiago, Tigor, Nexon and Hexa lead the growth in April,” Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Business Unit President Mayank Pareek said.
Hyundai Motor India posted a 4.4 per cent rise in domestic sales at 46,735 units last month as compared to 44,758 units in April 2017.
On the other hand, Ford India reported a 2.49 per cent dip in its domestic sales last month at 7,428 units. The company had sold 7,618 units in the year-ago month.


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Ford is readying its hands-free driver assistance system for the latest F-150 and Mustang Mach-E, rebranding it as Ford BlueCruise ahead of an OTA release later in 2021. Announced last year as Ford Active Drive Assist, the system is officially Level 2 on the autonomy scale, meaning while it can handle lane-keeping and maintain pace with traffic on certain roads, the driver is still required to pay attention.
To ensure that’s happening, a driver-facing camera in the instrument cluster watches to ensure they’re looking the road – rather than away at their phone, or indeed napping – even if their hands aren’t on the wheel. That’s similar to what we’ve seen from GM’s Enhanced Super Cruise, though rather than the LED light bar in the steering wheel, Ford BlueCruise relies on notifications in the instrument cluster to communicate system status with the driver.
The key is that BlueCruise will only work on pre-mapped stretches of highway. Ford says that there are currently over 100,000 such sections across North America, which it refers to as Hands-Free Blue Zones. They’re shown as blue in the vehicles’ navigation system, and the instrument cluster has blue lighting to show when you’re driving on a length of compatible highway.
Turned on, BlueCruise will maintain pace with the traffic ahead – at a safe, preset distance – as well as hold the F-150 or Mustang Mach-E’s position within the center of the lane. Outside of the Hands-Free Blue Zones, the cars support Lane Centering which assists with positioning but requires hands on the wheel at the same time.
At launch, with BlueCruise expected to be released in Q3 2021, the system will not support lane-changing. That’s something Ford says it plans to release as another OTA update later on, with Lane Change Assist moving the vehicle between lanes when the driver taps the appropriate turn signal. Predictive Speed Assist will also be added eventually, automatically adjusting the speed depending on features like road curves and roundabouts.
The same OTA update system will be used to deliver new mapping updates, as more roads are added to the database and existing roads are changed.
Of course, the new 2021 F-150 and 2021 Mustang Mach-E have already been on sale for some time now, but as previously announced Ford has been offering the hardware for BlueCruise from day one. On the F-150, it’s part of the Ford Co-Pilot 360 Active 2.0 package: that’s standard on the F-150 Limited trim, and a $1,595 option on option on Lariat, King Ranch, and Platinum models.
For the Mustang Mach-E, BlueCruise is standard on the CA Route 1, Premium, and First Edition trims. It’s included in the $3,200 Comfort and Technology Package on the Select trim, among other extras.
BlueCruise software, meanwhile, will go on sale in the second half of this year. It’ll be priced at $600, which will include three years of mapping service. Ford says it expects to sell more than 100,000 BlueCruise-equipped vehicles in the first year, and plans to add the system as an option to more of its models over time.
To demonstrate it can be relied upon today, however, the automaker is showing off the results of its 110,000 mile road trip across the US and Canada undertaken in recent months. That saw a fleet of five F-150 and five Mustang Mach-E equipped with BlueCruise travel through 37 US states and five Canadian provinces, to tackle a range of road and weather conditions.
“All 10 test vehicles – one departing from Palo Alto, California, the others from Dearborn, Michigan – spent much of last November and December winding their way across the United States and Canada,” Ford explains. “Test drivers searched for every conceivable road condition and highway driving scenario, monitoring the system’s performance, collecting data and highlighting areas where improvements could be made.”
The road trip followed 500,000 miles of development testing, Ford says, aiming to show just how the system would hold up under prolonged use in atypical conditions. As for what it’s like behind the wheel, we’ll have to wait a few months more to try that out ourselves.


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Hundreds of Amazon employees have openly criticized how their company deals with climate change. On Sunday, more than 300 employees signed blog posts on the Medium website with their names and job descriptions.
The online protest was organized by a group called "Amazon employees for climate justice". It was only at the beginning of the month that she explained that the management had threatened employees in internal letters with termination if they continued to speak to the media.
The business principle of the mail order company Amazon is based on CO2-intensive parcel transport with cars and planes. Amazon's subsidiary Amazon Web Services is currently the largest company in the cloud computing market with a share of around 30 percent. In contrast to the competitor Apple, for example, which operates 83 percent of its data centers with renewable energies, AWS is considered backward. According to Greenpeace, the group obtained only 17 percent of its electricity from renewable energies in 2017.
Back in the fall of last year, Amazon and Microsoft employees asked their employers to take action against climate change. In September, employees from both groups took part in climate demonstrations. In November, more than a thousand Google employees also asked their company to draw up a climate protection plan.
Amazon had only hit the headlines a few days ago because its founder Jeff Bezos' cell phone was said to have been hacked using Saudi software. Bezos is also the owner of the US newspaper Washington Post, for whom columnist Jamal Khashoggi had worked and reported critically about Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been suspected of ordering the killing because some of the agents involved in the murder worked directly for him. Bin Salman is said to have hacked Bezo's phone via a personal WhatsApp message.


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Video game producer, Toshimichi Mori, recently sat down for an interview with Weekly Famitsu magazine, where he talked about the latest addition to his popular fighting game series, Blazblue: Central Fiction. In that very interview, he said that the story of Blazblue will finally meet its conclusion.
In that interview, he was asked about a sequel, and to that, he told Famitsu that players will understand when they play the game’s story mode, though he stated that he would eventually want to do updates and tweak or adjust some characters, even adding a few new characters if there is demand for them.
In that interview, he also stated that unlike Chronophantasma, there will be no “EXTEND” or complete version, as the story will be ending in Central Fiction. He said that they aim to make the game playable for a long time.
He then talked about moving on from Blazblue and admitted that he plans to do a new title that is not related to Blazblue and that it won’t be a fighting game. The game gets released in Japan today, October 6, while an English version is on its way next month, on November 1, 2016. It will be available for PS3 and PS4 consoles.
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ALIANCYS ANNOUNCES PRICE INCREASE
Aliancys has today announced a price increase of € 150 per ton for its complete Vinyl ester and Specialty resin product portfolio sold in Europe, Middle East and India. The price increase will take effect for all new deliveries after 1 February 2018.
“The pricing of our key raw materials has been sharply increasing in recent weeks. This leaves us no choice but to raise the prices of our products as a result,” explains Fons Harbers, Marketing & Sales Director of Aliancys.


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Jaguar is recalling 4,195 XF cars in the United States to fix a potential fuel leak problem, according to documents filed with U.S. safety regulators.
Jaguar Land Rover, a unit of India’s Tata Motors Ltd , is recalling XF cars equipped with 5-liter gasoline engines from model years 2010 through 2012, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The affected vehicles may have a fuel tank fuel outlet flange that could crack, resulting in a leak and possible vehicle fire.
Jaguar has received three field reports and 17 warranty claims worldwide, but no reports of accidents, fires or injuries related to the issue, according to documents filed with the NHTSA.
Customers have reported fuel odor, the check engine light going on and fuel on the ground, and dealer technicians found the cracks in the affected pieces, according to documents filed with the NHTSA.
Dealers will replace the affected part. The recall is expected to begin on or before Dec. 7.
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Gemalto, LG Partner To Build Advanced Mobile Phone
The phones, available later this year, will have a Web server embedded in a SIM card, which is accessed through a phone's browser.
Digital security provider Gemalto on Friday partnered with LG Electronics to develop Smart Card Web Server-compatible mobile phones, which would allow users to access a service provider's portal even if they are without coverage or traveling abroad.
The Smart Card Web Server is a Web server embedded in a Subscriber Identity Module, which is accessed through a phone's browser. It provides Web services just like any server on the network; but in this case, the services are locally available and provided by the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, said Jean-Louis Carrara, VP of telecommunications at Gemalto North America.
Gemalto will be supplying the Web server for SIMs, while LG will be implementing an interface to access the server. Once the Web server is embedded in mobile phones, mobile browsers will be able to display rich content and users will get access to applications like synchronization between the SIM and the phone, the companies said.
"Wireless service providers can rely on the SIM to provide consumers easy access to their services, with any phones and anywhere, even with open access devices directly sold without subsidies," said Carrara.
Mobile phones utilizing the technology will become available by the middle of this year.
Gemalto primarily specializes in digital security and offers wireless carriers technology that allows mobile phone users to perform secure payments using the Short Message Service.
The company hopes that its new partnership with LG will revolutionize how mobile devices are customized and personalized from the SIM. Carrara said. "This offering directly supports the open access mandate by providing service providers an innovative way to offer their services via their SIM. And consumers can keep and control their service set up over time."
5 Top Federal Initiatives For 2015As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.
Top IT Trends to Watch in Financial ServicesIT pros at banks, investment houses, insurance companies, and other financial services organizations are focused on a range of issues, from peer-to-peer lending to cybersecurity to performance, agility, and compliance. It all matters.
Join us for a roundup of the top stories on InformationWeek.com for the week of October 9, 2016. We'll be talking with the InformationWeek.com editors and correspondents who brought you the top stories of the week to get the "story behind the story."


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Innovations in financial services continue to rapidly evolve. Some early leaders have dimmed as markets have changed while new approaches on Fintech have emerged. What is clear to all, the digitization of finance is occurring at a steady pace.
Technology is best when it is simple, effective and ubiquitous but not obtrusive. It is there when you need it. Fintech is heading in that direction as firms iterate and established financial services seek to catch up to agile startups. From access to capital, banking, payments and blockchain, Fintech is becoming the new normal in finance.
Recently, Crowdfund Insider received a note from Citi Ventures and Managing Director & Co-Head of Venture Investing, Ramneek Gupta. He shared his expectations for the coming year as to where the Fintech ecosystem is heading. Of course, Citi Ventures has been very active in the Fintech sector backing big names like Betterment, BlueVine, Unison and more.
Citi Ventures strives to “invest in cutting-edge solutions that are shaping the future of financial services and positively impacting a changing world.”
A Stanford trained engineer, Gupta co-leads the Venture Investing team at Citi Ventures. Gupta manages investments in companies strategic to Citi and “drives commercialization efforts between these companies and Citi businesses.”
According to his bio, Gupta’s portfolio includes Square (NYSE:SQ), Docusign (NASDAQ: DOCU), Jet.com (Acquired by Walmart), Grab, Anaconda, DataRobot, Immuta, Ujet, Ayasdi, Datameer, Platfora (acquired by Workday), Chain (acquired by Lightyear), Kinetica, HomeLight, TradeIt, Pepperdata, DB Networks, Feedzai, Fastpay, and others.
Before joining Citi, Gupta was a Partner at Battery Ventures, where he focused on the India investment effort as well as developing Fintech investment in the US.
Gupta told CI that in 2020, we will continue to see big tech companies launch and integrate financial service offerings.
“Many tech companies are embedding financial services into their products, and this trend will not be slowing down any time soon. Where in the past, fintech companies were siloed into their own sector we will continue to see a greater level of integration between the two,” said Gupta. “Fintech will soon become a native component of how companies operate, and we’re already starting to see that shift with products like Uber Money.”
In the coming year, Gupta believes that we will see fewer entrepreneurs using the “move fast and break things model.”
“While this ideology has never worked in financial services, we’re seeing that it is having continued negative repercussions for big tech. With privacy and regulation becoming a top concern for consumers, more companies will be pumping the breaks before launching into new business plans. With behavioral, technological and industrial shifts happening constantly all around us, I believe that in 2020 we will see more companies weighing their next move before jumping into a product launch, IPO, or brand pivot,” explained Gupta.
Gupta expects 2020 to be a big year for machine learning “at the edge.”
“While machine learning gets smarter by gathering more information, there is still the ongoing issue of having access to such data. With machine learning at the edge, the data never leaves the customer’s hands or device and yet companies are able to run models on the edge. This way the customer always has ownership of their information, and companies can just utilize it for specific purposes and move on. With personalization becoming a key part of successful business models, machine learning at the edge will be able to balance gathering information and respecting user privacy.”
Regarding the utilization of blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) in financial services, Gupta is of the opinion that there is an opportunity in leveraging DLT technology, and it is a real “thing.” However, we often try very hard to fit the problem to the solution.
“In other words, there are fewer problems or potential use cases where financial institutions can justify the additional overhead of a distributed trustless system than the initial excitement might suggest,” Gupta shared. “Some examples of such use cases include: distributed/federated identity management, supply chain finance, integrity management, and even digitizing commercial real estate transactions.”
Asked about the regulatory challenges for Fintechs, as well as traditional finance, Gupta said that getting a banking charter/license is the biggest regulatory challenge for US Fintechs, as well as the general discomfort that regulators have around “rent a charter” models.
“One or the other must be put into place to foster fintech innovation in the U.S.,” Gupta said. “I think both are equally viable, but it’s critical that Fintechs and traditional finance players are clear on use cases and needs for both options.”
There has been a lot of movement in the banking sector where digital-only banks have targeted real-estate heavy traditional banks for disruption. As the thesis goes, old banks simply can not move quickly enough to keep up with the agile challenger banks that can provide services at a lower price point. So who comes out on top? Is digital-only the clear winner?
“Financial services are, by design, never going to be winner takes all. So don’t expect to have one dominant winner of any kind (digital only or otherwise),” Gupta stated. “However, just like in retail with companies like Amazon and Warby Parker opening physical stores focused on experience while their digital-first cores handle the transactions, I see banking evolving similarly. The banking experience will be primarily “digital-first” with omnichannel capability (both digital and physical). With the increased leveling of the playing field, I think this winning archetype can come either from an incumbent or an upstart.”


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Wall Street set to open higher as global bond selloff eases
U.S. shares were set to open higher on Friday as a selloff in the global bond market eased after purchases by the European Central Bank, lifting stock index futures.
The S&P 500 .SPX rose 1.08 percent to end at 2,121.1 on Thursday, exceeding its previous all-time closing high of 2,117.69 on April 24, while the Nasdaq Composite .INX had its strongest day since January.
"As we see volatility subside in the bond market and what seems to be an orderly withdrawal from the fixed-income market before a shift in policy, there is less fear among equity market investors," said Andrew Barber, chief market strategist at Eagleview Capital in Delaware.
Barber said ECB President Mario Draghi clearly sent a message at the IMF meeting on Thursday that quantitative easing in Europe is not going to stop any time soon.
Signs that jitters in the bond market were starting to recede also helped prop up European stocks.
U.S. Federal Reserve data, to be released at 9:15 a.m. ET, is expected to show that manufacturing output gained modestly last month.
The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index, expected at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show U.S. consumers were slightly more upbeat in the early part of May.
Manufacturing activity growth in New York State accelerated in May after weakening for three consecutive months as the pace of new orders improved from a multi-year low, a survey showed.
Investors have been keeping a close eye on economic data for signs of improvement in the U.S. economy in the second-quarter after growth slowed to a crawl in the previous quarter.
S&P 500 e-mini futures ESc1 were up 2.25 points and their fair value - a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract - indicated a higher open.
Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures 1YMc1 rose 20 points and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures NQc1 added 10.25 points.
El Pollo Loco Holdings (LOCO.O) shares slumped 12.4 percent to $25.45 in premarket trading after the restaurant chain operator forecast a full-year profit largely below estimates.
King Digital Entertainment (KING.N) fell 7.6 percent to $13.85 as the "Candy Crush Saga" creator said it expects forex rates and a lack of new releases to hurt bookings.
Netflix (NFLX.O) rose 3.3 percent to $606.51 after Bloomberg reported that it was in talks with a company backed by Alibaba's (BABA.N) Jack Ma to enter China.
Avon Products (AVP.N) fell 0.7 percent to $7.02, a day after soaring as much as 20 percent on an apparently bogus takeover offer. Avon said it had received no such offer.
Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR.O) fell 5.9 percent to $97 after Bloomberg reported that the K-cup coffee pod maker would not make available its new cold brewing system in all it is retail outlets until next year.
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World funds platform PayPal is trying in the direction of the UK as the following market through which to broaden its crypto buying and selling companies.
In response to the corporate’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, PayPal has performed very effectively out of crypto buying and selling for the interval. CEO Dan Schulman said that the U.Okay. is prone to be the following nation the place crypto buying and selling is obtainable.
“Yeah, effectively, we proceed to be actually happy with the momentum we’re seeing on crypto. […] We will launch, hopefully, perhaps even subsequent month within the U.Okay., open up buying and selling there.”
He said that the corporate is including “incremental performance” to the crypto buying and selling platform, having already increased the crypto purchasing limits to $100,000 per week on July 15.
PayPal can be engaged on open banking integration, Schulman said, including that it “will enhance the flexibility to totally combine it into ACH and do quicker funds.” ACH is PayPal’s Automated Clearing Home, a cost service that allows retailers to electronically acquire funds from prospects by immediately debiting their checking or saving accounts.
Schulman revealed that Pay with Venmo revenues grew by 183% yr over yr, and thathere has been robust adoption and buying and selling of crypto on Venmo. The PayPal-owned agency Venmo launched crypto trading services to an estimated 70 million users in mid-April.
Relating to decentralized finance, Schulman recommended that PayPal was trying into “what the following technology of the monetary system seems like” and how you can combine sensible contracts and decentralized apps into the platform:
“How can we use sensible contracts extra effectively? How can we digitize belongings and open these as much as shoppers that won’t have had entry to that earlier than? There are some attention-grabbing DeFi functions as effectively. And so we’re working actually exhausting.”
The feedback come on the identical time a leaked video from final week’s EthCC convention in Paris revealed that the world’s largest decentralized change, Uniswap, has been in talks with PayPal, amongst different fintech companies, concerning DeFi integration.
On July 28, Cointelegraph reported that PayPal’s “tremendous app” which is able to characteristic excessive yield financial savings, early entry to direct deposit funds, messaging capabilities, and extra crypto performance, is almost ready for launch.


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DENVER (AP) — High Times and Westword have filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado rules that bar recreational marijuana businesses from advertising in most publications.
The Denver Post (http://bit.ly/1nu7pAs ) says the legal action was filed on Monday in federal court and argues that the rules violate free speech.
The Colorado attorney general's office is reviewing the suit and declined comment.
State regulations only allow recreational pot shops to advertise in publications believed to have no more than 30 percent of readers under 21. There are no restrictions on medical marijuana advertising.
The lawsuit doesn't state how the publications might have been hurt by the rule. The latest issue of Westword, Denver's alternative weekly, has at least nine ads for recreational marijuana businesses.
Opponents previously succeeded in convincing a federal court to overturn a law requiring marijuana publications to be kept behind store counters.
Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com


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To understand the ripple effects of the collapse in traditional retail, look no further than Elmira, N.Y. The surrounding county, famed for its trail-blazing mall, is more exposed to 2017’s brick-and-mortar carnage than almost anywhere in the U.S.
NYS Entity Status
NYS Filing Date
JULY 02, 2013
NYS DOS ID#
NYS Entity Type
DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
2013 - CRITICAL ABILITIES DEVELOPMENT LLC
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ELMIRA, NY — An 8-month-old baby found alive in a plastic bag outside an upstate New York home had been abandoned there three days earlier by her 17-year-old mother, who has been charged with attempted murder, authorities said. Elmira police said neighbors checking out a noise early Tuesday afternoon found a baby whose feet were...
- Malls Struggle to Compete with Online Shopping
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- Abandoned infant survived 3 days in plastic bag
Wednesday Aug 9, 2017
Abandoned infant survived 3 days in plastic bagELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say an 8-month-old baby found alive in a plastic bag outside an upstate New York home had been abandoned there three days earlier by her 17-year-old mother.Later Tuesday, police charged Harriette Hoyt with attempted murder.
- The Bridge Wobbles. So Do You. That’s When the Trouble Starts.
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Mathematicians found that bridges wobble suddenly when a critical crowd threshold is exceeded, and developed a model to predict it in future bridges.
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VentureBeat has immediate openings for experienced reporters with a track record of getting scoops and providing smart analysis. We’re looking for two people, one in San Francisco and one in New York, who love covering the business of technology but are not infatuated with it. Reporters with a critical eye, an ability to develop sources, […]


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Fortnite has been removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store for violating their rules for over two years, but Epic Games may finally bring the hit title to iOS in 2023.
The rumor started when Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted a happy New Year's message that said, "Next year on iOS." He then replied to that tweet with a photo of a Fortnite character looking at fireworks with the text "2023."
The popular Battle Royale Game was removed in August 2020, after Fortnite introduced its in-game payment system that avoided Apple and Google in-app purchase fees.
Empower your team with our App Marketing Intelligence


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- JCPenney is closing 152 more stores.
- They are also laying off 1,000 employees.
- In addition, they filed for bankruptcy protection in May.
JCPenney will have another round of closings and layoffs. The department store chain has confirmed that they will be cutting 1,000 jobs and closing 152 more stores. They filed for bankruptcy protection in May and looked into selling. The coronavirus pandemic has been tough for many businesses.
According to TODAY, “The layoffs would affect corporate, field management, and international roles and eligible departing employees would receive a severance package. The company is also in talks with its landlords regarding store closures.”
JCPenney layoffs continue
The department store JCPenney was founded in 1902. It became one of the top department stores for decades. Do you remember the huge catalogs from the ’90s? Even though JCPenney was one of the first companies to start selling items online, they still suffered a lot in recent years.
There have been many store closings and layoffs due to competition. What do you think about JCPenney closing more stores and having over 1,000 layoffs? Will they survive in this new economic climate?


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On Friday, Google rolled out a new feature that will help users ignore ad content they find irrelevant or otherwise problematic. The company announced on its Inside AdWords blog that it will place an “X” in the top right corner of video ads and others that appear in its display network. The move might remind marketers that Google – and their online audience – places a premium on relevance, and targeted content efforts that are key to building search visibility (SEO or paid) with relevant audiences.
When a user “mutes” an ad by clicking the X, they will no longer see ad content from this campaign across any of Google’s services. So should a user mute an ad on YouTube, they won’t see paid search content that is included in the same campaign from the company either. While Google has been clear in its goal of focusing on the user, this move essentially demands that marketers do as well. Creating ad content that is useless to consumers will result in them seeing different content in these spaces.
A key of any web marketing campaign is targeting and ensuring that the right prospects will see the right content. If these users aren’t interested in campaigns then companies must create more effective content to pique interest and drive traffic and conversions.
According to Michael Aiello, product manager for Google, the feature is designed to increase the control users have over their experience with all Google products and services. Additionally, the data will help Google deliver ads that perform better for marketers while simultaneously pushing them toward developing and maintaining comprehensive profiles of their target audience.
This is not the first time Google has rolled out a tool that allows users to block certain content. In the past, Brafton highlighted a tool that allows users who bounce from a site found in organic search results to block content from that page in the future. For both organic marketing content and paid ads, marketers must be sure that they are actively engaging their audiences and delivering articles, images or other types of content that are appealing and relevant.
Moreover, Google’s marketing capability is growing consistently to encourage companies to improve targeting for all content. Brafton recently highlighted a new video ad platform that allows organizations to share video content marketing on YouTube and pay on a model similar to AdWords. This is a timely update from Google as Americans viewed more than 10 billion video ads in May, and the figure is expected to grow frequently as more consumers and B2B buyers consume web video content to inform purchase decisions.


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There are several improvements made to Apple’s lightest notebook in this year’s MacBook Air 2022, so there is much to anticipate. New colors, a larger, brighter display, a reworked camera, and a lighter design are all features of the most recent MacBook Air.
The new M2 processor that drives this year’s MacBook Air, though, is the biggest change this year. The MacBook Air has a lot going for it, including the promise of a significant performance jump from this latest Apple technology. It may even appear on our lists of the finest MacBooks and laptops.
We’ll find out soon enough. Apple has started taking preorders for the MacBook Air 2022. And that makes one question more relevant than ever: Is it worth upgrading to the new MacBookAir or not?
My colleagues have tackled that questions in different ways, including reasons to get the MacBook Air M2 instead of the latest MacBook Pro. For me, there’s a lot to consider.
The MacBook Air M2 costs $200 more than last year’s MacBook Air M1 2020, bringing the starting price to $1,199 a record high for the Air. That price covers the base model with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. If you upgrade to a massive 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage, that maxed-out model of Air will cost you a whopping $2,499. That’s a lot of money to shell out for any laptop, including the MacBook Air.
Whether you are considering a purchase for school or work, this is a laptop that did not disappoint in our hands-on preview. My colleague Tony Polanco thinks the MacBook Air 2022 could make him ditch Windows for the first time. But for me, there’s just one main reason that I would buy the MacBook Air 2022.
The M2 powerhouse
The M2, Apple’s most recent silicon chip, is what I find most appealing about the new MacBook Air. With an 8-core CPU that is accentuated by four performance cores, the M2 provides lightning-fast performance.
Apple claims that the laptop can handle heavy workloads 40% quicker than the M1 CPU thanks to the M2 powering the device. Even using programs like Photoshop is more streamlined, and Apple claims that it is 20% quicker than before.
Looking at MacBook Air 2022 vs MacBook Air 2020, the two laptops have a lot of similarities but also some key contrasts — namely price and the processors inside each MacBook.
I can confidently claim that Apple outdid itself with the M1 processor in the 2020 Air because I use a MacBook Air 2020 as my primary computer. Even after using the laptop for two years, media, multitasking, and demanding apps run quite quickly. If the MacBook Air M2’s M2 processor is that much superior to the M1’s, it is unquestionably worthwhile to purchase one.
It’s true that while you’re working on daily duties, the performance differences between the two Airs won’t be all that evident. However, if you’re upgrading from a laptop that is even older than the MacBook Air 2020, the new Air should provide a substantial improvement.
The MacBook Air isn’t the only hardware Apple’s released this year powered by an M2 chip. You’ll also find that silicon in the MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2) 2022 announced at the same time as the MacBook Air. A MacBook Air 2022 vs MacBook Pro 2022 13-inch comparison finds that the MacBook Pro offers a 10-core GPU in its base model to the 8-core GPU in the Air. But the MacBook Air pulls ahead by promising its Pro-like performance in a more portable chassis; it also cost $100 less than the MacBook Pro.
It is well known that Apple appears to be concentrating its efforts on developing its own processors. Since the M1 chip was released by the business over two years ago, Apple has released five new chips, ranging from the M1 to the M1 Ultra and the M2, which is the most recent.
MacBook Air M2 outlook
The MacBook Air M2 has a lot going for it, as I’ve already mentioned. Although the improved 1080p webcam and larger, brighter display are both wonderful improvements, they might not be enough to convince buyers to spend an additional $200 over the MacBook Air M1, which is still available from Apple.
M2 fills that role as Apple’s magnificent hero in sparkling armor. You could even begrudge Apple for just giving you two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and a headphone jack due to the device’s excellent performance.
And let’s not forget how beautiful the MacBook Air is. The new Air has a sleek aluminum unibody that is a staple of the Air design, and it is lower in volume and significantly lighter. Midnight Blue, which appears to change from a dark to a brighter blue, is my favorite hue.


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Web experts from Lancaster University's department of computing are helping companies to develop their online shopping services.
Parisian department store Galeries-Lafayette is looking to Lancaster's experts to improve a system that allows customers to talk directly to salespeople over the web, using a form of video-conferencing. This would have major benefits over the usual non-interactive photographs of items for sale.
Project leader David Hutchison said: "More companies are wanting to get new business from the internet. This project hopes to give the shopper a way of shopping from home that has the added value of being able to get information from another human being at the store, and cuts out the 'impersonality' of the internet that some people find off-putting."
Professor Hutchison's department and co-researchers in German and Swiss universities, together with the industrial partners, have received E700,000 (Pounds 409,000) from the European Commission for this work, which will include looking at systems to make credit-card payments more secure and to make in-store browsing anonymous.


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Sony skipped this year’s E3, leaving a crater in this summer’s video game hype season. While the company has done smaller streams based around big titles every few months, it’s not quite the same as getting a whole presentation full of big announcements. Luckily, Sony just decided to be fashionably late. Today’s PlayStation Showcase stream was essentially an E3-sized presentation filled with the kinds of giant announcements we lacked back in June.
- God of War: Ragnarok footage finally debuts
- Spider-Man 2 will feature Venom in 2023
- Insomniac is making a Wolverine game
- Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy are getting upgrades
- Knights of the Old Republic is getting a remake
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands gets a release date
- Project Eve looks like PlayStation’s Bayonetta
- GTAV’s PS5 upgrade delayed to March
- Everything else
OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. The stream certainly showed a lot of trailers for upcoming games like Forspoken and Deathloop, but wasn’t exactly loaded with shocks until its final minutes — but what a thrilling few minutes they were! We got our first look at God of War Ragnarok, a shocking Spider-Man 2 reveal, and even more surprising superhero news in the form of Marvel’s Wolverine. While the show was light on firm release dates, it certainly set the stage for a busy next few years for PS5.
Here’s every announcement from Sony’s PlayStation Showcase in one handy place.
After being delayed from 2021, we finally got our first look at God of War: Ragnarok. An extensive gameplay trailer featured everything you’d expect to see in a God of War game: Lots of gods and even more action. We get a glimpse of Kratos using his signature axe and blades. Notably, we didn’t get a release date for the game, which is schedule to launch sometime in 2022.
Spider-Man 2 is coming, but it’s going to be a while. The superhero game is coming sometime in 2023. We got a little teaser trailer for the title that shows both Peter Parker and Miles Morales fighting side by side. The trailer ends with the villainous Venom making an appearance.
Insomniac appears to be the busiest developer in video games today. Not only is the company making Spider-Man 2, bt it’s also developing a game based on Marvel’s Wolverine. The claw-handed X-Man will get his own solo adventure, though not much is known about it yet. A brief teaser shows the character in a bar about to beat the snot out of someone.
Both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy are getting next-gen upgrades. The games will come to PC, as well as PS5, and they will be bundled as the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection. They are slated to launch sometime in 2022.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is getting a remake. The project is being developed by Aspyr, which has ported several Star Wars games to other platforms in recent years. The studio brought Star Wars Racer: Episode 1 to modern consoles and KOTOR to mobile devices. The remake has no set release date at the moment and only got a teaser trailer.
First debuted at Summer Games Fest, Borderlands spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands got a new trailer. It gave a in-depth look at its fantasy gunplay and predictably irreverent humor. More importantly, the game finally got a release date. It’ll now launch on March 25.
PlayStation owners are getting a new action RPG currently titled Project Eve. An extensive gameplay trailer shows off a hack-and-slash game featuring a long-haired heroine. It looks quite a bit like Bayonetta, though its not being developed by PlatinumGames; it’s coming from Shift Up Corporation. The game currently does not have a release date.
A next-gen upgrade of Grand Theft Auto V had been scheduled to hit PS5 by the end of 2021. The update has been delayed and is now slated for March 2022. The game got a full trailer during the showcase that confirmed exactly what one would expect from a next-gen upgrade, like updated visuals. The trailer confirmed that Grand Theft Auto Online is also getting a boost -when the game launches on
- Rainbow Six Extraction got a new story-focused trailer.
- Forspoken got a new trailer listing a spring 2022 release window.
- The recently announced Alan Wake Remastered got a full trailer.
- Ghostwire Tokyo got a spooky new trailer, but no release date was listed.
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy got a new trailer that featured Cosmo, the space dog.
- Vampire The Masquerade: Blood Hunt popped up with a new trailer.
- We got a last look at Deathloop before its September 14 launch.
- Radiohead is teaming up with Epic for a Kid A/Amnesiac digital experience in November.
- Tchia is a new indie inspired by New Caledonia.
- Gran Turismo 7 got a cool new trailer, but no release date. It’s coming in March, according to a post-show stream.
- Everything announced at the September 2023 State of Play
- PlayStation Plus is getting a major price hike following Game Pass changes
- Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games
- PlayStation 5 Slim: All rumors and speculation
- Baldur’s Gate 3 includes a poignant Undertale Easter egg and more RPG nods


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ERP suites feature substantial best-of-breed functionality, especially in performance management and the financial value chain. But BOB vs. ERP purchasing decisions remain complex.
At first glance, United Asset Coverage, a $30 million-a-year provider of telecommunications maintenance services, doesn't look like an organization that would be interested in the offerings of large enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendors. When the fast-growing Naperville, Ill.-based company needed a new financial system last year, its most pivotal requirement was contract management functionality -- a quintessentially
best-of-breed (BOB) capability. Yet the search for that feature led United Asset to Oracle. "We're probably not the most likely candidate to seek out an Oracle solution," says CFO Mario Christopher. "We sought out a key component, contract management, and we anticipate that we will soon be at a size where we will leverage Oracle's full suite in a big way."
Manulife Financial Corp., the $10.5 billion-a-year financial services giant, might seem a more typical ERP customer. Yet when the Toronto-based company chose to upgrade its Lawson Financials enterprise suite to Lawson's Series 8 in February 2002, it did so, in part, because of the ease with which some BOB applications can be knitted into that system.
What's going on here?
ERP vendors are working hard to lift a page -- or several pages -- from their BOB competition's playbook. Some of their marketing efforts sound increasingly like those of BOB vendors, and their products are encroaching on traditional BOB functionality. But the shift is a cagey strategic move rather than a reinvention. ERP executives still chant their mantra of "seamless integration" and remain as vigilant as ever in pointing out the limitations that they say plague the best-of-breed approach.
What's more, ERP offerings have evolved significantly in the past 12 months. Development has been most pronounced in interenterprise collaboration functionality. And through new performance management features, ERP vendors' latest offerings address two issues that are high on CFOs' list of concerns: Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and the weak economy.
'Best of Suite'
Manulife Financial had compelling reasons for its decision to take the enterprise software route, says Lynda Sullivan, vice president of financial systems and processes. The Lawson system meets Manulife's cash-processing needs, and it can handle the internal and external financial and expense management reporting requirements of a global financial services company. The system's out-of-the-box functionality, which offered an opportunity to achieve early benefits during the implementation process, was attractive. And the Lawson suite is flexible enough to handle a large volume of transactions and integrate with applications Manulife expects to add in the future, Sullivan reports.
Those benefits reflect most of the traditional areas of differentiation that enterprise software vendors emphasize in the ERP vs. BOB debate. But another key factor in Manulife's decision, according to Sullivan, was Lawson's alliance with BOB vendor Hyperion Solutions Corp. And that's a distinctly nontraditional ERP selling point.
Lawson is not alone in playing both sides of the ease-of-integration argument. SAP, for example, would not dissuade users of its R/3 financial software from using a customer relationship management (CRM) application from a best-of-breed vendor, according to Michael Park, vice president of strategy and innovation in SAP's New York City offices.
"If they've already made a multiple-million-dollar investment in that system, we certainly don't want them to rip it out and put in our system," Park says. "We can say, 'You can build the integration points between your CRM point solution and the SAP solution, and we can help you manage that.' " Of course, SAP's appreciation for best-of-breed ROI is limited. "When you're tired of managing those interfaces," Park says, "understand that we have the capability -- literally at the click of the switch -- to provide the same or better capability in a seamless fashion."
Brad Benson, senior vice president of product development with Lawson Software in St. Paul, Minn., echoes other ERP executives' messages when he lists the reasons companies choose enterprise systems over BOB: easier integration, less data replication, better security and support, and a simpler user interface.
Steve Miranda, Oracle Corp.'s vice president of development, says that no amount of "expensive integration" -- and he encourages CFOs to keep in mind the total cost of BOB solutions -- can "provide truly real-time analytical information."
SAP refers to its integration strategy as "best of suites." The company intends to compete with leading best-of-breed brands in their own territory by promoting what Park describes as an "integrated-by-design" solution.
What a CFO Wants
By emphasizing integration and real-time access to business information, enterprise software providers hope to counter the success of best-of-breed performance management solutions. And ERP vendors are gaining on their BOB competition in that arena. In a recent ranking of performance management solutions by IT research and advisory services firm Meta Group in Stamford, Conn., offerings from best-of-breed vendor Hyperion and enterprise software provider PeopleSoft placed first and second, respectively. Although SAP and best-of-breed provider Cognos were not included in the evaluation, John Van Decker, Meta Group's senior program director, application delivery strategies, says he would add those solutions to the top of the list as well. Other large enterprise vendors, including Oracle, J.D. Edwards and Lawson, are increasingly focusing on performance management.
That strategy speaks directly to the biggest issues CFOs face this year. Coping with the struggling economy demands more agile forecasting capabilities, which in turn require quicker, more accurate performance management systems. To comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and its rules on disclosure, internal controls documentation and financial statement certifications, companies need fast access to financial and business information -- a key component of what performance management technology delivers.
When asked to identify CFOs' most pressing needs this year, PeopleSoft's vice president of product marketing Susan Foley Kane sounds as if she's leafing through the new law. She ticks off Sec-tion 404 (documentation, reporting and attestation of internal controls); Section 409 (real-time disclosure of material changes); financial statement certification; and the tighter deadline for quarterly reporting. PeopleSoft's Investor Portal and CFO Portal products offer compliance support, as do specific Lawson and Oracle solutions.
Enabling the Financial Value Chain
C. Cristian Wulf, a Seattle-based partner in Accenture's finance and performance management service line, believes that many companies have yet to fully realize the value of their ERP installations, particularly in reporting and information delivery. "The need for improved clarity, accuracy, timeliness and transparency in all aspects of enterprise operations is prompting CFOs to take a long look at financial policy, process and -- yes -- the related technology improvements," he observes.
But Bob Rugare, vice president of technology consulting for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in Atlanta, believes the majority of ERP users have already extracted as much value as possible from their systems. "The next logical step is to extend that out to trading partners," he notes. "The aggressive movers in that space are further lowering their costs and conducting quicker transactions, which is making the business flow better."
Van Decker calls that terrain the financial value chain. He says that, with the exception of performance management, functionality related to the financial value chain is the primary focus of innovation for enterprise software vendors and their customers. When executed effectively, that functionality helps corporate finance maintain discipline and consistency and boost visibility. "With CRM and supply chain solutions there are corresponding financial management processes that need to be dispersed appropriately to where the transactions occur within the organization," Van Decker says. "Collections, for example, has typically been conducted by a couple of folks in the back office. I think an appropriate way to handle collections is to have those folks integrate the sales force into the collections process. That way, you can have visibility into payment history from your CRM solution."
Oracle offers a way to do just that with its new revenue and receivables function. At SAP, Park talks about "extending the footprint of an ERP solution" across the organization and beyond it to customers, partners and suppliers. Such extensions of ERP functionality are "probably the hottest value drivers of all the IT implementations" in recent months, says Rugare.
The growing interest in financial value chain solutions translates to a greater focus on portals. In basic terms, portal technology enables a company to give different constituencies (e.g. customers, suppliers) access to specific sets of corporate information. A portal provides single-sign-on access to systems and data at defined security levels. Web services, such as IBM's WebSphere, enable the collaboration. It doesn't matter, for example, if a supplier's computer runs on a different platform from that used by a buyer's system, so long as both companies conform to a Web services standard. To function effectively, a portal needs the support of secure, accurate, user-friendly financial processes. "From a financial perspective," says Rugare, "that includes all of the order-to-cash subprocesses."
Nonenterprise software vendors took the lead in designing portal products that helped extend ERP systems. But Oracle, SAP and PeopleSoft have all unveiled new or updated portal products in the past 18 months to 24 months. These ERP vendors, together with systems integrators like Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, recognize the value of customizing their offerings as much as possible to reduce implementation time. "If they want a portal to, say, front-end their finance function," Rugare says, "I can get them up and running quicker than they can do on their own or than they can do by going with a technology vendor [exclusively], because I have an end-to-end solution for that particular suite."
SAP has developed various sets of financial value chain capabilities to address industry-specific needs. Instead of selling a generic CRM solution, for example, the company can provide a "trade promotion management" offering tailored to a specific industry, such as consumer packaged goods. "I think you're going to see more of the software industry moving to integrated business scenarios," Park says. "That addresses two of the most important factors driving software decisions today: How do we get more for less? And how do we take advantage of the dollars we've already invested?"
Peering Into a Portal Project
Despite a troubled economy and curbs on corporate IT spending, Bob Rugare, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's vice president of technology consulting in Atlanta, encounters little resistance when pitching portal-technology projects to corporate clients. Large manufacturers, for example, often hear from their suppliers how other manufacturers' supply chain management (SCM) implementations have reduced the suppliers' purchasing, inventory and engineering costs. As a result, the manufacturers require minimal convincing that their supply chains can benefit from greater automation and external integration.
"We've already more than doubled our portal work from last year to this year," says Rugare. "We've seen other client projects put on hold, but I have yet to see a single portal project shelved."
ERP vendors report a surge of interest in functionality that improves the processes companies use to manage financial relationships with their customers and suppliers. Portal technology, which connects the company to customers, distributors, suppliers or even its own employees, represents the most visible junction -- the interface level -- of those relationships. Portals enable companies to communicate faster, more accurately and more securely with external and internal constituencies and help coordinate crucial financial management processes -- purchasing, inventory management, credit and collections, and forecasting -- that connect a company and its trading partners.
A typical CGE&Y portal project encompasses implementing new software (which accounts for about 40 percent of the job) and integrating applications and business processes among the software buyer, its suppliers and its customers (which accounts for the remaining 60 percent). Developing a supplier portal for a manufacturer typically takes from three months to 10 months, Rugare says. "Much of the focus in that type of project is on automating the communications around procurement, manufacturing and engineering between the company and its suppliers," Rugare explains. He reports that portal projects cost from $100,000 to $3 million.
That's an expense many companies appear happy to bear right now. "You can't ask suppliers to lower their costs," Rugare notes, "unless you give them the ability to lower their costs of goods sold."


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Xiaomi promotes its flagship by creating a giant domino made up of 4,100 Mi 11 units.
The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi has surprised us with a curious initiative to promote its star terminal, the Xiaomi Mi 11: it has created an incredible giant domino whose pieces are 4,100 units of this mobile terminal.
Xiaomi returns to amaze the world with a curious advertising campaign
The Chinese manufacturer has published on the Chinese social network Weibo a video in which you can see how the tiles of a giant domino fall, which is made up of more than 4,000 Xiaomi Mi 11.
It is not the first time Xiaomi carries out such an amazing marketing campaign, given that in the past it has already sent a Redmi Note 7 into space or tested the resistance of the Redmi 10X by throwing fruits and vegetables at 50 km / h.
The Chinese giant has used a total of 4,100 terminals, in its three available colors: Horizon Blue, Midnight Gray and Cloud White, all stacked against each other and dropped to create a "Domino effect" really impressive both in color and design, since as they fall they form a series of curious geometric figures.
The Xiaomi Mi 11, which is already available in Spain, is the high-end terminal with the best value for money today since we are facing a device that has a 6.81-inch AMOLED screen With a refresh rate of 120 Hz, the Qualcomm processor Snapdragon 888, a three rear camera module with a main sensor of 108 MP, a battery of 4,600 mAh with 55W fast charging and Android 11 running low MIUI 12.5.
All this with prices ranging from 749 euros of the version with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage up to 799 euros of its most complete version, with the same RAM and 256 GB of internal memory.


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One company is looking to the future, unveiling what they describe as the "world's first eco-restorative homes" in the form of "floating" pods that sit in the ocean.
It’s basically "Waterworld" but with fancy floating homes.
Ocean Builders, an ocean-innovation technology company, announced it will be offering the purchase and rental of their eco-friendly homes: the SeaPod, which is built for aquatic living, the GreenPod, which is for land living, and an EcoPod version will be available for either/or SeaPod or GreenPod as an eco-friendly alternative home, according to the company website.
A fleet of pods is already under construction in Linton Bay Marina located in Panama and the company hopes the homes will be ready by 2023.
Reservations to either rent or own a future pod can be made today with a $100 deposit, according to the company website.
"We are planting the SeaPod seed here in Panama, but our eventual goal is to have SeaPod homes in every corner of the ocean, all around the world," said Ocean Builders CEO Grant Romundt in a June 2022 statement.
How much will the pods cost?
The cost of SeaPods or GreenPods will cost anywhere between $295,000 to $1.5 million depending on what buyers decide to add on.
The company claimed it is trying to keep the cost of the pods as "close as possible to an average U.S. family home," according to the website.
Here’s what the pods will look like
SeaPod rendering at sunset. (Grant Romundt from Ocean Builders)
Where are they located?
For now, the SeaPods and GreenPods are being constructed in Panama but the goal is to eventually have them in all oceans and countries across the globe, according to the website.
How will residents get supplies?
Ocean Builders is currently working on perfecting a drone delivery system for the SeaPods that will all be connected through smart technology, according to the website.
The drone will be unmanned and in theory, will use an artificial intelligence system currently under development by the company to deliver not just pizza and groceries but medical supplies also.
"Instead of risking taking the boat back during an emergency or waiting for someone to come to you, the drone would be able to bring you what you need much quicker," the company said in a blog post.
What is an eco-restorative home?
The SeaPods will not only be futuristic and fun to look at but they will also help to grow and restore an aquatic ecosystem below.
"SeaPods are what marine biologists call ‘fish aggregation devices.’ This means that anytime you put something in the water that makes shade it attracts sea life. It often starts with barnacles and other life starts to grow on the underwater surface of your Pods. This can lead to coral grow and eventually homes for fish. After a process of years this can grow into a thriving underwater ecosystem," the website said.
This story was reported from Los Angeles.


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McAfee has reported revenues of $523m for the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 8% compared to $485m for the same period last year.
For the quarter ended 30 September 2010, operating income was up 51% to $64m, compared to $43m for the same last year. Non GAAP operating income was $138m, an increase of 7% compared to $129m.
The company posted a net income of $47m, an increase of 27% compared to $37m for the same period last year. EPS was $0.30, compared to EPS of $0.23.
Corporate business revenue was $324m, which accounted for 62% of the total revenue, while consumer business accounted for 38% of the total revenue with $199m.
North American revenue increased by $312.2m while international revenue posted an increase of 4% to $211m, compared to the same period last year.
McAfee president and CEO Dave DeWalt said the company is pleased to deliver strong third quarter results that serve as a testament to their strategy and execution and also reflects the validation and confidence their customers, partners and employees have in the proposed acquisition of McAfee by Intel.
"Our revenue growth was the result of broad based demand for our security offerings portfolio across our corporate and consumer segments. With this, we effectively controlled expenses and delivered record year-to-date operating cash flow," DeWalt said.
The company expects net revenue of $530m to $550m for the fourth quarter of 2010 and net income of $0.29 to $0.33 per diluted share.


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PORTLAND, Ore. & AMSTERDAM–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#customerexperience—AskNicely, the customer experience platform for people-powered businesses, today announced the opening of its first European office in Amsterdam. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and recently expanded its original office in Auckland, New Zealand.
“Amsterdam has become a hub for innovation,” said AskNicely co-founder and CEO Aaron Ward. “We recognize the potential of the city’s incredible talent pool, its world-class infrastructure, and the vibrant growth that has fueled the Amsterdam tech scene.”
The European office was added in response to customer demand, and to accelerate the company’s growth plans. In 2019, AskNicely raised $10 million in Series A funding and expanded on its core NPS software by launching the world’s first mobile customer experience coaching app, which helps companies consistently deliver on their brand promise by using real-time feedback to coach employees.
“I am delighted that AskNicely has chosen to set up its operations in the Netherlands and house its European activities here,” said Jeroen Nijland, Commissioner at the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. “AskNicely selecting the Netherlands is further proof that our country is very attractive for global businesses operating at the forefront of information and technological developments.”
The expansion is led by Vice President and General Manager Europe Kyle Bolster, who previously served as the first AskNicely sales leader and developed the company’s go-to-market strategy. Bolster plans to add up to a dozen Amsterdam employees across sales and customer success teams over the next year, focused on growth and providing exceptional service to existing European clients.
“We’re here to make our users’ lives easy. Thanks to AskNicely, we continuously improve our understanding of our users’ wants and needs,” said Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of European challenger bank bunq. “Welcome to Europe, AskNicely!”
AskNicely was founded in New Zealand in 2014, and the company’s 27-person technology and engineering staff remain based in Auckland. In 2017, AskNicely opened its first U.S. office in Portland, Oregon. Now the company’s official headquarters, its Portland office is home to 50 employees across marketing, sales, customer success, finance and human resources.
“We understand the importance of having localized staff to support our customers,” said Ward. “But we also prioritized choosing a European home that aligns with our company culture, which is very important to us. We chose to base our U.S. operations in Portland because of its commonalities with New Zealand: its culture, its affordable standard of living, and its ethos around customer experience. We feel that Amsterdam shares much of the same DNA and will be the ideal place for AskNicely to flourish in Europe.”
AskNicely helps people-powered businesses deliver on their brand promise every day. Over a thousand companies around the globe trust AskNicely to understand and improve their customer experience, using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) framework for measurement and the principle of positive recognition for motivating front-line employee performance. Learn more at asknicely.com.
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Image Credit: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com
Target announced a string of leadership updates to its executive team on Tuesday, including the creation of a chief growth officer position and the promotion of a new chief marketing officer. The creation of new roles and the recent departure of president of food and beverage Stephanie Lundquist sparked a chain of promotions in Target’s C-Suite.
Christina Hennington was appointed to the newly created EVP and chief growth officer role. She’s been with the discount retail company since 2003 and most recently worked as chief merchandising officer. Target said that she played “a critical role” in establishing the company as a destination for essential needs during the pandemic. In this newly created position, she will continue to oversee merchandising, but also will work across Target’s organizations to develop new revenue strategies and grow the company’s reach as a leading U.S. retailer.
Stepping into the chief merchandising role is Jill Sando, who has been with Target since 1997. She will report to Hennington and remain a member of the executive leadership team.
Rick Gomez, who most recently worked as chief marketing officer, will now lead as EVP and chief food and beverage officer. His predecessor, Stephanie Lundquist, announced she would be leaving the company earlier this year, but will remain in an advisory role until spring 2021. In the re-imagined role, Gomez will likely make good use of his experience working for billion-dollar consumer brands such as MillerCoors, PepsiCo, and the Quaker Oats company.
Cara Sylvester has been promoted to EVP and chief marketing and digital officer. In another re-imagined role, Sylvester will be responsible for deepening the affinity for the Target brand across all platforms and furthering the company’s popular loyalty program, in-house media brand and digital growth. She’s been with Target since 2007 and most recently worked as senior vice president of home.
Lastly, Katie Boylan has been promoted to EVP and chief communications officer. Boylan has been leading the company’s communications team since 2017, and in her newly expanded role, she will now also be responsible for Target’s social responsibility and sustainable efforts, as well the company’s philanthropic efforts through the Target Foundation.
"At the core of Target's success is the most talented team in retail," chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said. "The depth of expertise across Target's leadership team in particular has been a critical driver in Target's winning strategy and the excellence of our operations. The changes we're announcing create new opportunities for key leaders to bring their knowledge and experiences to different areas of the business."
All changes to the team are effective immediately.
The Org is a professional community where transparent companies can show off their team to the world. Join your company here to add yourself to the org chart!


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Skip to main content
Google offers $1 million for smaller power inverter
07/22/2014 - 14:57
Google is offering $1 million to anyone who can invent a laptop-sized power inverter.
Entrepreneurs need to train their brains differently
07/18/2014 - 14:37
You need to exercise your brain to be an entrepreneur and not just expect it to be game ready.
Samsung buys SmartThings home automation services
07/18/2014 - 14:18
Not wanting to get left behind by Apple and Google the Korean giant is jumping in with a potential $200m acquisition.
Eight things you need to check off when hiring your first employee
07/10/2014 - 16:32
Before you post that new job and start interviewing candidates there are some important things you need to do.
The death of crowdfunding
07/10/2014 - 14:13
Some crowdfunding projects have been inspiring, innovative and worthwhile, but recently crowdfunding sites have been swamped with less than noteworthy projects and more than a few scams.
Airbnb fined by authorities in Barcelona
07/08/2014 - 09:49
The company was dinged for $30,000 for being in breach of local regulations that would require all listed properties be registered with the Tourism Registry of Catalonia.
Oculus announces developers conference
07/07/2014 - 12:54
Oculus VR has announced the Oculus Connect developers conference scheduled for Sept 19 – 20 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.
Is Microsoft adopting a more agile approach?
Google Cardboard: VR on the cheap (and it’s recyclable)
Real FX – no slots racing with smart cars
Microsoft fighting border-crossing search warrant
5 biggest mistakes to avoid when rolling out an app
Touch-optimized Microsoft Office gets to Android before Windows
Oh goodie! Yet another billion dollar patent lawsuit
OkCupid conducts social experiments on love
Amazon Appstore coming to BlackBerry
OhMiBod lets you control your partner’s vibrator with your smartphone
Last 7 Days


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Medical Marijuana Industry Blunt About Quality Standards
MediJean, a Canadian bio-pharma company, has taken initiative by defining quality assurance standards for the medical marijuana industry.
MediJean's Product Safety and Security Plan is based on HACCP principles and is on its way to achieving ISO9001:2008 Certification. The company adheres to Good Manufacturing Practices as defined in the Canadian Food and Drug Act, and will exceed microbiological and chemical standards as stated by both the World Health Organization guidelines and those set by British Pharmacopoeia.
In the U.S., advocacy group Americans for Safe Access recently launched a nationwide program called Patient Focused Certification (PFC), the only nonprofit, third-party certification for the medical marijuana industry based on new quality standards issued by the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and the American Herbal Pharmacopeia (AHP).


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AC/DC has released a beer. Badass
“AC/DC’s Premium Lager Beer” has just arrived in Germany, where it “comes with a great beer-loving taste and is brewed in accordance with the rock ‘n’ roll manifesto of 1973 and the German purity law of 1516,” according to a statement. The introduction of the beer follows the 2011 launch of a successful range of AC/DC wines. For more info, go to www.ACDC-Beer.com.


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ELLSWORTH, Iowa — Paul Skartvedt leads a tour of Eagles Catch farm, pointing to the tanks full of fish.
“This is a feedlot under water,” the north central Iowa farmer says. “We’re livestock agriculture.”
It is a sentiment echoed by his partners and investors, many of whom are either farmers or the sons and daughters of farmers. For Skartvedt, this 3.8 acre greenhouse packed with tanks is a livestock building.
Never mind that the breed under roof is tilapia instead of Angus or Holstein.
The road to building this operation began a long time ago, although it was not so far away. Skartvedt and Joe Sweeney grew up just a few miles away, not far from the little town of Buckeye. Both were farm boys.
“We were long-time family friends,” Sweeney says.
A few years ago the two friends began toying with the idea of diversifying their business interests. Fish farming somehow came up as a possibility. They were both fascinated. In 2013, they started the Buckeye Fish Company.
“We learned a lot of lessons,” Sweeney says.
In 2016 they sold that company and work on Eagles Catch began. That inclued recruiting investors, most of whom are from the local area. They brought in partners who were experienced in the fish farming industry and worked with the small town of Ellsworth on a variety of issues, including quality water supplies.
The large greenhouse holds 48 production tanks and equipment to make sure the water is the perfect temperature and quality. They use what is referred to as a re-circulating aquaculture system that features constantly re-circulating water.
The tilapia are flown in from Louisiana. When they arrive they are tiny, weighing only about a half-gram to a gram each. They are marketed at about 2 pounds. So far the company is marketing live fish, sending many to supermarkets in other parts of the country that sell the fish live, much like seafood restaurants are often noted for featuring tanks of live lobster.
Eventually the partners hope to be able to sell fillets of tilapia, but that will require finding a processor. They are also shipping in feed at the moment, but eventually they hope to be able to source locally grown grain products for at least some of the feed.
“We really do think this is a wave of the future,” Sweeney says. “There’s no reason that Iowa couldn’t be the No. 1 seafood state in the nation. … Our goal is to enrich rural America and continue to help maintain our rural way of living.”


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Australia’s Bankmecu and card issuer Cuscal have completed an NFC payment sticker trial, enabling consumers to make contactless payments at Visa payWave terminals using a smart sticker stuck to their phone. Bankmecu now plans to further test the service before launching it to its wider cardholder base in the next few months. People’s Choice Credit Union will also test the service and Cuscal says it is in discussions with additional clients.
- Italian rail operator to pilot barrier-free transit ticketing
- XYZ to adopt finger vein payments at co-working cafe
- Manchester reports on open loop contactless ticketing adoption
- EMVCo to support eight-digit Issuer Identification Numbers from 2021
- MTA reports ‘much higher’ than expected Omny contactless transit payments adoption in New York


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(Reuters) – The chief of Bunge Ltd. said on Sunday the Brazilian sugar and ethanol industry was at a turing point but although better times were ahead and expansion set to take place, they may come later than the market needs.
Speaking at the Dubai Sugar Conference, Soren Schroder said at a panel Brazil was the only country of origin with the potential to fill the demand gap in sugar.
“We can argue that it is the uncertainity of the last 7-8 years that will make it very difficult to get that expansion,” he said.
“The industry is very fragile…it needs a period of stability to meet that expansion.”
Schroder said in order to balance global demand, Brazil needed to increase crushing by over 200 million tonnes by 2025. (Reporting By Maha El Dahan and Rania El Gamal; Editing by Nick Macfie)
In the lead-up to the world-famous Oktoberfest – which celebrates Bavarian tradition, beer and the festival spirit – Munich was already buzzing with activity by the time the doors opened to Drinktec 2022 on 12-16 September. The atmosphere was lively, with approximately 50,000 visitors from 169 countries in attendance.
Unilever has announced CEO Alan Jope’s decision to retire from the company at the end of 2023, after five years at the helm. The announcement comes less than a year after a failed attempt by Unilever to buy GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer healthcare business and just months after activist investor Nelson Peltz joined the company’s board.
Lakeland Dairies has announced that Colin Kelly will assume the role of group CEO following the retirement of Michael Hanley at the end of the year. Kelly will take up the position in January 2023, while Hanley will step down in December this year.


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Xiaomi is rocking some nifty looking smart glasses.
And they're available now!
Well that's burst the announcement bubble...
Those Ray-Ban Smart Glasses are expected this year.
Could this be Niantic's first step into AR hardware?
Los Angeles 2028, Solos release smart glasses and Sansar release eSports virtual spaces.
It seems Intel are looking for investors to help design and market their new technology.
New Pin Mirror lens allows for more practical AR Smart Glasses.
Singapore airport uses AR smart glasses technology for ramp operations.